Motivation is a word that gets thrown about a fair bit. We often hear of someone needing motivation when they are down, not feeling excited at work and so on.
Here’s the problem. Motivation is extrinsic. It’s like taking a bath and expecting to have clarity on the inside.
If we’re feeling low energy or unable to find a reason to wake up in the morning, motivation ain’t going to help. Inspiration is.
We often keep pushing motivation on people – great books, great movies and the like. I’ve done so myself more times than I can count. But, of late, I’ve realized that trying to motivate someone who is not inspired is like giving the a car a wash on the outside and expecting it to be clean on the inside.
The difference between motivation and inspiration is pretty stark. Motivation is answer thinking while inspiration tends to be more question thinking. When we seek to motivate ourselves, we ask for or throw answers – this book, that movie, that audio and so on. When we seek inspiration, we ask ourselves questions – why is this happening, why am I not feeling a sense of purpose, what can I do to inject that sense of purpose, how can I be happy etc.
Attempting to find motivation is easy. Attempting to find inspiration demands more thought, more effort and more work.
Like staying fit through regular exercise vs going on crazy diets. Like learning by reading books vs scanning the newspaper.
Maybe that’s why we prefer finding ways to avoiding it.
A Learning a Day 