Daily Motivator - July

[bluidkiti]

July 1

What you notice

Notice something different today, something you usually ignore. Notice something new today, something that sparks a fresh insight, a feeling of enrichment.

Those things you notice, combine together to form your view of the world, to influence the way you feel and speak and act. In those things you pass by without noticing, could be hiding a whole new set of positive thoughts, perspectives, and possibilities.

You cannot notice everything. However, you can choose to lift your attention out of the rut into which it may have fallen.

In this very same time, and place, and life, are countless joys and opportunities you’ve not yet noticed. Aren’t you a little bit curious as to what they might be?

All the valuable things you now know about, that benefit your life greatly, you had to first notice. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to open yourself to even more?

Your whole experience can change without the reality of your situation having changed in the least. It all depends on what you notice.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 2

Make the choice

When you have a choice, make the choice. Think about it, but don’t overthink it.

You can spend a lot of time constructing all sorts of hypothetical scenarios. Yet the scenario that really matters is the one that actually unfolds.

The only way to know for sure which option is best is to act on one of the options. The only way to know for sure the best way to begin, is to actually begin.

Make the choice and quickly put it into action. If the choice is not right for you, not workable for the situation, you’ll know it soon enough, and you can make changes.

Before you put your choice into action, there’s simply no way to be certain what the perfect choice will be. That’s the case whether you’re deciding what to say, what to buy, what to write, where to go, or what to do.

Give it some thought, give it some serious consideration, and then move quickly to give it something much more. Give it your commitment and your action.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 3

New richness

Set something new, good, and worthwhile in motion. Let it create a life of its own.

Don’t merely think a great idea. Bring it out into the light of day and act on it.

Give it a push, set the ball rolling, and soon enough it attains momentum. Inject some passion and effort into your good idea so it expands far beyond you.

Don’t get too impressed with what you’re doing, and don’t get too critical of what you’re doing. More than anything, keep on doing what you’re doing.

Never settle for less than your best. Remind yourself often of what it’s about, why it matters, and the value and satisfaction of being able to make a difference.

Give your unique creative self a means of expression in the real world. Guide and carry new richness all the way from thought to reality.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 4

Freedom

Do you wish to be free to succeed? Then you also must be free to fail.

True freedom does not discriminate, does not favor one outcome over any other. True freedom empowers you to create an outcome that’s based on what you put into it.

When you create value, freedom enables you to own and benefit from that value. When you make mistakes, freedom obliges you to clean up after those mistakes.

Freedom is precious, and a powerful way to live. Those who don’t have it yearn constantly for it, willing to pay almost any price to obtain it.

But freedom is not a free ride. Freedom exists only when those who have it are willing to shoulder its serious, life-long responsibility.

Freedom is kept alive by responsible, respectful living, by employing that freedom to benefit yourself and others. Draw upon your strength, meet freedom’s demands, and help to spread the boon of freedom far and wide.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 5

The moment is new

Events didn’t work out the way you planned. What if that turns out to be a good thing?

You didn’t get what you wanted. Perhaps that is making room in your world for something even better.

There are a whole lot of great things in life that you don’t even know about yet. Just because one or two matters didn’t work out to your satisfaction, isn’t the end of the world.

Consign your disappointment to yesterday. Today, and tomorrow, and every day from now on, you have the chance to move far beyond it.

Life is filled with beautiful people, places, experiences, and countless other treasures. Don’t deny all that richness to yourself for any reason.

Get up, go forward, get out and live, learn, love, discover, and live some more. The moment is new and your life is ready for the best you can put into it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 6

Active achievement

Stop telling yourself what you should do, what you need to do, what you want to do. Take in a deep breath of energy and determination, and do it.

Wishing is easy, but it leaves you empty. Doing is much more difficult, yet it is far more satisfying.

Imagine how you’ll feel to have it all done. Picture yourself looking back on your accomplishment and feeling great about it.

Put an end to your disappointment with yourself. Enter the bright new territory where you’re immensely pleased with what you’re achieving.

Your mind is good at coming up with empty, unfulfilled wishes, yet it’s also good at something much more powerful. It’s good at prompting you to take action.

So put your mind, your body, and everything else into a state of active achievement. And feel how great you will feel to get it done.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 7

Choose only the best

Don’t internalize the pressures. Instead, internalize the beauty, the hope, the positive possibilities.

You can effectively deal with every difficulty, without allowing any difficulties to become a part of you. Remind yourself that you exist beyond them all.

