I’m Scared Of Running Out Of Creative Ideas. And It’s Making Me Greedy.

Ken Reid
4 min readApr 26, 2021
Photo by Ian on Unsplash

The biggest fear of every creative person is that they’ll run out of ideas.

Creativity is this strange ethereal thing that seems outside of our control. It seems like something that just happens to us. We have no say in the matter. So when a creative idea shows up, I tend to have two responses.

First, I want to share it. Partially because I long for significance and greatness. But also partially because I believe when you have a gift, it’s your responsibility to share it. If I have a creative idea, I want other people to be inspired, encouraged, and helped. So my first response is to share it.

But then I have a second response that I never see coming. I want to hold it back. I start believing the lie that creativity is a scarce resource. I could run out of it. And that fear turns me into the kind of person I don’t want to be.

It Makes Me Greedy.

I start hoarding my ideas, saving them up for a bigger audience.

“I’ll share this one when I have more readers,” I think to myself. “It’s too good for a small audience.”

The thought almost seems noble at first. If you have a gift, doesn’t it make sense to share it with as many people as possible?

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Ken Reid

Marketing Director & Storyteller | I’m not a dreamer, my brain just vacations in the future.