Daily Motivator - November

[bluidkiti]

November 1

Your instincts

Your instincts are not perfect. Yet they do have value, and deserve your attention.

When you know, even though you’re not sure how or why you know, trust that you do indeed know. Not all truth can be distilled into facts and logic.

If you can verify what your instincts are telling you, great. But even when you can’t verify them, respect the truth they’re sure to contain.

Challenge your instincts honestly, and as thoroughly as you can. But don’t let other people with their own agendas cause you to doubt what you know in your gut to be true.

You know more than you’re aware of knowing. Just as your thoughts and sensory perceptions inform you, so do your feelings.

Wisdom resides in the full spectrum of your awareness. Make good and confident use of it all.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 2

Adventure into life

Something deep inside you longs for adventure. And for anything to be an adventure it must be challenging.

Adventure happens when you choose to confront the unknown. It could be a journey to a place you’ve never been, an activity you’ve never before undertaken, or a thousand other things.

The point of adventure is to better understand yourself and the universe in which you live. Adventure widens your perspective and compels you to become more capable and competent.

And though the adventure itself might seem self indulgent, its benefits have the power to extend far beyond you. At its best, adventure provides you with more substance and value that you can offer others in countless ways.

It is no accident that those who contribute most to life are often the most adventurous. Perhaps that’s why the desire for adventure is so deeply ingrained.

Fortunately, whatever your situation, there are plenty of opportunities for adventure. See if you can find a way to answer the longing, and add new value to life, by undertaking your own adventure.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy November Tammy and Kracker!
Thank God for getting us through the
month of October one day at a time.
May this new month of November be full of joy,
Thanksgiving, and happiness.
May the grace of God be with you.
Peace to you always my dear friends.

[bluidkiti]

November 3

The work you do

A special form of happiness it is to do a job well. You prove to yourself that you can, that you exist, that you make a difference, that you matter.

Leisure has its place and can offer certain pleasures. Yet it is work that resonates most deeply with the enduring reality of who you are.

That reality is one of great creativity and usefulness. Every effort advances you toward a future in which more value exists than in the present.

During each step along the way, work adds its positive dimensions to your experience. You start with purpose and intention, you continue with strength, and you finish with well-earned satisfaction.

As you apply focus, discipline, and persistence you gain new appreciation for what is, new confidence in what can be. You are engaged by the challenges, energized by the progress.

Throughout your existence is the ever-present magic of what’s possible. Continue to do the work that brings great possibilities to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 4

Live with courage

You know you’re vulnerable but it does not stop you. That’s courage.

With courage you go where you do not know what waits. What you find is life, and richness, and more courage.

You say what is true when it is not pretty. You give when you’re not certain how you’ll get more.

With courage you find out who you are. Courage takes hold with your first step, and then grows stronger as you continue to move forward.

You know it’s real because you have no need to announce it. You feel its power in the face of every fear.

You live with courage, through courage. There really is no other good way.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 5

Make room

Make room in your life for goodness. Make room in your life for joy.

Make time in your life for purposeful living. Make space in your life for wonder, for awe, for growing wisdom, for love.

If you allow your surroundings to fill up with junk, there’s no room remaining for anything useful. If you fill your awareness with negativity, you can crowd out everything else.

Make room for something better. Make room for the richness you seek to experience.

There’s only so much you can think about, or do, or carry with you. So be choosy about how you fill your life.

Make room for what benefits you, your world, and the lives of others. Make room for what matters, and give yourself a fulfilling and rewarding place to be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 6

Show up

Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry about what might or might not happen.

Just show up and give your best. Deal with the ups and downs as they come, and work your way through.

So very much is possible and pretty much nothing is guaranteed. Stay alert and aware as the situation unfolds and respond accordingly.

Make reasonable plans and be prepared to revise them. Learn from all you’ve done but don’t be so arrogant as to assume you know it all.

Sometimes you’ll do great, at other times you’ll get it wrong. Nonetheless keep showing up, keep giving your best.

Show up and do the work. Show up and earn the rewards of a rich and fulfilling life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 7

Add life to life

This day, this situation beckons you to add life to your life. Now is when you step forward to satisfy the stirrings of your soul.

Adventure is not some distant concept. It begins wherever you are, the moment you act from the truth of who you are and all you love.

Challenges and complications get in the way, and they’re all part of the experience. They provide ample opportunity to deepen your commitment and to sweeten the rewards.

