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Class OverviewDid you know that inspired moments can catalyze creativity and strategic breakthroughs? Here’s how to use inspiration to drive excellence in your family, work, and organizations. (Check out the Top 10 Big Ideas from the class below!) Your ProfessorOzioma of BurnBright, is an internationally recognized speaker, writer and educator, CEO of BurnBright Lifeworks, Inc., teaches at Columbia University, and is the inventor of the International Day for Dreamers.How to Use Inspiration to Drive Excellent ResultsIn a world where so much value is based on how well, how fast, and how much we deliver to our loved ones, our jobs, and the world, the need to maintain positive momentum – while delivering excellent results – can feel completely overwhelming at times. It doesn’t have to be. Enter inspiration; often described as a force so enticing that, under its influence, we release many of our mental and emotional blocks and actually feel compelled to take action—despite what may seem like insurmountable circumstances. The root of the word ‘inspiration’ itself means to breathe life into, and once we realize that inspiration, just like air, is in abundant supply, we can begin to do the work of wielding its energy to re-imagine and transform any arena of our personal and/or professional life we desire. This how-to will serve as your entrée into consciously harnessing the power of inspiration, so that you can walk a path that is not only personally fulfilling, but also empowers you to create excellent results in your life and with your work in the world. The Top 10 Big Ideas1Realize that You Have the Right to be Inspired Inspiration isn’t just something that happens to us, but also an energy that can freely flow through us. When we are inspired, we feel lit up from the inside-out. We feel like limits are lifted and anything is possible. We feel as free as the day we were born. Children experience inspired states of being easily. They live it. They breathe it. They are it. When we were children, we moved through the world as if inspiration were our birthright… In order to reconnect with that part of ourselves, all we need to do is remember that every moment presents an opportunity for us to fill our lives with inspiration. No matter where we turn, inspiration is there: we can find it in a tree we see on the way to work, or as we look up at the clouds overhead. In our newsfeed on Facebook, in conversations we have colleagues over lunch, or with our husband or wife over dinner. Life itself is a tapestry of stitched-together inspiration, and we are entitled to derive as much benefit as we can from it. Every nuance, no matter how big or small, can hold the keys to living an optimal life filled with wonder.ACTION STEP: Conduct an Inspiration Audit. Acknowledge which areas in your life lack inspiration. Write down three to five of them. Try to identify the exact moment when each area began to lose the light of inspiration for you. 2Give Yourself Permission Without permission, nothing happens. Julia Cameron of the Artists Way encourages people to take “artist dates.” An artist date is an appointment you set with yourself to tap into desire and fuel creativity. While not all of us may have art with our name on it hanging on walls in galleries, or published works in poetry anthologies, each of us is an artist when it comes to our everyday lives, and we have the opportunity to paint living masterpieces once we give ourselves license to do so. It’s up to us to give ourselves permission to take unlimited trips on the inspiration train. It is also up to us to fill our lives with greater and deeper levels of engagement with the world in a way that brings forth the best that lies within us: our innate excellence. Sometimes, when we don’t see the result of what we desire in life, it’s because we haven’t given ourselves permission to do so. Granting ourselves permission to be inspired is a helpful practice that frees us up to move beyond the limiting beliefs that have infiltrated our ideas around what we can and cannot have, do, or be. ACTION STEP: Give yourself permission to move forward in an area in your personal or professional life that needs it most. It can be anything from removing negative influences out of your life to, dancing in your bedroom before bedtime to eating a decadent piece of chocolate while sipping hot chocolate in your favorite café. Create your own permission slip. Write down: I give myself permission to… place it somewhere visible to remind you of your courage. 3Embrace an Inspired Vision and Get Present to PURPOSE An inspired vision can enhance our lives greatly, serving as a guiding ray of clarity that illuminates what’s possible. When we have a vision that inspires us, it invites us to take a higher order level of action. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” When inspiration lights the path towards excellent outcomes, we get present to a larger sense of purpose. Without an inspired vision, we run the risk of losing our way and often fall into confusion. An inspired vision becomes a palette for action and an opportunity for refinement. Any task carried out under the umbrella of an inspired vision is usually completed with a deeper sense of reverence and joy.ACTION STEP: Here is a helpful exercise that can support you in connecting your vision, with purposeful action. Affirm your Inspired Vision aloud every morning and evening for maximum effect! My inspired vision is _________________________________________________. I celebrate this vision daily by _________________________________________. 4Be Willing to Go Beyond Z The majority of our lives are lived within the boundaries of a series of real or imagined constraints. In a manner of speaking, each one of us knows ourselves to be an alphabet that goes pretty much from A-Z. These constraints keep us stuck in our habits. They also keep us from living a life of Inspired Excellence.In order to achieve excellent results in our lives, we must be willing to discover the world that lives beyond our limited view, and move into realms of our invention, where we allow ourselves to defy convention. Where we go Beyond Z.Going Beyond Z is about shifting our mental and emotional paradigms beyond whom and what we know ourselves to be. Inspiration plays a powerful role in the process of moving us beyond our Z point and exploring what is possible in different areas in our lives. ACTION STEP: When we embrace where we are limited and leave room for inspiration to push us beyond those limits, we connect deeply to the power of innovation.Identify an area in your life or work where you have come to the end of your alphabet. Commit to taking an action that empowers and inspires you to take this area Beyond Z. 5Make Choices that Inspire and Reflect TRUE Desire Life is an act of curation. Everyday we have the opportunity to make choices that enhance the quality of our lives and the work that we do. Excellent results are based on a foundation of excellent choices. When we elevate the level of awareness of the choices we make, we begin to realize that EVERY choice either moves us in the direction of our dreams or keeps us stagnant, and not being who we are truly capable of being and creating what is needed in the world.The decisions we make can leave us feeling empowered or dis-empowered if we are not careful. What exists in our lives today, in many cases, is a result of the choices we made yesterday. If we do not feel like those choices generated excellent results, at the next opportunity to choose, begin to choose differently. Always get present to the choices you are making, and then do your best to choose wisely.ACTION STEP: Get deeply present to all the choices you made that resulted in your life being exactly what it is at the current moment. See the pattern in your choices. Take the opportunity to create new commitments: Where there is a positive result, commit to continue making choices in that direction. Where the results are less than desirable commit to making different choices. 