7 Rituals You Should Steal from Extremely Creative People

Today, I want to share seven of the most common
rituals we’ve seen repeated by the most creative
people we’ve worked with.
It’s often said that creativity can’t be contained. That
creative inspiration and ideas arise suddenly out of
nowhere and then fail to show up when we need
them most.  And while that may be true for a specific
idea, when you look at the broader picture, you
realize that sustained creativity – having lots of
creative ideas over time – doesn’t come from a flash
of brilliance or a single moment of inspiration. It
comes from a consistent set of rituals that serve as
the bedrock for getting remarkable things done.
1. Engage deeply in meaningful pursuits.
Marcus Aurelius once said, “Stop whatever you’re
doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of
death because I won’t be able to do this anymore?”
One of our coaching clients brought this quote to my
attention about a decade ago. Today I have it pinned
to the bulletin board in my office.  It stops me from
squandering my most precious resource: my time.
Creativity as both a lifestyle and a profession is a
daring adventure, and a truly rewarding one.  To
thoroughly love what you do while also being fulfilled
financially and emotionally is an aspiration and a
challenge. That aspiration can become a reality, but
it takes lots of hard work, dedication, and some luck
that eventually comes from persistently doing the
right things . Which is why you must remind yourself
on a daily basis of what’s actually meaningful to you,
and fully commit to the actions that yield progress in
that area of your life.
2. Set up triggers that get you into the
rhythm for a routine of creating.
Maya Angelou only wrote in small hotel rooms. Jack
Kerouac made sure to touch the ground nine times
before sitting down to write. And many of the artistic
clients we’ve worked with over the years have done
everything from meditating, to singing, to running, to
even doing two-hour long workouts immediately
prior to working on their creative projects. For
example, take a look at our client Fay’s morning
routine. Here’s what she recently told us:
“I begin every day with one simple ritual: I wake up
at 6 a.m., put on workout clothes, walk outside my
downtown San Francisco home, hail a taxi, and tell
the driver to take me to my gym. I workout for an
hour and forty-five minutes, and then I take a
leisurely fifteen-minute jog back home. The
important part of the ritual is not the training I do at
the gym; what’s important is getting in that cab every
morning and getting the day started in the right
direction.  The rest just falls into place. I get home
feeling good and ready to work.”
Think about your days.  How are they structured?
What triggers your creative (and productive) mind?
Are you consciously structuring your days with this
trigger in mind?
Whether it’s waking up early, working in a specific
location, or hitting the weights first thing in the
morning, you need to find a trigger that gets you into
rhythm – your rhythm.  When you design a healthy
daily routine that starts automatically every morning,
you save lots of mental energy for the creative
thinking that comes naturally when you find yourself
in your rhythm. Through this personalized routine
you will bring out your most intuitive work.
Of course, your routine will change occasionally due
to evolving circumstances. The idea is that you make
the necessary adjustments and maintain a routine
that works – one that maintains the necessary triggers
and rituals to develop and nurture your creative
mind, and to ultimately do the work necessary to get
you from where you are to where you want to be.
(Read The War of Art .)
3. Spend daily downtime daydreaming.
Creative types know that, despite what their grade
school teachers likely told them, daydreaming is
anything but a waste of their time. While structured
routines are important for the actual process of
creating, our minds need downtime filled with the
freedom to wander.
Neuroscientists have found that daydreaming
involves the same brain processes associated with
imagination and creative thinking. According to
psychologist Rebecca L. McMillan, who recently co-
authored a research paper titled Ode To Positive
Constructive Daydreaming , daydreaming can aid in the
“creative incubation” of ideas and solutions to
complex problems.
Perhaps that’s why we sometimes get our best ideas
while taking a long, hot shower.
4. Schedule in new experiences.
When they’re not daydreaming in their downtime,
creative types love to expose themselves to new
experiences, sensations and states of mind. This
willingness to stretch themselves is a significant
predictor of their creative output.  Because creative
growth always begins at the end of your comfort
zone.
Of course, a big part of this happens inside a routine
when you’re “in rhythm” and working hard to
stretch your creative and intellectual muscles.  But
new experiences help balance out your routines.
They force you to think differently. So make an effort
to try something new at least once a week.  It can be
a whole new activity or just a small experience, such
as talking to a stranger. Once you get the ball rolling,
many of these new experiences will open doors to
life-changing perspectives you can’t even fathom
right now.
And with a strategy of continuous small, scheduled
steps into new experiences, you are able to sidestep
the biggest barrier to thinking outside the box: Fear.
5. Observe your mentors and study the work
of other masters.
