On Inspiration and Motivation
Sometimes, there is none. There’s no inspiration for what you want to do. You sit in front of a blank canvas or an empty page, and you observe as nothing happens. It’s empty, and the only person who can fix that, doesn’t know how. And that’s when motivation should be the driving force.
It’s important to understand the distinction between the two, because motivation can feel quite ungratifying, especially in comparison to inspiration. One makes you do things, the other one prompts you to want to do things.
The distinction between work made by motivation and inspiration is usually only in the mind of the creator themselves. A work made by inspiration will just feel better than work made by motivation.
Motivation pushes you through somewhat external factors. And the good thing is, you can establish the external factors. Most of my articles so far have been motivation driven. I set myself a goal of publishing something everyday. I don’t want to, but now that I set myself this external factor, motivation is what drives me to do it.
Inspiration on the other hand, it comes from within, therefore prompting you to take action yourself. The problem is, nothing can be done to prompt inspiration.
Finishing a work that you were motivated to do feels different than an inspired work. Motivation leaves you feeling satisfactory. It is done and that’s that.
Inspired work yields much greater rewards. Finishing something you were inspired to do will make you feel right, will make you feel complete. It will feel like that thing that was missing from your day.
However, as much as I like my good friend Inspiration, it isn’t that often of a visitor or that reliable of a friend. You can’t force it. You can’t invite it into your mind to do some magic and make you feel inspired. That’s why you should never count on it.
Motivation is the reliable driving force of the two. Motivation is something you can establish and depend on. You can set yourself external factors that will make you do things. If you can’t find it in yourself to keep to your desired goals, find people that will keep you accountable. That will keep you motivated.
If you rely on only inspiration, you will find yourself never having motivation. If you rely on motivation, inspiration is inevitable.
So if you don’t feel inspired to do something, that’s okay. When you don’t feel motivated to do something, then you have every tool in your arsenal to change that. Motivation is the reward of discipline and inspiration is the prize for motivation.
