Where’s the bright spark?

I often get asked ‘where do you find your inspiration’. If I’m honest, I’ve never really examined the process closely enough to really provide a solid answer.

It’s most commonly found in places and situations that are the most inappropriate. Such as the shower or driving in the car. Places where there is no easy means of noting down an idea or a thought that has been sparked by something flying between the left and right ear hole.

One seemingly constant part of my own journey has been music. It’s such a powerful component of my life. A song can evoke any number of incredibly deep emotions, often taking me to a specific time and place or thoughts of a particular person or event.

I’ve been fortunate to play music my whole life – from piano and keyboards, to Tuba in a school concert band, to bass in a 90’s cover band. My father instilled incredible musical influences in me at an early age. Artists such as Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond and The Beatles. Influences that would stamp their mark on me in such a significant fashion.

If you ever needed proof as to how powerful music can be, try watching a movie without the sound. See if a sad scene can evoke the same emotions as it did when the orchestra wells and the mood is built around the vision and the story. It’s the secret behind what makes many great movies simply brilliant.

So while I’ve never really examined it before, I think that it’s certainly true that music has been a key component from which I draw my inspiration.

Idea generation is such a fascinating activity and is probably the most controlled environment in which you’re forced to be inspired. It’s true that some days you simply have to change the session time as the mood or the energy is not right to generate concepts and ideas.

Personally, I like some of the mystery about where the spark starts. Where the ignition point begins. What it is that lights an idea.

Just yesterday we were discussing a topic and I commented how sometimes science takes the magic out of something that should be left to the imagination. Perhaps inspiration is one of those magical things that we should just enjoy and accept.

Feel free to let us know what inspires you though and if you have discovered what ignites your mind.