“Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.”                                                          Louisa May Alcott

Have you ever thought about what inspires you?  What is it that drives you day in and day out?  We think about creative people like painters or songwriters and we ask them what inspires them to create the pictures or songs that they create. Yet we in the seemingly less creative, day to day jobs are as much in need of inspiration as a Michelangelo or a Paul Simon. What makes you go to that space where you continue to do what you do for hour after hour, when you forget the need to eat and drink? Amy Twain, well known life coach, says that “real inspiration can be compared to a fingerprint; it is different for every person. It is that very thing which makes you chase your dreams. It’s that blissful and exciting feeling that you get when your heart glides and your soul is moved.”

I looked at a couple of internet discussion forums that asked the question “what inspires you?” and was fascinated by the broad spectrum of responses. Here are some of them :

  1. “It inspires me to be able to use my talents to help others. It doesn’t always pay the bills, but it inspires me. Learning something new inspires me.”
  2. “Standing on the side of a mountain, experiencing the view inspires me.”
  3. “My dad inspires me. He’s a police officer for a rough city and he goes out everyday and risks his life to help others he doesn’t even know. His bravery is what inspires me.”
  4. “The thing that inspires me the most are people who think I can’t do as well as I can.”
  5. “When I’m at my lowest, I remind myself to keep my eyes open for inspiration and I’ve found that more often than not, the simplest little things will inspire me….the moon rising above buildings in the city, watching two elderly women talk and giggle at the grocery store, someone walking their dog, a kiss from my fiancé…raindrops….watching deer run in the ravine behind my apartment.
  6. “I am inspired by people’s stories, smiling strangers and people who laugh out loud at the library when they are reading to themselves.”
  7. “I am inspired by life in general, I think it is just beautiful and feel truly blessed most everyday.”
  8. “My children are everything to me. I can just look at them, and I feel that finally I did something right.”

Why is inspiration so important? Plutarch said “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.”  Too many of us enter each day unmotivated and uninspired and our performance shows it. Too easily we become just like robots performing task after task, unemotionally unconnected to our passions. The uninspired are easy to spot in any workplace. The glazed, empty eyes; the minimal speed at getting things done; the absent smile; the stampede for the door at closing time. Yet our days were never meant to be just survived. Deep inside us there is a place that wants to be touched; brought to life; set free. We all want to be inspired. No one goes into a new day saying “lets see how uninspired I can be today.” The problem is the disconnect from what inspires us

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”        

Inspired people do things that others won’t risk doing. They are fun to be around. They take on challenges the uninspired wont go near. They positively impact their workplaces. They achieve things the uninspired only dream about. Inspired people become history makers. They are world changers.

A motivated and inspired John Maclean became an inspiration to all when in 1998 he became the first wheelchair athlete ever to swim across the English Channel. This feat has only been accomplished by 600 swimmers in over 130 years. Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko’s the chain of printing, copying, and binding stores was dyslexic, failed second grade and was tutored extensively without any success. In the 1950’s dyslexia was so rare, his family couldn’t understand why he didn’t know the alphabet. He was even sent to a school with retarded children. Yet an inspired and motivated Orfalea started Kinko’s in a converted burger stand. He has since grown his company to 23,000 employees and has successfully made “Kinko’s” to copy centres what “Xerox” is to copy machines. These are but two examples of inspired people overcoming adversity and making their mark on the world. They both unlocked for themselves what motivated them, what their source of inspiration was and tapped into that every day.

“We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.”
Gloria Gaither

 

Source of inspiring me : https://zifundise.com/mentoring-letters/item/203-mentoring-letter-151-what-inspires-you