I’m going to give you the next series of creativity hacks from my new book Create: Tools from Seriously Talented People to Unleash Your Creative Life.

The purpose of this series is to up your game as a creative. So if you follow along with these, you’re going to continue to expand and add to your toolkit. On a larger scale, we’d love to create a whole movement of people who want to increase their creative abilities.

Today, I’m going to cover some hacks from photographer Chris Burkard. I first interviewed him 10 years ago and he’s not only a phenomenal photographer, he’s just a great person. He’s also a really good teacher of photography and art. He mentioned a couple of things to me in my interview with him that I want to go over with you.

Creative Hack 1: Find Out What Drives Your Passion

“So I think it’s key to understand that at a certain point you have to figure out what you’re passionate about and you have to foster that. Usually that requires some introspection and some time for reflection—a spirit quest, whatever you want to call it, to understand what makes you you and what drives you.”

This is really good advice! You do need to find out what makes you passionate and what drives you. What is that thing that you want to communicate as an artist, as a photographer, and what really brings about that passion? It’s going to be different for each person and so you’ll need to reflect on what ignites that internal fire. What gets your juices flowing?

For me with Advancing Your Photography, my passion is helping you guys and connecting you with photographers you might not otherwise have that opportunity to talk with like Chris Burkard. I really do enjoy that and it’s something I’m very passionate about, which is also why I write books. I really like passing along that knowledge and that knowhow, not just my own experience, but from what I’ve gathered from other people. That’s my passion. So find that for yourself. Really settle in and discover what it is you’re most passionate about.

Creative Hack 2: Positivity and Your Mission Statement

That’s going to only take you so far. The next thing that he says is “Having a good routine. Surrounding yourself with positive people or influences. Identifying the positive things in your life and the negative. Fleshing out your mission statement and what it actually means to you.”

That’s a lot of stuff in there! Surrounding yourself with positive people in elements as much as you can. You know those people that you leave, or they leave you, and you feel worse. Then there’s people that you do enjoy in your surroundings that bring a positive influence. Well, obviously, you want to gravitate towards them.

Next, fleshing out your mission statement. Google uses three word mission statements. You don’t necessarily have to limit it to three words, but keep it short and to the point. For example, Advancing Your Photography is a mission statement. Advancing, meaning you’re continually moving upward. Your, because it’s about you. And obviously photography. I’m now expanding that to advancing your creativity and helping you advance as a creative. That’s my mission statement. You’ll need to work out what your own mission statement is. What is it that you’re driving towards?

Creative Hack 3: Use All Your Senses and Go Outside

The third hack Chris went over is to be sure you’re using all your senses. As he said, for thousands of years man has lived outdoors. It’s only the last century or so that we’ve tended to be more and more inside and frankly too much inside. One of the things you want to do is you do want to get out into the environment and use your senses. You want to get into an environmental situation where you go outside and you look at things and you get that spark of creativity from being around natural environments. It’s really important.

“So you need to get to a place where you’re using all those senses. You’re finding out what you’re passionate about, and that really requires you to experience new things.” Get outside, go try some new things. Chris Burkard is always traveling and doing cool stuff. Even in your own neighborhood, you can find cool things to go out and look at.

So my friends, those are your three hacks to energize your creativity. I want you guys to work on these, and be sure to write down your thoughts in your notebooks. Write down what drives your passion and find your mission statement! Be sure to share your own mission statement as well. I’d love to hear what your mission statement is, and how these hacks help you on your creative journey.