What Inspires You?

This is the question that came to me while doing some chores today. What inspires me? For me, inspiration is what keeps me going, gets me excited and pushes me forward. Here are a few of my inspirations:

- Creating something new (at least for me). When I see certain photos, I get into a frenzy thinking about how I'd create something similar, which drives me to think about the steps I need to take to accomplish certain things so that others can follow.
- Music. Sometimes I'll put on an album that I know I love, just because I know that I get stuff done when it's on. Other times I'll hear something new that will just kickstart my day and rock my world!
- Checking out the competition. When I see other people running their business, when I see their marketing materials, web sites and advertisements, I either think, "Ooh, that's nice. I'd better get on the ball." or, "I can do better than that!". Either way, it's a good thing.
- My wife. When I see how hard my wife, Belinda, works and how much time and effort she puts into her career and her extracurricular activities, I can't help but be inspired. I was just looking over her volunteer resume last night and was amazed. Seeing how much she does made me feel like a bit of a slacker. You can bet I'm going to step up my game after a conversation with my wife!

So that's a short list of my major sources of inspiration. Yours may be different. They may be purely financial or egotistical, and that's OK, as long as you're delivering a quality product to your clients. So, what inspires you?