Daily Motivator - May

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May 1

Made for this moment

You are made for this moment. Give it the best you have.

You are made for this life. Live it the great way you know you can.

You are meant to experience the richness of right now. Take the beauty, the pain, the disappointments and victories in stride like you know what you’re doing, because you do.

All the things you’ve ever done have given you the wisdom, resources, and skills to live this day. Use them well.

Remember what you care about, and why. Know you can do this, and do.

You are made for this moment, and now it has arrived. You know what to do.

— Ralph Marston

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May 2

Strong sense of responsibility

The people who will create success in the future are those who learn from the past and present. What have you learned, and what are you learning?

Enduring progress is never the result of forcing people to act in a certain way. The world is led forward by those who enable, inspire, and encourage everyone to live with responsibility.

A strong sense of responsibility gives birth to innovation, resilience, courage, achievement, and generosity. Those who see themselves as responsible to life, are the ones who contribute most to life.

Plenty of individuals want to take credit for making a difference. The people who truly make a positive difference are not those who seek to take credit, but those who take responsibility.

A few agreed-upon rules can be very helpful for people to get along with each other. But all the rules and regulations and enforcers in the world can never take the place of responsibility.

The difficult, overwhelming problems won’t be solved with quick, easy answers. Those problems will be transformed into opportunities by lots and lots of people who choose to act with responsibility.

— Ralph Marston

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May 3

See yourself clearly

Be strong enough to question yourself. Be honest enough to answer.

Be humble enough to see that you’re wrong. Be confident enough to know when you’re right.

There’s one person in your life you cannot escape. That person is you, and it’s a good idea to see yourself clearly.

Treat yourself with respect and also with a healthy skepticism. Just because you’re you doesn’t make you infallible.

But it doesn’t make you mistaken all the time either. Give yourself the benefit of a sober and balanced opinion of yourself.

You don’t have all the answers, but you do have some. And that’s enough to keep you growing, learning, and moving forward through the extraordinary life you have.

— Ralph Marston

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May 4

Most valuable aspects

Utilize your strength, and it does not get used up. It grows even stronger.

Give love to others, and it does not diminish the love you have. It deepens and enriches that love, and results in even more love to give.

Teach someone else what you know, and it does not take knowledge away from you. In fact it expands your knowledge and makes it more relevant.

Offer kindness, and you end up with even more kindness. Make use of discipline, and you become even more disciplined.

Live with integrity, and you’ll gain greater integrity. Always speak the truth, and you’ll discover even more truth.

Seek out those things that become more plentiful each time you make use of them or offer them to others. What you’ll find are the most valuable aspects of life.

— Ralph Marston

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May 5

Off to a great start

What can you do right now that will make the sky look more beautiful all day long? What thought, word, or action will give the afternoon more enjoyment, and make dinner more delicious?

The experience of life does not merely come to you. A significant part of it is made by you.

However good life may otherwise be, you can make it better. Somewhere, somehow, in some real and accessible way, you know how.

Let yourself do it. Allow yourself and encourage yourself to improve upon your world.

Be in love with all you love and make it your business to do something about it. The way you are right now sets the stage for what you will feel, what you will do, and how fulfilling it will all be.

The remainder of this day, the rest of your life, it all begins right now. Get it off to a great start.

— Ralph Marston

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May 6

Keep climbing

The energy that got you into pain can also get you out. Refine your strategy and keep going.

The efforts that led to disappointment can be transformed into efforts that bring triumph. Adjust your attitude, focus on the goal, and keep going.

Stay connected to your intention, remember why you’re doing it, and keep going. Don’t let the difficulties dissuade you, because your best path is always forward, and you know that.

Let every difficulty make the end result that much more valuable. Let every pain on the way make your destination that much more enjoyable.

The hill is steep, your legs are weak. Yet as you climb they grow stronger.

Keep climbing. Soon you’ll be admiring the view from the top and searching for the next hill to tackle.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 7

Make achievement happen

The ideal situation would be nice, but it’s probably not going to happen. Yet there’s plenty you can do with the situation as it is.

As you move forward, problems keep popping up to block you. Even so, there is always some amount of progress you can make.

The excuses sound good, but they don’t do you any good. Your best choice is to forget about the excuses and focus on the work you can get done.

Achievement happens not because of the circumstances you’re in. Achievement happens because of what you do to make it happen.

Achievement happens not because some lucky break has made it easy for you. Achievement happens because you do the difficult work to bring it about.

Wishing for a more favorable environment is just wasting the good time that’s now available to you. Choose instead to use that time, to learn the lessons, to do the work, and to make achievement happen.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 8

Meaningful effort

There are countless activities you can engage in to convince yourself and others that you’re working when you are not. One of the best things you can do for yourself and for the world is to avoid that trap.

You are constantly confronted with opportunities to make a meaningful difference. Act on as many of those opportunities as possible.

That doesn’t mean you must weigh yourself down with excessive work. Rather, avoid weighing yourself down with excessive trivialities.

The most fulfilling experiences you’ll have are the times when you willingly choose to take responsibility. The more of those experiences you create and follow through on, the better your life becomes.

So take responsibility for your actions in this moment. Take responsibility for the problems and opportunities you see right now that you can act on right now.

In the immediate term and even more so in the long term, your best option is meaningful effort, not meaningless activity. Instead of just passing the time, choose to get real value from what you can do with it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 9

Life goes on

Opportunities arise, innovation pushes forward, and life goes on. New dreams are born, and established dreams continue speeding toward fulfillment.

Some days are brighter, others bring darkness, despair grows thick and then hope arises. Through the joys and the challenges, the setbacks and victories, life goes on.

