Inspiration - Part 2: 10 way to get inspired today

Let me tell you a story. It’s the story of the beginning of my creative career. I’ve had a few stumbles and false starts on my creative journey and this was a big one. It has taken me a long time to work out how to bring inspiration into what I do and to shape my business the way I have. There was a lot of trial and error in working out how to do it.

Since as far back as I remember, when people asked me “so, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I always said I wanted to be a designer. It was my dream, and by the age of 20, I was working as head fashion designer at a small company in Sydney. Unfortunately it didn't quite go as I had planned. I was sitting, mostly by myself, at a computer desk nine to five, Monday to Friday, in a sterile air conditioned office, with an hour and a half commute each way from work and a half hour lunch break in a bleak industrial area. I was made to pour out designs like a running tap. I gave it everything I had, but over time found it increasingly difficult to come up with new ideas, or sometimes to come up with anything at all. It was like my creativity had run dry. I dreamed of travelling to foreign countries, spending time in nature, and going swimming at the beach. These feelings seemed at such odds with the environment I had to work. I felt my inspiration dwindling more and more.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but what was missing in my life was TIME to become inspired. We don’t become inspired by sitting at a desk nine to five, Monday to Friday, nor do we become inspired by DREAMING of being in other places or doing other things. We don’t get inspired by just waiting for it to come. It comes to us from spending time around that which we find inspiring – what gives us spirit and helps us to breathe in that breath of life. For many of us, it is the simplest thing of all to see the breath of life in the natural world.

The importance of taking time out to get creatively inspired shouldn't be overlooked. Of course, this is difficult to do in the corporate environment, as I found out as a designer, and much more accessible if you work for yourself, as I do now. However, when we at least understand how this principle works, we can begin to make changes that can help boost our ability to find that needed inspiration. 

I wasn’t aware of what I needed at the time. I burnt out in that job after two years and had to quit, thinking I wasn’t cut out for design. I was shattered and it took me years to pick up a pen and paper to draw again without feeling a bit nauseous. I worked for nearly a decade in other kinds of work thinking I couldn’t do it anymore.

Now I’m a designer again. But this time I’m doing it right. I never feel burnt out. I might recognise that I am in need of inspiration, but now I know where to find it. There are so many things we can do to bring inspiration into our lives. Here are some you can try today:

1. SPEND TIME IN NATURE. Spend a day in the bush, go on a hike, go to the beach, take a picnic to the park. Take your lunch breaks in the park. Run outdoors. Go see the sunrise and/or sunset. Take up gardening. Water the plants. Just BE in nature. As much as you can. 

2. GET OUT AND GET INSPIRED. At times where you have the option to get out, get out! Take that work lunch outdoors. Do a meeting at a café. Just get outside and away from the same same environment you are always in. Sometimes a change of scenery can make a world of difference.

3. BRING INSPIRATION IN. Make your creative space/workplace inspiring and beautiful. Keep it organised and tidy and fill it with photographs and quotes and other things you enjoy. Change it seasonally. This is not time wasting. It is important to your creativity. Keep a plant on your desk too if you can – cacti are perfect as they can handle the weekend and only need watering about once a week. Bring nature and beauty in, particularly if you can’t get out in it in your workday.

5. KEEP A PERSONAL JOURNAL. There is nothing better than a journal to order your thoughts and help you work out where you’re at. Let all your emotions out. Make sure it’s a private journal so you can be as crazy and inappropriate as you like!  It’s healthy to get it out. It’s releasing and helps to make way for the new, rather than stagnating on old ideas.

6. KEEP A CREATIVE JOURNAL TOO! This one is different. It’s where you write down all those creative ideas you have. Things to do, new directions to explore. If you design, sketch in it; if you cook, write down recipes; if you’re in business, write down strategies and plans. It’s a great way to collate ideas, whether you use them now, or refer to them at times when you have less ideas.

7. BE INSPIRED BY THE INSPIRED. Watch inspiring movies, read books that give you ideas, go to amazing places, talk to interesting people. Also look at the work of others in your field who you admire and write in your creative journal about why you admire them.

8. TAKE SMALL RISKS: Yes. Try it. Particularly when you’re in a creative rut. Take that small step sideways in what you do. It could be the best thing you’ve ever done. It’s the only way to break out of stagnancy and move to the next level. This is a skill in itself.

9. LEARN NEW SKILLS. Learning is a wonderful way to renew our inspiration. What is it you want to do next? What is your greatest excitement in life? Follow that and see where it leads you.

10. Did I mention SPEND TIME IN NATURE? I did. Oh good. That one is important ;-)