Echo Beach Tide Pools

Inspiration in Motion
Motivation at Rest

By Keith Alan Johnson
03-19-2000

              Last Friday night my creative drive left me. It certainly wasn't for lack of ideas. I had a story that I had been tossing about in my mind for a number of weeks. Saturday night was "Writer's Night". That's where a group of us get together and share what we've been writing, then critique and kibitz each other. So naturally I needed to get something written down.
      The motivation wasn't there. I ended up sitting on the couch and watching some prime time gimmie bucks show and the first half of MTV's "Spring Break Uncensored". It was certainly not quality television. I made use of what I had left of the evening by going to bed.
      I at least wanted to get up early Saturday and get something written. I set my alarm for 6:45 though. As if the muses were conspiring with me, my cat woke me at 6:00 and refused to let me return to sleep. The point where I shoved him out the front door was the point were my motivation returned. I was literally hit in the face with a breath of fresh air. I managed to sit before the computer and bang out five pages of a rough draft to share that evening.
      The hardest thing to overcome is inertia. Not physical inertia but emotional inertia. Sometimes depression, or lethargy, is so powerful that it can drain my willpower dry. Yet, once I've made that conscious decision to overcome the inertia, it takes so little to recharge and get moving. In this case it was a simple breath of the great outdoors. I didn't want to take that breath. I wanted to sleep more. I wanted the cat to shut up. I wanted to enjoy the warm bed. I wanted to be left alone.
      As soon as I took that breath I was revitalized. It's hard to get in a position to take that breath though. It took my cat five tries.
      Winter can be a difficult time for me to overcome that inspirational inertia. It's dark out, it's gloomy. But I've found a few tricks that help. Music is a powerful force. An opening rift to an electronic symphony will get me in the creative mood instantly. Right now it's Tangerine Dream's Mars Polaris.
      Setting a space for that creativity to bloom is another powerful force, though perhaps a little more difficult. In order to create a space for creativity I must find the energy to get off my butt and create it. That's rather a catch 22. On the other hand, if I know I need to create the space I can force myself. Recently I did just that by cleaning out our storage room. I turned it into a drawing space for me and made room for my wife's sewing projects.
      I've found many ways to break the inertia. I love to walk. Walking can get the creative energy flowing and can easily break inertia and even depression. For me, walking is soothing to the soul. While I was in college I would walk all over Bellingham, WA.
      What it takes is a little kick in the will power. A bought of lethargy ends when something clicks. That little light bulb comes on that says it's time to snap out of it and get moving. Maybe I'll just go out to dinner or go to a movie. Go for a walk. Clean something up. I like to take advantage of the moment to change my environment, just a little, just enough, to break the inertia.

03-19-2000

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