Daily Motivator - April

[bluidkiti]

April 13

Each moment as it comes

Give less attention to what frustrates you and more attention to what fulfills you. Give less attention to what angers you and more attention to what nourishes you.

Give less time to empty distractions and more time to enriching experiences. Expend less energy seeking approval and more energy creating value.

Embrace the true adventure of navigating a meaningful path through a world filled with challenge, risk, complexity, and beauty. Steer clear of the superficial dramas and all the nonsense that masquerades as sophistication.

Be endlessly thankful for your deftness in recognizing what is possible. Have confidence in your ability to understand what is good, and right, and worth the investment of your attentiveness.

Appreciate the fact that many of the limitations making existence difficult also make existence possible. Keep in mind that there is a whole universe outside your mind, that you must do your best to learn to live in it.

With gratitude, with humility, with purpose, with love, face each moment as it comes. With a devotion to truth and authenticity, live well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 14

Life changes

By very definition, life does not stand still. Whatever you’re not working to improve, time and circumstance are busy eroding.

You are in some ways different today than you were yesterday. Tomorrow you’ll be a little different than today.

You will change, the world around you will change, and there’s no getting away from that. What you can do is embrace the changes and do your best to push them in a positive direction.

That’s one reason gratitude is so beneficial to your life. Gratitude shines a bright light on what’s valuable and enables you to build upon that value.

Changes can be painful and frightening, yet they also open up new opportunities. Instead of wishing in vain that the changes would stop, look for how you and others can work to benefit from those inevitable changes.

Life changes, and with each change comes some positive potential. Choose to make the most of that potential, and do what you can to change life for the better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 15

True sharing

Rather than sharing memes, share reality. Share your presence, your time, your experiences, your kindness.

True sharing heals hearts, inspires new strength, brings purpose to the forefront. And true sharing cannot be accomplished by merely tapping on a screen.

Share your stories face to face. Remember that listening is an important part of sharing too.

Sharing connects, empowers, informs. Whether sharing effort, expertise, joy, or grief, sharing can be of great value.

The more of yourself you put into what you share, the better. Sharing can make an ordinary experience into one that’s treasured for a lifetime.

Lives are richest when they offer benefit to and receive benefit from each other. True sharing is an excellent way to live.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 16

Loving benefactor

By all means keenly observe the world and make note of the things that can be improved. But take care not to internalize the entire deficit between life as it is and life as it could be.

You are a part of all that is. But the good you can do, as extensive as it may be, does not depend on you absorbing every burden that exists.

Your best hope of repairing what is broken is to operate from a perspective that’s apart from what is broken. Healing flows not from sickness, but from health.

Feel that healthy part of you, focus on it, celebrate it, and expand upon it. Rather than letting the problems of the world pull you down, live with so much goodness as to overwhelm them.

You have a great responsibility to yourself and to all of life. Yet that does not oblige you to agonize endlessly over every last one of life’s imperfections.

Every day, in every situation, you can make a meaningful positive difference. Seek to do so not as a grieving victim, but as a joyful, confident, and loving benefactor.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Sharing is also caring. Pain shared is also pain lessen.

[bluidkiti]

April 17

Intellectual humility

From the past you can gain some insights about the future. But just because you went through an experience once does not make you an expert on all the ways it could unfold next time.

Over the course of your life you’ve accumulated a great amount of useful knowledge. Yet it’s impossible for you to know everything about every subject.

It’s good when you can be realistically confident about particular issues and situations. It’s just as good to know and admit when you’re puzzled, when you don’t have sufficient experience or information.

Make good use of your knowledge and experience. Don’t waste your energy pretending to know more than you know.

If you have what seems like a stupid question, ask that question of someone who is likely to know the answer. Questions that seem stupid are actually very smart, because they often lead to a fundamental understanding.

No one is born with expertise about everything. Don’t let your ego get in the way of increasing your knowledge and wisdom with each passing day.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 17

Intellectual humility

From the past you can gain some insights about the future. But just because you went through an experience once does not make you an expert on all the ways it could unfold next time.

Over the course of your life you’ve accumulated a great amount of useful knowledge. Yet it’s impossible for you to know everything about every subject.

It’s good when you can be realistically confident about particular issues and situations. It’s just as good to know and admit when you’re puzzled, when you don’t have sufficient experience or information.

Make good use of your knowledge and experience. Don’t waste your energy pretending to know more than you know.

If you have what seems like a stupid question, ask that question of someone who is likely to know the answer. Questions that seem stupid are actually very smart, because they often lead to a fundamental understanding.

No one is born with expertise about everything. Don’t let your ego get in the way of increasing your knowledge and wisdom with each passing day.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 18

New territory and old routines

You find comfort sticking with your routine. But too much of the same routine will numb your spirit and mind.

It’s great when you can build and maintain a solid, stable structure to support your life. From that base you can add vibrance and energy by making regular forays into new territory.

Both the reliable routines and the challenging novelties can bring you value. See your life as an intentionally mediated balance between what you can depend on and what will compel you to grow.

