The Daily Creative

Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to do anything at all, yet all your work showed up completed each day, in a neat, organized pile, ready for your manager or client to review?Actually, no. That would be terrible. It seems like it would be wonderful, but the reality is that you need to experience struggle and tension to feel alive. There is no growth without tension. There is no gratification without challenge.Optimism is a belief in a better possible future, knowing that it might require some work to achieve. Wishful thinking is lazy optimism that wants everything to just happen. Optimism is willing to put in the work, while wishful thinking wants to live with the delusion that things will just work out.We need optimism to do creative work. Without it, we cannot take intuitive leaps. But we are still responsible for the work necessary to bring our vision into being.Believe in a better possible future, then develop a plan to bring it about.Optimism is creative fuel. Wishful thinking is lazy optimism.QUESTIONAre you falling into the trap of wishful thinking? Where do you need a plan vs. a dream?

Imagine you're walking across a rope bridge that you've walked across a hundred times. Suddenly, the planks shift and fall. What you do next is incredibly important: Will you panic and fall? Will you freeze and perish? Or can you find a path forward?How do you get moving again? You have to tell yourself a story about all the times you've successfully crossed the bridgeIf you work long-arc projects, you probably know the frustration and pain of having a project fail to live up to expectations. After expend- ing so much time, energy, and focus on something you care about, it can be devastating when it just doesn't click. What you do next is very important. The story you tell yourself in those moments may define the next few years of your life and work.Psychologist Martin Seligman explained that there are three ways in which our internal beliefs or narratives become damaging: we make them personal (“I've failed, so I must be a failure.”), pervasive (“I failed in this instance, so I'll probably fail in every instance.”), and permanent (“I failed once, so I'll probably fail always.”)Of course, each of these three narratives is a lie, but in the moment, they feel very true. The narrative fills the vacuum previously filled by our unmet expectations. It's collateral damage we experience when walking through the refining fires in the depth of the valley of the cre- ative process.Don't answer to the name “Failure.” For better or worse, the story you choose to live out establishes your boundaries.Failure is not a name to answer to or a badge of shame to wear.QUESTIONis there a false narrative about failure that is preventing you from doing good work?

If you really, really wanted to ensure that something happened on a particular day, what would you do? Would you simply try really hard to remember to do it? Would you write it on a Post-it and hope that you'd see it at some point that day?No, of course not. You would put it on your calendar.The things that are important to us get coveted space in our schedules. We block time for them, because it's the best way to ensure that they are accomplished.Yet when it comes to idea generation, we somehow believe that it will simply happen at some point when we least expect it. We hold these mythical ideals of “eureka moments” as uncontrollable, spontaneous strokes of luck. This is untrue. We can increase the likelihood of experiencing them more often.How? By scheduling time for them. By dedicating blocks on the calendar for thinking about problems and sparking ideas for them. I will often schedule an hour on the calendar with the title “XYZ Training Idea,” or “Chapter 21,” or something similar. These are placeholders for time to think about and generate ideas for important work I'm account- able for accomplishing.If it's critical, it goes on your calendar. Block a bit of time today (or this week) to work on ideas for a project that's still unresolved. You'll be surprised at how often creativity shows up right on time when you plan for it.Don't expect ideas to happen in the cracks and crevices of life.QUESTIONWhich project has open loops that you need to plan time to close? Do it today.

You have a finite amount of attention to spend on behalf of your daily work. How you allocate that finite attention is critical to your success. However, there are any number of distractions that can arise and pull you out of focus.There is a dynamic that I like to call “the ping.” It's a perpetual pin- prick in my gut that says, “You should go check your email!” or “You should go check your voice mail!” Or “You should go check your phone, because maybe the president of the United States is calling you with a national security crisis!” That's the level of urgency the ping delivers, and it has us living in a state that researcher Linda Stone calls “con- tinuous partial attention.” I'm always kind of here, but I'm also kind of somewhere else at the same time. Do you think you do your best work that way?Of course not.Focus is an act of bravery, because to say yes to one thing, you must say no to many, many others. Yes, you may always fear what you are missing out on, but that is the price that you must pay for the clarity that comes with sharp, honed focus.Be brave today and protect your attention. Dedicate some time off the grid to delve deeply into your most important, focused creative work. You will be rewarded.Focus is an act of bravery.QUESTIONDo you ever have time off the grid when no one can reach you? Carve out time today to focus on your most important work.

Some creative pros are so afraid of making a mistake that they'd rather freeze in place until they can figure out the right path forward. The one thing they are absolutely certain about is that everyone around them has it all figured out—that they are surely the only ones who are treading water. After all, look at all the confidence everyone else conveys!The irony is that when you freeze in place, you only dig yourself deeper into your rut. Inaction is the enemy of discovery. The path to self- discovery is not through thought but through action. As Ellen Langer wrote in On Becoming an Artist, “Action is the way we get to experience ourselves. And so, we act not to bring about an outcome but to bring about ourselves.” We discover our unique contribution—our giftedness— not by contemplating what we might do but by actually doing things, feeling the resistance of the world when we act, learning about our response to that resistance, then adapting, trying again, and continuing the cycle.Action is the only way to self-discovery. It's the only path to fulfillment. It's not what you know, it's what you do about it that matters.Be a person of action.QUESTIONIs there an action that you know you need to take but have been hesitant to do so? Why are you hesitant to act?

When was the last time you failed? I don't mean you struggled at making a new dish for dinner or couldn't complete a crossword puzzle. When was the last time you took a risk, you really tried, you gave it your all, and you came up short? (Bonus points if it was in public.)For many, failure is their biggest fear. They've spent much of their life shielding themselves from the potential of falling short to the point that they can't even remember the last time they did. They take on proj- ects that are well within their abilities, and when they don't quite hit the mark, they rationalize why what they did was actually a success if you think about it the right way.If you don't occasionally fail, you aren't trying sufficiently difficult, ambitious things. You aren't stretching yourself and testing your abilities. Most people can easily lift a ten-pound dumbbell, but you don't build muscle that way. Instead, you lift a challenging weight over and over again until your muscle begins to fail. When you reach your absolute limit, you push harder, then you quit. The next time, your capacity is greater.When you don't fail, your capacity never changes. You simply live and work within safe, predictable limits. And you never know what you're capable of.If you aren't failing from time to time, you are playing it too safe.QUESTIONWhen was the last time you failed? Do you think you are stretching yourself enough?

