Yesterday I learned the difference between inspiration and motivation, courtesy of Danielle LaPorte:
MOTIVATION - You write the book, the blog, the brochure to raise your profile so you can sell more stuff, serve more people. You compose and package your thoughts. A 1000 words a day until you’ve crossed the finish line.
INSPIRATION - I have something to say that needs to be heard
The first is practical, honorable, even. We all need to make money to live, and providing a helpful product to people is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it makes the world go ’round.
But following through on your gut to spread a message, change lives, or start a movement? Well, that’s a whole different level.
You know what? We’re shooting for that whole different level.
Today we start a movement to Live the Good Life.
Gain control of your money.
Define your goals.
Focus your actions.
Be a force of good in the world.
(the shortest manifesto ever)
Using Danielle’s definition, we can say our new Dream, Save, Do guide was written *with* motivation - schedules, checklists, reviews - but it was written *from* inspiration. And that’s where the Live the Good Life Movement springs from.
It pains me to hear phrases like “I’m living vicariously through you” or “I wish I could do that.” My gut clenches every single time. Saving the money and making the necessary changes to live your dream are not easy, but they are certainly within reach of many Western people, and it drives me nuts to watch so many let life just pass them by. But it is more than the money, it is really about the focus required to reach for goals that manifests brilliance in 1000 different ways. We want everyone to have that brilliance in their lives.
So we wrote this guide to show people how we did it so they could, too. We spent over six months working on it, getting feedback from a dozen people and recruiting some experts to help. It comes with all kinds of great bonuses you can read about over at the sales page at www.DreamSaveDo.com. (We’re especially jazzed to have Baker from Man vs. Debt contributing a couple of video classes on credit card debt for you.)
But it also comes with a huge chunk of our hearts and the wish that if you are not already living your dream you will begin to focus on your money and resources and how they can serve you and the greater community instead of the other way around - whether you buy the guide or not.
(Already know you want it? Get clickin’)
In fact, it would hurt me more if the people who needed it bought this guide and didn’t use it than if they didn’t buy it at all. (I’m getting sorta cardboard-sign-standing-on-a-milkcrate-crazy with this message, y’all.)
Your dream often *can* be something you actually live every single day with some focus and action on your part and the support of good people (and kudos to all of you who are living your dream and supporting others - you are an inspiration to those around you).
In that vein, we are going to use 10% of the profits from the sale of the guide this week to make a Kiva loan to someone who has a dream - a very basic dream - and has taken action to make it happen.
Traditionally ebooks make the bulk of their sales the first week out of the gate, and we think we can change someone’s life with a Kiva loan in just a week (short-term high!) while helping thousands of other more fortunate people improve their own lives over the coming months (long-term win!).
Are you on board?
I hope so. But seriously, please don’t buy the book if you aren’t going to follow through. My wallet can take it but my heart can’t.
About Betsy
Thank you so much for this! I am (trying) to live the ‘good life’ in Athens, Greece and as you can imagine, this is becoming increasingly difficult at the moment - even to justify to myself!
I am lucky: I have enough teaching hours to keep me afloat and living: to pay my rent, bills and meet my friends for a frappe or a movie. I am lucky to love the kids I teach and learn a lot about MYSELF through teaching them.
I also blog regularly about life here in Greece and try to keep a balance: to not ignore the negative that happens here, but to also remind people about the positive things in this country. And finally, to beaver away at my book - a slow process, what with every day life getting in the way, but I’m never giving up hope.
So once again - thank you for this inspiring post and alerting people to the fact that is IS possible.
x
Hey, Bex. I think that’s the real message in all of this - “enough.” When you have gratitude for your life it is amazing how much better it gets, even in bad times. We started this whole savings plan and idea to travel the world just when all the banks started crashing in September 2008 in the US. It was a scary time, and it didn’t get a lot better over the next 2 years economically. You certainly can’t ignore the negative that is happening around you, but you can limit the exposure and focus on your goals to pull you through to the other side.
Best of luck on your book - did you see the interview we just did with Irene Ricks in the Try Something New ezine? Her self-published book is rocketing up the Amazon Kindle charts and she did a lot of smart things to market herself and make her book better. If you missed it let me know and I’ll send it to you. There’s some great advice in there for a writer (I know I took notes!).
Hi Betsy,
Can you email me the link to that article please (I think you should have access to my email address, it’s just not published).
Thanks.
