Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Sat, Aug 29 2020 8:31 AM

  Saturday, August 29, 2020

  All you can give

  It is by giving value that you receive value. You experience meaning and fulfillment to the extent that you make your moments meaningful.

  Yes, you can arrange various ways to obtain the external necessities and luxuries with no effort on your part. When you do, those things will add no real value to your life.

  At its most fundamental level, life is about making a difference. That experience of making a difference is how you know you matter.

  What can you do to give value to this moment, to this situation? At the heart of every desire you’ll find a yearning to give of yourself.

  It’s common to keep score based on what you can get. But such an approach, on its own, inevitably comes up empty.

  Seek instead to keep your focus on all you can give. And bring your life richness that never runs out.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Mon, Aug 31 2020 10:29 AM

  Monday, August 31, 2020

  The fortitude to act

  Don’t wait until you feel better to take action. Take action, and you will feel better.

  Don’t put off living your life until everything in the world is perfect. Go ahead, live fully in this moment, and give ongoing expression to your highest vision of life.

  There always have been and always will be plenty of reasons for discouragement. And just as people have done for thousands of years, you can move forward anyway.

  Even in the most serious of times, you can laugh, you can enjoy, and you can spread joy to others. That’s not a denial of reality but rather an improvement of it.

  Avoiding your options will not improve or expand those options. Instead, take an active role in your own encouragement, enthusiasm, and sense of positive purpose.

  Go forward with your life, no matter what may be standing in the way. You have the fortitude to act, to live well, if only you will use it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Tue, Sep 1 2020 9:22 AM

  Tuesday, September 1, 2020

  Your most important time

  A brief moment of weakness can lay waste to months or years of strong, steady progress. Elite athletes know this all too well, as do recovering addicts, dieters, and anyone else committed to a goal.

  Each moment is important not only in its own right, but also because of all you’ve invested to get to it. The harder you’ve worked to arrive here, the more tragic and costly would a mistake be.

  The same dynamic applies even more so in the other direction. For each moment is not only a culmination, but an opportunity.

  What you do or fail to do right now, is amplified by the future. So whether you’re looking back or looking ahead, the stakes are undeniably high.

  Your most important time is now. Your past and your future are begging you to be strong, appreciative, and innovative with what you do in the present.

  Remind yourself often of all the ground you’ve covered in the past and all the possibilities ahead in your future. Choose your present actions accordingly.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Wed, Sep 2 2020 11:39 AM

  Wednesday, September 2, 2020

  Letting go

  Some of the actions you take, some of the thoughts you think, have not been helpful to you. Are there any of those thoughts, any actions, you can let go of forever, right now?

  Life is a series of choices, and your choices play a major role in the quality of your experience. Are there any choices you can improve upon going forward from this day?

  You swim each moment in a vast sea of possibilities. Yet you must swim in a specific, consistent direction or those possibilities have no value.

  You must choose a few things over all the other things. Making progress involves letting go of whatever hinders that progress.

  Habits and comforts feel good and reassuring, yet they can block you off from a rich and fulfilling life. By selectively letting go of what holds you back you free yourself to move forward.

  Don’t burden yourself with anything that has no real meaning or purpose. Let go, lighten your load, and make more space, give more time, to all that truly matters.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Thu, Sep 3 2020 10:46 AM

  Thursday, September 3, 2020

  Strength in the little things

  Be unrelenting in your strength when addressing the little things. Those are the things that most reliably lead you into either great despair or great achievement.

  Even when the matter seems to be nothing of significance, stand firm. Be true to your conscience, to your values, to your sense of what is right.

  For if you let it slide you establish a negative momentum. Soon enough, your betrayal of your own best judgment surpasses your strength and ability to change course.

  It is by attending to the details as you are able, to the discrete steps, that you make real progress. Conversely, neglecting the small things results in the big things falling into disintegration and uselessness.

  Saints know this, and live by this. So do tyrants.

