Daily Motivator - June

[bluidkiti]

June 1

You’re better

You’re better than frustration. You’re better than procrastination.

You’re better than making excuses. You’re better than taking shortcuts.

You’re better than you were yesterday. You’re better than all the situations and choices that used to pull you down and hold you back.

You’re better because of every moment you’ve lived. You’re better because of the mistakes you’ve made and all you’ve learned from those mistakes.

Today your choices can be better than before. Today your results can be better than ever.

Whatever you’ve been through, now you’re better. See what an amazing opportunity that is, and put it to good use.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy June the 1st... Today is International
Junebug day. Just kidding? Thanking God
always for getting
us through the month May Amen.

[bluidkiti]

June 2

View from the mountaintop

You cannot have every sensation all the time. You cannot have every pleasure, comfort, indulgence all the time.

Yes, increasingly such things are possible. But just because something is possible doesn’t mean it is desirable.

The enjoyable times are enjoyable because you have gone through the less enjoyable, more difficult times to get there. If all you ever experienced was enjoyment, it would quickly cease to be enjoyable.

You have to pay the price or you cannot possibly experience the full benefit of the reward. You have to do the work, make the sacrifices, invest yourself to create an outcome that has meaning for you.

By definition, the exceptional moments are exceptional because they are rare. If you expect them all the time, and especially if you somehow manage to get that, you’ll be miserable.

Give yourself the ability to truly enjoy the feast by not feasting all the time. The view from the mountaintop is most meaningful when you’re familiar with all that’s in the valley.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 3

Treasure today

Life is filled with potential treasure. What can you treasure today?

Treasure is not an objective reality. The treasure in your life is what you consider it to be, what you make it to be.

Treasure is both a noun and a verb, the object of your love and the giving of that love. It requires no precondition, and can be applied to anything.

Consider all you can improve by choosing to treasure it. Think of the unique treasure that you can add to life.

What you treasure becomes your treasure. And many others are able to treasure it as well.

One of your greatest treasures is your ability to treasure. With it you can spread life’s treasures far and wide.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 4

Authentic good

Refuse to let the pain and fear corrupt you or discourage you. You have the power to make a difference and the kindness to use that power for authentic good.

You no longer have to be resentful about what must be done. You can choose to be empowered by it.

Claim the courage that is already yours and put it to use. Feel the strength that has always been there, connect it with good and beautiful purpose.

In the sincerity of the love you give is an endless source of confidence. In what you have to offer is a continuing stream of value.

Discover all the ways you can love what is. Apply that love to what can be.

Put one foot in front of the other and go, go, go. Do life, do it honestly, do it with authenticity, and do it exceptionally well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 5

Offer encouragement

Give encouragement and it expands. When you encourage someone else the person who ends up with the most profound encouragement is very often you.

Every life is filled with unused potential. Encouragement breaks that potential loose, activates it, transforms it into all kinds of good things.

Even just a little bit of encouragement can create a shift to a whole new perspective. Knowing that someone cares, feeling the reality of that caring, changes the world.

Encouragement is contagious. One person who is encouraged will encourage many others who will themselves pass encouragement along.

All around you are people who can benefit from your encouragement, including you. If you seek to make a difference, that’s a potent opportunity for doing so.

Offer encouragement. Be a positive, encouraging force in the lives of those around you, and in your own life as well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 6

Imagine beyond

Imagine being able to celebrate the things you now criticize. Imagine being able to praise the things you now complain about.

Imagine letting go of your anger, and then opening your eyes to what the anger has prevented you from seeing. Imagine listening to someone you disagree with, and finding common ground.

What if your negative perceptions could transform into valuable, practical, positive insights? What if you could move past assumptions that too often have held you back?

Much, much more is possible than you now realize. Help yourself to explore and fulfill the best of those possibilities.

Expand your concept of who you are, of what you can do, of what is good and beautiful. Deepen your understanding of truth and your connection to all that is.

Imagine beyond all you’ve dared to imagine. And live in a place that exceeds your highest expectations.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 7

Why you do it

There’s a fine line between what works and what doesn’t. Qualities similar in outward appearance can be radically different in inner motivation, and in their results.

Persistence expands your options. Stubbornness limits them.

