Daily Motivator - April

[bluidkiti]

April 1

Cover the distance

There’s a certain distance between the life you envision and the life you are living. You can make use of today to close some of that distance.

There’s a certain distance between what you know you’re capable of doing, and what you’re actually doing. Right now you can make the distance a little smaller.

The way to traverse any distance is not to curse that distance. Choose instead to cover the distance, as much as you can, as often as necessary.

No journey of any significance has ever been completed in an instant. Cover the distance, a few inches at a time, a mile or two, a couple of days or weeks, as you can.

Between where you are and where you want to be, there is a specific distance. Work to cover that distance by taking specific action, in a consistent direction.

You have what it takes to make the distance less, and then less, and less again. Keep covering the distance, and you’ll get there.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 2

Maximize your positive impact

As soon as you begin the work, begin also to improve on the work. Observe what’s going wrong, what’s going right, and adjust accordingly.

Don’t use being busy as an excuse for being ineffective. Make the effort, and make the effort bring results.

Just because you are occupied doesn’t mean you are making progress. Stay busy, and look for signs to confirm you’re moving forward, not merely running in place.

It’s admirable and useful to push through your own frustration. Yet when you’re repeatedly encountering frustration, figure out a more effective approach.

You’re investing irreplaceable time and skillful effort, so don’t invest wastefully. Seek to maximize your positive impact and expand the value you’re able to create.

Do the work, and hold your work to a high standard. Don’t let yourself do any less than the best you can do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 3

Live with sincerity and substance

You don’t have to have an opinion on every latest controversy. You can live your life perfectly well without even knowing about most of them.

Indeed, there are so many much better directions in which to focus your attention. Your life is longing to be richly lived, not to be tediously argued about.

If you’re eager to assert your perspective, to make a statement, make it with the way you live. That has far greater power than crafting the most highly persuasive argument.

Avoid falling into an obsession over things about which you can do nothing other than speculate and disagree. Challenge yourself to put your time and energy into truly meaningful pursuits.

Seek to live with sincerity and substance. Discover new ways to act on your values rather than merely proclaiming them.

Look beyond the petty bickering and see the possibilities to make life better for everyone. Focus yourself on bringing those possibilities to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 4

Fill the emptiness

Without the possibility of silence, there could be no sound. Without emptiness, there would be no fulfillment.

When you sense emptiness what you’re actually feeling is the potential, the ability, to create. See emptiness not as a lack or an absence, but as the opportunity it is.

Empty spaces in your life provide you with space to live. The empty spaces are yours to fill with goodness, experience, value, love, and meaning.

Silence gives you the opportunity to speak, to express life in your own unique way. Darkness gives you a place to shine your own special light.

See that each empty moment is a treasure. It is yours to fill with meaningful and creative life.

When nothing is there, everything is possible. Embrace the opportunity in silence, in emptiness, in darkness, and make it into something beautiful.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 5

What do you want?

What do you want? Really, specifically, sincerely, what do you want to be, to have, to experience in your life?

How often do you ask yourself that question, and how clear are you with the answer? Because the degree to which you are clear and detailed about what you seek, determines precisely how successful you will be.

You can create what you truly desire, yet you must have a highly developed, detailed picture of what that is. You are absolutely able to have what you want if you’re willing to know and understand exactly what it is.

It is not some magical, mysterious process. It is simply a matter of directing your life, disciplining yourself to take certain specific actions and to avoid others.

The motivation to do so is not found in some clever technique that’s known only to a select few. That motivation is found in knowing what you genuinely want, and keeping that knowledge, that aim, at the front of your awareness.

Achievement is highly difficult and requires massive commitment. Amazingly, you can do it, and you will, as long as you’re clear about exactly what you seek to achieve.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 6

Improve the moment

Here’s what you can always do. Improve the moment.

You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission. You don’t have to lay out some grand scheme or gain access to a lot of resources.

Simply look around, see what will help, and do it. With love, with humility, with gratitude, improve the moment.

Surely you can spot one or two improvements that will make life a little better. Take the opportunity you have right now, and improve the moment.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to make a big deal about it. Quietly, steadfastly take it upon yourself to improve the moment.

Show life, in a practical and friendly way, how it can be better. With good cheer and enthusiasm, every chance you get, improve the moment.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 7

Choose wisely

Your choices brought you here. Your choices can now take you wherever you wish to go.

Nobody gets it perfect all the time. Yet you can learn from what did go right and from what went wrong, making your choices more and more informed and beneficial.

