Transform Your Life - Just Count Me In
Just Count Me In is a podcast designed to help us navigate and flow with our lives through conscious awareness. When we live with less resistance and more receptivity it is easier to express who we came here to be and enjoy life. We are all walking each other home.
Transform Your Life - Just Count Me In
#12 Motivation vs Inspiration: Finding Your True Path
Have you ever noticed the profound difference between dragging yourself through tasks and being magnetically pulled toward an idea? That distinction between motivation and inspiration isn't just semantic—it's the gateway to an entirely different way of living.
Most of us were taught to operate from motivation—grabbing an idea and willing it into existence through sheer determination and discipline. Like completing taxes on a perfect swimming day, motivation gets things done but often feels like pushing against resistance. I've spent years as an educator thinking this was the gold standard of achievement.
Then something shifted. I discovered that inspiration—literally meaning "in spirit"—operates from an entirely different energy. Instead of you grabbing the idea, the idea grabs you. It pulls on your heart with a knowing that defies logical explanation. As Wayne Dyer beautifully expressed, when we're inspired, "we give it over to a force greater than our physical being."
This podcast explores the magical realm of possibility versus the safe boundaries of probability. Your brain naturally gravitates toward what's familiar and likely based on past experience. But your spirit? It craves expansion beyond current limitations. Remember the Queen from Alice in Wonderland who thought "six impossible things before breakfast"? That mindset opens doors to extraordinary experiences.
My life transformed through following inspiration's mysterious pull—pursuing yoga teacher training that made no practical sense yet opened my heart in unexpected ways, meeting my husband of 42 years through a series of "coincidences" at jobs neither of us typically would have taken, and manifesting our dream home in South Carolina against all odds.
Whether you're contemplating spring changes in your garden or your life, I invite you to listen to your soul's whispers before they become shouts. Embrace the five practical steps I share for living your most inspired life. Drop the "how," trust divine timing, move toward joy, and remember: your inspired ideas, like garden seeds, bloom in their own perfect time.
Ready to step into your most inspired life? DM me the word "inspired" for a special gift. I'd love to connect and hear how inspiration is calling you forward.
Thank you for joining me!
Welcome to Just Count Me In, a podcast designed to help you break free from your limitations and step into the life that you actually were meant to live. I'm Sari Stone and I'm a holistic coach with a background in education. For the past six years, I've been guiding people to transform their lives from the inside out. My journey, to be honest with you, was not always clear out. My journey to be honest with you was not always clear. For years, I actually felt like I was living someone else's life, checking all the right boxes but never feeling quite truly fulfilled. That all changed when I experienced a few miracles, met some incredible teachers and had a major wake-up call that forced me to shift my entire perspective. And had a major wake-up call that forced me to shift my entire perspective. Wayne Dyer once said when you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change. And that is exactly what this podcast is about Helping you see your life in a new way so that you can start living with authenticity, purpose and passion. Each week, I'm going to bring you 30 minute episodes filled with insights, practical strategies and inspiring interviews to help you uncover what truly lights you up and identify what's been holding you back. Eventually, this is going to ignite your motivation and create real change. Are you ready to step into the life you were meant to live? Then just count me in, hit, subscribe and join me on this journey. If this episode resonates, please share it with a friend who needs a little inspiration today. Let's do this together. Hey, thank you again for joining this week in the Transform your Life. Just Count Me In podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm going to dive into a topic that's really close to my heart the real difference between motivation and inspiration. Why it matters now more than ever, especially in this spring season of growth, alignment and possibility. So what happens when you follow the pull of inspiration, even when it doesn't make sense? Why we revert to motivation and how we can break free or figure out how to better use it and how you can start living more in spirit and less in survival mode. Are you ready to say yes to your most inspired life? Do you feel like you want something a little bit more this season? Well, stay tuned and please DM me with any thoughts or questions that you have. I would love to hear from you. Enjoy so very often when we're in this season, in this spring season or the springtime of our lives or the chapter where we're making new beginnings.
Speaker 1:We revert back to motivation and that's what we were taught very much, very much. We were taught in that more of like the male dominated type of energy, and I was really good at it. I actually was. A lot of people hire me to work with their kids because they need motivation for school. They need, they wanted them to have motivation for sports, and I'm all about that and I thought, wow, I really, I really like motivation. I try to think of myself as a motivational teacher. But then I thought more and more, really, it's more like I would rather be inspirational. So I thought let me take a look at the difference between these two things, because I know that right now to function, I need both. I mean, have you ever just wondered how to get started?
