Daily Motivator - September

[bluidkiti]

September 1

Act on your care

Saying you care is cheap, easy, and worthless. When you care, then act on your care, live your care.

Give your caring value, give it consequence. Give specific time, commitment, resources, actions and persistence to your caring.

Spend your energy doing what you can do rather than wasting your breath announcing it. If it matters to you, put your effort behind it.

Don’t bother with perfecting your image. Focus on optimizing your positive impact.

Begin each day in gratitude for all you care about. Then turn your attention to the steps you can take to support and to earn all that continuing goodness in your world.

Allow yourself to care deeply and push yourself to live accordingly. Put your caring into action and make all that’s good and meaningful even better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 2

Today’s opportunities

How many of today’s opportunities will you recognize? How many of them will you be willing to make use of?

Every problem you come across is an opportunity to create value. Each passing moment comes with an opportunity to do useful work, to learn, to make a positive difference in some way.

Every frustration gives you the opportunity to strengthen your patience. Every awkward situation provides an opportunity to add to your confidence.

Every challenge represents an opportunity to hone your skills. Every setback delivers the opportunity to become more determined and persistent.

Every person you encounter presents you with an opportunity for kindness. Every disagreement can serve as an opportunity for deeper understanding.

Today is filled with opportunities if you will simply open yourself to them. Each one can add new value to your world when you live with courage, with purpose, with love.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 3

Remember and re-energize

Remember all the good things you’ve done, and seen, and experienced. In so doing, re-acquaint yourself with the goodness that’s possible for you right now.

Recall all you’ve endured, the efforts you’ve put forth, the problems you’ve solved, the milestones you’ve reached. Let it spark fresh enthusiasm for the achievements you can now work toward.

Feel gratitude for all the people who have supported you, challenged you, encouraged you, been present with you. Be inspired to pass all that value along to others.

Consider how rich and meaningful life has been, even in the midst of great burdens and uncertainties. See your enduring power to connect to that richness no matter what the circumstances may be.

Past experience has carried you to where you are. Now is your opportunity to extend that journey, to expand the value of what you can do.

Connect again to the purpose that has always driven you. Allow that purpose to push you into increasingly higher levels of living and fulfillment.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 4

A good place to be

You don’t have to be spectacular to do a good job. Your life doesn’t have to be filled with glamor and drama to be a good life.

It’s great to work on being more than you are. Yet life can be fulfilling long before you’ve arrived at whatever destination you seek.

In all likelihood, where you are right now is not the perfect place to be. Nonetheless, you can always make it a good place to be.

Your high standards are valuable and admirable. But don’t let those standards prevent you from making good use of every moment.

Even when circumstances are less than perfect, you can live well, with purpose, with grace, with truth. Even when others in your life are less than accommodating, you can maintain a positive, purposeful focus.

Today is your day to embrace what is, to create unique fulfillment right where you are. Life is here now, ready for you to live it well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 5

Courageous competence

When you neglect to take action you open yourself to fear. When you back away from the challenges, fear gains the power to overwhelm you.

The way forward is not to wait or wish for someone to solve all your problems and make you safe. The way forward is to get innovative and ambitious, to actively do everything you can.

Each effort makes you more familiar with what you can do. You grow more effective, more confident, more courageous.

Sure, there are limits to what you’re able to do. Yet by taking every positive action available you begin to exceed those limits and expand your possibilities.

Acknowledge the risk, respect the danger, and act with focus, care, and competence. Take the reasonable, prudent actions available to you, and soon you’ll be able to do even more.

Be fully informed by the challenges but not stopped by them. Do everything you can, and let your courageous competence move life forward.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy New month Kracker, and Tammy, once again thanking God for the for watching over us and our family's during the month of August, thanking Our higher power for bringing us to this beautiful forth day of September. God bless you, and remember to walk by faith and not by sight, for it is faith that get us through the day. Amen.

[bluidkiti]

Thank you willbe. I pray that God blesses you and watches over you also. :42:

[bluidkiti]

September 6

The good you can do

It’s often said that misery loves company. But what misery seeks even more than sympathy is change for the better.

If you’re miserable, spreading misery to others won’t improve the way you feel. It will just make things worse for everyone, including you.

What will improve the situation is to break the pattern. Consider all you can do to make that happen.

Instead of looking for people to feel sorry for you, look for people you can help. Instead of focusing on your own troubles, focus on what you can do to lift up life.

