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Hustle-Free and Hassle-Free Success - Part 2: Inspiration

Updated: Jan 28

Wellcome to the world of hustle-free and hassle-free success. Today, in the second article in our series, we are going to dive into the refreshing waters of inspiration.


What would you love to do right now? Success is far more about inspiration than perspiration. Effort does not correlate with success. The need for grit and determination for success is a fallacy. Success correlates with inspired action, where you are being guided. It’s when you can tune into the still, quiet voice of your soul. You will also find that life unfolds effortlessly when you follow this voice. You are in the flow of your inspiration. This is where you find your joy.


Thomas Edison was wrong when he said that behind creativity “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” It’s hard to say that the inventor of the light bulb was wrong. The quote is completely misleading. According to a Forbes article, Edison never actually said that. Closer to the Truth would be the quote that “Genius is 99 percent inspiration and one percent perspiration.” Are you having a lightbulb moment? (Please pardon the pun!) Of course, there is a degree of work that goes into creating most things. But inspiration is a vitally important ingredient...


Are you having a 'light-bulb moment'? Always follow your heart...


What is inspiration?

What wakes you up? What do you love? What carries you forward? What makes you feel truly alive? What brings you joy as you feel that you are aligned to your true purpose? That is inspiration.

 

So, always ask “What would I love to do, right now?” or “How would I love to BE, right now?” or "What is my 'wow'!?"And once you have asked your Self that, then ask, when facing any choice, “What would love do now?” You heart will tell you what to do. This is what tuning up your inspiration means. If you have perspiration without inspiration, you don’t have anything. What would you love to make your life about today? For me it’s serving others with vulnerability and humility through Deep Coaching and writing. What about you?


When you are caught in suffering or despair, it’s because you are out of synch with your best interests. You are caught up in the “Shoulds” and “Have to’s…” instead of what “Would be uniquely right to you?” The only way to know this is to tune into your inspiration. If your heart feels peace, joy, love, and aliveness, it will quietly tell you what to do, and you will know that you are navigating by inspiration. Do what you love and do what you want to do. This is navigating your life based on spirit. This is about what matters to your soul. When you are following your inspiration you feel guided rather than driven and forced. Synchronicities, serendipities, and coincidences happen - the Universe has your back. Another way that you know that you are following your joy and inspiration is that when you just listen to the whispers, the next choice and step will be clear to you, and will appear before you. The third way that you know that you are navigating by joy and following your inspiration is that things seem to unfold as if by design.


If you want more joy and success in your life, the more disciplined you're willing to be in doing what you love, and not doing what you don't, and doing what you want to do, and not doing what you don't want to do, the more joyful incidents you're going to start to experience. When you're really navigating by joy and when you are really following your inspiration, that’s when your success feels completely effortless.


The flow of your own inspiration

It's not that you're not doing anything it's just that there's no struggle. There's no trying to ‘make things happen’. You're absolutely in the flow of your own inspiration. If you are ever not sure - if you're wondering is that the voice of inspiration (your soul) or is it that voice inside my head that's barking brashly at me what to do (your ego)? A really simple guideline is that the still small voice within doesn't think you suck: The ego does.


So, why don’t we all do that? Why don't we ask “What would I love to do, right now?” The first reason that some people think that joy is dangerous and leads us astray, when in fact it’s our guiding light. Going with your wanting is effective. So, go with your wanting. The second reason that people don’t do this is that we try to work it all out and control it all. Instead, we should surrender to the flow of the inspiration. There is a huge difference between the pushy 'premature practicality' of the mind (ego) and the wisdom of the heart. It’s because we are stuck in our ego. We want to play big, but we are not so small. If you try to follow the 'reasonable' course of action (ego) you're going to get moderate results: They might be even moderately good results, but if you're willing to just follow through with what you really want to do and not do what you don't want to do, then what you're going to find is that you will either succeed gloriously or have such a great time failing that it's not going to matter in either way (the spiritual path). The worst case scenario is that you will have a fantastic time; the best case is that you have a fantastic time and achieve great success.


