Burning Question

Burning questio

In life you need either inspiration or desperation. - Anthony Robbins

Have you lost your spark? Music always inspires me and not only that, I’ve often found solace in music. When my grandmother died a few years ago I listened to two pieces of music almost constantly: “Everybody Hurts’ by R.E.M. and ‘Adagio’ by Albinoni.

The former, by R.E.M., happened to be on the charts at the time and seemed to capture my personal anguish. By coincidence, I always seemed to turn on the radio just as that song was being played and the memories would come flooding back.

The latter, classical piece, ‘Adagio’ , was the title track in the film Gallipoli, featuring Mel Gibson: A tragic War Story with soul searching music to match. I’ve always found that violins, en mass, play with the heartstrings like no other instruments.

In the same way that I use music to release emotion, I also use it to harness inspiration, because inspiration wells from within. It’s not like motivation, where you need inducement or incentive to drive you forward. Inspiration dwells in the heart, mind, and soul and when you touch all of those at once, you ignite a spark which is both infectious and inextinguishable.

Of course to maintain momentum you must fan the flames or feed the spark with a fuel that has and will always inspire you. And that source of inspiration is going to be different things for different people: music, God, a book, a walk, a view, a break, a quote, a smile on a child’s face, a shake of a friend’s hand, a moment’s silence...

Identify those things that inspire you - because only you know what they are - and use them to ignite your spark and keep it burning.