Some thoughts on inspiring others.

How do you inspire others? How do you get somebody else, maybe someone you don’t even know to do something they never thought they ever do?

To be honest I don’t know. Yet friends of mine are increasingly saying I’m an inspiration to them and others. But why when all I’m doing is trying to improve myself and my life chances?

What got me wondering about the whole inspiration business is some comments I’ve recently received about how I have changed my body and the way I look.

It began this year when I decided to take my running seriously because I have several plans I would like to explore and my fitness may play a part in following them through. So I started going back to my local running club and going out running on my own more.

And instead of just going through the motions I began to push myself to go faster, go further, do more. I changed my diet, dramatically. At first it was difficult as my body adjusted to so many changes all at once but now it feels natural eating and drinking reasonably healthy.

And of course the weight began to drop off and my body began to change, people noticed and the good comments started flowing. And them people started asking me what I was doing and why and I told them. And a couple of people have started running or walking because I inspired them. Some more are thinking about doing it because they have seen the transformation in me in person.

And maybe that’s the key to being an inspiration to others, being someone they can relate to in real life, someone they know, they can see, they can talk to about what made me go out and change my life.

But that’s not to forget that I have people who inspire me as well, people I can relate to in real life. Some of these are people I’ve known a long time, others have just come into my life, but all of them in some way inspire me and as a consequence I inspire others which is I think quite important in life.

Because if you can use the inspiration of others to transform your life and in turn inspire others to transform their lives, then you have done something very worthwhile in life.