Daily Motivator - May

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May 16

Face the problem

Facing a serious problem is tough. Yet the long-term consequences of avoiding that problem will be even more difficult.

There is no easy choice, but it’s easy to see there is an optimal choice. Facing the problem, as burdensome as it may be, is less burdensome than forever running from it.

Wishing that the problem had never happened, doesn’t improve anything. Pretending the problem isn’t there does not make it go away.

You have a strong, innate desire to follow the least objectionable path. Put that desire to work for you.

Remind yourself that the pain of avoidance will be far greater than the pain of facing the problem. Then let your own natural desire to avoid the bigger pain, push you to embrace the lesser pain of taking action.

Make a difficult path easier to choose by comparing it to an even more difficult option. Face the problem once and for all, long before it can become much worse.

— Ralph Marston

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May 17

To have courage

Where does courage come from? It comes from purpose.

You cannot avoid the risks of life. What you can do is give yourself powerful enough reasons to endure and to mitigate those risks.

Do you seek to have courage? Then make sure you know why.

Go beyond merely speaking about what’s important to you. Live it, feel it, act it out every day.

Courage does not come from wanting to have courage for the sake of courage, or for the sake of appearances. Courage comes from the desire to create the best life you can envision for yourself and all those you care about.

Courage is what you have when you live beyond yourself, beyond the expediency of the moment. Fill your life with purpose, and you’ll imbue your actions with courage.

— Ralph Marston

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May 18

Richness in quality

You cannot do everything at once. Yet you can do one thing at a time, and that is always a priceless opportunity.

Your commitment to one particular path is not what causes you to miss out on everything else. For even without that choice you would not have been able to do all those other things.

What you can do is travel down one road at a time. What you can do is experience life as it comes to you with no regrets or second thoughts about what could have been.

Don’t let your fear of missing out prevent you from choosing and committing to the good things you can experience. You cannot taste all the flavors of ice cream today but you can get great enjoyment by choosing one.

If it were indeed possible to have it all, then nothing at all would be special. Joy comes not from experiencing everything but rather from giving yourself fully to whatever you are experiencing.

You’ll find much more richness in quality than you will in quantity. Your best choice is the one you make, and the one you treasure with the way you live it.

— Ralph Marston

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May 19

Live this day

Life has never before been the way it is now. This is your opportunity to add a new dimension, a new level of meaning, to your experience.

Even a small, simple thing can be the source of great new wonder. Even a modest action can make you more alive than you’ve ever been.

Watch with awe and gratitude as the highest branches of trees catch a fresh breeze. What beauty, what value, what insight can you give this moment in return?

A million possibilities sparkle right in front of you. Each one of them can add new substance to your life, to your world, to all of existence.

Take full measure of what you have, of what you can do, of how you can be. See the goodness that can come from the choices you make, the words you speak, the actions you take.

Look up with eyes of amazement, step forward with passion and purpose. And live this day as the magnificent treasure that it is.

— Ralph Marston

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May 20

The first step

The first step is difficult and it is also powerful. Take that first step, get yourself going, then keep going.

Once you take the first step, you’re invested. Once you take the first step, you have momentum working in your favor.

Make the transition from intention to action. Go from the concept of achievement to the reality of achievement.

No matter how much or how little prior experience you have, the first step will give you more. It will focus your experience, your skills, your thoughts and actions on a specific objective.

Going ahead with the first step sends a message to yourself and the world that you are serious. You’ve gone beyond merely wishing, or wondering, or planning, and are taking solid action.

Take the first step and feel the powerful difference it makes. Then carry on with ever-increasing momentum until the job is done.

— Ralph Marston

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May 21

Forgive, let it go, move forward

You cannot avoid being hurt sometimes by the carelessness, ignorance, or malice of others. Yet you can very much avoid prolonging that hurt.

Yes, it’s bad that bad things happen, whether intentionally or otherwise. But continuing resentment over them does not ever make them better.

What will make your life better is forgiveness. What will free you from the pain is to let it go.

It’s tempting to imagine that you’re winning some sort of moral victory by continuing to suffer. The real victory, however, comes when you move completely beyond the whole affair.

Don’t incapacitate yourself with an awareness clouded by resentment and the desire for revenge. You deserve to go in the direction of better, more positive pursuits.

Choose a hopeful future over a difficult past. Forgive, let it go, move forward with renewed energy and positive purpose.

— Ralph Marston

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May 22

Purposeful perspective

Step back for a little while today, tomorrow, and every day. Remember who you are, where you came from, where you seek to go.

It’s all too common to get caught up in those things that seem important but really do not matter. It’s much too easy to ignore what you truly want to be, to experience, to achieve.

So make some time in every day for your best visions, your most respected values, your treasured dreams. As you do what you do, continue to align yourself with why you do what you do.

There’s a vital part of you that yearns for the adventure of living true to who you are. There’s a whole sophisticated set of abilities within you that can deliver that adventure.

No matter what limitations you may face, you can always live up to your highest ideals. You can connect every action, every thought to a purpose that transcends the limitations of the moment.

Look at what’s going on, at what you’re doing, with full awareness of what matters most to you. Live with a purposeful perspective, and you’ll always bring your best to life.

— Ralph Marston

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May 23

Today’s joys

Later is too late. Live today’s joys today.

