Motivation and Inspiration

Look and You'll see it Everywhere

Motivation means gaining a motive, or a reason for wanting to do something. To inspire means to fill someone with an urge, or to wake an ability in them to do or feel something, especially something creative.

Have you ever noticed, when we pay attention, we can find people inspiring other people every day?  I see it all the time here and on other writing platforms. Writers inspiring other writers by how, or what they’re writing.

But Motivation and Inspiration comes from any direction, if we’ll only look around …

One of my close friends lost a lot of weight and she really looks good. That inspired and motivated me to lose a couple of extra holiday pounds of my own over the last couple of months.

Would I have wanted to lose them anyway? Yes, of course. I had absolutely been thinking about it, but someone I know did it. That was inspiring and it motivated me.

A couple of years ago, a couple bought the house across the street from us. After they moved in, they had it painted. The colors of the house and trim are stunning! Within a few days, a landscaping truck arrived and the whole property was transformed. Now it looks like it came out of House and Garden Magazine, Page 22.

That was both inspiring and motivating to neighbors.  You should see the goings on with house painters and landscapers up and down the street.

Would they have updated their homes anyway? I don’t know. I suppose they may have been thinking about doing it, but seeing the difference it made in one home on our street was definitely a motivating factor. They were inspired.

I remember one time my youngest daughter stopped in a convenience store on her way home from work to get a couple of things. When she paid, her change was a dollar and a few coins. She told the cashier, “Keep the dollar. Get me a lottery scratch off ticket instead.” She won $1,000 on a $1 ticket.

That was both inspiring and motivating to everyone in the store who heard her squeal about her big win for $1.

She said a line immediately formed in front of the cashier. Everyone in the store wanted to try their luck with a dollar ticket. Her win was inspiring and motivating for others, and lucky as hell for her!

That same win also helped the owner of the store make a few extra bucks, but even more than that, it created a feeling of hope … not bad for a couple of words, huh …

Personally, I love the taste of being inspired.  What I love even more though, is hearing, “CJ, thank you for writing that … you have truly inspired me.”

To “inspire” means to breathe life into.

Thank you for reading.  If you enjoyed my post, please share it and consider recommending and supporting “CJ’s World” on Substack.