What inspires you?

Inspiration. It’s a word we’ve heard a lot in the last month. We’ve all talked about how inspiring we found the Olympic athletes and there has been a lot of chatter in the media about young people being inspired to take up sport. And, just thinking about the Olympics for a little longer, it can go beyond sport. Several of the medal winners, when interviewed, said that their achievement showed that anyone could do anything they set their mind to. So if we consider the hard work and dedication put in by Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis or Greg Rutherford, and then the impressive results, we can tell ourselves that this shows us we can start our business, write our book or renovate our house.

You see, after many years of believing that it’s all about hard work, sacrifice and not enjoying life, I’ve changed my mind. I loathe and detest housework. I can find anything to do just to avoid it. But the one time I actually want to do housework is when I watch something like “How clean is your house?” on telly. Suddenly, magically, I actually want to do housework. The last time this happened, I cleaned some brass! And when that happens, I don’t have to make myself, force myself, tell myself that visitors are coming and I will be ashamed of the tip that is my living room, it just happens easily and almost effortlessly. Inspiration.

Just recently, I’ve started to look for inspiration purposefully. Everyone’s different, and I find that running and walking, reading, watching (good) films and having a nice hot steam or sauna all get my creative juices going and have me bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. I try to go to talks by people I admire, especially authors and lawyers, which can really get me excited about what I want to do. Now, the extraordinary thing is that I think all those things are fun. And coming from a culture that says we have to work hard at something we don’t like doing, go without and feel guilty if we have fun, this means a total switch around of my beliefs. I used to think, and still can sometimes on a difficult day, that discipline plus guilt plus self-sacrifice equals hard work which equals success if you are lucky. Now I really believe that inspiration equals creativity and enthusiasm which equals loving what you do. And if we love what we do, then we’ll do more of it, and do it better. Success won’t be a destination, it’ll be an enjoyable journey.

As I said, we are all different, and each of us needs to find what we need to do to get inspired. I have other friends who find running works for them, but still others get fired up on train journeys, visiting new places, listening to music or having a massage. If you’re like me and this is a very different approach from what you are used to, then it takes planning and mindfulness to keep it up. I do know by now that I am more productive and creative when I’ve been remembering to fill up with inspiring activities, but I still have to remind myself that it’s OK to do it, that in fact it’s a good idea!

What inspires you? I’d love to know.