Thoughts on Inspiration
Every few days, something inspires you. You think about it for a few minutes, excitedly, passionately, even madly. And then something else comes up. The new thing. And you lose what beheld your attention earlier. You are then left ruminating on what happened to all your brilliant ideas. In spite of all the brilliance you had cooked up in your own head, why isn’t anything like that done.
There have been times, which to be quite honest come way too often, when I have felt uninspired, not wanting to do anything for a long duration of time. I have procrastinated, produced below my standards of quality work and hence have been miserable. I have tried a few actionable items, hacks if you please, which have helped me come out of misery and produce good meaningful work that I can be proud of. This post is a list of all those things and I hope some of these things work for you too.
First things first, what is inspiration? According to the superb dictionary I use, Inspiration is “The act or power of exercising an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotions; the result of such influence which quickens or stimulates”. For me, inspiration is something that drives me to create, to do and sometimes even consume. A good book inspires me to write stories and pen down my thoughts as well as inspiring me to pick up another good book to read. Inspiration moves you to act, it pulls you away from inaction. It instills a sense of optimism as if everything that you desire is in your reach and shows you a clear path to achieve those. But, where does it come from?
A good book, obviously. A moving speech, a thought provoking movie or even your own thoughts. In fact, your own thoughts are the biggest source of inspiration. Take a solitary walk alongside a path which has few distractions. Get in the shower or ride a bike alone. This is where we get inspired the most. So, we have understood that your mind is the biggest source of inspiration. But, knowing where it comes from doesn’t mean you can get that inspiration. So, how do you do that?
The best way to get inspired is to put yourself into those positions. I am not talking about the long walks, showers, rides kind of thing. I mean, get active. Start doing something. I am deeply influenced by and believe in a brilliant TED talk says that how the inspiration fairy grabs you and you have to act in that moment or else that fairy will move on to the next available, better prepared seeker. Keep a notebook at hand, record a voice message to self on your phone, tell a friend. Once these inspirations are recorded, you can work on them at a later time.
But, there are times when you just don’t feel like doing something - you don’t want to be prepared even though you know you probably should. I have found few hacks to sort this out.
1. Move your place:
Our mind gets bored with repetitive things and seeks constant change (an oxymoron, I know). Whether it be in foods we eat, things we do, our hobbies or even our relationships. But, the irony is when we do seek out changes, it resists. Mind is a weird creature, seeking change but resisting when the moment to change comes along.
2. Just get started:
Starting up something is the biggest step and requires the most effort. At times, I write random stuff, sometimes even the fact that I don’t know what to write. But, after substantial number of minutes have passed with me putting pen to paper, something good starts to emerge. One of the most important novels in modern literature - Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre is a book about the narrator’s struggle and process of writing a book.
3. Get a good tool:
An instrument or the tools of a trade/skill are very important for the kind or even the amount (and maybe thus the quality) of work produced. It is easy to say that a good artist excels irrespective of the environment she lives in. This is true to an extent. For instance, Jane Austen is said to write amidst distraction even as her kids played around her. But, for lesser mortals, I believe set and setting plays an important role. Personally, I have not been much of a snob about writing - I still use a worn out Dell which heats up after 10 minutes of usage which also happens to be the amount of time it takes to boot up. But recently, I got this notebook as a gift and I bought myself a writing desk. They make me want to use them. Beautiful tools call out to you. They want to serve the purpose they were built for. A beautiful notebook is not judged by the quality of paper but if it makes you want to fill it up.
4. Keep your personal and work tools separate:
There is no context creep between the too and it lets you focus on each thing separately. I have set up my personal, albeit slower laptop for personal projects and I keep my office laptop just for that - office work. It lets me work in my day job better.
While I realise that some of these may not be what everyone wants to do but I am particularly good at procrastinating and thus I needed to take such steps. Maybe, as I develop better habits, I might be able to produce good work without the need for these aids. But, until then, I am going to use some or all of these hacks.
What happens after you are inspired and have recorded your thoughts - elaborate on them. Neil Gaiman once said that if you write only when you are inspired, you can be a good poet at best. But, to be a great novelist, you have to slog it out through drudgery even when you are not inspired. You have to put in those extra hours, one word after another and hope that you can get into a flow.
Related watch - Jack White on Inspiration