Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Forces That Drain Our Inspiration
YOU KNOW THE feeling.
Your pulse quickens. You can feel the energy welling up inside, thrusting everything else to the peripheral. You can sense the power of possibility while your mind races without constraint. You're filled with a sense of excitement and feel compelled to take action. You're ready ... to ... go.
No, not gassiness.
Inspiration.
The most powerful, catalyzing programming we have on our internal hard drive. The Holy Grail of enthusiasm.
Its power extends even beyond that of motivation. Motivation is the pragmatic consequence of inspiration; it's that engineer in you that proceeds in a step-by-step fashion with marching orders in hand until it achieves its goal.
Inspiration is a three-beers-in guitar solo. It yields a moment of galvanizing energy and vision that precedes motivation and shoves it into action.
With motivation, we take hold of an idea and run with it.
With inspiration, an idea takes hold of us.
Inspiration's resume is Navy SEAL impressive. Research has clearly linked it to the enhancement of well-being and the sense that one is living a full life. Inspiration produces moments that fill us and move us, stirring us to our greatest accomplishments. It has built jaw-dropping buildings and torn down oppressive walls. It has woven spellbinding pages, spit in the face of terrorism with heroic acts, pitched the winning bold idea to the conservative client, hit the shot at the buzzer, started a business on a shoestring, taught English in the jungle, burst breathtaking beauty onto a canvas, and finally taken that accounting class.
It's a force that makes things so.
So ... where has yours gone?
And why isn't it at work for you?
You're not alone — far too many of us no longer feel a sense of inspiration at work. In fact, research shows that over 70 percent of us have lost that loving feeling.
The sense of inspiration was always there when you started your career (or even your current job); it was everywhere. Everywhere, that is, before transaction replaced transcendence, and process supplanted possibility. Before your impact started to dwindle and you felt yourself shrinking. Before monotony replaced magic. Before you started working for that boss you'd describe at best as milquetoast or at worst as soul-sucking.
By the way, you won't get much help on that last front, unfortunately.
Research shows that 55 percent of employees cite the ability to inspire as the single most important leadership attribute they want from their boss, and yet only 11 percent say their current manager is inspiring. Furthermore, self-awareness on this front ain't exactly sky-high among the leaders themselves. A study showed leaders gave themselves an average score of 7 out of 10 for how inspirational they thought they were, while their employees scored them on this trait at an average of 4 out of 10 or lower?
Yup — your boss thinks he's inspirational like in Good Will Hunting, while you daydream of hunting for another job.
The scarcity of inspiration is clearly having an impact on us, as another global study reported that just 12 percent of employees worldwide feel optimistic at work.
That can't be good.
Research shows that optimism is the single biggest predictor of resiliency and even has the power to undo the negative effects of a stressful experience. So, it's really not something you want to try to do without.
Still another study showed that among leaders receiving the lowest percentile scores for inspirational ability, productivity was dreadful. Some 56 percent of employees working for such bosses negatively self-rated their productivity (but positively self-rated their impulsivity for taking a hammer to their temple).
And when we do manage to eke out some inspiration at work, it's hard to hold onto. Almost 70 percent of us find it hard to stay inspired at work.
The message here is don't wait around for your leaders to inspire you and keep you inspired. Apparently there's a landfill worth of books on "How to be an inspirational leader" still gathering dust on the bedside nightstands of leaders everywhere.
It's time to take the matter into your own hands.
Now, I know that conventional logic tells you that you need to be inspired by external forces — you can't ignite your own pilot light. I know common beliefs and classic historical accounts will tell you that you have to be patient — inspiration is a mysterious, fickle force that will appear when it's good and ready, a force over which you have no control, like David Hasselhoff.
I disagree.
While I will grant you that inspiration can be elusive, it can, in fact, be codified and coaxed. You don't have to helplessly wait around for it to happen to you — you can create the conditions where inspiration is much more likely to occur.
And I'll show you how.
Frankly, the prevailing wisdom isn't doing a whole lot for us. As the data clearly shows, we aren't exactly prevailing in the "inspired at work" department.
So, let's get on with the art and science of self-inspiring. As the Russian composer Tchaikovsky advised on finding inspiration, "If we wait for the mood, without endeavoring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic."
I'm on a mission to help you reignite your inspiration at work.
Let's find the fire.
THE FIRST SPARK
Self-inspiration is first and foremost, a choice.
Dr. Gerald Bell, a professor at the University of North Carolina, asked 4,000 retired executives, average age of 70, one question: If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?
