Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Sep 12 2023 12:29 PM

  Tuesday, September 12, 2023

  Be real

  Say what you think, not what you think they want to hear. Make your choices based on what matters in your life, not based on how they will appear.

  It’s an insult to others to second guess how they might perceive you. It’s a disparagement of your own authenticity to play a role that’s not really you.

  You can be respectful and considerate without being fake. You can be genuinely impressive by dropping your desire to impress.

  When you’re desperate to appear impressive, it’s the desperation that shows. By obsessing over your appearance you ruin that appearance.

  Let your pretenses and their accompanying anxieties melt away. Give yourself the permission and the freedom to be you.

  What will benefit your life and your world is genuine connection. Be real, be honest, and make that connection every chance you get.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Wed, Sep 13 2023 3:52 PM

  Wednesday, September 13, 2023

  Your territory

  It’s a place, a state of mind, an activity or area of expertise that’s yours, where you know you belong. It’s your territory.

  Going there inspires you, replenishes your energy, gives you space to create, achieve, connect with purpose. Just thinking about it can motivate you to persist through whatever you must.

  What’s your territory? When was the last time you were there?

  You easily recognize your territory because that’s where you experience the magic of flow. It’s where you get the good and meaningful work of life done without friction, where distractions lose their power.

  Whatever happens or fails to happen elsewhere, your territory is a place where fulfillment is assured. From within your territory you bring forth great value into all of life.

  It’s a powerful place to be. Go there soon, go there often.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Thu, Sep 14 2023 12:09 PM

  Thursday, September 14, 2023

  The best choice

  The wind blows were it will, and you have no influence over its direction or intensity. Yet you do have control over your own direction, your own intensity.

  Sometimes the wind will be in your favor, and other times it will rage against you. Make progress as you can toward a constant purpose, whether that progress comes easy or not.

  The obstacles you encounter care nothing about you and your intentions. Rather than cursing them, despising them, or fighting them, just deal with them, work your way beyond them.

  If you waste your time and energy on resentment you’ll create even more cause to be resentful. Invest yourself instead in the worthy pursuits that create value.

  Though countless factors affect you, only a few of them respond to your actions. Those are the ones to focus on, for doing so will make all the difference in your life.

  Obsessing and complaining about what you can’t control gets you nothing, while attending to what you do control can change everything. The best choice is obvious, and it’s a choice that’s always yours.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Fri, Sep 15 2023 8:03 AM

  Friday, September 15, 2023

  Changing your mind

  You’re allowed to change your mind. It can actually be a refreshing thing to do, not to mention helpful, productive, and insightful.

  It won’t kill you to admit to yourself or others that you were mistaken. Perhaps it could even make the situation a whole lot better.

  Sure, it’s a blow to your pride when you acknowledge being wrong, particularly if you’ve been adamant about your position. But is your pride really more important than the truth?

  Sincere, honest people admire open-mindedness, and for good reason. Being truly open minded involves an eagerness to change your mind when that’s what the facts call for.

  It’s an act of freedom, an act of integrity. It serves to better align you with truth and reality.

  When circumstances make it necessary and appropriate, change your mind. Improve your perspective and improve your world.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Mon, Sep 18 2023 8:53 AM

  Monday, September 18, 2023

  Thankful for your critics

  Criticism hurts, especially when it’s based on truth. And criticism helps, particularly when true.

  You don’t like to think you’re doing anything wrong, and it’s no fun when someone else points out your shortcomings. But wouldn’t you rather know about it than to continue repeating the error?

  Receiving encouragement feels good, and inspires you to take positive action. Receiving criticism might not feel as good, yet it has the power to inspire you just as much as encouragement, perhaps even more.

  Sure, people can often criticize you just to hurt you or as an attempted boost to their own egos. Fortunately, you don’t have to take such criticism in the negative spirit in which it’s intended.

  Embrace criticism and use it as an opportunity to remind yourself how much better you can do. Experience the sting of criticism and transform its power into motivation, determination, action, and valuable results.

