Sometimes we get stuck in a creative rut. I don’t mean “stuck” like writers block but the creativity that flows through our lives every day feels stagnant, like we haven’t had a new idea in a long time. For some people, breaking out of this means taking a class, but for others that sounds like a nightmare. That’s where starting a passion project can come into play. 

I started thinking about this when someone at work approached me about an initiative to get people more engaged and help them consistently upskill. One suggestion I had was to let people work on one work-related personal project of their own choosing. At the end of the year, they’d have something they were proud of, felt like made a difference, and a set of learnings about what went into that project.

Then I realized there was no reason everyone couldn’t apply that to their own lives in the form of a passion project. That may be building a website, building a bookshelf, learning to bowl, or writing a book. Whatever it is, go for it! Give yourself a year, and work at it a little bit each week. 

When life gets busy, we tend to forget to play and have fun, and anything that isn’t “essential” gets pushed to the side. But it’s important to regularly play and do things that are new and interesting to us. 

I could go on, but I’d rather you use the 5min you planned to use to read this to start brainstorming about what passion project you’re going to start.