Bite-Sized Self-Care Challenge Day 20
Get Creative: day 20 of the QUALITY BOSS 30-day self-care challenge.
Welcome to day 20 of the self-care challenge! You can catch up here if needed.
Today’s Bite-Sized Self-Care: Get Creative
I always thought I wasn't creative. I can't draw or sing, don't play instruments well, and my writing is usually just blogs, book reviews, or work stuff (and now QUALITY BOSS).
It took me a long time to realize that very few people are born creative geniuses. Malcolm Gladwell says in Outliers1, that becoming an expert takes 10,000 hours. That's a lot, and honestly, I don't have that time for hobbies.
Wow, 10,000 hours! This, in its own way, is even more disheartening than staying an unskilled/untalented novice. I don’t have 10,000 hours to become an expert in my hobby areas.
Hold on! Do I need to be an expert to get creative and have some fun? Do I want to be an expert? As it turns out, I really enjoy being a multipotentialite–someone with many interests and creative pursuits. I don’t need to be the next Van Gogh or Einstein. I just need to be me and have fun.
Once I let go of the need to be perfect or even good, I found new ways to be creative. I started an online class for creating atomic visuals (like the one featured on day 12), signed up for painting, and wrote more.
That brings me to today’s focus: getting creative. Again, like many of my other bite-sized self-care tips, there are many benefits to creative pursuits. Arts and crafts, for example, can help lower stress and anxiety, improve motor control, and can even improve self-esteem.2
Today’s Challenge:
Do something creative for a few minutes. It’s just for you, so don’t stress about it being good. The goal is to enjoy the process!
Ideas to try:
Grab a piece of paper and a pen or pencil, and just doodle.
Draw a self-portrait.
Cook up a new recipe. There’s a little more pressure here because ideally, you want to eat whatever you make.
Write a haiku. It’s easy: 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third.
Here’s a Haiku I wrote for my January Blogging challenge in 2023:
winter rain making
the night sky dark and stormy,
like a troubled mindConversation Starters:
Do you consider yourself creative? Why or why not?
What are some of your creative pastimes or hobbies?
Reminding myself to start that painting class,
Brie
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