Speaker 1:We're coming off this weekend and my husband I say we, but it really was him, you know did our taxes, which is a lot, and we looked at each other and we were like, okay, we got to get motivated to do this. If I'm saying we have to get motivated, it implies and it is very true we were not feeling the pull, not the pull to do the taxes. I mean, it was a beautiful weekend. We probably could have swam in the pool this weekend, but we were doing the responsible adult thing and doing our taxes so that they'd be filed on time. I can't say that that was an action based on inspiration or change. It was just a responsible part of my life.
Speaker 1:Okay, motivation is basically when you grab an idea and then you figure out how to make it happen and you can probably tell by the charge in my voice. I loved doing that. Part of me still loves doing that and I can definitely coach people for that. More and more I've realized, as life goes on and I'm getting wiser, inspiration plays a larger and larger role. My greatest changes have been the result not of motivation maybe motivation to do the tasks I want to say but the inspiration that I feel for the idea.
Speaker 1:So, motivation you grab an idea and try to make it happen, and you do very often make it happen. It's very linear, it can be step oriented, it can involve goals. It's concrete, it uses your brain, the analytical mind, inspiration completely different. The other end of the stick. If they were on a gradient it would be one and the other inspiration the idea grabs you and pulls you. It pulls on your heart. It's a knowing in your gut. Often it makes no sense in your brain.
Speaker 1:So when we're feeling inspired, and to break it down, that's in spirit. We are aligned with spirit. That's an invisible field and Wayne Dyer said when we're inspired, we give it over to a force. We're connected to a force greater than our physical being. When we're inspired, so right away your mind jumps in, or my mind does, and I think about possibility versus probability. When my mind comes in, remember your brain likes the familiar. Your brain wants to make itself right.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to make a prediction based on Sari's past experiences, and I just worked with a client this week who said she's in the process of making changes, finding her voice and advocating for herself with her friends. She's a teenager and it's rough to assert yourself sometimes, because sometimes you pay the price of not being liked when that happens, and that's hard, and probability is that she's not really going to assert herself and she might do the chameleon thing to fit in. Because we want to feel loved, we want to feel accepted. We know that that's a primordial part of our brain, because connection is how we're wired and rejection used to mean that we would starve to death. So it's a survival thing, okay, possibility, and I loved that quote.
Speaker 1:My mom used to call me her Alice in Wonderland child and I think it was the queen in Alice in Wonderland, but not sure. And through the looking glass, he said, I sometimes think six impossible things before breakfast. Well, anybody that knows me knows that that is me and it drives some people absolutely crazy, but it is just who I am and I'm fine, I enjoy it. It's possibility is when we can live in what is possible, or maybe even impossible, but it just hasn't happened yet, but we feel it. It's a desire that goes way past our talents and way past our abilities very often, and in that realm of possibility is the most magical, magical place and the most magical lives that we could possibly live. And it can be something small. I can be inspired to paint a picture. I could be inspired to work in my garden. I could be inspired to move the family across the country, which we did do. Okay, it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to have a big, huge, concrete result, and it can. It's just a good way to live. When we live in touch with that, we're living in touch with who we actually are inside.
Speaker 1:Rumi said in the garden of the world has no limits except in your mind. In my classroom I had hanging a poster that had all these beliefs on it and our motto was believe. We walked around singing the I Believe song, michael Franti, and our motto was believe, be love, be kind, become and be you, and I think that's a great way to go through life. So when we're inspired, there's forces come into play to make these things happen in our lives, and it's happened to me several times, several times. I really feel like this podcast is part of this is for me to help you change your awareness and help lead you back home. I know Joel Goldsmith said to lead us back to the kingdom of God within ourselves is the teacher's job, or to lead us home, whatever you believe in. So I'm going to ask you what's trying to emerge within you and I'll give you some examples of how things have worked for me.
Speaker 1:So when I was living in Colorado, I started getting a pull tour in the direction of Boulder. I didn't live in Boulder and I was teaching yoga and then started teaching yoga before school. On Wednesday mornings I had kids waitlisted from a yoga club. It was one of the best things I ever could have done. But I felt like I needed to get certified, more than just the normal yoga fit certification, which there's nothing wrong with. But I'm an an education geek so I feel like I need more training.
