Motivation or Inspiration?

“Good morning how is it going this morning?” I asked. “I am dragging, so I am headed to the coffee shop to get some motivation” the man replied.

He was referring to a shot of caffeine to Kick start his day. This is our subject for today — Motivation or inspiration – what is the difference and which one do we need?

Perhaps you got lost in the woods you become motivated out of fear to find your way out. It could be you have a loved one that has pain or heart attacks or something to that effect and it causes you to become motivated to get an ambulance, to get them Medical Care, to put them in the car and take them to the hospital!

Then You have Motivation that comes from Desire…

You know the, “I want syndrome …”  I want a house … I want a car or the truck … I want my bills paid off. It is my personal opinion that we really do not want to be motivated by fear because that is a negative motivation.

We don't want to have a gun put her head … we do not want to be lost in the woods and we don't want loved ones to have pain or heart attacks or any such thing! 

No … we want  the desire type motivation We want the motivators to come that have a good nature, a good moral attitude, and doing right! Doing the things that are correct. We want the desire that says, help others, teach others to do a better job,  be in line to be better at our job or in our relationships with their family or friends. We want the positive motivation.   

Renew Your Motivation

Now here is a thing about motivation, it has to be renewed everyday. I mean every day, day after day after day. Because being motivated is the kick in the butt!  It is the kick starter that gets you going!

It's like if you have a motorcycle, it has this little lever on the side of the engine with a peg on it to crank that motorcycle.

Sometimes you have to press down on that peg kind of hard, and it's called a Kick starter. Once you get the engine cranked up then it takes off.  But you got to get it started!

But motivation is not what keeps you going my friends. No it’s not …. what keeps you going is your WHY.   Your “why” is like the fuel in that motorcycle you just got kick-started. It is like the fuel feeding the engine of that motorcycle that keeps it running.

Let's think of it in another way … and I got this from a guy by the name of JT Debolt and he says, “Why do we search the internet for motivation … or go to others and say I need some motivation today can you motivate me?” And he says, “I tell them no.  First of all that's not my job and second that something you need to find within yourself.” He says the reason is …

Motivation is Dessert

Motivation is like dessert, this past Sunday I went to Ruby Tuesday's with some friends and they had a special going on for $12. You got an — all you can eat salad bar and entree and then a dessert.  I got the salad bar which was very good! I ordered a petite sirloin steak with broccoli and green beans for the sides. For the dessert I ordered what they called a Goblet Chocolate Sundae.

You would think that the dessert would be the smallest portion that they would bring to you, right? But that was not the case … this came in a goblet!  

It looked  like what Vikings used to drink out of … it was full of ice cream, chocolate cake and whipped cream on top.

But now here's a question … which part of that meal could keep my body running the longest? The desert or the salad bar and the steak? Of course anybody with any sense would say the steak, green beans and the salad bar.  

First because the desert has no nutritional value.   Second, it disappears within a couple of hours or  sooner. So what you get this really high burst of energy!  A sugar high …  a Kick starter. Then it lets you down … all the way to the bottom.

This is why he says motivation is like a dessert. Because you have to have it everyday to continue being lifted up. So this is what motivation is — a sugar rush.

Inspiration

Now inspiration on the other hand is this steak dinner and green things that come from the salad bar that continuously feeds your body to keep it going. So in the simplest form inspiration is your WHY you're doing something.

Inspiration is something that you get that is inside of you. It is that reason when you wake up in the mornings you get out of bed. Because of the WHY! You're not motivated when you wake up, but you get up because you have to go and you want to go to make a living, to feed your children, to pay your bills, to help your neighbors!

Your why is what is with you all day.  It is the steak and beans. Sometimes we get this inspiration whenever we hear somebody tell us their story.  And, I say “sometimes” we get that because not everybody’s story that we hear resonates with us.

And that's the key … is when you hear somebody’s story and it resonates with you … you put yourself into that story. You can feel their pain! You can see what they've done.  You can see more importantly, what you can do that they did that can help you get out of your situation or get you to a point that you are striving to make your life better.

