Have you ever set new goals, gotten yourself all fired up, kept on track for a few days, weeks, or even months, then found yourself losing your drive before you reach your desired outcome? If you're human, I think I can safely guess you answered "yes" to that question. We all do that. So, how can we keep our motivation going? Maybe the answer is to stop trying to.
Don't get me wrong, motivation has it's place. It certainly wouldn't be wise to throw it out the window but consider the possibility that we may rely on it too much. Maybe there's something even more powerful than motivation when it comes to accomplishing what's important to us.
That something is INSPIRATION.
Let's do a little comparison. Since losing weight is such a common goal people set, let's look at that as an example.
MOTIVATION -
- can come from inside us.
- can be used to push past our resonant core values.
- can be stressful and draining.
- can come from fear, expectations, or judgment.
Let's say our doctor has told us we need to drop at least 30 pounds. We may be afraid of developing diseases associated with excess weight. (fear) We may feel like we have to because our doctor said so. (expectations) We may even think we look bad with our excess weight (judgment), so we buy into the idea of dropping it.
We imagine how much better we'll look at a lower weight, so we sit down and make a plan: run/weight train at least five times a week and eat only 1200 calories a day.(comes from inside us) Seems simple enough. We set out, our motivation high, and within in the first week we begin to develop knee pain from the running and weight machines at the gym. But we're not going to let that slow us down. We ignore it, telling ourselves it's just from lack of exercise; it will get better with time. (pushing past our resonant core value of caring for ourselves) Before too long, because the weight isn't coming off as quickly as we think it should and our knee pain isn't going away, mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion start to set in. (stressful and draining) Now our motivation drops off making it harder and harder to keep working toward our goal.
INSPIRATION -
- comes through us rather than of us.
- is expansive.
- is enlivening.
- has no place for fear, have to's, or judgments.
If we approach this from a place of inspiration, it might look something like this: Our doctor tells us we need to lose at least 30 pounds. We consider the state of our other health factors (blood pressure, blood glucose, resting pulse rate, digestion, how we feel overall, etc.) and decide dropping some weight may improve our quality of life (expansive), so we go for it.
Instead of sitting down and making a rigid plan, we opt to find ways to add more enjoyable movement into our lifestyle and focus on choosing better quality food and taking time to truly enjoy it. (enlivening) If we develop knee pain from running, we fill our desire to care for ourselves by switching to walking or some other type of movement that will give our body the activity it needs without pushing it past reasonable limits. As we do all this, we find many other benefits that come from honoring ourselves and our bodies rather than fighting them. We put ourselves in the optimum condition for reaching a weight that truly suits us. We become more grounded and centered overall. Whether we reach our original goal of losing 30 pounds or not, we keep living a lifestyle more focused on wellness than on our body shape because it's what we want to do as opposed to what we think we should do. (comes through us rather than of us)
Can you sense how the inspired approach comes from a place of power not fear, from want to not have to, and is free from judgment?
While motivation can be an effective thing to start with, we would be wise to move from there to inspiration as early as possible, since we sustain motivation but inspiration sustains us.
So, the four excellent reasons for living with inspiration?
- IT SUSTAINS US.
- IT EXPANDS OUR HEART AND MIND.
- IT BRINGS US ENERGY AND JOY.
- IT NUTURES PERSONAL POWER AND PEACE.
Let's aim for inspiration.