Motivation Vs Inspiration: Why We Need Both To Have Success

By Lachlan Haynes


Most people already know how important it is to take action if you want to achieve something - it's a major key to success. But what rarely gets enough attention is the concept of sustained action, or in particular how important your mindset is when it comes to sustaining action long term.

So how do we achieve long term action? Two qualities rank high on the list, consistency and persistence. Not everyone is born with these traits but you do have the ability to learn them. A key tip that can help you learn persistence is to set aside your emotion. We are all very emotional creatures at our core. We experience our ups and downs, sometimes more downs than ups, and it is important to try to set the negative emotions aside to learn persistence. Some other key tips that are worth including are becoming accustomed to succeeding which can be done by setting small goals and meeting them, make small changes which means changing one bad habit at a time, and remember to reward yourself for every accomplishment.

Each of us is familiar with those random bursts of energy that can find us achieving some of our greatest moments in life. Similarly, we all have the tendency to begin a project, goal, or idea with a wealth of energy, which can dwindle halfway through and find us giving up, or simply becoming taken with a new project without completing the first. This energy comes and goes when life interferes with setbacks, depressing events, or other things that can affect our emotional state, which, in turn, impacts our professional and personal results.

If we're feeling fit and healthy, we're not overly stressed out, we have a good social and family life, and we've gotten enough sleep, our physiological state will generally be pretty good! And when you can see the fruits of your labor, like getting grades in school, then you'll be even more primed to keep up the good work.

However, when the opposite happens, you are aren't eating right so you are hungry, you aren't sleeping well so you are tired, you aren't staying active so you feel run down and unhealthy, and you are not staying in touch with your friends or family, you will begin to feel the down part of the upswing. With all of these emotions and physical issues going on it will be likely you won't be able to focus on your studies and you may start to get poor grades or negative feedback from your teachers. This will only further push you down in your already unhappy state and you may begin feeling depressed and like you want to give up.

The good news is that this ability to push through until the negativity subsides is a completely learn-able trait. The most important thing to learn is how to transform those short bursts of activity and motivation into prolonged, repeated action. It's pretty obvious that to accomplish lofty goals, we must compartmentalize our action into smaller steps. So, if you know where you want to be in the big picture, creating a step-by-step directional map will help you devote each day to getting one step closer to that larger goal. If you wanted to climb Mt. Everest, we'd have to begin at the bottom, one sometimes grueling step at a time, wouldn't we? Small, measured movements over an extended period of time would eventually get you to the top. Unless you have super-human powers, no one is going to just speed up to the top in one impressive leap! Prolonged action, repeating the appropriate movements toward smart and strategic goals will find you achieving your goals in no time! Don't let yourself get in your way - because you're the only thing that can stop you.

This is where inspiration comes in. Inspiration is more spiritual than motivation because it comes from a more powerful source. Something more sustained and divine, something that comes from a place greater than the person. It's really a desire for change - big or small. Motivation, while still powerful, is often tied to a certain event, or time frame or set of circumstances. It's more physical, rooted in the present moment.

An easy way to separate the two is thinking about going to school. Do you go to school every day because you want to graduate and get your diploma? Or do you go to school every day because you possess an unyielding desire to get into the college of your dreams? And then graduate and have the job of your dreams or start an organization that could change the world? While both of these scenarios are driven by ambition and motivation, the inspiration comes from the latter; that feeling, the internal drive to want to do something, be something, and achieve more. This is where inspiration gives you the desire that will push you through, carry you through the ups and downs, and create sustained long term action.

Now is the time to really consider everything; to see yourself as a powerful piece in an even more powerful game. It's time to think about things like higher education, never needing a job that you despise, even the possibility of becoming a billionaire via the creation of something new that impacts people - even the entire world in a positive way! All of these outcomes can be possible for you; however, they require an ability to prolong your motivation long enough for it to transform into inspiration. Outcomes like these require that you can keep your eye on the big picture, while stepping evenly toward your goals every single day. Regardless of our circumstances, we can all direct our inspiration into unlimited potential - it is what you truly believe is possible that matters in the end. So, what is it that you are capable of - and how will you begin energizing your capacity to achieve it today?




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