Inspiration Does Not Respond to Meeting Requests

Welcome to the second blog of my 30 day blogging project. Warning! All of the blogs for this project will be posted unedited, unfiltered.

We all have them, meetings. Sometimes, we even have meetings about more meetings. Oh the pain, make it stop!

Then, we have brainstorming meetings to create ideas and inspiration. However, when was the last time inspiration responded to a meeting request? Um…never! So why do we count on meetings to find inspiration?

I’ve been thinking a lot about where to find this so-called inspiration. I asked my friends, listened to content marketing experts like Jay Baer and dazed into my cat’s eyes for deep insight. (Ok, maybe my cat had little to say, but she’s so fluffy, I couldn’t help it.)

Great places my friends find inspiration:

• In nature, especially water.  – S B Hadley Wilson
• In a bottle. 🙂
• I usually find it in creative projects that invariably demand lots of perspiration. – Kenneth W.
• In the creativity of other people – Adam Helweh
• Mood, oddly enough, is commonly the starting palette. From there… extraneous influence. Who or what it could be… depends on the moment. – Marc Morris 
•  At home drinking tea, burning incense and listening to classical music. – Melodi C.
• Friends. – Sukhjit Ghag
• Megadeth – Jason Miller
• Between inspects and inspirational in the dictionary. – Jason L.
• At the risk of sounding trite, it most often finds me. Abruptly! – Al-x
• … pinterest – Shana Bull
• In Cleveland OH – Kristin Wyke
• Inspiration is serendipitous so I try to diversify my experiences. – Evy Wilkins
• My dogs, walking to work from the ferry, talking to my mom, going for a run, watching people at a bar, looking at old photos. – Erin Robbins O’Brien
• Venn Diagrams are the best. Adding, subtracting & intersecting different concepts is a great way to tap golden inspiration. – Nick Kellet
• I also find SlideShare is a great source. I try to read broadly, but find Tweetchats are also a great source of inspiration. – Nick Kellet
• My wife & daughter. Music. Pop culture disasters. – Andy Levey
• I always say if you are seeking inspiration find new music and new experiences. – Eva Crawford
• When I work on the head, I look at the feet. Giacometti
• Either look so deeply at your subject the familiar that it becomes strange. OR look everywhere else. – James Buckhouse
• Nature, early morning, silence, reading, the simple little things, and meditation usually do it for me! – Grace Boyle

My top places to find inspiration:

• My family (past and present)
• My friends
• While taking a walk through the park
• At the museum
• Kids — their perspectives and views about life are so enlightening.
• Comedy shows
• Listening to all types music
• Music lyrics
• Crowdsourcing
• In the shower
• Pop culture
• Watching people interact
• My cats
• Reading — blogs, news, really anything…
• Architecture
• Art
• Science
• Other cultures
• And yes, even while in the bathroom 🙂

Where do you find inspiration?

Let us know by commenting below.