All Things Inspired

What we do in life often comes down to the push of motivation or the pull of inspiration!

What we do in life often comes down to push or pull. It's the external push of motivation to get you going or the internal pull of inspiration to drive your passion that determines the course of your journey through life. So, this raises a trio of questions: Is it motivation? Is it inspiration? What's the difference or are they the same?

The simple answer is no, they are not the same. You see, motivation is what gets you going. It's the little push from outside of yourself to do something which can come from several sources such as a boss, a coach, a partner, etc. Inspiration comes from within. It is that dream or passion inside your core that makes you want to pursue it each and every day. It is that pull that drives inspiration.

Let me give you another perspective on this. When our team was determining the name of this blog (and company), we considered titles with the word "motivational". We could have named this blog "All Things Motivated", with an ending hashtag of "Be motivated! Motivate others!" But, it just didn't fit. Motivation is great, but motivation doesn't last because it's an action to drive something or someone into motion. Meaning that the force of motivating or pushing is a continually needed action. Motivational great Zig Ziglar once said, "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily." Again, meaning it's a constant "action" to refresh the motivating of yourself or others. Thus, we determined that our mission with creating this blog was to inspire transformational growth to all who desired change within themselves. Inspiration is the spark that ignites the fire of your passion within. That is the difference between motivation and inspiration.

As you are looking for ways to get motivated, which is great, don't forget to first find and understand what your passion is. What is it that you want to achieve so greatly that nothing else matters? Once you discover this, everything you do will be influenced by your inspiration, not what external forces provide you motivation.

I'd like to share a story from my experience to illustrate what I'm trying to instill in you about inspiration. In my 40 plus years of sales and sales management, I've sat through hundreds of meetings with prospective clients. In these meetings I have witnessed sales reps that I was either working with or managing ask the prospect this question: "What keeps you up at night?" I realize this question attempts to draw out of the prospect what problems they are having that create restless anxiety for them, which is okay except for that it is an attempt to isolate just what their problems are when there is so much more to discover from the prospect. Actually when I hear that question, my eyes roll and it takes all of my might to not scream out loud in frustration of hearing a question that is such a cheesy cliche'.

If you are in sales or have had a situation similar to this, I would encourage you to take a different approach. I would substitute the following question in place of what keeps you up: "What drives your passion with this project? And, what is getting in the way of that drive?" This gives you the opportunity to find out from the prospect why this is so important to them, or perhaps what type of culture they are trying to instill in their work, and then discover what is truly keeping them from achieving this passion. I believe you will find more valuable information from this type of conversation than the tacky and trite approach of their sleeping habits. And let's be honest, it's just a bit creepy that anyone would be interested in how I sleep or my lack there of. So, don't do it!

From this example, we (as sales reps) are trying to find out what motivates our prospect by asking the what keeps you up question. Again, I don't recommend this approach, because that is what your competition is doing. Let them be the creepy rep. Asking more in-depth questions based on their passion and inspiration will not only separate you from your competition (because they are not asking this question), but it will lead you to a greater connection with your prospect, showing that you are deeply interested in the passion that drives them.

To further analogize motivation and inspiration, motivation starts the engine, inspiration is the fuel that keeps it running. Motivation gets you going, inspiration keeps you growing. Motivation is external, inspiration is internal. Hopefully you're getting gist of motivation versus inspiration. To take a closer look at some comparisons, below is a graphic that will illustrate the comparisons between motivation and inspiration.

This graphic illustrates the basic differences between motivation and inspiration.

Now that you have a sense of the differences between motivation and inspiration, let's test your knowledge. Which comes first, motivation or inspiration? The pull of inspiration comes first. Your vision creates a passion. The passion, leading to ideas and actions, is what comes with inspiration. That development then leads to and creates the motivation to act and move forward.

Earlier we discussed the origination of our blog name and our closing hashtag of "Be inspired! Inspire others!". Is a distinctive hashtag a source of inspiring others? Most likely not. Well, then how do you suppose you can develop the ability to inspire others around you? The following ten tips may help you be more impactful to those around you. Consider these in your inspirations...

Your ardent passion - first you must have passion of your own to inspire others to act on their passion. There is nothing more captivating than someone who is fueled by their passion. With your own passion, this is something you can share with others as you seek to inspire them.
Act with humility - you can only inspire others with a state of modesty, selflessness, and an open minded view. This puts you on a shared level with the very ones you hope to inspire rather than assuming a position of authority or knowledge over them.
Set clear intentions - to be an inspirational supporter, you must set a goal of what you hope to attain by inspiring others. You must be careful not to waver from this as your commitment to your intentions will only help empower those around you.
Act with integrity - in addition to setting clear intentions, integrity is the model of consistency with your values, words, actions, and the manner in which you treat those around you.
Be a shining example - after setting your intentions and displaying integrity, being an example of those values to others speaks volumes of your commitment to inspire.
Having an attitude of gratitude - in all things, good and bad, be grateful for what you have, what you've learned, and what you can do to inspire positive change in others. When you practice this attitude, it becomes easier for those around you to do so also.
Inspired listening - you can inspire others simply by making them feel heard and understood. Be engaged in the conversation, which starts by listening first, speaking last. Listen in such a way that others want to speak to you. Then speak in such a way that others want to listen to you.
Apply empathy - no one cares how much you might know about inspiration until they know how much you care about them. Your leadership is key to inspiring others.
Build others up - when others are trusting you to inspire them, to lead them down a path of growth, you must not jeopardize that trust. You are impactful when you build people up through encouragement, positive reinforcement, and supporting self worth.
Challenge others - we often think of placing a challenge on others that this will cause discomfort. However, if you've applied the previous nine tips, and place the challenge on them with kindness, the actual challenge becomes a commitment on their part to find their passion and accept the inspiration you are providing. This is the transference of inspiration to them. They've had the passion and inspiration inside themselves all along. You were the catalyst to bring it to acknowledgement.

In conclusion, I think we can all agree that we need both motivation and inspiration to realize a successful and rewarding journey through life. You really can't choose one over the other and think it will get you any where. If you have motivation, you'll move, but where are you going? You'll move and stop, move and stop perpetually. If you have only inspiration but never put it into motion, it is nothing more than a dream. I would argue that inspiration is more important because it is the passion within you that drives you. But again, if you don't move on your passion, it collapses into a wasted dream.

In the end, the world we live in is full of motivated people who without passion burn out. Conversely, the world is also full of inspired people that never figured out how to put their passion in motion. For each of us, true fulfillment of our dreams and passions will come from inspired action. That is the internal inspired passion of our dreams motivated by our desired action to realize our dreams! So, as always, I leave this topic with these words of advice...

Be inspired! Inspire others!