A Reminder: Inspiration

Today I had the luxury to ride for four hours with someone who I have established a deep connection with since arriving to Little Rock. While driving, we began speaking about inspiration and how it impacts our daily lives.  For anyone who has read my blog, followed Project Kinect or spent even just a little time with me most likely has been witness to my emphasis on inspiration.  Inspiration is necessary in order to get positive change moving forward.

I thought that I would post a couple previous thoughts on the topic of inspiration.  The first is from my blog while I was doing a two-week journey on figuring out what I was going to do next in my life. This is from the summer of 2010.  If you’re interested, here is the beginning of the two week journey.  Keep in mind it was an off the cuff experiment and was intentionally just written and not edited.  Here is Day 7 discussing inspiration and making sure we have inspiration catalogued somewhere so we can easily access it.

Day 5 Beliefs and Inspiration

Inspiration comes from so many different avenues. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come all the time, that’s why we have to be able to record what inspires us and be able to access it. While I was watching Grey’s Anatomy today, I realized that one of the reasons that I have been such an avid fan for such a long time is because I am always inspired by it and am able to go back to it and watch it again and again to get those feelings repeated. That is the main reason why such a show as Sex and the City are so popular. Yes, entertainment value is there, but so is inspiration.
Inspiration and Spirituality. There are of course, many reasons why we, as human beings are spiritual. It is a way to come together in communion. It helps keep us balanced and grounded and holds us accountable to the actions we take. Above all these things though, it inspires us. I must say, because for some of you reading that don’t know me as well, when I mention spirituality, it doesn’t necessarily mean religion. It can be religion, meditation, exercise, Wicca, or whatever. For me, it is Rilka’s Letters to a Young Poet. When I really get into the thick of life, I go back to it. I have been through probably, at least, twenty-five copies. I give them away, write too much, or just get the most out of them. It is one of my touchstones.
 
This weekend I am going to log down my areas of inspiration, continue with what I believe in while mixing it up with my wants and my needs. At the end of the weekend, day 7, I’ll bullet point the week and have a full list of these topics. Once that is there, I have a funny feeling integrity is going to sneak its way in and we will throw that up against our lists.
The last part I want to write about stems from another T.V. show. I have recently fell in love with the show Parenthood, thanks to hulu.com, and the season finale paralleled this little journey. The matriarch of the entire family is going through the exact same thing that we are. It is just a reminder that this is a check and adjust system for our entire lives, not just now. The other thing that was mentioned was that you have to be actively participation in your life. I’ve taken quite a few courses with Landmark Education, and this is a reoccurring idea with that organization too. We cannot sit on the sidelines of our life. If we do, we will vanish and there will be no evidence of our existence.

 

This is a post from June twenty-third of this year.   It really gets to how inspiration leads to momentum.

Beginning with Inspiration

What do you do with inspiration once you have it?  We have to remember that inspiration doesn’t always stem from a great or beautiful happening; it can be ugly and sad yet still inspiring.  To be inspired, you just need something that triggers a movement inside you.  Something that is compelling or moving enough to make you sad, angry, extremely happy or so overwhelmed that you have to find out more about that particular subject and share it with someone.  That is inspiration.

Unfortunately, inspiration gets lost much too quickly today.  It gets lost because we don’t want to notice it or we have so many other “important” things happening, that we let it fall to the side where it can just be an amazing feeling one moment followed by the next task, or, we are just too lazy to do anything about it.  When we are struck with an inspiration, we often look at it with an all or nothing attitude.  A forty something man or woman sees a professional hockey game or figure skating competition and think to themselves “I really wish I could do that but it’s too late for that”.  Well yes, it is too late for you to get the next gold medal in the Olympics, but the inspiration there is not all or nothing.  In our realm of life, there are so many ways that we can use that moment of inspiration and make it into a tangible action that moves forward and gains momentum.  For these two forty something adults, they could sponsor a skate team, start a fundraiser to buy skates for children in their community, learn how to skate or take their children skating.  There is so much space in between all and nothing that we have freedom to let an inspiration guide us.

I find it funny in a way that we so often say to ourselves, “but what can I do?” when somehow, we can watch a singing competition on television and are able to call in and vote.  We are inspired by the performance to pick up the phone and make that call to vote yet we still say in our everyday lives, “what can I do?”

As I continue to show you what I am doing through my project, Project Kinect, please really start answering that question to what you can do?  There are so many possibilities that many are probably not even thought up yet in your head. While we have been helping at the kitchen next to the once Church of Christ, a woman who had been stopping by for supplies found herself inspired by what was happening at this kitchen.  She found herself with nothing but time and now she is volunteering two days a week there at the kitchen.

Inspiration is just the start to creating something possible and real for anybody.  Many times, inspiration can just be what gets an idea going. The idea itself inspires someone to use their resources which then builds into a large united change from a cycle of inspired thoughts stemmed from one person.  Never underestimate how large or small your contribution is when inspiration pipes its vocal chords.  Anything you do when you are inspired is greater than not doing anything at all.  It just takes a conscious effort of not sliding into an all or nothing attitude but, finding out what is in your reach that you can make a contribution.

Inspiration is really just momentum; Kinetic energy that is sitting there ready to move forward through some vehicle one way or another.  The next time you feel that momentum, test yourself and see if there is something you can do with it to benefit someone else.  I think that moment, that small millisecond of a moment, right there is the moment that each one of us has the ability to change who we are as a whole society and possibly get ourselves moving in a more positive direction.  We are all involved.