Where are you when you feel most alive? What are you doing when your dreams seem more realistic than ever? What did you just hear or see or taste right before you started something big, something small, or something different?

Chances are you were in a place (or doing, hearing, seeing, or tasting) something that inspired you.

Inspiration means a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to you, too. It's inspiration that will get us started on every positive and healthy change we make in 2010, and it's inspiration that will get us through those challenges we'll undoubtedly face in the new year.
In my life, I aim to be inspired, and I aim to be an inspiration.

This year, inspiration will come to you in many forms — through people, through things you hear and witness, through books and stories you read, in God-made things and in man-made things, in songs you listen to, through movies you see, and even in the things you dream and accomplish yourself.

Join me every Monday in January as I post about *things* that inspire. I start today with the quotes that inspire me. I like to write them on post-its and stick them to my computer, I like to jot them in the margins of my notebooks, and I like to recite them in my head when I need a boost to get through the day. Let's face it: Life is not easy or fair or always good, but it's an inspired individual who can make it a little easier, a little fairer, and a lot better.

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It is never too late to be what you might have been. ~ George Eliot

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count; It’s the life in your years. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Consider gain and loss, but never be greedy and everything will be all right. ~ Fortune Cookie

It's a wonderful life. ~ George Bailey

The first wealth is health. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A champion is someone who gets up, even when he can't. ~ Jack Dempsey

To insure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life. ~ William Londen

 There's only us, there's only this ... forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
No other road, no other way, no day but today. ~ Mimi, Rent

You can do anything, but not everything. ~ David Allen

Well-behaved women seldom make history. ~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

 You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~ Gandhi

Begin to weave and God will give you the thread. ~ German Proverb

If you are going through hell, keep going. ~ Winston Churchill

Faith is the conviction that God knows
more than we do about this life
and He will get us through it. ~ Max Lucado 

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries. ~ James A. Michener

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it.
Establish your priorities and go to work. ~ H.L. Hungt