And I’m about to write another blog post and will link this article of yours into it - it really is inspiring
xxx
@Bex: I clicked on your link and get:
“Sorry, the blog at beccyhall.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.”
@Rob Hi Rob - thanks for letting me know!
Ok, my site’s changed to: http://www.leavingcairo.blogspot.com
Hope you like it.
We will gladly help you get the word out about Dream, Save, Do.
We’re “living the good life” and want everyone to have the same opportunity. And to have all the inspiration, and pointers in a guide? From you two? Priceless.
Kent, you guys are living it - what better sales “gimmick” than that?! That’s the other great point about this plan. Not everyone wants to travel long-term, but everyone wants a satisfying life, and most people want to do a little bit of good in the world if they can.
You guys know this so well - when you take care of your own wants and needs in life, it frees up a HUGE amount of time and energy to focus on giving back and making your corner of the world a better place. When people aren’t worried about their own situation so much anymore they can help their neighbors. In fact, they almost can’t help but want to make other people as happy as they are.
I’m not kidding when I call this the Live the Good Life Movement, and I’m right now mapping out the manifesto for it. And I’m calling on you guys to be the first members (heck, I don’t even have to convert you!).
Damn, I wish I could travel like you two
Seriously, hearing that is not your unique problem. I read, in 1984, the same observations in Rick Steves’ 4th “Europe through the back door” book. His friends complained about not having the money or time to travel while killing themselves to buy “stuff” at jobs they hated.
I don’t even consider that I travel a lot, but I still get those comments. After 25 years of it I’ve taking to pointing at expensive pieces of furniture, or a new car, and making observations like “the sales tax you paid on that car was more than my ticket to Europe. I’d rather keep my car for 10-15 years and instead of 3 and take 3-5 trips”. That sort of comment usually inspires a topic change
Rob, it’s all a matter of priority, right? You’ll probably be using that phrase a lot when you show people pics of your recent trip to Croatia.
Congratulations guy on such a fantastic piece of work. I’m sure it is flying off the virtual shelves at the moment! Thank you so much for spreading the word and being the motivators you both are
Alison, I had the email notification turned on because I wanted to make sure the early sales went through without a hitch. I finally had to turn it off. Now THAT is a great problem to have. I keep thinking of all those people out there dreaming of something big and how they’re reading and planning right now…gives me goosebumps!
Here you go Betsy: my latest blogpost with your site mentioned:
http://leavingcairo.blogspot.com/2011/10/wheres-inspiration-tuesday-blues.html
xx
Thanks for the update, Bex!
Great post!!!! I AM inspired by you two but am also out there making the movements necessary to get ourselves back on the road. We did it before, we’ll do it again! Meet, Plan, Go tonight in Portland and we’ll be thinking of you both and remember it’s been over a year since we met online.
Keep living the good life and pushing the rest of us to do the same.
Hey, Rhonda. We’ll see you in Portland - we’re Skyping in to chat for a few minutes about money and travel. With BootsnAll heading it up, it should be a great event!
Nice to see your smiling faces last night!!! Wish we’d been in Thailand with you but it was certainly fun to get skype working. We had a great time and a good turnout with lots of “new to the idea” people coming by which is great.
Have some curry and a foot massage today for me:)
Rhonda, it was great to Skype into Portland and St. Louis for Meet, Plan, Go this week. You guys had a lively crowd! Isn’t it great to find members of your tribe all waiting for you to join in? That’s why I love those events.
Off for a nice curry now…and a trip to the bead shop to attempt making my first necklace.
You crazy kids- it’s not enough to launch your ebook, skype into Meet, Plan, Go, and move into your new digs in one day, you also had to publish a blog post?
Good for you with the Kiva loan. I love that organization!
Angela, you forgot the guest posts and interviews we did.
I have a checklist in Evernote of everything we did to write and launch this ebook. When I look at it, I cannot believe we did all those things while traveling when I didn’t do 1/4 of them back at ‘home.’ My accountability partner Amber just emailed me the reason why (tough love - which is why I depend on her so much): before I had the motivation to write, but not the inspiration. Now I can’t *help* but write. I’ll be writing more on my wise friend’s words in the future.
Many thanks to you again for your excellent editing - both in the overall flow of the guide and line by line. It pays to have a professional involved when you want your message to ring loud and clear.
