The nature of Inspiration Artwork

My Life Not Yours

My podcast is about the intricacies of life be it told from a mature model who found fame at 55, the man who founded prison radio, a spoken word artist who suffered mental health challenges, a renown DJ who's life is a kaleidoscope of adventure and of course, my no nonsense life experiences. Wrapped around real talk with real people (including myself), I go deep and bare all and encourage others to do the same.

Lean in & listen to some life lessons - you won't be disappointed.

Show More

My Life Not Yours

The nature of Inspiration

May 05, 2025 • Tina Jean • Episode 105

Inspiration is the spark that fuels creativity, resilience, and growth—and that’s exactly what I explore in this weeks' episode. Be it found in everyday moments, extra-ordinary people, or the quiet persistence of personal dreams, inspiration has the power to transform lives. Join me as I look at insights and ideas that ignite motivation and help us all move forward with purpose.

If you like this episode, please rate, review, subscribe and share with others!

Check out more of me at on my website
Follow me on Instagram

E105 - the nature of inspiration.wav

What's that? My beautiful people. How are you? I can't believe we're in the month of May already. Isn't this year just flying by? Ohh, my goodness. It's it's really scary. And sometimes I think.

What have I done this year? Yeah, what have I done this year? I'm still reminiscing about Thailand. And that was December. It feels like yesterday.

And here I am watching the clouds float by and it's kind of a windish day the temperatures dropped again. This is the UK. No surprises there, but I've been feeling a little inspired. I had a friend who came to stay with me, who was over from Kenya, and we reminisced about my time.

For my 50th birthday, I went to Kenya and no one knew it was my birthday. I just took myself off and I arranged it with this friend. I was totally interdependent of her. I went on Safari, I went to different places. I hardly stayed with her. She was almost like a base camp.

But we started talking about, you know, what she's been up to. She was only here for a couple of nights because she was over to surprise her brother, who was coming in from the US for his 50th to see no less. A Man United football game. So her and her sisters were going to surprise him in Manchester. I'm in London.

So she, you know, came to me for two nights, and it was just. I felt so excited. And she's talking about her children and how well they're doing.

Living life in Kenya, you know, and compared to here at the moment, it's really tough here. And so I was asking about what her aspirations are for the future. And she was talking about her husband and what the kids doing.

I just felt really inspired and it got me wondering. It doesn't take a lot to get me inspired and there's so much has happened since I actually did the notes for this podcast. I could go on and on and on. There's another friend that I stayed with the other week. Ah, well, it's only last week and she inspired me and it got me wondering again.

Just by her life, what she does, I mean, it seemed completely manic because she's so busy.

With her business and everything else in between, and she's just had a milestone birthday, so it was just like, Oh my God. But in between all of that, when we were just sitting, talking or just being in silence.

I was inspired. Have you ever had a moment where something just clicked, whether it was a lyric, a look, a line in a book?

And suddenly you wanted to create something or had to create something.

That's what's inspiration is.

And I got inspired by friends and listening and looking and watching.

And so in this episode, I want to really explore what inspiration is. Why should we even care, and where the hell does it come from? Yeah. So inspiration is something that happens to you rather than something you do. Like I said to you while I'm sitting there watching my friend's lips move.

And I was just getting inspired by her and her life and looking at what I'm doing. And it stirred my thoughts, my emotions.

And actually got me creatively thinking and specifically the friend I went to last week, I had these ideas and I think it's because she would say something that have you thought about that or whatever. And I've got another friend like that as well. And and and. And you know, what does drive us to create, to act or to see the world in a different way?

And I think for me, sometimes I can be lazy. I'll have all these creative thoughts like I was literally getting out of the shower the other day and I thought I could help this small business down the road, 5 doors down the road from me. She's a florist.

And for once, I acted upon it. I actually went to see her and said you could be a plant doctor. And the reason why I'm saying that because I've got a problem with my plants. I know this sounds really weird, but I'm getting somewhere, right? I've got a problem with my plants and I thought that florist is just set up. Wouldn't it be great if she could come to people's homes and say?

Your plants in the wrong position. You need to add more water or whatever because no matter what app is out there and so forth, sometimes people need to see your home. And I think my home is really weird when it comes to plants because of the way the sun comes around my house anyway.

The long and short of this story was I was inspired by something. Having stayed at my friend's house, and now I'm going to be doing some work for this woman.

I'm going to be doing some work for this woman that she introduced me to, but also this florist. I think she wants to see when she gets back from holiday.

