Motivation Monday:: Looking for Inspiration to Jumpstart Creativity

I woke up this morning feeling tired even though I had a full night’s rest and as the morning progressed, I could not shake the sluggish, unmotivated lag I was feeling.  I had a visit scheduled this morning at the chiropractor and it turned out I am not the only one feeling this way today.  The chiropractor said he woke up tired although he had a restful night’s sleep and the office manager, felt as though she too were dragging.  We all surmised that it had to be related to all of the days we had stuck inside because of the snow/ice storm in Atlanta last week.

It made me feel better to know that I was not the only one feeling this way today.  Monday’s are notoriously the most hated day of the week.  It is the day you typically jump back into the hustle and bustle of work, school and life in general.  I have seen the memes that read, “If you hate/dread Mondays, it’s because you hate/dread your job,” or something similar to that affect.  I sometimes hate Mondays, not because I hate my job, but because I just do not feel like working.  Today is one of those days.  Thankfully, today is a bit of a slow day.  My email is not full of unanswered emails and my project workload is not particularly heavy.  So, I could slack off a little if I wanted.  The problem is that although I feel unmotivated to work, I want to feel motivated to work today.

So off I went to the wonderful world wide web in search of something to help jumpstart my creative juices and motivate me to work.  First stop:  Twitter.  There, I stumbled upon @FCSpotlight’s timeline and this article on Fast Company, “5 Ways We Neglect Our Own Creativity – And How to Bring it Back.”  Dialing back on distractions, telling your inner critic to shut up, and facing fear head on are some of the tips that were given.  Although it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it did jumpstart a few ideas for a project that is on my bucket list.  I recommend reading the article if you need a few creativity inducing tips.

I figured since I was stumbling, I should visit StumbleUpon next.  It was only fitting, right?  In the graphic design section, I found “10 Awesome Infographics for Graphic Designers.”  Some of these really made me laugh.  Laughter is good for the soul and I actually felt a little more motivated to get back to work.  Plus, I looked at the clock and realized it was almost 10:30 am and I had not really done any work yet.

I know it probably does not seem like this morning’s deviation and search online for a creative jumpstart was very fruitful, but surprisingly it was.  The first article I found on Fast Company gave me a few ideas/tips that I was not already doing.  It also gave me a bit of motivation and an idea for another project I have been contemplating.  The stumbling on StumbleUpon gave me a good laugh and afterwards, I felt ready to work.  It kind of reminds me of the statement about taking time out to smell the roses.  Maybe that laugh and break from what felt like a mundane and drab start was a sniff of roses.

Check out the referenced article on Fast Company for some helpful tips and if you are a designer with a sense of humor, you might enjoy a few of the infographics referenced above.