PURE INSPIRATION

iNSPIRATION- the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired; to motive or give life

Inspiration is about being highly motivated. It is used to describe what happens when someone feels moved to imagine and create something of excellence. When we call an artist or an athlete inspired, we mean they have gone beyond themselves to achieve something exraordinary.

Inspiration is about receiving in order to give. For example, inspiration describes the process of the lungs taking in air and sending it out. Any athlete, artist, good person will discover they must receive strength from outside themselves in order to give their best. Like in life, our blood flows through our bodies and does not need to be brought from an outside source. It replenishes itself. But if we were to give blood, large amounts, we would need to get blood from an outside source. With the lungs, the more air we need to expel, the more we need to take in.

In life, the more strength, courage, and motivation we need to give out, the more we need to receive. That is why we begin to feel burned out. We are going through the motions on the court or in life because we are not receiving life.

PURE INSIGHT

iNSIGHT- mental vision; seeing into inner character; underlying truth


The ablity to recognize what is going wrong and accurately make corrections is a crucial skill in sports and life. Often we repeat the same mistake hoping for a different outcome. An athlete with pure insight can see what needs correctiong and what to do to fix it. When confronted with problems, a person with insight doesn't become flooded and overwhelmed. An athlete who becomes flooded makes the wrong decision when its cricial. Aperson who is flooded in relationship says the wrong thing and makes the situation worse.

Flooding, a term that comes from social scientist John Gotttman, describes what happens when our mental vision turns no fog and we can't find the solution.

PURE INTEGRITY

iNTEGRITY - whole; unbroken;
sound; complete

Integrity is about wholeness, becoming a person who lives fully, completely, without holding back, without compartments which prevent us from operating from a place of love and power.

Athletes with integrity to the game have become total players. They can do it all. They don’t have areas that are under-developed or ignored. People with integrity have the same great character when they are with a group of friends or by themselves. They are honest with others and with themselves. They don’t change who they are or what they believe to fit in or be accepted. Pure integrity comes from living truthfully. The opposite of integrity is to betray. The word betray comes from the root word to “hand over.” We betray our dreams and lose our integrity when we hand over our dreams to mediocre ways of living; when we hand over our values because we want to go along with the crowd; or when we hand over our honesty because telling a lie is easier. There are three ways we betray our integrity: apathy, bitterness and compromise. Remove the ABCs of Betrayal.