Nothing is in place yet, the direction is not set. Anything is still possible. You’re totally free to have storms of ideas flying around your head, inspirations and visions in all directions. Every idea is welcome, every crazy, wild or stupid thought. Like you are an angel of creation, with an ocean of primordial chaos in front of you, deciding how you want the stars to evolve and what colour to do the sky in. No wonder it’s called a brainstorming. Not a time to be meek!

“Well begun is half done” said Pythagoras (at least that’s who the quote is attributed to). Get it right at the beginning, and  the rest will unfold. (Clearly Pythagoras didn’t need a whole blog posting to explore the idea).

Because the moment you get started, a direction is set. The foundations of the house are in place, the seed has sprouted, the baby is conceived. On one hand it’s getting easier – one thing leads to the next and then the next, and you can ride on the momentum. On the other hand, it gets harder to change things. You can still start something new, but the further you go in one direction, the more it’s a big deal to switch.

Same in life! When you’re a kid you can almost be anything, do anything. And you feel that. Worlds of possibilities lie in front of you. Then you choose an interest, a career, a path, and away you go. Any changes after that depend on the things  you’ve done before. As you get further and further into one field, your wider choices become less and less.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just the way things are. Anyway, if we stayed forever at the primordial-anything’s-possible stage, no one would ever be expert in anything. Nothing would ever get done!

My point is, don’t try to skip the precious brainstorming stage. Enjoy it, it’s precious. It’s just as much about letting your creative side loose, as getting started on your project.

If you sit there staring at a blank slate for too long, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose the plot. Too much, too big, too hard and aaagh – too late, you are frozen. As soon as you feel that happening – stop. Rise above the details, find your original inspiration again. Go back to your vision of the big picture. Then start!

So we are started.