Sep 24, 2022
The best way to hit the target of our life is to AIM, right?
“Every hour, focus your mind attentively on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence, and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts. You will achieve this if you perform each action as if it were your last.”
What is our best source of inspiration?
How do we fuel our motivation?
What actions are we taking daily?
I love quotes. I love reading personnel development books. I love stories well told. If you have been there, you can understand that boost of adrenaline.
It always starts the same way. I connect. I relate. I am inspired. I feel like I can lift a thousand pounds. Then it kicks in.
It starts knocking at the door of my brain. I am not ready yet. I am still inspired. I am not ready yet for you.
Yes, you, Motivation! I am talking to you. Give me more time to get more inspired. Now I can feel you in my blood. I can feel oxygenated in theory. I can see the plan unfold.
I can trace back every single step until the next stop. In front of me is a massive door. I am impressed by the letter carved on it a thousand years ago. I am already sweating. I can feel the blood in my tears as I am trying to push the gates.
Yet I am already depleted. I have given it all before the real action starts.
That happens to me every year with new resolutions. That happens to me each winter when my mind pledges to my body the summer shape. Each time my mouth begs to differ.
That is my “piece de resistance.” It is tasty. I cannot resist the Candy shop. It only cost 50 Cents, nothing less than I could afford.
I have been trapped in that loop for so long. I fall for it each time. Be it climate change, mowing the lawn, or elevating my Youtube game, those three guys always trap me: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Please have some spaghetti. Welcome to Westeros!
The Good is Inspiration. The Bad is Motivation. The Ugly is Action. Like the Bermuda Triangle, ships of hope, aircraft full of potential crafts, everything disappeared through the lightness of that dark triangle.
I often ask myself why I always fell for it each time:
Why can’t I resist that spell that always drives me into hell?
When I look at each of them separately, they are not dangerous at all.
Who’s Bad, then?
I might be a victim of their disorder. I might need to put my things in order.
Is it too late to change?
THE GOOD OLD INSPIRATION — Inspiration is not inherently that wrong or that old. We all have been inspired to change the world. We all have been inspired to change our world. So many stories inspired so many changes in our lives.
Inspiration is the flickering spark of light we see in others that reflects within our mind’s mirror. It ignites our birthright to be kind to ourselves and others.
Yet it is just that: a sparkling light in a water bubble deep in our mind.
THE BAD FASHIONED MOTIVATION — Motivation is a false friend. Yes, by definition, it translates into a move to action. But there is a catch. Often motivation solely is just a mirage to action. It is just a reflection on a hot road of all the images of what we could have been if we had gone beyond the premises of motivation itself.
Motivation is that mirror with a minor crack. That small opening is both invisible and powerful because it depletes us of our leitmotiv to act.
THE TRULY UGLY ACTION — Action is that friend that tells us what we don’t want to hear. Action is the other edge opposite our fears. Action is the burning candle we need to hold firmly to bring light into our lives.
Action is that burning fire that cleans the soil of our souls. Action is that violent kiss that shatters the love of our dreams. Action is what we need to bleed out to be able to breed the best from within.
We all love those three superpowers taken separately. Inspiration, motivation, and action are the three best ingredients to reach the next level in our lives.
Once we face that, we already know the answer. We can no longer let Ratatouille pull the strings in our heads. We can be our Chef.
Once we understand that it is all about the recipe, we can let go of the shadows we cast on the ingredients. These ingredients are no dark knights. Instead, they are part of a trilogy that can make us rise from the ashes. We just need to begin learning how to set them in the proper order. Because, contrary to the universe, entropy has no place in the trilogy of the Bad, the Good, and the Ugly!
Order, Order, Order!
To build the suitable nectar, we need to AIM at the proper recipe:
- A, as Action: Start with Action,
- I as Inspiration: Add Inspiration,
- M as Motivation: Finish with Motivation.
In every endeavor in our life, we must start with action, no matter how small. We will fail first. We will fail fast. We will fail early.
As we do, we will find inspiration to do more. We will inspire others to do more and be more. We can refill our inspiration buckets with the small actions we do daily.
Then the right kind of motivation will hit this time. As we feel the steam of our inspiration, the power of our actions, motivation is that plasma of the ultimate superpower. We become the ultimate supernova sublimating all our dilemmas into stardust.
Aiming right is key to getting things done. We suffer more in theory than in reality. Often we suffer twice, first in our mind, then in reality. That is the reason why starting with action is paramount.
When we act, we are not sitting on the sidelines of our life, theorizing how things should be. Instead, we are in the arena battling the enemies from within.
We must focus on how we can act: be in climate change, mowing the lawn, getting our dream job.
Action kills fears, always.
And many of us have been victims of bullies. Some of us have external bullies that we can pinpoint with the tip of our fingers. Most of us are our own invisible bullies. We sail with inspiration in mind. That is a wind that fades away very quickly. Then we are lost and drawn into the ocean of our motivation.
Each objective we have in life can be likened to an atom. At its cores, there is action as the nucleus. Inspiration is that electron wandering around. Motivation is that electromagnetic force holding them together.
When seen like that, we can understand why trying to ride life in an electron is seductive yet very elusive.
Once I stop blaming the ingredients, I become the best cook in my life. I always try first. Then I see that the Good, Bad and Ugly are just the projections of my fears into the ingredients.
I have liberated myself from my Ratatouille, and now I am my Ratatouille in Chief.
A Table!
If you find this newsletter of any value to you, please like it, subscribe and share it with one person to pay it forward.
#Dare2Care #Dare2Share
#BIOS #BringInyourOwnSoul #LeadHeartship #Leadership
You can read my previous article on How to change our world in 3 simple steps? (Friendly link)
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
