Hi there! This week, after a tedious week of editing audio for our Radio News Show DTSW 76.5, the final product is premiering on ds106 radio!

While we are preparing for our group discussion on our process for creating the radio show, our task is to get inspired! And I think this is a great topic for this week. I always enjoy reading other people’s work within the course and I really think I’ll have a lot of fun this week. I am definitely feeling inspired, and I actually took that inspiration and created a little Instagram Inspiration Collage on my personal blog, on Sunday night.

So I thought I would take a little time and talk about what inspiration means to me. Dictionary.com defines inspiration as “an inspiring or animating action or influence.” And I like to think that that influence becomes a good influence. And that influence/inspiration can come from anywhere! For me, it comes from God, my family, and friends, mainly, but I also try to get my inspiration from other things as well! Another place I go to when I want to feel inspired/get inspiration is YouTube. In our social media world today, so many people a creating content to show the world. And that’s awesome! Two YouTubers in particular are really great at motivating/ inspiring. Now both of these YouTubers post daily vlogs (video blogs). These basically give a glimpse into their day and how they live their day to day life. One is Shay Butler who creates daily videos of him and his family, and they have been doing so for 5 years. Shay just lives his daily life with so much love and compassion that it, spreads to every one he comes in contact with. You can even say it spreads to his viewers. His outlook on life really inspires me to keep on keeping on and even step out there to create new things. The other YouTuber is Ben Brown. Ben is a Brit, who has been bit by the travel bug. He also creates the daily vlogs but in addition, he has his own web series called Visual Vibes. Here he documents his different trips. These are so cool. Its interesting to see how he can capture the essence of the trip into one video. He, like Shay just live an upbeat life and it definitely spreads! 

So now I have different things that I like to keep around me that inspire me on a daily basis. I think one of the most important things is my phone. That thing never leaves my side. I literally take it everywhere with me. And I say my phone gives me inspiration because I can access all of the different things that give me inspiration, so I can watch videos, look at pictures, look through my social media. One of my favorite places to get inspiration on my phone is Instagram. I can spend hours browsing through different photos. And I can save anything that gives me inspiration. That’s what I love about my phone. Music also inspires me! Whenever I need to get things done, or I am brainstorming new ideas for something, either my iTunes library or Pandora Radio is my go to. The next thing is my bulletin board at my desk:

Now this may look familiar, if you’ve seen my What’s The Difference? post. This photo is by Shay Butler, he was getting ready to run a half marathon, and he took a picture of the start line. He writes, “Sometimes this is the hardest part to get to.” And he’s right starting can be just as hard as finishing something. If you aren’t feeling motivated or inspired to do something you won’t want to do it.

Sometimes this is the hardest part to get to.

So its just a matter of starting something. And that’s okay if it doesn’t work out, you can at least say you tried! Anyway, this is what inspiration means to me! And I’ll leave you with one last little GIF from the movie The Help! Just a little motivation for you! See ya later!