On a beautiful Florida Sunday afternoon my wife, Tammy, and I had the opportunity to hear a vocal recital. It was at the quaint Rollins College and presented by, Emily Walton, a singer we know who has a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice. The program included Rossini, Saint-Saens, Brahms, and Copland. Songs were sung in Italian, French, and English. The pianist who accompanied her was exquisite.  The enthusiastic crowd was mightily impressed with the singer, as well they should have been.

As I sat and listened to the recital, there were three things about this singer and her performance that were interesting takeaways regarding creative pursuits. Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. One genre of creativity can bring influence to another. A singer can teach a painter, who can teach a writer, who can teach a guitarist various things about creating good art.

Here’s what I learned from listening to Emily:

1. Sometimes creativity takes hard work. In order to carry out this recital, Emily had to put together program notes for each of the composers and songs. She had to translate the words of the pieces that were not in English. Most of all, her performance was the fruition of many, many countless hours of practice and rehearsal. She had to work on her form. She had to work on her diction. She had to work on her interpretation. She had to work on stage presence. It all came together in an incredible performance that drew me in completely as she sang each piece. The hard work was worth it.
2. Sometimes creativity takes a team. Emily could not have done this recital alone. It began, I’m sure, when her parents got her voice lessons long ago. She had to take classes in music history from professors who knew the content. She leaned on and listened to voice teachers and vocal coaches who helped her develop her voice. She needed a piano player to accompany her with skill and precision. She even needed a stage hand to open the piano between sets and put into place some simple props. The team Emily built helped her create a flawless performance.
3. Sometimes creativity needs to be stretched. Emily didn’t start out singing Rossini and Saint-Saens. She didn’t start out singing in Italian and French. She grew into those pieces as she learned and grew as a singer. And yet, this Senior Recital was also a stepping stone for her. Emily’s plan is to head to graduate school for Vocal Performance. She has already been accepted into every program for which she auditioned. She knows that she can’t stand on her laurels. She has to take more steps forward in order to improve. She is willing to be stretched.
4. Creativity always deserves to be celebrated. Following the recital Emily’s sorority sisters formed a circle around her in the lobby of the concert hall and sang a song celebrating the gift of music. They all belong to a music sorority and were, at that moment, celebrating one of their sisters who had passed with flying colors a major accomplishment. Emily’s parents, boyfriend, and boyfriend’s parents, as well as many other friends and relatives, were present to celebrate this great day. They all brought flowers, chocolates, and even went to dinner afterwards to laud the event.

So what does this mean for your creativity?

1. Don’t be afraid to do the work. Don’t give up, even when it seems like no one is paying attention to your art. Work on nights and weekends. Work behind the scenes. Put one foot in front of the other and one day after the next.
2. Don’t be afraid to build a team. Ask others for help. Hire coaches and teachers. Be brave enough to take on constructive criticism. It will bring great benefit to all that you hope to accomplish.
3. Don’t be afraid to stretch yourself. If you’ve only written a blog, take on the writing of a book. If you’ve only sung in English, take on pieces in other languages. If you’ve only photographed in color, take on some black and white or night photography. Stretch yourself.
4. Don’t forget to celebrate. Even small accomplishments deserve to be celebrated. Go ahead, eat that bowl of ice cream or eat that piece of cake when you reach a goal or match a milestone. Celebration is a great motivator.

What have you learned about creativity by watching other creatives?

If you have older children you know that there were many “lasts.” For instance, when was the last time you read your kids a bedtime story? When did you do her hair before school for the last time? When was the last time you helped them with their homework? When was the final time you played catch in the front yard? If you think about it too much it can drag you down into a spiral of sadness. But with each “last” that took place there was a “first” that replaced it.

Just think of the “first” time these things happened:

• You saw her take her first steps
• You watched him drive away in the car for the first time
• You sent them off on their first date
• You dropped him off for his first day of kindergarten
• You left her in her dorm room and drove away when she began college

You see, without any lasts there wouldn’t be any firsts. In this life we have to take the good with the bad. We have to take the firsts with the lasts. It’s the nature of time. And time isn’t good or bad. It’s a neutral thing.

But what we do with time is what’s important. We can live in the past and dwell there, delving down into the depths of our emotions. Or we can recognize that time keeps moving forward. New things are to be embraced and celebrated. Living in the past will keep us from taking risks and creating something new. Living on the front edge of the future will keep life interesting, entertaining, and full of surprises.

All the lasts we encounter in life give way to the firsts that are so very important. If there were no lasts we wouldn’t be introduced to the things that are new, innovative, and more creative. The lasts in life introduce us to that which is fresh and new.

There’s nothing wrong with reminiscing about the past. But don’t stay stuck there. Dare to list your lasts and see how they introduced you to a first. Watch how the old brings about something new. Lean into the future having learned the lessons of the past. It’s a great way to live.

What are the firsts that came about in your life because something took place for the last time?

The more I go shopping at a real, physical store the more I love subscription services. When our children were very young our weekend entertainment was to head to the mall with them for a few hours. There was cheap food, a playground for the kids, and decent stores. Nowadays when I go to a mall it depresses me. Shopkeepers don’t seem to put as much pride into their stores. It feels like people are more rude than they used to be. And those mall food courts just aren’t at all appealing.

We still do occasional shopping at physical stores. But now we all live in a day and age when it’s just as efficient and sometimes even more inexpensive to have things delivered right to our door (or into our ears, as you shall see…).

