The Beauty of Incubation.

I have been getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that I am not making any progress on an idea i had a few months ago. I want to modify a Ukulele to create a "show instrument" - I will share the details another time. The conceptual idea came to me a few weeks ago and i created some initial sketches and got very excited about the project. I bought a cheap ukulele that would be the donor instrument and i bought a couple of components to start the modification... and then the project came to a halt as my time became overwhelmed with work and other engagements.
The Ukulele and my sketches have sat on my desk for the past 2 weeks waiting for me to get on and bring my vision to reality. And while this has been frustrating me, i haven't stopped thinking about it.
And now something really interesting has happened.....
During this time of no action, during telephone calls or while waiting for my PC to boot etc, ive been fiddling with some of the project components that have been lying on my desk. I've done little doodles and sketches on postit notes and ive day-dreamed about what it might be like to play this new instrument. And almost like a butterfly from its cocoon a fabulous new vision has emerged from my mind. The concept is still basically the same but the design and method of execution are now far better than i had originally planned or dreamed.
So whats happened in these 2 weeks of seemingly no action?
Well I think this is the power of INCUBATION. The process of letting ideas gently bake in your head. Letting the idea or challenge teeter on the edge of your conscious and unconscious mind and allowing it to make new connections and associations. I dont know where my latest inspiration came from, but i am happy to acknowledge that my mind has been doing much more thinking about this than i was aware of, and the result has re-excited me to get on and bring the concept to life.
Actively building Incubation time into a project might feeling like wasted time, but when better ideas emerge like they did for me, the evidence is clear - we should be courageous enough to walk away from thinking and doing sometimes, confident in the knowledge that this incubation time might actually be very productive