Who needs inspiration? ALL of us!

The Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose preferred PM ratings have surged on Newspoll, might have taught himself a lesson. And that lesson is that most of us want inspiration from our leaders.

ScoMo’s Hawaiian escapade in the middle of our bushfire crisis showed him what he needed to do for our Coronavirus crisis. And he learnt his lesson well. But is it really about inspiration? And if it is, why do we need inspiration in the first place? What does it do to us?

The PM’s contrasting efforts aside, I’ve been thinking about inspiration after putting together a little video on the request from one of my speaking agencies. I’ve put the link at the end of this article.

Happily, the feedback I’ve been getting from the video has been positive! It suggests that the impact of lockdowns, business closures, social distancing and the forced acceptance that we have to live our normal lives with restrictions has been a threat to our psyche that few of us would have expected. So there’s a need for someone to show us that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, this is how Scott Barry Kaufman rates inspiration:  “In a culture obsessed with measuring talent and ability, we often overlook the important role of inspiration,” he contends. “Inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by allowing us to transcend our ordinary experiences and limitations. Inspiration propels a person from apathy to possibility, and transforms the way we perceive our own capabilities.”

“Inspiration may sometimes be overlooked because of its elusive nature. Its history of being treated as supernatural or divine hasn’t helped the situation. But as recent research shows, inspiration can be activated, captured, and manipulated, and it has a major effect on important life outcomes.”

Inspiration has been deconstructed by psychologists Todd M. Trash and Andrew J. Elliott into three “core aspects”:

1. Evocation: something evokes inspiration.
2. Transcendence: a eureka moment where we see something positive and uplifting for the first time, like a calling.
3. Approach motivation: something or someone gets through to you and inspires you to action.

Psychologists argue that people you might describe as being “open to experience” are the most likely to get inspired. And it’s their opinion that inspiration is more likely when you’re up for it, as opposed to being cynical towards it.

“Mastery of work, absorption, creativity, perceived competence, self-esteem, and optimism were all consequences of inspiration, suggesting that inspiration facilitates these important psychological resources,” they concluded.

But it’s not just about being positive. Thrash and Elliott say inspiration is an entirely higher level. “Whereas positive affect is activated when someone is making progress toward their immediate, conscious goals, inspiration is more related to an awakening to something new, better, or more important: transcendence of one’s previous concerns,” they revealed.

Who wouldn’t be up for that?

The answer is: just about all high-achievers are happy to get extra drive from inspiration.

The BBC’s Worklife division asked a plethora of successful people about their views on inspiration. A survey of Linkedin influencers showed that people with pretty good scores on the board rate inspiration very highly and see it as a big reason for their success.

And let’s face it, we don’t use inspiration to fail at work, in your relationships or when playing sport. Inspiration is a key ingredient of success.

Here are some of the takes from these influencers on the subject of inspiration:

• Deepak Chopra, one of the world’s most followed inspirational thinkers, explained: “Very early on in my childhood, it was my mother who told me that the word “inspiration” literally meant to be in spirit.” His mum linked spirit to God but others relate it to other replacements for deity, including mythology. Chopra extols the value of Joseph Campbell and his book The Power of Myth, which deals with the universality and evolution of myths in the history of the human race and the place of myths in modern society.

• Mahatma Gandhi took inspiration from the greats of writing. “One of the people who inspired the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, with whom Gandhi corresponded for many years,” writes Felicity Burton on enotes.com. “He was Gandhi's spiritual guide, and the two corresponded when Gandhi was living in South Africa. Ruskin, the British art historian, also influenced Gandhi.”

• Martin Luther King was inspired by Gandhi. “I came to see for the first time that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom,” Dr. King revealed in his reflections on his fight for equal rights.

• Kieran Perkins told me on a number of occasions when I interviewed him that his coach John Carew was the inspirational core to his success. After John passed away, age 81, in 2008, this is how Kieran remembered him: “Everything I achieved I owe to Mr Carew,” he said. “He not only made me the swimmer I was, but also the man I am today. After all I probably spent more time with him than I did with my own parents - he was a wonderful influence on my career and my life.”

• Mark Bouris has told me a number of times that his parents inspired him and coincidentally, Mark’s number one rival in the mortgage history of Australia — Aussie John Symond — said exactly the same thing about his parents. However, Mark has also acknowledged that the late Kerry Packer was an inspiration. Packer bought into Yellow Brick Road and, as a consequence, Mark was forced to be grilled by Kerry on a regular basis about his performance and that of the business they shared. “He was the best listener and question-asker I have ever met,” he said of Packer. “You perform best when you are accountable to someone and being accountable to him was a challenge.” Mark says young entrepreneurs often don’t understand how important it is to be accountable to those who provide the money. “The best investor in your business is the one who holds you accountable.”

• Gerry Harvey’s inspiration is his wife Katie Page. In that respect, I have a lot in common with Gerry. In an interview a few years ago I asked him: “How has Katie changed Gerry?”  His answer was classic Gerry: “The easy answer is that I’ve tried to bring her down to my level and she’s tried to take me up to her level, but I have to say I’ve never worked with someone – male or female – who is as good as she is. Her business skills across the board are better than any woman across the country.” Gerry once admitted that a lot of his success was because he chose to hang out with “older and smarter people” at times like Friday night drinks. It was, I guess, the inspiration he had to have and most of us could learn a lot from old stagers like Gerry who chose to pursue inspirational colleagues.

• One of the world’s legends of business speaking, Jim Rohn, was the guy who inspired the world’s most famous motivator, Tony Robbins. He actually worked in Rohn’s business as a young man. In a tribute to his old boss, he recounted one of Jim’s great pieces of advice: “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better! Don't wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom”

Anyone who wants success should be looking for those who can motivate and inspire. As Jim also observed: “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

The habit of hanging out with inspirational people in person, on TV and via books is the most inspired piece of advice I can give you.

By the way, here’s that link I mentioned. I hope you like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhJRxLUTuxM