Daily Motivator - August
 

August 1

You must choose

Not only are you able to choose. You must choose.

Though the possibilities may be unlimited, you cannot follow and fulfill them all. You have to have a clear concept of what’s most important to you, and choose your priorities accordingly.

You cannot make progress by saying no to everything. But neither can you make progress by saying yes to everything, because you would simply be overwhelmed.

Choose, based on what’s most meaningful, most enriching, most affirming. To do that, be honest with yourself about what matters, and then engage your courage to support it with the way you live.

How do you know if a particular choice is right for you? It must be a choice for which you have authentic enthusiasm.

Don’t miss the best opportunities by failing to choose, or by failing to narrow your choices. Choose, based on authentic purpose, and give your best to all you choose.

— Ralph Marston

August 2

Problems are not the problem

No situation is going to solve all your problems. But that’s okay, because the existence of problems is not really such a problem.

Much of what makes life good is the satisfaction of dealing with its problems. If there were no problems, such satisfaction would be impossible.

Go ahead and be thankful for the problems. Then get to work dealing with them in creative and enriching ways.

Let go of the fantasy that you can somehow make your way to a perfect utopia that’s free of all problems. Instead, use your creative energy to envision and implement ways to thrive and to spread joy even when problems keep cropping up.

Rather than letting the problems nag you and disappoint you, allow them to energize and inspire you. Appreciate the power they have to direct your focus toward what truly matters.

Look confidently out at life, and see every problem as an opportunity to enrich your experience. Then go out among those problems and reap the rich rewards of a life well lived.

— Ralph Marston

August 3

Authentic rewards

It’s easy to cheat, but what you gain by cheating is merely an empty token of success. Real success comes only by doing what’s honest and right, for yourself and others.

If you wish to live well, really well, you must be committed to honesty and integrity. Sure, you can accumulate money, fame, and power by being dishonest, but those things won’t bring any true fulfillment.

For any part of your life to be truly good, you must live with goodness in every part of your life. You cannot successfully integrate dishonest work practices, for example, with a good and fulfilling personal life.

Integrity literally means being whole. Without it, your life gets ripped apart.

You have to honestly earn the rewards of life in order for them to have meaning. Anything short of that just leads eventually to disappointment and regret.

Don’t cheat yourself out of even the smallest opportunity to give goodness and meaning to life. Do the demanding, honest work, because you deserve life’s true, authentic rewards.

— Ralph Marston

August 4

Prepared for opportunity

You cannot run and catch up to an opportunity you’ve already missed. Yet you can prepare yourself for the next one that is sure to come along.

The reason you missed that last opportunity is because you didn’t recognize it soon enough. The time to seize an opportunity is before it has paid off.

Opportunity is not a free ride that’s available only to those who are lucky or well connected. Opportunity is a fertile situation where value can be created, available to those who are willing to take the risk and do the work.

You see what you look for. To see opportunity, look for ways to help others, to create value, to make life more fulfilling and enjoyable, to solve problems, to learn and grow.

Prepare yourself by choosing to be generous, optimistic, enthusiastic, and willing to see the best possibilities. Opportunity emerges from a positive-facing perspective, so get yourself there.

The next opportunity is on the way. Get yourself in its path, ready to give your best.

— Ralph Marston

August 5

Richness of now

Set an intention and follow it. Choose a goal and achieve it.

Pick an adventure and experience it. Identify a problem and solve it.

Get up, get going, and get yourself participating in life. Discover how much the possibilities expand once you start actively moving through them.

Watch the sun come up and know that by the time daylight fades you will have made great progress. Use this day for more than just waiting, wondering, and wishing.

Do that thing you’ve always wanted to do, meant to do, needed to do. Now is when your life is lived, so fill it with the best you can envision, now.

Look far, aim high, give generously to the most positive possibilities. Demonstrate with your actions how thankful you are to be living the richness of now.

— Ralph Marston

August 6

Life at its best

You can make a difference, and you can make it now. You can make a difference, in your own life, in your family, your community, your world.

