As a creative individual and entrepreneur who has typically a stream of inspiring ideas running through my head, it feels really confusing when I feel uninspired. I always find it useful to pinpoint why I’m feeling uninspired first before I actively seek out inspiration. And yes, you can reignite your inspiration! You do not have to go about your day depleted. Here are 5 ways you can do it.
Listen on the player in this post or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
Write Blog Posts that Rank on Google’s 1st Page
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Takeaways
- Start a creative project: engage in a creative activity like art, crafting, writing, or design to stimulate your brain and boost inspiration.
- Research a vacation: research travel destinations, hotels, restaurants, and activities that you would like to experience, even if you don’t have immediate plans to take the trip.
- Consume inspiring content: seek out podcasts, books, music, or other media that typically fills you with inspiration.
- Journal: write about the things that inspire you and reflect on why they are inspiring to you.
- Get outside and get quiet: spend time in nature, whether by sitting outside or going for a walk, to allow inspiration to flow.
Resources Mentioned
Food Photography by Kristina Cadelina
Promote your food blogging services: www.eatblogtalk.com/audioclip
Megan’s recommended books and resources at eatblogtalk.com/books
Transcript
Click for script.
EBT568 – 5 Ways to Find Inspiration
Intro 00:01
Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.
Sponsor (Kristina Cadelina) 00:36
Are you wanting stunning visuals that make your food creations come to life, or you have so much on your plate that photography is the last thing you want to think about. I’m Christina from when Salty and Sweet Unite, and I’m a passionate food photographer, ready to transform your business by providing spectacular images for your delicious recipes. I have an eye for detail, composition and food styling. Also, I’m a food blogger myself, so I understand the need for good process shots and heroes to help promote your recipe. So if you’re ready to take this next step, let’s connect. Reach out to me at [email protected]. And let’s schedule a consultation. So we can start to create your vision.
Megan Porta 01:21
Hey there food bloggers, how are you today? Welcome to this mindset and self care focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. In this episode, we are going to talk about five ways to find inspiration whether you’re looking for inspiration in your business, or just in general in your life. Hopefully, you will tap into some ways to do that here in this episode. Inspiration is so funny, isn’t it? I typically don’t ever give it a single thought until it’s gone. And when it’s gone, for me anyway, it the whole world just feels off. When I am feeling uninspired. I don’t want to work. I don’t want to partake in things that normally bring me joy. Everything just feels kind of hard and icky. When I find myself uninspired, it leaves me feeling kind of confused because especially as a creative individual, and as an entrepreneur who typically has a stream of inspiring ideas running through my head at any given time, it is not my norm to feel this way. Before getting into how to find inspiration when you’re feeling depleted in this area, it might be helpful to put your finger on why you’re uninspired. That is if you are typically swarming with inspiration. There are a lot of reasons I think why inspiration can elude us, such as anxiety or depression, burnout, just exhaustion or being tired not sleeping off for a couple of nights overwhelm addressing the cause of the decline an inspiration might inevitably bring inspiration back into your life. For example, if you have slept terribly for three nights in a row, you’ll very likely be depleted and uninspired. So a few good nights of sleep will likely bring inspiration back into your life. My recent burnout that I’ve talked about in these episodes, and resulting health issues have left me feeling very uninspired recently, most days, I don’t feel inspired with work, which is very annoying to me. And unlike me, I don’t feel inspired with much of anything right now in life in general, which is also very annoying and unlike me, as I work through the lack of inspiration that I’m feeling, I’m still in constant pursuit of being inspired. Because living an inspiring life is really important to me.
Megan Porta 03:48
I found the definition of inspiration, very enlightening. It is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something especially to do something creative. So the opposite of that definition would be to not be mentally stimulated, no thank you. And to not do or feel anything, especially creative ventures. No thank you. Feeling uninspired is an awful feeling. as I record this episode here in mid July, I’m on a journey of rediscovering inspiration in my life and in my business. I know how important it is and I’m in constant pursuit of finding it. Whether you are feeling totally uninspired or just feeling like you need a little extra inspiration. I’m hopeful that this episode will give you some good places to start. Being inspired makes you feel like you can take on the world with passion and with ease. And if you’re looking for inspiration specifically with work, finding inspiration in other areas of your life will breathe new inspiring ideas into your work. So with that in mind, let’s talk through five ways to find inspiration.
Megan Porta 04:59
Number one, start a creative project. There are studies that have shown that engaging in creative projects helps to stimulate your brain, which boosts cognitive function and results in creative ideas. So even if you’re not inspired to sit down and start an actual creative project, do it anyway, force yourself to do it. And inspiration will likely be a result. One of the things my mom passed on to me and my sisters that I’m super grateful for is a love for creating art.
