Does this sound familiar?

I’ve read many books over the years about productivity and self-improvement. I’ve additionally just completed the book “The Artist’s Way”, a twelve week program about uncovering creativity and really letting out the inner artist (tomorrow is literally the last day of the twelve weeks). I wrote about this in several past posts, most notably one about the value of keeping a journal. I’ve read these books with the purpose of being inspired, of improving myself, learning new skills, or generally just being curious about something (so basically the reasons why people read books!). I’ve learned many strategies for coping with lack of inspiration and in learning I have developed an activity that I do quite frequently.  It is something anyone can do and have found it useful in kindling the fires of curiosity.  I call it “The Nostalgia Shot”!

“The Nostalgia Shot”

It has helped me during those periods of stagnation. During those periods where I’m sitting in the office mashing together statistics and coming home feeling blah and simply can’t feel the spark. “The Nostalgia Shot” is exactly what it sounds like, a shot of nostalgia mainlined right into your brain. I’ve done the activity right before sitting down to write this and will share the results below.

What you do is quite simple. Grab a piece of notebook paper (I recommend college ruled because once you get going you might not stop) and making a rule to only use one side of the sheet of paper start writing everything that you really loved as a kid.  Write whatever you like, but I recommend writing just a brief bullet point. It can be anything.  Then once you write it really think about why it made you happy. I wrote many geeky things on my paper of course, I thought of many movies, cartoons, particular scenes and soundtracks that really moved me as a kid. I probably could have done another several pages in this fashion because once you get to the end of the page you run out of room and realize you’ve forgotten about this thing or that. Once you’re at the end of the page just stop, you should now be “in the zone”.

I didn’t even get through 10% of the movies and books and didn’t even broach music on my sheet. The point is that it got the juices flowing though. My recommendation is after you do this pick a few things that you liked with a big smile on your face and go dust off that old comic book or paint set and get to work, reading, listening, watching, or whatever the activity might entail.

Where might it take you?

The activity might veer into any place of inspiration; my paper inevitably had some more modern things that made me feel similarly as an adult. Don’t limit what you write down. Get into whatever gave you the warm fuzzies, this is the key!

Nostalgia is a wonderful supplement, but you need to understand that you need to approach these things with the child’s mind, open and full of questions. You’ll probably find that many of the things you liked as a child aren’t quite as good as you remembered and that’s okay! The point is to ponder the feeling that you had as a child and really internalize it as you approach these things. The magic that was sparked inside is what we wish to seek out in the world every day.

The challenge then is this, because I used a very important word above and that word is “supplement”. Nostalgia is a fleeting thing. So the reason this is called “the Nostalgia Shot” is because it is meant to be done on occasion to give oneself a temporary reminder of that lost imaginative feeling that children so frequently have.

The thing is that while nostalgia is a wonderful tool for rekindling that old feeling, you have to take this mindset that you recall from your youth and approach something new in the same way. This is what is lost in the daily grind. We have adult expectations and are expected therefore to act a certain way when approaching things. I’m telling you that the purpose of the activity is to forsake your adult seriousness, channel the inner warm fuzzies you get and approach something new with the same mindset.  Watch a silly movie, go to a gallery, listen to some new music, or decide to learn something new. Don’t worry about your age and don’t pass any judgements on yourself, just get out there and be inspired. Follow your curiosity just like you did the first time you listened to that special album, or saw that superhero appear on the big screen for the first time as a child. Ask silly questions and fully envelope yourself in an activity. This sort of pursuit of creativity will spark the imagination and at the very least put a few smiles on your face.

Here’s a picture of the page that I did today. Go do one yourself and enjoy! I hope you find the spark.