Daily Motivator - May

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May 1, 2019
The purpose that is you

Have the courage to ask yourself this question, and to answer it. What means more to you than anything?

Your deepest purpose is beautiful, powerful. It can also be terrifying, inconvenient, uncomfortable.

It’s easy to get caught up in chasing all the things everyone else chases. What’s infinitely more fulfilling is to invest your life in what truly matters to you.

Just knowing what that is, requires great effort, humility, honesty, and faith. Actually following through on it, asks even more of you.

Yet you have the opportunity to fashion real meaning out of the moments, to sincerely care, to make a difference. You owe it to yourself, and to all of life, to take that opportunity.

Choose the challenge of filling every day with caring, with love, with meaning and fulfillment. Choose the purpose that is you, and live it well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 2

Good things take time

Instant gratification might feel good for a moment. Yet it cannot compare, in value or endurance, to the good things you can build over time.

The achievements you’ll treasure most are the ones that are the longest in coming. They’re the ones into which you put the most of who you are.

There simply are no substitutes for prolonged effort, commitment, and patience. And there certainly are no substitutes for the valuable things they will bring into your life.

Perhaps it seems shrewd to take all you can from life, as soon as you can. The far wiser approach, however, is to give to life, as much and as often as possible.

What you give is what ends up lasting the longest. What you give will build value and fulfillment far into the future.

Have patience, and know that some of the greatest treasures in life take a long time to fully arrive. That gives you the time, and the opportunity, to put the best of yourself into them.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 3

Small improvement

What can you do a little bit better today than yesterday? A small improvement is easy, and it can make a big difference.

A small improvement is much more desirable than no improvement. And a small improvement is always within your reach.

Even if no one else notices your small improvement, you will know. And that will set you up for further improvement tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.

When you decide to make just a small improvement every day, those improvements add up on top of each other. Soon, you will have made significant progress.

Once you’ve done the necessary work, do just a little more, make it a little bit better. Take advantage of the momentum you’ve already worked to put in place, and get a little more value from it.

Your effort has earned you the opportunity to add to it, to improve on it. Do your work a little bit better each time, and those small improvements will add up to big results.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 4

Act the way you want to feel

Want to feel more positive, energetic, enthusiastic? Then act like it.

If your thoughts are defeating you, overpower those thoughts with positive behavior. When you can’t think your way out of a negative attitude, start acting your way out.

A single positive action can quickly overcome hours or days worth of negative feelings. Get yourself on the move, get yourself physically doing something useful, and your frame of mind suddenly improves.

Even better, find a way to do something positive and helpful for someone else. Something as simple and easy as a genuine smile can make a big difference for everyone who experiences it.

Stand up straight, hold your head high, breathe deeply, walk confidently forward. You will immediately feel the way such actions improve your outlook on life.

When you take positive action, your whole being takes notice and follows along. Act the way you want to feel, and that’s precisely how you’ll be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 5

Everyday progress

Slow, steady, incremental progress doesn’t make the headlines. Yet it does make life profoundly better.

Millions upon millions of people, for example, quietly and reliably make their mortgage payments each month. Over time, with no fanfare, this ends up building a massive amount of collective wealth in the hands of individuals.

Although heroic efforts do occasionally play a role, life advances mostly because of slow, everyday progress. It’s the kind of progress you can make right now, and again in the next moment, the next day, month after month, year upon year.

Though it may not seem like much that you can make a small positive effort, over time those efforts add up. Over time, those things that just take a moment here and a moment there, have a major impact on your life.

Stay constantly connected to your values, your goals, your dreams, all you love and care about, as you go through each new day. Be ever willing to support it all with even the most seemingly insignificant actions.

Over time, your everyday efforts will change your world. Live with love and a positive perspective, and those changes will be for the better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 6

Where life is at the moment

If you assume somewhere else is better, then you deprive yourself of enjoying and benefiting from where you are. If you yearn for a different time, then you steal from yourself the time you’re currently going through.

It’s great to have dreams, goals, plans for where you want to go, what you want to experience. Work toward those aspirations, while also fully inhabiting and treasuring the life you have right now.

When someone is speaking to you, listen, really listen, with all your awareness. Avoid becoming absorbed in what you’re going to say in reply, or wondering when you can check your social media feed.

When you do anything, do it with everything you have. If you’re always thinking of other times, places, people and issues, you’re only living a fraction of your life.

Right here, right now is where you find peace, joy, love, wonder, healing, connection, and so much more. Don’t render yourself absent from the value of what is.

This is where life is at the moment, and there is so much richness to be lived. Be fully present for it all.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 7

Great progress

Want to make your work a whole lot easier? Stop fighting against the necessity of getting it done.

Yes, there are reasons why you haven’t gotten the work finished. But don’t let them become excuses for never getting around to it.

Of course, you face serious challenges, but they don’t have to intimidate you. Choose instead to let them energize you.

Go ahead and accept the fact that the task is difficult, that life is difficult. Then step forward and deal with each difficulty.

Put your effort into creative, productive achievement rather than complaints and self-pity. Use your time and resources to work through the difficulties instead of cursing and avoiding them.

Push yourself forward through the challenges, and experience the genuine fulfillment of doing so. Make the great progress you are here to make, every chance you get.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 8

Lost opportunities

Don’t let today’s moments deteriorate into tomorrow’s lost opportunities. Make good use of the time you have now, while you have it.

Regret is easy to create, and painful to live with. You create it by doing nothing, and the pain appears when you eventually realize that opportunity has passed you by.

Now is when you can steer clear of tomorrow’s regrets. You can put today’s hours and circumstances, resources and energy to meaningful use.

