9 Simple Changes I Made This Year That Kept Me Creatively Inspired Every Day

Two major events happened in December 2020. First, my first “viral” article happened. The second, I seriously hurt my back.

Let’s rewind a bit.

a. My “viral” article

I’ve been working from home since March 2020. Even though I was home and in front of a computer all the time, I didn’t get much writing done. Work seamlessly flowed into my home life and there wasn’t much time for anything else.

Come December, I was feeling pretty crappy and disappointed about my whole writing journey. I was averaging 3–4 articles a month, sometimes less. Most of them flopped. It seemed much easier to give up and focus on my family and work, forgetting about everything else.

But then something weird happened — one of my articles took off after being first rejected. After being rejected twice, I decided to publish it in my own publication thinking, “At least it’s out there”. I didn’t think anything of it until I checked my stats mid-December and saw that it had almost 20,000 views.

Ummm…what?

That one little article taught me a very valuable lesson — that you never know what can happen when it comes to writing. As cliche as it sounds, that article taught me that anything is possible, especially in the mysterious world of writing.

b. Hurting my back

I hurt my back mid-December. Like really hurt my back to the point that I could barely stand up. Working from home has made me quite sedentary. I used to walk at least an hour and a half every day to and from the office plus an hour at lunch. While I can’t quite blame the pandemic, it was very easy to go from an active lifestyle to a sedentary one.

These two events forced me to make one decision for 2021 — to be better, both mentally and physically. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it so I started small. Surprisingly, one small change led to another, and even more shocking, I’ve been waking up inspired and motivated every day.

Here are the 9 simple changes I’ve made this year that’s kept me inspired to write every day.

Starting a daily yoga challenge

This challenge is the catalyst that started it all. The first thing I wanted to focus on was my health. If I didn’t have that, nothing else mattered.

I used to hate yoga. There was too much stillness and loud breathing. I hated sitting in awkward positions, sweating and trying to breathe through the pain. I’m more of a cardio gal myself.

I perused YouTube and found “Yoga With Adrienne — 30 Day Challenge”. Her daily videos differed in length so I didn’t feel forced to spend half an hour on yoga every morning. It was a struggle at first but after about two weeks, I finally realized the power of not only being still but also pushing my body to its limits and above. Each day gets a little easier and that stretch that was so painful a week ago isn’t so painful anymore.

Once you know you can push your body further than you thought, anything becomes possible. That mindset of “Yes, I can finally do a plank for 30 seconds!” translates into other parts of your life. The stuff you thought were so hard at the beginning aren’t so hard anymore and the stillness becomes a source of inspiration rather than a source of pain.

Getting rid of the daily “What do you want for dinner?” conversation

Deciding what to eat for dinner has been the bane of my existence. It’s not only dinner but breakfast and lunch too. While the latter two are much easier, they still take up time. Time I could be spent doing something else.

At the end of 2020, my husband and I decided to subscribe to a meal delivery service. We choose our meals a week in advance and they send us a box of ingredients and recipe cards. While the meals are still a bit pricey and we still need to cook the meal, not having to have that daily debate is worth the price. Plus I’m eating more vegetables than ever before.

It’s amazing how time we spend thinking about food.

Freeing my mind of the smaller decisions allows me more time thinking about the bigger decisions in life. It’s why Barack Obama only wears blue or gray suits — because he has bigger decisions to make (not that I’m comparing myself to Obama).

Whether it’s laying out your clothes the night before or subscribing to a meal delivery service, anything to simplify the little decisions so you can focus on the big ones can give you a piece of your life and inspiration back.

Remind myself of all the times I’ve been rejected

I almost didn’t get into university because my grades weren’t good enough. I had to take summer school to get my biology grade high enough to meet the minimum standards to get into business.

An interviewer once called me out because I added a bit of a tone to the end of my sentences and it apparently annoyed him. The rest of the interview was just awkward.

I’ve been called stupid by someone who supposedly loved me (at the time).

My articles have been rejected by publication after publication and my opinions have been criticized.

The point is rejection is part of life and I constantly go back to these moments (and many more) to remind myself that I’m still here.

Society has taught us that a person needs to be accepted by others in order to accept themselves. One of the worst experiences and fears a person can have is to be rejected.

We want to be accepted.

Unfortunately, rejection is part of the human experience and especially part of the creative process.

Reminding myself of all the times I’ve been rejected or failed has been a source of inspiration because I've decided to look at it from a positive mindset. The idea of rejection is far worse than rejection itself.

Appreciating the creative simplicity of children’s book

My house has now become a full-blown children’s library. Children’s books are repetitive. It’s 10 pages that have been repeated 5 times but with a different animal. But through its simplistic repetition, there’s a creativeness to the rhythm and story of the book. It mesmerizes you in a way that adult books can’t. Not only that, a lot of them teach key life lessons that you’ve forgotten about since becoming an adult with adult responsibilities. Lessons like loving yourself, sharing, patience, and being kind to others.

Children’s books tweak your imagination. They encourage playfulness in the words and pictures. They’re full of hope and it reminds me that the most creative things are often the simplest.

Made my interests a priority

My life is ruled by obligations. Isn’t everyone’s?