Confidence attracts people and transforms opportunity into achievement. Arrogance squanders opportunity and pushes people away.

Generosity earns you great admiration and loyalty. Extravagance makes you look foolish and insecure.

Challenging others to be their best can lead to widespread achievement. Scolding others about their worst behaviors is sure to create massive resentment.

Don’t become so obsessed with a good thing that it turns into a bad thing. Remember, it’s not just what you do, it’s why you do it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 8

Strength to move forward

Every fault you admit can challenge you to improve yourself. Every weakness you embrace you can proceed to transform into a strength.

The failures you acknowledge illuminate opportunities for success. Your mistakes and their consequences teach you how to make better choices.

Any regret you have, as painful as it may be, serves a positive purpose. It’s an effective reminder not to create more regrets.

Certainly you don’t want to wallow in the negative aspects of your past or present. But you don’t want to completely ignore them either.

Whatever you’ve done or failed to do that has held you back can now point you in a more positive direction going forward. The costly price you’ve paid for your experience can now be transformed into useful value.

Never does your past have to be an excuse for a dismal future. For right now you can choose, you can act, you can improve, transforming whatever has held you back into new strength to move forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 9

The way you look at life

It is not possible for you to experience everything in every way, so your experience is necessarily limited. And your limited experience can easily lead to limiting assumptions.

Just because some tool or idea or technique didn’t work for you one time, doesn’t mean it won’t ever work for anyone. Indeed, with different circumstances it might even work well for you.

Are there things you are certain about that you really have no business being certain about? That’s extremely likely.

Your assumptions can blind you to perfectly good possibilities. Though you wouldn’t want to abandon all your assumptions, it’s an empowering exercise to question them and look beyond them.

There exists a vast landscape of experience and knowledge that you currently know nothing about. Don’t let your current beliefs and assumptions prevent you from exploring that territory.

Allow those beliefs and assumptions to guide you, but not to imprison you. Be willing to update and improve the way you look at life, and you’ll find plenty of new ways to improve life itself.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 10

Invest your thoughts

It might seem like you’re stuck with your current thoughts, but that’s not the case. A more effective frame of mind is just a thought or two away.

Yes, the outer world has an influence on what you’re thinking. However, you have the final say.

If you feel trapped in a certain frame of mind, much of what’s keeping you there is your own choice. When it would serve you better, you can make a different choice.

Whether you’ve been surprised, insulted, praised, intimidated, satisfied, or ignored, you can move quickly past any kind of negative or unproductive mindset. Choose now where you want your thoughts to go and they will go there.

Compare the likely end results of continuing in your current frame of mind or switching to a different one. Choose your thinking based on the outcome you prefer.

What’s the optimum way for you to live your life during the next thirty minutes, or three hours? Invest your thoughts there, and the rest of you will follow.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 11

The value time brings

Time provides you the opportunity to fully experience life. Give all good things in your life the time they need, the time they deserve, the time you deserve.

If everything came to you instantly, all at once, it would overwhelm you and be of little positive value. Take the time to let life unfold in a way that connects you thoroughly to its richness.

Imagine receiving everything you desire, plus everything you will ever desire, right now. Imagine having to enjoy it all, to experience it all, before the end of the day.

In such a scenario, all your hopes, dreams, and desires would be reduced to confusion, frustration, and despair. Fortunately, time spaces out the goodness in your life so you have the chance to savor it.

Young children embarking on a treasure hunt don’t care about the treasure, they are captivated by the hunt. There is great wisdom in that preference.

Time gives the good things in your life their goodness. Don’t let impatience cheat you out of the value that only time can bring.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 12

Small negative choices

Do you really need to make that snide remark? Will it bring any lasting value to anyone’s life?

Do you really need to think that demeaning thought about someone else? Will it solve any problem or lead to any achievement?

Do you really need that empty momentary pleasure? Or are there perhaps more healthy and fulfilling ways to spend your time?

No one makes the big choice to live a life of negativity and despair. Yet everyone makes small choices that can lead in that direction.

Fortunately, those small negative choices are easy to replace with positive choices. The more often that happens, the better life becomes.

