Daily Motivator - September

[bluidkiti]

September 1

One little change

One healthy, positive habit leads to other healthy, positive habits. And those additional habits, in turn, reinforce the original habit.

A small improvement in your trajectory enables you to notice, appreciate, and implement other improvements. In this way, minor changes put you on the path to major gains.

The experience of making a real and positive difference, no matter its size, activates in you the desire to do it again. Accomplishment feels good, and that makes you eager for more.

Big, ambitious goals are admirable, yet they can also be intimidating. Before setting off to change the whole world, it’s a good idea to accumulate experience improving your own little corner of it.

Ask yourself, what’s the smallest improvement you can make in your life that you’ll actually stick with? What positive habit can you add right now that you’ll continue to practice day after day, month after month?

Identify a small but deeply meaningful change you can make in your trajectory, and make it. Over time, that small change has the power to lead you toward greatly improved outcomes.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy new month my dear friends.
Thank God for getting though the month of the August clean and sober one day at a time.
Have a great day on purpose.

[bluidkiti]

September 2

Create meaning

Act as if what you’re doing has meaning. And it will.

Speak as if your words have meaning. And they will.

It is the very living of your life that gives it meaning. Rather than seeking to uncover meaning, work to create it.

In small, sincere actions, meaning is generated. In persistence, commitment, devotion, love, meaning continually accumulates, over years, over centuries.

Give today meaning with your time, passion, your curiosity and effort. That meaning can never be taken from you.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, offer your care, your attention, your authentic presence. And continue to create meaning in this amazing experience that is life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 3

Sometimes you can choose from a wide range of options, and other times you must go with the only one you have. In each case there are advantages and disadvantages.

Options provide you with great flexibility but they can also be difficult. When much is riding on a choice, making that choice has a way of being stressful and burdensome.

A lack of options is limiting but also in some ways liberating. When you have no choices, you don’t need to spend time or energy choosing, and can jump straight into whatever must be done.

When you have a options, choose one and then move forward with it. When you don’t have a choice, accept the situation and make it your business to move forward from it.

Whether there are dozens of paths across the landscape or just one, you must do the work to traverse a single path. Once you begin, once you commit, any options you may or may not have previously had become irrelevant.

So go ahead and make the commitment, no matter how many options you do or do not have. Make your way forward, step after step, from wherever you are able to begin.

— 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

Give tomorrow some kindness

Live in the moment. At the same time, consider the consequences that will come from what you do with the moment.

Live in the moment while thinking beyond the moment. Do what’s best not only for you and your world right now, but also for your future world, your future self.

Often, your future interests will conflict with your desires in the present. Use your wisdom and experience to mediate those conflicts.

Sometimes there’s not a good, clear answer when balancing what’s best for now and what’s best for the future. Even so, it’s always helpful to take both your present and your future perspectives into consideration.

Many of life’s potential pains and disappointments can be avoided, if you act soon enough. And your enjoyment of the present is enhanced by knowing it’s not compromising your future.

No, you cannot craft a perfect future, yet you most certainly can have a positive influence on the way it unfolds. Give tomorrow some kindness today, and improve the quality of both.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 6

What you can do

What could have been doesn’t matter anymore. Who is to blame is beside the point.

What might or might not happen is mostly empty speculation. What people will think is what they will think, and there’s not much you can do about that.

What you can do is act on the opportunities in front of you. What you can do is utilize the time, energy, and resources available to you.

What you can do is identify a problem that’s holding your world back and work to create a solution. What you can do is envision some specific form of value and put forth effort to make it real.

What you can do is act to become a positive presence in the lives around you. What you can do is learn and grow and love and give.

Your sense of purpose grows stronger, and your life richer, with each action you take. Welcome and act on every chance to do what you can do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 7

Strength grows stronger

Feel your strength. Let it grow stronger.

Exercise your strength. Experience the rewards it brings.