Turn your attention and direct your energy toward what will make a positive difference. Challenge yourself to take beneficial actions, even if they’re just small ones.

Get through the difficulties not by dwelling on those difficulties but by setting your sights higher. Remind yourself of the good you can do and work to make everyone’s misery a thing of the past.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 7

Discover your way forward

How do you find the answers to life’s most difficult and perplexing questions? By living your life.

Others can teach you, guide you, inspire you, point you toward meaningful challenges. You have the opportunity to emulate people throughout history who have lived lives of positive purpose.

Yet learning or hearing about someone else’s experience does not fully transfer that experience to your life. It’s up to you to apply the lessons, to follow the inspiration, and to discover your way forward.

Fulfillment is not something that can merely be handed to you, or sold to you, or forced upon you. Fulfillment requires your active and continuing participation.

That’s what makes it so valuable. Its value is a combination of life itself, of all you’ve learned, and of all you’ve done in the process of living.

Today is your chance to add more steps to the journey. Travel well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 8

Guided by experience

What worked well for you yesterday? What can you do to expand upon it today?

What was the biggest factor working against you over the last month? What changes can you make to minimize or eliminate that drag on your efforts?

If you want to improve your future results, then pay close attention to your past experiences. Be honest with yourself about what works and what doesn’t.

Every day serves as a valuable experiment in how to live. What are all those daily experiments demonstrating to you?

Success happens for a reason, and so does failure. Be endlessly curious about those reasons and how they apply to your life, to your situation.

With every experience you gain new wisdom and the opportunity to improve. Take that opportunity and let experience guide you, step by step, day by day, to your most highly desired outcomes.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 9

Live the richness

What do you find fascinating? Learn all you can about it, then use what you’ve learned as a starting point to explore even more.

What inspires you? Figure out how to add much of it to your life and how to share it with others.

What challenges you? Embrace the challenge and slowly, steadily, persistently work your way through it.

What brings awe, wonder, mystery to you? Deepen your thoughts and stimulate your feelings with questions that cannot be answered.

Who, how, what do you love to love? Allow love and its ineffable power to resonate through all you do.

You are complex, beautiful, imperfect, and possessed of limitless possibilities. Understand all you can, make peace with the rest, and live the richness as it unfolds in every moment.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 10

Every kindness

Every kindness you extend to anyone else is also a kindness you give to yourself. Giving kindness gives you hope, purpose, connection.

Do you ever find yourself feeling down, aimless, irrelevant, or frustrated? Give genuine kindness and it will lift you up, pointing you in a positive, intentional direction.

Only those who never practice kindness see it as a weakness. In reality, kindness demonstrates your strength while also adding to that strength.

In your thoughts and actions, in the words you speak and the intentions you adopt, are opportunities for kindness. Kindness magnifies your effectiveness and empowers the lives of those around you.

Kindness eases your stress and inspires you to improve your world. Kindness gives as much to you as you give to others.

Live life from a perspective of kindness. And you’ll never run out of good, valuable things to do with your time, energy, and resources.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 11

Come to life

Come to life today. Live your life right now.

The tide will rise, the tide will fall. Fortune smiles on you a while, then turns away for a time.

Through it all, live your life. Set your intentions and follow through on them.

Life and love, richness, wonder and beauty are all meant specifically for you. Step beyond the fear, rise above the doubt as you journey through the magical experience of being you.

Feel the energy that is your life and let it flow throughout your world. Now is when you get to be the best you’ve ever been.

You’ve waited and wondered and worried long enough. Come all the way to life today and find delight in what you can know and do and see and be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 12

Merge expectations with reality

Expect the best of what can be. At the same time, embrace the reality of what is.

Your expectations exert a powerful influence on the way you interact with life. Use that power wisely, and don’t let it become a burden on your experience.

Let your expectations lift you, inspire you, illuminate the possibilities. But don’t allow them to set you up for disappointment.

Keep in mind that your expectations are there to point you in a desired direction. They cannot serve as an exact, detailed map of reality.

Your job is to integrate the hope and intention of your expectations with the actual truth of your situation. Be ever mindful of where you have chosen to go while also being fully present and aware of where you are.

Make your highest expectations more than mere fantasy. Work to merge them with reality, so that you can bring them fully to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 13

Power of momentum

If you’re experiencing positive momentum, work to make good use of it and to make more of it. Don’t let complacency steal your momentum away.

