Daily Motivator - May

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May 1

Made for this moment

You are made for this moment. Give it the best you have.

You are made for this life. Live it the great way you know you can.

You are meant to experience the richness of right now. Take the beauty, the pain, the disappointments and victories in stride like you know what you’re doing, because you do.

All the things you’ve ever done have given you the wisdom, resources, and skills to live this day. Use them well.

Remember what you care about, and why. Know you can do this, and do.

You are made for this moment, and now it has arrived. You know what to do.

— Ralph Marston

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May 2

Strong sense of responsibility

The people who will create success in the future are those who learn from the past and present. What have you learned, and what are you learning?

Enduring progress is never the result of forcing people to act in a certain way. The world is led forward by those who enable, inspire, and encourage everyone to live with responsibility.

A strong sense of responsibility gives birth to innovation, resilience, courage, achievement, and generosity. Those who see themselves as responsible to life, are the ones who contribute most to life.

Plenty of individuals want to take credit for making a difference. The people who truly make a positive difference are not those who seek to take credit, but those who take responsibility.

A few agreed-upon rules can be very helpful for people to get along with each other. But all the rules and regulations and enforcers in the world can never take the place of responsibility.

The difficult, overwhelming problems won’t be solved with quick, easy answers. Those problems will be transformed into opportunities by lots and lots of people who choose to act with responsibility.

— Ralph Marston

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May 3

See yourself clearly

Be strong enough to question yourself. Be honest enough to answer.

Be humble enough to see that you’re wrong. Be confident enough to know when you’re right.

There’s one person in your life you cannot escape. That person is you, and it’s a good idea to see yourself clearly.

Treat yourself with respect and also with a healthy skepticism. Just because you’re you doesn’t make you infallible.

But it doesn’t make you mistaken all the time either. Give yourself the benefit of a sober and balanced opinion of yourself.

You don’t have all the answers, but you do have some. And that’s enough to keep you growing, learning, and moving forward through the extraordinary life you have.

— Ralph Marston

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May 4

Most valuable aspects

Utilize your strength, and it does not get used up. It grows even stronger.

Give love to others, and it does not diminish the love you have. It deepens and enriches that love, and results in even more love to give.

Teach someone else what you know, and it does not take knowledge away from you. In fact it expands your knowledge and makes it more relevant.

Offer kindness, and you end up with even more kindness. Make use of discipline, and you become even more disciplined.

Live with integrity, and you’ll gain greater integrity. Always speak the truth, and you’ll discover even more truth.

Seek out those things that become more plentiful each time you make use of them or offer them to others. What you’ll find are the most valuable aspects of life.

— Ralph Marston

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May 5

Off to a great start

What can you do right now that will make the sky look more beautiful all day long? What thought, word, or action will give the afternoon more enjoyment, and make dinner more delicious?

The experience of life does not merely come to you. A significant part of it is made by you.

However good life may otherwise be, you can make it better. Somewhere, somehow, in some real and accessible way, you know how.

Let yourself do it. Allow yourself and encourage yourself to improve upon your world.

Be in love with all you love and make it your business to do something about it. The way you are right now sets the stage for what you will feel, what you will do, and how fulfilling it will all be.

The remainder of this day, the rest of your life, it all begins right now. Get it off to a great start.

— Ralph Marston

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May 6

Keep climbing

The energy that got you into pain can also get you out. Refine your strategy and keep going.

The efforts that led to disappointment can be transformed into efforts that bring triumph. Adjust your attitude, focus on the goal, and keep going.

Stay connected to your intention, remember why you’re doing it, and keep going. Don’t let the difficulties dissuade you, because your best path is always forward, and you know that.

Let every difficulty make the end result that much more valuable. Let every pain on the way make your destination that much more enjoyable.

The hill is steep, your legs are weak. Yet as you climb they grow stronger.

Keep climbing. Soon you’ll be admiring the view from the top and searching for the next hill to tackle.

— Ralph Marston

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May 7

Make achievement happen

The ideal situation would be nice, but it’s probably not going to happen. Yet there’s plenty you can do with the situation as it is.

As you move forward, problems keep popping up to block you. Even so, there is always some amount of progress you can make.

The excuses sound good, but they don’t do you any good. Your best choice is to forget about the excuses and focus on the work you can get done.

Achievement happens not because of the circumstances you’re in. Achievement happens because of what you do to make it happen.

Achievement happens not because some lucky break has made it easy for you. Achievement happens because you do the difficult work to bring it about.

Wishing for a more favorable environment is just wasting the good time that’s now available to you. Choose instead to use that time, to learn the lessons, to do the work, and to make achievement happen.

— Ralph Marston

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May 8

Meaningful effort

There are countless activities you can engage in to convince yourself and others that you’re working when you are not. One of the best things you can do for yourself and for the world is to avoid that trap.

You are constantly confronted with opportunities to make a meaningful difference. Act on as many of those opportunities as possible.

That doesn’t mean you must weigh yourself down with excessive work. Rather, avoid weighing yourself down with excessive trivialities.

The most fulfilling experiences you’ll have are the times when you willingly choose to take responsibility. The more of those experiences you create and follow through on, the better your life becomes.

So take responsibility for your actions in this moment. Take responsibility for the problems and opportunities you see right now that you can act on right now.

In the immediate term and even more so in the long term, your best option is meaningful effort, not meaningless activity. Instead of just passing the time, choose to get real value from what you can do with it.

