{"id":78,"date":"2021-10-27T17:46:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T17:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/?p=78"},"modified":"2021-10-27T19:20:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T19:20:35","slug":"inspirate-vs-motivate-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/inspirate-vs-motivate-continued\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspirator vs Motivator (continued)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.”<\/em> John C. Maxwell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I absolutely love that quote by John. I would change it up a bit and say “Leaders must be close enough to their people to motivate them, but far enough ahead to inspire them.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my early years of leading, I thought that inspiration and motivation meant the same exact thing. But the more I became a student of people, the more I came to believe there\u2019s a very important distinction. The very slight difference between the words can make a big difference in leading people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dictionary defines inspiration like this: \u201cSomething that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what it says for motivation: \u201cThe act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll transpose it like this… Inspiration is more a person reaching a point of wanting to act on something, where motivation is more of giving people reasons to act. It’s like the difference between babysitting your people and empowering your people, incentivizing or influencing your people, or the fire starters and the fire extinguishers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we try to motivate people by using positive incentives, and even some negative tactics, that\u2019s using outward things to enter the heart where real change takes place. This can work to some degree but the effect is usually just a temporary thing. It’ll burn out at some point – Usually sooner than later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we work to inspire our people, we\u2019re reaching for the heart in a way that the person is changed from the inside out. When people WANT to change because there has been a deep stirring in their heart, it\u2019s sustainable and leads to long-term vibrancy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspiration is an enthusiasm that comes from within. It is being passionate about a much bigger vision that only you can see. There is a strong sense of purpose that pulls you towards your goals. It creates a drive to focus on building things that will make a big difference not only to your life but to the world around you. When I look at some of the most successful leaders that I have been blessed to be able to learn from and \/ or work with, there is one thing they all have in common. They are not only motivated, they are inspired. They work intently on their own terms. They didn\u2019t need to be told what must be done. They created their own ways. They didn\u2019t easily get unmotivated when things didn’t go well because they were focused on performing based on their beliefs and intention. They did something for themselves which eventually became beneficial to others as well. They do what was instinctively fulfilling and enjoy every minute of it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Inspiration is something that can be felt by others. It\u2019s like a ray of sunshine after a rainy day that awakens other people\u2019s purpose and helps them create their own vision. That is why the most inspiring leaders are truly successful. Motivation is still a good thing, please don’t get me wrong. It is useful, but ONLY for short-term goals. If you want to create true success, inspiration will get you there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll land the plane this way.. There was a brief moment of time in my life where I consistently sought encouragement from others as my primary source of motivation. Sometimes I\u2019d get it, other times I wouldn\u2019t. I needed the encouragement to perform well. Then I began to be inspired by a purpose-driven challenge in my life, as of course some God placed individuals who helped me understand where I wanted to go in life. This changed everything. With motivation, I was looking for reasons to be a better me to maximize my performance. With inspiration, I understood who I was and as a natural byproduct, I was able to accomplish things that I never thought were possible and began my journey to inspire everybody around me to be the best version of themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


There is absolutely a need for both inspiration and motivation. But to lead effectively, knowing the difference will make a tremendous difference!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” John C. Maxwell I absolutely love that quote by John. I would change it up a bit and say “Leaders must be close enough to their people to motivate them, but far enough ahead to inspire them.” In my early … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}