Daily Motivator - October

[bluidkiti]

October 1

Ongoing care

The best time to do the hard stuff is while it’s easy. Get far enough ahead of your deadlines and you won’t become squeezed up against them.

Tend to the small problems early. That prevents them from becoming big problems.

Get in the habit of using your spare time to make modest, incremental progress. Before long you’ll discover your persistent efforts have resulted in major gains.

Routine maintenance and steady improvement are not as exciting as some of your other options. Yet they can save you from the trauma and expense of desperate emergency repair.

Every meaningful part of your life benefits from regular, ongoing care and attention. A great way to express gratitude for the good things you have is to keep them in good shape and improve upon them.

Rather than always wishing for more, put effort into making what you already have more valuable and durable. A little extra care today can improve the quality of all your tomorrows.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy October the 1st my amazing daily reading Family.
I'm so grateful to God for watching over us during the month of September,
He is merciful and worthy of all praise. I pray that He will continue watch over my
Friends Tammy and Kracker, and may He continue to watch over our family's during
these next 31 days of October one day at a time.
God bless you with all of my heart.
Wayne (aka Willbe275)

[bluidkiti]

October 2

Reality always wins

Reality is often painful. Yet opposing reality is much more painful because it is ultimately impossible.

You can deny reality but your denial carries no weight beyond your own perception. Whether you accept it or not, reality always wins.

Your best choice is clear. Whatever dreams, goals, hopes, intentions you may have, be realistic.

Keep yourself on the side of truth, on the side of reality. Don’t let yourself be seduced into thinking, hoping, or acting contrary to what’s real and true.

The world presents you with an abundance of very real possibilities. Though it will take work, you can experience much goodness and fulfillment while at the same time being realistic.

As demanding as it may be, challenge yourself to keep your perceptions and expectations realistic. Reality always wins, so set yourself up to win along with it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 3

Venture forward

The unknown is filled with terrifying threats and wondrous beauty. Do you dare to go there?

If you avoid everything you don’t already know, your awareness, your spirit, your power collapse in on themselves. Your once-brilliant potential is corrupted into a losing battle for meaning and relevance.

Your very existence is established and supported by your ability to explore and encounter. Your desire to venture into the unknown and to deal with whatever you find, is what enables you to experience goodness itself.

You will run into problems, and maybe even monsters, as you expand the boundaries of your known world. Yet out there beyond where you now are, that’s where your life in all its richness must be lived.

Courage is not some rarefied, unobtainable quality available only to a select few. Courage is what you do, what you’ve done, what you’ll continue every time you step beyond what you already know.

All that dangerous, unexplored territory is where your treasures await. Keep yourself strong, capable, and clear about the dangers as you venture outward to claim those treasures.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 4

Failing forward

Not only is failure a possibility, it’s a certainty. If you’re working on anything that’s the least bit ambitious, at some point you will fail.

Failure gives you the chance to prove how much you want to succeed. Failure gives you the opportunity to grow.

Take that opportunity and run with it. Pick yourself up and push forward, because success is now within sight.

Failure doesn’t mean you’ve lost. It means you’re pursuing something useful and valuable.

Be thankful for failure and what it means. Take the inspiration it gives you and carry it all the way to success.

Learn, grow, adapt, improve, and become more determined with each failure. As you fail you’re creating achievement, so keep going until that achievement is yours.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 5

Having enough

Don’t be complacent but do be content. Don’t stop making a difference but do let go of the need to constantly strive for more.

Achievement is good, but it’s not what makes you good. Before you ever formulated your first goal, you had unique value.

Your efforts enable you to express, expand, and offer that value to others. Those efforts are more effective when they come from a place of contentment and confidence rather than from need and anxiety.

Though there’s more you will do, you can allow what you’ve done to be enough. Experience the deep, abiding peacefulness of allowing what you have and who you are to be enough.

From that place of peace you can generate much new value in your own life and in the lives of others. And you can do it without being burdened by the need to prove anything.

Give yourself the richness of having enough. Be your best by not needing to be anything more than you already are.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 6

Notice more

Notice more than you have noticed before. Find great joy and enlightenment in your awareness.

In old and familiar places, see new aspects, fresh details. In new and unexplored territory, compare and contrast what you observe to places you have been before.

No matter what you’ve already experienced, you can always spot something that will activate your curiosity. Wherever you go, you have the opportunity to more deeply understand the existence of which you’re a crucial part.

