What, or better yet, who inspires you?  This is worth considering given that we humans are capable of the nearly impossible when suitably inspired.

I was chatting with a good friend and colleague of mine on the phone a couple of days ago.  He was sharing some of his recent successes (in a particular niche of course :0) which included the fact he was now earning about a quarter of a million dollars a month.  A figure that is almost guaranteed to grow substantially each month from here on in.

What makes his success particularly poignant and inspiring is that 22 months ago he had pretty much lost everything in a series of seemly endless drinking binges.  When he finally decided to seek help, about the only thing he had left was his determination and commitment to stay sober.  The drive toward business success while important, would take second place to his one-day-a-time challenge to stay sober.

There are many things that inspire me about my friend.  He is the most humble highly successful business person I know —a rare bird indeed in an industry with egos the size of our national debt.  His integrity never, ever takes a back seat to business opportunity as he always asks himself “Is this just for the money or does it best serve my customers?”  And he is a fearless innovator who is not afraid to fail, many times, to achieve success.  Now that’s a lot to be inspired about…

Break down, breakthrough.

Anonymous

We live in a very cynical world, one where those making the most news are Wall-street robber barons, corrupt politicians (now that’s redundant) and vacuous celebrities whose main contribution is water-cooler gossip.  Now more than ever each of us needs to have at least one person who inspires us to our core.  In addition to helping us achieve what we heretofore thought was impossible, it also helps spread the contagion of inspiration to everyone we meet.

We humans are the only species that is capable of receiving inspiration (i.e. “adding to the spirit within”).  This is an incredible gift available to each and every one of us.  Take a moment to think of who inspires you the most and you will be rewarded with seeing yourself having those very same qualities that lift your spirit.  In these challenging and tumultuous times this may very well be the most important exercise you can do.