Todd Henry is a self-professed “arms dealer for the creative revolution.” The author of two books and a nationally-known speaker and consultant, Todd is enabling thousands of people to claim the lives they want by embracing their creative efforts.

In the information age, creativity, whether it’s art or young minds or computer code or delicious meals or agreements, is more important than simple obedience, more important than compliance or rules or hourly attendance. Because information, by its nature, must be created, and attendance in a specific building for a specific number of hours is irrelevant to the creation.

But creativity isn’t something one can just summon out of the air, and if we’re going to make a living from it, it isn’t something we can do only when the mood strikes. If we’re going to make a living at it, creativity has to become a habit, something we do every day, without fail. It has to become as serious as a job. And that requirement, many people believe, stifles the very creativity we’re trying to cultivate.

That’s where Todd comes in. His stated purpose is to help us be prolific, brilliant, and healthy–to help us create a lot of work, make sure it’s great, and do it in a sustainable manner. He offers several techniques and tools to help us do this, one of which is what he calls the seven “Everyday Acts of Bravery”. These are seven practices that, applied consistently, will help us create consistently brilliant work:

1. Define your battles.
2. Be fiercely curious.
3. Step away from comfort.
4. Know yourself.
5. Be confidently adaptable.
6. Find your voice.
7. Stay connected.

Creating, putting something new into the world that wasn’t there before, is by its nature an act of courage. Because creating opens the creator to criticism, from others and from him- or herself. Even brilliant work can–and will–be criticized. We must be ready, or we must plan to keep our day jobs.

I’ll be exploring each of these everyday acts of bravery in more detail going forward. If you’d like to know more about Todd in the meantime, you can find his website here, his podcast here, and talks he’s done here and here. Enjoy!