Urgency and diligence are the foundation of hustle. If you want to succeed in your life and work, you will need to work very, very hard and in a focused way. However, there's a difference between hard work and desperate work. Hard work is sourced in intent and is focused and resourced. Desperate work expends a lot of energy but is unfocused and often unproductive.How can you know the difference?► Hard work is targeted, whereas desperate work flails.► Hard work has a clear end point, whereas desperate work feels never-ending.► Hard work is from a position of strength, whereas desperate work feels like you're always behind.► Hard work feels good, whereas desperate work feels empty.► Hard work has a plan, whereas desperate work is reactive to urgency.► Hard work is measured in intervals of progress, whereas desperate work is measured by how much it temporarily relieves your anxiety.► Hard work pursues the right idea, whereas desperate work latches on to the first available idea.Of course, you must work hard. But be mindful of the subtle differences between working hard and working out of desperation. When you feel desperate, you don't think clearly, and you feel too anxious to take the necessary time to play with your thoughts and experiment with ideas.Work with diligence and urgency, but don't work desperately.QUESTIONCan you think of a time when you worked desperately rather than hard? What was it like?

Creative DayThere were several key moments in my career when I needed a clear next direction. In fact, this has happened in the wake of the release of every one of my books, when I'm very busy talking about my past work but uncertain about what my next thing should be. In those moments, I declare a “creative day.”I get up in the morning, have my coffee and breakfast, then drive downtown in my city and walk along the river. Then I walk through the city, visit bookstores, pay attention to the stimuli around me, cross the river and walk through the neighborhoods on the other side, and some- times even see a movie if the mood strikes me. All along the way, I take notes, listen for patterns, and see what the world offers in the way of inspiration.Here's the thing: every single time I do this, I come away with a strong sense of what to do next. Simply breaking away from the email, the daily grind, and the pressure to produce and allowing myself to meander, think freely, and wander the world gives me fresh perspective and enthusiasm for my work. I come home from those creative days tired but refreshed at the same time.When it's time for a bold move, declare a creative day.QUESTIONWhen might you schedule a creative day in your life?

It's tempting to squeeze as much efficiency out of your days as possible, but in doing this, you risk forfeiting your best insights. Ideas rarely arrive just on time. It's best to accommodate the unpredictability of the cre- ative process by allowing yourself some margin. If you think something will take an hour, give yourself ninety minutes. If you think it will take a week, plan for a week and a half. Yes, I'm aware that these inefficiencies make many managers squirm. However, this is anything but wasteful. It's necessary.Creativity is not efficient, but it utilizes everything. If you are pur- poseful and mindful, nothing goes to waste. By leaving a little bit of room in your process, you allow yourself the freedom to follow mental trails that arise or to play a bit with an idea before feeling the need to refine it. You grant yourself creative latitude. When the time pressure is off, your mind is free to roam without its executive function staring at the clock.As a pro, you don't have the luxury of unlimited time, but that doesn't mean that you should artificially limit yourself either. Carve out margin for creativity, and you will experience insights you would otherwise miss.Leave some room in your process for spontaneous insight and action.QUESTIONHow can you give yourself more space in your creative process?

Think back to a time when someone gave you a word of encouragement that lit your fire. What did they say? Why did it matter to you? How did it change your perspective or energy?Isn't it strange how one comment at the right time can stick with you for years? One person speaking directly about who you are or praising something you've accomplished can be a vector changer for your day, your week, or even your career. The funny thing is, that person may not even know how their words affected you. To them, it may have been an offhand comment at an opportune moment, but to you, it meant everything.To encourage means to “put courage into,” which is precisely what you're doing. You are putting another log on their fire. You will likely move on, but their world might be changed.Who have you seen do something extraordinary in the past week? Maybe others didn't even notice, but you know what it took for them to do it.Who is acting bravely right now but may think no one sees them?Who does the little things that hold everything together, even when no one is looking?Who has had a series of losses and just needs someone to remind them of who they are and what they're capable of ?When you encourage, you put courage into the world. And it will likely come right back to you.Take a moment to encourage someone else. It may change their life and yours.QUESTIONWho can you encourage today?

Most people like to keep their options open. We wait until the last minute to commit to social engagements in case something better pops up. In the workplace, we wait until we absolutely must make a decision before doing so just in case a better idea comes along. However, that indeci- siveness typically trickles down to our teams, our collaborators, and our clients. There are others who are waiting for you to make a decision in order to make their own.The root of the word decision is cis, which means “to cut.” (Think scissors, incisor, etc.) When you make a decision, you are literally cutting off other options to focus on the one in front of you. You are making a commitment by saying no to good options so that you can say yes to a potentially great one.When you fail to make decisions, your work becomes obscured and foggy. Your world becomes needlessly complex. When you make a deci- sion, you part that fog. As Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “The thing that cowardice fears most is decision; for decision always scatters the mists, at least for a moment.” If you want greater clarity in your work, make a decision and follow it. You can always redirect.Remember: you must say no to a lot of good things to say yes to one great thing.QUESTIONIs there an area of your life or work where you simply need to make a decision right now?

In Cervantes's Don Quixote, the namesake character sees several wind- mills off in the distance and—confusing them for giants—believes that fortune has given him an opportunity to rid the world of several hulking beasts. He tries to fight them but falls off his horse. This is the source of the phrase tilting at windmills, which means inventing enemies to fight where they don't exist.Some people are driven to fight battles even where there are none to fight. They are perpetually championing a cause or complaining that someone is wronging them. They are tilting at windmills. It's a waste of energy.It's not only these extreme cases that we must be cautious of. It's easy to slip into the same trap on an everyday basis. For example, stewing about the person you don't get along and who you just know is work- ing against you behind your back. Or obsessing about the client who never likes your idea and you just know is trying to get you taken off the account. You may be tilting at windmills. You are imagining giants where there are none. Save your valuable spark for the true battles that you must fight to deliver your work and serve your stakeholders.Don't invent enemies to fight. It's a waste of valuable energy.QUESTIONAre there any illusory battles you get pulled into? Are you tilt- ing at windmills?

