Inspiration in Unexpected Places

Tonight I played some softball. It was amazing. And now that I've got back, my food is cooking, and I'm reflecting on my day...I'm feeling incredibly inspired. I think that playing softball made the day that much more enjoyable. It kind of changed my outlook on how today went. (At least for now...)

I haven't played softball since I was like 15 or something. My hands hadn't touched a softball bat for many years. But I've still got it. (My catching needs work though.) Boy, did it feel good. Maybe it's because I got to take some pent up anger/frustration I've had this past week out on the ball. And now I've kind of got a fresh mind. It's a nice feeling to have. And now that I've started playing, I don't want to stop...I just want to keep playing, wind, rain, sunshine, snow, you name it.

Sometimes I get into these creative slumps where I feel that the only way to get inspired is to keep cramming the creativity down my throat. Nights like tonight kind of remind me that I don't always need to be thinking about a design in order for design inspiration to hit. Sometimes the best way to get inspired is to  kick the creativity out of your head and do something the complete opposite. It takes your mind away from whatever work you're doing and puts your focus on something else. With softball (and pretty much every sport) your mind needs to be in the game, otherwise, you may as well not even bother playing. It allows me to put my energy into something else for a while. Plus softball brings out the crazy competitive side of me. Going for runs or walks is fine and dandy but it doesn't completely distract my mind, photography mode turns on instead.

So this evening has been a good release of everything. I'm refreshed and ready to dig into my projects with more enthusiasm. It's kind of sad that I don't have deadlines on any of my work right now so I just kind of start things, work on them for a bit, then start something else and forget about it. I need to work on finishing up some of my older work. I have 2 right now I really should finish up. Hopefully with Marlon gets back from Europe he can help keep me on track again.

He and I got a project cooked up that will start towards the end of the month. That lucky duck is going to Europe in a few hours. He's going to go visit his girlfriend who's been studying overseas all semester. Really jealous because he's going to go visit many of the places on my To Visit list. One day...

For now I'm going to put on some Mad Men and work on my latest project. Which hopefully it can start making it's way onto the computer this weekend. What do you do to keep your inspiration going?