Respond to life with a smile rather than with new stress. You can see the situations clearly and realistically without taking them personally.

Your life is too beautiful to let it be degraded by frustration and annoyance. Your possibilities are too magnificent to let them be compromised by negativity.

Enjoy putting your capabilities to use, solving problems, making progress. Always choose to make the best of those problems rather than letting them get the best of you.

It’s always your choice what you hold on to inside. Each time, each day, choose only the best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 8

Prepared to be patient

As soon as your day begins, be prepared to be patient. Be prepared to be tolerant, understanding, and forgiving.

Know from the start that someone in your life will do something foolish, selfish, hurtful. For no one you encounter even comes close to being perfect.

But that’s okay, because you can prepare yourself to handle it. You can remind yourself that someone else’s foolishness is not, after all, about you.

You can be so ready in advance for the offenses of others that they don’t offend you at all. You can enable and empower yourself to quickly let them go, and to move positively forward.

There’s no need for the negative behavior of others to waste your energy or drain your spirit. Simply know that it will happen, and when it does, continue with your own highest intentions.

Be ready to encounter the negativity of others. You’ll immunize yourself, and won’t have to make that negativity your own.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 9

Relaxed attention

If you wish to copy a drawing by hand, you’ll improve the accuracy of your copy by first turning the original upside down. Try it, and discover how it focuses your attention on the actual lines and curves, and prevents you from being overly judgmental about how well you’re doing.

Plenty of other things in your life can benefit from more relaxed attention and less opinionated judgment. You can free up much time and mental energy by letting go of the need to have so many opinions.

Sure, to function in life you need to have a well-developed perspective. But that doesn’t require you to carry around a truckload of opinions on every little issue.

Is it really necessary to conduct an extensive internal dialogue about every person you encounter? Perhaps you’d be better served, and much better liked, by attentively listening to what that person is saying.

Give your opinionating a rest, and give life the opportunity to unfold in front of you. Stop over-analyzing everything you come across, and give yourself the chance to simply enjoy it.

Improve the accuracy of what you observe. Actually look at, listen to, and experience what you experience rather than placing so many judgments on it all.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 10

Give goodness

Give goodness, not in the abstract, but in real places, with real people. Give goodness, not as a vague idea, but to a specific moment.

There’s quite a lot you can do to lift up life, here and now, as you are. And nothing is as satisfying as doing so.

Rather than accumulating more reasons to boast about yourself, give goodness. If you want people to care about what you achieve, pursue achievements that improve their world.

Give goodness because you can. Give goodness because it makes a difference that reverberates through lives, through time.

In ways large, small, and in between, give goodness. In ways that inspire you to give even more, give goodness.

Put your love for life into loving action. Give goodness.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 11

Live it now

All of existence has arrived for you to experience now. Your entire life has unfolded so you can enjoy it now.

This is not practice for later. Now is when the experience of living becomes yours.

There is no waiting for the perfect moment, for the ideal condition. There is no putting it off until this arrives or that departs.

Life, with its endless variety of richness, is now. Life, with lethal risk and sublime joy wholly intertwined, exists entirely in this moment.

Celebrate your unbounded good fortune at being, right now, in the same exact realm as everything that is. Put that glorious opportunity to use in the service of all you love and treasure.

Open yourself to the ups, the downs, the discoveries, difficulties, joys and wonders that extend out as far as you can imagine. Life is here, live it now.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 12

Difficult things happen

Every problem is a chance for you to become a better version of yourself. Every challenge charts a path for growth and improvement.

Every setback carries the potential for powerful motivation. Every disappointment can lift you to a higher level of resolve.

Every inconvenience has the power to inspire new resourcefulness. Every frustration gives you a way to strengthen your patience.

From each positive experience, you learn a few things. From each negative experience, you learn much more.

Of course you would not intentionally seek to be hurt or disappointed. But neither would you want a life where hurt and disappointment never happen.

Difficult things can happen, do happen, and amazingly, life finds a way to make them beneficial. Difficult things can happen, and that’s what makes the good things so very good.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 13

Continue to persevere

In this moment, persevere. In the next moment, continue to persevere.

Yes, you can persevere for another minute or two. And yes, you can stretch those minutes of perseverance end to end for as long as necessary.

Make the commitment to yourself to keep up the effort a little while longer. Then keep renewing that commitment as many times as it takes.

Perseverance does not tie you down. On the contrary, perseverance enables you to soar as high as you choose to go.