Gustav Mahler wrote much of his brilliant music in between his respon- sibilities as a conductor. In fact, he wasn't even known as much of a com- poser during his lifetime, only having his work broadly celebrated after his death.Albert Einstein developed much of his theory of special relativity while operating as a patent clerk, a job that afforded him the time and space to work out his theories in his spare moments.As discussed earlier, we tend to want our jobs to contain the sum total of our creative output, but that is impossible. While your job will hopefully accommodate more and more of your creative ideas over time, you simply cannot—as a professional—expect a job to completely fulfill you creatively. You should have a side outlet that allows you to express yourself in ways your on-demand work cannot.Have you ever wanted to write a novel? Record an album? Develop a mathematical theorem? (OK, maybe that last one was a stretch...) Do it! Develop a plan, and start working on it in the spare moments of your life. You don't need permission or a paycheck to start. And the best part is that these side projects will often bring additional clarity and energy for your on-demand work as well.Your body of work will be much larger and more nuanced than what your job can contain.QUESTIONWhat part-time passion should you pursue?

We've all been there. You have a sudden burst of creative insight, and you think “That's it! This is clearly the most brilliant idea I've ever had!” You share it with someone else, and they stare at you blankly. They don't understand why you're so enthusiastic.Frustrated, you get even more animated, thinking you haven't explained it clearly enough. And they still stare at you blankly. Then they begin to point out the flaws in your idea. These are things you hadn't considered in your blind enthusiasm.Enthusiasm masks flaws. Even obvious ones. That's why it can be valuable to take some time to sit on your idea, even for a night or a few days, before sharing it with others. This time will allow you to come down from your creative high and see your insight from a more leveled perspective. If it still feels worth championing, then go for it! However, it's likely that you'll also gain some perspective that will make it even more compelling.All this said, make sure you don't wait so long that you lose energy for the idea. It's also easy to talk yourself out of an idea if given enough time.In the moment of creative ecstasy, we sometimes lack perspective. Sit on your idea.QUESTIONIs there an idea you're currently very excited about that might benefit from a few days' perspective?

No matter how much you love your job, it's common to grow stale over time. You've seen the same patterns and problems and people over and over, and each day can feel like going around the same traffic circle over and over. “Look, kids, Big Ben! Parliament!” (Bonus points if you get that movie reference.)One method for pushing out of the rut is to experiment with new creative domains, not in your on-demand work but on the side, in your own time. Identify a new skill or domain you're interested in exploring, and carve out some time for it. If you are a designer, maybe you should try writing or music. If you're a marketer, learn the basics of design. If you lead a team of videographers, try learning a musical instrument. As much as these activities might seem like irrelevant hobbies, they will actually awaken parts of your creative brain that have grown numb due to the repetitive nature of your everyday work. And they just might give you new ways of thinking about that on-demand work as well. You may stumble across a great idea while perusing a book or course that has nothing to do with your job.To stay energized and alive, experiment with new domains.QUESTIONWhich domain or discipline should you explore as a way to energize your creativity?

Maybe you're in the midst of challenging times right now. Or maybe this is one of the best seasons of your life and career. Either way, know this: it's going to end. There will come a point when you have to move on, and this all will be a memory.In the moment, it can seem like what's happening now will always be happening. We mentally convert present circumstances into permanent ones. However, everything is seasonal. Everything.Why is this important?Because when you fixate on what's happening right now, you begin to lose track of your vision. You funnel resources toward maintaining the status quo or simple survival, and you stop thinking about where you want to go. When this happens, you ignore or overlook opportunity. You get stuck in a moment you can't get out of. (Thanks, U2!)So I don't know what you're experiencing right now, but no matter how good or bad it feels, know that it's just a moment. It's a season. This is going to end. Keep your eyes fixed ahead.No matter what you're currently going through, it's going to end.QUESTIONIs there a present circumstance you are fixated on in some way? How can you shift to the future?

So often, creative pros talk about “finding their voice” as if it's some far- off entity that must be hunted down and captured so that it might be put to work. That's not even close to reality. The way in which voice is developed is far less exotic—they try and fail, then they try again, then they adapt and try again, and eventually they make something that feels better and more resonant with their vision.You develop your voice by using it, a lot. Take small risks with your work each day, and see what resonates. Put work into the world where others can respond to it. Try developing a new skill that gives you unique ways of expressing yourself. Explore a challenging medium. Collaborate with new people. And take in the work of other people broadly and deeply, and see what resonates with you.Your voice develops over time like film in a darkroom, not all at once like a digital photo. Many people struggle to develop their voice because they don't pay attention to the clues that are found in everyday, resonant moments.Put work into the world every day. If you want to develop your voice, use it.QUESTIONHow can you be more purposeful about uncovering and developing your voice through your work?

I once spoke at an event for senior U.S. Air Force officers where one of the other speakers was a former U.S. Army general. In the green room before the event, he caught me by surprise as I was stuffing a blueberry muffin into my mouth and asked, “What's the most important thing to know about creativity?” It was a great question, and to be honest, I can't remember what I replied in the moment.However, I do remember what happened next. I immediately asked him, “What's the most important thing I should know about leadership?” Without missing a beat, he replied, “You need people in your life who will speak truth to you well before you realize that you need people in your life to speak truth to you. By the time you realize you need them,it's already too late.”Leadership is only lonely if you're doing it wrong. Who are yourtrusted truth-tellers? Who do you turn to for honest and frank perspective? Who tells you when you are thinking too small or too big? Who knows you well enough to call out your negative tendencies or encourage your brilliant traits?Who are your people?Know who your people are before you need them.QUESTIONDo you have people in your life who will speak truth to you?

