“Learn a new skill, try a new medium. Even though it is difficult there is no choice because change is the law of life, so why not enjoy it and get passionate about it?”
Doing new things is challenging sometimes. And starting new habits can be difficult at first. Breaking out of the norm is so… abnormal. But it is healthy and necessary. It has to happen for growth to occur. I’m trying to carve new neurological pathways all the time. Learn a new skill, try a new medium. Even though it is difficult there is no choice because change is the law of life, so why not enjoy it and get passionate about it? This is the great love of learning. Make the process more efficient, like a sharpened knife or a well-oiled machine. This is supposed to be play. Run at it instead of away from it, avoidance sucks. Maybe this website can be part of my personal process in its own way.
Websites aren’t really my thing, so it has been difficult to make editing it into a practice as I juggle life. But I’m doing my best to find ways to make it fun and creative and useful. I’m using it as a creative reason for me to sit down and write something right now. It is easy to get used to doing the things we know; they’re fun and they have worked for us creatively before. We have to try to remember to forget those things so that we can branch out. Otherwise we will stop exploring and finding new things and this leads to stagnancy. New things inject life back into the old things we do, we don’t have to throw them out entirely. I’m pretty good at exploring my artistic and creative landscape. I’m less good at maintaining disciplined practices. But I do believe that it is necessary to practice so that learning can set in. If we don’t practice the things we learn, then the neurological pathways remain superficial. For me, it’s about creating synergy and removing barriers to practice like making it more fun and less uncomfortable.
One way I am trying to improve this is to program certain habits into my daily schedule. I downloaded an app called productivity which helps me program and keep track of habits, so that I can try to remain more accountable to myself. It’s not just creative habits either; I programmed basic things like eating breakfast, watering the plants, flossing, cleaning clutter, economizing work spaces, and drinking water in here, too. That has actually been hugely helpful for me because I can get sidetracked all day doing more interesting things to the point where sometimes I forget chores or tasks; I can even forget to eat or not be able to step away from what I’m doing to make food. My personality type is very high in creativity and openness, but not so much in conscientiousness.
I also have programmed habits such as doing daily sketchbook entries, making time for painting, writing something everyday no matter how small it is, as well as reading something each day like a research article or part of a book I’m working on. I have it programmed so that I will also make more regular website updates, and I plan to have more creative and introspective things to share when I do. Maybe one day soon I won’t need the app anymore. So here is to disciplined practice, carving new neurological pathways, and maintaining positive feedback loops .
Image: Rat primary cortical neuron culture, deconvolved z-stack overlay (30614937102).jpg
The file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
.jpg){kind=link}