Detrimental Comfortability: The Enemy of Inspiration, Creativity, and Progress
How do we find inspiration? This is something that has been cycling through my thoughts consistently recently. I think we only really think about this when we feel like we are lacking inspiration in some capacity or feeling full-on burnout. When we have it, we just thrive with it. We can get everything that we want done without complaint then continue to the next creative project.
Since I have been searching for it more recently, I’ve been wondering where it comes from when we do have it. When we do have it, it's spontaneous and subconscious. We may have moments where we think, “wow, I’ve been really productive lately,” but it never really goes beyond this. We become distracted by something new or get lost in creation. Even if you aren’t a “creative” person, creativity can take many forms in our life; it doesn’t have to always have the form of art. Creativity can be as simple as things that keep us interested and energized in our daily lives, and sometimes can help us with our jobs or personal projects.
For me, sometimes I feel like creativity manifests out of thin air.
I know from experience that I have major creativity spikes when I travel, especially to new places. At the moment we are not supposed to travel unless it is totally necessary; we can’t even travel to somewhere a little bit away from us to use this inspiration trigger. For the most part, we are encouraged to stay indoors and to interact with others with less frequency. As we have been partaking in this lifestyle for months now it is no wonder that we may be feeling a collective burnout. The reason that I am writing about this topic is to potentially work out my own burnout that I am dealing with.
For many of us, our days look the same as the one before and the one after. We wake up, take a shower, work, read a book, watch some T.V., have some food thrown in there, and go to sleep. And repeat. We may have small discrepancies in there but this way of life can become pretty monotonous. We may not know how to change though because we feel comfortable with this way of living. It only takes a month to form a habit and we are looking at month eight of this kind of behavior due to the pandemic.
Collaboration with our co-workers and friends face-to face, traveling, or doing basic activities in public during our free-time have moments of uncertainty. They allow us to have excitement in our lives. It is my hypothesis that these are the moments that give us inspiration that lead to creativity. You may go to the farmer’s market on a Saturday morning and have a conversation with the fermented pickles connoisseur that may lead you to try fermenting vegetables on your own. Or lead you down a path of learning about the powers of fermented food with your gut health.
Even though it may feel easier (and we may have even liked it at first) to not have to get all dressed up for work and take our daily commute, losing these “small” things can have a larger impact on us than we may think.
Simply put, we are just too comfortable with our lives because we don’t have enough variation. We aren’t trying new things or having these innovative conversations with strangers because we just simply don’t have the ability to do so as conscientious individuals looking out for ourselves and others.
If we are too comfortable with the way we are living, how are we meant to make progress in ourselves and in our lives? Assuming only if that is something we are looking to do right now. It’s okay if we want to take this time just existing in ourselves, and I think there is some power in that, but if you are in a similar place as I am, I look at progress as a way of finding fulfillment.
So, how can we find inspiration in our lives as they are currently? Here are some suggestions that I have:
Make an effort to learn something new. This is the perfect time to dive into topics that you have been slightly interested in for years but just never felt like you had the time before. For example, if you are interested in classical music this might be just the time to learn about a composer you are fond of.
Add a little zest into your life in a small way! Try out a new drink recipe with your favorite type of liquor. Or if you aren’t much of a hard drinker, try designing coffee art on your coffee in the morning (just like how your barista used to make it!).
Read a book. I mentioned this one from personal experience. I was reading a book titled In Praise of Difficult Women by Karen Karbo, while reading a section on Frida Kahlo, one sentence jumped out at me. The next day I found myself writing a piece for this website about Frida Kahlo and the female nude. See, even very small things can provide just enough inspiration to get you started in something new.
Go for a walk and let Spotify or a similar platform choose the music for you. The new songs or lyrics might invoke a certain feeling or thought in you. This could lead to a new avenue of pursuit of exploration. Just getting back with nature can be helpful, too.
Find others in your field of interest that inspire you. See what they are doing and attempt to do something similar in your own way. This could be enough of a little push for you to find creativity in your own life.
Reflect upon your own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and experiences. Many artists use these things in their creative process. You could find these own things helpful for your creativity, as well.
Finding inspiration and avenues of creativity is a process (and a lot of times struggle) for me, too. I try to find new ways everyday because the successful ways that I used before the pandemic aren’t possible right now. I make an effort everyday to find new ways. Am I successful? Most of the time, no, but every once in a while I will be successful and then I feel like I can run with that creativity boost for a while. It’s kind of exhilarating. You only need something little that will help you.
Finding creativity isn’t just important in your own life, it can be helpful for innovation that benefits the collective. So not only could you be helping yourself by making an effort to get away from this stagnant comfortability, but it could be benefiting others as well.
Try to remember that we won’t be in this part of our lives forever. One day, fairly soon, we will be out of this pandemic and have a new found sense of gratitude for all of the things we feel like we had to sacrifice, including easy ways to find inspiration. After not too long of time at all, we will quickly feel like we aren’t trying or thinking about it at all, and it will feel like the inspiration came out of thin air. Until then, we just have to make a little more effort than we were recently accustomed to.
