For all you writing-enthusiasts out there who are looking for a little inspiration to get started on that novel that you just know is buried somewhere deep within you, here are 24 more tips for writers, from writers:

1. “What lasts in the reader’s mind is not the phrase but the effect the phrase created: laughter, tears, pain, joy. If the phrase is not affecting the reader, what’s it doing there? Make it do its job or cut it without mercy or remorse.” – Issac Asimov

2. “You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.” – Joseph Campbell

3. “I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whizz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace.” – Sarah Waters

4. “The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.” – William Saroyan

5. “Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.” – Jeanette Winterson

6. “Study the genre that applies, determine what works and only then, write your outline and the book.” – Larry Moniz

7. “Plot springs from character… I’ve always sort of believed that these people inside me- these characters- know who they are and what they’re about and what happens, and they need me to help get it down on paper because they don’t type.” – Anne Lamott

8. “Use the landscape. Always tell us where we are. And don’t just tell us where something is, make it pay off. Use description of landscape to help you establish the emotional tone of the scene. Keep notes of how other authors establish mood and foreshadow events by describing the world around the character. Look at the openings of Fitzgerald stories, and Graham Greene, they’re great at this.” – Janet Fitch

9. “Before you sit down to write a scene, mull it over in your mind and know the purpose of that scene. What earlier set-ups will this scene pay off? What will it set up for later scenes? How will this scene further your plot? As you work, drive, exercise, hold only this question in your mind. Take a few notes as you have ideas. And only when you’ve decided on the bones of the scene – then, sit and write it. Don’t go to that boring, dusty computer without something in mind. And don’t make your reader slog through a scene in which little or nothing happens.” – Chuck Palahniuk

10. “To produce a mighty work, you must choose a mighty theme.” – Herman Melville

11. “Never fear [the audience] or despise it. Coax it, charm it, interest it, stimulate it, shock it now and then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, but above all . . . never, never, never bore the hell out of it.” – Noel Coward

12. “A writer’s job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.” – John Irving

13. “Advice from this elderly practitioner is to forget publishers and just roll a sheet of copy paper into your machine and get lost in your subject.” – E. B. White

14. “Today’s impatient readers give a novelist fewer than seven minutes . . . Therefore, whenever an author told me that his novel really got going on page ten or twenty or thirty, I had to pass on the news that his book in all likelihood was doomed unless he could revise it so that the first three pages aroused the reader’s interest enough to quarantine him from distraction for the several hours the book demanded of him.” — Sol Stein, Stein on Writing

15. “Any writer who has difficulty in writing is probably not onto his true subject, but wasting time with false, petty goals; as soon as you connect with your true subject you will write.” – Joyce Carole Oats

16. “If you’re actually allowing your creative part to control your writing rather than a more commercial instinct or motive, then you’ll find that all sorts of interesting things will bubble up to the surface.” – Emma Thompson

17. “Moving around is good for creativity: the next line of dialogue that you desperately need may well be waiting in the back of the refrigerator or half a mile along your favorite walk.” – Will Shetterly

18. “The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.” – Norbet Platt

19. “Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant – you just don’t know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you’d mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place. Trust your demon.” – Roger Zelazny

20. “Writing is finally a series of permissions you give yourself to be expressive in certain ways. To invent. To leap. To fly. To fall. To be strict without being too self-excoriating. Not stopping too often to think it’s going well (or not too badly), simply to keep rowing along.” – Susan Sontag

21. “If you don’t write when you don’t have time for it, you won’t write when you do have time for it.”
– Katerina Stoykova Klemer

22. “I like writing a lot more than I used to. I used to find it scary but now I’ve got used to it once it gets going. I used to find it hard to start. Fear of the blank page. The first thing you write down won’t bear any relation to what’s in your head and that’s always disappointing.” – Victoria Wood

23. “Just tell the damn story; don’t try to impress.” – Rick Bragg

24. “This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.” – Steven Pressfield

Here are even more tips for writers, from writers.

Related Posts:

1. The Night Before Christmas and Stealing Like An Artist
2.Creativity Tools: 24 Free Online Creative Thinking Tools
3.57 Tips For Writers, From Writers
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER
5. Need Fresh Ideas? Go Streetcombing

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

Thinking is nothing more than the process of asking and answering questions. Successful people are those who ask themselves better questions and, as a result, get better answers. Here are 99 powerful questions to ask yourself to turbocharge your life:

1. What do I want?

2. What am I grateful for?

3. What’s missing in my life?

4. Do I see the whole world anew each day?

5. Do I take the time to really listen to what others say?

6. Do I have fun?

7. How can I bring more joy into my life?

8. What do I want more of in my life?

9. What do I want less of in my life?

10. Am I on the look out for opportunities?

11. Do I seize opportunities?

12. Am I open-minded? Am I flexible?

13. Am I quick to judge others?

14. Do I take calculated risks?

15. Do I give others sincere compliments?

16. Do I appreciate what others do for me?

17. Where do I want to go?

18. Who do I want to meet?

19. What adventures do I want to go on?

20. Do I care too much about what others think of me?

21. Do I take offense too easily?

22. What makes me happy?

23. Do I procrastinate?

24. Do I stand up for myself?

25. Do I hold grudges?

26. Do I constantly dwell on the past?

27. Do I let other people’s negativity affect me?

28. Do I forgive myself?

29. Do I smile often?

30. Do I laugh often?

31. Do I surround myself with positive, life-affirming people who want the best for me?

32. Am I a positive, life-affirming person?

33. Am I giving enough time to nurturing/replenishing myself?

34. What is my secret ambition?

35. What do I want to be remembered for at the end of my life?

36. What does success mean to me?

37. How can I add value to the life of others?

38. How can I serve?

39. What can I do better than anyone else?

40. What are my top three strengths?

41. Am I moving in the direction of my dreams?

42. Do I tell others what I really want?

43. What does my ideal day look like?

44. Where do I want to be a year from now? Five years from now? Ten years from now? Twenty years from now?

45. What does my ideal living environment look like?

46. What would I do if I had no fear?

47. What would I do if money were not an object?

48. What excuses am I making?

49. Do I enjoy what I do on a daily basis?

50. Am I on the right path?

51. Am I kind to myself?

52. Am I kind to others?

53. Do I take things for granted?

54. Am I doing what matters most right now?

55. Is there an area in my life that needs more attention?

56. Do I make the best use of my time?

57. What can I do right now that would make the biggest difference in my life?

58. What am I avoiding?

59. What am I tolerating/putting up with?

60. Do I have specific, measurable goals with clear deadlines?

61. Do I keep the promises I make to myself?

62. Do I keep the promises I make to others?

63. For my life to be perfect, what would have to change?

64. What am I most looking forward to right now?

65. What activities do I perform that give me the least joy? Do they really need doing? Can I delegate or pay someone else to do them?

