You're the Inspiration, I Wanna Have You Near Me...

Finding inspiration. You probably find it a lot. It comes, it's big, it's overwhelming, it gets you up off your duff, moving and doing and excited! It's so wonderful!

It's so gone a few days later, sometimes faster.

So what happened? Well, this kind of lift is caused by dopamine, and unless you want to run around finding new, exciting experiences every single day, you'll probably need to settle for a more subtle form of inspiration-- motivation.

Again, this is going to seem like a completely obvious thing, but the way to make changes is to either get inspired repeatedly, or to continually remain motivated. So if you find something that motivates you, keep going back to it!

Re-read books that have inspired you. You won't be getting the same rush of dopamine, most likely, but that doesn't mean it won't continue to motivate you. See, one thing that I've discovered with a lot of people is that they read a book or a site, and they think that's it. They've learned and gotten all the use out of it that they're going to...

They expect reading each post on this blog once, for example, is all they need. Now they know the information, and they're done.

But if you will keep going back to that book or to that site that inspired you, it will be a source of motivation. Don't go on to the next thing, until you've given something that inspired you a REAL effort.

Don't read it and discard it, try what it says for a week or two, and then move on. Because inspiration is just your soul's way of saying, "This is a key to change! Stick with this!"

We often don't stick with it, though. We don't continue to revisit it. We take the inspiration and think that inspiration is what changes us.

What changes us is actually persistence and motivation.

That's how we create habits, through persistence. Very, very, very rare is the thing that can inspire us to lasting change. Why, because it's not something we need to do? Because it's not inspiring and worthy of changing us?

No... because we don't stick with it.

I don't care who or what it is, very few to no things are going to change you. Nothing you hear or read is going to create lasting change...

Unless you PRACTICE it!

What is practice? Practice is persistence in action.

Thomas Alva Edison said: "Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration."

This is a guy who made THOUSANDS of failed light bulbs before he got ONE working model. I think this fellow knew a bit about persistence, huh?

Follow Edison's example by choosing motivation. Read and re-read. If it inspired you, re-read it and let it motivate you.

There isn't going to be a book or site that changes you. The responsibility for changing you is yours, and yours alone. And 90% of that work will be persistence. Create habits by sticking with it.

Just as Edison didn't create the light bulb on the first try, you won't create permanent changes in your life on the first try. So keep going back to the sources of inspiration over and over again. Keep going back until they're dog-eared and floppy and you can barely keep them together with a rubber band. Make them your homepage.

What inspires is your soul's call to utilize it for motivation. Motivation is the slow burn compared to the brilliant blaze of inspiration. You need motivation to support persistence.

I hear all these stories of people who were changed by going to this or that seminar, etc. But at the end of the day, every person I know who made real, lasting, powerful changes in their life changed their habits.

Habits of action, and habits of thinking.

You change habits through persistence.

You might find other ways, faster ways to change. That's fantastic!

But you can definitely, no doubt, for sure, rely on persistence to change yourself. It's a sure thing, it's free, and it's always available to you. If your answer is, "yeah, but I'm not persistent," then that's where motivation comes in. Get motivated by returning to the places or books that inspired you.

You may have learned all you needed to from it, but now it's time to practice it. A daily read of it reminds you to persist in it. Putting it down and walking away doesn't remind you of anything.

Re-Mind yourself right now of the things that inspired you.

~ Livin' the Rhythm with Kimberly Weston