If you’re stuck in a period of negative momentum, break the pattern. Don’t go along with a force that’s holding you back.

Momentum is powerful, but it is never a foregone conclusion. Be aware that momentum can and does change, and be prepared to make sure those changes work to your benefit.

When momentum is empowering you, apply some of that power to keep the momentum going. When momentum is blocking you, disrupt that momentum so you can turn its power in a more favorable direction.

Where has momentum become entrenched in your life? Ask yourself, is it helping to push you forward or threatening to push you back?

Whatever your situation, work to bend momentum in the direction of your goals, your dreams, your intentions and values. Get momentum on your side, keep it there, and utilize its power to make life as beautiful and fulfilling as you know it can be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 14

What you do now

It doesn’t matter when or where or how you strayed from the path. What matters is what you do now.

The mistakes and disappointments were yesterday. The possibilities are today, along with the opportunity to choose and to live the best of them.

What you do now can transform your past weakness into ongoing strength. What you do now can redeem your life, your hope, your dreams, your future.

Where value has been tarnished or ignored, or never existed in the first place, your efforts are able to bring it to life. It all depends on what you do now.

Now you are smarter, more experienced, with a deeper understanding of what’s truly important to your life and your world. Now is when you make good use of that.

What you do now connects whatever you’ve been to whatever you choose to be. Take this opportunity and create the very best with what you do now.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 15

Inspiration

Don’t be envious of anyone else’s good fortune. Be inspired to create your own unique goodness.

Don’t be frightened, worried, angry, or frustrated by the difficulties you perceive. Be inspired by the opportunities for improvement.

Stop complaining about what has been and about what is. Be inspired, begin to envision and fulfill the best possibilities.

Let go of the excuses, of your hesitation to step forward. Say yes to life, to richness, to inspiration.

Today a world full of good things will happen because people choose to make them happen. Inspiration drives those choices.

Open yourself to inspiration, act with courage to follow where it leads. Learn again and again to be inspired, and journey beyond the world that is to the best of what can be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 16

Thoughts, actions, and feelings

Sometimes feelings just come over you. Maybe it’s because of something that happens, or it could be for no discernible reason.

You can get the impression that you have no control over your feelings. But that’s not true at all.

Sure, sometimes your feelings are influenced by factors far beyond your control. Yet even then you have great influence over the way you feel.

Most of your feelings are the result of what you are thinking about and what you are doing. And you almost always have complete control over your thoughts and your actions.

If your feelings are troubling you or hindering you, step back and examine what you’re thinking and what you’re doing. Ask yourself, how could you improve your thoughts and change your actions to create more desirable and effective feelings?

Certainly a lot of things influence the way you feel, yet at least two of those things are yours to choose. Select your thoughts and actions so they give you sufficient strength to deal with all those other things you can’t control.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 17

Act on opportunity

If you’re having difficulty doing something well, give yourself permission to do it poorly. The point is, do what you can with the time you have.

Get it done now. You can work on perfecting it later.

Achieving excellence is not a matter of avoiding difficulty. It’s a matter of transforming the difficulty into value.

Yes, of course you’re having trouble getting it done. If it were easy, someone else would have done it a long time ago.

You and all of your capabilities exist in order to successfully work through challenges. So do what you must do to set all those capabilities in motion and to keep them going.

Right now is your opportunity to make a difference, to create something beautiful and useful. Wherever you are, using whatever you have, act on that opportunity without delay.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 18

Directing your attention

Consider all the paid advertisements and elaborate marketing schemes that populate your awareness. People are willing to pay real money to get your attention.

Are you valuing your attention at least as much as those who compete to claim it from you? Or do you waste much of that attention or, even worse, deploy it in destructive directions?

The quality of what you pay attention to has a major influence on the quality of your life. Might you be able to improve that quality?

You can decide to stop giving your attention away to matters that don’t deserve it. You can choose to focus attention on what’s valuable, meaningful, and beneficial.

Yes, it take some effort to avoid all the junk that’s vying to grab your attention. Yet that effort can have an enormous positive impact on your effectiveness, your peace of mind, and the quality of your choices.

What you pay attention to contributes significantly to who you are. Know who you want to be, and pay attention accordingly.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 19

This time that is now

Your time is here, your time is now. Live your time with purpose, with passion, with joy, with love.