66. How can I simplify my life?

67. Do I see myself as a creative person?

68. Do I allow myself to be creative?

69. Can I be spontaneous?

70. Am I too critical of myself?

71. Am I too critical of others?

72. Do I look at problems from several different angles and perspectives?

73. What have I accomplished?

74. What are the major sources of stress in my life?

75. How can I reduce stress in my life?

76. Do I know where my money is going?

77. Do I have a handle on my finances?

78. Do I have a financial plan for the future?

79. Do I know where my time is going?

80. Have I created an efficient time management system for myself?

81. What are the three biggest priorities in my life?

82. Who are the most important people in the world to me?

83. Who loves me? Who cares for me?

84. Are my living and work areas organized in a way that serves me well?

85. Do I have a healthy lifestyle?

86. Am I carrying any emotional baggage?

87. Have I let go of the mistakes I’ve made in the past?

88. Do I give myself permission to fail?

89. Do I learn from my mistakes?

90. Do I rebound quickly when something goes wrong?

91. Do my beliefs serve me well?

92. Do I need to relax the rules I’ve set for myself and for others?

93. What childhood dreams have I been neglecting?

94. Where have I been giving my power over to others? What do I need to do in order to regain my power?

95. Who are my role models?

96. Am I being authentic? Do I allow myself to be me? Am I trying to be somebody I’m not?

97. What if . . . ?

98. Why not . . . ?

99. How can I . . . ?

Answer the questions above and get started living your best life.

Related Posts:

• 20 Questions to Ask Yourself
• Know Thyself! Use the Proust Questionnaire
• Ten Strategies for Overcoming the Negativity Bias and Increasing Your Quality of Life
• Five Ways to Make Friends and Get Along With Others

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Seth Godin explains in his blog post “Opening Acts and Rock Stars” that rock stars have it good: the crowd chants for them before they’re even on stage, people know their songs and sing along excitedly throughout the concert, and they can even stop singing and the crowd will finish the lyrics for them. But what happens when you’re not a rock star, in fact, you’re not even the opening act?  You create anyway.

Below you’ll find seven examples of people who continued to create even when they were basically toiling in the dark.

Rembrandt van Rijn – Don’t Allow Outside Circumstances to Stop You From Creating

In the 17th century the Netherlands was the most prosperous country in Europe. Rembrandt van Rijn–one of the most sought after Dutch masters–was born in 1606 and won acclaim from an early age. His ability to capture the essence of his subjects’ characters made him popular.

He was doing extraordinarily well with his paintings–and was making lots of money and living an extravagant lifestyle–when the Dutch art market collapsed. Rembrandt had mortgaged himself to the hilt and all of a sudden he had creditors banging on the door while his clients disappeared.

In 1658 Rembrandt was forced into bankruptcy. The courts sold his house and possessions. Living in near-poverty without a glimmer of hope that the Dutch economy would improve, he nonetheless kept right on painting. Some even argue that he produced his best work during this time.  (Source.)

Emily Dickinson – The Recluse

Born in 1830, Emily Dickinson spent almost all of her life in the same house and yard in Amherst, Massachusetts.  Although she was always shy and withdrawn, for the last 25 years of her life she was a recluse, hardly ever leaving her home and grounds in Amherst.

Emily was an eccentric and an extreme individualist; she had several minor peculiarities, such as always wearing white and avoiding visitors.  Her two great passions were her garden and her poetry, both of which she cultivated for her own pleasure and not for public display.

She scribbled her poems on the backs of envelopes and odd scraps of paper and stored them in bundles in her room.  Only five of her poems were published during her lifetime. After Emily’s death her sister, Lavinia, found the hoard of manuscripts and arranged for them to be published.  Today Emily Dickinson is recognized as one of the world’s greatest poets.

The Brontë Sisters – Charlotte, Emily, and Anne

The Brontë sisters were brought up by an eccentric father in the desolate and gloomy Yorkshire moors. From an early age they were responsible for their own entertainment.  They read voraciously and took long walks along the moors.

In 1845 Charlotte discovered by accident that Emily had been writing poetry, even as she and Anne had been doing unknown to each other.  The three sisters published their poems, each under a different pseudonym. Only two copies of their book of poetry was sold.

However, the lack of interest from the public in their poetry did not destroy their passion for writing, and each sister set about to write a novel.  After numerous rejections by publishers, each published a novel in 1847:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte
• Wuthering Heights by Emily
• Agnes Grey by Anne

Today, all three novels are considered important works of literature.

Vincent Van Gogh – Sold Only One Painting During His Lifetime

Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings are some of the most recognizable art that exists today.  However, it is well-known that the Dutch Impressionist painter met with little success during his lifetime.  He was basically supported by his brother, Theo, and he sold only one painting while alive: “Red Vineyard”, which was sold in Brussels for 400 francs (roughly $350.00 at today’s rate).

As an example of what Van Gogh’s paintings are worth today, his painting “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” was auctioned off at Christie’s, New York, in 1990 and went for 82.5 million dollars.  It’s one of the world’s most expensive paintings.

Johann Sebastian Bach – As a Composer He Was Unappreciated During His Lifetime

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist born in 1685.  Today he’s widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.

