INSPIRED

Be The Best
If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley-but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass-
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here,
There's big work to do, and there's lesser to do,
And the task you must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun be a star;
It isn't by size that you win or you fail-
Be the best of whatever you are!


-By Douglas Malloch

This is my favorite poem, because it inspires the reader very much. As I read it,I suddenly remembered this quote:




"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"

I ran it again and again in my mind. Something seemed amiss.
Inspirational speech and writing are available in plenty. But we don’t get genius as much.
So what is inspiration?
Is it the creation of interest?
The answer is "yes" and "no".
Inspiration is something that creates interest and is powerful enough to sustain it.



There was a boy who went to his School’s annual day. On seeing some of his fellow-mates receiving prizes, he was motivated to study and get prizes next year. This is also inspiration. But later when he reached home he felt that the interest had subsided.Can you call this as inspiration? Though the boy was ready to put in 99% “perspiration”, the inspiration had become .01%. So was the inspiration not powerful enough? Here we are not talking about the boy becoming a genius, but about him getting successful. The same quotation (at the beginning) can be used for "SUCCESS" instead of "GENIUS".

I thought of another way of approaching this issue.
Take the following example:

There are two steps in having a fire.
1.Igniting-process of creating fire
2.fuelling-process of sustaining the fire

I felt that true inspiration must not be like a Flash in the pan but should be a Flame in the grate. So if inspiration creates a fire, and if igniting is like hearing speech or "watching people receiving prizes”, then the factor of fuelling is missing out.

Realization came like "a newly opened bottle of ‘goli’ soda on a hot summer day".
Getting inspired is not what creates the "fire"...it is all about getting inspired to inspire ourselves. The only thing that can really motivate you is yourself.

"So”, I thought,” does the quotation in the beginning demand a revision?? Or a different approach to explaining "genius" would do?"

Can we put it like:
Genius is one who is inspired from things that others aren’t able to.

Maybe. But i would rather have it as :

If you want to be successful, you must inspire yourself constantly.
Anything can be inspirational if you are determined to get inspired.
But ultimately what fuels you is yourself.