Get over your obsession with what could have been or what might or might not be. Fill yourself with appreciation for what is, and for all you can do with it.

Let go of the impulse to judge whether it’s a good time or bad time, right time or wrong time. Use your thoughts, energy, and efforts to live the time in the best way you can imagine.

Take a step back and look with fresh eyes at all you have, at all you love, at all you can do. In this time that is now, make good use of it all.

The miraculous spark of life glows brightly within you right now. Feel the possibilities and act on them.

Think of all you’ve wished you could do, all you’ve said you would do, all you’d like to get done. Now is your time to act.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 20

Finish what you start

You can stop, take a break, regroup, choose what’s next after you’re finished with the work. But not before.

When you’ve made the commitment to do the job, do it. Don’t allow yourself to become a disappointment to anyone, and especially not to yourself.

Be careful about what you choose to start. Then once you start, go all the way and finish what you start.

Many tasks can be exciting when you begin, maybe even fun. Yet they’re likely to get bogged down in the middle.

But that’s precisely when you’re creating the most value. When the going gets tough and tedious, that’s when it’s making the biggest positive difference.

Finish the work so you don’t waste what you’ve already done. Finish the work, and achieve the results you’ve committed yourself to achieve.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 21

Steadfast and friendly

Be kind, be generous, be friendly, be helpful, all while standing your ground. You can be nice without compromising your values and your intentions.

It’s great when you can be pleasant and cordial. But it’s not in anyone’s best interest to let others take advantage of your desire to please.

You know who you are, and what matters to you. You know what’s acceptable to you and what’s not.

You can be generally agreeable without having to specifically agree with what you know isn’t right. You can be pleasant while still refusing to tolerate destructive behavior.

You can be firm without being spiteful, you can be steadfast without being rude. You can smile just as genuinely when saying no as when saying yes.

This world can always benefit from more friendliness. Offer that friendliness while always staying true to who you are and to all you value.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

To thy own self be true.

[bluidkiti]

September 22

Expanding your comfort zone

You’ve had the courage to step outside your comfort zone. You’ve become confident doing things you never thought you could do.

Congratulations are in order. But a little wariness is called for too.

Because you haven’t eliminated your comfort zone. You’ve expanded it, making yourself more likely than ever to get stuck in it.

Even though you’ve successfully challenged yourself forward, here’s what you must now do. Challenge yourself again.

Fortunately, dealing with a difficult challenge is one of the things you do best. After all, you’ve seen how effective you can be, and you’ve earned the chance to see yourself in action again.

So don’t get too comfortable with your newfound success. There are a whole lot more good things for you to achieve.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 23

Steps on the journey

You have problems and you have options. Such is the dilemma and the opportunity of life.

You will never be free of problems, nor will you ever be devoid of options. As a result, there is always something you must do and always something you can do.

When you think about it, that’s not such a bad deal. In fact, it’s really a pretty great deal.

It’s easy to become despondent about the problems or unrealistic about the positive possibilities. Yet the push and pull between the two extremes can help you to stay balanced and effective.

Your problems serve to forge and to clarify your purpose. Your options enable you to express that purpose in countless and valuable ways.

In between your problems and your options you’ll find plenty of fertile ground upon which to move forward. No matter how hard it gets or how easy it seems, there’s a next step on your beautiful journey, ready for you to take.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 24

Something beautiful

Do something beautiful today. Create a little bit of beauty just for its own sake.

Give your life an added measure of richness. Remind yourself how good it can be to be you, to be alive, to be aware, to be curious and thankful.

Imagine what you could do to add new beauty to a place, an idea, a person, an experience. Then bring that particular beauty to life, and let it bring out the best in you.

Beauty has no need for a reason. Yet as you undertake to create beauty, the reason emerges.

Beauty resonates with your purpose. Beauty connects you to others on a deep and enduring level.

Beauty leaves you with no doubt that you are real, that life has great value, that each experience is precious and unique. Give a little of yourself to beauty, and get much in return for your world.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 25

Choose it before you need it

Transform your needs into choices. See your actions as being driven by your choices, not controlled by your needs.

Instead of needing to wake up at six in the morning, choose to wake up ten minutes earlier. Instead of needing to keep your job, choose to build your career.

Whether something is a need or a choice may not make much difference in your actual behavior. But it can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your energy level.

When you need to do it you can tend to resent it and procrastinate. When you choose to do it you’ll be eager and enthusiastic about getting it done.

