Why a Daily Creative Habit Might Be Good for Your Mental Health

Almost all of the things that led to me writing 1000 words a day came from the field of positive psychology and the work of happiness researchers like Shawn Achor. A few days ago, someone asked me in an interview, what I’d learned about happiness from the hundreds of people I had interviewed.

Until then I hadn’t realized that the answer had to do with control. If you look at nearly every happiness intervention from the field of positive psychology, they all have to do with taking control of some aspect of your life:

• Keeping a gratitude journal
• Exercising each day
• Mindful media consumption

We’re taking control of our lives and changing our behavior when we do any of the above. As Shawn Achor says

“Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.”

As we change our behavior it reinforces a positive self image and we become happier.

A daily creative habit tends to have a similar impact. Given that it’s the example, I’m personally most familiar with, let’s use the idea of writing 1000 words a day.

While I can’t control how many people will read what I write or their reactions to it, the one thing I do control is the decision to sit down and write each morning. By focusing on what I control and letting go of the things that I don’t I’m more prolific and productive. Hitting my word count everyday also reinforces the notion that I can set a goal and accomplish it. This starts to create a more positive self-image. Last but not least, there’s a sense of fulfillment that comes from being immersed in deep work.

Human beings, it seems, are at their best when immersed deeply, in something challenging. Deep work is an activity well suited to generate a flow state (the phrases used by Csikzentimhalyi to describe what generates flow include notions of stretching your mind to its limits, concentrating, and losing yourself in an activity, all of which also describe deep work) And as we just learned flow generates happiness. — Cal Newport

Shallow work might make us feel good temporarily. But spend all day on it, and it’s a bit like drinking a few too many cocktails. You feel terrible after the day is over. And nearly all shallow work is the result of someone else controlling your behavior.

So try picking it up a daily creative habit. It might just make you happier and create a ripple effect in other areas of your life.

I’m the host and founder of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast.

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