So today’s video has to be about habits and exploring the idea that can we hack our creativity? Can we actually trick ourselves into being creative on a regular basis simply by creating the habits that allow us to do that? And the reason that I strongly believe that in this very moment is that you might not be able to tell from the video, but unlike all of the videos I’ve filmed so far, I’m actually filming this at 5 p.m. So this morning was a bit different for me.

There were some things out of the ordinary. Oh, planned, of course. Nothing crazy, actually. Some very exciting things that happened, which meant that my usual routine of recording this video first thing just didn’t happen. And I was like, Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll get to it at a later point. However, my day has just completely run away with me and it’s only in just checking my calendar for tomorrow that I realized I hadn’t done one of these videos.

Now, obviously it’s not that big of a deal, right? This is an experiment for me. But part of the experiment is playing with this idea of being committed to something. So I committed in my mind to doing a video every single day, Monday to Friday for four weeks, just to see what I can learn from that experience, just to see how it can maybe open me up creatively to experience new things and to push myself.

And honestly, today is just really reaffirmed to me that if you have an intention of building some sort of regular practice or regular thing that you do, you can either set yourself up for it to be easy or you can set yourself up for it to be hard. And for me, making this the first thing that I do before I do anything else in the day means that it gets my attention, it gets my energy, it gets my focus, and I make sure that it gets done.

Likewise, I’ve been doing the 30 days with Yoga with Adrian Challenge, and I do that the same time of day. So actually do it before lunch. Now, when I have lunch might vary by always know that I’ll get to a point where I Blackpool I’m going to have lunch in probably about half an hour. So I’m going to do yoga now.

And in setting myself up with these kind of very specific time frames, it means I’m able to be consistent. It means I’m able to stick with things and I don’t need to pluck up any sort of motivation to do it, because past me has already decided when that thing is going to happen. And I’ve already talked about, you know, quite extensively about that thing of even if you’ve set aside time, what happens if you come to do the task and you don’t feel like it is more than a few videos on that topic?

So you can go back and have a look and see what my thoughts are there. But I think it’s really important to truly grasp and respect the absolute power behind habits and setting yourself up to win by giving yourself the structure to just get things done, whatever that you want that to be. So yeah, that’s what I want to talk about today.

I actually am not going to let this be a super long video either because, well, it doesn’t need to be. That’s the point I want to make. And most probably because it’s now it’s past five. But yeah, so I want to invite you that it’s easy to kind of say things like, Oh, I don’t feel like it. It’s easy to go like, yeah, I’ll get to I’ll do it in a day when the timing’s right, or when I feel that, you know, that alignment in my soul, it’s all well and good to say those things.

But what I find is that even though I am somebody who loves having freedom on my calendar, even though I tend to rebel against certain structures, I kind of I hate looking at my calendar and seeing lots of things planned in advance. It makes me go, Oh no, I like spaciousness. I like the opportunity to for myself, for me to pause and to expand and to respond to how I feel in the moment.

But at the same time, if there’s something that is important to you, something that you truly want to give your energy to, then there’s certain things you can do to make that more likely to happen. And in this case, specifically for me, honouring the time that I set aside to do this task and sticking to it, and maybe I’ll find that, you know what, I’m actually much better at speaking later on in the day because I’ve had a whole day for my brain to warm up, and maybe I’ll shifted that every day at 4:00.

I’m going to film the video or it’s going to be the last thing I do in my work day. I can move that, of course, but I think it’s having the the regularity of that slot means I don’t actually have to think or worry or try and juggle things in my head. I can literally show up, sit down, press record and get on with it.

So are you setting yourself up to win? And how much of creativity is simply just giving yourself the structure for it to thrive?