Charlie wrote a post today about inspiration that resonated with me. He says,
“These are the kinds of people I go out of my way to spend time with. I probably take about three meetings a week with people who have inspiring ideas completely unrelated to what I’m up to, because it’s a mental workout for me. It helps me think better and gain perspective about my own ideas–a rigorous cerebral exercise. What I was trying to explain to my students is that, if you’re going to make a living off of your creativity and innovation, you need to set your life up in such a way that you spend more time with people who inspire you to think, as opposed to just spending your time with whoever lives on your floor, or the people next to you in class.
Along the way, we’ve all met pretty interesting people in passing, but we don’t always stop them and demand more of their time. That’s active management–making a point to be more deliberate in our scheduling, and its something we all should do more of. When’s the last time you had a really inspiring conversation with someone? Who was it? What did they make you think about? How likely is it that you’ll talk to them again soon? Perhaps you should ensure that happens sooner rather than later by asking them to grab coffee or something. My life is filled with what I call “onesies”–people not really connected to the rest of my world but that I’ve pulled in because my interaction with them really lights a fire for me.”
Finding inspiration isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but upon reading his post, I realized that this is indeed a simple way to get the gears turning. Being such an introverted person, being inspired by others doesn’t always lead to in-person encounters. In fact, it’s more often *making* myself hang out and then afterwards thinking, “Oh, that was so fun; why didn’t I do it sooner!” But for those more anti-social days, one can also at the very least tap into the blogs of those inspiring folks of the interwebs. Either way, it’s only with conscious effort: having my Google Reader full of 1000+ blogs posts from cool artists isn’t going to get the wheels turning. You have to, um, read them. Even just rapidly scrolling through images on FFFFound can do the trick in a pinch. But really, you have to do *something.* (Okay, now I’m really just talking to myself here.)
To the artsy folks out there, talking to inspiring people is only the first step. Here are three other handy ones:
1. Always be looking
This one can be hard to keep up on in the sometimes isolating ritual of walking out of the apartment, getting on that packed F train, turning on the iPod, and heading into work, but to me it’s the most crucial step to really experiencing the world around me.
It is, simply, to take out the headphones and *look.* Look at the shape that man’s body forms as he stoops over to pick something up. Look at the negative space between those two people talking. Look at the colors of that fruit stand. Look at the geometric patterns formed by that pile of garbage in the gutter. Look for faces in sidewalks, sidewalks in faces. Look for the patterns in the people and objects around you that lend meaning to the chaos of everyday life.
If you blink, you’ll miss it, so keep them eyes peeled. The other day I was walking to work across 23rd St, and I noticed some construction workers power-washing the roof of one of the buildings. It looked exactly like the New York City Waterfalls art installation, except about 700 billion times more beautiful. If I hadn’t been looking, I would’ve missed it.
2. Always be drawing
It can be hard to keep on top of this one. I’ll go through months of furious, constant drawing and then months of not drawing at all. But it bears repeating to remind myself: Jen, always be drawing. At home, on the train, eating lunch, waiting in line. Draw whenever you can.
3. Always say yes
I’ve gotten into more than a little trouble in the past by always saying yes, but I think in the end it’s been worth it. To me, this is the most important thing to remember in life, since everyday life is so full of No. No, I don’t have time. No, I don’t feel like it. No, that’ll take too long. No, that might not work out.
It’s a critical aspect of the traveler mindset, and frankly, one of my favorite parts of myself: if you see me abroad, I will always be saying yes. In daily life it’s harder, but equally important to say yes whenever you can. Want to go to lunch? Yes. Want to head 2 hours uptown to go to the zoo? Yes. Want to go into this this pretentious and intimidating art gallery to look at the two paintings on the wall? Yes. Want to eat this fried tarantula? Yes.
Whenever you feel your mind starting to say No, that’s when you know you should be saying Yes. It’s impossible to learn about yourself, your hopes, your dreams, the world, its people, without saying yes. Always say yes.
