Motivation vs. Inspiration
I think I’ve finally put my finger on what’s been going on with me these days, a diagnosis if you will. I’ve been caught between two different modes of moving forward. Moving forward inside a tightly fit ego suit and moving forward while wearing your ego like a toga require a very different driving force.
random pexels ish
Motivation is fuel to keep the ego going in the direction you want to go. You push yourself through various methods to move forward, the accomplish whatever it is you hope to accomplish. You set an alarm clock, you have a daily routine, the fear of failure will push you onward. Motivation can only work so long as fear is a big part of the equation. It probably isn’t debilitating fear, and he’ll, it’ll get you where you want to go if you focus well enough.
Motivation stops working when one really leaves the fear based thinking of the ego behind. Once we upgrade to abundance mentality, the fear based fuel will no longer propel us forward, unless we fasten our ego suits and go back to sleep. We need a new kind of sustenance,
Inspiration requires nothing of you. It comes when it comes, and eventually you learn to conjure it up at will, but you cannot force it. It’s actually always there, always responding to our thoughts and emotions. Sometimes it pulls us in directions we don’t understand.
One day we decide we want to write a book. We work on the book non-stop for weeks until it’s almost finished. Then before we finish it we suddenly feel ourselves being pulled to space out and do nothing for a few days or weeks. Inspiration does not bring us on a straight path to our goals. It twists and turns and jumps around, but if we know where we are going, it always takes us there.
We have to know where we are going though, and be sure of it. It’s also counter productive to second guess inspiration. Every time we second guess ourselves and where our inspiration calls us, we take a step backward.
We are accustomed to being motivated more than we are accustomed to being inspired. To transfer over to a vessel that runs on inspiration takes a certain kind of rewiring, otherwise we get stuck between two worlds and have a hard time moving in any direction.
Absolutely it requires some rewiring. The years we’ve accumulated doing things a particular way gets embedded so deeply it can be very difficult to hold motivation. Do you also think perhaps the reason why we fail is because we don’t actually want the thing we think we want? Somehow the old actions are still giving us something worth failing for, which is actually the thing we want.
We can want conflicting things, and most struggle as well as the lack of inspiration (motivation is an implied part of inspiration, while inspiration is not implied in motivation) seems to come from a conflict of desires within ourselves. In this case some desires are born in love and some desires are born in fear, those born in fear will always pull against other desires and so we find ourselves stuck, though you could say that at a given time this is what we truly desire.
Oh yes I understand what you’re saying, maybe some of us like being stuck in limbo because it can be easy and comfortable
"Inspiration requires nothing of you. It comes when it comes, and eventually you learn to conjure it up at will, but you cannot force it." There is truth in that. I think might be why the Greeks framed the concept as an outside force with the muses.
Everything and anything can serve as a muse! I try to be the best muse I can be, that’s basically what my art is trying to do, and when I can muse my muses, well that’s the best. :-)
this is the most amusing comment I have read in a long while
I guess I have been on a vessel running on inspiration for quite a while now. I know that I need to refuel for some motivation every now and then.
Luckily, I know where to get it and for the best price.
P.S. It's hard to come up with a response that equals the wisdom of your posts these days. But then again, there's no need to equal you ;>)
I will try to make shittier posts then! ;-) No I’m kidding.
You have just as much to offer as I do. I go to you for/through inspiration too friend.
That's nice to hear :>)
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So, the difference between being driven, which is conscious and encounters resistance and being in the flow which is subconscious and involves more grace and ease, yet also requires trust.
Words are tricky, but you could very well say it like that!
God knows this writing speaks to me directly. Sometimes I wonder what propels me to do something, inspiration or motivation. Then I realized I need a dose of motivation to further keep me inspired.
The motivation most times comes internally without any external trigger although I can't deny the motivation from a few flashes of credit alert or good trading day. But then, the latter is always ephemeral.
Good one, @whatamidoing. Would keep myself close to your blog more.
I’m glad you appreciated this! I think we may be using words a little differently though, which is normal because there are more than a million ways to understand a single word. If it comes internally without external triggers, I would call that inspiration. Motivation is exertion, at least in the way I define it, but it seems we agree on the meaning beyond words. :-) thanks for stopping by
That's a great post @whatamidoing. I love it what you mentioned here especially when you are said that Motivation/Inspiration cannot be force fed to yourself. My secret to keep going is to have a non-zero day everyday. Which means that I do at least one little thing every single day which can help me to achieve my goal in the future. Never skip a day without doing anything!
Also, It's a little ironical that you have a username like that because you seem to know exactly what you are doing. ;) Great blog.
I try to interpret everything as being productive. If I rested for a day it’s rest that will help me do more tomorrow. If I made a mistake it’s a lesson learned. This way I don’t waste any time feeling guilty about giving myself a rest. Less guilt means recovering from laziness much faster!