You can observe, you can think, you can learn, you can plan, you can act. You can choose what is beneficial over what is harmful, what is helpful over what is hurtful.

You can stand up straight, eager to move forward, instead of slumping in defeat and despair. You can look people in the eyes, and listen intently to what they say, and understand, and care.

When the world feels cold and cruel, you can be warm, compassionate, encouraging. Although life is not fair, and circumstances often go terribly wrong, there are plenty of ways you can improve the world around you.

You’ve done many good things and you can do many more. You know what is good, what is right, what is helpful, and you can act to make it happen.

Today you have the power to lift life a little higher. Make a difference, and feel yourself living life at its best.

— Ralph Marston

August 7

Clear purpose

What is the goal behind the goal? What is the fundamental desire that undergirds all other desires?

In order to achieve what you truly desire, you must know clearly what it is. Seeking a vague, generic objective can never produce satisfying results.

It’s easy, for example, to assume you want a lot of money. Yet in order to reach that goal you must be clear about why, precise about what you wish to do with that money.

Just because everybody else wants it, just because it sounds good, is not sufficiently motivating. Achievement requires long, difficult personal effort that must be driven by a well-defined personal purpose.

Understanding that purpose takes hard work, which leads in turn to even more hard work. It’s a serious investment, and can bring spectacular results when you give it ample respect and commitment.

Be clear about what you care about, what you love and value at the deepest level. Give yourself to it, filling each moment with purpose and filling your world with meaningful achievement.

— Ralph Marston

August 8

Existing value

In your zeal to make improvements, be careful not to destroy the value that’s already there. Though things are not perfect, that doesn’t mean they should be completely destroyed.

It can be quite useful to be dissatisfied with the way things are. Just don’t let your dissatisfaction obscure all the existing goodness that’s worthy of preserving and defending.

You and countless others have worked long and hard to get to this point. All that effort obligates you to move carefully forward, not to arrogantly stumble backwards.

Move ahead with respect and gratitude for what is, even though it is not perfect. Refine your ambition with a healthy sense of humility, with appreciation for the progress that’s already been made.

Yes, sometimes you have to risk or tear down what’s already built in order to build something better. When that’s the case, make sure the value of the improvement is well worth the potential loss.

Despite the flaws, remind yourself of how good you have it before you set out to make changes. Then build on what you have, and make it even better.

— Ralph Marston

August 9

Get good at challenge

Challenge energizes your life, pushing you to higher levels of creativity and resourcefulness. What can you do today to give yourself a nourishing measure of challenge?

Go somewhere you’ve never been. Learn something complicated and useful.

Engage in a friendly, substantive conversation with someone who disagrees with you. Undertake a task that requires more focus and discipline than you’ve previously been willing to invest.

The more challenge you experience, the more challenge you can handle. And that’s an essential skill for any kind of achievement.

Whatever you seek to create, to become, to acquire, to undertake, you’ll work through challenge to get there. Get good at challenge and you set yourself up to make great progress.

Willingly choose to give yourself more experience at working through challenge. You’ll develop strengths and skills that can serve you in every part of life.

— Ralph Marston

August 10

Deep richness

You keep up to the millisecond on every news item, every opinion, every cultural micro trend. But do you have any concept of what it all means?

You’re highly connected to servers, routers, networks, and data. How deeply connected are you staying to the people in your life?

You can instantly express momentary whims using hundreds of clever emojis. When was the last time you wrote a long, heartfelt letter offering a glimpse into the yearnings of your soul?

It’s nice, exciting, useful to go far and wide. Yet that breadth is of little value if it is not accompanied by depth.

Seeing everything, knowing everything, having everything, going everywhere, will not provide the fulfillment you seek. That requires a sustained investment of your time, your effort, your focus, your love.

Information is powerful, sensation is compelling, yet you are capable of, and hungry for, so much more. Set aside time to think, to consider, to focus, to discuss at length, to give deep richness and meaning to the life you live.

— Ralph Marston

August 11

Forgive and get beyond it

You can’t change unfortunate things that have already happened. What you can do is forgive, and move on.

