It’s the last week of 2022 and you are in one of two mindsets.  You’ve either checked out for the year or you are grinding to a finish.

Either of these scenarios can be good or bad.  

You could have checked out because you’re sick of your work and want a holiday escape or you could have completed everything you needed to and scheduled some time off to be with loved ones.  

You could be grinding because you fell behind and are trying to catch up or you could have been so inspired by something that you had to take action.

This entry is not about hard work or time off.  It’s not about motivation or laziness.  It’s about the chicken and the egg; metaphorically.  

Are you looking for inspiration or looking for a place to express your creativity for good?

You’ll have a good handle on the relationship between action and inspiration by the end of this writing.

Taking Action

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about thoughts and actions.  Yes, I’m thinking about thoughts…You might assume that could end badly and you’d be right, but not how you think.  It can add badly because it could end up all thought and no action.

I believe defaulting to action is especially important in the impact space.  We don’t have the time and the people that need our help can’t afford to wait any longer. 

There could be multiple entries dedicated to starting.  With that being said, maybe you don’t need any.  It might be obvious.   

What needs to be covered is, “What is the first action?”

Is your first move to be inspired (the egg) or to try something (the chicken)?

The Egg

I love scrambled eggs, omelets, egg bakes (for you midwesterners), breakfast casseroles, and hard-boiled eggs.  There aren’t many ways I don’t like to eat those little ovals of goodness.  

I also love the metaphorical egg I mentioned above.  Who doesn’t like to be inspired?  

We’ve studied how creativity is important for impact.   See E-Impact 115 and E-Impact 65.

Interestingly, inspiration is defined as the following:

the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative

Especially in creativity, we need to be inspired.  

The question is when is inspiration needed or when should it happen?

There are many dishes and deserts that require eggs as part of their recipe.  It’s safe to say that they are an important part of the culinary arts (even if you prefer a vegan “flax egg”).

They are often a small, but essential, part. 

Does the egg come first?

The Chicken 

The chicken represents action.  It’s taking a step, no matter the size, towards impact.  It’s research, asking someone questions, or physical labor.  You must do these things to make progress.

Action is defined as:

the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim

Note that it is typically for an aim.  The Impactmaker Movement is aiming to do something great for other people.  You might say that we are talking about intentional action.  

You’re not running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  

You could liken each of those examples of actions above to different parts of the chicken.  I see the chicken as a complicated animal and part of impact.

Back to Food

If there is a second most important source of metaphors to sports for me, it’s food.  

One of my favorite meals is meatloaf.  And I don’t mean your Golden Corral style mushed ground beef and bread crumbs with ketchup on top.

By the way, have I ever mentioned my not-so-important goals of franchising a Golden Corral restaurant someday?  There’s a story there somewhere but we’ll save it for later.

I realize I just criticized one of my favorite establishment’s most known dishes but my meatloaf is different.  It includes many more (natural) ingredients.  It’s been known to make an appearance or two on my Instagram Story.  

Two of the ingredients of my meatloaf are chicken and eggs!  Imagine that.  

Food, and my meatloaf, are relevant here because the process of developing my meatloaf describes my understanding of the chicken (action) and the egg (inspiration) well.

I never set out to make the perfect meatloaf but I love cooking.  It’s considered an art whereas baking is considered a science.  I used to think I was more of a scientist but I’ve come to find out (as mentioned a lot recently), I’m more of a creator.  

My meatloaf is certainly a creative result more than a mission accomplished.  

My digestive issues have led me to some very limited ingredient lists in the past year or two.  One day, I was at such a loss for how to plan out my meals for the day, I decided to put everything I had in my Ninja’s food processor.  I was so surprised as to what came out.  It was like a meaty dough (I know, sounds gross).

I’d love to dive deeper into the recipe but I’ll tell you to hit me up @bdepa on IG or Twitter for more cooking talk.  

Side note:  I just watched a video with Simon Sinek explaining how presenters shouldn’t do this.  I should just give you the recipe and not hope to “take” anything from you.  I’m going to pass on his advice and save you the time but would love to talk about food on a different platform.

That Ninja is an amazing tool.  I use it daily and have tweaked the ingredients over the years to come up with the perfect mixture of “healthy” and reasonably digestible meatloaf for me.  

I had to take action to find the meatloaf even though I had no original intention of making it.  I found inspiration after learning more about the situation and what could come of working with those ingredients and the Ninja.  

This is my proof that inspiration comes after you start something.   

Incentive

You might say that I was inspired by my need to eat and digestive issues to make the meatloaf.  I would disagree.  That’s called incentive.  

It’s like when you go to work at a necessary job instead of a meaningful career.  The job pays the bills.  There’s a financial incentive.  The career is inspiring.  You earned and have been building since you started.  Inspiration for the most recent iteration came after your original start. 

There are many types of incentives in life.  There are the aforementioned financial type, and there are also emotional, romantic, and joy related incentives.   

Don’t mistake those incentives with inspiration.   Incentives provide you a benefit and inspiration indicates your ability to provide something for you and someone else.

Inspiration Lives

The best forms of inspiration are lasting.  They don’t fizzle quickly.  

One of the most inspirational times I ever experienced in my life was when I played a football game at Marshal University in West Virginia.

It as a hostile environment to say the least.  It was a hot fall day and the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen were a severe underdog to the Thundering Herd.  

Marshall had moved up to Division 1-A (Football Bowl Subdivision) while our team was still Division 1-AA (Football Championship Subdivision).  We were rivals previously but it hadn’t been a thing in a few years.  

My teammate and friend, Drew, was a transfer student from Marshall to Hofstra.  He was a somewhat even keeled guy and quarterback who fit it amongst the guys on the team.  I was a receiver so spent plenty of time catching his passes.  

Our team’s typical pregame routine was to listen to our head coach’s (Joe Gardi) pregame speech and storm the field before the game started.  We had some great moments of energy but coach wasn’t a yeller or jumper.  He was a thoughtful guy in his sixties.  

Before the game against Marshall, he simply said I have someone that wants to say something to you all.  

Drew stood in the middle of the guys and went on a three minute rant about how the other team disrespected him and us.  He referenced all of the hard work we had put in over the summer, the injuries, the weightlifting, the running, and the study time.  By the end of his talk, he was screaming and we were all standing and yelling.  It was an amazing inspiration coming from a guy who was essentially told to leave by Marshall’s coaching staff just nine months prior.  

We stormed that field and took an early lead.  I wish I could tell you we dominated them.  Sadly, we ended up losing the game at the end but we found some incredible inspiration from Drew.

We would not have been in that situation had we not put in seemingly endless hours of work to get to that point.

This tells me that hard work and strong action can lead you inspiration.  

Give Love to the Chicken

There you have it.  The answer.  The chickens does indeed come before the egg.

The egg is necessary for success.  You have to be inspired - especially in those challenging times.  However, if you never take up a cause and you don’t act, you’ll never feel an inspirational moment.

Put yourself in challenging situations.  Step out of your comfort zone.  Go somewhere someone else might not advise.  It is in those places that you’ll see and feel things that have great meaning.  

Great meaning will lead to great inspiration.  You’ll find the perfect egg to complete your new recipe.

Celebrate inspiration whenever you have it but always give love to the chicken.

Action is the catalyst for impact.