One of the major keys to creativity is regularly challenging yourself; forcing yourself out of your comfort zone pushes the limits of your creative skills and helps you to learn and develop new ones. From this your creativity evolves with fresh ideas that help you grow as a creative.
I am always looking for my next step; I am always thinking about how I can improve my business, my blog, or my self. Not because I am unhappy with where I am right now but because I am excited about the future. It's important to challenge ourselves to achieve something tangible and really commit to making it happen.
This year I have set myself a few personal, business, and blogging goals but one challenge in particular has got me super excited - I will be writing a series of eBooks about creativity. Balancing the business, daily blogging, and home life alongside writing content for the books really will be an incredible test of my creativity.
How will you be challenging your creativity this year?
You are definitely right about getting out of our comfort zone pushes our creativity further. Wish you a great year juggling all of the above listed goals! And I can't wait to read your eBooks. By the way, I took your advice and now I started the setup of my blog. I just need to be courageous and post my first blog post! I am trying to stretch myself to the limits this year to get out of my comfort zone too. Hopefully, I will manage to be creative. Have a good day xx
ReplyDeleteThis is a really motivating post! I'm definitely trying to challenge myself this year including creativity wise as I think it's important and will make success seem even brighter!
ReplyDeleteHannah x
Hanniemc.co.uk
I'll be making more posts, schedule more, and getting more sleep. I'm most creative when I'm fast, fast asleep :P
ReplyDeleteYou are set for a manically creative and productive year I can tell! I look forward to following along with the ebook writing!
ReplyDeletePS. Hope your ears weren't burning last night - but I made you a subject of book club discussion - talking about your reading aims of 100 reads in a year... I wanted to gauge whether I'm alone in my "OMG that's amazing / how" thinking... I have a wide variety of women/readers who come along, and yep, I'm not alone in my thinking! SO now I am even more super impressed and like - W-O-W ... H-O-W?!?! ;)
I wanna bitch slap you and all the women here.
ReplyDeleteUr lesbian.
ReplyDeleteHaha, thanks! :)) I'm not entirely sure I am going to make it to 100.. I seem to be slipping with my reading lately (I am addicted to listening to podcasts right now!) There are some people that read 200+ books a year and I just.. have NO IDEA how people manage to do that. 3 books a week sounds reasonable for me (although still a challenge.)
ReplyDelete(I just want to apologise profusely about the offensive comment left in response to yours. I have deleted and blacklisted the user. Disgusting.)
I can't wait to read your e-books! I've actually stepped away from reading too much about creativity and how-tos because I'm fearing the burnout. But e-books I can do!
ReplyDeleteI post twice a day on my blog so I'm always challenging myself to come up not only with new topics but with new ways of presenting them. There's one section I do that I like to switch up, so sometimes I write, sometimes I make a video and others I draw. I CANT DRAW. But it's fun for me to try and make something I know will get laughs out of my readers because they can't figure out what it is I tried to draw.
Oh gosh now I'm intrigued, I didn't see it!!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to take a picture every day this year and today I felt the struggle. My days are pretty much the same, I see the same things, go to the same places so trying to take a new picture every day is getting harder and I'm only 13 days in! But I'm taking it in stride and I'm surprising myself with the resulting images.
ReplyDeletehttp://insidesai.blogspot.co.uk/
I've been receiving your blog through Bloglovin for weeks now and I've learned a lot. You're constantly inspiring me to blog better and do things more creatively. :)
ReplyDeleteI definately can't wait to read the e-books. I have only been following your blog for a while and I find it very useful and inspiring.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reminder! Moving out of your comfort zone is definitely the key of progressing. I got a quick question for you which I'm not sure has been answered in your Q&A although it probably has: When did you start making jewelry?
ReplyDeleteElina
MISS BLUE EYES
Creativity comes from new experiences, new ideas, new kinds of thoughts being formed in your headspace, right? So I guess I'll be pushing myself out of my comfort zone too. I'll try to experience everything I can, no matter how stupid or embarrassing. I want all the emotions, all the analysations. And I'll read everything else I couldn't experience firsthand. Reading puts new ideas in your head too.
ReplyDelete-M
The Life of Little
Me
Couldn't agree more with this! I'm hoping to actually get the film cameras out that were kindly given to me and try out film photography.
ReplyDeletehttp://dreamsandcolourschemes.blogspot.co.uk
Good luck! This year will be full of challenges for me and I can't wait!
ReplyDeletehttp://weareatlove.com
WEAR EAT LOVE
Good luck! I'm excited to hear about your progress on your ebooks. Two big goals of mine creatively are to edit my first novel (I wrote one back in November) that needs a LOT of polishing and hopefully write a second this year! It's been my dream since I was a kid to be an author and I just really want to work up to that point.
