Where to Find Inspiration When You’re not Feeling Inspired.

This post has been adapted from my podcast. If you’d rather listen than read, find Episode 2 here.

It’s possible as you steel yourself for another COVID winter, the last thing you feel is inspired. Don’t beat yourself up for that. These are tough times.

At the same time, do you ever notice that light is most intense when it’s shining in a night sky? In the same way, it is often easiest to spot inspiration in very dark times.

As another wave of COVID infections washes over us, there are still people all around us who are inspiring us and showing us how to inspire others.

If you’re struggling to feel inspired this winter, here are five places to look for inspiration.

1.      People who put themselves at risk in the service of others.

The daily courage that this pandemic has revealed to us is breathtaking. Health care workers and first responders across the globe show up day after day in stressful and often dangerous conditions. They risk their lives and the health of their families to care for critically ill and highly contagious patients. Many have endured trauma, burnout, crushing fatigue, and COVID itself. And still. they are there for us.

I’m also inspired and humbled by the largely unseen, undervalued, and often underpaid essential workers like grocery store and pharmacy workers, eldercare workers, maintenance staff, delivery people, teachers – people who do not have the luxury to work from home. We see courage and inspiring acts of service all around us.

2.      Simple acts of kindness and compassion.

We often think of inspiration as something that happens on a grand scale, like inspiring a movement or inspiring a nation. But inspiring leadership also happens in small ways, from everyday people, from little gestures – the neighbor who drops off groceries to a family in quarantine, the friendly delivery person who smiles behind a mask, people going out of their way to give you room on the sidewalk, people reaching out to ask how you are doing.

3.      People who tell us the truth, especially when that truth is hard.

During this crisis, we have seen inspiring examples of tough truth-telling from public health and other leaders in Canada and around the world. Unfortunately, we’ve also seen examples of denying, hiding, or ignoring the truth. We’ve even seen examples of deliberately spreading misinformation to score personal or political points, often with devastating consequences. If we learn nothing else from this prolonged crisis, I hope we learn that telling the truth, even when it is unpopular is inspiring and can save lives.

Sometimes the truth is hard to know. What was true at the beginning has changed many times with each new variant and each new discovery. I’m inspired by people who say, this is what we know now or I don’t know or I was wrong. There are no simple answers or quick fixes. In short, I’m inspired by people of character, whose clear intentions are to protect our health as best they can. Novelist James Lane Allen, said, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” I ask myself this question, how am I handling this and what is it revealing about my character?

4.     People who are generous with their gifts and talents in the service of others.

Musicians, performers and artists, and writers are finding new and creative ways to share their gifts online. In the spring of 2020, there was a horrific mass shooting where I live, and 22 innocent people lost their lives. Because we were in the midst of a lockdown, we couldn’t gather to pay our respects or grieve as a community and a province. So musicians, artists, and community leaders came together for an online vigil to share their gifts to support those who were grieving. Their talent and performances were moving, but most inspiring was their generosity and compassion.

5.      We don’t have to be the source of inspiration to inspire.

Despite all that is challenging about this crisis, I am still inspired every day. Whether it is the courage on the front lines, simple acts of kindness to those who are suffering or grieving, or everyday generosity, if you know what to look for, it can feel like the whole world is calling us to something higher. Inspiration is a call to your highest, most generous, most compassionate self.

We don’t need to be the source of inspiration to inspire. We sometimes just need to look for it in everyday places, acknowledge it, and share it with others when we find it.

Here is a simple practice to bring more inspiration into your life.

At the end of each day, write down one thing, one moment, or one person that inspired you today. Reflect on how bringing that to mind makes you feel and what it is teaching you about how you might inspire others.