New Year Creative Energy? How to channel it
Issue #38 💭 One week left to sign up for January’s Quest + join our 2024 vision session this Sunday + curious things to click on.
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Written by Sam Furness, delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Hello Questers and Happy New Year!
Sam here 👋 If you’ve been here for more than a year you will well know that we take New Years Creative Energy (NYCE™) pretty damn seriously at Creative Quests. This letter is full of ideas, inspiration and support to make sure your NYCE is not just for January.
Before we dig in: some reminders of experiences you can join this month.
✨ January’s Creative Quest 16 Jan - 13 Feb
We offer no better way to bring life, structure and community to your creativity. A month of learning to see the world in a whole new way! Sign up closes on 10th Jan.
🎟 £30 | sign up now / more details
🎥 how a Quest works in 2 mins🔮 It’s My Creative Future Sun 7th Jan (6.00-7.30pm GMT)
A free 2024 visioning workshop for your creative life.
🎟 Free \ sign up now
The 4th of January is a magic day.
It was on this very day 8 years ago that a new years resolution changed my life… and eventually led to launching Creative Quests 5 years later.
On 4th January 2016, things felt a bit… flat.
My once vivid creative life: full of music, collaborators, ideas, side projects and FUN had fallen victim to the conveyor belt of modern life. My creative time replaced with scrolling, over working and doing what every other 20 something was doing in London at the time.
It felt like I was on auto-pilot - and that true, curious, experimental version of my creative self was long-lost somewhere in the past.
Simply: I didn’t feel like me anymore.
Embracing NYCE - I decided that 2016 would the year I became an active participant in my creative life again. I would hit unsubscribe on the notion that that conveyor belt of modern life would take me with it.
The challenge was simple: discover more of the ways us human beings express ourselves, by exploring one theme every month of the year ahead, in my spare time. 12 months. 12 themes.
Over that year, armed with a relentless curiosity and drive to get my creative identity back - I weaved my way through other people’s creative worlds. London as my playground.
I renamed every calendar month with the themes I explored:
1. Origami. 2. The Art of Flight. 3. Drawing. 4. Food. 5. Get Physical. 6. Colour. 7. EUnited. 8. Animation. 9. Installation. 10. Photography. 11. Songwriting. 12. Storytelling.
Each of these themes became my muse, my singular interest, my way of seeing - for one month.
Come Storytelling (aka December) - my creative self was back and stronger than ever. Wild ideas and projects galore.
Not only that: but I felt happier at work, deeper in my friendships and much clearer in my head. I made new friends. I learnt new skills. I fell in love with London all over again.
It felt like a gap year adventure - but I hadn’t left my job. Not even the city I lived in.
Adventure was my attitude.
I could share endless lessons from this year (most of them have ended up in Creative Quests) - but for the sake of this newsletter I will stick to the juiciest one.
I discovered new depths of my creativity once I abandoned my own perceptions of what my creativity was.
🌱 I found my creativity in conversations with strangers about things they were passionate about.
🌱 I found my creativity in reading books on things I’d never found interesting before.
🌱 I found my creativity in places I had walked past a thousand times on my way to work - but now noticed because I chose to see differently.
🌱 I found my creativity once I dared to be a beginner again.
As it turned out - I was actually pretty good at some of the things I tried. Rubbish at others. But mostly - I exceeded the expectations I had for myself.
When we participate in the world outside of our own little bubbles and lead with curiosity - miraculous things can happen.
So I put it to you…
Imagine if:
💭 2024 was the year you broke the mould of your creativity?
💭 You slipped free from the expectations of others and the assumptions you hold over yourself?
💭 You took your creativity on a Quest?
What might that look like?
To unsubscribe to:
❌ the notion that your creativity should be a singular thing.
❌ the idea that you aren’t good at ‘that thing’ because you weren’t ‘good’ at it at school.
❌ the feeling that it’s too late to try something new.
Beginning again does not erase your progress or your story so far. It just adds an interesting new layer to the evolving creative story of: you.
Making your creative spirit a malleable force is an art form in itself.
If you want to learn our Questing method…
… and immerse yourself in a mystery theme, in community with others from around the world - we kick off our next Creative Quest on 16th January. The theme will be revealed when sign ups close. Step into the unknown and your curiosity with be rewarded!
These are frameworks you will be able to take away and use all year round. Not only that but you will meet the most incredible, diverse community of multi-passionate creative humans.
**Sign ups close on 10th Jan at 23:59pm.
This is the only Quest of this format we are running in 2024.
”This experience was mind expanding and once you do it you can’t stop thinking like a Quester.” - Ana, May 2023
”For anyone who wants to develop their creativity through a collective exploration, to see things in a new way and learn from the bright minds of others from around the world. 10/10 - would recommend.” - Hannah, Oct 2023
”Creative Quests are like a trip beyond the realms of reality that manages to reconnect you to your world .” - Carl, Oct 2023
A round up of curious finds from our world
👁🗨 Want to unlock new levels of creative inspiration in 2024? Here’s how…
🕊 ‘I got saved by the beauty of the world’ a stunning conversation with the late poet Mary Oliver via On Being.
📚 Reading party, anybody?
🧭 How aimless creativity ruins your life. A great watch and lots of Quest life crossover here.
👖 Ralph Lauren on authenticity and inspiration
🎨 Accumulate are the London art school for the homeless. Their Creative Futures programme breaks down the barriers for people who are affected by homelessness to enter the creative sector - now open for applications.
🪐 This Maria Popova talk on the universe and creativity from Creative Mornings NYC still comes back and dazzles me in memory from time to time.
Finally…
A 7 word poem from Mary Oliver that says it all much better than I can.
Instructions for living a life
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
- Mary Oliver
Wishing you very best in creativity for 2024.
Sam x
Quest Guide / Founder
@saaamfurness
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
the smol print
👁 Follow us on Instagram
✉️ Know someone in need of a creativity boost? Send them this newsletter.
❤️ Hitting the heart button makes us feel loved and listened to!
