Forget the Bucket List: How to Fill Every Day with Creative Purpose
or how to outshine your own shadow with everyday routines, a dash of self-compassion, and a little AI thrown in the mix
Sidebar: Sometimes, our own creativity catches us off guard. It appears unexpectedly along our daily mundane path. It looks so wild and powerful that we fear it may consume us. As it rears up, a shadow falls across our face. Its icy touch fills us with fear and self-conscious doubt. Who are we, matched against this powerful force?
This shadow has many names. From critic to cynic, from perfectionist to procrastinator, from doubter to impostor. All of them have one thing in common: to scare you back into your little hole. Like the fabled groundhog that sees a shadow that delays the coming of Spring, this shade seeks to delay your most important work, your creations.
And there’s one more thing you should know about this shadow. It isn’t cast from that fearsome creative beast blocking your path, for that beast is actually glowing. The shadow is coming from you. It’s coming from your own hand, as you raise it to shield your eyes from the light of your own wild ideas.
I’m writing this after hiding in my groundhog hole for weeks instead of publishing thoughts for my newsletter. As my subscriptions began to rise and positive comments appeared, I rewarded myself with a cold, dark serving of self-sabotage. I ran from my own shadow.
In the subsequent weeks, I asked myself, “How do I fight my own fear? How do I overcome my own bad habits and inclinations? How can I reverse the effects of unworthiness?” Over time, this transformed into, “When do I feel most confident and at my best? When am I the strongest? When do I create and accomplish the most?”
I made a short list of obvious answers and then tricked myself into thinking I could use this list to write a simple, punchy post. The joke’s on me! It took over five thousand words, but I’ve finally crawled out of the hole. Stick around to find out what worked for me, and then tell me what works for you. I’m glad you’re here to exchange some ideas.💖
Side-sidebar: Each section of this article is followed by an ✨ AI Editor’s Note. As an experiment (and a way to dilute my responsibility), I shared my writing with Claude, a free conversational AI akin to ChatGPT. The initial conceit was to mitigate my impostor syndrome by covering my ass. This algorithm could act as creative mortar, filling in the cracks and gaps by adding any needed value. I copied its suggestions word for word and placed them at the end of each section. Please be advised that I did not fact-check them, nor do I endorse them. They just…are. The results are clearly marked with a sparkly stars emoji: ✨
🪦 Existential Introduction
The absurdly improbable fact that I exist—right here, right now—is always enough to set me off on theological, philosophical, and scientific musings (aka thought spirals). Especially if I’m sitting alone, on a deck, with a warm September sun beaming down onto the pages of my journal as late-summer paper wasps take curious bites from the pressure-treated lumber that is holding me above the earth.
I remind my fifty-one-year-old self every day that I am mortal. It’s so easy to forget that our time in this world is limited. Plenty of religions claim we’ll live on in a different place or we’ll come back for another round, but I can’t think of any that say we get to Groundhog Day our lives—repeat what’s already been done, scene for scene. This is it, people! It’s one and done.
Why do I need to remind myself of this mortal fact? Because I’m a stupid human. I'm not exactly afraid of death. But I do fear deterioration—a slow, dripping loss of faculties. Especially when it comes to creating purposeful and meaningful writing: something I claim to cherish, yet often abandon to less noble pursuits.
I haven't exactly been kind to this, my only body. But, for my remaining time, I want to be reminded of the things that might make a difference in giving me a healthier and more fulfilling ‘third act’ (my nickname for the time between fifty and seventy-five). I scribbled down this list of things I believe are crucial for making the most of the creative life I have left. It’s not a Bucket List. It’s more of a (giant) sticky note of daily mundane practices. Hopefully, these reminders are useful for you as well.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Creativity requires fuel - it thrives on novelty, focus, cognitive flexibility, and inspiration from diverse sources. Our daily habits and routines provide the foundation for lighting the creative spark every day. This article explores practices shown to boost innovation and enrich the creative spirit.
Set a daily intention each morning - write down 1-2 creative goals/values to focus on that day
Take time to consciously appreciate sensory details - sights, sounds, textures around you
Reflect on mortality not with fear but motivation to live purposefully
🐑 Make Sleep a Priority
I love sleeping. I go to bed around ten and wake up around five. This might sound like an old person thing, but it took some determination. I used to be a night owl, but the early-bird appeal became stronger once I realized I could have hours and hours of selfish quiet morning time—to think, to write, to exercise. After a few months of conditioning, it became the new norm.
