The 10 Empowering Principles of Inspiration

When we choose to get inspired, we’re empowering ourselves with the only shortcut to true happiness. Arm yourself with awareness of inspiration’s benefits, and unlock your happiest life simply by choosing to take advantage of these 10 Empowering Principles of Inspiration:

1. Inspiration is actionable with immediate benefits

Getting happy isn’t instantaneous. Sometimes it’s a lot of work. Sometimes it’s a lot of waiting or infinite waiting, or when we get happy, it’s not what we expected. We all know what it means to feel happy, but the path to this experience is too often confusing and elusively out of reach.

Inspiration, on the other hand, is actionable. You can get inspired intentionally anytime, anywhere. You don’t have to wait or wonder how to feel inspired; you know how, and you just do it!

2. It’s easy to choose to be inspired

I wish I could just “choose” to feel happy, but I haven’t figured out how to flip the happiness switch that easily. While the”fake it ’til you make it” practice can sometimes be beneficial, like when overcoming irrational fears, I more often feel that it’s important to honor when I’m sad, frustrated, and less than happy.

That’s when I turn to inspiration. I can’t personally choose to be happy, but I can always choose to dive into an inspired moment. We can generally feel unhappy and still get inspired. If we are going through a tough time, we don’t have to rush through that healing process, but instead collect and indulge in inspired moments to bring us energy and a reprieve from being less than happy without having to deny what’s challenging us.

3. Inspiration is immune to adversity

Happiness is too easily shaken when someone criticize us. If we share happy news and someone responds critically or with judgment, we can’t help but to feel discouraged, and our happiness can take a hit.

When we instead pursue what inspires us, adversity becomes irrelevant. We are honoring our true selves simply because we can’t imagine another path. It’s not a frivolous choice that is subjected to others’ opinions. Inspiration is genuine and an unstoppable force stemming from our strongest foundation. All the rejection in the world can’t hinder our desire to do what inspires us.

4. Being inspired is experiencing reality at its best

During challenging times, we often pursue happiness to escape reality. We eat a pint of ice cream, binge watch a new show or go on vacation to relax on a beach. But when we come back to real life, all the same challenges are still there. Our souls are not quenched by distractions or an escape from life’s trials. This pause doesn’t help to exchange negative energy for positive refueling energy.

Instead, we can dive into the present to experience reality at its best, enjoying the positive stimulus in life. Through indulging in inspiration, we can recharge with positive energy and fully experience the connected moments that make us feel alive. We have to refuel with inspiration to experience true happiness.

5. Inspiration creates positive, recharging energy

Happiness is a break, but inspiration helps us refuel. Sometimes when we think we need a break, we actually need to recharge.

Breaks spent participating in energy-avoidance activities do not compound to become recharging because they don’t replace or create positive energy. If we store stress, negative energy, or too much stimulus that is not in connection to our true selves, negative energy doesn’t truly dissipate by taking a break. We have to move that energy. We have to replace that energy.

Since inspiration elicits positive energy through an experience or activity, inspiration is a powerful recharger. Participating in inspiring activities infuses positive energy, cleansing out any stagnation in its path and replacing dormant negative energy.

6. Inspiration is about the “why”

Inspiration doesn’t stem from classic forms of success, approval, validation, money or praise, but happiness might. While these aspects may seem motivating, they are often related to the “what” in the pursuit of happiness.

The real question is why would you be happy about having more money? It’s not the money itself, sitting in your bank, that’s going to make you happy. It’s why you want it, what you would do with it, and how you would spend it. The only way to make a decision on how to spend it is to tap into what inspires you.

Simply choosing to think about why we’re working on a goal will bring us fuel while we’re working on that goal, and we will not be holding our happiness hostage until we reach it. Particularly when quitting bad habits or starting good ones, if we focus too much on the what, we might find ourselves spending too much time thinking about what we don’t want and not enough timeliving freely in the flow of life.

7. Inspiration brings us to the present

Happiness is generally quite conditional or circumstantial. “I’ll be happy when’s” rule our thinking, taking us out of the present and attaching expected outcomes based purely on hope. Even worse, the “I’ll be happy when’s” hold our happiness hostage from us for an unknown or even infinite period of time.

Attaching our happiness to outcomes we can’t predict or control is giving up our empowerment over our own life. We have very little influence on the external factors on which we often rely upon for our happiness.

But we have full influence over feeling inspired. We can decide at any point to dive into an inspired moment without relying on anyone or anything.

8. Inspiration ends with fulfillment

When we’re happy, we don’t want it to end. Of course we don’t! But this sets us up for disappointment.

Inspiration, on the other hand, has a built-in end, so your expectations are set accurately from the beginning. You know there will be an end to your ride, project, meal, and so on, but because you know there will be an end, you are more in the moment and less concerned about how long it will last. In fact, you’re probably not analyzing it at all because you are so present in the moment. You might even celebrate the end of being inspired as an accomplishment, whereas with happiness you may find yourself unfulfilled and disappointed.

9. Inspiration can only originate from our true selves

Happiness is generally conditional and circumstantial. “I’ll be happy when’s” rule our thinking, taking us out of the present and attaching expected outcomes based purely on hope. Even worse, the “I’ll be happy when’s” hold our happiness hostage from us for an unknown or even infinite period of time.

Attaching our happiness to outcomes we can’t predict or control is giving up our empowerment over our own life. Happiness brings our attention outward and gets us caught up in what could happen in the future, distracting us from focusing on inspiration that brings us to the present and to our true selves.

Don’t settle for being happy when. Be inspired now! Inspiration can’t be faked and can only be experienced when you’re connected to your true self. By indulging in inspired moments, true happiness becomes accessible.

10. Inspiration is worry and judgment-free

We worry about happiness when we don’t have it, but how often to we say, “I am feeling so uninspired. Maybe something is wrong with me. Maybe something is wrong with my life. Maybe I need medication.”

We don’t need medication to feel inspired because we know we aren’t expected to be inspired 24/7. We can jump into inspiration anytime. We are empowered to simply dive into another inspired moment or activity whenever we want.