_INSPIRE_TO_BE_INSPIRED_
“I’m inspired by you”, ‘’You are my inspiration!!!”, Doesn’t it sound like the most frequent remarks you have heard. YES, since our childhood this word hit us hard. INSPIRATION. What does this mean? Have you ever wondered what effect it has on us?
Psychologists Todd M. Thrash and Andrew J. Elliot have excelled in the subject of inspiration and discovered that it can be both powerful and motivational. They have asserted the three qualities of inspiration as evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation.
- evocation — It is evoked spontaneously without intension
- transcendence — It is the moment of clarity and awareness of new possibilities
- approach motivation — It is where the individual strives to transmit, express or actualize a new idea or vision
According to Thrash and Elliot, inspiration involves both being inspired by something and acting on that inspiration.
In the journey of life, everyone has a desired destination to reach. But the most baffling question is ‘Where to start?’ In search of an answer to this question introduces people who are the experts in the field of our destination. They start to inspire and intrigue us. Being inspired can help us extend our self-limitations and provide us with a new reference point of what is possible. It can increase feelings of gratitude and appreciation, lift our mood, and provide us with a heightened sense of purpose. It doesn’t mean that we get inspired by persons alone. Each and everything around us inspires. It may be animals, insects, music, even our little child inspires us a lot. Some people get inspired by books. Authors like Robin Sharma, Richard Carlson, Napoleon Hill, Paulo Coelho are some of the best inspirational writers. Without inspiration, we’d all be butting our heads up against the same challenges day after day. Inspiration gives us both the means and the motivation to rise above, be creative, grow closer to our goals, learn from others, and achieve enhanced well-being. It has a superpower to change our lives drastically in an instant and transforms us into a new person. But the most challenging one is to choose the right person for inspiration. You may wonder, why it is challenging even though all systems go? But the truth is everything in life has its pros and cons. When we start to inspire people we tend to follow them and they become our role models. It becomes a disadvantage only when we fail to choose the right person. Because once they become our role models we start to follow them blindly, all the activities that they have done. Even some of them will try to behave like them and follow the same way of attitude believing that their inspired person is always right. By doing this so we can only be a reflection of our role models. And that too will become worse when our choice goes amiss. Well. Think for a minute. What happens when you get on the wrong train? Will you reach your desired destination? Can you assure that the train will not let you in danger? So the same happens if you fail to choose the right person as your inspiration.
Here are some steps to open the door to inspiration, as shared by Hedges:
- Make a move — Always don’t wait for inspiration. Go in search of it. You will find the right way because when we do different things we feel different things. Perhaps Jack London put it best in advising, “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.”
- Stay in learning mode — Don’t stop yourself from learning just because you become expertise in it. It may lead to earned dogmatism.
- Expand your social network — Spending time with the same people every day may be comfortable, but it can also lead to stagnation. In spending time with new people — particularly those who are involved in different activities than you are — you grow closer to new ideas and insights. Whatever your ambition, try to place yourself in an environment with people who inspire you to learn.
- Limit your choices — While open-mindedness is a necessary attribute of aspiration, too many choices can be immobilizing. So make yourself clear about what interests you and try to focus on it.
By doing so you can find the right person. One last thing to keep in mind? We’ve all heard the adage “Practice makes perfect,” and cultivating inspiration is no different: The more regularly you practice inspiration, the easier finding it will become. Always remember, whoever the person you are inspiring is the same as you are now. From this, they have reached that. So don’t degrade yourself. Maybe not today but in the future, you can also be the inspiration.
“Genius is one part inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” — THOMAS EDISON
