The most used toys in our house are blocks. Good old wooden blocks.
If I say- “Hey why don’t we play with blocks?” I usually get a quick “nope”.
But if I just go get the basket of blocks and bring it out on the living room floor- 99% of the time there is a new city erected within the hour. That’s just the way blocks are. Thinking about them in a basket- meh. Actually spread out in front of you? You have to build something. Something new. Something you didn’t know you could make.
In Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird she talks about how she keeps a 1” square picture frame on her desk to remind her that’s ALL she’s aiming for. She’s just got to get ONE square inch of progress every time she sits down to work.
I like to think of it as a block - like one of those square ones with the alphabet. I want to show up to practice and leave with at least one cubic inch of contentment. To make bigger work, you have to think like a block maker. If you regularly show up and focus on just getting that one piece- over time- you fill a basket and you can build a whole city.
You have most likely heard of the concept of a daily creative project where for some goal amount of time, say 10 days, 30 days, 100 days, or 365 days, you pledge to create one small piece of work and document it.
A Daily Project can be a series of very small works, studies for a larger work or pieces of a larger work . It’s committing your practice to making a block size piece of work for a set amount of time.
I know some things about daily projects. I have STARTED a lot of them. I have had more than a few face plants. I abandoned my 100 day projects: learn to flatpick a fiddle tune, learn a banjo tune, write a song chorus, make a mini print, write a poem, draw a portrait, and make an Instagram Reel among others. I have also had some wins. Just this week I finished 100 consecutive days of writing 750 words. When I started this writing project, I knew I had to learn from the failures, and I took a good hard look at why I had abandoned so many other attempts at a 100 day project. Now that I have completed one, I know it’s all about the blocks.
There are many ways to make a daily project. One of my favorite artists, Andy J. Pizza talks about his year long daily drawing project on his “Creative Pep Talk” podcast almost every episode. Jerry Seinfeld credits his career to an ongoing daily project of writing one joke. I loved paper cut artist Anna Brones’ advent calendar of Making, Doing and Being project she does in December. If you aren’t sure what next big project you want to make OR if you do and you want to actually make it happen- So many artists agree- do a daily project.
In 2022 I transformed my meditation practice from haphazard to simplified but devotedly consistent and I was gobsmacked by the difference. The effects of practice are compounded by consistency. Before, a meditation session made me feel pretty good in the moment; it’s a (mostly) pleasant thing to do, right? When I practiced consistently, I felt clear and expanded through my whole day. I honestly think that it’s the most important factor in growth with ANY practice. It’s also the hardest part. I’m always working on it, because it’s worth it. Daily projects build that consistency muscle. They require discipline, which I call devotion, because I’m more motivated by the word devotion than discipline. They boost the same muscle. Devotion builds consistency and consistency is EVERYTHING.
Turning my writing practice into a daily thing was like giving it super green power up juice. Our brains wrap new neural connections with a substance called myelin. The more a connection is wrapped in it, the faster an electric impulse can travel. A neural connection is made during practice, it’s actually wrapped in myelin while you sleep. This is why you can learn a new piece of music much easier practicing it for 15 minutes a day for a week rather than 2 hours on a Saturday.
When you practice producing things regularly, your brain gets better at it. A practice doesn’t necessarily always produce. It’s what makes a project a little harder. In practice it’s fine to just show up and play with the blocks you have. In a PROJECT You have to actually get that new block made.
Nothing builds momentum like seeing the chain of your work start to stretch out behind you. Nothing magnifies your motivation like seeing your basket of blocks fill up. Artists on a roll keep rolling.
The 100 Day Project is a famous daily project done on Instagram where 1000s of people do a 100 day project and post it on social media with the hashtag #100dayproject. It’s coordinated and is starting this year on Feb 18. That’s Sunday. I’m going to do my next 100 Day Project along with it this year, and I’m calling it 100 Days of Listening. I’m currently off social media, but I plan to share my project with you all here. Thanks again everyone for being here. I make A Wilder Wonder for free as a devotion to my community. If you are able, please support this work with a paid subscription, which I have set as low as the platform will allow. ❤️
Hi Jes. I too love blocks. I also love your writing and these delightful and fey essays. Simple subjects, deep thoughts. I look forward to them arriving in my In box.