When Inspiration Comes, Grab Hold of it, and Let it Lead

You know they always say don't wait till inspiration comes before you write, just write it anyway. I think that is good advice because work has to be done, whether there's inspiration or not.

But did you know how powerful it can be when inspiration does come? Inspiration comes when you have done the hard work subconsciously in the background - you have thought about something, spoke to some people about something, read about something somewhere.

And then suddenly, in a swift swoop, you get an idea and you sit down and write coherently from top to bottom in a non-stop fashion for an hour until it's complete.

That's how it went for "Doing a PhD in an Area of your Passion and How to Get There" and frequently for me, articles related to finding a career and purpose in life. This also happened for "Remaining Employable while Unemployed: How to Avoid Hysteresis". This other one was prompted by the term "hysteresis" I came across in a reading for work and also by the example of my friend, Chris, who told me during a chat that he finds jobs without searching for them.

So let me tell you a little more about my latest article "Doing a PhD in an Area of your Passion and How to Get There". I have been in touch with my friend, Hari, who shared with me how she discovered her new PhD topic in Special Education. I was asking her how did she know she wanted to study that. I asked this perhaps a few weeks ago when I was quite lost myself.

And then last Tuesday, I had an idea of writing an article about it because I felt that being lost about what to study and whether to do a PhD or not and if I wanted to, how do I go about it... These were all questions that I felt were not unique to myself and that others would ask as well. So why not I share a story of my friend who found answers to these questions? And perhaps by doing so enlighten not only myself but others as well?

I immediately texted her and asked if I could write about her and she  provided me a more detailed account of her journey that I quoted in full in that article. And then I added an introduction to it and a conclusion to it to create a complete article that takes one through Hari's journey. I brought it to another level by suggesting that perhaps some of us really hate the PhD programme partly because we were studying an area of convenience, rather than passion. I also ran it through Grammarly to clarify my language.

And ta-da! It's ready! :D