The Brilliance of ‘Why Not?’

If you have ever felt uninspired, you’re probably just human (laughs). Feeling uninspired is often hard to explain, but you probably know exactly how it feels. It feels as if you have to keep moving forward with life and what it asks of you, but you have no apparent motive to do so. When we feel this way, how can we regain a sense of purpose in what we do?

I think the first realisation you must make when feeling uninspired is to really take a deep look at the activities you do on a day to day basis. How many of them are you doing out of choice and how many do you perceive to be necessary due to external pressures?

How many of them are you doing out of choice and how many do you perceive to be necessary due to external pressures?

Just to note, there is a BIG difference between actually being required to complete tasks due to external pressures and simply having the perception that tasks are required to be completed due to external pressures.

For example, let’s take a look at work. People have all sorts of different jobs and are motivated to work for many different reasons. We can take the exact same external pressures and the exact same occupation and working hours, but apply it to two different people. One could feel more inspired than they could imagine and the other could find inspiration a challenge. But why?

Whilst there can be millions of other external factors that affect a situation, for explanation sake, let’s assume everything else between these two people remains the same (i.e. income, gender, relationship status). Why does one feel inspired and the other not? Are they missing something?

The difference is the goals that each set and how they approach them. One has clear goals and the other may not (but this is not the only possible cause of a lack of inspiration). If a person does not have clear goals, you can probably see for yourself why they lack inspiration – they have nothing to work towards and nothing to make sacrifices for, so they’re just floating through time hoping that some magical fairy dust will come and just change their life and they’ll live happily ever after – but we all know that’s just bulls*#t.

To follow on from this; if an individual has clear goals, yet they’re not giving 100% effort toward achieving them (i.e. not making enough sacrifices that they know they should) their self-esteem is likely to drop. When we know what’s right for us and we choose not to do it because we’re afraid, lazy or victimised we lose control over our direction. We start to become directionless and we start to make excuses why life isn’t the way our goals say it should be. To feel self pity is wrong because the only person that has the ability to change your life for the better is you.

We need to start asking, why not? Why am I not achieving my goals? Why can’t I be the first person in my family to graduate university? Why not me?

The most inspired people find inspiration from within. If they work all day because they need to feed their family, but they want to be a marathon runner, they get up 3 hours before work to make it happen. No excuses, only hard work and a vision for how they can achieve their goals. As paradoxical as it may sound, action can be the reason you feel inspired, just as inspiration can be the reason you begin to take action.

If a task immediately seems impossible and you think you can’t achieve it, ask yourself ‘Why not?’.

I think you’ll be surprised at the plans you create to help start your achievement towards your goals.. And when in doubt, just take action.

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