Inspiration is like a picture that I saw and all the picture was black and white.  And it was Vikings or slaves and they were rowing on each side of the boat with these big oars.  Rowing to make this big Viking ship go across the ocean.

But then on one side of this picture, like on the inside row was a picture of a woman in color so that she stood out from the rest of them.   The idea was she had put herself into that story.  She was participating in that event because she was resonating with what was going on.

Resonate with someone

I have a mentor, a coach, and I resonate with him.  That is he is doing something that I want to do.   He is working his job and doing part-time marketing in fact you can find him Dr. Bob Clark part-time master.

Because he works a full-time job just like I do 8 and 10 hours a day and you have to find time to get your business work done and he has figured that out. I put myself in his story when I heard it and I said, “Baxter you can do that!”

My WHY is exactly the same thing (at least some of it) as his is … it is to be able to retire on my own terms … when I want to … if I want to. But not only that, his life has become to help others do the same thing.

My natural personality is that of one that wants to help others succeed. Help others learn, help them change their life so we fit very well together from my point of view.  Now he may or may not feel the same but he's sharing with me what he does and what works for him and I am inspired by that.

Because of that, I Rise up every morning and start with the thought in mind to  get in a little bit of work here a little bit of work there.   I have my WHY before me all day and night and I must get it done.  

Which is better -motivation or inspiration.

Ok, let’s go answer the question, which is better motivation or inspiration? I say, that you need both of them. I put up a Facebook post and the quote was, “motivation gets you going, but habits keep you going.”  I changed the post to say “and habits keep you going.” Because we do need habits.  

We are creatures of habit.  If we don't have habits, let me say it like this … if we don't have good habits then we have bad habits.  We want good habits because we're trying to move ahead.

There was another saying, and I do not remember who said it, but it goes something like this … “Bad habits are easy to develop but difficult to live with – Good habits are difficult to develop but easy to live with.”

Searching for motivation everyday, to keep yourself going is a difficult thing to live with.  Because no matter how much you like a motivation it's just like the sweets,  — that if you ate only sweets, after while it would make you sick.  

After a while your body would quit because there is no nutritional value there. Whereas if you know your “WHY”, if you feed that one “why you do something” then you're going to drive forward much faster much stronger.

When the storms come in and blows everything down you're the one who rises up from the destruction and continues on because your why is there. Your why has been fed the nutrition that it needs to keep you moving forward.

If you only have motivation to drive you, when you can no longer find motivation then you quit. My friends, in business being an entrepreneur or a solopreneur is not an easy job. It is not for everybody!

Now I'm not saying that you can't learn it or that you can't do it.  Because it is not that difficult as far as the technical things that you should do, anybody can learn that. But it's like the Sales profession, every year in the sales industry people are to go out and to meet people face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and knee-to-knee.  It’s said that ⅓  comes, in ⅓  goes out, and ⅓  stays because selling is an exhausting work!

It is a work where you can write your own paycheck once you learn how to get through the sticking points.  You can get through the sticking points if your “why” is strong enough, if your inspiration is pulling you.

Summary

Motivation or Inspiration? Both! Be Inspired to become the best you can to create your “why” into reality. Feed your soul, your mind and your emotions with the nutritious, positive things that will help you through the day.  

Each and everyday look in the mirror and tell yourself WHY. Use the motivation as a kick starter.  Sometimes the battery is weak on a motorcycle and you kick start it.

Sometimes you are a little sluggish, a bad meeting, rejection, low support, get a kick starter. A little “eye of the tiger” music – (from Rocky) Help some one so you feel good about yourself then get back at it.  Do not use motivation as a continuous diet.

My friend if you have found value in this please leave a comment in the comments section below, and if you  share this with some one who can benefit also.

To your success

Baxter Cribbs

A great place to get Movtivation or Inspiration can be found here