inspo is a buzzword

That feeling of waiting around for inspiration is one that I am far too familiar with. As a writer, you think that some muse is going to come sit on your shoulder and whisper exactly what you need to write into your ear. Inspiration more often than not is not a lightning bolt that hits you in the middle of the day and gives you everything that you have been looking for right off the bat. 

Inspiration is something that you can absolutely waste your time waiting for. Go ahead and wait around for the right kind of inspiration. See how long it takes for that muse to croon something sweet in your ear. Wait around for exactly the right idea in the moment at the right time to strike and you’ll be six feet under in a pine box with dirt to your name when it happens. 

I’ve been reading Rick Rubin’s book (which is an absolute masterpiece) and he proposes that inspiration is good and worthy of attention, but if you’re not actively putting in the work to tap into the universe (or source as he calls it), you are wasting your time. Not everything is going to be something that comes to you in a breathtaking moment at three in the morning. More often than not, my best ideas have come accidentally, through pushing through writer’s block or the pain of not feeling like I’m even good enough to put pen to paper. 

I’ve always hated those buzzwords that people get attached to in order to feel like they are making or doing something that is cutting edge, especially when it’s steeped in corporate lingo. How authentic can you actually be if all you’re doing is parroting words back into the bubble it came from? Inspo is one such word that really gets on my nerves because it falls into that millennial trend of shortening words to make it seem like you’re saying more than you actually are. Inspiration is something to seek out, to work at, to actively chase and not something to be made into a tiny piece of corporate adjacent slang. 

Inspiration is an amoeba – constantly changing shape and color and moving at ever different speeds. Tapping into inspiration is to tap into the parts of the universe that exist within you as well as around you. There are endless things to be inspired by – the way the sun shines green through leaves, the sky during a thunderstorm, the way the heat makes your heart beat just a little faster. How can you not be inspired to live when there is such beauty around you? Even in the most frustrating and ugliest of places exist beauty and wonder the likes of which you have borne witness to. Find it. Take a picture of it. Hold on to it. Continue to chase after that feeling no matter how weary or worn out your soul feels.