A friend of mine recently participated in an “Inspiration Ideation” meeting last week. The goal was to help her and her team to find new means of inspiration so that they can come up with better messaging, better slogans, and an overall better marketing campaign. Otherwise the product they are marketing is simply just old – there is no oomph! – behind it.
Map To Nowhere?
That got me thinking (always a dangerous thing) that you really don’t have to hire an outside person to help you discover inspiration. You have to simply stop. Look.
Listen. And be open to what others or you discover.
Even in the most stressful fast paced work filled days there are signals of inspiration all around you. It does not take much to be open to what is around you; you just have to realize that most inspiration comes from putting complete opposites together in a new and unique way.
So how do you tap into inspiration?
This is what I love about it. Tapping into inspiration is completely up to the individual. So before you go out and hire an outside company to help you become inspired I’ll give you what I do for inspiration:
- Listen to my favorite composer Philip Glass
- Listen to my eclectic taste in music in general
- Watch The Return of The King
- Watch the opening speech from Patton
- Any Gene Hackman film
- Any Clint Eastwood film
- Go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale Art Museum, and the British Art Museum
- Doodle
- Go for a walk in the woods
- Read old books from school
- Write bad poetry
- Go to my favorite pub and start a heated debate – about anything
- Paint horrible paintings
- Read my old “Idea Books”
- Talk to friends
- Write short stories
- Create maps of nowhere
- Cook difficult dishes
There are more things that I do to get me into the creative spirit and look for inspiration. Like I said, each of us is different. For me it is about removing judgment and letting myself be open to what I discover. That is a key to inspiration: be open. You have to put yourself in a frame of mind that allows you to be open. To put myself in that mindset I have to be participating in something that moves my spirit. Hence why with most of my inspiration sources I am doing something and I am not passive. The actions also take me out of my comfort zone. The goal is to always push my boundaries so I may grow. Even if it something I am proficient in or I have read numerous times, it is at that point in time when I am active with my source that I discover something new.
So, while there is no earth shattering insights from this blog post, I have hopefully saved you a bit of money and angered a few inspiration consultants.
What do you do for inspiration? Where do you look?
About The Author
The Author
Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army. He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079. You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin
The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small. The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.
