Inspiration Bit

After being silent for a few days, I’d like to finally show up on my blog and talk to you all. I really miss the interaction and conversations with my readers. Many things have happened in the last 10 days that could be safely labeled as “crazy” or “unbelievable”. But believe it or not, those events did occur and they “beg” me to be talked about.
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I recently completed an annual report for Girl Scouts (equivalent of Girl Guides in most countries), not the big national/international company, but a smaller council, kind of like a franchise, I suppose. In school, I was taught the process
of the 5 D’z of Design:

1. Define the project and the objectives
2. Discover the way others have solved similar problems and research any necessary information
3. Design thumbnails and comps
4. Develop the comp into the final design, get feedback
5. Deliver the final project

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Did you know that when you utter the word “blog” somewhere in the blogiverse a new blog is being launched? According to Sifry’s report on the State of the Live Web for April 2007 there are 1.4 new blogs created every second. That’s about 120,000 new blogs to compete with each day. Often we struggle to find what to write about on our blogs, while our competitors in the blogiverse are publishing at the insane rate of 17 posts per second.
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There are four types of articles that I especially enjoy reading on blogs:

1. Educating
   The articles that I can learn from on anything from blogging to freelancing, from design to programming, from life to death.
2. Questioning
   Nothing stimulates my brain better than questions posed by other bloggers that make me think before commenting on their blog posts, prompt me to look at things from a deeper perspective, challenge my views and beliefs.
3. Entertaining
   We can’t always be pensive and discuss only serious subject matters. If we want to live longer we should inject some humour to our lives, relax a bit and be entertained.
4. Inspiring
   It is encouraging to know that we are not the only ones who struggle with certain things or feel uninspired and frustrated, it makes us realize that it’s a natural, but most importantly, a temporary state of mind. We all need an occasional emotional and spiritual boost to help us with work, life and daily tasks.

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Did you ever feel lost in space, trying to gather your thoughts, get motivated to write for your blog, design a website, come up with logo ideas, find a perfect object for your photo shoot, simply be inspired to live your life to its fullest? Here is your one in a lifetime chance to swim in the ocean of inspiration filled from 37 sources.

Thank you everyone who participated in this group writing project. Now, enjoy each others sources of inspiration, link to each other and make the world to be an inspiring place to live in.

1. 5 Sources Of Inspiration in Photography by Brian Auer
   Inspired by accomplishments of mankind (skyscrapers, bridges), beauty of nature, other photographers, challenges (photography contests, setting restrictions to get unconventional), children.
2. Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of Inspiration by Andrew Rickmann
   Inspired by music, art, problem solving and understanding, newness, progression, desire to be able to contribute.
3. Sources Of Inspiration For Your Blog by Simonne Matthew
   Inspired by internal dialogue (”shift your attention towards your mind”), surmounted challenges, poetry, love, children, interaction.
4. Inspiration For Blogging by Ronald Huereca
   Inspired and motivated by conversation, by readers who encourage to keep going, “stay opinionated and frank”.
5. Webmaster Blog Inspiration by Lee Robertson
   Inspiration for blogging is to share ideas, knowledge and “help others with their websites and blogs”.
6. Reliable Sources Of Inspiration for Inspiration Bit by Vivien
   Relying on Sleeping Kingdom to sort the ideas and create a clear picture, find a perfect solution. Motivated by the child to boost the confidence and get re-charged.
7. Inspiration For Design And Advertising by Tara
   Get inspired by word association and playing on words, find ideas in images, look “at something in a different way”, using metaphors.
8. Finding Inspiration At The Top Of A Ladder by Rory
   Allow the mind to “freely to wander”, relax in the bath, until Eureka! hits you, just “don’t forget to take your notebook” everywhere you go.
9. Frustration Is A Source of Inspiration by Bes
   Frustration results in a lot of thinking, inspiring the thoughts of reason to shape up the blog.
10. Graphic Designer’s Snapshots of Inspiration by Lauren Krause
    Keep a design scrapbook, discover antique shops, clear your mind with yoga, think outside the box and brainstorm.
11. Sources Of Inspiration For A Young Blogger by Shankar Ganesh
    Inspired by people and personalities, dreams and quotes.
12. Get your creativity back: the old fashion way by Mirko
    Clean up your working space, go jogging, go for a drink with your friends, be happy.
13. Storyteller’s Muse by Shelly
    Don’t force the Muse but entice her by having a set of “prompt cards”, reading, doing something mindless. Make a date with yourself - just You and your Muse.
14. What Inspires A Graphic Designer by David Airey
    Inspired by the environment (”every visual object can be interpreted into graphic design”), people of the world, the design process from start to finish.
15. Defining Inspiration by Jenny MCB
    Figure out what you want to do and then do it, be ready to make changes in your life. “Inspiration comes from within”.
16. Sources Of Inspiration for Observers by Pearl
    Inspired by good music, reading how others achieved success, overcame an obstacle, Rudyard Kipling’s poem “IF”.
17. A Tribute To All Mothers by Jacklyn
    Inspired, encouraged and motivated by mother’s precious love.
18. Teaching, Inspiration, and Rock‘n Roll by Damien Riley
    Focus on the things that you “truly enjoy: guitar, art, poetry, reading, songwriting, nature” and bridge your passions with others.
19. Sources Of Inspiration From DailyBlogTips - interview with Daniel Scocco
    “Keep your radar on through out the day”, carry a notebook everywhere you go, learn how to identify all those sources of inspiration that surround us.
20. Inspiration From Your Future Self by Kate Hudson
    “I want my future self to look back and smile, knowing it was worth it”. Inspired by exciting lives of older people who traveled the world, took chances and had fun “along their journey”.
21. The Roots Of Inspiration by Isabella Mori
    Everything is connected and becomes a source of inspiration. It’s all about “being willing to make connections”. Serendipity is a big part of inspiration.
22. Please God, Bless The Mess by Rosemarie
    “Writing is my calling”. Sharing with others experiences, losses and successes.
23. Inspired To Write by Marcia
    Inspiration comes from “internal conversation”. Tune into that conversation to see if it’s inspiring “enough to bring that conversation out”.
24. Inspired By One Minute Miracle by Lewis Bass
    Inspired by quick thoughts or quotes, great outdoors, helping other, by feeling the presence of the Creator.
25. Motivation And Inspiration for A Hobbyist by Joey
    Inspired by interaction with readers, desire to be helpful and informative, “desire to help perpetuate baseball card collecting”.
26. Postcards Of Inspiration by Paulie
    Digital photography as a hobby, walking, hiking and writing about the personal experience.
27. The Little Successes Along The Way by Carolyn Manning
    Inspiration comes from “the incomparable satisfaction waiting at the end of each small task”.
28. The Really Simple Domino Effect by Hamelife
    Inspired by Other People’s Blogs. “Something you read can flick the switch in your mind - one thought can lead to another - and a new article is born. Clickety, clickety, clickety…”
29. Questioning Inspiration by Nanny Molly
    Have a “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” attitude in life, deny the existence of stress and passionless mood.
30. Inspiration or Despair That is the Question by Joey
    Find inspiration from others, from their encouragement and faith in you, from their support.
31. Sources Of Inspiration For Writing by Yvonne Russell
    Inspired by people, by quiet achievers, by family, by the learning, “by the wonder of the interactive blogosphere”.
32. Life on Hysteria Lane by The Rock Chick
    Inspiration that derives “from listening to and observing other people”. Get a cure for your creative block by spending “five minutes max in any public place”.
33. Inspired By People by Jacob Share
    Inspired by five influential bloggers who have insight, attitude, motivational skills, expertise and dedication.
34. They Showed Me How To Find Release by Carolyn
    Inspired by the person “who succumbed to an addiction, found release, and works through varying degrees of daily struggle toward another victory”.
35. Crazy Wisdom Inspiration by Pamm
    Inspired by Death. “Because Death gently and lovingly reminds me of Life. Life Right Now.”
36. Sources Of Inspiration For Life and Blogging by Dj Flush
    Inspired by colors, love, technology, paranormality, life and death.
37. What Inspires A Poet by ebele (via email)
    

