Daily Motivator - May

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May 1

The path that is best

Do not wish for life to be easy. Work for life to be good, thankful for every chance to make a difference.

Do not choose a path because it is easiest. Choose the path that is best, where you can create the most real value.

When things are too easy for too long you are lulled into complacency. That complacency will eat away at the meaning and substance of your life.

The things that make you feel most vibrantly alive are not the easy things. They are things that require focus, commitment, effort, sacrifice, persistence, things that matter.

What if you could be thankful that life is not easy? What if you could just do the difficult work, bear the heavy burdens, with gratitude, cheerfulness and enthusiasm?

In fact, you can. And when you do, you’ll make life even richer and more fulfilling than you can imagine.

-Ralph S. Marston

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May 2

Peaceful space

It is okay to be bored sometimes, good and useful even. You do not need to cram every minute of every day with impressive, stimulating activity.

Occasionally the best stimulation is no stimulation. On a regular basis, you must allow time and space for life to sink in.

You cannot make meaning of anything when everything is coming at you nonstop. True richness comes not from a random stream of sensations, but from aligning your experiences with a coherent purpose.

Just because a topic is trending doesn’t mean it will add anything of value to your life. Don’t let your fear of missing out on the latest buzz cause you to miss out on what really matters.

Choose to spend some time away from the endless onslaught of sounds, images, information, drama, opinions. Give yourself a peaceful space to think, to feel, to wonder, to catch your breath.

Let go of the exhausting need to be constantly entertained and up-to-the-minute on everything. With what you know, with who you are, devote yourself to living life, richly, and deeply.

-Ralph S. Marston

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May 3

Highly effective

You are highly effective when you choose to be. Today, choose to be.

You are unstoppable when you know your efforts will make a meaningful difference. Today, keep yourself, your thoughts, your actions focused on what matters.

Life can wear you down, drain your hope, make you cynical and dejected. Yet you can quickly rise above all that when you decide to deploy yourself on a positive mission.

Your skills, knowledge, passion and experience are too valuable to waste. Life is pleading with you today to make a positive difference.

So go ahead, answer the call. Instead of blaming, complaining or sinking into despair, take action right now, where you are, with what you have, to make things better.

Feel the great satisfaction of putting your effectiveness to use to benefit your world. You can do anything when it matters enough, and today, it matters.

-Ralph S. Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 4

Find the good in what happens

What feels like a setback does not have to be a setback. It can be an opportunity to find a better way.

It’s easy to be thankful for all the things that go your way. Yet there’s even more power in being thankful when things don’t go your way.

You can find the good in what happens, whatever may happen. You can find a positive way forward from even the most difficult situations.

Everything is an opportunity when you decide to make it an opportunity. Just saying that doesn’t make it so, yet your actions and your attitude can make it so.

Even from the lowest point in the dark valley, there’s a path leading to the sunlit mountain peak. No matter where you are or what has happened, your next step can be a positive one.

Feel your faith, feel your courage, feel your strength and resilience, and take that positive step. You have much goodness to give, to live.

-Ralph S. Marston

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May 5

Your remarkable potential

Don’t let negativity win the moment. Don’t let negativity win the day.

Life is too valuable to spend it in despair, destruction, deception. The positive possibilities are too important to let them languish unrealized.

Recommit yourself right now to all you love, all you care so much about. Choose to focus your actions, your energy, on furthering life’s goodness.

The superficial, sparkling trinkets of depravity and indolence can be enticing. Yet they are heartbreakingly empty, and have no place in your beautiful life.

You are destined for, capable, and worthy of so much more. You have value, substance, beauty, meaning to create, and dreams to bring to life.

Challenge yourself to live up to your remarkable potential, every day. Your life is worth every good thing you work to put into it.

-Ralph S. Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 6

Clear intention

If you set off in a fuzzy, ill-defined direction, you end up getting nowhere. When you just have a vague idea of what you want, that doesn’t give you enough to go on.

Instead, make your intention clear. Make your intention specific, and meaningful.

Clarity is an essential part of achievement. When you are sure about exactly what you intend to create, you’re already well on the way to making it happen.

Spend the time and thought, do the work to zero in on precisely what you wish to accomplish. Create an intention so full of details you cannot help but make it happen.

In your mind, see the colors, hear the sounds, feel the unique texture of where you wish to go, of what you intend to create. Envision a rich abundance of substance that will draw you toward it no matter what obstacles you must traverse.

Give clear, precise focus to your efforts. And your efforts will yield great results.

-Ralph S. Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 7

Critical juncture

Just because you've developed a destructive habit, doesn't mean that habit has to continue. Just because you've avoided certain responsibilities, doesn't mean you have to keep avoiding them.

Life is dynamic, with endless changes possible, and its dynamic nature is focused on right now. Because right now is when you can make those changes and put your life into a new, improved trajectory.

Today is the day that separates the past from the future, and it is a critical juncture. Today is when you can continue what works, discard what is not working, and replace it with a new approach.

In the short term, it's comfortable to stay where you are, to continue doing what you've always done. But if you don't shake things up every so often, that comfort can turn into regret.

