Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Sat, Nov 7 2020 7:47 AM

  Saturday, November 7, 2020

  Think and feel

  I feel I have a good answer, and you think you have a better answer. Even though we disagree, both of us are right.

  Life is about what you feel. It’s also about what you think.

  Your feelings give richness and color and meaning to your thoughts. Your thoughts impose a measure of discipline and reality on your feelings.

  A thinking approach often seems at extreme odds with a feeling approach. Yet both approaches seek to make the best of the same situation, so they’re not really so opposed.

  Has the conflict between thoughts and feelings pushed you into a disagreement? See if you can adjust your own balance of thoughts and feelings to achieve a better understanding.

  Intellect and emotion do not have to exist in opposition. Take a step back, work to get them into harmony, and make the best of the whole person you are.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Mon, Nov 9 2020 7:02 AM

  Monday, November 9, 2020

  Be joyful

  Allow yourself to be joyful. It is as simple as that.

  Strive and calculate, bend and then stand firm, execute your plans, hold fast to your intentions. And no matter what the outcome, let joy be a part of it.

  The world often does not work the way you thought it would. Life surprises you in many directions, and would have scant appeal otherwise.

  It is never as good as you wished, never as bad as you feared. And always there is room for as much joy as you care to give.

  So give more, and then some. Depend not on things going a certain way, but upon you choosing to be a certain way.

  Respect your deepest obligation and celebrate your highest privilege. Be joyful.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Tue, Nov 10 2020 8:51 AM

  Tuesday, November 10, 2020

  Good new days

  You cannot go back to a better time. Yet you can always go forward to a better time.

  When you do, you carry with you a powerful perspective. It’s a perspective expertly informed by what worked out well in the past and what didn’t.

  Time moves only in one direction. If you seek to move against it you become bitter, irrelevant, and ineffective.

  Choose instead to embrace each moment as it arrives. Fill it with new instances of what you know to be good, worthwhile, true and beneficial.

  Don’t waste your energy wishing for another yesterday. Take yesterday’s goodness and re-imagine it for tomorrow.

  The good old days are gone, yet they’ve left you with an abundance of great experience. Now put that experience to use and get to work creating some good new days.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Wed, Nov 11 2020 11:28 AM

  Wednesday, November 11, 2020

  Intentional attention

  Pay attention, but choose where and in what way you pay that attention. Don’t allow your attention to be stolen from you.

  Know your purpose, know your values. Know your truth and your intentions.

  The most insidious threats to your well being are not physical. They are mental, psychological, emotional, and they are very real, highly destructive.

  Your attention is worth more to you than any amount of money. When you spend it, be sure to get something equally valuable in return.

  Pay attention in ways that support and promote and nourish what’s most important to you. Fulfill the maximum potential of your attention by taking complete responsibility for it.

  Pay your precious attention in ways that make you a more positive, creative, generous, fulfilled person. Pay attention with firmness and excellence in your intention, and make yourself a great life out of it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Thu, Nov 12 2020 8:00 AM

  Thursday, November 12, 2020

  The good you can bring

  Can you see how miserable you make yourself when you’re unable to have some particular thing you don’t even need in the first place? Turn your attention instead to the good things you do have.

  Let go of the silly fantasy that some magic bullet is going to make everything better all at once. Instead, immerse yourself in the true magic of using your wits and your efforts to make one thing better at a time.

  Allow life to play out in its most meaningful and satisfying pattern. Recognize that the ups and the downs are inseparable parts of a whole.

  It is a whole of experience that brings deep meaning and fulfillment to the core of your being. It is a true story of beauty and strength that runs through everything you encounter and all you do.

  By choosing to tolerate the difficulties you develop the fortitude to master them. You learn to point every moment, every event in a positive direction.

  What makes life special is the good you can bring to it. Embrace life always as it is, and bring it on.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Fri, Nov 13 2020 8:24 AM

  Friday, November 13, 2020

  Ego talking

  When you observe yourself choosing your words and arranging your actions so as to impress someone, that’s ego talking. And ego is not always your best advisor.

