“Inspiration without action is just escapism.”
I took this line from a guy I follow on Twitter – I don’t know him, but he travels around the world and blogs about it. Seems like a pretty nice situation.
I went through a range of perspectives as I initially read the line until it finally settled itself into me. I liked it at first, then I hated it, and now I just accept it as truth. But I’m good at inspiration is the problem, – I always have been. It’s not hard for me to get carried into the deep dreams of better schools and better jobs and new lives and blank slates. “What if?” is probably my favorite record to spin.
I wrote about this awhile ago in another blog. It was some kind of heady manifesto about knowledge being useless – I even used a rock-climbing metaphor. I meant it then, and I still do – but as I’m writing my own story, I see that knowledge is actually becoming a villain. It’s true, knowledge without action is useless, but I’m starting to see that it might also be damning.
The problem with knowledge is the same problem with inspiration. Neither are inherently bad, actually, they’re inherently beautiful – but they’re beautiful because they’re designed for action. I don’t believe that we’re meant to experience the rising action of inspiration without the payout of actual change. So many times, I’ve let inspiration eclipse action.
The trouble is, we’ve taken the story and splayed the whole thing on the autopsy table and (in the name of knowledge, actually) dissected them, analyzed them, and somewhere along the line, we’ve reasoned that one can be had without the other. So then, inspiration feels something like the finish line, when really, it’s just the sign-up sheet. We’re swollen with the stuff of inspiration after meetings and midnight conversations with best friends- ready to change the world – or at least ready to change our own worlds. And then, we go home and spend the night on Facebook.
Because it’s so easy to get swept into the excitement of inspiration and think that it’s the whole of the story. But that’s a small story, a regrettable one. A shameful one, to be honest. Good stories can’t end before the climax, and they never end before the conflict.
Inspiration can change our moods, action can change our lives. Even better, it can change someone else’s. Here’s to inspiraction.
(In full disclosure, I looked up inspiraction.com and found that it was taken. There goes my dreams of being the next Tony Robbins.)
I very much agree with this. So many times at mens group I get so pumped up about how we all share struggles and how to overcome them. But then the next day I fall back into the same old pit. I believe it’s a combination of laziness and not making a plan ahead of time. Certain weeks when I do outline my weeks, God makes it possible to look back at the week and be proud of what He has helped me accomplish. I think I have to look at those inspiring moments and decide at that moment to reject it or start coming up with a plan. This is the only way I can feel comfortable and honest with myself. But I guess it’s not just about comfort right? Like you said, “Good stories can’t end before the climax, and never end before the conflict.” There’s the rub. People are so afraid of the conflict that they throw the inspiration out the window. I think we all need to pray for courage everyday. This world sucks, but how are we going to make the best of it, not only for ourselves but everyone around.
BTW: You have to have huge creepy hands to be the next Tony Robbins.
Wow, Sean – this spoke to my heart. I’ve struggled for a long time with ‘inspiration vs. action’… typically blaming it on a need to think, process, etc. I’ve always been willing to inspire (or be inspired), but always fallen through on the action part. Thanks for sharing this.
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