A creative mind....

....a blessing or not?

I had my yearly appraisal in my Real Life job yesterday. I was very nervous about it, but it turned out I needn't have been. My boss was very pleased with what I have been doing and said lots of complimentary things about my work in the last year and direction I am taking the team.
I don't take compliments very well, and am quite critical of the work I do, but I do recognise one of the skills which is valued by my boss. I am a very creative person, always have been, and I am always full of ideas. This has been good for my work, and I have been put into all sorts of creative thinking groups. Many of the ideas I have come up with have been taken up by head office, some are seen as best practice and others are now used by teachers across the country. However it can be curse as well as a blessing to have a creative mind.

I was reading Hobbits blog yesterday.. http://hobbitripley.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/stress-top-tips/ .. and Ben had written about not letting things get out of control, about planning ahead. Unfortunately my creative mind often doesn't listen to sound advice like this. When something new comes along that interests me, I invariably get excited about it, my mind kicks into gear and a million ideas come up. Then, being the active doer type of person that I am, I want to make my ideas into reality and thats where things usually start to unravel a bit.
Often the idea is a great one but I don't have the skill or expertise to actually put it into practice.
Or the idea is a rubbish one and I fail to see that until I am halfway through putting it together.
But the most common thing is that there are just too many ideas, and I try and do them all and end up burning myself out or I create lots of half done things which 'could be great'.
I am not very good at delegating either, once I have an idea I usually want to do it all myself.
If I am lucky, which sometimes I am, I will have a good idea, be able to make it happen and enjoy doing it.

I wouldn't change it, I like to be creative and a little chaotic, its who I am. But sometimes I wish I could be a little calmer in my mind.
Perhaps I should take up meditation?