Every Monday, I share 1 question for you to contemplate, 1 idea from me, 1 quote from others, and 1 inspiration for us.
This week’s topic is: Inspiration
Last week I was asked how do I go about finding the topics for my weekly articles. My answer was that I go with what I feel inspired by. This could be something I come across during a walk, a surprising thought, an unplanned conversation, a forgotten song or a consistent process that gets stimulated and produces a sudden spark. At times, inspiration can feel like a mysterious thing that appears out of the blue and illuminates your life. However – even if there are certain magical qualities about it – inspiration can be cultivated, nurtured and sustained.
One Question for you
Inspiration comes from doing.
Discuss the question here.
One Idea from me
Inspiration is a large driver of our creativity, motivation, productivity and wellbeing. The best part of inspiration is that it has the power to ignite a spark and transform your life in an instant. There are things we can do to increase the likelihood of inspiration occurring. Below I share four suggestions on how to find and cultivate inspiration:
Understand what inspires you
How do you know what inspires you? By connecting with yourself and what matters to you. Feeling uninspired may be the result of focusing and doing things that are not aligned with your true self or your life purpose. This week, consider taking few minutes to reconnect yourself with what used to inspire you or with your personal vision (click here to read my recent article on this topic).
Start before you get inspired
Sometimes to get inspired you just need to start! Inspiration comes from doing and being open to experience. This week, consider starting something and being open to how this new activity could have the potential to ignite the spark of inspiration in your life.
Keep an inspiration collection
Start a collection of references to what inspires you (e.g. resources, songs, films, quotes, stories, reflections etc.) or keep a notebook with you to jot down ideas whenever they strike. These ideas may not seem ground-braking immediately, but they may serve as inspiration at a later date and help you get the wheels turning again.
Shake up your routine and perspective
There is always more than one way to do something or to look at one situation. This week, I invite you to consider doing something familiar in a different order as you go about your day. Another suggestion is to take few minutes to consider a situation from a different viewpoint and let new inspiration and creative solutions come to you.
One Quote from others
“Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working” Pablo Picasso
One Inspiration for us
As you know by now, figure skating is one of my inspirations. This week I share the iconic free program “Seimei” from figure skating G.O.A.T., Yuzuru Hanyu. This is a video that I watch almost daily as it gives me an enormous source of inspiration and physical goosebumps. Interesting fact: in the first two seconds of the program’s music (“47-48), you can hear Yuzuru breathing in. I find this fascinating, as the origin of the word inspiration comes from the Latin word “inspiratio” which essentially means “to breathe in” - referring to the idea that the divine breathes inspiration into humans. If you have four minutes, I highly encourage you to watch this inspired masterpiece – I hope it brings lots of inspiration to your day.
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