It may seem there are times when no one is watching the choices you make, but that is not the case. Because your future self is watching every choice.

And soon, your future self is going to be either very disappointed or extremely grateful for the specific choices you are making now. Today is your opportunity to make the choices your future self will thank you for.

Your choices combine with and expand upon each other to define the path your life follows. Consistently choose in a way that makes it a path to joy and fulfillment rather than a path to regret and despair.

Whatever your choices in the past have been, your choices now can move you precisely in the direction of the life you desire. Remind yourself all day long, in every situation, to choose wisely.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 8

Work to do

You’re not as good as you could be. You have much potential that is yet to be realized.

Though you’ve come a long way, you still have work to do. You still have much value to bring to life.

The most valuable thing you’ve achieved so far is the opportunity to achieve more. Take up that opportunity, with the highest expectations, and go forward with it.

The sense of meaning you feel in your life comes from the time, energy, thoughts, and actions you’ve invested to date. Now you have the chance to deepen and enrich that meaning.

As your best possibilities are fulfilled through your effort, even better possibilities arise to take their place. Ponder that glorious truth, and revel in the opportunity it represents.

Have the vision, live the courage, do the work that enables your potential to unfold into achievement. There’s always meaningful work to be done, and that’s what makes life so great to live.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 9

Something you can give

What you give to life, is what gives your life meaning. The challenges you face, the work you do, the commitments you honor, create substance in your life.

On the surface, in the moment, the most comfortable choice seems like the best choice. Yet in the long run, in the overall picture of your life and its meaning, the most challenging choice is likely the best.

As you go through this day, keep in mind that you’ll soon be looking back on the choices you are making. Will you look back with gratitude for the meaning and substance you added to your life, or with regret for opportunities missed?

Making a positive difference in life is not about looking good or garnering praise. It is about living well, giving of yourself, with a strong sense of meaning and purpose.

In each moment, there’s some little something you can do that will make life a bit better. There’s something you can give that will deepen your sense of positive purpose.

Give often in the direction of your highest vision of what is good and right. It adds up to a meaningful life, well lived.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 10

What’s inside

You can’t always control what arrives at your life’s doorstep. Yet you can choose how far to let it in, and what to do with it once it’s inside.

You certainly will not avoid every problem, and you wouldn’t want to anyway. Because problems push you to grow stronger, and give you access to new opportunities.

Yet no matter how many problems you encounter, or how big they are, they never have to get to the heart of who you are. You never have to allow any of the problems to define your life.

You can respond to every difficulty with fresh, new determination. You can build new strength and hold on to it, while letting go of any impulse to become cynical or discouraged.

What’s outside is what you often must deal with. What’s inside is up to you to choose.

Your attitude, your perspective, your inner hopes, dreams, and faith are yours to decide. As life unfolds, let each experience add positive value to the deepest, most enduring part of you that truly matters.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 11

Old treasures

What treasures do you have in your life that you’ve forgotten you have? What good things did you set aside for a while, and neglected to come back to?

Whatever held your love, curiosity, or fascination years ago could still have much to offer you. There was a good reason why it once was part of your life, and that reason might be even more powerful now.

A book you first read years ago may now hold much more meaning. An old friend from whom you’ve grown apart could now have much more in common with you.

Subjects that interested you when you were much younger still have a message for you today. Perhaps it would pay to think back, and to take another look.

Just because some things are old and familiar does not mean they are irrelevant. Now, with the advantage of time and experience, perhaps you can find deeper meaning and value in a few of those things.

Life’s ongoing urgencies and compromises have likely covered up some treasures that still are somewhere within you. Give yourself a chance to rediscover and reconnect with them.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 12

Circumstances don’t care

Your circumstances are not able to know or to care what you think about them. Your circumstances do not respond at all to the way you feel about them.

As such, your complaints, your anger, your anxiety will not convince your circumstances to change. Those responses will only deplete your energy and diminish your effectiveness.

Though you can’t convince your circumstances to change, you can inspire yourself to change in the face of difficult circumstances. You can act to improve those circumstances, or improve how you deal with them, or both.

There’s no point in being angry when your anger is not even going to be noticed. You have much more powerful and effective options.

Consider, honestly and realistically, what you can actually do, then commit yourself to following through with it. Direct your energy and your actions where they will make a positive difference.

Your circumstances don’t care what you think or feel, but your situation will respond to what you do about it. Take the smart approach, and invest your energy where it will have the most beneficial impact.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 13

Timely action

It is difficult to discipline your child when he is two years old. But it is much, much easier and more effective to do so than to wait until he is fourteen.

