Welcome to a Little Happier.

I'm Gretchen Rubin.

Today's many episodes is brought to you by Squarespace.

Take your business or brand to the next level

by building a beautiful website at squarespace.com.

Enter offer code Happier at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

People often talk about the problems and the challenges of trying to be creative.

And I think about that all the time myself, how to stay creative, how to stay fresh.

And it reminds me of a story that I once read in Arthur Kessler's book, The Active Creation.

So apparently an art dealer had bought a canvas that was signed Picasso.

And he went all the way to Khan to ask Picasso, you know, is this is this genuine or is it a fake?

So he walks in, Picasso's working in his studio and Picasso looks at the canvas and says,

it's a fake. And then a few months later, the dealer brought another canvas that was also signed

by Picasso. And Picasso looked at it in a single glance. He said, it's a fake.

And the dealer said, but Picasso, it so happens that I saw you with my own eyes working on this very

picture several years ago. And Picasso shrugs and says, I often paint fakes. And I think of that

this because I know that feeling that that feeling that even though something's original and that I,

you know, typed it out myself, it feels repetitive or imitative or just some kind of perfunctory

variation on a theme. It's derivative of myself. I think about that with the podcast. I think about

that when I'm writing on my blog, when I'm writing my books. And I ask myself, am I re-imagining

things? Am I giving them a fresh spirit? Am I breaking through the familiar to do something new?

Or am I just painting my own fakes? I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier.

...