— Ralph Marston

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May 9

Life goes on

Opportunities arise, innovation pushes forward, and life goes on. New dreams are born, and established dreams continue speeding toward fulfillment.

Some days are brighter, others bring darkness, despair grows thick and then hope arises. Through the joys and the challenges, the setbacks and victories, life goes on.

When despite your best efforts no progress comes forth, life goes on. After a windfall gain has you feeling on top of the world, life goes on.

The road turns and twists, climbs and falls, expands to a wide boulevard and then narrows to a faint path. And always ahead, more road, more challenge, more treasure, work to be done, moments to be cherished.

Try not to protest and wail too much about what’s already behind you. For up ahead, that’s where you get to make a difference.

Whatever is, however it happened, life goes on. Go with it, and give it your best love and care.

— Ralph Marston

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May 10

Frame of mind

You think to yourself that you’re not in the right frame of mind to get some particular thing done. And if that’s what you’re thinking, it’s most likely true.

But it’s not like you’re forever stuck in any specific frame of mind. When your frame of mind is not what works best for you, change it.

Rather than giving yourself an excuse, give yourself an improvement. Exercise the control you have over your own thoughts, and get yourself mentally to where you wish to be.

It’s your choice where to direct those thoughts, what to notice and what to ignore. It’s your choice how to assign meaning to whatever situation you’re in.

You know what gives you energy and what drains you, what encourages you and what causes dismay. Use that self awareness to fill your mind with encouraging, energetic, creative, productive thoughts.

Make you, your mind, your focus, and your actions work for you and for the betterment of your world. Choose and create an optimum frame of mind that puts you at your best.

— Ralph Marston

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May 11

Difficult situation

It’s inconvenient, frustrating, challenging, tedious, even painful at times. And it’s exactly what you need.

It’s not fair, you didn’t ask for it, don’t deserve it. Yet your very best option is to take full responsibility and act to do something about it.

As aggravating as it may be, there’s a lesson in it and unique value to be gained from successfully dealing with it. There’s a pathway to new levels of strength, skill, patience, experience, compassion and understanding.

It is an opportunity to discover how much you care. It is a chance to clearly see what’s most important to you, and why.

Despite the protests you might hear yourself making, you’re ready for this. You have what it takes to apply effort, goodness, integrity and love to a difficult situation.

By making a positive difference you fulfill one of the most fundamental and essential roles of your existence. Give of the goodness you have and experience the incomparable satisfaction of bringing new goodness to life.

— Ralph Marston

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May 12

Let life be beautiful

Self-imposed misery does not provide anything of any value to anyone. Let it go, and let life be beautiful.

Stop any obsession you might have with taking offense, giving offense, cataloging and enumerating all the offenses and potential offenses. Step back, chill out, and let life be beautiful.

Enjoy experiences that you did not expect or plan. See the beauty in what you cannot control or possess.

Have faith that what is built on truth will outlast and overpower all that is not. Uphold your values by living them rather than by merely preaching about them.

Recognize the beauty that exists in your own uniqueness, and in the uniqueness of each person you encounter. At the same time, see the beauty of your connection to all that is.

Life is endlessly difficult yet you have the power to transcend that difficulty. Despite it all, and because of it all, you can let life be beautiful.

— Ralph Marston

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May 13

Not too easy

Easy is not particularly desirable. Easy rarely gives you anything of value.

Easy crowds out the best things in your life and replaces them with cheap, meaningless imitations. Easy robs you of your own sense of worth.

Sure, ease can be helpful, and certainly it can be enjoyable. But it’s never worthy of promotion to the prime consideration.

Easy is not worth the price when you have to give up meaning, integrity, value or dependability in order to get it. A life of ease is a life of little consequence, and no one really wants that.

Easy is enticing, and easy answers are the stock in trade of advertisers, politicians, and others who seek to exert influence. But easy never quite delivers on all the promises made on its behalf, and often makes matters worse.

Be careful not to fall into the tempting trap of expecting things to be too easy. You and those you care about deserve better.

— Ralph Marston

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May 14

The power of kindness

Do you want to make the situation better for everyone involved? Add kindness to it.

Do you want to make beneficial use of your strength rather than merely showing it off? Invest your strength in kindness.

Those who attack you expect you to attack in response. Genuine kindness confounds those expectations and gives you the opportunity to move the encounter in a positive direction.

Cruelty and pettiness come from a place of weakness. Kindness is an undeniable demonstration of strength.

Kindness does not mean you’re letting anyone else take advantage of you. It means you’re setting the agenda, one that’s positive and productive.

Whenever you can, which is almost always, activate the power of kindness. The biggest victory is when everyone wins.

— Ralph Marston

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May 15

Choose well

You can have what you want for right now or you can have what you want for later. You cannot have both.

Now will be over in an instant. Later will last a whole lot longer.

If you sacrifice now to gain value later, you’re paying a small price and getting a big, long-lasting reward. If you sacrifice the quality of your life later to get what you want right now, you’re paying a huge price to obtain a tiny reward that soon disappears.

It’s easy to see what is the better choice. It’s not so easy to implement that choice.

Yet you have the power to make that better choice and to stick with it. You can make the relatively small immediate sacrifices to lead to a vastly improved future.

The choice is always here and the choice is always yours. Remind yourself what’s at stake, and choose well.

— Ralph Marston