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When was the last time you were inspired by a “YES!!!!! Opportunity” that both set your soul on fire AND scared the mess out of you? Do you remember the feeling of aliveness at the possibility of being more, living larger, or accomplishing something you’d never done before? This particular kind of inspiration calls you out of your comfort zone to grow, develop, or become someone new in saying yes to it. It will have you moving mountains if you act and will evaporate overnight if you don’t.

When cultivated, inspiration is a force for making miracles in your life—it will accelerate your growth and impact. To experience more of it, you’ve got to get a handle on what makes inspiration thrive and what snuffs it out.

Today in The Grip, we reveal two aspects of inspiration every visionary leader needs to know: how to kill it and how to cultivate it. Learn the #1 trait that kills inspiration—taking missions down with it—and the #1 trait that turns inspiration into new reality.

Discover how mastering inspiration is key to actualizing the fullness of life you’re designed for.

Let’s dive in!

MASTERING INSPIRATION

How To Easily Kill Inspiration

The most effective way to rid yourself of inspiration is delay. When you’re inspired by a “YES!!!!! Opportunity,” but delay moving forward with it, the survival brain gets busy filling that space with all kinds of reasons to not do it.

Inspiration is a call to grow and expand beyond your comfort zone; it’s uncomfortable. Delay creates a prime opportunity for the survival brain to trick you into avoiding the discomfort of growth:

• Now’s not the right time.

• Let’s circle back next quarter.

• I need to do more research.

• Maybe there’s a better deal elsewhere.

• I’ll see how far I can get on my own.

Sound familiar?

For a deep dive on eliminating the reasons getting in your way, check out our previous post, The Unreasonable Advantage.

Delay is a hostile environment for inspiration—where delay increases, inspiration decreases. Remember, the survival brain is designed to keep you safe and has no capacity to help you grow; it often perceives new opportunity as a threat that must be eliminated. The survival brain floods the space created by delay with convincing reasons to abdicate your dreams.

Know this: Delay is the space where inspiration goes to die; it kills more missions than failure ever will.

But good news! There is an antidote for delay, and it’s readily available. It is the #1 trait for transforming inspiration to materialization in your life.

How To Transform Inspiration To Reality

For three years I looked extensively for an executive coach to mentor and train me. When I eventually experienced the coach I’d go on to hire, I knew he was the one I’d been searching for. He was the answer to all my prayers and effort…and his fee was more than my annual salary.

In the past, the fee would have been my “reason” to run. But I had gotten a glimpse of who I would become and what I’d be empowered to create by working with him; I was inspired at the possibility of becoming the person who could generate what I desired in life.

So, before my survival brain could produce a list of all the reasons I should retreat, I immediately took action to generate the money I needed by giving myself a tight deadline—two weeks—to do it. I didn’t wait for certainty to magically arrive before acting; I created certainty step after step by acting. Each step of action was progress toward creating what I had never created before.

Inspiration transforms to reality through action. Inspiration alone is impotent; it must be combined with action for it to make any difference in your life. Action converts inspiration’s potentiality to materiality; it generates new outcomes, making the impossible possible.

Action for you could be to:

• Step into your next-level leadership role.

• Sign up for the challenge beyond your current skill level.

• Launch the bold new vision.

• Hire the next powerhouse member of your team.

• Invest in courses, training, and mentors for self-mastery.

• Secure the flights for your next sabbatical.

• Streamline, automate, and elevate your systems.

• Pitch your big idea to the partner of your dreams.

One of my clients put it this way as he handed me a check: “I don’t know completely what these next months of working with you will bring, but something in me switched on when I signed this.” His act of signing the check transformed inspiration to materialization for himself. What he felt switch on was his capacity to create his life more powerfully and effectively than he ever had before.

That’s the power of action. It generates the energy needed to bring an idea to life. Without action, inspiration withers and dies, making it a non-event for you or anyone else. But with action, inspiration is a compelling force, moving you to the greatest heights you’re capable of; the heights your mission is depending upon.

Bottom line: The ROI of delay is death. The ROI of action is new life.

When you’re inspired by a “YES!!!!! Opportunity,” delay is the fastest way to kill it. Don’t create space in your life for your survival brain to talk you out of the inspiration calling you to grow. Instead, master inspiration with action.

If you’re waiting for circumstances to change before you act, know that your circumstances won’t change until you act. New action creates the new circumstances you’re waiting for.

Be in action like your life depends on it, because the life you’re capable of actually does.

Keep creating!

WHAT HAS ME INSPIRED THIS WEEK?

Who I’m learning from and the experiences impacting my own development. I find great value in them—you may as well.

Theodore Roosevelt: “The Man In The Arena”

The following is an excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt’s famous speech, “Citizenship In A Republic,” delivered April 23, 1910 in Paris. Enjoy!

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."