People start listing all the reasons why they can't have what they want. If it was up to our rational minds, which want to ‘make it happen’ then all of these reasons would be relevant. But in the context of following your inspiration, then if you are inspired by it, trust that that there's a reason that you're inspired by it and whether or not it turns out that that's exactly what you do - if it's really inspiring to you, something wonderful will come from it. And it may actually be that it does happen. But even if it doesn't turn out that way for you there will be something wonderful. In the real world this works! All you have to do - it's so simple - is just allow yourself the space to ask yourself “What would you love to do today?” or “What would you love to make your life about today?” And just from asking and answering that question, you're off on a brand new adventure and it's going to a wonderful one. When I say aliveness or inspired what I mean is it's that sense of wonder that you have when you are opening your birthday presents as a child. It's that sense of wonder the first time you saw snow. It just being awestruck by the wonder of what is around us, and not so awestruck that you don't do anything but just that wonderful 'kid in a candy store' feeling. That energy will carry you and create that sense of effortlessness about what you're doing - being carried along with the current.


You're not trying to make it happen: You are part of the happening - you're part of that energy and so being able to inspire yourself on a regular basis is really important. There are really only two parts to it. One part is simply to have the intention of being alive and to notice what are the situations where you find it easier to be alive with the things that seem to make you come alive and the other part is what are the situations which seem to deaden your energy? Up to a point you can use that as a guide and direct yourself into the things that have more aliveness for you.


If we follow these principles, our success will really take off and it will be incredibly effortless, in total flow. So, follow the still quiet inner voice and be guided by what makes you feel most alive.


'Wow' goals

That's one way of playing with it but another thing that you can do, and this is a variation on how a lot of people have learned to try to navigate their lives, is you can create a vision and inspiration goals that make you go 'wow'! Goal setting is one of the most misunderstood and misused things in the whole personal development and success development world. Most people have this idea that your goals are supposed to be SMART, which means ‘specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and timed’. As soon as you put ‘realistic’ into the mix you generally speaking have lost the inspiration. That is not how Edison came up with the light bulb. Inspiration isn't realistic: Inspiration comes from somewhere else, a deeper place, and in a funny way it's easier to get what you really want than what you think you can have. Basically most people can imagine things being about 10% better or 10% worse than however it is right now. So when you try and set sensible SMART realistic goals you tend to not think in terms of what you really want you think in terms of well I had this so I guess I could have this little bit more, or I've gotten this far so I guess maybe I could go that little bit further. A 'wow' goal has nothing to do with reality: Something inside you wants it. There are really only two questions in terms of getting what you want: the first is “What do I want?” and the second is “What is stopping me?”


There are these obstacles that come up so we're going to talk right now about that first question: What do you really want? What is your ‘wow’ goal? What would bring you the most aliveness? You may be sceptical. Stay with me. We are talking about waking something up inside you. You can feel it right? Remember your happiness isn't dependent on getting what you want - what we're actually talking about here is what can you be inspired about going for. So one of the ways that you inspire yourself is you go for things that you really want. It doesn't matter whether or not you get them because what you get is that inner success the moment you start going for it. You are the change. If you do get it, wonderful. And if you don't that's OK because you are so enjoying going for it. And that's what's different about this kind of approach but in order to do that you've got to have the ‘wow’.


Go for it in the context of inspiration. The context of the bigger vision of where you are headed. What’s your biggest dream for what you want? It changes how you do things and it changes the way people perceive you. People will be attracted to those who radiate like that – that “Wow, I’m on a mission. I’ve got this stuff that I love to do.” It brings opportunities closer to you. Not just metaphysically, but in reality.


Your big dream

Think about what you want, but not what you kind of want, not what you sort of want: Your big dream. What is the biggest thing you can imagine? What's the biggest ‘wow’ you can imagine for yourself?: A noble cause. What you really want.


When you allow yourself to tap into the big dream - it's never gone away. It may have changed but it's never gone away. It's not like you're making this up from scratch. If there is something alive in you, something that just would be a real ‘wow’ for you - you're meant to have that. You were born to have that.

 

What do you really want?