Does an excuse to give up slip into your mind? You are stronger than that excuse, able to transcend it and leave it behind.

Are distractions and temptations assaulting you from all sides? Activate your strength and rise above them.

Envision the good things your strength can bring to life. Then live that vision, make use of your strength, continue giving it opportunities to increase.

Your life has great meaning. With strength, come to better understand and fulfill that meaning.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 8

Do what is right

You know what the right thing is. So do it.

You know what the wrong thing is. So avoid falling into its trap.

Your choices are not easy, but neither are they particularly complicated. Strip away all their extraneous parts, and choose to do the right thing.

Some courses of action support and enhance life, and others degrade or inhibit, or worse. Do what gives more joy, more robustness, more respect and love to all of life.

Some things sound good at first, impressive, compassionate, sophisticated, but don’t feel right. You have the wisdom to know and to do what actually is right, so make use of it.

When faced with options, choose the one that will leave you with no regrets. Do what is right.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 9

A little courage

A little courage goes a long way. Act with a little courage and you gain greater respect from others and from yourself.

With even a little courage you experience how to summon courage, how to make use of it. That opens up a whole range of new possibilities.

Every little act of courage gives you added confidence and inspiration to live with even more courage. And it can spill over into the people around you.

Remind yourself that there’s more to life than just passing the time in comfort and certainty. Step forward with courage, taste a little bit of adventure and you’ll find yourself seeking more.

The world can be harsh and unpredictable. Yet with courage you can embrace reality for all it is and follow a pathway to goodness, value, and fulfillment.

Exercise a little courage here, a little courage there, and discover how well it resonates. The adventure that is your life deserves the all courage you can give it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 10

Live with excellence

Whatever your objective may be, embed excellence in that objective. Anything you set out to do, seek to do it with excellence.

Excellence demands no less than the best you can give. That in itself is more than enough reason to put excellence into every effort.

Yet the benefits of excellence go further. Excellence sets new standards, gives birth to ideas never before imagined, pushes past what was once considered impossible.

Get yourself around excellence, in art, technology, architecture, business practices, thoughts, performances, presentations. Ignite and sustain your own capacity for excellence by immersing yourself in diverse manifestations of excellence.

Be eager to do the difficult, challenging work that excellence demands. Allow an attitude of excellence to shine its positive, transformative light on every aspect of your world.

Give your miraculous existence the respect and appreciation it so thoroughly deserves. In work and play, in thought and deed, live with excellence.

— 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

Out into the world

Go out into the world and make your way through its challenges. Discover your strengths and work to overcome your weaknesses.

You’ll encounter disappointments and then make your way beyond those disappointments. In so doing you learn not to fear the possibility of disappointment.

Look at life with a continually renewed sense of wonder and appreciation for all that is. Choose to see value, positive possibilities, opportunities for achievement, joy, and goodness.

Give of yourself to others, with your time, your presence, your effort and encouragement. Experience over and over again how your genuine generosity brings strength, richness, and connection to life.

Respect yourself, your potential, and all the people around you by being honest. Seek what is real, what is true, what retains its value, not just what is convenient or popular.

Embrace the responsibilities and the opportunities of living a good and consequential life. Go out into the world, day after day, eager to be and to do your best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 13

Here to do

Do what you are here to do, in this situation, in this time and place. Make use of what you have, what you know and feel, what you see and understand.

Don’t dwell so much on whether it’s too much or too little, too soon or too late. You cannot change any of that, yet you can take action with the best of your abilities.

There will be opportunities later for reflection and refinement. But now, while the moment is still available to you, invest in it the effort you’re able to give.

Your outcome won’t be perfect. It can and will, however, be the best you can make it.

Breathe in the potential that surrounds you. Add to it your own passion, your own sense of purpose, and get to work.