Forgive yourself, forgive others, forgive whoever and whatever caused it to happen. Forgive, and get beyond it.

The longer you carry a grudge, the heavier it gets. Forgiveness lightens your load, frees your energy for more positive pursuits.

Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. It brings you peace, resolution, and freedom.

Forgiveness puts you in control of how you feel. Forgive, and experience the positive power.

The pains of your past have already continued long enough. Forgive, be finally done with those pains, and allow new joys to take their place.

— Ralph Marston

August 12

Live the miracle

Fill your day with meaningful activity. That way you won’t be tempted to waste time being less than you can be.

When you’re not engaged in climbing higher, it’s all too easy to slide into negativity. When you’re not clear on what you intend to do, you won’t do anything of much use.

You have so many capabilities and opportunities, it’s nothing short of miraculous. Live the miracle.

Feel the wonder of being, as you come fully alive in the service of a useful purpose. Know the joy, the satisfaction, the power of living this day on your own highest terms.

Allow yourself to be powerfully pushed in a positive direction by your natural desire to make a difference. Marvel at the abundance that surrounds you, as you transform it into value and fulfillment.

This whole day, this whole existence, is yours now. Now, make it count for something great.

— Ralph Marston

August 13

Love for life

Don’t let your earnest desire to save the world end up poisoning it. Step back, dial down your ego, be sure your own house is in good order.

Take full responsibility for you, before you allow yourself to even have an opinion on how anyone else should live. Be quick to offer generosity, compassion, understanding, and slow to direct judgment.

No one person has all the answers. That includes you, me, each and every leader, philosopher, commentator.

History is massive and your perspective is miniscule. If looking at life doesn’t fill you with humility and gratitude, look again.

There is much good you can do, right here, right now. Just don’t compromise your potential achievement by the need to prove a point.

Live life well, and let live. Love, and let your love for life and all who live it guide your every choice.

— Ralph Marston

August 14

Live the adventure

Great adventures never happen in times and places where everything is perfect. The very essence of adventure is in dealing with confusing, imperfect conditions.

Let the adventure unfold in all its imperfection and let it draw out the best in you. After all, that’s what adventures are for.

Expect to confront ignorance, irresponsibility, hostility, and apathy. See each such encounter not as a personal insult but as an invigorating, empowering challenge.

Insert yourself willingly into the gap between the flawed way things are and the better way you know they can be. Live the adventure by working tirelessly to bridge that divide.

Make sense of the nonsensical, push forward on the twisting, uneven path. Watch as the adventure grows, along with your strength, your effectiveness, your level of achievement.

No setback, no inconsiderate person, no interruption or frustration can stop you. For you have chosen to transform it all into a positive, rewarding adventure.

— Ralph Marston

August 15

Even better

You are doing a lot of things well. And you can do even better.

You have made significant progress. And you can make even more.

Sure, you’ve made mistakes, and you’ve learned from them. Yes, you’ve lived through difficulties and disappointments, and grown stronger, more resilient.

Now you’ve arrived at a time and place where you can put all your strength and experience to good use. Now you are greeted with multiple possibilities for making life even better.

Pause for a moment and consider all that you can be thankful for. Then remind yourself that the most powerful form of gratitude is to make full use of the good things you have.

Life has been good in many ways, and still can be good, and is good. Now, make the commitment, do the work, to make it even better.

— Ralph Marston

August 16

Currency of life

Time is the currency of life. Spend it wisely.

You wouldn’t waste your money, dollar after dollar after dollar, on useless, meaningless purchases. Take care not to waste your time in a similar fashion.

Demand, from yourself, a meaningful and valuable return on the investment of your time. Choose to make every moment accrue to the benefit of what matters most.

You are surrounded by a world that’s eager to steal your time, and that’s very skilled at doing so. Make the decision not to let it, and support that decision with your passion, your discipline, your love.

With the intentional, focused use of your time, you can create an amazing and beautiful day, year, life. Do what it takes, inside, outside, with your thoughts, your actions, your choices, to do that.