However, although he was a famous organist in his lifetime, he was not particularly well known as a composer. In fact, his adherence to Baroque forms and contrapuntal style was considered “old-fashioned” by his contemporaries, and it was not until the early 19th century that there was a revival of interest and performances of his music.

For someone whose composing abilities were not truly appreciated during his lifetime, the following comment by scientist and author Lewis Thomas illustrates how much his music is venerated today.  Thomas once suggested how the people of Earth should communicate with the universe:

“I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging, of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later.” (Source).

The Sex & Cash Theory

Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid.com fame offers a solution for those who are creating in the dark but are not too keen on starving for their art; he calls it “the sex & cash theory”.   He argues that the creative person has two kinds of jobs:

• The sexy, creative type; and
• The one that pays the bills.

Maybe you wait tables while going on auditions; or you play at weddings and bar mitzvahs while putting together a fantastic demo tape; or you work at a portrait studio and then take a month off each year and go photograph wild life in Alaska; or you teach English at the local high school while writing your novel.

Hugh adds that in the book “Soul Dance”, Bill Plotkin argues that there’s a Survival Dance and there’s a Sacred Dance.  The survival dance has to come first, because it provides the means of supporting yourself physically and economically. For most people, this means a paid job.

Once you’ve established a strong foundation for yourself through your survival dance, then you can start looking for clues as to what your sacred dance is : the work you were born to do.  Here’s how you know when you’ve found it:

“You know you’ve found it when there’s little else you’d rather be doing. Getting paid for it is superfluous. You would gladly pay others, if necessary, for the opportunity.”

That is, it’s the work you continue to get up and perform every day even if you lose everything you’ve worked for–like Rembrandt did–; or if your work gets called old fashioned, or worse, by your contemporaries as in Bach’s case; or if you can’t find a publisher like the Brontë sisters; or if you write your poems on the backs of envelopes like Emily Dickinson did.

Conclusion

Plotkin indicates in “Soul Dance” that once you discover your sacred dance and learn effective ways of performing it, the world will support you in doing so.  Then, gradually, your sacred dance will become what you do and you will no longer need your survival dance.

However, even if your work goes completely unappreciated by others–as in the case of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings during his lifetime–continue to do your sacred dance, even if it’s just in your spare time and you are your only audience. No  matter what, create.

Related Posts:

1. The Night Before Christmas and Stealing Like An Artist
2.Creativity Tools: 24 Free Online Creative Thinking Tools
3.57 Tips For Writers, From Writers
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER
5. Need Fresh Ideas? Go Streetcombing

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

Richard Stomp is a Dutch innovation consultant, as well as the founder and Chief Wow Officer of “WowIdeas”.

A few years back, Richard coined the term “streetcombing” to describe a method he came up with for generating fresh ideas (you can watch Richard presenting his concept at the 2008 Creativity World Forum on YouTube).

The term “streetcombing” is derived from “beachcombing”. As we know, a beachcomber is someone who walks along the beach looking for objects of value or interest.  Similarly, a streetcomber is someone who walks the streets looking for ideas.

Richard argues that people who constantly need to find fresh ideas should make it a point to go out on the street once a week and follow the six-step streetcombing process. This process is described below.

1.  First, you have to find a street. Preferably, look for an interesting street where new shops are popping up every week.  That is, look for a street that’s just starting to get hip. Take your camera with you.

2. As you’re walking down the street which you’ve chosen, watch and look out for anything that catches your attention.  Make sure to have the right attitude.  Richard argues that you need to keep an attitude which he calls “mind like a child”: forget everything you know, and be very curious.

3. The third step is to take pictures of everything that you find interesting.  Take lots and lots of pictures.  At this step you don’t stop to ask yourself why you’re taking a picture of a particular object or person, you just take pictures without judging, criticizing, or evaluating.

4. You go home and put all of the photographs on your computer.

5. The fifth step it to look through the photographs and ask yourself the following:

• What is the concept behind this picture?
• Why did I take it?
• What makes it interesting?

This is the hardest part of the streetcombing process. Here are three examples that Richard uses from his own streetcombing expeditions:

The photograph to the left shows some beer crates on a balcony. The beer crates were used to build a wall.  The concept to be derived from this photograph is the following: “putting objects to a different use than what they were originally intended for”.

The photograph to the right shows an electricity house; electricity houses are dull little buildings. However, the electricity house in the photo is anything but dull: it was painted to look like the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. The principle behind this photograph is the following: “add fun to dull objects”.

The third and final example consists of designer sugar, which is depicted in the photo to the left.  Richard found sugar in a gourmet food shop near his office which is shaped in such a way that you can attach it to the edge of the cup.

The owners of the shop that sells this sugar added “design” to ordinary sugar cubes.  They charge a lot more for them than what you would pay at the grocery store for an ordinary lump of sugar; that’s what design does for you.

(The three photos above were taken from a PDF created by Richard, which you can find here).

6. The last step of streetcombing is to take the concept you found in Step 5, apply it to your own business, and start generating ideas. From our three examples above, you would ask yourself questions such as the following:

• Is there a different use for my product?
• How can I make my product or service more fun, more eye-catching, or more interesting?
• Where can I add the concept of “design” to my products or services that will allow me to charge more for them?

Conclusion

Richard explains that you can also go museum-combing, Ikea-combing, supermarket-combing, newspaper-combing, and so on.  He adds that ideas are everywhere; you just have to make a point of looking for them with the right attitude. Find fresh ideas by going streetcombing.

Related Posts:

1. The Night Before Christmas and Stealing Like An Artist
2.Creativity Tools: 24 Free Online Creative Thinking Tools
3.57 Tips For Writers, From Writers
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

Something that I’ve emphasized on this blog over and over again is that creativity is about combining existing elements, building on what others have done, and applying concepts from seemingly unrelated fields to your problem in order to come up with a solution.  In other words, creativity is about stealing like an artist (which is a phrase that I stole from Austin Kleon).

Recently I came across an example of stealing like an artist, and I wanted to share it with you. It involves the poem “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore. You’ll find an explanation below.

