Tomorrow marks the start of Amira Rahim's & Passion Color Joy's 30 Paintings in 30 Days. Using the hashtag #pcj30in30, painters and other creatives will spend the month of September committed to creativity. Though the #passioncolorjoy hashtag is predominated by abstract, visual art, consider this your personal invitation to join me as I follow along for 30 days. Together we will get passionate about living in joyful color. If you are an artist, you can certainly use this time to make art as I will be, but you don't have to be a painter to join. Creative challenges are all about being intentional about living more creatively. Try new foods, invent a secret language for you and your significant other, spend time in your garden: whatever. Make a creative plan; follow it for 30 days; have fun along the way.

Regardless of how you plan to spend your month, I have some tips to get the most out of it.

1) You Don't Remember What You Don't Track. Even if you are not doing a painting a day or some other tangible art project, keep track of your progress. Write down what you did and how you felt. What you don't track, you easily forget.

2) Let Your 30 Be a Jumping-off Point. In the age of Instagram and, well, online challenges, we can sometimes get caught up in the finished products and having something ready to sell every day. This is no way to make art, and it doesn't have to be the way you handle a 30-day challenge. You can do 30 days of brush strokes, 30 days of warm-up sketches, 30 days of paint mixing. 30 days of mixing browns and grays. I mean, the sky is the limit! Take 30 steps closer to a goal.

3) Plan It. Theme It. Make It. While I encourage you to do whatever you want these 30 days, I also think it is helpful to plan it out. If you are going to paint for 30 days, perfect. How long will your painting take? What size will it be? Are you limiting your color palette? Are you painting people? Abstracts? Color field or cubist? How about landscapes? Seascapes? Oils? Acrylics? Water-based mixed media? Paint collage? There are two barriers to doing a daily challenge: one is having too many restrictions and other is not having enough. Only you know what works for you.

4) Hashtag It. If you are sharing your work on Instagram, give yourself a 30-day challenge hashtag so that you can look back on your own work. If you have an email list, Facebook group, or other way of reaching your collectors and people who love your work, be sure to share that hashtag with them. If they aren't checking in on Instagram regularly, they may be missing your posts in real time. You or your collectors and friends may want to check in once you have several 30-day paintings completed. (This is especially important if you are planning to sell your works.) So give them a hashtag! Easy peasy. (Mine is #30daysonpaper)

5) Or Not. Your 30 works, regardless of their form, can be just for you. Want to keep it simple? Grab a sketchbook or a stack of printer paper. Work with the color wheel and make triads of colors you have mixed. Each morning wake up and try a new yoga pose. Photograph color palettes you find in nature on your way to work. Having taken the time and effort to commit to 30 days can inform future work and future living, even if it doesn't show up as its own Instagram hashtag.

I hope this helped you think about the challenge, and I hope you participate! Let me know if you are going to join in on the fun! Don't forget to follow my journey at @loryiveyart on Instagram.