Motivation vs Inspiration
December 17, 2009 by Akemi
Motivation and inspiration are two words that are often used interchangeably. However, there is a fundamental difference, and understanding this difference makes a whole lot difference in the quality of your life. (Photo credit)
Motivation is based on lack
Motivation is what you feel when you hit the bottom. Or when you hear a motivational speaker talk about how he doubled his income by practicing his success principles. It’s based on lack. You seek out something you don’t possess. That is, your thinking mind seeks out what it thinks missing in you.
So when you are motivated, you are driven to work hard. For a while, this is great. But soon, you run out of gas. The stress of pressuring yourself to be someone you are not wears you out. This is why few people succeed with motivation in the long run.
It doesn’t mean your willpower is weak. Motivation has innate problems. If you intuitively felt weary or even depressed at motivational arts (you know, like the photo of a climber with the word “Success” or “Persistence”) or felt uncomfortable with motivation speeches and slogans, you are not alone and you are quite keen at sensing some lies.
Motivation is more or less manipulative. Many organizations and their managers use motivation to push people to their goals, not their own.
Inspiration is based on our innate power
Inspiration, on the other hand, is what you feel when you read something that deeply resonates within you. You might also feel inspired with music, arts, or being in nature. I’m talking about the kind of writing, music, and arts that remind you who you really are on the soul level. Or you may be inspired when you are in love. It’s based on our innate power.
We are essentially the soul in the body. But we often forget this. This physical world is full of distractions, and there are various peer pressures to stay in the social circles based on materialism. Deep down, however, we never forget who we really are. And this sense of self realization comes to surface when we experience something as beautiful as we knew in the spiritual world. This is inspiration.
When you are inspired, you feel empowered. You are becoming who you really are, so there is no manipulative pressure. Instead there is expansive joy. This soul level joy continues as long as you stay inspired, and losing this inspiration is the last thing you want. Unfortunately, we still do lose our inspiration — again, this physical world is very distracting — but even when you do, the experience leaves you feeling warm inside.
Motivation and inspiration in the real world
Not many people use these two words with clear consciousness, so you need to be your own authority to tell which is which. Just because a book says it’s “inspirational” doesn’t mean it is — it may be motivational.
For instance, I happened to see an “inspirational” website that said, “This is your second act…your chance to live large so that you don’t wake up one morning, decades too late, wondering what the hell just happened.” Do you see how it uses the fear tactic and sense of lack to get people to action? I call this motivational. A bad one at that — I don’t like the age discrimination it’s based on.
The example of inspirational resource is hard to quote because each person is different so each person finds different things to be inspiring. For me, Marianne Williamson’s following quote has been super inspirational. As I wrote in my eBook, it changed my life:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
What inspires you? And have you been driven unduly by motivation? Please share in the comment. Thank you.
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“Decades too late” Wow! That really resonates with me.
I like the distinction you have drawn here between Motivation and Inspiration. Both are necessary IMO. And both are wells from which we need to draw from continuously, but both need to be allowed to recharge.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Static Versus Dynamic Websites – Operational, Informational, Interactional =-.
Dave,
If you like that kind of so called kick-ass motivation, that’s fine. Just be sure what you are doing, like I discussed in my recent post about the Ultimate Productivity Tip.
When I am motivated it’s usually because I’m trying to please someone whereas being inspired is divine and authentic.
Debi,
Exactly. You are afraid of losing that person (=potential lack), so you are motivated to please them. Being inspired is different — it’s indeed “divine and authentic”.
Hi Akemi – this is an amazing post. I had never really thought about this before – I guess some of the stuff that does claim to be inspirational is motivational.
I can resonate with feeling warn out by being motivated by other people’s goals. When I was a Rainbow franchisee – they really emphasised turnover. They didn’t really care if our profits were good so long as our turnover was high – as they took 11% of that figire.
So for a long time – my sole motivation was their goal. I outperformed the targets they set me – even trebling turnover one year. Then I finally realized the goal was meaningless and pointless to me – I was just chasing meaningless numbers.
I finally realised inspiration is more important and I will never solely use financial goals again.
BTW – I love that Marianne Williamson quote – I think I will use it as a screensaver.
Cath,
Exactly. And because you read my ultimate productivity tip, too, you see how these two issues are related. Be inspired, and do what matters to you, not someone else.
I made this Marianne Williamson quote to a PC wallpaper and memorized it by reading it every morning. It really made a difference in my life.
Hi Akemi, I like this distinction and can see how both operate in my life, but it does feel like both are needed…for example, inspiration drives me to teach and drives the decision I make about what to teach, and drove me to blog, etc. but sometimes I don’t feel like doing it, and I do have to ‘fall back’ on motivation to get through the dips and valleys…does that make sense? Perhaps I am mistaking just plain old will power for what you are calling motivation, i.e. when in service to a long term ‘inspired’ goal you have to slog through a difficult or uninspired period. I guess I view it as part of working through opposition…
.-= Lisa (mommymystic)´s last blog ..Spiritual Processing,Transits and Empowerments =-.
Hi Akemi – I have never thought about the distinction between motivation and inspiration like this before. What this made me think of is the thin line between pushing yourself to do things that you don’t really want to do, and being consistent with the things you love to do. I have certainly been in positions where I had to motivate myself to do things, because I really didn’t want to do them, and I should have listened to myself more. On the other hand, there have been times when I need to remind myself to be consistent doing things I love (like writing) when I might feel like doing something else. Either way, I now have soemthing to think about. Thanks.
Lisa,
“when in service to a long term ‘inspired’ goal you have to slog through a difficult or uninspired period”
Haha, that’s an interesting way to put it. I know what you mean. It takes some time to manifest things in this physical world, and inspiration can wear off. As long as you know what you are doing — that you are putting your energy into something that matters to you — using a bit of motivation is fine, I guess.
Hi Amanda,
Right. We certainly don’t want to be lazy, doing only things we “feel like” doing. We need a level of discipline. But I just hope the whole discipline to follow through things is based on one’s own inspiration, not on a motivation that was sold to them.
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