The Night Before Christmas

Most of you are probably familiar with the poem “The Night Before Christmas”. It’s a poem which was first published in the early 19th century which is largely responsible for the conception of Santa Claus which we have today. The first verse of the poem goes as follows:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc’d in their heads,

Several illustrators have taken this poem and have published it as an illustrated book for children. I had one of these books as a kid. The pages within were similar to the one below (from “The Night Before Christmas” illustrated by Charles Santore):

Here’s where we come to the “stealing like an artist” part. I recently came across a set of children’s books by Natasha Wing. Wing–a writer and illustrator–took Moore’s poem and adapted it to several different holidays:

• The Night Before Thanksgiving
• The Night Before Halloween
• The Night Before New Year’s
• The Night Before Easter

Then, she simply followed the old formula of illustrating the poem and publishing it. As an example, “The Night Before Thanksgiving” begins as follows:

‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving
and all through the nation,
families got ready for the big celebration.
At our house my mom baked
three kinds of pie:
pecan and pumpkin,
and apple surprise.

As you can see from the verse above, all she did was spin Moore’s poem so that it would fit the Thanksgiving holiday (and, of course, she created the illustrations).

“The Night Before Halloween” begins as follows:

‘Twas the night before Halloween,
and all through the house,
all the creatures were stirring,
except for the mouse.
The monsters had gathered
to plan and prepare,
for the trick-or-treaters
who soon would be there.

In fact, Wing didn’t just stop at the four books I’ve already mentioned–Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year’s, and Easter. She followed the same “recipe” for several other holidays and special occasions:

• The Night Before Mother’s Day
• The Night Before Kindergarten
• The Night Before First Grade
• The Night Before Valentine’s Day
• The Night Before Father’s Day
• The Night Before the Tooth Fairy
• The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day
• The Night Before Summer Vacation

If you take a look at Wing’s books on Amazon, they’ve gotten some great reviews. Both parents and kids love her books. Instead of starting off with a blank slate, she started off with one of the most beloved poems of all time. Then, she just proceeded to modify the poem to fit different holidays or special occasions.

 Conclusion

There are few things more difficult than trying to start a creative project from scratch. Instead of starting off with the dreaded blank canvas, surround yourself with the ideas of others and start from there. Go ahead: be more creative by stealing like an artist.

Related Posts:

1. Ray Bradbury’s Best Writing Advice
2.Creativity Tools: 24 Free Online Creative Thinking Tools
3.57 Tips For Writers, From Writers
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

You already know that the best way to improve your writing is by reading, and by writing. But what should you write about? That’s where writing prompts come in.

Having a list of prompts that you can pull from every day in order to help you practice your craft, even if it’s just for ten minutes a day, can be very helpful. In addition, sometimes creative writing prompts can help spark an idea when you’re stuck on a short story or some other fiction piece that you’re working on.

Here, then, is a plethora of writing prompts to help you make the most of your writing time.

1. Every Monday Creative Writing Ink publishes a photo or an illustration and you’re invited to write a short story or poem using the image featured in the post as your inspiration.

2. If you think that you don’t have the time to journal daily, the site The-One-Minute Writer would tell you that all you need is a minute a day. They offer a daily writing prompt to help you do just that. Here are a few examples from the site:

• Write about a souvenir you’ve brought back from a trip.
• Write a brief bit of fiction using the prompt “lipstick”.
• Describe your favorite cookie, as if you’re trying to sell it.
• What book do you wish you could step into?

3. “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick” is a book that contains fourteen haunting illustrations, each with a title and a caption. Each caption is a seed for a story, which makes the book a great prompt for writing.

One of the illustrations is titled “Uninvited Guests”. When you glance at this illustration it looks like a typical storage area, with someone’s foot visible on the third step. However, if you look carefully you’ll notice a tiny door—maybe 18 inches high–cut into the wall; it has a rounded top and a miniscule doorknob. This is the caption: “His heart was pounding. He was sure he had seen the doorknob turn”.

4. The Story Starter is an idea generator which randomly generates 1,660,497,300 story starters. It can be used for short stories, novels, plays, scripts, or just for fun. The story starters are pretty goofy (“The hard-working bagel baker destroyed the evidence in the bus terminal to visit a nephew”) but they’re a good starting point. For example, you could turn the prompt generated by The Story Starter into something like the following:

He had lived a quiet life as a baker for years, but his past had come back to haunt him. In light of the previous evening’s events he had a decision to make. He could either destroy the evidence hidden in Locker 756 at the bus terminal, or he could come clean to his nephew and finally tell him the truth.

5. Here’s another story generator: The Plot Scenario Generator.  And here are five interesting plots:

• The story starts when your protagonist finds an old book on a friend’s shelf.
• The story starts when your protagonist tries speed dating.
• The story starts when your protagonist discovers that he’s being stalked by someone he once dated.
• The story starts when your protagonist signs on for a reality show.
• The story starts when your protagonist breaks a promise.

6. In case you haven’t heard of the term “dystopia”, it’s a society being ruled by a repressive and controlling government (think of the opposite of a utopia). Dystopian novels are those in which an apocalypse of some sort has taken place–such as a devastating world war, or an epidemic that has wiped out a large portion of the world’s population–and, in an effort to rebuild, a police state has been set up which greatly limits the freedom of its citizens.

Examples of dystopian novels include the following:

• “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
• “1984” by George Orwell
• “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury
• “The Children of Men” by P.D. James

If you would like to try your hand at a dystopian novel, here’s an apocalypses generator to help give you some ideas, including the following:

• bio-engineered plague
• demonic creatures
• carnivorous plants

7. Here’s another story generator: Quick Story Idea Generator. And here’s an idea generated by this tool:

• The theme of this story: psychological drama.
• The main character: stupid jailer.
• The major event of the story: smuggling.

8. If you want to write a short story, here’s a site filled with ideas: Short Story Ideas. It has ideas for your story’s characters, ideas for scenarios, ideas for your short story’s title, ideas for the first line, twist ideas, and so on.

