Many wait for inspiration to act, but it won’t come because it is the other way around. Action triggers ideas that lead to inspiration. Start with something in your emotional periphery and take the first step. Make a call, write an outline, or volunteer just once. The process and inspiration will unfold before you.

When motivation is at odds with inspiration, continue.

Inspiration is about a person reaching a point of wanting to act, whereas motivation is more about giving people reasons to take action.

Inspiration is an act of influencing people mentally and emotionally to do something creative. Motivation is something that compels or persuades you to take action. Inspiration is what pulls you towards something.

A highly motivated person takes an idea, goes out there, and won't let anybody interfere with them—that person who isn’t going to stop along the way but keeps going down the road.

What about someone who will stop on the road somewhere and seemingly be drawn off course? Perhaps what stopped them on the road was an inspiration. Unlike motivation, inspiration works in precisely the opposite way. If the reason is when you get hold of an idea and carry it through to its conclusion, inspiration is the opposite because an idea gets hold of you and takes you to a place that inspires people to think is the better direction.

Does this mean that motivation is a distraction from inspiration?

To find the answer to this question, we have to stop and think about it, but then that would answer the question and ignore the fact that the motion involved in motivation makes it easier for inspiration to find us.

Either way, it seems clear that motivation and inspiration are connected.