Have you ever had to draw something for a class assignment? Sometimes doing that kind of homework can be fun but other times the thought of getting your coloring pencils out and sitting down to think of something to draw feels about as hard as pushing molasses up a hill. This is true even if in general you enjoy drawing. And if you had to draw something new every single day no matter how you felt, there is for sure a day when you would much rather be doing something else. Well when you take action because you think you ought to rather than because you actually want to, that is the exact opposite of inspired action.

When an action is not inspired it can make you dislike the activity. It makes you feel tired and everything about it takes too long. You might find that you keep running into problems which just turn the whole activity into even more of an ordeal. A lot of people (grownups…) spend whole days involved in these kinds of activities and it’s a sure way to get zombie-brain! That’s why people (still grownups we’re talking about here) complain about all the work they have to do and just generally hate their jobs. Psst. Here’s a secret. Action and “work” doesn’t have to feel like it’s sucking the life out of you. In fact you can even enjoy it! A crazy concept for some.

What I’m talking about inspired action. It’s when you do something because you feel excitement or interest in it. Maybe you’re in the middle of doing the dishes and all of sudden you get the idea for a drawing that is going to be amazing. You already know what colors you’re going to use and just the thought of carving out those shapes makes your fingers itch. You can’t wait to see the finished product. This is a totally different feeling than the dragging-your-feet state you were in when you had to produce the drawing for your class assignment. And it might even build when you are in the middle of the activity. In this kind of state you can do much more work than you normally do. In fact it doesn’t feel like work.

An important note is that inspired action isn’t about what you do. It’s about how you feel. Pay attention to the reason why you are doing something in the first place. This means that at a certain time washing dishes might be the inspired thing to do and at another, it’s sitting down with a blank sheet of paper. Just as doing something unwanted can mess up your whole day, inspired action can lead to yet more inspired action and take your day to another level of enjoyment. This is because of the law of attraction. When you pay attention to a small spark of excitement and honor it by acting on it, you are letting it grow into a fire and if you stay with it, the law of attraction helps turn it into wildfire by bringing you components to support the action—the right ideas, people and resources.

And because inspired action isn’t about the action but about the feeling behind it, this doesn’t mean you have to give up on homework. It just means paying attention to your excitement, organizing your time around it to increase enjoyment. We’ll talk about how to bring more inspired action into your life soon. In the meantime, listen to yourself and the next time you feel a tickle of excitement about an activity, follow the urge.