{"id":336,"date":"2010-02-01T01:23:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T06:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=336"},"modified":"2010-01-30T08:48:33","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T13:48:33","slug":"inspired-by-location-or-merely-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2010\/02\/inspired-by-location-or-merely-attitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by Location (or merely attitude)?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n

Exotic locations inspire writers to great writing. Well, sometimes that happens. What I find more important than location is attitude.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few years ago my wife and I went on a short cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. It was great fun. Such an exotic experience. Who could not help but be inspired by such a location? Then I noticed a few members of the “ship’s crew.” They swept the floors and collected the dirty dishes. They didn’t look too inspired.<\/p>\n

The last couple of years, I walked 1,100 miles<\/a> from my home in Northern Virginia to New Orleans. I saw miles of wonderful landscapes and charming small towns. There was inspiration everywhere. Yet, there were those same people that I saw on the cruise ship. They cut grass and gathered the garbage. They lived in these exotic locations, but they didn’t look too inspired.<\/p>\n

Location can spur inspiration, but location doesn’t guarantee it. In the two exotic locations I mentioned above, some people were inspired but other people felt imprisoned. Maybe there is something to inspiration other than location.<\/p>\n

I find that attitude is as important as location. I find that attitude is almost always more<\/em> important than inspiration. There were moments on the cruise ship and days on the walk when I was the farthest from inspiration that I could be. Boredom and fatigue were all I had. Then a few moments or hours later I was inspired. Same location, same situation, but a different attitude.<\/p>\n

Location isn’t magic. It can be fun; it can be many positive things, but it isn’t magic. Attitude is more than magic. It is the root of inspiration – at least for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips Exotic locations inspire writers to great writing. Well, sometimes that happens. What I find more important than location is attitude. A few years ago my wife and I went on a short cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. It was great fun. Such an exotic experience. Who could not help but be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}