Waiting for inspiration? www.studiopolle.com
One of the questions I get asked about most: how do you find ideas and inspiration?

Creatives often talk about inspiration as if it is a hard and difficult subject. I think that’s nonsense. Inspiration can be so light and easy!

You only need two things to swim in an endless sea of ideas and inspiration:
an open mind and confidence.

Approach life with an open mind. When you turn off curiosity and wait passively for the muses to visit you, be prepared for a long wait. No one will come, nothing will happen. But ….. when you put on your bathing suit and dive into the water open-minded and curious, you will notice the beautiful coloured fishes surrounding you. Illumination is always there, but you have to have an open mind to be inspired.

To swim, you need confidence that you will be able to float once you’re in the water. If you have that confidence, you’ll feel free to enjoy the surroundings and be inspired.

What if you’ve turned on your curiosity and confidence, but you still need an extra inspiration boost? Don’t wait ‘till the ideas start arriving, but try one of the following inspiration boosters:

  1. Experience. Get moving, literally and figuratively. Practice your wanderlust. Use your senses. Try to really see, feel, hear and experience. The more you practice this, the more intense your observations will be and the more ideas you’ll catch.
  2. Surround yourself with good influences. Visit a museum, read a book, watch a documentary or use Pinterest as a resource. Surrounding yourself with the ideas and inspiration of others, will teach you how to be a better swimmer.
  3. Associate. Choose a starting point, for example an emotion or an object you love. Make a mindmap with this starting point. Associate, connect and let your mind wander free. Inspiration will flow.

Waiting for inspiration? Be prepared for a long wait. www.studiopolle.nl
This mindmap eventually lead to creating the picture above. The original mindmap subject was : ‘you are here’. It was about feeling at home, or looking for a place to feel at home. In the mindmap I wrote ‘dress’ and ‘letter’, which were associations I had. I combined those and took this picture: made possible by curiosity, confidence and association.

Discover your creative potential. Your story is waiting to be told.