I love people.

I love talking to people, hearing their stories, making people laugh, coming up with ideas together and creating things that make someone happy.

But I also absolutely love being alone.

Not lonely.

Alone.

There's a difference.

Give me a quiet room, a computer, some paper, a notebook, a cup of tea and an idea, and I can disappear for hours.

Building a website.

Drawing plans.

Writing a project.

Researching something I've suddenly become fascinated by.

Developing a character.

Writing a story.

Working out how something could be made.

Solving a problem nobody actually asked me to solve.

Moving things around until they feel right.

Or following one completely random thought that somehow leads to another, and another, and suddenly I've created something that didn't exist that morning.

I love that space.

When Your Own Head Is Good Company

I've sometimes wondered why I can spend so much time by myself without getting bored.

I think the answer is actually quite simple.

My imagination is fun.

There's always something happening in there.

Ideas arrive at strange times. One thing connects to another. Something I saw ten years ago suddenly makes sense. A problem I've been thinking about finds an answer while I'm doing something completely unrelated.

Sometimes I'm creating.

Sometimes I'm researching.

Sometimes I'm planning.

And sometimes I'm apparently doing absolutely nothing.

But I don't think doing nothing is always nothing.

There are times when the most productive thing I can do is sit quietly and allow my mind to wander.

Creativity Doesn't Always Look Like Work

I've realised that a lot of my creative work is actually a form of meditation.

I'm not necessarily sitting cross-legged with an empty mind.

Quite the opposite.

My hands might be drawing while my brain is working something out.

I might be building a website while another idea quietly develops somewhere in the background.

I might spend an afternoon researching something simply because I'm curious about it.

There doesn't always have to be an outcome.

There doesn't always have to be a business plan.

There doesn't always have to be something to show for every hour.

Sometimes I just like doing stuff.

And perhaps that's one of the nicest things I've learned about myself.

Ignoring the Noise

The world is noisy.

Everyone has an opinion.

We're constantly being told what we should be doing, what success should look like, how quickly we should be doing it and what everybody else is apparently achieving while we're getting on with our own lives.

It can be exhausting.

So sometimes I switch it off.

Not because I don't care about the world.

I do.

But I don't need to invite the whole world into my head every day.

Sometimes I need my own energy.

My own thoughts.

My own pace.

My own ridiculous ideas.

And the freedom to follow them without explaining where they're going.

Following the Thread

That's probably how most of my projects have happened.

Not through some enormous master plan.

Through curiosity.

What if I tried this?

Then:

What if I did that?

Then:

Oh… that could work.

And off I go.

Some ideas become businesses.

Some become artwork.

Some become stories.

Some become projects.

Some become absolutely nothing whatsoever.

And that's fine too.

Because creativity doesn't have to justify itself every time.

Sometimes the enjoyment of making something is the point.

Peace Is Underrated

As I've got older, I've come to value peace enormously.

Peace in your surroundings.

Peace in your mind.

Peace with yourself.

That feeling when you're not trying to prove anything, fix anything or be anything for anybody.

You're simply there.

Thinking.

Making.

Learning.

Writing.

Drawing.

Dreaming.

Being.

There's something incredibly grounding about being comfortable enough with yourself that silence doesn't need filling.

And when you reach that quiet place, your mind can go somewhere wonderful.

You start hearing your own thoughts again.

You notice what you're actually interested in.

Your heart pulls you towards things before your sensible brain has had time to produce a spreadsheet explaining why you shouldn't do them.

And sometimes you should follow it.

Just Doing My Thing

Maybe that's ultimately what creativity means to me.

Not constantly producing.

Not constantly performing.

Not constantly showing everyone what I'm doing.

It's having somewhere inside yourself that you can go.

A place to play.

A place to think.

A place to solve things.

A place to make mistakes nobody sees.

A place to imagine completely impossible things.

A place where you don't need anybody's permission.

I love people.

I love laughter, conversation, collaboration and sharing what I've made.

But I also love closing the door occasionally and disappearing into my own little world.

No noise.

No expectations.

No need to keep up.

Just me, an idea and however many hours it takes to see where it wants to go.

And there really is nothing quite like that feeling of peace — when your mind is quiet enough to wander, your heart is free enough to lead it, and your imagination is a lovely place to spend some time.