Are you on the lookout for new inspiration? Perhaps another expert will provide the answers? No doubt the experts can deliver a lot, but maybe you should just look around at the people in your life and see that the inspiration you’re looking for might be right in front of you.
When each of us travels along the journey of life we often look for answers from acknowledged experts. People who have credentials; people that others have believed in before us… They must know what they are talking about, and quite often they do. But many times we forget to look for the inspiration that is right in front of us – the small situations and the subtle moves and decisions that the people in our lives make.
Today I am publishing my first book “Unfolding Your Power – By living Your Personal GPS” and quite a few people have asked me: How did you get the inspiration to write the book?
I find it hard to answer that without bringing up all the people who have asked the right questions or been an example for me along the way. At the time these situations seemed insignificant, but looking back each of them were small turning points.
I know now that I have to stay present and curious to the things I meet along the way; that is where I find my inspiration. But even more importantly, I have to look in places that I would not have expected. I would like to share a very important example of this from my life.
I have a daughter who doesn’t make much of a fuss – at least not most of the time. She started playing the piano when she was five. We inherited a close to useless – but beautiful – piano that could not be voted. She started playing – insisting on us buying books about the notes and soon she had taught herself how to play them. Neither her father nor I play any instrument, so I called the music school and they laughed at us – she was way too young they said. But for many months she kept insisting that she wanted a private teacher and she continued playing often an hour or more a day. Today, she is 14 and she still insists; she is now playing in a talent program. But even more importantly, her piano and her music have become her sanctuary, as well as a gift for the rest of us.
When making my speech for her confirmation last month I realized how much she has taught me about never giving up and insisting on finding a way of your own – even if it takes time and not many other people can see the reason(s) behind it. I know I have used this quality in giving birth to my book. Maybe you also have kids or other people in your life that could be your source of great inspiration. The key is to be wide awake in your daily life because it might not come from the people or situations you expected.
I hope you will look around and be open to who will be your next inspiration and which people and/or situations that will bring you closer to finding your way in unfolding you.
Here is what you can do:
- Take a look back at your life and think about who has inspired you along the way, and pay them your gratitude. You might even want to contact old teachers, managers or family members.
- Make a mental inventory of how the people in your life right now are inspiring you – It might even be people or situations that are painful and that make you become even more committed to your own journey.
- Be present and on the lookout today, tomorrow and every day for people you meet on your way that might move and inspire you towards your next step.
