Daily Motivator - August

[bluidkiti]

August 1

Eager to be proven wrong

What is there that you cannot see? What is in front of you that you choose not to notice?

What you know of life is considerable, yet there is much more you don’t know. All that you don’t know provides an endless pathway for discovery and improvement.

Can you open yourself to the possibility that you might not be sufficiently informed? If so, you will right away begin to be better informed.

Humility makes you much smarter than smugness. It also makes you more enjoyable, effective, and interesting.

The point of knowledge is not to prove how much you have or how right you are. The value of knowledge is in applying it with useful and practical action.

Embrace the opportunity that exists in all you do not know. Be eager to be proven wrong, and learn how to live even better than you already do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 2

Let now be good

Let now be good. Let now bring its unique fulfillment and richness.

Those days in the past that you remember as perfect had their problems and shortcomings. Those future times you imagine as ideal will not be flawless.

Be thankful for what has been, for all that will be. And experience each joy as its time arrives.

Now is everything you have. It is far from perfect, yet it is more than enough.

Do the good you can do, now when you can. Be the authentic person you are, now when it matters.

Let go of any longing for what might have been, or what was, or what could be, and just let now be good. Now is here for you, so be fully here for now.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy August Tammy & Kracker, thanking God for watching
Over our family's and us during the month of July.
May our Higher Power continues to bless us while
We are on this journey called life. God bless you my
Friends. Your friend in recovery,
Wayne aka Willbe275??

[bluidkiti]

August 3

Promises to keep

You’ve made promises to yourself, promises to others, promises to life. Do what you can to keep those promises.

You’ve always had potential, and have accumulated even more potential as time has passed. Do all you can to fulfill the best of that potential.

It’s tempting to settle in, hide away, be satisfied with what you’ve done, and leave it at that. But you have promises to keep, possibilities still waiting for you to bring them to life.

Today you can work to deliver on all the good promises you’ve made. Today you can live your life according to how you always said you would and expected you would.

Nothing is holding you back from doing so other than your own choices. Whether your promises result in achievement or disappointment is up to you.

You know how good you’ve envisioned life to be, how good you’ve promised it can be. Now is your chance to make good on that promise.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 4

The best way forward

Declining to lift a weight will not make you stronger. Refusing to deal with a challenge will not make the challenge go away.

Giving yourself less to do will not enable you to get more done. Putting off your work will not result in accomplishment.

Rise to the challenges. Do it sooner rather than later.

Your activities on any day can be easy or they can be meaningful, but not both. A week from now, a decade from now, meaningful will bring much more richness to your world than easy.

Of all your choices today, which ones will result in new value? Go with those.

The best way forward will demand much from you. This is your chance to give it willingly, enthusiastically, and to enjoy the goodness that flows from all you’re able to accomplish.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 5

Step by step

Make little improvements and maintain them. Then make more.

You can’t immediately get everything to be perfect. You can’t solve every problem by the time you go to bed this evening.

Yet you can make progress. And every little bit of progress makes a difference.

When the problems seem overwhelming, ask yourself this. Is there some specific something you can do right now about one of those problems?

Instead of focusing on how overwhelmed you are, turn your attention to what you can actually do to make a positive difference. Even if it’s not much, find an initial step you can take, and then take it.

Step by step you can make things better. And better is always a very good direction to be going.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 6

Look in the mirror

No leader, no ruler, no guru, no law, no concept can change human nature. Yet you can learn to live with your own nature, and that of others, and do so with great success.

There is no arrangement, legal, financial, physical, social, that will make life perfect. It is within life’s imperfections that you have endless opportunities to make life good.

Begging, forcing, or shaming other people into doing what you think they should do will not bring value or fulfillment to your life. Instead, look in the mirror.

You are already in control of your own behavior, so use your own actions to move life in the direction you desire. Though it’s easy to blame your problems on others, it’s far more powerful when you take responsibility for them no matter who is to blame.

Sure, many factors beyond your control affect the quality of your life. Nonetheless, your best chance at improving that quality comes from the way you choose to live.

If you’re looking for someone to hold responsible, look in the mirror. Live up to that responsibility and make yourself a beneficial influence in your own life as well as in the lives of others.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 7

Visualize and act

Visualize yourself starting, visualize yourself persisting, and visualize yourself finishing. Then do what you envision.

