Welcome to Nobody Told Me. I'm Laura Owens, and I'm Jan Black. Think about how you feel when you feel inspired. It feels great, right?

Our guest on this episode, Alison

Holzer, has spent the past few years studying the science of inspiration to understand how it can be

summoned through different actions. Allison is a consultant, entrepreneur, and coach,

who is the co-founder of InspireCorps, and previously was director of coaching for the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Allison is also the co-author of the new book, Dare to Inspire, Sustain the Fire of Inspiration in Work and Life.

Allison, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you. Happy to be here.

Tell us what inspiration is so that we can all kind of understand what we're talking about.

Sure.

You know, when we went out to interview all different leaders and people about inspiration,

what was interesting is when we asked people about a time that they felt inspired.

No one had a problem saying what those

times were when they were inspired. In other words, they didn't have a problem identifying it.

They knew it when they felt it. But then when we asked them, well, how do you define what it is?

People sort of had trouble with it. And so we set out to really create a definition of inspiration

based on our research that really clearly captures what the experience is like. And here's how

we define it. So inspiration, it's really the intersection of these two different experiences. So the

first is when you're inspired, you're open, you're open to new

possibilities, to new ideas. So there's this greater sense of possibility. Like, I can do more,

I have new ideas, I see more that's possible for me and others. And that's a great feeling,

but on its own, it's just possibility.

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