#Middlebury
Winning Ways
By Pat Iannuzzi
An inspiration is a sudden, unexpected motivation to do something that we have not focused on doing before. It involves a process of being mentally and emotionally stimulated by some event or circumstance to the degree that it causes us to want to engage in an activity which, at the moment of inspiration, seems like a most appealing, fulfilling and logical undertaking. An inspiration generates an eagerness to engage in a particular behavior or activity because we perceive that it will generate benefit to oneself or others.
An inspiration is not simply an idea. An idea is a thought related to a potential action. It doesn’t necessarily cause us to want to do anything. An inspiration, on the other hand, drives us to want to take action on the idea. An idea will likely always remain there within us even if we don’t act on it, but an inspiration can be fleeting or may never take hold within us at all.
Inspirations definitely have a shelf life. An inspiration is an amazing feeling. It can arrive in many different forms and without warning and it can leave us just as quickly. An inspiration must be immediately grabbed onto and aggressively pursued, or it can be lost forever. And we’re not likely to ever experience the same inspiration a second time.
An inspiration can have to do with virtually anything, i.e., promoting a new idea, writing a book, changing a career, pledging to help others, committing to personal development, etc. Unfortunately, most of our inspirations lag in their execution. Much of this delay is caused by a natural fear of failure. None of us wants to deal with the emotional baggage that failure can bring, but sometimes it also has to do with our overthinking an inspiration.
According to psychologist Roy Baumeister, we humans have a tendency to give more weight in our minds to things that can go wrong than to things that can go right – so much so that just one negative expectation can hijack our minds in ways that can be detrimental to our work, relationships, health, and general happiness. It’s simply how we seem to be wired.
The result is that if an inspiration is not acted upon quickly and enthusiastically, it will soon be killed off by our negatively biased beliefs that will naturally ensue and that will eventually obliterate the very beliefs that formed the foundation for the inspiration in the first place. When you recognize an inspiration, you must act on it right away. Otherwise, it likely will be lost forever.
Of course, it is important not to confuse inspiration with impulse. An impulse is also a sudden strong urge or desire to act. The main difference is that an impulse is not based on thoughtful, rational thinking. An impulse is more of an unsubstantiated whim. So don’t be afraid to let an idea fall by the wayside if it doesn’t appear to offer some real value or make any sense to act on it. However, don’t let your negatively biased brain immediately drop the hammer on your inspiration without first doing a rigorous assessment of its potential benefits. You want to feed your inspiration, not starve it.
Without action, an inspiration can become merely a useless figment of our imaginations, no more real than a momentary illusion. So, when an inspiration inserts itself in your mind, take action right away. Don’t let the inspiration dissipate.
Make that phone call, join that club, start that book, research that idea, plan that trip NOW! Inspiration can be a gift of free mental and emotional energy that can positively transform your life and those of the people near and dear to you. Furthermore, not acting on an inspiration will most often have a much greater negative impact than not taking action. Most important, if you don’t act, you will never know.
Pat Iannuzzi of Symbiont Performance Group, Inc. is a performance consultant, trainer and coach focusing on selling, presentation and interpersonal skills. He lives in Litchfield and can be reached at 860-283-9963 or piannuzzi@symbiontnet.com.
