Daily Motivator - September

[bluidkiti]

September 1

Figure it out and get it done

There is a way to solve the problem, to get past the challenge, to reach the goal. Figure it out and get it done.

You are creative, resourceful, imaginative, and energetic. Put all your best qualities to work, and persist until the work is done.

On a daily basis for all your life you’ve accomplished what you’ve set your intention to accomplish. Decide what to do, commit to getting it done, and you will.

Don’t sell yourself short. Rather than settling back with excuses, move forward with action.

Take the first step, see what happens, and learn from it. With each effort you’ll become more effective, more focused, more invested, committed, and persistent.

Discover how much you can do by doing as much as you can. Be amazed and delighted at what you can figure out, and at all the good things you will accomplish.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 2

Love without hate

Hatred gives power, attention, influence to whatever you hate. Is that really what you want?

If your love for one thing is conditioned by your hatred for something else, is it really love? Or is it just a path to continuous misery and destruction?

Life will always involve conflict and adversity, yet you have the power to rise above it all. You have the power to love without condition.

You can refuse to let your energy be consumed by fear and rage. You can choose to invest all you are, all you have, in the positive possibilities.

That does not mean you must live in a state of ignorance or denial. You can see and acknowledge the difficulties, the imperfections, the injustice and absurdity, without compromising your love for life and for all who live it.

The way to move beyond the conflict is not to give more fuel to it. Summon your courage and strength to love without hate, and forge a positive path forward.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 3

One thing

Narrowing your focus down to one thing, is difficult. Because to do so, you must turn your focus away from all other things.

Yet it is also powerful to focus on one thing. What you discover, understand, achieve, can be nothing short of amazing.

It’s great to be ambitious, but if you spread your ambition too thin, you destroy its effectiveness. If you seek to have it all, to do it all, to experience it all, you make it impossible for anything to have any meaning.

No particular possession or experience, nor all of them for that matter, will provide the fulfillment you desire. It is your pursuit, your effort, your struggle, your investment of yourself in a specific purpose, that brings fulfillment.

You can pose for the selfie, buy the t-shirt, say you did it, and move quickly to the next item on your long, meaningless list. Or you can slow down, give time, thought, meaning and long focus to what you’re doing, and come away with real richness.

Give immense value to each possibility you pursue by letting go of the other possibilities for a while. Really focus, and make it truly special.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 4

Your time for action

In the face of opportunity, take action. In the face of trouble, take action.

The day will get off to a great start, or it will get off to a difficult, challenging start. In either case, you can do something about it, you can do something positive with it.

Don’t wait for someone else to handle it. Throw out the excuses, jump past your hesitation, and take action.

The problem is not going to solve itself. The opportunity is not going to unfold on its own.

Look around, see the world as it is, acknowledge what’s going on, and make yourself useful. Whatever there is to work with, get to work with it.

This is no time for empty wishes, self pity, complaints or endless procrastination. This is your time for action, so seize the moment and do good work with it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 5

Opportunity of today

There are things you meant to do, wanted to do, thought about doing, but never did. And it’s likely your biggest regrets are for those opportunities never pursued.

Yet in a strange and wonderful way, now you can also be thankful for what you never did. Because you freed up time, space, and energy to become who you are.

Even with the missed opportunities, even with the regrets, you have arrived at today. And today, you can take every past achievement, disappointment, good moment, and difficult stretch, and put it all to positive use.

The energy, the drive, the inspiration you now have, is yours to use as you see fit. Whatever you are now feeling, you can apply it toward moving forward.

Sadness, regret, gratitude, nostalgia, satisfaction, disappointment, all can be stirred into the mix. Combine their energy with a new sense of purpose and commitment, and do precisely what you choose to do.

Though the past opportunities are gone, their absence has presented you with the opportunity of today. Now you know better, and today is an opportunity you surely do not want to miss.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 6

Magic of persistence

You’re not likely to find a simple, brilliant answer that will instantly make everything better. But that’s okay, because you have persistence.

Step after difficult, imperfect step, you can make progress, with persistence. You can learn, you can adjust, you can improve, and you can steadily push your way through each task.

There’s nothing you can do to stop the passage of time. What you can do, however, is harness the power in every moment of time, with persistent effort.

With persistence, you can do the work that others consider to be beneath them. And by so doing, you will rise far above your present circumstances.

There is no magic bullet at your disposal. Yet you do have the living magic of persistence.

There’s nothing stopping you from putting persistence to work right now. Keep going, keep going, keep going, and you will get yourself wherever you want to be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 7

Reclaim your momentum

If you should happen to lose your momentum, don’t give up on it. Do what’s necessary to get it back.

When the flow of your effort is unexpectedly interrupted, don’t make that an excuse to stop. Instead, let it prompt you to quickly recommit to the effort.

You’ve put in a lot of work getting to this point. Make all that work count for something by continuing on with it.

It’s natural to be dismayed about losing your momentum. So let your dismay inspire you to reclaim that momentum.

You were knocked off track, but that’s no reason to wander around in the wilderness. Put all your focus on getting back to what you were doing, getting back in the flow.

Your forward momentum is worth the work you put into creating it, and worth getting back if you lose it. Reclaim your momentum, and make it stronger than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 8

Mental discipline

Physical discipline can be difficult. Mental discipline is even more difficult.

Your thoughts are powerful, which is great. And keeping your thoughts focused on what you’re doing demands constant commitment.

Your thoughts will wander if you let them, and there are often times when it’s good to let them. Yet you draw great benefit from being able to keep your thoughts focused in one place for a while.

