Daily Motivator - June

[bluidkiti]

June 13

What life brings

When you notice particular weakness in another person, let that prompt you to correct any similar weakness in yourself. When you perceive certain strength in someone else, be inspired to increase that same strength in your own life.

Learn from the triumphs and mistakes you observe in the people around you. Attune yourself to what causes life to be good, fulfilling, and impactful in a positive way.

Your will can wake up valuable abilities and bring them to the surface. Feed that will with experience, purpose and intention.

Allow your spirit to be nurtured and encouraged by all you know, whatever the source, whatever the flavor. Choose to find within every occurrence inducements to grow in strength.

Take in the entirety of what life brings. Gather and direct the diverse energy, then point it in a meaningful and consistent direction.

In quiet times and loud, in struggle and comfort, embrace the moment you’ve been accorded. Then proceed to give new value to life in your own unique way.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 14

In the doing

Gather information and resources, plan your strategy, develop your capabilities. Then make good and meaningful use of what you have.

By all means prepare well for all you intend to accomplish. But don’t let the preparation be a substitute for the accomplishment.

Your purpose is not to merely amass unused potential. Your purpose is to fulfill the potential to which you have access.

When you actually execute your plan you open yourself up to the risk of failure. Yet without the risk, without the action, without putting yourself on the line, there can be no achievement.

Do what you have prepared to do. Accept that it’s not going to unfold perfectly, and go ahead with it anyway.

Certainly there’s value and necessity in the preparation. Nonetheless, the fulfillment you seek is in the doing.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 15

Incentive

What you truly care about doing, gets done. What you care about learning, you quickly come to know and retain.

If you’re failing to take action in some particular realm, it’s not because you’re incapable. It’s because you don’t have sufficient incentive.

Just as water naturally flows downhill, your energy flows toward whatever you perceive as most meaningful. The right incentive can push you all the way to the limit of what you can do.

What incentives exist for you right now? What incentives exert their powerful influence on the other people in your life?

Behind every what is a why. Keep that in mind when addressing your own behavior and everyone else’s behavior.

Incentive has always driven action and always will. See it, know it, respect it, and apply incentive to the benefit of yourself and your world.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 16

Overwhelming challenge

When you feel overwhelmed it’s easy to give up. Yet it’s just as possible to take action.

If a thousand jobs must be done, doing one of them doesn’t feel like much. Yet it is something, and an important something.

To work through an overwhelming challenge, you have to start somewhere. So do that, start somewhere.

From a perspective of inaction, the weeds seem to be growing faster than you can pull them. Yet as soon as you start pulling, you realize that is not the case, that you’re making progress.

No matter how overwhelmed you may be, you have a choice. You can make the progress you’re able to make, or you can become even more overwhelmed.

Pull the first weed, travel the first mile, make the first call, write the first sentence. And transform the feeling of being overwhelmed into genuine empowerment.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 17

Don’t and do

Don’t demand to be entertained. Do offer to be useful.

Don’t wish for something good to come your way. Do create value out of what’s already available to you.

Don’t fret that there’s not enough time. Do make use of each moment as it comes.

Don’t assume everyone sees the situation the same way as you. Do seek to understand and appreciate the rich variety of perspectives.

Don’t expect anything to be free and effortless. Do experience the genuine fulfillment of making a positive difference for yourself and others.

Don’t ever give in to cynicism and hopelessness. Do all you can do to live life at its best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 18

Trendy or dependable?

What’s trendy is valuable and exciting in the moment. But its value quickly fades.

What’s dependable continues to be attractive and useful over long stretches of time. It offers value that endures, that you’re able to rely upon.

Trendy can be fun and entertaining, and it is also a luxury. When you invest your time, your attention, or your resources in what’s trendy, the value returned is likely to be fleeting.

Trendy can make you look smart and exciting to be around. Dependable is not nearly so sensational in the moment, yet it can make you rich in the long run.

Trendy and dependable both have their place. It’s good to keep that in mind, and to keep them in balance.

Enjoy indulging in some trends of the moment. But commit yourself also to the not-so-trendy pursuits that can yield enjoyment, richness, and fulfillment for years to come.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 19

Create excellence

Excellence is a highly desirable result. Yet the importance of excellence goes deeper than that.

Even more valuable than the result of excellence is the quest involved in getting there. In surmounting the challenges that exist along the path to excellence, you strengthen and expand your abilities.

To create an excellent result you must first develop competence. That competence endures long after you’ve achieved the result.

In this way, excellence feeds upon itself in an upward spiral of achievement. Over time, across varied situations and disciplines, excellence enables more excellence.

Why go above and beyond to create excellence, when a more mediocre outcome is good enough? Because excellence does not end with the outcome.

As long as you’re putting forth effort, you might as well do so in a way that produces enduring value. Do the work to create excellence, and the world continues to benefit long after your work is done.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 20

Be curious

Carry yourself to wonderful places you never would have otherwise known you could go. Express a genuine appreciation for life and everything in it, by being curious.

Keep yourself well informed about the universe around you while bringing new richness and unique experience into your life. Explore your curiosity.

