Stop Losing Inspiration!
- Jillian Girdner
- Nov 19, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 18, 2024
Staying inspired can be a difficult thing if you're always reactive. Decide to stay inspired by doing these 4 simple things each day.
Capture it
Explain it
Review it
Store it
You see things every day. You find beauty and have creative thoughts more than you realize. So, why with all this beauty and inspiration around you do you often feel stuck in what to create? Intentionality.
Artists live in the moment and feel their way through their craft (as a general rule). There is nothing wrong with that. Operate in your strengths! But...if you NEED inspiration to continue to create and find yourself often at a loss, there is hope. Adopting a simple daily discipline will sky rocket your creativity and enable you to always have an idea from which to draw (pun intended).
This may be unpopular, but I truly believe even the most creative and talented artists would benefit from some structure and constructive daily practices that help focus their creative energies.
The four steps outlined above will keep you on track and provide opportunity to have your next project ready at any given moment.
First, you need to pay attention to what you pay attention to!
When you find something that causes you to take a second look, stop and marvel, or just say, "hey, that's cool." CAPTURE IT! That's Step 1.
There are many ways to capture your inspiration. You can take a picture on your phone, write down what you see, or even sketch it quickly on a pad. However you will best be able to quickly capture the thought, do that thing. Be consistent with it. Make sure it's not so labor intensive that you just won't do it or will not have time to do it. That's why I suggest taking a quick picture on your phone. This allows you to capture the actual thing you saw as it was created with ease, speed, and repeatability. That's step 1, capture what captures you!
Step 2 might be where you want to quit, but hear me out. EXPLAIN IT. I am someone who underlines things. I tend to find passages or sentences intriguing (for a specific reason) while reading and in order to better remember and go back to them later, I underline or highlight them. Now, as I was reviewing a book recently, I saw a highlight from several years ago and couldn't figure out why I had it highlighted in the first place. I was in a different state of mind and season of life when I highlighted the passage the first time.
Great, why tell you this? If I had taken a quick second to jot down why I highlighted the passage in the moment I found it important, I would have been able to understand its significance years later.
So, for step 2, once you capture what captures you, be sure to give a quick sentence of two of what intrigued you. It can be super simple, such as, "fun color combos" or "love the way these hands are represented" or even "fun tree, would like to paint this". Really, it can be that easy. You can simply add a caption to your photo on iOS, I am sure there is an equivalent on Android. OR, you can start a note that has the picture followed by the explanation. This will truly help you not only have a photo reference, but understand what you were initially seeing in this specific moment of inspiration.
Now, Step 3. If you're with me this far, you might be ok with a me continuing with my suggestions of structure. REVIEW IT. I suggest you put a time each week on your calendar to spend 10-15 minutes reviewing your inspiration pictures, descriptions, sketches, etc. Make it the same day and time each week. This is an important appointment becuase it allows you to constantly stay in touch with your own thoughts and what inspires you. How many recipes have you saved on pintrest or instagram that you never made because you never looked at them again? Stay focused on what inspires you, but make it a practice and schedule that time. If it's important, it should be important enough to make time for.
Finally, Step 4, this one is truly crucial. STORE IT! Use some sort of organization system that makes sense to you. It can be by date, subject, color, theme, whatever! Just create albums or folders and name them for the category or system you choose. This allows you to quickly locate things you might be looking for. For example, if it's December and you want to start doing pieces to market for Valentine's Day, look by holidays or color (red, pink, white). Maybe you are wanting to do a landscape and you are wanting to see whether to paint a desert, lake, or forest. Find it in what you've already captured!
This system is a structured way to ensure you will stay inspired and always have material to draw from.
Let's review the steps to help you stop losing inspiration once more.
Capture it
Explain it
Review it
Store it
I would suggest two more benefits of the disciple.
You will show yourself you can stick to a practice that is structured
This will give you confidence in other areas of your life where organization or structured tasks may be necessary, but daunting. Once you give yourself a "win" in this way, you'll be able to start tackling those other areas in your life with more confidence and determination.
You will begin to stay inspired as a practice
I think, with the repetition of this process and contant review, you won't find yourself stuck in ideation the longer you do this. You will be inspired more quickly by what's around you in the moment as well as remember your inspiration more clearly from times past.
Let me know how this goes and remember, steward your gift well. Create disciplines in your life that will accelerate your talent and sky rocket you to the top.
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