Perseverance is not a long-term tribulation that you must suffer through. It is your choice to continue investing your best efforts in your highest ideals.

Your life, and all the great things you can do, are well worth your perseverance. Persevere now, and continue.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 14

Do all you can do

What you do, matters. What you fail to do, matters.

To tell yourself otherwise is just an excuse. Pretending you’re powerless to change things is mostly a way to avoid responsibility for working on those changes.

Sooner or later, that game gets old. Eventually, regret hits you like a ton of bricks.

So now, when you have the opportunity, do all you can do. Now, while this day is yours, make full use of it.

No, of course you won’t be one hundred percent effective in everything you undertake. Yet you can work, and persist, and learn from your results, and make real progress.

The obstacles and challenges are real, and so are the opportunities. Today, take those opportunities and give to them the best you have.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 15

Make the rewards real

When someone expects to be rewarded for no effort, there is no effort, and thus no real reward. Not only does a participation trophy fail to confer self-esteem, it actively hinders true self-esteem.

The value of the reward is created by the earning of that reward. Absent the effort to earn it, the reward, whatever form it takes, is little more than a meaningless token.

Receiving praise you have not earned makes you cynical, about yourself, about those offering that praise, about the world in general. Repeatedly receiving material goods you have not earned makes you dependent, and soon enough, resentful.

Real achievement has value precisely because it is so difficult, because the odds against it are so high. The fact that you can put forth sustained effort and create value, is an amazing state of affairs, deserving of your constant gratitude and utilization.

Seeking to cheat the process ends up seriously cheating and depriving yourself. Life gets unbearably grim when you prevent yourself from making a difference, yet fortunately that never has to happen.

Always, in every moment, are opportunities to contribute your effort, to earn the fulfillment of a life well lived. Do the good work, respect others enough to expect the same of them, and make the rewards real.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 16

Change for the better

Don’t let what happened a moment ago diminish what you can do now. Don’t allow a disappointing morning to ruin a perfectly good afternoon.

If momentum is carrying you in the direction you wish to proceed, feed it, nurture it, keep it strong. Yet as soon as momentum begins to work against you, let it go.

Your knowledge, experience, and expertise can be highly useful. But don’t become so smug in what you already know that you’re blinded to other possibilities.

Hold on to what works well, expand it and build on it. Be also ready and willing to change for the better.

This month holds opportunities that didn’t exist last month. Today is your chance to make a clean break from yesterday’s painful mistakes.

In any given moment, the direction of your life is up to you. Stay alert to the changes around you and within you, so you’re always able to choose the best way forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 17

Get positive

A positive attitude catapults you into your most effective state. Even if there is no other reason to be positive, that’s more than enough reason.

Plenty of things happen that can understandably put you in a negative mood. Your most powerful strategy is to get yourself out of that bad mood.

Whatever may have put you in a bad mood, certainly don’t invest yourself in supporting and excusing and justifying it. Instead, put your energy into changing your perspective to a positive one.

You know from experience there are certain specific things you can think, do, and say that will quickly and genuinely improve the way you feel. You can’t immediately change the circumstances, or whatever just happened, yet you absolutely can change yourself and your response.

Acknowledge that you have every right to feel negative, and then make the powerful choice to be positive instead. There’s never been a case where your negativity improved a situation, so do what it takes to get positive.

When life has been disappointing, frustrating, painful and unfair, respond in a way that will bring out your best. Get positive, and get yourself quickly to a better place.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 18

Keep working

You have to keep working at life. And that’s a very good thing, because the more work you put into life, the more fulfilling it becomes.

Even if you could get everything perfect in your world, it wouldn’t stay that way. And that’s a very good thing, because you’d soon be bored with all that never-ending perfection.

You’re at your best when you’re making things better. Life is best when you’re able to continue investing yourself in it.

Learn to be thankful that your paint job weathers and peels, that the weeds grow back in your garden. Things like that are life’s way of giving you something to do, of providing you with a way to make a difference.

Every difficulty you encounter helps you avoid being useless. Every challenge you confront gives purpose and strength to your experience.

Each day is your opportunity to make real progress in an imperfect world where things often go wrong. Keep working at life, and keep all of life moving forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 19

Certainty of doing

Trying is not doing. Only doing is doing.

Trying is a vague, loosely defined concept that doesn’t lead anywhere in particular. Doing is a precise set of actions leading toward a specific objective.

If you’re trying and not having any luck, there are two problems. You see yourself as merely trying, and you consider yourself under the influence of blind, random luck.

