“No man was ever great without divine inspiration.”  Cicero

Have you ever bought some over-marketed product and wondered why the hell did I buy this stupid thing?

 The answer is that you probably were inspired and sold into the product. You bought into the notion that the product was going to dramatically improve your world.

Personal Change Begins With Inspiration

This is how personal change works. We are inspired to change. Every transformation that we make is the result of some personal inspiration we have experienced in our lives. There are a few times, where this inspiration was born from a moment of enlightenment. We discovered something through our own rationality that gave us the inspiration.

But most of the time it doesn’t work that way.

True Inspiration Comes From Someone Else

The most powerful inspiration comes from someone or something else. We hear a convicting story or we see a successful friend that makes us want to become a better person. We experience the frigid cold or read the words of an intelligent writer and we make the decision to change our situation. 

The forgiving hug of someone we love is more powerful than any moment of enlightenment that we achieve.

The Power To Inspire

Now the question is left up to us.. How have we inspired others to change? We are always looking for our own inspiration, but rarely do we think about how we can inspire others. 

In what ways, can you inspire change in others?

Note: This is an entry into a blog competition hosted by three very well respected bloggers: Urban Monk, The Middle Way, and Zen-Inspired Self Development.

I knew she was hurting. You could see it in her face as the tears trickled down her bruised cheeks, but she had done it to herself.  Instead of looking for a normal guy, she sought after the dangerous ones.  If it was her first time getting into trouble then I could be a little more compassionate. This wasn’t even her fourth. Its a routine with her. I love hanging out with her because she is an excellent listener and has the most intriguing green eyes, but I’m near the breaking point in our friendship. I don’t understand her.

How am I supposed to have compassion for someone who repeatedly brings trouble onto herself?

Compassion is Good Pop Philosophy

We all say that there needs to be more compassion in the world. I’ve said it. It is a noble virtue that is applauded by many, but practiced by few. Something we would enjoy seeing everyone else do. It has become a buzz word and a staple in pop-philosophy.

But we never do it.

Compassion is good in moral philosophy, but sucks in life. We feel guilty when we aren’t compassionate to others. We know we should allow the man whom is waiting patiently in line behind us with only 1 item to move in front, but we don’t. It is to hard. We turn our attention towards the latest magazine with Britney Spears or Angelina Jolie on the cover.

On the same note, compassion seems contrived and superficial when we do attempt it. We might attempt it on rare occasions, but its rarely out of a genuine concern for the other individual. It usually has nothing to do with them. We do it because we know it is the right thing to do or a virtue that God has called us too. Therefore, it becomes an awkward chore more like making your bed every morning.

What if we are wrong in our understanding of compassion?

The Compassionate Lifestyle

Maybe compassion is more than simply giving charity to a homeless man or feeling sorry for an abuse victim. What if it wasn’t just a virtue, and instead compassion was an alternative way of viewing and interacting with the world.

Compassion is so hard because we are only attempting the physical and final aspects of it.  Before we begin with our charitable actions, we must understand what it means to have compassion. I have come to realize that compassion is seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and then acting on her needs and frustrations.

We, as people, don’t like to attempt to understand others. It leaves us vulnerable and are most open to be taken advantage of when we try the act of understaing. We put up a personal firewall to the dangerous world.

The Process of Having A Compassionate Lifestyle

1. Conversation

We don’t want to leave ourselves open, but we must in order to create a more compassionate world. The first step in living a lifestyle of compassion is to stop and converse with people. The conversation is not about judging whether someone is right or wrong, nor about gaining influence from conversations. It is about getting to the heart of who the other person is.

2. Reflection

Without good conversation, we can never reach the second step in having a compassionate lifestyle. The conversation gives you the information so you can step back and reflect on someone else’s world.  It is not an attempt in psychoanalysis and understanding why the individual made certain decisions, but seeing how these decisions have affected and shaped that individual.

The reflection allows you to enter into the persona of someone else and feel everything that they have gone and are going through. This is where the heart of compassion is and where most people don’t even attempt. Without it, the act of compassion becomes an hollow log.

3.Action

The final step in the compassionate lifestyle is the physical actions that take place after one enters into the persona of another individual. It is good but worthless if we stop at seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. You might have a heart for other people, but what is a heart without hands? We’ve got to physically remove the burdens that are placed on each other’s backs.

The Future of Compassion

What would this lifestyle look like in practice? It would create beautiful interactions and relationships with people from various economic and social backgrounds. Our everyday worlds would have more peace in their existence, but it wouldn’t be all easy. We still would get hurt. People would take advantage of you and there will be days where compassion is the last thing you want. Yet, there will also be someone to lift you out of the mud and inspire you to move forward because he will see what you are going through.

I used to be self-righteous.

      I’m not now… I don’t think.

Have you ever noticed in the number of topics that you are an expert?

Last week, I was in a conversation with several other individuals and they began talking about the idea of faith. I looked around and knew that I’ve investigated this topic more than anyone else in the room. I know what the scholars think. I knew what was right.

I’m an expert.

I chose to listen.

A few years ago, I would consciously consider myself on a higher field than others because I thought I knew it all. I’m not a spoiled and self-centered premadonna. I’m just human. 

We all think we are an expert in some topic. We walk into a conversation and know the answers to all of the comments and questions that are being provoked. Our knowledge can be one of the major barriers to communication if we aren’t aware of it.

How do you handle it when you walk into a conversation about your topic of expertise? Do you quickly interject with your supreme knowledge and lose any chance of effective communication?

do you listen?

In my conversation about faith, I decided to listen. It was interesting and many people brought up good points (most of which I had allready heard). They seemed to enjoy talking about the mystery of faith and were inspired by their own doubts and questions. They didn’t need my commentary on all the different theories they brought up.

It was an inspiring conversation, but I didn’t think much of it.. until one woman inserted her thoughts into the conversation. She was a beautiful blonde whom is very aware of her style and look. She hit me like a red light. She gave her opinion and a metaphor for the difference between physical faith and supernatural faith. I never heard it put that way before.

I thought her comment was genius.

My mind began to work over her thoughts. I saw connections between different ideas. It was the missing piece that I didn’t even know existed. I thought I was the expert, but the one who knew more than me was a bleach blonde who hadn’t even heard of Soren Kierkegaard.

It is funny who you can learn from when you listen during a conversation.