6Honor Your Uniqueness When we honor what is special and specific to each of us, we tap into our innate excellence. Every single one of us has something unique that is worthy of being celebrated, and inspiration can arise at any given moment from our ability to embrace that uniqueness at all levels.When we honor our unique gifts and attributes, as well as the unique gifts of others, new opportunities are presented to us that support us in steering our lives in the direction of our dreams.Honoring uniqueness is about taking a magnifying glass to the particular in order to celebrate the universal, as opposed to trying to set ourselves apart from others, by creating false distinctions and divisions that aren’t really there. By bringing to light what is special about each of us, we illuminate what is special about ALL of us. When we begin to deeply honor what makes each one of us special, it becomes much easier to see how we can go from good to great.When we start to head confidently down the path of greatness, excellence is sure to follow.   ACTION STEP: Honestly ask yourself: What do I excel at? What is the unique light that lives inside of me that I am in the process of revealing to this world?   7Be Generous Generosity creates a lattice-work of inspired action.Many of us desire to lead lives that inspire ourselves, and others. Unfortunately, sometimes acts of generosity fall down on our list of priorities due to feelings of being overwhelmed and overscheduled. However, if we desire to live our lives at the highest possible level and achieve more powerful results, we must learn to tap into the flow of generosity.Acts of generosity provide a powerful pathway to reveal the greatness that lies within all of us. When we share what inspires us, as well as allow ourselves to be inspired by others, we create a pathway for others to be a contribution that enhances the quality of our lives, as well as a bridge that usually leads to future collaboration.ACTION STEP: All around the world, there are many awards and ceremonies that honor generosity of spirit and action.Over the next week or so, share your generous spirit with the world: be wildly generous, do something inspiring at home, at work or via social media. Who in your life is currently inspiring you with their generosity? Identify ways that you can inspire them in return. 8Invent a Personal Legend Every human being has a personal legend to be fulfilled and this is our reason for being in the world. – CoelhoThe human mind makes sense of the world through story. We are hard-wired that way. Stories help us organize who we are, how we relate to others and what role we are to play on the world’s stage.A personal legend is a story to be lived into that lives on long after we are gone. When we become inspired by the possibility of what our life story lived at a higher level, can do for ourselves and the world, we realize much more is at stake and we take bolder action to bring it into fruition.When we take the opportunity to create a personal legend, we realize that it is within our power to shift the frame of our lives, create powerful context for living and generate the results we seek.One of the biggest shifts that took place in my own life occurred when I realized that I could shift my personal narrative from one that was a tragedy waiting to happen to consciously living my very own happily-ever-after.ACTION STEP: Think of the greatest event that ever happened in your life, where you showed up as your best and brightest self. Now invent a new narrative for your life that builds on your greatest moment, but where you get to show up for yourself and others even greater! 9Create an Inspiration Architecture Many of us have yet to consciously cultivate Inspiration as a driving force to enhance our personal and professional lives. Perhaps it’s time we did. What if we were able to design inspiration into every day so that it could flow freely and support us in living optimally?An Inspiration Architecture is a framework for living a life of Inspired Excellence. It takes into account the types of experiences you would like to enrich your life and work with. It also supports and empowers you to weave those experiences into your schedule on a daily, weekly, monthly basis according to your desired lifestyle. Step by step, action-by-action, your Inspiration Architecture will become one of your operating systems for optimal living!ACTION STEP: 1. Take a moment. Close your eyes. 2. Take a deep breath and visualize what optimal living looks like to you.3. Identify three essential components that are a MUST have. 4.Translate those three components into three actions you are willing to take each week that will bring you closer to your desired direction. 5. Schedule time in your calendar on a weekly basis to evolve and optimize your life in these areas.6. Create affirmations that keep you anchored, rooted and committed to each action. Especially when you feel like flaking out!  10Form an Inspired Alliance  As human beings, we are social creatures. We thrive when we come together and ideas combine. Excellence is rarely achieved alone. Forming inspired alliances enable us to gain valuable insight from others who can help us along the journey towards reaching our full potential. The right inspired alliance will provide a layer of accountability, as well as assurance that we are being held to your highest.Throughout history, inspired alliances such as mastermind groups have been leveraged to support people in attaining excellent results. Popularized by Dale Carnegie, a mastermind is a group of two or more people that usually form around advancing a particular agenda. Henry Ford even used masterminds to build his dynasty. If he can do it, so can you!ACTION STEP: Regardless of whether or not you are up to building a dynasty, a mastermind group can provide inspiration and empowerment, especially if you feel like you are on an island trying to achieve your goal on your own.This week, explore joining a mastermind group in your community. You can find one online. If the thought of creating or joining a mastermind is not appealing to you, then identify three people who you would like to meet with monthly and invite them out to coffee or tea. Try it for 3 months minimum. Ninety days of consistent camaraderie can be just what you need to live an inspired life and achieve excellent results.IN CLOSING: The world and our lives require revolutionary ways of being and doing. Inspiration offers the key to attaining a higher order of excellence in our personal and professional lives. Inspiration invites us to transcend our usual excuses and self-imposed limitations and step on to a path of limitless potential.