The Connection Between Inspiration and Aspiration
Eyes sparkling, my friend Joanna, who is a product designer, recently revealed that she was so inspired by someone she knew, who had left their job to make a living out of crafts, that she had started preparing her own line of stationary.
Congratulating my friend for her decision, I thought to myself that this was the perfect example of what I wanted to convey in this article about inspiration; the fact that information can become a catalyst that changes our thoughts, behaviors and/or career path, butonly when it echoes an aspiration that is already within us. In other words, any potential source of inspiration – whether it comes from a friend, family member, newspaper article, celebrity story or self-help book – is merely white noise passing through your pupils and ears if it doesn’t happen to echo your inner dreams and desires.
Let me make it clear what I mean by inspiration, as there are many interpretations. What I am talking about here is the moment when lightning seems to strike - the awakening point we all experience at some point, which directly prompts us to make major, potentially life-changing decisions. I believe that we all know what our dreams and inner aspirations are, as well as what makes us happy. But spending years behaving yourself to fit an assigned role in society - whether to meet demands made by family or to hold down a secure but unchallenging job – leads many people to forget their sources of true happiness and to leave their dreams behind.
But your heart never forgets. So when someone or something in your life has a message that reflects your core beliefs and desires, it resonates with you and you become inspired. We all have long-forgotten aspirations within that we’d like to shine a spotlight on in this way. And when you are ready for a change or need to re-construct your path, you subconsciously (or even consciously) seek out a voice to guide you towards your goal.
A good example of this is Christopher Gardner, a successful entrepreneur who grew up surrounded by poverty and violence. His autobiography The Pursuit of Happiness became a New York Times bestseller and a Hollywood movie (starring Will Smith as Gardner) with the same title. He interned and then became employed full-time by a brokerage company, oftentimes dealing with bouts of homelessness and hunger - but eventually he was able to establish an enterprise of his own. And what kept him going during the tough times? The briefest of encounters with a stockbroker Gardner had seen getting into his Ferrari. It gave him an idea of what he could be. But beyond that, he had a belief in himself and an aspiration within, so this event was merely the catalyst that resonated with him and gave his dream some meaning.
If I think back to one of my earliest moments of inspiration as described here, I recall one hot summer’s day when I was still a high school student in my hometown of Nagasaki. Because we lived in a relatively small city, my mother, a big reader and purveyor of the arts, made sure her kids were exposed to as much creativity as possible. She took us to music concerts and theater and she even put me in an acting group at one point. In high school I had an intense schedule of after school classes in dance, painting and English conversation. Then one afternoon in my bedroom, I was flipping through a comic magazine and an ad for a design school in Tokyo caught my eye. Of all my extra-curricular activities, the art classes had been my favorite and this ad gave me the concrete idea that I could possibly become a designer. Two summers later, after spending one year working to save for the move, I was at the school I had seen advertised, studying industrial design.
Looking back, it seems funny that I was so moved by one ad in a magazine, when I had been exposed to other possibilities as well. Given my belief that we subconsciously choose information which synchronizes with our aspiration within, I can only think that this ad struck my vague inner thoughts and helped to clarify where I wanted to be.
Today these striking moments are rare and the people around me inspire in different ways: some friends are good at making my everyday life feel rich, others have a super positive attitude toward life, and most have ambitions and passion for their careers. I feel lucky to have them around and often make a conscious effort to listen to them for inspiring thoughts and ideas.
The examples of others that inspire me definitely tend to change according to my needs too. For instance, my father, who was born into a farming family and eventually sent all his three kids to college with his own business, became a source of inspiration only recently when I needed to tackle a difficult work situation.
Born as one of six children in the poorest family even in his tiny village of Kyushu, Japan – my father left his parents’ home for high school. He studied at night while having two jobs during the day. He would then get a few hours of sleep and wake up to deliver newspapers. After finishing high school, he worked for a couple of different jobs, then started his own business and never looked back. So now that I am facing a career dilemma, I realize how the stories he has told me about how hard his life was growing up, have helped me to have patience whenever I feel like my life has hit a plateau.
The central message I would like you to take away, is that inspiration is whatever you make it. We are constantly surrounded by a glut of information, so we’re in the privileged position of being able to recognize and take in the parts that reflect our dreams. I believe that information can become such a powerful visualizer, showing you the path that you were looking for, that something literally clicks. And that in this way, our inspiration is closely connected to our aspirations: once you see it, there can be no detours, you must walk towards it.
