Five Ideas to Boost Your Creativity in the New Year

As we reflect on the year that was 2016, we at Container Yard have begun to think about 2017 with all the promise a new year brings - hope, excitement and opportunity. A new year is a new start and we thought we might share some of our inspiration for starting 2017 with creativity in mind.

We encourage you to consider these five tools for jumpstarting your creativity and may even start before January 1st!

These tools will prepare you to attain those personal goals that lead to professional, creative success. We hope these ideas will help guide you through the journey. Cheers to a creative, inspirational 2017!!

1. Right Down Affirmations

Write one general affirmation and a specific small affirmation for each week.

When written down, affirmations are the first step in making the impossible possible. Affirmations, are declarative and should be a direct reflection of what you are hoping to become. Words are powerful, believe in your proclamations and others will believe in your creative journey. This means that you must speak with conviction. Affirmations are personal, it is okay to be selfish. Here are some affirmations to get you started.

2. Artist’s Dates

In Artist’s Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice, Julia Cameron advises creatives to take themselves on personal “Artist’s Dates.” This “Artist’s Date” is a weekly outing with your inner artist. On a general basis these will help replenish your soul and create a sense of inner well-being. Our inner artist is much like a child needy for our attention. It does not have to be something that is extravagant or pricey, it’s about being somewhere or doing something that gives you a new perspective and gives your work a new meaning.

3. Create a safe space for your creativity to flourish

Some of us believe in sacred spaces. Whether you plan to have a space for not, it is still vital to the sustainability of your work that you designate a place to let it all go down. Whether it is your whole home or just the small corner in your living room. Create a space that will allow you to lay it all on the table.

4. Risk it all

Well maybe not all of it, but figuratively most of it. Maybe not your soul, but definitely your heart. Start by taking yourself seriously when it comes to your creative work, it won’t be so hard to understand why taking a risk is worth it.

5. To do something (anything) new

Like the saying goes, don’t knock it 'til you try it. Doing something new is always worth the experience. You get the opportunity to gain knowledge that may adapt your original mindset.

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through other medium and will be lost. - Martha Graham