By Shirin Eugenio
So how does one find inspiration?
Get out of your bubble. If you have defined your inspiration to be your boyfriend who is also your classmate, carpool-mate, movie-partner, org-mate and neighbor, then inspiration will be as predictable as a Disney fairy tale. To find true inspiration, the range of experiences you must allow yourself must be wide enough. This is precisely because, the inspiration will jump from the myriad sources you are attuned to. And the surprise of an inspiration will animate you like you’ve never felt before. So, burst that bubble, and join bigger bubbles.
Embrace the brilliant, the unique, the unexpected, the different. We often get intimidated by somebody more brilliant than us, or stay away from the unique – because it’s just hard to accept it. Being inspired by something completely unexpected (example, those funny Japanese products) does not mean you’ve found the ultimate solution to your mental block. An inspiration can spark your own idea, or open your eyes to new possibilities. From there, you will be surprised that you can twist, modify, add, minimize, exaggerate or reverse your first thought after one teeny-tiny dose of inspiration.
Don’t put a high price on inspiration. There is a huge expectation on inspirations, like time has to stop when it happens, or a choir of angels will signal the moment. Anything short of this is not inspiration, it’s just… wala lang (a technical term now). If we continue to think this way, we fail to see the little things that are actually big sources of inspiration. As a teacher, it would be fantastic to have geniuses to inspire lecturing for three hours straight. However, I was surprised to realize that it was the little things from my students that excited me – the reactions to my corny humor, the crazy ideas they throw, the understanding that registers in their eyes. These are easy to miss if expectations block your view.
Look for diversity. When you are with the same kind of people 24/7, chances are the inspiration bursts are next to none. Because everything is comfortable, convenient and conventional. If you are an advertising major, hang out with engineering students once in a while, and be swept away by all that technical genius. Take a break from your whiny friends and get new conversations from older, more mature people. Sit down where you can view a crowd and a place at the same time. You’re good at math? Enough with the advanced calculus already and study a new language. Read good quality magazines. It’s like listening to the most fascinating minds talk. Having diversity in your life is like planting seeds of inspiration. Soon these will grow into new passions that breathe life into you, everyday.
Find the real good thing. Let’s get one thing straight – there is no inspiration in a guy who smokes pot all day. Or a girl who sleeps around. Or a corrupt boss. Unless, you are inspired to be their total opposites. Even then, it takes the most enlightened minds to figure that out. So, if inspiration is meant to awaken you to be better at something, then the source of the inspiration has to be a good thing. So, find the real good thing in the things and people around you. I believe that goodness is in abundance. It just hard to see them through the haze of apathy and bad reviews. Is your mom naggish? They all are, but that’s not the only thing they are. They love us unconditionally. Be inspired by that. Is schoolwork so exhausting? Of course, but that’s not all it is. It is your source of conversation with other people. Be inspired by that too.
Inspired people are fearless. Deadlines, break-ups, bad grades, tight budgets, crazy families, moody friends – these things don’t intimidate them because they find inspiration to rise above all these. Inspired people are both thinkers and doers. That’s why they accomplish more. Lastly, inspired people inspire others. Without their knowing – they let other people experience that smile in the mind, that tug in the heart, and the tiny miracle that changes them forever.
Embrace the brilliant, the unique, the unexpected, the different. We often get intimidated by somebody more brilliant than us, or stay away from the unique – because it’s just hard to accept it. Being inspired by something completely unexpected (example, those funny Japanese products) does not mean you’ve found the ultimate solution to your mental block. An inspiration can spark your own idea, or open your eyes to new possibilities. From there, you will be surprised that you can twist, modify, add, minimize, exaggerate or reverse your first thought after one teeny-tiny dose of inspiration.
