(Yes, I did just insert myself into a Nietzsche quote...)
As I procrastinate reading over my first paper of the term, I found myself reading articles for creatives. How to get inspired, how to get noticed, how to become the next Picasso.... that sort of stuff. I came across an article by Alex Mathers that I really enjoyed: Why 'Idea Adventures' Have Become the Most Important Part of My Day. It's from this article that I pulled my Nietzsche quote, and it all got me thinking about how I personally function.
Mathers writes about leaving the house, physically moving around, talking to someone new, looking at something other than your computer screen or sketchbook and the four walls of your studio/bedroom/basement... I realized that, as a highly sociable creative, this is one of the ways that I keep myself sane. When I spend a whole day without leaving my apartment? I go nutty. It's just the way things seem to go. Sometimes when I feel I have too much work to do to, or the weather is absurdly gross (we had a week of freezing rain last week...), I need to shake things up in a different way. Usually I'll do yoga, or take a hot hot shower. Just last Monday, a really exciting new idea for my Master's research emerged during my shower, somewhere in between soaping up my armpits and singing off-key and loudly to myself.
I love Mathers' notion of Idea Adventures, and I think an adventure can be something different for everyone. Sometimes it's an adventure to a different room, to the café around the corner, the park 20 minutes away, or a whole new continent. I'm taking this as a reminder to myself to MOVE, to SHAKE things up, and to ADVENTURE, whenever I start feeling frustrated, uninspired, or unmotivated. And as a last resort, I can always take a nice hot shower.
What do you do when you need to shake things up a little?
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