Fall so deeply in love with your highest possibilities that nothing can steal your time away from them. Make time work for you by working to fill it all with what really matters.

— Ralph Marston

August 17

Mutual understanding

Your opinion is not worth much if you don’t clearly understand and respect opposing opinions. Progress is made by understanding, not by shouting, arguing, vilifying.

If the other side is being unreasonable, that’s no reason for you to be even more aggressively unreasonable. Instead, be aggressive in your efforts to create understanding.

Someone has to introduce understanding into the mix, then guide that understanding to cooperation and progress. Otherwise, nothing good will come of it.

Even the winner of an argument doesn’t really win if the disagreement remains unchanged. There’s no point in proving a point if it fails to result in agreement.

Mutual understanding is difficult. Yet with work, patience, genuine care, it is almost always possible.

By far, for everyone concerned, the best way forward is mutual understanding. Let go of your desire to win the argument, and seek instead the much bigger win of mutual understanding.

— Ralph Marston

August 18

Smile at the disruptions

Something will interrupt your concentration today. Decide right now that you’ll take it in stride.

Some situation won’t turn out the way you planned. Whatever it may be, make the commitment to take it in stride.

You have every right to be upset, flustered, frustrated when life doesn’t go the way you want. Yet you never have to exercise that right.

You can choose instead to take it in stride. Rather than wasting your time and energy, you can quickly adjust to the new development and keep going.

Feeling upset and sorry for yourself never gained you anything in the past, and it won’t help you now. What will help is your determination to smile at the disruptions while you stick firmly with your original purpose.

Smile at the disruptions, take them in stride. And you’ll quickly put them behind you.

— Ralph Marston

August 19

Productive day

You know for a fact that you feel better when you get a lot accomplished. So give yourself the gift of feeling great today by getting to work and staying productive.

At the end of this day you can know you have made a difference. You can have the satisfaction, energy, and positive attitude that come from focused, sustained effort.

Set some ambitious, achievable, meaningful goals. As the day moves forward, hold yourself firmly to the achievement of what you’ve chosen to achieve.

Feel the goodness of working to change the world in positive ways, one step at a time. Explore your skills, challenge them, improve them, and put them to meaningful use.

Start strong, continue strong, and finish strong. Benefit from how much stronger the effort makes you, and how well it positions you to live life on your own best terms.

You can do this, you want to do this, and now is when. Today is ready for you to make it the most productive day yet.

— Ralph Marston

August 20

First minute

The way to get ahead is to work ahead. Rather than waiting until the last minute, begin your effort at the first possible minute.

Do what must be done long before it must be done. That frees your time and inspires you to do even more.

Create a virtuous cycle in which achievement begets more achievement. Jump quickly into action and let each small result inspire you to continue.

Work ahead, far past what you must do, and into the rich, rewarding realm of what you really want to do. Take pleasure even in the unpleasant tasks, knowing you’ll soon be free to do what you love to do.

Begin immediately, work ahead, and give yourself a whole lot of great options. Instead of wishing you had more choices, you can be acting on the best choices.

It all begins when you begin, when you summon the discipline that’s within you, and do the work long before it must be done. Get going at the first minute, and soon you’ll be far ahead.

— Ralph Marston

August 21

Next time

This time, you didn’t get it perfect. And that’s just fine, because next time you can remember.

Next time, you can remember what went right and what went wrong. And you can be prepared to more effectively deal with both.

Next time, you can recall the successes you had and the mistakes you made. You’ll have the opportunity to avoid those mistakes and expand on the successes.

Next time, you’ll have the valuable benefit of experience. Next time you’ll have greater familiarity, more confidence, much less doubt and hesitation.

Next time you’ll do better, and the time after that, even better. Experience quickly adds up, and quickly adds value, power, effectiveness.

If at first you don’t succeed, if at first you don’t get it quite right, proceed to next time. Next time, you’ll have the opportunity to improve, and you will.

