Everyone lacks motivation from time to time. Often this lack of motivation is directly related to the way in which you are looking at a task. If you view a task as an inconvenience or as something that really doesn't interest you, you will have a difficult time getting motivated to accomplish the task. The truth of the matter is that all of us must do some things that are either an inconvenience or something that really doesn't interest us sometimes. So how do you get motivated to do those things when you feel unmotivated to accomplish them?

First, let us look at what motivation is. The Webster dictionary definition of motivation implies that motivation, although it frequently comes from within, and is also the result of external stimulus. A good example of an external stimulus is the raise you might receive from your employer.

Employees who think they are coming up for a raise are more motivated and will perform better in the weeks prior to the possibility of the raise than any other time during their employment. Employers use raises and other incentives to motivate their employees to reach peak performance and to accomplish whatever tasks they are assigned, whether that task interests the employee or not. But how do you become motivated without an external stimulus?

Inspiration is a self-generated force that motivates you to action. Inspiration comes entirely from within you. It is the result of having the desire and the feeling of excitement about any task you might need to accomplish, whether or not that task is something you really want to do.

Moreover, inspiration becomes a genuine choice you make by the way you view a task. If you have the attitude of "I have to do this because I was told to do it" you will be less inspired to accomplish it than if you were to think, "I want to do it because that's what I want to do." The way you think about a task, your attitude toward it, will affect your inspiration, and therefore your motivation.

Inspiration is not just some divine gift bestowed upon certain people from the heavens, as many religious doctrines teach. Inspiration is a gift we all possess, regardless of our religious beliefs; although it has been found that your beliefs do affect your inspiration. But the secret to inspiration is to be found in switching how you think about the task at hand. Again, if you think about the task along the line of something "I have to do" you will be less inspired to accomplish it and will generally just go through the motions to accomplish it, with very little, if any, internal gratification.

An important note to make here is that gratification feeds inspiration. Gratification and inspiration are related. Gratification takes place when you have accomplished a task and get that feeling of satisfaction within yourself.

Gratification is that sense of wellbeing for a job well done that you experience and it will fuel your inspiration for the next task. In addition, gratification can be internal evidence of your inspiration. Another important note about inspiration is that it is compounded with each success.

Desire is another element of inspiration. Desire stresses strength of feeling and a strong intention toward a goal or aim. Much like gratification, desire is fuel to inspiration. In fact, desire nurtures inspiration. And the more desire you create within yourself toward accomplishing your goals the more inspired you will become, not only toward your goals, but your life in general.

Finding inspiration when you need to get motivated is a matter of knowing the difference between inspiration and motivation, as well as their relationship to each other. As mentioned earlier, motivation can come from both inside and outside of us. External motivation comes in a wide variety of forms, from paying the bills to performing well on the job to get that raise. Inspiration, on the other hand, is strictly internal and comes from conscious decisions and attitudes about a task, the environment, and your life.

Inspiration is not concerned with the external stimulus because inspiration is a higher level of functioning and thought processing that is highly dependent on your attitude and desire to be successful.

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report that reveals how to crush procrastination and sustain lasting motivation. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: http://www.getmotivatedstaymotivated.com/blog