What Inspires You?

Have you ever thought? What inspires YOU? What is it that drives you day in and day out? What is it that inspires you?

We think of creative people as being inspired and ask about their work. What inspired you to paint, draw, produce this piece of work? What inspired you to make this? Usually the answer is: a book, poem, film, experience, person, a place or in Cole Porter's case the 'phone call from the director'.

Something else or someone else inspired the artist, the songwriter. But what about the person in a regular job? What inspires you?

"Inspiration is a desire to live life without flinching. To take a risk and possibly fail. To act on your emotions, creativity, ability and beliefs. To take criticism but have the faith in yourself to do it anyway. Bloody hard work, but then hard work never killed anyone (or so my Dad says). Oh, and I find foster parents inspiring. They pick up the pieces when the fundamental teachings and rules of our society fail. If I were religious I'd ask God to bless em." Carolyn Tomley (Sydney Morning Herald website).

What is it that inspires you?

You can begin to see that if nothing inspires you or excites you or lights up your life you are really missing something. You are just like a robot performing task after task. We believe that deep down you have a place where you can be touched. You have a place that is solely ours. Solely for you to show the world. Can you name it?

What inspires me, is the thought that I am more than my body. My limitations are only down to my thoughts. Thus I want to keep pushing the boundaries to find out what is there. Find out what I can communicate to the world. I am inspired by the fact that through what I do I may enable another person to open their mind. To remove the blinkers and reach their possibilities.

Julie is inspired by life. All that is around her. To Julie, inspiration is a rush of adrenalin, a rush of energy that creates a clearing in her thinking. It's that time when you see something from a different perspective and say to yourself, Why didn't see it like this before?

For Julie, inspiration is like the prisoner who says you can do whatever you like to my body but you can't touch my soul, my reason for living.

But what inspires you? What makes you go to that space where you continue to do what you do for hour after hour, when you forget the need to eat and drink. What is it that inspires you?

Some artists suggest that it is their imagination that inspires them. The need to tell the world what is going on in their heads. The links that they make. The different ways of viewing the world. After all literature, music and visual arts are all about the originator communicating with the rest of us.

So inspiration appears to be linked with the need to communicate with others. It may not be in words. But we feel it is about communication. What about you? What are you inspired to communicate?

Inspiration is linked to innovation. To introduce new ways of seeing things. Inspiration is a way of understanding the essence of ourselves. Understanding who we are and what we dream about. Whatever it is that inspires you, it is the core of your very being. So what is it?

Perhaps the role of inspiration is to wake us up from a big sleep. A sleep where everyday is the same. Where we contribute to the world but at the same time we don't contribute because there is nothing of us in there. Perhaps the role of inspiration is to get us to become involved with the world rather than be a bystander, an observer.

This was definitely the situation for Alice Foote MacDougall, an American Business woman before the second world war. Like many of her era she was driven by her husband's financial failure and the necessity of supporting her three young children.

...the opportunity offered by life to women is far in excess of any offered to men. To be the inspiration is more than to be the tool. To create the world, a greater thing than to reform it.

When we tap into whatever it is that inspires us we become a full member of society. We are able to share our ideas, thoughts and emotions. As we share and show our dreams, emotions and ideas and thoughts then we gradually become to understand the person we truly are.

So, the role of inspiration is more than we first thought. More that just a drive to action. It actually enables you to understand the very essence of yourself and what you have to offer the world.

Inspiration gives you understanding.
Inspiration gives you an identity.
Inspiration gives you a way of being.

Can you really live without knowing what inspires you?

Good luck

Graham and Julie
http://www.desktop-meditation.com

To improve your intuition, initiative and energy levels. Please go to: http://www.desktop-meditation.com It's free.

In The News:


Telegraph.co.uk

Inspirational Dorset tower saved from watery grave
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Aug 28, 2008
An historic cliff top tower that inspired the authors Thomas Hardy and PD James has reopened after being rebuilt 80ft further inland to stop it tumbling ...

Friday, August 29 - Teachers Hear Inspirational Messages
The Dispatch, MD - 22 hours ago
By Cara Dahl, Staff Writer BERLIN – At the annual Worcester County public schools opening teachers meeting this week, which usually resembles a pep rally, ...

Something inspirational from the mind of a geek guru
MyADSL, South Africa - 4 hours ago
It is easy to go through life I imagine without really meeting up with the truths of it. It is almost as if mankind’s collective memory is extremely limited ...

Fall Convocation offers break from classes, free inspirational book
Waltonian, PA - 5 hours ago
This Friday marks Eastern's annual Fall Convocation in the main gym from 10 to 11:30 am, causing the cancellation of all 11 am classes. ...

New York Daily News

World Watches as Obama Makes History
Voice of America - 10 hours ago
One woman in China, who gives her name as Mrs. Zhao, tells VOA she thinks Obama is inspirational. He's young she says, and "when he speaks he's really able ...
Video: Obama: America, get ready for wars RussiaToday
NY Times Now Links Obama With Martin Luther King, Jr. Stop the ACLU
all 471 news articles

Wall Street Journal

ERIN NEFF: The inspirational Michelle Obama
Las Vegas Review - Journal, NV - Aug 28, 2008
Yet when you have a chance to talk with Michelle Obama in person, it isn't what makes her exceptional that stands out. Yes, she is the first black woman ...
Video: Mission accomplished for Michelle Obama france24english
Graphic: Wordle.net Wired News
Michelle Obama’s speech and US expectations of a first lady Christian Science Monitor
The Columbian - Denver Postall 947 news articles

Obama speech stirs enthusiasm in Lubbock Democrats
LubbockOnline.com, TX - 19 hours ago
"I just believe it's going to be incredibly inspirational." Looking for a message of hope, Weninger said she expected Obama's speech to be everything ...
Obama's Acceptance Speech Hit Some High Notes, but His Themes Won ... U.S. News & World Report
The Best Defense Is A Strong Offense CBS News
Soaring speech from Obama, plus some specifics Christian Science Monitor
Arizona Republic - Washington Postall 2,908 news articles

Urwin memorial salutes inspirational figure
Radio New Zealand International, New Zealand - Aug 27, 2008
The late former secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum, Greg Urwin, has been farewelled in a memorial service at the Forum Secretariat in Suva ...

Inspirational Stewart is leading Hearts forward
Scotsman, United Kingdom - Aug 25, 2008
By GEORGE FOULKES EVERY team needs leaders. Players who will run themselves into the ground, dig deep when backs are up against the wall. ...

Fermanagh Herald

Ethiopian lady tells her inspirational story
Fermanagh Herald, UK - Aug 27, 2008
A truly inspirational figure was the guest of a well-known Enniskillen lady this week. Ethiopian lady, Tebereh Wolde-Gabriel, is the founder of the charity ...
inspirational - Google News

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