Inspiration Is Futile

“Resistance is Futile!” - the Borg

This has been bouncing around in my head for a while, so I thought it worth noodling on for a bit. By ‘Noodling On’, I mean write that shit down in a post, throw it up on my blog, and then leave it there to steam like a wet pavement in the sun.

Not sure about that similie, but it’ll do to get started with. It’s better than ‘a fresh dog turd on a frosty morning’, even if the latter is probably more accurate.

Inspiration is my nemesis.

That’s a bold phrase, but dammit, it’s true. I have been driven to be inspired many times by many things, and nothing has come of any of it. Why? Because I’ve been doing one (or both) of two things:

• Confusing Aspiration with Inspiration
• Not following up with Action.

Let’s start with the first mistake:

The difference between Aspiration and Inspiration

The world of inspiring others has been utterly ruined by influencers. If you spend more than thirty seconds on Instagram, you’ve likely seen more than one. (One of the reasons why I gave up on Insta several months ago, and don’t miss it one iota). Influencers are the type of people who are lauded in social media for driving sales of whatever trinket they have been paid to recommend.

It’s safe to say that the moment I see someone pushing a product, I’m less inclined to buy it, not more. Even if they claim to have been using the product for years, the application of a financial reward for the promotion of that product just dulls the appeal.

I’m being nice there, of course. How mealy mouthed of me.

While some people have the good grace to point out their affiliation, or recommend it based on their experience and have the receipts to prove they recommended it long before they were paid to do so, a hell of a lot of others just don’t.

You can usually tell because they will shill any old piece of shit. Electric scooters from some brand you’ve never heard of. Food supplements. Banking or investment services. Or the worst of all; obviously dogshit mobile games that offer some sort of currency buy-in and a worthless ‘free item’ that can only possibly be attractive to the deeply invested gamer who forgets the connection between ‘value’ and ‘real world items’.

Yeah - you know what games I’m talking about. I won’t name them here, because as tiny and as insignificant as this personal journal is, litigation don’t care about that, and I have no desire to be sued.

So - influencers. I avoid them like the plague.

But the extra trouble is that they are selling Aspiration, not Inspiration. “Buy this product/course/cream/worthless doodad and you can look like me / be as rich as me / be as popular as me (delete as appropriate)”.

Selling the result, rather than the method.

Sure, some products or courses promise to take you step by step to the hallowed sunny uplands of success, but you rarely see the journey, just the result (usually because the journey requires ‘further investment’ or similarly unrealistic chances of success).

That’s Aspiration in a nutshell - there is just a result, which can lure you in to an “easy five step method” until you realise that there is nothing easy about it at all - but too late, they have your money now: tough shit, sucker.

You Aspire to be like them. The path is unclear, often lengthy, time consuming, expensive, or all four (and many others besides).

People who seek to Inspire frequently show their working. In practice, even those who don’t try to Inspire still manage to do so, because they’re showing you the path - warts and all. If you’re watching them on Youtube, they’re the ones with the multi-hour videos. I must confess a liking for those.

Inspiration is usually easier to achieve because you can see that path, and it’s easier to imagine yourself on it - even if it’s long and troublesome. You’re invested and understand it better. No snake oil involved.

The evidence that someone else has travelled it and got a result is usually sufficient to convince you it’s possible - after all, the four minute mile was achieved first by Roger Bannister, and then by countless others after him, once they’d been shown it was possible.

Inspiration is more likely to hook you, but there’s a catch:

Inspiration ain’t shit without Action

How many times have you seen comments or replies on Twitter under an inspirational post? “I’m so inspired by you!” They proclaim. “You are an inspiration!”

Yet that inspiration is utterly wasted if you don’t do anything with it, other than tell others they’re inspirational.

That’s where I fell down most frequently. I call it the ‘curse of inspiration’ because it happens to me so frequently.

Unless you act, the inspiration is worthless. Unless you see that sunlit path and follow the person who has shown you where to step, then you’re not inspired. You’re simply adding to the noise. You’re contributing to the endless chatter of people who do nothing. Empty vessels make the most noise, after all.

Sure, the person who has shown the way receives countless laudable comments for the work they have done in inspiring many others - and I can absolutely bet that they know only a single digit percentage of the commenters will take even one step in the right direction.

Now, your average Influencer? The one selling the magic potions and courses? They loooove those supportive posts. Love ’em. They could not give less of a shit if you’re successful or not - just that you keep on commenting on how great they are. Even if you lie about how the method/product/pile of steaming horseshit they have sold is the magic potion to success and you have the hastily constructed, AI generated proof!

I’m not being hard on others who claim to be inspired. I’ve done it many times myself. I have no evidence that the supportive comments I’ve read haven’t ended up in fantastic success. But now I am extra careful not to shout about inspiration unless I’ve already taken several steps in the right direction and am coming back for more guidance.

And, as you can imagine, that’s not often.

Hardly ever, in fact.

Does that mean I watch or read less inspirational content? No, far from it. I probably read and watch much more.

The difference is that now I recognise when I’m aspiring to be like someone else, or inspired to follow the path they have shown, or actually taking action.

That’s why Inspiration is Futile. It’s never enough.

Inspired by anything at all? Before you write a supportive note, go and do something about it.

The true inspirational people far prefer the evidence of their fans’ success than the hollow ringing of empty support.