Look at what is there and contemplate what you see. Let life be an continuous source of inspiration and fascination.

Set yourself free from the same old stories that keep playing and playing in your mind. Discover the new and illuminating realities unfolding around you in every moment.

Notice more, embrace what you see, make it a part of your wisdom and experience. Recognize and celebrate the endless richness in which you have the great fortune of being immersed.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 7

Changing your mind

Give yourself permission to change your mind. Respectfully extend that courtesy to others as well.

It’s good, valuable, important for you to be consistent in your thinking. Yet it’s not helpful to be stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn.

Admitting that you were mistaken is rarely an easy thing to do. However, it’s a whole lot better than doubling down on what you know is not true.

Conditions change, priorities change, new information becomes available, time and experience provide fresh insight. What made perfect sense in the past could become the wrong choice in the present.

You’re not locked into what you once thought just because you thought it, or said it, or did it. When circumstances warrant, you have the option to change your mind.

Go with what’s most accurate and beneficial. If that means changing your mind, have the courage and the honesty to do so.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 8

Count yourself in

Make life happen. Bring meaning to the moment.

Fill the day with richness. Instill joy wherever you are.

Don’t just watch, wonder, speculate and criticize from afar. Jump all the way in and participate.

Add your voice to the songs that arise. Make your efforts essential to the experiences that unfold.

You deserve to play your part and it’s your responsibility to do so. Life yearns for what you can give just as keenly as you yearn to give it.

Life is now, life is full, and life is worth every bit of your involvement. Count yourself in and make yourself count.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 9

Leave outrage behind

Your anger and outrage are well justified. And that’s precisely why you must let them go.

Anger and outrage will call your attention to meaningful problems. But they will not solve those problems.

You won’t make any progress by focusing solely on what you’re opposed to. You make progress by envisioning and working toward what is valuable and desirable.

Go beyond the anger, go beyond the outrage. Go to work and create a more compelling and favorable alternative.

Don’t get sucked into endlessly fighting what you oppose. Instead, get busy making it irrelevant.

Take the energy of your anger and point it in a positive direction. Leave the outrage behind so decisively and successfully that it cannot happen again.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 10

Your life changes

Some of the choices you made yesterday made life a little bit better. How can you make even more of those same kinds of choices today?

From some of your past challenges you’ve been able to create new value. What can that teach you about the challenges you face right now?

Many of the things you worried about last week, you can’t even remember because they turned out to be nothing. How many of your present worries are similarly unfounded?

In the last five years you’ve made real progress in certain areas of your life. How can you apply that experience going forward?

Your life changes and you play a big role in that change. Consider the very real opportunity that situation presents.

Good things are built a little bit at a time. And right now, right upon you, is that precious time.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 11

Unexpected

Relax into the challenge. Find comfort in the unexpected.

Discover for yourself how life can be so much more than what you assume it will be. Understand the deeper perfection in an imperfect world.

Let the wind sting your face and the sun warm your skin, both at the same time. Find serenity in the noise and astonishment in the ordinary.

Experience the similarities of fire and ice. Realize how satisfying a question can be when no clear answer is possible.

Improve your resilience by upsetting your balance. Deepen your wisdom by recognizing what you do not know.

Don’t expect life to work the way you expect life to work. Live the wonder as it goes far beyond anything you could ever imagine.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 12

Turning point

What will help you to think more clearly? What will prompt you to care more deeply?

What will get you to stop procrastinating and take action? What will clarify your highest priorities?

What important things must you lose before you fully appreciate all you have? What might force you out of the rut you’ve been in?

Various events can push you in a thousand different directions. What are you doing, what purpose are you following, to push yourself?

There’s always a turning point coming in your life. How can you conduct yourself right now so the next turning point will be a positive one?

Before long, circumstances will push you or prompt you to push yourself. Think about and prepare for the direction in which you prefer it to be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 12

Turning point

What will help you to think more clearly? What will prompt you to care more deeply?

What will get you to stop procrastinating and take action? What will clarify your highest priorities?

What important things must you lose before you fully appreciate all you have? What might force you out of the rut you’ve been in?

Various events can push you in a thousand different directions. What are you doing, what purpose are you following, to push yourself?

There’s always a turning point coming in your life. How can you conduct yourself right now so the next turning point will be a positive one?

Before long, circumstances will push you or prompt you to push yourself. Think about and prepare for the direction in which you prefer it to be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 13

Someone special

You are something special. You are someone special.

