All that Inspiration can get a little Awkward

This genius blog post about inspirational weblog posts popped up via someone in my twitter feed last week.

“All that happiness, that talk of meaningfulness, the persuasion to feel without real communication about how that happens, when wrapped up in the pretty aesthetic of a Martha Stewart bow, begins to look a bit pathological, neurotic and kneejerk, defensive.

I need to trust my gurus, and in order for me to trust my gurus, they must have heart, meaty and human hearts. They must have the courage to be vulnerable, to show me how they got there and why they are still there. I need to know that they can do the hard stuff so that I can believe that what I learn from them will help me to do the hard stuff.”

I started this web site because I was tired of being quiet and I wanted to share some inspiration. I struggle so much with the word inspiration when I write my posts and when I do my interviews. I don’t want this blog to be a cliché, but I want to talk about passion and inspiration and finding our life’s work. I want to stop the silence.

But, like the quote above, I want to find the meaty part of it. This is how I personally hope to avoid becoming a “one note wonder” as Schmutzie puts it. This is why I’ve asked in my interviews about funding and daily tasks and discipline. I want someone who finds this web site to hear about the nitty gritty. We talk about our jobs, whether we love them or not, in such vague terms. How will that help someone trying to find their own path?

Have you ever been in a meeting where someone gets really geeked out about an idea? Or they talk about their work, or a product, or an idea like it’s a new lover? Ew, right? Sometimes I’ll hear someone in a meeting get so excited about something, they make it sound so personal, that I actually cringe. It’s true. I did it last week at my company’s sales conference. Then I did the same thing – lost control and went off on my own tangent about something I was passionate about. Ew.

I’d dare to say that we don’t like this kind of effusiveness because we are a culture where we like to keep our work and private lives separate. We like to be professional at work and even at home, we shy from being open about our feelings. I guess I have to get used to the words if I’m going to write about this: passion, inspiration, path, journey, mission. When I get answers back from those I interview, I can only hope to find one of those themes in their descriptions of what they do and how they got to do it.