Daily Motivator - June
 

June 1

Light from a distant galaxy

In the night sky you see light that has traveled for a hundred thousand years to reach your eyes. In a similar fashion, opportunities now within your reach could well have been hundreds or thousands of years in the making.

An unimaginable number of factors have brought you to exactly where you are right now. Now it’s up to you to make all that count for something good.

This day is not just another day. It is a fulfillment of all the days that have come before.

The ancient light from a distant galaxy is as real as anything gets. So is the energy of your awareness, of your life, of your potential.

Harness and ride upon that energy. Bring to life new expressions of beauty, new experiences of value, understanding, love and fulfillment.

Live this moment as the miracle that it is. Use what you have, everything you are, all you know, and continue to expand upon the miracle.

— Ralph Marston

June 2

Beyond initial impressions

Most people are not who you imagine them to be. And certainly you are not exactly as others imagine you to be.

So how can you hope to get along with people you don’t really know, who do not truly know you? You must think and act with respect and humility.

Rather than making weak and shallow assumptions, ask deep and meaningful questions. Replace the language of your own narrow perspective with words that encourage connection and understanding.

Every person you encounter is far more complex than you can ever know. Respect that complexity by not jumping too quickly to judgments and conclusions.

Someone who appears to be a villain when viewed in a single dimension could look more like a saint upon closer inspection. What a shame it would be to dismiss that person before seeing more of the picture.

Understanding is a continuing process. Go beyond initial impressions, keep the process going, and reach higher and higher levels of mutual understanding.

— Ralph Marston

Happy June Tammy and Kracker, thanking
God for bring us through the month of May
One day at a time. We pray this month that
we will continue to show love to on another
In Jesus name. Amen.
God bless you.

June 3

Essential structure

Limitations provide essential structure. It is precisely because you cannot walk through the solid walls of your house that the house offers you shelter from the elements.

Because each word has a limited, precise meaning, you are able to use words to communicate rich and complex thoughts. If any word could mean anything, language would communicate nothing of value.

Rather than cursing the limitations, step up to their challenges. Recognize the valuable structures that go hand in hand with life’s limitations, and use those structures to anchor your efforts to reality.

To make meaningful progress you must engage with the world as it is, including its constraints and limitations. Transcending those limitations is indeed the very definition of progress.

You cannot shortcut the process by pretending the limitations don’t exist or by compelling others to join in your fantasy. Reality is what it is, no matter how strong your feelings to the contrary may be.

Reality always wins. By acknowledging reality and doing the work to act in concert with it, there’s much you can win as well.

— Ralph Marston

June 4

The way it was

Nothing can again be the way it was. Yet many current situations could be improved by understanding and applying what has been successful in the past.

In history there is extensive wisdom. Though knowledge is greater now than ever, that doesn’t make past knowledge irrelevant.

Indeed, the more you learn, the better you can make use of what you and others already knew. You can transform the most enduring values of the past into new value in the future.

By today’s standards, the practices of the past can often look foolish or worse. Then again, someone from a hundred years ago would consider it foolish to stare at a five inch screen for hours on end.

They had their reasons and you have yours. Rather than blithely dismissing what went before, seek to learn from it.

Success does not live in the past. It has, however, left an abundance of very useful lessons there.

— Ralph Marston

June 5

Offer encouragement

Give encouragement and it expands. When you encourage someone else the person who ends up with the most profound encouragement is very often you.

Every life is filled with unused potential. Encouragement breaks that potential loose, activates it, transforms it into all kinds of good things.

Even just a little bit of encouragement can create a shift to a whole new perspective. Knowing that someone cares, feeling the reality of that caring, changes the world.

Encouragement is contagious. One person who is encouraged will encourage many others who will themselves pass encouragement along.

All around you are people who can benefit from your encouragement, including you. If you seek to make a difference, that’s a potent opportunity for doing so.

Offer encouragement. Be a positive, encouraging force in the lives of those around you, and in your own life as well.

— Ralph Marston

June 6

Power of your expectations

Expect nothing, and you get what you expect. Expect everything, and you get none of it.

Expect vaguely, and you don’t know what you’ll get. Expect half-heartedly, and you won’t even remember what you expected.

Expect specifically, with purpose, passion, and willingness to put forth great effort. Now you’re getting somewhere.

Make your expectations strong and precise, and they’ll illuminate the way forward. Be ready to work, and your expectations will open your eyes to exactly what work must be done.

Expect to succeed and you’ll persist in doing so. Expect to make a difference and you’ll inspire confidence in yourself as well as in others.

What exactly do you expect right now? Harness the power of your expectations to bring new goodness and value to life.

— Ralph Marston

June 7

Assume the least

If you assume the worst about other people you’ll usually be wrong. If you assume the best you’re likely to be disappointed.

Instead, have as your goal to assume the least. Instead of conjuring up all sorts of assumptions about someone else, invest time and energy in genuine understanding.

It’s pretty much impossible to just guess why people say what they say, vote the way they vote, or act how they act. After all, even your own motivations are tricky to discern, and you’re much less able to get inside someone else’s head.

So take care not to let your opinions be centered around baseless assumptions. Neither you nor life in general is well served by mistaken impressions.

Yes, making an assumption is quicker and easier than digging out what’s really going on. But ultimately, truth gives you far greater value than convenience.

