Recipe for inspiration

If you want to create something new in the world, your first task is to inspire people to want to make it happen.

As the pilot and poet Antoine de Saint Exupéry put it:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

The better you do this, then the more motivated people will be to join you, stick with you, and deliver enthusiastic results.

The precise way you achieve this will be completely unique to you.

But to do it you will need to use seven standard building blocks:

• A clear definition of the problem 
• A clear definition of the future you want to create 
• Clearly defined first steps to get there 
• Articulated in a way that is meaningful for your audience 
• Expressed authentically by you 
• Explaining why your vision matters  (the principles, ideals, or values it upholds) and
• Asking your audience to make a choice: Are they with you?

If you define and combine these building blocks in a way that your audience longs for your project to happen, then you won’t need to assign them tasks or ‘drum up people to collect wood’  — they will do all that for themselves.

Have you inspired yourself and the people around you to long for the success of the project you are working on? What would happen if you did?

Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.

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Photo By Bruno Girin via StockPholio.net