Weary of Inspiration

Many of us, in pursuit of some noble goal, experience the wonderful winds of inspiration. When we feel truly inspired, anything becomes possible. Our mental barriers come down and we experience an intrinsic motivation. This motivation is so enthralling, so invigorating, that we hold on to it. We hope to feel it forever. We hope that when we achieve that dream, it will feel as we do now, only many times better. And so we create. We work. We search, seeking happiness in realization of our dreams and the fruits thereof. We believe in inspiration, hoping it will lead us where things are better.

Inspiration is a beautiful thing.

However, much like an emotion, inspiration fades. Like the wind, it leaves as soon as it came, leaving us in its wake, wondering how we could have felt so alive, so full of potential, and have such a feeling gone in a moments notice. Within the passing of a day, a week, a month, we find that what was once inspiration is replaced with nothing but reality, one we have silently rejected in the pursuit of our dream.

Unfortunately, I must have you face a particular truth - a truth that is not exciting, a truth that nobody wants to hear. It will shatter your dreams in the best of ways, and force you to take tangible steps, necessary steps, to realize your deepest desires.

Inspiration is a fabrication of the mind.

This doesn’t mean inspiration is a negative thing. Like many of our impulses, inspiration is something that overtime, we can learn to manage. If we get caught up in it, we may fail to take the necessary steps to accomplish it our goal. On the flip-side, if we are never inspired, the vision is lost. There is no mountain to climb.

Inspiration allows you to envision the summit of a mountain without actually climbing it. Unfortunately, people who solely rely on inspiration will ultimately fail - you cannot climb a mountain without watching your steps. Conversely, individuals lacking inspiration (and therefore vision) are unlikely to reach the summit of a mountain — without direction, the climb becomes impossible.

Managing inspiration like an emotion will keep you balanced and in control.

The projects I embarked on that were most likely to fail were the ones that lacked a well-defined vision of the future. Day to day changes kept changing my idea of the project, leading to unstable motivations. Fixating your vision on one particular point will ensure a more consistent stream of inspiration to draw from.

Is All Inspiration the Same?

It is all too easy to envision someone with aspirations to become famous, or to become rich, or to rule the world…

Is the inspiration they feel a productive emotion, or a non-productive one? How can we ensure the inspiration they feel is not misleading, and will allow them to spend their time in a meaningful way?

Allow me to illustrate with an example.

Let’s say you are an aspiring painter. You began when you were a child, fascinated by your ability to express yourself through a medium other than words. You began to paint pictures of your garden, of family, of friends, and perhaps you even dove into painting abstract art. You gave your art away and you were praised by your friends and family for being a wonderful and talented artist.

Here is where you began to stray from the true path of the artist. As a child, you realized that being recognized felt just as good as making the art itself. Perhaps it felt even better. Overtime, your obsession with painting — an organic medium of expression — became a vanity project, a means of obtaining validation. Perhaps this stemmed from a more fundamental insecurity of yours. Perhaps it was just your way of connecting with people. Little by little, what was once honest work, work for it’s own sake, was replaced by the desire to be recognized.

It is precisely here where we confuse the productive inspiration from the unproductive inspiration.

Productive inspiration comes from the desire to create, share, and connect with the world around us. The inspired painter believes not in what their work will bring them, but the impact it will have. Unproductive inspiration is always in relation to self, and what it can gain from its creation. The essence of the art is lost.

Productive inspiration seeks to have a positive impact on the world.

Unproductive inspiration is a complicated vanity project.

In Conclusion

Inspiration is a powerful tool. When harnessed properly, building incredible things can become effortless, and aligning teams towards a unified vision becomes natural. Careful though; if one relies on it too much, they may forget the steps they must take to arrive to their vision. Too little, and the direction is lost.

Although for some of you this advice may seem rudimentary, it applies to various aspects of life. To pick up that book, to take that course, or to have that conversation — we rely on inspiration to accomplish these things. It’s the unspoken north star we carry within ourselves. Better managing our inspirations allows us to be more realistic in what we can accomplish, and thus live a more balanced life.