"Grind it out for next 30 or 40 years, so you can make enough money to pay your bills and retire comfortably when it's all over."  

How appealing is that?  How does that make you feel in the pit of your stomach?

 

It completely creeps me out, and yet, how many people start out with enthusiasm and a vision of a fun and rewarding career only to end up falling into "the daily grind"?  And then the years pass relentlessly by.

 

The truth is success in business depends as much on inspiration and periodic re-invention as it does on working long and hard or systematically executing a business plan.  It's all about energy, the energy we get from fresh ideas, the excitement of the new, the thrill of possibility.  It's what pumps us up, gets us going, and keeps us moving forward.  It's what makes our work fun and enlivening, rather than dull and draining.

 

Without inspiration, there's no energy.  Without energy, there's no joy.  Without joy, what's the point?  Your business becomes nothing more than a money-making venture.  That isn't reward enough for most of us.  We want our work to be fulfilling.  We want it to be satisfying.  We want it to be life-affirming.

As coaches, a big part of our job is to inspire our clients.  Well, you can't give away what you don't have.  If we aren't infused with the spirit, how can we expect to inspire our clients?  And no matter what profession you're in, there's no hiding it when you're just "phoning it in."  People can tell when you're fully engaged and energized and when you're not, and they want that spark in their service providers.

So, staying inspired is important, but how do you do it?  Where do you find your inspiration?

It's going to be different for different people, of course, but I'd like to offer just a few thoughts on where I, personally, find inspiration. 

There's a physical side to this too.  One of the symptoms of depression is lethargy.  By contrast, inspiration expresses itself through activity.  I find that exercising in a way where I'm breathing in forcefully keeps my mind open, active, and creative.  All sorts of great ideas pop up when I'm literally breathing it all in.
 

Makes sense.  The word inspiration is, after all, synonymous with breathing in.

 

Does all this take time out from an already busy schedule?  It sure does.  But what it takes time away from is "the grind."  That's critical for me, because I'm not a creative type by nature.  I'm a very linear thinker and very methodical.  I'm great at taking an idea, figuring out how to implement it, and getting results.  I'm a grinder by nature.  So, I have to consciously make time to break away, to hang out with creative types, to expose myself to new ideas, and just think for the sake of thinking.