Work Generates the Best Ideas
Don't wait for a great idea to begin work. Such ideas come from work and the process surrounding it.
“All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you.” — Chuck Close
An idea doesn’t come first.
The work does. In the process of doing interesting work, good ideas materialize like bubbles in a carbonated beverage. Do something you love, and ideas graduate from good to great!
This interesting perspective comes from artist Chuck Close. Ideas occur as part of your work, not as a precursor or requirement for it. It is precisely the work and the process surrounding it from which ideas bubble up to the surface.
“If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens.”
The mind does not respond kindly to demands. It will happily serve up stock or half-baked ideas while pondering larger concerns. No one brainstorms their way to greatness.
“But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction.”
To do something is to experience it... every detail and nuance. The mind delights in the flood of sensory information. Curiosity begets experimentation, which leads to unexpected problems and solutions. None of this is possible without doing the work.
“Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive.”
Interest in work is what gets you started. But once you are in the midst of it, the work generates motivation from the joy it brings. It becomes self perpetuating.
“You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
Don’t wait for an idea to occur.
Get to work and the ideas will come...
followed by the motivation to continue.
🤔 Food for Thought:
Is a great idea necessary for you to begin work?
How do ideas generated from work differ from those standing still?
Are you capturing those ideas as they bubble up from work?
⚙️ One Small Step:
Run a little experiment. Before writing or creating content, brainstorm some ideas. Then get to work and collect the ideas generated while you work. What difference do you notice between the two sets of ideas?