Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Tue, Mar 19 2019 9:10 AM

  Tuesday, March 19, 2019

  Thankful to live

  Teach yourself to love the effort. Train yourself to delight in the challenge.

  Asking will get you a few things. Action will get you much more.

  Discipline yourself to keep on going when the past results have let you down. Remind yourself how much better life is when you’re fully engaged in being of use.

  Caution yourself against cutting too many corners. Enjoy yourself as you work to do a good job with whatever must be done.

  Seek the satisfaction of knowing you’re making a difference. Experience the sense of fulfillment that grows with every step you take along the way.

  Live each day as an opportunity to give the best you have. And live the kind of life you can truly be thankful to live.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Wed, Mar 20 2019 11:40 AM

  Wednesday, March 20, 2019

  Mere intentions

  It’s fine to have good intentions. But good intentions are just a very tiny start.

  It’s useful to point out the problems. Yet for those problems to be solved, you’ll have to make many difficult choices and do a lot of grinding, tedious work.

  Anyone can give a rousing speech about what must be done. Those people who actually move life forward are the ones who make the sacrifices, who jump in and get their hands dirty actually doing it.

  Life is overflowing with great possibilities, and yet every good thing comes with a very real price. Every person who promises something for nothing is just leading you down a path to despair.

  Go ahead and dream your biggest, most magnificent dreams. Then take full ownership and responsibility for them, and commit yourself to doing all the hard work necessary to bring them into being.

  You deserve much, much more than mere intentions. You deserve the great, irreplaceable joy of working to make them happen.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• HenryKawa 1,725 Posts

  Thu, Mar 21 2019 7:32 AM

  Thank you Marion for everything you have done for me and for your support.  Regarding the post "Thankful to live", I woke up this morning thinking the very thing Ralph Marston said in the message.  I was surprised to see the post when I was thinking the very same thing.  Its a very good message.

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Thu, Mar 21 2019 7:45 AM

  You are most welcome Henry.  I love reading Ralph's motivational messages and also love sharing them.  Glad they are of help to some here.  :-)

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Thu, Mar 21 2019 7:47 AM

  Thursday, March 21, 2019

  Better and better

  Each new day is an opportunity to up your game. Each new situation puts you in position to be more thorough and effective at whatever you’re doing.

  If you’re not constantly making improvements, you’ll quickly fall behind. It is not a curse, not a burden, but rather a chance for you to become a better and better version of yourself.

  Incremental improvement makes the passing of time into your friend. And there’s always a way to make some kind of incremental improvement.

  Walk a little more briskly, listen a little more attentively. Be a little more patient and forgiving, focus a little more intently, care a little more deeply than before.

  In every area of your life are constant opportunities for improvement. Little by little, without being overwhelmed, you can gently and enthusiastically make those improvements.

  Don’t leave yourself struggling to catch up. Instead, make the choice in every moment to get a little bit further ahead.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Fri, Mar 22 2019 9:13 AM

  Friday, March 22, 2019

  Diversity of opinion

  You can learn much more from someone who disagrees with you than you can from someone with whom you agree. Give yourself the courage and intelligence to do so.

  Viewpoints different from your own will not harm you. They mostly have great potential to enlighten you.

  Why wouldn’t you want to know in detail how other people feel, what others are thinking? There’s no good reason to wall yourself off from the great diversity of opinion that exists in the world.

  Your own opinions become more refined, more useful, more aligned to reality when they are challenged. There is much power in giving consideration to things you’ve never before considered.

  No two people have exactly the same perspective. That dynamic gives incalculable richness to the experience of life.

  Rather than making assumptions about those you disagree with, seek to make connections. Rather than battling over divisiveness, reap great benefits from the diversity of opinion available to you.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Sat, Mar 23 2019 8:33 AM

  Saturday, March 23, 2019

  Truth solves problems

  Truth solves problems. When you can be completely honest about the problem, you’re in position to fix it.

  Too often it is easier to deny the problem than to do something about it. But that allows the problem to become more costly, more solidly entrenched, and much more difficult to solve.

  In such cases, the truth is quite painful. Yet the more painful the truth, the more powerful it is, and the more necessary it is for you to acknowledge.

  To solve a difficult problem, face that problem with an unyielding commitment to the truth. Summon the courage and the deep compassion to be truthful, with yourself, with everyone else.

  Truth hurts at first. Then it has great power to heal, to make things right, to transform drama and dysfunction into effectiveness and cooperation.

  Shine the brilliant light of truth on the problem. You’ll enable everyone to see clearly what must be done, and to do it.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Mon, Mar 25 2019 11:31 AM

  Monday, March 25, 2019

  Where your possibilities lead

  Don’t let yourself be limited to just what you already know you can do. Let yourself be inspired, motivated, challenged to do all the great things you’re able to imagine yourself doing.

  If there’s something new you must learn, learn it. If there’s some resource you must have, find it and figure out how to get access to it.

  Be an active participant in your own growth, your own learning, your own progress. Every yearning you feel is an opportunity to make yourself into the person who can fulfill that yearning.

  It’s easy to dismiss your ambitions, your dreams, to make excuses for why you’re not following them. Yet you have those dreams for a reason, and the reason is to push you out of your comfort zone and into life’s best possibilities.

  No matter how much you’ve done, you’re capable of much more. Let go of your doubts and hesitations, and remind yourself that you’re able to do whatever must be done.

  Experience how good it feels to be enthusiastic about what you can do. Get to work and discover the great places where your possibilities lead.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Tue, Mar 26 2019 7:41 AM

  March 26, 2019

  Invest in healing

  Casting yourself as a victim is a waste of your time and energy. Whether a minor inconvenience appears or a major difficulty arises, you have a much more powerful option.

  Even when you truly are a victim, seeing yourself as such, treating yourself as such, will not improve your situation. What will improve the situation is to take full responsibility for doing something about it.

  Make it your job to actually make things better. The smallest positive action is infinitely more effective than any amount of self-pity.

  Acknowledge the tragedy, the unfairness, the carelessness, the injustice, but don’t make it worse by wallowing in it. No matter who or what is to blame for what happened, you can choose to be responsible for moving positively forward from it.

  You cannot always avoid being hurt. But you never have to continue investing yourself in that hurt.

  Decide instead to invest yourself in healing, in progress, in love and care and meaningful living. When life turns bad, for you or anyone else, let your response always be to make it better.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Wed, Mar 27 2019 9:31 AM

  Wednesday, March 27, 2019

  Give yourself a little joy

  Tend to the important things, the serious matters, the consequential tasks. But don’t neglect yourself in the process.

  In order to be a positive influence, you have to come from a positive place. Give yourself the time, the care, the space to maintain that positive presence.

  It’s tempting to put off the simple enjoyment of life until all the problems are solved. But though you can make much progress, the problems will never all be solved.

  Give quality time and attention to your own life, not later, but now. Make yourself able to be there for others by being good to yourself.

  Though the demands are high and your resources are limited, there are plenty of ways to take good care of yourself. Refuse to use anything as an excuse for neglecting nutrition, exercise, family, friends, and enjoyable moments.

  Remember to give yourself a little joy today, and every day. It will help renew your supply of energy to continue making a positive difference in life.

   

  — Ralph Marston