A Year of Creativity Everyday
How Dedicating Yourself To Practice Can Be Its Own Reward
At first, I just wanted to see if I could actually stick to creating something new every day and documenting it. Soon after I started, I realized that I was in it to win it — for myself, my peace of mind, and the artists I seek to inspire to keep creating in turbulent times.
Big Picture Takeaway?
My 2025 Creativity Everyday 365 Challenge compelled me to show up for myself in ways that go beyond survival mode and self care into the sacred space where my creative fulfillment thrives.
This luxury of time and spaciousness that I’d perennially dismissed as something I couldn’t afford, became the very thing that liberated my creative practice, returned me to myself as a writer, and helped me find a way to rebuild a writing habit that I’d been struggling to maintain within motherhood.
Showed Me Something I Already Knew
To no one’s surprise, I am deeply committed to honoring wonder and whimsy, and making everyday magic my thing. And, after years of writing on assignment and developing the ideas of others (for which I’m so fortunate and thankful!) I’d also left some of my wonder, whimsy, and magic in my creative margins, where I had relegated the freedom to create whatever I wanted, for me, and not for anyone else.
Enhanced Mindfulness
Creating something everyday gave me the opportunity to reconnect with my camera lens, even if on my phone. Urban nature walks present so many opportunities to capture what must be closely observed: grasshoppers hopping, butterflies landing on milkweed, the changing of the seasons reflected in the growth cycles of the prairie plants near the South Pond, turtles swimming and sunning. They also present opportunities to capture the big picture scenery in a study of contrasts. When I take a walk with the thought that I might find something to photograph, I find that I’m observing the world around me with greater mindfulness and return home feeling more at peace with whatever the meditation presents that day.
About Justifying the Journey as the Destination
Discovery, exploration, and following our curiosity in the process leads us to deepen our practice — which is obviously amazing! — AND that work is often unpaid, voluntary, or otherwise invisible to others. My inner critic loves to rationalize how these projects are riskier investments my time, the ROI is who-knows-what-and-when-if-ever. When the product becomes the reason for the process, and when we tie our worth to products that don’t materialize in the way we’d hoped… lol, that sucks. It’s so defeating. Though I don’t love that I’m paraphrasing someone who’s quoting Tom Brady on this, I nevertheless admittedly relate to NFL superstars who wax philosophically about how we can’t control outcomes that are contingent upon others, we can only control our own process. And that is so frustrating when you know what it takes to win… and explains a lot about deflategate. Sorrynotsorry Pats fans.
So with super low stakes attached to this 365 Challenge — I made it my thing. Didn’t take myself too seriously, just sincerely decided it was something I had to do. I’ve never really done that before, and that’s all it took.
Also: The Journey as the Destination Needs No Validation
It was like I needed to trick my inner critic into believing it was a risk worth taking to pursue this project. I’m going to do this thing… and write a book about it! And then something interesting happened. This is going to become a book… turned into: I’m doing this thing and it is it’s own thing. It doesn’t need to be a book. Maybe some of it will inspire chapters though?! Until finally, I got to: just doing it is enough!
(TBH, I’m still exploring if any of this 365 Challenge fits into one of my creativity guide books-in-progress, but I’m not committed to the practice because of the product, I’m committed to the practice for its own sake. Which also feels incredibly liberating.)
Yeah, no, as we say here in Chicago, creating something new everyday and documenting it made those margins visible— less critically to others, more critically to me. As I held myself accountable to the daily challenge of creating without the pressures of perfection for production or publication, I reinvigorated my relationship to creativity, expanded my identity as a writer, and strengthened my writing habit.
… And I’m still going!
As I write this on Day 382, editing on Day 383, I’d say that the habit is sticking. I was worried it’d be a distraction or another avenue for procrastination, and it totally was sometimes (let’s be real) but creating something new everyday, no matter what, no matter how small, has also made it so much easier to push past creative blocks, resistance, even the heavier resistance that comes from wrestling with anxiety, grief, and burnout. So, I actually feel like it was a major upgrade to my writer’s toolkit. And the distractions and procrastinations I struggle to keep at bay are still there, those are demons that I still must slay. But now, I feel like I’m slaying with like a Samurai sword as opposed to a shitty plastic butter knife.
I’ve even started another 365 Challenge quietly, unannounced. Colleen Ochab’s 30 Day Writers’ Reel Challenge. And once I hit Day 30, I just kept going and didn’t think about it because I’d formed the habit; I’d created the space in my schedule.
Showing up for myself every day with a low-lift, low-stakes committed practice to short-form content strengthened my ability to focus for shorter bursts of time on long-form writing projects, too.
On Expanding Our “Brand”
The everyday magic, whimsy and wonder I found in creating shorter form content and projects in the margins of creative time has become a thematic focus in all of my storytelling. This isn’t new; delightfully, it’s a return to the writer I was when I started out, and it felt like I found my way back to myself, a sort of homecoming. Older, wiser, more craft-capable, and plugged-in again to my inner child which sparks so much joy.
In all of my storytelling across platforms, I became more confident embracing cringe as cool, owning my awkwardness and ridiculousness that feels more authentically aligned with who I am.
Exploring Our Creativity Means Focusing on the Process
When it comes to process, I now understand that I really need to give myself enough daydreamy reflection time to figure out what I’m writing about, and why. Despite feeling as though I have enough mastery of my craft to create “on demand”, I actually enjoy having some time to play, discover, explore the story more before making certain story decisions. I love to outline. But I also love drafting discovery pages and seeing where the story takes me, and what I write intuitively.
As I experimented with different formats of writing, artistic mediums that were new to me, and those more familiar like photography, I also became more comfortable playing with newer mediums like graphic design, social media storytelling, and using both to market my workshops. With less attachment to outcomes, no pressure to perform, I was able to create more content, faster, and had a lot more fun doing it, playfully.
If you’re curious to read more about this project exploring how small steps can add up to shift our mindset, invigorate our creative practice, and sharpen our craft, you can find my reflections-in-progress archives at the links below:
100 Day Streak | My Top 3 Takeaways
200 Day Streak | How to Make More Time To Do Everything
300 Day Streak | Embracing the Liminality of Samhain: Takeaways on Feeling Stuck and (Un)Fixed Finish Lines
I won’t pretend that creating in times of chaos isn’t hard, because it very much is. Wherever this finds you, whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re feeling a little more inspired to keep creating. There’s a whole community of us — writers, artists, magic-makers— focused on finding joy, whimsy, and wonder in the little things that keep us grounded, connected to ourselves, and to each other. You’re not alone.
With creative fire, Kat