Someone wise once said, “Never be without your little pad.”

The idea behind that statement is simple: always be ready for creativity to happen.

As someone who writes stories all day long, there always comes a certain point where I need to sit down and “turn on” the tap of imagination and creative ideas. If I don’t, these books would never write themselves.

I’d spend the day staring at a blank page or feeling like this:

So yes, it can often feel like I have to turn on the tap and be creative on demand in order to make progress in the book.

But the crazy thing about creativity is that it’s incredibly hard to turn off.

It’s insane how many sleepless nights I’ve had while ideas tumble around in my brain. How many times I’ve had to pull the car off the highway to write down some inspired thought. How often I have to interrupt some task like cleaning, cooking, or watching TV to jot down an important note. How consistently my brain will start thinking up things at the worst possible times.

My best ideas rarely come when I want them to. They usually happen when I’m physically engaged in an activity but my mind is free to wander.

I’ve learned that I ALWAYS have to be ready to write those things down when they come. I’ve got a voice-to-text app on my phone, a compact Dictaphone, a notebook, random documents on my computer, even text messages I ask my (beautifully longsuffering) wife and kids to send me—all ways to note the sparks of creativity as they strike me.

But over the last few years of doing this, I’ve exercised my mental “creativity muscles” to the point where creativity is who I am. At the gym, driving down the highway, hiking, kayaking, snowboarding, watching TV, even reading a book. My brain has been trained over time to always be ruminating on something and creating in the background until an idea forms that’s important enough to come to the fore.

Creativity needs to be encouraged. It’s not just something you do; it’s a life you live all day, every day.

Do you keep a notebook in your pocket or a Note on your smartphone to jot down ideas? Do you keep a journal every day or paper by your bedside table to write when the mood strikes you? How do you train your mind to be more creative?

Comment below and tell me how you practice greater creativity in your everyday life.

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