Work from a place of constant inspiration not aspiration.

In a phone conversation with one of my dearest friends, this little gem of wisdom came out of my mouth. Let’s just say inspiration hit me good. This conversation was actually during the midst of my reading Big Magic and re-learning how to approach creativity and entrepreneurship so creating from a place of inspiration was top of mind. See my post here on Big Magic.

My friend and I were having a deep chat about creating our own businesses, a favorite topic of ours. Neither of us has hit on THE  jackpot idea yet but we know its coming. We constantly remind each other that the journey is as important as, if not more important than the destination.

I see the destination as the pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow.

It’s the money, fortune, freedom, and maybe even fame. You know what I’m talking about. It’s appearing on Super Soul Sunday, buying a house for my mom, and staying home and homeschooling my child. Oh, is that just me? Well, one can dream big 🙂

But the thing is if pursing the pot is my only objective, I’ve made a grave mistake. I would miss the rainbow! And rainbows are pretty damn beautiful.

I have to admit, I have gotten caught up in thoughts of the future.

When you know deep down that it’s going to happen, it is hard to ignore it. However, the failures, abandoned ideas and fruitless efforts of the past ten years weigh on me. You see, I was focusing too much on all I can do once I reach the pot, I ignored the process. It ended up placing an enormous amount of pressure on my projects and I would become overwhelmed and freeze.

In the past year, I’ve completely changed my perspective.

Instead, the goal I am now embracing is to work from a place of inspiration, digging deep and pushing out the work that my soul is called to do and calling me to do. That means that what I do now excites me, it’s fun and makes me think deep both entrepreneurially and personally.

Working from a place of inspiration means to think, create, and become from within. This does not mean that I don’t look outside of myself for inspiration. In fact, that is where inspiration comes from for me but it is how I interpret that inspiration that makes my work my own. Working from a place of aspiration is to seek satisfaction from the work outside of myself. There is only one thing I can control and I’ll give you a hint of what that is – it’s not how much I make in 10 years, how many lives I impact, and how many comfy sweaters I have in my closet. It working from inspiration and enjoying the process along the way.

I realize now that it is the work I do along the way to my goals that creates the rainbow and moments of inspiration that color the rainbow a vibrant ROYGBIV.  I’m going to reach the pot one day so why not make the biggest, most beautiful rainbow on my way there?

Have you found yourself working from a place of inspiration or aspiration? I’d love to hear what perspective has worked for you.