The Beauty of a "Bad" Idea

"This is probably a really bad idea but ..." How many of us cover our asses with a prelude sentence like this, before offering up our gem of a thought?

There's also this spin on downselling ourselves and staying stalled: "I don't have any good ideas [on how to move this project forward; start this book; what to do this weekend or eat for dinner]."

But you do! We all have an idea and here's where we can start. We don't need a great idea off the cuff but just ONE to get things going.

Just one brave, adorable, shitty, crappy, ridiculous idea.

Because just one "bad" idea is a start. No more blank paper or open space of nothingness.

It's Hard to Be Bad

I used to give a writing exercise that was to write as badly as you can and as fast as you can. Guess what?

It's HARD. Try it. It's hard when you're writing fast -- writing improvisationally, writing past the nay-saying judge, writing so fast all you can do is trust your instincts.  What you'll find is it's just in one's nature to create something that has a modicum of decency. I'm not talking about trotting it out to the New York Times or the Nobel Prize committee or MOMA but there's going to be something there.

Plus, if you allow yourself a bad idea it's something to push off of. Especially if there's one more person in the room, so, since it's Friday, let's set up this scenario:

A: "What do you want to do this weekend?"

B: "Let's go to the midnight show at the Lusty Lady before it closes."

A: "Hell no. But I'd like to go see a funny movie, like Date Night, followed by Mexican food in bed, how's that?"

Give Your Ego a Kiss and Go For It

The hardest place to step out with a bad idea is at work, of course. Our fragile egos. I'd like to challenge/dare/invite work teams to say it's okay to have a shitty first draft of an idea and that no one has to waste time on any of those ass-covering preludes. Example:

A: "Who has an idea of how we can make more money on our product?"

B: "Let's stand on our heads and see if that helps."

A: "Hmm, that would hurt a few of our heads HOWEVER, maybe we can stand our plan on its head and see how we can do something so differently that we'll catch our customers' attention in a new way."

See?

Turn a Bad Idea Into Something Good

It's easy to say, "Nah, I don't like that" to the offering -- the gift -- of a first draft idea. And then you sit there with your Orphan Annie eyes blinking into the air. Next time, take the idea and use it as a place to push off from. Go in the opposite direction or take a tiny nugget or a word or a letter or a strange-seeming association to push things forward.

What if there were no bad ideas? Free your mind, let the ideas flow. As I write this post, I think of the writers and actors at Saturday Night Live -- can you imagine their idea-generating sessions?

The first "bad" idea is an important start. Consider it just the first in a procession of a string of original thought, creativity and eventual solutions.

And you might end up having a bit more fun, too.

Why Artists Aren't Workaholics

My friend Jill was recently called a workaholic by some friends.

We love pathology tags these days, don't we? But to be fair, workaholism does exist. Remember the round-the-clock work ethic of the high-tech revolution?

Here's why Jill was called a workaholic. She just became the owner of a high-end women's clothing store in Seattle, Baby & Co. She and her team have worked extremely hard to renovate the store, update it -- and this has included many after-closing hours evenings for Jill. And remarks that go like this: "You're turning into a workaholic." (The comments alone are a whole separate discussion, don't you think?)

Anyway. Jill is not just a workaholic. She is not working at a job. She's passionately involved in and committed to her work. This is life work that is highly creative (the store is a work of art, and not just the clothes); and she has a gift for connecting with women, making them feel like they're members of something special and she inspires/mentors women to walk out of her store and into the world proudly embracing their own style and OWNING IT (a Jill motto).

Hugh MacLeod has a great cartoon about the difference between being a workaholic in a job and being passionately devoted to your life's work.

When Jill stays after work to get her new store into shape -- to be her city's most beautiful store in existence -- she's not a workaholic, she's an artist.

Are you an artist or a workaholic or just punching the clock to get to the weekend?

Which one would you most like to be?

This post is brought to you fresh on the heels of reading Seth Godin's wonderful Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? He talks in great detail about being and artist in your work and out in the world.

Hey! Are You Paying Attention?

I'm not talking about the sitting-in-the-classroom type of paying attention, but the paying attention that has you notice a heron at the far-end of a pond, or seeing something about human nature in the way a woman talks to her son.

This kind of paying attention is often honed when someone declares a desire to Write.

I've recently met someone who is not a Writer but she love words and she wants to know how to use them in a way that lets her communicate to people with purpose, warmth and humor.

And after declaring this, she told me how she's paying closer attention to everything around her. She's taking in the world more intimately and noticing things: the natural world around her, for starters. Details, small things. And she told me this with a smile on her face and a glow in her cheeks.

A Great Movie Line on Writing and Paying Attention That Makes Me Verklempt

Years ago I watched the movie Il Postino, a fictionalized version of a time when the poet Pablo Nerudo was exiled to a small Italian island. In it, there's the sweet but dim-witted postman who asks Neruda (and this is going by memory):

"Seniore Neruda, how does a person become a poet?"

Neruda: "You take a long slow walk on the beach and look at everything."

I thought that was one of the best pieces of writing and life advice ever. Incidentally, my main memory of Brenda Ueland's good book If You Want To Write is her recommendation that a writer walk about an hour a day as part of their practice. I think she walked six miles a day.

So, let's say you were to buy a 69 cent tiny notebook and drop it in your bag or a back pocket and move through the world imagining yourself as someone who writes. How will you witness the world around you differently?

What will paying closer attention to everyday details add to your life?

You might be amazed at the show that's ongoing around you all the time.

Have fun!

***

Another recent post featuring Pablo Neruda: How to Write a Book Review.

