Into the Waste Paper Basket

Scene:

 A boy/girl picks up his/her notebook to jot down an idea that struck him as he was conversing with a friend. Three days later, he looks up the idea. Ugggh! The idea seems childish; absolutely absurd. He tears up the sheet of paper and throws it in the dustbin. The pile up grows; becoming a mountain of (disused) ideas.

Is this what you do? May I diagnose your problem please? You probably suffer from “Disgruntled Creativitis!” The symptoms? Ummm.... Dissatisfaction with self, exaggerated expectations and highly self critical! Am I right?

This disease is highly prevalent amongst teenagers; they don’t seem to know when to do what. There isn’t any scarcity of creativity but there is seriously a lack of clarity. I have seen guys who do have the creativity juices flowing in them, but simply ignore them because they feel it is absurd.

What is absurd with being childish? To climb a ladder, one has to start with the first rung. You can't take a big leap and reach the top most rung, all of a sudden!

Whatever you throw into the waste paper basket isn’t just paper, it isn’t just ideas, it is your aspirations. It is your future; which you are pushing out of your life. It may be the making or breaking of you!

But why do we (me included) throw away our supposedly good-for-nothing ideas? Just because we expect more from ourselves? Yup, that’s one reason. But again this raises more questions; why do we expect more of ourselves that should be expected? Peer Pressure? As everyone around us is deemed intelligent, do we raise our standards without actually considering our strengths and weaknesses?

So, what do we do now? Just pick up a paper and pen; jot down any idea that enters our mind and then seriously ponder over it; properly laying it out bare.

What are you waiting for? Go on, speak (write) out what your mind says; it may be the making of you!

Lastly, shall I let you on to a secret? This blog was an idea jotted down some days ago and then thrown into the waste paper basket! But self realisation hit me and I wrote this out! What do you think of it?