Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Thu, Jun 18 2020 7:24 AM

  Thursday, June 18, 2020

  Play time

  Young children make massive developmental progress in amazingly short periods of time. And they do it by playing.

  Children don’t try to develop their minds, they don’t worry, don’t strive or plot or struggle. They simply ride along on whim and curiosity, and play.

  How long has it been since you let yourself play? Maybe today you could find some new insight and inspiration in doing so.

  Take a thought, or a task, or a situation, or a problem, and just play with it. Instead of resolving to end up someplace in particular, go where whimsy leads.

  Let go of any notion that anything has to be this way or that. Ignore what should be, while you discover all that can be.

  Play for a while, just for the delight it brings you. And you’ll discover once again that it brings you a lot more than mere delight.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Fri, Jun 19 2020 10:52 AM

  Friday, June 19, 2020

  Light of your love

  You’re able to recognize the imperfections of others, because those imperfections exist in you as well. Your desire for others to change, is largely a longing for your own growth and improvement.

  When you’re dismayed by the actions of others, let it inspire you first to change your own behavior. After all, the person you can most effectively and immediately improve, is you.

  The most powerful way to transform your experience of being, is to transform yourself, with love. And when you seek to transform the world, that is without question the best way to start.

  You could vanquish every enemy, eliminate every external injustice, and your own imperfection would still exist. So wouldn’t it be smarter to work on that before you set off to fix everyone else?

  If you fear, pity, or despise every person who falls short of perfection, you’ll end up with no one left to love. Instead, forgive yourself, improve yourself, love yourself for who you are, and generously extend that love far, wide, deep.

  You cannot fight the darkness away. Yet it will always recede wherever you sincerely shine the light of your love.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Sat, Jun 20 2020 10:45 AM

  Saturday, June 20, 2020

  Quiet improvement

  Announcing that you are going to improve your behavior is a poor substitute for actual improvement. Skip that needless step, and go straight to the work of improving the way you act.

  Quiet improvement is powerful, authentic improvement. It is focused not merely on the image of how you look but on the substance of how you are.

  Making a promise to improve might get you off the hook for a moment. But then that moment is over, and you’ve made no real progress.

  When you’re truly committed to making an improvement, just go ahead and do it. Get your ego out of the way, and you can get real work done.

  Let your actions do the talking. Let your results do the talking.

  Stop proclaiming how you’re going to be. And start quietly being the best of how you intend to be.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Mon, Jun 22 2020 8:58 AM

  Monday, June 22, 2020

  I say "Amen" to this and try to abide by it.  Since we are all human we make mistakes from time to time though.

  Goal of understanding

  The point of any discussion is not to amplify disagreement. The point of a discussion is to move in the direction of understanding.

  The goal of communication is not to get every person to adopt one particular view or another. The goal is to arrive at an outcome that takes all views into account.

  You do not win by shouting the loudest. You win by building mutual respect, civility, and cooperation.

  You do not win by making someone else look foolish or hypocritical. You win by reducing the incentive for anyone to act with foolishness or hypocrisy.

  Every person is a bundle of assumptions, and no one’s assumptions are all completely accurate. The most fruitful, value-creating interactions occur when there is genuine acknowledgement, on all sides, of that reality.

  Understanding improves the quality of life for those who seek it and engage in it. With humility, with empathy, with respect, let that be your goal.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Tue, Jun 23 2020 8:25 AM

  Tuesday, June 23, 2020

  Do what you can

  What can you do? You can do what you can.

  If what you can do doesn’t seem like enough, do it anyway. The more you do what you can, the more you can do.

  If you’re feeling like it will take forever, that’s an excellent reason to start right now. Do what you can, as soon as you can, and you’re on your way to making a difference.

  What will people say, or think, or do? That’s all beyond your control, and all the more reason to do what you can.

  Your time, knowledge, skills and resources are limited. So by all means put them to good use, and do what you can.

  Take every opportunity to move life a little bit in the direction you want it to go. Do what you can, again and again, and you’ll find yourself doing a lot more good than you ever could have imagined.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• AlaskanDame 19,557 Posts

  Tue, Jun 23 2020 9:01 AM

  Ladychipper:

  Take every opportunity to move life a little bit in the direction you want it to go. Do what you can, again and again, and you’ll find yourself doing a lot more good than you ever could have imagined

  Funny that this is the thought for today. . . because I just finished a short story last night by Janice Eidus that ended with these lines: 

  - - - - -

  “As I slipped away from the world and the world slips away from me, I understand with every fiber of my being that it is never meshugganah to try to do good —- however imperfectly —- in the very brief time we are given.

  It may not be the most original epiphany in the world.

  But it doesn’t have to be.”

  - - - - -  

  Put a drop of two in the bucket.  Hope others do, but be content that you did your part, whether they did or not.

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Tue, Jun 23 2020 10:01 AM

  Hi AKD,

  That is ironic but seems it happens a good bit. 

  Hope you and yours are doing well during this trying time. 

   

• AlaskanDame 19,557 Posts

  Tue, Jun 23 2020 10:11 AM

  Ladychipper:

  Hi AKD,

  That is ironic but seems it happens a good bit. 

  Hope you and yours are doing well during this trying time. 

  We are doing okay, thanks, and hope you and yours are, too.

  AKD

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Wed, Jun 24 2020 11:38 AM

  Wednesday, June 24, 2020

  Choose your life

  Make the choice to love each moment that arrives, and you’ll find much in each moment to love. Make the choice to persist no matter what, and you’ll gain the strength for that persistence.

  What you find is whatever you choose to look for. The life you experience is the life you decide to experience.

  This is your life. No matter what is happening around you, the critical factor is how you handle it within you.

  Will this day, this situation, lead to success or to despair? That depends entirely on what you do with it.

  Everything that happens has the potential to be a turning point. So you must decide what you will choose to turn toward, again and again.

  Turn toward goodness, toward love, achievement, fulfillment, understanding. Choose in every moment a life filled with meaning and joy, and that is the life you will lead.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,071 Posts

  Thu, Jun 25 2020 7:31 AM

  Thursday, June 25, 2020

  Purposeful life

  If you don’t have a well-defined purpose, you’re likely to follow anyone in any direction. If you’re not clear about where you intend to go, you’re not going to like where you end up.

  When you’re purposeful, distractions are an annoyance, yet your purpose will pull you back on track. When you have no purpose, even the smallest distraction can lead you off into a vast expanse of wasted living.

  It is not easy to live a purposeful life. But what’s far worse is a meaningless life.

  Ask yourself what exactly you want, what you care about, what you love. Keep asking until you get an answer that you cannot deny.

  Then take that purpose and lodge it firmly in the forefront of your awareness. Keep it there, to serve as a guide, a shield, and a powerful lens through which you focus your energy.

  Life overflows with abundance, possibilities, opportunities. Align yourself in a specific direction, and enable yourself to make good use of it all.

   

  — Ralph Marston