Your Creativity Tool Box - How to Get Inspired (By Lori Chance)

Dreaming is natural. It's normal. As children we spend the first few years of our life doing almost nothing else but dreaming and imagining. Then at about age 5 or 6 the practical side of our brain kicks in and suddenly having an imaginary friend just isn't fathomable anymore. "They're not real!" as I have heard my 7-year-old son tell my 4-year-old daughter several times.

From then forward, dreaming often becomes synonymous with not doing anything important. Have you ever heard someone tell you, "stop daydreaming?" I know I did. Rather than actually stop however, I chose to turn it into something that was acceptable - writing. For many however, the permission to daydream was lost in childhood.

Where ever you might be in this phase is exactly perfect for you. If ideas come easy to you, celebrate them. If you're feeling that "something's missing" feeling, celebrate that too as it's a queue that inspiration is beginning to find you. If you're someone who can't remember the last time you had a new idea, or find yourself shutting the new ideas down when they do occur to you, know that you're not alone - and not nearly as stuck as you might feel. There are ways to begin to move forward again.

Here's how to get started:

1. Take just 5 minutes to write down 1 to 5 ideas that might cause you to say, "I'd love to do that, but [fill in the blank]."
2. Put your list where you can see every day for at least 1 week
3. Each day ask yourself: What if even one of these ideas were really possible somehow?

What you'll be doing is reigniting the ability to dream within yourself. Some might call it "envisioning the future" some might talk about it as "creating goals." However you want to think of it, that's what's right for you, but what ever words you use it starts by giving yourself the time, space and permission to think of what might be possible.

Lori Chance is a collaborative writer and editor specializing in how-to, informational, spiritual, and personal development articles and books. Her self-coaching book for women titled, Who Am I, is being released in 2008. Lori also trains and mentors both traditional and creative professionals in BNI, the world's largest referral organization, and serves on the Steering Committee for the BNI-Misner Charitable Foundation supporting children and education around the world. To learn more about Lori, visit website.