That doesn’t mean you get to jump to the head of the line. It means you’re obliged to live up to your unique potential.

It means your perspective matters. It means what you value has value.

The good things you do contribute to the goodness of all that is. Those things you decline to do or neglect to do impose a cost on everyone.

No one else can add to life what you are able to add. No one else sings life’s songs in the beautiful voice that is yours to share.

You are someone special, living in a world where every person is uniquely special. Remind yourself of all the good that can come from such, and play your special role to make it so.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 14

Look beyond

Look beyond your immediate concerns, beyond the view you’re accustomed to, beyond your familiar perspective. A whole universe exists out there, and it’s filled with unique people, thoughts, experiences.

Step away from your assumptions. Refuse to allow your perceptions to be channeled into pre-defined boxes by you or anyone else.

You are capable of discovering and experiencing what no one has even imagined. That’s a whole lot more interesting, compelling, and inspiring than just repeating what everyone else is repeating.

Don’t cheat yourself out of the creative power that lives and grows within your every moment. Take each opportunity to have what cannot be bought, to know what cannot be researched, to live what cannot be pre-programmed.

That restlessness you so often feel is telling you something you need to hear. Your spirit longs to live, not to be assembled, cataloged, and manipulated.

Challenge yourself to keep your perspective fresh, original, and fulfilling. Continue to find out for yourself how life can always be so much more than it already is.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 15

Great time to live

Put your past mistakes behind you. Put the past mistakes and transgressions of others behind you.

Don’t continue suffering for what is no longer happening. Leave the difficulties and disappointments of the past in the past.

Make room in your awareness for new joy, goodness, energy, and achievement. Make more room in your life for all you love and care about.

Today is a new day with new opportunities for richness and fulfillment. Focus your attention on how you can make the most of right now.

Remind yourself of your best possibilities and of all the skills, capabilities and resources available to you. Urge yourself to do something good and meaningful with what you have.

Your life is a beautiful, wonderful thing. And this is a great time to live it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 16

Good times

The difficult times are times you’ll eventually treasure. Because they’re times when you have no choice but to be your best.

The enjoyable times are times you can already treasure now, and then continue to treasure as the years pass. Knowing how good life can be provides the courage and the strength to make it good again.

In times of confidence and stability you discover how much you can achieve. In times of uncertainty you learn the value of being decisive, committed, resourceful.

Times of loneliness can be painful, yet they can also be insightful, productive and strengthening. Times of camaraderie and fellowship can be hectic and demanding while also uniquely enriching.

Indeed, all times can end up being good times, each in their own way. Whatever may be going on, you can find value to live and to share.

The potential for goodness exists in every stretch of time. In each different situation, during all the times you inhabit, choose to live that goodness fully, and to spread it far and wide.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 17

Escaping from ego

Your ego pushes you to appear impressive. Yet that same ego prevents you from being truly impressive.

To the extent you can, get your ego out of the way. Rather than forcing a contrived image of yourself, allow and enable your authentic beauty to shine through.

Before you speak, tell yourself that what you have to say doesn’t matter. That takes all the pressure off and gives you permission to speak your highest truth.

Before you act, tell yourself that what others think of you doesn’t matter. That allows you to go forward with sincerity and confidence.

Making things all about you is severely limiting. Stepping as far as possible away from your ego is highly liberating.

Be you, without being focused on you. Feel the freedom of escaping from ego, and experience all the advantages that brings.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 18


Fill today with more than just wishing, planning, and speculation. Fill today with action.

It’s difficult to know the best thing to do but it’s very easy to know the worst thing to do. The worst thing to do is nothing.

If it works, do it again. If it doesn’t work, do something else.

You are alive, aware, capable, and resourceful. Put all that to good use by putting yourself into action.

You have dreams, desires, priorities, goals, passions, and values. Connect with them, understand them, and do something about them, today when you have the opportunity.

Stand up, shake off the doubts, let go of the excuses, and rise above the distractions. Give your best action to this day and get the best of life in return.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 19

Gratitude and ambition

Be thankful for what you have, for all you’ve experienced. But don’t let your gratitude become an excuse for complacency.

Be ambitious about the possibilities and all you can do with them. But don’t be so blinded by ambition that you fail to appreciate the goodness already present in your life.

Gratitude and ambition serve you best when they exist in a healthy balance. Rather than forcing them to compete, allow them to cooperate with each other.