Speaker 1:And I then was introduced to someone who was doing a yoga teacher training up in Boulder and I could feel the pull. It did not make sense for me to do this. It was not going to be something that I made money from. It was not going to be. I didn't have a lot of extra time and I had to. It was really hard. It was 12-hour days on the weekends, one weekend a month, and it was hard mentally. At the same time. Anyone that's ever been through yoga teacher training knows it breaks you. It breaks your heart open to different layers. It takes away the hard layers that we've put around our heart and changes your life, changes your perspective. It is so much more than just I thought it was just athletic type teacher training. That is not what it is. It's a life changer, or it was for me, and I felt that pull and followed it, and I have met some of the greatest people and helped so many people with the techniques that I learned people and helped so many people with the techniques that I learned and I practiced yoga before that, but I'm definitely dedicated to always being I'm a lifelong yogi lifelong yogi. So it changed my life.
Speaker 1:When I met my husband, I was in the middle of going to college, a single mom with a four-year-old son, working when he was with his dad on the weekends, between 24 and 32 hours between Friday night and Sunday night to support us, and I had no time really to date anybody. My husband took a job at a country club and it was a job he never would have taken. He just had a friend that ran the kitchen. I took a job at a country club and it was a job he never would have taken. He just had a friend that ran the kitchen. I took a job. I had a friend from high school who got me the job as a banker waitress. I just needed to make sure that my son and I had steady income and that they could work within my hours, and they did. They worked with me and so I took the job. It was not my favorite place to work. I met absolutely the love of my life there A couple months after I started it was three months after I looked up when I put an order in the kitchen and I saw this guy and he had a red bandana on and I saw his eyes and I saw just him and I thought, wow, that's a really hot guy.
Speaker 1:I think I want to get to know this guy. And then I thought, oh, this is not the time and I just kind of let it go. So that was the initial. It wasn't you're going to be the love of my life, it was just that kind of thing. And then about a week later I was doing a cocktail shift and he was having a beer after work with his friend who got him the job, who ran the kitchen there, the head chef and he said he looked at him and he said I want that one. He said that's the one for me and the guy Vinny, actually would have still been a friend of ours if we'd stayed in touch with him a little bit longer. He did the food at our wedding because he introduced us. Then he looked at him and said I don't think that you, that she dates people because people ask her out. He said I actually think she's probably a lesbian because she does not go out with any of the guys here. So Stan thought you know what I'm still going to try, and I'm so glad he did so.
Speaker 1:We've been together almost 42 years now. We had one date I was not dating. We had one date. We took my son because there was no way I was going to not have him with us to the beach and had ice cream, and that was our first date. May 25th it will be 42 years ago and we have been together ever since. It was the most powerful thing that has ever come over me, other than when I gave birth in my life. When I met him it was as if I was under the influence of some kind of I don't know what I don't even know how to describe it Like the moon came up. We started talking, we talked all night and we've literally. It made no sense for us to be together and we've been together ever since and worked through a lot, but he is absolutely the love of my life, totally. Could have talked myself out of it intellectually, my heart was a hundred percent in Moving to this state, to South Carolina, and manifesting our dream house is an episode in itself. So stay tuned for that one. But I can tell you it works. It definitely works. It's just a matter of trusting yourself and staying open to things.
Speaker 1:When we have problems, we either go to a frail part of us or we go to the oneness and the strength in us. We either go to a place of this is right or wrong, and I can tell when I'm in that place, because I'm relentlessly blaming people and my conversations are like oh, this is what happened and that's what happened. And you know poor me, I have a pity party usually and also I'm not feeling secure, so I start to seek advice all over the place. Everybody else's opinion is better than mine, I, I mean, I totally lose my connection when I'm in a place like that, when we have a problem and we're dealing with it in an integrated, inspired way, we connect to the oneness and we go within, because we know that we have our own answers. We know that we're connected to a greater source that helps us be in touch with our own answers. We know that we're connected to a greater source that helps us be in touch with our own answers. Instead of seeking advice, we seek knowledge. Maybe we research something, but we take back the control in that way and we let go at the same time. So we take the control that we give other people out of it and take back our power, because we have power from so many more than just us.
