If you REALLY know me then you will probably laugh when you hear someone call me inspirational. I’ve been called a lot of things in my life but I find this one the most depressing. Unless of course you can tell me what I have inspired you to do.
Rafiki Mwema have recently welcomed 3 amazing women into our family here in Australia. They watched me talk at an event earlier in March this year. Where I told them about my feelings towards the word inspirational without an action to follow.
When they recently did an event in Newcastle that raised us $42,000 one of these amazing women got up and spoke about that night.. and they hit the nail on the head. They explained it so perfectly I had to share it with you.
“When we first met Sarah, aside from the touching and heart wrenching stories that she shared with us that night, there was one particular word that resonated with us…
“Inspiration”
To most of us, to be told that “you’re and inspiration” is such a positive accolade.
However, that night Sarah noted that so often, people approached her saying she was such an ‘inspiration’
Now again, to most people, this would be a tremendous boost to the self-esteem.
To Sarah though, the is disheartening.
For people to listen to such traumatic stories and to hear the details of a cause like Rafiki, and to then just say “you’re an inspiration is a very easy way out. By saying those words, you feel better about yourself and you go to bed feeling like you have done something good.
….but really.. Have you? What have you done?
I know that from Sarah’s presentation back in March, Kasey, Mandy and myself (Amy) have adopted a new view. That view begins with
“You’ve inspired me to…”
Sarah, that night you inspired us to step up, and come way outside of our comfort zones. You inspired us to think outside of the square as to how we could support your charity. You inspired us to tackle completely novel situations such as organising and hosting a charity gala event. You inspired us to get together, and collectively use our reaching powers amongst our family, friends, colleagues and other networks in order to make change happen.
So Sarah, although there is no doubt that you truly are an inspiration, we are so thankful that we crossed paths and that you were able to inspired us to evoke change”
