Today I want to talk about being what I call "over inspired". It sounds like a contradiction because being inspired is a good thing, so how can you have too much of it? Here's what I think:
The Internet is an amazing source of inspiration. If you are planning a wedding, building a home, or just trying to figure out what you want to wear today, it doesn't take much time online to find beautiful pictures and ideas to help you decide what to do. Not to mention the addition of
Pinterest (which
I love, don't get me wrong), which brought Internet inspiration hunting to a whole new level. So, what's the problem? To me, all of this "inspiration" can harm us when we start to feel a few different ways:
1. Every good idea has been done before.
2. My ___(wedding, home, family, closet, etc.) will never be that beautiful.
3. Everything creative I have attempted is terrible compared to this so why even try?
The effects of feeling any of those three ways are obviously negative. A little bit of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing and trigger new ideas is a good thing, but so much that you feel defeated before you even begin is very sad.
This is something that bothered me for quite a while, especially being a small business owner. I would get what I thought was a good idea, and then search online for it, usually just to make sure it hadn't been done before. There's nothing wrong with a little competitive analysis, but usually I would find something similar that was done in a different way that already had about a million pins on Pinterest and I would think, "Why bother with this idea - this person has already done it so much better than I could."
To me, the saddest example of this is with weddings or family. A wedding, for example, is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life. I'm sure brides have always had pressure to create a beautiful wedding, but now I wonder how many brides set impossibly high expectations based on pictures they've pinned to their "Dream Wedding" board. A day that could have been fun and uniquely them becomes a disappointment because it's not blog or Pinterest-worthy.
So, how do we keep this from happening? I think the best thing to do is to use inspiration sites like
Pinterest sparingly and just for fun. If you have a good idea, just do it! Find out if other people did it later. This way you will carry out the idea your way rather than being influenced by the ideas of others. Also, don't compare yourself to people on these sites! Listen to Teddy (above) - he was a smart guy. A picture of a perfect room probably took hours of staging and styling and lighting to make it look perfect. Who's to say that the gorgeous wedding you have been drooling over ended up being a perfect marriage? Focus on you and do your own thing!
Can you relate to this feeling of being over-inspired?
PS.
13 signs you spend too much time on Pinterest :)