You find yourself here, now, ready and able to make a difference that only you can make. Take up the challenge, join in the opportunity, and do what you are here to do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 14

Repeated experiences

Go broad in your experience, but not at the expense of going deep. Just because you’ve visited some particular place, or participated in some unique activity, doesn’t mean you’re done with them for good.

Many things are better the second, third, and fifteenth time. You don’t have to get in a rut, but neither do you have to abandon what was once fulfilling to go chasing every new thing.

Repetition can deepen the value of positive experiences. You’ll find extraordinary, irreplaceable benefit in enduring relationships with people, places, interests, and activities.

It’s great to be adventurous and explore all sorts of different things. But what’s not so great is to seek out shallow, exotic experiences just so you can say you’ve done them.

There’s a big difference between getting off the cruise ship for a few hours and spending a couple of weeks at the destination. Lengthy visits, repeated conversations, deep dives into specific subjects all add a dimension to life that cannot be attained from a crowded schedule.

If it works, if it’s beautiful, pleasant, inspiring, fulfilling, do it again. It’s very likely to become even more so.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 15

Underlying good fortune

Be thankful that there are lots of things you can forget to be thankful for. Be thankful that you are able to take so much for granted.

Then, see how many of those things you can bring to mind. Experience how good it is to feel renewed gratitude for them.

The problems and shortcomings, disappointments and obstacles demand your attention. Yet your underlying good fortune mostly continues to hold up, even when you ignore it.

When you think about it, that’s pretty amazing. So remind yourself to think about it a little more.

There’s value in putting your life into better context, in recognizing the goodness that undergirds all you do. When you appreciate all you have, you gain the ability to get more out of it, along with the confidence and courage to do so.

Gratitude provides you with a customized connection to your possibilities and to the power of your underlying good fortune. Make that connection, and keep it strong.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 16

Force for good

Focus on the creation of real value, lasting goodness, kindness, fulfillment, and love. Turn your attention away from the petty, foolish distractions that generate so much empty noise.

Seek to gain wisdom, understanding, and deeper connection with every interaction. Resist the temptation to engage in drama and conflict.

Every other person you come into contact with is unique, and at the same time more similar to you than different. Respect that beautiful, valuable combination of diversity and kinship, and utilize it for the benefit of all.

Fill your mind with thoughts of positive possibilities. Fill your hours with generous and rewarding effort.

You have a deep and abiding interest in the deep and abiding interests of everyone else. What advances life as a whole advances your life as well.

Use this day and every day to live as a force for good. It is your opportunity and your obligation to yourself and to all of which you’re a part.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 17

Accept no excuses

Accept no excuses from yourself. You deserve better.

You’ve had a difficult morning, afternoon, and early evening. Even so, as the day draws to a close you can revive your sense of purpose and re-establish your focus.

When you find you’re offering yourself excuses for giving up or slacking off, don’t accept the offer. Instead, remind yourself of how precious your time is and of all you’ve committed to do with that time.

Sure, you have the ability to talk yourself out of making the effort. Fortunately you have just as much ability to talk yourself into it, and a lot better reason to do so.

Yes, that effort can be complicated, frustrating, uncomfortable, and inconvenient. And it can also be highly rewarding.

You deserve life’s best rewards and you deserve the experience of doing the demanding work to attain them. Accept no excuses, and give yourself the fulfilling life you deserve.

— 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

Transcend feelings

If you do nothing other than seek happiness you are certain to create much misery, for yourself and for others. Pay attention to the way you feel, but do not let it become your driving force.

Self absorption is a terrible burden to impose upon yourself. It impedes not only outward connection but inner growth as well.

Of course your feelings absolutely matter. Yet when they matter above all else they’re going to steadily, reliably lead into a chasm of despair.

Want to feel better? Then stop being so concerned about the way you feel.

Engage with objective reality, not merely with your thoughts and feelings about it. Navigating through that challenging and inconvenient reality you grow in strength, resilience, and capability.

