Are you inspirable?

"Racers are on their way to Camp 1!"

Saturday's update gave me a frisson of nervous energy as I followed the incredible journey of the formidable Gricha Safarian beginning the first phase of preparation for the gruelling 250km Gobi March ultramarathon.

I struggle to imagine how I would be feeling, in his shoes. All the doubts. All the determination. All the emotions, all at the same time, all the time. I am following his updates with outright awe and slight underlying unease.

I find myself taking a deep breath in.

Gricha is known variously as "The Cocoa Man", founder, sustainable business leader, Impact Revolution Activist, and more. He is also one of my fellow Course Facilitators on the coveted "Paths to Power" leadership course at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Along with the rest of the team, we coach cohorts on eight week power-building marathons under the masterful guidance of Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer .

Gricha has inspired me ever since we studied together on Stanford's LEAD program. But this is going beyond.

Embarking on a superhuman feat evokes awe. He is making us take a deep breath in.

What impact has that had? After recently floundering a little on health goals, Gricha has inspired me to set myself a 14-day swimming challenge. While he is in the Gobi, I will be in the pool swimming 2.5 km per day. While he heads towards the 250km mark I will aim for a 35km finish line.

Gricha has inspired the holy grail of behavioural change. His audacious goal and the way he has approached it has pushed me to take bold action and set my own start and finish line, my own version of a superhuman push.

What is inspiration?

Where does "inspiration" come from, literally, etymologically? It comes from the Latin "inspirare" ("to breathe or blow into"). Quoting Merriam-Webster:

"our earliest written English uses of?inspire?give it the meaning “to influence, move, or guide (as to speech or action) through divine or supernatural agency or power.” Many of the early figurative senses of?inspire?are religious in nature, so it is not surprising to learn that the word shares a connection with?spirit?(which comes from the Latin word for “breath,”?spiritus, which is also from?spirare)."

I find myself wondering what sparked his awe-inspiring goal?

Gricha shared with me that he is inspired by the exclusive club of 500 people who have completed the four ultramarathons of the Gobi March, Atacama Crossing, Namib Race, and ominously named "Last Desert" (Antarctica). I mean, Antarctica??!!

Are we all then connected through a chain of inspiration?

I had always promised myself that I would not fall for the strange self-destructive pull to complete a marathon. Yet, now I understand the lure, the way it inspires due to the link to "divine or supernatural agency or power". An ultramarathon is something way beyond the everyday. Being close to someone reaching for an epic goal, has triggered me to fill my lungs with oxygen. This has made me stop and think of a new way to reach my health goals. That exclusive group of 500 ultramarathoners has sparked a chain of inspiration. Who or what inspired them? There are more stories to tell there.

Are you inspirable?

The chain is only going to work for those who are open to being inspired. Where do you get your source of inspiration? In other humans? In nature? In the divine?

Do you actively nurture your sense of awe, your amazement in others? Or are you bored, or fed up with the disingenuous posts, information overload, and news of awful deeds that have unsurprisingly eroded trust in the very people who have the platforms to inspire on a massive scale?

Scott Barry Kaufman writes here about the fascinating link between inspiration and leadership and the benefits to being open to inspiration. These include:

• "experiencing more purpose in life and more gratitude",
• feeling "more creative",
• reporting "greater levels of spirituality and meaning", and
• achieving "transcendence of one's previous concerns".

It sounds like a miracle cure!

With all this to gain, I am yet more grateful to Gricha for inspiring me and for triggering the deep-dive into the power of inspiration. Am I intentionally nurturing moments of awe in my life? The honest answer is no, but I sure will do now. Are you aware of the incredible things going on in the world?

Are you plugged into what inspires you?

The natural reaction here is to ask ChatGPT how to fix this. The answers though are already in the etymology:

1. Regularly connect to the Divine through religion or spirituality.
2. Immerse yourself in Nature. It exudes awe on both epic and microscopic scales.
3. Go see Beyoncé. The Arts, when perfect for you, will blow your mind.
4. Read literature. You know the books that have made you rethink everything? There are more out there to discover.
5. Find your version of the ultramarathon and get physical.
6. Travel across the world or into your mind through meditation.

How have you encountered awe before? Can you repeat it regularly? In my case, I can see that my source of regular inspiration would come from connecting with the people I admire.

Are you breaking the chain?

Good people are held back on sharing their challenges. What if I fail? What if I look weak? These questions might hold us back from setting challenges, taking challenges, or even, hiding challenges.

Some people use the word "failure" as a source of shame. Yet you can reframe that as "training" or better still, "experimentation with data collection."

It makes sense to feel the fear. Judging by Gricha's comments to this article, that fear is the indicator that you are going to inspire others, and also inspire yourself. It also explains that unnerving sense of discomfort that goes along with this level of awe.

Pass the baton

Inspiration then, is like a relay race with a slightly terrifying baton. As Gricha heads to Camp 1, I feel the baton of inspiration passing to me. As I gingerly head to the pool, wondering if I will manage to keep up the pace, perhaps others will be inspired to think anew or act boldly. Perhaps my humble goal will inspire you, dear reader, to take your own small or HUGE (why not?!) step to reaching your ambition.

The moral of the story? Share your terror-filled goals and keep the chain of inspiration growing!