Dear Me,

Dear Me,

I was reading someone’s opinion on motivation being useless. I was preoccupied with this article because I feel we have very different understanding of what motivation is. I feel inspiration and motivation often interchangeable to many, but I have come to see them as separate entities (Now, keep in mind, I do call my blog motivational while often it might act as inspirational. But it is suppose to be written in the form of my own inner pep talks rather than outside influence). 

I was, not long after this, on the peripherals of a conversation that had me really chew on the differences. The specifics of the conversation were quite ordinary, in the sense that many have experienced the interaction. You run into an individual you haven’t seen for a while. They look amazing – maybe they lost weight. Maybe their skin cleared up. Maybe they just look healthy and rested and engaged with life – You, or someone you are with, comments on how great they look. Then the question comes up. You know the one. Something along the line of, “What is it you are doing right? What’s your secret?” And then they tell you. It’s often something you already know. It’s almost always rather simple (though simple doesn’t always mean easy); and, more than not, absolutely something you are capable of doing yourself. You generally know enough about their life, and if you are honest with yourself, you don’t have any excuses they also didn’t have, and yet overcame. And its something about the interaction – maybe how humble they were, how they explained it in a way that made it sound doable, how their life and your own are similar enough that you can really envision yourself in this same outcome,  maybe the timing of the whole thing with other factors in your life are ripe in this moment – whatever it is, something gave inspiration you haven’t felt in a long time. Something produced a shift.

And that is inspiration. I feel People confuse inspiration with motivation, which i define as more internal versus the external inspiration.  

And this whole tangent of thought and the interaction I participated in, remind me of what I know as the Trifecta: inspiration, aspirations and motivation

Aspiration is what I know to be one’s goals, one’s desires, the destination and outcome they aim for and move towards. Inspiration is something that ignites or triggers the desire to move towards your aspirations. It’s something you tangibly see as an external example – in others or in something around you. Now, motivation is more the internal and personal feedback. It tells you you are doing things right and to keep going that way. In S.M.A.R.T goals, I see this as the M – measurable. These are small positive results, along the way to the larger aspired result. Motivation is also the personal shifts. The changes in habits. The did-it-differently in a good way. Again, personal measurable results.

In a journey, aspiration is the destination.  Inspiration is the postcard or picture that someone has sent you; or the story told by someone who has been there; maybe the book read that took place there. Motivation is crossing off the to-do list to get you there yourself. The one step closer. It’s the way points that are reached along the journey.

And this is how I define aspiration, inspiration and motivation. To me, you could argue that inspiration is unnecessary, especially where it has perhaps never been done before or where there are no relatable inspirations. However, motivation seems part of the process to me, even a by-product of being on the right track. Motivation is necessary, and certainly not useless.

-Dear Me Original Thought

Dear Me,

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

– Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Dear Me,

Empty the cup. Let go. Release.

Dear Me,

Dear Me,

Dear Me,

what do your goals, your thoughts, your actions tell you? Are your aims finite or infinite?

Dear Me,

“Action in life can be reduced to two factors: positioning and timing. If we are not in the right place at the right time, we can not possibly take advantage of what life has to offer us. Almost anything is appropriate if an action is in accord with the time and the place. But we must be vigilant and prepared. Even if the time and the place are right we can still miss our chance if we do not notice the moment, if we act inadequately, or if we hamper ourselves with doubt and second thought. When life presents an opportunity, we must be ready to seize it without hesitation or inhibition. Position is useless without awareness. If we have both we make no mistakes

– Deng Ming-Cao

Dear Me,

Dear Me,

Buckminster Fuller has said that change is never made by fighting the existing reality. In order for real, true, and lasting change to occur, we need to build ourselves a new model that make the existing mod obsolete. What I essentially take from this is that if I want my life to change, if I want it to be different, and for the better from what it is currently is, I need to focus on how those difference I am in hard-working pursuit of, make these easily acquired comforts of today pale in comparison. I need to convince myself that the efforts required of change beat out the comforts of complacency; that the possibilities of tomorrow are a greater reward than the realities of today.

– Dear Me Original Thought