Perception plays a major role in the way you feel about what you’re doing. So give yourself the benefit of a positive perception.

Get out in front of what must be done. Choose it before you need it and make it a positive, effective, productive endeavor.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 26

Original thought

If you seek original thoughts, empty yourself of yourself. Push your awareness out beyond the confines of your mind and your ego.

All the thoughts you hold have already been considered. Let them go, and make room for what no one has ever thought before.

Mix together what does not belong together but somehow fits. Create a connection that has never been made yet is completely obvious.

Doing so is not easy, and therein lies its great value. Yet neither is it out of reach, for you are skilled at connecting what’s never been connected.

Go beyond existing thoughts into the stillness of acceptance and curiosity. There you will know how all is one, how any connection is possible.

Ask yourself, expect yourself to do all this. And you will.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 27

Away from the structure

It’s foolish to waste all your time. Yet it is also foolish to avoid wasting any time at all.

When you know exactly what you’ll be doing next, you can quickly move on to it. But if every slice of time is scheduled weeks in advance, you deny yourself the chance to process the experiences.

Respect the value of your time by planning and using it wisely. Respect the value of your experience by giving yourself meaningful stretches of time with no plans or expectations.

You’re clear about what must be done, yet you’re not at all clear about what you don’t know or have never thought about. Give yourself the opportunity to think thoughts you never knew you would have, to experience what you didn’t know was there.

Often there’s a lot you can discover when you’re not looking for anything in particular. Some of the most interesting people spend significant amounts of time being bored.

Have the confidence to regularly get away from the structure, from the plan. You’re likely to return with unique and valuable insights.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 28

Why you can’t do it

If there’s something ambitious you wish to do, come up with a list of all the reasons why you can’t do it. Then set about to prove yourself wrong.

Acknowledge the problems, delineate the challenges, right off the bat. Give yourself a detailed and realistic picture of what you’re up against.

By specifying the challenges you give yourself control over them. Suddenly you have a workable pathway to success.

All that remains to be done is to solve those problems, one by one. You’ve already acknowledged them and embraced them, so you’re definitely well on your way.

Not only do you have a meaningful and desirable goal. You also have a practical, well-formulated plan to get there.

So when you want something, quickly tell yourself exactly why you can’t have it. Then, with a knowing smile, you’ll realize you’ve explained to yourself precisely how to make it happen.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 29

Impossible to get stuck

Why are you stuck? Because where you’re going is just not all that compelling.

Oh, it might sound impressive and exciting and desirable. But if it was all that desirable, you would not have let yourself get stuck.

So here’s what you must do. Give yourself something to look forward to.

Don’t make it completely out of reach, but don’t make it just any old thing either. Make it something you know you can do, and something you would crawl across broken glass to accomplish.

Then commit yourself to doing it. If at this point you still seem to be stuck, go back and raise the stakes until you can feel your goal pulling you forward.

Aim higher in a way that’s meaningful to the core. And you’ll make it impossible to get stuck.

— Ralph MarstonSeptember 29, 2021
Impossible to get stuck

Why are you stuck? Because where you’re going is just not all that compelling.

Oh, it might sound impressive and exciting and desirable. But if it was all that desirable, you would not have let yourself get stuck.

So here’s what you must do. Give yourself something to look forward to.

Don’t make it completely out of reach, but don’t make it just any old thing either. Make it something you know you can do, and something you would crawl across broken glass to accomplish.

Then commit yourself to doing it. If at this point you still seem to be stuck, go back and raise the stakes until you can feel your goal pulling you forward.

Aim higher in a way that’s meaningful to the core. And you’ll make it impossible to get stuck.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 30

Focus on the work

Don’t make your efforts more difficult than they have to be. Just make them happen.

Overthinking the task adds needless difficulty, complexity and delay. Undercommitting to the job makes it more difficult than it would otherwise be.

Simply determine what must be done and do it. Rise above whatever resistance you might create or encounter, and focus on the work.

Make it your intention to get yourself into a state of effectiveness. Embrace the opportunity to be useful, to do what’s meaningful, to create value.

Let go of doubt, resentment, excuses, and perfectionism. Continue to remind yourself the work is the thing you’re focused on, and you’re entirely capable of doing just that.

Expect to put forth effort and expect to do what’s necessary to make that effort count for something positive. Focus on the work and give rise to all the benefits of getting it done.

— Ralph Marston