If you are a creative person, or you want to be a creative person, here is an alphabetised list of guidelines to make the most of your creative life. 

Appreciate new ideas. This is how you expand your understanding. 

Build a body of work. It will take time but continue to build your work. 

Collaborate. Cooperate. Coordinate. Critique. Vanilla Ice has wise words when he says, “Stop, collaborate and listen.” 

Define your goals as a creative person. Revisit them weekly, monthly, and yearly. 

Explore what you’re passionate about. And maybe what scares you. You know, for balance. 

Foster creative relationships for collaboration, networking and developing the next generation of new artists. 

Grow as an artist. Stagnation is for ponds and mosquitoes. 

Hunger for the development of your craft and the improvement of your skills. 

Inspire others to create because the world needs useless beauty; it is there because it is, and it exists, and it is uniquely you. 

Jump into new opportunities. But check the depth-first. 

Kill what distracts you: procrastination, doubt, fear, comparison, jealousy. 

Listen at every opportunity. Gather wise counsel and feed your soul. 

Meditate on your work, why you do it and write a manifesto. 

Network. It’s dangerous to go alone. 

Occupy a creative space and protect it. 

Publish your work. This can be as easy as posting it to your socials. Get your work out there by submission, enter competitions, and put it on a blog (how old-fashioned is that?!). 

Query why you are creating. Have you lost sight of your purpose? 

Rush a new piece of work and enjoy the frenzy of ideas splashed down like a sudden summer storm. 

Spend your time wisely. 

Trust in your teachers and mentors to nurture and encourage your ambitions. We love seeing students succeed. 

Understand you are not your creative project; it is an expression of how you see and understand the world. 

Vanquish your fears and validate how you feel about what you create. 

Welcome feedback, critique, and commentary that will help you grow as a creative person. 

Xerox another artist’s work to learn how it is created. But show no one else. Learn how to apply it to your own work. 

Yoke yourself to an artist further along the road than you. Learn from their guidance that one day you may be yoked to a new artist to teach them. 

Zealously demand your need to create; creativity is oxygen to you. Without it you would suffocate. 

There are multiple permutations of a creative alphabet; your ideas will probably be better than mine. But that’s kinda the point. Listen to the advice, apply it to your work and do it better. Then teach someone else to do it. Pass the knowledge on. 

*This article was written as a part of Teacher Takeover.