Inspiration: 3 Simple Ways to Find It

Inspiration: 3 Simple Ways to Find It

How do you find inspiration? When you want to solve a puzzling problem, tackle a new project, or write a new blog post, what do you do to find ideas? These three powerful yet simple techniques always work for me.

1) Write down a question. I’ve got a small notebook next to my bed filled with my questions! The questions begin with “How will I…” or “What will I do about…”  There are no answers in my book. When I find the answers I don’t waste time writing them down. I run with them! I think of this as my Magic book: whenever I write a question in it, an answer always follows – and fast!

2) Get out of the house. It can be a ten-minute drive to town or a nineteen-day trip to Europe, it doesn’t matter; when I go away, I get inspired. I enjoy clarity and a new perspective on my problems. It’s amazing how inspiration comes to me when I’m driving to town, when I’m camping in Cape Breton, when I’m travelling with my daughter in Greece! I’ve found some of my best ideas when I’ve simply left my house!

3) Brainstorm. Before Life, for instance published it’s first post on November 1, 2010, this blog was a concept without a name. This was a problem. I had been wracking my brain to think of one, without success. So I gathered my son and daughter and my new social media coach for a brainstorming session. It was a lively yet fruitless session until my daughter said, “Read that letter you wrote.” She was referring to an email I’d sent to my Terra Cotta Pendants contact list. I read:

” …It would be a place to take your morning coffee or tea and sit before rushing into your day; a place where you pause in the evening to see how other people wind down their days… It may give you the name of a new book to pick up, a stress-relief technique to try; hope because community does all that – true community. We can talk about the things that matter to us, things other than aromatherapy, say life, for instance!”

“What about ‘Life, for instance‘?” she said.

I didn’t want to make a fuss about the first anniversary of Life, for instance, but I’m a make-a-fuss type of girl! I may not hug you (or I might) but I want to say a huge and warm “thank you” because one year later I’m still here and the reason for that is clear. You.

Do you use any of these three techniques? What would you add? How do you find inspiration?

photo credit: Rilind Hoxha

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About The Author


I have always loved writing and community building. I’ve written a book about healing and happiness, The Happy Place, as well as a Community Building book, Sounding the Drum: Community Building in the Digital Age,both available at any Amazon store. I’ve been through life changes that I thought were the end of my world, but I’m still here. You never know what will happen next. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?