Week 5. Day 7. In your element

How does it feel to be in your element?   In his book, The Courage to Create, the psychologist Rollo May observes that a crucial aspect of creativity is ‘the freedom of artists to give all the elements within themselves free play.’   Patti Miller’s memoir The Joy of...

Week 5. Day 6. Dare to fall

Who dares wins, according to the British Special Air Service (SAS) motto. We dare to try,dare to win. Another dare is contained in the motto of the Enlightenment, Sapere aude. Dareto know. In creativity and innovation, a better motto might be Dare to Fail.  ...

Week 5. Day 5. Letter from the Future

Creativity is about making something from nothing. It’s amazing. Where once there was a blank screen, an empty canvas, a dry block of land, now there is a book, a painting, a house. Unsurprising, then, that this extraordinary act sometimes requires atomic force. It...

Week 5. Day 3. The Full Dolly

When I was thirteen, I was sleeping over at my friend Jenny’s house. Her father was a musician. He played folk music, which Jenny and I considered boring and for old people. On this particular weekend, Jenny’s father had been given tickets for a performance by a folk...

Week 5. Day 2. Show up for joy

A few years ago, Liane Moriarty, the author of Big Little Lies, was a little burnt out. Her books have sold millions of copies and been adapted for the screen by Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon – and with that wild success came a great deal of pressure. Liane...