Yesterday, I watched a video of a lady that starts out her speech saying that “Motivation is garbage”. Of course, like most, I was intrigued, but also a little ticked. “What do you mean motivation is garbage?” I questioned.

Immediately, my guard was up.

Motivation vs Inspiration

What is motivation? Where does it come from and can we create it? Is there a benefit to it? Yesterday my friend Scott caused me to question these very things by posting this single video to my Facebook wall. Over a year into InspireCast and I am now questioning what I do.

This lady, ironically a motivational speaker herself according to her own website, is confused. She went on to speak about how through life we will have to do hard things, things that we don’t want to do. If we are doing nothing… waiting for that moment when we feel motivated, that moment may never come.

Unfortunately, I think this lady needs to open a dictionary.

Motivation is quite simply “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.” It’s what causes us to act, rather than a feeling. Inspiration is a feeling, but more about that later.

Where does motivation come from?

Motivation is simply the reason we act. I am a father of four children and a husband to a beautiful and amazing wife. Like most people, they like food, clothing and a nice dry, warm place to sleep. These are things that keep me motivated.

It’s 6:20 am, and as I write this, my 12-year-old son comes upstairs. It’s early for him as we usually wake him up at 7:10 am to get ready for school. He’s motivated! Yesterday, he had lots of homework and didn’t finish before bedtime. Instead of staying up late to finish, he decided to get up early. He was motivated to set his alarm almost an hour early to get up and finish his work. #prouddad

Motivation is the reason that we do the hard things and the easy things. It’s the “why” we do the things we do. Can we create motivation? Can someone “motivate” us? In order to act, we need motivation or a “motive”. Though the reason may vary, there is always a motivation when we act. The only way that we can create a motive is by creating a reason to act. I suppose this is possible. Go without paying your bills for a few months and I guarantee that your circumstances will motivate you to pay them. 🙂

I believe what she meant to say is “Inspiration is garbage”, and honestly, I can agree with that.

Being a person who created a website to try and inspire others, posting blog posts, daily motivational quotes and memes on my website and social media accounts, what do I hope to achieve?

I want to INSPIRE!

Ok, now that I have confused you completely… lol

Inspiration is garbage… if you do not act. Yup, there it is. Inspiration is great but is useless if we do nothing about it. Inspiration always leaves us with a choice. Do nothing and eventually we become numb to inspiration, and over time our lives become dull with little that inspires us.

Inspiration can help us do the things we don’t have the motivation to do. It can be almost anywhere from music to a book or even looking into the eyes of your child. Inspiration helps us change our mindset and usually comes through learning something that we didn’t know or believing in a truth revealed.

Be Inspired to help someone

We can get so comfortable in our Western culture. We have most everything we need, but to limit ourselves with that mindset is completely selfish. This is when we need inspiration. If we continue living for ourselves in our comfortable little bubble, we don’t have a reason to act. We need motivation.

The same applies to small business. There are many small business owners out there who are satisfied with the level they are on, and that’s fine. But why not grow your business bigger? Why not live to change the life of someone else?

When I see a small business struggling, I am often inspired and compelled to help out as much as I can. I have offered my services free-of-charge many, many times. I am not waiting to grow my company to a certain level of income before I can help change lives, I am doing it as I go. May this inspire you to do the same. If I hoped to gain a pat on the back, what a useless reward that would be.

If this post inspired you to impact someone else, THAT is a great start.  Now, don’t wait another minute. Don’t become numb to what you are feeling. Do something.[quote cite=’Mahatma Gandhi’]Be the change that you wish to see in the world. [/quote]