Inspiration

Ian Campbell
October 24, 2024

Inspiration

When I sat down to write this newsletter, I did not know what to write about.

As I began a favorite hack that gets me moving (if you’re curious, it’s youtubing “David Goggins”, which typically takes no more than 3 minutes of me watching before I am doing whatever I was struggling to do), I thought of a story from the NBTS’s recent Race for Hope Philly, which had beautiful weather and a great turnout of almost 10k people.

While at the Race for Hope’s finish line, a runner approached and asked about his time. I remembered he was a survivor from check-in, so while looking up his time, I asked whether surviving a brain tumor or running a 5k was more difficult. He smirked and said surviving, obviously.

It made me think that something like running a 5k, which can seem daunting, can become laughable after going through a challenging time, hearing a story, learning something new or having a renewed sense of purpose.

At least, that was my experience. While I luckily have avoided brain tumors, I still remember the renewed sense of purpose I felt to train hard after registering for my first race (see a photo from that race below).

Ian running in his first race

Back to the story. As I thought about how something daunting could become laughable, it struck me that these actions are often what we refer to as inspirational and create incredible benefits for ourselves and our communities.

Not only is the inspiration beneficial, it can be essential for certain things like organizing a race, which requires recruiting volunteers, lining up reliable vendors, convincing participants to spend their hard earned money and much more work that I won’t bore you by listing here.

So if inspiration is essential for building community, how do we get it?

Well, here is how ChatGPT suggests inspiring your community:

ChatGPT shares how to inspire community

Unfortunately, inspiring humans is complex, so a cookie cutter list from ChatGPT can only offer guidance, not a cheat code. Truly inspiring your community requires a degree of authenticity, which we each do uniquely.

I am lucky because my work with Run The Day introduces me to many inspiring people and stories (which conveniently helped me to write this 😃). Joking aside, every race that we work with serves me with a unique dose of inspiration. Here are 2 upcoming examples:

3.2 for Ben - supports former Harvard football player Ben Abercrombie who was injured making his first collegiate tackle. Watch the college gameday special on Ben here.
I’m Thankful Four - honors Kelsey Mikel who was lost in a tragic car accident. Watch a recap video of their 2023 event here.

Races serve as a good reminder that humans are insanely adaptable, smart and resilient. We have incredible potential that is further amplified with the proper inspiration.

Thanks for the work that you do, which offers inspiration to your community and folks like me. I appreciate it everyday and especially today since it helped me write this when I didn’t know what to write about.

— Ian