Re: Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Wed, Jun 29 2022 11:40 AM

  Wednesday, June 29, 2022

  Follow through

  It’s good to have options. Yet options are worthless if you never follow through on any of them.

  Put sufficient thought and consideration into choosing the best option. Keep in mind, though, that a successful outcome requires more than making the initial choice.

  A big part of what makes any particular option a good choice is what you do with it. The best option is the one you’ll continue to give your time, attention, and effort to.

  There’s nothing to be gained by obsessing endlessly over making the perfect choice. Instead, make a reasonably well-informed choice and then put your energy into making that choice work.

  To the degree that a choice limits you, it also enables you to apply your efforts in a meaningful direction. It’s only when you’re on a specific path that you’re able to move forward.

  More significant than the choice itself is what you do with it. Make the choice, follow through, and make it work.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Thu, Jun 30 2022 10:17 AM

  Thursday, June 30, 2022

  Value of struggle

  Would you be interested in playing a game if you knew in advance you could not lose? Maybe you’d like it for a little while, but it would very soon become boring and unfulfilling.

  Do you really want a life that’s all pleasure and comfort and no challenge or struggle? Could you tolerate even a few days of such an existence?

  What makes life such a good thing is the fact that it’s not a sure thing. What makes life difficult is also what enables life to have meaning.

  A rock never has to struggle to be a rock. But it never experiences any fulfillment either.

  Courage, persistence, resilience, and innovation are all buttressed by an appreciation for the value of struggle. Though struggle is not pleasant, it is often necessary and almost always enriching.

  You can do what you must when you must. And though it won’t be easy, it’s by far your most rewarding choice.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Fri, Jul 1 2022 7:58 AM

  Friday, July 1, 2022

  Invest in the solution

  Don’t invest in the problem by complaining about it. Invest in the solution by envisioning it.

  Assume the problem can be solved. Then get to work justifying your assumption.

  To change an outcome for the better, you must make changes to the input. One by one, identify the factors you can change, and visualize in detail what each available change would accomplish.

  Certain constraints will always be outside your ability to change. Seek to understand and work within those constraints rather than fighting against them or hoping you can wish them away.

  Formulate an effective approach that’s supported by reality. Rather than being dismayed by the problem, find satisfaction in stepping up to the challenge.

  Invest yourself in the solution, in applying positive action to a difficult situation. There’s great value waiting to be created, and you’re in a position to do it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Sat, Jul 2 2022 11:08 AM

  Saturday, July 2, 2022

  Unfamiliar territory

  Do you want a better understanding of who you are and what you’re capable of achieving? Venture into unfamiliar territory.

  Put yourself in a situation where you’re forced to depend on your own knowledge, resourcefulness, and strengths. You’ll quickly find out what those strengths are, and you’ll figure out ways to improve upon them.

  That new territory could be physical, social, vocational, intellectual, or some combination. Whatever the case, it can energize you, heighten your awareness, and clarify what’s actually important to you.

  Though your current situation has its challenges, you’ve mostly figured out how to handle them. Think of what you could learn, and how much you could grow, from a starkly different set of challenges.

  Let yourself experience how well you respond to those challenges. Enable yourself to learn and improve from that experience.

  A little bit of adventure can add a lot of value to your life. Go where you haven’t been, and gain a deeper understanding of who you truly are.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Tue, Jul 5 2022 8:26 AM

  Tuesday, July 5, 2022

  Stay in motion

  Keep thinking, keep speaking, keep doing. Even if it’s not much, even if it seems like nothing, keep going.

  You may not be making as much progress as you’d like. But you’re making more progress than if you just stopped completely.

  Stay in motion, keep the thoughts and words and actions coming, and you’ll get better at it all. Stay in motion and you can adjust, adapt, improve, experience what works well and what doesn’t.

  When you get interrupted don’t let it get you down. Just jump back on track and in motion as quickly as you can.

  If all that motion is leading you astray, be honest enough to see it. Then point in a more positive direction and get back in motion again.

