The Discipline of Inspiration
Creative spark is a funny thing. Sometimes it strikes hard and the vision of what you want to create is so clear it basically creates itself.
But how about those times when you stumble upon being inspired - like it sneaks up on you when you weren’t expecting it - or even those intense dry spells when you want nothing to do with your craft.
I’ve been thinking about inspiration a lot over the last year, and I’ve come to the conclusion that inspiration is a muscle, and like any other muscle, it needs to go through discipline in order to function at its highest potential.
Of course you can just wait till inspiration strikes and then go out and do the thing. But what if you’re in a downturn? What if your days are filled with monotonous regular life things that don’t inspire much? Well that’s where the discipline of seeking out inspiration needs to take root.
But what does that look like and how do you discipline what we’ve often thought of as a random, fleeting emotion? I’m no pro on the psychology behind creativity, however I’m hoping that I can share some of my own practices that might help you take some steps in order to hone in your own creativity.
A bit about these images...
Growing up in a small town there was never glitz and glam. But there was a drive-in, and it's still there. The exact same swings. The exact same rickety slide. The very same concession stand. It makes my heart happy when we reject the need to tear down what is nostalgic and update it with the latest and greatest. Vintage is always better.
Over the summer as we all hopefully have a bit of down time to spend on hobbies or leisure, I’m putting together a mini-series on inspiration. Over the coming weeks I’m going to share with you how I go about pushing my own inspiration, what I’ve been reading, learning about, listening to, and watching. I’ll include quotes and images that have propelled me to think differently to develop new skills and reach farther, and the practical things that I’m doing to actively discipline my own inspiration.
I listened to a podcast last week that featured Miles Witt Boyer, a commercial and wedding photographer based in the US.
“If you're getting the majority of your knowledge and your inspiration from someplace like Instagram, where everybody else is getting their knowledge and their inspiration,” he said, “all that you're doing is contributing to the minimum. You're not raising the standard of your work or of your career or your potential, and you're certainly not pushing that off onto your clients.”
It’s a brutal statement but completely true, and I definitely fist-pumped the air as I was driving and listening.
Since photography is my main creative outlet (and of course writing too since I produce this blog), a lot of my examples for inspiration are centered around images and the power of capture. But really I think these musings can apply to most creatives in all different kinds of creative disciplines. If you’re in the creative industry and struggle with inspiration or deliberately seek it out, I’d love to have a conversation with you about what you do to stay inspired, so please shoot me a reply and tell me what your practices are.
In the meantime I encourage you to get ready for a reflective summer of learning, practice and simple questions about what inspires you to be creative.
