Keep the rebel artist alive in you.

You were a kid once, full of hope, curiosity and creative rebellion. Your imagination knew no boundaries. You made up stories and pretended. You broke the rules now and then, and colored outside the lines. You had the capacity to marvel at just about everything, and you felt seduced. Seduced to have fun. To take a dare. To wander and wonder. To question the way things have always been done. To yearn and to learn. And to seek new quests and half-crazy adventures. What happened?

What happened to spontaneity? At what point did you lose the right to do something in your day or your life, just because you feel like it at the moment—just because you’re alive?

“Routine parches the artist inside you,” reminds Jennifer Louden in her inspiring Woman’s Retreat Book. “If there is one cosmic law I know the consequences of ignoring, it is this one: You cannot create from an empty well. Your creative center, the place where the artist resides, must be fed. She must go spelunking in crystal caves, gorge herself on gory fairy tales, sip 1908 vintage port and curse like a sailor, sleep in a 300 year old white pine tree, exult like 103 year old potter Beatrice Wood, and imbibe succulent art and fresh perspective for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

If you don’t want to sleep in a pine tree, at least take yourself by surprise now and then. Be unlike you a few times every week. Escape the treadmill of predictability. Wear colored socks. Take the scenic route to work. Retune your radio to Beethoven or Mariachi music for awhile. Strike out in new directions. Do something brilliant every day. Learn martial arts or creative dance. Make a spectacular presentation. Obliterate your sales goal. Turn off the TV and talk to your kids or your significant other. Dream a wonderful dream. Prepare an astounding meal. Tell an outrageous joke.

Savor life. Remember, we only pass this way once.

An excerpt from The 10 Book by Dan Zadra and Kobi Yamada, © Compendium, Inc.