identify 101 things to make me more creative

41. Put work out to be judged, gain the feedback, discriminate between true and false, use the results. Use feedback with scepticism, craft and deliberation.

42. I have been taught that control is all important. I must learn to let passion drive me, and express it appropriately. Passion compels and brings focus to energy.

43 Find ways to make creativity my way of living. Not something separate and contrained but part of everyday.

44 Explore all five senses

45 Record progress. Bring consciousness and self awareness to the search.

46 Question everything. They may be true. They may not. They may once have been true, but are they now? They may be true for other people, but are they for me? I may have once believed them, but do I still?

47 Build functional networks, communicate intensely with peers, build supportive organisations, calloborate. Create a community. Innovation does not occur in a vaccum.

48 Explore where my world view, perceptions, feelings differ from other people. Find ways to express that difference creatively.

49 Believe.

50 Learn a new skill.

21. Read poetry. Rediscover Shelley and Keats and Byron and Yeats.

22. Get enough sleep. Stop drugging myself on semi-exhaustion.

23. Look at things critically, question, evaluate…. But never, never sneer.

24. Develop a love for clothes – colours, textures, styles, accessaries.

25. Seek out other people’s creativity. Acknowledge it, enjoy it. Don’t see it as a threat or a rebuke.

26. Copy paintings I really love. Be an apprentice, learn from the master. Try to copy exactly, then try something different with the skills learned.

27. Run wild. Let my body play!

28.Seize the moment. If there is only 5 minutes available, do something creative with those 5 minutes.

29. Experiment with handcrafts. Make things, work with my hands, see how things fit together, be deft.

30. Create effective routines that take care of the routine stuff, and allow more free time.

31. Visit other countries.

32. Surround myself with things I find beautiful, create an environment that encourages me to see possabilities

33. Learn to cook. Experiment. Chop up fresh herbs. Go to markets. Seek out fresh produce. Swap recepies. Have a signature dish.

34. Finish Walking in this World

35. Study, learn, explore, develop. Balance practical skills with academic learning. Go back to college. Don’t grudge the expence.

36. Remember “what other people think of me is none of my business”. Belive it.

37. Bounce ideas around with like-minded friends. Create occasions for creative people to come together. Actively seek to form a loose support group.

38. Learn to live in the moment. Stop procrastinating and deferring, especially with arty ‘treats’. Stop putting up with things unnecessarily. Enjoy where I am right now, and actively seek to make it the best it can be.

39. Face my demon! Learn to draw!

40. Think where I would like to be in the future, what I would like to be doing, and work actively towards it, even in small ways. Be open to possibility. Be prepared to try and fail. Have a plan, no matter how sketchy.

1. Read Irish Arts magazine.
Not just buy it, mind you. Read it cover to cover. Loads of lovely lavish colour spreads, info on all the arty happenings around the country, plenty of inspiration to be had there!

2. Try new things. Just because I think I would like to.
3. Look for the connections in everything.
4. Celebrate the seasons. Appreciate each one, do seasonal activities, eat seasonal food.
5. Go to places where water sparkles – rolling amber over white boulders up in the Wicklow mountains, frothy white and tingling on breakers, soft and mottled under trees, silver and gold along the Grand Canal. Sit and watch and let myself be entranced. Bring a notebook and try to describe what I see, how I feel.
6. Clear space. In my head by giving myself permission to sit and dream. By cutting out un-necessary time fillers. Consider getting rid of the TV. Take my phone off the hook one evening a week.
7. Clear space. In my house physically. Have tables and desks clear. Kitchen countertops gleaming. Canvas and paper available. Set up my easel. Have space to move around.
8. Be frugal. Stop squandering money. Use it thoughtfully. Save for things in a contented way. Look at things I already have, and use them in different ways.
9. Learn from other people. Read biographies of people I am interested in.
10. Listen to music. All sorts. Try new kinds. Be aware of my mood and suit my selection to how I feel. Throw out/give away old CDs and things that no longer reflect my taste. Make room for who I am right now.
11. Get in touch with nature. Make time to walk in the mountains, paddle in the sea, feel the rain on my bare skin, listen to birds in the morning, have wind in my hair.
12. Learn to play like a child again. Mess with paper, roll marbles, mix poster paints, stick glitter on everything, buy soap making sets, and candle sets, and grow crystals in water. Make things with pipecleaners, and lollypop sticks and wool.
13. As much as possible, vary my commute to and from work. Leave at different times, take different routes, listen to different radio stations, stop off along the way for different things, park in a different spot, sit in the car and read, play my college tapes as I drive etc.
14. Find inspirational places, and visit them deliberately..
15. Abandon the end result. The aim is to do, not to have done. To do something well, I must first be prepared to do it badly. Give myself permission to do things badly. Accept that skills must be learned, and practised.
16. Be open to being spontaneous.
17. Hang things on the walls of my house. Photos of places I have visited, paintings, prints that inspire me, things that make me think. Change them around regularily. Enjoy them. Write quotes on the walls of my (to be created) study, a la Michael de Montaigne.
18. Practise my art. To ‘be’ it, it is necessary to ‘do’ it.
19. Create a garden that suits my personality and lifestyle.
20. Visit the sea.

1. Read Irish Arts magazine.
Not just buy it, mind you. Read it cover to cover. Loads of lovely lavish colour spreads, info on all the arty happenings around the country, plenty of inspiration to be had there!