Where do YOU get your Inspiration from?

Where do YOU get your Inspiration from?

There are two words that have always intrigued me, one is Fascination and the other is Frustration.  Are they opposites or are they synonyms? Well I guess that's how you use them!

Fascination is just one little single step above interest, it can inspire you to learn, or to try harder and to become better all while giving you the H.S.E. (Holly Sh.. Effect) from what you've just encountered. You can learn more from being fascinated by something that you encounter in life than you can from being frustrated by it.  I wonder how many millions of eggs were sold after Rocky?  How many kids started running after Usain Bolt won gold? How many girls started playing soccer after the US Women won Gold in 2008? A lot of people get frustrated tho, they see something they want or want to do, then they try it looking for immediate gratification, get frustrated and quit.  Remember, in my previous post on "talent" I write about the dedication it took to get to the point that it takes to give someone the H.S.E.!

In the last decade or so I have developed a fascination with "successful" people, in life, in sports and in general.  First I think I need to define what I believe "success" is.  I believe success is truly believing that you have done everything within your power to achieve the most out of yourself, no matter what the task.

I’m fascinated with so many things and people, like Apple, Michael Jordan, John Wooden, Bill Gates, Ted Williams, Muhammad Ali, the 1980 Men's Olympic hockey team, and many many others.  What fascinates me is "how are/were they sooooo much better than everyone else?  And I think I figured it out. I think it's because they want to be better, not only today but tomorrow and forever! They have this burning desire to be the best they can be AND they don't lose that fire.  In sports you hear coaches say, "how bad do you want it?" well these people obviously wanted it real bad, but I believe the difference is that an additional question they asked themselves was "how long do I want it bad for?" Anyone can "want it" for a short period of time, anyone can "want it" when things are going good, but it takes a different type of person to "want it" everyday for months, years and even decades!

What happens to you when your doing all you can and you run into a road block, or something sets you back, a brick wall? In my career I've seen it over and over again with my athletes and clients, some get frustrated and some get fascinated.  When there is push back, when it becomes difficult, when there is an insurmountable resistance, successful people get excited, they get excited by the difficulty, they get fascinated by difficulty. This fascination drives them even more to do better, it gives them a challenge that they NEED to conquer.

Steve Jobs speech at Stanford is one for the record books, as well as Randy Pausch and his presentation "The Last Lecture.". Both discuss brick walls and what the walls purpose is, so go back and Google them if you haven't seen them yet, and if you have, go and take another look again and again and again. That just triggered a memory.... Again, again, again, again......on and on and on. For those of you who saw "MIRACLE" you know what I mean.

That fascination to me is the most inspiring thing I can think of, most people get defeated by the difficulty, successful people get inspired!  The harder it becomes, the more excited they become, that taller the brick wall, the harder you have to climb to get over it!  Imagine, just imagine, if in life you are going to be presented with problems; just like sports life is a continuous set of problem solving tasks.  I guess you have a couple of choices when you are presented with problems, are you going to get frustrated or are you going to get fascinated?  Most people get turned off and frustrated. I don't think Apple throws up their hands when Blackberry launches their new device.  I can bet that their engineers got highly excited and fascinated to an extreme degree, and that's why they just may be one of the best companies in the world!  What about when Usain Bolt lost in his Olympic trials? Did he just accept that or did he re-focus and work harder. He worked harder and crushed the field, again! Because when he gets excited, his body gets excited and he seems that he gets more energy, he gets to do amazing things! 

There is a secret tho.... Yes a secret, how did they learn the secret to get fascinated and who told them?  I think it just came to them actually.  But is it really a secret? You already know all of their secrets, Apples' secret, Ted Williams secret and yes even Rocky's secret.  You can too, get excited, get focused and become fascinated to an extreme degree!  

So, in closing what can you do? It's simple, do more, do what you are doing better, do it smarter and use fascination / frustration to your advantage.

To help keep yourself fascinated set gold, short and long term goals.  Create  a list of more goals and dreams to accomplish, write down as many as you can. Read books, listen to seminars, study "successful" people, mimick them, discover a new skill to learn, re-learn old skills, investment time to make yourself better, and meet new people.  And one last thing, stay in shape because there are a lot more brick walls out there for you to climb!