Sleep is one of the most important aspects of overall mental and physical (and therefore creative) health. Anecdotally, I can confirm this. The times in my life where I’ve had the most trouble sleeping have also been the most debilitating. Chronic insomnia and general fatigue are never great for optimal living.
Sleep deprivation compounds other issues, especially mood-related struggles. This decreases motivation and has a cascading effect on how well you eat, exercise, and otherwise reward (or punish) yourself. I try to remember this when I can’t sleep: Eat better! Meditate more! Exercise! And your sleep will gradually improve.
But what the heck does this have to do with creativity, you ask? Can’t sleep deprivation actually help you come up with crazy ideas? Well, yes, it can. But it can also just make you go crazy. It can sap your energy and dampen your spirit, two ingredients crucial to feeding your creative engine.
Here are a few simple routines I attempt to follow, many inspired by neurologist Andrew Huberman (see links below). They may or may not work for you. As with everything, you need to experiment and customize until you are happy with the results.
Shine on — Get as much natural sunlight as you can as soon as you wake up. Living in Canada in the winter does not help with this, but make do with what you can.
Get physical — Even light exercise lets your body settle into healthier natural cycles.
Make lists — Don’t go to sleep with clutter in your brain. Make a list of all the things that are nagging at you, that you need to take care of. This way you can actually relax knowing you won’t forget them.
Read books — Analog books, audiobooks, or a low-light Kindle, are much better sleep preparation than doom-scrolling on a bright little screen.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Specific sleep habits provide cognitive rest and renewal critical for ideation. The 90-minute sleep cycle aligns with periods of REM sleep most important for memory formation and learning. Leonardo da Vinci championed the benefits of short naps or "sleeps," while contemporary creators like writer Haruki Murakami and inventor Thomas Edison are also known for polyphasic sleep schedules. Getting adequate sleep duration (7-8 hours for most adults) allows the brain to fully recharge overnight.
Establish a soothing pre-bed routine - journaling, reading fiction, mobility stretches
Optimize sleep conditions - cool, dark room; comfortable bedding; no screens before bed
Upon waking, take 10 deep breaths before scrolling your phone or getting up
📘 INSPIRATION: Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast, Huberman Lab, is a very deep dive into the effects of sleep on the brain. He also covers diet, exercise, mental health, and addiction. If you don’t have time to listen to his hundreds of hours of information, try asking questions of the Andrew Huberman AI, instead.
🥦 Eat Better and Exercise More
What do exercise and nutrition have to do with creativity? Try writing a story with a pinched nerve, or come up with ideas during a bout of food poisoning. It’s considerably more difficult. While we can’t avoid all pain and sickness, we can still try to stave it off.
Move your body every day. Even if it’s a seven-minute workout Even if it’s a twenty-minute walk around the block. This is the most important (and obvious) thing of all. Get your blood flowing. Shake off the cobwebs. Clear out those rusty pipes.
My (almost) daily run gives me extra oxygen, a clearer mind, and an elevated mood that can carry me through some of the tougher days. And I’ll repeat what I said before: you don’t have to run a marathon or try out for the Olympics. Every little bit of movement matters.
It also helps to stay hydrated, drink less (or no) alcohol, and eat more plants (and less processed food). Healthy habits are extremely difficult if you tend to reward yourself with food and drink (which I’ve done my entire life).
I hack my morning smoothie with a frozen puck of spinach. I cook the food I’m craving (because there’s no chance I’ll use as much oil, sugar, or sodium as the processed version). I keep healthy(er) snacks like nuts and apples within arm's reach to avoid eating bags of chips. I use a SodaStream to drink fizzy water instead of pop. Etcetera etcetera.
And, it’s important to note, these things don’t always work! As my uncle is fond of saying, “Everything in moderation. Especially moderation.” The point isn’t to be perfect—it’s to be less damaging. What we eat and drink compounds over time, and even small, consistent actions can create enormous gains, physically and mentally. I have to remind myself of this every single day.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Aerobic exercise promotes hippocampal neurogenesis, generating new brain cells. Short bursts of intense exercise also boost BDNF levels, a protein correlated with enhanced cognition. Many composers walked extensively while coming up with musical motifs, including Beethoven during long strolls in the Austrian countryside. The Mediterranean diet high in omega-3s, leafy greens, and berries provides overall brain health. Maya Angelou prioritized cooking and eating well: “I try to keep the chemicals out of my body so my brain will continue to work successfully.”
