The Inspiration Well
Let your ideas grow on their own
I cannot tell on how many of my ideas I have not worked on yet. Actually, as years pass by, I barely start working on a new project the time it strikes me. It is not that I am not eager to explore new things or that I like procrastinating or whatever. Just, with time, I have figured out that often things don’t work the rushy way. It actually often seems that letting your thoughts aside every now and then actually facilitates their coming to life.
Inspiration: A subliminal process
I could not do better than quote Henri Poincaré on the nature of inspiration:
“The subliminal self is in no way inferior to the conscious self; it is not purely automatic; it is capable of discernment; it has tact, delicacy; it knows how to choose, to divine.”
Indeed, inspiration itself is a process you can’t control. No one can. You cannot say “I’ll have some great idea now” and, “boom!” this great project to change the world just came to life. Instead, we are all doomed — or blessed — to wait for these tiny magical moments to come, as per their wish, in the ways and forms they prefer to.
So, let’s adapt to it.
I have always been quite busy the last years, doing various things, often orthogonal to one another. As a result, several side-project ideas that come to my mind never reach a more serious level of discourse than a simple shower or subway thought. Yet, many of these projects have managed, to some extent, inexplicably, to come to reality.
Actually, there is no mystery in the above; it is just what Poincaré had described so many years ago. The subliminal self has its very own powers, its very own personality, its very own temperament. It works like a wishing well, most of the times. Just, instead of coins, you have to offer what you consider to be your most promising plans and wish for them to come true. And, as with wishes, if not all of them, then at least some will make it to meeting you again.
Confidence, not passivity
It might sound like just “wishing” for things to happen and then waiting for some sort of miracle is quite a passive, almost pathetic, way of spending your life. “Chase your dreams” has become one of the most prominent western mantras over the past few decades. But, chasing, while full of liveliness and passion for whatever the prey might be, is also a hasty, aggressive and, most importantly, stressful condition. It is no wonder that chasing your dreams may just let you lying burnt out for quite a lot of time.
But, what if, in some cases, you chose to not step up? What if you decided that this idea does not have a place in your present, at least not as it is? What if you left all this haste away for a while and focused on what you already have?
All this stream of new things we learn every day, the instant gratification mindset cultivated partly through social media, all that inconceivably fast-track stuff can easily turn you off. Most of the times, this eagerness for life becomes actually toxic — like anything at uncontrollably high doses. So, just close the door to what you cannot actually handle at the moment; let your subconscious do the hard job from time to time.
Letting your “subliminal self”, as Poincaré puts it, take care of some of your work is actually an act of calmness; an act of confidence. Because, instead of trying to control everything, even things you do not have the faintest trace of influence on them, you just trust yourself at a significantly deep level. You realize that, instead of agonizingly wasting your time upon every single thought, you’d better just actively focus on your “today”, while having another part of yourself siletnly worry for your “tomorrow”.
A case study
It must have been about four years that I have been working this way — i.e., pushing some of my ideas to the back of my mind and then waiting for them to rise up afloat, more mature. So, I think it might be useful to describe you how all this process works, at least for me.
At first, the most familiar setting for me the last several years is either working or studying. So, most ideas strike me while doing something else which, most of the times, is of remarkably higher importance than starting another blog about obscure theorems of mathematics or whatever. This naturally forces me just let most of my new ideas take a nap for a little more in my mind’s darkest corners — after all, a deep and long sleep is vital for all newborns, isn’t it?
The important part when pushing back stuff is not to let it go in your brain’s inner sanctum unaccompanied. Try to make some connections to things you already know or care about. Try to make some small but of critical importance thoughts about your newly born idea. Why would you enjoy it? Can you relate it to something you’re already doing? Is this somehow relevant to a person you know or something else in your life? Find anything you can tie your new idea with. Our brain is surely good at encoding and storing information, however helping it accommodate new knowledge with already existing one is thought to enhance recall — you can read a brief introduction on human memory here.
Once you have packed your idea with some nice connections, you can feel safe to forget it. Your subliminal will take on from this point. Anytime you find yourself in a position where this idea might be useful, in a place that relates to it or in a similar state as the one you first met your idea, it is quite possible — yet not sure — that it will come to your mind again. And, who knows, maybe this new setting is more fertile than the first time.
So, all in all, stop worrying. Start forgetting.