  The little things are here and now, and the little things matter much more than a little. By investing your strength in the little things, you accumulate the strength to do anything.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Fri, Sep 4 2020 9:09 AM

  Friday, September 4, 2020

  Live the beauty

  Feast your soul upon the beauty that’s in each moment. Be drawn into the beauty stretching out in every direction.

  Beauty’s purpose is to be experienced, to be appreciated, to be loved. Give beauty its fulfillment by opening yourself to it, by finding joy in its sublime presence.

  Listen to the beautiful songs being sung. Watch as stories of new and unique beauty unfold.

  Draw energy from the beauty. Let it carry you away from your own tiny assumptions and give you a taste of the infinite.

  Stop striving so earnestly to zero in on a clever purpose. Allow beauty to fill you, to move you, inspire you, and authentic purpose will engulf your whole being.

  Experience truth in its most compelling and magnificent form. See the beauty, live the beauty, be the beauty.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Sat, Sep 5 2020 8:30 AM

  Saturday, September 5, 2020

  Courageous competence

  When you neglect to take action you open yourself to fear. When you back away from the challenges, fear gains the power to overwhelm you.

  The way forward is not to wait or wish for someone to solve all your problems and make you safe. The way forward is to get innovative and ambitious, to actively do everything you can.

  Each effort makes you more familiar with what you can do. You grow more effective, more confident, more courageous.

  Sure, there are limits to what you’re able to do. Yet by taking every positive action available you begin to exceed those limits and expand your possibilities.

  Acknowledge the risk, respect the danger, and act with focus, care, and competence. Take the reasonable, prudent actions available to you, and soon you’ll be able to do even more.

  Be fully informed by the challenges but not stopped by them. Do everything you can, and let your courageous competence move life forward.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Mon, Sep 7 2020 7:59 AM

  Monday, September 7, 2020

  More than mere activity

  Just because an activity is demanding doesn’t mean it is productive. Just because you make a lot of noise doesn’t mean you’re communicating anything meaningful.

  Is your activity making a difference or is it merely filling time? Are your efforts bringing results or are they just keeping you busy?

  You owe it to yourself to do more than just chasing off boredom. Every day you have the opportunity to fill your moments with focus, with purpose, with efforts that bring new value to life.

  Today, tomorrow, and the next day will all too soon be over. Don’t let yourself emerge from them empty handed.

  Challenge yourself to fill the time with more than mere activity. Harness your efforts in the service of a clear purpose, something that makes a positive difference in your world.

  Sure, some action is better than no action at all. Yet if you’re going to spend the time, choose those activities that endure beyond the moment, and leave a beneficial impact on life.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Tue, Sep 8 2020 8:57 AM

  Tuesday, September 8, 2020

  Storms will come

  Whether you’re careful or careless, rigidly disciplined or loosely organized, here’s something you can expect. Every now and then, storms will come your way.

  Sometimes you’ll see them coming a long way off. Other times they’ll pop up out of nowhere.

  They will blow, they will disrupt, they may leave some damage behind. And then they will go.

  The storms won’t care whether you’re prepared or not. They will not accommodate any prior plans you may have had.

  Yet life’s storms will compel you to grow stronger, more capable and resilient. You’ll gain experience, wisdom, confidence, and respect.

  Occasionally the storms will come, so do what you must do to get through them. And deepen your appreciation for the clear, beautiful days that arrive after the storms have passed.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 22,684 Posts

  Wed, Sep 9 2020 11:19 AM

  Wednesday, September 9, 2020

  Attentive

  Don’t leave yourself wishing you had been more attentive. Give your full focus to what you are doing.

  The time to get it right is while you are doing it. Anything else sets you up for regret.

  Clear your mind of distracting thoughts about what could have been, what should be, what might happen later. Direct your attention to what is, to what you’re doing, and to doing it well the first time.

  You have exactly one opportunity to live each moment. Exercise that opportunity with care, with gratitude, with attention and competence.

  Give your best to the moment while you are still in the moment. You have the power to make great progress if you’ll utilize that power each time you have the chance.

  Be attentive to life as it happens. And you’ll give yourself increasingly valuable and meaningful matters to attend to.

   

  — Ralph Marston