How to find inspiration ?

Thinking out of the box.

Some of great ideas are coming on an unexpected way, and we want to get absolutely an idea for a new project, for a new book or article we want to write, the inspiration is not there. As we are used to say, an idea is not coming alone. Sometimes, ideas are coming because we noticed something around us, or we heard about something. And from this event, we start to think about it and suddenly an idea is coming.

It is now around two years that I am publishing articles on this blog, and the ongoing concern and challenge is to know if I will be able to publish an article with an acceptable quality level within the deadline I fixed. The ideas finally are coming, but as mentioned earlier not alone. There are coming easier, if we have an intensive activity. I would like to share some useful tips and conditions in my mind helping us to find inspiration.

• Break the routine. Each of us, we have repetitive activities and duties. We are doing this tasks as we had been programed to do it. This repetition of the same activities become a routine, routine that is the opposite of thinking out of the box. By changing some habits, you will probably discover new things or you will do them on another way.
• Develop your inspiring network. We can be inspired by inspiring people. Inspiring people are people who build their own life, their own experience, and who thought about what the way of life they chose, brought to them. By sharing their experience and ideas with you, you can feed your own ideas or project. We are closed to the mind mapping process, where words or ideas can make you think about closed ideas or things, and help you to build or move forward your own project, your own life.
• Move time to time to another environment. As freelance, I am used to work to the customer office, or at home. Recently, I spent few day in a co-working space. By working there, you break the routine, you move to another working environment where the configuration of the room or the design will inspire you, will bring some positive energy to you. It is also an opportunity to meet other people having different jobs, with who you can talk about your projects, share ideas, and maybe build a new project with them.
• Be curious, eager to learn and start new activities: the most experience you will have and the most curious you will be, the most opportunities of new ideas you will gain. The curiosity will bring you to discover new things, to learn, and to expand your knowledge. Each things you can learn can be the raw material of a future project, or idea, or a new activity.
• Take the time for leisures and sports. By doing a sport, or watching a movie, reading a book,  you move your spirit to another horizon. By being too much focused on something, you are loosing visibility and do not see the things on a global way. When for instance, you try to solve a problem and you are stuck, then, move your brain to something else, or do a break. Take the opportunity to do sports, to decrease your stress, or just make a walk in a park or in the woods. By taking distance from the problem, you will see it on another way and find the solution you was looking for.

Inspiration and ideas are something we can work on it. Inspiration is something implying a movement, we are inspired by something. It means that we have to maximize the source of inspiration, and you only can organize this process. It is a long and ongoing process, but sometimes, it can bring interesting results.

Work in a multicultural environment.

Work in an multicultural environment

I spent a major time of my career to work for international companies. When I remember  these assignments contracted in international companies, I can say there were exceptional opportunities for many reasons, and not only for professional opportunities, but also for personal opportunities.

In international environments, you are working with colleagues from different nationalities, multicultural environments where often, the working language is English. As French speaking native, living in a country where there are three different cultures (Flemish, French and German), the presence of colleagues from other countries was the opportunity to improve and practice English language on a regular basis. The basis of collaboration is the communication, but communication is impossible without language knowledge. But language is also the basis of the thought. Better will be the knowledge of a language, better you will express your thoughts, your feelings. But you will be able also to understand also the others.

Starting from the language, you will talk with your colleagues about professional matters, but also about many other matters, which means that you will learn other cultures. By learning different cultures, you will probably discover other sensibilities, other customs and habits, which will make you better understand the point of view of the people on a particular subject, to see different approach from yours. You will establish a better relationship with the people. And if you take care of this, most of the time, people appreciate the interest you bring to their culture. Most of the time, if I know the language of the people I want to talk with, I start to speak in his language. It is an opportunity to practice and to improve my language knowledge.

By sharing our knowledge, our experiences, by sharing different point of view, we acquire new possibilities to move forward our thoughts, our ideas. In some mind mapping seminars, we talk about radiant thought. If for example, you think about an apple, you can think about the tree, about the country where the apple was picked, to the person who picked it, … What I mean here, is that the point of view of somebody having a different culture than your, can bring new ideas, new approaches to you, and increase  your intellectual capabilities.

Do not forget also the social dimension of such multicultural environment. When people from different cultures are developing smooth collaborations and relationships, the success of social integration is ensured. The gratitude of the accomplished work is a key element of our self respect, the condition to respect the others.

As conclusion, it is obvious that multicultural environments are a wealth, the only wealth which nobody can steal, which has an inestimable value. This should be a leitmotiv for everybody, in our professional or personal life: how to transform relationship in wealth ?

Image source: http://www.intransol.com/images/a_multicultural.jpg

Time is ..precious.

Time is precious.

In these difficult economical and social times, when hearing around me, a lot of people are losing they jobs. Other freelancers are waiting for new challenges and opportunities. We are used to say that time is money, but these times, it is not really the case.

Is it time only money? Time is running every day, and the lost time is unrecoverable.

When people unfortunately are losing a job, they have to consider that a chapter of their life is finished, and that they should think to write a new one. It is the time to think about what you have done, what are the experiences and the skills you acquired; the time to define new goals, new targets in function of what you want to do and the capabilities and skills you could value. These are things which for you have not enough time to think about during the rushing hours spent at the office, running after deadlines and issues to be solved quickly.

It is the time to find new ideas, new developments. We need to pay attention to our environment. We can only find inspiration by observing what is going on around us. By getting a look, by reading books, hearing to the news, chatting with friends and colleagues, navigating on the web, we can be informed about the changes around the world, about the new challenges. From one idea found by somebody else, we can find another one. It is the time to do such exercises, in order to open our mind.

Most of the time, we are operating as technician in our respective discipline, and we are missing a lot of things around us. We are missing a bit of creativity, getting bogged down in our daily routine. But as far as we can open new doors, we are offering new possibilities to ourselves; and we could maybe discover new talents, new interests.

Do not let us spend our time, but let us use it efficiently to maximize our chance and to do what we want to do, to realize our projects and dreams. This should be an ongoing process, needing efforts and perseverance on a long term basis. This is why time is so..precious.