Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Fri, Dec 23 2022 9:25 AM

  Friday, December 23, 2022

  Working within constraints

  The airline limits the weight of your bag to 50 pounds. They’re doing you a favor.

  They’re forcing you to prioritize, to be thoughtful and intentional about what to take with you and what to leave behind. By working within such constraints you become more purposeful, more innovative, more focused on what’s truly meaningful.

  The reality is, you don’t have infinite space or time or resources with which to do whatever you seek to do. By embracing that reality, by figuring out how to live within the limits, you can live with amazing richness.

  Your nature is to be creative and resourceful as well as purposeful. You’ve been operating within reality’s constraints your whole life and you’ve become skilled at doing so.

  And though you’d often prefer to be free of limits, those limits provide a clearly defined realm in which to operate with success and fulfillment. Without limits life would have no structure to provide support or impose valuable discipline.

  What would it look like if, instead of cursing the limitations you were to be thankful for them? It would look like a life of strength, of purpose, of discipline and achievement.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Wed, Dec 28 2022 11:32 AM

  Wednesday, December 28, 2022

  Positively purposeful

  Before making a choice of what to think, or say, or do, ask yourself this. What do you seek to accomplish?

  The results you obtain are the results you most heavily and repeatedly invest in. So take a moment to be clear with yourself about the results you desire.

  It’s easy to get stuck in habitual patterns of thought and action that lead to nothing of value, or worse. You can benefit from calling yourself out on those habits and challenging yourself to be more positively purposeful.

  All day long you’re expending energy and using irreplaceable time. You owe it to yourself to make sure it leads to meaningful, life-enriching results.

  Rather than doing what you’ve always done, you can be moving toward what you’ve always wanted, or working to support what you’ve always cared about. You can direct your life toward the consequences you prefer.

  Harness the enormous power that courses through every moment of the day. Know what you seek to accomplish and you’ll bring about many good results.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Fri, Jan 6 2023 11:12 AM

  Friday, January 6, 2023

  Common good

  There’s more to your interest than your interest alone. What’s in the common good also very significantly includes you.

  It’s tempting to think you can gain some personal advantage by gaming the various systems and institutions of society. But that is impossible because you are a part of society, a beneficiary of its institutions, and whatever harms them also harms you.

  Yes, you can take more than your share from the cookie jar again and again. Yet eventually, if you keep doing it, whoever was filling that jar will stop, and there will be no more cookies.

  But if everybody else is taking unfair advantage of the system, aren’t you also forced to do so in order to get an equal share? Absolutely not, because such a situation is unsustainable and it is in your best interest, in everyone’s interest, not to normalize such transgressions.

  Everything has a cost and there is no such thing in material reality as something for nothing. To think and assume and live in opposition to this fundamental truth is to cheat yourself out of life’s richness and best possibilities.

  The common good survives only when goodness is common and widespread. In this highly interconnected world, being good to yourself means being honest, respectful, understanding and considerate toward everyone else.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Sat, Jan 7 2023 9:03 AM

  Saturday, January 7, 2023

  You know you can

  You know you can do better. Make use of that knowledge.

  It’s not an indictment of the way you’ve lived up until now. It’s an acknowledgement of your best possibilities.

  You know you can do better, so consider precisely what that would look like. Then with great enthusiasm let those thoughts inspire you into positive action.

  You have a wealth of experience about what enhances life and what diminishes it. Resolve to put that valuable experience to more intentional and consistent use.

  As time moves forward you have the choice to move with it in a positive direction. While each day quickly recedes into the past you can bring forth value and goodness that endure.

  You’ve created much that’s good, and now you have the opportunity to do even better. See the great worth of that opportunity, and embrace it with all you have.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Mon, Jan 9 2023 8:30 AM

  Monday, January 9, 2023

  Grand opportunity of now

  What physical possessions, thoughts, and feelings are you holding on to that are no longer useful and never again will be? Let them go, and clear out space for more value and fulfillment in your life.

  Stop forcing yourself to dig through useless artifacts to get to what you need. Enable yourself to spend more time living, thriving, creating meaningful value and experiences.

  Treasure, preserve, and continue to find joy in your good memories. At the same time, keep them in perspective.

  Appreciate the past rather than keeping yourself continually bound to it. Carry forward what has true value and move on beyond the rest.

