To inspire or to be inspirational, that is the question

To come up with a blog post about what really inspires me turned out harder than I had originally thought. For one, I found there to be a difference between being inspired and finding something that is inspirational. Second, there is more difficulty in finding something that inspires me rather than a quote or person that becomes a role model, they are inspirational. The line that I found that divided the two was, a quote or person that is inspirational does not give me the drive to do something as a quote or person inspires me.  

So to answer the question, I am inspired by anyone and everyone that is better than me. Without someone always being better than me, I would just sit atop a pedestal and never push myself to get better.  I would not be determined to run that extra mile, to study that extra 20 minutes, or even to just stay 30 minutes after practice to get a few more swings in. 

Sure all these things are inspirational to me:

• Maggie Viefhaus
• Every Toy Story movie ever made!
• Taylor Swift
• My teammates
• Any quote!

But none of them make me more determined to do something!

Sure Maggie is a better softball player with me and sure Taylor can play the guitar better, but we are not friends, or even acquaintances. They are not on the softball field with me proving to me that they are better than me or playing guitar with me to show how much better they are.  They are people I watch on t.v., sure you could say they inspire me but I seem them more as inspiration, someone I want to be like, not someone that is going to push me to be that.

So if that made sense to anyone but myself, fantastic. But if not my belief is that you can have an inspiration or find something that is inspirational to you...not both.

"Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light"

~Albus Dumbledore