Inspiration or Motivation? | Simply Divine Life

Originally published Wednesday, February 4, 2009

If you look these two words up in the thesaurus they seem interchangeable – like they mean the same thing. Do they? According to the Random House Dictionary, inspiration can be defined as:

an inspiring or animating action or influence: I cannot write poetry without inspiration.
something inspired, as an idea.
a result of inspired activity.
a thing or person that inspires.
Theology:
1. a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
2. the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.
the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.
the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired.

Whereas motivation, according to Princeton University’s Wordnet, is defined as:

the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behaviour; “we did not understand his motivation”; “he acted with the best of motives”
the condition of being motivated; “his motivation was at a high level”
the act of motivating; providing incentive

On the surface the two do seem similar, save for that quality of divine influence in inspiration. If we examine how we would use the words, we can detect an underlying emotion. For example, there is a breathtaking scene of mountains and the glorious colours of the setting sun. Are we motivated to take a picture, or inspired?

A grizzly bear is running towards us. Are we inspired to run, or motivated?

Both inspiration and motivation are precursors to action, but one is inspired by love (positive action – moving toward something that is pleasureable, soul-level) and the other is motivated by fear (negative (re)action – moving away from something that causes pain, ego-level). Can you guess which one is which? Can you think of other examples in your own life?

Motivation can seem like movement toward something positive, but when you dig deeper you will find that it is movement away from something negative. For example, you might be motivated to lose weight. On the surface this seems to be positive movement – movement towards something “good” that make you feel better and look more attractive. But what is causing that motivation? Fear of being labelled “fat”, fear of being ridiculed by a society that reveres thinness, and/or fear of not feeling well if you don’t lose weight.

Motivation is action on behalf of our desires and the actions we take are steps toward a goal. They are logical and “make sense”. Inspiration on the other hand, tends to be spontaneous and creative in nature, intuitive, even emotional. It may indeed further your progress to a goal, but can’t be planned nor predicted. You may have a goal to expand your business, for example, and you may take certain actions to further your progress toward that goal. Then, one night when you are brushing your teeth, you may get an idea, an insight – an inspiration. Something that didn’t occur to you in thinking-mode. Inspiration is something that “moves” you at a soul-level. Looking at whether your actions are inspired or motivated will help you discern where you are headed with your life. Are you attracting what you want in your life and career? Are you living your life from a basis of love, or reacting to the circumstances of your life from a position of fear?

The more action you take from the standpoint of inspiration – of love, the more happy and successful you will be. And while not everything is inspirational, you can improve your chances of being inspired by:

being open-minded,
having an open heart;
being appreciative,
being hopeful and optimistic, and looking for the dark cloud’s silver lining (this includes with the economy!),
looking for feelings that are positive and make you feel good,
tuning into your intuition,
juicing up your creativity, and
believing that you can and will be inspired.

So, what is your inspiration right now?

Blessings,

Keena

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PREVIOUS COMMENTS

Great article. I like what you’re doing with the word play here.

I disagree about motivation being a fear-based drive in all cases. Sometimes one can be motivated by feeling good about self and being in touch with the desire to have more money, for instance.

I guess it’s a tomato/tomato thing, though that analogy really doesn’t work without the audio huh?

But I totally agree about the deeper meaning of inspiration or “in the spirit” as the word literally means. This ideal brings a completely fresh and empowering perspective to the word and how we can use it in our own lives.

February 4, 2009 | Timothy Aaron Whiston

I love how you distinguish these two terms!
I completely agree that motivation derives from fear, ego, and at times, innate survival instincts. While, inspiration comes from our Soul or Higher Self and ultimately, Divine Source.
Both are useful; One is just more fulfilling!
Thanks,
Brenda

February 5, 2009 | Brenda|Soul Realignment

Hi Timothy – thank you so much for your though provoking comment.

There is always an exception to the rule! “They’re really more like guidelines…”

Because we live in a dualistic universe, all positives and negatives are really 2 sides of the same coin.

I agree with you that feeling good is certainly a positive motivation, but I would just like us to consider going deeper with that – to see both sides of the coin. Is it really just motivation to feel good, or is it avoidance of feeling bad? In this case, likely both. So you make a very valid point!

Considering our feelings – being more aware of them, what feels good and knowing how we want to feel, as well as discerning where they are coming from (a place of love or fear – or both!) is important for conscious creation with the Law of Attraction.

Blessings,
Keena

PS: I liked your blog very much