Creativity is Revolution: Three ways to bringing more creativity into your life in 2026, even if the world is crumbling

The world is a mess, and finding outlets of expression has never been more important.

Welcome to Creative Constructs, a newsletter that shares systems, tools, and strategies for creative thinkers. (Here’s what Creative Constructs is all about.)

I started this post with the intention of sharing the three big mindset shifts that fueled my creativity in 2025 and the lessons I learned, but talking about creativity and fun little art projects seemed insensitive and trivial in the face of… well… *gestures at the world*

Ugh.

So let’s get some things out of the way here, first.

I don’t want to appear ignorant or insensitive by asserting that “bringing more creativity into your life” should be a priority at a time when there are so many very scary and serious things happening in the world. I have no illusions about the fact that 2025 was really rough in a lot of ways for a lot of people, and I know that 2026 isn’t looking a heck of a lot better thus far.

AND I believe that creative expression and play are immeasurably valuable for our mental health and wellbeing, both of which are likely struggling at this particular moment in history, and both of which will be required for whatever comes next.

So we’re not going to ignore the reality. We’re just going to switch tabs for a few minutes here, OK?

So, if you can, please take a moment to minimize the articles about hostile government takeovers, citizens being kidnapped off the street, occupying forces violating ceasefires in a tireless quest to obliterate entire populations, and any other such violations of international law, human rights, and/or the Geneva Convention.

And while you’re at it, go ahead and close the ChatGPT conversation where you’re forced to prompt engineer your way to the medical advice and mental health support that should be readily available through our horribly broken and prohibitively expensive healthcare system.

Oh, and you can X out of the tabs of social media where half of the content (and more than half of the comments) were made by bots, and the other half is normal people forced to livestream atrocities in a quest for accountability or demonstrate how to use cheap 3D-printed products in an attempt to earn enough commission to pay off crippling student loans.

Sigh.

Ready?

OK SO… setting all those very real things aside for just a few minutes…

What follows is a reflection on the three key mindset shifts that I believe helped make 2025 my most creatively fulfilling year yet.

1) Focus words > resolutions

New Year’s Resolution pressure and culture are strong, and it’s easy to get sucked into making yet another elaborate Notion chart or color-coded journal tracker for a massively ambitious creative goal that’s likely to be abandoned by Valentine’s Day in an act of merciful self-love.

I’ve tried implementing daily writing word-counts, evening journaling, Morning Pages, minimum creative time per week, and all kinds of other commitments, to no avail.

But I found much more success in 2025 by choosing focus words to guide me throughout the year instead. For 2025, mine were “Creativity” & “Connection.”

Rather than demanding a specific action, I used these words as a filter for my day-to-day tasks, opportunities, and decisions, always asking myself, “am I activating my creativity?” and “am I inviting connection?”

What I like about this is that it reframes the right kind of inaction as success: Rather than “missing a day” when I don’t work on a project and calling that a failure to meet my resolution, using my focus words as a filter allows me to answer “no” when the answer is truly no, and then call it a success because I am NOT doing the things that distract from my focus words.

Try a focus word or two for 2026 and see if that fits your style better. (That said, if the old school resolution-style goal setting actually does work for you, then by all means, chart and track away!)

2) Embrace lower-case “c” creativity

It’s easy to feel like you’re not “Creating” much if you’re putting “Creating” up on a pedestal. But being creative isn’t limited to creating works of art worthy of a gallery or writing things that would be classified as “literature.”

I’m not saying to lower your standards or to trade your “high brow” pursuits for “low brow” activities; rather, I’m suggesting that you can expand your definition of what counts as “being creative” to include a lot more of your life.

You can be creative in the way you dress, decorate your space, do your makeup, arrange your phone apps, plate your dinner, plan a weekend activity, navigate the grocery store, sign off your emails, design your PowerPoint slides, ask someone on a date, and just about anything else.

2025 was the year that I started drawing doodles and writing little jokes to include in my kiddo’s lunch box, building with magnatiles, and finding random creative experiences for us to try on the weekends, and reading books in new genres I had never tried before, and all kinds of other smaller creative acts.

When you start to embrace the fact that you can bring a curious and creative mindset to anything that you do, things start to feel a lot more fun.

Photo by Merve Sehirli Nasir on Unsplash

3) Say “yes” to invitations to more create

Earlier this year, my daughter asked if we could “make a Muppet.” Assuming she meant “puppet,” I started getting out the brown paper bags and markers. But she wasn’t pleased, and insisted she wanted to make a “Muppet, like JeanLukulele.”

Y’all, the man makes Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock level puppets, complete with fur and blinking eyes and actual clothing and movable arms and stuff. This was a significantly larger time and effort investment than I expected, and I had zero experience in puppeteering.

But you know what? This invitation was an opportunity to activate my creativity AND invite connection, so I said “yes.” We went off to the thrift store to buy $20 worth of supplies. We seam-ripped a fleece jacket to use it as fur, and we disassembled a stuffed octopus (RIP) to re-use its eyes and braid its legs into hair, and we made ourselves a pretty darn good-looking “Muppet” puppet.

I’m no Jim Henson, but it was challenging, and it was fun, and we had an absolute blast together. (Should I make a TikTok showing off the puppet we made??)

So say “yes” to invitations to create, even when it’s not the invitation you expect.

I started calling these things “Creative Side Quests,” which became the name of the snail mail club that I launched in January, so I can send approachable creative prompts and challenges (and other fun goodies) to other folks who could use a gentle invitation to try something creative on a monthly basis!

Creative Sparks

I spent a lot of the last two weeks home with family in a bit of rest-and-recover mode before the new year, so I don’t have a list of recent Substack reads to share with you all this time. But I do want to highly recommend this book: “The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again,” by Catherine Price. I listened to the audiobook, which is great.

More From Me:

• In case you missed it, I recently launched a monthly snail mail club, called Creative Side Quest, where I’ll send an actual physical envelope with a creative prompt/mission and some other inspirational goodies to your mailbox each month! Learn more here:

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