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

June 15

Purposeful power

The accumulated experience in your life has given you something of great value. Based on that experience, your sense of what matters is stronger today than ever before.

You have the very real ability to be more focused, purposeful, determined, and persistent. Imagine for a moment what you can do with that ability.

Over the course of your life, you’ve experienced plenty of satisfaction, regret, fulfillment, and disappointment. All that experience and all those feelings have given you a finely-tuned awareness of what’s truly important.

Today you have the opportunity to put that awareness to work. Today you can make use of the purposeful power that the living of your life has given you.

How far might that purposeful power take you? What positive possibilities could now be within your reach?

You know from experience what matters. Make good use of the power of purpose that continually flows from that knowledge.

— Ralph Marston

June 16

Avoiding conflict

Do your interests run counter to the interests of someone else? To resolve those differences, you don’t necessarily have to go into conflict with that person.

Conflict is sometimes necessary. More often, though, you can find better alternatives.

Don’t assume that the other person has to lose in order for you to win. With sufficient creativity and innovation, it’s entirely possible that you could both come out ahead.

Examine your own motivations and consider the possible underlying motivations of the other person. Look at the situation from an objective perspective with genuine respect and understanding.

Conflict is costly, even if you win. By avoiding conflict you preserve time, energy, resources and relationships to be useful in more productive pursuits.

There are plenty of good ways to move forward that don’t involve conflict. Challenge yourself to use your brain rather than your belligerence.

— Ralph Marston

June 17

Truth is worth the effort

Information has gained widespread use as a form of currency. Beware of those who set out to counterfeit it.

The information that can provide you with value is the information that has truth behind it. Anything else will waste your time or lead you astray.

How do you gain trust in a source of information? You repeatedly question it, challenge it, corroborate it.

Truth has great value, and just like anything of value it requires time and effort to attain. Something is not true just because someone says so, or just because you want it to be true.

Those who seek to deceive rely on the laziness and carelessness of the people they deceive. Those who deliver truth are eager to be questioned and challenged.

Put in the necessary work to distinguish real facts from empty pronouncements. Truth is well worth the effort.

— Ralph Marston

June 18

Treasures of experience

Someday you’ll more fully appreciate what you’re going through today. Whether joy or disappointment, fulfillment or frustration, pain or pleasure, you’re adding value in your life.

Look back a little ways, or a long way, and you’ll see. You continually leave the past behind, yet you carry forward the rich treasures of experience.

Today is one such experience that will end up serving you well. Do what you can, do what you must, to work your way through.

Expect good things, but don’t beat yourself up if you fail to get it perfect. Give your best, and know that time will amplify the value of your efforts.

The most difficult moments can also be the most productive. The most uncomfortable situations can instill in you the greatest strengths.

Through the ups and downs, ins and outs of this day, take it all in stride, live it all with integrity and excellence. And know all the while that you’re creating your own unique treasures of experience.

— Ralph Marston

June 19

What life is already

Let go of the need for anything to be different. Allow yourself to be fulfilled by everything that is.

Let go of your obsession with getting. Center your energy and awareness on being.

Let your goals and dreams push you toward a bright and fulfilling future. But don’t let them blind you to the immense abundance that is right now.

Work your plans, honor your obligations, and fulfill your duties. Do it all from a positive and authentic living presence.

Discover again and again that joy is now. Live the reality that true happiness is yours the instant you choose to let it flow from you.

Live not from need, but from love. And see what a magnificent thing life already is.

— Ralph Marston

June 20

Start now and keep going

The work will take some time. But the time will pass whether you do the work or not.

The question you have to ask yourself is this. When the time has passed, would it be better to have the work done?

Of course it would, and sure, it will take a while. That’s a very good reason to get started right away.

You won’t be able to get all the work done immediately. Yet you can get some done today, some more tomorrow and the next day and the next.

And before long, what once seemed overwhelming will be done. Instead of wondering how you can possibly get it all finished, you’ll be enjoying the fruits of your labor.

Start now and keep going. Make the passing of time your ally and make achievement your thing.

— Ralph Marston

June 21

Meaningful impact

Let yourself be amazed at the reality that presents itself to you moment after moment. Allow yourself to be filled with awe at the countless possibilities that continually interact to give birth to even more.

Be humbled and endlessly grateful that you’ll always have something new to discover. Open yourself to the learning, the discovery, the experience, and to the good work you can do with it all.

Realize how pointless it is to get bogged down in the noisy trivialities that swirl around you. Understand the opportunity that’s always yours to make a meaningful and positive impact on reality.

Draw encouragement from considering how far you’ve come. Find inspiration in contemplating all the good things that have ever been done.

Mix in a good measure of confidence and hope, along with some skill, energy, effort, and wisdom. Then apply it all to the ever-expanding universe of possibilities in which you’re immersed.

Right now you find yourself within an amazing reality. Here is your chance to offer your own meaningful impact, to make it more amazing than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

June 22

Move on into action

Intention is necessary but not sufficient. Do the good things you intend to do, preferably sooner rather than later.

Planning is helpful but it’s just the beginning. For the planning to pay off you must execute the plan.

Don’t fall into the idea that preparation can be a substitute for action. Yes, do the preparation, and then do the rest of the work.

Is thinking about it getting in the way of doing it? Then the time has come for you to go beyond mere thinking and move on into action.

It’s great that your intention is purposeful and well thought out. Now cash in on the value of what you intend to do by acting on it.

You can’t demonstrate your commitment just by thinking or talking about it. Move on into action, and reap the many benefits that come from following your purpose.

— Ralph Marston

June 23

Push on through

Again and again you’ve learned when the going gets tough that’s the time to keep going. This time is no different.

