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THE DAILY RITUALS OF THE WORLD’S MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE

The busier people were less precious—you learn to fit [your creative work] in, and you don’t have these elaborate eccentric rituals if you have children or a day job. Someone like Joseph Heller wrote Catch 22 in the evenings after work. He’d write for two or three hours a night after his job as an advertising executive doing campaigns for magazines. He was not a tortured artist. He found as much joy in his day job as writing Catch 22 at night. “I couldn’t imagine what Americans did at night when they weren’t writing novels,” Heller said. Currey also notes in Daily Rituals that even when Heller quit his day job to write full-time, he still only worked on his novels for two to three hours a day.

I can’t imagine making art all day.  I’d burn out.  Right in line with Hugh MacLeod’s “Sex & Cash Theory.”  

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Never too late to try

Interests should evolve. As a kid, it was toys. As a teenager, it was video games. In college, it was social networking and dating. As a young worker, it was a continuation of college interests minus the time.

As a settled adult, interests are now wide open. With a clean slate, you may explore new activities, re-pursue an old ambition, appreciate art.

As you grow older you take an active interest in things you thought were once boring growing up. But you’re also less likely to experiment actually doing those things. Maybe you would make a good writer or History teacher?

Experience doesn’t equate to expertise. Once people get good at something, they stop wanting to get better. You can catch up to them with time and patience.

Obviously, things come much easier if you’ve been dribbling a ball at your feet or playing the piano since you were a kid. Those skills appear innate. But you don’t have to be great to try those things. Play pickup.

You can always convert curiosity into doing. Don’t settle with full consumption and leaning on others to make stuff for you. Create things you can call your own, even if they’re shitty. Learn what it feels like to start again.

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