No matter how hard you try, your work is never going to be perfect. You can spend dozens of hours trying to squeeze the final few percent of value out of something, but you're unlikely to ever get there. This sometimes happens when you get too close to a project and begin to see problems that you may not have seen previously. The terrain looks a lot different from five thousand feet in the air than it does from fifty thou- sand feet. You begin to overthink things. You begin to question prior decisions. You see small areas where you could make it just a little better, even though it means spending 25 percent of your project time to get 1 percent better results.Take some time to ask yourself if you might be too close to your work. Some signs include the following:► You are obsessed by new problems that weren't even on your radar a week ago.► You no longer like the original idea, even though you originally thought it was brilliant.► You are tempted to blow it all up and start over.Be cautious not to get too close to the work. Keep a healthy distance.If you get too close, you will see problems where they don't exist.QUESTIONAre you too close to any of your work right now?

Two of my children are competitive runners. They typically run in rela- tively flat environments, and even when running cross-country races, the courses are typically relatively nontreacherous. Regardless, their coach requires them to do what are called “hill repeats” during training. Hill repeats are exactly how they sound—running up and down a hill over and over until you're exhausted.So why would you do that to yourself—especially when you aren't running on many hills in your races?Well, hill repeats make normal running feel easy by comparison. When you're used to running straight up an incline and you get to run on flat ground, it suddenly feels like a much more manageable task. It's similar to why baseball players put “doughnuts” around their bats when warming up—once they're removed, the bat feels so much lighter.Working against an impediment forges strength and resilience. This is why interval training is so effective—you have periods of alternating stress and rest. As you consider your work, how can you structure some interval training into your workload? How can you challenge yourself in manageable, controllable ways today to build capacity for tomorrow?Mind your intervals, and build capacity for the moments that matter.QUESTIONWhat practices can you engage in today to prepare you for the challenges you'll face tomorrow?

At some point, you reach a place in your career where work that once felt difficult is now fairly simple and projects that would have kept you up all night several years ago are now quite manageable. You feel in total control of your process and mastery of your domain.Sounds great, right? However, it's in these moments that you are potentially in danger of slipping into stasis. Similar to muscles that aren't exercised, when you don't sufficiently challenge yourself, your creative process can atrophy.In the book The Art of Possibility, Benjamin and Rosamund Zander relay a story about the great composer Igor Stravinsky. His work was intentionally very challenging to play and required both remarkable technical skill and musical feel. He is once reported to have exclaimed, “I don't want the sound of someone playing this passage, I want the sound of someone trying to play it.” Some of the best creative work is crafted not when someone is in complete mastery of their domain but when they are operating just on the edge of it, taking risks, moving just a bit faster and beyond their technical capabilities.As you consider your work right now, how in control do you feel, and do you believe that is a net positive or a danger to your body of work?Don't measure creative accomplishment. Measure creative growth.QUESTIONAre you ever operating on the edge of your abilities? Where might you take a creative risk today?

Morning PagesThere are brilliant insights lurking just beneath the surface of your conscious thought. You may not realize they are there because you are so busy handling your responsibilities that you gloss over them. One excellent method for mining these invaluable gems is called morning pages.This is a technique introduced by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way and involves doing three longhand pages of freewriting every morning before doing any other creative activity. The goal, as Cameron describes it, is to clear your mind of all the things that are cluttering your thoughts. She writes, “Pages clarify our yearnings. They keep an eye on our goals. They may provoke us, coax us, comfort us, even cajole us, as well as prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. If we are drifting, the pages will point that out. They will point the way true north. Each morning, as we face the page, we meet ourselves. The pages give us a place to vent and a place to dream. They are intended for no eyes but our own.”This last point is critical. Morning pages are only for you. The only goal is to spill your mind onto the page and let the writing go wherever it leads you.To keep creative ideas flowing, spill your mind onto the page each morning.QUESTIONHow soon can you try this experiment for yourself? What clutter are you harboring that can be unleashed into morning pages?

Backward RationalizingI love the story about the farmer's cousin who went to visit his family in the country. Upon arrival, the farmer took the city cousin on a tour of the property, and the city cousin was shocked to see an archery target on the side of the barn with an arrow embedded perfectly in the middle.“Wow!” he exclaimed. “I didn't know you were an archer. How did you manage to hit the bull's-eye?”“Easy,” replied his cousin. “I shot the arrow first, then I painted the target around it.”It works, I guess. Unfortunately, many creative pros and teams apply a similar strategy. When our work fails to live up to our original intent, we invent reasons why the results were actually better than what we meant to do. We backward rationalize. We paint the target after we shoot the arrow.When we do this, we lose trust with our team, our clients, and per- haps most importantly ourselves. It's difficult to hold yourself account- able when there's no standard to hold yourself accountable to.Have specific goals and metrics for your work and hold yourself to them. There will always be “happy accidents,” but make certain that you don't backward rationalize your results instead of learning from your shortcomings.Avoid the temptation to backward rationalize poor results. Learn from them.QUESTIONis there any way in which you are currently backward rational­ izing results?

Sound Familiar?You're stuck and you can't see a path forward. You've tried everything you know to do, but that brilliant breakthrough still eludes you. What do you do now?One effective method that I've used with teams is to simply ask “Where have we seen something like this before?” It doesn't have to be the exact same problem—it certainly won't be—but it should be some- thing that is similar or parallel. It could be an innovation in a completely different industry, something you experienced at a previous job, or something from a book you read or a magazine article you skimmed. What does this problem remind you of ?The reason this is powerful is because it causes you to examine the problem from a higher perspective. Instead of thinking exclusively about this problem as existing in one place and time, you begin thinking about categories of problems in these kinds of places. You begin looking for patterns and connecting larger networks of ideas. You are thinking systemically rather than functionally.When you are stuck, consider a similar or sympathetic problem you've solved or encountered in the past and how it might apply to the one you're working on.To spark ideas, compare your current situation to a past one.QUESTIONWhat similar problem compares to the one you're solving now?