There are so many reasons that people don't actually let themselves want what they want. You want what you want whether or not you think you can have it. And I'd add to that you want what you want whether or not you think you can have it and whether or not you think you should want it, and whether or not you think it's a good thing. One of the reasons that we have trouble finding what we want is because in fact we know we want but we don't think it's the right thing. Or we know what we want but we don't think we want to do what we think we're going to have to do to get it. So it's like “That would be a lot of work and I mean it would be great if I could just have it but I don't want to have to do all the stuff that I think it would take to get it.” Sometimes we don't know what we want because it's just been a long time since we've asked ourselves the question. One thing that I like to ask people who say “Well I don't know what I want” is “How much time have you spent thinking about it?” And so of course if you haven't really spent much time thinking about it you might have some trouble with it. Or if you really believe that there's something wrong with what you want, no you're not going to come up with it. But here's the thing - it's that self-honesty thing again from my first article - if you admit to yourself what you want, you don't have to do anything about it. It's not just because you want something you have to go out and get it. If you pretend that you don't want that it actually cuts you off from the overall flow of your wanting. So it's OK to want something and not do anything about it: But it makes easier to think about OK well what do I want? It's all about tapping into that flow. Once you tap into that flow then the things start to come that are not only wonderful but the things the part of you goes 'wow' I might just want to make my life about getting that. This is the thing - you can not do the ones that are difficult but there will be a few things that are easy, that are effortless, that really appeal to you - do those ones first.


Don't do what you don't want to do

The more you do what you really want to do and the more you're willing to not do what you don't want to do - I sometimes call this the strangest discipline - because the biggest difference to people’s success is being willing to not do what you don't want to do. And there's actually been a study into sustained personal success where they found that the one common trait with people who've been successful in their field for 20 years or longer was that they had figured out what they didn't like doing and they stopped doing it.


Clearing the don't wants and considering the shoulds

If you are willing to practise that discipline of not doing what you don't want to do and doing more and more of what you want to do, given that there will be some things that you know you're not always going to do, you're going to move in that direction of doing more of what you want to do, and less of what you don't - of allowing yourself to dream the dreams that are there whether or not you have any intention of doing something about it: You'll start to tap into the real dreams - they're always there just under the surface. Those become an incredibly reliable guide for where you can go with your life. If you're not clear about what would not be a ‘wow’ for you, a good place to start is to figure out some of the stuff you don't want. So, OK well I don't want to be beat up all the time, I don't want to be tired, I don't want to be miserable, I don't want to be poor: So you can start with those and then you can look at “Well if I don't want that, then what do I want?” So that's one category of events. The thing is to look at all the things that you think you should want - to make a list of well I should want this and I should want that: When you start making those lists you'll recognise a lot of things on them and just because they are on that list doesn't mean you don't also want them. Gregory Bateson said “Maturity is being willing to do what you really want to do even if your parents want you to do it too.” And so just because something is on the should list it doesn't mean you can't also want it but be aware that very often there are different things on those two lists. And then when you've gone through and you've cleared out all the stuff you don't want and all the stuff you should want it's sometimes easier when that noise has been cleared to hear what you actually want. And it doesn’t have to be grand: Remember ‘wow’ is just ‘wow’ for you right now.


‘Wow’ for you right now might be a day off. ‘Wow for you right now might be coming home to a quiet evening. It doesn't have to be climbing Mount Everest. For some of you it will be right now and that's OK - that's the whole thing- if your ‘wow’ is your North star it's your guiding principle - it's your way of inspiring yourself. Knowing what you want is knowing what you want - you either know it or you don't. If you want to remind yourself of it with visual imagery, with scrapbooks, with vision boards by writing it down and repeating it every night then that’s fantastic, but don't think that that's the magic formula. I’ll tell you what the real magic formula is: Take a couple of hours to daydream. Just to enjoy thinking about what you could do with the next year of your life. And when you feel really inspired about what you've written, those are your goals. Check in with them at least once a month - go back through the list and if you are not inspired by them anymore then change them. And what I've come to realise is a there's no right way of doing it and the real purpose of a goal is to make you come alive. To inspire you to fall more in love with your life. It’s not to get there - now that doesn't mean you won't get there. In fact, it often means you'll get there more easily and sometimes to a place even beyond that, because what you are really following is the aliveness, the inspiration, the fulfilment, the meaning, the stuff of the goal. It doesn't mean you can't have it. You'll get the stuff but you'll also get the experience that you really want from the stuff as well.


Very often what makes it difficult to get excited about a dream is that you see the dream you get excited about and you think “Oh my gosh I could live in that house and I'd be with that person – it would be amazing; that would be wonderful” and then you open your eyes and you look around and you're still in your job, surrounded by the people that you work with and it's not very exciting and again this is a fundamental difference between trying to escape from your life and going for what you want. If you're just trying to get out of a bad situation, get out or don’t. But don't pretend that you need a goal to do that. And certainly, if you're in a really bad situation just get out. I'm all for inspiration but if you're in trouble take care of yourself. If you’re bleeding, stop the bleeding.


