Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Feb 20 2024 8:41 AM

  Tuesday, February 20, 2024

  Positive, purposeful direction

  Not every attempt brings the results you intend. Yet every desired result you are able to achieve comes from making an attempt.

  The odds won’t be completely in your favor when you move forward. But the odds are entirely against you when you decline to take any positive action at all.

  No matter what has happened in the past, no matter where you are in the present, one fact remains true. There’s always something you can learn, some new effort you can make, a particular path you can pursue toward a desirable result.

  Today in a small way, or a more ambitious way, or perhaps even in a big way, you can attempt more. You can make the decision to move higher, and you can put that decision into action.

  If today’s effort doesn’t work out, that’s okay. Because you can learn from it and make a more informed and experienced effort tomorrow.

  Keep pushing yourself consistently in a positive, purposeful direction. Eventually you’ll work yourself to your intended destination.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Thu, Feb 22 2024 8:58 AM

  Thursday, February 22, 2024

  Desire and purpose

  It’s all too easy to get locked into a pattern of chasing one desire after another. Though you often end up getting what you want, it never seems to be enough, and is quickly replaced by more desires.

  To get beyond that dilemma, turn your focus toward purpose. Each time a desire arises, stop and consider whether what you want in the moment aligns with a more enduring purpose.

  Desire drives you to achieve. Its energy can push you into action and sustain your efforts.

  Make sure all that energy is pointed in a meaningful direction. Rather than merely satisfying a fleeting desire, you can use the energy in the service of a fulfilling purpose.

  Though you certainly must address immediate needs, seek to do so without compromising your long-term goals. You’re actually very skilled and experienced at achieving what you choose to achieve, and it’s in your best interest to use that power thoughtfully.

  Before jumping and striving for what you desire, ask if it will matter a year from now, and if not, then what will? Turn your energy and awareness toward deeper purpose, and create the fulfillment of which you’re capable.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Fri, Feb 23 2024 8:55 AM

  Friday, February 23, 2024

  Let the minor things go

  A minor aggravation is just a minor aggravation. Don’t fall into the trap of magnifying it into something bigger than it is.

  Most likely you can simply forget all about it and everything will be fine. Plus, you’ll free your time, energy, and awareness for more meaningful pursuits.

  But it gets much better than that. Because the more you’re able to let the minor things go, the stronger, more purposeful, more resilient you become.

  That doesn’t mean you don’t care. It means you choose to invest your attention and your effort in what truly matters, in what will make a difference.

  By being less easily annoyed, less easily offended, you become much more effective. By letting go of your seething and frustration, you’re able to engage in real, transformative action.

  The next time you’re tempted to obsess over some minor issue, remind yourself of the option and the benefits of simply letting it go. Enjoy the freedom, the power, and the intentional energy that gives you.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Mon, Feb 26 2024 9:20 AM

  Monday, February 26, 2024

  Meaningful experience

  There’s something you can do today that you’ll treasure later. Consider what it might be.

  Many of your day’s activities will rush quickly into awareness and then recede just as quickly. Yet with the right amount of attention and caring, you can always make any particular experience meaningful and memorable.

  Shared experiences are often the ones that have the best chance for enduring significance. Authentic experiences that demand the best from you can be similarly meaningful.

  It can be easy to convince yourself you’re too busy to connect with someone special, or to trouble yourself with authentic, enriching activities. Most of the time, though, that’s not really true.

  You have the ability, you can find the time. The opportunity exists for rich and meaningful experience, if you’ll make it a priority.

  Your life is precious, all of life is precious. Remember to give it the care and attention it deserves.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Feb 27 2024 8:01 AM

  Tuesday, February 27, 2024

  Reasonable, commonsense middle

  When one perspective is opposed to another, that doesn’t necessarily mean one is totally right and the other completely wrong. You’re likely to find truth, wisdom, and utility in each one.

  The same forces that are empowering and beneficial in some ways can also be oppressive and destructive in other ways. Life as we know it would be impossible without water, yet in certain contexts water can be deadly.

  Just because a concept, person, organization, or process has certain negative aspects, doesn’t make it all bad. Just because something is useful and has positive qualities, doesn’t make it worthy of unquestioned worship.

