74 ways to be inspired: lighting that creative spark

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Hi, how are you? Happy hump day! But are you feeling inspired?

For me, this autumn chill has made it hard to be inspired and get motivated. But what I found is, it makes that a-ha moment really stand out when you realise what it is that can get your motivated again. So I am revisiting a common theme with inspiration, with a “new” angle. But it is essentially, inspiration, creative ruts, creative block, whatever you want to call it, but finding inspiration that is enough to move you. And I find it sometime helps to revisit things that inspired you in the past, to evoke that passion again.

For me, pretty pictures often inspire me, on blogs and blog posts about photography or a quick trawl through flickr. While it is all very well to surf the web or flick through a magazine looking for inspiration, sometimes it is not quite enough to get you moving and doing.

But this week I had that a-ha moment. This week I was inspired by a new technique.

The gift of a beautiful new camera lens has meant I have taken more than 200 pictures in a couple of days and gotten excited again about photography. Also, the lure of a new project, complete with deadline, was enough to get some ideas buzzing. I like working to an idea.

Both things were unexpected, inspirational bolts from the blue, and something new.

So today, I’m looking at more ways to light that creative spark. And I challenge you to take a step towards something new ~ it might be a new technique, a new skill, a new space, even a new notebook, find a new flickr group or a new blog.  And feel free to come back and share how something new might help inspire you.

But first, of course, some lovely links to get you thinking:

• Holly wrote an a lovely post, with gorgeous pictures, on finding inspiration.
• Tips on How to Kiss up to your Muse at White Hot Truth
• I have linked to this before but a great article by Amy of Pikaland on fuelling your creativity here
• Simple everyday ways to be inspired over at the Digital Photography School
• For an ever rotating buffet of inspiration, follow pin-it-forward, which started this week with the theme “what home means to me”. Over the next month about 100 bloggers will be sharing an inspiration board with help from new bookmarking site Pinterest on the theme.

{picture by me ~ with my new lens}