What would you do if you suddenly find yourself stuck in the doldrums and feel that somehow you have lost your way? What would you do if inspiration—your joie de vivre, the fire in your belly, your carpe diem attitude—is now gone and you feel almost like an empty shell with your best days behind you and the future in front of you looking bleak? Here are three ways to help you find inspiration and stay inspired.
- Move it
Inspiration will not come if you just sit around wallowing in negativity and sorrow. The biggest mistake you can make when you feel uninspired is to sit around doing nothing. When you feel heavy, resist the temptation to take a nap or sink deeper into your sofa. You need to move, do something productive and pull yourself from the pit of laziness and self-pity. Move your body, dance, sing, walk, run, cook, do yoga, garden, etc. The point is you shake the blues away, get your heart pumping and blood flowing. The release of happy hormones endorphins after exercise might just fuel your creativity and get you inspired.
- Take it one day at a time
Accept that finding inspiration can be a process. Take small steps. Forget about your pretentious goals and your dreams of instant success. While it gives you a nice feeling to talk about all the great things you want to achieve, it’s also easy to get lost in your own dream. Your desire for instant gratification may lead to failure. Instead, be patient, humble, hopeful and set realistic goals. Realistic goals force you to take baby steps and help you avoid burning out early in the game. They give you a form of direction and something to work for. They also help you decide what you really want in life and push your limit. Having sensible goals may just be the key to keep you inspired every day.
- Get support from like-minded people
The last thing you should do is try to do things by yourself. Doing things alone won’t help you find inspiration. You need to find other people with similar goals and try to uplift each other when one is feeling down. A trusted friend may be able to push you towards your goal and inspire you to keep moving forward. You can also find a support group. Working with other people will teach you that feeling and staying inspired is easier to achieve when you have the support of others.
There is no magic pill you can take to make you feel inspired right away. Inspiration will not fall on your lap as you while away the time in front of the TV. It will, however, show up, in the form of joy and sparks of new ideas when you start putting one foot in front of the other. As Pablo Picasso once said, “’Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’