Make it your choice to benefit from what you’ve never before experienced as well as from what you continue to experience. Bring treasures from home out into the world and bring treasures from the wider world back home.

When your existence feels too predictable, shake it up with something new. When things seem overly chaotic, seek refuge in the people, places, and activities you know and love.

Find strength in what endures and energy in what is new. Continue to enrich your life and your world with a healthy balance of both.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 19

Acknowledge reality

You are a participant in reality whether you acknowledge it or not. Your best option is to acknowledge it.

In your own mind, with your words, perhaps even with your actions, you can deny reality to various degrees. But what beneficial result can that possibly achieve?

Sure, you can envision a more favorable version of reality. Yet as desirable and compelling as that vision might be, it’s only a vision until you act to make it real.

And current reality is the ground upon which you’re able to act. You must acknowledge the world as it is if you’re to have any possibility of transforming it into the world you want it to be.

You can find ideas, inspiration, insight in fantasy. Nonetheless, where you live, where you can make a difference, is in reality.

Be eager to open your eyes and see that this is your reality. Now, get to work doing beautiful, useful, life-affirming things with it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 20

Intentional focus

Do you seek to utilize the power of focus? Then get your priorities straight.

To focus on one thing is to ignore all the other things. That can be costly because many of those other things have value.

Focus involves an intentional choice. What is important enough to focus on to the exclusion of all else?

Know specifically what you can afford to ignore for a while, and why. You’re paying a price for focus, so be sure to get sufficient value in return.

Second-guessing your choice to focus will erode that focus. Be certain of your commitment to that choice, and give your focus power, stamina, resilience.

Where you direct your focus is a serious and potentially life-changing choice. Choose honestly with yourself, and wisely.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 21

Tradition

You can learn a good bit from your own experience. You can learn vastly more from the experience of others.

Many values, customs and traditions are seen as antiquated, and most are indeed older than anyone can remember. But just because they’re ancient doesn’t mean they’re naive or unsophisticated or worthless.

You’re remarkably more informed today than any person who lived a thousand years ago. But can you really claim to possess more wisdom than the accumulated wisdom of all the people who have lived since that time?

That massive amount of experience-based wisdom has formed and refined the stories and values now considered traditional. It would be the height of arrogance to dismiss those traditions out of hand.

Certainly people in the past were fallible and made plenty of mistakes. That’s precisely why it can be so valuable to consider and understand the truths that still survive from their experiences.

Put in the work to improve upon what has come from the past. But don’t discard the past altogether, for that would be foolish indeed.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 22

Fulfill the promise

This is the day when you can live your experience. Here is the place where you will make a difference.

Now is the moment when you transform intention into action. The spot where you stand is your place to start.

It can be tempting to wait until later, but later never really gets here. The richness of life is always lived in the time that is, in the place you are, with the conditions you have.

Those conditions will never be perfect. Yet they are always sufficient and accessible, ready for you to act upon.

Invite yourself to be filled with gratitude and amazement at the extent of opportunity that’s now yours to seize. Give yourself a little push and initiate the momentum that can be.

Here you are with possibility all around you. Fulfill the great promise of the moment you’re in.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 23

Give yourself time

Give yourself time to think. Give yourself time to focus on your work.

Give yourself time to recover. Give yourself time to heal.

Give yourself time to be with those who matter most to you. Give yourself time to get lost in doing the things you love.

Give yourself time to explore the wonder of life and existence. Give yourself time for the things that challenge you to become stronger.

Give yourself time to relax. Give yourself time to wonder.

Give yourself time to appreciate and to express that appreciation. Give yourself time to truly live.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 24

Abundance of living

Fill the day, fill the season, fill your life with life. This moment is your opportunity to do what you haven’t already done in previous moments.

Take that opportunity and make the most of it. Add new dimensions of richness to your experience, to your world.

Sure, there are tasks that are important to repeat, or enjoyable and fulfilling to engage in again and again. Even so, you can always add new experiences, new challenges, new ideas, relationships and activities along the way.

Doing so intensifies your energy level, broadens your understanding, brings freshness and zest to life. It enables you to taste a whole range of possibilities.

You can’t say yes to everything, nor would you want to. Yet there are plenty of new directions that it’s appropriate and worthwhile for you to explore.

Give to yourself an abundance of living. Continue to discover how full and rich life can be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 25

Adventure that is yours

It can be valuable to make certain tasks and activities easier. But ease for the sake of ease does not sustain a fulfilling life.

By removing all the challenge from an undertaking, you can end up trivializing it. Do that too often, with too many of life’s pursuits, and life itself can appear to be trivialized.

You are not merely what you do. Yet what you do has a significant impact on who you are, on the quality of life you experience.

Risk, challenge, and uncertainty are not pleasant, but neither are they unequivocal enemies of your existence. Indeed, it is in dealing with the hard stuff that you gain access to and appreciation for much of the good stuff.

Your best stories are the ones in which you face adversities of some kind and emerge with a deeper well of strength. Real adventure is necessarily difficult and precarious, and is also essential to your sense of who you are.

Pay heed to the wisdom of your fears. But don’t be afraid to live all the adventure that is yours to live.

— Ralph Marston