If you can’t get yourself to take action, then get yourself to visualize taking action. Use the power of that vision to push yourself into action.

In your vision, see the necessary effort and see the positive outcome of that effort. See that it’s worth your time and trouble, and see yourself going ahead with it.

Provide yourself with a vision that inspires you. Empower yourself with a vision that fills you with enthusiasm.

At any time, in any condition, without any special tools or skills, you can visualize a positive future. You can make that vision compelling enough to get you creating that future.

Visualize and then act on your vision. See clearly that you can do it, and you will.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 8

Adventure

Adventure is a story that never gets old. When you make your way out beyond where you belong, you discover a whole new dimension to life.

Whether you experience it directly or vicariously, adventure puts you in touch with your vulnerability. That’s actually a very good thing.

The experience of vulnerability brought on by adventure brings a renewed sense of humility. That opens you up to gain new wisdom, to develop new capabilities, to grow stronger in the truth of who you are.

Adventure is rich in risk and reward, and that’s precisely its point. When you crave adventure what you are craving is life in its most meaningful state.

You have the power of purpose, the power to prevail through challenge in service of that purpose. Adventure makes that abundantly clear.

Adventure is when you know how it feels to be fully alive. And that’s an essential thing to know.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 9

Expand life’s excellence

You seek to live with excellence, but the world does not cooperate. Live with excellence anyway.

Excellence is always yours to choose, even when it is not widely supported or encouraged. In fact, when there is minimal respect for excellence is when excellence is needed most.

Live with excellence, not out of arrogance but out of love. Live with excellence that is not dependent on outside support but courageous enough to exist on its own terms.

The value of excellence is not based on who is looking or who is not. You know what is good, what is right, what is excellent and beautiful, and that’s more than sufficient.

Treasure excellence, savor it, learn from it, gain inspiration from it, emulate it, create it, share it. But don’t get caught up in what anyone thinks of it or does with it.

Take the strength and skill you have earned, and expand on life’s excellence. With excellence, make every day the best opportunity ever.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 10

Live your courage

Everything in life involves some risk. But that doesn’t mean you have to live in constant fear.

Momentary fear can be useful. Yet if you give fear a place to persist it will reliably lead you straight toward whatever you fear.

Feel the fear, listen to the fear, take precautions based on it. Then leave the fear behind, because it has done its job and has nothing more to offer you.

Let your actions be partly informed by fear, not dominated by fear. Keep your attention focused on a purpose compelling enough to keep fear in its proper perspective.

Step forward with a tiny bit of courage and suddenly you have more courage. Make it your business to grow that courage by putting it to meaningful use.

Fear is not your enemy and it is certainly not your refuge. See fear for what it is, and live your courage for all it can be.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Lord, help me to focus on what the Holy Spirit is doing in my life and starve the flesh. Praise God, I am not alone in my fight against fear; I have the Holy Spirit and the angels. The Holy Spirit and the angels are standing with me and in me.
Conquer fear with pure love. Amen.

[bluidkiti]

August 11

Sadness and happiness

Life can sometimes become consistently good for a long, continuous stretch. Yet eventually difficulties will show up.

In other times, life can feel like a never-ending string of problems. Even so, there are sure to be new joys to experience ahead.

Through the prospect of future joy and your confidence that it will come, you’re able to endure the hard times. And because of those difficult times, you’re able to more fully appreciate the joys when they do come.

Sadness and happiness are not as far apart as you might imagine. Over time they continue to enable and contribute to each other.

Because of this dynamic, in your happiness you can feel genuine gratitude. And in your sadness you can feel well founded hope.

Life has been changing for a very long time, and will reliably continue to do so. And in that very process of change, life always gives you much to be thankful for and much more to look forward to.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 12

Force of good

The world can always benefit from more goodness. Make it your business to offer that goodness.

Challenge yourself to be a force of good in whatever you happen to be doing. It will benefit those around you, and will also benefit you.

Projecting a positive demeanor takes almost no effort and costs you nothing. Yet it has the power to significantly improve life.

Imagine how you would feel and how you would act if everything were going your way. Then choose to feel that way, to act that way, no matter what’s going on.

No, it won’t magically make all your endeavors fall perfectly into place. Yet it will give you a significant advantage with your own energy level and with the people you encounter.

