I’m halfway through my trip to Costa Rica and am a changed man.

My transformation has been so profound that writing this email — something I look forward to every week — is the last thing I want to do. I’m just being 100% honest. I’d rather be lying on the beach, drinking water from a coconut, eating fish that still tastes like ocean water, and listening to the waves come and go.

Places like this remind me that everything comes and goes — people, money, success, everything.

Places like this remind me that not everything is a priority — not everything requires my immediate attention and full effort.

Places like this remind me that I should learn to identify what truly matters and prioritize it.

This newsletter matters. Our relationship matters. So, I prioritize it because I love you. I love us.

But I’m on vacation and want to get back to the beach, my coconut, my fish, and the waves.

So, I’m setting a timer for 10 minutes to brainstorm as many tips to help you improve your creative work so that you, too, can get back to what matters most.

But more on that later …

BTW, if you love THE WORK, share it with a friend. If you hate it, share it with an enemy.

TODAY’S MENU

• 💡 21 Creativity Tips

• 🧠 How To Deal With Creative Anxiety & Procrastination

• ⛰️ 9 Books That Will Make You Smarter

• 🤗 5 Lessons on Creativity

— Santi

21 Creativity Tips

You have the ability to create things no one else can.

Here is a collection of 21 insights to help you generate better ideas, develop your creative process, and silence the inner critic that holds you back.

1. To become more creative, stop telling yourself you’re not.

2. Creativity isn’t the art of turning nothing into something. It’s the art of turning something into something.

3. Perfection is an illusion. Creative quality is subjective.

4. To create better, consume better.

5. It doesn’t matter what your creative process is, but you need one.

6. Focus less on generating ideas and more on recognizing them.

7. Failure is a learning tool.

8. Every creative genius is as insecure as you are.

9. If you want to develop new ideas, learn to look at old ideas from a new angle.

10. Wanna silence your inner critic? Create.

11. Creativity is problem-solving.

12. Creative work is self-work (aka personal development).

13. Focus on quantity and quality.

14. When you’re unsure what to do next, list 50 things you could do next.

15. Creative work is a marathon.

16. Learn the power of “What if …?”

17. Learn to recognize good enough.

18. The more questions you ask, the more creative answers you find.

19. Creative work requires no fancy gadgets other than courage, curiosity, and honesty.

20. PERFECTIONISM is spelled “PROCRASTINATION.”

21. It doesn’t matter if these tips are the “best” I could have created –  what matters is I created them.

I’ll be back from my vacation next week. Get ready for some juicy stuff.

What ideas are you chewing on nowadays? What are you working on? I’d love to hear from you!