Daily Motivator - February

[bluidkiti]

February 15

Ambition

Most of the systems and conveniences that support your daily life have been brought to you by ambition. Every technological advancement, from your flush toilet to the back-up camera on your car, came from someone’s ambition.

It’s often considered selfish or greedy for a person to be ambitious. And there certainly is an element of self interest in ambition.

Nonetheless, everyone benefits greatly from the accumulation, century after century, of the fruits of ambition. Without it, life for many people would be a grim, dismal experience in almost every moment.

Ambition is not perfect, and is definitely not the entire point of life. But neither is it something you would want to be lacking in your own life or in the lives around you.

Yes, ambition can resonate with greed. Yet that is far outweighed by the fact that ambition is also the basis for discipline, focus, persistence, creativity, and responsibility.

Ambition connects deeply to the drive that keeps you alive. Feel it, follow it, and let it push you to make life better than it otherwise would have been.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 16

Small opportunities

The small pleasures are enjoyable, and easy to come by. The small victories are helpful, and close at hand.

A small kindness requires very little time or effort. Yet it may well be remembered and appreciated for years.

A small improvement is simple to make and can provide benefits that continue day after day. The small accomplishments, as inconsequential as each may seem, can add up to major achievements.

Sometimes the things you do will have a big impact, and that’s wonderful. But don’t overlook all the opportunities to have a small impact.

Many of those small opportunities are here in front of you today. Within a matter of moments you can be well on your way to making life a little better.

Feel the gentle breeze as it signals a fresh new moment. In a small yet significant way, there’s goodness to be lived.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 17

Not knowing

What I know, what you know, what anyone knows is only a small fraction of the way the world works. That’s a good thing to keep in mind.

Anyone who pretends to always have insight into everything that could possibly come up is doing just that, pretending. Someone with a firm grip on reality is someone who willingly admits to not knowing.

It is a whole lot smarter to admit you don’t know than to pretend you do. Such pretense fools no one and even worse, it sabotages the opportunity to learn, to cooperate, to gain trust.

When stumbling forward in the dark it’s helpful to have the modest light of a small truth. That small truth is the fact that you don’t know the entire truth.

Fortunately, you can always learn. You can shine that small, honest light of humility and curiosity in more and more places.

Begin with the accurate assumption that you don’t know it all. From that point, you can learn much and go far.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 18

Engage with existence

Possibilities dance around you, tempting, warning, inviting. Pick the one that best serves your purpose right now, and go with it.

Don’t settle for merely wondering what might have been. Engage with this magnificent existence you’re part of, and discover what can be.

Is the weather cloudy, sunny, stormy, hot or cold? Are the people around you disagreeable, helpful, distant, or kind?

Whatever the situation, there’s something good you can do with it. A few short steps away is a new experience ready to be lived.

In the next few hours you can transform potential into concrete value. You can pull some particular and meaningful form of richness from your imagination and bring it into reality.

Give yourself a big, healthy dose of the satisfaction that comes from participating fully in life. See what great things happen when you embrace the good fortune of being here right now.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 19

This is when

Whatever else you have or do not have, you have now. You have the experience of this moment.

Perhaps it is painful, or maybe it is comfortable. Most likely it is somewhere in between.

Yet no matter the nature of this moment, of this experience, it has value. Now, and only now, is your chance to live that value.

Step away from any thoughts or feelings that push you out of the moment. See right now for the opportunity it is, for the depth of life it contains.

This is when you can understand, this is when you can experience, this is when you can act. This is when you can live.

The past is gone, the future is a mere concept, and all that is, everything you are, is right now. Be here fully in the best way you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Thank you God for the here and now.

[bluidkiti]

February 20

Intentional input

The quality of the question shapes the usefulness of the answer. The quality of the goal determines the value of the achievement.

What you put into this day has much to do with what you get out of it. Though you can’t guarantee success you can always make it a whole lot more likely.

Your expectations exert influence, and that influence is greatly multiplied when backed up by action. Ask yourself, what do you expect, and what are you doing about it?

If you expect to have endless rewards heaped upon you just because you desire them, you’ll be disappointed. Expect instead to give your best no matter what the challenge, and you’re sure to find fulfillment along the way.

Each choice opens up other choices, and every effort creates opportunities for further efforts. That’s why your intentional input matters so much, because it drives your choices and energizes your efforts.

Consider the intentions you are truly committed to following right now. Whatever you put in has a lot to do with what you get out.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 21

Goodness is always there

You quickly notice what surprises you. You fail to notice much of what you were already expecting.

Precisely for this reason, almost all the news you learn about is bad news. News outlets are rewarded for getting you to engage with their content, and that means they must surprise you.

But that news does not accurately portray all that happens in the world. It mostly highlights what is shocking and unusual.

Every day there are thousands of airplane flights that do not crash. Every day there are billions of people who live routine and relatively untroubled lives.

