adminIt’s just past midnight now. After yesterday’s ridiculous time to start writing a new story, we’ve made progress. But now we’ve bumped into another problem. I don’t have any inspiration.
Today was also a long and busy day. Day five out of five of filming my biggest paid filming project so far. Following Rinze, Merijn and the Noria crew on a 160km SUP adventure through Friesland to get attention for the plastic litter problem. Lot’s of jumping into the car, filming from all sort of angles, flying a drone, making sure baby Ollie is happy, drinking coffee and socializing. Next to that, we had to plan ahead for upcoming markets with Thais Tafelen.
But what drained us the most was the insecurity about our house. The bid is accepted. The realtor and seller want us to buy as quickly as possible. We are still waiting to get a signed contract to sell Mandy’s house. Although we’re well past our mid-thirties, we still feel like we have no clue what the etiquette of buying and selling a house is. From realtor to financial advisor, from family to total stranger on the internet. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on the steps of buying a house.
The fact that our dream house might still be sold to someone else, even with our bid accepted, is probably the most draining thing of all of the above. We’re not in control. We don’t know when we can move on to the next step. We don’t know how things look like when everything falls apart like a deck of cards. We just don’t know a lot of things.
So, most of my creativity went into work and worry. I’ve just finished a short video to mark the end of the five-day project. Also, I had to read a thirty-page contract. Not exactly something you do for a hobby. People who like reading and writing contracts will get a special place in Bowser’s castle. Even Super Mario can’t save them.
Just a couple of hours of sleep combined with work and struggles equals no inspiration. But I think that Casey Neistat said, “Inspiration is bullshit.” And I think he’s right. Being inspired is easy. You can draw inspiration from literally anything. A bee colony working together- let’s go! A 70-year-old man who’s on a 1000km hiking trip – wow, that’s so inspiring. What about two guys SUP-ping 160km? Even a person who likes to sit for 12 hours straight next to a fishing rod can be a source of inspiration. That person must be so chill.
What matters is not feeling inspired. Not even feeling inspired to do something. What really matters is to actually do that thing that inspires you. Great storytellers, entrepreneurs, and marketers inspire me. I could dream all night of being a successful filmmaker. But if I don’t create something, inspiration is just wasted brain cells.
And what about not having inspiration to write? Well, I think this blog is the prove. Just start. If starting feels too daunting, start smaller. Make the starting point so small (Atomic Habits style), that starting becomes almost frictionless. Then, keep going and going. Until you have something that has a begin, a middle, and an end. Tomorrow, there’s a new chance. Hopefully with more inspiration. If not, I’ll know what to do.