Category: creative exercises

How to Not Complain: 11 Tips for Staying Positive

1. Realize that work, pain and frustration are not a curse, though our attitudes can be.

2. Wear yellow.

3. Compliment liberally, criticize minimally. (Tweet this positivity!)

4. For every negative thing that’s said to you by the “Debby Downer” types, immediately turn it around to the positive.

DD: Oh well. Looks like rain today!

You: Rain is so beautiful! Don’t you love it?

DD: No.

You: Did you know your body is made up of two-thirds water? You are rain!

DD: *walks away thinking you are weird because you’re so positive*

5. Hide the friend on Facebook whose updates start with “ugh” or “rant warning” or anything that resembles something Eeyore would say.

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6. Create something–give it away. Continue reading “How to Not Complain: 11 Tips for Staying Positive”

6.5 Ideas For You to Steal

Steal these ideas…consider them yours.

But before I share these multi-million dollar (or these “fall-flat-on-your-face-and-don’t-tell-anyone-you-got-the-idea-from-me”) ideas, here’s why I’m sharing…

  • I have a list of too many and by sharing them, I’ve narrowed down my list. So thank you.
  • I need to see if I’ve done anything on my ‘ideas’ list.
  • Sharing is better than hoarding.
  • You only get to keep what you give away. Marinate on that one.

So here goes. Continue reading “6.5 Ideas For You to Steal”

The Recipe for Creating Interesting Characters

  • A dash of happiness and joy blended with a half-cup of artsy-fartsy melancholy…
  • An insatiable urge to create something new kneaded into the dough of apathy and procrastination…
  • A hunger for sharing and creating beautiful art with the world chopped up and sprinkled into a hermit-esque lifestyle…

 Happy/sad + Hungry/full + Content/restless = An Interesting Artist

Artists are a complicated bunch, aren’t we?

These complexities of thoughts and feelings that are in opposition to one another form the basis of who we are and how we create. These same personality patterns also reveal a recipe that helps us create interesting characters in our creative works. Continue reading “The Recipe for Creating Interesting Characters”

Make Lists

Lists are powerful.

  • Lists remind us of what’s important.
  • Lists help us focus on the task at hand.
  • Lists help us celebrate accomplishments.
 Journal Entry

Recently, I combed through a journal I wrote in October of 1997 and stumbled across a list of eighty people and things I was thankful for.

Reading this list early in the morning–before my workday began–was such a great way to start the day! I loved reading this list so much that I’m thinking of making this a frequent practice.

Here’s my 15-year-old list of thankfulness. (After you read my list, start your own thankful list in the comments below!) Continue reading “Make Lists”

Creative Passion: The Antonym of Apathy

[box options]Earlier Letters: Read these letters (here’s Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4 if you need to backtrack) as if you wrote them.

You are the author. You wrote what you are about to read. You wrote it with your life.

Sounds a bit dramatic, eh? It kinda is.

Live accordingly.[/box]

Dear Me,

Welcome to Day 5 of your creative rehab bootcamp. Day 4 was about Identifying the Surrogates that have robbed you of your creative passion. 

  • Apathy
  • Lust
  • Indecision
  • Busyness
  • Fear

Strangle these bastards.

Hmmmm. Maybe that’s extreme language?

Good. Continue reading “Creative Passion: The Antonym of Apathy”

Why Your Dreams Die

Dear Me,

Hey you!

How ya doing?

In Day 1 you read a letter you wrote and then ripped the lie apart that you had a crappy life and nothing to offer. In Day 2, you wrote another letter and figured out just when you stopped working for yourself instead of just working for others.

At some point you fired yourself from your creativity and said ‘other people can make choices for me.”

So that brings us to today. Day 3. You’ve been through Day 1 and Day 2 of creativity boot camp for slugs. You might still be feeling a bit sluggy. Continue reading “Why Your Dreams Die”

The Campaign for Real Life

[box options]You’re in for a treat today… from the UK! Today’s post is a guest post by Ayd Instone. Ayd is an international speaker, philosopher and entertainer on the subject of creativity. He’s the author of a number of books and writes regularly on his blog ‘Ding!’ When you’re done reading his post, head on over to his blog. [/box]

Instant coffee. Horrible and pointless. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make some coffee, boil off the water and freeze dry the gunk that’s left so you can pour hot water on it and have a horrible ‘instant’ cup of coffee.

‘Convenience’ they call it. Convenience foods – so you don’t have to cook, don’t have to chew (and with most, almost don’t even need to swallow). You don’t get any flavour, nutrients or vitamins but at least you didn’t have to do any work. God forbid you’d ever have to lift a finger.

For the past sixty years or so our society has been obsessed with convenience. We invented fast foods so you don’t have to wait and savour the anticipation. You can then eat in a rush, on the move, while you’re busy doing something else.

What exactly have you got to rush off and do? Everything has been made so convenient with all the enjoyment and experienced boiled and freeze dried out of life that there’s actually nothing worth rushing off for. Continue reading “The Campaign for Real Life”

How to Write Worthless Content

Writing worthless content is all the rage. Here’s some tips!

1. Your opening sentence must elicit boredom.

You might try a sentence like this:

“This blog post is about the time I found a rock in my shoe.”

Or… Continue reading “How to Write Worthless Content”