I attended a Toastmasters meeting last week. It was another great meeting with people wanting to improve their communications skills and the company is always full of welcoming and supportive members. The speeches usually vary in peaking my interest but I found myself thinking about a speech that was given at this Toastmasters meeting. He spoke about this one THING. That one thing that everyone needs, but everyone has it, yet everyone is looking for it. You don’t know what it looks like or tastes like, but you know when you have it, because you know what it feels like. You can’t buy it but most people will try to sell it. Some people show it but they don’t know that they have it. It’s humbling. When you get it, you can do anything. It’s powerful.
It’s INSPIRATION.
He talked about going through a transition in his life and he was searching for inspiration. He would carry a notebook around with him to record inspirations he saw or heard. He was inspired when he learned that Taylor Swift’s co-song writer was a stay at home mom with no commercial song writing experience and that Paula Deen, a FoodTv Network star, started her cooking phenomenon when she was in her 50’s.
It made me think. Why do we need inspiration and where do we look for inspiration? And what do you do with the inspiration that we desperately need and find, after searching in all corners of the world?
What is inspiration?
Inspiration is when your thinking is aligned with your core, your natural talents, the natural frequency of your make up. What comes out of your feeling inspired (ideas, words, thoughts, actions, feelings) is resonance when your natural frequency is excited by that inspiration. Inspiration leads us to our self nature, allows us to act at our highest potential and reach for higher existence.
Where do we look for inspiration?
Inspiration can be other people’s actions. What they do and how they act inspire us because we recognize that which we want to do, act, and essentially, be. People’s actions, words, and thoughts, ring true to our instincts. When we see kindness or hear compassion and wisdom, we are inspired to be kind, compassion, and wise. When we see how a person handles conflict and drama with ease, confidence, and character, we are inspired by their actions and words.
Watching President Obama’s Q&A with a room of Republican congressmen, all by himself, candidly, I was inspired. I was in awe that he took on a room of his fiercest political opponents. Nothing really come from political debates, dialogues are not decisions, except to refine political image. However, I was inspired by President Obama’s intelligence, confidence, goals, humility, and the respect and courage he showed to the lawmakers of the land. I was inspired because what I saw and heard is something that I want to become and see myself as – someone who is intelligent, confident, humble, respectful, and courageous in general, and even in the face of people that disagree with me.
Inspiration can come through people’s stories. The story of Ally and Noah in the Notebook inspires love. The story of Liz Murray, Homeless to Harvard, inspires courage and triumph. Movies, music, current events, everyday personal events contain some kind of inspiration when we see glimpse of self nature exuberate.
Why do we need inspiration?
Inspiration is like air, you need it to be alive. In everything that you do, inspiration lights the fire for personal growth, creativity and innovation. We need inspiration to complete the work we need to do to fulfill our purpose. Any artists will suffer in lack of creativity or focus and there’s nothing like a dose of inspiration that makes creativity flow and focus a force to be reckon with.
What do we do after we find inspiration?
So when you find your spark of inspiration, what do you do? There isn’t too much of a choice. When inspiration knocks you over, that message of inspiration tells you what to do in your work. It takes over you – as if it’s a separate entity that use you as its muse. The best thing to do is to listen to it and follow through. Otherwise, external friction tampers with the natural frequency that is inspiration.
Photo source: Salar de Uyuni