Explore new fruits, vegetables, spices - variety boosts nutrients and creativity
Take mini-dance breaks when you feel mental fatigue - move to shift energy
Meal prep on weekends to set up healthy snacks/meals for your week
📘INSPIRATION: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan has some of the wittiest ways to think about food, including “avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.”
🫧 Clear Your Head (Meditate)
This might be the most underrated, OP (overpowered), and easiest thing to do on this list. And yet, it’s the hardest to enforce because (for me) it has the lowest priority. It’s the first thing that’s sacrificed as the day gets busier.
Meditation comes in many forms. My favourite is to close my eyes for roughly twenty minutes, listen to ocean waves or falling rain (for distraction-free white noise), and try not to think of anything at all. I focus on my breathing. I pretend my thoughts are clouds that drift in and out of my sky-mind.
I wear a (dorky) Muse headband to measure my brain waves, which tells me, objectively, how calm my brain activity is. While completely superfluous, this gamified bio-feedback feeds my motivation. I’m always curiosity to see if I can hold a deeper mental state longer like a deepsea diver practicing how long they can hold their breath.
I won’t go into all the details here, but meditation has been proven (see Dr. John Kounios below) to assist in breakthrough ideas and ‘eureka’ moments. As a matter of fact, the brain ‘blinks’ just before it comes up with a novel solution to a problem, shutting out all other stimuli for a micro-moment, as it concentrates all available processing energy.
Try not to worry about doing it right. Don’t get stuck on the method; get stuck on the practice. You can always improve over time with research, classes, or self-observation. And if you’re uncomfortable with the word meditation, call it something else: daydreaming, contemplation, reflection, clearing your head. Whatever works. Let your mind wander off-leash without an agenda. Just give your brain a break from itself every once in a while. Trust me, it needs it.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Daily meditation provides numerous creativity benefits. Focused-attention meditation strengthens concentration and memory recall, while open-monitoring meditation enhances divergent thinking. Studies show just 12 minutes of daily mindful writing leads to more innovative ideas compared to free writing. Einstein reportedly meditated by imagining himself riding beams of light through space, visualizations that may have sparked breakthrough insights.
Try walking meditations to integrate mindfulness into your day
Freely write or draw during meditation to capture subconscious insights
End your meditation with 5 deep breaths and a positive mantra about creativity
📘 INSPIRATION: The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain by Dr. John Kounios is filled with stunning research about neurology and creativity.
🪩 Practice Self-Compassion
Self-flagellation—beating yourself up—is a vicious cycle that takes considerable effort to break out of (especially when it comes to exercise and nutrition!). I still berate myself far too often, but I have acquired a few skills to pull my mental plane out of a self-loathing nose dive. Here’s what I’ve learned, and although some of it sounds obvious and simplistic, it works for me. Find the mantras that resonate with you and repeat them.
Be kind to yourself. Imagine that you are dealing with a seven-year-old version of who you once were. Understand that you are a human being, and no human being is perfect. Forgive yourself for past mistakes. Own them. You can’t change them. You can only change your current trajectory. Focus on what you can control. Remind yourself to become the person you admire. Self-compassion builds resilience for future mistakes (and yes, you will continue to make them!). Don’t forget also to own your wins.
Again, the point isn’t to be perfect! It’s to get over yourself so that you can better express yourself without fear and loathing. And one more added bonus: a self-compassionate person is more capable of seeing the best in others, which can open you up to new connections and friendships.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Creators need resilience when work goes awry. Self-criticism blocks innovation by over-activating our fear centers. Self-compassion provides an antidote. Writers like Maya Angelou and Amy Tan intentionally cultivate their inner voices for encouragement over criticism. Tan credits self-compassion with allowing her to take risks and continue innovating over decades. Mindfulness practices like loving-kindness meditation also prime creativity by generating positive emotions.
Write a list of your creative strengths and re-read it when you're feeling doubtful
Imagine advising your childhood self kindly during setbacks or failures
Keep an inspiration file of quotes, images to revisit when you need encouragement
📘 INSPIRATION: Dr. Brené Brown researches shame, vulnerability, courage, and empathy. She has a fantastically popular TED talk and wrote a book called The Gifts of Imperfection that completely changed the way I considered myself.
Centre-Sidebar: I’ve reached the middle of writing this post and can already feel that cold shadow casting itself upon me. Here are just a few of my self-limiting thoughts, conjured by the cruel magician of self-doubt, regarding my efforts so far:
I can’t tell if I love it or hate it. I think I mostly hate it.
It feels over-thought and underwritten. Or is it under-thought and over-written??
