Create: Day 26
March 26, 2011 
2 Comments
Day 26
A ritual that sticks.
Taxis in New York. Creative Commons photo by Joseph Plotz.
Choreographer Twyla Tharp in her essential habithacking book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life addresses the subject of ritual and routine in the very beginning of her book. She writes about how as soon as she gets up (at 5:30 am…only a dancer) she puts on her workout clothes and hails a cab to the gym. She notes it’s the cab hailing that is her ritual:
“Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question,Why am I doing this? By the time i give the taxi driver directions, it’s too late to wonder why I’m going to the gym and not snoozing under the warm covers of my bed….
It’s a simple act but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it–makes it repeatable, easy to do. It reduces the chance that I would skip it or do it differently. it is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about…”
She encourages you to think about what kind of rituals might put you in the mood to create, and talks about them as little crutches.
“In the end, there is no one ideal condition for creativity. What works for one person is useless for another. The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself. Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn’t scare you, doesn’t shut you down. it should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it. To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that’s habit-forming.”
What can you implement for your next Creative Sunday that will instantly put you in a creative frame of mind? Invent a ritual. Then try it out.
Create Month 1
What to do so far:
In case you missed a day, the reminders below are clickable.
Have fun.
Be violent and original in your creative life.
Make collages (dream boards, vision boards).
Leave perfectionism behind.
Take risks by throwing out tons of ideas.
Set aside time every Sunday to work on art.
Moodle (going on an “artist date”) once a month on Saturdays (to start).
Make more time for creativity by ditching something else.
Schedule moodling (artist date) for next month.
Try setting a timer for 11 minutes for a fast, creative break.
Decide what you’d need in order to finish one of your shelved projects.
Join with other artists.
Practice for expertise, play for yourself.
On the Ides, I’d rather be ______.
Be green and glean.
Live your passions in your work.
Protect your artist space.
Customize creative habithacking.
Good enough is plenty good.
Abandon your projects or commit to them.
Use your environment to best advantage.
Free your mind on Fridays.
In the war of art…half the battle is getting a start.
Surviving as an artist is better than thriving as anything else.
Invent a creative ritual.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] the battle is getting a start. Surviving as an artist is better than thriving as anything else. Perform your creative ritual. Remember the science of seven. Share Create: Days 1-31 21 days, habit, seven SOS: [...]
[...] on tomorrow’s duds . Take an 8 minute break every half hour. Use your timer for Magic 11s. Practice your creativity ritual. Protect your creative space. Give yourself rewards for implementing [...]