Stay away from the vicious cycle in which the way you feel is based solely on the way you already feel. Transcend your feelings, participate in the world outside of them, and you can transform them in a positive direction.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 20

Start right now

Now is the time, this is the place. Go with what you have and do what you must do.

If you’ve been waiting for an ideal time, consider the wait over. Choose an item from your to-do list and get going.

As nice as it would have been to start earlier, that possibility is not available to you. What you do have is the next best option, which is to start right now.

The clock is running, time is passing, and you might as well make use of as much of that time as possible. The instant you start to take action, you begin to transform fleeting time into enduring value.

Your efforts may very well bring complications, challenges, distractions, uncertainty, and other issues. But putting off those efforts will only make them more difficult when you finally get around to them.

Do yourself a big favor and start right now. The moment you currently have is ready for you to get the very best out of it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 21

Care and competence

It feels good to know someone cares. Be that someone, care about what you’re doing and how it affects those around you.

All kinds of possibilities for progress, goodness, joy and fulfillment open up when someone acts with competence. Be that someone.

The knowledge, systems, institutions, skills and technologies that make your lifestyle possible did not just randomly appear. They were built and improved upon over years, decades, centuries, by caring, competent people.

All those indispensable innovations require care and competence, precision and commitment to continue functioning. The whole world owes much to those who make that commitment and follow through on it, day after day.

Your own existence is a testament to the care and competence of your ancestors and the people around them. Now you are in a position to continue the legacy.

Choose to care about life, putting in the time and effort to grow increasingly competent at all you do. The world depends on your diligence more than you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 22

Easier said than done

Have you ever considered a course of action, and then decided to forgo that action because it’s easier said than done? Have you ever received good, genuinely helpful advice and then ignored that advice because it’s easier said than done?

Plenty of undertakings are easier said than done. But that doesn’t mean they’re impossible or ill advised.

Talk and advice are cheap and easy, that is true, while action is costly and difficult. Yet it is precisely because of the cost and difficulty that action can produce great value.

If something is easier said than done, that’s certainly not a reason to dismiss it. Indeed, it’s likely a good reason for figuring out a way and getting the work done.

It’s easier said than done to get into better shape, to make a career move, to learn a new skill, to expand your social circle. Yet those are all endeavors that can significantly improve the quality of your life.

What do you consider easier said than done? Maybe this is a good time to say it, and then to put forth whatever is necessary to do it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 23

Your own actions

Your life is affected by what you do. Your life is also affected by what other people do.

It’s important to pay attention to the actions of others and to be aware of what impact they will have on your life. But you’re not going to have much success at influencing those actions.

What you can do with considerable impact is to exercise thoughtful and intentional control over your own actions. That is far and away the best place to invest your time and energy.

Maybe you can have some influence over what other people say, do, feel, and believe. But for the most part, people are going to do what they’re going to do, and any influence you have will be fleeting and minimal.

Very few of your problems are ever going to be solved by friends, relatives, neighbors, or the government. The vast majority of the problems solved and goals achieved in your life will be largely up to you.

Keep that in mind when choosing where to expend your time, focus and effort. Exercise the considerable control you have over your own actions and discover what a meaningful positive difference you can make.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 24

That’s inspiration

Are you waiting for inspiration before getting to work? You’ve got it backwards.

Inspiration doesn’t just come to you out of the blue. Inspiration comes from what you do.

Are you wondering where you’ll find inspiration? You’ll find it by participating in life to the fullest extent possible.

You’ll find inspiration in your encouragement of others, in your acts of generosity, in tackling difficult challenges. You’ll find inspiration when you stop searching for it and start attracting it to the energy with which you live your life.

When you’re not inspired to get started that’s all the more reason to do precisely that. Get started and get the inspiration flowing.

Bring the spirit inside you to the surface where you can see it in action, hear it speaking, feel it making a difference in the world. That’s inspiration.

