How to stay creative and happy for the rest of your life

My mother loved to cook and bake, continuing her own mother’s traditions of making dishes brought across the ocean from Eastern Europe. My brothers and I enjoyed the fruits of this labor, obviously, but also the process. We’d be near at hand while she went through the multi-step process of making stuffed cabbages. We’d watch with hunger as she made nutroll for the holidays. And we’d stand in awe as she made the ultimate birthday treat for each of us: a three-layer torte cake using 21 eggs. It was a dessert fit for kings, and that’s how we felt when we got to eat the first piece on our birthday, with family gathered around to enjoy the delicacy.

She also worked a full-time job and did the bulk of household chores (old-school, patriarchal family—ouch) so it would have been reasonable to half-ass a lot of this stuff. She could have picked up cakes and treats for the holidays. She didn’t have to make traditional meals for gatherings. It could have been way easier. Yet she never complained.

I believe she always loved those efforts.

Making those culinary delights was her way of expressing her creativity. It sustained her. I’m guessing if she didn’t have that to look forward to, the rest of the work in her life would have been bleak and oppressive.

That’s what we all need in our life.

This is my birthday week, and it’s a big one. I turn 60. I’ve been writing stories and making stuff for over forty years. Basically, I’ve done it all my life, but I was 17 when I decided I wanted to do it for real, like as a job or whatever, despite not having any idea how to make that happen.

Given my lack of commercial or critical success, you’d think I’d have given up. Wouldn’t it be easier to read books other people have written, or to watch movies or TV shows carefully constructed to entertain me? Of course easier, but not necessarily more fun.

Something has kept me coming back for more, and beckoning me to try different things as well, such as ukulele, cartooning, and tap dance. I’m also angling to try my hand at water colors.

When I complete a novel, story, or short humor piece, I get a hit of dopamine that I just love. In fact, with writing novels, I get hundreds of hits, because there are hundreds of small challenges to be completed in writing a novel. Without those hits, the whole thing would just seem bleak.

I like my job and I love my family, but there’s a lot of dreary stuff to be done to keep those things going. Cooking, cleaning, and yard maintenance don’t really give me a dopamine hit. In fact, while I’m doing the dreary stuff, I’m usually thinking about one of the stories I’m writing, or a cartoon I’d like to draw.

Creative pursuits have made me smarter and kept my brain flexible. I’ve been able to take on challenges and learn new things, making my (sometimes) dreary job fun and interesting.

One of the saddest things I see at the office is someone who has figured out a way to do things and then stopped learning. They rely on that early success and assume it will carry them forward forever. They become a craftsman with just one tool, like a hammer, so that every challenge they’re faced with at work turns into a nail. When it doesn’t work, they make excuses, or complain, or pretend the task was never given.

My biggest complaint with them is that it doesn’t seem a fun way to live.

When you pursue artistic skills—writing, drawing, music or dance—you train your brain to learn things. That skill to learn allows you to deal with problems that didn’t exist when you got out of school, or finished your first couple years of your job. The world evolves pretty fast these days, and it’s sure nice to adapt your solutions to the problems you face.

Some people don’t want to take on such pursuits because it seems impossible come close to the sophisticated level of what’s available in the market. We’d never write a novel as good as Olga Tokarczuk, or play the ukulele like James Hill, or draw a cartoon as funny as Bill Watterson.

Maybe not, but the benefits of trying are almost immediate, and grow exponentially if you stick with it, especially if you get a kick out of the process. The joy alone will improve your life. What it can do to your brain can improve your career and lifestyle, as well.

The good news is that it’s pretty simple to get started. Pick up a pencil, grab some paper, and write a poem. Draw a flower. Or just tap the pencil rhythmically, and whistle a tune.

See what you enjoy most, then try to go deeper. Seek out a how-to article, take a course, or attend a class.

Figure out what’s fun, what brings you joy, and do that.

Thanks for reading Renewable Creativity. I hope you have a creative day, week, and life!

All the best,

Mickey

P.S. I completed my first course on creativity, Awaken Your Creative Abundance and it's guaranteed to improve your creativity.

P.P.S. The image is a portrait of Monsieur Boileau at the Café by Toulouse-Lautrec, courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art