The number-one response?
I should have understood more about my cell phone plan.
Just kidding. Actually they said I should have taken charge of my life and set my goals earlier.
I can't imagine that one of your goals is to feel uninspired in your work life, nor can I imagine such a state makes you feel in charge of your life. You probably don't need 4,000 aging executives who watch too much of the Golf Channel to tell you what you already know deep inside — it's time to take charge and make change — and it's up to you.
The first spark is struck in one of three ways:
1. You choose to view your old job in a new light. You see it for the possibilities it yet still contains to reignite your inspiration.
2. You decide, in your heart of hearts, it's time to move on and find new work. But you first commit to understanding the triggers and warning signs of what keeps and drains our inspiration over time so that you can inform your search and know what to look for/ensure absence of at your potential new employer, and make a move that will stick.
3. If you're lucky enough to be in a place where you really do feel inspired in your job, you then choose to elevate your awareness of why that's the case and how to keep it so.
In any scenario, it's time to look closer — much closer — at this supposed mystery called inspiration.
WHAT INSPIRES US?
Let us begin with the basic question, "What inspires us?"
The answer, of course, is as individual as the person answering it (aside from the hugely popular response of "Super Bowl halftime show"). It might be a compelling vision, a specific song, your favorite painting, your boss's boss, or a well-crafted quote. It might be a story of heroism, a talented coworker, a tale of triumph, a particular idea, or a beautiful sunset.
So, when we're feeling uninspired, we can think of what inspires us and try to find ways to incorporate more of it in our life. Makes sense.
Unfortunately, the net effect of our efforts is often too tepid and too temporary — as sobering statistics on our current state of inspiration at work indicate.
We're missing something.
Asking and acting on "What inspires me?" at first glance seems like fertile territory, and yet a fundamental, deep-seated lack of inspiration persists.
To find a more sustaining solution versus temporary spikes, to find common powerful themes to draw from amid a dizzying array of individualized and random sources of fleeting inspiration, you must go further and dig deeper.
THE ANATOMY OF INSPIRATION
Let us begin this excavation with a deeper understanding of inspiration. Leading research on inspiration reveals three defining characteristics:
1. Our inspiration can be evoked; we become inspired by (a leader, an act of bravery, a sunset, a story of redemption, remarkable work). Responsibility for becoming inspired is ascribed to something beyond the self, something that has engendered a deep appreciation.
2. Our inspiration can come from within, triggered when we gain an awareness of better possibilities and when new interests or insights are revealed. This reorients us toward something more imperative than our usual focus (an innovative idea piques our interest, a new challenge stirs us, a renewed relationship reenergizes us, a better way to work becomes evident).
3. Any of these inspirations can compel us to act — we have a strong motivation to act on and actualize the idea, interest, or insight and/or express or imitate the qualities expressed in the inspirational stimulus. It is here that we are inspired to work with conviction, joy, excitement, confidence, control, and pride. We're inspired to create, connect, produce, and pursue ideas and interests with vigor.
This last characteristic of inspiration, being compelled to act, is of course the most critical. Many things can inspire us; it's what we decide to do with the inspiration that really matters.
If only it were that easy.
Each characteristic contains inherent challenges to unlocking sustained self-inspiration.
The problem with being inspired by is that by definition, it's passive. It implies involvement of external forces, something more likely to be out of our control, less likely to be reliable, and that you often have to wait for. And the associated inspiration is often fleeting, by the way. Your inspirational CEO can fire you up for only so long before you find yourself back at your desk, trying to put your finger on the funk you're in (and trying to move your finger fast enough on your Fruit Ninja game app).
The difficulty with inspiring from within and gaining awareness of better possibilities, insights, or interests is that it is elusive. It's not obvious as to how one goes about revealing such gems. New insights are rare by design; they wouldn't be insightful if they were mere common knowledge. On the surface here, happenstance plays far too big a role.
The issue with feeling compelled to act is that it all too easily gets repressed — by our soul-crushing work environment or our own debilitating hang-ups.
So the core elements of inspiration are inherently passive, elusive, or repressed — which sounds like the name of a teenager's memoir. The point is that this is hardly fodder for believing sustained self-inspiration is right around the corner. No wonder inspiration levels are so alarmingly low in the workplace.
Now that you understand the anatomy of inspiration and the inherent challenges of inspiring oneself, you've hopefully gained an appreciation for why asking and acting on "What inspires me?" simply isn't a robust enough approach. You aren't alone starting with this question, by the way, as research indicates we most frequently ask this of ourselves when we're attempting to get re-grounded and light a spark. While a reasonable starting place, the question tells only half the story.
