Caring For Your Fleeting Thoughts

If you’re anything like me, you feel like you have about a million ideas each day. 

(Ok, well, statistically, you probably have around 35,000 thoughts a day, at least).

Whether they’re project ideas, problems you can solve, or new hobbies to try, something interesting probably comes up at least once a day. You talk to friends or coworkers, see something on social media, and you get inspired — A LOT. There’s no way you can entertain it all. 

So… you probably end up entertaining next to nothing. How is it possible to be so inspired but feel like you’re producing or following through on very little?

The Problem: Passive Engagement

The reason can often be traced back to passive engagement with all or most of the things you find interesting. What exactly does this mean? The simplest example is one I was attuned to by Handel Eugene, a well-known artist and animator who presented on this very topic at Making Midwest in 2024, in Columbus, Ohio  — and he seems to have it pretty well figured out.

Picture this  —  you are scrolling on a social media of your choice and you see something you like. A recipe you want to try, a product you want to buy, or a book you want to read in the future. You tap the bookmark icon so you can come back to it later and keep scrolling.

Personally, I used to bookmark 10 or more things any time I would go on social media. I can truthfully say that I have only ever gone back to look for one or two of those posts. Ever. Why? Because I wasn’t actually engaged with the decision I was making when I was making it. The simple split-second thought of “Hey! This might be useful” isn’t enough for most of us to actually digest the content we found inspiring at all, let alone think about it enough to remember to come back to it.

This process doesn’t just apply to things we see online, though. As a creative, I have had so many ideas within the past three years of my professional life that I have never pursued. Instead, I allowed them to be fleeting because of when they occurred. Maybe I think of an interesting composition for a drawing during work, or I think of a new hobby I want to try while I’m working out. Unless I had a lot of time on my hands, most of those ideas that occurred at “inconvenient” times just dissipated into the universe. 

The Solution: True Engagement

The solution to these two tangentially related situations is within reach. Even if you are busy or otherwise occupied, if you find something truly interesting  — write it down. At the bare minimum, write it down somewhere you’ll look at it later. That is, if it’s an idea you truly want to pursue.

Even just adding this extra layer of consideration , “Am I going to want to do this later?” or “What will this idea/thought be good for in the future?” will get your brain processing or working on the thought even more effectively. If the answer is no, or that it won’t be useful, then you simply continue. But if it is yes, then you’ve started an exciting process that otherwise would pass you by. Though it is powerful, you cannot expect your brain to hold every idea you ever have. You take to pen and paper to do one math equation or to help write one speech  —  a potentially exciting idea is worth the few seconds it takes to jot it down.

The next step is getting organized with your new-found active idea engagement. You can do this in a few ways. For instance, you could organize and sort your ideas and content by the ways they will positively impact your life, sorting them by hobbies, life advice, travel tips, art inspiration — you get the idea. Maybe you journal about your ideas in a certain way that helps hold you accountable, just for 20 minutes every day. Or perhaps, it’s simpler, and you just keep a little book of these thoughts and ideas where you write them down when they occur. The extra step and consideration of the idea is the key, and everything else you decide to do with that system only increases the benefit. When you want your ideas to grow, committing to a simple system can make a world of difference.

It’s Working! – My Commitment & Growth

I was feeling pretty inspired to act in a more disciplined way after this conference. I’ve been overflowing with creativity for most of 2024, and while my output has somewhat reflected that, I didn’t feel that it was anywhere near its highest potential. So, to get as much inspiration out of my brain and into the world as possible, I decided to embark on a challenge of sorts that would draw on the things in my life that got me the most excited to create. 

By day, I’m a designer, and outside of work, I’m a fine artist. I often confine my creative output to pieces involving my visual perceptions and the 2D art world. However, one of my biggest passions, rivaling even art, is music. I am a singer and love the technicalities of music and composition, and I listen to an extremely high volume of music daily while I work. Music inspires my work almost all of the time, yet nothing I ever create is about music unless it is music. So, I decided to start a 100-day challenge where I create a drawing inspired by a song every day. 

I am twenty-three days in and I have never been able to visualize what I am creating with such ease. It is incredibly easy to find time for each day and I have found myself looking forward to it every afternoon, and sometimes thinking about it during the day. The key is to take five minutes to get your thoughts out when the inspiration strikes. I know I can spare a minute at work to write down the song I have a vision for that day, and even do a doodle of the composition so I don’t lose it by the evening. That’s the most important part about holding yourself accountable  —  value your own ideas and your time enough to entertain them, and also to let them go when they must be let go. 

When you don’t allow thoughts to pass by unexamined, you subconsciously add a new level of validity to everything you think. That’s bound to have great effects far outside of your productivity levels.

Your thoughts have meaning! Acknowledging that and caring for those ideas is how great things come to be.

Follow along with my 100-day challenge on my Instagram!