I couldn’t stand hearing the words encouragement, motivation, and inspiration.
Honestly, my disdain for these affirmative words grew over time because they appeared everywhere online. When I relaunched this past April, I vowed never to use them or their derivatives in any of my writing. Not only that, they’d become the essential job function of folks that I’d met who blog, have an online business, or any kind of social media presence.
They’d say things like:
I encourage women to discover their purpose.
I motivate women to pursue their passions.
I inspire women to reclaim their authentic selves.
🙄 <eye roll emoji>
When I heard these platitudes, I’d be super annoyed because I believed that these mere taglines were vague, boring, and unoriginal to say the least.
In our overly-saturated, online world of positive messages, just about everyone and everything encourages, motivates and inspires. Wouldn’t you agree?
Our timelines are flooded with a tsunami of encouraging memes to pursue your dreams, inspirational quotes about being a better version of yourself, and motivational videos demonstrating how to cook more healthy. I haven’t done the research, but it feels like suddenly the supply and demand for encouragement, motivation and inspiration has increased in the past 5 years 200 percent!
What’s up with that?
Why the sudden surge and popularity of these 3 words?
How did we survive before now without them?
What has the Internet done to us?
I’m being a little snarky, I know. Sorry.
I get it. We all need to be encouraged, motivated, and inspired because when we are we can:
- Rejoice in hope
- Look forward to the future
- Be healed of our past
- Recover from mistakes
- Gain clarity about why we’re on this planet
- Begin again
- Be at peace with others
- Make healthy living a lifestyle
- Forgive wrong done to us
- Pursue our bucket list aspirations
- Get out of debt
- Live in the moment
- Eat healthier
- Make our ideas blossom
(Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive. It contains only a small portion of what we can aspire to if we are encouraged, motivated, and inspired.)
I just wish that these words weren’t overused and spoken so flippantly. As you can see, they actually possess an extraordinary amount of power to:
- Change us for the better
- Lift us up
- Awaken our spirits
And this was my epiphany.
As much as the use of these words has irritated me, you want and need to be encouraged, motivated, and inspired to live better lives. And you can activate the power of encouragement, motivation, and inspiration when you take action on your ideas.
- The power of encouragement transpires when you don’t hesitate to ask someone who encourages you to pursue your business idea to be your mentor.
- The power of inspiration transpires after reading your daily inspirational quote on procrastination, you immediately start tackling that task you’ve been putting off.
- The power of motivation transpires when you actually exercise with your personal trainer instead of watching her demonstrate her moves on Instagram.
The power of encouragement, motivation, and inspiration ultimately lies within you to figure out how to encourage, motivate, and inspire yourself.
Get the idea? Girl, after writing this, I do. The words encouragement, motivation, and inspiration don’t annoy me anymore. I can’t say that I’ll use them more in my writing though because I want to do more than just encourage, motivate, and inspire you. I want to compel and convince you to take action and make your ideas blossom.
So how about you grab your journal and reflect on the following:
- Why is encouragement, motivation, and inspiration crucial to making your ideas blossom?
- What steps are you going to take to actualize the power of encouragement, motivation, and inspiration in your life?
- If you aren’t encouraged, motivated, and inspired what happens to you?
- Where does your encouragement, motivation, and inspiration to make your ideas blossom come from?
- In what ways do you encourage, motivate and inspire yourself?
And if you’d like to share someone or something that encourages, motivates, and inspires you, leave a comment below or on the GoneGirlGo Facebook page. Email me at zoe@gonegirlgo.com for a personal exchange.
Thanks for this Zoe!
You never cease to amaze me. You always have the right message just when I need to hear it.
It’s a tough summer for WOW! this year, but I’m compelled to convince the little me to rise up with new ideas and COMMIT (couldn’t use ‘convict’ – to insidious for me) to a new beginning every day. Yes! EVERY DAY!
GBY….me too!
P.
I’m smiling over here Penny Parker! Finding a way to stay encouraged, motivated, and inspired can be tricky even in our oversaturated world of online encouragement. Stay compelled!! And I guess that convicted sounds insidious…not my intent…gotta pick a better word then! Thanks for commenting!!!!
Good morning, Zoe!
This was a timely and relevant message and I thank you kindly for it! The ACTIONS taken are what counts…DOING the WORK.
Rather than spectating – doing. You have a great Wednesday, too! (“Happy Hump Day” as we say here in the Florida panhandle.
Yes Mary Liz – it’s the action taken that counts…that’s where the power of encouragement, motivation, and inspiration are found!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks Zoe,
I enjoyed the video and the message!. There is so much that I want to do and get accomplished, but this definitely helped remind me that I can do it. I have to encourage myself and take one step at a time.
Thank you Tracy!! Knowing that you enjoyed what I shared is very encouraging to me. I know it’s a bit of a challenge to accomplish all that you’ve set for yourself. You said it right tho. Take one step at a time. When you get momentum, experience, reassurance, then JUMP! ~Zoe
Right on! It is all about yourself! Without learning about yourself you don’t have any idea what you believe in and what you wish to do, which are crucial to motivation. Motivation is an internal job and dialogue. You could build a team of supporters, but you are still the captain of the ship. If you are not your own captain then the ship is going nowhere. You will be bobbing recklessly out at sea and any wave (opinions of others) can capsize you. Don’t get me wrong opinions of others are great so long as you know how to filter them through your own fundamental knowing of what resonates within yourself. How do you do that? By knowing yourself! That is the catalyst for motivation!
Aloha Zoe!
I am new to your blog and decided to give this a shot. I totally need to find ways to maintain my own personal levels of inspiration, motivation and encouragement. I am guilty of using these words / terms over and over–yet, I find that it is imperative in my line of work and life. As a Leadership Training teacher at a high school, it is my passion to empower & equip my students so that they can break free from the vicious cycles they tend to live in: poverty, domestic violence, stigmas, low self-esteem, etc. I am also a single mother of 5 children–4 of whom are females; thus, I make it a point to fill my own cup so that I can inspire, motivate and encourage my own children and those whom I teach.
When I don’t seek out ways to keep myself sharp, I feel “empty” and tired. I always think of the quote: “You can only give what you have.” Therefore, it’s almost like making it a daily ritual/habit to find things that inspire and motivate me, so that I can continue to pursue my passion of empowering teens.
Mahalo for your blog. It is now something I will make as part of my routine.
Your story has inspired me WOW you definitely have a responsibility to keep pushing through being one that works with teens. One of the things that I’ve found to stay motivated and encouraged is regular exercise. No seriously! There’s something about those endorphins that keep me pumped. Not all the time, but definitely most of the time. You have to make self-care an important habit, especially if you are a giver like me. Thanks again for sharing Rhesa. I hope to hear more from you. Peace 🙂