Make Me Different. Make A Difference.
Say you have an idea. A big idea. A really, really big idea.
Cool, so who cares?
Size does not matter, potency does.
Your idea does not matter unless it matters. That's all that matters.
It gets easier when you ignore everyone else. Things get quieter. Like in your head. And then things can happen. You got that message before. Maybe it's sunk in by now. Hope so.
When you chase around, biting at flies, if you are successful you get to eat a fly for lunch. Chasing ideas is like that too. There are lots of bad ones around and you really don't want to catch any of them.
When you have a fixed idea about ideas, you are fixed. The way your neighbor's dog is fixed. Which is fine if that is your goal, but maybe not. Usually, when you have fixed ideas you are fixated on someone else's idea that happens to be stuck in your head.
And once it is, once it is stuck in your head, that alien idea, stuck there, then you have a problem.
It's like a piece of spinach stuck in your teeth, but in a good way. A good way because it's a good idea. (You aren't dumb enough to chase a dumb idea. Duh? No.) You chase good ideas. But it puts you in a bad way too because that idea is already taken. You can only borrow it, at best. Or steal it and pretend you didn't.
But it's already used.
If you borrow an idea you can't make it your own. And a borrowed idea isn't new. Not fresh. Not so interesting. You will wow no one. Fact of nature. Game over.
You can't start the race after it's over. Doesn't work. All you get is a view of horse butts.
So you lose.
This is good.
Nothing succeeds like failure.
Failure is the world's way of freshening up. Once you know you are a failure you have nothing left to lose. You already know what does not work, so you are way ahead.
You have a freshly-fertilized garden, but freshly-failed, and no one is expecting flowers from it, so you are A-OK, ready to go, cleared for liftoff, in a position to wow.
Someone else's idea is not yours. Someone else's game is not yours. So you reset the system, and you get to start over, with rules that you yourself make up. Because you are a failure, and because you have tried to copy success, and have played by the rules, and have had that gold ring on your mind for quite a while, and lost out, you are desperate.
Or were. Once.
Recently, in fact, but that didn't work, so you give up. You gave up.
So now you just play around at something, and that is when it can happen. Not always. No guarantee, but it can.
What can happen? What it is it?
Something new. Something unique. Something yours. Something that can change the world, or at least a part of
it. Something you are in control of. Something real.
Real. Really real.
Focus on that.
Focusing on the real makes it real.
And also, that which impresses may be big, and entertaining, but not always valuable.
That which speaks in a small voice may only be a random squeak, or it may be something valuable, and true. It may be something that has come to you and you alone for love and nurturing, because you were ready for it. Something that whispers truth and can change the world.
But you have to be there, and be open, and be honest, and be willing. Copying is not allowed.
If you are true to yourself at least you are true. You can't fake true, and people notice.
People like true. They will help you to be true, and to make more true, and to spread true around, and to become true like you.
Big ideas are always true at their core, and always start small, with the true part. Small is easier. Easier to understand, to make, to spread, to sell, to share, to appreciate.
Big comes later, but true comes first.
True is unique and different and honest, and wants a good home. And is always true. It is different from everything else and so makes a difference.
It will make you different and make a difference for you.
Which is what you want in creativity.
Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff+nosey@gmail.com
Me? Still wondering.
Etc...
so says eff: sporadic spurts of grade eff distraction
definitions: outdoor terms
fiyh: dave's little guide to ultralight backpacking stoves
boyb: dave's little guide to backpacks
snorpy bits: nibbling away at your sanity
last seen receding: missives from a certain mobile homer
noseyjoe: purposefully poking my proboscis into technicals