Some theme ideas include the following:

• Vanity
• Jealousy
• Revenge
• Envy
• Self-doubt
• Disappointment

Some story twist ideas include the following:

• A woman turns out to be a man.
• The villain turns out to be the hero.
• Someone who is supposed to be dead is actually alive.

9. Writer’s Digest has a great list of writing prompts here. Ideas from the site include the following:

• For the last 10 years, kids have been toilet papering your house on Halloween night. Unfortunately for them, this is the year you finally decided to get even. Write about your night of retaliation.
• You received a call from your alma mater and they want you to be the keynote speaker at graduation. Write a speech that inspires the future generation to work toward their dreams.
• After living for years paycheck to paycheck, a windfall of money comes your way from a distant uncle. But in order to receive the money, you must complete a mission from your uncle’s will. What’s the mission and did you do it?

10. The site The Write Prompts posts writing prompts seven times a week. The site includes images to use as prompts, quotes to use as prompts, one word story starters, poetry prompts, and so on. Here are some of the ideas included in the site:

• Write a story of a teen thinking of committing suicide and either changing their mind, or succeeding.
• Make a list in your journal of twenty-five words or phrases that come to mind when you think of Halloween. No phrase can be more than five words.
• Story starter: “One day I woke up and discovered that I could move things with my mind.”

11. The blog “Try Creative Writing: The Sky’s the Limit” is full of writing prompts. Here are some examples:

• Try and tell someone a bedtime story as they lay ready to sleep. Write the story down. If you don’t have someone to tell a bedtime story, pretend you do!
• Think of a book you’ve read recently or a movie you’ve seen. Try and find the story within the story. Create the background story for one of the characters or the catalyst for an event that took place in the story.

12. Melissa Donovan from the blog “Writing Forward” wrote a post containing “25 Creative Writing Prompts”. Here are my favorite three:

• There’s a man in his mid-forties sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper…
• There is a magic talisman that allows its keeper to read minds. It falls into the hands of a young politician…
• And you thought dragons didn’t exist . . .

In addition, Melissa has written a book containing “101 Creative Writing Exercises.” Here’s one of the exercises from her book:

“Art begets art. Each day, try to experience some form of art or entertainment. Go to a museum and look at paintings and sculptures (or view them online). Listen to an album. Watch a foreign film. Try to experience a mixture of fine art and pop culture entertainment. Then, write about it.”

13. Anjie is an English teacher who decided to start a blog in order to share creative writing prompts. Here are some of the prompts you’ll find on her blog, Creative Writing Prompts for Writers:

• Write about a collection, either yours or a collection belonging to someone else. It could also belong to a character in a novel you’re writing, or it could be an object you would like to collect, if you had the money.
• Write about a memory of blueberries.
• Write a commercial and include an element of surprise, like in the Dairy Queen commercial below:

14. Here’s a Tumblr filled with writing prompts. Three of the best ones are the following:

• Write a presidential speech with five ideas for fixing schools.
• Make a list of ten things you want to remember. Make a list of ten things you want to forget.
• Pick a person you admire and write “The Official Ten-Step Guide to Becoming the Next . . . “

15. The site “The Journal” contains journaling prompts, prose prompts, poetry prompts, free writing prompts, opinion prompts, and memoir prompts. Here’s an example of each:

• Journaling Prompt: Pretend that you’re watching yourself walking into a room. What would your first impression of yourself be?
• Prose Prompt: Write about someone discovering a key.
• Poetry Prompt: Write a poem that starts with “What good is a day . . .”
• Free Writing Prompt: Write for 20 minutes using a laundromat as your setting.
• Memoir Prompt: If you had 15 minutes to tell someone who you are, what would you tell them?
• Opinion prompt: Do you think that people have the right to decide when to end their lives?

16. The blog “Creativity Portal” has a goldmine of prompts here. These include Autumn Writing Prompts, such as the following:

• Write freely by choosing as many of these words as you’d like: acorns, leaves, colors, red, yellow, orange, green, brown, branches, twigs, aroma, burning leaves, crunch leaves, pressing leaves, smells, sights, sounds, color, vibrant, pumpkins, Halloween, ghosts, gourds, ghouls, vampires, costumes, dressing up, candy, treats, tricks, trick-or-treat, turkey, Thanksgiving, family, dinner, pilgrims, Mayflower, Indians, feathers, corn, popcorn, arts and crafts, gifts, pumpkin pie, whip cream, apples, orchard, cranberry sauce, potatoes, cornbread, stuffing, green beans, applesauce, cooking, warm, aroma, cinnamon, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, ham, food, abundance, thankful, cold, frost, snow, football, snowflakes, raking, rake, leaf piles, campfires, hiking, nature, forest, woods

17. Georges Polti was a French writer best known for his list of thirty-six dramatic situations. Basically, he argued that all stories boil down to just 36 dramatic situations and takeoffs of those situations (someone later added #37).  This site will randomly suggest one of these dramatic situations for your novel or short story.

For example, when I clicked on it I got the following:

• Your Situation: #35 – Recovery of a Lost One

18. My blog post 119 Journal Prompts for Your Journal Jar contains exactly what the title says: 119 journal prompts. Here are three examples:

• The most disappointed I’ve ever been . . .
• Look through your family photographs and choose a few to write about.
• Write about your favorite book character.

19. My eBook, “Create Your Life Story”, contains 444 memory prompts, covering several life areas, to help you get started recording your memories and writing your life story. Here are three of the prompts you’ll find inside:

• Was there anything noteworthy about your mother’s upbringing –she grew up in extreme poverty or extreme wealth; she grew up during the Great Depression; she grew up surrounded by artists, philosophers, or politicians; her family moved around a lot when she was growing up; and so on?
• Write down three of your father’s favorites (it could be his favorite singer, his favorite book or author, his favorite movie, his favorite time of the year, his favorite basketball player, his favorite artist, his favorite meal, his favorite dessert, and so on).
• Do you have any famous or high profile family members? If so, write about them.

