Motivation or Inspiration: What Moves You to Action?

What moves you to complete one thing before moving on to the next? What undesirable task lurks on your to-do list (or worse: nags at the back of your mind!), carrying over from day to day, week to week? Do you hear yourself saying, "I've got to get motivated!" Motivation. Motivation is the carrot that drives the donkey. It's the trick we play on ourselves to get off the mark and take action on something we, frankly, don't want to do. It's a figurative (or even literal) kick in the pants to get on the treadmill, to pick up the phone, to finish the project. Motivation holds a bit of negative vibration, because it emphasizes our shortcoming. "I should do this. I should be that. If I don't do this, I'm a failure. If I get this done I'll be a better person." Employing an outside stimulus can be motivating. Setting a timer offers motivation to beat the clock to complete a task. Accountability to someone else gets the juices flowing to "git-r-dun." Motivation is an outside element that helps us take action we feel we "should" take in hopes of creating a specific outcome. As useful as motivation is, it carries an underlying current of "there's a chore to be done." The elements of running your business, conducting your relationships and living your life should be fun, not chores to be checked off a list. Motivation may spur you to do the job, but it leaves out a critical element of well-being: joy. Inspiration. Inspiration, on the other hand, stems from passion. It's an inside stimulus that compels action. Inspiration is a whisper, an itch, an idea that compels action for the sake of acting. Inspired action has nothing to do with "should" and everything to do with "desire" or "want." It is action for the joy of it, regardless of the outcome. Inspired action creates a desired outcome, but outcome is not what drives us. What drives us is the belly flip of enthusiasm. Motivation helps us get something out of the way. Inspiration helps us put something in place. Motivation is going to work. Inspiration is being on vacation. Both are useful, but inspired action is more fun. How can we bypass the need for motivation and go straight to compelling, enthusiastic action? Focus on the feeling. Whether you want a material object, a physical state of being, a relationship, a condition, or a circumstance, "at the heart of every desire is the desire to feel good" (Esther & Jerry Hicks - The Teachings of Abraham). Shift from Motivation to Inspiration. Use your "To Do" list to turn motivation into inspiration by adding a second column. Label the second column "To Be."  For every task in the To Do column, write in the To Be column the reason you want it done. Express that reason as an emotion. Say you have a nagging toothache that screams at you every time you eat something cold. But the idea of dental needles and drills and possible root canals makes you queasy. You "should" make a dental appointment, but you keep avoiding it, and the task stays on your list, nagging you for completion. Shift your focus from the "feel bad" place to the "feel good" place like this: TO DO                                      TO BE Make dental appt.            pain free, enjoy ice cream You can't hold two thoughts at the same time, so choose the thought that feels better. Focus on the To Be side of the list and imagine yourself in that space of relief, freedom, and fun. This simple action provides release from dread and worry. The relief you feel is your inspiration to pick up the phone and make the appointment.   2009-05-30T16:09:58Z