ReplyDeleteAmber | Lovely Notions
so true! this year i want to make creativity a larger part of my life, and try out different kinds of creative courses and classes i've been wanting to give a try for so long.
ReplyDeletexo, cheyenne
Can't wait to read them! I've been toying with the idea of writing an ebook as well. It will be a great challenge for sure. :)
ReplyDeletewww.mascarawarrior.com
I can't wait to read your eBooks! This year, I want to (need to, perhaps?) journal more and also get back to photography. I also want to take classes in modern calligraphy.
ReplyDeleteI really want to experiment with photography and editing, as well as writing more and getting back into writing fiction and scripts, it's been a LONG while side I picked that side of my writing brain!
ReplyDeleteSaraj :)
http://www.salocainwonderland.co.uk
I'll start with photography, experimenting and learning skills. Also been thinking about getting back into DIY a bit; I used to paint and experiment a lot with DIY projects during my childhood and teenage years, it's really a pity that I lost touch with my creative side. Never too late to get it back!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward those eBooks!
ReplyDeleteI'm challenging myself on keeping things simple and actually finishing everything I start. A big thing, as I tend to have a million ideas, lose focus and complete nothing. =D
Challenging yourself is such a great idea to keep creativity going. I'm going to continue putting that into practice :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome - I wish you all the best in 2015 :))
ReplyDeleteI totally know what you mean; I get loads of ideas.. and then I drown in them and my productivity slows up. What I've been practicing lately is, once I have an idea, focus on it until I know whether I am going to work on it for a post or ditch it. I try not to sit on too many ideas before working on them.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely wanting to do a bit more DIY, handmade projects :))
ReplyDeleteSuch great creative goals for 2015 :))
ReplyDeleteI wish you all the best! :))
ReplyDeleteDue to commitments I have had to slow down with the book writing.. but I hope to share some of the progress soon!
ReplyDeleteSuch awesome creative goals :))
ReplyDeleteI hope to share some of the ebook progress soon; I wish you all the best with writing your novel. I think it's a fun process to work through :))
ReplyDeleteOh, awesome - I would love to see the photographs you take with these!
ReplyDeleteThank you and I wish you have the most creative year yet!
ReplyDeleteThese are pretty awesome goals and a positive way of viewing life; I wish you all the best for 2015 :))
ReplyDeleteI started making jewellery about five years ago and I set the business up almost three years ago; I wrote up a post on how I quit my day job (including all the details on how I started making things) and a Q&A if you're interested in reading more :))
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theprivatelifeofagirl.com/2014/10/how-i-quit-my-day-job.html
http://www.theprivatelifeofagirl.com/2014/11/how-i-quit-my-day-job-questions-and-answers.html
I'm super pleased to hear that - I hope to share some of the progress soon :))
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a wicked compliment, it really means a lot :))
ReplyDeleteI think that's a really fantastic goal; it's definitely a challenge but I think it forces you to see the world differently to get that one photo each day :))
ReplyDeleteI feel the same. I have been reading A LOT of books lately on the subject.. but it was more the blogs that were giving me the feelings of burnout. I kept reading blogs that take a pretty corporate approach to being creative and blogging (usually written by people who make their money from creatives rather than being creatives themselves.) It was really draining so I unsubscribed to a lot of them.
ReplyDeleteIt was just an offensive comment, the user left a few on my blog so I just deleted them
ReplyDeleteAwesome - I wish you all the best at that ;))
ReplyDeleteI wish you all the best and your creative pursuits in 2015, Hannah :))
ReplyDeleteThat's so awesome to hear! Blogging can be so much fun, I hope you enjoy it and I really wish you all the best :))
ReplyDeleteI totally understand, Sophie. Life happens!
ReplyDeleteTrying not to use it all for university (which I'm lucky since is a creative field), but trying side projects that don't have anything to do with the ones I have to do. I hope they'll give me something to bring back in my work too.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of keep on challenging yourself in order of not getting "bored" and boosting your creativity. I think this year I'll try to write more in open spaces or places that aren't my office hahaha
ReplyDeletexx Cecil
Looking forward to these eBooks. I'm sure I could learn a lot from them! My creativity will be challenged by actually fully committing to each of the "arts & crafts" I tend to only dabble in occasionally, even when I would like to do each much more consistently to actually see progress!
ReplyDeleteI am challenging myself to not only write more music, but share it as well!
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm doing a huge creative challenge of doing something creatively every single day! It's been fun but a little difficult so far. Looking forward to seeing what I can and will do!
ReplyDeleteLauren // OhHay Blogs!
xxx