Do Something Different: A 7 Day Creative Challenge
I’ve just returned from a short break in the New Forest where I explored ancient woodlands with giant Sequoia and Coastal Redwood trees that were truly awe-inspiring!
The proximity to the sea also called me to walk and sit and immerse myself in the vastness of the ocean and the dancing sunlight that sparkled endlessly on the water.
The last few days have certainly been a welcome opportunity to rest and recharge.
Changing Your Regular Routine
Yet, I also made a conscious choice to change my regular routine and enjoy the boost to my creativity that often occurs from doing so.
I love the fact that even simple changes that are incorporated into your everyday life can make a positive difference to creative inspiration.
Here are a few possibilities:
- shuffling the order of your morning rhythm
- experimenting with a different route to work
- mindfully trying new foods for lunch
- turning your chair to face a different direction
- re-organizing an area of your living space
- wearing an item of clothing in a new colour
- doing something unexpected or spontaneous
- going somewhere you’ve never been before.
The reason why this approach works is that doing something different interrupts your habitual patterns of thought and perception which are existing neural pathways in your brain.
The resulting fresh perspective comes from new connections being made that alter your view of your current priorities and open the way for innovation and insight.
7 Day Creative Challenge
Interrupting my regular rhythm with a few days spent exploring new places sparked the idea to share this creative challenge with you!
So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do something different each day for the next 7 days (starting whenever it suits you), even if the changes you make are modest but consciously chosen.
You can focus on a particular creative project you’re working on right now (or would like to start), or you can leave it open to experience a more widespread effect.
Sharing for Positive Accountability
Ideally you’ll share what you come up with to do differently each day in the Comments below for positive accountability, encouragement, and support.
Finally, when the 7 days are up, review what impact changing your regular routine has had on your creativity, however small and subtle it may be.
Then post a final Comment to share your results.
I’m looking forward to reading your ideas and to hearing how you get on so do please dive in and join the fun!
I’ll start by sharing that changing my regular routine by going away for a few days has created a magnificently clear and open internal space through which I’m now reviewing my latest big project with fresh eyes. Exciting possibilities ahead!
I love this idea, Julia, and that it can be done in a few very simple ways. I feel I have started doing this already, as recently I decided to have a delivery of organic fruit and vegetables, which meant that I had some unfamiliar vegetables and I had to find different ways of cooking them. I also made banana bread in order to use up six bananas! I have just started meeting a friend to discuss my book in a hotel new to me, called the Queensbury. It is a quiet, tasteful Hotel, with a copy of the Queensbury Rules on the wall, with some humorous additions,And tomorrow I am meeting a friend at the Green Bird cafe after church, another thing I don’t usually do.
Thank you for all your blogs which are always an inspiration.
Hello Daphne, that’s fabulous and I love all the ways you are already doing some new and different things in your life, good for you! They are such good ideas too so thank you for sharing them here. Congratulations on exploring new ways of cooking and finding a new place to meet your friend to discuss your book… It all adds up doesn’t it, and I hope you feel creatively inspired by all the new energy in your life! I very much appreciate your comments about my blogs and always love hearing from you 🙂
Today’s update: As I’ve reflected on changing my regular routine for this challenge it’s been a positive experience for me to realize fully that my regular rhythm does now include most of what I need to feel creatively alive most of the time 🙂
It’s been quite a journey for me to reach this point (on-going!) Yet I’m always open to new possibilities and adventures…
So this evening’s meal will be an experiment with a new Moroccan inspired vegetarian dish. And knowing me it will be colourful!