One of the finest ways to fire up your creativity and inspiration, is to be focused on something that really challenges you.
Eureka!
A few years ago, I experienced one of those moments where a number of elements fell into place – a Eureka Moment, if you will. I suddenly realised that I had been setting the bar WAY too low in almost every area of my life and my business. Whilst my skills and experience in both areas had grown a great deal, I was still expecting the same from myself as I did before. I had no reason to stretch any more. Without stretching, I wasn’t growing. It was comfortable and dull.
Within seconds of realising this, I found ideas flowing from my mind, which I captured with the audio recorder that follows me everywhere. In total, there was over an hour of audio notes, spanning dozens of areas where I needed to raise the bar on what I was expecting from myself, so I could stretch and grow again.
The problem with comfort
I was thinking about this recently, when talking to a business owner, who said she no longer felt motivated about running her business. In the early years, when everything was new and there were lots of challenges, she would often work a 14 hour day and be raring to go the next day. She said she thrived on it. Then, around 5 years ago she became comfortable. Her business was making enough money for her to be able to live in comfort, but it was no longer challenging her like it used to.
She was bored. More importantly, she was no longer growing. She was getting a day older every 24 hours, rather than a day better!
Raising the bar
If your creativity or inspiration has been lacking recently, take a look at how big or pressing your creative challenges are. Are they really pressing you to grow or are you able to comfortably resolve them? Your mind will give you the answers and motivation you need, but it first needs to be focused on a clear challenge, which inspires you.