Tag Archives: daily action

Your Daily Creative Action – Structure vs Spontaneity

As much as I believe in the power of daily creative action, I know how hard it can be to maintain over long periods of time.

Over the years the one activity I have maintained with consistency is meditation. It is my sanity, my inspiration and my resting place. I also know that if I don’t meditate first thing in the morning it doesn’t happen. So in the morning I make a cup of coffee (I know, I know but it really doesn’t impact my meditation or my sleep), feed the animals and sit down to meditate for 45-60 minutes.

creative action

Nobody said it had to be at a desk!

I also learned from writing my book that the only way to get any creative work done and out the door, is to do it every day as the first part of my working day. So I would meditate, have breakfast, and then write. These days I will take a look at my email, Facebook and Twitter while I have breakfast, do a bit of social posting (and I mean just a bit) and then settle down to write.

As creatives we don’t like to get too structured and but this little bit of discipline has huge payoffs. Once I’m done with the writing, it’s time for some off the page spontaneity. Often I’ll work on a business project. Sometimes I go for a walk. Sometimes I declare I’m done for the day.

So that’s how I structure my day to get the most out of it without having to beat myself into submission.

It’s just one way of doing it. What’s yours?

Susan FullerSusan L. Fuller

Photo Credit: Renxx Gmdr

The Power of Daily Creative Action

I’ve been reflecting on the power of daily creative action.creative action

It has come up over the years with clients who learn to define their success by whether they are working every day. The gallery shows, the novels published, the work sold are all built on that daily act of doing the work.

It comes up in every conversation with successful artists, artisans and writers in answer to…how do you do it?…where do you find the inspiration?…where do all your ideas come from?

The consistent answer is…they don’t wait for inspiration, they work daily creating a space for inspiration to emerge.

This is how I wrote How to Survive Your Grief in 60 days, a book I’d been thinking about writing for 4 years. I wrote first thing every morning. I didn’t answer e-mail, return phone calls, or anything else until I had written for at least 2 hours.

Some days were tortuous when I couldn’t find the words to communicate what I wanted while other days it simply flowed out of me. The act of writing was deeply satisfying no matter the quality and that sense of satisfaction stayed with me as I went through the rest of my day.

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield quotes Somerset Maugham as saying: ’I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes everymorning at nine o’clock sharp’

Pressfield goes on to say, ‘…by performing the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, he set in motion a mysterious but infallible sequence of events that would produce inspiration.’

So here’s my question for you…what could you create if you consistently gave it an hour or two a day?

Susan FullerSusan L. Fuller

P.S. Feel free to share in the comments.


Photo Credit: asifthebes