One of the things that can change - and it can change dramatically - is that whatever your circumstances are - if you start to see them as current reality as this is just what's going on, so you don't deny it, you don't pretend because again you want to be honest with yourself; because you want to be able to trust yourself, but you also don't make it worse than it is but what a lot people do is they'll take - let's say their job and they'll go “I hate this job” because they think they need to hate it in order to get out and in fact if you allow yourself to recognise that every job should have things you love and things you hate - if you think there's a perfect job out there a very simple exercise for you to do is to make a list of all the things that you think are going to be wonderful about it and then however many things you have on that list maybe 20 things, then make a list of at least the same number of things that are going to be awful about it.


It's the difference between infatuation and love - infatuation is where you think everything is going to be perfect and nothing is going to be wrong. Love is where you get there's going to be good stuff and bad stuff but you want it anyway. And I would love for you to fall in love with your goals, and not be infatuated.


Loving your goals is enough and it's trusting that that's enough for you. You don’t need to create more pain in order to get yourself into action. That really is in essence the difference between the hard way to success and the easy way to success. The hard way to success is you create tension and stress and maybe even a hatred of where you are and you work really hard and you take continuous action and you know what, you can get really far that way and you may have even had the experience for yourself of getting really far that way but you arrive totally exhausted, feel deadened, and you burn out. Around 70 percent of people in most professions are suffering from burn out right now.


Easy does it

The easy way to success is where you bring a sense of ease. Easy does it! It sounds almost too easy doesn't it?! But the easy way to success is where you relax: It does not have to be difficult or stressful. And then from that place of ease you take regular intuitively inspired action. Inspired action is when you think about doing those things and feel that you would love to do that. Those are those whispers from that quiet voice of inspiration but they get louder and louder the more you're willing to keep out the other stuff - you know the “shoulds” and “shouldn'ts” coming from your loud brash ego. And when you take those inspired actions you then also need to give it some space and time. You do have to be patient, but you can trust that it will come. You need to have a period of inaction because stuff outside your head just takes time. It doesn't have to take a long time but it does take some time.


The seeker and the Master

There is a story of a seeker who travelled to the Far East to get advice from a Master. He explained the intensity of his desire to achieve something. He asked how long it would take for him to succeed. The Master said 10 years. The seeker was horrified. He said “What if I work twice as hard and really push for it to happen?” The Master replied “It will then take 20 years.” The seeker said “But I am really desperate for this to happen.” The Master replied “In that case, it will take 30 years.” The moral of the story is that ease is key to success.


You can have what you want

The absolute thing that I want you to open up to is that it's not an either or choice: You don't have to choose between happiness and success because the more happiness you allow yourself now the more ‘unearned’ happiness, the more ‘unreasonable’ happiness you allow yourself the easier it is to listen to that voice to and follow that voice of inspiration and create the success that you really want in your life as well.

 

The only problem is that sometimes, when you realise that you can have something, you don’t want it anymore.

 

And very often when people hear the idea that you can have whatever you want but in fact “You can have what you want” is just a statement of possibility. The question isn't “Can you really have it?”, the question ultimately is “Do you really want it?” And what you may find is that as you notice that these things become more and more possible for you as you recognise how capable you actually are at creating the things that you want in your life you may find a lot of the things you thought you wanted begin to fall away. Because you can have what you want. But you're going to have to let it be easier than you think and more fun than you can imagine.

The 'push-me-pull-you' effect

There's a strange phenomenon that I've noticed and I've heard it described in different ways: It’s to do with attachments and aversions. The Buddhist way of talking about it is that when we're too attached to something or we are too repelled by it that that stops us somehow – it ties us to it - it creates a ‘push-me-pull-you’ effect like being stuck between two rubber bands and the closer you get to one extreme you get pulled back towards the other. A lot of people have that experience of going for goals. The closer you get to the goal it's almost like suddenly there's nothing left to take you there. Because what you're trying to do is get away from where you were, but the closer you get to the goal and the closer back you where you were then there's that big pullback away from the goal until you wind up going towards and away from it and towards it and away from it repeatedly. Whereas when you recognise that it doesn't matter what's going on – that this is just where you want to go then there's just one rubber band and it's pulling you towards where you want to go. There isn't the ‘push-me-pull-you’ effect anymore. You need a sense of ‘laissez-faire.’ This is you and the ‘wow’ - it's just you and what you really want to be doing without being totally attached to the outcome. It’s very subtle, but this is how it works. Viktor Frankl famously stated that: “Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: You have to let it happen by not caring about it.”


