Inspiration. That is a wonderful feeling.

I’m up in Fairfax tonight for a client event and I had some time to kill before it started, so I found myself at Panera drinking iced coffee and searching for inspiration. I started on Instagram, made my way to Pod Save America, checked in on American Aquarium, then found myself on an old favorite of mine 7 Ways, 212 Days.

7 Ways, 212 Days is a blog I wrote back in 2014 that documented a 7 month project I attempted that involved removing excess from your life by spending 1 month increments removing prominent things from your days (each month removing something like television, social media, drinking, and so on). Mostly each post was reporting out on the project–but there were a few random posts that were more free-writes that put my thoughts onto paper. Things like My Exact Location in Life and Daily Haiku. But something that still felt so familiar was the one and only “monthly muse” I wrote (which was intended to be written monthly, but failed miserably).

Thursday, December 25, 2014 – Monthly Muse

One of the greatest feelings in this world is the feeling of being inspired. Whether it’s by a person, a song, a personal experience..anything. To get that true feeling of inspiration, making you so excited to put your hands and thoughts together to create something, having your eyes see a little brighter than normal, feeling only certainty and no doubt that you are meant for something. That is a wonderful feeling.

There are so many different people that bring inspiration into this world. Some are athletes who show such dedication to hard work, some are song writers whose music touches you so deeply, some are public figures who so gracefully live a life of success and sometimes, when you’re very lucky, some are personal friends of yours that are just truly remarkable examples of greatness for you.

I find it to actually be really good self reflection to take a moment to acknowledge the people and things that inspire you. Not only to send them a thought of respect and appreciation, but also to identify what it is about them that you respect or admire and determine if you’re doing the best you can to embody those same traits within yourself.