Least Limiting Resource

Some years ago, I read that plants required 17 nutrients for growth and that growth was limited by whichever resource was most scarce. I’m not qualified to speak to the botany theory of that, but as a metaphor, I have wondered what the comparable 17 nutrients for human creativity would be (and how many there actually would be) and whether any of these common nutrients could be the limiting factor, or would they be ranked–the way Maslov ranked them–for our individualistic society at any rate?

What do you think?

Well Manicured Writing

 

©Anyka, iStockphoto® #8072944

What is it about a torn fingernail that demands to be torn, bitten, or sanded smooth? Why can’t a loose tooth or burned palate be ignored?

 

We seem to have an instinct to worry imperfections to death. Sometimes I awaken fussing with the previous day’s tricky punctuation or second-guessing an awkward phrase. I sleep-edit. Or I’m driving when the plot lines intersect, listening to something unrelated when my answer calls to me, showering as the logical solution precipitates.

If you’re worked something and struggled over it, and now you’re stuck, it’s time to make like Bo Peep and her sheep: “Leave them alone and they’ll come home.”

Do some Brain Gym®–of course. Prayer, always. Then let go. Just try to leave that ragged nail alone. If the problem needs solving, and you’re the one for the job, it won’t leave you alone.

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Text © Gwyn Nichols 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Photo © Anyka, iStockphoto® #8072944.

 

Friday Flick: “If I Should Have a Daughter”

Between sharing two of her own polished pieces, poet Sarah Kay shares her own creative emergence and that of her students. She suggests listing ten things you know to be true. Try it. See what you could write that only you could write.

Sarah’s also a great example of reaching out for mentoring and passing that on.

Sarah Kay at TED