Don’t put a high price on inspiration. There is a huge expectation on inspirations, like time has to stop when it happens, or a choir of angels will signal the moment. Anything short of this is not inspiration, it’s just… wala lang (a technical term now). If we continue to think this way, we fail to see the little things that are actually big sources of inspiration. As a teacher, it would be fantastic to have geniuses to inspire lecturing for three hours straight. However, I was surprised to realize that it was the little things from my students that excited me – the reactions to my corny humor, the crazy ideas they throw, the understanding that registers in their eyes. These are easy to miss if expectations block your view.
Look for diversity. When you are with the same kind of people 24/7, chances are the inspiration bursts are next to none. Because everything is comfortable, convenient and conventional. If you are an advertising major, hang out with engineering students once in a while, and be swept away by all that technical genius. Take a break from your whiny friends and get new conversations from older, more mature people. Sit down where you can view a crowd and a place at the same time. You’re good at math? Enough with the advanced calculus already and study a new language. Read good quality magazines. It’s like listening to the most fascinating minds talk. Having diversity in your life is like planting seeds of inspiration. Soon these will grow into new passions that breathe life into you, everyday.
Find the real good thing. Let’s get one thing straight – there is no inspiration in a guy who smokes pot all day. Or a girl who sleeps around. Or a corrupt boss. Unless, you are inspired to be their total opposites. Even then, it takes the most enlightened minds to figure that out. So, if inspiration is meant to awaken you to be better at something, then the source of the inspiration has to be a good thing. So, find the real good thing in the things and people around you. I believe that goodness is in abundance. It just hard to see them through the haze of apathy and bad reviews. Is your mom naggish? They all are, but that’s not the only thing they are. They love us unconditionally. Be inspired by that. Is schoolwork so exhausting? Of course, but that’s not all it is. It is your source of conversation with other people. Be inspired by that too.Inspired people are fearless. Deadlines, break-ups, bad grades, tight budgets, crazy families, moody friends – these things don’t intimidate them because they find inspiration to rise above all these. Inspired people are both thinkers and doers. That’s why they accomplish more. Lastly, inspired people inspire others. Without their knowing – they let other people experience that smile in the mind, that tug in the heart, and the tiny miracle that changes them forever.
What do you think about Ms. Shirin's blog entry? How do you see inspiration?
236 comments:
1 – 200 of 236 Newer› Newest»I hope everyone will be inspired in ways that will make them better people. Inspiration can work wonders =) Thank you for this entry!
i love it i love it i love it!! :)
i think.. ths entry is an inspiration itself hehehe
charles
inspired people are the best to be around with! they draw so much positive energy and they make you want to be like them :)
wow, very inspirational!
happy:
i know right? if only everybody in the world were inspired then it will be all better =P
i think this would be great, especially for busy people like me... i need inspiration every now and then. it keeps me going.
wow..it's like an arrow pierced through my heart! I really needed something like this. I'm the kind of person who always want to be in my comfort zone. Now, I realize that there are so much things in life that I haven't discoverd. This article is very inspiring. It taught me to be more open and brave to face the mysteries that life could offer.
thanks to you , ms shirin eugenio
miss shirine!!! i think stephen should write a blog entry about his inspiration!!!
Ms. SHIrini, is that you in brown? at the middle? Wow...you look so young! just like one of the students. Thank you for the Nice article regarding inspiration. I was inspired indeed!
Ms. Shirin....You are indeed an inspirsation to your Students!
To : ALL Professors,
Please read and be inspired! Universities need Professors like Ms Shirin....
From: A Concerned Parent
Ms. Shirin... Please present this topic, INSPIRATION to all the other Professors. If they will be inspiredthen we would have more productive students. Thank you
LET'S FOLLOW THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS AND INSPIRE OTHER PEOPLE...
True indeed, sometimes INSPIRATION ahould stsrt from within us.As you wake up each morning,Let's THANK God for another Day he is giving us.Think of the beautiful things you could do to inspire other peolple.But first inspire yourself by talking to God first thing in the morning.YOU WOULD SURELY FEEL THE WARMTH OF GODS LOVE...and you will fell happy and Inspired the whole day!
