Inspiration

Last month I felt compelled to finally join the millions of people who have an Instagram account. I should add that I had a Twitter account before it was popular, and my Skype account is from back in the day when no one had even heard of Skype! I held off on IG though, as I simply didn't see the point in having ONE more social media account. (Social media is like its own full-time job. Just keeping up with all the feeds and pictures and video's and whatnot. It's exhausting!)

However, I am part of a FB group, made up of other planner & creative enabler's and saw that there was to be an IG challenge. Well, I couldn't very well not participate right? I must enable too!

So, the teen and I joined the IG world and I moved forward with the Daily Challenge. And accidentally found more enablers! Sad truth is that there are a TON of us! Who knew?

The last day of the challenge was 'inspiration'. Of course, we had just embarked on the studio makeover, so I used that as my 'inspiration' shot. Now, let me be clear here - it is not the room that provides the inspiration, but rather feeds the inspiration...and makes sure we have room to create once inspiration strikes!

Yet, thinking about the word inspiration is something that really struck a cord with me. Many moons ago, I was part of a company that used the word inspire as part of their mission statement. Inspiration is what leads to creativity. You see something you like, you attempt to create it. Pretty simple right?

Years before that, during all my leadership training, we also talked about inspiration. A great leader inspires the masses to move forward. They don't tell them to move, they encourage and cast vision and then people are inspired to move all by themselves. (PS - this does not work as well with little ones. To inspire them to move, one finds that encouragement works sometimes, but threats and bribe work most often!)

I started thinking though about what truly does inspire me. I have a list of things I adore - coffee, the color yellow, flowers, books, history, vintage everything, the outdoors, did I mention coffee?

When I'm working, great leadership, thoughtfulness, and the enthusiasm of other's, inspires me to work harder. Some days the paycheck is a great inspiration. Homeschooling does not inspire me to greatness, but watching my child excel does. (Anyone else realize that homeschooling is like going back through school again yourself? I finished college, so why am I taking algebra and geometry again? I did not like algebra then and have discovered I have not learned to appreciate it with time.)

Hearing stories of what other people have overcome can be inspirational. Reading my Bible can be inspirational. Looking at pictures on IG can be less inspirational, mostly due to the unrealistic dream to be able to replicate what I can not. Yet. (I choose to see my unrealistic expectations as either motivation to learn to do it, or motivation to run the opposite direction and choose a new thing!)

Then there are those days where little is to be found to inspire me. Sunday was such a day. I was down for the count, watching mindless television while trying to rest. As an aside - when did television programming become so bad that we couldn't fall asleep for fear we would miss the next awful moment to poke fun at?

Or, how about when you are so inspired, that your head is literally swimming with all the possibilities of what could be? Where to start? How to start? When to start? Why must the laundry pile be so big that it is literally standing between you and fun? (This would be the current state of the pile I am looking at, while sitting here typing, NOT doing the laundry simply because I have an unrealistic dream that it will magically disappear all on its own. I firmly believe this is why women have taken to yoga pants and leggings - they take up virtually no room in the basket, therefore creating the illusion that you are further ahead in the battle of the laundry!)

I am often overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the inspiration that strikes me. It grows in my minds eye, evolving into a much large picture and vision then where it began. The overwhelming 'project' state sometimes squashes my inspiration, as the work load looms. I am almost always happy with the outcome, but generally feel less enthusiastic about half-way through as I find myself having to be more creative with space or budget than I had planned.

What inspires you and what will you do with your inspiration? Is it time to create something new? Maybe repaint something, start something, end something, find something, take a nap? With spring approaching, today is a great time to find your inspiration and vision and do something with it! You just never know what come from it!