  You have to be willing to accept the bad with the good. Otherwise your choices narrow to almost no choice at all.

  In the world of computers and logic, binary choices can be configured to be highly useful. Yet to successfully navigate the messy, imperfect world at large, you have to be more nuanced.

  Be careful of accepting or rejecting anything based on just one or two factors. Give yourself access to all the value that’s found in the reasonable, commonsense middle.

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Wed, Feb 28 2024 8:59 AM

  Wednesday, February 28, 2024

  Dare to achieve

  Go ahead and dream. Go ahead and act on your dream.

  Dare to desire improvement, progress, achievement, fulfillment. Do the work to make it happen.

  Embrace the challenges as they point the way to your goal. Learn, adapt, inquire, wonder, and most of all, act.

  Your life today is greatly enhanced by the ambition, competence, and achievement of countless individuals going back for centuries. Keep the goodness of their achievements going with your own positive focus and dedication.

  Seek to better understand and experience the reality of existence. Work to improve upon what you discover.

  The possibilities have no limit. Do your part to bring the best ones into being.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Thu, Feb 29 2024 8:44 AM

  Thursday, February 29, 2024

  Avoiding new regrets

  Regret does not bring back missed opportunities. But it can prevent you from taking current opportunities for granted.

  There’s a good reason why regret can be so painful. It reminds you not to make a similar mistake again.

  Though you cannot escape the regrets you’ve already created, you can make positive use of them. You can learn from them and be motivated by them.

  With your choices today, you’re able to avoid being burdened by additional regrets. You have the opportunity to leverage your past experience and thereby improve your future.

  Instead of being more regretful tomorrow, you can be more thankful. Rather than wishing you had done things differently, you can be satisfied with your choices, priorities, and actions.

  Consider what you can do right now to make that happen. And let your regrets recede further and further into the past.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Fri, Mar 1 2024 9:12 AM

  Friday, March 1, 2024

  Value of challenge

  Attempt what you’ve never before attempted. Challenge yourself, even if for nothing more than the value of the challenge itself.

  That value is open ended. Your possibilities for new discovery have no limit.

  There’s much you’re unaware of, that you don’t even know you’re unaware of. Diving into new challenges will push you in getting up to speed in some of those areas.

  Expand your knowledge, your skills, your competence by choosing challenges that interest you, that entice you. You’re sure to encounter beneficial ways to make use of the capabilities you gain.

  You know from past experiences how profoundly you can boost your confidence by working through a difficult challenge. Choose to add more such experiences.

  Nurture yourself with a new challenge. It’s a great use of your time that can pay dividends far into the future.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Mon, Mar 4 2024 7:59 AM

  Monday, March 4, 2024

  Problems and opportunities

  Every ending is followed by a new beginning. With every disappointment comes a fresh opportunity for success.

  In every mistake you get a valuable lesson to be learned. Every setback places you in a new position from which to move forward.

  Along with every frustration comes the energy to move to a higher level of achievement. Every challenge compels you to develop a new strategy for taking action.

  With every time of darkness comes the chance to make a difference by shining your own special light. With every sadness comes a deeper appreciation for the joys that life can hold.

  Every difficulty can push you upward to a new level of strength. Every loss provides an increased determination to win.

  Though life has many pitfalls and problems, there can be a positive side to nearly every one of them. Choose to see and live that positive reality, and no problem will be a problem for long.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,050 Posts

  Tue, Mar 5 2024 9:07 AM

  Tuesday, March 5, 2024

  Good luck

  Luck is often seen as a cause. But almost always it is an effect.

  Luck does not make anything happen. It describes what has already happened, which is to say, you make your own luck.

  Luck is not a mysterious, arbitrary force. It happens for very real reasons.

  Some factors in life you have control over, and other things you have little or no control over. Both affect the amount and direction of luck you perceive.

  You can sway the balance decidedly in your favor by making sure those things under your control are pushing you forward. Though circumstances outside your control will not always be ideal, you can make sure the factors you do control will trend in your favor.

  Through a positive focus, discipline, preparation, effort, and persistence, anyone can get lucky. Good luck is yours when you work your way toward it.

   

  — Ralph Marston