motivation,  questions to readers,  quotes

Motivation fueled by Inspiration

April 9, 2012

Where do you find inspiration?  What keeps you motivated? 

It’s so easy to be inspired and even motivated when you do something you enjoy, but not so much when what you need to accomplish is something you’d rather put off indefinitely.

So if you’d rather be doing something other than what you’re doing, how do you stay inspired and remain motivated?  Motivation gives you the incentive to want to do something while inspiration stimulates your creative thoughts and activities.  If you are motivated enough, will you remain inspired in the task at hand or do you need inspiration to remain motivated?

To be inspired means to be motivated by something but do the two usually go hand in hand?  Motivation can be based on positive and even negative reasons while inspiration, by definition, is a positive factor.  I believe it is possible to feel motivation without inspiration but difficult to ignore motivation if you truly feel inspired.

Our day jobs (or night jobs, for that matter) are probably the best example of what keeps us motivated.  We work to make money because money is what pays the bills, allows us to stay in our homes, puts our kids through school and offers some guarantee we can afford to continue to drive our gas-guzzling vehicles; although, let’s be honest, these days any vehicle is a gas guzzler with the gas prices the way they are.  We also work to take care of our children, our spouses, and maybe even our elderly parents.  We may not be completely inspired by what we do but we have a reason to remain motivated.

It’s important to be motivated but we can do so much more when we also feel inspired.  Motivation fed by inspiration can only lead to positive results.  So how do you remain completely attentive and inspired in the present while also working towards where you would like to be in the future? 
I’m sure everyone has their own idea of how to respond to that question and that’s because it is probably a different answer for every person.  Many will offer advice about what inspires them and what keeps them motivated.  Rather than offer my own advice, I’ll provide to you a quote I believe fairly articulates some of what I’m trying to say:

“Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant.  There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.”  Johann Gottfried Von Herder

I found the spark needed to ignite the fuel in me because writing is my inspiration.  It is what also motivates me. 

There are so many reasons we are motivated to do what we do but so that inspiration fuels your motivation, find what inspires you and in doing so you will find what ignites the fuel in you. 

You May Also Like

Bi-yearly check in – Still loving what I do
July 18, 2019
The #1 thing writing has taught me
May 26, 2021
What I would say to my teenage-self
March 3, 2021