In every little choice, be aware of what you are choosing. Your choices add up to the life you live, so make all your choices accordingly.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 13

Once you are certain

Once you are certain, you stop thinking, stop questioning, stop wondering, stop exploring, stop listening. Is that a good thing?

Once you are locked into certainty, you are no longer able to engage in rich, meaningful exchange. All you’re left with is to express your certainty, which can quickly become tedious and predictable.

Once you are certain, imagination dries up, crumbles, falls away, is prevented from coming back. Is the smug satisfaction you gain from your certainty, worth all that you lose?

It’s good to be certain that there are no cars coming before you cross the highway. Yet once you’re across, it’s best to let go of that certainty, because the situation you’re so certain about, will change.

If your certainty is accurate, truthful, it can be quite helpful. But if it is mistaken, it can lead you headlong into awful places.

Question your certainties, question your assumptions, especially when they’re handed to you by someone else. Make sure that your certainty does not wall you off from the truth.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 14

Happy to be of service

Do you want an endless number of opportunities to be happy? Then be happy to be of service.

There’s always something you can do to help someone else. There’s always a way to make life better for those who live it.

You can find much fulfillment and satisfaction in knowing you’ve genuinely made a difference for others. That’s a powerful way to be happy.

Do it not to look good, not to gain an advantage or to be owed a favor. Just do it for the joy of being helpful, and let others take from it what they will.

Yes, some people might take undue advantage of your helpfulness. But as long as it’s not harming you, let it be their problem, not yours.

Be happy to be of service. And you’ll always have plenty of ways to be happy.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 15

What could you imagine?

What you imagine does not exist. What you imagine can in many ways be more real than anything else in your life.

What you imagine influences what you see, what you do about it, who you listen to, how you respond. What you imagine sets the scene for the way you live your life.

Take a deep breath, then think of all you care about, all you wonder about, all you dream, all you love. Then ask yourself a couple of questions.

What do you imagine? What could you imagine?

Imagine the present in a way that energizes you, motivates you, disciplines you, balances you, challenges you. Imagine the future in a way that entices you to make life better for all who live it.

You live in a world of material reality that you cannot successfully deny. Yet with imagination you can rise above that reality and find countless ways of shaping it to everyone’s benefit.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 16

Take good care of yourself

It’s wonderful that you’re so good to others. Always remember to be just as good to yourself as well.

Compromising your own well being does not benefit anyone else. It is when you are satisfied with yourself, confident in yourself, that you can benefit those around you.

When you wish to give, you first must have something of value to offer. If you seek to be of service to anyone else you must take good care of yourself.

Get your work done, indulge some small but important desires. Then you’re able to give your full attention and genuine care to those you love, and to many others.

Yes, it is a challenge to take care of yourself and to balance that with your care for others. It is not a challenge to be ignored or avoided.

If you want your life to matter to others it must matter to you. Take good care of yourself, and give life the best you have to offer.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 17

Make yourself willing

You never would have thought you could do it but you did. Because you really wanted to, or you had no other choice.

What other things might you be able to accomplish, that you never thought you could? What profound challenge, what deep-seated desire can you set before yourself that will energize your spirit and activate your skills?

When you are unwilling, nothing much happens, no matter how well-positioned you are. When you are sufficiently willing, pretty much anything is possible even if you’re burdened by severe disadvantages.

Determine exactly what would make you willing. Fill your mind and your heart with all the details of how much better it will be than any alternative.

Put the whole of yourself into an intimate and continuing relationship with your reason why. Make yourself willing.

Amaze yourself again with all the good things you can get done. Make yourself willing, fill your existence with purpose, and bring to life all the achievements you are meant to achieve.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 18

Live creatively

Creativity is not just for writers and artists. Every endeavor in life, and indeed life itself, can benefit from a creative approach.

There’s the way you’ve always done it, and it works, and that’s fine. Yet very likely there’s an even better way, more effective, more satisfying, more enduring, more fun.

Look at what’s there now, consider what’s happened in the past and how it worked out, then mix it all with what might be. That’s a good starting point for creativity.

Then perhaps you can add in a little randomness, something that catches your eye. Because, who knows, it might just work.

That doesn’t mean you should completely disconnect from reality in order to be creative. What it means is that there are plenty of ways you can creatively improve on reality.

