Mentor Note #156

Mentor Note:

“The inner work was never meant to keep you inside yourself. It was preparing you to step forward differently.” - Sally Polihronas

Lets Dive in...

Hello Reader,

This week I have been thinking a lot about the Book, Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about ideas as living energies that arrive looking for someone willing to bring them into the world. If we do not respond, she suggests they may eventually move on and find another person to carry them.

I have always loved that idea. It reminds us not to assume inspiration will wait forever.

But lately, I have been thinking about the ideas that do not leave.

The ones that return through every season of your life.

The project you still see clearly, the words you continue writing in your mind. The business, book, conversation or body of work that remains quietly present, even when years pass before you can fully create it.

I no longer believe that time always means the idea has left you.
Sometimes you are growing into the person you need to become to hold it.

When certain ideas first arrive, you may have the vision without yet having the voice, capacity, experience, courage or self-trust required to carry their full weight. You can see what they might become, but you are not who you need to create them just yet.

That does not necessarily mean the idea is inactive.

I believe that the idea may be working on you.

Life begins giving you the material and as you develop the wisdom, your voice becomes clearer. You learn what belongs and what doesn't. You start to build the boundaries, experience and emotional capacity that the idea will eventually require.

This is what I mean by energetically holding an idea.

It is not claiming that no one else can create something similar.

It's the relationship you form with an idea when you continue to honour it before you are able to complete it, that matters most.

Over time, it becomes more than something you would like to do, it becomes part of who you are becoming.

But an energetic hold is not passive. It is not telling you that the idea is yours while continually leaving it untouched. Incubation and avoidance can look very similar from the outside, but your devotion is obvious.

You return to the page and continuously write, you build the skills and you create a place for the work in your actual life.

You allow the idea to keep developing you while you slowly begin developing it.

Perhaps the question is not only, “What new idea should I begin?”

Perhaps it is:

What idea has continued to choose me?

What has followed you through different versions of yourself? What do you understand now that you could not have understood when it first arrived? What are you finally capable of holding?

Some ideas may move on.

But others seem to grow roots within us. They remain because their timing is connected to our own becoming.

You do not hold those ideas through how fast you can create.

You hold them through relationship, devotion and your willingness to become responsible for what they are asking you to carry.

The Takeaway

Not every delay means you have missed the idea.

Some ideas remain because they are part of who you are becoming. The time between inspiration and creation may not have been empty. It may have been preparing your voice, capacity and courage to meet the idea properly.

The idea was not only waiting for you to create it.

It was creating you all along.

Something to Try

Choose one idea that has remained with you through more than one season of your life.

Complete these sentences:

This idea first came to me when…

Since then, it has taught me…

To carry it fully, I have needed to become someone who…

Then create an idea commitment for the next four weeks.

Choose one small, repeatable act that keeps you in an active relationship with the idea, a page each week, a creative hour, one conversation, one piece of research or one practical decision that moves it closer to form.

Do not ask yourself to complete the whole idea.

Show it that you are continuing to become available for it.

You may discover that it never left.

It has been growing roots in you the entire time.

I appreciate you!

Until next week,

Much love,

Sally xx

“Mentor Notes is designed to inspire reflection, growth, and action in your creative life" - Sally Polihronas

PO Box 805, DARLINGHURST, NEW SOUTH WALES 1300​
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

You are receiving this email because you subscribed for Mentor Notes on sallypolihronas.com. if you haven't subscribed to Mentor Notes you can unsubscribe, or continue to receive a weekly email from me filled with inspiring content and updates.