In a world that is constantly shifting, using the sentence “In a world that is constantly shifting” is somewhat of a disappointment, as it makes the reader think the writer is out of fresh and impactful opening lines.

You all came here from as far as the opening line to know the answer for this article’s title. As a writer, human and a guy who casually enjoys the smell of gasoline, I am willing to share my findings as to how “One can channel the universe through their mind to produce an interpretation of the energy they felt” (Thank you to my college professor Mr. Antoine for helping me build that complex sentence). And after many, many seconds spent googling before writing this exact line, the answer is: Just Be Inspired.

I know what you’re thinking: George, how is it possible that the question is the answer itself? Also, I too enjoy the smell of gasoline at the gas station.

Because the question of inspiration itself is a conundrum (Mr. A: thanks again for the difficult words).

In my opinion, the biggest problem people nowadays face with inspiration is the lack of patience. Somehow throughout our consumption of social media, we (I said we and not you so you would feel less defensive) were fed the final products straight to our brains in canals that are 1-minute wide at most. What that created, is the illusion that art or inspiration happens fast. By compressing time and lapsing it, somehow we lost touch that the process of acting on inspiration takes a lot of time, and due to a lack of display, we never see that inspiration is actually a wave that we have to wait for.

So now, you might be asking: but is patience everything? Is it really all one lacks to do art or work?

The answer will be shared after this short break; I have to take care of my dog.

And I’m back, although to you, it felt continuous due to the fact that you cannot measure time in an article, but what if I told you that this second part is actually being written four days after the first half of this article, after repeatedly re-writing and modifying it.

Hence, the answer to the question, is patience the only ingredient? No. There’s also trial and error. The beauty of trial and error is that, through erring, we learn partially what works, and through the sum of those errors, the final trial becomes the true product of what prompted us to do, and once we understand that, inspiration becomes apparent and we carry the work further.

And this hack is not only devoted to art, it is a life hack that I apply everywhere. The complexity of accomplishing any task, is simplified in its inspiration i.e. you can either tell the whole story of how Elon Musk created PayPal as one of the Fortune 500 companies with its boring business details, or you can simplify it through its inspiration: he was upset that not one online payment service is reliable so he did something about it.

So the actual act of starting to work, or paint or whatever you want to apply this to, is by itself a step closer to inspiration. Even if the starting point is not apparent, have the discipline to start with anything, soon your guts and hands will follow what your heart really desires.

It’s not an easy task, but I can promise you, the more you do it, the harder it gets, but the better it feels.

Inspiration is what moves the world around us and within us. It is as essential for work, art, society and love. It was essential to write this article, it was essential for my choice of words too, it was essential to my discipline and to actually keep coming back to my desk, day after day to try and finish it.

Did I know from the start that this is what my article was going to be about? No! But am I happy that it has developed into what you just read? You bet I am.

Trial and Error. DO IT!

“Blah blah inspiration, blah blah great” Someone who was inspired to make up a quote about inspiration but did not bother to write it down. Don’t be that person!

George Tarabay is a local comedian and marketing expert. For his latest updates, follow him on Instagram: @GeorgeTarabay.

For more comic relief, check out George on Facebook.com/Georgethecomic.