Daily Motivator - April

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April 14

Prepare the way

You have the opportunity today to prepare the way for tomorrow. Because of what you choose in the present, you can arrive in the future fully prepared to make the most of it.

Yes, you must spend some effort just getting through right now. Yet you can also add some extra effort and make yourself better able to prosper in the time ahead.

When you invest that effort well before it’s necessary, it will yield more valuable and abundant outcomes. Prepare the way now, and ignite a virtuous cycle in which you’re better able to further prepare the way again and again.

Consider all the you would like to accomplish. Then consider the steps you can take immediately to facilitate those accomplishments.

Though you won’t achieve immediately, you can begin immediately. And the more decisively you begin, the more likely you are to get the whole thing done.

Right now is your chance to prepare the way. Act on it, and build yourself some unstoppable momentum.

— Ralph Marston

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April 15

Miracle of existence

The shiny objects are not the beautiful objects. The easy gains are not the fulfilling gains.

You have so much to live for, so much you can be. You are far from empty, so avoid consorting with emptiness.

Meaning exists in every particle of your being. To the extent emptiness creeps in from outside, it corrupts the once-beautiful places where it goes.

A long time ago you knew all this, yet some of that knowledge became suppressed. Now is when you can give it voice and give it action.

The time is not too late, but rather just right. Meaning floods back into your awareness when you let go and allow the satisfaction of its richness.

Fill your time, fill your awareness with what matters, with what you know is right and good and substantive. Treasure the miracle of your existence, and take care not to let its beauty be emptied from you.

— Ralph Marston

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April 16

Make your choice

In the long run it will improve your life. Yet in your immediate, day to day experience, you’ll have some inconvenience, discomfort, and doubt.

You know a change is necessary, but it’s also daunting. You’re eager for the benefits of having made the change, while not quite prepared for the cost of getting there.

Even so, it must be done. As intimidating as it might be, delaying what you know you must do won’t make it any easier.

For your own sake, focus on the eventual benefits of the challenging, yet positive change. Remind yourself that you have the strength to work through the temporary disruptions and difficulties.

Though it may not be easy for the first few weeks or months, it will bring value for a whole lot longer than that. You have the opportunity to benefit from the power of your own intention, of your own choice to do what’s best.

So activate that intention, make your choice and act on the changes you know are necessary. You have what it takes to change, to grow, to improve, and you deserve the rewards of doing so.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 17

Meaningful effort

Even when nobody else cares about the good things you do, that’s okay. Because you have the opportunity to care, and to make a difference.

The point of effective effort is not to impress others. The point is to give your best, to spend your time in meaningful and valuable ways.

It’s not the cheering crowd that makes a winner. It’s the commitment, the persistence, the execution of fruitful actions day after day.

Certainly you experience a sense of achievement when you’re recognized for the good work you do. Yet doing the work itself is when you experience the fundamental reality of achievement.

The results do matter. What matters just as much is your contribution to those results.

Whether you have permission, recognition, assistance, encouragement, or none of them, you’re able to extend sincere, dedicated, meaningful effort. Give your best, and live at your most fulfilling level, no matter what.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 18

Welcome reality

You can curse reality, you can hide from it, you can deny it and ignore it. Or you can accept it and work with it.

Reality is what it is, no matter how you feel about it. Yet reality also has the potential to be what you make of it.

Many aspects of reality can be extremely burdensome, yet they can also give you a solid, predictable framework in which to operate. What might at first seem to be an obstacle could end up providing essential support.

For example, there’s nothing more real and pervasive than the force of gravity. That reality makes it difficult to move a large rock, yet it also ensures the rock stays in place once you get it where you want it.

You cannot choose to abstain from reality. But you can choose to successfully deal with whatever the reality of life presents to you.

With thought, with effort, with purpose and persistence, transform obstacles into opportunities, limitations into advantages. Welcome reality and make it your friend by doing what’s necessary to make good and meaningful use of it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 19

Along the way

Make time in your days for wonder, for awe. Make space in your thoughts to dream of what’s possible.

Your journey is much more than getting quickly and efficiently where you intend to go. It’s about all you experience, express, and share as you move forward.

Be open to discover what you never could have imagined. Be eager to connect with people who will deepen your understanding.

Remind yourself how thoroughly and inextricably your life is woven through all that exists. Take care with all you do because it goes far beyond you, and then comes back to you as well.

While you’re being diligent about the specifics, also keep the big picture in mind. Exercise flexibility in your perspective, and appreciate life’s wonder from many illuminating angles.

As you dance among the details and grand visions, stay open to the awe-inspiring connections and dreams that unfold. Life’s richness arises in the shared experiences and boundless wonder you cultivate along the way.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 20

Live robustly

Even when you’re surrounded by apathy and incompetence, avoid letting it absorb you. Remain true to who you are and the good you can do.

When nearly everyone else seems to be making flimsy excuses and getting away with carelessness, it’s tempting to go along. It can make you question why you should bother to distinguish yourself when no one else is doing so.

Yet life is about more than merely what you can get away with. You gain great richness with what you accomplish, the positive impact you have, the value that’s generated by your actions.

Every approaching moment offers a choice. You can either coast through with minimal effort, or you can wisely invest your full attention, energy, and action.

Whatever anyone else may or may not be doing, you have the opportunity to live robustly. In any circumstance, in every stretch of time, you can add meaning and fulfillment to life.

Seize the opportunity, now and always, to act as if life has great potential. Continue proving to yourself and others that it does indeed.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 21

Comfortable and tolerable

In the space between what’s comfortable and what’s tolerable, that’s where achievement takes place. That’s where you develop skill and persistence, grow stronger, gain wisdom.

