Let me share another tool that I've used to keep myself inspired. I call it an Inspiration Folder.

When I was graduating from high school, my English teacher wrote our class an inspiring letter that reviewed the lessons we had learned from our class discussions and readings. I liked the letter so much that I put it in a manila folder.

Later that year, a classmate I admired passed away in a rock-climbing accident. It felt right to add her memorial program to the folder, so I did.

Two years later, I helped a disadvantaged youth write his college essay and I found his essay—where he described how he overcame losing his mother to cancer when he was 11— so inspiring that I added it to my folder. Over the ensuing years, I added one or two items a year.

Whenever I faced serious challenges this last decade, I pulled out my Inspiration Folder, full of letters, pictures, and other mementos that had inspired me at some point in my life. Invariably, I found that looking at the folder's contents deepened my appreciation for life, stirring up positive feelings and emotions that helped me to persevere.

If you had an Inspiration Folder, what would you put inside of it? If you are an educator, what would your students put in their Inspiration Folder?