What is it?
1. the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
Are you inspired on a daily basis? Where does inspiration come from? The short answer is……EVERYWHERE. To be inspired means something from the outside is breathing within us. This can be psychological (maybe a loved one passed away), physical (you’re not happy with your weight), or metaphysical (You may be looking for a place to fit in the world). The long winded answer is slightly more different than that, and slightly, well, longer.
What happens when inspiration is lacking? What happens when we feel like we have no purpose or place and just want to give up on it all? We need to learn how to CREATE, rather than regurgitate. But how do we create something from nothing? None of us are inventors we presume. Surely, being creative is not going to help with my 9 to 5, and it definitely won’t help with paying the bills. Here’s where you’re wrong, and in the words of Frank Drebin from Naked Gun, “Don’t call me Shirley.”
There are several ways to draw inspiration to create. Today we will focus on 3 easy ways we can start living an inspired life. A reporter asked Einstein a random question once and he didn’t know the answer to it. The reporter was so very proud he stumped the great Mathematician until Einstein replied, “Son, the brain is for creating, not for memorizing useless facts I can look up in a book in the library.” Ouch. Checkmate!
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. That is – everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it………. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. -Steve Jobs
1. Thought Experiments
Einstein regularly did what he called “thought” experiments where he would lock himself in his office for hours and ponder a problem he was working on. When Einstein died and his brain was autopsied it was found that his corpus callosum (the part of the brain that helps both hemispheres talk to each other) was thicker than most others, and that he had an increased amount of glial cells (non-neuronal cells that actually help brain cells talk faster to each other). Einstein essentially worked his brain like a muscle. When we exercise, mitochondrial density increases and allows us to store more energy so we can exercise faster, for longer. You see the correlation.
It’s no fun to do thought experiments though right? We can’t get a lot of likes on that status update, or take too many selfies. If you’re an entrepreneur, manage people, or just plain lack inspiration in your life, give them a try! Robert Kiyosaki is right when he says, “In school you’re given the answers first, then the test. In the real world, you’re given the questions first and you need to CREATE answers.” Lock yourself in your room for an hour a week. Think about how you can pay your car off faster, how you can help others more, or maybe even how to get that pretty girl or handsome boy to go out with you. Shut the TV off, keep your phone out of your bedroom, and exercise that mind of yours!
2.Become An Idea Machine
The second way we can provide inspiration to ourselves and others is to become an idea machine. Famed author James Altucher writes down 10 ideas every day. Even if they are bad ideas he doesn’t care. This keeps the juices flowing and forces us to create using the most intricate parts of our brain. James gets together with people and has idea parties where everyone drinks, has a good time, but are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other.
I don’t know anyone that enjoys the rat race rank and file way of life. Most of us lack the presence every day to get to where we want to go because we are thinking about being there already. Our time is spent complaining and passively living life. What does it cost to write down 10, or even 5 ideas every day? Twenty cents worth of supplies? But this idea about writing down ideas is silly right? Surely we will never think of anything great. We want to tell others how they should live their life, but have no idea how to live our own.
Take five minutes a day to stare at a sheet of paper and write down five ideas to provide inspiration for yourself. Don’t look at twitter while sitting on the can, open up the notepad on your phone, think, and write something down. To be inspired or to be inspirational requires one to have a high tolerance for pain. You open yourself up to other peoples opinions and more often than not their lack of vision causes them to want to shoot you down. You become a target for negativity and naysayers which requires you to have thick skin. Psalm Isadora, an actress and well known Tantra teacher once said, “The people making you feel guilty for going your own way and choosing your own life are simply saying, look at me, I’m better than you because my chains are bigger. It takes courage to break those chains and define your own life.”
“The only thing standing between you and your dreams is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself about why it can’t happen.” -Jordan Belfort
3. Inspirational Quotes
The third and final way to provide inspiration is to write down inspirational quotes some place you can see them several times a day. One trick I heard of is to find a picture of your ideal home/life/vacation spot and post it somewhere to always be reminded of what you are working for and write an inspirational quote on it. I use my Facebook status updates to inspire myself as well as others. I post inspirational messages for myself, as a reminder of what I need to do daily to be a better person for myself and others. Comments are nice, and I’ll reply if necessary, but I honestly don’t do it for “likes.”
I ran into an acquaintance at Lululemon and he asked me why I haven’t posted anything in awhile and I told him that sometimes, I like to keep the good quotes just for myself. He said that the first thing he does in the morning is scroll to my page to see what I wrote and he missed seeing my quotes. In my mind I was thinking, “Well, I’ve never seen you like a single quote on my page.” People still see the message and what I was posting obviously had an impact on this gentleman and that’s what matters.
Affecting lives in a positive manner can change the day of the inspirator, and the inspired. Nobody wakes up and says, “I’m going to inspire someone today!” But what if we did? Our lives would be richer, fuller, and we would probably make a lot more friends.
I love to inspire others only because I’m drawing my inspiration from you. By coming to my website you are showing a certain amount of belief in me and my methods, and the greatest thing you can do in this life is believe in another human being. It’s not money that gets me up in the morning, it’s the humbling realization that other people believe in what I do, who I am, and what I stand for. I’m breathing in your belief in me, and in turn it strengthens my belief in you. Often times strength comes from within, this is called motivation because it is intrinsic, but motivation can only take us so far. Sometimes we need to be inspired, to breathe in something that someone else provides.
That’s why I’m here.
And that’s why you are too.
Leave a comment below about what inspires you!