When you attempt to close that gap, you chase away your best possibilities. The more you refuse to tolerate, the less you’ll be able to accomplish.

Comfort makes for a pleasant and useful refuge. But if you insist on spending all your time there, you render real progress impossible.

Laying in a warm bed is quite comfortable, yet your options for action are extremely limited. The moment you get up and on your feet, those options rapidly expand.

What you can actually tolerate is far beyond what you find comfortable, and it’s helpful to keep that distinction in mind. Because the more you challenge yourself and train yourself to tolerate, the more value you’re able to create.

Solving problems, fulfilling dreams, and building a life of accomplishment simply cannot be done in a perpetual state of comfort. Be eager to act and expand upon what you can tolerate, and discover the great things you can achieve.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 22

What if and why not

What if I started? What if I stopped?

What if I changed? What if I listened more carefully, understood more deeply?

What if I followed through on my intentions? What if I quit analyzing and doubting and started doing?

What if I wasn’t held back by so many outdated assumptions? What if I skipped over the excuses and went straight into action?

Ask yourself what if, demand a thoughtful answer, and envision the reality of what you contemplate. Then ask yourself why not, and be honest as to whether your objections actually hold any weight.

Your best what if scenarios are probably not that farfetched, and very much within reach. Pick one and go with it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 23

Morning comes

After the darkest part of night has passed, morning comes. What troubles you so much now will be better in time.

Not all, but much of that improvement will be due to the good actions you take. Though it’s understandable to become lost in despair, it’s more fruitful to immerse yourself in positive purpose and effective effort.

Take good and diligent care of what you’re able to tend to. Proceed with confidence that morning will come, that with work and with time, the situation can improve.

Know that there are people who care. With each positive action on your part, those people are more likely to find you and join in your effort.

Every new moment brings new possibilities. Keep those possibilities coming, open yourself to them, give your energy and attention to them.

Be insistent with yourself about traversing the path forward, step by step. And eagerly welcome the progress you’re sure to make.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 24

Venture out

You’re constantly at risk of being trapped by your assumptions. Mitigate that risk by doing something new.

The world around you offers countless choices for novel experiences. Open yourself up to a fresh challenge, and discover how much it energizes your mind, body, and spirit.

Venture out, whether physically, intellectually, artistically, culturally, or some combination. Learn, observe, go, participate, listen, refresh your sense of who you are and of all that surrounds you.

Experience the degree to which some of your habits and assumptions may have been holding you back. Feel the thrill of adding to your skills, widening your perspectives, traversing terrain you never knew about before.

Transform possibilities from concept into living reality. Expand the value of whatever interests you by putting your interest into action.

You are endlessly creative, adaptable, talented, resourceful and adventurous. See for yourself, again and again, where all that good stuff can take you.

— Ralph Marston

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April 25

Change for the better

It’s easy to make a small positive change. It’s just as easy to quickly see and feel the benefits that change will bring to your life.

So what are you waiting for? Today is as good a day as any to identify and implement a small change for the better.

It will take a little time and a little effort. It will require some intention, discipline, and commitment on your part.

Yet in return, you’ll gain real value in the form of time saved, or a problem solved, or future regrets avoided.

What small changes do you wish you had made a year ago? See this moment as your opportunity to be more thankful and less wistful a year from now.

You have the power and the foresight to make a small change by simply doing it. And very soon you’ll come to appreciate what a big difference it has made.

— Ralph Marston

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April 26

Where opportunity hides

Opportunity is a good thing that very often masquerades as a bad thing. It’s readily available to those who see it, yet opportunity can cleverly hide.

Most of the time opportunity conceals itself inside problems. Problems can be so obvious and overwhelming that the opportunities within them are ignored.

Remind yourself that when you encounter a problem you are also encountering opportunity. When you come across difficult work that must be done, that situation is full of opportunity too.

If you’ve been conditioned to assume that challenge and effort are to be avoided, you’ll end up avoiding much opportunity. Instead, seek to maximize the effectiveness and purposefulness of effort rather than avoiding it, and you’ll see opportunity everywhere.

In hindsight, opportunity looks powerful, valuable, desirable. Yet on first approach, opportunity can be intimidating and disagreeable.

Those who benefit most are those who can see opportunity earliest, long before its value becomes obvious. Learn where opportunity hides, and reap the rewards of going there.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 27

What you do best

Possibilities fill your world today. Grab a few and go with them.

Allow the possibilities to energize you out of your weariness. Let them inspire you out of your complacency.

It’s great to develop capabilities and resources. What’s even better is when you put them to meaningful use.

Every moment that passes will never come again. Spend them all in ways that recognize and celebrate the precious value of the life that’s yours.

Transform potential value into realized, enduring value. Experience the satisfaction of reshaping opportunities into achievements.

Plenty of possibilities currently await your competence, your action, and your commitment. Do what you do best, and bring them fully to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

April 28

The questions to ask

The quality of what you receive depends on the integrity of what you ask for. Valuable, life-enhancing answers require thoughtful, honest, and well-constructed questions.

That has always been true. And in a world where the power of artificial intelligence is so widely available, it’s increasingly evident in all kinds of situations.

A well-formed question can include one or more starting points on pathways to its own answer. The more clearly and specifically you know and express what you seek, the better equipped you are to find it.

Put serious, focused effort into asking the question. That effort creates a momentum that can carry you all the way to the best answer.

In asking a good, detailed question, you’re articulating a specific purpose. When guided by that purpose, you’ll be able to make great progress.

To arrive at the right answer, you must ask the right question. Put time, work, respect, and wisdom into your questions, and get the answers that propel life forward.

— Ralph Marston