My Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

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November 12, 2012
21 Comment

Pouring Out Ideas Is Better for Creativity than Doling Them Out with a Teaspoon.

Further Secrets of Adulthood:

I have to remind myself to Spend Out, not to hold ideas in reserve, to hoard. I fight the impulse to “save” my new underwear and to stockpile my ideas. I remind myself–pour it out, use it up.

Agree, disagree?

Also ...

  • If you've never visited, Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen is a terrific site--"fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York City."

     

     

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Other posts you might be interested in...

  1. A Paradox of Happiness: Spend Out, To Become Rich.
  2. 7 Tips I Use to Spark My Creativity.
  3. Do you hoard your new underwear?
  4. Pigeon of Discontent: “I Have Great Ideas, But No Time To Execute Them.”
  5. Secret of Adulthood: What I Do Every Day Matters More Than What I Do Once in a While.
  • http://karenyvonne.net/ Karen

    I agree and disagree.. If I understand the quote correctly, it is asking us to share our ideas with others? if so, this can be very beneficial and it can backfire. If you share with non judgmental people they will accept your ideas and will be very supportive. On the other hand, you have other friends ( who have good intentions) that would discourage you from pursuing your dreams. I would suggest to know the right people to share your ideas with first..

    • peninith

      I seem to benefit most from asking people for suggestions when I have already started and know where I’m headed . . . a great idea about a color or a way to solve a design problem? Sure! But I already have my own direction first . . . I tend to be a person who works mostly in solitude with collaboration spots along the road.

    • Debra

      I had an article idea stolen by another writer! It’s good to write down any idea, image, etc., but be careful who to share them with if it’s something artistic. Ideas about living a better life or community projects should be shared. It’s amazing what a small group can do.

  • Sharyn

    I can really relate to this concept. It’s a part of my personality I work on. Even as a child, I was told I really tried to “have my cake and eat it, too”.

    I try to fight this tendency, and “spend out” by reminding myself to “trust in abundance”, or “cast your bread upon the water”, or “seize the day”, or “today is the rainy day” – whichever seems to apply at the time.

  • Aspen

    Absolutely! Once you have the right people to share ideas with, pouring them out helps them grow, stretch, become stronger and more refined… and helps the best of the ideas get closer to becoming reality. I learn more by talking about my ideas with others than by holding them in (though I do usually like to mull on them for a while before sharing… it’s sometimes really hard to reveal my ideas to others.)

    And, love the shout out to Smitten Kitchen. Just discovered the site yesterday… and wow, so glad I did!

  • Kit Dunsmore

    I agree, assuming we are talking about the early stages of a project. If I try to pick and choose creative ideas without giving my imagination a chance to romp and go wild, I am left with very dull, Internal-Critic-approved material, which tends to be super familiar and therefore hardly original.

    But what I really want to agree with is what I first thought when I saw you talking about spending-out and creativity: do not hold back the “good stuff” for later. Use it now. It’s a policy I have a hard time following, but which I always appreciate when I do. Example: I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for seven consecutive years. Two years ago, as I was getting started, I was about to talk myself out of using this great name I had come across a few weeks before because I didn’t want to waste it on my goofy written-at-high-speed NaNo novel. I told myself “spend out” and did give the character that great name. I wound up loving her and her story. I doubt I would have come up with such great ideas if I hadn’t loved the character, and I wouldn’t have loved her as much if I’d given her a different name. So I’d say combine the creativity with spending out; don’t hoard your great and beloved creative ideas for the perfect project — use them right now on whatever you are doing. If you honor the gifts your muse gives you, she will keep sending great stuff your way.

  • peninith1

    For me it is not so much about ‘pouring out’ ideas as it is about ‘pouring IN’ materials and ingredients and an abundance of images. I’m a quilter, and I find that my probably ridiculously large stash of fabrics in different prints and colors provides endless creative ideas. If I have an idea, there is a ‘real thing’ either in the piles of fabrics or in the storehouse of images in books and magazines that feed my mind. I rarely copy anything, because the combination of an image / idea and the concrete reality of available materials usually sends me off on a quest to realize a dream design. Then, of course, my brain images ‘just the right color’ to complete the design, and my stash grows a little more. There’s an endless interaction between images and fabrics and needs and ideas. All these things come together in creativity for me. It is certainly NOT about brainstorming and throwing out a lot of ideas and selecting one. That, to me, leads to craziness. It’s just a magical meeting of dreams and real stuff.

    • gretchenrubin

      This is a very good point. I also spend a huge amount of time managing what pours in. Love this part!

  • http://twitter.com/robertsitalia Michael Roberts

    Ideas are meant to be shared. Once they are out in the open they can be examined, refined, and perfected. If you hold them in for too long chances are that they are not going to get anywhere! Thats what I struggle with most everyday. Getting the ideas refined so that they turn into something.

