Category: creativity

Retirees: Pep talk 4–7 Commandments of the Unmistakable Creative

stone tablet
of the Unmistakable Creative

Creatives: I am once again deferring to the wisdom of Srini Rao, whose latest post 7 Commandments of the Unmistakable Creative delivers the message better than I can.

Those commandments are:

  1. Reality is malleable.

  2. Your Resources are Limited, But Your Imagination and Creativity Are Not.

  3. Your Temporary Circumstances Don’t Have to Become Your Permanent Reality [I say, we don’t have time to allow for ‘permanent realities’.]

  4. The Status Quo is Meant to be Challenged. 

  5. Adversity Leads to Growth. [We also don’t have time to shy away from adversity. I really need to heed this commandment.]

  6. Only Is Better Than Best [A key theme of his first book **, Unmistakable]

  7. What You Create for An Audience of One is Much More Likely to Reach an Audience of Millions. 

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Any book suggestions? Journal writing tips? Methods you use to explore your interests?  Let us know in the comments box.

Thanks for reading.

 

** A. Not affiliate links.

Creative Retirees: Find your allies.

Boo Retire closer up with arrow

…no matter the species.

Seek those who support this next stage and your willingness to try your hand at creative pursuits, no matter how surprising they might be.

And those allies just might be strangers who share your interests.  Senior Planet has both a Facebook presence and a website.

Also, take a look at Creativity in Retirement: A Myth or a Possibility?.

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Any book suggestions? Journal writing tips? Methods you use to explore your interests?  Let us know in the comments box.

Thanks for reading.

 

Retirees: Pep talk, Part III

 

Nurture your most important audience: You.

Today’s ‘guest speaker’ is Srinivas Rao, author of An Audience of One.

Quote: “We tend to undervalue creating only for ourselves and overvalue creating for a huge audience. But your audience of one will be there every day when you wake up…By not sharing everything I make, I have freedom to play, to experiment, and to fail.”

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Any book suggestions? Journal writing tips? Methods you use to explore your interests?  Let us know in the comments box.

Thanks for reading.

 

** A. Not an affiliate link.

Retirees: Pep talk, Part II

silhouette against sunset, arms stretched

Let’s get to it, retirees. [I’m sorry, that just sounds so forced to me. ‘Employees’, I can live with that. But words like ‘tutees’…’assignees’…naah. The obsession continues.]

Nudge #2:

“Most of us spend most of our lives wondering what if. We imagine. We dream. We hope. And a week turns into a month turns into a year. The stage stays empty. The mic stays quiet. The chair won’t spin around because no one is singing. In moments like this, the goal doesn’t disappear. We think that perhaps the sands of time will cover it up and we will forget all about it, but we don’t. A goal unfulfilled may grow dim, but it never goes dark.”

― from “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done” by Jon Acuff **

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Any book suggestions? Journal writing tips? Methods you use to explore your interests?  Let us know in the comments box.

Thanks for reading.

 

** A. Not an affiliate link.       B. You’re going to love this. Thinking it would lead me to the Amazon listing, I clicked on the ‘Buy Now with 1-Click for $4.99’ link. I already owned it after all. Nope. I was logged into a second Amazon account and I’m now the proud owner of a second copy of the book. Sometimes, I’m such a dweeb.

Retirees: Pep talk, Part I

CHOOSE YOURSELF

Fellow folks in ‘the next chapter’ [I’ll keep trying out weird new labels for us.]…

Inspiration abounds. Do I act on it? Probably not even 20% of the time…for now.

But I figure, why not share these calls to action with others?

Here is your first nudge of the week, from the foreword to James Altucher’s book Choose Yourself . Kindle price $.99   [Not an affiliate link.]

As James says in the title of this book, “Choose Yourself,” and he explains how. Choose yourself right now. If you do this, not only can you not plan the impact you’re going to have, you often won’t recognize it while you’re having it. But one thing is for sure: if you don’t make courageous choices for yourself, nobody else will. There’s no one path. There’s every path. Every path starts with this one moment. Did you choose yourself for this moment? Can you be bold? Then all paths will lead to the same place. Right now. #chooseyourself —Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter

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Any book suggestions? Journal writing tips? Methods you use to explore your interests?  Let us know in the comments box.

Thanks for reading.

Retirees: Give yourself a chance–read, write, explore your interests

Still on the thread of finding that creative spark…

Plenty to gain from this piece from Jack Heimbigner — If You Want to Alter the Course of Your Life, Read, Write, and Create

Favorite lines:

— “It [journal writing] is like signing a contract with our lives to create direction and take action.”
[If this thought resonates with you, I suggest picking up a copy of Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Klauser.]

— “…reading plants a seed, writing helps it grow, and creating brings forth harvest…”

— “Write down a list of things you enjoy doing. Use your journal. See what you do already and what you have always wanted to do. Start doing one of those things. Try it out, see what fits.”

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Any book suggestions? Journal writing tips? Methods you use to explore your interests?  Let us know in the comments box.

Thanks for reading.

Re-retired, come mid-June and…

…looking forward to more work on this blog.

retirement road sign

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Just a few days ago, I was told that I no longer met the unlisted qualifications for the 32 hour-a-week job which was now being reduced to 20 hours a week. Let’s see…12 fewer hours…to somehow do the same work my colleagues and I needed 32 hours to complete…which would require additional unlisted skills.

I’ll probably need my first couple of months just to figure that one out.

But it means that I’ll soon return to full retirement…

Buddy on his back

rather than the ‘retirement weekends’ I was taking.

And so I plan to redouble my efforts to reach folks who are/will be retired and who want to explore their own inclinations to write, paint, build, photograph, sculpt, design, wander, and find novelty in their daily lives.

This will include repeated reminders to ‘try new’. It is so easy to fall into routines that rob us of seeing opportunities to shake things up. Let’s face it–we’re at the stage where we should take nothing for granted, so if you have a chance to even try a spicy ketchup, a new walking route, or a different entree at Applebee’s [I’m making our lives sound pretty darned exciting, aren’t I?], then you should.

Let’s close with a round of Jeopardy:

Answer: Ourselves

Question:

What are we waiting for