Letting go of wanting

Here's the thing about longing: If you find yourself like “God I really want that; I really want that” I guarantee you it's because you think that having that is going to change your life in some way: You think that it’s going to make you happy; it's going to make you safe; it's going to make you loved; it’s going to make you worthy. Whatever it is, when you can let go of all the other extra stuff you put on what you want - when it’s just what you want - it's so much easier to get it. When you let go of all this extra stuff that we tend to put onto our goals onto our wants and you are left with “I just want it because I want it” it becomes really easy.


It's something I call it ‘the secret of letting go for it’. When you just get really clear and honest and open about what you want and you don't add in what it's going to mean about you or what it's going to be about the world or what it's going to prove to anyone it's really easy to just go for it and get it. Let go of the outcome!


Craving is the root of all suffering

And there's an interesting thing some people object when I talk about having what you want from a spiritual standpoint: They say well you know the Buddha said that desire is the root of all suffering and it's a question of translation because the texts that I've read say that cravingis the root of all suffering.


Goals don’t fill the hole in your soul

And the difference between desire and craving is the difference between wanting and longing. It's the difference between just wanting what you want and feeling like you have to have it. Because that feeling that you have to have it every single time will come back to something you think is missing in you that you're trying to ‘fill that hole with the goal’ – it’s just reaffirming your sense of lack. Even billionaires have this, and it really does hold them back! Goals don’t fill the hole in your soul.

Self-esteem

And here's the secret of self-esteem right here - all self-esteem is is not comparing your insides to someone else’s outsides. Never envy anyone. If you want to feel bad about yourself look at how someone else’s life looks – it’s never what you imagine. I know many families that are torn up behind closed doors, when on the outside everything looks shiny and happy. You can be a billionaire and be suicidal because your insides are a mess!


If you want high self-esteem compare your Self to your Self. Look at how you're doing compared to how you were doing. Look how far you have come. Look at what you have surmounted silently. You are doing just fine! You are a miracle!


I'm not saying that there might not be things you still want to improve that you want to change and if you want to change them for their own sake then do it. Working on your Self can be wonderfully rewarding but don't kid yourself that you need to work on your Self in order to have what you want. Easy does it!


So ask what would you want? Go for what you want. If what you want includes working on yourself then work on your Self, but don’t do it to get what you want. That's wonderful but don't do it to make yourself a better person; don’t do it to make yourself loved; don't do it to try and become a worthy person - because all of that is going to backfire on you. The worst possible way to change how you feel is to try to change the world. But yet that's the first strategy that most people try. So, don't become a doctor to feel good about your Self. Become a doctor because that is what you want, and you are not attached to it. Your value is not what you achieve. Your value is who you are.


Conclusions

This is how the pillars (see my first article in this series) fit together: So the first thing is you start to know your Self and you start to recognise that you're OK as you are. Don’t ascribe meaning to people, events, places, or things. Don’t seek or crave external validation. Accept the isness of the present moment. Things are just the way they are – it doesn’t mean anything about you. Carry on from here and then say “I trust myself” - I tune in and ask my heart “What do I want?” and also trust your gut. And then I'm going to inspire myself so that when I move forward I don't move forward the hard way with a lot of tension and start try and ‘make it happen’ but I move forward with that sense of ease and that knowledge that inspired action based on my still quiet inner voice brings multiple rewards. Then allow space around it instead of being in action relentlessly. And be patient. It will come. Try it! There is a world of difference between acting on the loud brash voice and acting on your still quiet voice. With time it gets easier and easier to follow the still quiet voice, until you live from that place. Forget the drill sergeant! If you want success, make a commitment to follow your quiet inner voice: That is making a commitment to your Self. You will be rewarded in ways that you can't even begin to imagine. W. H. Murray wrote “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary Truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way." Goethe said " Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” Everything is easier if you are coming from a place of inspiration and love. Kindness is love made visible. Always be kind to your Self.


Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you: Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.


George Bernard Shaw wrote that “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” Are you ready to change your mind?


Namaste.


Sending you love, light, and blessings brothers.


Olly



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Hello,

I am delighted and enchanted to meet you. I coach men with 'Deep Coaching', 'Supercoaching', and Transformative Life Coaching (TLC). Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my email for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching on Zoom or in person. 


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