We all need inspiration and vision. Companies coming up with mission statements and doing corporate retreats to get people excited used to confuse me. What’s there to get excited about? It turns out that there’s a lot, even when you’re just a little guy in the trenches. We all contribute an important and necessary piece of the solution. But sometimes, after the conference or the approval of that brilliant idea you had, you find yourself wondering what happened to all of that energy and enthusiasm.

It’s like when you throw a great party, have fun until the wee hours and stumble off to bed some time before first light. You did all that planning and preparation, then people showed up and got into it. It was exciting and fun, but now there are cups everywhere and you have to do all the work to complete the thing. If you’ve thrown a party, you know the worst part is the cleaning up afterwards. Keeping the enthusiasm and enjoyment you had for the good and worthwhile party is hard to do when you’re left handling the actual costs of all the fun. Do you drag around your trash bag and vacuum swearing you’ll never throw another party? Or do you think about how much fun you and your friends had and how great it was?

For actual parties, I’m often the former, but wish I could be the latter. I keep entertaining. The inspiration and enthusiasm comes back over and over. An occasion comes up, or we start talking about getting together for drinks: my mind starts putting together menus and music instantly. Because I lack a brain-to-mouth filter, I always volunteer, then I wind up having a great time doing the thing. The work party is harder. You can’t spend your time conference-hopping–you have to take what you learn and turn it into something good.

You need something to help you get through–something that motivates you at a core level. Whiteboard. Put together a bookmarks file of the sites that got you excited about developing that new thing. Take a cue from visual designers and make an inspiration board with ideas on sticky notes and quotes and pictures or sketches. I have lots of these–it’s a little bit like A Beautiful Mind when I’m brainstorming. Sometimes it feels like it’s easier to be inspired in visual design, but that’s probably just me. For those of us who don’t get to push through by cranking The Smiths and visiting the agency beer cart, might I refer you to inspireUX? These are quotes that make you think, from people who have great things to say about user experience. Most of us are involved in creating and supporting a good user experience aren’t we? As someone who creates a lot of content, I like this one:

Find one you love love love? Print it out. Stick it on your inspiration board. Share it. Then you can crank up The Smiths on your headphones and get back to doing good, fulfilling work. That’s what I’m doing today.