When it comes to creative inspiration, I am very comfortable letting it come to me. I never try to force it. If my head is foggy or I am in not in a good state to receive inspiration, what do I do? I take a break, take a nap, or take a walk.
If I’m not feeling it, I don’t worry about it.
These blog posts are a good case in point. It is 10:36am right now as I first start typing these notes out. This is pretty early in the day for me to start working on a post. Today I am bright and bushy tailed and have an idea right now! That is great, but I don’t take it for granted. Sometimes I will not be in the mood. I will typically go through various moods throughout the day. At some point I will be in a more receptive state. When I have an inkling, I sit down and start typing my thoughts out.
That’s the thing about inspiration. Don’t force it. Trust it to be there. I have learned from years of composing music, writing songs, and blogging, the importance of being in “receptive mode.” The key with inspiration is to let it happen. Sure, you may set your intention, but then you await inspiration as you confidently expect the ideas to come.
That’s the beauty of it all. The ideas always come! When I was composing every day for much of last year, I never had an idea ahead of time of what I would come up with. Maybe if I thought about it I could see a correlation between my mood that day and what I ended up writing. But I never knew for sure until I started working on it what would come.
It’s like looking under my bed to find out what the elves have left overnight. “Wow, new shoes! Cool.” Or a conversation with a good friend. You go in expectant of having a good time, but you never know for sure where the conversation will go. Do you want to plan out the conversation ahead of time? What would be fun about that! Nothing.
To be fair, there are times when a creative project calls for a specific tone or quality. If am writing a love song, for instance, the general topic or tone may be clear (“It’s about love!”). The possible nuances and directions it can go in, however, are vast. I’m not sure it’s up to me which creative ideas take hold, and I never know ahead of time where my creative muses will bring me.
In fact, generally I don’t want to know ahead of time. Because I want to go on the journey. To my creative muses, surprise me! Take me to a good movie, but don’t tell me what happens! I want to find out for myself.
Creating is like that.