Creative Wanderlust: How Travel Can Restore Your Creativity and Mindset
At a Glance
Topic: The benefits of traveling for your creative life
You’ll learn how travel can:
Restore your creative spark
Improve your daily creativity
Help you see a better future for yourself
Let’s discuss…
Ever feel trapped by creative sameness?
→ You care about your craft, but it’s become too routine.
→ You’re working on yourself, but you feel stuck by consistency.
→ You’re killing it at your job, but the projects all seem to blend together.
All year long, I spend my creative energy as an architect, a writer, and a curious human. Every day I use my creativity to solve problems and improve my life.
But the process takes a lot out of me.
It also gets a bit repetitive.
I start to see the patterns.
By the end of the year, I always need some kind of reset. A way to mix things up a bit. For the better part of a decade, I’ve taken time off every December to do just that. It’s a chance to unwind, think about the last year, and plan out some of my goals for the next.
This year, I did something different.
I broke outside of my comfort zone and leaned into something I’ve always wanted to do. On a whim, I booked a flight to Los Angeles for 9 nights. (A big deal for a guy who’s never been West of Ohio.) It would’ve been easy to stick around to do what I normally do during my time off—read, play video games, and just be. The harder path though was the adventure into the unknown. That’s the path I wanted this year.
I love to travel.
• I’ve lived abroad.
• I’ve backpacked through Europe.
• I’ve spoken at conferences around the U.S.
But I haven’t in over a year.
I believe traveling is one of the best ways to grow as a creative.
→ It’s a guide to new perspectives, new cultures, new precedents, new friends, new processes, and new ideas.
→ It’s a tool for mental and creative rejuvenation.
If you couldn’t tell, the operative word there is “new.”
You can’t grow as a creative person without new experiences.
This year, I took a trip to Los Angeles. Not because it was easy. I did it because it was what I needed for my creative life to grow.
Along the way, I realized 3 key ways traveling helped me reset my creative mindset and get out of the creative sameness. Each is a template for how I’d recommend approaching travel and how to think about your life once you’re back.
Travel Log 1: The Power of Serendipity
Just like a car needs new oil after thousands of miles, you need to switch the oil in your own life after thousands of hours.
One way to do that—get lost
When you have about a week in a new town, let yourself have the chance to wander. Pick a starting point, but let serendipity guide you.
I remember one day in particular.
We were walking towards the Motion Picture Museum.
It was time to get lunch.
SideNote: You wouldn’t know this about me, but I have a rule when it comes to food and traveling. Try not to go somewhere twice (unless it’s phenomenal). This helps me find places I wouldn’t normally seek out and enjoy more of the local fare.
That day, it was time to pick somewhere random.
I made a turn, saw a sushi restaurant out of the corner of my eye, and said, “Let’s try that!” There was nothing particularly special about the place from the outside, but I had a feeling we were on to something.
Am I a sushi connoisseur?
No. Absolutely not.
But we took a chance.
The service was fantastic.
The atmosphere was quaint.
The dish the server recommended—Rainbow sushi.
The roll was immaculate. Easily the prettiest sushi I’d ever seen. Colorful (as the name might suggest) and clearly a dish made with care. Had I chosen anywhere else, I would never have had the greatest sushi of my entire life.
Travel Log 2: The Importance of Reflection
Travel isn’t travel without a few moments to take it all in.
On the trip, I was fortunate to make a habit of reflection. Every morning, I went to the local coffee shop (yes, it just so happened to be a Starbucks). I sat down and wrote about what I had seen.
One day it was The Getty. Another day it was a Bills Game at SoFi Stadium. Another was walking all afternoon through the heart of Downtown LA. It didn’t really matter what the activity was. I wanted to remember it all.
After I wrote down what had happened, I reflected on what it made me feel as a creative person. I wrote about the ideas I had for the next year. My next 5, 10 years.
Traveling around the city made so many things clearer about my life.
Things that I either was too busy to see in my day-to-day or avoided altogether. With the time and space to reflect without the hustle of my daily life hanging over me, my mind opened up. I could see different futures for myself.
By reflecting, I realized just how much control I really had over my choices.
Travel Log 3: The Joy of Refreshed Perspective
I was sad that the trip had to come to an end.
A sense of remorse that washes over you because of the high from being somewhere new and exciting. But I thought, “Why couldn’t I take this vibe with me?” After a day or so to recover from the jet lag (it’s no joke to travel forward in time), I started to see the mundane that I had left with new eyes.
It was the same house. The same office. The same life in front of me.
But I was different.
I realized that traveling wasn’t just some work/life balance hack. Traveling was a way to get back to a Mike who was excited about design in a different kind of way.
I love what I do, but it’s different when you get the opportunity to shift your perspective.
→ You realize how fortunate you are.
→ You realize how much power over your life you have.
→ You realize how much life is out there in the world to inspire you if you let it.
With a refreshed perspective, I came up with 5 ways to keep that positive energy in my creative life going.
Wander from normal - Intentionally put yourself in new situations. Find different activities. Change up where you go for coffee or lunch.
Embrace serendipity - Chaos happens. You have a choice on how to embrace it. Let life lead you in unexpected ways.
Reflect more - Write down the adventures you have (big and small) to record them for your future self. Think about your experiences and what kinds you want more of.
Ask for recommendations - Everyone you know is fascinated by something. Strangers you meet every day could lead you to your next favorite experience. They could teach you new ways of living. Let them.
Enjoy the moment - As we get older, time seems to pass even faster. Take a breath. Be in the moment. You’ll get to do other things later. Let this moment linger and appreciate your life for what it is now.
Final Thoughts:
I had no idea a random trip to the City of Angels would feel so damn good.
My favorite part of the trip wasn’t a building, or a place, or any one experience. It was putting myself out there into the unknown.
You don’t have to fly across the country to get that feeling.
You just need the courage to try something new.
A day or a weekend in a new place will do.
This trip reminded me how much I love traveling.
But it reminded me how much I needed to regularly refresh my creative spark even more.
I’m already planning my next trips.
And I can’t wait to uncover more of this big, bold, beautiful world.
TL; DR
As Creatives, we need new experiences to fuel our creative energy
Travel can open us up to new experiences and allow us to think clearly about our lives and our futures.
Three takeaways from my recent trip to LA:
The Power of Serendipity
The Importance of Reflection
The Joy of Refreshed Perspective
Five ways to introduce the same energy from travel into daily life:
Wander from normal
Embrace serendipity
Reflect more
Ask for recommendations
Enjoy the moment
Quote of the Week
Motivation for the days ahead of you.
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”
— Anthony Bourdain
That's all for now.
Stay creative, my friends—and have a great week!
