Daily Motivator - December

[bluidkiti]

December 1

Giving all you can

Here is your opportunity for a day of richness and fulfillment. Seize the opportunity by giving the best of yourself.

Look beyond the empty, contrived spectacles that do nothing other than waste your precious time. Seek instead to engage your body, mind, and spirit in pursuits that genuinely challenge, enlighten, and inspire you.

Pass right on by what is free and effortless and demands nothing from you. You’ll find zero fulfillment or satisfaction there.

Get yourself into situations where you can contribute consequential value. Spend your moments in the service of life, making a positive difference for yourself and others.

Grow stronger by making use of your strengths. Expand your skills by putting them to the test.

Refuse to be trapped by worn out assumptions, false dramas, and hollow transactions. You deserve the incomparable fulfillment of giving all you can to change life for the better.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Happy New Month My Dear Family,
Thanking God for getting us though
the month of November safe and
sound, I pray that this month of
December will be full of peace,
love and joy. Season Greetings.

[bluidkiti]

December 2

Enough time

Set aside enough time, but not too much. Challenge yourself to get the job done in the time you’ve given yourself to do it.

If you rush through while filled with anxiety about the time it’s taking, you won’t produce your best work. Yet when you have way more than the necessary time, you’re more likely to lose focus and to let self doubt creep in.

Up to a point, the more time you spend on a task, the more value and quality you create. However, you will eventually reach a point of diminishing return, and after that point you’re just wasting time or worse.

Decide on a reasonable amount of time and allow yourself that amount. Also, commit yourself to what you’ll do afterward, to the next activity, so you won’t have the option of lingering.

You can get the work done effectively and in a timely manner if you’ll simply make that your intention. Then you’ll have it finished, and be able to move on to whatever is next.

Respect yourself and your skill enough to give yourself the right amount of time that will challenge you without rushing you. Then rise to the challenge and use that time to get your good work done.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 3

When life talks to you

Listen when life talks to you. And that is all the time.

Watch what life shows to you. See its beauty in endless forms and iterations.

During obscure as well as normal encounters, in the routine and in the unexpected, life conveys a wealth of wisdom and perspective. Take the trouble to pay attention, have the courage and respect to do so.

What you know about is good and useful, yet it’s woefully short of all there is. Life always has more to teach you, to inspire you with.

So watch, and listen, and learn, and feel. Remind yourself of the limitless opportunities ever within your reach, and partake, and share.

Most of all, honor life by living it, immersing yourself fully in its wonder, challenge, tribulation, and joy. Open yourself to the richness as it continually unfolds at every level and in every dimension.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 4

Enjoy the day

Enjoy the day. Enjoy your life.

Bask in the sunshine when it appears. Revel in awe at the drama of storms that occasionally pass through.

Walk through the seasons with steady intention. Find wonder as you wander across the truth of existence.

You’re sure to encounter trouble and pain, but they don’t have to stop you. Use your strength to keep going, for there’s always beauty ahead.

Something new, someone fascinating, is waiting to be seen, appreciated, treasured. Delight in the discoveries you’re able to make, the genuine good you’re able to do.

Whatever the day holds, decide to enjoy it. Experience again and again how beneficial and fulfilling such a choice can be.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 5

Truth of who you are

Your mind is too precious, your thoughts and values too hard won, to let them be stolen by trivialities. Yet that danger lurks every time you settle for mere pleasure or convenience when serious contemplation and effort are called for.

Take care that you not lay to waste everything your discipline and focus have earned. It’s tragically easy to do when you select the easiest options in lieu of the best ones.

Fortunately, your diligence can keep your indolence at bay. With humility you’re able to avoid the gravitational pull of arrogance.

You have the tools with which to fill each day with positive purpose, with meaning, solid substance, achievement and value. Those tools are yours when you choose the challenge of truth over the convenience of lies.

You can quickly learn again to love the rarefied air of authenticity. You can allow yourself to experience and express the truth that has always existed at your deepest level of perception.

Insist on living as who you are, not who it’s easiest to pretend to be. Live the purpose that is always a challenge to articulate yet ultimately impossible to deny.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 6

Room to run

Your standards are already high. Raise them higher.

You have accomplished much. Utilize what you’ve accomplished in the service of greater accomplishments.

Every creation comes from other creation and facilitates more creation. Whatever comes of this, something in turn comes of that.

Your work is not finished. The joy that arises from being able to create has much more room to run.

Even with its inevitable setbacks, yesterday brought some measure of progress. Today offers the chance to expand on that progress.

You’ve done what you can. Now you’re able to look forward to the incomparable fulfillment of doing even more.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 7

What’s difficult

The fact that a particular undertaking is difficult is not a reason to avoid it. Not a valid reason to dismiss it as unattainable or undesirable.

Yes, be realistic. But don’t let your realism descend into fatalism.

Difficult is not at all the same as impossible. Not only is a difficult task possible, it has some advantages over things that are easier.

A difficult challenge forces you to up your game, to call forth your best thoughts and efforts. The endeavor leaves you stronger, more capable and confident.