So inspire. It's really weird. It comes from Latin inspirare.

You know anybody who knows me? I'm so crap at pronunciation, blah, blah blah, but it means meaning to breathe into. So when you know, you hear people say, oh, God, they've breathe breathing life into it. So yeah, when you're inspired, it's like the universe gave you mouth to mouth resuscitation. I kind of love that.

Yeah. Mouth to mouth resuscitation. And that's what I feel I've been having over the last week. Mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Let's not get this twisted though. There is a massive difference between motivation which is goal orientated and I'm motivated as well. You know I'm motivated like I said to sort of move into a full time job because I want to pay my mortgage off my nearest and dearest. Know that and I was just talking about a friend about this yesterday.

And she said she's got a house and she's 53. She paid her mortgage off when she was 44.

And I just said, Oh my gosh. And you know what? I think it on that one, I think because of the life I've LED, I've not had always that practical. That practical drive from others in terms of like when you buy a house, Tina, make sure you pay off that biggest debt. And that's what my friend was saying yesterday. Her Mama.

When you buy that house, you pay off that biggest debt as quickly as possible. So she went for a 15 year or something mortgage. So yeah, that is my goal and my inspiration.

Is more internal and spiritual, so there's no inspiration about wanting to bloody pay my mortgage off. But there's inspiration at the moment around helping others or small businesses as I don't even want to call it a side hustle because I've been working for myself for 10 years. But that is what I think I'm going to call it. This is the thing that's going to uplift.

That I can make a difference in someone's life. That's just, you know, a moment away from.

So an example of inspiration someone studying might be inspired to work hard or get good grades after seeing their best deal or sibling or something achieve really well, like when I volunteered, I was inspired by other people and I thought I've like I want to do that.

And I've recently, and here's a whoop whoop for me. It just got a board trustee role for a charity called gold from the Stone, and it's really close to my heart. The guy that set it up is a well known poet, broadcaster and writer called Lem Sissy.

And he set it up, having been through the care system like myself, and he wanted to make sure that anybody leaving the care system from the age of 16 to 25 could have a Christmas dinner. And I really, really loved it. And so when this opportunity came up, I thought, I've got to get on and be a trustee.

Because I know I was so inspired, not necessarily by his story, because it's very similar. But I was inspired by what he did.

Post care, I mean, he's a big man now and I think if I'm absolutely true to myself, if someone said to me, what is it you'd really want to be doing in life, it will be helping others, particularly young people, vulnerable, that kind of stuff, not chasing money and and doing marketing, which I do.

Which is. Yeah, it's necessary to market your product or market your service, but helping people as a trustee, I know I'm going to make a difference. That's what I'm waffling around so.

I really like that. And then so that's inspiration and then motivation and example of motivation is when.

Some of my idols that I had in athletics, so at the time it was Carl Lewis from the US and it motivated me to go training because I wanted to jump and run as fast as he was. I wasn't. I was inspired as well to be fair, but I was motivated.

Some of these people to go out and train because I wanted my next competition to be the best and also how I'm motivated to keep working out like today I'm sitting here.

I I slept in this morning. It's really weird. I took my goddaughter a bit of peace and she inspires me. She's training to be a sports psychologist and she wanted to see me. I hadn't seen her since last year, which is disgusting. She's really busy. I was feeling a bit down in the dumps when I came back from holiday.

Anyway, cut a Long story short. Yesterday ended up being super fantastic because a friend took me for a little brunch or breakfast, and then she came over.

And we went to this fantastic park that she's never been to before because it's got wild deer. We don't get that very much in the UK and the US, I'm sure in some parts and other parts of the world, you get wild bits and pieces running around, but, you know, bits and pieces, animals, deer, they're protected here.

By the way, and so we drove there and it was just lovely. So I had a fantastic day and she inspires me. When she told me her agenda and what she does every.

Way I thought, Oh my gosh, this is so lovely and it motivated me to really think about what I'm doing so I can be ultra busy again. Not to the point where I can't think, but I'm knackered today because we walked in this park. It is humongous. It should be a Country Park. I mean it's just massive, but it was just nice and I think.

I was motivated as well because when when I go to the gym, which is what I started and when I go to the gym will work, I'm going to say work out because I cycle and everything. When I see people overweight, especially when they get in older, I just think.

No, you need to do something that motivates me to work out and you know, like I what I was going to say, which I went off piece is I'm sitting here wondering do I do some yoga at home or go to the gym? It's because I don't like my gym and I just find it really boring. But anyway, we'll see what happens when I finish recording this, but yeah, I'm motivated because I think of this.

