Do you have a Setup?

"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." -Victor Hugo

David Lynch, the director behind Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, offers a perspective on how to take a concept from idea to early execution.

He writes that inspiration often arrives unexpectedly. You wake up one morning with an idea. You can see it clearly. You know what you want to make.

Yet, that's only the beginning.

To bring it into the world, you need what he calls a setup. And that can include:

a) A workshop

b) A painting studio

c) A music room

d) A desk where you can write

A place where the tools are ready, so when inspiration arrives, you don't have to spend the day figuring out where or how to begin.

Without that setup, the idea might simmer in the background. Life gets in the way. And eventually it just fades.

I hadn't thought much about creativity in those terms before, but David’s framework is alluring For me, some of my strongest ideas come in the morning with a coffee in hand. I can then immediately race to my home-office to start building it.

We spend a lot of time searching for inspiration. Maybe we should spend more time building the physical conditions that allow inspiration to take hold.