How Inspiration Can be Used as a Tool

Today I want to talk about inspiration. I’ve seen a lot of people say online that you can’t count on inspiration or motivation for your writing. I’m not sure that this is entirely true. While yes, you do have to write with or without those things I think inspiration is a tool that you have to set up in a certain way so that you can see it around you. In my opinion it can work for you if you put some time towards it.

What Inspires You?

This is the most important question: what inspires you? Spend some time pondering on it. Is it music, artwork, or maybe a show on TV? Do you feel inspired from watching certain YouTube channels? Or maybe you feel inspiration after going on a walk, or playing a physical sport, or doing a hobby like gardening. There are many places that we can find inspiration from, we just have to take the time to dial in on it. This is the first step to getting it to work for us.

For me music is very inspiring, along with seeing other people having success in their endeavors. Motivational speeches have also been something that’s helped me. One year in college I was taking mostly online classes, and was spending fourteen hours a day, seven days a week on course work (on Sundays I did probably around ten hours.) Talk about burn out! The first thing I would do every morning was listen to motivational speeches on YouTube. It made a big difference in how I felt about taking on the day ahead of me.

What We Watch Matters

Lately the YouTubers that I watch have been talking a lot about doomscrolling, and the negative affects of it. I do it, lots of us do. But what we put in front of our eyes is more important than we think. Often times doomscrolling leads us to watching things that are neutral to us, or don’t make us feel good. It can waste our time. On occasion we’ll find something we like, but we really could do better with our digital diet. How much would it change our day if we made sure that most of the content we took in was inspiring and cheerful? I think it would make a big difference, and it is something that I’m working towards. While yes, we do have to keep track of the news and what’s going on in the world, it doesn’t mean that has to be all we look at, or be the main thing that we focus on all the time.

I think it’s worth it to take the time to really ask ourselves if what we’re watching or looking at is supportive to the life and goals we want to live. More and more the internet has become a part of our lives, and is an influence on us whether we realize it or not. For me at least it’s a place I visit every day, even if it’s just to check my email. We’re all so connected to it that I think it’s important to be more watchful than ever on what we’re taking in. That and I think it’s good to separate ourselves from it when we can. There’s so much more to life!

I’ve noticed for myself that even when I feel discouraged or that being creative is challenging it helps so much to be looking at motivational videos, or things that feel inspiring. And it’s different for everybody. Something that might be encouraging me to be creative might not have that same effect for someone else. One thing I’ve seen a lot that I haven’t tried much is making vision boards that have pictures that are inspiring or have goals in them. This is something that I’m working to learn more about. It helps us to have a visual of what changes we’d like to make in our lives. I know some people love to have quotes on their phones or computers where they can see them. There are many ways to get inspired and to remind ourselves of what we want to accomplish!

I want to end this with what I think is something that is critical to creativity. Never give up. Even when it feels hard, it’s what we do every day that has an impact. Keeping on is what keeps dreams alive.