Capture the unique value of now by living it fully, by working it diligently. Appreciate the potential richness that is right here in front of you, and bring it to life.

Tomorrow will have its own opportunities. But if you squander today’s time and opportunities, you won’t be able to replace them.

Live today fully, work its opportunities productively, and use its moments wisely. Then you can wake up tomorrow not regretful, but inspired and ready to do even more.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 9

Life privilege

What a privilege it is to be living this day. What good fortune you have to see, to know, to learn, to give, to unite, to love.

It’s all too easy to get caught up in minor issues of the moment. All too easy to forget what a great privilege you hold, being alive right now.

Spend a few thoughts dwelling on that privilege, and the good you can do with it. Feel the power and goodness of life as it is focused in this time, in this place, through you.

Wade out into the cool, flowing stream of existence. Let this day’s possibilities invigorate you to the core.

Discover new energy in the growing awareness of all the ways you can make a difference. Experience the satisfaction of transforming your unique privilege into value that lifts up all of life.

With all it encompasses, in whatever way it has unfolded, your life itself is a great privilege. Now you have the privilege of living life for the greatest good you can envision.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 10

Make the problem smaller

How do you make a problem smaller? By going to work on it.

When the problem is just a concept, it can grow in your mind to limitless proportions. But once you start to actually work on it, you see firsthand that it’s not as difficult as you thought it would be.

Simply taking the first step to solve the problem, to meet the challenge, creates a dramatic change. You transform it from a force that is pushing against you to a path upon which you can move forward.

Continue with your effort, and the problem increasingly changes from a negative influence into positive value. As the problem gets smaller, the payoff for your work gets bigger.

Each step you take brings you closer to having the problem completely behind you. All the while, your strength, ability, and confidence continue to grow.

Whatever problem you encounter, don’t let it intimidate you. Quickly get to work on the problem, make it smaller, and keep going until you’ve put it far behind you.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 11

Modest efforts

There’s something you can do right now that will be better than doing nothing. Go ahead, get it done.

There’s an action you can take that won’t be perfect, but it will be effective, and improve things. Go ahead, take that action.

Perhaps you have many conflicting options, and are unsure which one would be ideal. Pick one, go ahead with it, and you’ll quickly discover whether or not it’s right for you.

Progress is not a fairy tale in which everything works out perfectly. Progress is messy, inconsistent, inconvenient, fraught with uncertainty, and yet even with all that, it’s preferable to no progress at all.

The small improvement you make right now won’t save the whole world overnight. Yet it’s a whole lot better than doing nothing at all, and the small improvements do add up.

Right now is your opportunity to do what you can, to push the darkness back a little, to pull your life ahead a little. And little by little, today, tomorrow, and the next, your modest efforts can grow into big results.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 12

What today is about

Decide what today is about. Give it a purpose, give it a reason, give it a specific direction.

Decide what today is about for you, and honor the decision by living it that way. Give it a solid purpose so you don’t waste any of its priceless time.

Make your intention strong and you’ll make the distractions disappear. Make your purpose unequivocal and you’ll generate real value with your time and efforts.

Give your life in this moment right now the full respect and attention it deserves. Give yourself a consequential way to live the day ahead.

This is when you can do what you’ve always told yourself you’d do. Today is your chance to steer your life in the most meaningful direction you can imagine.

Before another moment passes, decide what today is about. Give to yourself and your world the great benefit of a day well lived.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 13

Good things take time

In time, the clouds will part and the sun will shine. In time, wounds will heal and understanding will grow.

You cannot have it all right now, and that’s really not even what you want. Good things take time, and that gives you the opportunity to fully appreciate them when they arrive.

Good things take time, and that provides you with the enjoyment of looking forward to them. It gives you the chance to develop genuine enthusiasm for whatever is coming your way.

If you push and shove to be the first, what you’ll really be is the worst. If you have no patience, you’ll experience no real fulfillment.

Any pleasure or reward you acquire in an instant will fade just as quickly. Choose instead to seek those lasting rewards that require an investment of your time, your commitment, your love and patience.

Good things take time. Make use of your time to fill your life with those good things.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 14

Make meaning

Now is when you give new meaning to life. Now is when you add richness and substance to your experience.

From the overreaching concepts, from the minuscule details, you can create meaning in this moment. Through your actions, your insights, your attention, your caring, meaning comes to life.

The world is a wondrous place, but do not consign yourself to merely watching. Engage with life, give of your genuine self, and make meaning.

Treasure all the meaning you’ve created and experienced, but don’t let it make you complacent. This new moment, this unique situation, is your opportunity to create more.

In the ordinary, in the unexpected, in what’s peculiar, in what’s familiar, you’ll find the potential for new meaning. Let that meaning flow from deep within you into conscious experience and creative expression.

Here is your day. Fill it with meaning.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 15

Focus on it

Don’t let your awareness become diluted into insignificance by a bewildering accumulation of random stimuli. Guide yourself with clear intention through meaningful, authentic experiences.

Be fully where you are. Focus completely on what you are doing.

If you attempt multiple things at once, you won’t do any of them well. You have the power for amazing feats of achievement, when you choose to focus that power on one task at a time.

You have a world of information in the palm of your hand. Yet true wisdom comes when you look up from the screen, into the eyes of the person you’re with, and really listen, really engage, really focus and understand.

Pay attention, and connect yourself to the unique value of the moment you’re in. Don’t let your awareness run away from the rich opportunities that are right in front of you.

It’s ridiculously easy to distract yourself, and extremely foolish. There is great treasure right here, right now, if you’ll simply discipline yourself to focus on it.

— Ralph Marston