Ideas bloom and grow in your fertile mind and soul.

What if someone picks your creative flower and grows it in their yard?

They say the highest form of flattery is imitation; however, it can feel more like theft than a compliment. But is there really such a thing as an original idea in this day and age? Has everything already been thought? Has everything already been done?

Let’s use the practice of Yoga as an example. Are there new poses, or are there just variations or modifications of original poses?

Frequently people in small business or in the influencing space come up with inspiration and ideas that have been talked about or done before; are they actually stealing those ideas? Not likely. Just because something has been done before and you want to do that same thing it doesn’t mean you’re stealing the idea. Because if you’ve never done it before, then it hasn’t been done the way you would do it or with your particular spin. Specific ideas that you take in will germinate different ideas within you.

It definitely is stealing and wrong and illegal, even, if you are using someone’s trademarked or copyrighted thing as your own. If you plagiarize, taking someone’s words and putting your name to it, that is wrong.

When my business partner and I were thinking about opening a small business, a yoga studio and a place for women to gather, we were coming up with the pictures and logos, and ideas for our tag lines, etc. One thing I thought of was yoga for EVERY body. EVERY body: meaning that we wanted all people to feel welcome; tall, short, skinny, fluffy, anywhere in between. I put Yoga for EVERY body on some of our materials.

Ever since doing that I have noticed other yogis in the town we live in say yoga for every body. I don’t know if someone saw what I posted or put in print and now they are using it as their own; or if I’m just noticing it now because that’s what I thought up. Was it just a fabulous idea that more than one of us had separate from each other? I really don’t mind if someone saw what we did and is imitating it. Because we are doing it differently. It can’t possibly be the same with each of us being different.

As individuals we are all different, we teach differently. We all learn differently. We create differently.

There is an abundance of clients, work, audiences and people to touch and serve and be our customers, that we don’t need to be in competition. Competition can get ugly. Everyone that is in the same industry is doing their thing and clients can choose which one fits with them the best. Competition is not healthy when you are so worried about what the other person is doing and you have to have the most clients, be the best, and always be recognized for what it is that you’re doing. That is when you may start to feel that someone stole your idea or are not playing fair or something along those line. But there’s a plethora of people that need you and what you provide.

So, where do you get your ideas? Do you sit in meditation in a void and just have ideas flow into you? Probably not. You see or hear something that sparks some kind of idea to form. It’s what you do with that, how you cultivate it, that makes it yours.

What does cultivating ideas have to do with nursing? Healthcare? What is nursing at the core? It is work where necessity was the mother of invention. Medications and procedures were developed out of someone’s ideas of how to help and fix. Ideas built on the ideas of those that have gone before. Everything we do: dressings, methods of dealing with difficult patients, repositioning, using one piece of equipment for multiple things, assessments, etc. are based on ideas that someone had and allowed to bloom and grow.

Whether you are a floor nurse or own a small business you have a million ideas every day. Even though something you saw someone else do; something you heard someone else say; or something you read that someone else wrote, may be what sparked your ideas, you are going to take those seeds of creativity and grow something of your own with them. Don’t despair if it’s all been done before, thought before, written before, seen before; because it hasn’t been done, thought, written or seen by you before. It will be new and unique and special when it blooms and grows in you and you then share it with the world.