I have my son who’s at that age where mommy is his world (I admit, I kind of love it), I have a full-time job, dinner to cook, a house to clean, and cats to feed, not to mention the guilt-trips my dad lays on me for not returning calls within the hour. While my husband is great at sharing the load with our son and the house, I still feel like my life isn’t mine sometimes.

It’s hard to be inspired and stay inspired when I’m being pulled in five different directions. And being an introvert, I need some “me” time.

This year, I started to focus on my needs and wants. This used to be a throwaway task — something I would do if I had time. Writing, reading, watching a movie was something I would do if I had time left over. It’s why my writing was always inconsistent and it would take me 3 months to finish a book.

Now that my son is a little older and can entertain himself for at least half an hour, I’ve started to take advantage of his new found independence and found some independence myself.

Doing something that isn’t obligated of me makes me feel like I have more control of my life. I’ve read my share of self-help books and while I agree that my life is mine to control, it sure didn’t feel that way. The only way I know how to feel in control of my own life is to do something that isn’t obligated or asked of me.

I’m trying to be a better listener

When someone is talking to me, I have a bad habit of creating responses in my head which means I’m not truly listening. Other times, I’m distracted by something else and my body language clearly shows I’m not invested in what they’re saying.

I’m trying to be a better listener. I used to think that being a good listener is an innate skill but it’s not, it’s learned. So lately, I’m trying to turn my body towards my husband when he talks to me, look him in the eye and pay attention to him rather than turning my attention inwards. I’m trying to clear my mind of the creation of responses or all the things that need to be done.

I’ve realized that by not being a good listener, I’m shutting people down before they even say a word. I’m missing out on their stories and ideas. I’m doing a disservice to myself as much as I’m doing a disservice to them. Bad listening skills are a hard habit to break. I don’t fully understand the art of being a great listener yet so like everything else in my life, it’s a work in progress but I’m trying.

Writing down all my ideas

“Oh, I’ll write it down later.”

Later never came because I would forget what my idea was or another idea replaced it. I now write every idea down.

My memory has gotten worse over the years. I don’t know if it’s still pregnancy brain 2 years later or age but my memory is definitely failing me. So writing down all my ideas is a must. Some ideas are definitely cases of “It seemed like a good idea at the time”. Sometimes nothing ever materializes from them but some ideas make their way into my stories and articles. Either way, I’m always grateful that I had the sense to write them down when I did.

Subscribing to Masterclass

Ads for Masterclass bombarded my Facebook feed in December. I couldn’t scroll through Facebook without seeing at least five ads for Masterclass. So, the sucker that I am, finally gave in and subscribed. They were having their 2-for-1 holiday sale at that time and, honestly, I’ve spent way more on courses than the $180 USD ($240 CDN) they were asking for.

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s class on writing (and a few cooking classes from Gordon Ramsay) and it is probably the best $240 I’ve spent on myself. Gladwell’s class alone was well worth the money.

While the quality of his course is exceptional, the biggest lesson and the thing that has inspired me the most from his Masterclass is that he’s a person like you and I. I don’t mean that in a naive kind of way because obviously he was always human. There’s a sense of unreachableness when we think and talk about these prominent celebrities who are at the top of their fields. When you think about these people on an abstract level, you can’t even begin to relate to them. If you strive to achieve what they’ve accomplished, it’s easy to give up.

Once I saw Malcolm Gladwell as a real person describing to me his thought process and approach to writing, writing became a lot simpler. He was able to humanize the process of writing and himself. I started to relate to him in some capacity. No matter how far I am from Malcolm Gladwell’s status of writing, developing the ability to relate to him makes me persist and create a little more.

No longer attaching my writing abilities to how much money I make from it or how much others are making from their writing

It’s very depressing when I look to see how much I’ve earned through my writing. I’m not going to deny I want to make money from my writing. I do. When I start comparing how much time I’ve spent writing vs how much I’ve made from writing, that’s when I want to quit. This is also true when I see other people posting their earnings.

For me, money earned was proportional to how good I was as a writer. Money became the driver in which I measured myself to. Comparison is a loser's game.

Before I wake up, I look at the little sticky note on my nightstand and am reminded that I write because I want to write. I remind myself that there's an interesting story that's worth sharing to the world. That has made all the difference in keeping me inspired.

Once you start detaching your self-worth from money, you’ll realize there’s a lot more to you than just the zeroes in your bank account.

Recap and takeaways

1. Challenge yourself to physically push your limits (even if it’s one push-up). Start as small as you want. You’ll be surprised at what your body can do. This will translate to other parts of your life.
2. Rejection does not mean you’re a failure. Rejection is a part of life. Accept it, remember it, and remind yourself that you’re still here.
3. The most creative things in the world are often the simplest.
4. Make yourself a priority. You matter as much as the rest of the world.
5. There aren’t a lot of people who are willing to spend the time to talk to you so listen up when they do.
6. Write down all your ideas even the “bad” ones. You’ll be glad you did.
7. All leaders, celebrities, and prominent figures are relatable. Find that certain something in them that you can relate to and latch on to it. This is what humanizes them and their work and your work won’t be so daunting.
8. You’ll only continue to do something if you stop using money as your point of reference. Your self-worth is not tied to the zeroes in your bank account.
9. Anything is possible.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned this year is that any small change you make in your life can serve as inspiration if you choose to see it that way. So here's to 2021 and hoping it'll be the most inspirational year yet.

This article was originally published on Medium