Are you a good inspiration DJ?

DJs are popular because it seems straight forward that a great music mix can make or break a party.When it comes to inspiration this basic concept seems to be far less understood. Or have you ever heard of genres of inspiration? Most people consciously or unconsciously have a source of inspiration such as their children, religion, nature, art or whatever else it might be. But do you have the right mix?

The complexity of this question is mind boggling if you think about it. There are inspiring people, dead and alive, books, behaviours in everyday life, photographs, poems, music, working environments, religious texts, discussions and far more. So to determine if your inspiration mix works let's ask one simple question: does it work right now? Do you feel that if you needed some inspiration right now you'd exactly know where to get it?
I've gotten better in answering this question with yes but it's not always the case. The reason is that not everything that we consider inspiring would do the job right now. An example is Gandhi's famous quote "be the change you want to see in the world". There are days when those words can yank me out of bed and get me going. On those days that quote works. But there are others when the exact same quote can make me feel depressed. Why? Because I feel that I don't do a good job living up to it and therefore I feel like a failure. Not exactly inspiring is it?
So when the great women and men of history intimidate you change the music. That's what great musicians do to at their concerts. Even punk bands know that once in a while the fans need a break from jumping up and down so they take it easy. What's the inspirational equivalent of taking it easy on a bad day?

• deny the existence of Murphy's law (it really isn't a law at all)
• put you iPod on shuffle until you encounter a band whose music speaks to you today
• eat well
• sleep well
• surf to your heart's content or turn the machine off for a day
• do whatever does not make you feel worse or cynical

Now these are hardly original suggestions. The reason is that on a bad day there's a limited amount of stuff we can do to get inspired. This is why I believe it's important to engage with this topic on the good and the neutral days. When we fill ourselves up with the good stuff then the bad days will be fewer and we will get out of them sooner. I'll explore this topic further because this bucket list project will only be completed if I manage to stay inspired and it will only succeed if this inspiration goes viral.