When despite your best efforts no progress comes forth, life goes on. After a windfall gain has you feeling on top of the world, life goes on.

The road turns and twists, climbs and falls, expands to a wide boulevard and then narrows to a faint path. And always ahead, more road, more challenge, more treasure, work to be done, moments to be cherished.

Try not to protest and wail too much about what’s already behind you. For up ahead, that’s where you get to make a difference.

Whatever is, however it happened, life goes on. Go with it, and give it your best love and care.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 10

Frame of mind

You think to yourself that you’re not in the right frame of mind to get some particular thing done. And if that’s what you’re thinking, it’s most likely true.

But it’s not like you’re forever stuck in any specific frame of mind. When your frame of mind is not what works best for you, change it.

Rather than giving yourself an excuse, give yourself an improvement. Exercise the control you have over your own thoughts, and get yourself mentally to where you wish to be.

It’s your choice where to direct those thoughts, what to notice and what to ignore. It’s your choice how to assign meaning to whatever situation you’re in.

You know what gives you energy and what drains you, what encourages you and what causes dismay. Use that self awareness to fill your mind with encouraging, energetic, creative, productive thoughts.

Make you, your mind, your focus, and your actions work for you and for the betterment of your world. Choose and create an optimum frame of mind that puts you at your best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 11

Difficult situation

It’s inconvenient, frustrating, challenging, tedious, even painful at times. And it’s exactly what you need.

It’s not fair, you didn’t ask for it, don’t deserve it. Yet your very best option is to take full responsibility and act to do something about it.

As aggravating as it may be, there’s a lesson in it and unique value to be gained from successfully dealing with it. There’s a pathway to new levels of strength, skill, patience, experience, compassion and understanding.

It is an opportunity to discover how much you care. It is a chance to clearly see what’s most important to you, and why.

Despite the protests you might hear yourself making, you’re ready for this. You have what it takes to apply effort, goodness, integrity and love to a difficult situation.

By making a positive difference you fulfill one of the most fundamental and essential roles of your existence. Give of the goodness you have and experience the incomparable satisfaction of bringing new goodness to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 12

Let life be beautiful

Self-imposed misery does not provide anything of any value to anyone. Let it go, and let life be beautiful.

Stop any obsession you might have with taking offense, giving offense, cataloging and enumerating all the offenses and potential offenses. Step back, chill out, and let life be beautiful.

Enjoy experiences that you did not expect or plan. See the beauty in what you cannot control or possess.

Have faith that what is built on truth will outlast and overpower all that is not. Uphold your values by living them rather than by merely preaching about them.

Recognize the beauty that exists in your own uniqueness, and in the uniqueness of each person you encounter. At the same time, see the beauty of your connection to all that is.

Life is endlessly difficult yet you have the power to transcend that difficulty. Despite it all, and because of it all, you can let life be beautiful.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 13

Not too easy

Easy is not particularly desirable. Easy rarely gives you anything of value.

Easy crowds out the best things in your life and replaces them with cheap, meaningless imitations. Easy robs you of your own sense of worth.

Sure, ease can be helpful, and certainly it can be enjoyable. But it’s never worthy of promotion to the prime consideration.

Easy is not worth the price when you have to give up meaning, integrity, value or dependability in order to get it. A life of ease is a life of little consequence, and no one really wants that.

Easy is enticing, and easy answers are the stock in trade of advertisers, politicians, and others who seek to exert influence. But easy never quite delivers on all the promises made on its behalf, and often makes matters worse.

Be careful not to fall into the tempting trap of expecting things to be too easy. You and those you care about deserve better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 14

The power of kindness

Do you want to make the situation better for everyone involved? Add kindness to it.

Do you want to make beneficial use of your strength rather than merely showing it off? Invest your strength in kindness.

Those who attack you expect you to attack in response. Genuine kindness confounds those expectations and gives you the opportunity to move the encounter in a positive direction.

Cruelty and pettiness come from a place of weakness. Kindness is an undeniable demonstration of strength.

Kindness does not mean you’re letting anyone else take advantage of you. It means you’re setting the agenda, one that’s positive and productive.

Whenever you can, which is almost always, activate the power of kindness. The biggest victory is when everyone wins.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 15

Choose well

You can have what you want for right now or you can have what you want for later. You cannot have both.

Now will be over in an instant. Later will last a whole lot longer.

If you sacrifice now to gain value later, you’re paying a small price and getting a big, long-lasting reward. If you sacrifice the quality of your life later to get what you want right now, you’re paying a huge price to obtain a tiny reward that soon disappears.

It’s easy to see what is the better choice. It’s not so easy to implement that choice.

Yet you have the power to make that better choice and to stick with it. You can make the relatively small immediate sacrifices to lead to a vastly improved future.

The choice is always here and the choice is always yours. Remind yourself what’s at stake, and choose well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

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

[bluidkiti]

May 31

Every choice matters

None of the choices you make are trivial. Because each one of them interacts with your life, and is profound to a degree impossible to comprehend.

None of the moments you spend are meaningless. Every moment moves your life in one particular direction or another.

It’s easy to mentally write off the small things. Yet those small things all stay with you in some way, and add up, and make your life what it is.

Diligence, discipline, respect, and gratitude can sometimes seem like distant, empty platitudes. Yet they are immensely practical and serve as a bulwark against a life of despair.

The way to make your life mean something is to make each choice mean something. Fulfillment is as immediately accessible as the time and place and situation you are in.

Life is a series of choices, and every choice matters. Choose now to make more of them matter in a good way.

— Ralph Marston