There is no such thing as a new idea. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. — Mark Twain Here at Gum on My Shoe we share new content every week. We published 73 posts last year. The year before it was 63. In 2023 it was 61. At the time of writing, we’ve published 828 posts since our blog started in 2013. Most of the content is written by me personally. That’s a lot of words to a tight, albeit self-imposed, schedule. If you’re wondering how I stay motivated and inspired, keep reading. Here are a dozen things that inspire me, with a few examples of each. Our blog focuses on mental health and supportive friendships but most of these ideas are relevant to other topics and themes. 1. Conversations Many of my blog posts are inspired by conversations with Fran, other friends, colleagues, and even complete strangers. Sometimes it’s the conversation itself that inspires me but a single turn of phrase, question, or insight can be enough...
Happy? Why does everyone have to be happy all the time? — Doc Martin , S6E7 This blog post was inspired by a conversation with Fran in which she mentioned asking a friend, “Are you happy?” After what I imagine was a moment’s hesitation her friend answered, “Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.” I smiled at the answer but it reminded me of something I struggle with a lot. We take for granted that everyone uses words in the same way. This is fine when we’re discussing material things or events. If I told you I spent six hours in my local coffee shop working on this blog post, you’d know what I meant. If I said I enjoyed myself you’d nod, relating my use of enjoyed to situations you’d label with the same word. But we don’t necessarily use it in the same way. We might label distinctly different emotions with the same word, and use different labels for essentially the same experience. I told Fran that if she was to ask me “Are you happy?” I’d first have to think about what that word means ...