“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Who inspires you?
This was a question Camille asked me the other day. She’s taking an online ayurvedic healing course and the instructor encouraged participants to associate with folks in their communities that inspire them.
Which led us to talk about what “inspire” meant. From the Cambridge Dictionary there’s this definition: “to fill someone with confidence and desire to do something.” And from Dictionary.com: “to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence,” and “to produce or arouse (a feeling, thought, etc.).”
For me to be inspired I need to be encouraged to be more than I am now. That’s my operational definition of inspire.
We thought about the folks we know here in Ajijic — expats in their 60s and 70s — and quickly realized that none of them inspired us. They are friends, in some cases, good friends, but not really inspiring. And frankly, being inspirational is not their role. We’re not hanging around with them to seek inspiration.
Who Inspires Me?
I also thought about folks I met and worked with early in my career in Colorado. I worked with two key people who inspired me to think creatively about civic issues and encrouraged me to seek out innovative solutions.
Their influence has transcended that initial career in public policy and carried over into my coaching work.
However, since working with these folks, I’ve not worked with others who truly inspire me.
Again, I’ve worked with good people — who exhibit high levels of expertise and professionalism. But their role was that of colleagues, not as inspirations.
The people who currently inspire me tend to be writers and thinkers. Folks who can spark new ideas. People like Bréne Brown, Marshall Goldsmith, Seth Godin, Dan Pink. Much like the folks in Colorado, they inspire me think more deeply about issues of importance. They inspire me to seek innovative solutions to clients’ needs.
Who Do You Inspire?
That’s the flip side of the coin, isn’t it? We can most likely identify people who inspire us. But do we know who we inspire? Who’s watching us; who’s learning from us?
Who are WE inspiring as we go through our lives? Who is noticing us in our interactions and being inspired by how we behave?
So, Over To You
So, who inspires you? Who encourages you to be who you know you can be?
Who fills you with the confidence to do more than you’re doing now?
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