Inspiration - Own It

I have been contemplating the concept of “Inspiration”.

More specifically, I was considering what inspiration is, from where it originates, how long it lasts and why we seek it.

How often do we hear of, or read about something we find ‘inspiring’? It may be a story of survival, personal sacrifice, sporting endeavour or charitable pursuit.

We note it at the time, feel good about the act of inspiration, vow to remember it but do we actually ever draw upon it? The reality is, we just about always forget about it and even less so, draw upon it.

I found the story of Lance Armstrong to be inspirational. He contracted Cancer of the Brain and Testicles, had surgery for both, achieved remission and returned to Professional Cycling achieving 7 consecutive victories in the toughest annual sporting contest of them all, Le Tour de France.

I wore his yellow wrist band for many years and following open heart surgery, took on “Livestrong” as my moto . I heard an interview with him about his cancer battle and he adopted a saying “You’ve got to be brave, you've got to be strong”. I also borrowed this for my surgery and recuperation.

Was it inspirational? Perhaps, but it certainly provided a focus, and it continues to be a focus for me today.

The only problem is, the whole Lance Armstrong story was based on a system of structured cheating.

So, was the inspiration or focus I took from him also a lie?

It was real at the time as it is real now. In retrospect, it would not have mattered if the phrase was said by the lady in the supermarket queue, the Dali Lama, Roger Federer or the President of America (well, it would have mattered if it was the current President but that is another matter altogether).

The point is, inspiration comes from within. We all have it within us already, it is just a matter of drawing on it.

The reality is, we are each our own inspiration.

Our challenge is to determine with honesty what is important and then to focus on it. If we find a phrase, or create a phrase in order to remind us of what is important and what our focus is, all the better. 

We don’t need external inspiration, just the tools to know what matters to ourselves, uniquely. We also need the strength to avoid following the path we perceive others see for us, which gets back to our individual and uniquely “own” focus.

So, be inspiring, to yourself and your goals, your dreams. Given they are yours, only you can inspire them and they are too important to delegate to someone else.

Inspiration - Own It