You transform your life into a meaningful endeavor one hour at a time. Here now is another golden hour with which you can bring enduring value into existence.

It’s tempting to decline that opportunity, to wrap yourself in the comfort of doing nothing. Yet so much more is possible.

You deserve all the richness you’re capable of creating and experiencing. As time moves forward, choose to move forward with it, always adding new life to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 8

Get playful

Carry a sense of playfulness into the heart of whatever you’re doing. You have work to get done, and you might as well make it fun.

Start things off with a smile. That in itself elevates your mood and ignites your creativity.

Discover how you can be resolutely serious about what you’re doing while maintaining a playful demeanor. As complicated, difficult, and demanding as life can be, you’re able to have fun with it.

Playfulness connects you with the authentic person you are, and with the authenticity in others as well. That will boost your energy, unleash creativity and enhance resourcefulness.

Do successful people have fun because they’re successful or are they successful because they have fun? It’s probably some of both, yet it never hurts to find out for yourself.

Not only is playfulness fun, it’s powerful. So why not?

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 9

Make more encouragement

Encouragement is cumulative. Every little bit matters because those little bits add up.

Encouragement is omnidirectional. Giving encouragement to someone else, even merely observing it, encourages you too.

What could you do to give yourself a little bit of encouragement right now? What could you do to encourage someone else?

Raising the level of encouragement in any moment is always a good thing. The energy it creates will continue to resonate across time, across distance.

It can seem like a little thing. Yet it could just be enough to make a big difference.

Wherever it comes from, wherever it goes, encouragement benefits your world. Use every opportunity to make more.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 10

Purposeful focus

Don’t beat yourself up for the time you’ve wasted, because that would waste even more. Just decide what good, productive, meaningful use you can make of your time now, and begin.

Stop ruminating over what caused you to lose focus. Simply set aside a generous and specific amount of time and commit it to staying focused on what will make a difference.

The potential distractions will always be there to entice you. Yet your commitment to purposeful focus gives you the power to resist their temptations.

It’s your mind, it’s your awareness, it’s your effort, it’s your time. You can choose to focus, you can choose the subject of your focus, and you can continue making that choice.

By so doing, you immunize yourself and your thoughts against intrusions that could otherwise disrupt and derail your efforts. You give your mind space in which to do miraculous and meaningful work.

You are one choice away from the power of purposeful focus. Experience all the valuable results that come when you put that power to work.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

We are not a glum lot...
That's referring to the Post
from on on 8th.

[bluidkiti]

November 11

On the side of truth

Truth is often harsh. But truth is never your enemy.

Even in the worst of circumstances, it’s better to know the truth than to hide from it. When the choices are difficult and painful, still you’re better off knowing clearly what they are.

Truth empowers you to be effective in creating the best outcomes. Truth enables you to forge solid, valuable and enduring connections with others.

Pretending that a particular truth does not exist won’t make it go away. Doing so will render you less able to deal with that truth.

The sooner you discover the truth of a particular situation and acknowledge it, the sooner you can put it to positive use. Your actions bring the best results when you are acting on the truth.

Keep yourself firmly on the side of truth. As difficult and inconvenient as it can often be, truth is how you move forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 12

Reflection for the Day

Now that we’re sober and living in reality, it’s sometimes difficult to see ourselves as others see us and, in the process, determine how much progress we’ve made in recovery. In the old days, the back?of?the?bar mirror presented us with a distorted and illusory view of ourselves: the way we imagined ourselves to be and the way we imagined ourselves to appear in the eyes of others. A good way for me to measure my progress today is simply to look about me at my friends in the program. As I witness the miracle of their recoveries, I realize that I’m part of the same miracle—and will remain so as long as I’m willing. Am I grateful for reality and the Divine miracle of my recovery?
Today I Pray

May my Higher Power keep my eyes open for miracles—those marvelous changes that have taken place in my own life and in the lives of my friends in the group. May I ask no other measurement of progress than a smile I can honestly mean and a clear eye and a mind that can, at last, touch reality. May my own joy be my answer to my question, “How am I doing?”
Today I Will Remember

Miracles measure our progress. Who needs more?

Today's reading is from the book A Day at a Time: Daily Reflections for Recovering People*

[bluidkiti]

November 13

Active, continuing involvement

Celebrate the good things but don’t let your celebration become tinged with arrogance. Enjoy your good fortune without allowing it to make you complacent.

