The bottom line: Be worth inspiring and you will inspire others without you even knowing it.  Easy said but like any other endeavor or goal, the “how” aspect is not as easy.

Have you ever set the goal to stand as an inspiration to other people?  There are diverse motivations why people would like to inspire others.  For some, it is about becoming famous.  Others, it is about setting a guiding light to other people.  Still others do it for self fulfillment and self actualization.

What inspires others?

Yearn to give the answer to this question and you are almost there to reach your goal.  Detach from yourself and envision the qualities that are truly inspiring.  Evaluate yourself if you posses these qualities. When you were young, have you been dreaming to be one of the characters of a story you read or heard about or perhaps a movie that you watched?  Why did that particular person touch your life?

Qualities Of An Inspiring Person

Perseverance

People who became successful or people who are notable are those who did not give up their struggle or endeavor even if many or almost everybody says that it is impossible.  These are the people who believe in miracles but at the back of their mind, they know that miracles do not just fall from the heavens – it needs work and effort. Success stories are backed with a lot of failures along the way.  The more previous failures a success has gone through, the sweeter it is to reap the success and the more inspiring that story would turn out to be.

Positive thinker

Positive thinking is not all about projecting that the outcome will be favorable.  It is about working hard for that outcome to materialize and tackling failures along the way.  Positive thinking and perseverance goes hand in hand.

The power of positive thinking cannot be exaggerated but at the same time, should not be ignored.  Heroes, in their times of grief, difficulty or struggles hold a positive outlook which has driven them to move along and reach their goals.  On the other hand, positive thinking should not be used as a scapegoat.  There are people who treat positive thinking as their way out of a problem or concern that they are facing.  This is disastrous if uncoupled with action and perseverance.  We are talking here of people who will just say: “Everything will be fine”.  Then they sit down and ignore the problem.

Knowledgeable and Wise

Knowledge and wisdom are common denominators possessed mostly by people who have stood as inspiration to others.  They possess or yearned to acquire broad knowledge of the particular field that they subsequently became known for.  The process of gaining knowledge may be bitter but the fruit is sweet.  Learning requires much – time, effort and sacrifice.  They are those who may have sacrificed their own sake just to gain particular information that is now shared with other people.

Wisdom in the use of knowledge is equally important.  Misuse of knowledge lands you on the opposite side of where you want to be.  Instead of becoming an inspiration, you become an example of what should not be followed or idolized.

Open Minded

People who inspire others are open-minded.  They have the ability to listen to various ideas even if they know some of that information already.  Remember, no one holds the monopoly of brilliant and or noble ideas.

Being open-minded does not entail considering every idea that is laid on the table.  It is about recognizing that other ideas may be good options without wasting too much time dealing with every single idea.  Being open-minded should be tempered with the ability to screen out what may and may not work.

Keen observer

Not everyone is sensitive of what is going on, what needs to be change and how to change it.  If you wish to inspire others, you need to solve a particular problem.  Successful and famous people had been sharp at identifying the problem/s that exists.  It is about looking into the root cause; digging deeper.

Action Oriented

Any of the aforementioned qualities are useless if there is no action taken.  You inspire others by taking the path of going through pain and reaching your goal. You do something about a problem and solve it.

If you have all of the above qualities, you still may not be capable of inspiring others without a very important factor – you should be inspired yourself.  Said a million times, you cannot share what you do not have.

Inspire yourself to make a difference in a positive way, to do some great things or perform some little actions that makes a great impact,  and you will be able to inspire others.

Readers, what are the attributes of inspiring people you admire the most?  When was the last time you inspired someone?

Photo Credit: Sam, Islas Mujeres, 2010.

Note: We’ll be hosting our first Yakezie Chat on Twitter this Wednesday, August 17th at 6pm PST / 9pm EST.  We’ll be using the hashtag #YakChat.  We figured after working hours is best because most all of us work.