I have an interesting story about inspiration. Fresh out of Brigham Young University, a man named Stephen Hales was having trouble figuring out a logo for his

I have an interesting story about inspiration. Fresh out of Brigham Young University, a man named Stephen Hales was having trouble figuring out a logo for his design agency, Stephen Hales Creative. He had spent weeks working on concepts for the logo but nothing felt right, until one day he was getting into his car when he accidentally spilled a drink of coffee or something similar. When he looked at the ground where the beverage had splashed, he saw what appeared to be the silhouette of a bearded man clutching at his scalp, a representation of the design process: both frustrating and enlightening. He used the spilled drink as inspiration for what would become — and is still, today — the company logo. Anything can be inspiration, depending on the lens you have on when you encounter it. Research has shown that even subtle things we don't consciously acknowledge have an impact on our ability to solve problems or generate ideas (i.e. to "inspire" us). The trouble is that, because we aren't always consciously aware of what is inspiring us, we credit creative "sparks" to current conditions and stimulus, even if what really sparked that solution or idea in your mind was really inspired by a billboard you passed on the freeway four days ago or a book you read when you were younger. As a result, we waste quite a bit of time "seeking" inspiration. We feel like understanding where others gets their inspiration will somehow magically help us to find it ourselves more often. But that's not always the case. More often than not, the best way to be inspired is to bury yourself in the problem or task you're working on. To quote smashLAB co-founder Eric Karjaluoto: "The problem with inspiration is that it’s random, which leads you to focus your hope on outside influences you can’t rely on...These stimuli aren’t under your control, available on tap, or always relevant to the work at hand. Thinking you can find ideas elsewhere leaves you flipping through magazines and browsing the web, hoping you’ll stumble on a magic cure." Of course asking what inspires others can be enlightening and entertaining. I'm not going to bash any of that outright because that's a battle already won (just look at the thousands of books that sell each year around how to "find" inspiration). Perhaps I'll leave you with another quote from Merlin Mann: "Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging." For more thoughts on the subject, consider: http://everythingisaremix.info http://everythingisaremix.info https://medium.com/@mikula/its-okay-to-be-dumb-d536915238cd https://medium.com/@mikula/its-okay-to-be-dumb-d536915238cd http://jamesclear.com/schedule http://jamesclear.com/schedule