Joan Quinto

How many times has this happened? You’re sitting with your friends and one of them blurts out a bright idea and everyone is amazed by it, while you’re thinking in your head, “Wait, that was my idea! Why didn’t I say anything?” Or you’re scrolling through your social media feed and spot someone you know doing exactly what you had thought about doing years ago but never did anything to make it happen.

It happens. All. The. Time. It sure does for me and I’ve seen this happen to my friends, who are all artists and musician types. And it is frustrating! To think that you came up with this brilliant idea that is so creative and unique, then you find out somebody else does it before you do.

This has been on my mind for several months now, ever since I overheard a repair man standing outside of my office, talking about how much he believed that we are all connected. He believed that no idea is original, that if you came up with an idea, it’s very likely someone else, or several others, have thought of it already. That lead to a very long discussion between myself and my co-worker, who happens to be an actor, about creativity and manifesting your ideas into reality.

One way I like to think of creativity is as an entity, a being that is tasked to put ideas into our subconscious minds. This creativity fairy goes around the planet, sprinkling us humans with idea dust, in hopes that we will use our talents to make these ideas come to life. And if we don’t, this fairy is going to assign these ideas to someone else who will. And back to the concept of how we are all connected, I truly believe it myself that we all come from the same place and we pass on information amongst ourselves whether we realize it or not.

It’s a strange concept, but it seems to work that way. And naturally we hold back from doing things we come up with with the fear that others will reject it, it’s ridiculous, impossible, someone already did it. Or we just simply put it off.

Most people don’t know this about me, but I write in journals regularly and I’ve been doing this for many years. Last year, I came up with an idea to create my own journal, structured in a way that works for me and perhaps for others. I had come up with this super fun and creative journal idea and even named it, but I never did anything about it. Then sometime later, I found an artist on Instagram, and she came up with what seemed to be the exact same concept of a journal and she named it exactly what I would have called mine. I was stunned and frustrated that someone did it instead of me.

However, I decided to set my ego aside and started following this artist’s work and even purchased the journal for myself. Her journal was beautiful, it was inspiring, it was creative, it was… not exactly what I had in mind. As much as I loved it and still use it everyday, it was missing elements that I would have wanted in a journal for myself. Which led me to think… I can still create what I had in mind, but make it my own and take it to the next level.

What I learned from this experience is, when you come up with an idea and you are so passionate about it, take action. Do something, even if it’s a small step, to manifest your creative ideas. Tap into your inner child that used to act on its silly ideas but didn’t have a care in the world even if the idea may fail! Even if someone else seemingly “takes” your idea, don’t let that stop you. You can still act on your ideas and be the one to take that idea to another level. That’s what most artists do anyway, is copy each other!

I have so many ideas brewing in my mind especially with drumming and music. Although these ideas are not physically out there yet, I decided to devote myself to those ideas, by writing them down on paper, and making a promise to the universe that I will bring forth those creations into this world, no matter what it takes.

According to the Law of Dharma in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra, “You have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world.” Whether you’re an artist, a musician, a scientist, a doctor, a chef, a programmer, etc., we are all creative, and it is our creativity that is constantly revolutionizing the world we live in, in big or small ways. So make that promise to the creativity fairy that you will make your ideas happen!

Creativity is something I can go on and on about and will explore it further in future posts. And I’m happy to hear about your experiences with creativity! I hope you enjoyed this post!

Joan