Inspiration can be one powerful force to be reckoned with when used for the good of mankind.
It is inspiration that drives people to do incredible things like start businesses, learn new skills, be creative, and do more things that are productive to society.
Everyone who has ever been great at something have all had someone that they looked up to - someone that inspired them to take a leap of faith, trust in their instincts, and turn their dreams into a reality.
What I find interesting about inspiration is that you have people you look up to, take a little piece of each thing from those people, and develop your own way of doing things and your own goals along the way.
I will use Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example because not only was he the one who inspired me, he talks a lot about what inspired him to become who he is in his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life.
In Arnold's book, he talks a lot about his life growing up in Austria and how he always had a vision of coming to America from the time he was a kid.
Until he saw Steve Reeves in the original movie Hercules, and everything changed for young Arnold.
Being as that Arnold was a young kid when he first discovered Steve Reeves in the movies and on the cover of bodybuilding magazines, he had an impressionable mind and knew when he saw Steve Reeves in the movies that he wanted to grow up, move to America and be just like Reeves.
That is the background story of how Arnold first began in bodybuilding, which led him down a path of moving to America and becoming the greatest bodybuilding champion to ever live, where he then became a top Hollywood action movie star, and then proceeded to pursue a career in politics where he became the governor of California.
Arnold is not only a great source of inspiration for many young men out there, but he was also one who was inspired to become the man that we all know him as.
The reason why a man like him was able to accomplish the things he has been able to accomplish in his life is because of his inspiration and his ability to envision a reality for himself and work to make it happen.
The reason why I use Arnold as an example is because I have been inspired by Arnold ever since I was a young teenager.
When I first began lifting weights and getting into bodybuilding, I discovered Arnold in his prime bodybuilding days and made it a goal for myself to build my body to look like his.
I then eventually moved to the west coast to pursue my childhood dream of being in entertainment and starring in movies, however, I never made it to Hollywood because I felt a shift in my inspiration and my drive to be successful.
Once I came back around to horses, I was inspired to continue creating my own life path, except this time it was going to be with something that brings me genuine fulfillment.
I find many people to be inspiring and it doesn't matter what they do - if I see someone working hard to be who they want to be, then I consider it to be inspiring.
It doesn't matter whether it is guys like Arnold and Sylvester Stallone, or online entrepreneurs like Patrick Bet David, I find inspiration from people that know more about the world than I do and work hard to provide value to the world.
Inspiration is a matter of taking little tid bits from each person and figuring out a way to apply it to your life directly and create your own path.
I have always thought in my mind that if someone else can figure out how to do this thing, then there is absolutely no reason why I cannot figure it out.
To me, this is inspiration - figuring out things about the world that I was once naive of before and things I have absolutely no knowledge of.
Now that we have established what inspiration is and I have given a little background as to how I become inspired, my question for you then becomes: what inspires you?
Who do you look up to?
Who are the people you want to learn from?
Who are the people you are looking at that give you clarity as to how you want your life to look?
Are you modeling anyone in particular and trying to follow their same life path? Or are you creating your own with the information they have given you?
I believe there is someone out there for everyone to be inspired by, whether it be a famous artist or entertainer, an entrepreneur, a professional athlete etc.
When it comes to inspiration, I think one thing people need to take note of is not getting too caught up in trying to be exactly like someone else.
Especially in a world of social media, everyone is trying to be like everyone else and keeping up with the Jones's becomes more relevant in modern culture.
I believe the best thing anyone can do is find someone they look up to, someone who clearly knows more about the world than you, take what information they give you and apply it to your life to create your own life path.
The key to inspiration is living out your own destiny and being your truest authentic self because by doing so, you will eventually end up inspiring others.
If you just try to be exactly like someone else because you saw them on social media, you are only getting a glimpse of what that person wants you to see, without seeing what their life is really like or what their life has been like.
You can try and replicate someone's successes all you want, but everyone's struggles are going to be different and how people deal with their struggles will all be different.
This is why it is important to be inspired and be driven to live your own life path so that you can overcome your own struggles and continue to build yourself into someone who is authentic and capable of inspiring others.
Take what you can learn from those you look up to and apply it to see if it is useful to you or not.
Continue to acquire new skills and new information from what inspires you so that you can continue to build yourself into a strong and capable person that has much to offer the world and the people around you.