It is an inconvenience and an expense to get the engine oil changed in your car. Yet it is a far bigger expense and much greater inconvenience when the car stops running due to a lack of maintenance.

There is some small problem you can address right now that will prevent a much bigger problem in the future. Identify it, admit it, and deal with it.

Perhaps you’ve already waited too long, but that’s no reason to put it off even longer. Speak up now, take action today, get it behind you before it gets even worse.

Instead of pretending that everything is okay, take the steps that will actually make everything okay. There is so much good you can do, so many tragedies you can avoid, if you will simply act in a timely manner.

Face the difficulties, and you render them less difficult. Be eager to put your strength to use, and you’ll thank yourself for all the greater troubles you avoid.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 14

Future vision

Any concept you have of the future is just a simulation in your mind. It can be extremely useful to consider how life could unfold, as long as you don’t let it overwhelm and disable you.

Go ahead, peer inquisitively into the future. Learn all you can, and then come solidly back into the present.

Sometimes you can anticipate very accurately what’s going to happen. You can make good use of that knowledge to guide your life in a more positive direction.

Many other times, events do not unfold at all like you thought. So don’t get yourself too invested in what, after all, is your own speculation.

Instead, seek to combine your vision of the future with the undeniable reality of now. Apply your best guesses about tomorrow in ways that make a positive difference today.

Don’t be dismayed by problems that only exist in your imagined future. Be inspired to create so much value right now that those problems never have a chance to appear.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 15

Whatever is at hand

What is it about whatever just happened, that you can make good use of? What constitutes this moment, this situation, that can be of benefit to yourself and others?

Being positive is not a matter of wishing or pretending for life to be good. Rather, it is digging the best outcomes out of even the worst circumstances.

It’s easy to pick the low-hanging fruit, but that usually gets taken very quickly. Sustainable success means extracting value that’s not immediately obvious.

There’s something about this day, this place, this environment, that you can transform into richness. Look at the small details, at the big picture, in context, out of context, and find the potential value that’s surely there.

The treasure with which you fill life is not pre-defined. You can make as much of it as you choose, in any flavors you wish, out of whatever is at hand.

Surprise and delight yourself with your own resourcefulness. Discover again and again how good it feels to find meaning and beauty where no one ever saw it before.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 16

Give yourself a goal

Get the best from yourself by giving yourself a goal. Base your decisions in each moment on your commitment to that goal.

Each thought, each action, either moves you toward your desired outcome or away from it. Choose accordingly, guided toward the destination you have decided to reach.

Expand on those thoughts and continue those actions that lead you where you wish to go. Let other thoughts and actions quickly fall away from you.

Life is teeming with influences that can distract and disrupt you, wasting your time and sapping your energy. You cannot avoid all those influences, yet you can solidly immunize yourself against them.

Give yourself a meaningful goal, and give yourself a strategy for staying focused. Decide once, stick with that decision, and at every turn you’ll be clear on what you must do.

Give yourself a goal, and when you reach it, give yourself another. Spend each day aimed in a specific direction, and discover how much great value you can bring to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 17

Pleasant thought

You don’t have to let your thoughts continue to resist your life and your efforts. Whenever you choose, you can think a pleasant thought.

Think a pleasant thought, and push your awareness in a positive direction. Think a pleasant thought, and raise your energy to a higher level.

There are all too many incidents that can trigger a cascade of distressing feelings. They can trap you in a vicious negative thought pattern and immobilize your efforts.

When you realize that’s happening, break the pattern with a pleasant thought. Think of a good memory, a dear friend, a favorite place, or a satisfying activity.

A pleasant thought is not naive, wishful thinking. It is a strategy that enables you to regain control and to boost your effectiveness.

When life knocks you down is precisely the time you can benefit most from a positive perspective. Think a pleasant thought, and get yourself back to being your best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 18

Envision the goodness

You are here, now, ready to live this fresh new moment. And that’s a great thing.

Whether you’re immersed in pleasure or being obstructed by challenge, you have value and richness to be lived. Move forward with thankfulness for your opportunity to do so.

Let go of any judgment or resentment or conceit surrounding how you got here. Open yourself to the best possibilities for making good use of what you now have.

Consider the new richness that can result from your actions. Envision the goodness you can give to this day, to this place, and put your best efforts into the service of that vision.

Forgive yourself and others quickly if you find you’ve gone astray. Then get right back to making the most of where you are.