If you study the lives of enough successful creators, it
becomes obvious that most world-class performers in
all fields – musicians, entrepreneurs, artists, dancers,
etc. – had incredible mentors, coaches or role models
who made the activity of practice worthwhile and
rewarding.
If you can speak with a mentor face to face, that’s
incredible – do so! But keep in mind that just
observing a mentor works wonders too. When we
observe someone we want to learn from, and we
have a crystal clear idea of what we want to create
for ourselves, it unlocks a tremendous amount of
motivation. Human beings are socially inclined, and
when we get the idea that we want to join some elite
circle up above us, that is what really motivates us to
achieve greatness. “Look, they did it. I can do it
too!” It may sound overly simplistic, but spending
time studying people who are great can be one of the
most powerful things you can do for yourself.
In his book Mastery , Robert Greene emphasizes the
importance of studying the work of others using
Mozart as an example. This is an essential building
block for mastering your craft and cultivating your
creativity at the same time:
“Throughout his career, Mozart never asserted any
particular opinions about music. Instead, he
absorbed the styles he heard around himself and
incorporated them into his own voice. Late in his
career, he encountered for the first time the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach – a kind of music very
different from his own, and in some ways more
complex. Most artists would grow defensive and
dismissive of something that challenged their own
principles. Instead, Mozart opened his mind up to
new possibilities, studying Bach’s use of counterpoint
for nearly a year and absorbing it into his own
vocabulary. This gave his music a new and
surprising creative quality.”
The bottom line is that studying mentors and other
masters can help you diversify your own creative
output. Doing so facilitates the process of cross-
pollinating ideas and strategies, introducing you to
new approaches and ways of thinking. Not
everything others do will be relevant to you, of
course, but it will help refine and develop your style
and tailor it to your own unique creative goals.
6. Lean heavily on your intuition.
Intuition is very real and something that is never
wise to ignore, because it comes from deep within
your subconscious and is derived from a combination
of your previous life experiences and core
perceptions about the present. If everyone else is
telling you “yes” but your gut is telling you otherwise,
it’s usually for a good reason. When faced with
difficult decisions, seek out all the information you
can find, become as knowledgeable as you possibly
can, and then listen to your God-given instincts.
Creative people know that trusting your intuition is
equivalent to trusting your true self; and the more
you trust your true self, the more control you have of
making your biggest goals and wildest dreams come
true, just the way you envision.
7. Gradually turn life’s obstacles around.
Many of the most iconic novels, songs, and
inventions of all time were inspired by gut-wrenching
pain and heartbreak. Therefore, the silver lining of
these great challenges is that they were the catalyst to
the creation of epic masterpieces.
An emerging field of psychology called Post-
Traumatic Growth has suggested that most people are
able to use their hardships and traumas for
substantial creative and intellectual development.
Specifically, researchers have found that trauma can
help people grow their long-term contentment,
emotional strength, and resourcefulness.
When our view of the world as a safe place, or as a
certain type of place, has been shattered, we are
forced to reboot our perspective on things. We
suddenly have the opportunity to look out to the
periphery and see things with a new, fresh set of
beginner’s eyes, which is extremely beneficial to
creativity and personal growth. (Angel and I discuss this
in detail in the “Adversity” chapter of 1,000 Little Things
Happy, Successful People Do Differently .)
Afterthoughts
Walt Disney once said, “Around here, we don’t look
backwards for very long. We keep moving forward,
opening up new doors and doing new things, because
we’re curious – and curiosity keeps leading us down
new paths.”
This is one of my favorite quotes. It inspires me to
write and create. And to move on to my next piece of
work, even when I catch myself judging my last piece
of work as “not good enough.”
For nearly a decade, I have been publishing new
articles every week on marcandangel.com .
Sometimes the ideas and words come easier than
others, and there have been plenty of times when
I’ve felt like my work was sub-par.
“I thought this was a great article. Why aren’t people
reading and sharing it?” Or I’ll feel like I fumbled
through an article only to watch it receive 25,000+
shares on Facebook. Regardless of which outcome
I’m dealing with, I’ve realized one thing: As human
beings, we are often terrible judges of our own
work. We are just too self-critical to see the truth
most of the time.
And not only that, it’s not our job to judge our own
work. It’s not our job to compare it to everyone
else’s work, or to how we thought others would
perceive it.  There’s no use in doing that.
Instead, it’s our job to create. Our job is to share
what we have right now in this moment. Our job is
to come as we are and give it our best shot.
There are people in nearly every career field who
make each day a work of art simply by the way they
have mastered their craft. In other words, almost
everyone is an artist in some way. And every artist
will have the tendency to judge their own work. The
important thing is to not let your self-judgment keep
you from doing your thing and sharing your creative
gift with the world.
Just like Walt said, the key is to “keep moving
forward.”