Have you ever been stuck in a rut, burnt out, feeling like you don’t want to do anything because you don’t have enough energy to do so? Well, if you’re like a lot of other people, I’m sure you have felt this way at one point in time or another.

A good strategy I like to use to kick-start my routine is to doodle, brainstorm, put feelings on paper, and just release what’s inside that’s needing to get out. I find that having a creative outlet that allows my inner thoughts out, is a great way to gain individuality and freedom as an aspiring writer.

Another way in which I like to utilize my creative energies is to venture into the avoided, the feared, and the unknown. By doing this, I am putting myself in a position I’ve often steered clear of due to the intimidation I feel from it.

A few examples where I’ve dove into the fearful unknown, include writing science fiction, painting a person’s portrait, and singing in front of an audience. Each of these scenarios frightens me and usually causes me to avoid participating in them at any given time. However, if I force myself to face these fears, I am allowing a sheltered part of my mind to run wild and temp my creative juices to produce something freshly discovered and newly explored that can actually make clear and concise sense in the end.

By the end of this exercise, the goal is to satisfy the original need of outputting your internal energy. At the start of the exercise, fear tends to hold me back from expressing myself freely. And by the end of the exercise, courage tends to push me towards a satisfied need.

So ultimately, the moral to the exercise would be that “Before you can tame the beast, you have to first train the kitten to face the world unafraid.”