Time plays a different role in different lives. To those who are connected it is just another day of opportunity.

The inspired lose track of time.

The motivated are under time pressure to get goals accomplished.

For the fearful time doesn’t move fast enough.

For those in survival mode, there is never enough time.

We have defined time, but it is as infinite as space. If you see it in terms of a clock, it probably means you are under pressure or fearful. If you see it as what time you happen to be awake and what time you are sleeping, it is just a part of your day like sunshine and moonlight.  The inspired use every opportunity to appreciate or express. The time doesn’t matter.

Working from Inspiration

I get up early and start writing on thoughts I had when I awoke. Sometimes its 4 a.m. I might write for an hour or maybe get going and write for five. When I am done, I might add them to a book in progress or post the ideas to my websites and often tweet them.  I often work until I just have no more ideas nor energy to work at the same intensity. Then I take a break.

I could not pour this intensity into a regular job. I couldn’t always do it 8 hours a day. I couldn’t necessarily turn it on at 9 a.m. and turn it off at 5 p.m.  If I had to produce with the same intensity I might not be able to do it 40 hours a week. Sometimes weekends are the best.

If I had to do it for a wage, it might be hard to get inspired.

Things are different when they are sourced from Inspiration. For one, you may not get paid. Secondly, you pour everything that is you into the work. Thirdly, there are no judgments other than your own. Fourthly, you are rarely worn out at the end of the day, you are just recharging.

You always look forward to your next idea.

Working from Inspiration is different than working from motivation. Working for your own payoff is different than working to get paid. But, if you are working from inspiration and you have talent, someone might be willing to pay you for your work. If you are working from inspiration, you can probably maneuver your hours into regular time slots. You just have to set up the conditions so that you are ready. Athletes get in the zone and they know how to get themselves there.

Motivation is goal oriented and is only realized when the goal is achieved. Others often judge us by how we are doing on our path and we might feel the compunction to buy prestigious stuff so that it looks like we are doing well.

We often identify ourselves with our goals and our level of satisfaction and esteem can become identified with them as well. We might say I’ll be happy when I reach my goals.

Failure to achieve goals can result in our loss of self esteem and it may even result in the loss of status in the box (society). If achievement of the goals are expected of us in the box, it could mean the loss of our job or career, like coaching.  Self esteem follows the plunge.

Inspiration is based on a feeling of what we have to do to express ourselves. We already feel connected and special just because we are here and we want an avenue to express our inspiration.  We have high spirits. We are already special in our minds and we are not really concerned about what others think.

Because we are already secure in our identity, we buy what works for us.

We seek to express ourselves in our own endeavors or in a career that gives us more control of our destiny. You can pay a motivated person, but an inspired person is probably not good at something they don’t feel is them. Their principal goal is to enable the continuation of the expression. Obstacles may have to be surmounted  because there is not always monetary remuneration at the start.

The goal is to let the expression go where it will to influence as many people as possible. If it goes nowhere we are no less our selves, we just have to find a different avenue of expression.

Time plays a different role in our lives even though we all have the same amount.

The inspired lose track of time.

The motivated are under time pressure to get goals accomplished.

For the fearful time doesn’t move fast enough.

For those in survival mode, there is never enough time.

In the Science of Getting Rich written 50 years ago by Wallace Waddles, he said the universe is full of formless stuff that we can form with positive thoughts to fulfill our dreams.

We are energy. We can be charged every day or we can be drained. It is our choice. It begins with how we define ourselves. It follows by our concept of why we are here. We decide if we will live from inspiration or motivation. Inspiration is an endless source of energy. Motivation has to continuously be sparked and recharged.

Inspiration comes from a feeling we are connected to a universal spirit that says we are perfect as we are and we should take advantage by appreciating and expressing our talents. Motivation comes from having goals and expectations of what we can become. It usually is oriented toward rewards or living up to others expectations for our rewards.

Inspiration may have unanticipated ends and is powered by faith. Motivation is goal oriented and disappointment and frustration enter when the goals are not reached. The inspired person has a high opinion of their entitlement. The motivated person can lose self esteem and identity if they don’t succeed.

Words Can Me a Lot in How We Visualize

A well accepted definition of an authentic person is a wordy explanation of my description of being inspired vs living in the box.

Authentic people choose authentic alternatives. These include: wisdom, well-founded beliefs, valid conclusions, purposeful actions, candor, trust, placing needs ahead of wants, knowing when they have enough, balancing gratification with hedonism, nimble actions, treating others humanely, and establishing symmetrical relationships. We become authentic when he path we choose through life is congruent with who we are.

Living in the box is the life that creates the person you want to change out of to get to the person who operates from inspiration. The path that is congruent with who we are is the energized path from choosing to live from inspiration first and the influences of the box second.

Authentic suggests a cerebral process of listing and comparing. Inspiration is all feeling. If it feels good it is right, if it doesn’t it is not. With inspiration you totally trust your instincts or inner voices of what is right for you.

It might include letting go of some previous goals. Maybe our first goals should not be a Ferrari, marrying someone like Beyonce, having four million cash in the bank, owning the largest house in the neighborhood, and being President of the firm we are working for.

These are all good goals, but at the end of the road after accomplishing all of them, we might still feel like we were not who we are, missing the real bang of being alive and then start pursing something that makes us feel even better.

