Create. The rest will fall into place.

time to visit your favorite cantina – by flickr user mark®

You know how it feels to start a new job? I’ve always found that you can quickly grab hold of the necessary basic skills, but it definitely takes a few months to fully “get it”. It dawned on me today that just as in times of employment, it takes a little while to settle into times of unemployment.

I’ve been in “forced temporary early retirement” for the last three months, and I have to say that I’m finally getting the hang of it. I’ve never been laid off before now, and it’s a pretty strange thing to get used to. There’s a pace you have to get used to. You also have to learn how to find lots of free or cheap stuff to do, you know, between setting up a new company and looking for new jobs and all.

At first, I was doing lots of extremes. Either laying super low (i.e., not getting out of bed) or living like a rockstar (going to SXSWi and getting drunk for like two weeks straight). When you don’t exactly have lots of plans, the sky’s the limit. Well, maybe not that. But something like that. Eventually your life finds a balance. Hopefully I’m finding my balance. It definitely feels like it.

One thing I’ve been trying to do is to be as creative as I possibly can be. This means learning more about design (specifically making things all pretty-like for the web and scheming Ignite presentations), writing a lot (at my three blogs), even doing conventional art for the first time in a long time. My life is centered around being creative, and to better center myself, I must be more creative.

I find solace in creativity. What do you find solace in?