Not so fun fact: I just found out that Mailerlite has been sending out all of my emails with the preview text:

“Hello, You have received a newsletter from David Patrick”

All because I forgot to uncheck one freakin’ box.

Lol. What a noob, David.

Anyways, let's get to the good stuff.

I went on a hike in Forest Park with Aggie this morning. It’s the largest urban park in the United States and just a stone’s throw from my apartment.

But between my knee issues and the smokey weather, this is my first time in weeks getting out there.

It felt good. Really good.

One of my favorite parts about hiking in Forest Park is that I get to disconnect, destress, and practice a little bit of “dissociated” writing.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that this process is one of my favorite ways to come up with new ideas for this daily email.

Now normally, I get a flood of new ideas about halfway through a hike or run.

But today it didn’t work.

Not sure why, but through a series of mental connections on the drive home, this “blockage” of ideas helped me remember the other side of creativity.

One that I know all too well.

And one that has literally transformed the way I think about creative work over the last decade.

See … creativity — in my opinion — thrives within some sort of structure.

Whether it’s producing a new song once a week.

Or painting a new picture every morning.

Or writing and sending a daily email every day.

I can tell you why it works, too. At least for me.

I believe that if you identify as a “creative” person, you probably have some of that creativity in you innately.

Chalk it up to genetics or upbringing or affinity for creative work. Doesn’t really matter.

The point is that you already have some creativity in you.

But, if you’re anything like me, you might be a little … lazy about producing within that creativity.

The raw material is already there. It just needs to be molded.

And what better way to mold your creativity than by producing something new and fresh on a regular and consistent basis?

It’s one of the many reasons why I started this daily email.

So, what’s my #1 secret?

It's to produce something new (a story, and email, an ad, a song lyric, whatever) on a consistent and regular basis.

It could be something like I do, where I produce a new email every day.

Or it could be something else entirely — like rewriting an ad every week — for an entire year.

Either way, the key is to start producing something regularly, and start sharing it with people so you have some skin in the game.

I’ve realized more growth than you could ever imagine by adding this simple (but surprisingly challenging) “structure” to my creative work.

And I think you will too.

David Patrick