  There’s so much you’re always capable of learning, achieving, and experiencing. Stay in motion, and make the best of it happen.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Wed, Jul 6 2022 10:37 AM

  Wednesday, July 6, 2022

  In control

  You are in control of you, and there’s much you can do with that. You are in control of you, and that can lead to great adventure.

  The choices of others often affect your life, but you have little to no influence over those choices. What you can control are your own choices, and that’s not a trivial thing.

  Your choices exert an immediate, significant, and lasting impact on your life. Keep yourself ever mindful of that potential, and make good use of it.

  Sure, pay attention to what everyone else is doing and to how their actions will impact your world. Pay much more attention to what you are doing and all that you’re able to do.

  Ask yourself which of your choices have improved life and which ones have not. Adjust accordingly going forward.

  Direct your time, energy, and resources where they will be most beneficial. With love and care and the highest of expectations, exercise the control you have over your choices.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Thu, Jul 7 2022 8:41 AM

  Thursday, July 7, 2022

  Changing conditions

  Things are not the way they were, and never again will be. Yet it’s entirely possible for you to make things even better.

  Adjust to the moment as it has become. Enjoy and thrive in the moment as it is.

  By its very nature life changes, and you can’t escape that fact. What you can do is change along with it, and unlock plenty of potential in doing so.

  It’s easy to assume that certain changes in the world will dismantle the good things in your life. It’s far better to make positive and enriching adjustments in light of those changes.

  You could complain endlessly that things are not like they used to be. Or you could challenge yourself to see the opportunities that surely exist within changing conditions.

  Engage your ability to adapt and adjust. Discover how you can make changing conditions into a good thing.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Fri, Jul 8 2022 8:46 AM

  Friday, July 8, 2022

  Power of your love

  Don’t let yourself get repeatedly drawn into fighting against what you dislike. There’s a good chance that will only make it stronger, and give it a more prominent place in your life.

  Choose instead to invest your time, energy, and awareness in more beneficial and compelling alternatives. Direct your focus and support to what’s good and desirable.

  Break away from any fixation on assigning blame and seeking retribution. You have better things to do.

  You can move beyond the past and into a future where you build and support what you care most about. You can seek to fill your world with so much positive value that there’s little room for anything else.

  For every negative influence in your life, look for something positive that can render it irrelevant. Challenge yourself to uncover and to travel that positive path.

  Don’t make the bad things worse by giving them the energy of your resistance. Make the world better by giving the power of your love.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Sat, Jul 9 2022 8:44 AM

  Saturday, July 9, 2022

  A single hour

  How will you feel about yourself in exactly one hour? That depends on your attitude and your actions between now and then.

  Will you use the time to live life fully? Or will you spend the time so wastefully and destructively that you soon come to regret it?

  The choice is yours here and now. The quality of your future depends on what you do with the present.

  A single hour will pass quickly. The way you live that next hour can impact your life for a long time to come.

  Is there anything you wish you had done in the past hour, the past week or past few months? Now is your chance to stop wishing and start doing.

  The next hour of your life begins now. Live it as if it’s the most important one yet, because it is.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Mon, Jul 11 2022 9:18 AM

  Monday, July 11, 2022

  A way that matters

  Do you want your life to go somewhere? Then you must give it somewhere to go.

  Do you want a good and fulfilling existence? You make that possible by developing a clear and specific understanding of goodness and fulfillment.

  After all, if you can’t articulate what is meaningful to you, how can you support and expand it in your world? To make progress requires that you point your efforts in some particular direction.

  To zero your life in on a purpose is a difficult thing, and yet that’s the whole point. For in that meaningful difficulty, the richness of your life is able to arise.

  It has become easy to comfort yourself with the pleasures of the moment. But those pleasures can never satisfy your longing to experience meaning that transcends time and circumstance.

  Go beyond saying you care and appearing to care. Live in a way that matters to you by having the courage to discover and give life to exactly what does matter to you.

   

  — Ralph Marston