Well I’ve bought the book but haven’t yet had a chance to do more than check that it downloaded okay, chomping at the bit to get started on it! While I don’t plan to travel the world, or really even travel a lot, we have downsized our careers (and therefore our income!) so I’m just looking forward to living the simple life in our little house by the river and the sea and do what I’ve wanted to do for a long time - put work on the backburner and enjoy my life! So even though I don’t need the money for the same goal as you guys, I see that I need to be smarter with my (reduced) income so I’m sure that the ideas that helped you gather the money to start your new life, will also do the same for me. I guess we all have goals, sometimes they are different though
Judy, your new lifestyle sounds heavenly! That’s one of the keys to this whole plan, really. You don’t have to do what we do, but you can take the lessons we learned on saving money and spending it wisely to craft your version of happily ever after. I just met a woman yesterday who has retired early and is living her dream here in Thailand. You should see the sparkle in her eyes!
Hi Betsy, can you tell me how the information in your book differs from the information in your blog? Thanks!
Hey, Jamie. Great question! I liken it to the difference between having a 30-minute general discussion with us over a cup of coffee to spending a week-long retreat together working on this single topic with 3 months of followup to keep you on track.
You can still find a lot of info on the blog for free on saving money, staying inspired as you work toward a goal, working through the issues of selling your stuff (if you need to), getting along with your family and friends as your life situation changes, how to make a little extra cash without feeling smarmy, and a host of other ideas. We’ll always strive to provide great content on the blog, but it is hard to maintain the required momentum for the reader on a project this big and personal through a series of blog posts, even if we only wrote about this one subject. (Plus the bonus credit card debt reduction video classes - we don’t even offer that kind of info.)
This is why bloggers write books and it is also why authors become bloggers. The two forms of communication/interaction go hand-in-hand and serve to reinforce the message/mission and get it out to as many people as possible.
If you want in-depth info on how to save for a big dream altogether in an easy-to-implement plan you can act on immediately, the guide is the way to go.
That motivation v. inspiration really clicked for me. I’m a procrastinator, I’ll easily admit, and not easily motivated. BUT - when I’m excited about something - inspired - then I do get going.
Congratulations on your book & your successes. I don’t live vicariously through you two - but I do love knowing you and your happiness is out there in the world. (all over it!)
YAY, Andrea! I’m glad you’re living for yourself but realize you are a procrastinator. That’s the first step, right?
I hope you have something really exciting in your life right now to inspire you to action and that you are spreading your happiness around the world, too.
You are a perfect example of a couple enjoying life to its fullest. My goal is for myself and my husband to be just like you one day.
Loretto, it is a pretty full life, and we feel very fortunate every day to be living it. It came through a lot of hard work, but once you reach the other side the hard work almost fades from memory. I’m so excited for you and your husband to follow your dreams!
Wow! I just found your site and in LOVE! I am ready to make a HUGE change in my life and live my dreams….you are both so inspiring & motivating
I’m both a procrastinator and attached to my “stuff” but I can feel the change happening.
Can’t wait to catch up on all your posts and then share your ride until I begin my own!
Hi, Carol. Welcome to the Revolution.
I’m a former packrat myself, so if you have any questions please let me know. We did a one-month series on decluttering back in in April of 2009, so just put “declutter” in the search box and you’ll find all the posts.
We can’t wait to hear from you again!
I completely agree and encourage anybody trying to Live The Good Life to do so!
Here is what I suggest;
1) Turn everything into what you want, not I hope, I wish, etc… Turn everything into I want.
2) Never even think about what you don’t want, otherwise what you don’t want, is exactly what will happen.
Live The Good Life!!!
http://www.suggestionsforlife.com/Suggestions_For_Life.html
Now THIS is inspiring. Thanks for sharing this. The Good Life may not look the same for everyone, but make it good for YOU. Everybody has something they want to accomplish, secretly, or not-so-secretly. Props to you for helping somebody do that.
Hi, Claire. This is the message we want to spread. Our version of the good life may not be the same as yours and that’s okay! The important thing is not to convince everyone to travel but to convince everyone to live their own dream - in their own backyard or halfway around the world. Life is too short to play by someone else’s rules or to follow a plan you didn’t create for yourself, don’t you agree?
Great distinction between inspirtation and motivation. Too many times have I produced and produced out of motivation, thinking sheer weight of content would et me further in life.
But inspiration is when the stuff people react to comes out.
Am fully signing up to your manifesto though! x
Welcome to the movement Ben! I have to give credit for the motivation/inspiration distinction to Danielle LaPorte. She said at the exact time I was living it, and it was a powerful realization for me.
Start gathering your spare cardboard and markers - we’re going to start making signs for our movement very soon.