Being inspired

Back from a half-term break with the family, and I saw a poll on LinkedIn at the weekend asking about my/your favourite aspects of a conference or an event. Apologies, I can’t find or remember who posted it originally.

The choices included things like meeting new people, hotel/event hospitality, learning or being introduced to new tools or trends, and being inspired. It is the latter I look for, and what makes the effort of attending the most worthwhile for me – being inspired.

At a time when the wheels of work and home life is so difficult and worrying, being remote from colleagues and my network makes it more difficult to be inspired, any event where I can learn from and

Being inspired, for me, is not about a new tool or a new way of using an existing system, it’s about the infectious energy an individual has and how they can share their experiences, enthusiasm, and knowledge. Inspiration and being inspired comes from the ability someone has to share and impart their story in a way that enables me to see it’s impact on my own work, and to pass that energy across so that I feel capable and empowered to do something about it.

When was the last time you felt inspired like this? For me it was being part of a recent #LTHEchat tweetchat at the beginning of the month. The topic was around Social Media and identity, something I’ve thought about over the years, and had many conversations about it too. In fact, I’ve built up quite a lot of my network as we work out what this is in the world of learning and education. And it’s still a topic I’ve not worked out yet about where I am and what I want to be, online.

One thing I do know is that the community I feel part of is where I can find this inspiration for what I do, and how I do it. I, for one, am grateful to it and the wonderful people in it.

Photo by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan on Unsplash