What if a person’s purpose erodes or shatters?
What if the problem that prompted creativity and drive has been overcome or becomes irrelevant? And what if our partners drift away from us? These are very real threats to our level of inspiration.
Over the past month, I’ve introduced my new book: Inspired Every Day: Three Indispensable Ingredients to Connect With Your Passion and walked through the three elements necessary to genuine inspiration. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be talking about this book every week for the next year. But I have a couple more pieces that I don’t want you to miss.
The reason is, I know so many people who have been inspired at one point, but somehow find themselves lacking inspiration today. Whether they realize it or not, many times their inspiration is lacking because one of these indispensable ingredients is missing.
Without a clear purpose, we become aimless. A compelling purpose and vision gives life to individuals and teams, but if we lose our way, most of us try to find something—anything!—to rev our emotional engines. Some of us mistake thrills for real fulfillment, spending countless hours following a sport, buying things we don’t need, and trying to impress people on social media. Others might work for money as their consuming purpose, leaving their pockets full but their passion empty. Not surprisingly, these poor substitutes leave us even more disillusioned.
Without a compelling problem, we become apathetic.
We have a clear purpose and a great team, and we achieve our goal of overcoming a problem . . . and then what? Surprisingly, the lack of a challenging problem is one of the most common reasons inspiration lags in business settings. Good leaders know they need to keep their people focused on their common obstacle, their biggest challenge, their “enemy.” If they overcome it, they need to identify the next one . . . and the next. Individuals and teams who aren’t galvanized by a compelling problem lose interest, lose compatibility, and lose effectiveness.
Without like-minded partnerships, we feel alone. We can have a purpose to live and die for and a problem that sharpens us and brings out our best, but if we don’t have people, we feel isolated, empty, alone. Please don’t misunderstand: I’m not saying that we have to be on a team to be effective and fulfilled. There are plenty of “solo-preneurs” these days who operate on their own, but even the most competent of these people need supportive, meaningful relationships with contract workers, vendors, and clients. In fact, the higher the purpose and the greater the problem, the more we need valued partners.
We need all three—a purpose, a problem, and strong partners—to be and stay inspired!
Today, take some time to examine what’s going on in your life right now and see if you’re missing one of these essential (I’d even say, indispensable) ingredients.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to stay inspired and how to inspire others, click the link below and purchase a copy of my new book!
