Bottled Lightning

The other day I was crawling through traffic listening to the radio when a singer came on to talk about her latest hit single. In the interview, she spoke of how she was on her tour bus after a show and the song just kind of popped out of her. I was tempted to think about how great that must have been; to have a fantastic song like that just come to me. Then I stopped myself. Her experience wasn’t that unique. All of us have ideas pop into our heads all the time. The difference here was that she was ready to capture it and do something with it.

Now I know what you are thinking, our brilliant ideas come when we least expect them, so how can we be prepared to catch them? Do we sit around all day with pen and paper somehow permanently attached to our bodies? Do we go to our thinking spot and wander around, back and forth, until something happens? Do we limit our daydreaming to certain hours when we can best harness our imaginations? Sadly the answer is no. I’ve had ideas come in the middle of the night, in the middle of a meal, a meeting, on my drive home, or an afternoon walk. Over the years I have learned to have either my phone or my journal on hand to write down stray thoughts. I don’t need to write the whole thing out, by now I have learned what details are important to keep and which ones I can leave to come back to later. Yet, capturing the initial idea is only a small part of the larger battle of getting something tangible produced. Just having something to jot an idea on is just the initial step if you want to tap into your creativity. We need to be prepared when we try to harness lightning and the only way to do that is by building up our craft.

Each of us has a talent we wish we could profit from, be it writing, painting, baking or knitting. Yet how much of our day do we devote to the building of our craft? Make no mistake I have chosen that word carefully for we are all builders, we all make stuff. We take the imaginations in our minds and drag the wild ideas that live there into our own reality. I use a pen and a keyboard. You might use a hammer and a chisel. An easel and a palette. An oven and some flour. A drawing and a pile of wood. The tools you use do not matter, our building materials may vary widely but we are all craftsmen, through and through.

We take the imaginations in our minds and drag the wild ideas that live there into our own reality.

You see, each of us constantly produces new ideas, whether we realize it or not. Some are good, most are ok, and some are just plain bad. Yet every now and again something special just “pops” out. If we do not have the proper skill set, or the right resources lined up, then it will just be another neat idea. If that singer had not already been skilled with harmony and rhythm do you think her song would have been a hit? If a novelist isn’t in the habit of writing, do you think they will be able to keep up with their imagination as it spills out onto the page? If we allow ourselves to be complacent or to talk ourselves out of our dreams, then our ideas will remain where they are now. Hidden in the ether, between imagination and reality.

When that next great idea comes along we need to be ready and that means having a firm grasp on our own capabilities and skills. How do we get that? Practice. Practice. Practice. When that idea sparks, when it leaps to life in your mind, it is going to rely solely upon you and your craft to bring it to reality. Are you ready? If your next brilliant idea came right now, would you be able to carry it to fruition?