Have you
ever looked up to someone or admired something about another person that really
inspired you? Well, there are certain
qualities about a person’s character that enable them to inspire others, and
there are steps you can take to awaken these same qualities in yourself. Here’s how:
Stick With
What You Love
Inspiring
others isn’t easy. The success rate of
those who attempt to inspire is incredibly low when the measurement of success
is based on the percentage inspired as opposed to the actual number inspired. Huge motivational seminars with thousands of
attendees typically make a real lasting impact in only a few people’s
lives. If you look at those same odds
for yourself, you might easily be discouraged if you hope to inspire others by
doing something you don’t truly love to do.
If, however,
you do love something dearly, you won’t care how successful you are at
inspiring others and you will continue to persevere (on many levels) no matter
how many times you fail. When people
doubt you, and when people laugh at your failures, you will continue to do what
you love because you love it. So having
that depth, that love and passion for something, will protect you from all
potential failures.
Will you
make the most of failures and continue to drive your passions? Will you inspire others even when you don’t
succeed at first? What do you love?
Think Big
and Noble
Once you
establish a foundation for which you have great passion, start thinking
big. How many people could you
potentially inspire based on your niche of expertise? Are there ways you can expand your
impact? Don’t look to inspire one
person, look to inspire hundreds!
Remember, this goes back to the low success rate percentages, as you
will likely not succeed with working to inspire at a very small level. You need to think big and have many people available
to inspire. Fifty people out of a
thousand is only five percent, but it’s still fifty people. Share your ideas with as many people as
possible and allow them grow your influence beyond your initial ideas for
inspiration.
Thinking big
is not only about inspiring more people, but also about the impact you have on
each person. Don’t settle on making
minor changes in a person’s life if they need a total makeover. Instead, aim to change everything. Look to inspire in many areas instead of just
one. Think big about the positive impact
you might have and this will give you a much better chance of leaving some kind
of impression. If you promote a hundred
ways for someone to change or heal and they take on just one, you have still
helped them!
Another
useful way to inspire others is to support an established noble cause or
practice, such as saving the environment or feeding the poor. It’s much easier to gain attention,
followers, and support for noble causes than it is for individual gain or what
some might think are more selfish reasons.
An offer to change something that has a positive impact on the global
society is far more attractive to onlookers than some short lived, localized
venture. So keep those areas of
influence as big as possible!
Be
Expressive
Passion is
something you must have and be willing to express it if you really want to
inspire others. You can gain a lot of
influence just by publically expressing that you are excited and passionate
about a topic. You make it much harder
to inspire others if you are boring an unenthusiastic. Expressive passion is contagious because of
the curiosity it stirs in others. You’ll
get people wondering why you love what you love so much. Naturally, some of them will take the time
necessary to understand what it is about the topic that moves you.
Practice
What You Preach
You need to
remain actively involved in the field in which you intend to inspire
others. It’s the age old saying of
“practice what you preach,” and it holds true for anyone trying to inspire
others. Ultimately, if you really want
to inspire others to do something then this ‘something’ should be a big part of
your life. You don’t necessarily need to
be an expert at it, but you do need to be passionately involved.
Keep an Open
Door
You must
always maintain an open invitation to everyone you encounter. Personally welcome others, and listen to
their needs. Once you are involved with
them, keep it personal and always maintain a healthy line of communication.
Offer a
Guiding Hand
The best
part of inspiring others is to have interest in not only what you do, but to
also recognize your followers and have an opportunity to see them grow and
change as well. Offer to share your
personal stories, teach them things you’ve learned along the way, talk about
your failures and achievements, and ask them questions about their own
progress. Help them avoid the mistakes
you’ve made in the past, and always maintain a positive outlook on their
forward progress.
Be
Consistent
Consistency
in actions, information, and moral standards is also extremely important. If you constantly change your methods, your
interests, and the field in which you hope to inspire others, you will have
little success. People want to see and
associate your ideas with a reliable plan that they can follow. You need to demonstrate this consistency
through your actions, but you can also compliment your actions with
inspirational story telling. Story
telling allows you to reproduce important past experiences as a means to guide
and inspire others. Make sure use
stories that embrace the consistency of your actions.
Stay
Positive
The process
of inspiring others comes with no shortage challenges and negative
naysayers. To get past this, you must
stay positive, work past failures, and present optimism openly to others no
matter what the circumstances are. Doubt
is a very contagious disease, and if you show any of it, you can easily destroy
any positive influence you might have instilled in a person.
And there
you have it: My thoughts on how to inspire others. I’d love to hear your feedback, thoughts and
comments on the subject. Which of these
points have the biggest impact to you?
Have I left something out? Do you
have any personal experiences or inspirational stories to share?
