Perpetual Rookie: Stop Being Creative (With the Wrong Things)

I ordered my usual coffee the other day.

The barista handed it to me with a smile. Proud of herself.

I added extra pumps of mocha for you.

Like she'd done me a favor.

I didn't want to hurt her feelings. But I wanted to ask her to stick to what was already created.

I didn't order creativity. I ordered my coffee.

Why Consistency Beats Creativity at Your Favorite Restaurant

If you've ever ordered your favorite meal somewhere, you can appreciate the lack of creativity.

Think about that.

The person making your food refused to be creative. And you're grateful for it.

It took creativity to design that dish originally. Someone experimented. Tested flavors. Failed a few times. Adjusted. Tried again.

But once it was created and built, it moved to something else.

Consistency.

Now you don't want the chef improvising. You want them to make it the way it was designed. Every single time.

Creativity has a season. And so does discipline.

The problem is, most of us don't know when to switch.

We either stay in creative mode too long—endlessly tinkering, never shipping. Or we try to be creative with things that already work—and break them.

That barista? She was being creative in the wrong season.

The recipe was already created. Her job was consistency. But she couldn't resist adding her own twist.

In writing: If you create a great blog about working in the dirt, you can't come in the next day talking about chess. People want what you created. They came back for that. The discipline to deliver it day in and day out isn't optional. It's the whole point.
In business: A product that works doesn't need reinventing every quarter. It needs consistent delivery. Save the creativity for the next product.
In habits: Once you design a morning routine that works, stop tweaking it. Run it. The creativity happened when you built it. Now execute.

The pattern is the same: create once, then protect it with consistency.

Here's what's hard. Knowing when something is done being created.

When does a blog find its voice? When is a product ready to stop evolving? When has a habit earned the right to run on autopilot?

I don't have clean answers. But I'm learning to ask the question.

Is this still in the creative phase? Or am I tinkering with something that just needs to be delivered?

You're allowed to stop being creative.

Not forever. Not with everything.

But with the things that are already built? The recipe that works? The format that resonates?

Protect it. Deliver it. Consistently.

Save your creative energy for the thing that's still finding itself.

Pick one project that's already working. Something you keep tweaking.

Ask yourself: Is this still in the creative phase, or am I just afraid of consistency?

If it's built, stop adding extra pumps of mocha.

Just make the coffee.