Pre-Meal for Jan 8, 2025Creativity is a Practice

Happy Wednesday!

Unreasonable hospitality requires creativity — the imagination to design experiences that make others feel genuinely seen.

This is where a lot of people struggle. I hear it over and over again: “I’m just not creative!”

To which I say: that’s not how creativity works. Creativity isn’t something you’re born with, or a thunderbolt from the gods. It’s a practice.

Nobody knows that better than an artist. Ceramicist Robert Zumwalt (Ceramicist Robert Zumwalt) covers a whole wall of his studio with ideas — the good, the bad, the completely ridiculous. If one occurs to him when he’s working on a piece, he jots it down on a sheet of scrap paper and pins it to the wall.

Artists are inherently creative, but even they get stuck; the difference is what they do when it happens. When he’s short on inspiration, Robert stands in front of his huge wall of ideas, picks one, and starts working with it. He knows that creativity doesn’t come from waiting around for the muse — it comes from the process. And you get to the process by having a creative practice.

Should you have a wall covered in ideas? A pinned note in your phone? A daily free-writing practice, or, if you’re more of a team player, a weekly blue-sky brainstorming session with people you trust?

Maybe — or maybe none of those would work for you. But every one of us needs a practice, a systematic way to pursue creativity when the well of inspiration runs dry. The wall of ideas is Robert’s; what’s yours?

Have a good service,

Will