There is, uhm, problems that people can have. But where does it come from? Where does it come from, apart from Vibe?

It's it's deeply personal. I think what inspires one person might mean nothing to somebody else, and it can come from anywhere.

It's a little feral, isn't it? Really. You don't find it? It finds you. It could be nature's sunrise, the ocean.

You know, woodland like today I'm looking outside and I'm motivated to do something because even though they reckon the temperatures dropped.

I'm inspired to go out in it again, whether I do as a different story and then for me the big one that inspires me is people in their stories or their kindness or something they've done, or their talent, definitely their talent that really inspires me, their resilience. I'm very resilient and I love being around inspirational people.

I can watch something on TV, whether it's a film or, you know, a TV programme or documentary, or see a powerful image. You know, the arts that can be inspirational. There can be moments of fleeting feeling, a dream, or even just a conversation. Conversations inspire me big time.

Definitely. There's one or two friends I always come away from feeling inspired. Other times people will be inspired by heartbreak.

And setbacks and change and I think I've said this before, I was inspired to write this podcast during lockdown because I thought it was time to tell my story and to have this conversation. And what is beautiful about this cause? I'm not going to go into that cause everybody's heard it 1000 a million times is people say to me, if I haven't seen you.

I know things are all right because I've listened to your podcast.

And I think that's really nice as well. That's not inspiration. I'm just saying and I don't believe waiting to be inspired is a thing. It just happens. You just chill, you just do your thing and bingo, it appears, stretches and and it flops right into you. Like, hey, I'm here now. I'm inspiration.

And you need to catch it before it runs off sometimes. I've had ideas and I know that it's gotta be documented, so I get it down in my phone or whether it's a voice note to yourself or something, or I've been inspired to put Post-its around my house lately because it's like an affirmation of something I'm trying to achieve.

And I put it around the house. So one of my friends saw it the other day and said, Oh my God, I love to post it in the bathroom. I've got it in the bathroom where I clean my teeth. I've got it where I make my coffee, and I've got it right now where I am recording this podcast. And I think you need to.

You remember that your brain is like a messed up USB stick. Don't rely on it, so get it down and embrace and make room for boredom. So I think sometimes people get bored and they don't embrace it. I do. You have to create that space and you may get a little inspired.

From scrolling through social media posts, but put the phone down and clear your mind that your mind be free and it's funny this morning.

I was just lying in bed and I was in bed longer than usual. I didn't do my little morning ritual because I woke up early, but then I was just lying there just listening to the piece. It's Sunday and it was just lovely.

And you have to feed your soul not on algorithm, which is what you get on social media. You need to consume good stuff. Art in equals, art, art. You get my drift. So inspiration in action. I found some amazing quotes from entrepreneurs, inventors and artists. And here's a couple of them.

For Maya Angelou, if you don't know who she is, a prolific writer.

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. So my take on that is if you're worried about running out of ideas, the good ones, the good news is you're not a tube of toothpaste. You're a self refilling creativity fountain. So hydrate.

That is a good take on that one, I think. And then Steve Jobs, I've read his biography, loved him for what he did for Apple. If anybody doesn't know, he was the one who created Apple. And all you have an Apple Phone, an iPad, a Mac. That's Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs said. Creativity is just connecting things. So my thought on that.

Use it to show that inspiration doesn't always mean inventing from scratch, it can be remixing what already exists.

I love that. So sometimes we try and.

Invent something completely different. Look at something and reinvent it. It's already there, but reinvent it, and then the last one.

Richard Branson, who for those who don't know, he's got a whole brand called Virgin. You've got Virgin Media, which is what powers my broadband and my Wi-Fi and all that. Plus he's got the planes. He's got virgin holidays, he's got a lot. And what I loved about Richard Branson, I read his autobiography.

Too, he was dyslexic.

And he found it really difficult, but he clearly was a true entrepreneur, he says. If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you are not sure, you can do it, say yes, then learn how to do it later. And it's a bit like what Susan Jeffries says face the fear and do it anyway. And my take on that is jump first, figure it out.

On the way down, depending on how caffeinated you.

The spark is not the work, but it's a start. Inspiration is like getting the idea to bake a cake.

Action is actually preheating the oven and realising you don't have the eggs, but that's cool. Inspiration gives you the desire to create or do something, but unless you act on it, it's just a mental Pinterest board and I remember thinking that with Pinterest and that's why I wrote that because.

