We’ve all seen those inspirational videos. Those motivational speeches by successful people telling us their story. Whether a moment they passed through that changed their mindset, or the hardship and hard work you have to go through in order to achieve something… they’re all the same. Hard work + plus determination, persistence, willingness to fail, and growth = success. No secret there right? Easy! Or is it?
They have a way of making us feel inspired. A way of making us question everything we do, or everything we want to do in our lives. The issue is that often times many of us are filled with an immediate sense of inspiration, that quickly dies down. We begin to feel inferior to such people, for one reason or another. Some think their aspirations and dreams are not attainable, or that they somehow don’t have what it takes to achieve them. It becomes easy to categorize such speeches as “inspirational” without them actually affecting our lives. So how do we remedy this?
The truth is that they are all the same. While the plot, path, product, company, whatever it might be, may be different, ultimately all those stories are the same. The trap many of us fall into, however, is saying just that. Too often we glorify such people, in a way that allows us to use that barrier as an excuse for us not to progress. The real secret is that no matter who the speaker is, you can’t count on them to make that shift for you. What changes isn’t the speech, but rather your reaction to the speech. How many of us take the things they say seriously? How many of us take risks as drastic as they tell us we should? Not many. If we have a vision, a willingness to learn from failure, and the willpower to actually make concrete changes in our lives, we can all attain the dreams we want to…
The key is to stop watching others succeed, and start to succeed for ourselves. It all begins with allowing that feeling you have in your heart, to come through and manifest itself.
As I’ve said before, standing on the edge of something exciting isn’t doing it… take that leap of faith. (I didn’t jump into the water, and I regret it).
Believe in the power of your dream…#zuluechoinitiative
ZULUECHO INITIATIVE 
This is a very powerful piece. In a time when we are surrounded by “influencers” it can be very easy to focus our vision on what others are doing and seeing how “great” those others are doing and stopping ourselves from going for our own visions and dreams. We might feel like our ideas are not good enough or original enough because someone else has already done it, but there is enough of the pie for everyone. just because someone else is doing something similar to your ideas it doesn’t mean it is not worth going for it. GO FOR IT!
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Hey Pamela! Thanks for your response!
You are absolutely correct, and I am glad that you liked the article! Love your pie metaphor… but I’d even challenge you to push it further. Why take a piece of the pie, when you can bake your own? Food for thought (literally).
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Your post reminds me of a quote :
“If you bring forth that which is within you,
Then that which is within you
Will be your salvation.
If you do not bring forth that which is within you,
Then that which is within you
Will destroy you.”
You are certainly right about not letting inspiration of or toward others be your way forward. As you said, we must look inside and no where else. And, btw, tell us if you can , about the water you did not jump into.
Thank you, ZULUECHO for the continuing sharing you do!
Love,
Ms. B.
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Ms. B,
Thank you for your response! I completely agree with the meaning behind the quote you shared. When we don’t follow our hearts, it eats away at us and affects everything we do negatively. We become slaves to what we don’t want to do, and that is truly a sad state to be in.
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