"Bass heavy metal at 0:52 under insufficient light. Creeping suggestions of someone standing just behind.. lurking at the very edge of vision. Eyes prickling at the light fizzing from this screen as I stab at the keys trying to ignore the invisible fingers poised over my shoulder... too terrified to turn around. Unwilling to break the spell of this exquisite Paranoia."

.. you see, this is what happens when you stay up too late.

Thanks for the comments to my 'FIRST EVER JOURNAL' (tm). I feel slightly less trepidation making this second entry.

When I was a student, we were encouraged to think freely without constraint. My wonderful tutor, Penny Cooper her name was... she was a wicked genius. She mocked all my pre-college school work and picked apart the fabric of my creative self. I was on shaky ground for a while.. where was I headed? Was my art really that bad? What the hell was I doing there?

She asked me what I hated doing the most. I said metalwork. She enrolled me in an arc welding class. I welded pieces of plate steel together until my hands were as black as the face guard and my hair stank of metal and sparks. By the end I had a tortured sculpture that was a reflection of the terror I'd felt the entire time of it's creation.

Then it dawned. After a year under her guidance my approach to creative thinking had exploded.

The bubble we develop within is but one indicator of potential, but letting yourself slide away from your comfort zone allows you to discover other ways of working. Obvious really, but there was a time when this lesson was the most amazing realisation of my life.

So... find a process you hate doing, and create something with it. You'll curse, you'll complain, you'll break pencils and kick the cat, but by the end you'll have a key to whole new worlds. They will kneel before you.