The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 95 - Inspiration

Transcript:

Jen: Hello, Peter.

Pete: Hello, Jennifer.

Jen: Do I look, I don't know, better than I have been looking the last couple of weeks? [laughter] Maybe a little lighter? A little smilier?

Pete: It definitely feels like you're a lot more relaxed. And perhaps you're...yeah, I would say relaxed. That's the word I would go with, a little more relaxed.

Jen: Okay, cool. Um, listeners, that's called fishing for compliments. But it was fishing with a point, which is that the thing that is different right now, Peter...

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Jen: ...is I feel inspired.

Pete: Ooh, inspired. Okay, I'm going to need to hear more about this. What does that mean? How might we cultivate it? And is that the source of Jen's relaxed look? This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Jen: Alright, so I recognized that I was like, feeling a little weighty. (I've spoken about this in a recent episode on learning fatigue.)

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: And when I really was taking stock of what my days were looking like, I realized I just was not seeking inspiration in the way I typically do.

Pete: Okay.

Jen: And that my inspiration well was running dry. And I actually had this aha moment because I was on my morning run (which is back in service, thank goodness) and saw the rays of sun breaking through some fog. And I was like, "Oh my god, that is gorgeous.". And I just stood and I looked at it for a while.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: And I was like, "The world is marvelous. Even in the midst of everything that's going on, look at this beauty. This is so inspiring.". Then I was like, "Oh, I'm not taking the time to find things that inspire me right now.".

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: So this was like, a really important realization. And I brought that realization into my Homeroom class this week, and was pretty floored by other people's responses to what it means to be inspired.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: What even is inspiration?

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: And what does it mean to hold yourself accountable for being someone who has the potential to inspire others?

Pete: Ooh, yeah. That's a good, good three-pronged podcast structure, I would have thought.

Jen: [laughter] Mm-hmm. Well, it ended up being the structure for my class on Monday.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: And so I thought we could dig into it here, because I'm really interested to hear your reactions.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: So, the first thing is...you know I love to define words, Peter.

Pete: Yeah. Please, define it for me.

Jen: So like, what does inspire even mean? What is inspiration?

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: So that's like the first journal prompt, is to really dig in to when you think about being inspired or seeking inspiration, what does that even look like? And then of course, you know, I love to check in with the dictionary to see what it has to say. And I was inspired by the definition of inspiration.

Pete: [laughter] Our old friend, was it Webster? Webster, the dictionary?

Jen: That's right. Good ol' Webster.

Pete: What do you got, Webster?

Jen: "Fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative."

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: That is the definition of inspire.

Pete: That's nice.

Jen: And what I love about that, and what I have chosen to latch on to, is that with the feeling in order for it to qualify as inspiration, it has to make me want to do something or create something.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: And that's the commitment I'm making to myself when I see something and I'm like, "Ooh, that's, that ray of sun is deeply inspiring to me.". Instead of just going, "Huh," now the question is, what am I going to do with that inspiration? What might I create? So I just loved digging into that and recognizing that there's an action step that comes with being inspired.

Pete: Hmm. Yeah, I really like that. I wonder, what is inspiration without action? Is that a, is it a different word? I don't know.

Jen: [laughter] Something just came to mind, Peter, which is our mutual friend Alie B. Gorrie, who says, "I'm 'whelmed.". [laughter] And I think maybe, inspiration without action is just a state of being 'whelmed.

Pete: [laughter] Touche. Touche. Okay, so 'whelmed. The thing is...and I don't know when the right place is to mention this, so I'm just going to go with it now. Because the moment I heard you say inspiration, I had a series of thoughts go through my head. One is, for whatever reason, I automatically thought of the danger of inspiration, or the crutch that might be inspiration, the excuse that might be inspiration. That if we are unable to create without inspiration, we're probably not going to create that much. Because inspiration is kind of fickle. And so, I've always thought about inspiration as being a, almost like an added bonus. But what's more important is creating a process, or a structure, or a system, or a way of looking at your day that allows you to show up and do the work, to create the outputs that you mentioned, with or without inspiration. And so I'm really curious about the, like, the need for and the benefit of us having inspiration, and not relying on it. Or not, not waiting for it and being like, "I'm just going to sit on the couch until inspiration strikes, and then I'll write my speech. Or, then I'll build my business. I'm just going to sit around and wait for the clouds to part and the sun to shine through the window, then I'll start doing the work.". So again, I'm not sure if this was the right place to just insert my, my opinion on inspiration. But I, I'm always super mindful of it, of basically not relying on inspiration in order to be the catalyst for the work that I do.

