The Incredible Power of Side Projects

How Are You Improving Your Creative Muscles?

Note: This is a reflection on the major lessons learned in this episode of the podcast Unthinkable, a show for people who value craft and creativity in business. Find that episode here or below:

When you want to improve your physical strength, you go to the gym. When you want to improve your mental strength, you meditate. When you want to improve your spiritual strength, you go to church.

What about your creative strength? What are you doing today, this week, or this month to get your creative muscles stronger?

Just like your body’s muscles, there’s a certain degree of basic exercise that happens just by moving through your day. You walk to work. You lift your groceries. You do the usual type of creative project at work — you do what’s required, what’s expected, or what’s allowed.

You’re using some muscles in all of this, sure. But in the long arc of your life, this isn’t helping. In the long run, you’re losing strength, or you’re relying the same set of muscles each day, allowing others to weaken.

Take tennis great Rafael Nadal.

He’s a lefty, so he swings his racket primarily using his left arm. And as a professional, just like us, he does the same motion constantly to get better and to deliver results. But because he’s so focused on his left arm, something weird has happened to him: His arms are noticeably different sizes! His left arm is much more muscular, and it shows:

As creators today, thanks to all the various demands and opportunities presented by the internet, we have to be more well-rounded. We can’t be lopsided, at least not for very long, if what we seek is a prolific, fulfilling career.

So ask yourself:

If you work out in other areas to gain strength and stay balanced, what are you doing creatively?

What you should be doing — what we ALL should be doing — is tinkering on a side project.

Side projects are the best way to learn and grow as a creator of anything.

Whether they’re small or big, private or public, somewhat related to work or not at all related, side projects help us work out our creative muscles.

Best of all, the most beneficial of these creative workouts often feel like play. When it comes to physical fitness, for instance, I love basketball. I love trail runs. The more I do both, the more fit I get — I’m willing to do them longer, harder, and more frequently. The same goes for your side projects. You can do anything (and thanks to the internet, I mean “anything” in a near-literal sense!). Pick a topic you geek out about personally. Be silly. Be stupid. But just do it for you and you alone … just because.

Side projects (especially those that feel like play) are wonderfully powerful. We can fail and explore and tinker in a safe space. We try new things that work out new muscles and strengthen weak ones and use strong ones in ways we didn’t realize were possible. We can let our subconscious work on hard problems for us, as we get so focused and go so deep into our projects that we temporarily leave the tedium of today.

In doing this, we become stronger. We become true masters of our craft. As Dilbert creator Scott Adams says, “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which to keep.”

Allow yourself to make mistakes. Allow yourself that time to go work out your creative muscles. You’ll be better, faster, and stronger as a result.