CORRECTION on the word FELL.iT SHOULD BE "FEEL" for the last sentence on my comment earlier. Thank you.From: A Friend
You inspire people...You will be blessed!
SMILE AND YOU GET INSPIRED...
Please find time to inspire your Parents too...
Did you ask them how's their day?
Did you kiss them goodbye when you leave for school?
Did you greet them with a hug when you arrive home?
S T O P !!! just 5 minutes...think how you could inspire friends and love ones
Think of the happy moments you had ...then inspiration starts...
Ms. Shirin,the smiles on your faces with the students clearly shows how happy they are to have you as a Teacher!
my parents inspire me
i love this, thanks for posting
im inspired by love
Be patient with your enemies and forgiving of your friends.
AfgHAN proverb
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
God gives us our relatives - thank God we can choose our friends.
- Ethel Watts Mumford
So long as we are loved by others I should say that we are almost indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.
- Anonymous
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
- Walter Winchell
Friendship doubles joy and halves grief.
- Egyptian Proverb
A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.
- Fr. Jerome Cummings
inpirational quotes
Along with trustworthiness, consistency is the thing to look for when you surround yourself with people who can help you on your quest.
- Michael Johnson
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted.
- Aesop, Greek fabulist
A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
- Joseph Joubert, French philosopher
for most, that is hard to do
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
- William Makepeace Thackeray, British Writer
A kind speech and forgiveness is better than alms followed by injury.
- Islamic Proverb
Kind words conquer.
- Tamil Proverb
Kindness is tenderness. Kindness is love, but perhaps greater than love...Kindness is good will. Kindness says, "I want you to be happy.
- Randolph Ray
wow how inspirational!
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want and do.
- Emmanuel Swedenborg
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
- Theodore Isaac Rubin
Before we can forgive one another, we must understand one another
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.
Kindness is a language which the dumb can speak, the deaf can understand.
- C.N. Bovee
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
- The Dalai Lama
Be the change you want to see in the world
Do not wait for leaders-do it alone, person to person.
-
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
-
And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others.
- Madame De Maintenon
One of the things I keep learning is that the secret of being happy is doing things for other people.
The secret to happiness is not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do.
Who is blind? He who can see no other world. Who is dumb? He who can say nothing pleasant about his lot. Who is poor? He who is troubled with too many desires. Who is rich? He who is happy with his lot.
- Indian Proverb
You can never be happy at the expense of the happiness of others.
- Chinese Proverb
While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment.
- Hasidic Proverb
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
Happiness itself does not stay -- only moments of happiness do.
- Spanish Proverb
Discontent is the source of all trouble, but also of all progress, in individuals and nations.
- Berthold Auerbach
The purpose of life is not to be happy – but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.
- Leo Rosten, American teacher and humorist
Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
- Burton Hills
It is not length of life, but depth of life.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
be happy life is short
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
Unless we think of others and do something for them, we miss one of the greatest sources of happiness.
The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
May you live all the days of your life.
Happiness is a state of activity.
The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.
A man is not old until regrets start taking place of dreams.
What happens to a man is less significant than what happens within him.
There are times when a man should be content with what he has but never with what he is.
Your thoughts are the architects of your destiny.
-
When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
The most important of life's battles is the one we fight daily in the silent chambers of the soul.
One cannot think crooked and walk straight.
There is nothing as remarkable as learning how to think better
The soul is covered with the color of its leisure though
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Are you fit company for the person you wish to become?
Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
-
If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them.
Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.
That first peak is the best place to pause and look back, to see if you took the easiest route, to learn the lessons from the first climb. And it is the best place to examine the terrain ahead, to change your plans and goals, to take a deep breath and begin climbing again.
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
-
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
Old love does not rust.
- Estonian Proverb
Love sees roses without thorns.
