Episode 437 of the CMP, a Creativity Matters Podcast — thoughts on daily ranking, yearly moods and patterns, the 100 Day Project and building a creative life, and more.
This episode bounces around between some mood and mood tracking talk, a lot of 100 Day Project thinking, and then some fun (or not fun) The Neverending Story allusions to the “nothingness.” Once the image set in, I couldn’t let it go. I already was working with the mental image of the encroaching nothingness stealing away my voiced thoughts on living a creative life over the last decade when the site crashed hard over the weekend. I will keep removing old shows for a while to achieve some equilibrium on the site – and maybe in the process, I’ll also foster better appreciation simply of the here and now, a short-lensed view.
The title of this show doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense in the end. It is a reference to some habit-building thinking and reading I’ve been doing. I veered off into the land of the 100 Day Project though, and the habit talk didn’t happen more than just a few mentions and reference, again, to the documentation I am doing this year (and so loving).
The 100 Day Project starts January 31 this year (earlier than in years past). In this episode, I talk a bit about how I think about the project, both the counting of it and the choosing. This very long post goes through a few of the options I’ve been considering. By doing that post, I think I got stuff “on paper” in a way that opened up space for me to really see how things felt – and to just see if an answer appeared. It’s less “woo-woo” than it sounds, but I do think often I roll into whatever the decision will be. Sometimes, it’s the wrong one. Sometimes, it’s the right one. Finding the just-right chair is the goal, the magic space.
In this show, I talked about “circles,” and it does seem that I may have ended up honing in on circles in a way I didn’t expect. I mentioned a book people are using by Courtney Cerruti in which you color/fill/paint/collage a circle every day to record your day. The book is the One Color a Day Sketchbook. If you haven’t seen it, take a look. It’s a beautiful idea. Especially if you are not someone keeping an illustrated journal, this may really be a good daily habit for you. (If you are an illustrated journaler, you might want to just add in a circle for every day on your spread. That’s the approach I’m going to take!)
If you look at the book, note the reviews and make your decisions accordingly. In Episode 419, I also talked about another book by Cerruti that I read during the pandemic: Make Art Where You Are (Guided Sketchbook): A Travel Sketchbook and Guide.
If you are hoping for more creative fulfillment in your life and a stronger creative habit, I think this can be a great project. Just remember, it can be small. It doesn’t mean you have to create 100 things (although that can be how you define it). And starting is important (even if you don’t finish). In this show, I talk through some ways in which you might use the 100 Day Project to help find and define your creative space and habits. I think that could be a beautiful project and a beautiful way to reach into the next three months with a deliberate focus on finding space in your life for joyful creativity.
Listen to Episode 437
This episode is available in many of your favorite podcast players or via the YouTube video (audio only) below. I hope you will follow (subscribe) at YouTube, too. The video format makes it easy to pull the podcast up here on the site or in your YouTube app.
Mentioned in this Episode (or Related)
Episode 419: Random (review of book by Courtney Cerruti)
One Color a Day Sketchbook (by Courtney Cerruti)
Episode 356: Slice of Life Contour (talk about my 2019 “contour” project)
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