Cultivating Inspiration - Making Space for Ourselves

It's June - the beginning of summer and the end of a year of confusion, anxiety, loneliness, lockdown, and turmoil. There is an optimism in the air with new beginnings.

The word "inspire" literally means to draw air into the lungs. An apt metaphor given the last year's oppression from a respiratory virus. We are still here and we can breathe freely again.

Merriam Webster defines inspiration as the “action or power of moving the intellect or emotions.” We're not always going to feel inspired, but there are things we can do when our energy gets stuck.

What blocks your inspiration?

What fuels your inspiration?

We can cultivate balance

To me, balance doesn't mean finding the perfect tension between the competing areas of your life. Achieving balance means balancing my energy so that your perform-recovery cycles are short enough to sustain a calm, focused attention (rather than stress mode).

What are the ways you like to renew your energy?

We can also cultivate balance by getting out of firefighting mode to the best of our ability. Stephen Covey's third habit in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People addresses the Eisenhower matrix, where Important / Not Important is on the y-axis, and Urgent / Not Urgent is on the x-axis. The more we can be proactive, we can get ourselves into "quadrant II" where our work is important but not urgent.

Where could you carve out some proactive planning time?

We can connect with our intrinsic sources of motivation

Dan Pink writes about intrinsic motivation in his book, Drive. He breaks it down into three components. Autonomy is our desire to call our own shots, to choose our own direction. Mastery is our innate desire to build skills. And Purpose is our desire for the gifts we give the world to contribute to a greater good and have a lasting impact.

Where do you already have autonomy? Where could you exercise more or request more autonomy?
In what areas are you developing mastery? Where might you work to gain more mastery?
How is your work already purposeful? How could you connect more to a sense of purpose in your work?

You're not always going to feel inspired, of course, but cultivating fertile ground for inspiration is within your control, through creating space for yourself. Manage your energy, work on the important, non-urgent goals, and reconnect to your inner drive.