Inspiration is a myth

The thing about inspiration is: it doesn’t exist on its own!

It all starts with wishful thinking:

Hope and action together result in Wishful Thinking

All inspirational messages are wishful thinking made of hope and action.

“Everything happens for a reason!”,

… means: let’s hope there is a reason that will justify our self indulging actions.

“Life is an adventure!”,

… means: hopefully I am in some adventure and so something interesting will come out of my boring, routine actions.

“Love solves everything!”,

… means: I hope love is the answer, because all my actions seem futile.

“Happiness is a choice!”, OMG the worst of the pack,

… means: I hope that I can choose to be happy, instead of actually doing something about it.

The thing is all inspirational messages give birth to shame.

I suck, stuff happens to me for no reason! I am awful, love didn’t solve everything! My live is so not an adventure, I must be horrible. What the fuck is wrong with me, I cannot choose to be happy!

Shame of being human always comes from wishful thinking.

However, there is a right place for wishful thinking.

There is no shame involved when you are actually set on the path for achieving your goals.

You can afford to be as human as possible when you are “having a strong feeling that you’re going to do something and that you will not allow anyone or anything to stop you”.

A dictionary defines this as determination.

Determination transforms the intersection of Hope and Action into Inspiration

There is no such thing as inspiration to be found.

Inspiration appears at the intersection of hope and action in the presence of determination.

Determination is a global state in one’s life. It wraps all endeavors, all the little things one defines herself by. Determination acts in a way like a photo filter.

Look at this sentence:

“Life is an adventure!”

… through the lens of a determined person.

You’ll see a different picture:

“I want to go from Europe to Silicon Valley and fund my startup and there is nothing else I can think of doing with my life, and I am not afraid because I feel life is an adventure worth having.”

Determination is a big deal.

Unless one has the “hipster” problem, when determination is just not enough and determined action is too little:

The half assed approach is does not inspire

One last thing, unless determination is all encompassing, you will get bored.

Boredom

Oh, and a note on being human: being human does not justify being moody, especially since everything is temporary.