Whatever this day looks like, however this moment has unfolded, it is an irreplaceable opportunity. Live it, with your best attitude, with your highest expectations, for all the beauty and progress it can bring.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 19

Harvest the gains

Appreciate where you’ve been, enjoy where you are, and nourish enthusiasm for where you’re going. Fill your awareness with gratitude for the ever-changing experience that is your life.

Cherish the good times you’ve known, keeping them with you always. Be mindful and thankful for the strength and wisdom you’ve gained in all the other times.

Toss the gloominess and trivialities out of your thinking. You have so many beneficial, positive, meaningful matters to attend to.

You have time, you have love, you have ability, curiosity, versatility. Blend those all together with the possibilities of this day, and feel the passion as you push forward with positive purpose.

Shine the bright light of your awareness on the good fortune of being you, capable, unique, and motivated. Focus it all on making a difference in ways that matter most to you.

Life has much to gain from you today, and you have much to gain from life. Do the work, live the moments, to harvest those gains.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 20

Best among the worst

There is a fork in the road, and both paths forward are treacherous, challenging, undesirable. Keep going, because you can, because you must.

Sometimes all the options available to you are painful, challenging options. Even so, you can choose the best among the worst, and push through with it.

Avoiding the difficult choices is not really possible. Because the more you avoid them, the more difficult and overpowering they become.

You must come to terms with each difficulty, acknowledge its existence, identify its nature in detail. Then you can engage your strength, your character, your values, your faith, in successfully dealing with it.

Instead of trying to run from difficulty or pretending it does not exist, make use of it. Do the work to transform your present difficulties into valuable past experiences and future strengths.

When all the choices are hard choices, choose the one with the best potential outcome. Accept that life can be difficult, and get on with making it the best it can be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 21

Capability for achievement

Every past experience has given you something of value. Every new experience will do the same.

The triumphs, setbacks, delays, surprises, frustrations have built your character. Now the building continues.

Instead of wishing your situation were different, find what it has to offer you. See what new strength, wisdom, skill, insight you can gain from going through it.

Circumstances that block your progress force you to develop new, more effective strategies for making progress. Experiences that push you back give rise to fresh determination within you to push forward.

Not only is there a way to get beyond each obstacle. In finding that way, in working through it, you add to your capability for achievement.

Whatever the circumstance, whatever the experience, involve yourself in it fully, with the highest of expectations. You have great progress to make, and right where you are is where you can make it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 22

Negative exaggeration

Sometimes you can feel like everything is going wrong, but of course that is not literally true. Many things may be seriously out of order, but certainly not everything.

So start with that realization, that some aspects of your life, of the world, are still okay. Challenge your negative exaggeration, and replace it with a more thoughtful, considered view.

Provide yourself with a concrete example that contradicts your exaggeration. Remind yourself of what still works, of what continues to be dependable, reasonable, of what can bring a smile to your face.

You can be realistic and acknowledge a difficult situation without descending into hopelessness. And then you can take action -- positive action, hopeful action, effective action.

Negative thoughts often become exaggerated in order to command your full attention. Once they have your attention, they’ve done their job, and your best option is to quickly replace them.

Assure yourself that all is not lost, and prod yourself to craft a positive way forward. Make good use of whatever still works well, to repair and transcend all that has gone wrong.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 23

Time to grow

If you’re satisfied with your life, it’s time to grow. If you’re dissatisfied with your life, it’s time to grow.

There is within you a unique concept of wholeness and fulfillment that has not been fully realized. Whatever successes you’ve had, whatever challenges you face, it’s time to grow.

Step a small distance away, and observe yourself as another person would see you. Is every action you see, fully in line with the person you desire, deep inside, to be?

Most likely, there’s a lot of room to grow, and that’s a very good thing. Because now, today, it’s time to grow.

Everything you do, every situation you encounter, every relationship, every experience, can contribute to that growth. As a priceless bonus to all you do, you can make life ever more meaningful.

Seize the opportunity that’s always available, that’s always enriching. Remember when making each choice, it’s time to grow.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 24

Limitations and possibilities

The laws of physics prevent you from jumping off the ground and flying through the air. Yet those same laws of physics, when properly applied, enable you to fly through the air in an aircraft.

The facts of your situation may impose some very severe limitations on you. At the same time, within that set of facts, you can find liberating and empowering forces.

You cannot magically alter reality just by the way you think. However, you can bend reality in your favor through your beliefs, your perceptions, your expectations and actions.

If all you see are limitations, that’s because all you’re looking for are limitations. Open yourself to more positive possibilities, believe they are there, and they will emerge into view for you.

