{"id":38377,"date":"2014-09-30T19:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pikaland.com\/staging\/?p=38377"},"modified":"2014-09-30T23:25:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T15:25:47","slug":"life-as-an-experiment-what-to-do-when-you-have-lots-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pikaland.com\/staging\/2014\/09\/30\/life-as-an-experiment-what-to-do-when-you-have-lots-of-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Life as an experiment: What to do when you have lots of ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

In the Work\/Art\/Play<\/a> class that I’m teaching right now, an interesting discussion began on the topic of having too many ideas, too many experiments that\u00a0might (worryingly)\u00a0lead nowhere in an artist’s journey.<\/p>\n

It’s a very well known affliction that plagues creatives \u2013 and the term\u00a0creatives<\/em> is a very loose one. These could very well mean entrepreneurs, who may have a pool of ideas to tap from for their next venture; or a designer who has a big sketchbook ready to go for their next collection or season. For an artist, it could come to mean experimenting with the use of various medias to come up with a series or even to redefine their personal style\u00a0as they find ways to mix things up.<\/p>\n

I have lots of ideas. Some of them didn’t quite turn out, and some of them did. A few years ago I began to keep a sketchbook that listed out my ideas; I filled them with pages of pages of thoughts, comments, figures, sketches and with it, possibilities (although these days, instead\u00a0of just using a sketchbook, I found that Trello<\/a> is a great app in helping me sort out my ideas.)<\/em> And it wasn’t just a continuation of one idea either \u2013 every other week I would come up with a new idea; or I would stew on\u00a0a new idea and blend it with\u00a0a previous one.<\/p>\n

But no matter how many entries there were in my book, I was resigned to the fact that I only had two hands. I know myself enough to know that if I were to dabble in a few ideas, they would never turn out well enough for me to know if it was worth pursuing. So what I did was to just focus on one idea at a time \u2013 I owed the idea that much at least. To bring an idea to fruition takes time, dedication and effort; things that I knew would be scattered if I tried to juggle too many at a go.<\/p>\n

It was still an experimentation none the less. But I choose to focus on one at a time so that I can properly document and figure things out as I move along. Is it working? Is it not? Can I do better? Do I want to keep doing this? Will I make a difference?<\/strong> I question the idea (and myself) constantly at every step of the way \u2013 much like a scientist who keeps a record of an experiment to see its progress.<\/p>\n

And once you’re committed to the idea, you need to give it space and room to grow, to breathe, and a chance for it to\u00a0live out its life. You’ll have to nurture it<\/a>, see if it can stand on its own two feet, or if you’re lucky \u2013 to see if it could fly. But first, you’ll need to make a decision: which idea goes first? Pick one. Just one. And start from there<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0good friend reminded me once when I told her that I had trouble picking one idea, and she said this little gem of an advice that I carry to this day: “It’s good to have lots of ideas \u2013 this way we can execute them one by one until we’re 60. We’re all set!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So here’s a couple of tips and reminders:<\/p>\n