Inspired Action
It can be hard to have faith in ourselves, to know, that we can become the person we dream of being. It’s hard for some of us to even accept that we deserve to become that person, so ingrained are our current beliefs, circumstances and the life events that have led to our here and now. But, if we’re going to make our dreams come alive and see them in our everyday life, then have faith we must.
It seems that one of the major forces we need to muster in order to feel the force of this faith is inspiration. We’ve all felt, at one time or another, the intense emotions that spur us along when we feel inspired by someone or something. These can be rare events, but I’m absolutely certain that if you cast your mind back, you will be able to bring at least one time to mind when you felt truly inspired.
When you are inspired… 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.
Great Indian Yogi Patanjali
Unfortunately though, we are often very hard on ourselves when we feel that we lack this feeling of inspiration. We assume that we lack creativity or sufficient motivation to make our dreams come true. We may sometimes think of ourselves as serial-procrastinators or even lazy. But I wonder if this is really true? Do you procrastinate over everything? Are you really lazy?
According to Tony Robbins, one of the main reasons we fail to find our inspiration and take action is because our goals are loose and ineffective. They lack clarity so we can’t really see what we’re aiming for; they are too small so they don’t seem worth the effort; they’re too big so we’re scared to start… and so it goes on.
People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.
Tony Robbins
Does this sound familiar to you? Have you set goals in the past but after the initial burst of enthusiasm you lost interest because you couldn’t really tell what success would look like (lack of clarity) or you lacked inspiration because the prize for the work involved just wasn’t worth it (goal too small) or you just didn’t know where to start and felt overwhelmed? Sadly, it’s a familiar story.
Taking Inspired Action
But it need not be this way. There are many effective ways to envision the life we want and to put effective goals in place to bring us closer to the outcome. The process itself will be motivational and inspiring and if done correctly will lead to ongoing motivation and inspired action.
There’s also something noble about feeling inspired to take positive action. The positive effect it has on those around us can be palpable. You’ll know this feeling if you’ve ever felt the excitement that exudes from others who have just finished a marathon or reached their target weight that week or passed a difficult exam. Success by its nature is exhilarating and rebounds with positive energy to nearly all those who come into contact with it.
So inspiration not only works to get us motivated, if we feel inspired, it’s likely that our joy and enthusiasm will affect those around us, and
they too will feel inspired to greater acts than they would otherwise have been. And then, by inspiring others, we too become inspired and so the circle grows ever outward!
So what if we were to actually take some time out to really clarify what we want, and set goals that challenge but don’t overwhelm us? Would we then feel inspired? I think we would, because whether we like it or not, we must do the groundwork first. We can’t build a beautiful house on a weak foundation and then expect it to remain standing when the first storm passes over. In the same way, we can’t expect to remain motivated on our goals if we haven’t established a foundation of inspiration which will carry us through the obstacles which will inevitably turn up.
So have faith. We’re now well into February, the time when our New Year’s Resolutions have faltered and fallen by the wayside. Ask yourself why this has happened. Were your resolutions (goals) to vague and you didn’t know what you were really aiming for? Were they too small and therefore uninspiring? Were they too big and you felt overwhelmed? Maybe a little tweak to address these issues could re-kindle your inspiration and get you going again.
It’s time to believe in the process and set yourself some inspired goals. Those that will lift you up and keep you moving forward even when things get a little tough.