A BETTER QUESTION
The question to ask yourself, in fact, is not "What inspires me?"
Instead, real insight and application lies in the question, "How did I lose my inspiration in the first place?"
Remember, we all had it — we started our jobs filled with inspiration. As I mentioned before, we didn't even have to think about it really — it was just there, everywhere, like half-finished highway construction.
What happened?
How might we return to that blissful time?
When we closely analyze how it is that we tend to lose our inspiration, it reveals root causes lying under the surface that have been slowly draining our inspiration over time. Such causes derail us from all the most critical things that can self-sustain inspiration.
Furthermore, such analysis engenders more control because, when known, the root causes are things that you can do something about — so inspiration no longer has to seem so passive, elusive, or repressed.
That's why "How did I lose my inspiration in the first place?" is such a powerful question — a question for which the answer, and its implications, will inspire you.
THE MUSE
Before examining this vital question, let me return for just a moment to the related but less potent question of "What inspires us?" The forces behind our inspiration have long been debated and are often shrouded in mystery. In fact, early accounts on the source of our inspiration actually linked it to madness. Socrates labeled inspiration as "a state of manic possession or enthusiasm." Other early interpretations of inspiration attributed it to the unconscious mind, while still others linked it to the supernatural. Still others have linked it to Lionel Richie.
A more universally known explanation comes to us from Greek and Roman mythology. Zeus and Mnemosyne had nine daughters: nine goddesses who each presided over different factions of art and science. Legend goes that these daughters serve as the spirit or source that inspires an artist. You may know the goddesses by their stage name — the Nine Muses. You've probably heard of an artist "waiting for his muse" to gift him with the inspiration required to create and discover. The Nine Muses are so effective at dumping inspiration into the heads of artists that they need their own warehouse for the net output — the "museum." The word music also comes from these mythological maidens.
Now, to blow your mind.
What if there were not only such muses at work in the real world, but there were counterforces at work as well? What if there were powerful forces laboring to actually kill our inspiration?
There are.
And guess what?
There are nine of them.
These forces aren't goddesses, though. They're fiends.
And they're hell-bent on stripping your work life of inspiration.
They are the Anti-Muses.
THE ANTI-MUSES
I've discovered there are indeed such evil forces at work — but knowledge brings hope. Once you're aware of and understand these inspiration sappers you can address them and foster the conditions that will reignite your inspiration at work — and sustain it. A very specific and holistic how-to exists to overcome each force, and I'll share them all with you.
Let us meet the nine fiends and discover how dousing their efforts can reignite our inspiration.
1. Fear — The Anti-Muse of Fear is the most devastating of them all. In her presence our sense of inspiration is all but vanquished. We're in no state of mind to receive inspiration. We can become immobilized, distracted, and thrust into self-doubt mode. Growth and discovery hide in the shadows. Worry replaces wonder.
Inspiration is doomed in the face of three fears in particular: the fear of failure, the fear of change, and the fear of criticism. Chapter 2, "Fear (Relinquished)," will give you the firepower to turn the tables on this arch-enemy of inspiration. Specifically, you'll discover how fear interrupts our ability to get inspired. You'll also learn:
• How to overcome the fear of failure
• How to overcome a fear of change
• How to overcome a fear of criticism
2. Settling and Boredom — Most of us have experienced or can imagine a time at work when we have been stuck. Time passes and our drive, interest, and output can wane. We discover we're getting even less than what we know we settled for. Boredom can soon follow. We take lunches that last longer than a jar of VapoRub. Inspiration exits stage left.
The truth is if you know you've settled for too long, or have become bored with your work, you have the power to change it.
The Anti-Muse of Settling and Boredom exists, more than any other such fiend, by our own choice.
So rejecting this force is about choosing to shift to a more open mindset and seek out new experiences. Chapter 3, "Settling and Boredom (Rejected)," will show you how. You'll discover how to shatter a sense of settling and boredom and open the windows of inspiration by learning:
• How to embolden yourself to take more risks
• How to start learning and growing again
• How to make your own opportunities
3. Inundation — When we're making things happen, it happens to feel great. More than that, we're inspired to keep going, as we can sense the impact we're having. One Harvard researcher refers to this as the "progress principle" — of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, perceptions, and levels of inspiration during a workday, the single most important is making progress, especially on work that matters to us.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Find the Fire"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Scott Mautz.
Excerpted by permission of AMACOM.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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