August 28

Understanding and appreciation

The people around you don’t understand or appreciate you as much as you’d like. Get over it, get on with life, and save yourself a lot of angst.

You cannot force or guilt or otherwise manipulate someone else into more fully understanding or appreciating you. What you can do is work on your own understanding and appreciation of others.

Sure, it’s nice when people make an effort to understand you and let you know how much they appreciate you. But you have nothing to gain by repeatedly focusing your thoughts on how much or how little you’re appreciated.

Put that energy into offering and acting upon your own appreciation. Do the work to deepen your own empathy and understanding.

Other people will by and large relate to you based on how you relate to them. Any resentment you feel will be reflected back to you, so it’s in your best interest to let the resentments go.

Satisfy your sensible desire for more understanding and appreciation in the world in a way that actually works. Seek to improve your own understanding and express your own appreciation every chance you get.

— Ralph Marston

August 29

Bright new value

Something or someone you’ve depended on is suddenly gone, or severely disappoints you. That hurts.

When life takes a disappointing turn, you can’t avoid the pain. What you can avoid is prolonging that pain.

The loss leaves a gap in your life. You can’t rewind the clock and prevent what’s already happened, but you can certainly work to fill the gap.

It will never be the same as it was. Yet you can make it better than it is now, perhaps even better than before, in a new and different way.

You can continue to love and treasure what you’ve lost while also moving forward. You can take the goodness you experienced and give new life to it in a fresh new form.

Respect that your disappointment is well founded and honor the value you’ve lost. Then stride forward into the world, eager to seek bright new value for the benefit of yourself and those around you.

— Ralph Marston

August 30

Life’s real adventure

How many more memes do you need to look at? How many more feeds do you need to scroll through?

How many more pundits do you need to hear saying exactly what you expect them to say? How many more incidents of sensational, shocking behavior do you need to read about?

Imagine something completely different than all that. Imagine the unparalleled satisfaction of focusing your thoughts upon a single, engaging subject for a couple of hours, or months.

Rather than being pushed along through someone else’s narrative, consider forging your own trail toward truth and original insight. Instead of listening endlessly to what is chosen by a distant algorithm, listen at length to what resonates with your spirit.

There has never been more adventure available to anyone than the adventure available to you right now. Do the work to envision and to follow life’s real adventure, and savor the deep fulfillment it brings.

Life’s real adventure cannot be prepackaged in a warehouse or stitched together at a data center. It comes when you commit yourself to truth, purpose, value, and effort, and it’s a magnificent thing to experience.

— Ralph Marston

August 31

Reach across time

Consider for a moment all the things you’re thankful to your past self for doing. Today is your opportunity to do more of the same.

You can act in the present to make your future self thankful. In so doing, you’re able to reach across time and make improvements to experiences before you even have those experiences.

That’s an opportunity too valuable to waste. It’s an exciting possibility that can stimulate your imagination and push you into positive action.

You’re constantly in the process of creating consequences. At the same time, you’re always living with the consequences you previously set in motion.

By keeping those facts in mind when you make choices, you can optimize the quality of the consequences in your life. You can bring about consequences you look forward to rather than ones you dread.

Your future self is eager to be thankful to the person you are right now. Go right ahead and do what’s necessary to exceed those expectations.

— Ralph Marston