As I promised in the October blog, let’s see how we can begin breaking away from the comparison competition and how we can start a new, refreshing way of looking at things!

Even a few years ago, after nearly 30 years of coaching, I was against doing anything that involved the masses in terms of coaching practices. I believed that whatever I could tell to a group via the available social media platforms, would be completely useless for any given individual. I always justified staying away from reaching out towards the masses because, for example, I thought if I talked about nutrition in general to the masses, how could an Inuit, a Samoan or a Bantu (just to mention a few) benefit from any of my words – after all, they all should be eating drastically differently.

Then a dear friend pointed out to me that maybe I should be thinking about working with mass audiences somewhat differently. Perhaps the reason for opening up a conversation between me, as a coach, and masses of strangers was more about providing them with INSPIRATION rather than exact tools. Perhaps a good Newsletter, a well-constructed Vlog or Blog, could inspire someone I don’t know to become more curious about their own self-development. This is the reason I started to turn my attention, more regularly, towards these types of tools – you are actually now reading one of these very things I am referring to.

There are too many jaded people today who walk around not believing that they could make a drastic change in their lives not just physically, but also emotionally, professionally and financially. Inspiration could serve as the first real big push towards any new direction.
Most of the time getting rolling towards a new direction is one of the biggest hurdles that one must pass in order to start experiencing life differently from what they already know.

Writers, artists, and other creators commonly emphasize the importance of inspiration in their process of creating. Despite this, until recently, scientists have given little attention to inspiration and the general outlook on inspiration remained as ‘an emotion useful only for athletes and artists’.
The general preconception is that inspiration is less important than “perspiration” (effort), but finally, in the recent past, some solid empirical evidence became available that inspiration and effort both play important—but different—roles in any change, improvement, process and learning.

If you want to embark on anything new (by definition) you will need to experience things differently than before. When someone consciously takes charge of their new direction and they succeed, when they look back on how they achieved their goal they often become aware of the important role of INSPIRATION. Inspiration is most often the first step in starting something new.

Just think about your own past experiences. Any time you have ever succeeded in making a change you had some inspiration that started the process. Often, when there is only the will to make a change without enough inspiration, the individual loses interest to follow up on setting out the change before they succeed.

Without efficient amount of inspiration, it might be difficult to get motivated to make a move in changing any parts of our lifestyles; let it be health, relationships or career related changes.

But how much inspiration is ‘enough’ to propel you into motivation?
There are individual differences in the tendency to experience the state of inspiration. We can use our own INSPIRATION SCALE: a scale of 1 to10.
Think of the inspiration you get when you watch a sporting event, or a good movie, and take that as Level 1. Now think of the moment when you were the most inspired in your life and take that as your Level 10 on your personal Inspiration Scale.
Unless you experience the level of inspiration of 3 or 4 you will not make a move towards an action of change. Your Inspiration Scale always starts from Level 1 and you must move yourself up on the scale gradually to reach the critical point of ‘enough’ inspiration, that goal of Level 3 or 4.

Let’s say you watched a sporting event that you enjoyed (you are at Level 1), if you don’t follow that up with more inspiration then nothing happens. But, in the case you start thinking about ‘how great it would be’ to – for example – do that specific sport yourself and start setting up scenarios in your mind ‘how that could change your life’, help you to reach your health-related goals, and connect you to interesting people, you might find yourself reaching the critical level of inspiration (Level 3 or 4) that motivates you to start planning how you will begin practicing that new given sport yourself.

Inspiration doesn’t only help you to get healthier, but it can help you in many other ways; having a better conversation, making a tastier sandwich in the morning, picking your next holiday destination – just to mention a few.
And -for example- when you find a way to honestly inspire yourself about the person you are meeting with, the meeting will have a much more favorable outcome.
The key is to have honest inspiration! Otherwise, you might feel like a cheap car sales person. That is what I used to think of people who were talking to the masses until I realized that the INSPIRATION they provided might have been more important than any important piece of knowledge they could be exposed to. First inspiration is needed for the knowledge to properly resonate so, as a result, the individual could swing into action.

I promised in my September blog entry that I would provide some ideas on how to discharge Negative Thoughts. Though there are several well proven Negative Thought Cultivation Methods, INSPIRATION could serve as a good one.
When you know what, who and how you can be inspired, you can disrupt any recurring negative thoughts by switching your focus onto those INSPIRATIONAL images, articles, podcasts, vlogs, and blogs, right away.

Spend more time on truly INSPIRATIONAL subjects as your first serious step to create the life you are dreaming to live.