— Ralph Marston

August 22

Genuine connection

People everywhere are eager for genuine human connection. Give it generously, without condition, or expectation, or hidden agenda.

Do you seek to help the world? Then help the person right next to you by connecting, interacting, caring.

Sure, you have to be careful, a bit wary, with a healthy measure of skepticism. Yet you can be all those things and still be genuine, kind, courteous and friendly.

Yes, there are some people out to hustle you, take advantage of you, or worse. Mostly, though, the people you encounter simply want to live their lives, solve their problems, and follow their dreams.

Make life a little less lonely, a little more meaningful, for those around you, and for yourself. Each time you have the chance, make an honest, attentive connection, even if it’s just for a moment or two.

Add brightness to life by giving your care and consideration to those who are living it along with you. Extend yourself, your empathy, your understanding to others, and live in a more personable world.

— Ralph Marston

August 23

Make a start

Even if it’s not much, make a start. Make a start, and you’ll be inspired to build on it.

Get on your way, and suddenly you’ll have something valuable, something you didn’t have before. You’ll have the power of momentum on your side.

Take the first step, cross the first item off your list. You’ll find yourself motivated to get right to work on the second item.

Get the impetus of your life working in your favor, moving you forward. Get the ball rolling, and make yourself more likely to keep going, less likely to stop.

Whatever you wish to do, the starting place is here, the starting time is now. Signal the importance of your goal, to yourself and to the world, by making the initial effort, now.

Make a start, and make it real. Make a start, and you’re making it happen.

— Ralph Marston

August 24

You can get it done

Cast away your doubts. You can do this.

Let go of the excuses, the hesitation, the second guessing. Put yourself out there and get the job done.

You won’t get it all to go perfectly and you won’t get it all done in an instant. Yet you have what it takes to deal with every challenge and to persevere until the work is done.

When you’re tempted to abandon the effort, that’s when you can make the biggest difference by pushing forward. If the doubts rise back up, remind yourself how far you’ve come and know with utmost confidence that you can keep going.

Quietly celebrate each small victory and let it intensify your hunger for more. Notice how quickly your confidence grows, and let that realization make you even more confident.

Learn to find genuine pleasure and fulfillment in the process of achievement. With assurance and competence born of honest, persistent effort, you can get it done.

— Ralph Marston

August 25

Every experience

Don’t get caught up in judging whether one experience is more interesting, beneficial, worthwhile than another. Every experience is part of the adventure.

From every experience you gain insight, wisdom, and the strength to bring new goodness to life. Every experience gives you the opportunity to make a positive contribution to your own life and to others.

You cannot possibly know all the ways that whatever you’re experiencing right now will benefit you and add value to your life in years to come. So live this moment with the full faith and confidence that it is worth all the attention, effort, and love you can give it.

Look back, and you’ll understand that some of your most difficult times have resulted in your most useful strengths. Those past challenges, frustrations, and setbacks provided you with valuable raw material from which to build a full, rich life.

How utterly boring a story would be if only good things ever happened in it. How shallow and empty your relationships would be if they had not been tested and deepened by difficult experiences.

Get out there and immerse yourself completely in the experience that is right now. Know that you will find the good in it, and know that you will grow stronger from it.

— Ralph Marston

August 26

Intentional choices

Every good aspect of your life has value because you have time to experience it, enjoy it, make use of it. But is that precious, irreplaceable time being contaminated?

If you don’t make the specific, intentional choice of how to spend your time, it will be filled in ways that do not serve you well. You’ll leave yourself open to countless sources of interruption, distraction, anxiety, angst, and frustration.

You live in a physical structure that protects you from cold, rain, wind, and unwanted intruders. Your time would benefit from a similarly protective structure.

It’s a structure you can impose upon yourself by choosing to do so. Simply decide, in advance, how you’re going to spend your time, and then stick with that decision.

Give yourself a solid, compelling alternative to the frivolous, meaningless nonsense. And you won’t be tempted to waste one moment of your rich and beautiful life.

Within your time, build a special, powerful space to live, to love, to learn and experience and achieve. Fill your time with intentional choices, and fill your life with goodness, meaning, and substance.