You are amazingly adaptable, and today you can put that skill to use. You can take this opportunity to upgrade your attitude, your actions, your expectations and your results.

Today, your past is over and you are free to create a future based on your highest standards and most treasured dreams. Today, do what is necessary to make that future the best it can be.

Ralph Marston

[gingerlee]

Thank you!

[bluidkiti]

May 8

Live with vision

Look clearly at what is and then, look past it. Look, with eyes of wonder and positive expectation, at what can be.

See the world in all its rock solid reality and then, look a little further. Discover what good effort and strong purpose can build from such a reality.

Fall completely in love with life in this moment. Then push that love into the future and make from it a great vision.

Dare to expect the highest and best from yourself. Dare to see the good that has not yet manifest, and dare to make it be.

When others talk of trouble and toil, listen, understand, empathize. Then step forward with a great and shining vision, and make life better for everyone who lives it.

Know that the best is always yet to come. Live with vision, and live to make it happen.

-Ralph S. Marston

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May 9

Be on it

Do not seek to run away from the problem, or to wish it away. Do the work to transform it into a blessing.

The moment the problem arises, be on it. Give yourself the advantage of an early and decisive start.

Shed any inclination to feel self-pity or resentment. Feel instead the power, the energy, the positive expectations that flow from focused action.

Wrap your awareness around the opportunity to make a difference. Fill your moments, your actions with gratitude for your chance to improve the situation.

This is not the first problem you’ve had and it won’t be the last. You’ve navigated successfully through past difficulties, and with every new challenge you grow more capable.

Be on it. And be the one to pull positive value and success from the problem.

-Ralph S. Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 10

Let joy be

Don’t let your joys become needs. Set them free and enjoy them even more.

There are activities, people, foods, drinks and experiences you enjoy. Yet if you get to the point where you must have them, where you need them, their joy disappears.

Life has enough chores and burdens. Don’t corrupt and reshape joy into a burden by needing to have it.

Instead, allow joy. Give, encourage, support and enable joy to find a place in your world.

Let joy be, without strife, desperation, needs or conditions. Let joy be, and let joy pull you toward it.

By very definition, anything you need you do not have. Get away from the need for joy, and get on with the living of it.

-Ralph S. Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 11

The way you choose to see life

Even when every person you encounter seems to be thoughtless, rude, inconsiderate, you can still be kind. Even when you feel nothing is going your way, you can still move forward with hope and positive action.

You cannot control much of what unfolds in life. Yet you can control you, how you think, how you feel, what you do, and that is more than enough.

Sure, the quality of your life is affected by outside forces and events. What makes the biggest difference, however, is the way you choose to see life, and to live it.

You can improve your day, powerfully, positively and instantly, by improving your attitude. Whatever is going on, the most successful way to deal with it is from an optimistic, enthusiastic perspective.

In life you’ll encounter a wide range of situations, but you never have to be a victim of circumstance. There is a positive way forward in every moment, and you can always choose it.

For all the drama, noise and angst of this day, there is much good you can do. Decide now, and always, to see it, do it and live it.

-Ralph S. Marston

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May 12

Add kindness

When interacting with other people, keep this in mind. They are people, with lives, stories, families, hopes, challenges and feelings.

For your own sake and for the sake of everyone, go out of your way to be considerate. Do all you can do to be kind.

Especially when you’re not met with kindness, offer your own kindness in return. Instead of trying to get the last word, seek to give the first smile.

Kindness does not get used up. In fact, the more it is expressed, the more of it there is, and the world will benefit from all you can give.

You may have every reason to be angry, disappointed, impatient, sarcastic. Yet kindness is almost always the better choice.

If the world seems to harsh, rude, inconsiderate, do something positive about it. Add your own kindness, every opportunity you get.

-Ralph S. Marston

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May 13

New strength

New strength begins with a decision. Decide to grow stronger today.

New strength is built with effort. Invest time in focused effort today, and create strength you can utilize from this day forward.

Every experience is best experienced from a position of strength. Make the choice, do the work to put yourself in that position.

Draw your strength from authentic purpose, in faith, from all you love and value. Feel your strength increase through action, persistence, commitment, caring.

Put your strength to work in a good and meaningful way, and it increases. Feel the benefits of what your strength can do, and you’ll have it doing more.

In every difficulty, every victory, every setback and every joy are opportunities to gain new strength. Embrace those opportunities, live them with positive purpose, be stronger.

-Ralph S. Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 14

Decide you will

Decide you will, and then do what you decide. Set an intention, direct the power of your focus and skills at it, and make it happen.

You were born to achieve, are equipped to achieve. Deep within is an insatiable itch to make a difference.

Scratch that itch, again and again. Give yourself the satisfaction of achievement, and give the world new value.

Decide you will, and make it your mission. Decide you will, and keep going until you’ve done it.

Watching achievement from afar is not enough. Do yourself the great favor of participating in the process.

Live life the way that fulfills your deepest desires, by using each day to make a positive difference. Decide what that difference will be, and do the work to make it happen.

— Ralph Marston