How can I become inspired?

In my last blog post I urged you to pay attention to your inspiration. When it comes it is a gift, I wrote, so don’t leave it on the table.

In response to that posting I heard the question, “But I don’t get inspired, at least not nearly enough … hardly ever. Is there something I can do to increase my inspiration?”

What’s funny is that I just happened to be reading an e-book that relates somewhat to this very question. The book is The Inspired Eye: Notes on Creativity for Photographers, by David duChemin. It’s a quick read, like all of his books (I have several) and is available for download at his website: http://www.craftandvision.com/

Mr. duChemin writes photography books and this book focuses on creativity and inspiration in photography. But what he says about inspiration is applicable to inspiration in all aspects of our lives. After reading his book, and spending some time thinking about inspiration, I came up with a couple of strategies you can use to increase your inspiration. You can make inspiration happen. In that way it’s sort of like motivation. You are in control. The way you make inspiration happen is to lay the ground work for it to appear. And then all you have to do is be open to it.

The first strategy is based on the truism that creativity springs from work, and not the other way. duChemin says if you want to be inspired photographically, you’ve got to be doing photography; the work brings forth the inspiration. In photography that means taking pictures, lots of pictures. It also means looking at the photos afterwards and learning from your work. It means being critical, not just downloading your photos into your computer and putting your camera away. As for me, I like writing speeches. I do it all the time. The more I do it, the more inspired I get.

The second strategy is to increase your knowledge of your topic. In photography that means first of all you need to know your equipment. With digital this is getting harder all the time. I have three books just on the topic of how my camera, a low end Nikon digital SLR (D40), works. (Things were a lot easier back in the 70’s when I used a Rolleiflex that didn’t even have a built in light meter.) Increasing your knowledge in photography also means, for example, knowing the rules of composition, and studying the masters. What ever your topic is, there is learning you can do. Look into your social environment and see what sources of knowledge there are and then follow up.

The third strategy is to get involved in your subject. The more you are involved with a subject, the bigger a part of your life it is, the more likely you are to get inspired in that subject. If you really want to be inspired, you need to totally immerse yourself in the subject. As you can imagine, I spend lots of time thinking about motivation, and I find that the more I think about it, and write about it, and read about it, and study it, the more frequently I am inspired. Make your physical environment reflect this immersion. In my physical environment I surround myself with representations of me as a speaker. I have all my Toastmaster trophies and ribbons on a shelf above my desk. I have a photo of me in my blue suit at a podium. You can also use your social environment to increase your immersion. If your subject is photography, join a photography club and surround yourself with like minded people. I do that with speaking. I belong to not one, but two Toastmasters clubs.

By using these simple strategies you can make inspiration occur. And when it does, make sure you grab hold of it and don’t let it go. Inspiration will motivate you like few things will. It’s a real gift.

Be open to inspiration

Our focus when we apply the self motivation model is to increase the motivational impact of one of the three factors of motivation: vision, successability and environment. There are many ways to do this. Before I tell you about a strategy that is one of my favorites, let me encourage you to be an active participant in this process. As you become more aware of who you are and what motivates you, you will be creating your own strategies. You will come up with strategies that are super effective, that will turbo boost your motivation. As I discuss different strategies in this blog, always be thinking of ways you can modify the strategies, fine tune them, so they are more powerful for you.

The strategy I want to share with you today I call be open to inspiration. When you are open to the inspiration in your life it can impact any of the three factors. It might be an insight as to who you really are, and result in you making your vision more precise. You might be inspired as to how you can be more effective in the work you perform toward your vision, thereby increasing your successability, your confidence in your competence. Or it might be some way to change your environment, so it enhances your work in some way.

Inspiration means different things to different people, although the more I think about inspiration I’m convinced we are actually talking about the same thing; what differs among people is what we think the source of the inspiration is, where the inspiration comes from. Some people think the inspiration comes from the deep recesses of your brain. Others believe it comes from the universal mind, or higher consciousness. Others believe it is God speaking to them.

Whatever source you believe in , inspiration is generally perceived as an intuition or idea that just suddenly appears. It will often be a very creative idea, and it may be a solution to a problem you have been trying to solve for a while.

Sometimes inspiration will come with a loud announcement; the light bulb will go on and there is no way you could miss it. But just as often it will settle into your mind quietly, and if you don’t stop and appreciate it, you might just miss some idea that could really turn around your life.

Inspiration can strike at any time, in the middle of a traffic jam, while you are cooking dinner, or maybe even while taking a shower.

My inspiration frequently comes to me in the middle of the night, usually somewhere between 3 and 4 AM, when all I really want is to be asleep. When I was younger if inspiration struck at this time, I’d tell myself, “Hey, that’s a great idea. What a solution.” And then I’d roll over and go back to sleep. The next morning, or maybe the next evening when I was finally able to sit down to my computer to start on my work, the wonderful idea was just a hazy memory, usually very hazy.

After too many of these wonderful ideas were effectively rejected by me, because I considered sleep just too darn important, I realized I was throwing away some great stuff, so I put a pad of paper and a pen on the table by the side of my bed, and started writing stuff down. Sometimes I even get up, go over to my home office, start up the computer and spend 20 minutes getting it all down. Once I have emptied my mind through the key board, I am usually able to go right back to sleep. I’ve never regretted taking the time to write it down.

The strategy is simple, but powerful. When you become aware of that quiet small voice talking to you, take heed. It’s a gift. Don’t leave it under the tree.