MOTIVATION VS INSPIRATION: ARE THEY DIFFERENT?

It’s common to confuse the meaning of motivation versus inspiration, as they both have a similar meaning. When you’re inspired, you have the urge or ability to engage in a specific task or feel a certain way. Similarly, being motivated is the desire to?behave in specific ways, and that prompts you into?action.

Both motivation and inspiration lead to action. Inspiration can be the reason we compose a song or try something new with our exercise routine. Motivation can help us?accomplish those things, too. But while the words are similar in meaning, they actually mean significantly different things.

WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

Motivation is a?psychological concept. It’s a stimulant or driving force that compels you to take action. Meaning, when you feel mentally stimulated, you behave or act in a particular way. You focus on a goal, like exercising daily, and that goal?triggers you?into action.

When you feel hungry, you’re then motivated to find something to eat. When you feel guilty about not seeing a friend, you’re motivated to contact them. Motivation can be psychological, biological, or social. It causes an action, often based on what you think you should be doing.

Motivation is a great tool because once you have a?defined goal, you can focus your efforts on achieving that goal. You can use shared goals to help friends, team members, and employees take action towards success.

WHAT IS INSPIRATION??

Inspiration is a little trickier. It’s the feeling you get when you encounter a specific experience. A wide variety of stimuli can trigger it and it’s different for everybody. What inspires you may not inspire your neighbor and vice versa.

When you’re inspired, it’s easy to find a reason to act. It comes naturally. But it’s less likely to create long-term action. For example, you can leave a TED Talk inspired to start your own business. But once the emotional connection goes away and left with a long list of difficult tasks, it’s easy to put the notebook away and start something else.

Inspiration can be difficult to sustain progress over months or years because it’s often connected to ambiguous ideas. These are your dreams, your hopes, your greatest ambitions. And they come with deep emotions. The vague nature of inspiration makes it a concept that’s difficult to pin down into action. Rather than focusing on the details of the goal, inspiration encourages you to act out of a deep desire to maintain the emotional connection you initially felt.

THE IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE?

One way to look at the difference between motivation and inspiration is what triggers the action. Motivation creates action. The more you plan, and the more you achieve, the more motivated you feel to continue driving that action forward. But inspiration is more of a pull. You feel compelled to act in that moment, but once the moment is over, the urgency to continue the action goes down. Motivation is a drive, inspiration is a feeling.

The difference between motivation and inspiration can be clearly understood by referring to the following points:

1. Motivation refers to a process of stimulating someone to act in a definite way to achieve a goal. Inspiration is defined as an act of influencing people mentally and emotionally to do something creative.
2. Motivation is something that impels or persuades you to take an action, whereas inspiration is what pulls you towards something.
3. There is a sense of resistance and competitiveness in motivation while inspiration has a sense of excitement and effortlessness.
4. Motivation is short lived, i.e. suppose you attend a seminar of a great personality, after which you feel excited to do something, but after a specific period of a couple of weeks or days then the urge will start declining. On the other hand, inspiration is enduring in nature, that resides in us and makes us committed until we attain the goal.
5. Motivation comes from an external source which can be your reward, recognition, appreciation, etc. Although the source of inspiration is internal, a deep desire which emerges inside us.
6. Motivation is a deliberate or planned instinct to take a step. Conversely, in the case of inspiration, that impulse is spontaneous.
7. Motivation is due to several reasons like self-imposed or societal expectations, obligations and peer pressure that push us to do something. Unlike inspiration which involves a natural and organic call from deep within us.

Conclusion

After reviewing the above points, now it is clear that these two are very different, but this doesn’t mean that one is ahead of the another. Their relevance can be examined only at the time of need, i.e. motivation is used when you want people to act in a particular manner and act immediately, whereas inspiration is when people want to achieve something great, which will make them better than they are at present.

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