Speaker 1:So I know this is a lot, but this is spring and you're probably on the verge of making some changes, whether it's I'm going to be planting a garden today and that is totally inspiration and I see that garden in my mind Now. Am I inspired as I'm digging the dirt? I'm thinking about those plants. When those plants don't come up in a month, am I going to put my hand into the ground and grab them up at any stage, just and say, hey, hey, I, you know, it said 30 days, you're supposed to sprout. I mean, of course not, I'm going to wait until they come up on their own. So there are some practices to help you along with this stage, with this process.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to share a story. I read it in a book, in a Wayne Dyer book actually on inspiration, so I'm going to share it with you and it's called Carrots, eggs and Coffee, and I think a daughter came to her mom and she was having problems in life and she said you know what? Google wasn't around then. So she was like well, what do you think I should do, mom? And her mom took out carrots, eggs and coffee and she boiled some water and she put all of them in the water coffee beans, raw eggs in the shell and carrots, coffee beans, raw eggs in the shell and carrots. Now, as you can imagine, the carrots were hard and they got soft. The eggs were fragile and they got hard. The coffee kind of went with it and changed the actual water. So the lesson being sometimes you can be strong on something and problems can make you weaker. Sometimes you can feel fragile, but you can actually be tougher than you think. I would prefer to be like the coffee and just change and dissolve and go with the water, still retaining who I am. It was still coffee. Why not turn into something that people love, like coffee? So just a little story.
Speaker 1:Here's some practices that you might want to put into place to help you live your inspired life. So the first one is remember you don't need anything. You don't need anything for this. Just listen to your nudges and your desires, keep your heart and your mind open and live joyfully. Okay, number two if you really want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. And that was said by somebody. It's an old quote and I apologize, I don't know the person who said it, but if you really want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Speaker 1:Remember, things arrive on their own time. When I plant in my garden, I hope that it's going to come up, but it doesn't come up because I'm standing there pulling it up out of the ground. It comes up when it's ready, and it's the same with your intentions, it's the same with what you're manifesting in your life. It comes when it's ready. You do your job. The universe does her job. Live joyfully, as joyfully as possible, with as much love as possible, so that you're enjoying the ride and you're staying open to things.
Speaker 1:The answer to how? Is always yes, yes to what makes me feel good, yes to what feels like the most loving choice. You don't want to be on your deathbed wondering whether you really lived or not. Don't die with your music in you. One of the affirmations that I use, that I like so much, is it's on its way, it's arriving on time and it's going to be even better than anything I ever imagined. So I decided to include some questions and some journal prompts in this episode. Include some questions and some journal prompts in this episode.
Speaker 1:So for the first one step, one would be listen to the nudges. Your soul always whispers before it shouts. Think about something that's been tugging at your heart lately. Is there a pull, a nudge you've been ignoring? So what's something I feel drawn to, even if it doesn't make sense right now. Drawn to even if it doesn't make sense right now. Step two drop the how. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Speaker 1:Inspiration doesn't come with a blueprint. You don't need to know the how, just trust the what and the why. Write one inspired idea or dream you've had lately. Then write. I don't need to know how, I just need to say yes.
Speaker 1:Next step embrace possibility over probability. Your brain loves safety and familiarity, but your spirit, she craves expansion. Shift your mindset Instead of asking is this probable? Ask, is this possible. But your spirit, she craves expansion. Shift your mindset Instead of asking is this probable? Ask, is this possible. Write down three impossible things you'd love to believe in, just like Alice in Wonderland.
Speaker 1:Step four move with joy. Joy is a compass. Move towards what feels good light, playful, soulful. For a little challenge. What's one thing you can do today that feels inspired, not obligated? Can you choose inspiration over obligation, just for one little thing today? Step five let it bloom, just like planting seeds in the garden. Your inspired ideas are going to need time and space to grow, so trust your divine timing. Keep watering your dreams with belief, joy and aligned action. Your inspired motto can be believe, be love, be kind, become and be you. Step seven is stay connected, and it's a little bonus Listen to the Transform your Life podcast, follow me on Instagram and book a discovery call for coaching or classes.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear from you for coaching our classes. I would love to hear from you. Ps, if you DM me the word inspired, you've got a special gift and we all like surprises. Take care. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you like this episode, please let me know. Stop by at social media, on Instagram or my Facebook page Just count me in and please leave a comment. If there's anybody that you think could benefit from this episode, please forward it to them and I look forward to seeing you next time. We're all in this together.