May 9

Effective creative pros who remain at the top of their game for a long time have practices in their life to sustain them. These practices help them stay creatively energized and focused. In my decades of working with top performers, five key categories of practices have appeared over and over:

1.Focus:They have discipline around how and where they spend their finite attention.

2.Relationships:They have deep and regular connections with people who inspire them, challenge them, and help them do their best work. 3.Energy:They are good at managing their ability to bring emotional

labor to their work and are willing to say no when necessary.

4.Stimuli:They seek valuable and inspiration for their work and chal-

lenge themselves with the thoughts and work of others.

5.Hours:They are really effective at investing their time in efforts that

will pay off later, not just activities that pay off in the near term.

Fittingly, these five areas form the acronym FRESH. I encourage you to spend some time thinking about a few practices you might implement to help you stay creatively engaged and energized. You make your rituals, then your rituals make you.

To stay creatively viable, focus on building FRESH practices.

QUESTION

As you consider these five areas (FRESH), what regular prac­ tices or rituals might you implement?