 Conclusion

“The best learning comes in the doing, and writing from prompts engenders doing.”
— Judy Reeves

I hope you enjoyed the creative writing prompts above. Of course, you can start creating your own prompts; inspiration is all around you:

• You can use dialogue from a conversation that you overhear on the subway on your way to work.
• You can use interesting tweets in your Twitter stream. Here’s one I came across: “Exotic animals–including monkeys, lions, and tigers– roam the streets of Zanesville, Ohio after being let loose by their owner, who then fatally shot himself.”
• You can use newspaper headlines.
• You can use dialogue you hear on TV: “Are some things better left buried?” (from the TV show Veronica Mars).

Writing prompts are  a great creativity tool. In addition, you can find more inspiration for your writing here: “350 Tips For Writers, From Writers“.

Related Posts:

1. Ray Bradbury’s Best Writing Advice
2.Creativity Tools: 24 Free Online Creative Thinking Tools
3.57 Tips For Writers, From Writers
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

The other day I read a quote by Gretchen Rubin—author of “The Happiness Project”—which states the following: “Accept yourself, and expect more from yourself.” I love that quote, and I think that it’s right on point.

There are those who criticize the field of self-improvement because they argue that it makes people think that there’s something wrong with them, and that they need to work continuously to try and fix themselves.

However, the real message of self-improvement isn’t that you’re broken and that you need to be fixed. Instead, the real message is that you’re fine as you are, and you can become even better.

A great tool for carrying out the process of both self-acceptance and continuous improvement is the Daily Prayer of Examen, which is one of the spiritual exercises recommended by St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. Don’t be frightened away by the word “prayer”. If you’re not religious, the prayer can be easily adapted for secular purposes.

In essence, the Daily Prayer of Examen is a review of your day. Although St. Ignatius recommended that it be done twice a day, we’ll treat as a daily review which you carry out at the end of the day, before you retire for the evening. The Prayer of Examen highlights the past 24 hours of the day, focusing on the following four elements:

• Presence
• Gratitude
• Review
• Response

Each of these elements is described below.

Presence

You begin the Prayer of Examen by finding a quiet place and achieving a calm state of mind. Concentrate on the nearness of God and his presence in your life. If you’re not religious, just concentrate on what Eckhart Tolle—author of “The Power of Now”—describes as the field of energy which surrounds all material objects. Take a moment or two to simply breathe and be with what is.

Once you’ve quieted your mind and you’re fully in the present, move on to the second step, which is gratitude.

Gratitude

Concentrate on the past 24 hours and reflect on everything that you received throughout the day. What do you have to be thankful for in the past twenty-four hours? Did you remember to give thanks for all of the blessings that you received during the day? Take a moment to be grateful for all of the good that was done for you on that day, and all of the good that you received.

Review

Observe and remember the details of the day that just ended and review your intentions, your emotions, your speech, and your actions. Do this with an eye toward improving yourself. Ask yourself questions such as the following:

• What went right?
• What did you do well?
• Who did you help?
• How did you help yourself?
• What was the dominant emotion that you felt throughout the day?
• Did you set an intention for how you wanted your day to go at the beginning of the day? If so, did you follow through on that intent?
• Did you waste time?
• Did you speak harshly?
• Did you act selfishly?
• Did you do anything throughout the day that harmed another?
• Did you do anything throughout the day that harmed yourself?

If you did anything you feel you shouldn’t have done, forgive yourself and resolve not to act that way again in the future. The purpose of this step isn’t to beat yourself up or to feel bad about yourself, but to honestly review how your day went, both the good and the bad.

Acknowledge yourself for the good that you did, and resolve to do more of the good things that you did on that day. In addition, release any negative emotions you may be feeling from anything that you failed to do during the day, any mistakes that you made, any harsh words that you spoke, and anything that didn’t go as you would have liked it to.

Response

Every day you should examine how you can improve your conduct. It’s not enough to resolve to do better; instead, you should identify specific steps that you’re going to take in the future in order to do and be better. Here are some examples:

• If a conversation did not go as you would have liked it to, ask yourself what you could have done differently that might have produced a different outcome. Then, rehearse the same conversation in your head as you would like it to go in the future.
• Ask yourself what changes you need to make.
• Ask yourself how you can bring more love, joy, peace, happiness, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control into your life.
• Ask yourself what you could have done differently in order to have made the day even more successful.

Look forward to the next day, when you will be even better than you were today.

Conclusion

A while back I wrote a blog post on how to best start your day. Now this post is on how to best end your day. The best way to end your day is by conducting a review during which you acknowledge all the good that you already have and all of the good that you’re already doing, while at the same time asking yourself how you can be even better in the future.

An alternative is to use this prayer as a journaling exercise, instead of just doing it in your head. Live your best life by following St. Ignatius’ advice: conduct a daily review of your day.

Related Posts:

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2. How to Turn Your Ability Into Cash
3. Seven Essential Ways to Build Wealth
4. Prosperity Tips: 18 Ways to Increase Your Wealth

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

Everywhere you look—Amazon, Indie Bookstores, blogs, and so on—you’ll find advice on how to discover your career passion. One blogger advises that you write whatever comes to mind, without stopping, until you hit upon something that makes you cry. Several books laud personality tests as the key to uncovering your passion. And the advice goes on and on.

However, the simplest way to find your career passion is to give things away. What are people always asking you for advice on? Give your advice away. What knowledge do you have that people need? Give it away. What are people always asking you to do for them? Give it away.

Right now you might be thinking, “Marelisa, free is not a business model”. And you’d be right. However, by giving things away you’ll discover three vital things:

• What you enjoy doing.
• What others value.
• What others are willing to pay for.

Your career passion is where those three things intersect. Once you’ve discovered something that you enjoy doing, which others value, and which they’re willing to pay for, you’ve discovered your career passion. In this blog post you’ll read about three people who discovered their career passion by giving things away.

The three people are the following:

• Ed Waller
• Rebecca Fine
• Ashley Qualls

Read about their experiences below.

Ed Waller – Gave His Advice Away

Ed Waller was a financial advisor who woke up one morning experiencing heart failure and a stroke. He miraculously recovered, and then he asked himself what would have happened if he had died. Like many other couples, Ed and his wife, Penny, had divided up the household responsibilities.

