Halfway through this year’s 100 Day Project I’m taking stock - what I have been noticing about this creative process is how it benefits from openness to change, a nurturing community and an awareness of how having an audience can energise or restrict my creative expression.

Our ‘don’t look back’ culture shapes expectations of bouncing back quickly after a crisis. Internal Family Systems can help us understand why trying to move on too quickly after adversity can leave us with a shattered sense of self and keep us stuck. While this is a cultural issue, as individuals we can support ourselves by developing a reflective practice and engaging in trauma-informed coaching.

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about identity-based habits. Seeing yourself as a reflective person is the first step. Secondly, to keep going with a reflective practice we need to keep barriers of entry low. Don’t set yourself rules around time, mood or energy levels required for worthwhile reflection. Instead: use whatever shows up on the day and let it shape your focus and process of reflection.

The suggestion to cultivate a reflective practice can feel like yet another thing to put on our to-do list, or another technique in self-betterment. It can be seen as indulgent navel-gazing in a world that needs decisive and urgent action. Ultimately, isn’t reflection something else we’ll fail to stick with?

After many failed attempts at well-known reflective practices such as Morning Pages, I decided to design my own: one that allows me to follow my own rhythm, combine words and cognitive reflection with visual and creative techniques. Today, my practice is an everchanging yet robust support system in my work and life. Curious to learn how to design your practice?

There are two truths about creativity, both deeply anchored in our neurobiology and our wiring as creative and social creatures. Being creative simply feels good and it’s easier when in (good) company. While there are common foes of creativity, there are also the friends of creativity. Once we know how to summon them, infusing your life with creative acts becomes much easier.

As I reflect on the 100 Day Project and Michael Bierut’s intention behind it, I see parallels with the tension of inspiration and reality identified by the Map of Meaning. The 100 Day project is a low stakes training opportunity to practice and experience the (im)balance between inspiration and reality, or inspiration and discipline and can teach us how to remain hopeful and show up in the face of life with all its messiness.

Book Review of Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit. A book that invites us to (re-)connect with our creativity and cultivate it. Practical, full of engaging exercises and a book which encourages us to see creativity in a context much broader than the usual fields of art or design.

Should we love our work? And is this even possible? What if the idea of a perfect job is as unhelpful as searching for the perfect partner. Instead we could strive for meaningful work. Understanding your personal sources of meaning is a good place to start.

A softer version of resilience promotes the idea that a sustainable response to stress and adversity is a flexible one. Instead of soldiering on alone, we can lean on others, on our creativity and welcome the need to rest. Resilience is a skill we can learn and need to practice.