Give Your Ideas a Chance
Take an idea that’s living inside your head and give it a chance
Midway through a cupboard clear out, I came across a Pot-Noodle-sized container that I’d bought at least 5 years ago. It had a picture of some happy children on the side, with the words, ‘Grow Your Own Giant Halloween Pumpkin Kit’. I was in a cathartic, cleanse-my-life mood and everything that I came across had a very small window, of a few milliseconds, to make their case for not ending up in either my bin, or the tiny recycling pile.
I held the pot in my hand, trying to remember why I’d bought it, while deciding its destiny – should I bin it, or do something with it (nothing was simply getting their old places back in the cupboard)? For some reason my curiosity won the day and I made a split second decision to give it a chance. And why not, I told myself, I had the time.
I read the instructions, opened up the kit and laid the bits out on the floor, in front of me. Gosh, it was basic – a small cup-sized amount of soil, to fit a cup-sized plant pot and 7 pumpkin seeds. I stared at the seeds. They were wafer thin and as light as tissue paper – in short, totally unimpressive!!!
I did some calculations – if I’d had them 5 years and they had either been in the shop or in a warehouse for 5 years, they could be 10 years old. What chance was there that they would still be able to do their thing, the very thing they had been created to do?
For a week or so they lived on my kitchen window sill. I watered them every day, gave them light and my love (just kidding) and shot them a glance once in a while. I thought they had about a 5% chance of remembering how to germinate and I wouldn’t have put money on those odds, to be honest.
My patience wasn’t great and one morning I’d decided to discreetly deposit the sweaty handful of soil into my garden and forget about them. As I tipped up the pot and the top clump of soil fell out, I heard myself inhale and a smile appear spontaneously on my face, as there, beneath the top layer, a miracle was taking place… life was doing its thing!!
No longer dusty old seeds, but new creations
I was amazed!! From these crusty, unpromising old seeds, life was bursting forth. I truly felt impressed and humbled. Suddenly, I wanted them to succeed and was ready to do all I could to support them and get behind team-pumpkin.
And now, some weeks on, I’m so pleased, as I’m watching them thriving, that I gave them a chance. I’m so pleased I didn’t toss them away impatiently.
My giant pumpkins are on their way (Note: one didn’t make it!)
It made me think of all the ideas, projects, dreams and potential brilliance that we all have wrapped up within our DNA, waiting to be released, waiting for the right conditions, waiting to have a chance to get started and to be nurtured into life.
I’ve been wondering why so many good ideas in our lives get shelved, ignored, dismissed or left unexplored? For me, it’s a combination of lack of self-belief and fear of failure, but maybe it’s also one other thing…Maybe, its about not making time to have intentional conversations with myself, which might start something like this..
Q. So, what ideas are in your mind right now Jane? What can you hear? What’s percolating in your thoughts? What’s getting your attention in your daily life and in your art practice? I know there is a lot of noise generally in life, but when you look under all that noise, what do you hear?
For ideas to have a chance, we need to find them first, bring them out into the light, examine them and decide if we want to get behind them. We have to decide if we want to own that idea. And that idea checks us out too.
In my art practice I’ve been making more time to check-in with myself and the ideas, as they have come to me. I’ve realised that having support around me is vital. Whether I’m starting a new adventure, a new idea, a new practice, or life-project, I need ‘team-me‘.
Chatting this week with my art coach, who is part of team-me, I came away with these sweet nuggets of encouragement…
Don’t be afraid to try new things – give your ideas a chance. If it’s bonkers, you’re probably on the right tack.
Don’t rush your thinking processes – its a long game. Change comes over time. Set a vision, but live in the now.
And…most of all.protect and nurture where you are, right now.
The seed of an idea for a blue bell wood…!
