Mama I Want to Write

Inspiration is a beautiful thing. Quite a necessary thing. Artists, athletes, inventors and those that aspire to be more than normal have their muse, their failures and or desires for greatness as their inspirations. It is not often that you find individuals that want to be great simply for the sake of being great. Usually, more often than not there is a story behind that drive for success. A desire to quench the thirst for something that is missing. Inspiration is simply life's reminder of why we do what we do. It is our reason for being and our need to be more than we are. It is desire to go beyond our self for the betterment of someone or something else. It is the desire to become that person that you want to be, because we all can be better. The thing to remember is that while we all can, truly inspired people are the ones that actively pursue that goal on a daily basis.

Theodore Roosevelt said that "some of us are born great, while others have greatness thrusted upon them." I can't say that I believe whole-heartily in the first part of his statement. I think greatness resides at the intersection of opportunity and preparation. And it is only after the journey that you can look back and play armchair quarterback and say "now that was something special." It is a ongoing struggle to forge on and continue to wage a war against the dying of the light. Because it is when you stop to think of how wonderful and great you are, you are overcome by the darkness or the guy who didn't get faint and continued on to the tape instead of stopping for photo ops before the race was over (unless you are Usain Bolt).

Nelson Mandela said, "it is not failure that scares us, but the possibility of our own greatness." Maya Angelou said, "we are what we know, and when you know better you are better." Everyday you must find the inspiration to do things a little bit different than you did them yesterday. A little bit better, a little bit bigger, a little bit greater. And if you want those around you to do and be better, talk to them as if they are who you want them to be, not necessarily as who they are at this moment. A wife said to her sister one day about her husband, "I love him for the man that he is and more importantly the man that is so close to becoming."

Take some time to think about where you have been, your failures and your accomplishment and where you want to be. Find a reason to be more than you have been, more than you or anyone else ever thought you could be. Spend 30 seconds to smell the roses and the next 30 minutes planting more roses, so that tomorrow you can smell the garden. Search for the inspiration within you to be great. After you have done that become the shining pillar of greatness that you have been called to be and inspire someone else. As I hope I have done for you.