Daily Motivator - July

[bluidkiti]

July 16

Each time

Do it once, do it again, and do it some more. Each time the habit becomes more ingrained.

Each time you get better. And the better you become, the more inspired you’ll be to make further improvements and additional efforts.

People who are highly skilled at what they do are people who practice, a lot. What good skill can you practice today, tomorrow, again and again?

Push yourself forward by pushing yourself to repeat what works and to improve on what doesn’t. Rise to higher and higher levels of skill by utilizing your skill, over and over.

You already know what to do, and you already know how to do it. Do it again, and improve on what you know.

Add repeatedly to the value that will exist in your future. With enough practice, with enough repetition, anything is possible.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Anything is possible with God. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

[bluidkiti]

July 17

Pay today’s price today

Here’s a quick, accessible way to improve every tomorrow. Stop putting things off.

Quit loading up tomorrow with the chores you can go ahead and do today. Don’t mortgage your time in the future to buy you a little bit of idle time today.

The days to come are certain to have their own new demands on your time. If you keep pushing yesterday’s and today’s demands into the future, you’ll soon be overwhelmed.

Right now you have the opportunity to avoid that fate. Right now you have the chance to make tomorrow a lot less demanding.

Make the choice to pay the price for now, now. Because right now that price is the lowest it will ever be.

Enable yourself to feel good about yourself tomorrow instead of disappointed. Do today’s work today, pay today’s price today, and greet the future with enthusiasm, with no need to catch up and no regrets.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 18

Walk up and get it done

There’s no need to over-complicate the work that’s in front of you. Just walk up to it and get it done.

Start from where you are, not from where you wish you could be. Take the first step now, not someday.

Aim for perfection but don’t let the lack of perfection hold you back. Offer your best, even if it’s not perfect.

Pay attention to those who tell you that your plan won’t work. Use that information to make sure that it does.

Decide at the outset that you’ll respond to every setback with increased energy and determination. Keep your thoughts focused on the details and your heart filled with the goal, all along the way.

Achievement happens when you choose, again and again, to make it happen. Now, get going and get it done.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 19

Certainty of doing

Trying is not doing. Only doing is doing.

Trying is a vague, loosely defined concept that doesn’t lead anywhere in particular. Doing is a precise set of actions leading toward a specific objective.

If you’re trying and not having any luck, there are two problems. You see yourself as merely trying, and you consider yourself under the influence of blind, random luck.

Give up your dependence on luck and depend instead on your own actions. Give up the idea that you’re trying, and replace it with the certainty of getting specific work done.

Trying gives you an excuse to fail, to quit. Give yourself instead the commitment to succeed, to prevail, to get the work done.

Climb out of the hazy, ineffective bewilderment of trying. Jump right into the clear, focused, exhilarating experience of doing all the great things you can do.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 20

Strong intention

When your intention is strong, you adapt, you innovate, you improve. When your intention is strong, whatever stands in the way becomes the way.

People can oppose your specific actions. But no one can change your intention unless you choose to change it.

With a strong, meaningful intention, every success is a success, and every failure is also a success. Point your intention in a precise direction, and each twist of circumstance will propel you in that very direction.

When one path becomes blocked you’ll find another. You’ll take every setback in stride, knowing full well that it’s not permanent.

Do you feel that the world is falling down around you, that nothing ever goes your way? Focus yourself upon an ambitious, meaningful intention, and immediately see things differently.

When life gets challenging, challenge it back with a force that’s directly connected to your purpose. Engage the entirety of your effectiveness with the power of intention.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 21

Thankful for your critics

If no one is willing or able to call you out when you are mistaken, that’s a problem. You avoid or ignore criticism at your peril.

There’s a reason why powerful kings of old had jesters. There’s a reason why so many cocooned celebrities have lives that end in tragedy.

If you’re able to make small mistakes with impunity, that leads you to make bigger and bigger mistakes. Eventually that can reach a level of depravity and destruction from which you have no escape.

Be thankful for your critics. Be mindful of what they say to you.

You cannot grow stronger if you are shielded from the consequences of your behavior. Whether your critics have your interest at heart or not, it’s in your interest to pay attention to them.

Take full advantage of the early warning system that your critics provide. See how their challenges, their objections, and their questions can all point toward your own improvement.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 22

No place for negativity

Bring more beauty into your life, and there will be less room for anxiety. Give positive action to your thoughts, and fewer of those thoughts will be centered around doubt.

When you actively resist what is undesirable, you unwittingly make it more prominent and powerful. Rather than resisting what you don’t want, replace it with what you do want.

Think of one thing that normally upsets you whenever it happens. Then decide that you’ll no longer be upset by it, and will instead be inspired to take positive action.

Choose not to give your energy to misfortune or malfeasance. Don’t let your dislike of a small part of reality overshadow all the other possibilities that are open to you.

Turn your attention toward what you love, and allow that love to permeate your awareness. Center your efforts around expanding and enhancing life’s goodness.

