Daily Motivator 2018

[majestyjo]

April 28

Respond with determination

When life slams you down, respond with determination rather than dejection. Respond with self-empowerment rather than self-pity.

Self-pity wastes your effort and time. Being outraged that the world has hurt you, or someone else, won’t ease the hurt in the least.

Transform that outrage, that pity, into positive action. There is something you can do in response that will improve the situation, and the sooner you do it, the better.

Injustice is awful. Yet being paralyzed by your own outrage just makes the injustice that much worse.

Summon the strength, do the work, to come up with a better response. Challenge yourself to create a positive way forward that will change conditions for the better.

Difficulties will make you stronger, give you great opportunity, if you let them. Point your energy in a positive direction, and actively do what’s best for the life you love.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

April 29

Let richness flow

Invite the beauty of this day to fill your awareness. Wrap your thoughts and your attitude around the priceless opportunity of being alive right now.

Remind yourself of the challenging ground you’ve successfully traversed to get here. Feel your capabilities and the desire you have today to put them to good use.

Marvel at the growing abundance that surrounds you. With a thankful heart, rise to the challenge of making new meaningful value out of it all.

See splendor in even the smallest, most common things. Experience life’s richness in every task, every encounter, every situation.

Focus your energy, your actions on the goodness that is possible. Keep in mind how unique and worthy you are, and live up to the responsibility of being so blessed.

Let great richness flow into you now, and always. Then let new richness flow out from you in your own special way.

-Ralph S. Marston

[majestyjo]

April 30

Give yourself a target

In what specific ways would you most like to experience life today, tomorrow, six months from now, five years from now? Spell out those goals in clear detail, and focus your life on making them real.

Give yourself a bright and distinct target. You’re already investing your time and effort each moment, each day, so make sure that investment produces a meaningful reward.

You can accomplish pretty much anything, if you’ll just decide what it is and constantly keep that vision in front of you. When you point thoughts, actions, words, and feelings all in the same direction, amazing results materialize.

Your life unfolds according to your priorities. Look around you right now, and see precisely where your past priorities have successfully brought you.

Now, you have the opportunity to choose the priorities that will shape your life going forward. Challenge yourself to decide exactly what those priorities will be, and to stick with them.

Give yourself a target that matters, that excites you and inspires you to live with passion and vigor. Give yourself a target, and create your life according to your highest vision.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 1

Keep the good value coming

Refuse to rest on your success. Instead, expand on it.

Don’t make success itself the biggest threat to your success. Be careful not to let complacency water down your desire to make a difference.

When success comes, respond with gratitude, humility, and ambition. Choose to see your success not as a reward, but as an opportunity.

If the only thing you do with your good fortune is consume it, you’ll soon be left with a bitter regret for the opportunity you’ve missed. Instead, grab that opportunity while you have it, and build on your success.

Working toward each achievement is where the real joy of achievement lives. Experience a whole lot more of that joy by continuing to do the good work of achievement.

Make each success into a new starting point. And keep the good value coming.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 2

Envision the best

The task is difficult, but that does not mean it is impossible. The problem is complicated, yet somewhere, somehow, a solution can be crafted.

Though the news can be troubling, it doesn’t mean the world is falling apart. Though any given moment may be unpleasant, even painful, still there is so very much to live for.

Acknowledge the troubles, and then look up from them. Look up, look forward, and see the positive possibilities.

Dare to grab hold of the burdensome aspects of life and move them in a more positive direction. Dare to see life clearly as it is, and to fashion some real progress out of it.

It’s easy to complain, to throw your hands up in despair, to hide away, to become bitter and disenchanted. Yet you actually have far more reason to be hopeful, positive, and enthusiastic about the future.

Dare to have faith in the good things you can do, in the goodness you can inspire, and act on that faith. You create your future from the way you see it, so envision the best and make it so.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 3

Welcome to now

Every moment comes with a fresh new set of possibilities. Every moment gives you the opportunity to choose the best of those possibilities.

Just because you have been disappointed, angry, frustrated, or discouraged, doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. Going forward from now, you can make another choice.

You gain nothing by remaining stuck in a state that’s holding you back. You achieve nothing by expending your energy to maintain a negative perspective.

Now is the opportunity to change for the better, so wrap yourself around that opportunity. Realize that you can now exist and function beyond whatever may have been keeping you down.

Sure, you may have had a perfectly good reason to be negative. Now, with this new moment, you have an even better reason to move positively forward.

Welcome to now and all its brand new possibilities. The best ones are ready for you to bring them to life.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 4

You decide

You can make your experience of life today better than the life you experienced yesterday. You can make conditions in your world tomorrow more favorable than conditions in your world today.

Is life getting better or worse, more fulfilling or more desperate? That is for you to decide, to determine, and to implement with the way you live.

The way your life unfolds is not dictated by some predetermined, immutable script. The story of your life is written largely by the choices you make in every moment.