You’ve seen when the work is no longer easy there’s more opportunity for work that returns great value. Do that work, create that value.

Whenever you’ve chosen to push yourself on through you’ve been thankful for that choice. Act now in a way you’ll look back upon with satisfaction and gratitude.

You know there’s meaningful treasure locked within your current challenges. Push on through and make those rewards available for yourself and your world.

Effort and inconvenience now will lead to significant achievement soon. Push on through and get all the way there.

As the work becomes more difficult the goal gets closer and more desirable to reach. Now, push on through and make it happen.

— Ralph Marston

June 24

Here and now

You have right now. Do everything you can to treasure it, make full use of it, and live it with all you are.

What has happened has happened. Anger, frustration, and complaints about it will only contaminate the present with echoes of a past that cannot be changed.

Focus your thoughts on the reality of the good you can do here and now. Identify a worthy, desirable possibility and go cheerfully to work.

See if you can let go of the doubts and worries about what might or might not happen. Unlock energy for making the most of all that is here and now.

Enjoy the feeling of being effective in real time, in the real world. Watch with satisfaction as you exercise purposeful control over your thoughts and actions.

Understand and appreciate the great treasures that can be forged from life in the present moment. Know the distinct joy of making that happen, right here, right now.

— Ralph Marston

June 25

The boss

You have significant control over your actions, your thoughts, your feelings, your words, your opinions. It’s not total control all the time but it’s a whole lot more than anyone else has.

The positive and purposeful exercise of that control is called discipline. It is something you can improve upon every day.

The more you experience yourself exercising discipline and the more you experience the rewards of that discipline, the stronger it grows. Certainly there are times when discipline does not come easy, and those are the times when it has the greatest positive impact.

What small part of your life today can you exercise more beneficial control over? Do that consistently, repeatedly, and the benefits will spread throughout your whole world.

Reality is always there to impose its discipline on you whether you want it or not. Answer that by getting out in front of reality with your own discipline.

You are the boss of you. Be an exceptional one.

— Ralph Marston

June 26

Meet the demands

Avoiding effort is itself an effort and a burden on you. Perhaps you’re better off just going ahead and doing what must be done.

Putting off an unpleasant task until later does not make it any more pleasant. What will make your life more pleasant is to put forth the necessary effort and get the work finished.

You cannot get around the fact that life places certain demands on you. What you can do is meet those demands in ways that create value and fulfillment.

Look from the perspective of opportunity, of possibility. See what the situation offers you alongside what it demands of you.

After all, the necessity of meeting life’s demands is what it is. Your thoughts are what can make it into a burden, yet you’re entirely able to choose different thoughts.

When life’s demands arise, promptly acknowledge them and go about dealing with them. Life demands much of you, so activate your beautiful ability to transform those demands into value.

— Ralph Marston

June 27

All the good you can do

Not everything will go your way today. Nonetheless, you can experience some significant wins.

This day is not going to be perfect. Yet through your choices you can make it much better than it would have otherwise been.

The quality and success of your experience today is largely up to you. It depends on where you direct your focus, on where you apply your time, energy, and resources.

Though the world is filled with problems, it is also overflowing with positive potential. Some meaningful aspects of that potential exist right now within you, your abilities, your situation.

There are parts of your world where you can begin immediately to make real progress. Give your attention, commitment, effort and tenacity to them.

Don’t let the difficulties that are out of your control dissuade you from doing all the good you can do. Be ever mindful of your positive potential, and always eager to live up to it.

— Ralph Marston

June 28

Negotiate with yourself

There’s a certain difficult action you must take to move your life forward. But you can’t bring yourself to go through with the whole thing.

So what do you do? You negotiate with yourself until you find some portion of the effort that you can do and will do right now.

You’re not ready to walk five miles every day but perhaps you’d be willing to walk around the block. You don’t want to commit to a full-blown advanced degree program but maybe you could take an introductory course online.

Steady, incremental improvement can take you anywhere you choose to go. Find an increment that’s just the right size to tackle right away.

If it turns out to be more overwhelming than you anticipated, adjust to a smaller increment. When you discover you’re ready for more, step up to a more challenging increment.

Negotiate in good faith with yourself and arrive at something you’ll actually do. Then keep going where your good efforts take you, and they will absolutely take you far.

— Ralph Marston

June 29

Follow through

It’s good to have options. Yet options are worthless if you never follow through on any of them.

Put sufficient thought and consideration into choosing the best option. Keep in mind, though, that a successful outcome requires more than making the initial choice.

A big part of what makes any particular option a good choice is what you do with it. The best option is the one you’ll continue to give your time, attention, and effort to.

There’s nothing to be gained by obsessing endlessly over making the perfect choice. Instead, make a reasonably well-informed choice and then put your energy into making that choice work.

To the degree that a choice limits you, it also enables you to apply your efforts in a meaningful direction. It’s only when you’re on a specific path that you’re able to move forward.

More significant than the choice itself is what you do with it. Make the choice, follow through, and make it work.

— Ralph Marston

June 30

Value of struggle

Would you be interested in playing a game if you knew in advance you could not lose? Maybe you’d like it for a little while, but it would very soon become boring and unfulfilling.

Do you really want a life that’s all pleasure and comfort and no challenge or struggle? Could you tolerate even a few days of such an existence?

What makes life such a good thing is the fact that it’s not a sure thing. What makes life difficult is also what enables life to have meaning.

A rock never has to struggle to be a rock. But it never experiences any fulfillment either.

Courage, persistence, resilience, and innovation are all buttressed by an appreciation for the value of struggle. Though struggle is not pleasant, it is often necessary and almost always enriching.

You can do what you must when you must. And though it won’t be easy, it’s by far your most rewarding choice.

— Ralph Marston