31 Days of Creativity 2015

The Challenge: January 1–31, 2015

For the entire month of January, we are challenging ourselves to making something every day. The goal is consistency—making a habit of making.

Daily from Seth Godin’s Blog

“There’s a fundamental difference between the things you do every day, every single day, and the things you do only when the spirit moves you. One difference is that once you’ve committed to doing something daily, you find that the spirit moves you, daily. Rather than having a daily debate about today’s agenda, you can decide once that you will do something, and then decide every single day how to do it.” 12/21/2014

Making Something Every Day

In the spirit of developing good habits of making something every day, even if the spirit doesn’t show up, here’s the challenge:

  • One: pick a single discipline for the challenge. For example, if you want to develop photography skills, take a photo every day. The idea is to help you get better at something.
  • Small: commit to something small. For example, if you want to develop writing skills, write something short every day. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
  • Posting: we will be posting our creations for others in the group to see. This accountability helps, and it’s useful to trace your progress throughout the challenge.
  • Rest: feel free to take one day off each week. Even God rested on the seventh day.

Resistance

If you are like me, you probably already sensed some resistance to this idea. Here are some voices I just heard as I wrote this:

  • I’m not a very consistent person—I probably will poop out half way through.
  • I’m rusty.
  • What if I do something that isn’t very good? How embarrassing.
  • This is going to cost me something. It takes time, and time is money. Is it worth it?

If you hear voices like that, then maybe you should listen to them and not sign up. Or maybe you will decide not to let them limit you, that it’s better to make something than nothing, and that this could be an interesting learning experience. Either decision is fine.

Showing Up

Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” The goal of this challenge is not to produce something amazing. It’s rather to show up and put something out there every day regardless of the quality, just for the practice of developing the habit.

Prize

Anyone who completes the challenge every day, or is the most consistent in the group, wins a prize.

Participants

Here’s who is participating in the challenge so far. Click to see each person’s creative contribution:

Ken: music composition TJ: Star Wars fan fiction Benjamin: urban design Spencer: drawing Geneva: drawing
ken-proverbs1-fear-is-the-beginning The "green flash" City Park close-up Waving Daffodil
Joel L: digital painting Carolyn: writing Daniela: writing Vic: icons Joe: photography
Day 1 digital painting Procreate with Wacom Stylus 2 In the beginning of 2015, Ken summoned the creatives to a challenge. Now the new year was just beginning, and the habit to create was waiting… Sometimes it is hard to realize how simple events can change us. After ten years I was about to meet my swimming mates again. After ten years… Walking On Water January 01 2015
Jennifer: writing Mary: bead work Rachel: crochet Carol: photography Barbara: novel
Well, it’s been a year of finding our way in Hunt Valley, our adopted hometown…finding our way as parents to growing, energetic boys… IMG_0863 Rachel Day 1 Nature 1/1/2015 Carol Shulman For Gabe, it had become a wasted day. Since the call had come in this morning, he’d been unable to think about anything but getting married to Ana…
Oliver: illustration Linda: cooking Charlotte: photography Abby: novel Mark: blogging
TV Waffles Sun through the Leaves Standing at the window of the tower, King Doran looked below on the gray, lifeless land spread around for miles. The land of Myrasia had fallen… A campaign that needs to be pushed a little further is “Just Say No to Job!”. Hi, I’m Mark Ruiz and I am 30 years old. I have been a retail employee…
Mariella: drawing Eli: NFL logos Cindy: Mixed Media Barney: Dollhouse Hunter: writing
Bob and Larry Baltimore Ravens 20150101_223156 Doll House Design-Day 1 Hunter: writing a story
Chris: digital paintings
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