Perhaps many of us, use these two words, as synonyms. However, there is a very fine line that demarcates the meaning and implication of, inspiration and motivation. They do not mean the same.
Motivation is more on a worldly plane. It has, as its great manifestation, the ego satisfying tendency. Those referred in everyday corporate parlance as “go – getters” or “street smart” are recognised as “motivated” individuals. Motivation is bound within the boundaries and target of limited achievement.
Inspiration, as mystical as it can be, has an “unknown source”. Inspiration is more spiritual. Against this, motivation stems largely from elements external to the persona, like competition to face, success to have in numbers, or to be recipient to medals, badges of honour, etc. It is factors external to the individual that drive or motivate performance. Inspiration does not seek or is in any quest for a reward or an accolade.
I have witnessed that, both Parents and managers, who inspire have better off-springs or better workers, as against who are motivated to produce, in direct commensuration to the benefits that shall be derived. Motivation, leads to a trade-off. The lure of performance bonus is a motivator and not an inspirational pursuit.
To distinguish between motivation and inspiration, organisations take great pains in writing up their ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ statements; for the former is time bound, with goals to be achieved and rewarded for, and the later is to do with creating a ‘higher purpose’ for the organisation and is not in the fetters of time constraints. It is for those reasons; we find mission statements being direct to achievement of the quantifiable, while vision statements are based on values that outlast time.
In getting motivated, the domination of ‘I’ is so important and all-pervading to a person. The motivated individuals seeks recognition. While inspiration seeks no acknowledgement or desires for itself to be thanked.
All creative artists are essentiality inspired and not motivated to do or achieve a milestone. No symphony can be composed by motivation; it only comes through spiritually. One of the world’s greatest music genius, Wolfang Amadeus Mozart had this to say, “when I am, as it were completely entirely alone, and of good cheer – by travelling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them”. To, the contrary here, motivation can be forced by deadlines! Inspiration is free, unlimited flow of energy with no bindings. For achieving true success, managers and organisations have to make for the movement of the state of mind from mere motivation to inspiration.
Inspiration knows no competition. Gautama Buddha, had no time constraints or competition in seeking enlightenment; he made no rush to get it before any other, nor he could, even, if he wanted to. The energy of inspiration has no timing. An inspired workforce will not look outwardly for good performance but will be internally revolutionised with positive, free flowing energy, to do and go beyond the ordinary and necessary.
In a book of management, I found this most thought provoking quote of Omar Khayyam;
“Forget the day that has been cutoff from the existence;
disturb not thyself about tomorrow,
Which has not yet come,
rest not upon that which is no more;
live happily one instant,
and throw not thy life to the winds”.
Inspiration is here, now and always available in great abundance; only if managers were not to constrict their thoughts or flights of imagination, that dream the improbable and achieve the unthinkable.
Ego refutes defeat; does not accept failure. The streak to strike back is ever so domineering in the motivated manager, that the recognition that proudly comes their way is, “he is hard task master and ruthless, when it comes to results”. Ego will always feed wholesomely to get the desired motivation to compete and defeat others. Inspired managers defeat their self and go beyond their own milestones.
The limitations of motivation are aplenty. They reside in time bound budgets; they are result oriented only and they all have a pre-determined goal. These confines limit the imaginative ability of the initiated and enlightened manager. Budgets create tunnel vision managers. Inspirational process or pathways open new vistas of thinking and understanding, which are without boundaries; and more often are not bound by either time or space. The ‘inspired’ aeronauts of NASA are a case in point.
This spirit is beautifully captured by the famous Persian poet, Rumi, who perfectly coins the concepts of zero limitations in the following verse.
“The garden of the world has no limits
except in your mind.
Its presence is more beautiful than stars,
with more clarity
than the polished mirror of your heart”.
A thoughtful manager will cleanse his mind of limits.
Inspiration comes through listening to narratives. As an example when I speak at various forums about my most loveable and endearing relationship with my Father; I find the listeners are rapt with attention, wanting to quickly relate to their own relationship, with a view to improving it and making it meaningful and of purpose. After I wrote and published a biography of my Father; many friends “remembered” their parents and a few actually commissioned writers to produce books on their parentage. Inspired; not motivated.
Social leaders, say like, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa our own Abdul Sattar Edhi and the noble Dr Ruth, who recently passed away, possessed no formal authority to command action; yet by the power of influence and inspiration they made others accomplish and perform. Motivating others, demands some de jure authority. Inspiration needs no crutches of potential or hierarchical powers.
We have within ourselves, both inspiring factors and motivational inputs. Goethe, in wanting emancipation from motivation, that demands fulfilment now of all desires, relating to recognition and success, wrote thus; “Alas, two souls are living in my breast, And one wants to separate itself from the other, one holds fast to the world with earthy passion, And clings with twining tendrils: The other lifts itself with forceful craving, To the very roof of heaven”.
Inspired persons are always “leaders”, who have no position title or status -- Inspired individuals are the honeycomb that naturally attracts followership. “I have lived long enough to learn how much there is I can really do without…. He is nearest to God, who needs the fewest things,” said Socrates. Inspiration does not create the vile nature of hoarding; it liberates the soul, with no possessions to store. People, who inspire others, create a void in their own-selves.
They give others and seek nothing to replenish. I would like to alter one single word in Napoleon Bonaparte remarks’ - he had said, “A leader is a dealer in a hope”; the amendment, a leader is a dealer of inspiration.
All managers / supervisors must instead of “I am motivated”, transform, to a state of mind of “I am inspired”. Do and check results.
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist
