Creativity won't save you from burnout, but this might. What actually happened when I finally stopped making excuses and showed up to a pottery class: what I learned about perfectionism, why I hated being told what to make, and the unexpected thing that actually built joy. This is part of my series called Field Notes, a real-time experiment in cultivating joy.

Perfectionism doesn't make you better—it just keeps you stuck. Here's how the 80% rule helped me overcome my creative block and start creating after 10 years of waiting to be "ready."

After my layoff swept my table of proof clean, I had to rebuild my creative life from scratch. Here are three practices helping me create without equating my worth with output—lessons about capacity, imperfection, and learning to trust my seasons.

Some wounds take decades to surface. For me, it was a single moment in middle school — a cruel comment that left a crack in my creative self-worth. Twenty years later, while working through The Artist’s Way, I realized how deeply that memory still shapes my fear of being “too much.” This essay explores the messy middle of healing: belonging, validation, and what it means to finally offer my 12-year-old self the safety she deserved.