And in a very fundamental sense, isn’t that what life is all about? Live creatively, and continue discovering new ways to be more fully alive.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 19

What life is already

Let go of the need for anything to be different. Allow yourself to be fulfilled by everything that is.

Let go of your obsession with getting. Center your energy and awareness on being.

Let your goals and dreams push you toward a bright and fulfilling future. But don’t let them blind you to the immense abundance that is right now.

Work your plans, honor your obligations, and fulfill your duties. Do it all from a positive and authentic living presence.

Discover again and again that joy is now. Live the reality that true happiness is yours the instant you choose to let it flow from you.

Live not from need, but from love. And see what a magnificent thing life already is.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 20

Quiet improvement

Announcing that you are going to improve your behavior is a poor substitute for actual improvement. Skip that needless step, and go straight to the work of improving the way you act.

Quiet improvement is powerful, authentic improvement. It is focused not merely on the image of how you look but on the substance of how you are.

Making a promise to improve might get you off the hook for a moment. But then that moment is over, and you’ve made no real progress.

When you’re truly committed to making an improvement, just go ahead and do it. Get your ego out of the way, and you can get real work done.

Let your actions do the talking. Let your results do the talking.

Stop proclaiming how you’re going to be. And start quietly being the best of how you intend to be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 21

Fulfillment in the journey

Push without being pushy. Give everything to the effort while expecting nothing from the result.

Let your fulfillment be in making it happen, not in having made it happen. If the result is fulfilling, as it often will be, that’s a bonus.

You have much more control over your actions than you do over the results of your actions. Keep your focus on what you can control and refuse to be dissuaded by factors you cannot control.

Your results are indications of your success but they are not the substance of your success. That substance is in the value you create along the way.

It’s a form of value that will always exist no matter how any particular result plays out. It’s value that you can expand upon in every area of your life.

Find your success and fulfillment in the journey. And you’ll enable yourself to reach countless amazing destinations.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 22

Know your priorities

What, exactly, are your priorities for this day, this year, this experience of life? What is of importance to you, and in what order?

Want to give yourself a massive advantage in all you do? Be clear, specific, and honest with yourself about your priorities.

A well-developed sense of your priorities will foster confidence, enthusiasm, and discipline. When you’re clear about your priorities, you’re able to make optimum use of your time, energy, and resources.

Priorities inform you without restricting you. They give valuable perspective to every choice you make.

Even when you have strong, clearly defined priorities, you’re not always forced to follow them. You are, however, always able to give your consideration to them.

Know your priorities, and you can make decisions more quickly, with better quality. Know and pay attention to your priorities, and you’ll have an essential structure to live a life of great fulfillment.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 23

Whatever happens

It is not your job to get upset by whatever happens. Your role is to craft meaning, fulfillment, joy, and goodness from whatever happens.

Life is not the least bit impressed with your pain or inconvenience. Life throws solid challenges at you and expects you to grow stronger, not to sigh and complain.

If you can smile, and you can, do it. If you can get up, get going, and make a difference, do it.

You have right now the immense privilege of being able to choose your next action. Exercise that privilege with positive purpose, with love, gratitude and kindness.

Life is difficult, but not as difficult as you often build it up to be. And anyway, that difficulty confers the very opportunities that give life its great richness.

Accept it all, embrace it all, and go with the best you’ve got, now. Whatever happens is fertile ground for all the good that can be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 24

Your thoughts are your choice

Reality is more than what you think it is. Your thoughts have limitations that you, your existence, reality, and truth do not.

Your thoughts play a powerful role in your life. Yet your thoughts do not constitute the entirety of your life.

You can enable your thoughts to serve you without allowing them to limit you. Indeed, you can specifically direct your thoughts to assist you and not to hinder or distract you.

Notice those thoughts that waste your energy, hold you back, or lead you astray, and just choose to let them go. Take only what’s helpful from each thought that arises and then move on with your experience of life.

Every thought you have is yours to do with as you please. Thoughts influence you only when you let them, and it’s up to you when to let them.

Don’t let your thoughts, or anything else, get in the way of what you know to be true and authentic. Allow the truth of all that is to shine through everything you experience, through all you think and say and do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 25

Sufficient time

Sometimes it’s necessary to rush through a task or an experience. Most of the time it’s not, and your excessive haste can be counterproductive.