Do what you can, where you are, to be a force of good. And experience how that goodness provides you with a powerful and positive space in which to operate.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 13

Strength inside you

You can handle a little risk. You can handle a little discomfort.

You can handle a little pain. You can handle a little inconvenience.

You can handle a little embarrassment. You can handle a little effort.

You can summon a little patience. You can summon a little discipline.

You can do whatever must be done when the reason is meaningful enough. You can get yourself to take the necessary action when it serves a worthy purpose.

What have you avoided, made excuses about, or put off until later just because you thought you couldn’t handle it? Imagine all the good that will come when you go ahead and utilize the strength that’s already there inside you.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 14

Untapped potential

Be inspired by your successes. Be even more inspired by your failures.

Find great value in the good things you’ve done. Find even more value in all the good you have not yet brought yourself to do.

Challenge yourself in ways no one else can challenge you. Remind yourself that no matter what you’ve achieved, there is always more you can do.

Feel your untapped potential. Feel it so deeply you cannot avoid working to fulfill that potential.

See the great opportunity in everything you’ve left undone. Take hold of that opportunity with a renewed sense of energy and purposeful passion.

Think of all you’ve ever cared about and let it remind you how much you still do care. In that feeling is your potential, and in this moment is your chance to do something about it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 15

Authentic self

You know who you are, how you are, what you value. Refuse to let anyone tell you differently.

Some people who may not even know you will try to shame you, embarrass you, make you feel guilty. Anyone who does that has no special insight, just a self-serving desire to advance their own agenda.

You know what’s in your heart. You’re able to see for yourself what is true and what is not.

Respect the perspectives and opinions of others, and welcome their expression. But don’t allow anyone else’s opinion to define you or prevent you from living your truth.

To be a positive force in life, be your authentic self. There’s never any need to ask permission or forgiveness for that.

You have much good to offer life. Give that goodness, in whatever way you know to be best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 16

Looking up

If you want to get things looking up, start with yourself. Look up, look forward, look at the best possibilities, and look at how you can bring them to life.

Sometimes you have to look back, sometimes you have to look down, just to establish perspective. Once you’ve done that, though, it’s time to look in a more positive direction.

Look up, and notice there’s really no limit to how high you can go. Look up, replenish your energy, and activate your inspiration.

Look up, and you’ll be able to see beyond the obstacles that stand in your way. Look up, toward where you most desire to go, and begin to see the positive path that will take you there.

Feel the strength you’ve gained from the troubles you’ve been through. Look up, and give that strength a good, meaningful direction to go.

Get yourself looking up. By so doing you’ll invite and encourage the world around you to unfold in that same direction.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 17

Just make the effort

Just make the effort. Don’t overthink it, or resent it, or wish for something better.

Go ahead and get it done. Don’t excuse your way out of it, or look for someone else to blame.

Will it be difficult? That’s mostly a judgment call, and one that does not change the situation.

What will change the situation is action, or lack of it. So it’s up to you, and what you do, whether that change is for the better or for the worse.

This is a turning point. This is the time when you can do something to positively affect the way your life unfolds.

So go ahead, do it, make the effort, give it your best. Your world is ready for your decisive action to improve it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 18

Beauty in the unknown

There is a beauty in the unknown. Embrace that beauty.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to have everything figured out.

Breathe in deeply the energizing air of possibility. Imagine beyond what you’ve already imagined.

Accept that you will make mistakes, and lose your way, and fail to understand. Realize that your competence, sense of direction, and wisdom will all grow stronger as a result.

Through your entire life you’ve learned by experimenting. Now it is more important than ever, more useful and effective than ever, to keep experimenting.

Beauty has always been more than what you thought it would be. Gently relax the desire for certainty and discover much more magnificence in reality.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 19

Showing up

It’s okay that you don’t feel like showing up. It’s okay that you’re not excited about doing the work.

What’s powerful, though, is to go ahead with it anyway. That’s a power you can benefit from any time you choose.

Sure, it’s helpful to be enthusiastic about what you’re doing. Yet even when you’re not enthusiastic about it, you can still make progress.

In fact, every little bit of that progress helps you feel like putting in more effort. By going ahead when you’re not enthusiastic, you can actually generate some enthusiasm.

Know that, remind yourself of it, and put it to work in your favor. Success in any endeavor is largely a matter of showing up, and that’s something you can get yourself to do.