Fill your moments, your thoughts, your actions with what you treasure most. Make your life so positively purposeful that there’s no place for negativity to find a home.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 23

In front of you

Life is in front of you. Look up at it, see it, live it, love it, give the best of yourself to it.

Treasure all you’ve experienced and all you’ve been, and carry it forward. Give new life to your best memories by making even better ones today.

In front of you, possibility shimmers all the way to the horizon and beyond. Richness and wonder stretch far past anything you have yet seen or imagined.

Go see it, go do it, go give life a more complete experience of itself. Listen, learn, explore, investigate, and with each moment know more fully how it feels to be alive.

With kindness and generosity, share that feeling as you continue to expand on it. With gratitude and humility, sieze upon the opportunity that every moment offers.

Your life is more than a flat concept, more than a collection of carefully posed selfies. Life is rich beyond anything you could ever conceive, and it’s here, now, in front of you, imploring you to live it.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 24

Much value to provide

What are you settling for? How will you feel about that in the future?

It’s helpful to make compromises with other people. After all, different people have different priorities, and compromise enables useful cooperation.

But compromising your own ideals is a different matter. Allowing yourself to get by with less than your best can put you on a treacherous, disappointing path.

Once you’ve let go of the highest vision of yourself it’s easy to do again, and again. Once you’ve compromised one deeply held value or commitment, others are soon likely to follow.

You have a unique and valuable perspective on life. With that perspective comes the responsibility to live with authenticity, with commitment, with integrity.

You have much value to provide for your own life and the lives of others. Do yourself and everyone else a favor, and don’t settle for anything less than your best.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 25

What still works

When the problems are large and sudden and many, it can seem like nothing is working right. But that’s rarely the case.

Get a clear picture of all that’s wrong, but don’t let that be your only focus. Consider, appreciate, and make good use of what’s still right, of what works well and will continue to do so.

If a ship’s engine and rudder both stop working in mid ocean, that’s no reason to sink the ship. There are tools and materials on the ship with which you can make repairs.

You won’t solve the problem by dramatically demonstrating how bad it is. You’ll solve the problem by taking stock of your resources and putting them to good use.

Look for how you can adjust, revise, repair, re-prioritize. Find ways to fit what’s proven to work into addressing what’s broken.

A massive amount of time, energy, thought, and effort have led to this moment. Don’t abandon what still works just because things are not perfect.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 26

Take time

Take time to appreciate the beauty and wonder that constantly surround you. Take time to create new, original value out of the resources at your disposal.

Take time to read the instructions, and to carefully follow all the steps. Take time to plan for tomorrow and beyond.

Take time to listen. Take time to offer the encouragement and support of your presence.

Take time to consider how thankful you are for the life you have. Take time to let the other people in your life know how important they are to you.

Take time to offer kindness. Take time to understand.

Make use of your time for something other than being hurried, worried, and anxious. Take time, and spend it living well.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 27

Make a better you

You don’t need anyone else’s permission to make a positive difference in your own life. Focus yourself on an intention and get to work.

You can add richness to your world no matter what the broader economy is doing. You can spend the day in fulfilling activity regardless of what the pundits and leaders say or do.

You don’t need to wish or wait for a better world. Because right here, right now, you can make a better you.

You’re the person who knows most accurately and completely what’s best for you. You’re the person who can make much of that happen.

You will never have perfect options to choose from. Yet you always have the ability to select the best from whatever options are available to you.

Do what is good, what is right, what is helpful, smart, and purposefully positive, and make a better you. That’s what you can do to move toward a better world.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 28

Day of opportunity

This is a day of great opportunity. Because this is a day when you’re able to take action.

Look clearly and soberly at the challenges that face you today. See the new value and strength you will build by tackling those challenges.

If you feel even the least bit of discouragement go ahead and embrace the feeling. That gives you control, and you can then utilize that control to let the discouragement go.

When the going gets tedious, complicated, frustrating, break the pattern. Stand up, stride forward, shake off the doubt and despair, and get back on a positive track.

Keep reminding yourself what your actions will accomplish. Take whatever energy comes your way and apply it toward the goals you’ve set.

Feel how great it is to transform today’s opportunity into achievement. Treasure the chance to do it again and again.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

July 29

Be the answer

Don’t wish for some magical, instant answer to all the problems you see. Seek instead to be the answer.

Be the answer in the way you live each moment. Be the answer in the thoughts you entertain, in the values to which you adhere.

You have minimal influence over what others say or do or think or feel. Yet you have pretty much total control over the way you are.

So make good use of what you have. Live with the goodness you treasure, in every word, in every effort, in every interaction.

It’s what you can do, and it is significant. Live well, on a human scale, and your modest goodness serves to lift the world in ways far beyond what you can imagine.

The best answers to life’s problems are not ones that are forced, but ones that are freely chosen and faithfully lived. Be the answer, live the answer.

— Ralph Marston