...sounds like... JUICE!

If we stop for a moment... if we look a little deeper... if we know for what we are listening... we find there is inspiration all around. It's there. It's here. We just have to look. We have to listen. The symphonic tones of inspiration are often subtle. The crashing cymbals of everyday stuff tend to drown them out - but never over-power them. As Shawn O'Connell says to Walter Mitty, "Beautiful things don't ask for attention."

Sorry for the mixed movie references in this post

We live in a culture - with its 24 hour news cycle, sensational reporting and reality TV - that inundates us with... well, the word I want to use slips out of my mouth at times, but is hard to type. Sometimes we need a little help tuning in. (Cue the music). 

I'm a sucker for a good pep talk. More than that, I love inspirational stories, inspirational speeches, inspirational people. Maybe I'm an inspiration junkie. At heart, I want to be inspired and to inspire. (That's a pretty big aspiration... to be an inspiration).

Each of us can be inspiration for someone. Stop and reread that last sentence. It's pretty much the point of this ramble. 

In the movie Million Dollar Arm, the least likely character, Amit, becomes the needed inspiration for two young Indian baseball pitchers to overcome their fears. A passionate baseball fan and want-to-be coach, Amit is given the opportunity to deliver the pre-tryout speech to his two nervous countrymen. As he begins to look in his coaching book for what he should say, he is told, "...from the heart." And he delivers:

YOU are real baseball players. Now small boys in India can dream to be like you. Let's go make JB, miss Brenda and our families proud...

Hey brothers... I'm seeing my dream in both of you. 

Your victory is my victory. Rock it brothers!

Amit's speech resonates. It could have come from Herb Brooks to the '80 Miracle On Ice hockey team, Mickey to Rocky (it's real, don't you doubt it!), or Knute Rockne to the Fighting Irish. 

A couple lessons on inspiration from Amit:

Inspiration... 

• ... comes from the heart. It can't be faked, drummed up or put on auto-pilot. Inauthenticity kills inspiration!
• ... comes from genuinely caring. Inspiration, void of personal investment, is noise.
• ... is inclusive. Inspiration has to be we and not you, or it is short-lived. 
• ... requires sacrifice. We can't fill someone else unless we poured out. The Greatest Inspirer of all time said, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Then he went and did it!

You can inspire someone... today. 

Even more than that,

You are an inspiration to someone... right now!

Their victory is your victory... so ROCK IT BROTHER (or SISTER)!

For now...

D

P.S. - If you're wondering about the title, rent the movie :)