| Are you giving up too early on your creative ideas? |

Have you ever been in your studio and had any of the following thoughts

This is a terrible idea. What was I thinking?

I should just give up. Why am I wasting my time?

Who am I kidding? I’m not an artist.

How on earth am I going to solve this one? It’s a wreck.

This work is making me hungry. (Strange, because I just ate lunch.) I’d better go fix myself a little snack.

All people involved in creative endeavors have these thoughts. What I’ve noticed is that experienced artists, musicians, writers, etc. don’t give up at this stage.

We know it’s just a stage.

I recently started a new piece that builds on several ideas and methods that I have been working with for the past five years. I hate what it looks like right now. Yuck. As I stepped back from it, I thought to myself, “It’s a good idea, but I haven’t worked it out yet.”

When a piece of creative work begins, there’s a honeymoon period. Life is good, the creativity is flowing. We are FULL of excitement. We are literally in love with what we are working on.

As it progresses, the creative process runs through other stages and just as in any relationship, it’s normal to experience challenges. Perhaps, we can’t quite get a handle on the medium, or what looked great the day before seems awful now. You can’t quite get the ideas rolling around in your head into any satisfying form. Your studio floods, your equipment fails, your collaborator flakes, an essential material isn’t behaving the way it usually does, it starts raining, the light changes. (Feel free to add to this list!) There are an infinite number of things that can go wrong.

Believe it or not, this is a normal part of the creative process! In fact, what I’ve learned over the years is that it’s a sign that a breakthrough is about to happen. But in order to access this new level of creativity, we must keep committed to task at hand.

Too often, beginners or artists who aren’t sure of themselves, and give up too soon on an idea. They listen to that negative voice and drop the project before it has had a chance to fully blossom.

It is through giving ideas our precious time and attention that they evolve.

Michele Theberge ©2006 gouache and flashe on paper

Inspiration rarely zings an idea fully formed into your brain with a downloadable set of step-by-step directions. Where’s the fun in THAT?

There are few feelings more exhilarating than moving through a stuck place or solving a creative problem.

This applies to nearly ANYTHING you are working on in your life. A relationship, a new job, a meal, a home improvement project, a business. If you give up too soon you’ll never get to see that potential the idea was hinting at when it sparked that first flame of excitement.

Is there an artwork (or anything else) in your life right now that you may have given up too soon on?

Would you be willing to give it a second chance? Can you step back from it and recognize it’s potential and say to yourself:

“It’s a good idea, I just haven’t worked it out yet.”