Honor your commitments, do your work. But don’t let it become an excuse to put off the joys you can create and experience right now.

Joy refreshes you, inspires you, energizes you. And there’s a lot of good you can do with that energy.

Joy connects you with purpose, with love, with all you value. Joy reminds you why you do what you do, why you seek what you seek.

Joy is yours to choose here, now. Joy asks only that you allow it, express it, share it, and when you do, the moment is filled with its energy.

Offer the value of joy to those you’re with, to where you are, to what you’re doing. Live today’s joys, for the only time to do so is now.

— Ralph Marston

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May 24, 2021

Open to new experiences

You don’t have to get caught up deciding the absolute perfect thing to do. Just start where you are and move toward whatever looks the most fulfilling, valuable, intriguing.

You can’t know in advance how life will play out. What you can do is give your care and attention to the details as they emerge.

Consider how many great opportunities have been missed by people holding out for the ideal opportunity. Avoid getting caught in that trap.

A few possible courses of action clearly won’t do, and you can dismiss them out of hand. Then from all the other possibilities, pick one and go right ahead with it.

It probably won’t be the best thing you’ve ever done, though it could be. Yet it’s likely to be a whole lot better than doing nothing.

Be open to new experiences, especially the ones you’re not certain about. Adventure is where you find it, and you can find it just about anywhere.

— Ralph Marston

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May 25

Make good use

What valuable knowledge, skills, resources, or possibilities in your life are underutilized? What good and useful things are you already able to do that you’re not doing as much as you could?

Eventually the opportunities you now take for granted will no longer exist. Make good use of them while you can, or you’re likely to experience painful regrets later.

When you make use of the opportunities available to you, you end up creating other opportunities. So as the older opportunities run their course, you have plenty of new ones to take their place.

But what happens if you ignore and neglect current opportunities? Future opportunities are not nearly so plentiful.

Perhaps you have more than most other people, or perhaps you have much less. Whatever you have, make use of it, whatever you can do, go ahead and do it.

Think about what’s possible for you right now. Expand and extend your abilities, your resources, your opportunities, and your possibilities by making good use of them.

— Ralph Marston

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May 26

Go where the challenges are

In what direction will you meet the most resistance? That’s the direction where you can create the most value.

What is the easiest option? That’s the option that won’t make much of a difference.

When a problem arises, an opportunity has been born. Where a challenge exists, there is value to be created.

The hard stuff is what makes the good stuff. The uncomfortable experiences are the ones that result in strength, fulfillment, richness.

The good life you enjoy today exists because countless people endured countless challenges. Now it’s your great privilege, and your most unfaltering source of fulfillment, to extend that legacy.

Go where the challenges are. That’s where you’ll manifest your greatest potential.

— Ralph Marston

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May 27

Live with balance

Be flexible enough to absorb the blows. Be rigid enough to hold together.

Be curious enough to explore new ways for moving forward. Be skeptical enough to avoid being led down dead-end paths.

Be tolerant enough to initiate and inspire genuine cooperation. Be discerning enough to create reasonable, valuable results.

Be impulsive enough to know what satisfies and fulfills you. Be disciplined enough to achieve what you seek to achieve.

Be respectful of the structures that already exist. Be fascinated by the possibilities of what is yet to come.

Life at its best is not any one thing or another to an extreme. Live with balance, and draw richness from every quality of life without being overwhelmed by any of them.

— Ralph Marston

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May 28

Begin and continue

The problem is not the problem. The problem is that you let the problem stop you.

It’s not a lack of preparation that holds you back. It’s not an absence of passion, or resources, or opportunity, that keeps you from achieving.

The only things that can hold you back are your failure to begin and your failure to continue. Fortunately those factors are completely within your control, right this moment.

Begin, and you’ve opened up a way forward. Continue, work through each challenge as it arises, and you’ll get where you intend to go.

Achievement begins when you take responsibility for it with your actions. Achievement happens when you follow through on that responsibility.

Ultimately achievement boils down to what you do. Begin the work, continue until it’s done, and you can make many good things happen in this world.

— Ralph Marston

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May 29

Truth above opinion

Your opinions can be highly useful. They can also be very dangerous.

Opinions help you to make sense of the world. Yet they can also blind you to important realities.

A strong opinion could prevent you from seeing what is otherwise perfectly obvious. It could also cause you to think you see what is actually not even there.

How do you benefit from your opinions without being deprived or deceived by them? Make sure your sense of humility is at least as strong as your strongest opinion.

The willingness to admit that you could be wrong makes your opinion more valuable, not less. Because it helps to square your opinion with what’s objectively true.

Find ways for your opinions to serve you without allowing them to dominate you. Seek truth above opinion, and receive benefit from both.

— Ralph Marston

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May 30

Do more

Do more of what gets you to think. Do more of what motivates you to act.

Do less of what leaves you sluggish. Do less of what wastes your time.

Find people and places that inspire you to imagine. Seek circumstances that fill you with energy and enthusiasm.

Life’s richness is here and now, ready for you to live it in your own unique way. Let the possibilities fill you with excitement, and push you into action.

Do more of what you know is right, and good, helpful, truthful, and fulfilling. Do more of the things that make you thrilled to wake up every morning.

No matter what you’ve done, or what you’ve neglected, now things are different. This is your chance to do more.

— Ralph Marston