Here are five creative subscription services that I’m loving right now. They’re even adding to my own creativity:

1. Blue Apron. Blue Apron is a curated grocery service that sends a box full of three meals to your door once a week. If you need to you can skip a week, or have the delivery done every other week. When you sign up you can tell them your likes and dislikes. For instance, we don’t particularly care for lamb so we excluded that from our deliveries. My wife, Tammy, and I have been loving the creative use of all different kinds of foods. Every week the box comes with all the ingredients and recipes for three meals. Sometimes the recipes can be a little putsy, but we don’t mind the little bit of time it takes to make an interesting meal. We’ve even tried things we never had before. Have you ever had celeriac? Look it up. We’ve discovered that we pay no more for this than we would going to the grocery store. I’ve got a few free weeks to give away, so if you’d like one post a message below.
2. Club W. This is one of the new subscription services to me. Our son, Ben, and his fiancé, Emily, gave me this for my birthday. It’s a wine subscription service. You fill out a very short questionnaire about your palate and they suggest wines for you that match that palate. The web site even has little one-minute videos for each wine that give you an overview of that particular wine. It’s very helpful. The club works directly with winemakers so you get wines that you probably won’t find in the local store. The subscription comes once a month and you can skip a month or stop your subscription at any time. It’s a great way to learn about and sample new and different wines. Plus, if you click on this link you’ll get a discount on your first order. Full disclosure: I will also get credits if you place an order through that link.
3. Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix is for the ladies. It’s a box of clothes that comes as often as once of month, or less if you’d like. Tammy gets it once a quarter. Once again, you fill out a questionnaire on your sizes and preferences. Then a personal stylist at Stitch Fix puts together a box personally for you and sends it off. There is a $20 styling fee with each box that’s delivered, but if you order something you can deduct that $20 from your order. Whatever you don’t like you can send back, and the postage is paid. As I was writing this, Tammy came down in a new pair of jeans she just got in her Stitch Fix box today and said she really liked them. She also said that it’s so much easier than going to the store, trying on 2o pairs, and not liking any of them.
4. Spotify. No more going to the store and piling through 45’s or LP’s or CD’s to find what you like. Now you can use Spotify where most of the world’s music is right at your fingertips. Spotify is free if you want to listen to commercials. But for just $10 a month you can listen to all the music you want commercial free, as well as download music so that you don’t have to stream over wifi or your phone’s service. What I love about Spotify is that I can listen to almost anything I want (and I mean almost anything…from classical to pop to show tunes to jazz) wherever I want. More than that, I can curate my own lists of music I like. One quick and easy way to do that is to play Spotify “radio” (which is usually based on a specific artist or genre) and click “like” on the ones I enjoy. All the songs I “like” are now part of a list I listen to all the time.
5. Podcasts. BONUS: This is a free item. I’ve written about this before, but I have really grown to love listening to podcasts. I listen to them every single day in my car as I drive to and from work, as well as on the regular calls I make as part of my job. I have learned far, far more listening to podcasts than I ever did listening to mostly inane sports talk radio. The topics and types of shows are endless. They’re free. They’s educational. And they make good use of what used to be down time for me.

In my opinion, entrepreneurs who have created subscription services have made the world a better place. The ones we use in our house are convenient, fun, creative, and affordable.

I’d love to hear which subscription services you use and love.

I have resolved to put into practice the Huffington Post’s 18 things highly creative people do differently. It’s one of the best articles on practical creativity I have ever seen. Let me be clear. I don’t see myself as necessarily a “highly creative” person, but I’d really like to make strong headway in that direction. So on Easter Sunday I decided I would begin by taking advantage of a unique opportunity to carry out one of the eighteen: People Watching.

About people watching the Huffington Post article says:

Observant by nature and curious about the lives of others, creative types often love to people-watch — and they may generate some of their best ideas from it.

“[Marcel] Proust spent almost his whole life people-watching, and he wrote down his observations, and it eventually came out in his books,” says Kaufman. “For a lot of writers, people-watching is very important … They’re keen observers of human nature.”

So on Easter Sunday I had the opportunity to observe two groups of people. I was able to observe the roughly 400 people that worshipped at my church on one of the highest festivals of the church year.

• I saw faithful people who are in church every Sunday bring friends and relatives along with them to worship.
• I saw people who claim to be members of the church and yet are only in worship about once or twice a year.
• I saw volunteers who set up chairs outside for the Sunrise Service, cook Easter breakfast, and usher the throngs that showed up for church.

In contrast, my wife, Tammy, and I spent the afternoon at Disney’s EPCOT. Easter Sunday at a theme park is an interesting thing.

• I saw families from the north sunburned, tired, and dragging crying kids.
• I saw people wearing things they would never wear in the outside world.
• I observed employees, some who seemed to be walking through their day, and others who seemed to be truly enjoying what they were doing.

So where’s the juxtaposition?

1. Both groups of people were committed to something: one to their church (regardless of the reason), the other to their tourist plan.
2. Both groups of people dealt with crowds the best way they could.
3. Both groups of people were (mostly) filled with joy.

People watching most certainly fuels creativity. Based on this day alone I could write about:

• Dress codes
• Crowd behavior
• How church members and tourists compare with one another
• What motivates people in specific situations
• The way people direct their money
• The difference between church volunteers and theme park employees
• What the church could learn from Disney
• What Disney could learn from the church

People watching with purpose and attention can bring about a creative bonfire in your brain. Give it a try. No matter your form of creativity, it will be a boon to your art.

How has people watching fueled your creativity?