Inspired to Action
by Dawn Ellinwood

What is inspiration? One definition by Webster’s is “to breathe life into or upon”. What is the experience of inspiration? I have experienced inspiration as passion, joy, being child-like, the feeling I am unstoppable, being connected, and having access to my inner power. What is your experience of inspiration?

I find inspiration in many areas of life such as in nature, watching children, in art, in books and movies, and in other people overcoming obstacles. But most consistently I find it in physical activity. I find when I am moving my body I am fully alive. How have you experienced inspiration? Do you love the feeling inspiration brings out in you? Do you find once you get inspired you are stopped when it comes to taking action?

Today I want us to take a look at that. What is it that stops us from taking the experience of being inspired and fulfilling a dream? The story that sums up inspiration to me is about a father and son.

There is a sport called triathlon. I started doing triathlons 15 years ago. It is a race of swimming, biking and running. There is a special triathlon called Ironman, and this consists of swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles. The world championships are held in Kona, Hawaii and in the triathlon world we have our own heroes and legends. Two of the heroes are Dick and Rick Hoyt. They are father and son and they race together. That in of itself is not so extraordinary; the difference is that Rick was born with Cerebral Palsy and can’t race on his own. So Dick swims with a raft attached to him pulling Rick, then he bikes the 112 miles with Rick in a special seat on the front of his bike (in the Hawaii winds!!). They finish with a 26.2 mile run where Dick pushes Rick to the finish in a special wheeled chair. Why does he do this? Rick asked his dad to run with him in a running race years ago as a way to support a local Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed. After that first race Rick said, “Dad when I am racing I feel completely free”. Now that’s inspiration! Dick says that Rick gives him the strength and pushes him harder than he could ever go on his own. To me inspiration is when you are willing to make someone else the focus of your task; when you disappear and they become the focus.

Why do I tell you this story? First I want you to think of what inspires you. Is there a particular person who inspires you? Lance Armstrong, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, your Mom, Grandmother, Your Dad, who? What is it that they inspired in you? What is a dream you have but haven’t gone after? Or maybe you started to go for it but gave up?

I am going to share my own example with you. I want you to follow my example but bring it to your own life. For me it was the dream of completing the Ironman. I watched an Ironman triathlon on TV and got inspired. I said “I want that!” Most of us stop there! We give into the self doubt of “I can’t!” What I did instead was I started running, bought the equipment I needed, signed up for a race and fell in LOVE! Now I didn’t immediately go out for an Ironman, but I started the actions it would take to complete it.

Take that dream you thought of a couple minutes ago and think of what it would take to achieve it. What steps would be involved? Have you done this before? Got inspired, planned it out and then got stopped?

What is it that stops you? You get inspired, see what is possible and then get motivated. But what gets in the way? Despair, self doubt and resignation! We get inspired, light up and then BAM the crushing blow of reason! Do you think “I can’t,” ”I don’t have time,” “I don’t have the money,” or “Who am I to do that?” These reasons always follow us being on fire. What can we do to keep the inspiration alive? First is to recognize that resignation ALWAYS follows inspiration and don’t let it take you out of the game. As soon as the resignation comes we say, “Well I guess it wasn’t meant to be because if it were meant to be I wouldn’t feel this way.” No! How do we overcome this resignation? More than just distinguishing it, we create structures and get into ACTION!

For example, in triathlon the structure I use is to have a training plan, and have a triathlon coach to see what is missing in my plan. I have training partners, people who will want to workout even when I don’t want to. And, of course, there are times I want to workout when they don’t, so we are there to support each other. I also found that a life coach is a structure that supports me in dealing with who I am being and has me look at where I quit on myself, where I sell out. When I was completing the Ironman in Hawaii I was inspired at times and I was resigned at times. I even gave up sometimes, but I always got back in the game. I thought of Rick and Dick Hoyt and how they support and inspired each other. I thought of Lance Armstrong, and how he was able to overcome cancer and win the Tour de France 7 times in a row! I thought of James Webb, a little boy I knew with Leukemia who inspired me during my first three marathons. I thought of my parents. I thought of my husband. I thought of so many different people who inspire me on a daily basis. So, who is your support? Have you built a support system around you that will keep calling you into action, or a system that only keeps you talking about all the great things you will do someday, one day? What is it you are promising yourself? What are you willing to do to keep your promise? When will you have your promises complete?

I want you to take a moment and imagine living the dream that you have put off, given up, or thought wasn’t possible to complete. What will you take on? What will you build with the people in your life?

I have a request of you and that is to go out and share your inspiration with other people! You never know who will be inspired by what you do! As I close I want to share a quote with you from Steve Prefontaine (some of you know him as “Pre”; he was an Olympic runner in the 70’s)

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the GIFT.”