Are you free for dinner?

QD #70 🍽️ Two weeks till our next Quest kicks off.

In this weeks edition…
✷ Two weeks left to join April’s Creative Quest! theme hints below…
✷ Last call for a free ‘Bodystorming’ workshop tomorrow (Mar 18) with Mirjam Leunissen
✷ The Never Ending Menu - why too much choice is a bad thing for a curiosity-fuelled creative life.
✷ A treasure trove of links!

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Dear Questers,

Sam here 👋 Feeling very illuminated as we’ve just got the proofs back for our debut book! It’s now into the design process - led by five brilliant people in our Quester community. This new publication is by Questers - for Questers!

Our next Quest programme kicks off in two weeks (1st April). As a key part of our mission to encourage exploration of the creative unknown - we tend not to announce our Quest themes up front. Which makes talking about what to expect quite difficult! So to pique your curiosity… here are some clues to April’s theme.

Feel free to shoot your shot and guess April’s theme in the comments!

🍽️ The Never Ending Menu

Last week I had a very interesting conversation about constraints with

Harrison Moore

(go check out his Substack!) and why they’re so helpful when it comes to creativity and productivity.

Deadlines, clear briefs, limited palettes - it’s well documented that boundaries help us make creative work. Limitations keep us on track, and our creativity comes alive when there’s a problem to solve.

But does the same apply to living creatively?

Surely the freedom to explore and frolic in the endless possibilities of human expression and the wonders of the world can only be a good thing?

Yes... and no.

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If you care to join me, I’d like to invite you out to dinner.

I won’t ask for your dietary requirements or preferences - not because I don’t care (I do, I promise!) - but because this restaurant serves everything. Literally everything. It offers a never-ending menu.

Every page is filled with dishes from all over the world. Sushi, pizza, curries, salads, BBQ. Your choices are infinite. You could have anything!

This is an exciting and delicious prospect. A world tour for the taste buds coming right up.

As the waiter arrives to take your order, panic sets in - you’ve barely covered 10% of the menu. You flick desperately through a few more pages, hoping the perfect dish will leap out. But it all suddenly seems to become one big mess of words. With all the choices in the world, you should pick something amazing, right? Something that surprises and delights in equal measure.

But instead - you freeze.

“Umm... I’ll have the cheeseburger.”

It’s all ok. It’s comforting! A risk-free choice. You know what you’re getting. Tried and tested, can’t go wrong.

But when the burger arrives, you stare at it - and feel a wave of disappointment. You could have picked something new, something that took your taste buds somewhere unexpected.

“Next time,” you tell yourself.

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Modern life is a restaurant with a never-ending menu.

Full of things you could do - but most likely never will.

As creative people, curiosity is our superpower. But without constraint or direction, we miss the opportunity to really explore new territory.

The exciting possibility of “I could go anywhere! I could do anything!” can quickly turn into the path of least resistance.

Have you ever woken up on a day off, full of beans, only to Google, “fun things to do in [insert town/city] this weekend.” Or you head to the place everyone’s talking about on TikTok. The Instagrammable hotspot.

At that point - are you really making the choice and following your curiosity?

The same phenomenon happens in another place we spend a lot of time - in fact, 70% of the planet lives there. The internet.

Despite the full spectrum of ideas and voices online, we scroll ourselves into cultural, political and creative echo chambers.

In both IRL and URL, it’s easy to get stuck in the cycle of familiarity - no matter how curious we might be.

And that’s a sad thing. Not just because we’re missing out on the incredible, eclectic world we live in. Or because we’re narrowing our minds with binary perspectives. But because - creatively - familiarity is a vacuum.

Our creativity is an expression of us. And we are an impression of our experiences.

So how do we feed our insatiable curiosity - without overloading ourselves - only to end up following the crowd?

🎯 Focus on one curiosity at a time.

Over nine years (and 30+ themes) of concentrated, month-long explorations (aka Quests!), I’ve learned the incredible power of intentional curiosity:

“Consciously seeking new perspectives — beyond the boundaries of your experience, past interests, or beliefs.”

(that’s my personal, current definition… lemme know what you think!)

When we choose to be curious about something specific, we weave intention into everything we do. Suddenly, there’s a magnetic pull around that subject. We go to new places. Try new things. Seek out fellow passionate people. Notice the overlooked details in our environment.

We start to feel like we’re in conversation with the world — where our focused curiosity is met with inspiration and a profound sense of connection.

We experience so much more — by focusing on so much less.

Resist the allure of the never ending menu - no matter how much it seems to offer.

Find somewhere (or do something) with a handful of things on the menu. You are not missing out on everything else - it will still be there when your done!

Reduce your exploration options and your chances of finding the surprise and delight you are seeking aren’t just increased - they are guaranteed!

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Want to explore your creative curiosity like never before?

✷ Our next Creative Quest kicks off on 1st April. A group of us from around the world all being intentionally curious about the same subject for one month.

Sign up for as little as £30 (the cost of a meal out!)

It’s a taste sensation!

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A round of illuminating discoveries from our Quester world….

🍄 Welcome to Mushroom Church

👵 Ask a grandma for life advice

🌅 On 29th March there is a world record attempt for watching the sunset together in London (phone free!)

🏘️ How The Sims influenced a generation of creatives

📚Tiny Experiments by curiosity researcher Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a book about how to live freely in a goal obsessed world - I can’t wait to read this!

🛼 Cheapskates is your guide to free events in London (and virtually!). Thanks for featuring our Bodystorming event with Mirjam Leunissen!

🇮🇪 A manifesto by Kneecap: 10 rules for life from the Belfast rap group (Happy St Patrick’s Day!)

🌐 Project 195 is built around the premise that art is global society’s ‘only true universal language’

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Finally…

Thanks for reading! A lot of time, heart and energy goes into writing these each week. If you enjoy what we do at Creative Quests - you can support by joining a Quest (next one is in April!) or booking us to run a workshop in your community or organisation. If you want to know more - just hit reply on this email!

Sharing this newsletter with a curious loved one is also deeply appreciated.

Quest love,
Sam x
CQ HQ

🥾 Quest Guide / Founder
📲 @saaamfurness

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