Finding Inspiration Begins With Action

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Many people wait for inspiration to act. But it rarely arrives that way. More often, action comes first — and inspiration follows.

Ideas are stirred by movement. Clarity grows from engagement. Momentum creates meaning.

Start with something small in your emotional periphery. Make the call. Write a rough outline. Volunteer once. The process opens the door. Inspiration walks in afterward.

When motivation feels distant and inspiration hasn’t arrived yet, continue anyway. Motion itself has power. We often confuse motivation and inspiration, but they work differently.

Motivation pushes. Inspiration pulls. Motivation gives us reasons to act. Inspiration gives us desire. Motivation says, keep going. Inspiration says, this matters.

A motivated person drives an idea forward with determination, focused on reaching a goal despite obstacles. An inspired person is sometimes redirected — drawn toward something unexpected that feels more meaningful than the original plan.

Motivation carries an idea to its conclusion. Inspiration lets an idea carry us somewhere new. So is motivation a distraction from inspiration? Not at all.

Movement makes us visible to insight. Action creates the conditions where inspiration can find us.

We don’t discover purpose by waiting. We discover it by engaging.

Inspiration isn’t the spark that starts the journey. It’s often the flame that appears once we begin walking

Finding Inspiration: Should Life Be About Winning?

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Is winning a good life goal?

Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach, famously said, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” He is also often credited with another line: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”

That point of view frames winning as victory in a contest; someone succeeds because someone else loses. When I sit with that idea, I’m left wondering what it really means outside of a game or a scoreboard.

What have I actually won in my life?

Winning suggests competition. Whom did I beat? Was it skill or luck? And if it was luck, did it matter? If winning means receiving a prize, is that a meaningful reason to outperform others? If it means effort, the question shifts.

There have been many times when I focused fully on reaching a goal. But in life, “winning” often looks less like defeating others and more like living in alignment with your values, pursuing your goals, supporting your family, and resting at the end of the day with a sense of contentment.

By that definition, winning becomes personal. It stops being a noun you possess and becomes an adjective describing how you lived.

If two people work as hard and as thoughtfully as they can toward their own goals, and both reach them, did they both win? What if one result looks better from the outside? The answer depends on whether the goal was to outperform someone else or to do your best.

That distinction matters.

When winning becomes a requirement rather than a byproduct, when survival, status, or self-worth depends on it, pressure replaces purpose. Improvement turns into anxiety. Comparison turns into risk.

Striving to do your best is sustainable. Needing to win at all costs is not.

Winning, when it is the only thing that matters, eventually brings trouble with it. But effort, integrity, and clarity of purpose tend to endure long after the scoreboard fades.

Open-mindedness leads to Inspiration

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Inspiration is motivation from an external source that causes a person to have an idea and/or produce something creatively. The ideas come from somewhere else or are prompted by something outside of your brain and perhaps that is why your mind has to be open.

The inspired thoughts have to have somewhere to fit in your mind, and if your mind is closed for business, then new ideas may not be welcomed.

Quote About Inspiration

Where is our "Desert of Truth" and do we walk there for a purpose? →

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The song “The River of Dreams by Billy Joel” focuses on the issues about life confronting the person who has lost something precious that they cannot remember. The singer tells us:

“In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep, through the desert of truth, to the river so deep.”

The “river” represents something that must be crossed to find spiritual fulfillment. It is an obstacle preventing him from reaching this goal, and he has to travel it to
find out what he’s been looking for. He seems to seek life’s true meaning, but his search will eventually end in the ocean, perhaps in the afterlife.

Inspiration comes as truth for the seeker who seeks the issues about life confronting them, blind to everything else. We hear the song, and it becomes our truth.

Why didn’t it find us first? Was it because we didn’t seek? Does inspiration play favorites picking only a few, or are only a few able to search as if in a dream?

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep

From the mountains of faith

To the river so deep

I must be looking for something

Something sacred I lost

But the river is wide

And it's too hard to cross

Even though I know the river is wide

I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore

I try to cross to the opposite side

So I can finally find out what I've been looking for

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep

Through the valley of fear

To a river so deep

I've been searching for something

Taken out of my soul

Something I'd never lose

Something somebody stole

I don't know why I go walking at night

But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore

I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life

Until I find what it is that I've been looking for

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep

Through the jungle of doubt

To a river so deep

I know I'm searching for something

Something so undefined

That it can only be seen

By the eyes of the blind

In the middle of the night

I'm not sure about a life after this

God knows I've never been a spiritual man

Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river

That runs to the promised land

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep

Through the desert of truth

To the river so deep

We all end in the ocean

We all start in the streams

We're all carried along

By the river of dreams

In the middle of the night

Being around trees reduces stress →

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Did you know that spending time around trees can positively impact your health and well-being? Studies have shown that both exercising in forests and simply sitting and looking at trees can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve mood by reducing the stress-related hormones cortisol and adrenaline.

Furthermore, research conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society has demonstrated that plants respond to human agents, indicating that they are more communicative and responsive than we previously thought. Trees, in particular, are "social creatures" that communicate with each other in cooperative ways, offering valuable lessons for humans.

Speaking of trees, painter Bob Ross used to refer to them as "happy little trees" while painting them, and it's not hard to see why - looking at a picture of happy trees has been found to boost mood and bring a smile to your face!