When we commit to a practice – there are so many benefits for us it’s difficult to list them all. But, I can try.

I used to believe creativity comes in the form of a spontaneous gust of wind carrying a lottery ticket across the skies until the lucky son of a bitch catches it in her outstretched hand.

Nowadays, I subscribe to a much less whimsical idea of cultivating creativity, but also much more reliable: putting in the work.

When we show up consistently day after day to hone our craft, we check many boxes including; consistency, repetition, the idea of moving our feet, risking on a regular basis, staving off procrastination, gaining confidence, finding one’s voice and getting closer to something that’s brilliant.

If we consider the 70-20-10 Creativity Rule: 70% of everything we make is mediocre, 20% is garbage and 10% is brilliant, then we might want to continue to produce as much as possible in order to get to the good stuff.

What others view as capturing “Lightning In A Bottle” is nothing short of a life-long commitment to showing up and facing our fears on a daily basis in order to create what’s important to us out of nothing.

That takes courage in my opinion. And it takes a practice.

Often I contemplate the best way to express my love for myself and those who I care deeply about who are around me.

I’m a dreamer and often fantasize about giving others I care about big, flashy and over the top gifts/surprises/gestures. However, when I look back in my lifetime to others who have meant a great deal to me and their expressions of love, it often takes the form of their time they spent with me and their undivided attention.

These are the treasures I look upon with fondness when reminiscing about our special time together.

I’ve heard it said that the most precious gift you can give to someone is your attention. Essentially your time.

It makes sense after all. The most valuable commodity we have while on this earth is time.

I intend to be a person who is looking for growth and the ability to evolve instead of looking to be offended.

Believe me, there are plenty of ways to be offended throughout the day if we’re searching for them. The best version of ourselves is not this type.

It’s a waste of time and energy and only captures our attention to frivolous and empty bemusements from the matters that, well . . . matter the most.

Our vulnerability to be offended is a crack in the armor of our self-reliance, self-worth and our ability to keep our mental house in order. It’s a flaw of character and must be addressed in order to take full responsibility of who we are.

Otherwise, we are disillusioned into believing that others have the power to effect us with their actions.

Ultimately, it’s our choice to be offended. So, let’s not be instead.

No doubt, we all need to run wild, to break free and to cut loose. To push the boundaries with reckless abandon.

Even the best of us. The tightly wound. The professional. The dudly-do-rights and the conservatives.

How can we discover more about ourselves by always staying in the middle of the road? By always playing it safe? At some point we have to go off-road and explore the unknown.

Why? Because we can. We’ll find our way home.

And when you do, we’ll know more about who we are.

Be safe and explore!

Whoever thinks they’ve gone alone or are doing what they doing today because of themselves and/or have a belief that they will go it alone in the future to attain their goals and capture their success is delusional.

We cannot deny our personal efforts and work ethic, but anyone on this earth who has accomplished something of worth has done it only because we all are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us.

Today is no different. Family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances and yes, even strangers have come to our aid at one point in time to pull us up from our bootstraps.

Whether it’s the roads we travel to get to our meetings, to the pen and paper we use once we arrive or the plane we take to tropical islands for our vacations. We could not in any way benefit from where we are today without the tireless work of those who came before us.

Maybe the next time we’re out there in that great big world, we can remind ourselves of that. Maybe – just maybe it might inspire us to help someone else get to where they want to go.

What a gift.