Regard your ambition as an extension and expression of your gratitude. Expand your gratitude to encompass not only what is, but also the possibilities for what can be.

At the deepest level of purpose there never has to be a conflict between gratitude and ambition. Nourished and energized by that purpose, you can move thankfully and enthusiastically forward.

When you feel gratitude let it push you to do more, and when you feel ambition let it remind you to be thankful. Keep gratitude and ambition working together and get maximum benefit from both.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 20

Bigger opportunity

Effort that is not followed by more effort is largely wasted. Put forth the effort, then put forth more.

No, that doesn’t mean you must push yourself beyond exhaustion. Take a regular break and rest when you are weary, but be sure to put in plenty of productive time between the breaks.

Build something valuable. Then realize its full value by building on what you have built.

It’s great to be satisfied with what you’ve done. Just don’t become so consumed with satisfaction that you fail to do any more.

Success is more than just an occasional, isolated incident. Success is an attitude, a perspective, a way of being and doing over the long term.

When you’ve made some progress, that’s great. Now seize the bigger opportunity to make even more.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 21

Live, love, and enjoy

Live, love, and enjoy. Walk, run, breathe, and relax.

Don’t make every activity into an occasion for proving your point. Don’t make every moment into a reason to worry and fret.

Just be you, and just be fine with that. Let go of any concerns about how you will look or what they will think of you.

Let other people’s foolishness be their problem. Stop complaining that someone else’s crazy behavior is ruining your life.

It’s not your job to save the world and it’s not the world’s job to save you. It’s not your place to set everyone straight and it’s not your obligation to cater to the insecurities of others.

Take a deep breath, smile, and have fun. Let yourself and everyone else enjoy the beautiful day, the beautiful life that is here right now.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 22

What you put in

Garbage going in results in garbage coming out. To get a high quality outcome you must provide high quality time, effort, and resources.

What can you do when you’re not getting the results you desire? Take a good, objective look at what you’re supplying to create those results.

Yes, there are unfavorable factors beyond your control, things you cannot improve upon or eliminate. That’s all the more reason why you must maximize the quality of what you can control.

Your results are heavily influenced by your priorities, your standards, and your diligence. When you’re disappointed by anything in your life, look carefully at what you’re putting into it.

You have distinct power over the quality of your career, your health, your relationships, and your overall fulfillment in life. What you put in plays a major role in what you get out.

Life is certainly not fair but it is most definitely responsive. You can’t ever make it perfect yet you can always make it better by improving the quality of what you give.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 23

Question your needs

Question your needs. Stop being burdened with needs that exist only because of your assumptions or self deceptions.

Some of your needs are authentic. Others are merely choices you’ve allowed yourself to characterize as needs.

Seek to be more honest with yourself. Is every need real, or are some of them fabrications?

There are plenty of desirable things you can have, and use, and enjoy, and benefit from, without needing them. Indeed, you can improve the quality of those things in your life by making them choices instead of needs.

Look for opportunities to live more by intention and less by compulsion. Examine the differences between what you assume you need and what you actually need.

Refuse to operate at the mercy of needs that are not really needs. Take responsibility for your choices and you will greatly improve where those choices lead.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 24

Can you see?

What if you were less concerned about what others think of you, and more concerned about the truth and quality of their lives? How would that change the things you say and do?

What if you could see every situation from a perspective that’s two or three levels higher than your current one? Would that improve the quality and effectiveness of your responses?

What if you could instantly remember the sum of all difficulties you’ve overcome? Would that make you less worried and anxious about the future?

What if you decided at the beginning of each day to be positive about life no matter what might happen? Would that enable you to spend more energy solving the problems and less time complaining about them?

What if you could see at a glance how deeply interconnected you are to each person you encounter? Would you approach those interactions with more kindness and generosity?

What if you make each choice, and act in every moment, like the very best person you can imagine yourself to be? Can you see the positive difference you will make in the world?

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 25

Defuse the situation

The answer to rude behavior is not more rude behavior. Retribution doesn’t get you anywhere good, doesn’t create anything useful.

An insult in return for an insult is predictable and ineffective. You have the opportunity and the skill to be much more innovative and constructive than that.

You can be the person to rise above it. You can chart a new, more beneficial path.

Be the original and intentional person you are. Put forth a positive perspective rather than just reacting to a negative one.