Megan Porta 05:32
She also left behind about a million art supplies after she passed away and I am not exaggerating one tiny bit on that so many art supplies. And guess who got her art supplies? me Lucky me, I feel so lucky. Obviously, I’d rather have her here alive. But being given all of her supplies made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Sometimes I will sit down at my art desk and start looking through some of my mom’s finished pieces of art, she left a lot of art behind as well. That in itself is inspiring to me. And most of the time, this makes me want to create something myself. So I will pull out her supplies and get started creating something. There’s just something so magical about getting lost in the flow of creativity that stirs up that inspiration from deep within us. There have been times when good business ideas have come to me when I’ve been doing something like drawing a flower, something that has absolutely nothing to do with my business. Engaging your brain in a creative endeavor can stir up inspiration in so many different ways. If you don’t have an endless amount of art supplies at your disposal, come to my house or just sit down and grab a pen or a pencil and start doodling or sketching or whatever comes out on paper. Some other creative options are knitting or crocheting. Maybe you enjoy quilting, or just going on to Shutterfly or a similar website and creating a personalized project or gift for family members or loved ones. I love the idea of this project. But I’ve never done it framing and mounting a map to track the places you’ve traveled, and maybe the places you want to travel, building a terrarium or one of those little teeny tiny buildings or houses. Have you seen those? I’m so intrigued by those. How about designing just note cards to send to people or thank you notes. Take it to a bigger scale and decorate a room in your house. If interior design is your thing. You could even sit down and do some creative writing or create something using washi tape. Have you guys used washi tape I love this stuff. It’s so cool. We as food bloggers are really lucky to have built in creative projects right in our businesses ready for us to dive into such as photography or designing something in Canva or writing something that actually feels fun. My oldest son Elijah often asks me to play Legos with him. Still at age 17. I love this so much. The other day I got totally caught up in building a little home for Lego Megan, along with a Lego paddleboard a dog and a car. In the midst of all this, I realized, oh my gosh, I’m actually engaging the creative part of my brain. It felt so good and I was spending time with him. It was a win win. Whichever creative venture you sit down with, allow yourself to get caught up in the flow of it. Even if it takes a while to find it. It might take you a few minutes, don’t resist it, get into the project, whatever it is, enjoy it and inspiration will come your way.
Megan Porta 08:43
Number two, research a vacation. I love this one. It’s probably my favorite point of all of these because I have a serious love for and maybe mild obsession with traveling. So if you can relate to that, then this might be a perfect way for you to get inspired as well. Sometimes even if we have no intention of traveling to a certain destination yet I wish we were traveling to a certain place. I’ll still sit down and research hotels or campgrounds or airfare or maybe excursions we could do while we’re there. And restaurants food. One of the places I have not yet been to but we’ll go to one day is the Maldives. I have researched the Maldives up down front back sideways. All the directions I know which resort I’d like to stay at the over the Ocean Villas I want to stay in which restaurants will go to I have even printed photos of these details and put them in my office. I can see them right now. This inspires me. Next summer we are talking about planning a European vacation. The idea of this makes me super excited. So I am going to start researching details about this trip whenever I am looking for a boost of inspiration, you might start this process with no intention of actually taking the vacation. But just having a yearning to take the vacation. But once you start researching, you might feel so inspired by the research you’ve done that you end up booking the flights and taking the vacation. So travel inspires you write out the top 10 or so places you would like to travel to next, and the next time you feel like you’re drowning in that lack of inspiration, grab your list and start researching.
Megan Porta 10:31
Number three, consume inspiring content. Which types of content typically fill you with inspiration? Is it podcasts, books, maybe music, certain types of music, or sounds coming videos on YouTube magazines, cookbooks, even if you aren’t currently feeling these things, perhaps opening them or playing them, whichever fits? Maybe that will spark something. There was a time when foodie magazines and cookbooks inspired me more than anything in the world. I devoured every word every image, every recipe every tip, that would have been the perfect thing for me to peruse for inspiration during that stretch of my life. Now it would probably be my favorite go to mindset podcasts. These never fail even if I’m really not feeling it. When I press play. I always feel inspired when the episode is done. Also carefully selected audiobooks that inspire me and my go to music that I love is another good option for me. So open or press play on your go to inspiring content when you are feeling uninspired. And something is likely to be stirred up inside of you.
Megan Porta 11:44
Number four journal. I have been massively out of rhythm with journaling for the past few years. So this one requires a little bit of forcing myself to sit down and just do it. But when I do, it’s always so fruitful. In this season. I’m in where I’m feeling largely uninspired. Every time I have taken the time to start writing about it. Some sort of inspiration has come my way. You could simply start with this journal prompt. I am inspired by fill in the blank. Write about as many things you can think of that typically inspire you, this could be absolutely anything. Maybe you like being outside in the evenings. Maybe you like a certain bird or animal and that inspires you or going to a certain place like live baseball game or the zoo or listening to a specific singer or type of music, or flipping through a stack of cookbooks. Or maybe it’s a smell like cookies baking in the oven or bread baking or something like that. Expand on the things that inspire you the most and try to get to the bottom of why they inspire you so much. If the smell of cookies baking in the oven inspires you reflect on that and this might prompt you to purchase one of those wax melter thing is that emits the scent of freshly baked cookies in your house providing you with a steady stream of inspiration. True story I purchased a wax smelter for this reason. I love it. And now I will turn on the wax melters we have on our house immediately when I’m needing inspiration. And this always makes me feel better. You could make a list of all the simple pleasures in life that stir up inspiration for you. Pull it out when you need it and start doing the things that seem to you specifically.
