ART + CREATIVITY
DAILY JOURNALING Practice
Duration: The duration can be anything you wish — you can experiment with a week of journaling, try a 30-day journaling challenge, or embark on a year-long journaling practice!
Parameters: Journaling can take many forms so I recommend experimenting with different formats to find what works for you. The key is to journal consistently to experience the benefits of this daily practice. I put this in the Arts + Creativity section, but it could have easily gone in the Health + Wellness section or even in the Finances + Productivity section.
Why this challenge? We all have a lot of thoughts in our heads and emotions in our hearts. Sometimes these thoughts and emotions have no place to go, resulting in a surplus that requires some sort of outlet.
My experience: My daily journaling experiment took the form of morning pages. I started my first morning pages session on Dec 24/19 and I found it so beneficial that I’ve been continuing with this daily practice ever since. This is an ongoing practice for me so I don’t have an end date in mind. You can click click here if you’d like to hear me talk about my practice.
30 days of creativity
Duration: 30 days or one calendar month.
Parameters: Pick something you’d like to try in terms of creativity and do it every day for 30 days!
Why this challenge? This challenge is ideal if you want to learn a new skill, while also learning something about yourself. For this challenge, you can choose to experiment with an aspect of creativity you’ve had no exposure to, work on improving a skill you’ve only tried a few times in the past, or create a body of work. Perhaps you have a project you want to try. Or perhaps you’ve been thinking about learning how to use TikTok. This 30-day challenge is perfect for that. There are so many fun and exciting possibilities.
My experience: My photo a day project of hubby and me has been an ongoing “challenge” since 2011 (click here to see the photos from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021), but I’m constantly thinking about what I can do to inspire my creativity. While most of my challenges fall in the online sharing category (vlogging, blogging, etc.), I’ve also experimented with creative challenges like learning to play the flute and writing haiku. I’d love to do a colouring or drawing challenge in the future.
Variations: So many options here! 30 days of photography, 30 days of creative writing, 30 days of music, 30 days of drawing, 30 days of colouring, 30 days of painting, 30 days of blogging, 30 days of vlogging, 30 days of Instagram Stories, the list goes on.
Other ideas: Another fun way to change up this challenge is to do 52 weeks of creativity, where you work on one thing per week for an entire year. For example, I was working on a 52 memoirs project before I took a pause to focus on my website.
The Artist’s Way in a Bullet Journal
Duration: 12 weeks.
Parameters: Complete The Artist’s Way 12-week self-guided course and document your progress in a bullet journal.
Why this challenge? This course is amazing for people who feel that they either aren’t creative or that they have lost touch with their creativity. Doing this program in a bullet journal adds a layer of creativity and self-reflection, and I’ve gone back to my own notes many times since completing the course.
My experience: I did this course in the spring of 2020, and it changed my perspective in so many ways. Previously, I didn’t identify as being creative, and I felt very lost when it came to my personal projects. I found my focus after going through this course and started working on my book shortly after! I have a series of companion videos for this my journey through this program, which you can find here.