Hello Steemians. Nathan Forrest here writing my long awaited (myself) first post (beyond introduction) and I'm realizing how fitting it is to me at this moment. How often do we put off things we want to do or things we believe we should do? My guess is most of us have done this and many do it very regularly. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing, on the contrary, quite possibly a good thing. I will be focusing on what we call motivation and examining how it's different from inspiration.
Motivation implies arousal to action based mostly on external environmental stimuli. It refers to factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior. It has been described in psychologytoday as "the desire to do things." Businesses spend millions yearly in attempts at understanding and affecting employee motivation. Motivational speakers generally don't have trouble finding work.
I just read a quote that said "Get others to do the work for you and take the credit for yourself". Isn't this what businesses do? Motivation at it's core comes from others. What about self-motivation? I would then ask, why are you driven to self-motivate? You could go down the rabbit hole with that one. Let's take a peek. "I'm driven to work more to make more money because I want/need XYZ." "Why do you want XYZ?" "To live, and to live in comfort." "How do you know that's the only way to get XYZ?" It can get squirrelly.
Inspiration at it's root has a much more specific meaning that acknowledges pulling from an internal power source. It's much more automatic. You are inspired to breathe, sleep, and eat. Not motivated.
We are obsessed with motivation in a world where people worship "doing". "Just Do It" took hold easily. We are told there will be many times in life we will have to do things we don't want to. We just have to do it as a part of life. I wholeheartedly disagree. I am not suggesting that doing things and taking action is inherently a negative thing.
What I am suggesting is that there is a better way to get things done or take action and that is Inspiration!
Inspiration is a sort of internal propulsion. Before inspiration was used to refer to breath (draw in breath) it had a distinctly theological meaning in English, referring to a divine influence upon a person, from a divine entity; this sense dates back to the early 14th century. Source. For those of us who believe we are not separate from the Creator (or God) it would follow that inspiration is a divine internal influence. It's a much more natural occurrence than motivation. Motivation can be quite contrived and manufactured.
Motivation is more like the dangling carrot in front of my mouth while inspiration is akin to jumping into a flowing river and enjoying the ride downstream. There's not much efforting involved with inspiration yet I venture to say you can accomplish much more.
What does competition, motivation and "Just Do It" have in common? Productivity. We (USA) are capitalist after all. I'm here to say don't fall for it. Life is not meant to be a competition where you have to compete with others to get what you want. Being who you are is never a contest.
An easy and cheesy way to remember to choose inspiration over motivation is simply to say, "I choose inspiration over outspiration." Sorry bout that ;) Motivation originates outside of you. It's not very satisfying to accomplish and be an efforter in this way. Get the most out of your action and pull from the power source that is all cued up for you. Be willing to ask the question, "Do I really want to do this?"