Inspiration spiral!

As I was looking through inspirational pictures on a Facebook page called El Tren de la Vida, I thought why not share some of them on this blog? They are in Spanish, but I hope to be able to translate them well enough to spread their essence. The page is full of pictures, and (although most don’t say much, really) maybe I’ll share some more another time. As for the name of this post, Inspiration spiral, I thought it sounded nice and with the potential for a nice metaphor to develop out of it… I have no particular idea in mind, but I’ll take the chance and maybe something will come up eventually, haha!

Many of these thoughts may seem obvious to you. When I present something that is obvious to my mom, she loves to exclaim, arrogantly sarcastic: ‘Oh, my son has discovered lukewarm water!’ I understand it makes you feel wise and good about yourself to say things like that, but it really just makes you obnoxious to us ‘less experienced’, who actually gained useful insights from things like these. Don’t judge others for their lack of experience; instead, try to share your invaluable experience with them!

The first picture is about engagement and personal development, the latter being something I hope I have emphasised the crucial importance of already (e.g. see the second post on open-mindedness).

The text reads: Never stop because you think it is too late… … it is never too late to improve. I can read two main messages here. First, being short of time is no excuse to stop trying, but rather a reason to try to do it faster, i.e. to work harder. Second, you can always improve, always change – there is no time when it is futile to strive to be a better person.

Although this is mainly cheap rhetoric, I agree quite strongly with the message. Although I have thought many times that ‘I don’t have time’, lack of time is really only a signal to get started right now! Unfortunately, it takes tremendous self-discipline to realise this and follow the principle. I only hope that having had my eyes opened now, the thought will come to mind whenever that silly excuse is trying to ruin my productivity and drag me down into a swamp of laziness and self-satisfaction.

The second one relates to this as well.

 

It says: There is no lack of time, there is lack of interest. Because, when people really want, dawn becomes day. Tuesday becomes Saturday and a moment becomes an opportunity. The first sentence is really what captured me. We often say we don’t have time about things we are not keen on doing, but when it comes to things we really are interested in, we can make time for it, usually by skipping something else, usually something we should be doing instead, but just don’t want to. It is about how we prioritise in life, and that is up to you and only you. However, depending on what we prioritise, there will be consequences, and when we decide on what to do, we should really weigh the pleasure of doing what we want against the consequences of not doing what we should.

Nothing strange, right? But it is worth thinking twice about this before falling to any temptation. We tend to be dangerously biased toward short-term gains, and have an impressive ability to ignore – or simply not see – long-term costs. (And we still scratch our heads in surprise when the capitalist economy collapses, or when the friend you always put on hold to play with others suddenly doesn’t want to talk to you anymore.)

The message of the third picture may be interpreted in several ways.

The sign the tree is holding reads: Asking for help for my family in the forest. I think the main message is that the forests are in danger. Deforestation is a serious problem in the world, not only because it accelerates global warming by releasing carbon dioxide (when the wood is burned) and destroying the things that can sequester the carbon dioxide from the air, but also because it devastates natural environments for more animals and other plants than we can imagine – in other words, throwing the areas into ecological chaos.

An additional interpretation may be that the lone tree in the middle of what looks like a shopping street of a city, pleading for help, may represent a beggar or a vagrant (homeless person) – the forest equivalent of a beggar or vagrant. The forest its his home, where its family and friends are. The forest was taken from it when the humans built the city street; or the tree was taken from the forest as a seed and planted in this unfamiliar environment.

A third message, one that might conflict with the second, comes out when you ask why the tree is asking for help for its family. Does it have a good life in the city, but is concerned for its family; or does it know that it there no hope for itself, but it can at least ask for a good life for its family?

Picture number four relates to Hanna’s and my open-mindedness project.

The text says: Before you judge people you should first know their motives for acting that way. The message of the text is clear and, of course, extremely important. However, what really excited me was the message of the picture (also in relation to the text under it). Whoever sees her standing with a paper bag pulled over her head, with the words “Don’t judge” written on it, will instinctively ask why is she doing that. A few might just think ‘bah, she is just crazy!’ and not thing more about it, but I think most would try to understand the reason behind this rather unusual demonstration. The words on the bag give one straight answer, but then you wonder: if she doesn’t want to be judged, why is she doing something so silly? Why not just wave the words on a wooden plank? Why do something so out of the ordinary? To get more attention? Is she an attention-junkie? But we cannot see who she is, and she cannot see if we are paying attention to her. Why is she doing this?

You understand, that gesture cleverly invites you not to judge her. By doing something so confusing that it is difficult to judge without trying to comprehend the motives, she is making the people seeing it be subconsciously open-minded – or at least, staring to get there. 

The final one is something I definitely ought to take to heart myself, for the purpose of this blog and these messages I want to reach out and inspire with.

It says: The world changes after your example, not your opinion. Trying to convince people to act in some way only because you think it is the right thing is not at all as persuasive as if you would show that it is right by acting that way yourself, so that others can see for themselves why it is a good thing. By showing, rather than telling, that it really works, people will trust you more. If they too follow your example, and share it with their community, also they will take it up, and spread it further.

Many people might say they don’t believe what they have not seen with their own eyes. At least you can hear that a lot on television. (By the way, that is a rather hypocritical statement, since I can bet my right hand that these people believe the Earth is round, that it revolves around the sun, that tiny microscopic organisms and viruses make you ill, that the clouds thousands of metres up in the sky are made of floating water particles, and many many more things we take as common knowledge in this era of science. They probably also accept that 1 + 1 = 2 without having a clue of how it is proved… I think you can see where I am going. People who say they only trust the evidence of their own eyes usually do it to deny the existence of God and other supernatural beings, but don’t realise how limited our eyes really are… not to mention how easily our eyes can be fooled by illusions or drugs!) Although I doubt many go to that extreme, I believe that most of us would trust actions above words, especially when it comes to motivating others.

I know from own experience with instructing beginners in karate that they are far more willing to struggle with a difficult exercise if I do it with them. Of course, I always try to combine display with encouraging words, but judging from the difference from when I only talk to them, I am confident that it is the actions that spur them the most. In addition, when they see that I usually struggle less with the exercises than they do, I include words to explain that it is because I have done the same thing many times before, and it gets easier the more you do it; this encourages them even more!

So, rather than nagging to your peers about how you think they should live, live that way yourself until they realise what a good idea it is! But be careful not to think yourself to be a paragon in everything. Be open to find good examples in other people as well, and be open to learn from them too!