The Problem with Inspiration
The problem with being inspired to do it is that it’s like winding the key of a kid’s toy. It works for a while and then you need to wind it all the way back again. The problem with inspiration is that, when the key is wound, a lot of people concentrate on working towards an output and not on working on themselves. So, when the wound key is completely unwound, and the inspiration fades out of existence, they wait for someone else to inspire them again. They don’t know how, in the first place, did they start on the journey they took upon.
We love getting things done. The world measures everything based on the outcome and forget to understand that the outcome is based on the individual. An amazing photograph, painting, script, poem come not because they were pieces of art destined to be born but because the individual who brought them to life had thoughts to contemplate, consider, reflect and act upon. They had a perspective that they’ve developed over years of experiencing life and various other things that it brings along with it.
The problem with inspiration is that people get inspired by another person and blind themselves to see that, that particular person had always been pushing himself, inspiring himself, and struggled to get things into action. We tend to comfortably not see the fact that the person who is inspiring us isn’t looking out into the world for someone to inspire them to action. They get things done even when they don’t want to. It makes me feel so heavy to write that because I’m not a person who gets things done when I don’t want to. I try. I try. Then I tell myself that I’ve tried hard enough and perhaps I just need a break. The idea of a break is so comforting to the mind form any work that it takes no time to make that decision.
The problem with inspiration is that people look for it. People look for it everywhere by stopping the work they need to do. Inspiration isn’t a lost object found. It is a culmination of thoughts, that form ideas, that when they come together something new emerges. For thoughts to occur, for them to turn into ideas, you need to keep doing what you are doing. How many times did a brilliant idea walk into your mind because you sat without doing anything?
The problem with inspiration is that people feel they got inspired by a person. They don’t see that they’ve made a decision to walk up to that person, listen to that person, and understand what they are saying and let that person into their mind. There are a series of steps that an individual takes even to be inspired by something or someone. You need to take a lot of steps towards progress to be inspired to do more progress. You don’t wait for inspiration before you start.
Inspiration is like a vehicle with an empty fuel tank. You cannot wait in your home for the fuel to magically come. You need to move your ass, go out there to do what you need to do, get the fuel and feed the vehicle. When you work is when inspiration works and it takes you forward. You’re the one who’s driving. Eventually that vehicle stops, and it’s you who needs to fuel it all over again.