Why You Should Spend All Your Creativity Today

“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

This quote is true for writing, to be sure. Every time I try to save a golden nugget, I lose it. I put too much pressure on myself to turn it into something perfect. Then months go by, I get too scared of it, I end up incorporating it into some other blog, and then the original idea is lost.

I’ve found this quote to be true for business, for music, and all creativity. Spend it all now. Don’t bring a scarcity mindset into your work. We pretend we’re being strategic by saving these great ideas for later. But really, we save them because we’re hiding. We’re afraid. We’re scared we won’t have another great idea like this again. 

The brain will always fight to stay engaged. If you let your best idea fly today, by tomorrow it will be old news, so your brain with scratch and claw its way to an even better idea. But if you save today’s good idea for tomorrow, your brain will be bored. It will lose inspiration and motivation. It’ll fall into despair, and you’ll lose your edge. 

Spend it all today. It’s the only way tomorrow will be better.