I’m not sure it adds any value to the topic of creativity. Don’t people already know all this stuff? Doesn’t every YouTube video and podcast already talk about all these things ad infinitum and ad nauseam?
Isn’t this a regurgitated and vastly more proponderous version of the Mundane LifeFocus™ card system I piloted back in 2006??
I desperately want to flee these shadows, get back into the false safety of my hole in the ground. I want to discard this difficult labour, escape into a daydream of cozy finishes and unearned accolades…
…but not today.
📚 Read Fiction
I find this hard to explain, but reading fiction does something magical to the brain. An immersive state can be reached, where you are no longer aware of the mechanical actions of your eyes, or the translation of the words, or the construction of the sentences. You are inside another universe, another person’s idea come to life.
Even more magically, we all see and interpret these worlds differently. In high school, my favourite book was The Catcher In the Rye (original, I know). This also happened to be the favourite book of George H. W. Bush, someone with a completely different worldview than my own. Did a tear run down the former president’s cheek while experiencing Holden Caulfield’s self-inflicted loneliness? Or did he simply think the little fucker got what he deserved? 🤷🏻♂️
You’ll have your own chaptered memories, but here are the first few that come to mind for me:
I remember feeling disembodied by the shocking brutality of American Psycho,
and enlightened by the subtle human gestures of Immortality.I remember dropping my book during a terrific jump scare in Authority.
I remember the interconnected and manic insanity of Survivor,
and the quirky inspiring slacker slogans of Generation-X.
I experienced all of these things, yet in different ways than others. These word-worlds have been lived in, but in separate lives.
Books eventually close, but the feelings and memories stay with you. This pressed ink can give you new emotions and ideas. It is, perhaps, the closest thing we have to telepathy: where we can share our deepest thoughts through the tapping of keys or the scratching of a pen. Miraculous.
I keep one of these multi-dimensional portals—in paper or Kindle form—right next to my bed. I highlight passages that inspire me to be a better writer. If my eyes get tired, I listen to the audiobook and try not to fall asleep before the chapter ends.
(I love reading so much that I wrote a twenty-page argument called How To Read Game Of Thrones to convince my brother to consider George R. R. Martin’s multi-book saga A Song of Ice and Fire. Sadly, he didn’t read either of them lol.)
✨ AI Editor’s Note: The imagined worlds of literature build empathy and cognitive flexibility, key ingredients for creativity. Literary fiction especially boosts theory of mind - the ability to attribute mental states to others. A 2021 study found that reading literary fiction for just 20 minutes increased performance on theory of mind tests. For Ray Bradbury, devouring science fiction magazines as a child provided the imaginative fuel for classics like Fahrenheit 451: "I opened them and lit the first pages and the genie leapt out of each bottle.”
Keep a quote journal from fiction books that inspires you
Imagine how a character would handle your current creative struggles
Discuss fiction you've read with others - exchange perspectives
📘 INSPIRATION: While the title says otherwise, Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft lends considerable weight to the importance of reading. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
📔 Do the Write Thing
Whether it’s random bulleted thoughts, a gratitude journal, or a stream of consciousness , there’s no better way to get to know yourself than through writing. Writing is like dreaming—it reveals ourselves to ourselves. It gives us the license to self-reflect, to play, to flow. To open up and express who we are.
Writing somehow crystallizes our inner thoughts and gives shape to our deepest feelings. The act of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) unlocks something within us, letting our truest self pour out onto the page. As we write, we can disentangle the knots of chaotic ambiguity in our minds and find a form of clarity. By writing, we can examine our misgivings, recognize our barriers, give shape to our dreams. The blank page is the flypaper to our buzzing minds.
Keep a notebook close. The more you write, the more you'll uncover who you are. Make writing a habit, whether it's a wistful early morning scribble, a post-workout adrenalin-fueled ideation dump, or a late-night venting session.
Putting thoughts into words helps you organize things, distill and clarify them. And if writing isn’t your thing, try talking to yourself instead. Speak and record your thoughts. Transcribe and review them. Run them through a conversational AI like Claude, Pi, Bard, or ChatGPT for further reflection and insight.
Learn how to appreciate yourself, your point of view, your voice. You are worth getting to know. Write like no one is reading (then edit like the world is peering over your shoulder).
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Journaling allows creators to capture nascent ideas and deepen self-knowledge. Natalie Goldberg's book Writing Down the Bones highlights the creative power of unfiltered writing. For inventors, note-taking also aids problem-solving; Nikola Tesla meticulously recorded his experiments and designs. Surrealist artist Salvador Dali used a diary to explore his dreams and subconscious, mining strange images for later paintings.