I have had several of these things and I know that after the thought of owning them has passed, I am still looking for something more meaningful. Moving from inspiration means I am totally satisfied right now that I am being me and I start looking at what will make me happy much differently. The word happy is different. We are happy. Now how can I express who I am that is really me? Where it leads me is fine. If I have a talent that people appreciate and will greatly to appreciate, then I can still have everything in my dreams, but when I arrive they won’t be empty.

Inspiration is your connection to the forces that created the Universe. When you say I know why I am here, I appreciate that I am here, and I am inspired to use my connection in expressing myself with all my talent, it can lead to genius work.

It is not easy to get recognized in this world. It is even more difficult to be remembered by people who never knew you. This is certainly an acknowledgment that what you created was special and above the normal everyday production of people in the box.

Genius we remember rarely comes from individuals in the box working for a wage to feed them selves for another day.  It may come from companies organized to amass talent for the purpose of innovation like General Electric, Apple, or Microsoft.

So Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, certainly bear the mark  of the Inspired. So did Henry Ford inventor of the assembly line. The car was already invented but no one knew how to make it affordable to the masses and no one hired him for the purpose.

Van Gogh came from a wealthy family but he wanted to paint poor people. He subjected himself to living with them in dirt floored huts and surviving on potatoes. He painted in dessert heat and slightly less than gale force winds. He gave his last 84 paintings to his brother as payback for the support he received to buy his canvas and paints. He never knew success.

We may ask where does genius end and inspired commitment begin because we will declare that people who have made lasting impacts were geniuses. Others that may make the list are Amadeus Mozart, Madam Curie, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, Isaac Newton, Alexander Graham Bell, Voltaire, Galileo.

We have modern day examples of talent applied at full force to become remarkable. You can argue their inspiration or talent but it is hard to ignore their genius because you will pay to watch them work. Their work is the result of inspirational effort.  They might include Peter Jackson (lord of the rings) Michael Jordan, Madonna, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and even Peyton Manning

Your inspiration comes from the same source as theirs. Commitment can forge it into a sword of steel that cuts down opposition, detractors, and obstructions. You know inspiration by how it feels. You know it’s there because you realize that with commitment you could be that sword of steel.

“Inspiration must be our master, even though following it might disappoint others.”

Have you disappointed enough people in your life? Not that we are goody goodies, but we often live our lives living up to others’ expectations.

Anyone that follows their dream might do so in the face of great protest. The protest can be from parents, school officials, family, bosses, coaches, you name it. There is a need for individuality but most in life have their own agenda for you. There is no “I” in team.

Carlos Burle, the surfer on the heading of this site wanted to surf before there were great purses and before he had sponsors or money. Who would encourage someone to surf all the time instead of getting a life, as they probably thought?

People worry about us often with great intentions. But people have their own agendas that they often like to impose on others as a justification for their own lives.They think that if we follow the proven route, that we will be safe and happy. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes not. That’s our gamble and the test of our inspiration.

So many people cannot feel themselves at all in the box. When we hear about people trying to find their authentic selves, it’s because they have been isolated from their true selves from the time they were children by well intentioned influences.

If we were connected and knew we could live from inspiration, a job in the box might be more tolerable because we would be looking for our path out and know that what ever we are doing in the box, is not the sum total of who we are.

The Scales of Joy

We are capable of being inspired everyday and living from inspiration. Inspiration is Joy. Pursuit of Joy has us following our desire to do what means most to us or what our gut tells us is the true us waiting to be expressed. The music is in us and playing its tune. We just have to listen and dance.

The Definition of Authentic is widely touted as finding the true you. But, it is mostly a cerebral exercise of balancing what you think you are with your values and things that you really want to pursue. Inspiration is ALL feeling. Nothing cerebral about it. (although we know all th0ughts originate in the brain, inspiration and revelations are not a thought out process)

Put me to work in a store doing something I think is meaningless and I can’t wait for the exit. I am looking at the clock, wondering how I got here, and hoping I can find something else.

When I wake in the morning I want to do something that excites me.

We have the choice to follow inspiration or exercise in the box. I call living in the box the normal everyday getting up to others’ bidding most likely so we can eat. Living up to others’ expectations and doing things that others will approve, think is cool or allow us to be apart of the circle.

Living for others begins early in life when we have to follow instructions and continuously jump through hoops. We may lose total sight of ourselves.

A friend of mine is working on a project because he has been inspired to see it through for a few years. Someone influential in his life thinks he should be looking to do it for a profit. It might be  profitable some day as it evolves, but now it gives him Joy just to push it through its stages. Why should he be at the affect of someone else if this is his inspiration?

Carlos Burle, 42, the surfer in this site’s image wanted to surf and found a way to make it pay. People in his life earlier thought he should be doing other things. In the meantime he did what he needed to do to keep surfing and chasing his dream. That’s living inspired.

We often spend our life seeking rewards for accomplishing. We get better stuff when we do better. It’s part of life. But it can get out of hand if we identify with what we are trying to accomplish and only if and when we do. We will be happy as soon as we meet the prince, make a million dollars, win the national championship, become the regional supervisor.

Living a life of inspiration does not require others’ approval, need to hit a goal, become something, or wait another minute. We are born perfect, are granted the ability to appreciate how great life can be on earth, the capacity for joy everyday, and the talent to express ourselves to the limit of our ability. If we are evaluating what we can do and cannot do, the pursuit of Joy should at least be on one of the scales.