We recently connected with A.j. Forget and have shared our conversation below.
A.J., so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
As every artist knows, creativity is fickle. Creative energy has a tendency to show up in abundance when you are least able to act on it, and is often in short supply when you need it most. I am sure that we all have experienced that feeling of being on a long walk, far from your tools, and having an idea that you can’t wait to work on. Likewise, I know that we have all experienced sitting in front of a blank screen, cursor blinking at us, and feeling that the words just won’t come. As much as this might seem like just a frustrating irony of being a creative, I think that the solution to the problem is actually found in those examples. The solution, so far as I can tell, is rest.
In my experience, the real key to keeping creativity alive is found in rest and play. I have found throughout the years that I have a tendency to make every aspect of my life, even those which are meant to be restful, into work. Things like reading or watching movies, which I used to do purely for fun, I often feel the push to make them work-adjacent. Instead of reading a science fiction book that my friends have been raving about, I might pick up a book of food or travel writing, something that I will enjoy, but that I also think will tie back into my work and improve my knowledge and skills. The same goes for watching movies, with that travel documentary calling for me, whispering in my ear that it will be useful to me, while that award-winning film I’ve been putting off watching for months won’t get me anywhere. As much as this can seem like efficiency, it is often actually the death of creativity.
The creative mind needs lots of inputs, lots of references to pull ideas from, but that can’t be all that you do. Because the creative mind also needs lots of play. When all of your focus goes to work, everything feels so serious all the time. You never let your creative mind rest. In play, your creative mind is active, but also resting. Practicing arts which are just for fun, things which you have no intention of ever trying to make a living at, or even necessarily being particularly good at, are the best food for your creative mind. I like to draw and paint and occasionally whittle. I am terrible at all of these arts, but that is exactly the point. When I practice these media, there is no pressure. I don’t care if I ever get really good at them. I can simply enjoy creativity for its own sake, like we all used to do as children. And what I consistently find is that by playing in the creative world without any real concern about skill, my work mind can rest while my creativity grows.
The same goes for passive rest. When I say passive rest I mean being a couch potato. Turning off all of your work mind and just watching television or playing video games. In this modern age, when we are all plugged into work, plugged into our social media networks all of the time, the need to quiet the mind has never been greater. When I really can’t summon any creative energy, I know that it is time for me to absolutely waste a day. Sleep in, watch tv, play video games, go for a walk. When you can’t let go of work, when every minute you’re thinking about something that needs to be done, that is exactly when you need to flip that car around and spend a day doing nothing. While it may seem like a waste to your hyper-productive side, I assure you it is not. All of my best creative days come just after these days of lounging. We are not meant to be productive 100% of the time.
Creativity is the greatest gift we have. We, as humans, are exceptionally gifted in this way. We are capable of creating so many wonderful, amazing things. But we can’t do it all the time. The push to be working all the time, to never put your phone down or miss an email, has never been greater. There is now an expectation that you are always available for calls, texts, emails, and it is very difficult for our brains to cope with, particularly when it comes to matters of creativity. So, don’t forget to turn your phone off every once in a while. Go for a walk, sit at the base of a tree, and read a book just for fun. Play with paint, pull out a sketchbook, dance, whatever it is that feels like play to you, You might just find that in taking time for rest and play you actually end up unlocking not only a forgotten joy, but also a new level of productivity.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My wife, Ayana, and I have been living on the road in a converted short bus for four years now, traveling the all around the USA. During that time I have written two cookbooks for the nomad and camping communities. Each of the books contains over 100 recipes from all over the world, developed for a two-burner stove and tiny kitchen. There’s even a section about baking on the stovetop. In addition to recipes, the books feature stories from the road and lots of photographs of both the food and the beautiful places that this lifestyle allows us to call home (for a few weeks at a time, at least).
If cooking wonderful food in the great outdoors sounds like a dream to you, check out The Buslife Kitchen: Cuisine for the Modern Nomad, available on my website, thebuslifekitchen.com as well as Amazon. The second cookbook, The Buslife Kitchen: Recipes from the Road is nearly finished, with an expected publication in May of 2025.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Discipline: as an artist or entrepreneur, discipline is paramount. And it is not necessarily a simple trait to cultivate. Most of us have spent the majority of our lives moving from one externally-imposed deadline to the next. When you take the reins of your own business, your own life, there is no one to push you but yourself. There are no deadlines except those you make for yourself. It is one of the greatest beauties of this lifestyle that you are beholden to no one else, but it is important to find a workflow that you can stick to, which enables you to get things done and to enjoy your life while you’re at it.
2. Bravery: setting out to accomplish anything on your own is terrifying. Putting yourself out there creatively means being seen and judged. And you are undoubtedly going to make mistakes. Starting out as an artist or entrepreneur requires enormous bravery and a thick skin. There will be times when you embarrass yourself, when a critic tries to cut you down, but that is the price that we all pay for sticking our heads out above the masses. If you want to accomplish anything great, you will undoubtedly face hardship. Bravery is needed to start out and bravery is needed to push through. But as much as the challenges and the critics will pop out at you, there are always more people on your side, if you pay attention. Their voices may not be as loud, but when you are passionate about what you’re doing, the majority of people always have your back.
3. Flexibility: nothing every goes to plan. No matter how well thought out your plan, it is only a matter of time until something goes wrong, and you need to pivot. Sometimes this means minor changes to direction, other times it means scrapping an idea and moving on to the next. If you are flexible in your work and your mindset, you can keep moving forward, allowing these changes to be no more than an unexpected turn of the path, rather than a catastrophe.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
It is difficult to overstate how important my parents were in making me the person I am today. I was very lucky to grow up in a family that both reinforced good values and allowed me to be exactly who I wanted to be. I was given a lot of freedom growing up, which created an environment for exploration of what I wanted to do—what really excited me. I tried a lot of things, growing up and in my early career. At college I studied environmental science and psychology. I’ve tried a lot of jobs, for varying lengths of time. I was a deckhand on a boat, a floral delivery driver, a biologist and wildland firefighter, a trail builder, I bought grocery for folks, drove them about, all sorts of different things. But I always knew that I wanted to write. If I had dedicated myself to that from the beginning, if I’d been pushed into chasing that before I was ready, I don’t know that I would’ve been able to stick to it through the early hardships. By exploring all of these different ideas of what I could do, I not only gathered a wide array of experiences to draw from, but I also learned a lot about myself. I learned what I was capable of, what I was good at, and what I loved to do. And I feel that when you have that sort of understanding of yourself, it is much easier to persevere through the inevitable bumps in the road and stay true to the path that you’ve laid out for yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebuslifekitchen.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/the.buslife.kitchen
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/the.buslife.kitchen/
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