There’s something so amazing about feeling inspired. Having inspiration gets most people into gear. Inspiration is what helps those last few pounds come off, what helps people along when building their empire, and what drives most of the good in humanity. Inspiration moves us past obstacles and road blocks.

Inspiration is very motivating and it shouldn’t be underestimated when it comes to getting things done.

The problem with inspiration, is that many of us have a hard time finding things that inspire us. When we do find something that inspires us, it’s usually short lived; it’s enough for us to start a project, but it’s hard to maintain. Sometimes, projects that are started from inspiration aren’t long lived and don’t last.

I’m a big believer of staying motivated by doing something that inspires you on a regular basis. Here are my suggestions to maintain inspiration:

Find a Mentor

Having a mentor is something that many people intend to do, but don’t follow through with. Having a mentor that you admire and that inspires you is extremely valuable, especially if they are committed to the mentorship relationship.

When most think of mentoring, they think of it being related only to work and careers, which is usually the case. Therefore, when considering having a mentor, many people may not pursue it as a viable option because they don’t want to move forward in the career path that they are in, or maybe they have a hard time finding a mentor that has experience in the career that they’ve pursued.

Mentorship doesn’t have to be about careers and work, and while those types of mentors are certainly valuable, I encourage people to look outside of the box when looking for a mentor, even if they are using the mentor for career guidance.

Find somebody who inspires you to mentor you. It could be somebody who is inspirational in a whole other way – it’s not what that person is doing, it’s about being inspired.

Meet with that mentor on a regular basis. This will help you remain inspired.

Remind Yourself of Successes

Failure tends to motivate, whereas success tends to inspire. If you’ve had successes in doing something, remind yourself of those  successes (and failures) regularly.

When losing weight, the most motivating and inspiring thing that I found helped me continue to make good choices was the successes. If I was stagnant for awhile, and I wanted to lose more, I’d always remind myself of how much weight I’d lost before.

If you know you can have some success with something, it’s more difficult to convince yourself that you can’t do it.

If you forget to remind yourself, put up a picture that reminds you. Celebrate those successes and continue to succeed. You can inspire yourself this way.

Use Social Media

The most inspiring thing is other people. You can remain inspired by using social media.

Whether it’s Youtube, Twitter, blogs, Facebook, or Pinterest, there is plenty of inspiring material kicking around on the internet and on different social media channels at any given time.

I find Pinterest very inspiring. Even if I’m not looking for inspiration, I can log on and find myself getting excited about something, or finding topics to write about, just by searching through the pins.

Youtube channels like Ted Talks are also very inspiring, especially if you can find a topic that can get you up and moving and ready to do something.

Negative events can inspire change, so even finding inspiration from the news or another form of media can really help.

Surround Yourself with The Inspired

It’s very beneficial to meet with inspirational people and keep in contact with them to keep your creative juices flowing, but I would argue that it’s just as beneficial to surround yourself with people who are inspired to do something.

Energy like this tends to be infectious, turning those people into a source of inspiration as well.

Where do you find inspiration?