Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Tue, Apr 4 2023 8:16 AM

  Tuesday, April 4, 2023

  Potential of today

  You’ve put much effort and experience toward getting to this day. Make the way you live it worth all the trouble.

  Today is an opportunity created for you by all those who came before you, and supported by those who now surround you. Make something good and useful and lasting out of the opportunity.

  The future begins today for everyone you care about, for everyone who impacts your life, and for you. Live the moments of this day so as to create value that endures into the future.

  You have your challenges and the world has its problems, but those are not reasons to sell yourself short. On the contrary, they’re good reasons to work for positive results every chance you get.

  So much has gone into where you are and what you can do. This is when you can create real and significant value from it.

  The great potential of today is only here for a short while. Act on it now.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Wed, Apr 5 2023 8:45 AM

  Wednesday, April 5, 2023

  Disciplined and sober

  Is it really so urgent? Most of the time, no.

  Is it really such a disaster? In the majority of cases, probably not.

  Is it really so indispensable, so desirable, so necessary? Sometimes, but not always.

  Your attention is easily captivated by whatever presents itself as dramatic and insistent. Yet your life is almost always better served by what’s reasonable, measured, disciplined and sober.

  Enjoy the exciting moments and experiences. But don’t deny yourself the massive value found in what’s steady and ordinary.

  Indulge in a little drama every now and then. Just be careful not to let it overwhelm all you do.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Thu, Apr 6 2023 7:23 AM

  Thursday, April 6, 2023

  Middle ground

  Just because it’s not a perfect experience doesn’t mean it’s a bad experience. Just because people do not completely agree with you doesn’t mean they hate you.

  Most situations are not all one way in a particular dimension or all the opposite way. A great portion of life is lived in the middle ground.

  Certainly extremes do exist. Yet it’s likely at most times that what you’re experiencing is not one of them.

  When you make a couple of serious mistakes, it can feel like you’re unable to do anything right. But that’s not even remotely true, because the vast majority of your actions are successful at creating the results you intend.

  In the same way, if you chalk up a few major wins, that can make you feel infallible. Yet when you give in to that feeling and assume you cannot lose, you’re setting yourself up for reckless overconfidence and disappointing results.

  Instead, make the assumption that whatever you’re experiencing falls somewhere in the middle, and that you can move in a positive direction from wherever you are. See the problems for what they are, find the good that’s certainly there, and navigate your way forward no matter what.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Fri, Apr 7 2023 8:58 AM

  Friday, April 7, 2023

  Forgotten options

  You have good options that you’re not exercising. How do you put yourself in a place where you can see them?

  Most of the time those options remain hidden behind your assumptions and habitual routines. It’s helpful to occasionally take a break from those routines, to question those assumptions.

  Imagine another person looking at your life from a radically different perspective. What would that person see?

  What resources, connections, opportunities, and skills would that person observe? What bodies of knowledge, what interests, what values would that person be able to detect?

  In your life you’ve made lots of choices, and once you choose a particular option you tend to forget about all the others. But many of those options are still available to you and might be more attractive now.

  Get a little curious about the options you’ve forgotten or never even realized you had. You might even find some that can change your life.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Mon, Apr 10 2023 8:27 AM

  Monday, April 10, 2023

  Live life now

  If you can’t enjoy and appreciate now you can’t enjoy ever. If you’re not grateful for whatever you have you make it impossible to have whatever you desire.

  This is life now. Give your love, attention, focus and effort to it, now.

  Certainly you can name many ways that things could be better. Yet the point from which you must start to make those improvements is now.

  Treasure all the good you’ve experienced in the past. But don’t long endlessly for it to return, because it won’t.

  Look forward to the potential rewards that the future will bring. But don’t wish that you could instantly jump there because that would trivialize those rewards and make them worthless.

  Live life now, with all its memories, all its possibilities, all its challenges, all its opportunities. Do something great and meaningful with the immense potential that now surrounds you.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Tue, Apr 11 2023 1:02 PM

  Tuesday, April 11, 2023

  Power of purpose

  Give your attention not only to what you do and how you do it. Seek also to understand and to be clear about why.