To unleash your curiosity, let go of any intellectual arrogance you might harbor. For in order to be truly curious, you must first admit what you do not know.

After all, intelligence is more than a measure of what you already know. Intelligence involves being always open to learning new things, some of which will contradict what you already thought you knew.

Though curiosity will often compel you to undertake great effort, curiosity itself requires no effort. Simply drop your pretenses, allow yourself to be curious, and you are.

There is no end to the wonder that you can discover, wherever you are, whatever you do. Be curious, and be fully alive.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 21

Skepticism

The ability to trust adds great value to your life on many different levels. Yet blind trust is worse than no trust at all.

For trust to work, it has to pass through the challenge of skepticism. Skepticism is not antagonism, but rather an invitation and a pathway to trust.

When someone is skeptical of you and your intentions, be thankful. They’re offering you an opportunity to prove yourself.

When you’re skeptical of someone you know very little about, that’s just being realistic. There’s no need or place for rudeness from either party.

If another person does not welcome your skepticism, politely thank that person and go elsewhere. In such a situation trust has no chance, and you’re wasting your time.

Embrace skepticism toward yourself and from yourself, then follow through with what it demands. You’ll be setting the stage for real, informed, enduring trust.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 22

Richness that endures

A new toy will not bring new richness or meaning to your life. That’s up to you, your work, your commitment, your time, your effort.

You swipe, you tap, and it arrives at your door in eighteen hours. Three or four hours later it’s not nearly enough, and you find yourself wanting more.

It’s all so efficient, all so fast and affordable. But there’s more to life than quick and cheap and easy.

Kids used to be obsessed with Santa Claus because he would come just one day a year. And they’d have to behave themselves that whole year through, or he wouldn’t come at all.

Maybe it wasn’t the toys he brought that made Santa so beloved. Maybe it was the meaning and specialness he gave to those toys, because he made you earn them and wait for them.

Keep on investing your time and effort, honoring your commitment to a purpose that transcends the shallow, fleeting desires. What you’re earning by doing so is a deep and satisfying richness that endures.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 23

Small spaces

Somewhere near you is an opportunity to transform clutter and chaos into order and meaning. Somewhere within reach is the possibility of creating beauty.

What place, or situation, or occurrence can you bring to a higher level of order and excellence? What person, or environment, or experience can you help to be more beautiful and creative?

Perhaps it’s just a small corner of a small room, but that’s enough. Whatever gets you to act on the positive possibilities is worth the effort.

It’s common to become cynical when looking out at the wider world. It’s easy to feel that you’re unable to make a difference.

Yet as incomprehensibly massive as the world may be, it is composed of lots of much smaller spaces. Those small spaces are readily accessible, easy to understand, and they respond to your influence.

So use that influence in a good way where it will make a difference, right here, right now. Improve the small spaces in your vicinity, and in a real, discernible way, you have improved your world.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 24

Active appreciation

Take something for granted and you diminish its value. Take it for granted long enough and you could lose it altogether.

That’s because whatever you take for granted, you fail to make use of. Your inattention leaves it to crumble into disrepair.

But that doesn’t have to happen. Because you can make it your business to appreciate.

Appreciation illuminates and gives you access to existing value. Your appreciation informs, inspires and encourages you to build on that value.

Replace resentment and apathy with gratitude and active appreciation. Connect with the boundless abundance that already exists.

Think of all you can appreciate, and act on those thoughts. Continually rediscover and give your energy to the good that exists in your world and in your life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

June 25

Time to ripen

Sometimes you can create results very quickly. Many times, though, you must have some patience.

Flowers won’t bloom any faster than flowers bloom, no matter how aggressively you work at it. Indeed, giving them too much attention and handling can actually damage them and prevent them from blooming.

The same is true for all sorts of endeavors. You have to be ambitious and diligent about doing the work, and patient about getting the results.

But that’s really not such a bad thing. Because the longer you must wait, the more you value and appreciate whatever you’re waiting for.

Patience is not merely being idle and dispassionate. Rather, it’s an understanding and acceptance of the fact that good things can take time to fully emerge.

Give the desired results in your life the time they require, the time they deserve, the time that brings meaning and richness. Do swiftly and eagerly what you must do, and go forward with patience as the fruits of your labor take time to ripen.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Always put gratitude into your attitude.

[bluidkiti]

June 26

Quickly recover

You had the best of intentions, and even got off to a great start. Then you were hit with a totally unexpected disruption.

You can’t turn back the clock and prevent it from happening. Anger, resentment, complaints and self pity might feel appropriate, but they’re not going to improve your situation.

That’s up to you. Fortunately, you’re fully capable and well positioned to do it.

Make it your purpose to quickly recover. No, you certainly didn’t want to have to do so, but now it’s your best way forward.

Accept what’s happened, start with what you have, what you’re left with, and take a positive, productive step. Feel the power of your own intention, the effectiveness of your own action, and keep that feeling going.

You got started, you got ambushed by life, but now you can be right back at it. Make that choice because it’s your best one, and discover how you can prevail no matter what.

— Ralph Marston