Does our creativity run out?

I used to think creativity was finite and one day I’d run out of ideas.

And, troublingly, perhaps that day had already passed!

When I was young, I would have a seemingly endless well of ideas to draw from. I’d make up short stories, write songs, draw pictures. I loved being creative - making things where there was nothing gave me such a thrill (and still does!)

Back then, I wasn’t scared that my creativity would run out, if anything, it felt like I was constantly opening the door to a world of new and exciting ideas, thoughts and possibilities.

In adulthood, I equated creativity with frustration - untapped potential. With “maybe I’m just not feeling it today."

A community challenge

For the past couple of years I’ve taken part in a challenge called January Jams - where musicians create a new song and post it online every day for 14 days (or, for the masochists, 31 days).

The first time I took part, I threw myself into it. I spent every spare minute of those two weeks making songs. I wanted to make the best 14 songs I could, to show off my potential to the world.

This worked for the first few days - I made some stuff I was really proud of! I started to receive likes and encouraging comments. It was a thrill that something I made in a day could be enjoyed by someone else!

But like with any thrill, the dose needs to keep increasing to sustain the high.

Pushing through fear

By day 5 or 6, the pressure to better myself was really creeping in, and by the end of the first week I’d peaked - and then crashed.

I dropped the ambition and adopted a laissez-faire attitude, posting tracks with captions such as “well, I guess I peaked last week.”

I was covering up a very real fear - that I'd "reached the end" of my creativity, my best ideas were behind me, and I may's well stop creating.

If it wasn't for my competitive streak and the shared community goal of completing all 14 days, I probably would have stopped there and then.

But, I made it to the end, and I had 14 tracks under my belt! That was the most creative output I’d produced in years, easily.

I didn’t like every track, but I was surprised to discover that some of my favourite ideas came at the end of the two weeks.

Let the bad ideas out to make room for the good ones

I realised that when I’m feeling blocked and only coming out with rubbish, the answer isn’t to clam up and stop creating, scared that I've "reached the end" of my creativity.

It’s to let those ideas out, give them a voice, let them materialise and vaporise, revealing the new ideas that were behind them all along.

Creativity isn’t a finite pile of ideas to draw from - it’s more like a funnel.

It's a way for me to channel thoughts, feelings, observations. It’s how I interpret the world around me and make it mine. As long as I exist and keep experiencing the world, my creativity will never end.

So don’t wait for good ideas to come along in order to be creative.

Be creative to provide the environment for the good ideas to arrive.

Or, as Picasso said:

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
Pablo Picasso