Inspiration

‘Find your voice. Push Violently and defiantly against your limitations. You never know, great things may happen.’

-Nick Cave

Inspiration. Difficult to define, elusive, what is it? As a professional magician I consider myself to be a ‘creative’ person. As a professional magician I have to be creative. Now, I don’t believe that being creative is something exclusively for Artists, Authors, Musicians, Magicians and people in the Performing Arts. Every single person can be creative, simply using your imagination is creative. Maybe you have tried to be creative in your own life. Maybe you’ve also realised the big problem of creativity…Where does it come from? How can you access it? Does it even exist?

I need to be imaginative and creative as a magician, it’s my job! For me, creativity in my work doesn’t exist without inspiration. I need to feel inspired in order to be creative. So where do I find inspiration? Well, for me there are two main ways that I approach the problem. First, there’s a practical, actionable way and second, a more general ‘state of mind’ approach.

As for the first way, I don’t wait around for a spark of imagination to arrive. I sit down to work. I’ve found that routine, habit, a good workspace, ritual…These things help coax inspiration out of its hiding place. My little workspace is at my card table. I can practice, read, listen to music, play my guitar, think…Work. The very ritual and routine of sitting down at the table every day and just starting to work gets me in the right mindset for inspiration to come along. Obviously, it doesn’t always arrive, but simply being there gives me a much better chance of feeling inspired. Inspired to practice, inspired to write, inspired to be creative. But how do I first get motivated to sit down to work every day? That’s where the second approach comes along.

‘State of Mind’

Inspiration won’t come along if you’re not open to it. Every day I listen to and observe my surroundings, nature, people, conversations and interactions. It’s often the little things that can spark off an idea, so just being aware of the sights and sounds and people of everyday life helps inspire me. Being in that state of mind helps.

Listening to music is a big one for me. I have music playing all day. The radio is on, or I’m playing records or I’m playing my guitar. There’s something about a good groove that gets my mind into the right place. Plus, most of the musicians I look up to are fascinating and inspirational people. That’s why the epigraph at the beginning of this blog is a Nick Cave quote. I could write several blogs on how I love Nick Cave’s music but in short, he writes about Nature, Love, Violence, Religion, Poetry and Death in such a beautiful way that somehow gets my imagination going. Nick’s own journey from addiction to sobriety is also incredibly inspiring to me and I’ll write all about addiction, sobriety and Magic in a future blog. It’s good to have inspirational people to look up to!

So, a combination of being open to the world around me and sticking to a daily routine helps me become inspired. Try it…Push violently and defiantly against your limitations and get to work!

 Caolan x

Magician Caolan McBride