Your Personal DashboardIf you wish to be prolific, brilliant, and healthy over the long term in your career, it's important to monitor the gauges on your personal dashboard. If you fail to pay attention to the dashboard of your car, it's very likely that you'll eventually run out of gas, overheat, speed, or end up with a dead battery. If your “check engine” light is ignored for too long, you will probably break down at an inopportune time, maybe on a busy and dangerous highway.In a similar way, if you fail to pay attention to your personal dash- board, you risk breaking down. You might be unable to perform at a critical moment because you simply don't have the resources.How is your fuel level? If low, how can you fuel yourself ?And your battery? How is your creative spark? How can you recharge?Your temperature? Do you need to adjust your mindset toward your peers or team?Your speed? Moving fast feels efficient in the moment but can cause us to overlook opportunities or make mistakes.Pay attention to your personal dashboard, and care for your “machine.”To stay healthy and productive, make sure you monitor all the important gauges.QUESTIONWhat is (or should be) on your personal dashboard?

Creative work requires vulnerability, because you are putting your thoughts, perspectives, and skills on display for others to critique. It can feel very much like a judgment of your work is a judgment of your worth. Because of this, many creative pros become guarded over time in an attempt to protect their sense of self. They close off to others, only allowing select people into their world.While you should certainly be careful about those you invite into your personal space, I caution you against taking an initial posture of guardedness. When you greet the world around you with skepticism, you close your mind to possible new connections and insights. When you greet the world with a posture of possibility and hope, you discover bril- liance hiding in the most unlikely places.Don't allow a patina of guardedness and skepticism to cloud your relationships or your experience of the world. Instead, remain open to others, ask a lot of questions, be curious, and choose to seek wonder in the most mundane of happenings. By doing so, you train your mind and your intuition to recognize creative insights in each moment.Guarded skepticism results in an increasingly closed mind. Hopeful curiosity yields wonder and creative breakthrough. Choose openness.When you close yourself off to others, you close the door to creativity.QUESTIONHow can you be more open and less guarded today?

Listen for the PatternsI grew up in a home situated right next to heavily trafficked railroad tracks. At night, as I would lie in bed trying desperately to go to sleep, I would feel a faint rumble in my mattress. It was almost unnoticeable at first, but then it would send vibrations up and down my legs. As I waited patiently, I began to hear the rumble of an engine, then the wheels on the rails, then finally a loud whistle—WOOOOOO!—of a train passing our house.We tend to think creative breakthroughs are like the WOOOOOO! of a loud train whistle. We hear stories of aha moments that suddenly appear out of nowhere. But more often, creative ideas begin like a distant rumble, a faint vibration that signals that something is coming. Those who can hear those faint rumblings are often considered “visionaries” or “ahead of their time,” but they are simply listening for the patterns.How do we hear the patterns? We get quiet, just like I was quiet lying in my bed. We pay attention to fragments of conversation, intui- tive hunches, sparks of inspiration. And we attempt to connect them into meaningful patterns. Much of the creative process is simply listening for the patterns that lie just beneath the surface of our conscious thoughts.Get quiet, and listen for patterns.You can't force creativity, but you can listen for it.QUESTIONis there a pattern that you're sensing right now but haven't fully recognized?

Phone a FriendOne pervasive—and damaging—myth is that creativity is a solo sport. We love to envision the lone creative pro, probably alone in a cabin in the middle of upstate New York, working feverishly at their craft, generating breakthrough after breakthrough in total isolation.Of course, that's not reality. Yes, much of the work you must do has to be done alone, but that doesn't mean that creativity is a solo sport. Rather, we need others in our lives to help us see the full picture of the problem we are solving. Without their perspective and wisdom, we might work much harder and longer than necessary to get to the best result.Do you invite other people into your work, or do you try to do everything on your own? I challenge you to think strategically about how you might begin to seek the insights of others more consistently. Here are a few questions you might try:► If you were me, what would you do?► Is there anything here that stands out to you?► Have you seen something like this before? What did you do? ► If you were me, what would you watch out for?All these questions leverage the wisdom of your peers and allow them to speak into your work. You will often find deep inspiration in these conversations.We need others in order to see the full picture.QUESTIONWho do you need to invite into your work today?

Inputs and OutputsSome professionals pride themselves in the ability to deliver under pres- sure. They can work for hours nonstop and are always the first to step up and take on any challenge that comes their way. Their output is unpar- alleled. However, if they don't mind their inputs, they will soon find not only that their output wanes, but they may do significant damage in all areas of their lives and work. If you put the wrong kind of fuel in a car, the engine will stop working.How are your inputs? Here are a few that you should pause and evaluate:► Creative/inspirational: Are you filling your mind with inspir- ing stimulus that sparks your curiosity and helps you ask new questions? Are you putting new “dots” in your head to connect?► Emotional: Are you connecting with other people in a deep, meaningful way? Are others filling your well, or are you only filling theirs? Are you ever receiving, or are you always giving?► Aspirational: Are there mentors in your life who challenge you to see new possibilities for yourself ? Who push you to expand your thinking and fill you with a fresh vision?Be mindful of your inputs. If you're not, your creative engine will eventually break down.Without a steady source of inspiring inputs, you cannot sustain creative output.QUESTIONWhen was the last time you were inspired by something you experienced? Which inputs do you need to adjust so that you aren't running on empty?

Uncomfortable QuestionsYou can learn a lot about a person by the nature of the questions they ask. Brilliant, effective creative pros are willing to ask questions that are inconvenient and uncomfortable. Many people avoid these types of questions because they wish to avoid the accountability that comes with any answer they might find. However, those who are willing to ask uncomfortable questions are more likely to get to the heart of an issue faster and are thus more likely to solve the problem more effectively.There are probably questions lurking in the back of your mind that you've been unwilling to ask because you are—perhaps unknowingly— trying to avoid accountability for the answers you discover.► Why are we doing this?► What if we tried...?► What if we're wrong about...?Cowards only ask safe questions. And their work shows it. Brave, diligent creative pros are willing to tread into uncomfortable places to get to the heart of the matter.Those who ask the best questions ultimately win.Is there an uncomfortable question that you've been avoiding? How might you begin to ask it or pursue an answer today?You must grow comfortable with asking uncomfortable questions.QUESTIONWhat uncomfortable question have you been avoiding?