- German Proverb
In love beggar and king are equal.
- Indian Proverb
Are we to love only those who deserve our love? Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.
- Matthew 5:43-45
He who treads the path of love walks a thousand meters as if it were only one.
- Japanese Proverb
No fate is worse than a life without a love.
- Mexican Proverb
We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be
shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind.
Think big anyway.
What you spend years building may
be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have
and you might get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
Love understands all languages.
- Romanian Proverb
Perfect love cannot be without equality. Photo of couple walking on beach
- Scottish Proverb
All work is empty save when there is love.
- Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American writer
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
-
The entire law is summed up in a single command, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
- Galatians 5:14 (NIV)
It is love that makes the impossible possible.
- Indian Proverb
Where there is love there is no darkness.
- Burundi Proverb
To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.
All love at first, like generous wine,
Ferments and frets until ‘tis fine;
But when ‘tis settled on the lee,
And from th’ impurer matter free,
Become the richer still the older,
And proves the pleasanter the colder.
Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins.
- The Book of Proverbs
What worth has beauty if it is not seen?
- Italian Proverb
Beauty is not so much what you see as what you dream.
- Walloon Proverb
The ability to see beauty is the beginning of our moral sensibility. What we believe is beautiful we will not want only destroy.
People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.
People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
A heart in love with beauty never grows old.
- Turkish Proverb
Beauty is the gift of God.
There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
-
The human soul needs actual beauty more than bread.
The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head
- Proverbs 20:29
Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
One joy scatters a hundred griefs.
- Chinese Proverb
nto the house where joy lives, happiness will gladly come.
- Japanese Proverb
smile is a light in the window of the soul indicating that the heart is at home.
This is the best kind of voyeurism, hearing joy from your neighbors.
feel like a tiny bird with a big song!
Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.
Joy can be real only if people look on their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Attitude determines altitude.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
You can't expect people to look eye to eye with you if you are looking down on them
You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
A man never likes you so well as when he leaves your two kids liking himself.
Be who you are in every situation.
How a man plays a game shows something of his character, how he loses shows all of it.
People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
A coward gets scared and quits. A hero gets scared, but still goes on.
When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
-
To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can.
If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.
One hundred percent of the shots you don't take don't go in.
-
To succeed... you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
He who dares nothing need hope for nothing.
Courage faces fear and thereby masters it
.
My parents told me that I could do and be anything I really wanted. I believed them.
The hero is no braver than the ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer
A man of courage is also full of faith
We get to make a living; we give to make a life.
When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing.
A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world.
-
The only gift is a portion of thyself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
The only truly happy man is always a fighting optimist. Optimism includes not only altruism but also social responsibility, social courage and objectivity.
The charitable give out the door and God puts it back through the window.
- Traditional Proverb
He who lends to the poor gets his interest from God.
- German Proverb
The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.
The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.
You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you
Listen with regard when others talk. Give your time and energy to others; let others have their own way; do things for reasons other than furthering your own needs.
When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor.
Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there.
That which a man willingly shares, he keeps.
That which he selfishly keeps, he loses.
Every man goes down to his death bearing in his hands only that which he has given away.
- Persian Proverb
Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright,
for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is secure; he will have no fear;
in the end he will see his desire on his adversaries.
He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn [dignity] will be lifted high in honor.
- Psalm 112: 4-5, 7-9
One man gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but ends up impoverished.
-Proverbs 11:24
No one became poor by giving alms.
- French Proverb
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace.
To give away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to give it, and how large, and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in any man’s power nor an easy matter…
It is important that you strive for humility, but not humiliation, for a cool, level-headed confidence, not a stiff, delusional arrogance.
Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.
Don’t shoot for something unattainable – completely outside of your nature or opportunity.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.
It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.
Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.
Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.
You learn as much from those who have failed as from those who have succeeded.
The road to success is lined with many tempting parking spaces.
- Traditional Proverb
If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.
-
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