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What do you need most when it comes to pursuing your dreams? In this post, I will look at how both play their own role and how we really need to harness them both!
Seeking Inspiration
Being inspired by things makes us feel more alive, it makes us feel that we are involved in something special, perhaps something bigger than ourselves.
Inspiration makes us feel that we are on the right track. Feeding our inspiration makes us feel more complete, happier and fulfilled.
This is what it means to me, what do you think?
Having a job or your own business that inspires you every day and makes to want to to leap out of bed to start your day, is surely a feeling that everyone aspires to.
But few people achieve it...
Either because they don’t know how or they don’t take action.
Then there are the other goals we may want to achieve in the distant future but we keep pushing aside… and aside and aside again until tomorrow, next month and next year.
We all have things on our “someday list…” – such as writing a book, running a marathon or travelling the world.
Is there any difference between the people that actually achieve those things and those that go through their entire lives without achieving them?
I feel the only real difference is taking action on those thoughts and having a plan. The problem with a lot of those “someday,” goals…is there is no deadline.
No one is telling you you have to run a marathon by next December, (well, unless you’ve signed up to one ;)). So, you have to create a deadline for doing something and then make a plan to do it.
Otherwise those things on our list, just stay on our list.
Getting Motivated to ACT!
Motivation is the driving force that you need to propel this inspiration forward into decisive action.
Everyone is inspired by something, everyone has dreams and aspirations.
But a great deal of people do not have the motivation to act on that inspiration and make their dreams a reality.
People generally get either too bogged down in every day life, procrastination or doubt.
These are all motivation killers and unfortunately prevent a majority of people fulfilling many of their dreams and goals.
We may all be inspired by a great deal of things all the time.
Things we wish we could do, people we wish we could be, jobs we wish we could have, or people we wish we could help.
But what is inspiration, without the motivation to actually do something about it?
To take decisive action and use this inspiration to better our lives?
I relate to this very strongly in my own life – as it wasn’t until recent years, (in my 30’s!) that I finally found the motivation to take action and to do things I just never thought I could before.
One of the things that fuelled this motivation for me was self-confidence and that was built by making small steps to change certain aspects of my life.
I realised that I was in control and that I had the power to change things if I wanted to.
Once you start to realise just how much you can change your life by taking action, you gain motivation to take more action and it spirals out into all areas of your life.
Too often, when we become adults, we lose a lot of our motivation to act on the things that inspire us.
We get stuck in our everyday rut and we become blinkered to the possibilities all around us.
We start limiting ourselves and the world becomes very small.
By decisively acting more on our inspiration, we can really reignite our passion for life.
By pushing ourselves to try new things and follow our passions, life becomes exciting again.
That sense of adventure we had as children and that feeling of limitless possibility, starts to swell up inside us again.
If you struggle to act on what inspires you – start by taking baby steps. Small actions will transform into bigger ones, once you realise your potential.
Feeding Inspiration Long Term.
When you’re inspired to do something, the end result can often be a long way in the distance.
Therefore, we will always need to rely on motivation to keep moving forward.
Inspiration can come an go and in the fuzz of every day life, it can become dulled over time.
If you want to achieve your goals, the ones that you initially felt so inspired to do, you will sometimes need to dig deep to push on and continue.
For this, you will need to harness some motivation to see you through when the going gets tough.
Inspiration and Motivation working together.
You need both inspiration and motivation working well together to have the best chance of success.
Now, you may find the motivation to do plenty of things that you’re totally uninspired to do…
What about going into the job you hate?
Or all of your household chores?
But mainly you do these things out of necessity.
When no one and no thing is forcing you to take a certain actions that you don’t want to do and there is no deadline to do them – you will find it a challenge to stay motivated.
But to succeed at fulfilling your goals, you need to find that motivation inside to push you forward.
You need to continue to take action day after day, week after week – even when the novelty has well and truly worn off.
One of the biggest obstacles you will face is when your inspiration hits an all time low.
This is when doubt sets in, you start trying to talk yourself out of it, you start trying to make excuses with yourself.
Well, in my experience so far, this is just to be expected.
It’s best to acknowledge your feelings as something everyone will go through and take some action to try and combat it.
Consider the following suggestions!
Make A List… Have a diary where you can write down your feelings, your successes and your failures. It helps to be able to look back at how far you have come when the going gets tough and to realise that your feelings will pass.
Take a break! Remember to have some time out. If all you do is work towards your goals, you’re going to burn out and that will end up with you taking out much more time than you ever intended. Just don’t take TOO long of a break, or you may find it harder to get started again!
Seek out others that inspire you. By finding other people who are ahead of you and already achieving what you want to, you will feel inspired to push forward. (Check out my post:Success stories from the internet).
Check Out Inspirational Podcasts/books. Personally, I now often listen to podcasts while out running, it feels like I’m making double use of my time and I find them really motivating, (related post: 5 podcasts that changed my life).
Find like minded individuals, where you can chat about your experiences and just open up about what’s stopping you moving forward, as well as get some advice. (Check out a great community, where I’m a member too).
Ultimately, you need a healthy balance, combining inspiration and motivation, in order to succeed.
When your inspiration is lacking, you need to feed it!
When the initial excitement of an idea wears off and the everyday slog of reality hits, it can sometimes be hard to remember why you started in the first place.
By constantly feeding and reigniting your inspiration, you will have the greatest chance of finding the motivation you need to reach your goals.
Do you find that you often need a boost to keep your inspiration alive?
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