    What inspires me? Creativity. It’s my No1 religion. It has saved me MANY times - whether it’s writing a poem, taking a picture or painting - doesn’t matter how ‘good’ it is. Recently, I had a lot on my mind, was feeling extremely frustrated, couldn’t sleep, refused to sleep - at 3am, I turned my back on my computer (which was also playing up, by the way), sat down on the floor & started drawing with colouring pencils. 5 minutes into it, the stress had lifted.
    Creativity & being creative is my life-blood. I don’t know who or where I’d be without it.

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Please, let me know if I missed someone’s entry and I’ll update the list right away.

I would appreciate if you don’t duplicate the entire content of this list, but instead read those submissions yourself and link to your favourite ones (or all of them) by outlining the gist of the source from your own perspective.

Thanks again to all participants. I’m overwhelmed with the response received by my first group writing project as well as by the time I spent putting this list together
Right now I feel amazingly inspired but unfortunately can hardly keep my eyes open to jot down all those ideas and sparks in my head.

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“When you are making good money? When you enjoy what you do? When you win awards? When you go freelance? When you own your own company?”

These questions were asked by Lauren Marie Krause who wanted to find out what other designers think about success and what was their career path like. I got tagged by Tara from GraphicDesignBlog and then by Lisa Sabin-Wilson to talk about my experience as a Designer by answering to Lauren’s questions below:
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Ha-ha, did I shock you with this post title? Some of you may be wondering - what the heck? what a non-monetized blog can teach us about making money from our blogs? Well, that’s the beauty of having guest writers - they can write on any topic I know nothing or not much about.

Let me introduce you to Lee Robertson from LGR Webmaster Blog - “Search Engine Marketing, Web Design, Web Programming and Ramblings of a Professional Webmaster”. Lee designed his first website in 1994 and has been involved with computers and web development ever since.
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Have you heard of the saying: “If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed”? In other words, don’t wait for things to be handed to you on a silver platter, if you want something, go for it. Well, that’s what happened to me.

Daniel from DailyBlogTips has promised to participate in my Group Writing Project. But we all know how busy he is (admiring his stat numbers, counting the revenue generated by his insanely popular blog, and writing daily tips). So after my several gentle reminders on MSN that he was unintentionally forgetting about, we’ve decided to set up a mini interview. Daniel has kindly agreed for a quick IM interview, so here I present you with fresh, out of the oven, inspiration sources “straight from the horse’s mouth”.
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