The Three Phases of Inspiration
Understanding how we can instigate and motivate.
It should come as no surprise that most scientific studies avoid the topic of inspiration—and for a good reason. Inspiration has a unique quality that makes it difficult to distinguish and even more difficult to quantify. It's like describing air—you know what it feels like, but the language falls short in producing a clear, lasting, and universal description. Furthermore, the word itself carries with it a plethora of implicit personal definitions. Scientists prefer to concisely craft a succinct description that can be tested and validated.
Even as we pen words that help us create a framework, the concept remains too abstract to operationalize. Knowing the definition does little to increase our ability to capture or act on inspiration. In that way, inspiration remains ambiguous. It is used interchangeably about a mythical state of insight and creativity. But it’s easier to understand than it may seem.
To form a more robust and active understanding, we must parse the conceptual characteristics into phases. In doing so, we realize there are three key states of inspiration: instigation, realization, and motivation.
Phase 1. Instigation refers to the involuntarily generated and influenced nature of inspiration. Inspiration is instigated and responsive to an external stimulus before it is internalized. This instigator can arrive in the form of an idea, a work of art, a beauty realized in nature, or even a characteristic discovered within another person. Inspiration appears in a free-flowing fashion, passing seamlessly from phase to phase.
Phase 2. Realization takes place during the transition between our reaction to the stimulus and the impulse to act on the revelation. It produces a small opportunity to apprehend the inspiration from the stimulus. The general characteristics of the realization phase are expressed through what is often recognized through creativity or creative output. This is where many of our inspirations are translated into ideas or insights.
Phase 3. Finally, we arrive at the final stage of inspiration: motivation. The new awareness produced by our reaction to a stimulus, which is then translated into a new response, is then advanced to an intent to actualize and express this new vision.
Since each of these phases feels quite atomic, they often go unrecognized. But, through our mindful recognition of these details, we’re able to harness each in order to accelerate our creativity. Armed with this newfound understanding of the phases of inspiration, go explore and appreciate your inspiration at a deeper level. You might be surprised by what you notice.