You need other people in your life to help you see yourself fully. You only see a certain perspective, but people around you can help you see oppor- tunities for growth and advancement that are invisible to you.But by default, community doesn't naturally come to you. You have to go to community. You have to seek it out.If you have people in your life you trust to help you grow, there are three questions that you should be asking them often. Also, if you are a manager, these three questions can help you unlock areas of growth for yourself and your team and can illuminate places where you're slipping into ruts or overcontrolling the team.The three questions are as follows:1. What am I doing right now that I should stop doing? 2. What is something obvious that you think I don't see? 3. How can I be of help right now?If you ask these three questions consistently of people you trust, you are likely to get answers that surprise you. And you are likely to find that the answers you receive lead to breakthroughs both personally and professionally.We need community around us to help us see ourselves, our gifts, and our growth opportunities more fully.Who can you ask these three questions of this week?

A question I often encourage managers to ask of their team is: “What was the last risk you took, and how did you feel about it?” This question reveals an important understanding about collaboration: everyone has a different tolerance for risk.What feels risky to you may feel completely safe and predictable to someone else and vice versa. What's normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.It's important to note this because we often ascribe our own sense of risk tolerance to others and believe that risk is objective. It's not. Not by a long shot.If you are early in your career, something might not feel risky because you don't understand the potential consequences of getting it wrong. This might yield confidence, but it's a false confidence based on immaturity.If you are later in your career, something might not feel risky because you've seen it before and know how to tread the waters. This is mature confidence.In the middle, where most of us reside, things are a little murkier. So it helps to have conversations about perceived risk. Don't assume everyone sees things the same.Risk is relative. Have a conversation about perceived consequences of failure with your collaborators.Is there any place in your current work where your perception of risk might be at odds with your collaborators'?

“What do you want your tombstone to say?” I remember going through this exercise a number of years ago as a participant in a team-building exercise. Everyone struggled to come up with a few words that would describe how they wanted to be remembered after they die. What words could be carved into a hunk of stone to summarize an entire life?In retrospect, I really don't like this exercise at all. Mostly, I dislike it because it simply isn't a practical way to consider the impact you want your life to have. A tombstone is a cold piece of granite that will sit in the middle of a field, rarely seen, as a testament to the fact that you were once here. However, memories are living things. Your impact on others is a force multiplier.Rather than worry about the handful of words that will go on your tombstone, I think it's far more effective to focus on the investments you are making in the lives of others. Focus on developing a living legacy that will continue to echo for generations to come.Don't worry about how you'll be remembered. Make investments in other people that will echo for generations to come.What investment will you make in the life of another person today? Who can you spend time with, encourage, build up?

Some creative teams devolve over time into a culture of blame. A few signs that this may have already infiltrated your team include the following:► A general lack of accountability: If it's difficult to identify the single point of accountability for delivering a project or if there seems to be ambiguity about responsibilities on the team, it's possible that some of this is the result of a culture of blame.► Hesitancy to admit mistakes or frequent attempts to cover them up rather than fix them: Everyone makes mistakes. If your team is really stretching itself to do great work, it will probably make many of them. But mistakes need to be dealt with, not disguised.► An overall lack of commitment to the excellence of the work or the needs of the client/organization: Some of the most toxic blame shifting is the kind that involves blaming the client or customer for the problems the team is facing. When this happens, it can cause a downshift in the team's drive to go the extra mile.► Frequent whispers in the hallway or gossip: These little side conversations are like cracks in a dam. Every one of them erodes the integrity of the team slightly and puts the entire team at risk.Don't play along with a blame culture. Refuse to point fingers, always take accountability for your actions, and refuse to throw others under the bus.The blame game erodes trust and squelches the creative process.Is there any place where you are pointing fingers rather than assuming responsibility?

I once had a wonderful conversation with Richard Hytner, who was the former global deputy chairman of advertising great Saatchi and Saatchi. He told me that he spent many years of his professional life striving to climb the ladder and become the person in the organizational spotlight. He wanted to be the CEO of a publicly traded company, because it had become engrained in him that to aspire to any less was unacceptable.The problem, as Richard conveyed, was that he simply wasn't wired to be CEO. He thrived as the “number two” in an organization, driv- ing alignment, developing strategy, helping bring the CEO's vision into being, but he simply wasn't the right person to be in the spotlight. He learned that it was better to thrive at what you're wired to do than to aspire to something that others tell you that you should want.There are many narratives in the marketplace that shape the aspi- rations of creative pros. In the “up or out” ethic of many organizations, you're deemed unmotivated and unambitious if you don't aspire to be on top. However, I encourage you to consider that your life and career might be far more productive and enjoyable if you make decisions according to who you are, not according to who others want you to be.Know yourself. Don't make career decisions according to what other people would do in your situation.Are you making any decisions right now because of what is expected of someone in your situation rather than because of who you actually are?

How do you know when an idea is the right one?One framework that I've taught creative pros uses three aspects of the idea, rated on a scale of one to ten, then discussed with the team. (This also works for solo projects, by the way.)1. Effective: How effectively does the idea solve the problem you set out to solve?2. Practical: How practical would it be to execute the idea, given pres- ent resources (time, budget, etc.)?3. Interesting and Cool: How much energy do you or the team have about executing the idea? Is it something you could get excited about, or does it feel underwhelming?Once you've rated the idea for these qualities on a scale of one to ten, you can begin to have a more productive chat about ways in which you might make the idea more palatable.► How could we make it more effective?► Could we scale it down to make it more practical?► How could we make it more interesting to us?Using a framework to evaluate an idea makes a very subjective process (choosing an idea) into a more objective exercise.Is there an idea you're evaluating right now that could benefit from the EPiC framework?

You know that feeling when things suddenly make sense in a way they didn't just a few moments before? When you see things more clearly and all the dots connect? It's like there's a sudden clarity that's always been there, but you never noticed. You've seen through the looking glass. You've peered through to the heart of the issue.Pay special attention to those moments, because they are sacred. I don't mean sacred in a spiritual sense but in a “set apart” sense, which is what the source word of sacred means. Pay attention to the circumstances that led to those breakthroughs, what you did just before, what you were reading or listening to, the conversation that was happening. It's not that you can fabricate more of these moments, but you can learn to create environments in which they are more likely to occur.Think about the breakthrough moments you've experienced. What did they have in common? What were you doing just before? What were the circumstances that led to the breakthrough? What question did you ask?Breakthrough moments are a glimpse of reality behind reality. Pay attention to them, and learn from them.What do your breakthrough moments have in common? Are there any through lines that you notice?

