I was about a third of the way through my running route. It was one of those days when the sun was streaming through the trees, warming me just enough as the crisp air rushed by me. That point in the run where you feel so alive! My mind was always searching in those days, planning. Had I done the right thing? And what was next?

Most of us spend our lives in a sort of production mode. We move from task to task, making the things, doing the things, and somewhere in all that churning we stop noticing the small mechanics underneath it all. We're too busy keeping the wheels turning to ask whether the wheels could turn a little better.

Here's a question I bet you've never asked yourself while making art: What problem am I solving?

Creativity is fundamentally about making connections between a problem and a solution. And when you start approaching your art that way, something shifts.