I find inspiration to be the emotion most likely to draw me out of the occasional doldrums – that is, after I have tried and failed with a chocolate éclair or other such decadent delight. Our brains seem to be wired these days for instant gratification, and when that fails, it is not uncommon to turn to food or entertainment to fill the void – which works for a while, until we finally realize (5 pounds later!) that the solution resides on the inside.
When our own lives seem small and oftentimes rote, it is natural to focus on what isn’t working and dwell on that, which is sure to make us feel even worse. A better idea might be to step outside of ourselves and think about who we admire and what it is about that person’s life that inspires us. Or if you lack inspiration, think about someone who had your problem and solved it successfully and learn from that. Maybe you only know tidbits about what made your inspiring person great or noteworthy. Here is my suggestion: Pick a hero and dig into the details of that person’s life to learn all you can about him or her. In other words, read a biography.
You could start with the obvious, like Albert Einstein. There is more to this man than e=mc2. In “Einstein: The Life and Times” (World Publishing, 1971), author Ronald W. Clark goes behind the exceptional intellect to reveal the human side of the legendary absentminded professor, who confidently claimed that space and time were not what they appear to be. Get to know the scientist and the man: the boy growing up in the Swiss Alps, the young man in an unhappy first marriage, the passionate pacifist who agonized over making the atomic bomb and the physicist who believed in God.
And after you have identified your inspirational character, you might want to grab some of that greatness for yourself. Learning from others is called modeling, and self-help gurus like author Tony Robbins (“Unlimited Power,” Simon & Schuster, 1986) have been recommending this practice for years. Why reinvent the wheel?
Biographies are useful on so many levels. Apart from being informative and preserving a person’s place in history, we can actually look through a window into another’s life to learn their secrets. Greatness is rarely achieved through success alone. Failures feature quite prominently in the formula. There is a path to their achievement and much to be gleaned from the journey.
I’m just saying … the footprint they leave may very well be just your size. Step boldly and see where it leads. It’s less fattening and far more gratifying.
Sharon Lennox-Infante, contributing editor for Book Buzz, is a Los Altos resident.
