INSPIRATION; OVERDOSE, ABUSE AND IMBALANCE
Every human needs some form of encouragements at various points in his or her life and as such, the role of inspiration can never be overemphasized. However, just like most concepts that govern humanity, the concept of inspiration has largely been abused leading to imbalance in the lives of many.
What is inspiration?
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, “inspiration is the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions.” The Collins English Dictionary defines the concept as “a feeling of enthusiasm you get from someone or something, which gives you new and creative ideas.” There are many definitions of this concept that we can’t possibly fill in here.
As stated earlier, the matter of inspiration has been abused over time and has caused many people to lead imbalance lives. Just like The Collins English Dictionary rightly puts, inspiration is drawn from people or things meaning that people are inspirational agents to other people. In other words, one person inspires the other. It is therefore safe to say that the inspiration given out comes from experiences already gotten—most of the times. For instance; a father inspires his son on the matter of marriage. He most likely will tell him things that spun from his own personal experience.
While this is good, it also has a downside to it. The inspiration given out—perhaps in terms of spoken words, written words, sung words—were formed in accordance to specific situations therefore, may not be very effective when handed down to another whose situation isn’t the same or similar to that of the original person. Simply put; such inspiration is given out of context.
The danger to this is that the receiver may not know how to filter what he or she receives and will blindly execute the so-called new ideas which will definitely not give the desired results.
Apart from taking inspirational materials and executing them out of context, another abuse of this concept is mostly found in the usage of “inspirational quotes.” An inspirational quote is merely a key and not the key to success in life—you may need to read that again.
There are a million and more inspirational quotes out there. The effectiveness of one relies on its relationship with another. One quote cannot bring about success without the help of two or more quotes. Therefore, to be correctly inspired is to have a network of identical quotes working in you.
Finally, it is imperative for one to have self-control in the matters of collecting or acquiring inspirations. As earlier said, humans are agents of inspiration to other humans, and each agent mostly speaks out of personal experiences. Listening to too many agents—especially those with lots of differences in experience—can be a disaster.
I have personally seen people who do not know when to sit back. They are always high and mighty whenever a conference is called. They lack the ability to create and follow a pattern so they end up acquiring too many unwanted inspirational materials. It’s like buying all the spices in the grocery shop and using them all at ones—of course you know the outcome.
Do not use inspirational materials out of context.
Do not single out a particular inspirational material as the best, they work hand in gloves.
Do not seek to acquire all, seek to acquire the necessary.
Par: Sambasy
👌👌
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