Creativity often comes down to ignoring convention and exploring some crazy ideas. For some reason – perhaps fearing looking foolish – we (and I count myself here) tend to “self edit” our thoughts as we have them.
It’s really about the voice in the back of your head that comments on every decision you make. The purpose of this voice is to act as mental filter. It stops random thoughts and prevents unnecessary information from overwhelming you.
Obviously this works great in everyday life. It allows you to narrow your conscious decision making to important things. So you can focus on the big things and survive. Unfortunately it’s less helpful when designing a garden. This voice forms assumptions about what can and can’t work. Additionally, it does it based on limited knowledge or experience. Because of this lack of experience, you tend to rely on what you think works best – or conventional approaches.
So What?
Why Is This A Problem?
To be clear, conventional approaches aren’t bad, per se. They just result in more of the same. Conventional garden designs that don’t address your wants or needs. Also, they tend to take no cues from your site and surroundings.
But if you self edit and dismiss every weird thought that floats through your mind, you may be missing out on some fascinating opportunities. And it’s not just as you’re going through the design steps in the landscape design process. You probably self edit right in the beginning when you’re looking for ideas and choosing what you want in your garden.
You may automatically reject activities or features you assume you can’t have. Maybe due to cost, fit, DIY ability… there could be any number of reasons. All of this may be true. But, as I preach repeatedly in my site and my ebook, you want to expand your options as broad as possible. Go really wide in your exploration of ideas at first, then cut them back with doses of reality as you refine your designs.
If you self edit right from the start, you’re starting small and potentially missing out on ideas that could transform your garden or backyard. All because you listened to the thoughts in your head – who don’t know anything anyway!
How Not To Self Edit
To stop self editing, you need to go through more steps than may seem necessary. To push past what you think ‘works’ – what is good – to get to the best.
Going systematically through each activity, feature or garden idea – and how they work in each position – may seem unnecessary. Chances are, once you add constraints – cost, DIY ability, need, availability etc. – you end up with the same positions you originally thought you would for many programs.
I mentioned you need to ‘show your workings’. That if you can’t tell me why a program is in that spot and not another, it’s a fail. This helps you test each position. As I’ve said before, start broad and narrow down through a process of elimination. I want you to get in the frame of mind that things are possible. Instead of starting with “It can’t be done there”, ask “how can it be done there?”
The more you write down your crazy ideas to explore now or later, the more likely you are to stop self-editing, and find something interesting.
