Inspiration is only short-lived
Hey team! I hope you’ve had a relaxing weekend and that you’re feeling ready for the new week ahead! Times are very weird right now so make sure you’re looking after yourself.
Last week was my first time feeling some effects of the lockdown, but then I realised I didn’t leave the house at all that week… exercise and down-time are essential!
Don’t be harsh on yourself for off days. On the upside, I got into Money Heist on Netflix and I’ve been loving it…
One thought: Inspiration is only short-lived ⏳
This week’s newsletter tackles inspiration and is inspired by one of my favourite articles on the web “Motivation is a myth” by Ali Abdaal.
We all have ideas throughout the week and we don’t always know where they come from. Some ideas may connect the dots of the thoughts you’ve already had, and others are a result of your mind wandering away. I love the phrase “background processing” to describe this, which again, is another reason to have some down-time so your brain can do its thing.
This week I’ve been contemplating how to level up my personal projects. I know that I need to do more collaborations, and that excites me, but I realised this week just how short-lived inspiration can be.
I’ve had several ideas about who I could create content with, how I might get in contact with them, and how I could frame a collaboration as a win-win for both parties.
Usually, the ideas came late at night, just before bed when I was watching Money Heist. Now, yes, it could be “The Professor” inspiring me to come up with a great plan, but sure enough, the next day would come and I felt no desire at all to make it happen.
The fact we can disregard ‘amazing’ ideas, is again, evidence that only action can move the needle when it comes to aspirations. Which, if you haven’t had time to read yet, was tackled in last week’s newsletter titled “Why Done is Better than Perfect”.
So how can we out-last the short window of inspiration to still execute on our ideas?
Turning great ideas into experiences
I believe that we can break this down into three stages:
1) Capture the idea
2) Accept and enjoy that inspiration is short-lived
3) Outline clearly the next step required to start
I believe capturing the idea down in detail is the first step. Secondly, I would suggest that we enjoy the moment and accept that inspiration is usually short-lived, before moving onto the last step of identifying how we can act on this idea regardless of how we now feel about it.
Capturing the idea down is almost like going out for a ‘few’ drinks with your friends, getting too drunk, and downing several glasses of water before you go to bed. You are acting in favour of your future self.
When a moment of inspiration hits, write it down. But don’t just outline the idea. Write how you feel about it. Write down why it excites you. Write what it could mean for you if you did it. Think about it in a few different ways: When could it happen? How long would it take? What’s the first step to make progress?
From writing this newsletter, it’s just come to mind that creating a scale for this might be beneficial. I would encourage you to try this for yourself.
By creating an objective scale, perhaps with levels of: excitement, potential impact and perceived difficulty, we can remove from the process the subjectivity of emotion: like how motivation is a fleeting feeling.
The purpose here is to make the decision a no-brainer, irrespective of how inspired you feel to achieve it. Because the truth is, we are not accurate judges when it comes to identifying the actions we want to take, and those that we don’t.
If we were, we’d eat our 5-a-day, 365 days a week. We would go to bed early, favouring a good nights sleep over the next episode of La Casa de Papel. But it doesn’t happen.
A new process
It’s the next day and the idea pops into your mind again, but you’re busy and caught up in the daily grind. You don’t feel motivated to work on the idea, despite knowing it could potentially move the needle and have a great impact. You’re instead working on a low-leverage task to keep busy. But then you remember, this time you captured your inspired thoughts down…
In this moment of reviewing the idea, you want it to be presented to you so clearly, so convincingly, in a location that you will check, so that starting the project becomes the most obvious decision in the world.
Activation energy is a powerful thing, as when we finally start a project, we can be propelled forward with the momentum of progress. Ideas become reality. Words become paragraphs. Messages become agreements.
For example, let’s imagine that your idea was to write a guest blog post for your favourite website. If you simply wrote down “Write guest blog post”, this action will be put off for weeks. What does that even mean? There’s no context.
Instead, if you can capture the idea in a way that will encourage activation energy, alongside your notes about how you felt about the idea, I think it’s fair to say you’d have a higher probability of starting.
An example might be: “Sit down at 9am on Saturday and open up a new Word document to write one sentence for my guest blog.”
So this week, I encourage us all to capture the ideas down that inspire us, and to do so in a way that gives us the best opportunity to turn them into a reality. This doesn’t need to be related to work, it could simply be messaging an old friend for a catch-up.
I’d love to hear the ideas you have throughout the week. Reply to this email to fill me in and I’ll feature what you’ve been up to in next week’s issue. Finally, I’d like to congratulate Linh Tran who’s making amazing progress with her own newsletter! 👏
Have the best week guys!
Joe
Content tip of the week 🚀
When was the last time you reviewed your content? It’s important to look at your best and worst-performing content to hone in on what your audience responds to the most. Try new types of content, new writing styles and ways to capture people’s attention. Make a note of the changes and evaluate the performance of your content.
Articles of the week ✍️
Motivation is a Myth - Ali Abdaal
Last week’s email - Why Done is Better than Perfect
Activation Energy - Why Getting Started is the Hardest Part - FS
This Week’s YouTube Video - Subscribe here! 🎥
I’m Joe, a content marketer passionate about personal development and psychology. Every Sunday, I write an email newsletter with 1 thought, 1 content tip and 1 article I’d recommend. Usually, I go over-board and provide a little more 😁
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