  Don’t let the past burden your present or contaminate your future. Free yourself from the regrets, resentments, and closets full of stuff that serve only to hold you back.

  Open yourself fully to the grand opportunity of now. Lighten your load and discover how much more effective and purposeful you can be.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Tue, Jan 10 2023 12:34 PM

  Tuesday, January 10, 2023

  Get going with it

  All is not totally and perfectly well, but neither is all lost and hopeless. Everything is as it is, and what’s more important, you can improve upon it.

  You can be fully aware of the difficulties without being completely dismayed by them. You can remind yourself that opportunity comes embedded in every problem.

  Life is not exactly how you’d like it to be. That opens you to the satisfying experience of guiding life in your chosen direction.

  You have good, meaningful work to do. You have the opportunity to make a positive difference.

  Experience has taught you how to be purposeful and effective. Here is your chance to once again put that experience to use.

  With honesty, love, and courage, look at the reality that surrounds you. Realize how much good and fulfilling living you can do, and get going with it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Wed, Jan 11 2023 12:17 PM

  Wednesday, January 11, 2023

  Time for intention

  Today is too valuable to waste. Today is a time for intention, focus, and meaningful progress.

  Get clear about what you can do with the time that currently stretches in front of you. Get clear about the connection between the actions you’ll be taking and what you care about most.

  Then, unleash your energy, your creative impulse, your skill, experience, and knowledge. Feel the power of your intention as it blossoms into achievement.

  A world of possibility awaits your action. Right now, let that wait be over.

  Make it your business today to fulfill your potential, and then go beyond it. Discover how much you can achieve, and how each achievement sets you up for even more.

  Now is a great time to live with intention. Show yourself again and again how deeply satisfying it feels to do so.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Thu, Jan 12 2023 8:45 AM

  Thursday, January 12, 2023

  Some good advice!

  Reaction

  Sometimes it’s good and necessary to respond. Other times it’s more appropriate to let things be.

  Wisdom is knowing the difference. Strength is abiding by that wisdom.

  Will your response actually contribute value? Or is the primary reason for it to prove a point?

  If you’re too eager to respond, too quick to react, you can get drawn into situations where no one wins. Is that really how you wish to spend any of the priceless moments of your life?

  When you can jump in and make a useful contribution, by all means do so. But when all you have to offer is an angry reaction, you’ll soon come to thank yourself for having the restraint to leave it alone.

  Just because you can respond, just because you want to react, doesn’t mean it’s the best choice. Consider the actual value of what you can offer before you put it forward.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2023 11:28 AM

  Friday, January 13, 2023

  Impossible becoming possible

  You probably can’t do the impossible. But you’ll never know for sure unless you make the attempt.

  The history of achievement, perhaps even including some of your own, is filled with examples of the impossible becoming possible. People give it a shot and sometimes they do succeed.

  You may or may not achieve the impossible. Yet on the way there you’re likely to make some pretty impressive progress.

  The higher the challenge, the more strength, skill, competence and persistence you’ll gain from pursuing it. Seeking to do what you cannot do gets you a whole lot better at what you can do, even if you fall short of achieving the impossible.

  At the outer boundaries of what’s possible you’ll find fertile ground, rich opportunities, and a new perspective on your own capabilities. It’s territory that’s certainly worth venturing into now and then.

  There have always existed possibilities beyond the possibilities. Experience the value in seeking some of your own.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,680 Posts

  Tue, Jan 17 2023 8:44 AM

  Tuesday, January 17, 2023

  Good life

  The good you do may not be noticed by others. Do it nonetheless, because at a very minimum you will notice, and that’s something.

  The beauty you create might not be seen by anyone else. Create and care for that beauty anyway, for in the act of doing so you give it meaning and value.

  Living a good life is not a matter of being able to brag about the life you live. It’s a matter of being true to your highest perception of goodness, to truth itself.

  The frivolous, superficial things are cheap to obtain and all too easy to lose. What’s worse, if you become obsessed with them they drain away your potential for much more meaningful and substantive pursuits.

  Instead, create and expand upon opportunities to give of yourself. Look for how you can make more goodness in the world, and act on what you find.

  You have your authentic self and the ability to invest yourself in what matters. Put it all together and make a truly good life for you and those around you.

   

  — Ralph Marston