In much the same way, when you lament the inevitable losses don’t let it fill you with intractable despair. Accept whatever difficulties may come while at the same time working to move toward more positive results.

Momentum is a powerful force, but that does not mean your current trajectory will continue indefinitely. Your active, continuing involvement has great power too.

So whatever yesterday looked like, make your actions today purposeful, positive, and productive. Whether your recent results have been favorable or not, there’s something to be learned from them, and useful responses you can choose.

What matters more than where you’ve been is what you do today. Let the past inform and inspire you without letting it immobilize or confine you.

Your choice is here, your choice is now, regardless of what has happened before. Make it a choice that propels your life in the direction you most want it to go.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 14

It must be done

If a particular task must be done, it must be done. If a certain goal must be met, it must be met.

Work on finding a way and making it happen. Don’t tolerate excuses from yourself or anyone else.

Those excuses might indeed be valid. But they don’t change the necessity of effective action.

Rather than focusing on why you can’t, put in the work to figure out how you will. Consider all the alternatives, and if none of them will work, seek more.

Pinpoint precisely the necessary result and let it stimulate your creativity, your resourcefulness, your openness to new ideas and techniques. Assume there is a workable way forward and commit to whatever it takes.

Get yourself good and clear about why the result matters. Then do what’s necessary to make it happen.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 15

How are you feeling?

When you don’t feel like being kind, that’s the time for kindness. When you don’t feel like working, that’s when work can do you the most good.

Magic occurs when you go ahead and do what you don’t feel like doing. Because when you start to act, the feeling changes.

You realize that your feelings reflect you and inform you but they don’t always have to control you. You are free to achieve, to connect, to care, to persist, whether you feel like it or not.

Yes, of course your feelings matter and they’re certainly not to be ignored. But neither is their purpose to be blindly obeyed.

How are you feeling? It makes a difference, but so do many other factors.

Seek to get the best that’s possible with your feelings, from your feelings. But don’t let them take the best out of you.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 16

Reach for the best

How do you achieve a desired result? You reach for it.

Reach physically with your hands, arms, and legs. Move yourself to where you need to be rather than waiting for your goals to come to you.

Reach with your mind. Visualize your objectives in precise detail, then develop and execute a strategy for bringing them about.

Reach with your imagination and creativity. If your path is blocked, imagine alternate ways of getting where you wish to go.

Reach with your spirit. Live each day with gratitude, with joy, and cultivate within yourself a consciousness of abundance.

Use all you have to reach toward the fulfillment of all you value. And experience life’s richness unfolding as you act to bring it about.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 17

Time to begin

You know you can be better, you know you can give more. Challenge yourself to do so.

It’s easy to complain, to blame, to dream up excuses, to feel sorry for yourself. But none of that is going to achieve anything.

What makes a difference is your purposeful, focused, persistent effort. So go ahead and do what you know you can do.

The path forward is complicated, uncomfortable, inconvenient, frustrating. Yet it’s also available and attainable, and now is the time to proceed with it.

The world will continually try to entice you with promises of something for nothing. But as you’ve experienced again and again, such promises never pan out.

What does get results, what does bring improvement, is your effort. And just in case you’ve lost sight of what you already know, now is the best time to begin.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 18

Perfect conditions

Clear skies and calm seas make for a great day of sailing. But every ship’s captain must also be prepared to navigate safely through wind, rain, darkness, and turbulent waters.

If you’re only able to make progress when conditions are perfect, you’re not going to make much progress. Reality demands that you learn how to successfully proceed when things are less than perfect.

It’s great to have a supportive environment, ample resources, a clear and obstacle-free path, and the absence of external constraints. But that’s not how the real world usually works.

To achieve an ambitious objective, be willing and able to adapt to the circumstances you encounter throughout the process. In addition to making your success more likely, this approach makes your skills and experience more resilient, more valuable.

Favorable conditions are nice when you get them. Just make sure you see them as a lucky bonus instead of an essential requirement.

Achievement happens when you’re committed to do the work of achievement no matter what. That’s a whole lot better than waiting around for perfect conditions.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 19

Seeds of fulfillment

By fully appreciating what you have, you gain access to what you seek. Embrace all that is, and you find within it viable pathways to the best that can be.

What you yearn for is already yours in many ways. See it not as something separate from you but as a part of you that you can work to more fully express.

