We all view life with our unique lens. Mine is experienced through various prisms like writer, urban dweller, Italian-American, Northeasterner and life coach, among others.

While my inner writer was dazzled by the recent memoir excerpt in The New York Times Magazine by David Carr, my inner life coach took great interest in this passage: “Slogans saved my life. All of them – the dumb ones, the imperatives, the shameless, witless ones. I lustily chanted some of those slogans and lived by others.”

Carr’s story is about being a recovered crack addict who got custody of his twin girls, got off welfare and raised them. He now has a life he repeatedly says he doesn’t deserve and it includes a happy marriage and a prominent job in journalism. The slogan he cites as the main one that helped him at Eden House, a long-term therapeutic community, is, “The answer to life is learning to live.”

Yes, perhaps with emphasis on the final word – live – because we all define that in our own way. But that’s another column. This one is about what inspires us and that, too, is defined by the individual. This became really clear to me back when The Secret was all the rage. I remember reading a critique of it that particularly took aim at people who are always looking to be inspired. That gave me pause because it had never occurred to me before that there are people who don’t give a darn about being inspired. Say what?

Sometimes I think I feed off the stuff of inspiration -- thought-provoking quotes, real-life stories. Even now, as I sit at my home desk, I am surrounded by inspiring messages:

“When I began I was like everyone else.” –Claude Monet

“Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can have. It’s much sexier than any body part.” –Aimee Mullins

“Fortune favors the bold.” – Virgil

And it is no coincidence, I’m sure, that I attract people into my life who like this kind of inspiration as well. I consistently recommend books, clip articles or quotes or send links to my clients. They love it. I love it. Sometimes I hear an inspiring story and I save it to tell a client during a session so I can see the dawn of realization across the table or hear it through the phone line. If I’ve used the device well, they’re thinking, “Wow, that could be me.”

For example, when a client is struggling to identify a career path and perhaps thinks his passion or gift is quirky or doesn’t translate to an existing job, he may be primed to hear about the guy who earned a six-figure salary blogging about The Dukes of Hazzard a few years ago. I think it’s safe to say that guy didn’t grow up hoping to land that gig.

Someone who is truly inspired will not be constrained by what currently exists or what is dictated to them. That’s why I encourage people to imagine the best possible scenario for themselves and use inspiration as a tool where needed. Some of my friends hold editorial positions for prominent Web sites and here I am writing for a major network site, yet the Web didn’t exist when we began cultivating our careers. We were just following our passion and working hard at it.

Inspiration makes it easier to ponder going outside of the box. Nowadays, when someone enrolls in culinary school, they do so with the knowledge that there is an entire television network devoted to their craft and it adds another dimension of possibility. Isn’t that inspiring? And it begs the question, what else might there be in a few years?

Last weekend was the conclusion of The Next Food Network Star and I realized there is something wonderfully pure about viewing that show through a life coaching lens. Watching people go after a dream with so many obstacles and opportunities concentrated in one intense experience is a bit nerve-racking, but it is also powerfully tangible and therefore inspiring.

There I go again, loving when the universe decides to send some inspiration my way. Sometimes it comes in “light” form like television shows or quotes and sometimes it is much deeper, as in the story of David Carr and his little girls. I just love the humanness and the sharing of an experience.

I recently gave a mug from the “Life is Good” collection to my cousin’s daughter for her high school graduation. It says, “Do what you like. Like what you do.” I want her to see that in her dorm room every single day in hopes that it will be just one part of a broad spectrum of inspiration in her ever-changing life.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.