• Penny was responsible for running the household.
• Ed was responsible for the finances and paying the bills.

If Ed had died, Penny would have had no idea where to find important documents, when and where to pay the bills, what assets they owned, and so on.

As soon as he recovered, Ed created a booklet which he titled “My List for Life”. The purpose of the booklet was to help people to organize and document their financial affairs to make sure that their loved ones would know what to do in case of an emergency. The booklet allows you to fill in information including things such as the following:

• How to access bank accounts;
• Where insurance documents are located;
• Web sites and passwords;
• When and where to pay bills;
• Where the will or estate plan is located; and so on.

Waller began giving the booklet away to his friends and extended family. Then, several people remarked that the booklet was very valuable and that he should make it available to the public at large.

That’s when Ed started selling “My List For Life”. What began as a labor of love for his immediate circle turned into a product that he began to sell. Ed feels that through his product he’s making a valuable contribution to society; at the same time, he makes money from it.

Rebecca Fine – Gave Knowledge Away

A few years ago, Rebecca Fine stumbled across a book titled “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wally Wattles. She began applying the principles that she read about in the book, and she started getting great results. After a year and a half she was thoroughly convinced that “The Science of Getting Rich” really worked.

That’s when she decided to begin sharing it with others. She invited the readers of one of her e-mail newsletters to read “The Science of Getting Rich” and to participate in a month-long discussion of the book via the internet. Over 500 people took her up on her initial invitation.

The experience was very positive, and Rebecca was soon flooded with requests for the book (the book is in the public domain, so she could send an electronic version of the book to anyone who asked for it for free). Here’s a quote from Rebecca:

“Before I knew it, word was spreading and my email inbox was stuffed with requests for the book from all over the world. I confess: The main reason I set up this site — back in 1999 — was so people could download the book themselves and I could stop spending hours emailing it!”

That’s when Rebecca decided to create an online course based on “The Science of Getting Rich”. She created “The Science of Getting Rich for Practical Geniuses” and has been selling it very successfully for years. Rebecca started out sharing a book that she had discovered, for free, and she turned this into a business.

Ashley Qualls – Gave Away Her Expertise

In 2004, at age 14, Ashley Qualls was playing around with a hobby: she wanted to be a graphics designer, and she loved designing MySpace page layouts. She started out designing layouts for her friends. She then borrowed $8.00 from her mother to start a website–which she called Whateverlife.com—and started posting her layouts there.

The layouts were free, and girls loved cutting and pasting the cutesy layouts onto their MySpace pages. By 2005 her traffic had gotten to the point where she needed a dedicated server. In order to be able to pay for the server, she decided to incorporate Google Adsense into her site. The first check she received from Google was for $2,790. The next one was for $5000, and the one after that was for $10,000.

Things just continued to grow from there, and eventually Ashley turned her web site into a business. She dropped out of high school to devote herself full time to her business. Ashley started giving away what she loved to do: graphic design. Today, she’s a millionaire.

Conclusion

What can you start giving away to others?  Your objectives are the following:

• Test what it might be like to start a business in an area you’re passionate about.
• Ask for feedback to improve your product or service.
• Figure out a way to monetize your offering.
• Get testimonials for when you’re ready to start charging for your product or service.
• Shift out of analysis paralysis mode: instead of just thinking, you’ll be doing.
• Fuel your creativity by seeing what a difference your contributions can make to the lives of others.

Experiment with different things until you hit the holy trifecta of careers: something you enjoy doing, which others value, and which others are willing to pay for. And there you have it: your career passion. Live your best life by discovering your passion.

Related Posts:

1. Finding the Work You Love: The Intersection of Passion, Talent, and Opportunity
2. How to Turn Your Ability Into Cash
3. Seven Essential Ways to Build Wealth
4. Prosperity Tips: 18 Ways to Increase Your Wealth

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.

When I was very young my siblings and I had a book called, “A Time to Keep: The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays”. The book, which is beautifully illustrated, is a recreation of the holiday traditions which the author, Tasha Tudor, experienced as a child growing up in New England. Each occasion—whether it was Valentine’s Day, Easter, the fourth of July, family birthdays, and so on–was commemorated by following a specific ritual or tradition.

I loved the book, and I often thought of how wonderful it would be to live like that—living life in joyful celebration. Today there are many books available which show the reader how to add joy, beauty, and connection to their life by creating family rituals and traditions. I’ve perused several of these books, and I’ve summarized what I found below.

Creating Rituals and Traditions – Four Goals to Meet

Meg Cox, author of “The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays & Every Day”, explains that “[t]hrough rituals and traditions . . . you are building the bond of your joined identity, defining your relationship by acting it out.” Rituals often involve repeated words or actions, specific food or music, special details that heighten the senses, or something that uplifts the ordinary and turns it into something ceremonial.

Cox explains that research suggests that in creating rituals and traditions you should try to meet the following four goals:

1.  Families should have one solid ritual of connection daily—such as having breakfast together each morning, sharing your plans for the day, and then reciting a family cheer.
2. There should be a weekly family ritual, such as having family game night each Thursday, or having a weekly meeting to discuss family business, including chores, schedules, upcoming vacations, the family budget, and so on.
3. All major milestones, accomplishments, and relevant holidays should be celebrated.
4. You should create transition rituals; one example is having a bedtime ritual to help your small kids make the transition from activity to stillness. Transitions also include things such as the first and the last day of school.

The Three Parts of a Ritual

Referring once again to “The Book of New Family Traditions”, Cox explains that each ritual should consists of three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. She adds that even saying grace before supper has those three elements: a nod or verbal cue that grace is to be said, the grace itself, and closing the prayer with an “amen”.

•  The beginning serves to make everyone aware that something special is about to happen and sets the intention of the ritual. An example is dimming the lights right before bringing out the birthday cake.
• The middle is the action of the ritual itself. To continue with our example, the action would be bringing out the cake covered in lit candles, singing happy birthday, and blowing out the candles.
• The end signals that the ritual is over, and it can be something like a prayer, a hug, a particular phrase, and so on. In a birthday celebration the end can be signaled by clapping and cheering.

