Why not start your day with a little bit of inspiration? I do!
And in fact, this post today is #264 for the year, one for each and every workday - except for September 8, 2022 - the day Queen Elizabeth died. It's the only day I've double-posted and sent a second Inspiration to the 13 different locations that this post travels to.
I thought I would end the year by sharing a few totally irrelevant and useless facts about this fun little obsession of mine. I know that not everyone reads every post, and in fact, in these days of attention-deficit information-surfing, few will read the post at all. They only follow me for the pictures. (Insert LOL!)
- the posts consistently go out each morning by at least 630 AM if not sooner. It takes a bit of work to hit the deadline - I can't miss if I've got a plane to catch or a 7 AM golf tee time to make (which happened a lot this year. The first tee is 6 minutes from my home!)
- the posts go out each morning to multiple networks - in addition to being posted here on my blog, they also go out to several thousand people on a mailing list, as well as to mailing lists on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn. In addition, they make their way to a LinkedIn post, my personal Facebook page, my business Facebook page, my Flickr account, Instagram, and Mastodon.
- I used to post on Twitter, but since the crazy guy went full-blown crazy, I stopped actively posting there. I won't return until he is no longer in charge. (I own a Tesla. I'm not a fan of him anymore)
- for a brief time this year, I experimented with preparing a short video version of the Daily Inspiration that went out to TikTok. It drew quite a bit of interest - much more than I thought! But in retrospect, it was a lot of work for an audience that is unlikely to ever grow without a tremendous amount of work
- I posted every single 'workday,' with that being rather loosely defined. It included posts on the Canadian holidays (Victoria Day Weekend and Thanksgiving October) and the US Holidays (Memorial Day and Thanksgiving November) as I do business in both countries
It's become a bit of a complicated routine, and I actually have a sheet that I use to make sure I've hit all the locations each morning.
Where do the images come from? Some are stage shots, but many are images where I'm posing. Most of those posed images of myself come from this room - the virtual broadcast studio I have in my basement!
https://virtual.jimcarroll.com
How do I make them? First off, this year I discovered the magic of Canva, which has allowed me to greatly improve my creative capabilities. I can; 't say enough about the tool - it's magical, powerful, and a creative ally to my non-creative self!
Every once in a while, when I need a fresh inventory of posed images, I head into the room - put on some really loud music! - and dance around, making various pose moves that might fit into a photo. My wife tends not to like loud music, so I close the door and then turn it up louder. I have to be in the right mood to do this goofy thing! Here's a short clip.
I then feed these videos an OS/X program that extracts several hundred images; each video, of course, features a different outfit. So I end up with something like this!
I can then feed these into a template in Canva, remove the background, and wrap the quote text and design around it. Magic! My Daily Inspiration!
Most of the images this year were based on this method. However, a number were based on pictures from various keynotes during the year and prior years; for a long time, this was the primary source of photos. In a few other cases, I used other photos - sunrises, selfies, and pictures of my family. And every once in a while, my wonderfully tolerant and patient wife makes it into a post.
The year in inspiration? Watch this - all 264 images in 40 seconds. it's a lot of stuff!
Whoah! That's the fast version - here's one that is a bit slower!
I must admit, I've become pretty proud of my work - over a 6-year time span, I've come a long way in my design. Here's one of the first of my Daily Inspirations from early August 2016. It's pretty bad!
Progress has been slow and steady. By mid-2017, I had graduated somewhat to using a signature block that made things look a bit better, but it stayed pretty basic until late 2021 when I finally began to exploit the magic of Canva.
I've also expanded what I've been doing with them each day. Originally, the post only consisted of the image with the text. That was it! Then gradually, over time, the post grew a bit longer, with some explanatory text. Today, many posts now run some 4,000 to 6,000 words, with images, video, and other context. Most of this text is written between 5 and 6 am; I've mastered the art of waking up to my creative self. I will admit though, that on occasion I'm working on a quote at 4 am as I am waking up.
A bit more detail on the process:
- over the years, my timing and process have shifted. Originally, I'd wake up in the morning, bleary-eyed, with coffee. I'd think of a quote, do some work, and blast it out within 10 minutes. Today, I wake up in the morning, bleary-eyed, and with 3 coffees, get it out within the hour. When my wife wakes up around 6 am, I'm already quite adrenalized and apparently somewhat annoying, as she is emerging from her sleep to my fully awake, fully motivated caffeinated self!
- given that the images have become somewhat more elaborate, I've started pulling together the images the day before, usually around 4 or 5 pm.
- some days it is incredibly easy to come up with an idea as to what to say; other days, it is blindingly hard!
- I'm always thinking of a quote - I've come to annoy my wife and family and others when we are out for a walk or in the midst of dinner and I have an inspirational quote come to mind. I stop everything, grab my phone or la[top, and type it in so as to not lose the thought!
- I have a backlog - right now, my Google Mail folder tells me I have well over 1,000 potential quotes. Even so, sometimes, I will look at the folder and find that nothing will work for the context of my day. Sometimes a quote just randomly pops into my head.
- the writing process. I must say, LOVE GRAMMARLY! You see it advertised on Youtube frequently - and here's the thing: it works extraordinarily well. While I seem to be great at typing in a lot of creative thoughts at 5 am, my typing is not great, and so it has become my morning friend
The quotes themselves? Some are inspirational; some are trends oriented; some are personal, some are corporate in nature; some tell a story; some make a point.
The most popular of all time? This one is from late 2020 and has to do with the long-lasting impact of the pandemic.
The most popular in 2022? This one! It came about after my wife's van was rear-ended and written off. (She's ok!). The insurance company rather failed in its duties, and I wrote my frustration in a post. I guess someone in the company saw the post - my web traffic analysis program tells me it was shared a few thousand times within the company. I guess I got my point across!
Last but not least, why do I write these posts? I wrote this into a post similar to today's for the year 2021: A Quiet Reflection: A Look Back at My Daily Inspiration Posts for 2021
What kept me sane through the twists and turns that defined 2021? Mindset matters! And one of the ways I accomplish that is by pausing with a moment of reflection, each moment, as I start my day. That involves writing one of these each Daily Inspirations each and every workday. It's ALWAYS the first thing I do as I start my day, between 5 and 6 am... my laptop, some coffee, some quiet thinking, as I reflect my thinking on our world, innovation, creativity, future trends, or just plain inspirational thinking.
The backstory? These Daily Inspiration posts go way back to August 2016, when I wrote my very first one after a complex set of difficult personal circumstances in my life. In a short time, the simple act of spending a few minutes in the morning to calmly reflect and think before starting my day became the spiritual balm that I needed to move forward with a commitment to an important purpose. Since that time. I have put together 1,440 of them - not missing one single workday.
So that's a wrap for 2022!
Onwards to 2023!
Write after writing the post, Futurist Jim Carroll goes either for a 7km walk w, a 7 am tee time, or hits the ski lift for first tracks. He thinks he is probably a morning person!