Clearly, I needed to get into the pro scene to assemble the winning elements. Once I’d reached the aspirational locations, I’d find the top-tier athletes. Once I’d found the top-tier athletes, I’d have to connect with them somehow to capture one of them in action. That method of deconstructing what works into its component elements has been the key

For each image, I’d ask myself: What are the elements that make this good? Why did someone choose this image over the hundreds that must have been available? Technique was critical, that was obvious, but at this level, technique was a given. What elevated an image?

It is possible, even necessary, to prioritize your creativity alongside other essentials, such as your health and your family.

That’s the thing about creativity: You don’t need to see the whole path. You just have to take the next step. And the next. The path of every creator takes many unforeseen twists and turns. That’s its nature. The only way to “fail” at creativity is to stop walking the path altogether.

focused on checking off the next box on our to-do list. We get a kind of tunnel vision that prevents us from seeing the opportunities all around us.

Put bluntly, too many of us spend years, even decades, in pursuit of someone else’s plan for our one precious life.

Saying that something is done means we don’t get to play in that particular sandbox anymore. That can create its own fear.

Most of us have a gap in our lives between where we find ourselves and the life we actually want to be living. It’s time for you to look at that gap, acknowledge it, and then use your innate creative capacity to close it. Stop acting out someone else’s script and write your own: What do you want to make? More important, who do you want to be?

It gives you an unshakable sense of agency. The more creative you are day to day, the better you’ll become at building the life you want. It’s just creation at a larger scale.