Inspiration

Many of us know this word. Recently while talking to one of my guest, it made me think about the question "What inspires me" or rather "What inspires us [people]"?

Lets think about this. If we look for a formal definition, inspiration is nothing but "the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative", "a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea." I think all of us, lot more times get inspired. Just right now if I think about it, I am inspired by my guest on my "SoLeadSaturday Show" and thought about writing a blog on an "Inspiration".

If we see the famous inspiration story of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism who later became known as “the Buddha." What inspired him? One day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening) Siddhartha became deeply absorbed in meditation, and reflected on his experience of life, determined to penetrate its truth. He finally achieved Enlightenment and became the Buddha.  

Lot of times when we see people doing great for themselves, irrespective of obstacles, ups and downs in their career/life, irrespective of whether they get enough family support or not, enough financial support or not, enough community support or not, we get inspired. We see these common qualities in those inspirational people  - "Positive Attitude", "Hardworking", "Committed", "Not afraid of starting new from the zero" and basically the true "Leaders", as I believe a person who can handle their life or a career well by themselves are in a way leader in their life/career. And automatically it is hard for other people to resist themselves from not following such people.

Sometimes, my followers message me on social media platforms saying - "You are so inspiring", the best compliment anybody can have I feel as if you are able to bring any person out of his/her own limitations and make them do more, isn't it a kind of a blessing? Obviously, I didn't achieve that much in my life/career yet but certainly it gives me more motivation or boost to do more, in a way appreciation also counts towards more motivation and which in turn pulls the Inspiration along with.

As I am very curious to know what makes any leader inspirational, came across a blog which states "Many senior leaders expect employees to follow them because of their title, their company ownership, or their place in the organization's hierarchy. And many employees do follow a leader for these reasons. But that doesn't mean the leader inspires their best work, support, and contribution. Instead leaders Action, Passion, Vision, Integrity and Trust, ability to give people what they want within their capabilities make them more inspirational". So true isn't it?

But why does this happen that people need some kind of an example to get inspired, kind of pull energy?  Basically it is not willed, it just happens. In one of the Harvard business Review articles it is mentioned that, "Inspiration is best thought of as a surprising interaction between your current knowledge and the information you receive from the world. " I think thats the best way of looking into it. As when you exchange the ideas/thoughts/information it happens sometimes that you just feel inspired and come up with an idea. 

What do you think? When do you feel inspired? Do you have any story to share? Do let me know, I would be happy to hear it from you.

Until we meet, Happy leading and Let's lead together. Stay safe. Bye for now.