  There is great power in purpose. Purpose energizes your actions and sustains your efforts.

  Purpose provides a specific direction in which to apply your time, skills, knowledge, and passion. Purpose enables you to create meaningful value and to live a fulfilling life.

  At any point during the day, your life is either lining up with a purpose you care deeply about, or it is not. By asking why, and by persisting until you have an answer, you direct yourself toward true richness.

  Purpose is not always easy to understand or to follow. Yet a purposeful life is ultimately preferable to the alternative.

  Why do you love what you love, and do what you do, and desire what you desire? Get clear about purpose, and spread the power of that purpose throughout your world.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Wed, Apr 12 2023 12:03 PM

  Wednesday, April 12, 2023

  Make the choices work

  Achievement not only requires that you make certain choices. Achievement requires that you make the choices work.

  Intention alone is not sufficient, no matter how much passion is behind it. Reality will remain firmly the way it is until you put forth time, energy, and skill to change it.

  It’s great that you can tap on the image of some product you desire and have that product show up in your life before the day is over. Such experiences, repeated again and again, can give you the impression that the world bends to your mere will.

  But of course that is not the case. And to allow yourself such a fantasy is to set yourself up for extreme disappointment.

  There is much value that you can experience and enjoy. Yet as much value as reality offers, you cannot ever dependably benefit from value you have not earned.

  Choose with care what you truly desire for yourself, your family, your community, your world. Then step up and do the work needed to bring those choices to life.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Thu, Apr 13 2023 11:51 AM

  Thursday, April 13, 2023

  Each moment as it comes

  Give less attention to what frustrates you and more attention to what fulfills you. Give less attention to what angers you and more attention to what nourishes you.

  Give less time to empty distractions and more time to enriching experiences. Expend less energy seeking approval and more energy creating value.

  Embrace the true adventure of navigating a meaningful path through a world filled with challenge, risk, complexity, and beauty. Steer clear of the superficial dramas and all the nonsense that masquerades as sophistication.

  Be endlessly thankful for your deftness in recognizing what is possible. Have confidence in your ability to understand what is good, and right, and worth the investment of your attentiveness.

  Appreciate the fact that many of the limitations making existence difficult also make existence possible. Keep in mind that there is a whole universe outside your mind, that you must do your best to learn to live in it.

  With gratitude, with humility, with purpose, with love, face each moment as it comes. With a devotion to truth and authenticity, live well.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Fri, Apr 14 2023 9:11 AM

  Friday, April 14, 2023

  Life changes

  By very definition, life does not stand still. Whatever you’re not working to improve, time and circumstance are busy eroding.

  You are in some ways different today than you were yesterday. Tomorrow you’ll be a little different than today.

  You will change, the world around you will change, and there’s no getting away from that. What you can do is embrace the changes and do your best to push them in a positive direction.

  That’s one reason gratitude is so beneficial to your life. Gratitude shines a bright light on what’s valuable and enables you to build upon that value.

  Changes can be painful and frightening, yet they also open up new opportunities. Instead of wishing in vain that the changes would stop, look for how you and others can work to benefit from those inevitable changes.

  Life changes, and with each change comes some positive potential. Choose to make the most of that potential, and do what you can to change life for the better.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,692 Posts

  Sat, Apr 15 2023 11:22 AM

  Saturday, April 15, 2023

  True sharing

  Rather than sharing memes, share reality. Share your presence, your time, your experiences, your kindness.

  True sharing heals hearts, inspires new strength, brings purpose to the forefront. And true sharing cannot be accomplished by merely tapping on a screen.

  Share your stories face to face. Remember that listening is an important part of sharing too.

  Sharing connects, empowers, informs. Whether sharing effort, expertise, joy, or grief, sharing can be of great value.

  The more of yourself you put into what you share, the better. Sharing can make an ordinary experience into one that’s treasured for a lifetime.

  Lives are richest when they offer benefit to and receive benefit from each other. True sharing is an excellent way to live.

   

  — Ralph Marston