I once asked world-famous DJ Z-Trip how he discovered his voice as an artist, and he used the analogy of a tree. He said that when he began his career, he—like everyone else—was climbing the trunk of the tree because it is the safest and most stable part. However, as he began to progress in his career, he began to step out onto branches that took him farther away from the trunk, or what was expected. His DJ peers won- dered what he was doing, because he was taking risks with his work that separated him from the pack and could result in failure or rejection by the industry. However, Z-Trip said that as he began to venture out onto new branches, he became so unique from other DJs that he began to carve his own space in the market, defined by his own voice. People were coming to him for the unique thing that only he could do.So much of the process of discovering the unique value you offer is in choosing to step out onto one branch at a time, separating yourself a little bit from the predictability and stability of the trunk. Over time, you define your own space until soon you are sitting all alone out at the end of a winding branch.To develop a unique voice, you must venture away from security and what's expected. However, it's best to do it one small decision at a time.What “branch” can you step out onto to separate you from the pack?

Fear In his book The Now Habit, author Neil Fiore describes an experiment in which someone is shown a wood plank on the floor and asked, “Do you think you could walk the length of that plank?” Of course, they answer yes. “Now, imagine that I suspend the plank one hundred feet in the air between two buildings. Do you think you could walk the plank?” “No way!” is the response. Here's what's interesting to me about this scenario: nothing has changed about the technical skill required to walk the plank. If you can do it on the ground, you can do it in the air. What's changed are the per- ceived consequences of failure. (Which, in this case, is plummeting to the ground, so I kind of understand!) However, I would submit to you that as creative pros, we do the same kind of thing all the time. We artificially escalate the perceived con- sequences of failure to the point that we don't act. We don't take even small risks. They seem too scary to us. This is what fear does—it para- lyzes us. There are real consequences for failure, for sure. But please make sure that you are not artificially escalating the perceived consequences of failure to the point that it inhibits your creating. Don't allow fear to paralyze you. Refuse to artificially escalate the perceived consequences of failure. QUESTION Are you escalating planks in any area of your life, your work, or your leadership?

Break the Glass If you walk into any public building, you'll see a glass panel on the wall containing a fire extinguisher etched with the words “break glass in case of fire.” Although fires are incredibly rare, having a fire extinguisher handy when one breaks out can make all the difference between a minor blaze and a roaring, five-alarm event. Planning for that contingency, even though it might never happen, is important and maybe even critical. In a similar way, there are many “fires” that break out in our lives and work. Maybe it's a client emergency that's going to require you to work late hours or all weekend. Maybe it's someone on your team getting sick or suddenly quitting, leaving everyone else to pick up the slack. It's inevitable that at some point, there is going to be a fire that needs to be extinguished. Do you have a “break the glass” strategy? We often react in these moments rather than responding, and the reason is that we haven't developed a plan for what to do when they arise. (They inevitably will.) So what are the fires that are most likely to arise over the coming weeks? Do you have a plan for how to resource putting them out, how to fund your effort if necessary, and how to communicate with others about the situation? Don't react. Make a plan to respond. Develop a “break the glass” strategy so that you are able to respond in moments of crisis rather than reacting. QUESTION What contingency should you be planning for, just in case?

Make It Convenient I love playing the guitar. When I was in a band and played almost every night, I definitely got my fill of music. It seemed like the guitar was in my hands all the time, and I was writing songs in every spare moment. As I got older, changed career paths, and moved into leadership, those moments of creative expression through music took a back seat. In fact, there were long stretches of time when I didn't pick up the guitar at all. About a year and a half ago, I decided that I wanted to reincorpo- rate music into my life. I had the desire to write songs, but whenever the mood struck me, it seemed like too much of a hassle to go all the way to our basement, take the guitar out of its case, and bring it back up to my home office where I could write. So I decided to hang the guitar on my office wall so that it was always within reach. (I did the same thing with the mandolin my family bought me for Father's Day.) Now, I often find myself picking up the guitar to noodle while thinking through an espe- cially difficult problem. And in the year since I hung it in my office, I've probably written twenty-five or thirty songs. The lesson is that if you want something to happen more often, make it more convenient. Surround yourself with easy access to things that inspire you, that help you express yourself, or that stoke the fires of your imagination. Eliminate unnecessary barriers to creative expression. Put the tools you need in convenient places. QUESTION How can you adapt your environment to make creativity more convenient?

Influence vs. Control Early in your career, you are rewarded based on how effectively you con- trol your work. You are primarily tasked with executing decisions being made by others, and if you deliver on expectations consistently, you will eventually be rewarded with more responsibility. You might even be pro- moted into a role where you are managing others. This is the critical moment when many people slip up. Once you are in a position of leadership, your job is no longer to control the work; it's to influence it. If you attempt to control the work of the talented cre- ative pros on your team, they will eventually disengage until you tell them exactly what to do. This means that you won't get the best work out of them, because they will stop spending energy thinking of ideas that you're likely to change anyway. To lead by influence, whether you're leading a team, a client, or your peers, means to spend less time telling them how to do the work and more time teaching them how to think about the work. Establish guiding principles that help them understand what successful work looks like (instead of them guessing what you want), how to know when an idea is good (instead of them waiting for you to tell them), how to deal with con- flict (instead of always stepping in and resolving it), and other elements of your leadership philosophy that will help them deliver great results. To help your team deliver brilliant, unique results, focus on leading with influence instead of leading by control. QUESTION Where are you trying to control the work right now instead of influencing it?

Bird by Bird In Bird by Bird, her phenomenal book on writing, Anne Lamott shared the story of a time when her younger brother was overwhelmed by a school project. He was supposed to categorize a large number of birds but had put off the project until the last minute. Distraught, he sat at the kitchen table ready to break down in tears. Lamott's father sat beside him, put his arm around him, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” It's easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of work required to complete a project. Sometimes that feeling is due to a lack of definition of the work, and sometimes it's the result of an overall sense that we're never going to get it done. In both cases, charting a clear, measurable course for completion is the best approach. Break the work down into manageable chunks. Make a list of those chunks. Block time for each chunk. Then take it chunk by chunk. It's amazing how simply making a small amount of progress can lighten your spirits and cultivate a sense of momentum. What is the “bird” you need to complete next to make progress on an important project? All creative work is accomplished task by task. Don't allow the weight of the undone tasks to cause you to despair. Take them one at a time. QUESTION What is the next task that you need to complete?