The seeds of your fulfillment have been there all along. Nurture them with your gratitude, your effort, your passion, and let them bear fruit.

You exist in a specific moment, yet your mind and your heart are easily able to transcend time. Through a connection held open by your deepest purpose, energy and meaning traverse the past, the present, and the future.

Right now you can feel that connection and make use of it. Gratitude, hope, wisdom, and love combine together into a powerful force.

Deploy that force across time and space in the service of meaningful purpose. From the best of who you are, and have been, and will be, comes all the unique and immense good you do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 20

Face the challenge early

Face the challenge when it arises. You may not consider yourself ready for it, but it’s there nonetheless.

Whatever your level of preparation, there’s something you can do right away. So go ahead and take that initial step.

You’ll require new knowledge, skills, and resources to successfully deal with the challenge. Yet you can start with whatever you have.

Even if that first response is only a small one, anything is a whole lot better than nothing. Because as time passes, an unanswered challenge will only become more difficult and imposing.

As you grow into the challenge, you’ll gain whatever is necessary to prevail. The sooner you begin that process, the sooner the challenge will be behind you.

It’s not the easiest or most convenient choice, but it’s the best choice in the long run. Face the challenge early and you’ll handle it well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 21

Beauty of living

Unique beauty lives inside you. Bring some of it out into the world today.

You carry possibilities around with you. You encounter new possibilities everywhere you go.

Through your efforts, enable those possibilities to interact and blossom. Transform their positive potential into valuable reality.

It is never too early, never too late to bring new meaning and richness to life. Be true to the highest and best within you, and make good use of right now.

You don’t have to be rich or famous or clever to change the world for the better. You do it anytime you choose to act in accordance with what’s true, what’s real, what’s good, what’s authentic.

Give time and energy to all you love and care about. Reward your own life and your whole world with the beauty of living.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 22

The understander

Understanding arises from more than just facts, information, knowledge. To truly understand, you must take into account the understander.

Your own understanding of anything takes place within a specific context. That context is you, and your life, your experience, all you know, all you feel.

That’s the case with you, and with everyone else. As such, understanding is not something that can be forced, or automated, or replicated en masse.

Certainly understanding can be encouraged, enabled, and facilitated to a great degree. Yet it remains an intensely personal activity, and occurs only when the person is fully involved.

If you seek understanding, you have to gain it within the realm of your own existence, and not as some disinterested observer. When you seek to be understood, proceed with all the empathy you can muster for each very real and complicated person in your audience.

Understanding can be a powerful, beautiful, and highly useful part of life. And it happens when you respect the real, live person who is doing the understanding.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Better understand then to be understood.
Happy Thanksgiving my dear friends.

[bluidkiti]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone!

November 23

Unconditional gratitude

In the joys, in the annoyances, in the wins and losses, in the frustrations and moments of shining insight, is life. Every little bit of it is connected with all the rest.

Because of such connection, gratitude for anything amounts to gratitude for everything. That gratitude is a desirable vantage from which to embark.

When you embrace what is, as it is, you align yourself with reality, with truth. Though it’s not always comfortable or pleasant, it’s your most authentic and effective way forward.

The forces that push against your progress show you clearly where and why you must grow stronger. As you grow in strength and experience, you’re able to make better use of the beneficial parts of life.

With unconditional gratitude the distractions can aid in your focus, the defeats will set you up for victory. You’ll harness the ever-changing winds to carry you in a consistent and meaningful direction.

Allow gratitude to flow throughout the connection between all you are, all you have, and all that is. Be a positive force as you discover and expand upon the goodness in it all.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 24

Mental environment

Are your thoughts in a gloomy, unproductive place? You have the ability to quickly carry them somewhere else.

Would you prefer to be on a beach in Fiji or a forest in the north woods? Simply instruct your imagination to go there, and to bring your thoughts along.

Of course you cannot transport your physical self across time and space just by thinking. Yet you absolutely can take your thoughts to any time, any place, any situation you choose.

And you can achieve real value in the real world by doing so. By upgrading your mental environment you can improve your mental performance.

Enabling your thoughts to soar can lead to soaring creativity. Keeping your mind in a positive, supportive state will enhance the quality of any activity or experience.

Use your imagination, and bring your mind to a place where your best thoughts can be nurtured. Then enjoy the benefits as your good and useful thoughts flourish.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 25

Go to the trouble

Go to the trouble. Life is worth it.

