The Impact of Inspiration
Those who inspire have a fairly tremendous responsibility. They create a context about the future that is built on promise, on vision, and on opportunities that are yet to come. Inspiration is so much more impactful than encouragement, sympathy, or gentle words. Inspiration can sometimes push us into a place of trepidation, fear, and concern. An Inspirer can call us into deeper waters when we are safe and comfortable in the shallows. They can draw us a magnificent painting where we can almost taste the bright feast of tomorrow. They call us to something greater than ourselves sometimes even when we don’t want to believe it of ourselves – “it’s dangerous!”, “it hasn’t been done!”, “what if I fail!”.
The ISS space station sits an average of 240 miles above the safety of terra firma. Astronauts at any given time are looking down upon us while performing experiments, maintenance, or having some personal down time like taking photos. It is easy to imagine that a bad day in space, is probably much worse than a bad day that you or I might experience. But they circle us, every 80 minutes, and work on what will be.
The impact of inspiration, when done well, is change that outlasts the moment. Someone will be different because you had the courage to grasp the infinite.
Today you get to choose how you will or will not inspire those around you. You get to choose how you will respond to the challenges that will drop in your lap. You get to choose to build others up or tear them down. You get to deploy your energy in an act of creation, or in acts of destruction.
You get to choose how you will live – right here, right now.
There is a branch in the path of life for you to choose in every moment. One is called “I will Fear“. One is called “I will Inspire“.
One of these paths leads to an interesting future. One leads to a lesser you. And because we all impact those within our sphere of influence, our words and actions create a ripple effect across time and space.
Today, I will choose the latter path.