5 Ways to Trust Your Creative Ideas

When I go through creative dry spells, I tend to think that generating more ideas is what is going to get me through it. However, I've learned the hard way that this isn't the case. But, having more ideas doesn't make us more creative. In fact, it can have the opposite effect.

Sometimes ideas are nothing more than clutter. That is, unless we learn to trust the ideas we do have. Here are some of my favorite tips for building this trust.

Capture Ideas When They Happen

A lonely creative idea is one that has been forgetten. Giving our minds a chance to nurture these ideas is one of the keys to building trust. This can only happen if we give our brains the signal that we will capture ideas as they arise.

It's an essential habit that signals to our brain that we are listening. The more ideas we capture, the more we have.

Finish What You Start

Ideas are no good if they gather dust. Nothing is more trustworthy than an idea that has turned into a creative work. Proving to ourselves that we can take an idea and turn it into something beautiful is the ultimate form of creative trust.

Having a collection of unfinished projects has the opposite effect. It can cause your creativity to dry up, and ideas could stall becasue of it.

Build Creativity by Starting Small

Many creative ideas never turn into something because they may have been "too big". To instill confidence and trust in yourself, considerm pursuing one of the ideas from your list that won't take long to implement and starting there!

Once you prove to yourself that your ideas can take shape, more ideas will come. Bringing an idea to light is the highest form of creative trust.

Select Only the "Best" Ideas

When my creativity is burning hot, I generate so many ideas that many of them sit there for years before I touch them, if I even touch them at all. Every idea I have always feels good in the moment. However, not every idea needs to turn into something.

Sometimes, an idea should just stay where it is - on my grand list of ideas. If I try to bring everything to fruition, I will most certainly burn out. Instead, I select only a few from my list and I just trust the process.

Remember Past Successes

What is the easiest way to trust the viability of our creative ideas? That is to remind ourselves of our past successes. Building trust in our creative sometimes needs proof. If we had some creative successes, this is the proof that we need.

When we feel happy with what we have created, we will want to create more. The ideas will flow, and we will have our choice of projects.

Generating creative ideas is an important skill, but we need to trust the ideas we've generated, as well. Turning these ideas into finished works is also an important part of the process.