The Start

There is this current that runs in my system as a creative... the thrill of possibilities. The inspiration of potential. Surprisingly what's usually contiguous with it is this paralyzation of having so many creative ideas and not know quite where to begin. Sometimes, its also the feeling like it would be too hard to attain.

Like short distance runners beginning a race, they take their mark on a starting block. It helps them maintain good form and reduced variability in their starts. 

It's the starts that trip me up in the creative process rather than the duration of the creative process. 

I've found a few things helpful with the STARTS.

LEARNING

One being-  at start of something new I love to just LEARN about as much of it as I can. I aim to redirect the momentum I've gained from the intuitive process of dreaming up creative outcomes into deliberately nurturing the curiosity about everything that could have to do with that outcome. Thats where learning comes in. I do this by researching, hunting, hounding, actively trying, asking people who are well verses in it questions... the list goes on. Learning feeds the curiosity. Curiosity feeds the momentum. Momentum feeds the learning. A GREAT CYCLE.

SUIT UP AND SHOW UP

For starts that don't always have momentum alive and well, I always say this to myself: "Just suit up and show up."

If any creative is honest they will tell you that momentum isn't always present. For those days I strongly believe that action precedes motivation. I haven't one time for myself found this to be false. If momentum is not thriving in me, a great way to resuscitate it is to just suit up and show up and that action jump starts the momentum again. Try it!

AN INCH DEEP

I heard a quote recently that says "Fear is a mile wide and an inch deep." Meaning sometimes fear can make something feel so big and unattainable, beckoning us to avoid it. Persuading us to not even start. In reality, if we set out, and just begin the process to cross anyway, we can see through experiencing the thing hand on that it is in fact very attainable and the biggest thing to it is mostly showing up over and over, step by step. Which leads me to this...

THE NEXT THING

When I wanted chickens years ago, I stewed on it for a long time. Too long. What kind of coop. What amount of space will they need. Feed? What kind of care? Eventually I realized I was thinking and thinking about it, but that didn't feed me a sunny side up fried egg in the mornings. Side note: I love ordering Sunny Side Up eggs at brunch restaurants because I love calling them that. Who wants to say Scrambled? Sounds like a curse. And for me, Sunny Side Up sounds like the most blessed way to start a day.

So heres what happened once I stopped thinking and just started. I did the next thing. and then the next thing. I went to buy chicks with my daughters and we chose what we wanted when we got there. Chicks that when they became laying hens would give us each a different color egg. This was mostly so that we could properly thank the hens. "Thank you Strawberry, for your beautiful green egg." When the chicks were under a warming lamp in a tub in my laundry room, nothing set me on task quicker than imagining full grown feathery hens cooping in and destroying my laundry room. I had building supplies that next day. Had I ever built a dang thing in my whole life? No. Could I figure it out. YES. And I did. Board by Board, Mismeasurement by mismeasurement, call after call to my builder stepfather and best friend. I didn't worry about how to build a roof, while I was constructing the base.  I tackled the roofing when I got there. And you know what, I figured it out and it was awesome. I followed a building plan, bought the supplies and was successful. Afterward, I had gained enough knowledge paired with momentum and a can-do attitude that I set out to design and build a beautiful oversized chicken run. It was fun. It fueled me. gave me experiences that built me up to where my 'too hard of a project' became more than possible, they became new weekend projects. After building the coop, after building the chicken run, I went and expanded my garden. It had a plastic fence and I tore it all down and built a 36 x 36 foot garden. Involving digging and setting posts, designing and building a gate, constructing 9 new garden beds and HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE! I grew so many fruits and veggies, flowers and herbs enough to share with my community. Enough to give as gifts. My girls started selling the chicken eggs to neighbors for $5 a dozen, but would come home with $15 a dozen on the basis of cuteness. 

All this to say, don't think whats in your heart to do stops with that outcome. Who knows what can happen if you show up at the start. Who knows what kind of bouquets you will give to a neighbor if you just start with buying a chick?

That's where I want to ask these questions: 

What is on your heart to do?

What would you love to learn how to do?

If you learned that thing what are the possibilities for the fruit of that knowledge and skills?

Like a seed planted in the ground, you cannot possibly know the multiplication that can happen from that one plant. It is boundless. I believe strongly, you taking the time to learn, suit up and show up, take steps one after the other in the face of fear, that you are planting a seed and there is no way of knowing the FRUIT that can come from it. Fruit of exhorting others, building onto what you've learned to gain stronger outcomes, fruit of being a blessing financially, mentally, emotionally for your family, friends and community. 

I always come back to Mary Oliver...

"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"