Show up, even when you’re not thrilled about it. Give yourself the satisfaction of a job well done and you’ll feel a whole lot better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 20

Competence from caring

You are the most competent and effective when working on what you care most about. If you wish to become more competent at anything, first make sure you connect it to what you value.

That connection will not always be obvious. Yet even when the task itself has no meaning to you, there’s a reason why you’re doing it.

Consider that reason, and the additional reasons behind it. Get clear on the connection between the seemingly pointless activity and whatever’s driving it that’s meaningful to you.

When you’re working on what you care about, you’ll continue discovering ways to improve your work. Your care and devotion to what you’re doing will illuminate potential improvements that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Competence comes from caring. Genuine caring comes from seeing that just about everything you do can be connected to what you value.

Be mindful of the reasons behind whatever you’re doing. There’s no limit to how much you can improve when you know how much you care.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 21

Bestow a little goodness

Every aspect of your life is connected to every other aspect. Negativity, indolence, or negligence in one area can weigh down your whole world.

Fortunately, a little goodness in one corner of your experience can begin to lift up all the other parts of your life. When you value and nurture and support that goodness, it will grow.

Find a new place where you can inject a little positivity. Once you do, you’ll discover other opportunities for doing so in your own life and in the lives of others.

Often you cannot do anything directly about the troubles that descend on your world. Yet you can balance those troubles, and even overwhelm them, with goodness in other places.

You won’t be able to solve every problem. However, you can always do something real and genuine and beneficial.

Bestow a little goodness in your world when you can, where you can. Push life in an upward direction, and keep up the good effort.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 22

Break the pattern

If life has been disappointing you, break the pattern. If you’ve been disappointing yourself, break the pattern.

That doesn’t mean throwing everything away and starting over. It’s a matter of forcing yourself to adopt a new perspective.

It means connecting with the living energy that makes you who you are. It means launching yourself on a mission that excites you and compels you into action.

Visualize yourself as feeling sluggish and bored on a sweltering day. Imagine the refreshing change you’d immediately achieve by jumping into a pool of clear, cool water.

What could you do right now, mentally, physically, spiritually, to create a change like that? What would send a burst of fresh, positive energy coursing through your entire being?

Open yourself to the possibilities of breaking any negative or unproductive pattern you may be in. Jump quickly into a higher, more satisfying level of living.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 23

Put joy into it

What would the next hour look like if you made the decision, right now, to put joy into it? How would the next few days unfold if you were to focus on adding joy and gratitude to every activity?

It’s easy to assume that your circumstances and surroundings have complete control over the way you feel. But what if you made the choice to flip that around?

What if you brought your own irrepressible joy to the people, places, and circumstances you encounter? It’s perfectly reasonable, entirely attainable, and has the power to make a dramatic positive difference.

You don’t have to always be mentally scrolling through a list of problems and complaints. Instead, you can direct your attention to the blessings and opportunities of each moment you’re in.

There’s no reason to let every random occurrence dictate the way you feel. You have the option to choose joy, gratitude, positive intention, effective action, and love.

Whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re with, wherever you are, put joy into it. See what a positive difference that can make.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 24

Waiting for a sure thing

Pretty much no course of action is guaranteed to produce the exact results you seek. Yet there are countless actions that will significantly increase your odds.

Factors completely beyond your control may very well block you from reaching your goal. Your best strategy is to make the most of the many other factors you are indeed able to influence.

If you’re expecting a sure thing you’ll wait a very long time, and even then you’re not at all likely to get it. Instead of holding out for a guarantee, go forward with whatever you have.

Yes, there’s the risk you’ll be wasting your efforts when there’s no assurance of success. However, that’s infinitely preferable to the certainty of wasting your time while you wait in vain for a sure thing.

Assess your risks, minimize them as much as you can, and then take action. Though the experience won’t be perfect, it’s a whole lot better than doing nothing.

Though you cannot precisely control the future, there’s much you can do to positively influence it. Now is your time not to wait but to act.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 25

Dance among the possibilities

You are here, you are now, you are you. Let it be, with no judgment, no thought, no worry, no fear.

Look with peaceful eyes and see the goodness, the truth that supports all existence. Sink into the experience of simply being with the experience.

Feel the value of your ability to know, to watch, to act, to be. Notice how easily and naturally you dance among the possibilities.

You already have all of now. Its beauty, wonder, and potential continue to flood you with new energy.

