The Ride | Inspiration

​DEFINITION: The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Nothing like a learning moment to inspire me or someone's profound words to inspire me to think about a new idea.

I find feelings of inspiration to be the fuel to live a life of small adventures. It's almost like fuel for one as I need a steady flow of it to help me keep moving forward with something. Sometimes, I feel apathetic when I don't feel inspiration and I often look for words of others to catapult me to take my next step. I also want to serve up a nice yummy dish of healthy inspiration - that is why I'm writing a book! Many people have inspired me with their story and my plan is to share those with you in that book.

We all need, value, and want a reason to get out of bed in the morning and inspiration can be the friend to help make that happen. But how to find it and welcome it into your life?

I suggest you first identify your preferred way of receiving information. It could be reading it, listening to it or watching it. When I have found a particular audiobook exceptionally inspiring I often revisit it in written format so I can also absorb key messages and lessons to look at it more deeply.

The library offers thousands and thousands of such resources and thank goodness we have public libraries! In a few cases, I will also eventually purchase the book because the inspiration I receive from it feels eternal. I most likely reread it in the years to come because it never gets old!


I also look for the ‘teachers’ in my community of friends. Other people's wisdom can help me figure out my own stuff and as often is the case, will inspire me to learn more about a topic. For example while having a conversation with my coach, I learned a bit more about how internalized patriarchy informs so many spaces of ideation for the first time. I mean it wasn't the first time I've heard the term but it was a moment of inspiration to learn about a very powerful paradigm in our culture and to see how it is showing up in my life and in relationships.

I've inspired others. For example several women I know had a spark of interest to pursue international travel and it was through my shared stories on my Instagram account that inspired them to book trips abroad.

Inspiration is such a joyful playmate. It is very much tied to motivation but not necessarily so. It serves as a bit of a precursor to taking action but what a powerful elixir it can be for such next steps.

I also look into reading other women's stories via biographies and autobiographies to inspire me. Inspiration can also come through less lofty pursuits. A girl I know who also loves to travel inspired me to invest in my own comfort via business class on my flight. Fortunately I have the resources to do so and what a loving treat I gave myself for a red eye flight abroad. When I see beautiful art, I am inspired to make my own. 

I believe by inspiring others intentionally we can help create a beautiful world for all because people who are happy and are often more kind.

So how do you welcome this new BFF into your life? Daydream. Yup. Take a few moments to just stop moving, stop worrying, stop problem solving and welcome in the energy of make believe. If that muscle has atrophied, look up some prompts on the internet to prime your imagination pump. I lost my ability to daydream when I was in my 40s. I don't think it was a coincidence that the loss coincided with the onset of perimenopause. I wonder if there's any science to back up my quasi theory? In any event what I learned is you can resuscitate it and what fun it is to be in that pretend world. Please note that this isn't a one off and call it good activity. The magic of daydreaming is an ongoing ingredient of a life fully lived. As you pursue it, you will change and with beautiful change comes new ideas. Imagining who you can be can be so much fun, so get dreaming!