Inspire It Forward!

I was living my life purpose this week, which is to be Solar: light myself up with enough knowledge and inspiration to hopefully touch others with my energy. It took me a long time to realize I can only change myself and not others and the same goes with inspiration.

We can't inspire others, we can only absorb inspiration and inspire ourselves and sometimes that rubs off and inspires others. Four people told me something I did inspired them this week. One story I can share is the loop of inspiration with Keith Ferrazzi. Keith is the author of Never Eat Alone & Who Got You Back, both books that have inspired me. I have been author-stalking Keith for a while now and the other day he sent out a tweet about one of his followers who wrote an article about letting everyone you know know that you are in job search. So I decided to follow his advice and let him know about my Joyful Job Bounty. To my delight he retweeted my info and added "How clever!"

Well clever is as clever does, so after he kept promoting his upcoming Relationship Mastery Academy program I asked if he would take me on as a member on scholarship and if his techniques worked I would gladly repay him (plus match a donation to his favorite charity). He loved the idea of a scholarship program for those in job search and offered a 50% scholarship (need some skin in the game) to me and 9 others (apply if you'd be interested).

Here is the thing: he inspired me > I inspired him > he is inspiring me again (along with others who are inspired by the tweets and scholarships offered).

Lesson learned: don't focus on inspiring others. Focus on inspiring yourself and living fully self-expressed in that inspiration, and you will inspire others by example. Nothing pays-it-forward more than lighting ourselves up and in doing so we... Inspire It Forward!

06/02/10 UPDATE: And the inspiration continues to flow... see Keith's mention of me in his blog > http://su.pr/1Vq66w 
02/01/2011 UPDATE: I am now working for Keith! I am the Community Manager for his Business Relationship Masters Academy... life is weird and wonderful J