The one thing that sets us apart from all the other species on this planet earth is our innate ability to achieve great feats of creativity and our ability to adapt to key challenges and survive the same. And what’s more, we also happen to be the only species that can serve as a source of inspiration for many others. The question you need to ask yourself is as to where we would be without some of the great icons of our modern life. These individuals have gone out of their way to help and assist others, have contributed to the quality of our life and more importantly, have stood apart from many others for their acts of generosity and kindness.
As a species, we are hardwired to seek validation for our actions and to that end, we often look upon others for inspiration. Take Mother Theresa for example; when she first traveled to India, she was advised against doing so but she stood steadfastly and the missionaries of charity came into being. Today, even though she is no longer alive, she still continues to inspire many, world over. One does not need to be charitable or for that matter, kind to serve as an inspiration to others, but rather, to be an icon of change, one who had to face several challenges and overcame the same. There are corporate icons like Bill Gates, Musk who continue to serve as an inspiration to many young students the world over, and then there are others like Gandhi who still serve as a source of inspiration for an entire nation.
We often seek out others who may have faced the same challenges or have seen much worse; and the fact that these people managed to overcome these challenges tends to inspire us and provide us with the confidence that we need to overcome our own challenges, despite the various shortcomings. This is why most of the inspirational books, tend to portray real-life personalities, and often lists out their life story. This is also the reason why inspirational books with real-life personalities tend to sell better than the make-belief version.
So does the act of seeking inspiration from others mean that we are flawed in one way or another? No, not really, it just means that we are often seeking a way to better ourselves, as a way to attain greater heights and to provide others with the help they need. In fact, Martin Luther King who was pivotal to the Civil rights movement was inspired by Gandhi to lead a similar movement in the United States, one which continues to reverberate across the nation to this day. We all need inspiration in one form or another, in order to attain our goals, to better ourselves and all those around us. Without many others serving as a source of inspiration to us, we may well be leading drab lives, and be unable to create a history or for that matter do anything that sets us apart from the rest of the population.