People are much more complex and diverse than you’ll ever be able to account for in a simple assumption. When it comes to what you think of others, seek to assume the least and to learn the most.

— Ralph Marston

June 8

Progress you can make

The fact that life can be challenging is a given. Don’t use it as an excuse.

Sure, there are many reasons why you cannot do this or that. With diligent work you can overcome many of them.

If the way is blocked, look for another way. Rather than blaming someone or something else, rise to a new level of responsibility.

When there’s no time available in the morning, carve out some time in the evening. When resources are scarce, discover how creative and innovative you can be.

Yes, life is difficult and unfair. Don’t magnify that unfairness by letting it stop you from doing the good things you can do.

When the sun comes up, even if it’s obscured by a dark storm cloud, get to work. Whatever progress you can make is infinitely better than no progress at all.

— Ralph Marston

June 9

Advance a little bit

The most realistic route to success is incremental. A little bit now, a little more later, and you can move toward whatever goals you set for yourself.

You don’t have to get all the way there before tomorrow morning. Just make a few improvements.

There’s no need to immediately and forever eliminate all the unhealthy, unproductive habits from your life. Simply pick one, see if you can do without it for a while, and go from there.

Move forward on your own terms, at a sustainable pace. Experience how good a little progress feels, and let it motivate you to keep going.

Some action, some change in perspective, some upgrade in your attitude is well within your reach right now. Make life a little better for you, for others, and you’re well on the way to making life a lot better.

The challenges are many, yet the opportunities are even more numerous. Take one of those opportunities right now, advance a little bit, and commit yourself to keep on going.

— Ralph Marston

June 10

Focused and flexible

If you obsess over staying focused, that can actually cause you to lose focus. Your objective is to do the work, not to maintain a perfect record of staying focused.

Do what you can to avoid interruptions. At the same time, accept that the interruptions will inevitably come.

Don’t allow your resentment or annoyance to make those interruptions worse than they already are. Let the occasional interruptions come, let them go, and let yourself quickly be done with them.

Stay committed to a specific purpose while taking care not to become overly rigid. Determination loses its effectiveness when it descends into blind obsession.

See yourself as being focused and flexible. Go with an approach that is both purposeful and reasonable.

The path forward won’t be as perfect and straightforward as you imagine it to be, but that’s okay. Take advantage of every opportunity to strengthen your focus with some appropriate flexibility.

— Ralph Marston

June 11

Moment of beauty

Feel the energizing touch of a fresh breeze. Watch brightness fill your world as the sun comes up.

Delight in the open and unrestrained happiness of a young child. Dwell for a while on the positive possibilities in your life, in all of life.

In each day you’ll find plenty of opportunities to create a moment of beauty. Seize upon those opportunities.

Beauty exists because you experience it as such. Give yourself the experience of beauty, and you give to the circumstance something that transcends the circumstance.

Recognize the potential for beauty in the smallest details. Let the experience of beauty show you how fully alive you are.

Treasure the beauty, and absorb it deep into the core of who you are. Live the beauty that is always possible, and make it real in a way that only you can do.

— Ralph Marston

June 12

Small negative choices

Do you really need to make that snide remark? Will it bring any lasting value to anyone’s life?

Do you really need to think that demeaning thought about someone else? Will it solve any problem or lead to any achievement?

Do you really need that empty momentary pleasure? Or are there perhaps more healthy and fulfilling ways to spend your time?

No one makes the big choice to live a life of negativity and despair. Yet everyone makes small choices that can lead in that direction.

Fortunately, those small negative choices are easy to replace with positive choices. The more often that happens, the better life becomes.

In every little choice, be aware of what you are choosing. Your choices add up to the life you live, so make all your choices accordingly.

— Ralph Marston

June 13

Make things better

Don’t postpone your fulfillment or happiness until everything is perfect. Work to create fulfillment and happiness within the world as it is from day to day.

A perfect world is impossible because life is so gloriously diverse. What’s perfect for one person would not be perfect for lots of other people.

Plus, whatever you personally imagine to be a perfect life is little more than a guess. Reality has a way of turning out much differently than your idealized vision of how it might be.

While it’s pretty much impossible to make everything perfect, there is something you’re highly skilled at doing. You can make things better.

You can notice a real problem that exists right now, where you are, and you can work to solve it. You can act on specific opportunities to add new goodness and value to life.

Though no one will ever make life perfect, you can make things better in all sorts of practical and meaningful ways. You can make things better right now, today, tomorrow, every day, and find great fulfillment in doing so.

— Ralph Marston

June 14

Established goodness

Novelty is exciting. New people, places, experiences, and accoutrements in your life can be stimulating and fun.

Yet even the newest things quickly become old. The most valuable and significant parts of your world are old much longer than they are new.

Yes, the latest thing can be dazzling for a few minutes. But once the newness wears off, is that moment of novelty going to sustain you?

In your quest for newness, take care not to abandon what is already good and valuable and working well. Though not particularly thrilling, there’s much to be said for reliability and familiarity.

Seek a healthy balance between what’s new and what’s well established. You can get much more from the latest things when you respect, appreciate, and sustain the well-established goodness in life.

Don’t just chase what’s new. Give plenty of time, effort, and nourishment to what you already have.

— Ralph Marston