Certainly everyone’s life can benefit from some improvement. Still, there’s a massive amount of goodness in life that goes completely unnoticed because it is so commonplace.

Even though you cannot possibly notice it all, remind yourself how very much of life’s goodness is always there. And be inspired to create even more.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 22

Empowering vision

What helps you to cope with the difficult, oppressive people in your world? One important way is to maintain a vision for your life that far transcends any harm those people could inflict on you.

That vision is not easy to come by. Yet it is worth whatever you must do to identify, develop and fortify it.

The challenges you voluntarily take on not only strengthen you, they show you who you are, what you value, what you desire. With each challenge you work through, your overarching vision gains power and becomes more refined.

That vision empowers you to live beyond the present. You’re able to see to the other side of setbacks and difficulties, and work your way there.

If your course has no clear purpose, even the smallest negative comment or incident will knock you off that course. Yet with a strong and well-integrated vision, nothing can stop you from moving in the direction you intend to go.

Focus intently on what matters and why. And you’ll have the wherewithal to successfully deal with all the other stuff that doesn’t.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 23

Good living to do

Your problems will not all be solved by tomorrow. Yet by tomorrow, you can make consequential progress toward getting many of them solved.

You won’t arrive at the life of your dreams by the end of next week. Yet you do have plenty of meaningful options you can act upon to bring those dreams closer each day.

Life is not perfect, and will not be perfect anytime soon. Even so, you have much good living to do today, tomorrow, and all the days that follow.

Many of the good things in life take time. The sooner you start to move toward them, the longer you’ll be able to benefit from them.

Plus, the value of any improvement begins long before the improvement is complete. Just knowing that you’re working in a positive direction can add a very real sense of fulfillment to each moment.

The future favors those who take the time and trouble to invest themselves in it. Right now is when you can do precisely that.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 24

Your choice now

You’ve had numerous successes in your life and you’re destined for more. In matters large and small, when you make the choice you make the effort.

So the question to repeatedly ask yourself is this. What will you now choose?

How will you make the most meaningful and fulfilling use of the time and resources available to you? Which of the many pathways will you now decide to follow?

Over and over again, when you truly commit yourself to a goal you’ve been able to reach it. If something is important enough, if it is an authentic priority, you know how to make it happen.

So what priorities will you choose right now? Upon what will you focus your proven powers of achievement?

Whatever you make into a priority has a decent chance of becoming real. Choose your priorities right now with care, because you are indeed choosing how your life will soon be.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Sobriety will always be my top priority.

[bluidkiti]

February 25

Yours today

Whatever you are, however you are, own it. Whatever you do, engage in it fully.

Live every moment with authentic intensity born of gratitude, wonder, kindness, love. Marvel at all that’s available to you, at all you can do with it, and transform that feeling into action.

When you don’t know, admit that, and then you can learn. When you do know, make good use of that knowledge, apply it toward positive and meaningful purposes.

Begin each day early, ready and willing to make a positive impact. Persist in your effort, long after you’ve worked on through the initial impulse to give up.

Recognize the unique position you occupy. Understand the richness of time and opportunity with which you’re endowed, right now.

Do, think, dream, feel, with everything you are. Life is yours today, and well worth all you can give.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 26

Choose the best attitude

Is your attitude holding you back? You have permission, and you have the ability, to adjust it, to improve it.

You don’t need to get angry with yourself or disappointed in yourself about the way you see the world. Simply choose to see the world in a more creative, productive, useful light.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the way you’ve been, with the way you are. Still, you can pull yourself up right now to a whole new level of awareness and effectiveness.

Imagine you’re standing at a door, and on the other side of that door is everything necessary to get great work done. Would you choose to walk through that door?

In exactly the same manner, your more beneficial attitude is just a quick and simple choice away. Make that choice without delay.

Your attitude plays a major role in the way you feel and in the way you live each moment. Choose the best one possible right now.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

February 27

Your thoughts show

What if the people around you could see your every thought? Would you be proud of those thoughts, or would you be embarrassed and ashamed?

In fact, the world can see your thoughts. Because your thoughts do eventually make themselves known in the way your life plays out.

If you carry around hateful, angry, cynical and destructive thoughts, those thoughts will infect your life with misfortune, disappointment and emptiness. When most of your thoughts are thankful, loving, creative and joyful, those thoughts will be expressed through your life as success, achievement, and good fortune.

In each moment, you are able to choose your thoughts. As the moments build on each other, those thoughts you have chosen become clearly apparent in the details of your life.

Your thoughts are yours to create, control and direct, to hold on to, to let go of. By increasing the positive value of your thoughts, you bring real, positive substance into your world.

Choose thoughts that you’d be pleased for all the world to see. And those thoughts will lead to a life that is impressive indeed.

— Ralph Marston