I'd be flinging things together on Pinterest just because I liked it, and actually when it's become most.

Helpful for me like when I was decorating my front room, Pinterest was my best mate and everything that's on that Pinterest board I brought to life. I took action on it. I bought stuff, I did the colour scheme, it was brilliant. And so I get motivated to take action from the inspiration of Pinterest.

And most people, including me, stop the big idea stage.

Or idea stage, not even big because action it requires effort. It means you've got to do something. And so for example, when I was inspired about my big idea about changing my mountain bike and whatever to a road bike, I thought you gonna have to actually ride it. But I did. I did. I was inspired.

As soon as I changed that bike, the inspiration and motivation took over. I was motivated to ride my road bike because I paid some money for it twice a week, regardless of the weather, and those who know me.

Will know I set those intentional goals and I was rising twice a week even in the winter. It was freaking freezing because I didn't want to be a warm weather girl. The brain gets a chemical kick. This is inspiration in action. Remember? Inspiration literally changes your dopamine.

In the brain, it floods in, making you feel motivated. Excited.

Stated and a little bit invincible, if I'm honest. That's why you feel like writing a novel at 1:00 AM after watching a good movie. Then it wears off and you forget all about it the next day. And you think am. I've had that so many times, it's like getting your gym membership after seeing your friend look fab in in an outfit.

Great first step.

You buy the gym membership, but you have to go and you have to channel the energy which is action. The key is to catch that wave of inspiration before it crashes into ah, maybe later.

We've all been there. Think of inspiration as a spark and that action is the fuel. Without fuel, the spark fizzles with too much fuel and no spark. It's just a pile of wood. Good analogy, right? Build a bridge between the dream and the doing routine and mind, Sir. Enter stage left.

A bit like goals, break these ideas down in 2 steps.

Make that To Do List. I love A to do list because when I take it off I feel really great and there's one at the moment. Like I said, when I get *** I've gotta do this for that person I'm going to buy that, blah blah blah blah and some people need a spreadsheet to start. Others need a lot of thinking, time and a cappuccino or box of ciggies.

Know what gets you going inspirationally wise, whatever it is, just know the biggest one as well is sharing because it's accountability like.

Well, even a little right. Because if I tell somebody about, OK, I'm going to start doing some stuff for small businesses, I'm going to say, how's that going and you're either going to feel like, oh, God, why do they ask me? Because I'm still in that. Uh, maybe later stage or I'm going to say, guess what? So talking about your idea can make it more real, even if it's just telling somebody.

That can help nudge you towards that action, because they might add something. Well, what about if you do ex. And I've had a couple of people and do that.

And it was one of my friends, actually the friend I went to Thailand with who said, you know, she was inspired to start writing her book, whether she's got any further, I don't know. I think she's written some notes there.

And but it's about, you know, like me. I shared about this podcast and I still share about it, and I'm not going to lie. I've been a bit demotivated with it. And then somebody said something ever done. I said Ohh, right. OK, here we go. And yes, people, I'm still looking at people to interview because I know you all love that.

Also, lastly, action isn't always what it's cut out to be. Sometimes the work is boring or.

Operation frustrating, sorry or really quiet and that's OK. Whilst the glow of inspiration may fade, discipline and purpose will keep the fire going and that is so true that discipline and the why and your purpose is what can keep going. So in short, inspiration gives you the compass.

But action, that's how you really move your.

Heat and finally how to find or cultivate inspiration? Slow down, disconnect. Try something new. Revisit your why all the time. Keep revisiting your why.

And surround yourself with creativity. It's like, you know, trying to find a partner. God, there's some boring men that I've spoken to.

You and I just think I would never be inspired by you. And that is really important to me and I've just jumped again. But I need to be inspired by somebody that's I get excited talking to them and motivated to have a relationship with them. But if they're just going to be well, I watch TV, I go to the gym, I can tell you now.

Nothing ain't going down there. Don't for.

Yeah. Keep your journal or idea somewhere, whether it's on your phone. Everybody does everything on their phones, but the art of writing something down is quite nice, and you can have it by your bed. So my final thought on inspiration for this nice down, dirty and Quick Podcast episode is inspiration is all around you.

It just takes the right moment to notice it. After listening to this.

Mode I challenge you to find one thing that sparks something in your ex. Capture it by taking a photo or write it down, or simply sit with it. Whatever it is, that spot might just be your next big thing. And that my beautiful people is me done for this episode.

I hope you got something from that and I look forward to bringing you something new next time. Take care.