Inspiration and expiration are two of the most natural things to living beings. When I say expiration, I’m not talking about termination, I’m talking about breathing. If we expirate all the air from our lungs, our natural reaction is to inspirate to fill them again. Yet, when searching for inspiration, we try to take on more and more information; famous quotes, beautiful artwork, poetry and literature. We keep breathing in, and our lungs fill leaving no room for the answers we seek.
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: you don’t find inspiration, you create a necessity for it.
If you’re struggling to feel inspired, you’re either looking in the wrong places, or just not digging deep enough. It isn’t until we expirate every aspect of a challenge that we create a necessity to inspire a new direction to explore. Stop picking up from the deck – lay all the cards on the table.
Everyone will have their own unique method to evoke inspiration, but here’s a few ideas to get the ball rolling:
Relax
I don’t mean laze around on the couch watching Die Hard with a beer and a bowl of nuts. Relax with purpose. Thomas Edison was famous for using the sleep state of hypnagogia (bodily relaxation and the easing of the grip of cognitive/emotive focus) to inspire him. By drifting into sleep sitting upright in a chair while holding two metal balls in his hands, he would then drop the balls as he entered the hypnagogia state, the noise as they hit the floor waking him in a highly creative mental state. I’m not suggesting you need to take such drastic measures, but clearing your mind and letting yourself relax helps exhale your thoughts, opening the door for new ideas.
Be ’In the Zone’
Technology is almost forcing us to be expert multitaskers. Everything we do we’re (by default) finding a second task to fill our attention span. While eating lunch we’re flicking through Social Media on our phones, compiling business reports while catching a flight, listening to a webinar podcast while commuting. Very little of our day is spent being completely focused on one thing. Practice being ‘in the zone’ (or ‘in the now’ as some would say) by devoting undivided attention to simple tasks; tying shoelaces, eating a sandwich, washing the dishes. Training yourself to focus on one task at a time helps refine your thoughts.
Just do it
Stop procrastinating and just start doing it, whatever it is. One of the best ways to inspire new ideas is to let the task become organic. One of Baz’s most noted sayings is, “It’s not about perfection, it’s about iteration”, and he’s dead on the money. I can 100% guarantee you that nothing you ever do will be the same as the first thought that you came up. It just doesn’t happen. Part of the reason humans are so brilliant is our ability to constantly find ways to improve things. So start something and then improve it.
Explore your senses
Our world is a highly visual place, so much so that we often take our other senses for granted. Close your eyes and explore. What do you smell, nothing? Keep trying. Concentrate hard on when you can smell, hear, touch, taste (within reason – try not to lick the person beside you… just a tad creepy). There’s 4 whole other worlds that we only explore when something is extraordinarily different in them. The amount of inspiration lurking there is unfathomable. Letting these other worlds in just opens up even more depth of possibility.
Doodle
It doesn’t have to be anything in particular. Just let the pen hit paper and go with the flow. One of the best examples I can give of this is our very own Head of Client Services, Michael Back. During staff meetings he draws. I’ve never seen someone draw their own name in so many different styles and variations in my life. He may not even be aware of why he’s doing it, but it certainly helps his creative thinking process, and has inspired some of his best ideas.
Get emotional
Let go of the physical and dive deep into your emotions. Brain activity changes radically based on the mood we’re in, or the emotion we’re experiencing. If you stay fixed on the physical and logical you’re setting your thoughts up for tunnel vision. Music is one of the best ways to explore emotions, particularly classical styles for creative thinking. Close your eyes, soak up the atmosphere and let yourself go.
Be open minded
One of my favourite quotes is from Greek philosopher, Aristotle; “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”. Be open to every perspective and don’t place judgement. As silly as some ideas might be, entertain them. By letting through the most radical concepts it can open up whole new outcomes to explore and inspire.
What are you waiting for? Be inspired – it’s only natural.