7 Tips for Never Running out of Inspiration

Inspiration - it means everything to creatives. Whether you're a blogger, photographer, designer or another profession, the truth is we need it. With it we feel like we can conquer everything. But what happens when we don't have it?

Sometimes you might want to write something, make something or cook something. Yet you sit there, your mind blank and you have no idea where to start. You're stuck and inspiration just doesn't want to play with you.

I believe that most of us have our best ideas inside us. It's how we get them to appear that's difficult. But I've found that there are some things you can to bring your inspiration back and help you create your best work yet.

#1 Think About Your Purpose

Only you and you alone know your true focus and values for yourself and your personal brand online. When you're struggling to come up with ideas, think back to the meaning of your blog or business. Think back to why you started all of this in the first place. Knowing that was key to helping you come up with your original ideas, and it'll be just as much help in the long run.

Why do you blog about what you do? Why these topics and nothing else? These will really help you to expand your mind. You can let your thoughts wander and think about what you wish you’d known about this topic when you were just starting out or what you want to learn about it in the future. Idea generation doesn't just have to come from what you know - it comes from within and what makes you, you.

#2 Have a Running List of Sources

I’ve always had a Plan B. I’m the type of person that likes being organised and prepared. I like having a back-up plan in various aspects of my life. When you don’t have any inspiration, you don’t want to feel stuck like most of us too. So why not have a Plan B?

If you know that you can get inspiration from certain sources, it’s going to be really valuable for you to keep those in a safe place. That way, when a block hits you, you can refer back to this list of sources and get your inspiration back straight away.

Evernote is the tool I’d recommend for this. I use it to keep all my blog post ideas in one place for all my different topics and for inspiration too. One of my notes is a list of all the sources I look at when I feel stuck. Here’s a list of some:

Magazines
Pinterest
Instagram
My journal

Failing that I know that the other source is to step away. And that leads us straight onto number three.

Holly SuttonFebruary 22, 2016bloggers, idea, ideas, inspirationComment

How to Never Run out of Brilliant Blog Post Ideas

Do you ever find yourself completely stuck when it comes to your blog? Do you ever sit there with no inspiration? Do you ever run out of ideas? You’re not the only one, friend. When I changed the direction of ABOH last August, I had a really tough time staying inspired and coming up with new ideas that I felt good about were rare. But at some point, something happened. Now, I’ve got enough blog posts to last me for a long time. I’ve found ways to stay inspired and not go out of my way to find more ideas – but to notice them.

Your content is the foundation of your blog. You need ideas all the time. So what happens if you run out of them?

If you’ve been following along with ABOH since the start of the New Year you’ll have seen that we did the Blogging Breakthrough challenge. A big part of this was about keeping up with your blog content and having inspiration sessions. But over the past few months, I keep getting questions about how I actually come up with so many ideas. Today is the day I answer that question. Today is the day that I tell you everything you need to know, so you never run out of blog post ideas again.

Share What You Know

Sharing things from your own experiences is always so valuable. It’s probably the easiest way to come up with blog post ideas, but we usually overthink it. This post? This is based on sharing what I know. I know how to come up with great blog post ideas, so I'm writing it into a post for you. Yesterday’s post about my career journey? That’s come from my personal experiences too. Plus, they’re one of the easiest posts to write because you already know what you’re going to say.

You might think to yourself, “Well, I don’t know anything.” But I know for a fact that’s not true. Think about what you do in your day-to-day life. Think about how you’ve got to where you are today. Think about the experiences you’ve had in your career and your personal life. What could you help other people with?