Sure, you are subject to many forces and influences beyond your control. Yet things don’t just magically get better, and neither do things just cruelly and randomly get worse.

What you do, day in and day out, plays the major role. Your attitude, your thoughts, your actions, your willingness to persist, your desire to embrace responsibility, all form the quality of the life you experience.

Whatever the trends, whatever the zeitgeist, your life gets better or worse mostly because of what you do with it. You know what works, what improves your world, so keep reminding yourself to do it.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 5

Everyday progress

Slow, steady, incremental progress doesn’t make the headlines. Yet it does make life profoundly better.

Millions upon millions of people, for example, quietly and reliably make their mortgage payments each month. Over time, with no fanfare, this ends up building a massive amount of collective wealth in the hands of individuals.

Although heroic efforts do occasionally play a role, life advances mostly because of slow, everyday progress. It’s the kind of progress you can make right now, and again in the next moment, the next day, month after month, year upon year.

Though it may not seem like much that you can make a small positive effort, over time those efforts add up. Over time, those things that just take a moment here and a moment there, have a major impact on your life.

Stay constantly connected to your values, your goals, your dreams, all you love and care about, as you go through each new day. Be ever willing to support it all with even the most seemingly insignificant actions.

Over time, your everyday efforts will change your world. Live with love and a positive perspective, and those changes will be for the better.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 6

Clear intention

If you set off in a fuzzy, ill-defined direction, you end up getting nowhere. When you just have a vague idea of what you want, that doesn’t give you enough to go on.

Instead, make your intention clear. Make your intention specific, and meaningful.

Clarity is an essential part of achievement. When you are sure about exactly what you intend to create, you’re already well on the way to making it happen.

Spend the time and thought, do the work to zero in on precisely what you wish to accomplish. Create an intention so full of details you cannot help but make it happen.

In your mind, see the colors, hear the sounds, feel the unique texture of where you wish to go, of what you intend to create. Envision a rich abundance of substance that will draw you toward it no matter what obstacles you must traverse.

Give clear, precise focus to your efforts. And your efforts will yield great results.

-Ralph S. Marston

[majestyjo]

May 7

Free of the problem

It is painful, inconvenient, messy, awkward and complicated to deal with a problem. And the sooner you do it, the better.

Hiding from a problem, or running away, or denying it exists, does not free you from that problem. By avoiding the problem you only make it worse.

To be free of the problem you must acknowledge it, face it, and do something positive about it. Any other choice just delays the inevitable.

What problem has been troubling you, that you would like to free yourself from? Today, stand up straight, feel your power, and put that power to work.

Commit yourself to make the necessary effort that will create a beneficial resolution. Decide that it’s time to get beyond the problem, and do the work to make it happen.

Put an end to the worry, the anxiety, the wasted energy of avoidance and denial. Put your best capabilities to work, and be free of the problem through the power of your positive actions.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 8

Listen well

When you listen to another person speak, really listen. When you listen, seek to focus your attention not on your own familiar thoughts, but on the new thoughts being presented to you.

Effective listening is difficult, demanding effort. It is very much worth the effort.

When you listen well, you can gain great experience and wisdom quickly, in concentrated form. Listening can transfer great swaths of knowledge from another person’s mind into your own.

Give your mind plenty of opportunities to wander, but not while you’re listening. The opportunity of listening is too valuable to waste.

Those who speak to you are offering to share unique perspectives, thoughts, experiences with you. Graciously accept the offer, and don’t dilute its value by spending the whole time thinking of what you’re going to say in reply.

When you listen, remember to listen with gratitude, respect, and attention. Put forth the effort to listen well, and bring new value into your life that will always be yours.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 9

Do the work

Whether the work is difficult or easy, is not the issue. It is yours for the doing, yours for the achieving.

Let go of the thought that you must struggle to get it done. Go ahead, do what the work asks of you, follow where it leads, add the value of your thought and effort.

Release your need to resist the effort. Allow your thoughts to flow, focused on making a difference, on being useful.

Do not seek refuge in doubts or excuses. Choose instead to push deeper into the best possibilities, doing all you can to create new value.

You have good work to do, and the opportunity in this moment to make progress. Right now, you can transform fleeting time into lasting value.

Do the work, do it well, free of hesitation, resentment, or struggle. Give your best, and you’ll be living at your best.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 10

Quality thoughts

Thoughts can be poisonous, or they can be nourishing. What kind of thoughts have you been thinking?

What if every time you had a thought, that thought became reality? Would you be careful about choosing your thoughts?

Although your thoughts on their own do not magically become real, everything you create does begin with a thought. The quality of your life mirrors the quality of your thoughts.

Your thoughts can enable you, empower you, encourage and energize you, or they can hold you back and keep you stuck. Fortunately, you choose the thoughts that fill your mind.

Though thoughts can seem to be fleeting and inconsequential, your thoughts are always leading you in one direction or another. Choose those thoughts that lead toward the kind of life you wish to live.

