Where do you keep things that give you inspiration? To boost creativity, keep you motivated, maintain your attitude? Here is an idea to help you.
There is a tool among creative professionals called an inspiration board.
At first glance it may look like one of those touchy-feely-artsy collages you were forced to make for some high school class, but do not dismiss the concept so quickly.
Professionals from fashion designers, to authors, to Pixar film directors use inspiration boards to guide them. These boards may look random to the casual observer, but in truth they have focus and purpose. The board is a place to collect seemingly unrelated bits and pieces that our unconscious mind somehow connects with, and can synthesize into the overall look and feel of a project. Read this post for more details of the how and why.
Who needs inspiration?
So what, you may be thinking. I am not a creative professional, I have no use for collecting pretty photos or making collages out of words and textures.
Perhaps not.
But we all need inspiration in our lives. We have all been stopped cold by a note, or Facebook photo, or song that touched our hearts, or spoke some truth we really needed to hear just then. What if we collected those things, so the next time we are feeling down we can look at them again? Wouldn’t that kind of inspiration board be worth making?
So what inspires you? Poems? Beautiful scenery? Music? Powerful words?
Pay attention to those things. Look for them. Collect them. Put them somewhere you can find them.
- Thumbtack them on a bulletin board
- Pin them on Pinterest
- Glue them to a piece of poster board
- Or in the pages of a journal.
- Plaster them across the front of your fridge with magnets made by your grandchildren.
How you collect them, and where you keep them are not as important as why.
Be intentional about the Inspiration. What inspires YOU?