Yes, someone else has said or done something objectionable. But do you really want to create additional incitement for doubling down on that?

Be the strong one, the reasonable one, the one who defuses the situation. You’ll vastly improve the possibility that something good will come of it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 26

A whole lot of good

You are not perfect, not all knowing, not endlessly powerful. Yet you can do something good today.

You don’t have access to endless resources. Your life has challenges, shortcomings, disappointments, and frustrations.

Even so, you can make a positive difference in someone’s world right now. You can bring a genuine smile to someone’s face.

You are not in the most ideal situation that ever existed. However, you are in a situation where you can be kind, loving, generous, and understanding.

Your life has its share of difficulties, concerns, unfairness, and discomfort. It also has plenty of beautiful possibilities.

Focus on those possibilities for goodness, and find great fulfillment in bringing them to life. Though you’ll never make everything perfect, you can always do a whole lot of good.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 27

The sooner the better

The sooner you tackle the problem, the better. The sooner you face the challenge, the better.

The sooner you put forth effort, the better. The sooner you make a commitment, the better.

Some situations are difficult, uncomfortable, and even painful to deal with. But putting them off until later makes them even worse.

There is no easy way to handle life’s inevitable challenges. Yet you can make them much less difficult by meeting them head on.

Don’t waste your energy avoiding reality. Acknowledge the hard truths and direct your energy toward making life good within those truths.

You have what it takes to discipline yourself, to meet the challenges, to transcend the difficulties. The sooner you do so, the better.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 28

Get it done

What you must accomplish is not easy. Get it done.

No one understands what you must go through to make it happen. Get it done.

You’re short on resources, you’re pressed for time, and people treat you unfairly. Get it done.

The value of what you’re doing is not diminished by the challenges you face. Indeed, those challenges are what make the accomplishment mean so much.

Your best choice is not to complain, or give up, or feel sorry for yourself. Your best option is to go ahead, face the challenges, and get the work done.

As difficult as the task might be, living with the regret of a missed opportunity is much more difficult. Do yourself a big and lasting favor, and get it done.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Get it done indeed, don't give up before the Miracle happens.

[bluidkiti]

October 29

Committed and realistic

Just because someone makes a mistake does not render that person worthless. Just because a certain perspective has some flaws is not a reason to reject it out of hand.

Perfection is a worthy goal but not a very practical standard. If you dismiss everything that’s not pure and perfect, you won’t be left with much.

Rather than holding out for what is flawless, go with whatever option has the fewest flaws. Then continue working to improve it.

Embrace what works and then work with it. As you do, as you learn from experience, you’ll discover ways to make it work better.

Expect the best. Yet be willing to tolerate and adjust for the inevitable flaws and errors that arise on the way to achieving the best.

Stay true to your purpose, to your high standards, while cutting yourself and others some slack. Be fully committed to excellence and ardently realistic about getting there.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 30

Upgrading your choices

You cannot be everything, and would not want to be. The life you actually live is the life you choose, so choose with care, and love.

The wondrous mental, physical, and spiritual power of your being is always pointed in some specific direction based on your choice. Each choice excludes all other choices, and builds upon choices that have come before.

With your choices you make sense of the chaos and complexity that would otherwise engulf and devour you. Your choices create specific value and give meaning to time and place, to objects, motions, and experiences.

Countless forces beyond your control exert great influence upon your life. Even so, your own choices are what largely determine how you deal with and experience whatever comes your way.

If some small thing or some big thing is not going well for you, there are choices you can make to improve the situation. Though they may not be immediately obvious or easy to implement, with thoughtfulness and persistence you can uncover them and act on them.

What choice right now would make the future a little bit better? Keep asking that, and answering it, upgrading your choices and doing the best you can.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

October 31

Work and play

Your work enables you to play, and your play enables you to work. Don’t skip either one or you’ll end up doing neither one very well.

It is by being useless for a while that you get inspired to become more useful. It is by being useful that you earn the time and resources to occasionally be useless.

A common saying is that all work and no play makes you dull and boring. And it’s just as true that all play and no work makes you absolutely intolerable.

So switch it up. Give yourself the work that sustains you and the play that relaxes and invigorates you.

No matter how enjoyable your work may be, it is still work, and your best strategy is to see it as such. No matter how highly focused your play might be, treat it as the play it is.

Whether it’s work or play, go all in and then after a while set it aside. Give your life the benefit of healthy balance.

— Ralph Marston