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When I received my first promotion at my second job out of college, I was super excited.  I’m not sure what I had done to deserve it because I was new to the company and I had not held any leadership positions before.  As a matter of fact, I was let pretty much “fired” from that first job that I  held since college because I was busted sleeping on the job.  I had worked the overnight shift.  So, once I began looking for something new, being hired for a supervisory position caught me totally off guard.  I mean, I was just trying to find a regular ol’ job.  But, there was apparently something in the interview that gave away my leadership secret identity.  At least that’s how I’ll remember it.

The company hired me as a supervisor and I was ridiculously excited.  I dressed up and sauntered into that place on the first day with a little extra swagger.  I was about 23, living on my own and I was the beezneez.  I was hired to create some documentation, run staff schedules and keep much of the staff on task with their training and client documentation.  I was excited.  I was dressed to impress.  I was using big words.  I was showing off my computer skills.  I was going to be a superstar.  Thing is, I had NO IDEA what I was doing at the time.  To make matters worse, about 2 months after I was hired, my boss quit.  Guess what they did?  They put ME in charge of the entire thing.  Yep, I was there two months.  I was supervising people that were there for 5-10 years and made more money than I did.  And, did I mention that I had no idea what I was doing?

Well, after the “importance” wore off, it became more and more of a chore to get up every day. That began to show up in my work.  Considering the stress of working long hours and low pay, I was working uninspired.  So, when they told me that my work was suffering and I would probably need to go on probation, I did what any underpaid, stressed out person would do.  I QUIT and became a teacher.

Ahhh, the beginning was EXCITING.  And I loved teaching.  I still do.  But, there was the dark side…the administrative responsibility, the continuing education, the requirements.  At least, that’s what I told myself.  The reason that the passion died down was because of the ugly political side.  Yep, that’s the ticket!  That was the story.  That was the story of my dying inspiration.

The real issue here was that I was an “outer-inner.”  Yes.  I expected that I would simply be inspired to continue doing great work by the things that happened around me.  I expected the inspiration to naturally flow from the outside to my inside…an “outer-inner.”

This is the story of many people.  They feel unclear on their “calling” or their “purpose and so they simply do un-inspired work everyday because it pays the bills.  Some cover it up pretty well.  In fact, they may be energetic and even enthusiastic at work and doing everything they can to climb the corporate ladder.  But, it’s a facade and it’s all a show.  Deep down inside, they feel trapped because this is not what they “want” to do.  This is what they are “supposed” to do.  And to be honest, a “supposed-to-do” life sucks.  It has no soul.  It has no core.  It has no passion; no meaning; no true-to-the-core why!!

So, what changed?  How did I become an “inner-outer”?  The first step is realizing that something is broken.  Everyone has something broken at some point and it calls for recognizing that it’s actually broken.  Once, I recognized what was broken, I created a plan to fix it.

The plan was simple.  It consisted of one step.  Share my story daily.  I share my story daily through a quote or a thought or something that is happening with my life.  I don’t just share it. I share it with a hopeful twist.  The story always speaks of possibility, potential or actions.  I’m talking to myself, after all.  I’m just telling a story and sometimes, people come along for the journey.  I no longer wait for inspiration.  I seek it or I create it.  I’m an “inner-outer”.  I radiate!

WHAT IS YOUR STORY?  HOW DO YOU GET INSPIRATION?  Leave your thoughts in the comments because I’d love to respond to them.

P.S. – This post reminded me of something.  I’ve been working in the background on a little something I call the Purpose, Power & Profit Club (3PC).  I’ll launch it on July 1st but I wanted to give my readers the heads up.  To get the info, SIGN UP HERE NOW! 

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