Dear Creativity,

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it really means to take action.
It’s Day 3 of the 12 Days of Creativity in The Hatchery, and the invitation is simple, but not always easy. Take one small step. Nothing elaborate. Nothing polished. Just enough to move the needle.

Recently, I came across a mural painted along the side of an art store. At first glance, it stopped me because of its joy. The vibrancy. The shapes and movement. Nothing says you were here, Creativity, quite like color transforming a once-blank wall.

But the longer I stood there, the more I thought about everything that had to happen before that joy could exist.

Permission had to be asked for, or courage gathered to ask it. Decisions had to be made about windows, edges, and scale. A first sketch had to exist, imperfect and tentative. Then came the outlining. The layering. Returning, day after day, to keep going. Each small action quietly stacking on the one before it.

What we see now is a finished piece, functional, inspiring, and generous.
What we don’t see is the devotion to taking the next small step when the whole thing still felt unfinished and uncertain.

That’s what partnering with you looks like, isn’t it, Creativity?
Not one grand leap, but a series of ordinary actions taken with trust.

So today, with my "take action" prompt in front of me, I find myself wondering about the steps I’m avoiding because the destination feels too big. Too far away. Too insurmountable. And yet, just like that mural, every meaningful thing I admire was built one decision, one action, one return at a time.

So this makes me wonder:
​What small action could we take today, one that feels almost insignificant, yet quietly moves us closer to the ideas that feel both daunting and full of possibility?

Innovatively yours,
Dr. Abigail