Last week our Creative Leader Roundtable group discussed the practices that sustain us as creative pros. With so much uncertainty swirling and the pressure to make decisions faster than ever, it’s important to know how to set your own pace rather than simply being carried along by the accelerating expectations of the world around you.
Over 20+ years of working closely with talented creative pros, here’s a truth that’s become very apparent to me: The thing that gets you noticed and the thing that keeps you in the room are not the same thing.
Talent gets you in the game. Your raw ability, your instincts, the early work that turned heads. That’s the price of admission. But talent doesn’t keep you at the table.
What keeps you at the table, year after year and project after project, are your practices. The small, repeatable things you do consistently that quietly compound into a body of work you’re proud of.
So, talent gets you in the game. Your practices keep you at the table.
The pros who consistently deliver great work with clarity and purpose over a long period have discovered that they need infrastructure to support that ambition. They’ve figured out a few practices that actually move the needle for them, and they honestly couldn’t care less what other people think about it. They don’t engage in these practices because some expert or guru told them to, but because they’ve seen how these practices actually make a substantial difference in their life and work, here and now.
Here are a few things to consider about your practices:
A helpful practice isn’t performative. It’s not something you do to check a box. It’s something you do because it changes the game, changes you, or transforms the way in which you approach your life and work. If a practice isn’t tied to a real outcome, a real output, or a real transformation, it’s just theater.
A helpful practice is reasonable. We’ve all seen the morning routine fantasy. Up at four, cold plunge, ten mile run, journal, meditate, and somehow at your desk firing on all cylinders by seven thirty. That’s not a practice, it’s a highlight reel built to be admired, and it will collapse by Thursday. The practices that sustain are reasonable enough that you’ll actually do them on a bad day.
Helpful practices work together instead of against each other. If two of your practices are pulling toward conflicting goals, you’ll feel the friction every time you sit down, and your motivation will quietly drain away. Practices that reinforce one another build momentum. Practices in tension build resentment.
Let me give you a few that have made a real difference, for me and for the leaders I work with. Some of these I first wrote about years ago in The Accidental Creative, where I made the case that your best work doesn’t come from waiting for inspiration to strike, but from a rhythm of practices you build on purpose.
One is a practice of daily writing. As legendary author and historian David McCullough put it, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” Fifteen or twenty minutes a day spent writing about whatever is rattling around in your head will do more to clarify your thinking than almost anything else on your calendar. Choose a topic, pick up a pen or open a blank document, and just empty your head on the page. You’ll be surprised what you think that you had no idea was even on your mind. And, the ways in which this will impact your relationships, your leadership, and your work.
Another is starting the day alone with your thoughts. Before the inbox owns you, take time to understand what you’re actually thinking and gather those thoughts into something you can act on. Sit with a blank piece of paper but don’t just start writing. Instead, pay attention to what crosses your mind. Write it down, then follow your thoughts. So many leaders feel tense, stressed, and stuck because they simply aren’t aware of what’s actually on their mind. So many times, there are patterns and breakthroughs lurking just beneath the surface of our conscious thought, but we’re so busy that we miss them.
A third comes straight out of The Accidental Creative, and it’s one most people skip: Be deliberate about the inspiration you take in. Your ideas are only as good as what you feed your mind, so build a simple study plan and protect a little time each week to seek out stimuli that is challenging, relevant, and a step outside your usual lane. If you want a brilliant idea the moment you need one, you have to start filling the well long before you need a drink. Are you seeking intentional inspiration in your life and work? Do you have time set aside to absorb inspiring ideas and thoughts, and to stretch your thinking?
Talent opens the door, but your practices are what keep you in the room. Choose two or three practices for yourself, make them real, and let them do their quiet work.
