I think in the end its about doing something you like. If you want to do effects and you have a list of related words, just jump into the one that you are excited about!
Another good kickstarter is to join a jam(Game jams - itch.io) or these sketch competitions at this forum. Learning a new discipline(code, animation, etc) has made me a better vfx artist, totally recommend doing that if you feel like it.
I think the most valuable thing is to have fun..
I just want to point out this podcast that talks about creativity in the art related work: Stream Creative Trek music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
I usually just picking a random episode. They have given me a lot of insight how others work, I usually don’t finish the episodes because they are quite long.
Gonna go ahead a listen to one right now!