Allow yourself to be inspired amid turmoil

There are all sorts of reasons for us to be depressed and demotivated. It’s too hot outside. Your budget just got cut for the third time this fiscal year. People aren’t driving enough. People aren’t shopping enough. People aren’t eating out enough. People are eating out too much.

The news doesn’t help much, considering GM is looking at more cutbacks and selling off more of its brands and we look to be a lot closer to the floor in gas prices than the ceiling.

Today is the birthday of Marc Chagall, a maverick painter who captured the hearts of millions with paintings that celebrated the vitality of life and the arts while making the mundane into something other-worldly and provocative. A Russian Jew, Chagall drew inspiration from the Russian Revolution, Stalinist oppression, the Holocaust and war. Dark events. Yet much of his art incorporates the simple, jovial primary colors used to express hope and optimism.

We can choose to stumble and stop when presented with challenges to our progress or we can elect to use those obstacles as stepping stones to greatness.

This may be the day we look back on and say, “I remember when I came back from the long Fourth of July weekend thinking things didn’t look real good and I made a decision to think critically and creatively about how to improve the situation. Things turned out well.”

Opportunity abounds. But it might be in slightly different places than we found it previously. We must be creative in where we look and how we approach the challenges.