Inspire vs Advice

Inspiring someone (relative or stranger) can be through our own actions or sharing a personal story of similar struggles and victories over it.

Inspiring can also be through sharing of someone else’s life story or similar struggles relevant to the situation and how they overcame it. At times even generic inspiring incidents can help as well.

Inspiring someone can also be done by using empowering and uplifting words. Words are a powerful tool if used well. Some leaders who recognise and understand the power of words have used it well, to stir and move crowds to do things.

Advice comes from a place of fear, self interest or I know what’s right for you provided you follow my words and it will do you good. It usually lacks humility of being wrong in our advice and can be perceived by the receiver as unsolicited criticism.

Example: Wardrobe cleaning – you can do it and then tell your family members, how you’ve been procrastination and how yesterday/today you decided to do it and didn’t want to give any excuses to yourself.

Telling your story, your struggles and how you overcame it or how you feel having done it and what changes you experienced will inspire someone.

Similarly you can also narrate an episode from some friend’s or relative’s life or some other real persons story you read or came across and this can inspire as well.

Using this approach will inspire them (i.e. your family) rather than advising why they should clean their wardrobes and how it will benefit them or why it good to do.

Remember Tom-Sawyer’s story of painting the fence job this approach usually works well with children and on many occasions even on adults too 🙂 the intent should not be to deceive someone falsely, although some people do manipulate others this way and eventually at some point the secret is out but this approach works wonderfully well, if the intent and concern is genuine well-being towards the person being inspired.

As long as the story or incident is about you or others, it’s inspiring, the moment you make it about them (your family), then your entering the world of advices.

Family members or anyone for that matter may or may not instantly take your inspiration or even acknowledge it, but you would have definitely sown the seeds and when this seed (inspiration) will grow, no one can tell, maybe same day, the next day, next week or even longer.

Everyone who gets inspired, knows the source i.e. you inspired them and whether they readily acknowledge or express it to you or to others is another matter (courage or feeling will, virtues needs to be made stronger).

The role of the inspiring person, is to do their job and leave it to time to turn the wheels of doing. It will turn.

You can also inspire someone by doing your work daily rain or shine or doing your part of the work, come what may and whether anyone else is doing it beside you, behind you or ahead of you.

Do the work yourself, that you want others to be inspired about. If you want others to plant a tree, then plant one everyday or every weekend and so on. Don’t tell others what they need to do, tell them what you’ve been doing.

It shouldn’t matter or be dependant on others doing the work or not and you must still do it irrespective of circumstances, how you feel or think, then you will inspire others.

Not every inspiration needs to show results in the short term, some inspiration are of long gestation and may take time to stir and awaken someone.

Other examples – I have taken liberty of other campers sharing on the group 🙂

Candle night for weekend: You must do it, even if no one else is feeling like it or wants to do it, then you do it alone.

Reading/learning circle: you must read or learn even if no one is able to join you for the reading circle, then read alone and post as done. Keep your commitment and word.

By doing the gatekeeper, consistently you have already set in motion the raw materials or process needed for inspiring someone. While other tasks like Olympic, listening, bravery, detox will add on different shades and qualities to your ability to inspire others.

Recall, either a past inspiring event or a recent one on how you felt inspired to do something, who triggered it and how.

Wishing you to be inspired and to inspire

Capt. Preetham Madhukar