If it’s hard to do, then few have done it, maybe even no one. Therein lies great opportunity to bring unique value to life.

Choose to see difficulty as a feature of possibility, not as an indictment, not as an excuse to give up. Within what’s difficult, there is much fulfillment for you to create.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 8

The best within you

Perhaps today is not your best day. And it’s likely you’re not in an ideal situation.

Nonetheless, you can visualize what you would do if you were in fact experiencing your best day. And you can, to the best of your ability, work on doing it.

You can imagine how you would move forward if indeed you were in an ideal situation. And you can incorporate elements of that response into the existing situation.

External circumstances certainly have their impact. Yet your internal drive, purpose, motivation, and concept of yourself also have important roles to play.

The best within you is always present, always possible, even in the worst of situations. And it is precisely at those times that the best version of yourself can come forward to push life in a more positive direction.

No matter where you go, no matter what you encounter, you carry with you the desire and ability to make a difference. When that ability is called for, when it’s needed most, reach inside, call it up, and put it to good use.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 9

The good

Treasure the good you have known, and still know. Let it inspire you to make more of its kind, in its image.

See if you can recognize what’s good in the eyes and ways of people around you. Remind yourself also of all that’s good about you.

Refuse to use goodness as a weapon, as a way to blame, cudgel, shame, or embarrass. Practice goodness instead as an offering, a connection, a humble invitation to elevate the experience of life.

The good in you is real and needs no exaggeration, contrivance, or hidden agenda. Just let it be in you, from you, and with you in words and deeds.

The world has no shortage of difficulties and iniquity. Even so, life can be good, and goodness abounds when you appreciate it, and let it.

See the good that is true, that is possible. Have the confidence and love to continue bringing the good to life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 10

Make good use

You can wait for what you prefer, for the ideal tools, situation, opportunity. Or you can make use of the options currently available to you.

You can complain about what you don’t have. Or you can find new ways to get the most out of what you do have.

If you’re looking for an excuse, there’s always a perfectly reasonable explanation for not moving forward. Yet if you’re looking to make progress, there’s always a way to start where you are and move steadily toward where you want to be.

So which will it be, the excuse or the action? You owe it to yourself to choose action, progress, fulfillment.

You deserve a life that’s filled with richness, with meaning, with the experience of creating value. And that begins from where you are, with the situation as it is, using the skills and resources you have.

Focus not on what you lack or what’s holding you back but on what you care about and on what you can do. Make good use of what’s available to you, with purpose, with commitment, with persistence, and you’ll find it’s more than enough.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 11

Treasure of now

Now is what you have. Now is all you’ve ever had, and look how much you’ve done with it.

Now there’s more to do, and now is when you can. Now comes with opportunity, so be careful not to turn it into regret.

Now is what every person has in common. That makes now especially nice to share.

You recall what was, you imagine what will. Yet when you live, when you touch the richness, when you breathe and feel and love, that’s now.

Now the sun shines, now the wind blows. Now you make your way through the experience of being.

The treasure of now fills your life. Give to it your full embrace.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 12

Start now, and continue

You can’t do it all at once. But you can do it.

You’re not going to master a new language, run a marathon, or build a thriving business the day after you decide to do so. Yet you’re able to accomplish all those things, and more, with small steps.

You can put time on your side. You can use the hours, weeks, and years to make steady progress.

That progress usually doesn’t occur in a straight line, or as quickly as you’d like. But it will come over time, and over time is better than never.

The way to fill your life with achievement is to fill your moments with the efforts that build achievement. Several of those moments are immediately ahead of you right now.

At this point it makes no difference whether you’re starting early or starting late. What’s important is to start now, and continue.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 13

Just be you

It’s a waste of your effort to try and second guess what people want you to be like. Just be you, just be true.

Some people will not respond positively to the way you are. That’s a good thing to find out early so you can move on from them.

Fortunately, there are plenty of people who will value your authenticity. You’ll discover who they are by being who you truly are.

Do seek to listen, to understand, to respond in a generous manner. Do be open to changing your perceptions, opinions, and behaviors when that’s what you sincerely believe is called for.

But avoid putting forth a fraudulent facade. Because that’s not going to do anybody any good.

Point all your energy in a genuine direction. You can do a lot of good for a lot of people, and for yourself, by being you.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 14

Enduring richness

What a sad and empty life is pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, but with no joy. What a torment to be consumed with possessions, possessions, possessions, but no substance.

How hollow is an existence of ease, convenience, gratification, but no fulfillment. Days are full of spectacles, dramas, thrills, but no meaning.

Experiences unfold with speed, activity, sensation, but no understanding. There’s great power, leverage, and potential, but no purpose.

It doesn’t require genius to avoid such existential emptiness. What it does take are effort, commitment, responsibility, gratitude, discipline and humility.

The meaning you experience is the meaning you’re willing to give. Fulfillment grows out of value created, not from anything that’s merely consumed.

The quick and easy shallowness can be supremely enticing, but can never be sustaining. At every juncture, choose instead the enduring richness of investing yourself in improving life for all who share it with you.

— Ralph Marston