Find Your Unicorn Space Book Summary - Find Your Unicorn Space Book explained in key points

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Find Your Unicorn Space summary

Name: Find Your Unicorn Space
Rating: 4.1 (253 reviews)
Author: Eve Rodsky

Eve Rodsky

Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World

4.1 (253 ratings)

17 mins

Topics

Self-Care Gender & Sexuality Time Management Routines & Habits

Table of Contents

Find Your Unicorn Space
Summary of 9 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Carve out and defend your creative time and space.

If you’re one of the millions of hardworking, selfless people who feel as though you’re continuously putting your own needs on the back burner, then Eve Rodsky, the author of Find Your Unicorn Space, has a challenge for you: carve out some time in your day for a creative pursuit.

Rodsky believes that by denying ourselves priority time in our own days, we’re actually hurting everyone around us. Instead, we should be taking on creative pursuits that energize us, awaken some passion and excitement, and make us feel more valuable in our world.

And that’s exactly what this Blink aims to do. We’ll explore what unicorn space is, why it’s so hard – particularly for women – to claim this space, and how you can make sure you get this essential time in your life here and now.

Unicorn Space as Self-Expression

Overwhelmed and overworked individuals often have the bad habit of denying themselves the time to pursue a creative form of self-expression. Not getting to spend an afternoon baking, writing, gardening, singing, knitting … too often seems like the least of your problems.

You’ve got work, family, kids, pets, social obligations, housecleaning, cooking, laundry – and by the end of the day, you don’t have the time or energy to be creative.

But actually, we all should. And that’s where unicorn space comes in. It's the dedicated time and space you give yourself to do what you love.

Unicorn space isn’t the same as self-care. It isn’t the same as work even if you love your work. It isn’t coming up with creative tasks for your kids to do. It’s about finding an activity you’re so excited and in love with that you can’t wait to get back to it.

At its heart, unicorn space is about taking a little bit of time to be you. Just you. Authentically you. It’s about finding a creative pursuit that comes purely from your own curiosity and passion and then sharing the results of that pursuit with the world.

But is this really a priority? Aren’t hobbies and vanity projects for when you have spare time?

First of all, terms like “hobbies” and “vanity projects” are reductive and can lead you to sideline your creative pursuits.

That’s why the term unicorn space was created. This is more than a hobby, it’s an opportunity to further develop the you that existed long before work and kids and laundry.

Studies are very clear that people who take the time to prioritize their creative expression feel better, act better, and live better.

So if you’re worried that taking some time to do what you want to do might be selfish, take comfort in the fact that your family is much happier when you’re happier.

It’s time to stop thinking of unicorn space as an option and start thinking of it as a necessity.

Why Women Can’t Find Unicorn Space

Unicorn space is historically more difficult to come by for women than for men.

Studies show that the burden of unpaid domestic work is higher for women in spite of whether they work or not. The pandemic didn’t help. At one point, unpaid labor for women rose 153 percent and three million women dropped out of the workforce.

All’s Fair in Housework

To find your unicorn space, you need to have fairness in the home. Women are statistically likely to be shouldering an unfair share of the unpaid domestic work it takes to run a household and family.

The first thing you need to do to begin claiming your space is to realize your own value. It’s good to be compassionate, generous, and kind to the people you love, especially if you’re a mother. At some point in motherhood, your children are pretty intensely dependent. But this doesn’t last forever, and eventually, the time comes to restore balance.

Loss of Identity

Now that you’ve carved out some unicorn space for yourself, you may be wondering what you should do with your time.

If you’re drawing nothing but blanks when asking yourself this, chances are that over years of too much work and too much caregiving, you’ve lost connection with yourself. Loss of identity means a disconnection from yourself and your passions.

Curiosity Drives Creativity

Following curiosity is the path to creativity and self-expression but it can take a while to find that path.

Curiosity is the itch or desire to explore. When you’re in a state of curiosity, you’re engaged, you’re in the flow, and when you have to leave, you can’t wait to get back.

The Three Permissions

In order to actually maintain your unicorn space once you’ve found it, you have to give in to three critical permissions.

Permission number one: you’re allowed to be unavailable. This is so hard, particularly for moms. We think we need to be on call for everyone all the time. In fact, we probably judge other moms when we see them not being available for their kids.

Take it to the World

Once you’ve discovered your passion, it won’t be enough to keep it to yourself. Something inside of you will call out for you to share your gift with the world.

This may be intuitive. Perhaps your creativity led you to knitting but you want to use that passion to connect with others. So you use some of your unicorn time to take your knitting to a local retirement home to knit with and teach the residents.

Time to Be Done

Completion is more important than perfectionism. In fact, perfectionism can hold you back and even kill your project. Sometimes you just have to choose to be done. Sometimes the project timeline will end itself.

For instance, if you’re doing a dance in a recital, when the recital is over, your dance project is over whether or not you’ve done a good job.

Final Summary

When finding your unicorn space, remember that you matter just as much as your family does. You deserve to be a priority in your own life. Your first step is claiming the time and space. Though this may require some negotiation with your partner, keep firm about the fact that you deserve and have a right to this time and space. Once you have that time, hold your boundaries and reject interruptions. Follow your curiosity until you find your passion. And avoid perfectionism so you can enjoy the benefits of completing a project.

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What is Find Your Unicorn Space about?

Find Your Unicorn Space (2021) opens the door to an important conversation about what makes us unique as individuals and offers a guide to discovering, claiming, and growing your creative interests.

Who should read Find Your Unicorn Space?

Women who give too much
Creatives who don’t have time to create
Recovering workaholics, martyrs, people pleasers, and moms

About the Author

Eve Rodsky is the New York Times best-selling author of Fair Play about the equitable distribution of unpaid work between men and women. On a foundation of research, she offers sustainable solutions to the problem of self-neglect primarily among women.

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Personal Development Productivity

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