The ocean is deep, wide, dangerous, and its waves push against you when you try to walk out in it. Yet when you train and equip yourself to traverse the ocean’s surface, you can go all the way around the world.

Hidden within the biggest limitations are the best possibilities. Dare to contemplate what seems impossible, and you’ll find a viable way forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 25

Step back from the frenzy

Much of what feels so urgent right now, you won’t even remember tomorrow. Step back from the frenzy, and enjoy some perspective.

The news headlines screech and scream, but there’s nothing new about them. The real news is that life carries on, its wonder and beauty endlessly unfolding.

Take a moment, take a breath, and experience the miracle of existence, of awareness. Think of all the good choices you have, and how many more there must be that you’ve never even thought to consider.

Most of what demands your attention, doesn’t deserve it. Ease away from all that, and see the deep beauty in what you’ve lately forgotten to notice.

You put great effort into being able to live a good life. Remind yourself to fill its moments with substance, with meaning, with what’s real, with what matters to you.

Feel good about this moment simply because it is, because you are here to live it. And you’ll find plenty of worthwhile, fulfilling things to do with it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 26

Do what you can do now

You can’t get it all done right away. Yet you can get some of it done right now.

You can’t immediately get the whole way there. But you certainly can take the first step.

The entire process of achievement is difficult and complicated. Fortunately, you can break it down into as many small pieces as necessary.

Every book that’s ever been published was written one word at a time. If you can write one word, and if you commit yourself to keep going, you can write a book.

If you can lay one brick, you can build a tower. If you can walk one foot, you can walk a thousand miles.

All that’s necessary for now, is to do what you can do now. Keep it up, and get yourself precisely where you choose to go.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 27

Until

Do it until it works. Make changes, improvements, adjustments, until you get it right.

Keep asking until you get an answer. Keep searching until you find the path forward.

Study the material until you fully understand it. Practice the skill until you master it.

The first attempt is rarely the attempt that gets the job done. Continue making more attempts until your attempts result in success.

That success will come from committing yourself to keep going until you’ve achieved whatever you have chosen to achieve. Don’t give up after the first setback, or the fifth, or fifteenth.

Feel the dream, and see the vision. Then do what you must do until you can make the vision real.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 28

Respond with determination

When life slams you down, respond with determination rather than dejection. Respond with self-empowerment rather than self-pity.

Self-pity wastes your effort and time. Being outraged that the world has hurt you, or someone else, won’t ease the hurt in the least.

Transform that outrage, that pity, into positive action. There is something you can do in response that will improve the situation, and the sooner you do it, the better.

Injustice is awful. Yet being paralyzed by your own outrage just makes the injustice that much worse.

Summon the strength, do the work, to come up with a better response. Challenge yourself to create a positive way forward that will change conditions for the better.

Difficulties will make you stronger, give you great opportunity, if you let them. Point your energy in a positive direction, and actively do what’s best for the life you love.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 29

Attitude of discipline

Enforcing discipline in one part of your life encourages discipline in all parts of your life. Abandoning discipline in just one little area will degrade your discipline in every area.

Discipline is made up of actions, yet discipline also is an attitude, a way of approaching life. That’s why even the smallest increase or decrease in discipline can lead to sizable results.

It’s tempting to let the little things slide, just this once. Yet inevitably that leads you to compromise the bigger things, and not just this once but every time.

By the same measure, it’s easy to add a small, new disciplined behavior to your life. When you do, you’ll experience the increased benefits of discipline being carried into other parts of your life.

Discipline enables you to take control of your affairs, to have more positive influence in your world. The more you experience discipline, the more you’re inspired to practice it.

What small, disciplined regimen can you bestow upon yourself right now? Embrace new opportunities to discipline yourself, and your results will increasingly reflect your desires.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 30

Give yourself more options

Rather than complaining about the situation, work to give yourself more options. Rather than worrying about your vulnerability, or about the unreliability of others, give yourself more options.

When you have more options, you have more confidence, more control over your own affairs. Options give you the ability to walk away from a negotiation, and that enables you to negotiate from a position of power.

Options give you independence, the power of choice. Options provide you with multiple ways to respond to difficulty, multiple strategies for seizing opportunity.

Discovering and developing new options, takes work. That work is effort well spent because it earns you increased leverage over your circumstances.

Take inventory and ask yourself, what options do you now have? Then consider, what new options could you develop?

When you only have one possible path forward, that could be a big problem. Avoid that problem and enhance your effectiveness by working to create more options for yourself.

— Ralph Marston