Jen: Oh, yes. I mean, 1,000%. What you're talking about is having a practice. And your practice is not dependent on inspiration. It's dependent on discipline.

Pete: That's it. Thank you. You just summarized it so much better than I did. [laughter]

Jen: And to your point, inspiration is absolutely a bonus. Absolutely. And as a person with a practice, if you get the bonus and you don't use it, what a waste of a moment.

Pete: Yeah, yeah. Okay. I like that. I like that. So, in recognizing it being a bonus, experiencing it, then it's like, "Oh, I need to, I need to take advantage of this.". Like to your point, when you saw the ray of sun...the ray of, the ray of sun?

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: Yeah, that's what it's called. A ray of sun. So what did you do? Did you sprint back to your, to your room and grab a notepad and pen and like...what did you do?

Jen: I decided that I was going to make my next class about moments like that.

Pete: Aha, of course. That's very meta.

Jen: Yeah. Well, so I have a practice of, you know, every Monday I lead the Homeroom and I take people through a series of exercises around a topic, or a theme, or a provocative question. And so, I just decided that the feeling that I had needed to be put into an exercise. And to your point, because I had the container there, I had somewhere to put my inspiration.

Pete: Aha. Ooh, I like that. I like that. You had somewhere to direct the energy that comes from inspiration. Because I think there's, there's a...it's like an energy jolt, that I experience when I feel inspired.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: So if you already have a practice, or a container to do your work, then it's just like you just take that energy and just put it back into the container, put it back into your process. Huh. That feels good. I like that.

Jen: Yeah. And I, I'll just reiterate that I'm 1,000% in agreement with you that waiting around for inspiration to strike...not the, not the best way to create a habit, or a practice, or a disciplined approach to creation.

Pete: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think about...I feel like quite a lot of writers have said this, but I've often heard Seth Godin talk about this. Which is, he doesn't, he doesn't write something every day because he has something to say, because inspiration has struck him. He has something to say, because he sits down to write every day. So, it's the process and the practice first. And then, like we've said about seven times now, the inspiration is the bonus.

Jen: So, what I had people do in class after defining: what is inspiration, what does it mean to be inspired? And I asked them, "What is inspiring to you right now? Like, can you, can you think about...especially in this moment where it can feel so empty. What if you actively seek inspiration in the mundane? What if you seek inspiration in things that otherwise might appear static to you? Or things that might feel depressing, quite frankly? How do you seek out inspiration? But then, using that definition from good ol' Webster, how do you turn that into an action you can take?"

Pete: Mmm. And? Were there some brilliant answers?

Jen: Brilliant. Brilliant. Thank goodness you have the "save chat" feature in Zoom. [laughter] You can go back and read all of the amazing things people said. But what I, what I loved was that it was...on one end of the range, there were things like, "Write that show.". Like yes, write that show. And on the other end were things like, "Get up five minutes earlier and look out the window.".

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: I mean, simple action that you can take to use what is inspiring.

Pete: I think there's something in unpacking what is inspiring too, right? Like, what is inspiring to you might not be inspiring to me, and vice versa.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: And so, it's funny when you were talking about the, the example of you on your morning run...which, I mean, there's clearly no coincidence that you're back doing a morning run, and all of a sudden, you're starting to feel inspired again.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: And so a few things came into my mind. One is, I can't remember if we talked about this in an episode or if this was offline, but the recognition over the last three or four months that we've all had a lot less inputs. In terms of, especially in lockdown, we are surrounded in this, by the same environment and the same inputs. And so, our creativity is suffering because our neurons aren't connecting new pathways. We're just seeing the same things, and living in the same environment, and existing in the same environment. So, I wonder what the different...like, what the role of new experiences and environments and neural pathways has on inspiration, firstly. And I'm no neuroscientist, I'm just like, riffing. And then secondly, I feel like there's a tie here, or a link to gratitude.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: Like, it feels like, "What is inspiring?". The answer to that could be the same answer as, "What am I grateful for?". I don't know. I just can't escape that thought. Like, if I do my morning gratitude journal (which I do), often it would be things like, "The sun coming through the clouds yesterday, when I went for a run.". And so I'm curious about the link between the two, if there is one. In terms of, if we're talking about practicing, cultivating inspiration, or looking for inspiration in the mundane...is it the same as having a gratitude practice?

