Staying Motivated
Photo taken on an inspirational walk downtown last week. Nearly froze my fingers but the photos were worth it!
Overjoyed. Hopeful. Delighted. These are the emotions I felt on my typical morning school drop-off this week. I drove the same route, at the same time, with the same 2 kids. So what was so different? I finally noticed how bright it has become in the morning. Noticing this little change really made a difference in my mindset. I, like so many others, have COVID fatigue after so many months of restrictions. Add to that our bitter February cold snap, and my inspiration all but disappeared this month.
Seeking motivation, I picked up a copy of Rob Walker’s The Art of Noticing. In his book, Rob offers 131 ways to spark creativity, find inspiration, and discover joy in the everyday. While it was still too cold to many of the things listed, it did serve to spark my attention and get me to pay more attention to life around me. Inspiration can be found everywhere. You only need to know how to look. Taking time away from the canvas, slowing down, and paying attention to your surroundings can feed your creative soul in a big way.
Working solo is part of the job when you are an artist, so to keep myself energized and on track, I joined an accountability group. The program runs for 6 weeks and I look forward to our meetups to help me stay focused on my goals and encourage others to do the same.
RELAX. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to download the Google Arts and Culture App. This month I used Augmented Reality technology to project a Kandinsky painting on my own wall- so cool!
READ. Paying more attention to what's already in your life is made simple and fun in The Art of Noticing. This fantastic little book kick starts your creativity and gets double points for generating feelings of gratitude! If you are looking for a non-fiction read, I have been giggling myself to sleep this month reading The Best of Me by David Sedaris.
LEARN. More creative prompts to help you out this month can be found by listening to Andy J Pizza’s Creative Pep Talk podcast, episode 259. Andy is endlessly entertaining and dives deep into the creative path on his weekly podcast. It is one of my faves.
WATCH. If living through the COVID-19 pandemic has you feeling like you are in Bill Murray’s 90’s film Groundhog Day, Palm Springs on Netflix might be just the movie for you this month. Let me know if you give it a go- I would love to hear your thoughts!