Give up your dependence on luck and depend instead on your own actions. Give up the idea that you’re trying, and replace it with the certainty of getting specific work done.

Trying gives you an excuse to fail, to quit. Give yourself instead the commitment to succeed, to prevail, to get the work done.

Climb out of the hazy, ineffective bewilderment of trying. Jump right into the clear, focused, exhilarating experience of doing all the great things you can do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 20

Fix the problem

If your car has a problem, you usually don’t junk the entire car. Instead, you fix the specific problem.

Just because something is wrong in your life, or many things are wrong, doesn’t mean everything is wrong. What you must do is, one by one, fix the problems.

In this age of binary logic and disposable gadgets, it’s easy to assume that anything not functioning perfectly should be abandoned. But when it comes to people, relationships, organizations, customs and traditions, that’s rarely a good strategy.

It’s crazy to throw out one hundred percent of the value when only five percent is broken. Though it takes more effort to fix the problem, doing so preserves benefits that may have taken years, or even centuries, to create.

Just because someone says or does a few foolish things, isn’t necessarily a reason to forever cast that person out of your life or your group. Just because one rule had an unintended consequence, doesn’t mean all the rules have to be tossed out.

Respect the work and thought that’s already been done, the value that’s already been created. See if you can fix the problem instead of discarding all that surrounds it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 21

Fulfillment in every step

Don’t postpone joy until the end of the journey. Live it every step of the way.

Don’t settle for a mere fraction of fulfillment. Choose to have it all.

Each action, each step you take is more than just a means to an end. Each step has a value and a joy all its own.

When you assume the task will be tedious, it will be. And your negative assumption makes the work that much harder.

Decide instead to experience joy and fulfillment in every step you take. Love and appreciate the moment you’re in, and no matter what the task may be, you’ll find yourself doing it with joy.

Find joy in every step of the journey. And you’ll arrive long before you get there.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 22

Yours today

This is life, here, now, today. This is opportunity, possibility, fertile ground for achievement and enrichment.

Seize the potential, live the moment, feel the promise of now and make good on that promise. Act with courage, curiosity, love, wonder, and gratitude for it all.

Let life’s creative energy flow gracefully through you, uninhibited by doubt or hesitation. Marvel at the beauty, the interconnected coherence of all that is, and make it more so.

Raise up your highest expectations ever higher, and then do the good work they demand. Remind yourself that even the difficult times bring new value, and step boldly ahead of your fears.

Give love to all you love. Give time, work, attention, and lavish focus to what is truly meaningful.

Life is yours today, and later is much too late. For all you dream, for all you hope, for all you envision, for all you care about, live it now.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in.

[bluidkiti]

July 23

Choose truth

Sometimes the truth hurts. Those are the times when it helps you the most.

You can hide from certain truths for a long time, yet they will eventually catch up to you. Along with their clarity will come regret for staying in denial so long.

Seek to be told what is actually true rather than what you want to hear. The sooner you know and acknowledge a truth, the more power you have to successfully deal with it.

You’re not doing anyone a favor by hiding the truth. With respect, compassion, and understanding, speak the truth.

Truth has the power to create value where that value never existed before. Although truth is not the easiest choice, it is the most beneficial and positively transformative choice.

Have the courage to live with truth on your side. At every juncture, choose truth.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 24

Having fun

Are you having fun yet? Or are you tormenting yourself by assuming you have to take everything so seriously?

A bit of genuine fun would make you feel better. And it’s also likely to make you more effective and engaged with whatever you’re doing.

The way to make anything a dreary chore is to think of it as a dreary chore. The way to make anything fun is to decide you’re going to have fun with it.

Young children develop mental and physical skills at an astoundingly rapid pace. They do it mostly by playing, by having fun.

Having fun allows you to be you, unburdened by worry, unencumbered by overthinking, free to wonder and learn and create. Fun provides a positive perspective, and that can shine a light on your best possibilities.

Choose more often to have fun. Enjoy what you’re doing to the point of delight, and you’ll do it a whole lot better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 25

Every day an opportunity

Even in the worst situation, you can bring your A game. Even when every other person is careless, apathetic, incompetent, rude, and demanding, you don’t have to be any of those things.

In a world that is far from perfect, you can live every day with excellence. In situations that are unfair and unjust, you can move confidently forward with the utmost integrity.

You can accept this moment just the way it is, with all its flaws and frustrations. Then, independent of the circumstances, you can choose your own most positive and empowering perspective.

