What's Your Inspiration?

During the times when you feel like you can't go any further, what is it that you look to for inspiration? It might not be what you look to, it can also be who you look too. With all of life's ups and downs, with downs seeming to often outweigh the ups, there has to be a light to see at the end of the tunnel. It is much too easy to get discouraged and just give up. It takes a true fighter to keep going even when it hurts to take another step.

Many kids grow up admiring a parent, teacher, or athlete. Maybe they want to be just like that person when they grow up so they draw their inspiration from working as hard as they can to get there. Some people have a dream planted on the inside of them that they are focused on birthing into existence. Think of the poor kid who wants to grow up and become a doctor even though he doesn't have any health insurance at the time. His dream of what he can accomplish when he gets older is his inspiration. He uses his dream to propel himself into a successful future. With odds stacked against him, he blocks out all of the negativity around him and ignores those who tell him that his dream can't come true. In fact, he studies extra hard so that he wins a full scholarship to college and goes on to medical school to fulfill his dream.

Lately there has been much talk over the Law of Attraction. Whether this is the truth in having success is up for debate. It may work for some but not for others. What does work is having belief in yourself. Being inspired and not allowing obstacles to keep you from going forward is a key on the road to success. We all have out days when we just want to pull the shades down and not bother to even get out of bed. But there's that glimmer of hope on the inside of us that perhaps today will be better than yesterday. Just maybe your boss won't be such a jerk. Maybe your spouse won't argue with you because you were late paying a bill. Your kids might even surprise you and do their chores like you told them too.

Having inspiration brings forth determination and once you have determination, you can apply dedication. When we face rejection, it can tear down our character if we let it. The thing we have to do is press forward in times of trouble so that we can build our character and move closer to that light at the end of the tunnel. On my wall is a poster with two hands gripping the top of a gravelly mountain with the words "Never Give Up" underneath. This is something we need to instill in ourselves, the will to keep going even when things are going bad and there's no hope in sight. This is when we should hold on to our faith and know that if we can just get over this mountain, things will be better. Of course change doesn't happen overnight, and there are always hurdles being thrown at us, but we don't have to let these hurdles keep us from running the race. Think of a track meet when they have to run the race with all of those hurdles purposely lined up along their path. If the runner decided he or she wasn't going to jump over those hurdles, they would never finish the race. They run and they jump, after they are over one hurdle, they run and jump over the next one. They have to keep doing this until their path is clear and the finish line is in sight. Their inspiration to begin with was the fact that they could envision the finish line in their minds. Although they couldn't see it yet with their eyes, they knew that it was there if they could just get over the hurdles that stood in front of them. That is what we have to do in order to get through the hurdles in our lives; we have to envision the finish line or the place where we want to be.

So what is your inspiration? It could be your faith in a higher power, it can be another person who has become successful in their life, it can be the dream that you have inside of you. Inspiration can be whatever it is you look to that gets you over that next hurdle and keeps you pressing on towards the finish line.