The 5 P's

Just received a great article in this week’s Jewelry Artist Flashcard edition; where it talks about the 5 P’s of creative people -- Enjoy!

The 5 P’s for creative people
1. Passion. Love what you do; have enthusiasm and excitement for every part of the process. Equalize the unpleasant by giving it the same attention as the pleasant.
2. Play. Be open to approaching the usual, customary, or repetitive tasks you face in a new way. Kids do this with ease: just watch them use an empty cardboard box.
3. Practice. It is important to master your craft through repetition. Once you’ve done something many times, you’ll have the confidence to do it well every time you do it.
4. Patience. Trust yourself to go through a series of tasks in the amount of time each task requires. Sometimes, it is better to finish well than to finish fast.
5. Perseverance. Don’t stop when you hit a bump in the road. Commit to finding a way to solve a problem in your own timeframe, and don’t abandon it entirely.

Featured and re-printed from the Jewelry Artist Flashcard article.

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Fitness & Creativity

There is nothing like the feel of a good workout. Several times a week for several hours I can be found at the fitness center. Workouts can consist of cardio from the treadmill, elliptical and stairmaster to weight and strength training; these types of activities keep my mind free and my creative juices flowing. I’m not sure what it is about it; maybe it’s the combination of music playing on my MP3 and the rigorous workouts, but it all provides the perfect distraction for my mind to drift from design to design. The payoff at the end is the meditation in the dry and wet steam rooms; it sort of brings everything into harmony.

Exercising is designed to make a person aware of the way they think and to aid in forming new thinking patterns. Many of us completely ignore this concept and expect to go through periods of very little or no creativity, then be able to create at our peak at a moment's notice. If you keep your creativity flowing by investing time in it each and every day, then to reach peak creativity requires only a small increase in energy and thought process. Whatever your way of finding a creative outlet, try doing it on a daily basis as it helps keep our body and mind toned to meet daily challenges.