Carry a small notebook to jot down observations, inspirations in the moment
Freewrite daily without self-judgment - surprise yourself
Dialogue with your thoughts in writing to gain clarity
📘 INSPIRATION: Dr. Gabor Maté writes about addiction, ADHD, childhood trauma, and other difficult topics. In The Myth of Normal he discusses the differences between our personality and our identity, and suggests journaling (with suggested prompts) as a way of really getting to know ourselves, which, in turn, will allow us to live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
🚧 Have a Project Going
In order to stay motivated, in order to feel a sense of purpose, I usually have a project or two on the go. Right now, with a few close friends, I’m creating a card game about the brutal (and hilarious ) realities of advertising pitches. But please don’t call this a passion project. Passion only goes so far. You mostly need curiosity, courage, and commitment. If you want to be a writer, you have to write. If you want to be a painter, you have to paint.
In other words, it’s not all joyous bliss and rainbows. You still have to do the work. Think of your project like a construction site: Slow, messy, often inconvenient, but also essential to maintaining and growing your creativity.
Your project doesn’t have to be well-defined, but it helps if it is regimented. You may not have a clear idea of how everything will come together in the end, but if you work at it consistently, something interesting will eventually come into focus.
Draw a small picture, write 1000 words, or take a well-composed photograph. Or work on something more involved but in small bursts: like building a table, recording an album, or knitting a cardigan with matching gloves. But do it every single day.
It doesn’t have to be a huge commitment, especially at first. Start with The 10-Minute Wedge, an extremely simple concept devised to start small, keep the project moving forward, and build momentum. Just find ten minutes every day—which might mean watching one less YouTube video, or going to bed ten minutes later. You get the idea. As you make steady progress and small wins, as you get into your project, you will naturally want to spend more and more time with it.
You’ve heard variations on the phrase, “Enjoy the journey, not just the destination.” The same is true for creativity. If we wish to routinize it, we must train our brains to enjoy the work, not just the results—even if it’s excruciating. This sounds a little sadomasochistic (and it is!), but it’s also how professional athletes train. They learn to enjoy the process, to understand that the pain means they are making progress, and to reward themselves with the gratification of increments, not just medals. Make the effort the reward!
Find something that challenges you creatively. Learn to love the slow process of getting better at it. Your daily creative action will be your measure of progress. It will boost your confidence and imbue you with a sense of purpose. It can literally be anything, but here are two possible examples:
Set up a weekly Zoom call with people you love to talk to (your parents, your kids, or some close friends). Transcribe the call with a tool like Tactiq or Descript. Enlist an AI like Claude to help you compile a small weekly newsletter of your best stories, memories, and discussions. Turn this into a book to give as a special gift during holidays or birthdays.
Pick your favourite spot to drink your morning coffee. Put a pad and pencil within reach. Every morning, for ten minutes, draw what’s in front of you (but don’t let your coffee get too cold). Make sure to mark the date or put a sequential number on your sketches. Review your progress every 30 days. (For bonus marks, post your sketches daily on Substack.)
(I will be writing more about this in an article called AC⚡DC: Active Commitment to Daily Creativity), so make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it! I’ll include things like creating sacred spaces, minimizing barriers to your new habit, and what it means to carry a theme as you roam through the day.)
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Hands-on hobbies provide outlets for experimentation separate from professional work. Physicist Richard Feynman relaxed by sketching concepts and picking locks. Bill Gates programmed for fun early on, acquiring coding skills that enabled later innovations. Such tinkering projects give permission to play and explore off the clock. Painter Paul Gauguin famously quipped, “Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge." Side projects provide that reprieve.
Dedicate small blocks of time daily to chip away at a creative project
Set mini-deadlines to maintain momentum on longer-term projects
Display creative works-in-progress prominently to motivate you
📘 INSPIRATION: This is the meta-book that touches on almost everything in this article and how to make it stick. Atomic Habits, by James Clear, is the single most effective and inspiring piece of non-fiction I’ve read about designing your life the way you want to live it.
💝 Share Your Work
Sharing your work with others can be a form of therapy. It allows you to process your creations, your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences, in a structured and intentional way that encourages growth.
It also gets ideas out of your head and into the real world, where they can be tested and improved (or eliminated to make room for better ones). It forces you to be vulnerable and build up your resilience. Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and the aforementioned Survivor, credits his creative writing group for assisting with his success—acting as a fresh perspective on his ideas, allowing him to think outside his own head.
