Who do you have to Become Before you can Inspire?

I was speaking to my cousin one day several months ago and she told me how her mother had been driving her crazy with her everyday same story. She would tell her; ‘Look at your sister, make sure you work hard and reach where she has reached”. Lo and behold! The sister in subject here is me. I thought, but I have not accomplished much to be looked up to. Less did I know, to someone you and I can be a great source of inspiration regardless of our achievements in life.

In my childhood, I occasionally travelled from our village to “Moshi” town with my mother. In most cases we went to buy a dress for Christmas or a dress for a tooth taken out by me. My mother would tell me, a new dress for each tooth you take out by yourself. Being the young girl who loved dresses, I would tie a string on my loosely attached tooth all day if I had to. Later during the day I would forget (or pretend so) and accidentally pull the string. Voila! The tooth was out. Oh how I waited in triumph for mum to come home so I could show her my victory!

In one of these occasional journeys, I recall very vividly, we walked into a shop owned by a friend of my mother. The friend looked at me and asked, which class are you in? I said class five. She then said, “Make sure you study so hard until you become like your mother”. “I will”. I said. But my mum has only had seven years of school.  She makes a living for herself, she took us to modest schools and she helps a significant number of people whenever she can. Indeed, she is a source of inspiration. She is not a millionaire, not even a “thousannaire” – if at all that makes sense, she does not have any authority whatsoever, but she inspires.

We often tend to believe that we must become distinguished members in our communities either by wealth, power or influence to be able to inspire others. I have learnt that, wherever we are, with whatever we have achieved, we can become a source of inspiration to other people.

You may wonder; how can I inspire? There are many ways. Dale Carnegie asked an important question in his book “How to win friends and influence people”. He asked, have you ever met people who no matter what happens, they will find a reason to be pissed off? Have you met those who no matter what happen they will find a reason to be happy? If we are the latter, that is one way we can inspire many many people. The world needs inspiration. So – keep that smile and inspire.

Jill Bolte in her very inspirational talk about how she survived a stroke and became stroke triumphant also emphasizes on how the emotional state of her visitors impacted her recovery. Some people walked into her room and emitted negative energy while others emitted positive energy. She did not want to be close to the negative energy people because they affected her recovering process. It’s all about leaving people better than we find them. It could be leaving them with a wider smile, more hopeful or more comfortable. This could be by our actions, words or even our body language.

I recall one incidence a couple of years ago when I was in a bus after a long day and I had bought a boiled corn on the cob along the way. I had finished eating my corn and I held the eaten corn cob in my hand - until this gentleman who was sitting at the window seat next to me offered to help me throw it out of the window. I said no and I added that I would rather throw it on the bus floor. He wondered why and I said it’s because I can at least be sure that someone will clean the bus and take the waste to an appropriate waste disposal area; unlike when I throw it out the window. So I took the cob with me to throw it to a dustbin when I got back to then my University. This man was very impressed and he asked for my number. He also said he would not throw stuff outside car windows again. I believe he was inspired. Still asking how one can inspire? There are unlimited ways to become a source of inspiration.

Remember, we do not have to be rich or to be a distinguished philanthropist, or a high government official, or someone with authority. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we can inspire.