Where do you get your ideas? is a question often asked of writers.

It’s the wrong question. Ideas are no big deal. Millions of them float around in the ether waiting for someone to connect and bring them into form.

Ideas are a renewable resource; they remain in the ether for others to connect in their own ways. That’s why you cannot copyright an idea or even a title, only tangible work. In other words, it’s what you do with the idea that’s valuable.

I’ve always loved this quote from Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari:

“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.”

To me, the important question (and the right one to ask if you want to access your true creativity) is Where do you get your beliefs?

Unlike ideas, which originate in divine substance, beliefs are learned, usually from the socialization process. In other words, from your family of origin, your community, your education, and basically from every person who’s ever influenced your life.

Beliefs cannot be trusted. Even ones that arise from personal experience. Every experience is interpreted through a person’s lens of perception, and that lens distorts truth to match the viewer’s beliefs.

You came into this world without ideas or beliefs. Ideas are acquired through connecting with the Creator of All That Is, a trusted source. Beliefs are learned via information thrust upon you by (mostly) well-meaning people whose job it is to educate and prepare you for Life.

But what is the source of the beliefs you’ve learned? A cute story illustrates why it’s good to ask that question.

A young girl watched her mother prepare roast beef for the family by seasoning the meat and cutting off the end pieces before placing it in a pan to cook in the oven.

“Mom, I know you put salt and pepper on the meat for flavor, but why do you cut off the ends?”

The mother thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I guess because that’s what my mother did.”

“Can we ask Grandma why she cut off the ends?” asked the daughter.

“Sure,” the mom said and called her mother.

“Mom, I’m making a roast and your granddaughter wants to know why I cut off the ends before placing the meat in the pan. I said because that’s how you did it, but she still wants to know why.”

The grandmother laughed. “I cut off the ends because my pan was small and that’s the only way the roast would fit.”

Moral of the story: Never doubt that asking one simple question can uncover truth.

Yet so often we accept and continue behaviors and traditions that no longer serve us, if they ever did at all.

The vast majority of people alive today operate within the patriarchal paradigm and accept the belief system they were taught via their culture’s socialization process without question. But do those beliefs hold truth for you?

What if everything you were taught is a lie? What if the whole world’s operating system is upside down?

“What if…?” is a question I’ve been asking myself lately about many of my beliefs. Another good question to ask, borrowed from a dear friend, is “Who says?”

Once you start to question your long-held beliefs, you realize there is no true basis or foundation to support many of them. And if you turn them upside down by asking what if the opposite is true? you may be amazed at the ideas that come through.

So perhaps now you see why there is value in forgetting everything you’ve ever learned and starting anew with a thinking person’s open-minded attitude.

Maybe you’re not ready or willing to forget everything all at once. Start small. Question one belief a week, or a day. I guarantee that once you begin, you’ll agree you want to forget everything you’ve learned and amass a new belief system based on your own ideas and self-acquired values.