Inspiration is a funny thing. Some days a wave of inspiration will hit me and I’ll be able to just run with it. Other days I try very hard to come up with something and nothing comes.
When the wave hits it’s easy to say that it came out of nowhere and want to wait for one to hit before I do something. What I notice when I pay attention though, is that the waves of inspiration really don’t come “out of nowhere”. They come because I’ve been working on the problem for a bit and my mind has been thinking about it. Think of it like when you’re trying to think of that actor’s name from that movie and you can’t think of his name and then five hours later the name comes to you. It didn’t really come out of nowhere. Your brain has been working on it even if you haven’t consciously been working on it. I think inspiration can work like that too. My brain has been working on the problem for a while and then it comes up with a solution.
Another way inspiration works is for me to simply show up. Showing up means I decide that I’m going to do what ever it is that needs to get done and set aside some time to do it, with or without the inspiration. What can happen when I simply “show up” is that somewhere along the way I do get inspired and stuff gets done.
So, don’t wait for a wave of inspiration to hit before tackling a problem. Have confidence that you’ll solve the problem and then schedule some time to work on it. If a wave of inspiration hits immediately great! Bit if it doesn’t, don’t worry about it, because in both inspiration scenarios a problem gets solved, the project moves forward, or a blog post is written.