Nurturing Your Creative Ideas

Have you ever had just the beginning of an idea, shared it with someone, received a negative reaction, and then abandoned the idea? Too often, we share those initial sparks of creative thought with the wrong people or too early with the right ones.

To be creative requires finding a few friends who help you grow those delicate, seedling ideas. These friends will never tell you that your idea won't work; instead they ask you questions that start with, "How will you do that?" or "What's your first step?" or "What can I do to help?" They withhold judgment until you have fully realized the concept. Those friends are worth gold (or with today's prices, maybe gasoline) because they can help you filter through all your ideas and examine them until you can determine their potential.

There are other friends you need to avoid when you are in the creating stage. They will be helpful later, but at those initial moments, they can stop you cold. They are the ones who usually respond with one of the following creativity killers:It'll never work. You don't have time. It will cost too much.No one will ever go for it. If it worked, wouldn't someone else have already done it? You're too old. You're too young.

Don't misunderstand. Practical people are helpful. Number-crunchers are necessary. But there is a time and a place for both types of people - those practical, analytical types (you know who you are) and those of us who live in an alternate reality where anything is possible.

The best world is one where the creative types and the analytical types allow each their time to present their ideas - but separately, coming together only after each has had a chance to work alone.

No matter which type you are most of the time, give yourself a chance to come up with some creative ideas, before you put them in a spreadsheet.