What INSPIRES You?

What keeps you inspired? How do you re-energize yourself? Who or what motivates you to BE your best self and DO your best work?

My weekly dose of inspiration is the TV show CBS Sunday Morning. It is like a weekly "Intellectual Disneyland" that stimulates creative appreciation for our world.

Every single time I watch it, I have a "You make me want to be a better person" moment (from the movie As Good as It Gets with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.)

This morning's show was a perfect example.

I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch (and/or read) this uplifting interview with the genius Jon Batiste on the healing power of love and music.

It initially focuses on his 11 Grammy Award nominations for his visionary WE ARE album and original score for the Pixar movie SOUL - and then segues into how he composed daily lullabies for his wife (and bestselling author) Suleika Jaouad as she deals with leukemia.

"We're sitting in this chemo suite together," she says, "while these phone calls of congratulation are coming in. And we're having to hold these two realities ... the gutting, heartbreaking, painful things and the beautiful, soulful things in the same palm of one hand."

Seated at the piano, Batiste SHOWS correspondent Jim Axelrod (and us) how, when their world was turned upside-down, right-side up all at the same time, he responded with a act of defiant optimism that communicates simultaneous shifts between darkness and brightness.

It is creative expression at its best.

Why has CBS Sunday Morning been my favorite TV show for decades?

For episodes like this.

Episodes that feature man's humanity to (wo)man.

Episodes that showcase individuals who represent the best of human KIND.

Episodes that make us grateful to be alive and that call us to be a better person.

Quotes are also a continuous source of inspiration that reconnect me with my higher self.

They are like little mental life rafts I cling to and climb aboard in challenging times.

So often they offer the right words at the right time that remind me to focus on what's right.

As Tara Conklin says, "Your greatest work of art is the story you tell about yourself."

Here are a few favorites that help us tell better stories about our self and our world.

Quotes That Call Us To Be a Better Person

1. "It is never too late to be who you might have been." - George Eliot
2. "There are always flowers for those who want to see them." Matisse
3. "I imagine that YES is the only living thing." e.e. cummings
4. "Today is the only life you are sure of. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you." - Dale Carnegie
5. "The life you've led doesn't need to be the only life you have." - Anna Quindlen
6. "If you're searching for the one person who will change your life, look in the mirror." - Roman Price
7. "If in doubt, walk until your day becomes interesting." - Rolf Potts
8. "The cure for anything is salt water; sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesen
9. "You can do some rather extraordinary things, if that's what you believe." Toni Morrison
10. "I am in love with hope." - Mitch Albom

Please share a comment about who or what keeps you inspired? Looking forward to a "rising tide" collection of diverse examples and hope-filled insights that elevates us all.