I don’t know about you but I love the beginning of a New Year! It gives me an opportunity to experience … well … NEWNESS! I see the New Year as a BIG fresh start … a time to REALLY Create from scratch. It is so much bigger for me than simply writing new numbers everywhere. It is my annual metamorphosis where I can literally change from one form to another just because I say so.

What does new look like? We use that word a lot but I thought it would be fun to really take a look at it. As creative people we are engaged in newness as a way of life … or are we? Just because we are Creative doesn’t necessarily mean we allow ourselves to engage in newness. I never realized how stuck I was in the “old” until I started consciously choosing “new”.

For me, by the way, I don’t look at “new” like it has to be something that has never been seen or done or thought about before on the planet (and we could debate if that is even possible but … if that is possible … and you do that then that is fabulous too just not how I define it for myself).

I define “new” for myself very simply as: anything that is new FOR ME. It may be a new view or perspective on something I never saw or considered before, a new way to physically do something, a new way to approach something in my business, using a tool I haven’t used before in Photoshop, a filter I have never tried on my camera, a color or type of paint I have never played with in a painting, finding words I have never worked with for a poem …

I used to be afraid of “new” – I would stick with the same things over & over – find something I was comfortable with and just keep running with it – avoiding any risk that might come with newness. Then I realized, about a decade ago, that if I weren’t open to “new” then my whole life, including my art, would just stay the same. It suddenly occurred to me that everything staying the same was actually my biggest risk in life. My immediate response was, “Yuck!”

Every since that realization I have been busily trying on “new” constantly as a practice and lifestyle. So I don’t actually NEED a new year, but it is still fun for me to have the calendar give me a celebrated demarcation point each year that can be my the crème de la crème of laying out life newly! It is like my grand opportunity for an exciting game of “How many new things can I create, think and do this year?”

I have already listed out a whole collection of “new” things that fall under various categories for 2016. I have lots of categories but here are a few just so you have an idea:

  • New ways to handle my business.
  • New mediums to use for my art.
  • New subjects & themes to create with.
  • New people to connect with.
  • New experiences to have.
  • New ways to view and treat money.
  • New things to create in my relationships.

On a slightly side note: one thing I did discover for myself, when I realized I wanted a life full of newness, was that in order to create newly I needed to make room for the new. I minimize things in my environment (home, studio, office) to have space for new. I clear up old thought processes, many of which no longer served me, so I can create new ones. I streamline my business removing old methods and strategies, to make space for new. I even create space in my days and weeks, moving out a lot of unproductive and uninspiring old busyness, so I have time to allow my new creativity to flow. I constantly, as an on-going practice, clear out space for new … in my home … in my life … and particularly in my mind …

So, my 2016 metamorphosis is happening! I am busy changing into a completely new me again! It is in full swing and I am sooooo excited at all the NEWNESS that is available to me! I invite you to have 2016 really be a new year with a new you and new creations too.   Out with the old … in with the NEW!

What about you? Is it time for something newness?
What new things are you ready to create?
What new things have you plotted for 2016?

I’d love to hear from you … please feel free to share about NEW & YOU … who knows … maybe you will inspire more new things and creations for me and others!!!