In this solo vlog, Mary Schiller reflects on the nature of creative flow, asserting that we are always in a state of creative flow and need only consciously dip into it rather than force it. She illustrates this idea with everyday moments—a spontaneous YouTube video that sparked a business idea, a visit to the department store Le Bon Marché that provided creative stimulation, and nighttime ideas that arise without effort. Mary then shares personal updates: she made progress on her novel rewrite, describing editing decisions and a natural stopping point; she began studying for the A2 DELF French exam, expressing confidence in the material and noting the low pass threshold and flexible retake policy; she mentions plans to possibly see the Olympic flame tomorrow and to watch WNBA basketball tonight. The vlog blends philosophical insight with concrete daily actions, emphasizing self‑activation and the ever‑present availability of creative inspiration.
Chapters
It's day 7 and it's a holiday here. So it is in fact the Quatorze Juillet 2024. Here in France. And the real question is, how can we continue to reignite those internal fireworks, that creative spark that really can allow us to activate ourselves more and achieve more, if that's what we want to do? Remember, we don't have to achieve. It's all about self-activation. But if we have goals we want to reach, like how do we continually access that creative spark? I have talked about this topic a lot over the years, and it's because I used to believe something that I discovered is not true at all, and that is that we somehow have to create the creative flow. You know, how can we get into the flow? You've heard this phrase a million times. Well, what finally occurred to me was that we're always in the creative flow. There's nowhere else we could be. That's what became obvious. It was like, wait a second, if I'm not in the creative flow, where would I be? Because I'm in life with a capital L. I am part of this beautiful, natural, creative system, and the flow of life is happening all the time. Everything is changing, everything's being recreated from moment to moment, ourselves and everything else. So if I wouldn't be in the flow, I'm not sure where I would be. And that kind of simple idea was really profound for me because it meant that there wasn't anything that I had to do specifically to get into the flow because I was already in the flow, and so are you. So what it seemed like to me, if we're continuing this metaphor, is that all I needed to do was sort of consciously dip into the flow, and then I would have everything I needed. And a lot of times we don't even have to consciously do that. We get a new idea for something. For example, just this morning I was on YouTube when I was still in bed trying to wake up, and I came across a video that sparked a new idea for something that I could offer to people in my business, something I had done before but in a slightly different way, and I was like, this is such a great idea. I didn't have to consciously choose that, it just appeared to me. Well, how does that happen? It's because we are always in the flow, we're never out of the flow. So there's nothing you have to do to get into it, there's nothing you have to do to necessarily spark your creativity. A few days ago, I went to my favorite department store store here, Le Bon Marché, because I like being in that environment. I find it very creatively stimulating. I didn't need that, I just wanted it. There's a difference there. There is a big difference. I need to reiterate this point between thinking that you need something outside yourself to spark your creative flow versus knowing that that creative flow is always available to you. Literally 24/7, even when you're asleep, it's available to you. How many times have you woken up in the middle of the night with a new idea and you've written it down so you didn't forget it, or typed it on your phone or whatever? So I find this truth— it is truth, it is fact— very freeing. And you can test it yourself by just watching how you are able to have new ideas like that how even when you feel like you're not in the flow, you can still have that creative spark come to you out of nowhere. And this is why I often say to people, you know, 99% of the quote-unquote work is already done for us. All we need to do is sit down in front of the computer and work on our novel rewrite or open that French book and study. Because everything else is already available to us. So let's see how Mary did on le 14 juillet, shall we? It is just about 6 PM and I am calling it a day, especially because it's Saturday. I was very happy today though because I made some more good progress on my novel rewrite. Cut some things that didn't quite fit, left some things in that I realized actually do fit, and I got to a point where I was questioning whether to keep something or not, and I thought, you know what, that's a good place to end it. The better news though is that I started going through this book for the A2 DELF exam, which is the official language examination here in France, and it's easy. Oh my gosh, I was listening to some of the audio that you have to listen to for comprehension. I was like, I can do this in my sleep. And so I'm gonna just kind of buzz right through this whole book probably over the next week or so and just make the appointment to get the test done because it's a snap. Plus, here's the weird thing, you only have to score 50 out of 100 points to pass. So I'm like, I only have to fail to pass? Okay. And not only that, but if you pay for the test, it's not cheap, it's like €180, you can take it as many times as you want until you pass. You have to wait like 45 days in between but it's basically one of those guaranteed pass kinds of situations. So feel very relieved about that. I'm excited to keep going with things tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we may be getting up early to see the Olympic flame, that remains to be seen. But tonight I'm going to be watching some WNBA basketball, and tune in tomorrow for another episode of me following my dreams.
