Not Motivational, Inspirational

Not Motivational, Inspirational

John Paul Derryberry

I was in the locker room as the visiting team during my freshman year. It's potentially our last game as we are in the conference tournament finals. Win, and we advance to the national tournament, lose the grind when the next season begins. This is the last fact everyone needs to know. I will not see any playing time tonight unless the game goes into four overtime and many of my teammates foul out. I'm a benchwarmer this year, rightfully so; the guys in front of me on the playing time chart are better basketball players.

Our coach lays out the game plan and begins his motivational speech by stating that changes and opportunities to do things you will remember for the rest of your life are fleeting. But win today, and it will be one of those moments, 2001 champions. I was ready to do everything I could to win that day, even though I was probably just cheerleading. We lost heartbreakingly, but I just get chills thinking about every interaction, from his pregame speech to when the game-winning shot was launched and came up short. Motivation affects us as humans; it does something to our emotions that propels us a little extra.

Yet, motivation is a funny thing to capture and an even harder thing to maintain. This memory always comes to mind when people comment about being a motivational speaker. Because I'm not that type of speaker, I never wanted to be that type of speaker. It's not that people can't get motivated by hearing wonderful words, stories, and presentations. I find motivation always to be short-lived and a fickle state to remain in. In essence, it's a very temporary state. I never wanted to leave people temporarily better, and motivating is always a temporary state.

Just as those motivational moments can be ingrained into our memories, we have moments with folks that inspire us to do great things. The key difference is the openness of the person inspiring us to many more outcomes than those attempting to motivate us. 5 years later, as I finally was crossing the finish of my extended time getting my bachelor's degree, a professor pulled me to the side. He looked at me, and I said, "I don't know what's next for you, but you have the potential to change many lives; I hope you go do that." It IS the jumping-off point to all this, the speaking, the career in social work, the desire to impact people's lives with compassion, and the lifelong commitment to figuring it out. I was more than motivated; I was inspired.

That inspiration never waned; it most certainly changed, grew, and took me places I never imagined I could or would go. It was a vastly different feeling than the pregame speech from our coach. It was an invitation from a caring person to see what I could do and even surprise him. It's not a coincidence that the person I chose to introduce at an event celebrating my work was the person who inspired me, not just motivated me. I will not knock motivation. We need both motivation and inspiration. We need to realize there is a canyon of difference between the two. Suppose anyone finds themselves in a position to change lives. In that case, we should aim to inspire, and if only motivate, that's okay. But man, to inspire is to move the human experience forward in vast and profound ways, always aims to inspire.