You are already in control of your thoughts. You just have to set the intention to exercise that control, and continually follow through on that intention.

If you catch your mind wandering off topic, gently nudge it back where you have chosen to keep it. Remind yourself how much you can accomplish when you choose to maintain your mental focus.

Your mind is powerful, yet it can only do so much at once. Make a habit of focusing on a single task for extended periods, and gain maximum benefit from all that power.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 9

New season

A child wishes summer would last forever. But if summer actually did last forever, it would very soon grow painfully boring and tedious.

One season ends, and makes room for a fresh new season, full of energy and possibilities. One door closes, another opens, one opportunity disappears, and another is just over the horizon.

Summer comes to an end, as does every good season. And all those impending deadlines prompt you, motivate you, beg you to make the most of right now.

The bananas on your kitchen counter are there to be eaten, now, before they turn brown and mushy. The hours in this day are here to be lived, to be filled, before they turn into hazy regrets.

Life is defined by change, sustained and energized by change, inseparable from the changes. Embrace this moment now, when you can, and then embrace the next one as it arrives.

This season won’t last forever. Yet the values you live, the love you give and plant firmly in your heart, will survive all the passing days.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 10

Not about you

Much of what feels like frustration is just your ego being wounded. Tamp down your ego, and the frustration goes away.

A great deal of the anger that immobilizes you is just your ego asserting itself. Let go of your ego’s directives, and free yourself from the grip of anger.

Whenever anything gets you down, or fills you with doubt, with hesitation, is it really you who is dejected and hesitant? Or is it your ego’s inflated sense of self?

There are times and circumstances when your ego can offer valuable perspective. But it’s never a good idea to let your ego control your every move.

How do you step away from the destructiveness of your ego? Simply remind yourself, whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, that it’s not about you.

Rise above the debilitating effects of envy, anger, frustration, apprehension, humiliation, and more. Empower yourself by reminding yourself, it’s not about you.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 11

Thoughts into action

Thoughts are important, but they’re not everything. For your thoughts to have value, you must put them to work.

By all means, think through what you intend to do, but don’t let your thinking become the final objective. Put your well-developed thoughts into action.

There is a point beyond which your thoughts cannot be improved by more thinking. Indeed, if your thoughts are never challenged they will just grow weak and irrelevant.

Get out of your head and into the real world. Take all those thoughts you’ve been thinking and do something practical and useful with them.

There’s no limit to what you can think, and that’s very powerful. Yet it can also be dangerous, and lead you far away from reality.

Focus and refine the power of your thoughts by regularly applying them in the real world. Think about what you do, act on what you think, allowing your thoughts and actions to draw great benefit from each other.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 12

Let your spirit soar

Your spirit yearns to soar. Find a way, often, to let it do so.

Make all your effort and trouble worth all the effort and trouble. Fall deeply in love with being alive, in a fresh new way, again and again.

Step away from the silly desire to be impressed with yourself. Simply allow yourself to be yourself, to experience the wonder, the magic, the miracle, of existence.

Take time to be so fully alive that you lose all thoughts of yourself. Open yourself to see, to hear, to feel the moment for what it is, which is everything.

Give your spirit space to roam, to explore, to enjoy, to play. Know how good, and right, and empowering it feels too simply be.

Inject some new, living energy into your life. Make the time, provide the opportunity, to let your spirit soar.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 13

Let gratitude lift you up

For every single thing that troubles you, there are dozens of other things for which to be thankful. Always, you can summon more than enough gratitude to overwhelm and overpower your sorrow.

Even within those matters that get you down, are aspects you can be thankful for. Go ahead, and let gratitude lift you up.

When sleep has been restless and morning has come too soon, be thankful for the warm water you can splash on your face. As the sun disappears after a challenging day, be thankful for the opportunity of tomorrow.

Feel the transformative power of gratitude as it directs your focus away from problems and toward solutions. Allow your thankful perspective to populate your awareness with new possibilities.

Embark on journeys of thankful imagination. Envision all the good actions of people all over the world who contribute to the enrichment of your life.

In every situation, seek to be thankful. And discover how reliably and how profoundly your gratitude will lift you up.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 14

Get on with life

Bitterness is a choice. And you never have to choose it.

Plenty of people, situations, twists of fate could understandably make you bitter. Yet nothing has to make you bitter unless you choose to be bitter.

Whether it lasts for a week or for a lifetime, bitterness adds no value to your life. Even when you have a good reason to be bitter, bitterness is never a good choice.

By a long shot, the person who is hurt most by your bitterness is you. Instead of choosing bitterness, choose to quickly get past it.

Decide not to punish yourself one moment longer for what’s already been said and done. Decide to get on with life, and to get positive about it.

Leave the transgressions of your past, in your past. You have too much to live for, too much good to do, to let even the smallest bitterness hold you back.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

September 15

A bit of kindness

Offer a bit of kindness to life today. Offer a bit of kindness, and discover how much it grows.

You’ll find plenty of opportunities to give kindness away, yet that kindness never goes away. The more you give kindness, the more there is.

Looking for a quick and accessible way to get yourself positively focused? Give a bit of kindness, and elevate your perspective to a more favorable, effective place.

There’s no limit to the goodness that will result when you give a bit of kindness. Each kindness takes on a life of its own, and can keep building upon itself long after you’ve forgotten about it.

Eventually, all those bits of kindness you give will come back to you. Though you won’t know exactly how, your world will be warmed by every kindness you offer.

Give a little bit of kindness, every chance you get. It’s a gift that never stops making life better.

— Ralph Marston