Motivation Monday: Finding Inspiration

Today is MLK Day. Dr. King was and remains an inspiration to many: for engaging in civil disobedience, for working for equality, and for serving God. I cannot say anything about Dr. King that has not already been said by others or that he didn't say himself. If you have not read Letter From A Birmingham Jail, you can read it here. However, having today off from work in his honor made me think about inspiration generally.

Inspiration from Role Models

If you are ever stuck thinking about your next steps in life or in your career, you might think of someone who leads a life you admire and look to her for advice. You might just try to emulate her by taking a step that she took at the same point in life. 

When I was a senior in high school, I had to identify my role model for a tiny post about me in the local newspaper. I selected my dance teacher who I had been taking classes from for about fifteen years. Outside my actual relatives, there were very few people I had known quite as long. She was in her sixties at the time, and she had a perpetual smile on her face, she could do the splits (and stand back up), and she could remember the names of the countless little girls who took her classes. She was a lovely woman full of poise and warm smiles. I would have happily been her when I grew up.

One job I had as an adult had a lot of benefits to it. But I was able to decide that it was time for me to change directions when I realized there were not any people in the circles I moved in that were living a life I would want to emulate. So, for me, realizing that I could not find inspiration in any of the colleagues I had helped me decide to leave that position and look for something different.

Like Dr. King, you can also find inspiration from people you have never met, and who perhaps are already deceased. Many religious people will look to examples of people who lived their same religion well. For instance, Catholics will often learn about the saints who followed the church's teachings and try to emulate them. Gretchen Rubin, host of the podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin, has discussed having a spiritual master. Although Rubin is not Catholic, she speaks highly of St. Therese of Lisieux, and selected her for a spiritual master.

Learning about the most elite members of different professional groups is inspiring as well. I love watching something like Free Solo about the man who climbed all of El Capitan without ropes. Or Breaking 2, which is about the efforts by professional runners to run a marathon in under two hours. Or Jiro Dreams of Sushi: which tells the story of a sushi chef in Japan who very obviously eats, sleeps, dreams, and lives sushi. Seeing these obsessive and exceptional humans really helps inspire me to try my best in my area of work.

Inspiration from Others' Creations

Another way you can look for inspiration would be from books, paintings, music, or movies made by others. Another podcast host I love, Becca Freeman from Bad on Paper, says that she rereads Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic every January to fuel her creative juices. You might find inspiration from walking through a museum or playing some beautiful music. You could find inspiration from watching a cooking video for a dish you have never made.

Sometimes, if I feel in a rut for cooking dinner, I will watch an episode of Chef's Table on Netflix. It is not as if I will copy any of the dishes that these experts make, but it will remind me that I enjoy cooking, and it should be a joy more than a chore. 

Sometimes, when I was in graduate school and doing a whole lot of the same kind of reading, the same kind of writing, and having discussions with the same kinds of people, I would sometimes watch something like The September Issue. While I was stressed and wrapped around the axle thinking about my narrow piece of the world, I learned that the staff of Vogue treated an issue of their magazine as an extremely, extremely high-stakes moment. It would kind of help me put things in perspective and get inspired to think about my own work in a more calm way.  

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

Do you reread any stories to get your creative juices flowing? Is there a person in your line of work who you can try to emulate day-by-day? Do you have a role model?

Today's Delights:

• I got a haircut yesterday on a bit of a whim: it's pretty short now! I like it; it feels fresh and light.
• This weekend has felt so so lazy. It's kind of been great.
• We went for a long drive yesterday to look at the snow and enjoy some different scenery: it was fun to see people ice fishing! I had never seen it in real life!

Find something to delight in -A