By Randy Hain

The Oxford Dictionary defines inspiration as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” I came across another reference from the Collins Dictionary that described inspiration as “a feeling of enthusiasm you get from something or someone.” I have been thinking a lot lately about inspiration, especially in the closing weeks of this year. Rather than offer the usual litany of ways to close the year strong and prepare for a great 2025, I would like to share my thoughts with you on the profound impact inspiration can have on your life and the life of others. What does this have to do with work? Being open to and learning from inspiring moments can help us develop character, achieve better results, and become better human beings. If you are a Ieader or aspiring leader, you can look for opportunities to inspire those around you and help them be more engaged, happier and bridge the delta between average performance and extraordinary performance.

Examples

This past Saturday, my younger son and I attended the SEC Championship at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta where our beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs defeated Texas. Our star quarterback, Carson Beck, went down with what appeared to be a serious arm injury at the end of the first half with our team trailing the Longhorns by three points. At the beginning of the 3rd Quarter, UGA’s backup and rarely utilized quarterback Gunnar Stockton, took the field and led the team to a quick score. The team was visibly inspired by their young quarterback’s play under intense pressure in the biggest game of his life and reached deep inside themselves to find the spark to win a game they likely should have lost.

Many years ago, my older son, was given an opportunity to be a lector in our parish. The lector’s role is to read scripture during mass. My oldest son has high-functioning autism and he did an amazing job reading a long passage from the Old Testament to the 800+ people in attendance. What an inspiration for people who may have assumed this kind of accomplishment was out of reach for someone with my son’s challenges to see him show determination and courage as he performed this important role. He is still a lector almost nine years later, inspiring countless people who witness his efforts.

I attended a team meeting earlier this year with a senior executive coaching client at his request. He had recently received his anonymous 360 feedback from me after I interviewed 20 people around him as part of the coaching process. He was authentic, humble and vulnerable as he acknowledged the specific issues raised by the feedback. He owned all of it, committed to get better and sincerely asked for ongoing candid feedback from the team to help him stay on track. The request for grace and help from the team as well as his humble acknowledgement of how he needed to improve was visibly inspiring to the people present in the room. I am quite certain they had never seen anything like it before. In the weeks and months that followed, he received a significant amount of encouragement, gratitude and a higher level of candid feedback from his colleagues that has helped this leader excel. His inspirational act not only helped those around him see a very different side of this executive, but also to tap into the additional team support he needed to be a better leader and elevate his performance. I am sharing this story generically with his enthusiastic permission.

How do we become more attuned to opportunities for inspiration in our lives? It is not enough to only work on how we can inspire others, but we should also make sure we don’t miss a single opportunity to fully experience inspiration ourselves. How? Consider these simple and practical behaviors to maximize our opportunities to be inspired:

Be fully present.Avoid distractions, put down the iPhone and pay attention to what is going on around us.

Be curious and actively listen. If we are being fully present, let’s ask questions and listen to learn, not just until it is our turn to speak. Adopt the attitude of a continuous learner.

Seek beauty. As I grow older, I actively seek to experience beauty through art, beautiful places when we travel, and God’s creation on my daily walks. My family and friends can observe from my writing, conversations and facial expressions when I am inspired by beauty and I hope some of that thirst for beauty rubs off on them.

Be reflective. Sometimes inspiration occurs later, after we have carefully reflected on something we have observed, a great piece of writing, a conversation or an action we have witnessed. It is important to consistently mine for gold in these reflective moments. Some of my greatest inspiration has been drawn from this helpful intentional practice.

Be courageous and bold. It is certainly wonderful to feel inspired, but we may often have an opportunity to do something extraordinary with this gift. It may require courage and boldness to activate the inspiring moments in our lives to help us achieve more and be better people.

How do we inspire others? I have observed over my career that seeking to be inspirational can sometimes be a slippery slope. We must be careful to avoid doing this for purely self-serving reasons. Our opportunities to be inspirational should emanate from a selfless desire to help, motivate, and encourage others to do their best work, feel more confident, and brave enough to handle any adversity they encounter. Remember that our acts of inspiration may not always be publicly acknowledged and that is perfectly OK. The kudos are not important.

I have often found that the most inspirational people I have encountered in my personal and professional life, consistently demonstrate in subtle and sincere ways, the following eight virtuous behaviors:

  • Authenticity. Let people experience the real us with all our flaws, not a fake version trying in vain to appear perfect. People see right through this and lack of authenticity is directly connected to struggles with inspiring others.
  • Vulnerability. Time after time, I can look back at the most inspiring people I have encountered and identify their willingness to be vulnerable as a key reason for why they inspired me.
  • Humility. One of my favorite authors is Alexandre Havard and he wrote in his wonderful book, Created for Greatness, that humility is consistently acting in the service of others. I love that definition in the framework of inspiration. People who consistently and selflessly place the needs of others before their own have always inspired me and always will.
  • Generosity. Giving generously of our time, talent and treasure can inspire others to do the same. Lead a conversation with “how can I help”? instead of seeking what will best serve our needs. When we perform generous acts with the spirit of humility shared above, others will feel a motivation to follow our example.
  • Gratitude. I have been moved and inspired most of my life by witnessing the gratitude of others. It is the simple thank you note I receive in the mail or the person who unexpectedly calls me to say they appreciate something I did for them. Gratitude is so easy to overlook, but so easy to do if we will only change our mindset and make it a frequent best practice.
  • Joy. How can we not be inspired by truly joyful people? They exude a sincere warmth and heightened degree of happiness that brings a smile to our faces when we are with them. Joyful people inspire me every day to be more like them.
  • Consistency. This may seem like an odd virtuous behavior, but reliable and consistent people in my life inspire me. I know I can count on them to keep their promises and do what they say they will do. When I encounter this relatively rare behavior, I thank the person and try to emulate their actions as I try very hard to practice this in my own life.
  • Acts of kindness. How can we not be inspired by the kind acts of others? We see ordinary people every day, if we take the time to notice, being kind and helpful to those around them in quiet ways with no interest in receiving recognition or glory.

Have you noticed in this post that inspiration is not always to be found in the outward manifestations of success? It is not always the inspirational speech or heroism in the face of danger that inspires us. It is often adversity, grief and genuine struggle that can inspire us to grow, do better and be better. I can look back at a lifetime of struggles and success and honestly share with you that most of the inspiration I have felt has been drawn from the lessons gained from adversity and struggle, not feel-good moments.

As you come into the end of what has been a difficult year for many of us, pause and reflect on what you can glean from your experiences in 2024. What have you learned? What inspired you? What behaviors are you inspired to adopt or change? Write down your thoughts.

As you peer into 2025, how can you be more open to and aware of the inspiration from others and also inspire the people around you? What goals can you commit to that will make you a more inspirational leader or aspiring leader? How can being inspired and more inspirational become helpful guides in your personal and professional journey? How did this post speak to you? Make a list and integrate this into your planning for 2025.

Good luck!

Randy

Tune into the new podcast I recently completed with my Leadership Foundry co-founder Brandon Smith on the topic of inspiration. We had a rich conversation I think you will find interesting. You can find it here and I encourage you to check it out!