  • http://twitter.com/robertsitalia Michael Roberts

    I definitely believe that ideas are meant to be shared. Once they are out they can be examined, refined and perfected! I have a hard time getting htat done. Too many of my ideas stay stagnant. Great post!

  • Christina W

    I heartily agree with this. I actually just finished reading that chapter of your book last night and as a result I pulled out some stationery I’ve been hoarding for years and started using it up, enjoying myself thoroughly in the process.

  • rbo

    “Spending Out” is one of Gretchen’s suggestions from The Happiness Project that I’ve embraced fully, and doing so has brought such lightness into my life! No more holding back here. If I’ve cooked a better-than-average meal, I break out the china, silver, and crystal, and we eat in the dining room. Dinner takes on a festive, celebratory feel! I stopped saving the better wines in our cabinet for that special occasion that never seemed to arrive; instead, we MADE special occasions by opening one every now and then. I replaced our raggedy sheets and towels with our nicest ones, which had remained in the linen closet for years. I began using my finer leather goods for everyday — and ENJOYING them every day. I gathered all the things from my parents’ dismantled household that I’d kept only because they were “too good just to give away”, and I gave them to a favorite charity for its annual fundraiser, a giant garage sale. I worried that I’d miss all these things the minute they left our property, but instead, when that truck pulled out, I felt as though a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders! There were so many benefits to “spreading the joy”: I knew the goods would be treasured by people who couldn’t afford such nice things ordinarily; I gained LOTS of storage space; the house looked tidier and less cluttered, and instantly became a calmer, more serene environment; and in addition to all that, we’ll get a decent tax break out of the bargain. All in all, I feel less at the mercy of our stuff, and take more enjoyment from the things we’ve kept. Great advice, people! Try it!

    • gretchenrubin

      I’m so happy to hear that this resonates with you.

    • Debra

      Great post! I also use my better dishes, frequently use a gift of fancy perfume/powder, use my funny stationary and stickers, etc. I love it. It really feels like living. My f-i-l saved a bottle of Rothchild wine after WWII, and a gift of high quality tobacco is sister gave him when he returned home from the war. When he died in 1998, we found those items untouched. The very pricey wine spoiled, etc. That taught me not to wait!

  • http://www.facebook.com/ginfor Forrest D. Poston

    A degree of “simmering” is necessary from time to time, but mostly putting ideas outside of yourself is what allows you to interact with them. When we play with ideas in our minds, we tend to skip the hard parts, but when we put them on paper or verbalize them, we see the gaps as well as the possibilities. We can then play much more fully, which also leads to more ideas. Like other objects, a mind in motion tends to stay in motion.

    And externalizing the ideas actually ends up increasing the value of “simmering” because actually using the ideas tells the subconscious that we’re paying attention and value what it’s doing. Not surprisingly, that pleases the subconscious, which frees it up from some negative tensions and improves communication between the conscious and subconscious.

  • DibbleDabbles

    Yes! Creativity breeds creativity. And there is nothing more galling than seeing or hearing an idea that you thought of days, weeks, years before but never had the gumption to share. Go forth and POUR!

  • http://www.lifewhack.com/ Peter Ewin Hall

    I agree. Creative ideas can turn to dust if they don’t see the light of day. Creativity is about experimenting and having a go and not fearing failure because we know there’ll be another idea along shortly. The more we develop getting our creative ideas out the more confident we will be in our creativity.

  • http://twitter.com/winfredcook Winfred Cook

    Once i get started on a project, I need to get down all my ideas rather than stick with one at a time. They grow with one another!

  • http://twitter.com/winfredcook Winfred Cook

    Once I start writing, I have to get all my ideas down, at least snatches, in places. They grow off on another.

  • http://twitter.com/Davidbgoldstein David Goldstein

    Pouring our ideas out is the way to go, we can’t possibly use them all ourselves – in fact, I don’t just pour idea out onto the street – Instead I make a point to ask “Who could use this idea for the greatest benefit and who can use it for the largest positive impact on others” and that is where I pour!

  • http://artifix.net Menno Luiten

    I think the Oatmeal’s latest comic touches this topic in a very nice way. It mentions our feeling that creative thoughts come from this limited pool that might run out any moment now. That this latest idea you have is probably the last on you’ll get in a while.

    But that does not seem to be true. Somehow, when you just ‘let it flow’, another idea comes. And another. When I feel like ‘saving it for later’, the juice just dries up (which is probably where this idea of “running out of ideas” comes from). When I later return to it, new idea’s don’t spring from it, it seems motionless. So, I move on and when fresh idea’s come again, I try to entertain them as much as I can.

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