  When you are obsessed with the thought you’re being misunderstood or misrepresented, that’s ego talking. Perhaps what you notice is true, still ego is right there, in position to drive your response.

  Ego has its place. Yet all too often it jumps far out of that place, and can come to dominate the situation.

  Ego distorts your view, telling you you’re too good to have to do all the menial, inconvenient things that must be done. Ego blames your troubles on everyone else, and thus prevents you from addressing them.

  Imagine the power of simply telling yourself, whenever you notice it, that ego is what’s motivating you. Imagine putting yourself in position to choose whether or not you continue to let ego be in control.

  For much of what you do and say and think and feel, that’s ego talking. Take note, and make sure it’s not the only thing you listen to.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Sat, Nov 14 2020 11:58 AM

  Saturday, November 14, 2020

  Disagreement

  Disagreement is not what keeps people apart. What keeps people apart is the refusal to acknowledge, explore and resolve their disagreements.

  Indeed, in every disagreement is the potential for agreement and cooperation. The pathway to that cooperation is respectful engagement.

  The fact that you disagree on a particular issue means that at some level an agreement already exists. Because you and the other side already agree that the issue is important.

  Acknowledge that starting point and work your way forward. Agree that you disagree about something meaningful, and begin to discover other ways in which you can agree.

  Disagreement is possible only when there is somehow, somewhere, some common ground. Persist in identifying and respecting that common ground, and then persist in building upon it.

  When you are sincerely passionate about your position, make positive use of that passion. Do the difficult work to find and to implement new ways to agree and cooperate.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Mon, Nov 16 2020 7:25 AM

  Monday, November 16, 2020

  Life’s highest beauty

  What makes life difficult is also what makes life good. Responsibility, commitment, obligation, discipline, challenge, and effort all can be tough to bear, and all are essential to a life of fulfillment.

  Many of the difficulties you experience come from the other people in your life. But what a sad and empty thing your life would be if there were no other people with whom to share your world.

  Other difficulties arise from the physical and biological constraints of your existence. Yet that existence itself, and the possibilities it enables, are nothing short of miraculous.

  Though you cannot escape the burdens, you never have to let them wear down your spirit. You can greatly mitigate the difficulties by accepting their necessity and by making them well worth their trouble.

  Accept each day and everything it brings. Embrace it all with open arms, with the commitment and determination to transform whatever you encounter into positive and purposeful living.

  Life’s highest beauty is built upon life’s greatest difficulties. Add something of yourself to that beauty by the way you live today.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Tue, Nov 17 2020 7:55 AM

  Tuesday, November 17, 2020

   

  Do your dream

  Don’t let anyone take your dreams away from you. Your dreams are what move the world forward.

  When you dare to dream, people will scold you for being selfish. But your dreams are not selfish.

  Living the best life you can imagine is the most generous thing you can do for all of life. So dream big, dream well, dream in glorious detail, and do your dream.

  There are many problems in the world. None of those problems will be solved by you being less than your best.

  On the contrary, the process of working to make your own life better will enable other lives to get better. Insisting on the best from yourself is what makes you the most beneficial for others.

  Do your dream, with confidence, compassion, love, and positive energy. Do your dream, and give all of life your greatest gifts.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,686 Posts

  Wed, Nov 18 2020 12:14 PM

  Wednesday, November 18, 2020

  A day to fill

  You can do nothing to change the way the world was when you got out of bed. You can do everything to improve the way the world will be at the end of the day.

  Your choices have consequences. Make full and positive use of that power.

  Don’t seethe about what may have happened or worry endlessly about what may come. Let your intelligence and your influence be driven by love, and give this day the best you have.

  Right in front of you are precious hours to make good use of. Close at hand are the tools with which you can bring new meaning and progress to life.

  Your journey through this day has already begun. Take each step in a manner that causes value and goodness to linger in the places you go.

  No task is too tedious, no challenge is too great. You have a day to fill with positive, purposeful living.

   

  — Ralph Marston