— 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

Make mistakes sooner

If you have even the slightest ambition, mistakes are inevitable. The sooner you make them, the better.

Don’t intentionally make mistakes, but don’t be afraid of them either. The sooner you make them, the longer you are able to benefit from what they teach you.

If you’re waiting to get started because you’re concerned about making a mistake, consider this. You’re going to make a mistake sooner or later, so you might as well make it sooner.

Put work and thought into anticipating and preventing what is likely to go wrong. Then put humility and curiosity into learning and improving based on what actually does go wrong.

Avoid wasting energy on the pretense that you’re perfect. Instead, put that energy into discovering and overcoming your imperfections.

Take action, make mistakes, improve the action, make more illuminating mistakes, and continue the upward trajectory. Make your mistakes at your earliest opportunity and you’re well on the way to success.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 27

Make the magic

It’s amazing what you can get done if you’ll just do the work. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you’ll keep working.

There are lots of ways to convince yourself and others that you’re busy when you’re not actually getting much done. There are plenty of diversions to pass the time that will leave you wondering where the time all went.

Something is magical, though, about putting in long, diligent, focused effort and having real value to show for it. Take the opportunity to avail yourself of that magic.

You have all sorts of powerful tools, so let yourself feel the incomparable satisfaction of putting them to productive use. You are skilled, knowledgeable, creative, and passionate, and you can find fulfillment in channeling those qualities.

You know from experience how good it feels to get useful work done. You also know how liberating and energizing it can be to finish a task that’s been hanging over your head.

So give yourself the priceless gift of doing the work and having it finished. Make the kind of magic in your life that only you can make.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 28

This is a time

This is a time of great opportunity. This is a time for bringing new meaning to life.

This is a time for hope, for healing, for honesty, for love. This is a time to care for life and all who live it, at a higher level than ever before.

This is a time to step forward with courage so that all the world can reap the benefits of your doing so. This is a time for truth, for competence, for energy, for joy.

When fresh morning sunlight first hits the treetops, feel the power of your enthusiasm. This is a time to finish the good work you have started and to begin what you have dreamed and planned.

This is a time to be thankful for the hard work ahead and for the rewards it will bring. This is a time to do what you know you can do, to create what you hope can be.

This is a time for change, for action, a time to give, to lift up. This is the time you now have, a time to be lived with care, with gratitude, with intention, with love.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 29

Bring to it

Don’t settle for an attitude that merely reflects what has already happened. Choose your attitude based on what you want to happen.

Expect the best from yourself and then act according to your expectations. Focus your awareness and energy on all you can do to fulfill those expectations.

You have no way of knowing or controlling everything this day will bring to you. Yet you can very intentionally and specifically control what you bring to it.

Bring a strong sense of purpose, buttressed with gratitude for all that’s good and meaningful in your life. Bring curiosity and enthusiasm about all that’s possible and all you can achieve with those possibilities.

Bring a willingness to persist in taking action, no matter what challenges or distractions you may encounter. Bring also your patience, understanding, kindness, along with the unique sense of joy and wonder that lives within you.

Bring to this day, to this life, your best. Position yourself to create value and fulfillment from whatever may unfold.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 30

Your life has value

Whatever mistakes you’ve made, whatever difficulties you face, one particular truth is undeniable. Your life has value.

It’s not easy to express that value, or even to know all the details about what it is. Nonetheless, it is there, and on some level you have always known that.

You are part of a larger whole, yet you are also unique, precious, irreplaceable. Your presence, your thoughts, your actions have the potential to contribute greatly to the quality and integrity of life.

Even when no one seems to care, you can care. You can give voice to truth, you can put forth effort to make a difference.

Your life has value, but that does not give you license to live recklessly. On the contrary, it challenges you to be responsible, to take seriously the unique potential that exists in you and in all you can do.

Wherever you may find yourself, however you may feel, your life has value. What small thing can you do right now to let it come forth?

— Ralph Marston