get mad

Fuck Inspiration

You heard me. Fuck Inspiration. As a society, we're so hung up on finding someone or something that will inspire us to change ourselves or the world. Everyday someone on my Facebook wall or Twitter feed is posting some crap about an inspirational video or story. Every now and then I attend an industry event with a speaker that's telling the audience to follow their passions no matter what. We all just looove turning to inspirational quotes, speakers, videos, books...anything to rouse our emotions and push us to action. We search high and low for those words that will suddenly accelerate us in the pursuit of our dreams, happiness, justice or whatever our particular cause may be. 

But they're all just words. Just words that make us feel empowered and emboldened for fleeting moments. Honestly, I think inspiration is overrated. I say, get mad instead. Find something that really pushes your buttons...something that really enrages you and makes you question wtf the rest of the world is doing...and then do something that will change that.

I've worked with a number of organizations that have been led by real leaders. Leaders who weren't "searching" for inspiration. No. They saw something wrong with the current system and they got out there and did something about it. They saw that there weren't any accessible resources for recent graduates to look for work in an already shiteous economy. They saw the lack of real, whole food, organic ingredients in the products of most existing sports nutrition companies. They saw the travel volunteer industry being dominated by companies charging students exorbitant amounts of money to "do good" overseas. They saw the way international institutions blinded themselves to human rights violations because of bureaucracy.

They saw all of these problems in their respective fields and they went out there and they became the change they wanted to see. They didn't just talk about being the change they wanted to be or watch videos about it...passively waiting to be inspired. No. They went out there and got their hands dirty. 

So let's just cut the fluff. Fuck inspiration. Get mad. And get to work.