Daily Motivation

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Mon, May 20 2019 11:41 AM

  Monday, May 20, 2019

  Your real life

  Fantasy is fun and entertaining, and certainly has its place. Yet as attractive as fantasy may seem, real life is far better.

  Unlike fantasy, where everything is simple and awesome, real life is complicated, inconvenient, fraught with challenge. And that’s what makes real life so incomparably fulfilling.

  Fantasy may excite you, but it will never satisfy your deep desire to make a real difference in the real world. Fantasy can ignite your imagination, yet actual effort is necessary to transform what you imagine into reality.

  Reality, with all its problems, contradictions, frustrations, and disappointments, is where your efforts matter. Reality is where you push through the challenges and work to lift yourself above the difficulties.

  Right here, right now, on this gritty, uneven expanse of reality, is where you do what you do best. This is where you experience yourself making a real difference, and know how good and right it feels.

  Indulge yourself in some enjoyable fantasies every once in a while. Then take that positive energy and invest it in the true fulfillment available exclusively in your real life.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Tue, May 21 2019 10:48 AM

  Tuesday, May 21, 2019

  Criticism

  If you’re going to do something useful, then you’re probably going to be criticized. When you set out to solve a problem, you’ll quickly encounter someone’s criticism.

  By all means, be open to valuable feedback. And learn to simply ignore the useless criticism.

  Most people are open to positive changes, but a few will object to anything you do. Those few can be so loud and vicious as to seem bigger and more influential than they actually are.

  Decide at the outset to push forward with the courage of your convictions. Become realistically and sufficiently convinced that what you’re doing is right, so that the criticism doesn’t get to you.

  Listen respectfully to well-reasoned opposition, consider it, learn from it, and make necessary adjustments. At the same time, ignore the screeching and name-calling from those who have nothing better to do.

  Know that the criticism will come, and decide that you won’t let it stop you. Make achievement your response to the criticism.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Wed, May 22 2019 11:48 AM

  Wednesday, May 22, 2019

  Truth, goodness, and integrity

  Truth, goodness, and integrity are not just empty platitudes. They are practical, powerful, positive strategies.

  Life has real meaning and choices have real consequences. Truth, goodness, and integrity end up producing the most beneficial consequences for the largest number of people.

  Truth, goodness, and integrity are not easy, not always convenient in the moment. Yet they have infinite staying power.

  Truth can be hidden, disguised, avoided, but truth eventually overcomes all the efforts to suppress it. Goodness lives deep in the heart of everyone who loves life, and even in the worst of times it will inspire people to be their best.

  When anything is built with integrity, it’s destined to endure, to prevail, to provide lasting value. That’s true whether it’s someone’s life, or a physical structure, or an organization.

  Avoid the temptation to be less than your best. Fill your thoughts, goals, words, actions, relationships, your whole life, with the power of truth, goodness, and integrity.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Thu, May 23 2019 1:53 PM

  Thursday, May 23, 2019

  Today’s joys

  Later is too late. Live today’s joys today.

  Honor your commitments, do your work. But don’t let it become an excuse to put off the joys you can create and experience right now.

  Joy refreshes you, inspires you, energizes you. And there’s a lot of good you can do with that energy.

  Joy connects you with purpose, with love, with all you value. Joy reminds you why you do what you do, why you seek what you seek.

  Joy is yours to choose here, now. Joy asks only that you allow it, express it, share it, and when you do, the moment is filled with its energy.

  Offer the value of joy to those you’re with, to where you are, to what you’re doing. Live today’s joys, for the only time to do so is now.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Fri, May 24 2019 1:20 PM

  Friday, May 24, 2019

  Active participation

  Grab your life today and inject some meaningful intention into it. Then act on that intention.

  If you have no intention to do anything useful, you won’t get anything useful done. Give yourself a clear objective for this day, and imbue its moments with meaningful experience.

  Enjoy the feeling of knowing you’re doing what you set out to do. Be inspired by the satisfaction of making real progress.

  Within a few hours, the opportunities of this day will be gone, forever irretrievable. Decide, early on, precisely how you will make use of those opportunities before they vanish.

  Then forge ahead with purposeful activity. With your efforts, harvest today’s opportunities and transform them into lasting value.

