Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Mon, Oct 25 2021 9:06 AM

  Monday, October 25, 2021

  Defuse the situation

  The answer to rude behavior is not more rude behavior. Retribution doesn’t get you anywhere good, doesn’t create anything useful.

  An insult in return for an insult is predictable and ineffective. You have the opportunity and the skill to be much more innovative and constructive than that.

  You can be the person to rise above it. You can chart a new, more beneficial path.

  Be the original and intentional person you are. Put forth a positive perspective rather than just reacting to a negative one.

  Yes, someone else has said or done something objectionable. But do you really want to create additional incitement for doubling down on that?

  Be the strong one, the reasonable one, the one who defuses the situation. You’ll vastly improve the possibility that something good will come of it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Oct 26 2021 9:04 AM

  Tuesday, October 26, 2021

  A whole lot of good

  You are not perfect, not all knowing, not endlessly powerful. Yet you can do something good today.

  You don’t have access to endless resources. Your life has challenges, shortcomings, disappointments, and frustrations.

  Even so, you can make a positive difference in someone’s world right now. You can bring a genuine smile to someone’s face.

  You are not in the most ideal situation that ever existed. However, you are in a situation where you can be kind, loving, generous, and understanding.

  Your life has its share of difficulties, concerns, unfairness, and discomfort. It also has plenty of beautiful possibilities.

  Focus on those possibilities for goodness, and find great fulfillment in bringing them to life. Though you’ll never make everything perfect, you can always do a whole lot of good.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Wed, Oct 27 2021 12:07 PM

  Wednesday, October 27, 2021

  The sooner the better

  The sooner you tackle the problem, the better. The sooner you face the challenge, the better.

  The sooner you put forth effort, the better. The sooner you make a commitment, the better.

  Some situations are difficult, uncomfortable, and even painful to deal with. But putting them off until later makes them even worse.

  There is no easy way to handle life’s inevitable challenges. Yet you can make them much less difficult by meeting them head on.

  Don’t waste your energy avoiding reality. Acknowledge the hard truths and direct your energy toward making life good within those truths.

  You have what it takes to discipline yourself, to meet the challenges, to transcend the difficulties. The sooner you do so, the better.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Thu, Oct 28 2021 9:06 AM

  Thursday, October 28, 2021

  Get it done

  What you must accomplish is not easy. Get it done.

  No one understands what you must go through to make it happen. Get it done.

  You’re short on resources, you’re pressed for time, and people treat you unfairly. Get it done.

  The value of what you’re doing is not diminished by the challenges you face. Indeed, those challenges are what make the accomplishment mean so much.

  Your best choice is not to complain, or give up, or feel sorry for yourself. Your best option is to go ahead, face the challenges, and get the work done.

  As difficult as the task might be, living with the regret of a missed opportunity is much more difficult. Do yourself a big and lasting favor, and get it done.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Fri, Oct 29 2021 8:09 AM

  Friday, October 29, 2021

  Committed and realistic

  Just because someone makes a mistake does not render that person worthless. Just because a certain perspective has some flaws is not a reason to reject it out of hand.

  Perfection is a worthy goal but not a very practical standard. If you dismiss everything that’s not pure and perfect, you won’t be left with much.

  Rather than holding out for what is flawless, go with whatever option has the fewest flaws. Then continue working to improve it.

  Embrace what works and then work with it. As you do, as you learn from experience, you’ll discover ways to make it work better.

  Expect the best. Yet be willing to tolerate and adjust for the inevitable flaws and errors that arise on the way to achieving the best.

  Stay true to your purpose, to your high standards, while cutting yourself and others some slack. Be fully committed to excellence and ardently realistic about getting there.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Sat, Oct 30 2021 11:36 AM

  Saturday, October 30, 2021

  Upgrading your choices

  You cannot be everything, and would not want to be. The life you actually live is the life you choose, so choose with care, and love.

  The wondrous mental, physical, and spiritual power of your being is always pointed in some specific direction based on your choice. Each choice excludes all other choices, and builds upon choices that have come before.

  With your choices you make sense of the chaos and complexity that would otherwise engulf and devour you. Your choices create specific value and give meaning to time and place, to objects, motions, and experiences.

  Countless forces beyond your control exert great influence upon your life. Even so, your own choices are what largely determine how you deal with and experience whatever comes your way.

  If some small thing or some big thing is not going well for you, there are choices you can make to improve the situation. Though they may not be immediately obvious or easy to implement, with thoughtfulness and persistence you can uncover them and act on them.

  What choice right now would make the future a little bit better? Keep asking that, and answering it, upgrading your choices and doing the best you can.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Mon, Nov 1 2021 11:36 AM

  Monday, November 1, 2021

  Give it a shot

  Go ahead, give it a shot. Even if all you do is learn what not to do, that’s progress.

  Devise a plan, gather your resources, commit yourself to action, and go. When the obstacles and disruptions arise, keep going as best you can.

  Nobody ever did anything perfectly on the first attempt. Yet nobody ever did anything at all without making that first, imperfect attempt.

  Some people will call you foolish for setting out to do what you’ve never done before. But what’s really foolish is to do nothing and remain stuck where you are.

  Seek advice, listen to the criticism, find morsels of truth in it, then move forward. Feel the doubts, let them prepare you, but don’t let them stop you.

  You have good and valuable things to do, things that will challenge and stretch you. Remind yourself what a great opportunity that is, seize it, and run with it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Nov 2 2021 7:59 AM

  Tuesday, November 2, 2021

  Know courage

  Courage does not exist in a vacuum. Where there is true courage, there is true purpose driving it.

  Courage is not something you obtain for its own sake. Those times you act with courage are the times you have a powerful enough reason to do so.

  Courage arises when you connect your actions to your purpose. Courage is an affirmation of how much you care.

  Do you find yourself hobbled by fear? To function well in the face of danger and risk, connect more robustly to what matters and why.

  Don’t bother asking yourself how to have more courage. Seek instead to live with genuine purpose, and you’ll discover the courage that’s always been there.

  Enable your purpose to be bigger than your fear. Know what you care about and you will know courage.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Wed, Nov 3 2021 12:26 PM

  Wednesday, November 3, 2021

  Never forget

  See the beauty that is this day. Feel the miracle that is your life.

  Against all probability you are here to experience now. Give to the experience its full due.

  Stand in awe of the fact that you can stand in awe. Contemplate the wonder of your ability to wonder.

  Listen with care and love to the softest whisper. Gaze intently at the brightest star.

  You can choose what to do and then act on your choice. You can question, learn, understand, and explain.

  Never let yourself forget how much richness and mystery and possibility there is. Always live to give unique expression and meaning in the best way you know how.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Thu, Nov 4 2021 8:02 AM

  Thursday, November 4, 2021

  Potential for greatness

  Here, today, as you are, with what you have, lives the potential for greatness. Get out of its way, let it fill you, guide you, inspire you to action.

  You cannot know all of which you are capable. Yet you can discover, adjust, refine, improve in every action, every moment, every word.

  What do you really, truly want in your heart of hearts? Look in that direction, see the love, see the goodness, kindness, forgiveness, understanding.

  Keep looking in that direction because the direction you look is the direction you’ll go. Carry your life, your passion, your energy toward what is good for you, what is good for all.

  Stop holding yourself back, stop corrupting your whole world by giving in to the easy allure of temptation, indolence, and deception. Surrender instead to your potential for greatness, for truth and diligence in all things big and small.

  You cannot swindle or outthink or hide from your potential, from life’s potential for greatness. You must let love guide you in bringing it more fully every day to life.

   

  — Ralph Marston