  Choose to be thankful for your critics and their criticisms. They provide opportunity for major improvements and repeated success.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Sep 19 2023 8:20 AM

  Tuesday, September 19, 2023

  Make excellence

  Focus on a corner of your world and infuse it with excellence. Apply effort, focus, creativity, and persistence to produce an environment, an idea, an object, an experience of excellence.

  Even if no one ever notices that excellence, you will always know about it. Your life and the lives of others will benefit from it.

  An exercise in excellence, no matter how small, spills over into other parts of your world. The habit of engendering excellence, once acquired, raises your expectations for every endeavor you undertake.

  Your time is arguably your most precious resource. You owe it to yourself to spend time in ways that yield excellent results.

  Dedicate yourself to excellence and it bolsters your ability to meet challenges, makes you more purposeful, and reverberates positively throughout your being. In seeking to create excellence you find yourself living with excellence.

  Where you go, with what you do, make excellence for the sake of excellence. Demand excellence from yourself and you’ll experience life at its best.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Wed, Sep 20 2023 9:18 AM

  Wednesday, September 20, 2023

  Now life happens

  Now life happens. Now the enticing music plays and the dance begins.

  Now fulfillment springs forth from your choices and actions. Now you make your way through reality, love, abundance, challenge, beauty, joy.

  Now sounds resonate, lights sparkle, you walk along the ever-unfolding path of existence. You gather experience, wisdom, insight, adding strength and substance to a life well lived.

  Now you stride forth in the direction you’ve always wanted to go. You find satisfaction in creating value that endures.

  Now you utilize your skills, energy and resources to the benefit of your world and those with whom you share it. Now you listen, you learn, you care, you develop and implement strategies for moving forward.

  The limitless opportunity of now has arrived. Live it with all you have, now.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Thu, Sep 21 2023 8:59 AM

  Thursday, September 21, 2023

  Life’s substance

  What you once felt, you still are. You carry with you today a lifetime of experience that grows with each new sight, sound, step, breath.

  Whatever you do resonates within you for a long time. Realize what an opportunity that is to make life increasingly rich, meaningful, impactful, rewarding.

  Over the years you’ll forget many of the details. Yet you’ll always have the living you’ve engaged in.

  From every difficult season will eventually come treasures you never could have otherwise known. From bright, pleasant days will come even more.

  Take them all in, carry them forward, share those treasures profusely. With your choices each day, create ever more of life’s substance to fill the years to come.

  You’re able to spread purpose and meaning across time and space and into all the lives you touch. Marvel at your good fortune and seek to fulfill all the potential it affords you.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Fri, Sep 22 2023 12:03 PM

  Friday, September 22, 2023

  Your dreams are real

  Dreams exist for a reason. They’re meant to get your attention, to captivate your imagination.

  So pay attention. Imagine with wild abandon.

  Of course your dreams are not practical. Yet they are what can drive you to be extremely practical and highly productive in pursuit of their promises.

  You’ve pushed your most treasured dreams aside for too long. But they won’t hold that against you.

  Indeed, your dreams will welcome your renewed attention by filling you with a sense of positive purpose. They’ll intensify your appreciation for all you’ve been through and illuminate new possibilities of what can be.

  The dreams you have for your life, for your world, are as real as anything there is. Now is a great time to bring them fully to life.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Mon, Sep 25 2023 9:02 AM

  Monday, September 25, 2023

  Merely trying

  Trying too hard is not much more effective than hardly trying. If you perceive any effort as trying, that has a way of sabotaging the effort.

  Even when you’re highly motivated, seeing yourself as trying blocks you from seeing yourself as succeeding. The word itself focuses you on struggling rather than achieving.

  Let go of the thought that you’re trying. See yourself instead as steadily making progress.

  Feel how much better that is. Notice the immediate increase in your energy level and creativity, the elevation of your expectations.

  Every action, every step, no matter how large or small, no matter how fast or slow, gets you closer to your goal. That’s a whole lot more valuable than merely trying.

  Once you have an intention, skip the trying. Go ahead, step right up, and with one positive action after another, get it done.

   

  — Ralph Marston