You do your best work when you’re inspired.
Doesn’t matter what. If you’re in love with selling vacuums, something about something will turn you on, and then you’ll turn that into declaration on pulling up dirt.
If I learned anything from the Mickey Mouse Club when I was a kid, it was that “Anything Can Happen” day is every single day. It’s only when we’re adults that we figure out that “anything” also includes “nothing”. Nothing can happen for a long, long time if you’re not careful.
That’s the thing about inspiration. You never know where it will come from, or when it will strike. One thing’s for sure: You can’t wait for it to find you.
But those people that say you have to make your own inspiration are only half right. There’s something untamed about inspiration that keeps it from being an “on demand” resource. Inspiration, like energy, is neither created nor destroyed. It just is.
The best you can do is increase your odds for having inspiration strike. To truly take advantage of Anything Can Happen day, you’ve got to be ready.
-Expose Yourself Be near ideas. Use a feed reader to keep in touch with whatever it is that gets your blood moving. Meet up with others in your field. The ideas are out there.
-Get Proficient You do what you do well, but you can do it better. But don’t strive toward perfection (a sure way to kill inspiration). Instead, just get good. Get miles. If you write more, you’ll get better at writing. If you train your dog more, you’ll have better walks.
-Love Something Doing what you love doesn’t necessarily mean do what you love for a living. But if you ignore your passion, you’ll find it hard to get inspired about anything. Remember that anything can be a source of the inspiration that will later go into your work. That’s a lot easier to find if you’re involved in something you can be passionate about.
For me, it’s being with my family, going outside to play, and writing, and reading good writing. Every time I’m doing one of those four things, the chances of me being inspired goes way, way up. It’s not going to happen every time, and I’m not looking for that, really (that would be waiting for perfection). But these things work.
Why? Because I’m opening myself to them. Because I’m good at them. And because I love doing them.
What about you? I want to know what you do to get inspired, if you want to share it.
