Hello, friends! Welcome to the very first installment of Lessons in Inspiration, a little corner of the web-world devoted to helping you find inspiration in the every day. I’m Ashley from Hey, It’s Ashley and I could not be more excited to get this thing started.

We live in such a cool time period. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t have an Apple product glued to my side or the ability to Google anything on a moment’s notice. However, in this technology-saturated world it is so easy to turn to Pinterest, Google and the rest of the world wide web to find the bulk of our inspiration. Some would say that it’s getting harder and harder to find genuine, original, and inspiring content. I say that it’s time for an inspiration revolution.

This revolution is twofold. First, throughout this series I’ll share with you how I find inspiration apart from my computer every single day. Then, I’ll give you manageable/approachable/simple assignments to prove to you that inspiration comes from more than search terms, but should [and does] come from the life we are living and the world around us.

So don’t get too comfortable! I encourage you to participate in all the assignments and report back on how you’ve been inspired sans-computer. Our world is chalk full of inspiration, you’ve just got to keep your eyes open!

For this first installment of Lessons in Inspiration I want to share with you one of my favorite tools as an inspiration-seeker, a notebook. My notebooks are almost exclusively Moleskine [once you Moleskine, you never go back] and so easily become full of observations, doodles, important things to remember and most importantly, possibilities. My absolute favorite part of the life of my Moleskine [besides completing one] is starting one. There is something so inspiring to me about blank pages just waiting to be filled.

Your assignment: grab a notebook. It doesn’t matter what size, color, type of paper, thickness, or number of pages. Just grab one! The most important part of the notebook is that it’s completely yours and that you take ownership of it. Write down a funny conversation you overheard at your local coffee shop, tape in the receipt of that awkward date you went on this week, inscribe your summer manifesto. Find inspiration in recording what you observe. Get into the habit of carrying that notebook with you and you’ll thank me later. One of the many reasons that I keep up with notebooks is so that I can go back to old ones and become re-inspired with things that inspired me in the first place.

Now grab your notebooks and head out into the world! Class is dismissed!

- Ashley

typewriter

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photography by Ashley for CREATE LIKE CRAZY

design elements by CREATE LIKE CRAZY design studio