You can be informed and enlightened by what’s happening around you, without letting it get you down. Indeed, the more difficult other people become, the more inspired you can be to offer respect, reason, competence and courtesy.

Remind yourself that every day is an opportunity, regardless of the weather, the economy, political wrangling and social pressures. Every day is your opportunity to make honest, honorable progress.

Fix your awareness on worthy goals, and don’t let the noise of the moment dissuade you. This is when you can give your best to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 26

Take time

Take time to appreciate the beauty and wonder that constantly surround you. Take time to create new, original value out of the resources at your disposal.

Take time to read the instructions, and to carefully follow all the steps. Take time to plan for tomorrow and beyond.

Take time to listen. Take time to offer the encouragement and support of your presence.

Take time to consider how thankful you are for the life you have. Take time to let the other people in your life know how important they are to you.

Take time to offer kindness. Take time to understand.

Make use of your time for something other than being hurried, worried, and anxious. Take time, and spend it living well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 27

Keep the progress going

You’re doing good work. Keep it going.

You’re learning what works and what doesn’t work. Continue improving your efforts based on what all that experience teaches.

You’re building a better understanding of life and of your unique place in it. Feel your purpose as it becomes more and more perceptible, and put the power of that purpose into all you do.

Although you still make mistakes, now you’re recovering more quickly from them. Although you continue to have setbacks, now you know you can get beyond them, and you do.

You know what you love, what you care about, what your values are. And you’re becoming more effective at advancing and supporting all those things.

Each day you’re getting better at meeting life’s challenges and making the most of life’s possibilities. Keep up the good work, and keep the progress going.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 28

Work to know why

What pushes you into action? Knowing why, clearly, unmistakably.

What sustains you, enables you to persist through every difficulty? Belief in what you are doing, in the rightness of the path you’ve chosen.

To connect with such an irrefutable purpose can require much time, effort, soul searching, emotional pain. It is well worth your trouble.

You want to get somewhere meaningful? You must know why, and it must be authentic.

In all that you love, in all you despise, in what feels wonderful as well as awful, are hints of that purpose. Take those hints, and work to zero in on your purpose, on your why.

Work to know why. Give the power of purpose to everything you do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 29

Fresh new occasion

This day is a fresh new occasion, so bring a refreshed, enthusiastic version of you to it. The past is behind you, new possibilities beckon, and this is your time to thrive.

Leave the harmful habits of your past, in your past. Bring your highest vision, your complete focus, your steadfast commitment, to the time at hand.

There is much you can achieve today if you’ll simply let yourself do it. Make the choice to unleash the positive power that lives within you, and enjoy getting good things done.

Allow the energy of your purpose to keep pushing you forward. Inoculate yourself from all the possible distractions by reminding yourself of your highest potential.

If doubt or hesitation begin to creep in, take a deep breath of fresh air. Then see yourself casting out all doubt, hesitation, and other negativity as you exhale.

This is your day to fulfill your highest potential. Give your best to the undertaking, and elevate your world with all you can achieve.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 30

A day for achievement

Rise above the clamor, extract yourself from the pettiness. Enter the realm of brilliant, dazzling achievement.

You can do this, and now is when. Fill yourself to the core with solid, purposeful focus, and do what you do best.

As the moments quickly vanish, you can be creating value that endures. When the day draws to a close, you can have the satisfaction of knowing you made great use of it.

Every minute delivers countless options to you. And every minute you can choose the option that’s most beneficial for you, for those around you, for all of life.

Today you have the chance to demonstrate and exemplify how good, how creative, how fulfilling life can be. Take that opportunity seriously while having plenty of fun with it.

This is a day for great, meaningful achievement. And you are just the person to make it happen, starting right now.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 31

Important work to do

Build a shield of protection around your efforts and effectiveness. Keep reminding yourself of what you’ve decided to do, and why.

Know what, know why, and you’ll keep the excuses at bay. Know what, know why, and you’ll prevent the distractions from distracting you.

Keep your awareness focused on the goal, and you’ll continue devising good ways to reach it. Maintain a steady stream of actions, and the usefulness of those actions will grow.

Recognize when you’ve strayed from the course. And rather than beating yourself up about it, simply get back on track.

Allow your confidence to grow with every effort. Feel your commitment, determination, and persistence increase as you move forward.

You have important work to do, valuable contributions to make. Give yourself every reason, every opportunity to get it done.

— Ralph Marston