  Don’t waste this precious day of your life wondering, worrying, complaining, or speculating. Decide what you will do, then do it, and give life new richness as the result of your active participation.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Sat, May 25 2019 10:26 AM

  Saturday, May 25, 2019

  Tested by life

  Do you want to know what you’re capable of? Then get yourself in situations where you’ll be tested by life.

  You cannot acquire capability and confidence just by admiring them and wanting them. You have to be tested, challenged.

  The way to know for sure how to do something, is to do it. To be absolutely confident in your ability you must experience making use of that ability in challenging situations.

  Seek out challenges, and what you’ll find are opportunities to expand your own competence. Be willing to be tested, and you’ll be able to grow stronger.

  Go where you’ll be compelled to learn, to improve, to innovate, to endure. When the situation demands that you must, you will.

  Choose often, willingly, to be tested by life. And you’ll enable yourself to pass with flying colors.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Mon, May 27 2019 8:16 AM

  Monday, May 27, 2019

  Beyond mere wishing

  Wouldn’t it be nice to be free of a particular burden? Wouldn’t it be nice to be living life in precisely the way you want to live it?

  Yes, of course it would be nice, and in fact it would be great. So get yourself to work making it all happen.

  Wishing is fun, yet you can do a lot better than just wishing. You can transform your wishes into specific goals, and then transform those goals into reality.

  If there’s something you’re wishing for, let that wish point you in the desired direction. Then transcend your wishing, and start taking real, effective steps in that direction.

  Let the energy of your wishes take you beyond mere wishing. Let that energy push you into action.

  Think of all the things it would be nice to do, to have, to be, to know. Then get up, get going, and enjoy the remarkable experience of bringing those great things into your world.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Tue, May 28 2019 7:33 AM

  Tuesday, May 28, 2019

  Establish a target

  What’s the best outcome you can imagine? Go into the situation expecting to get that outcome.

  Expect the best, and if reality doesn’t match your expectations, go to work on that reality. Work relentlessly in the direction of your expectations.

  Your expectations dictate what you’re willing to accept and what you’re not willing to accept, from yourself, from others. Set those expectations high and your results will follow accordingly, because you’ll see to it that they do so.

  Your expectations won’t magically materialize into reality. What they will do is firmly establish a target.

  That target exerts influence whether you’re consciously thinking about it or not. Your choices, your actions, your level of performance will aim toward your expectations.

  Expect the best. And you’ll instinctively focus your efforts, your energy, everything you have, on making it so.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Wed, May 29 2019 12:52 PM

  Wednesday, May 29, 2019

  Think well

  Think well of the moment, and you will do well with it. Think well of the people you encounter, and make those encounters more fruitful.

  Everything you do, begins with how you think. Every word, every facial expression, every action, has origin in thought.

  The way you think of this day determines how you live it, and what you make of it. The way you think of each situation, each turn of events, guides and directs your specific responses.

  A successful day, month, year, flows from a successful, positive frame of mind. You can’t think negatively about life and then make something good and valuable out of it.

  With your thoughts you decide what you focus upon, what you invest yourself in, what you do with what you have. Choose those thoughts that lead you in the direction you most want to live.

  Think well of life. You’ll experience and fulfill it accordingly.

   

  — Ralph Marston

• Ladychipper 23,055 Posts

  Thu, May 30 2019 9:01 AM

  Thursday, May 30, 2019

  Answer the call

  Stop making up stories about why you can’t. Start taking the initiative and do what you can.

  You’re capable of so many great things if you’ll just do them. Let authentic purpose push you into action, now.

  Conditions are not perfect, you’re burdened with challenges and limitations. Have the courage, the vision, to see it all as the great opportunity it is.

  Life is not fair, some people seek to deceive you, and disappointments abound. But that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to being a victim.

  Indeed, if everything were already perfect, there would be no value, no joy, no fulfillment in working to make the world better. As it is, life’s present shortcomings put you in an ideal position to create a splendid future.

  Feel the weight of positive possibility as it calls to you, inspires you, and encourages you. Answer the call, and work to create all the great results you’re capable of producing.

   

  — Ralph Marston