Travel can allow us to experience all sorts of new aspects of the world, of ourselves, and of humanity at large. It can also add a huge amount of adventure and fascination to everyday life, in a wide variety of different ways.
What’s more, many people have found throughout the ages that travel can serve as a fantastic source of creative inspiration, and may serve as the catalyst for great works of art, or even just personal interest projects such as a profile on an athlete such as Kyle Shanahan – San Francisco 49ers.
At the same time, however, travelling habitually can make it pretty tricky to actually establish the kind of routine that can lead to creative achievement.
Here are just a handful of tips for engaging in creative pastimes while travelling, and ensuring that you have the greatest possible chance of thriving creatively while out on the open road.
Look for minimalist tools and equipment that can be easily transported
Depending on just what your creative pastime of choice may be, you may find that it’s actually quite difficult to take the tools and items that you need with you on the road, for engaging in your creative pastimes on a regular basis.
If you’re backpacking around scenic locales, for example, having an artist’s easel, tripod, and paint and brush collection with you is likely to be pretty difficult to achieve.
Fortunately, there are a variety of different minimalist tools and items of equipment out there that can be more easily transported, and that can potentially help you to engage in various creative pursuits while out on your travel journey, without you needing to have a whole storage trunk with you at any given time.
Among other things, there are various minimalist writing tools which are now growing in popularity, and it is possible to have at least a compact and effective sketch set with you that fits easily into a rucksack.
You may need to be a bit adaptive here, and to adjust your creative endeavours somewhat to suit the dynamic requirements of the road a bit better, but there’s a good chance that you will be able to find certain tools that can help you to be properly creative, while simultaneously not needing much space.
Try to maintain a set creative routine wherever it is you are
One of the things about travel that can make it difficult to maintain an effective creative routine, is the simple fact that your schedule is likely to be somewhat haphazard – particularly if you are routinely moving from place to place, or are directly affected by things like the changing of the seasons.
Between seeing the sights, getting from place to place, finding and preparing your meals, and all the rest, there’s a real risk that your creative endeavours might end up becoming pushed back time and time again, until you end up barely spending time on them at all.
To counteract this tendency, do what you can to try and maintain a set creative routine, wherever it is you are.
This might mean dedicating an hour or two to a creative project at the start of the day before getting started with everything else, or it may mean dedicating a certain amount of time to a creative project at night just before going to bed.
Whatever the case may be, however, consistency in your routine can potentially make all the difference, and can help you to stay on track even when you’re distracted, tired, or otherwise caught off guard.
Find ways to capture some of the inspiration that occurs to you out of the blue as you're travelling
One of the fantastic things about travel is that it can yield all sorts of amazing inspiration – both in terms of inspiring creative and imaginative works, and also in terms of helping to give you new insights and perspectives on features of everyday life, and motivating you to make a positive, proactive, and transformative change in your life in one way or another.
As is the nature of inspiration, it’s likely that you will experience this inspiration out of the blue, when you least expect it. When you are staring at a gorgeous natural landscape, for example, or even as you are waiting to catch a bus in some out of the way location.
It’s this kind of inspiration that so often serves as the catalyst for great works of art, and it’s important that you don’t allow these moments of inspiration to slip by you while you’re on your travels.
Instead, have some system in place for capturing those sparks of inspiration as you are out and about – whether that means keeping a notebook in your pocket, or a battery-powered dictaphone, or just consciously making a mental note to write down a note later or incorporate it into an creative endeavour of yours when the opportunity arises.
Don't try to get perfect results at first
Even at the best of times, it’s impossible to actually get everything done perfectly, in the first attempt, with regards to any creative endeavour.
When travelling – with the uncertainty and unpredictability of the situation, and the flashes of inspiration you’re likely to gain at irregular intervals – it’s even less likely that you’re going to get everything perfectly and neatly done in the “first draft” or iteration.
So, simply give yourself permission to let your creativity flow out of you – and worry about fine tuning it later on.
Let the process flow and have fun with it
Any creative endeavour should be ultimately rewarding, life affirming, and fun – and if it’s not, that’s probably a good sign that you have ended up drifting out of alignment with your true creative vision.
The more you can let the process flow, and have fun with it, the easier you will find it to make headway on your creative endeavour while travelling, and the greater the odds that you will be pleased with the results, and will find that your overall experience is enriched.