Creative Rhythms
In any endeavor, managing our energy or creative rhythms can help us perform at a sustained, high level over time. It’s not enough to believe in the cause—we all need food, fresh air, and sleep.
Movement from the cycle of dysfunction to choosing unity involves the regular and recurring act of creation—especially over time, to make the next generation stronger. Over the years working in politics, these are some of the creative rhythms that I’ve found are critical for sustaining high performance. And of course it’s worth noting: these creative rhythms hinge on sustainable and stable funding or income, and a baseline of good health.
Establish your vision, mission, goal, objectives, communication channels, workflow or parameters, key performance indicators, values, and brand story arc. Each of these points is critical because they will frame not only the daily work but also how to navigate relationships.
Take time to journal or otherwise evaluate all of the above on a weekly basis or as needed in order to identify performance gaps and to identify ways to excel to the next level. From a Christian perspective, this includes taking time to pray in nature.
Connect your values to what you celebrate and especially what you tolerate.
Eat nutritious foods that make you feel good.
Exercise every morning before work—preferably outside in nature. Find ways to challenge yourself.
Keep learning and finding other sources of inspiration. In other words, stay grounded.
Set up your evening routine to make your sleep and morning routine a success. A successful evening routine includes dinner by a certain time, and no screens after a certain time.
Include a regular check-in with yourself and God for prayer and gratitude. I personally have recurring daily events on my calendar to write down three things I’m grateful for and the day’s wins—I don’t do this every day, but it’s helpful to have a specific system to make it part of my lifestyle. Shoutout to Lewis Howes for this idea.
Take one full day a week off from work or creating.
Create consistently. Have specific time blocks for deep work, collaboration, or responding to emails.
Keep a clean, organized work space—or a work space that fuels your mind, whatever that looks like.
Remember that trauma “destroys normal human ways of living.” (Diane Langberg, Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores, p. 6). Traumatic events or experiences break all of these habits to the point where these creative rhythms alone won’t necessarily recover the damage. But we need to pay attention to creative rhythms like these in order to make endeavors focused on restoration be sustainable. Recovery from traumatic experiences includes restoration of normal human ways of living, like these creative rhythms. They alone can’t undo war, assassination attempts, mass shootings, record numbers of displacement, or extreme poverty. But they can help us define what real life is and should be, and as we stabilize, help us live life again.
For many readers, this list and these actions may not be new—and that’s a good thing. But in any endeavor that seeks to unite the country, teams will perform at a higher level when we take care to manage our creative rhythms for sustained performance and ultimately our well-being and the well-being of those we serve.
WEEKLY ACTION POINT:
Take a look at the vision overview as we look to produce a biannual publication. Take time to pray in nature about your vocation or calling. Then, you can set up a monthly recurring donation as a Liberatus Advocate at the tab below. You can also write Volume Two with us by responding to a one-question interview. We will compile responses to the question about the future you imagine into a new vision asset to guide the stories that we tell, the research that we include, and the partner organizations that we fund.
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Mission: Inspire American Unity
Liberatus offers inspiration for American unity in beautiful, well-researched illustrated journals, written by professionals across the political spectrum, to help us all choose unity, build endurance, and become the leaders who make our country more just and free for the next generation.
Journal Entry #148
ISSUE 021: THE BEGINNING, AGAIN — PART 7