Illustration of a jar with colourful slips of paper. © Recipes for Wellbeing

Inspiration jar

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. ―Albert Einstein

👥 Serves: No limit of people

🎚 Difficulty: Easy

⏳ Total time: Ongoing

🥣 Ingredients: 1 jar, a few pens, colourful slips of paper

💪 Nutritional values: Inspiration, Creativity, Appreciation, Connection, Fun

Illustration of a jar with colourful slips of paper. © Recipes for Wellbeing
Illustration of a jar with colourful slips of paper. © Recipes for Wellbeing

Inspiration jar

📝 Description

A small intervention to boost inspiration and creativity in your team or office.

Integrating wellbeing in the workplace requires a combination of big and small interventions. The following activity is one of these small interventions which can add extra wellbeing to the workplace. By inviting your team or co-workers to tap into their creativity, you enable them to become sources of inspiration and support for each other. You can also include this activity in a team retreat or summit where participants will spend a few days together and bond meaningfully.

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Important: We shared this recipe as part of our blog post “Wellbeing in the time of COVID-19” because it’s a powerful intervention to boost creativity and inspiration. Naturally, take all needed precautions: for instance, ask people to avoid overcrowding around the jar and instead go one by one.

👣 Steps

Step 1 – Preparing (15’)

Find a good spot for the inspiration jar: somewhere visible and accessible to most people. Prepare several colourful slips of paper and a few coloured pens and place them beside the jar. To get a head-start, fill a few of the colourful slips of paper with quotes, supportive messages, thought-provoking questions… and roll them up and put them inside the jar. Here are a few examples:

  • “What do I really feel like doing today?”
  • “I don’t always have to fix everything (by myself)”
  • “Mistakes are lessons in disguise.” (Danny Gregory)
  • “Making time for a walk is a good idea.”
  • “Just hang in there a little longer: it will be okay.”
  • “Today I put myself first.”
  • “If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, don’t say it to yourself.”
  • “What am I grateful for in life?”
  • “Sports or exercise are also good for the mind.”
  • “Pause for a moment and take 3 deep breaths: in through the nose and out through the mouth.”

Step 2 – Taking one, giving one (ongoing)

Invite your team and co-workers to take one slip of paper from the jar whenever they need an inspiration boost. Explain that for every slip of paper they take, they should refill the jar with an equal amount. So if I take a slip of paper, I should then write a new one and place it in the jar. This ensures the inspiration jar sustains itself, but we recommend checking the inspiration levels from time to time and considering adding a few extra every so often to make sure there is plenty of inspiration in there.

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