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Inspiration is like dog manure—it could be a good fertilizer, but overall, is not the best of ideas.

Inspiration has become such a corrupted word. Get inspired, feel inspired, be inspired, inspire others, inspire away to inspirations that inspire.

I know it sounds crazy; that is exactly my point.

Let us start at the beginning of this. What is inspiration? The dictionary says: “The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.”

This sounds okay, but my question here is: why do we rely so much on feeling inspired? Why?

Inspiration is that cute aha moment when things are clear in our minds or hearts, we have certainty, and we act upon this feeling. The problem with this is we don’t usually have these “aha moments” all the time.

Here we are inside the blooming and evergreen magical forest, waiting for the fireflies to show us the way through the darkness. It sounds cute, but how many times does this actually happen? Whatever we want to do, write, exercise, meditate, paint, read, or whatever requires effort and self-reflection.

Effort versus trying.

Sitting down to see if we feel like writing is again scratching the surface; it is easy to ask ourselves: okay, what is in my mind, what do I feel inspired to write about? And if no answers come, then we might give up and think there is nothing we should write about.

But wait, this is where it becomes so interesting. So we scratched the surface and nothing—no thoughts. Now, commitment shows up.

Why should I do this?

Like, I know exercise is good for me and I know that only through practice I will get better—so I give the need for inspiration a kiss goodbye.

What is left when we have nothing left? When they are no ideas on the surface, then we have to roll up our sleeves and search deeper.

Yes, we might have moments where things come naturally to our minds, and this is great! But we can look at the rest of it as opportunities to learn. If everything was easy, would there be any space for growth?

>> Choose commitment and discipline over inspiration. They are not seasonal; they can be your companions every single day.

>> Inspiration is like going to the park to exercise and realizing once you are there that you’d rather not, but at least you showed up. Well, if you already showed up, you might as well do it.

>> Wishing to feel inspired is unreliable; you cannot trust inspiration to make you do things. It is an unstable surface to stand upon.

>> You feel uninspired; this is great! Now you have all the space to dig the dirt and to sweep the fluff out and see what is laying inside.

>> Inspiration can be the equivalent of a toxic friend; it only shows up when it feels like it—not when you in fact need it.

>> Let’s not forget that growth lives inside all those little but continuous efforts we make; sometimes it is not what we do, but showing up to do it, that adds up.

What if we feel totally like a brainless worm, with no ideas, and by us actively searching for material or subjects to write about we become inspired?

Here I am uninspiredly writing about being inspired, when in fact I didn’t feel like writing at all.

Like Waylon Lewis says: walk the talk.

So here I am offering you my walk today.

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