Writing * Photography * Contemplation

Turning Hum Drum into An Exciting Adventure

Routine.  Boring.  Ho Hum.  Status Quo.  Same as it ever was.  

How do you shake it up?

Get Lost  I don’t need much help with this one.  My Dad gave me a GPS for my 40th birthday.  Even with that, I still get lost.  But that’s when I find new things.  I see new things, discover new things…  I don’t always like to travel down the same roads.  Sometimes a new road is all it takes – whether it’s taken on purpose or not!

No More AutoPilot  When I get up, I always feed the cat, grab my coffee, and sit down at my computer.  Except on days when I don’t.  If you’re getting bored, break up the routine.  Try showering first.  Try doing the yoga you keep promising yourself you’re going to do.  Just do something different.

Become A Master   Sometimes in order to do things differently, you have to know what you are doing.  If I want to take a different picture of a fork, I probably need to take a million pictures of a fork from different angles and in different lighting and in different environments in order to get a creative image of a fork.

Risk Failure  If you are too afraid of failure, you probably won’t try anything new.  You have to be messy and make mistakes to get new results, to be creative.  Look at kids!  Talk about messy creativity!  And do they care that their masterpiece looks like a giant blob?  Nope.  It’s the process.

Remove The Barriers  Remove those barriers.  Especially the false ones.  Who says you can’t do it that way?  If you’re not willing to look at alternatives, you might not find new ideas or experiences.

New Uses  One of my favorite columns in Real Simple is the new uses for old things.  Like using an ice cube tray to hold your pairs of earrings.  Just like removing barriers, remove your preconceived notions of what functions an item can have or what ideas belong with what.  I think this is some of my fascination with altered art.  Transform something old and boring that was headed for the trash heap into something exciting, fresh, new, and beautiful.


Which Road Will You Take?




I find my inspiration in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken“

Related posts:

  1. Light a Candle
  2. Thorns Hurt
  3. Excuses, Excuses, Excuses….
  4. Don’t Give Up

Therese Kay is an author and photographer residing in Massachusetts. She loves the contemplative practices of visio divina and contemplative photography. She often writes about and teaches them to others.

Related posts:

  1. Light a Candle
  2. Thorns Hurt
  3. Excuses, Excuses, Excuses….
  4. Don’t Give Up

This Post Has One Comment

  1. ACK! It cut off my Robert Frost quote from the poem. How annoying. Apparently Blogger doesn't like long posts…and this wasn't even that long… Here was the quote:
    "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference."

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