I think, in a sense, it is about intention; you probably have never worked on a project of your own, start to completion. It takes practice, like anything else, to pick something to do and actually work on it and do it. Nothing happens in one's head, one has to actually do the boring, mundane, day-to-day stuff for a long time, practice the piano scales day after day before one can play the piano; one has to actually try the lame-sounding stuff instead of just saying, "that's lame" without even trying them to know. You can't know what you haven't experienced, haven't tried; the map is not the territory.