Welcome to Spark Day 18!
I spent Wednesday at an educational summit focused on how to help children succeed. It was incredibly informative and inspiring and I left with pages and pages of notes from the speakers and lots of other ideas, too. As I was reviewing all the ideas once I got home and Happy down for the night, I was reminded how inspiring it is for me to go to workshops, conferences, and talks. That kind of inspiration pays infinite dividends for my sense of wellbeing, my sense of inspiration, my sense of possibility.
At the end of last year, when I was doing my new year personal summit, I was reminded how much inspiration moves me and made a commitment to a few things that would help me mine the world for inspiration:
1. I set up a Watch/Read file and signed up for several newsletters of writers/ bloggers who move me. When their emails come, I move them to my watch/read file and I try to put 10 minutes a day into reading and watching videos that are sent my way, so there are little pockets of inspiration in my day. Moreover, I also have the TED app loaded on my phone for some easy listening when working out or tinkering around on a project.
2. In addition, I also added reading a chapter a day to my daily to do list as part of my wellness prescription. I don’t get to a full chapter everyday but making time to read feeds my soul and writing it on my daily to do list reminds me to prioritize it.
3. I also decided to put 4 days aside (one per quarter) this year for personal/professional development. To insure that happens, I went ahead and blocked off those days for the year.
Then, today as I was looking over all my notes, I decided to go out and seek some “being in the space” inspiration. I looked up speakers coming to area colleges and upcoming workshops and went ahead and pencilled things in. I also love seeing movies, plays, and dance performances, checking out museums and even get a lot of ideas when I wander around the library, bookstores, and gift shops. So I am adding more of those things to my calendar to keep my creative juices flowing. Because inspiration and provocation await. And only good stuff can come from that.
Where will you seek inspiration today?