Jen: Ooh, this is interesting. Because this came up in a different form, which was: does inspiration always have to be something beautiful, something positive, something constructive? And what we arrived at was no. Because there were some people in the room who felt deeply inspired (if you use the dictionary definition), deeply inspired by witnessing the destruction, the pain, it was calling them to action.

Pete: Wow.

Jen: And so, that felt like...obviously, they're not grateful for destruction and pain. But the feeling that was brought up was one that made them want to do something, so that was inspiring in its own way.

Pete: Yeah. That's super interesting to me. I mean, it makes, I just...maybe you mentioned this and I didn't hear it, but it makes me want to know like, what is (outside of the ray of sunshine), what do you typically find inspiration in, or what do you find inspiring, Jen Waldman?

Jen: Well, to the point we just made, I am deeply inspired by things that I think are not optimized. Like I, when I see the way things are working, and it's just not good enough, that is inspiring to me. It makes me want to take action. Anyone who's been in my classes knows that I go on these rants about the way things are, and how I think it can be so much better. But it's by paying attention to the way things are that I'm inspired to find new possibilities. But I'm also deeply inspired by excellence.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: Like, give me a well-constructed piece of music.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: I can be inspired for days.

Pete: Yeah. Interesting. What I find fascinating about that is...I mean, I've not thought about answering this question myself until this moment, but when I think about what I find inspiring, it's usually a person. Like yourself, who is in pursuit of something like mastery. Is living their purpose. Is approaching their work with passion, and curiosity, and empathy, and all of the values that I value. And is seemingly always so inspired. Like I find that, on a meta level, I find that super inspiring. And you're right, in terms of art. Like music, or a show, or, I mean, a really good movie, or a really good TV show can be inspiring, or even a really good talk can be quite inspiring.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: I'm just trying to like, I'm trying to find the theme in all of those things in this moment. I'm not sure I can right now. Maybe it'll come to me.

Jen: Well, what you just shared actually leads to the third part of what we did in class, which was to acknowledge that it is possible that you are an inspiration to someone.

Pete: Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about this.

Jen: Well, what was really remarkable was the way...when I asked people to imagine that possibility, "Imagine that you might be an inspiration to someone. How does that change the way you show up?".

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: And everybody, every single person acknowledged that it changed the way they would show up in at least one way.

Pete: Wow.

Jen: There was nobody who was like, "That doesn't change how I show up.".

Pete: Wow.

Jen: So I just, I find that fascinating. And like, so full of hope. That if we can just take into ourselves the possibility that you have the potential to inspire someone, what will you do with that potential?

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: That people will do something with it. It's pretty, well, inspiring.

Pete: [laughter] I love that. Yeah. I really love that. I think I once wrote a, a blog post called "The power of 10,000 readers...Even if you don't have them", something like that.

Jen: I remember that blog post of yours.

Pete: Yeah. And it was, it was pretending like there were 100,000 people reading each blog post that you wrote, acting as if you had hundreds of thousands of readers so that you would continue to show up again, and again, and again. Because if you did, my assertion was you would show up again, and again, and again. You wouldn't want to let them down. If you knew that there were people waiting on every word that you had to say, or if you knew that you were inspiring people, in this example, I think you're right. I think it would probably change the way most of us show up. Huh.

Jen: Mm-hmm. So what's kind of magical about that in this moment, where in Melbourne, you're shut down again, you're quarantining again.

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Jen: Over here in the States, we're just in a complete avalanche of disaster. And specifically in my industry, every person is unemployed. There's so much to be sad about and to mourn, and I don't discount that at all. And I'm also aware that we have a choice where we can wake up in the morning and say, "How might I inspire someone today?". And that will inform the way we live that day.

Pete: Mmm. Oof.

Jen: It's so hopeful, in this moment.

Pete: It really is. I think, and I would extend that. I'd just like to take the word "choice" as such an important word that you mention. That we can wake up in the morning and choose to take the posture of, "I'm going to inspire someone today.". And we can wake up in the morning and choose to seek out inspiration. Choose to look for it in the mundane. Choose to look for it in the morning cup of coffee by the window. That inspiration, I think what I'm saying right now is...in a way, inspiration is a choice.

Jen: And that is The Long and The Short Of It.