Get Out The Way....

Someone said to me yesterday what is something that inspires you? I am a bit sorry to say that I had to stop and think. A lot inspires me,really. People, places, things, sounds, smells.. the list goes on and on, but they tend to be spur of the moment things. The trouble with spur of the moment inspiration is that it often comes at inopportune times. I can't even begin to count the amount of thoughts that fit through my head in a given day when I don't have to ability to stop and jot them down. Lasting inspiration, that is a horse of a different colour all together.

The word, in Latin, means to draw in. In the English it became to draw air into the lungs or to breath life into a person. What a powerful imagery! What breathes life into me? What gives me life to breathe into my words?

But, you see, this is the cycle; the beginning of a downward spiral that will trap my brain and sidetrack my original thought. Nothing side tracks me more than me. They say set the timer and just write. Don't worry about dotting that i or crossing that t, whether or not you needed a comma or a semicolon, where to put the paragraph breaks. I've yet to manage this approach for more than a few minutes at a time. That bit of perfectionism takes hold and panic digs its roots in deep. Once that has happened, I am done for. Put the timer away.

Worse than that, though, is the self doubt. What I thought was good yesterday, I will second guess today. I have shredded and tossed many a page. I am my own worst critic, my biggest saboteur, and my consummate fountain of doubt.

So, I corrected my course and did that other thing I do, research it till I find an answer. In my meandering the world wide web I came across this picture. First I smiled, because it really was one of those letting go moments that brought me here. Then I read "just get out of your own way".

Was I just called out by a meme? Sure was. It had hit the nail right on the head. That was the inspiration I needed, the thing that would breathe life into me so that I could breathe life into words. "Get out of your own way."

So the answer to what is something that inspires you?... This little meme that says to be myself, don't judge, and get out of my own way so that I can become more than I was yesterday.

I may need to tape it everywhere....