"People see the connections in [my] work I haven't made," Palahniuk says [to reporter Jeff Baker of the Oregonian]. "It's shocking the difference a little tweak and a fresh perspective can make. That's the magic part."
However, choosing your social networks (and therapists!) wisely is important, as not all feedback is created equal. Find a balanced community or group who will provide you with honest and constructive feedback, while also challenging you to grow and improve. You don’t want people to tear you down and discourage you, but you also don’t want people who only tell you what you want to hear. No trolls. No sycophants.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Finding trusted sources for sharing work allows for constructive feedback. Many writers participate in critique groups, exchanging manuscripts and providing candid reviews. Startup incubators similarly facilitate helpful critiques through demo days and mentorship programs. Sharing unfinished work takes courage, but candid input is critical for growth. Poet Allen Ginsberg was part of the "New Vision" writing collective early on, workshopping poems like Howl which were deemed too radical for mainstream publishers at the time.
Find online communities related to your creative interests for feedback
Do informal "show & tells" of new work regularly with trusted friends
Reflect on critiques with openness - implement only feedback that resonates
📘 INSPIRATION:
(a creator here on Stubstack!) has a way of writing square, power-packed truth bombs about the creative process, without ever devolving into clichéd platitudes. In Show Your Work, he explains his manifesto for putting your work out there, including the chapter “You don’t have to be a genius; share something small every day.”🔭 Explore Everything
Enjoy the small moments. Savour the quiet times on your deck, the way the light casts a shadow through your glass of water as you write. These moments extend your life, slow down time, and keep you aware that life is extraordinary.
Wander down unfamiliar paths, physical and intellectual. Absorb new environments and perspectives. Let them reshape your thinking. See with fresh eyes. Document your travels.
Imagine how much energy went into all the details surrounding you! Stay present. Don't dwell on the unchangeable past or unknowable future. Every mundane moment contains hidden splendour—creative ideas waiting to be born.
Explore the world with childlike wonder, for it is infinite. Dive deep into countless details. Travel wide across disparate disciplines. There's always more to see, learn, assimilate, and connect to your creative universe.
Knowledge compounds over time. The connections between your observations and experience are your greatest gift. Push yourself to expand your potential. Exist with purpose.
✨ AI Editor’s Note: Mindful observation and slowing down open us up to inspiration by expanding awareness of the present moment. Immersing yourself in new environments and perspectives also boosts creativity. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright observed nature intensely, learning from trees how to design columns. Painter Dotty Attie finds mindfulness vital for seeing everyday objects anew. Stepping outside your habits and routines reveals the splendor hidden in the mundane.
Visit new neighborhoods, museums, landscapes - absorb fresh environments
Study creators in other fields - cross-pollinate ideas between domains
Experiment with an unconventional creative medium - sculpt, code music
📘 INSPIRATION: How To Be An Explorer of the World by Keri Smith is an activity book of prompts to help you create a ‘portable art life museum.’ Trust me, if your phone ever runs out of batteries, you’ll want this paperback in your go-bag. Boredom-eradicating exercises include creating a ‘sound map’ based on your location and how to wander aimlessly.
⚠️ Live More, Better, Different
An extraordinary life hides in plain sight within our mundane daily routines. Basic things like proper rest, nourishing food, purposeful movement, self-forgiveness, and daily creation each add a watt of power to your shadow-blasting existence outside the groundhog hole.
Create your days, don’t let your days create you. Don't coast through life on autopilot. Shift into manual and pay attention. Inhabit the present. Capture fleeting details like they were flecks of gold.
Small moments contain hidden splendour - you only need to immerse yourself in them to see it. Creativity blossoms in the spaces between the ticking of the clock. Rediscover activities you take for granted by doing them mindfully. Stay curious, stay committed, stay courageous.
And when the cold shadow of self-doubt falls upon you, remember to lower your hand, for it is your hand that is casting the shadow. Bask in the light of your own thoughts and ideas and see where they take you. Live the most creative version of your life and share it with the rest of us.
Now get out of your hole and into the light! 🪄
❓Question: What are some of your most important everyday practices❓
💸 Disclosure: I belong to the Amazon Affiliates program; if you click through some of the links in this article and finalize a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Perhaps even enough to go to the movies someday. By myself.💸
I love how thorough you are when you approach a subject. This one is obviously close to your heart—your passion comes through! Many can barely manage a paragraph, but once you latch onto a topic we are in for a full meal!