Everyone Should Have a Muse

Everyone should have a muse. Yup, a muse.

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And I am not talking about a partner, a project, or a plan. A muse, people! That playful, slightly inconvenient thing that wanders into your life uninvited and lights a spark inside you that you’ve slowly forgotten you had. The kind that stirs up mischievous fun. The kind that keeps you up way too late going down a rabbit hole of illogical nonsense. The kind that has you doing spontaneous things that almost feel a bit naughty.

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When was the last time you became genuinely fascinated by something? Not interested, not entertained, but truly fascinated. If it has been a while, it is time.

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The idea of a muse has been around for thousands of years. The Greeks get the credit for this one. In Greek mythology, the Muses were nine sisters, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and they presided over poetry, music, dance, and all things that make being human a smorgasbord of delicious pleasures. Artists of all kinds would invoke them before they began: Sing in me Muse (oh classic Odyssey). The sneaky part is that the Muses never actually did the work. They didn’t write the poem or paint the ceiling, they just inserted themselves, lit the match, and the magic happened from there. Fast forward to today, and the arrangement hasn’t changed one bit.

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Here is where some people get a little caught up. Many assume that a muse has to be a person. Some beautiful, mysterious someone they’re not-so-secretly distracted by. And yes, sometimes it is. But a muse is far more promiscuous than that, and definitely more interesting. A muse can be a place that gets under your skin. For me, that place is Curacao, an island that somehow rearranged something in my heart from the moment I saw that impossible blue water, and the people I’ve met there who feel like a part of me I didn’t know was missing. A muse could be a full moon when it finally shows up enormous and spectacular in the sky. I swear I become a slightly different person under it, a little braver, a little more playful, a little more inclined to misbehave in the best possible way. A muse can be a song that hijacks your body well before your brain has a say in the matter. A muse, in other words, is not simply what you want. It is what wakes you up in a way that feels unreal. And once you’ve felt it, it is hard to ever confuse the two again.

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Here’s how it usually happens. A friend tells you about a trip they took. You find a photograph. You meet someone interesting. You read a different kind of book. You hear a story. You discover a hobby, and bam, your curiosity wakes up. One day you are a sensible, productive adult and the next you are watching videos about some esoteric topic, pricing out equipment you will probably never buy, researching a country you’ve never been to, or sketching out plans for a business that doesn't exist yet. The object itself almost doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens inside you.

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People spend a lot of time searching for motivation, but what if we are giving motivation too much credit? Motivation is what we rely on when we are trying to push ourselves towards something we know we should do. Exercise more, eat healthier, clean the garage.

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A muse works differently. A muse doesn’t push. A muse pulls.

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You’ll know when one has found you. The symptoms are unmistakable. You won’t need reminders, accountability partners, or productivity hacks when something genuinely captures your attention. You start noticing things you had stopped noticing. You take the long way home for no reason other than you want more time in your head. You start having ideas again. You catch yourself smiling at absolutely nothing, and when someone asks you what you are thinking, you say “nothing” even though you are lying through your teeth. You feel awake, curious, and a little reckless, more alive than you have felt in a long time. That, right there, is the whole thing. Not the infatuation of it all, but the aliveness. I can tell you from experience, I do my best work, and my best living when I am lit up like that. When I have the space to bring all of me to something. It feels good. A big hit of ongoing dopamine.

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But-yah, there is a but. Unfortunately, muses are not loyal. They do not RSVP, make future commitments, and they will not stay one minute longer than they intend to. Most are not meant to stay forever. Some arrive for a season and quietly disappear once they have done their work. Others remain with us for years. A few shape entire chapters of our lives. Their job isn’t to become a permanent fixture. Sometimes their role is simply to wake us up, remind us of what is possible, and point us in a new direction. A muse will never be something to keep. It will be something to make you feel, fully and a little greedily, while it is here. The nice part is that you don’t only get one. You can have as many muses as you’re paying attention for. They are scattered all through your ordinary life like loose change, just waiting for you to look up long enough to notice them. And in a world that seems determined to keep us busy, practical, and responsible, that feels like a pretty valuable thing.

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Consider this my invitation. Go find yours, or better yet, stay open, curious, and just slightly inconvenienced by wonder enough to let one find you. Because a life with a muse in it is a life lived in full color. Everything smells, tastes, sounds, and feels so much better. And I promise you, once you’ve experienced that, you’ll never be satisfied with ordinary again.

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So, tell me. Where do you think your muse is hiding?

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