— Ralph Marston

August 27

Gift of discipline

Discipline is good for you. Reward yourself with some.

Discipline demonstrates to you how much you’re capable of accomplishing. Practice discipline, and it strengthens itself along with all your other skills.

You cannot choose whether or not to be disciplined. You can only choose whether that discipline will be imposed by you, or by some force outside your control.

Life improves dramatically when the discipline you are subject to is the discipline you choose. That choice transforms discipline from punishment to empowerment.

Every action, or neglect of action, has consequences. Discipline guides you to perform the actions that produce the most desirable consequences.

If you’re disappointed with your results, find a way to add more discipline to your efforts. Give yourself the powerful gift of discipline, and give your world the benefit of all the great things you can achieve.

— Ralph Marston

August 28

The path to possible

Imagine the impossible, and suddenly it moves closer to being possible. Imagine the impossible, and give yourself the chance to fully explore what you imagine.

Often when something is considered impossible, it’s the method that’s deemed impossible, not the result. And quite often, there’s another, completely workable method that no one has thought of yet.

That’s why so very many things that were once dismissed as impossible are now commonplace. For each one, someone figured out a way to make it happen.

Imagine something impossible, and think of exactly what its benefit would be, if it were in fact possible. Then ask yourself, is there another way to produce that same benefit?

The path to possible begins with the acknowledgment that there’s more than just one path. Imagine the impossible, but don’t let your imagination get stuck on just one version of it.

Maybe your impossible dream is not as impossible as you think. Immerse your thoughts in the meaningful goodness it can bring, and you’re much more likely to find your way there.

— Ralph Marston

August 29

Opportunity of the unknown

What can you embrace about each difficulty you encounter? What can you make use of in the challenges that appear in your life?

Unpleasant, undesirable things will happen, many times beyond your ability to expect, prevent, or avoid. Yet you always have the ability to respond in a positive way.

Indeed, difficulties will often push you to become stronger, more capable, more highly experienced and effective. Difficulties will force abilities to the surface that you never before realized you had.

You won’t do yourself much good by fearing circumstances beyond your control. Instead, welcome the opportunity of the unknown, even when it encompasses challenge and difficulty.

Look for some aspect of each situation that you can put to positive use. Find a path to follow that brings you out of the situation ahead of where you were when you encountered it.

You can be much stronger, much more capable than you’ve yet discovered. Seek opportunity in the unknown, and give your best qualities a way to emerge.

— Ralph Marston

August 30

Working to improve

Take pride in the good work you’ve done. But rather than repeatedly congratulating yourself, challenge yourself to do even better.

Consider your latest achievement to be a stepping stone rather than the ultimate destination. Look for new and helpful ways to put it to further use.

Be thankful for the skills you’ve built and the knowledge you’ve accumulated. Demonstrate that gratitude by constantly seeking to improve your skills and add to your knowledge.

If you see yourself as the best at anything, that severely limits your ability to get better. Instead, adopt the perspective of a humble student, always learning from others, always working to improve.

If you consider yourself to already know it all, you shut down the possibility of learning more. Choose instead to find something new you can learn from every person you encounter.

Life still has much to teach you. So always be ready and willing to learn.

— Ralph Marston

August 31

Dreams cannot die

Fulfilling your dream is good, and arriving at your goal is important. But a successful result is not necessary for the dream, for the goal, to have value.

The beauty of purpose arises in the living of that purpose. And the achievement that occurs along the way is icing on the cake.

That’s not to say achievement is a trivial thing, for achievement is essential if life is to continue. Yet even more essential is the hope for achievement, the desire to achieve.

Dreams cannot die after they’ve already been lived, no matter what the final result may be. You exist at your highest level when you live in the service of a worthy objective.

Even when you end up falling short of the goal, the goal has added value to your life. That value begins to be realized the instant you commit your actions to the goal.

Do all you can to achieve the results you desire. Feel the richness as it accrues in your life, every step of the way.

— Ralph Marston