Finding Your Inspiration Zone
As I tweeted earlier, finding an inspiration zone – the place where most of your ideas arise — is key to being a productive scanner. While many people experience writer’s block or some other form of blocked thought process, the inspiration zone is the place you can always count on your inspiration, ideas, and free thought. Finding such a place is easy for those who have experienced the constant streams of ideas in a particular place, but others take years to finally realize where they should be doing their best thinking. I’ll describe one of the most common places, explain why it’s so common, and then describe my own inspiration zone.
First let’s get a few definitions out of the way. Unless you’ve read Barbara Sher’s book Refuse to Choose or Margaret Lobenstine’s The Renaissance Soul, it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard what the term “scanner” or “renaissance soul” means. In their most basic definitions, it refers to a person who has many differing interests and passions, and, often, simply can’t chose to concentrate on one out of fear of denigrating or neglecting another passion. So, for example, some of my passions include writing (screenplays, novels, and a children’s series), inventing (anything from household items to medical procedures, languages (Russian, German, French, and conlangs), websites, education (teaching, educational websites, not-for-profit organizations), and philosophy (bioethics). And on top of those major interests, you could easily add science (medicine, virology, genetics, theoretical physics, environmental science), sport theory (implications of structures and rules), and law into the mix. With so many interests and passions, it’s difficult to not only find the time to explore these passions, but also even just to sit down and concentrate on one at a time. By writing a novel I feel I could be working on a website, and by learning Russian I feel I could be theorizing a new medical procedure. Finding a balance has been difficult, and it’s a common problem for scanners.
The second definition I want to make clear is that of the “inspiration zone.” This zone refers to the place where most of your ideas come into mind. So, for example, while you might get ideas literally anywhere, be it while driving, playing baseball, or watching TV, your inspiration zone is where most of your ideas come from. Generally, while ideas may come sporadically, you might notice a trend in the place where many ideas arise. Usually this happens because of an action in that space or a certain quality of this space which makes generating ideas come easily. If you can’t find your inspiration zone off the top of your head, when an idea arises and you write it down, also write down the location where the idea came from. I’m sure you’ll soon find a general trend, and your inspiration zone will appear. Let’s go through one of these places which is common for being people’s inspiration zone.
The first and probably most universal inspiration zone is the bathroom. Whether it’s sitting on the toilet (often a man’s inspiration zone) or in the shower (often a woman’s inspiration zone), many ideas and thoughts come to us while in the bathroom. My theory on why the bathroom is such a great idea conductor, if you will, is because it’s one of the few places where we generally lack external stimulation, and have time that is seen by others as incredibly quiet and private. While men rarely talk in the bathroom, simply using it in a more utilitarian, private function, women see it as more communal, and thus the reason for the difference between the man’s toilet and the woman’s shower as being the inspiration zone. If this is your inspiration zone, then great! That was easy enough! But others’ have harder times finding their inspiration zones.
The most common reason some have difficulty finding their inspiration zone isn’t because they have sporadic ideas coming from literally any time and any place, but rather because they spend extremely little time in their natural inspiration zone. Particularly in modern society, we spend countless hours at a desk in a rather bland cubicle, which is probably the antithesis of the creative process. We then come home and relax after a long day in said boring cubicle, and sit on the couch in front of the TV – an external stimulus. And, likely, there are chores to be done, children running around, dinner needs to be made, and that’s not counting the other endless errands imposed on us by others. With such external stimulus putting external pressures on us and taking our concentration away from internal needs, we’re unable to spend quality time coming up with ideas and concentrating on our passions. So in order to find that place, you might need to do the opposite of what you might think: get away from the work desk, get away from the home office, get away from the TV, and, perhaps most importantly, get away from the computer. All you need to write an idea down is a piece of paper and a pencil or pen (or, at the most, a notepad application on your cell phone).
Finding my inspiration zone was actually quite easy, but at the same time is external to my home and work life. I found that my inspiration zone was, of all places, the movie theater. As I generally like to go to the latest show on the least busiest days (Monday through Thursday), I can often be found watching a movie alone or with very few people in the movie theater. And, because one of my passions is writing, I tend to get many ideas for storylines and fixes to others’ storylines while watching movies. There’s nothing more inspiring to me than to consider how someone else’s work might be changed. While there is still the external stimulus of a rather large screened and loudly playing movie, I’m still able to concentrate on writing, storylines, or other ideas which may come to me during the movie. Without others imposing pressures or obligations on me during the two-to-three hours, I have plenty of time to spend by myself and with my own thoughts. And, like I said, find some inspiration from mistakes I find in the movie.
So whether your inspiration zone is while on the toilet, in the shower, or at the movie theater, finding that zone is key to being a productive scanner. By having the time to yourself, with little if any external stimuli and pressures, you can spend time to think about whatever comes to you. Where is your inspiration zone?