Relax everything about you, let down your defenses. Become so accepting of your vulnerability that it fades away to nothing.

Here you are now in the stillness. Embrace the peaceful power of all that is.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 26

Serve what matters

Don’t take the path of least resistance. Take the path of highest purpose.

Getting somewhere easily and quickly is not the point. Getting somewhere meaningful and valuable is the point.

If you just let yourself go with the tide you’ll get swept out to sea. Summon the courage, put forth the effort, persist in going against the tide when you must.

Your life has unique, worthwhile and beautiful potential. Your obligation to yourself and to those you care about is to fulfill that potential on a daily basis.

In your heart you know what matters. With your time, your actions, your words and thoughts, be true to all those things.

Make use of the strength you have to serve the purpose you know is yours. That strength will grow, and so will you, and so will all of life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 27

Do the hard stuff

Seek out what’s difficult, do what’s difficult, what challenges you. Learn to do more than what you’re already able to do.

You won’t get it perfect the first time. You may not even get it done at all on the initial attempt.

But the point is not to waltz through the task with no effort or trouble. The point is to build your knowledge and hone your skills.

Let yourself be humbled by the challenge and the complexity of a worthwhile pursuit. Be inspired by the opportunity for excellence that exists within life’s difficulties.

Discover again and again the value you can create by embracing and mastering those difficulties. Feel the irreplaceable satisfaction of acquiring, applying, and deepening your skills.

Do the hard stuff, the complicated stuff, the stuff that demands the best from you. A life of excellence is well worth the effort.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 28

Choose well

What are you choosing right now? What will it add to or take away from your life?

The circumstances of your world do not just appear out of thin air. Many of them come from intentional or habitual choices, and a large portion of those choices are yours.

Some choices provide quick, trivial, pleasurable benefits at the expense of significant costs that come later. The problem with those choices is that later does eventually come.

Other choices impose burdens on you initially. Yet as you continue to willingly shoulder the burdens, those choices result in great, enduring value.

Any given moment offers countless options, with each one leading to even more options. Your ability to choose among those options provides immense opportunity.

Take that opportunity seriously, thoughtfully, and choose well. The quality of your life depends on your choices.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 29

All you can give

It is by giving value that you receive value. You experience meaning and fulfillment to the extent that you make your moments meaningful.

Yes, you can arrange various ways to obtain the external necessities and luxuries with no effort on your part. When you do, those things will add no real value to your life.

At its most fundamental level, life is about making a difference. That experience of making a difference is how you know you matter.

What can you do to give value to this moment, to this situation? At the heart of every desire you’ll find a yearning to give of yourself.

It’s common to keep score based on what you can get. But such an approach, on its own, inevitably comes up empty.

Seek instead to keep your focus on all you can give. And bring your life richness that never runs out.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 30

Advising yourself

If you were someone else, what would you advise yourself to do? Consider that advice and follow it.

Imagine you’re an objective observer, genuinely looking out for the best interests of someone who happens to be you. What suggestions would you make to yourself?

How would you advise yourself to deal with your own unique challenges? How would you encourage yourself to work toward the fulfillment of your best possibilities?

Step back, visualize those things, then step forward and take decisive action. With kindness, with firmness, give yourself a reality check, some gentle nudging, a bit of tough love, a lot of enthusiastic support.

Respect yourself, challenge yourself, be honest and persistent with yourself as if you were someone determined to make you the best you can be. Realize, in fact, that’s exactly what you are, exactly what you can do, exactly how you can be.

Get outside the confines of your emotional attachment to your own experience. Tell yourself soberly and even-handedly what you must do, then implement that good advice.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

August 31

Change your mind

You are allowed to change your mind. When you learn something new, when you experience something different, you can alter your opinion accordingly.

You can change your mind and still be you. That’s true even if you’re heavily invested in a particular perspective.

There’s much value when you can be steadfast in your thinking. But there’s no value in being stubborn when quality, credible evidence contradicts your thinking.

When any opinion ceases to have a solid basis in fact, doubling down on it is not an effective response. Instead, open yourself to other possibilities, to informed and tested perspectives.

An important part of being right is admitting when you’re wrong. Anyone who refuses to do so cannot maintain credibility.

Give yourself a powerful, yet adaptable grip on reality. Be resolute in your perspective while at the same time willing to change your mind.

— Ralph Marston