Act On Moments Of Inspiration
Don’t hesitate!
I’ve always had periods of inspiration and motivation. And I’ve also had periods where things weren’t clear and I’ve been burnt out.
I wrote recently about a period where I didn’t have much clarity [which you can check out here if you missed it]. But in summary I had come of the back of a few months of serious hard work and I needed a break. I had a bit of time off while I gathered my thoughts, and I also started reading a Malcolm Gladwell book that had been on my shelf for years — The Tipping Point.
Not too far into the book, the things I had been struggling for clarity with all became clear. Just like that. I knew what I had to do. The writing style and subject of Malcolm Gladwell helped me realise how I was going to start my own writing career, have the freedom to cover the topics that interest me and not be stuck in one particular niche.
Then by chance, a complete coincidence, I saw Malcolm Gladwell has an online masterclass about writing. I got straight into it and loved hearing how he approaches writing and his tips for aspiring writers.
One of the realisations I made when reading The Tipping Point was that I need to get my book written. I’m about to start a business to help families with autistic relatives and I have a book idea based on my 6 step methodolgy. I have a rough outline of it but I had been thinking [during my period of burn out] that if I go down this route then I’ll forever be known as the ‘autism guy.’
Given that I had aspirations of writing about various topics that I’m interested in, I thought I would be stuck in this niche and not be able to go ahead with my other writing ideas. What a pile of nonsense! After reading only part of Malcolm’s book, I immediately saw that this was irrational. I took my new found motivation and got to work on my book.
I wrote a chapter out in one day and was quite happy with how it looked. I shared it with a couple of people and got some good feedback on the way it was written, and the content itself. I guess it’s a case of rinse and repeat until the book is done!
I though I’d share this and get my thoughts out there. It looks like this’ll be a regular thing from now on! When those bursts of inspiration, motivation and clarity present themselves, make sure you act on them.