Reality is what it is, yet what you make of reality is based on how you think about it. Think positive, substantive, meaningful thoughts and follow where they lead.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 11

Live the fortune

If you wait until you’re ready, you’ve waited too long. Start now and get it done.

If you’re certain you’ll succeed, you’re not reaching high enough. Step beyond what’s comfortable, expected, familiar, and stretch yourself to new levels of achievement.

You have the great fortune of being here today. Live the fortune, actualize your potential.

Make something of the massive abundance in which you’re immersed. Do something worthy of all the beauty that lives within you.

If you’re tripping over excuses, limitations, distractions, raise your awareness higher. Lock your focus on being of service to all you love and care about.

Don’t get ready, don’t get set, just get going. The great fortune of this day is here now and you are too, so do not hesitate to make it yours.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 12

What today is about

Decide what today is about. Give it a purpose, give it a reason, give it a specific direction.

Decide what today is about for you, and honor the decision by living it that way. Give it a solid purpose so you don’t waste any of its priceless time.

Make your intention strong and you’ll make the distractions disappear. Make your purpose unequivocal and you’ll generate real value with your time and efforts.

Give your life in this moment right now the full respect and attention it deserves. Give yourself a consequential way to live the day ahead.

This is when you can do what you’ve always told yourself you’d do. Today is your chance to steer your life in the most meaningful direction you can imagine.

Before another moment passes, decide what today is about. Give to yourself and your world the great benefit of a day well lived.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 13

New strength

New strength begins with a decision. Decide to grow stronger today.

New strength is built with effort. Invest time in focused effort today, and create strength you can utilize from this day forward.

Every experience is best experienced from a position of strength. Make the choice, do the work to put yourself in that position.

Draw your strength from authentic purpose, in faith, from all you love and value. Feel your strength increase through action, persistence, commitment, caring.

Put your strength to work in a good and meaningful way, and it increases. Feel the benefits of what your strength can do, and you’ll have it doing more.

In every difficulty, every victory, every setback and every joy are opportunities to gain new strength. Embrace those opportunities, live them with positive purpose, be stronger.

-Ralph S. Marston

[majestyjo]

May 13

New strength

New strength begins with a decision. Decide to grow stronger today.

New strength is built with effort. Invest time in focused effort today, and create strength you can utilize from this day forward.

Every experience is best experienced from a position of strength. Make the choice, do the work to put yourself in that position.

Draw your strength from authentic purpose, in faith, from all you love and value. Feel your strength increase through action, persistence, commitment, caring.

Put your strength to work in a good and meaningful way, and it increases. Feel the benefits of what your strength can do, and you’ll have it doing more.

In every difficulty, every victory, every setback and every joy are opportunities to gain new strength. Embrace those opportunities, live them with positive purpose, be stronger.

-Ralph S. Marston

[majestyjo]

May 14

The difficult work

It feels good to do good. It feels good to push yourself, to challenge yourself, and to meet those challenges.

Give yourself that good feeling. Find out, again and again, how much you can grow, improve, achieve, advance.

The more demanding the work, the more satisfying the reward you get from it. Demand the best from yourself, and deliver it.

The easy stuff won’t get you very far, won’t stimulate, inspire, or fulfill you. Be willing for the endeavor to be difficult, and you’ll be able to make it great.

Whatever is difficult to obtain, create, develop, is valuable to have. Envision the difficulty of the effort as a shield, protecting and maintaining the value of the fruit of that effort.

Do the difficult work, get through that protective layer. And reach the great value inside.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 15

Whatever route is available

You don’t have to overcome your hesitation, your doubt, your fear. You can still have the hesitation, doubt, and fear, and act anyway.

You don’t have to fight against your reluctance. You can simply accept that reluctance, and then do what must be done.

You don’t have to be inspired to the maximum degree. Just do the job, and the inspiration will take care of itself.

Put one foot in front of the other. Make one phone call, and then another.

A perfect, frictionless pathway is nice, but certainly not necessary. You can work with what you have, with its distractions, frustrations and other imperfections.

The perfect pathway is probably not going to appear, but you can nevertheless get where you wish to go. Keep taking whatever route is available, and you’ll get yourself there.

— Ralph Marston

[majestyjo]

May 16

Confident humility

Whatever you’re doing, a sense of superiority will make you worse at it. Humility, on the other hand, will make you better.

The moment you think you’ve got it all figured out, your progress stops. Instead, continue to advance and improve by reminding yourself how much more there will always be to discover.

Confidence is positive and empowering, but arrogance is deadly. Be confident, but not at the expense of your respect for others.

Don’t burn up all your energy proving how great you are. Invest your time and energy being thoughtful and helpful.

See the victories not as proof of your supremacy, but as opportunities to offer more value to life. See the defeats not as personal affronts, but as chances to learn and grow stronger.

Take care not to waste your time in delusions of grandeur. Embrace the power of confident humility, and live well.

— Ralph Marston