Make Your Rituals and Traditions Personal

As the final tip we’ll be discussing from Cox, your rituals and traditions should be personal. There are many generic traditions which lots of people share, such as having turkey for Thanksgiving, giving kids a basket filled with chocolates and candy for Easter, and putting up a tree for Christmas. You need to add personal touches to these generic traditions in order to make them your own.

Ten Rituals and Traditions

Here are ten rituals and traditions to help you get some ideas so that you can create your own.

1. In the book “The Joy of Family Traditions: A Season-by-Season Companion to 400 Celebrations and Activities”, Jennifer Trainer Thompson shares this birthday ritual: Give the birthday child a crown to wear all day, and let her choose all manner of things: the menu for the day’s meals, who sits where in the car, and which songs are played on the radio.

2. Thompson also shares this Thanksgiving tradition: One family places an index card and pen at each place setting. Each person writes the name of the person to their left at the top of the card, then writes something about that person for which they are thankful. The card is passed to the right so the next person can add to the list. Eventually, each card will make its way around the table. Take turns reading the thank-you cards aloud after the meal.

3. In the book “Creating Holiday Magic and Family Traditions – Creative & Unique Ideas to Make Unforgettable Family Memories on Any Budget”, Kimberly Joy Castellotti shares the following Valentine’s Day tradition: Make pancakes into the shapes of hearts and serve with berry-flavored, reddish syrup. Top with raspberries and strawberries and powdered sugar.

4. Castellotti also recommends that you make green eggs for St. Patrick’s Day (just add food coloring to the scrambled eggs). In addition, she suggests that you play “Find the gold” for St. Paddy’s Day. Buy plastic gold coins or chocolate coins and place them randomly throughout the house. Have the children find them. Whoever finds the most coins gets a St. Patrick’s Day-themed gift.

5. Here’s an idea from the blog, “Simple Mom”: Choose a morning on the weekend to spend in bed with your family. You don’t need to spend hours laying around, but 15 to 30 minutes is a nice length of time. Try having coffee, tea, or milk with a couple of cookies. Relaxing and taking a few minutes to connect with your family can be a great way to kick off a weekend.

6. Here’s a great idea from Teri Lynne Underwood: Thanksgiving Stockings. Teri discovered early on in her marriage that it’s no fun giving Christmas items as gifts during Christmas, because there’s no time to enjoy these items during the season. That’s how she came up with the idea of Thanksgiving Stockings.

After the Thanksgiving meal she hands out a stocking to each family member and friend who’s present; the stockings are filled with Christmas themed gifts, such as Christmas DVDs, Christmas music, a Frosty the snowman magnet for the refrigerator, a Rudolph pin, and so on. That way, everyone will be ready for Christmas!

Someone else gives her kids Christmas pajamas after the Thanksgiving meal so that they can wear the pajamas all through the month of December.

7. In “New Traditions: Redefining Celebrations for Today’s Family”, Susan A. Lieberman refers to a family in which everyone walks the dog together after supper. That way, they all get some exercise and they pair off depending on who has what on their mind to talk about.

8. Lieberman also suggests that you have a special plate which you use to commemorate accomplishments. For example, if a child did well on a difficult test you would serve their dinner that night on the special dinner plate.

9. My five year-old nephew is always saying funny, quirky things, and I’ve often thought of writing them down. The other day he put on an Indiana Jones hat, he picked up a Star Wars lightsaber, and he announced that he was “Indiana Jones, Jedi”. A great family tradition is to keep a journal in which you write down “famous family quotes”: a slip of the tongue, a unique turn of phrase, and funny things that family members say.  Recording inside jokes and words that are unique to your family will help to build your family identity.

10. A lot of people have an advent calendar leading up to Christmas, but you can begin the tradition of having an advent calendar which leads up to Easter as well. Get an egg carton, and twelve plastic Easter eggs. With a marker, or a sticker, label each egg from 1 to 12. Fill each egg with a part of the Easter story and a treat. Place the eggs in the egg carton.

Bonus. Gina Osher shares a ritual story about her sister-in-law on her blog. When the sister-in-law was first starting school, her mother helped her get over her fears by drawing a heart on her wrist each morning. Then, whenever she felt scared at school, she would look at the heart drawn on her wrist and remember that her mother loved her and was thinking of her.

As the sister-in-law grew up and became more confident, the hearts became less frequent. However, even when she was in high school and then college, her mother would draw a heart on her wrist whenever she had a tough exam, an audition, a job interview, and so on. When her mother passed away the sister-in-law had a small heart tattooed on her wrist as a tribute to her mother.

Conclusion

Rituals and traditions can apply to almost anything:

• Rituals for when someone in the family is sick, such as serving them chicken noodle soup using grandma’s recipe, giving them a big pile of comic books to read, and spraying the room with rose water.
• One family has a special blanket that they wrap around a family member who’s feeling sad, and then everyone hugs that person.

Rituals and traditions bring warmth, comfort, and security. When creating your rituals, try to involve all five senses:

• Ring a bell to signal that it’s time for dinner.
• Hold hands as you say grace.
• Set an attractive table.
• Serve food that smells and tastes delicious.

In addition, make sure that your rituals and traditions foster connectivity. In our dinner example, go around the table and have everyone share their “Hi/Low” for the day (the worst part of the day, and the best part of the day). The more that you can get everyone to actively participate in the ritual, the better.

Live your best life by creating family rituals and traditions. Do you have any family rituals and traditions? Please share in the comments section below.

Related Posts:

1.56 Ideas for Your Fall Bucket List
2. 50 Ideas for Your Summer Bucket List
3. 75 Simple Pleasures – Enjoy the Little Things
4. 101 Life Lessons – A Little Manual For Life

I Recommend:

1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
3. How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists
4. The One-Hour-A-Day Formula: How to Achieve Your Life Goals in Just One Hour a Day

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “Daring to Live Fully” by clicking here and get free updates.