You deserve the experience of savoring whatever you do. Your work benefits when you can focus on it without the constant pressure to get it finished quickly.

No, that’s not always possible. Yet there are often ways for you to make it possible.

Do what you can to give the important things in your life sufficient time. Time is highly valuable and confers its value to those endeavors upon which it is generously bestowed.

Life unfolds at a certain pace. If you race too far ahead of that pace, you miss out on much of life’s richness.

Give your work, your relationships, your dreams, adventures, and advancements the time they require. Let your life benefit from those treasures that only sufficient time can bring forth.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 26

Meet the demands

Avoiding effort is itself an effort and a burden on you. Perhaps you’re better off just going ahead and doing what must be done.

Putting off an unpleasant task until later does not make it any more pleasant. What will make your life more pleasant is to put forth the necessary effort and get the work finished.

You cannot get around the fact that life places certain demands on you. What you can do is meet those demands in ways that create value and fulfillment.

Look from the perspective of opportunity, of possibility. See what the situation offers you alongside what it demands of you.

After all, the necessity of meeting life’s demands is what it is. Your thoughts are what can make it into a burden, yet you’re entirely able to choose different thoughts.

When life’s demands arise, promptly acknowledge them and go about dealing with them. Life demands much of you, so activate your beautiful ability to transform those demands into value.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 27

Familiar harbor

Are you holding tightly to something that’s not moving forward? Then you’re not moving forward either.

Is there a habit, assumption, concept, perspective, that you’ve been hesitant to let go of? Could it be keeping you stuck, preventing you from making progress?

It’s comfortable to stick firmly with what’s familiar, expected, and predictable. Yet at some point that comfort will harden into stagnation.

A big part of improvement is letting go of whatever may be blocking that improvement. Yes it takes courage, yes it takes strength, and yes it will make a major positive difference.

What you’re able to accomplish is a function of what you’re willing to relinquish. By letting go of what is, you expand the possibilities of what can be.

You must leave the familiar harbor if you wish to cross the stormy sea. Yet oh, what a magnificent world awaits your discovery when you do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 28

Tell yourself

Tell yourself why you must do it, and why you can do it. Tell yourself you will.

Tell yourself you are starting now. And then do as you have told yourself.

In the past, you’ve told yourself about all the excuses you have for not taking action. And indeed those excuses have been effective at preventing your actions.

Going forward, tell yourself why, tell yourself you must, tell yourself you are doing it. You’ll be just as effective at getting yourself into action.

You might pay attention to others and you might not. Yet you always pay attention to yourself.

So give yourself some positive direction and give yourself the confidence, along with a little push, to move in that direction. Tell yourself you’re doing it, and you’ll realize that you are.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 29

What you look for

What you look for determines what you find. What you look for has a major influence on what comes into your life.

Look for reasons to connect and cooperate rather than for reasons to argue and accuse. Look for possibilities instead of excuses.

Look for ways to solve the problems. Look for what you can do to improve the situation.

Look for ideas, activities and resources that can be of benefit to yourself and others. Look for opportunities to create new value.

Look for what works, and give your support to those who facilitate it. Look for people who are competent, resourceful, generous and insightful, and emulate what they do.

Look for joy, look for goodness, look for truth and kindness and fulfillment. Look for the best you can imagine, and bring it abundantly to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 30

Raising your expectations

What you get comes from what you expect. If you’re not getting what you desire, raise your expectations.

Raising your expectations does not mean merely increasing their size and scope. It means more accurately aligning them with what’s true, what’s real and what’s possible.

For example, expecting to get something for nothing is a low level expectation. Expecting an opportunity to earn what you desire is a more realistic, higher level expectation.

Though their influence does extend beyond you, your expectations are primarily centered on what you expect from yourself. When you raise your expectations you challenge yourself to live more purposefully, more richly.

You embrace responsibility for your own outcomes. You position yourself in accordance with your expectations and then act to fulfill them.

Much more than just a wish list, your expectations embed themselves deeply in all you do, in all you are. Raise those expectations, and then rise to the challenges those new expectations set forth.

— Ralph Marston