What Will You Regret? If you ask people who are near death what they regret the most, they rarely talk about the aggressive mistakes they made. Rather, they will tell you about the opportunities they didn't seize, the risks they deferred, or the relationships they chose not to reconcile until it was too late. It's inaction that leads to the larger regrets, not action. Many creative pros take their best work to the grave with them because they didn't make every effort to put it into the world where it can be of service to others. Instead, they allowed comfort or cowardice to convince them that the risk was too great, the effort too much, the gap too wide to cross. So they lulled themselves into complacency and passed through days until they reached the ends of their lives and all those ideas, that brilliant work, those missed opportunities were buried with them dead in the ground never to be seen by human eyes. You will never get the chance to accomplish everything you want in this life. I hope that on the day I die, I have more ideas and ambitions than I had the day before. But because we can't accomplish everything, we convince ourselves that it's all right to settle in, to ride it out. As a result, the entire world misses out on our contribution. Refuse to allow the lull of comfort and complacency to rob you of your best work. QUESTION What risk have you been avoiding that you need to take today?

Pulled in Two Different Directions There are a few inevitable tensions that we live in as creative pros. One big one is the time vs. value tension, meaning that although we are expected to work for a certain number of hours each week, we are actually paid for the value we create during that time. This creates an inherently con- tradictory set of expectations—be here always, but be great when needed because that's why we're paying you. However, some creative pros work most effectively when they work in such a way that can't really be measured by how much time they spend in a particular place. Some need a lot of time to think, while others need to iterate quickly and often to get to a good result. Some will spend hours to get to a great idea, and others will spend ten minutes and generate something remarkable. Understand that regardless of which approach works best for you, you are paid for the value you create, not for the time you spend creating it, no matter what your company is measuring. Negotiate for whatever you need to produce that value. Creative pros are paid for the value they create, not for the time they spend creating it. Do whatever you must do to negotiate for the space to produce your best work. QUESTION When and how do you produce your best work? How can you negotiate for more space to do what works best for your cre­ ative process?

Low Overhead What does creative freedom look like to you? Is it being able to make whatever choices you want, whenever you want, about whatever work you choose to take on? Or is it something more like living where you want, working where you want, and having the space to never have to compromise your creative integrity? We often think the key to creative freedom is more: more income, more career flexibility, bigger, better, and more expansive. But when we are thinking about freedom, we should also think about less: less expense, less responsibility, less dependence. Everything you add to your life requires some degree of maintenance, which is another word for overhead. More things equals more responsibility equals more time spent doing things other than creating. Lynda Barry once said, “The key to eternal happiness is low overhead and no debt.” By reducing your overhead, you give yourself more flexibility to make choices on your own terms without needing to consider how it will affect all those responsibilities. You gain creative freedom. As creative pros, we must ensure that we don't take on so much overhead (literal or metaphorical) that it chokes our creative freedom. QUESTION How might you reduce your overhead so that you have more creative freedom?

As Goes the Leader An old piece of wisdom says, “As goes the leader, so goes the team.” This means that if you aren't taking care of yourself, you are in turn putting those who rely on you at risk. If you aren't taking care of yourself, you will have nothing to offer your team. Here are a few things to reflect on today: ► How is your margin? Are you protecting the space you need to think, connect dots, and do your deep work? ► How is your mind? Are you filling your well and seeking to find inspiration for your work? Have you dedicated time and space for study, reflection, journaling, and other unseen but essential and effective disciplines? These are often the very first things to disappear from your calendar when you're busy. ► How is the flame? Are you still connected with your produc- tive passion? Are you effectively living out your principles? Take some time at some point today to consider these three questions: ► How will I create space in my life to do the deep work that only I can do? ► How will I sharpen my mind and hone my intuition this week? ► How will I stay connected to my deeper why or productive passion this week? If you want your team to be healthy, you must model health. QUESTION How can you better model health today to those you work with?

Author and entrepreneur Derek Sivers once made a wonderful obser- vation. He said that many people marvel at the ideas of their peers and exclaim, “I could never come up with something like that. All my ideas are too obvious.” The funny thing is, according to Sivers, those brilliant and amazing ideas often feel just as obvious to the person having them. As he put it, “Everybody's ideas seem obvious to them.” Do you ever feel that way? Like all your ideas are just too easy, too obvious? I'll bet you do. I do too, but I've learned over time that what's obvious to me isn't always obvious to others. I have a different set of life experiences, a different grouping of ambitions, and a different lens I'm looking through to find answers. Because of that, any solutions I've been working on for a while are going to feel vaguely familiar even though they might seem totally revolutionary to others. As you go about your work today, be mindful not to dismiss an idea simply because it feels too obvious at first. It may be obvious to you but not to others. Brilliance often feels commonplace at first. Just because it seems obvious to you doesn't mean it's obvious to everyone. QUESTION Have you ever discarded an idea because it seemed too obvious?

The Daily Creative book is now available for pre-order! Plus, you can receive a ton of great bonuses, including getting the audiobook for free, or you can even start reading the book right now when you register your pre-order. Learn how at http://dailycreativebook.com/ (DailyCreativeBook.com). Today's entry from the book is called Influence vs. Control.

The Daily Creative book is now available for pre-order! Plus, you can receive a ton of great bonuses, including getting the audiobook for free, or you can even start reading the book right now when you register your pre-order. Learn how at http://dailycreativebook.com/ (DailyCreativeBook.com). Today's entry from the book is called Make It Convenient.

The Daily Creative book is now available for pre-order! Plus, you can receive a ton of great bonuses, including getting the audiobook for free, or you can even start reading the book right now when you register your pre-order. Learn how at http://dailycreativebook.com/ (DailyCreativeBook.com). Today's episode is an entry from the new book called Don't Be A Romantic.