Make the sacrifice, spend the time, put forth the effort. Achieve the gains that are available for you to achieve.

Endure the pain, the inconvenience, the frustration, the perplexities. Enable your world to benefit from the rewards that flow out of discipline, focus, and boldness.

You already have it far easier than your ancestors. Your task is not to make your life easier, but to make it meaningful.

The meaning you seek comes from honest engagement with people, places, forces, and circumstances. Get on with it at every opportunity.

You’re well equipped and well positioned to do it, to live it, to make this day more beautiful, meaningful and valuable than you found it. Go ahead, and go to the trouble.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 26

Utilize today

This is your one chance to put life and richness and value into today. Make the most of it.

Here in front of you are hours and minutes that will never come again. They contain unique opportunities you can utilize to the benefit of yourself and others.

Today you can finally undertake what you’ve been putting off until later. Today you can identify specific actions that will improve your world, and you can take those actions.

Today you have more experience, more knowledge and a more clearly defined sense of purpose than ever before. It would be a shame not to put all that to good use.

Put yourself in a position where you can look back on today with satisfaction and gratitude for all you did with it. Though it’s one day out of many, it’s the one you now can work with, and one that can make a big difference.

What could you work to create, improve, support or replenish today? Here is your moment to get started.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 27

The latest thing

You seek answers, comfort, and richness in what’s new. Yet what you long for is not likely to be found in the latest thing.

Much of what’s new is empty and useless, contrived solely for the sake of novelty. It’s shiny and bright, designed specifically to capture your attention, but beneath the irresistible veneer is nothing.

Certainly, authentic new things have the power to bring much value to your life. Genuine novelty can stimulate your imagination and energize your spirit.

But just because something is new does not magically make it useful. Having the latest version does not automatically equate with having the best version.

There already exist thousands of years worth of values, insights, and innovations that have stood the test of time. While not themselves new, most are indeed new to you, and very accessible as well.

Don’t dismiss all the good and useful old things you’ve never known just to chase what everybody is currently chattering about. The substance you seek might very well be found in what’s been there all along.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 28

Let life sink in

Have the courage and wisdom to spend time alone, thinking. Give yourself the chance to let life sink in, to make sense of what you learn and experience.

If someone handed you twenty million dollars in cash, would you simply set it aside and rush ahead to the next encounter? No, you would take the time to deposit the funds into your bank account.

The wealth of data you receive each day requires the same sort of diligence. You must integrate its value into the structure of your life and your purpose.

That takes thought, and time, and focus, and care. Absent such diligence, all the stimulation and information in the world is useless to you.

Of course you don’t want to spend all your time just contemplating. Seek to find an optimum balance between thinking about life and putting your thoughts into living practice.

Engage, observe, and act in the real world. Then on a regular basis, give focused thought to all you’ve learned and experienced, so as to make the best of it going forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 29

Act on inspiration

Many treasures and experiences you must earn before you attain. Inspiration is the other way around.

When something inspires you, in the moment of inspiration you become obligated to then earn that inspiration. You do so with inspired action.

As powerful as inspiration is, it can also be debilitating if you seek to linger indefinitely in awe. Stop congratulating yourself on having the good fortune of being inspired, and step forth to do something useful with that inspiration.

Inspiration fills you with energy in a unique and compelling way. So rather than allowing that energy to be drained away and wasted, connect the inspiration you feel to a purpose you know.

Doing so enables you to be inspired in a meaningful direction and to take specific actions. You can layer action on top of inspiration and inspiration on top of action, again and again.

Inspiration puts you in a state of high energy. With a clear and positive purpose, transform that energy into lasting goodness.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

November 30

Your presence

For yourself, for others, be there, be present. Of all the things you can offer, your presence is likely to matter the most.

Whether it’s peaceful or hectic, desirable or not, be truthful about where you are. Express that truth with your attention, your acceptance, your presence.

If you’re not sure what to say or do, just be you, authentic. Let the moment exist and let yourself be fully in it, as it comes, as it is.

You dream, you plan, you remember, you speculate and wonder. Yet all those things are faint shadows cast by your mind on the reality of where you are, of now.

Treasure what has been, love what could be, while you live what is. With your presence, transcend time, space, thought, feeling, and bring it all into the miracle of your existence in this moment.

Every thought is possible, and no thought is necessary. Give and experience the beauty of your presence.

— Ralph Marston