Megan Porta 13:36
Number five, get outside and get quiet. Have you noticed that nature is one of the points in a lot of these mindset episodes that I record. There is a really good reason for that nature is so cathartic. I get a lot of my most inspiring ideas when I’m sitting outside or walking through my neighborhood. Like with sitting down to do a creative project there is a flow we can easily fall into when we place ourselves in nature. As long as we don’t have a phone that we’re staring at or air pods in our ears. Sometimes it takes me a bit to find this flow especially if I’m feeling anxious or tired that day. But it always comes to me if I give it long enough, either just sit outside or walk around. I’ll do this in our yard sometimes. And this has led to some of the most interesting and inspiring finds. Like the time I happened upon a mulberry tree buried toward the very back of our yard. But I didn’t even know existed. We had lived in our house for five years. I had no idea these succulent little berries. Were waiting for me to pluck them from the tree in our yard and devour them. Right now in Minnesota. It is prime mulberry season so I have been going outside in the evenings. Even when I really don’t feel like it and pulling mulberries from the tree. I did this really reluctantly, just a few nights ago, once I started plugging, I was inspired to make mulberry pancakes. I had never had that thought before, but it just came to me. I haven’t had the desire to cook, by the way, anything at all in such a long time. So this was a very surprising piece of inspiration. So I ran with it, I went inside, I wrote down a mulberry pancake recipe. And the next morning, we made mulberry pancakes, and they were the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten. I am not kidding. I’m so glad I was inspired to do this. Follow those trails of inspiration. And that can lead to really cool projects, delicious recipes, and all kinds of other awesome stuff. And it can start with simply getting your butt outside.
Megan Porta 15:46
Let’s recap the five ways to find inspiration, whether you’re looking for inspiration in work, or in life. Number one, start a creative project number two, research a vacation. Number three, consume inspiring content number four, journal and number five, get outside and get quiet. Also, don’t wait for inspiration to find you. I get caught up in this mindset once in a while. Go out and stir up inspiration yourself so that both your life and your business can thrive. Something else that just came to my mind. Take note of those times when you have that thought I’m excited about dot dot dot and follow through with whatever completes that sentence even if it feels weird. I hope this episode gave you some great ideas and that leads to incredible inspiration for you. Being inspired, feel so good and bring such fruitful, awesome things into our lives and businesses. Thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you next week.
Outro 16:45
Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.
💥 Join the free EBT community, where you will connect with food bloggers, and gain confidence and clarity as a food blogger so you don’t feel so overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS!
Want to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible? Stop by Eat Blog Talk to get the details on our Mastermind program. This transformative 12-month experience will help you accomplish more than you would be able to in 5+ years when forging ahead alone.
Click the button below to learn what a mastermind program is, what your commitment is, and what Eat Blog Talk’s commitment to you is. Learn More About The Mastermind Program
✍️ Reach out to connect with Heather Eberle, a copywriter for food bloggers. As much as you enjoy your business, maybe writing or marketing isn’t your cup of tea. Maybe you’d rather spend more time in the kitchen and less time on your laptop. Heather is here to clear your plate! Let Heather help you share your content with the world.
We cover information
Listen on the player in this post or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
Write Blog Posts that Rank on Google’s 1st Page
RankIQ is an AI-powered SEO tool built just for bloggers. It tells you what to put inside your post and title, so you can write perfectly optimized content in half the time. RankIQ contains a hand-picked library with the lowest competition, high traffic keywords for every niche.
Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
Transcript
Click for script.
EBT568 – 5 Ways to Find Inspiration
Intro 00:01
Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.
💥 Join the free EBT community, where you will connect with food bloggers, and gain confidence and clarity as a food blogger so you don’t feel so overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS!
Want to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible? Stop by Eat Blog Talk to get the details on our Mastermind program. This transformative 12-month experience will help you accomplish more than you would be able to in 5+ years when forging ahead alone.
Click the button below to learn what a mastermind program is, what your commitment is, and what Eat Blog Talk’s commitment to you is. Learn More About The Mastermind Program
✍️ Reach out to connect with Heather Eberle, a copywriter for food bloggers. As much as you enjoy your business, maybe writing or marketing isn’t your cup of tea. Maybe you’d rather spend more time in the kitchen and less time on your laptop. Heather is here to clear your plate! Let Heather help you share your content with the world.