Money: How Do You Plan for Surprises?

The other day I had a simple, brilliant idea.  It came on a day I put my health insurance up for review and was making calls as I considered switching to a plan with a Health Savings Account. They used to be called Flex Savings Accounts -- tax-free stashes for funds that can go toward extras like eye glasses or child care or, in the case of HSA, old folks' homes if it lasts you that long. The surprises.

So I called my health insurance to see what it would look like for me to change my plan.

First, I'd have to reapply all over again which is an avoid-at-all-cost proposition.

And the HSA insurance wasn't as good as the insurance I currently have.

And so it hit me: I'll start up my own health savings account. Simple! Brilliant! 

I opened a new account under an online savings accounts (it's sooooo easy), started it with $50 and then set up an auto deposit of just $15/week. That's affordable. It will accrue over time, $60 a month, nothing huge in volume but it makes my heart beat a bit more calmly at the fact that I'm at least DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. I have a few extra dollars if some surprise medical or dental situation arises or I want to finally do lasik surgery.

This summer I started imagining a business that was like a sanctuary -- something beautiful and nurturing that would take care of me and others for a long time to come. This feels like a good start. And yes, it's occurred to me to wonder how long this very responsible account will last before I pluck at it for something else, but we'll see. The initial step feels productive and sanctuary-like.

On this note, what are creative ways you take care of yourself as a business owner?

***

Read another post about moolah:

What would you do with all that money?

How to Write a Book Review

Or, How to Write a Book Review With Balls.

Here's how Pablo Neruda laid it on the line about the writer Julio Cortazar:

Anyone who doesn't read Cortazar is doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease which in time can have terrible consequences. Something similar to a man who has never tasted peaches. He would quietly become sadder . . . and, probably, little by little, he would lose his hair.

I love how accusatory and eccentric and fantastic and, well, real this review is. Neruda captures that feeling that arises when you experience artwork (or something) that blows your head off and opens your eyes and heart and gives you that urgency to communicate how vital it is to the human race to have the same experience asap. Can you relate?

I'm not familiar with Cortazar's work, so I went to Amazon to check out his most famous work, Hopscotch.

The "key phrases" associated with this book  included: fat pajamas, metaphysical rivers, calculating cat, old man upstairs, drinking mate, millenary kingdom, beautiful green eyes.  And, instead of a Table of Contents, there's a Table of Instructions.

So I checked it out from the library immediately.

How about using the keywords in a writing prompt?

***

Poems by Pablo Neruda

A great movie about poetry, beauty and Pablo, Il Postino.

You're Inspired! Now What?

My clever-minx friend Therese over at Message Gap made such a great point in a recent post about facing the proverbial blank piece of paper. She writes "perhaps you’re inspired to act by a charismatic chief executive but not sure where to bring all that energy back to the day’s work."

Here's what strikes me about this point. Put this into any context. Take someone who's just been inspired by a book or a talk or a song or a conversation or by surviving an incredibly rough journey that is on the upswing and suddenly this person feels magnificently motivated and inspired to do ...  something.

That something could be to sit down in front of a piece of paper and start writing or drawing; it could be to pick up the phone to have that overdue conversation or learn how to finally write that business plan or adopt a child or join the Peace Corp.

That first rush of YESness is so energizing.

The second eventual rush of NOW WHATness is so ... confusing. Even deflating, to the tune of "Ah, fughetaboutit."

Of course this is why people are going to coaches and counselors and joining common-interest groups and communities: to take that inspiration and make it into something over the course of time. Instead of letting another bloom of YESness wilt away, what if you listened? 

Don't discount a returning idea or vision or calling as just your imagination running away with you.

Write it down. Tell someone. Fan it, nurture it and love it by asking around to see who else might share your interest. Have you ever noticed that the second you discover a new interest or idea, everyone you talk to has something to say about it? When I first started writing poetry about 12 years ago, that's how it seemed to work. Instead of saying Oh, I don't write poetry, I told people I worked with I was curious about poetry. Suddenly: books of poets were stacking on my desk and the ACCOUNTANT of all people was emailing me his favorite poems. It was important stuff let me tell you.

Life gets filled with meaning, joy, and rich connections when you add to it pursuits that really inspire you.

So what if it feels hard and confusing. Anything worth doing well that brings the OH WOW rewards starts off with a big What the F--? In other words, it's effort, and there's fumbling but it's new and energizing too.

What's important is matching the right actions to the inspiration.

You don't feel like it?

That's okay. Nobody ever really wakes up like a super hero and charges to it.

People who live their conviction and make their visions come true do so by stringing together a series of actions that over time makes something happen. Think of a daisy chain of small efforts.

Be a creator. Show yourself what you're made of. And remember -- you don't have to do it alone.

Do You Stay in the Room?

A quick story of practical wisdom:

A couple years ago I was at a writer's conference, where a novelist talked about one key ingredient that makes a writer a writer -- and it wasn't about craft.

He told a story about finishing the very first paragraph of a new novel and how he wanted to race out of the room that moment and celebrate for a year. But he didn't. Instead he stayed in the room. And he returned to the room. And everytime he sat down to work on his novel and wanted to leave he stayed. Even if he didn't write.

Staying in the room is a great metaphor for anything we do with mastery and commitment. Sometimes it's called "showing up." The room can be a writing den, your job, the gym, a classroom, the kitchen--and then sometimes the "room" is the day: getting up and going out into the world when you don't want to.

Where could you stay in the room more -- to get to the next level of mastery?

Have fun -- and know you'll be squirming with many others all over the world who have chosen to stay in the room.