Regular inspiration: open your senses!

I’m going to show a few tricks from my inspiration toolbox.

Here’s what a life without regular inspiration would be like: get up, do the same morning routine, eat the same food, go to work at the same place, sit at the same desk, eat the same food for lunch, work on the same things in the afternoon, run on the same treadmill, finish the day in the same bar, drinking the same drink, with the same friends. And the next day: do it all over again. Sounds familiar? I’m not saying that my life doesn’t have many similarities with this agenda, but instead of feeling blah at the end of the day, I tend to feel grateful for all the beautiful things I’ve seen, heard, witnessed… Why is my outcome different when my process is similar? One word: inspiration! Turns out, there are 1001 ways to be inspired all day long.

What are the best ways to receive regular inspiration?

Each one of our senses is an excellent captor for a new feeling or a new emotion. And that’s what inspiration is all about: creating emotions. A day spent without feeling something is wasted, so it’s up to us to challenge our heart, our gut, our brain to receive informations that will create emotions.

Open your eyes with Instagram

I am and have always been a big fan of Instagram. To me, the social media is not about getting thousands of likes and having millions of friends. It’s about seizing the beauty of some of the simplest things around us. Of course, if you go on my Instagram account, you will see pictures of my trips, but many of the pictures are from the city I live in. They’re not pictures of me (who cares…) they’re images of the things that made me think: “wow, that’s beautiful!” Instagram trained my eye to find the beauty in my daily walk to the office, in the food I eat or in the way my cat is lying on my desk trying to prevent me from working. INSPIRATION IDEA: grab a few friends and start a #picoftheday 30-days Instagram challenge: one picture a day for 30 days. You got this!

Open your hears with podcasts

Once upon a time I would have told you that I have a physical impairment and that I can’t listen to people talk on a device. Things got all blurry in my head and I had to focus really hard to understand what they were talking about. Turns out, I’m like good wine, I get better with age. And I, now, enjoy inspiring podcasts on a regular basis. Podcasts allow me to hear about new people, learn new informations, process new ideas, listen to other people stories, etc. without having to be, yet again, in front of a screen. Podcasts make my commutes by car more interesting, and I tend to be a lot less angry at other drivers when my brain is turned to inspiring information. FAVORITE PODCASTS:

• The Tim Ferris Show (by Tim Ferris)
• The Portfolio Life (by Jeff Goins)
• Good Life Project (by Jonathan Fields)
• Side Hustle School (by Chris Guillebeau)

Open your tastebuds with restaurant crawls

Why spend the entire evening in the same place? Why not experience something new? A few years ago, my friend Kristie introduced me to the concept of “Restaurant Crawl”. We would put together a small group of people and go on a tasty exploration one of Philadelphia’s neighborhood. We would hit a least three different places in the same neighborhood in one evening. Great way to try new venues, especially the more expensive ones without spendng your whole pay check! MONTHLY RESTAURANT CRAWL AGENDA:

• Stop #1 – the fancy restaurant : there, we would try to arrive during happy hour (they mostly had one, even if not fully publicized) and enjoy a cocktail with shared appetizers.
• Stop #2 – the BYOB: why spend money on wine and fluff? We’d make reservation in one of Philadelphia’s many BYOB and order an entrée each.
• Stop #3 – the optional: huge plate of fries to share in a local pub to get into the ambiance. This stop is optional depending on your level of hunger… or you can do the pub and skip the fries.
• Stop #4 – the sweet stuff: time to find a place for dessert, or ice-cream, and a great way to bring the energy down a bit before heading home and fall asleep on a happy tummy.

Of course, the other senses are great ways to create regular inspiration. The only requirement is to tickle them once in a while. Generally, from inspiration come ideas. And a simple idea can change your life. Have you ever tried some of the tactics above? With what results? Do you have other suggestions of ways to trigger regular inspiration? Share your stories as well as your favorite tips in the comments below!

Photo : Lucca, Italy, September 2017