Thoughts on Inspiration

 

LACK OF INSPIRATION

As we make our way towards the end of January and we assess how we are doing in matching up our actions with our intentions for the month, it is a good time to think about our motivation levels, and more correctly, our inner inspiration.  If we have set our goals and are moving forward in the direction that we have set for ourselves, there needs to be an internal fire, a heart of inspiration.

It’s not just in the first month of a new year that we are looking for a surge in motivation and an inner fire to remain on the path that leads us in the direction of our dreams.  It is something that is always at play.   Even for people who love exercise, there are times when it seems tedious, when we feel lethargic and unmotivated.  Breaking out of a rest or recovery phase or even an “energetic rut” is sometimes the most difficult barrier as we struggle to get back INTO the groove, into our flow, into our internal inspiration and drive.  I personally find that when I am not in a training cycle, have no goal that I am signed up for, it can be so hard to prioritize something that causes short term discomfort.  *And even though I am writing this about exercise, the same can be said for whatever your goals are- business, work, creative energies, school, etc.

I heard the greatest quote one time at a conference a long time ago that said, “People don’t remain unfit because of a lack of INFORMATION, rather because of a lack of INSPIRATION.”  And we all know this, we have all felt it.  We KNOW everything we need to.  Honestly, both nutrition and exercise training and basic healthy living is not ROCKET SCIENCE.  There is nothing we need to KNOW or learn about fitness that gives us the result!  It is getting out there, being inspired and DOING IT, and doing it CONSISTENTLY.  Day to day work, committing, showing up, working through the hard times, continuing.  And this is the short term discomfort that inevitably is there for any of us, for all of us.   And it is IN this rising to face this short term discomfort that we can actually  BUILD our internal inspiration! There isn't really anything we need to KNOW, we just need to DO!

Again- we have probably all felt this at some point in our lives.  When we are not “in it”, when we can't seem to get ourselves to take action, when we feel "flat" and have nothing fueling our fire!  I used to ask my kids fitness/kids yoga classes this question when I wanted them to see the value of effort and doing hard things, “What is the easiest thing you’ve done that you are so, so proud of?!” (trick question)…. Obviously, we don’t get proud of the easy things, right?!  We get proud when we are doing the discomfort, doing the work, making things happen.  When we are IN THE ARENA—in the arena of gritty grinding work, getting dirty with the pushing!   It is once we have begun the momentum of our cycle of doing and of taking action, that we find the rewards, the feel good days (not all of them, of course!), the intrinsic fueling of our fire.   In a nutshell, sometimes, we cannot wait to be inspired to go after our goal, sometimes we need to begin going after the goal, heading in a direction in order to feel inspired.  Let’s all head straight to our mountain, whatever that mountain is for us.  And begin.