Don’t wait for inspiration
Inspiration often comes after we start
I’m going to let you in on a secret. Are you ready for it? Here goes:
Inspiration doesn’t come on tap.
I know: shocking.
Sadly, you already know this as well as I do. Some days our minds are like fast flowing rivers, bursting with more ideas than we could ever utilise.
But then there are the other days. The days when the river is nothing more than a stagnant trickle. We can’t find a good idea anywhere.
Tomorrow will be the day I complete one month of daily blogging. This truth about inspiration has never felt so real.
Some days I sit down to write and there are five or ten ideas I could work with and turn into a post here at Being Human. But then there are the times I know I need to write but I’ve got nothing. Like seriously: nothing.
At this point it’s tempting to give in. I haven’t got anything to say, so why would I even try and write?
But that’s the great myth about inspiration.
Oftentimes the inspiration doesn’t come until after I start out regardless, ignoring my non-existent inspiration.
I sit down and choose to create even though I have nothing to work with. Sometimes I force myself to just start typing. Anything. Literally, anything.
I might start out writing, ‘I’ve got nothing to say today. Why am I even bothering,’ and just keep churning sentences like that out.
But after while – sometimes a few sentences; other times a few paragraphs – something kicks into gear. An idea finally pops into my head. And the act of writing has become the trigger for what to write about.
The truth is that sometimes we can’t afford to wait for inspiration. We’d never get around to creating anything at all. Sometimes the inspiration doesn’t come until we choose to ignore our lack of inspiration and start creating anyway.
