Are ideas discovered or developed?
That’s a question I’ve wrestled with as my career has crisscrossed from working in the corporate world to being a stay-at-home mom, college instructor, and now a church professional with a personal ministry involving writing, speaking, mentoring and creating. Over the decades, I’ve gone back and forth between believing in the idea of a muse helping me tap into a consciousness greater than my own to putting all my effort into developing a concrete “system” to guide my creative process. At different times, I’ve seen the benefit of both.
The journey to today.
Although I was a straight-A student, my need to achieve and perform overrode a more internal need to create and ideate. I dutifully studied for tests, wrote the way I was instructed, and stayed in the expected lane. While this was great for scholarships and initial career opportunities, it overshadowed an intuitive, creative element to my nature that didn’t surface until much later in adult life.
Reading and writing have always been important to me, but the purpose of those activities have varied widely. It’s one thing to write because you love to write and quite another to get paid for your writing. Navigating the editorial and publishing process of an author’s world has been an adjustment. With interests and passions encompassing so many genres, paired with an Enneagram 7 brain that makes connections between anything and everything, it’s been challenging to find both a people and a path that validate and appreciate the beautiful chaos of my internal world. It’s been even more challenging (and frustrating) to share the insights of that internal world with the external world.
A path forward.
The journey to the global leadership doctoral program at Portland Seminary has been an answer to prayer. After only one year, I already see how God is exposing me to new possibilities and the opportunity to level-up in how I digest information and ideas to offer them back to the world.
As a sporadic note-taker who tries to keep everything in her head, the idea behind slip notes described in How to Take Smart Notes was a profound revelation. A note-taking system that takes the work of thinking and manifests it into a physical activity makes so much sense to me. Notes can be so much more than a record of thoughts, they can actually generate thoughts! A goal of 5-6 note cards a day seems like a great goal for me.
Steal Like an Artist affirmed my experience that studying mentors (dead or alive) and exploring their mentors is a critical component of the creative process. I take great comfort moving forward in this program knowing that there are no original ideas, but my original perspective and experience is valuable in presenting old ideas in new ways.
And finally, How to Read a Book freed me to read books in the way I need to read them instead of the way I always have.
So, are ideas discovered or developed?
The best ones are a bit of both.
About the Author
Laura Fleetwood
Laura Fleetwood is a Christian creative, certified Enneagram Coach, doctoral student at Portland Seminary and Creative Director at her home church, Messiah St. Charles. As a published author, national faith speaker, podcaster and self-described anxiety warrior, Laura uses storytelling to teach you how to seek the S T I L L in the midst of your chaotic life. Find Laura at www.seekingthestill.com4 responses to “Are ideas discovered or developed? ”
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Laura, I so enjoyed reading your blog post and resonated with your account of past student routines and habits. I, too, stayed in the “excpected lane,” followed the traditional educational model closely, and received an abundance of affirmation. It is interesting, isn’t it, how that affirmation can encourage a performance-based lifestyle and a need to be perfect.
I’m excited to travel this educational journey with you and look forward to hearing your unique perspectives and insights on old ideas!
Laura, I appreciate your comments on the “no original idea” concept. I believe it is freeing to realize that it’s not about the originality of the idea, it’s about the originality of our perspective. We don’t have to come up with the next great idea, we just have to share from our perspective about the idea. Thanks for reminding us about this significant shift in thinking.
Laura,
I absolutely loved learning about your previous habits of learning. I agree with you that the journey here has been one of a kind.
I agree that ideas are both discovered and developed. I feel the discovery is when we hear from God and the development is when we follow the steps that are ordered for us. Great post.