Daily Motivator - January
 

January 1

Here is your time

Here is a new year, a new day, a new moment, different from any that’s ever been. Here is your chance to make the most of it all.

Here is a world teeming with possibilities. Here are new treasures to be discovered.

Here you are, filled with purpose and energy. Here is time that you can put to positive use.

Things are certainly not perfect, yet you can make them much better. In every shortcoming, you’ll now find opportunity for improvement.

From here there is a path to what you need, what you desire, what you dream. Get yourself in motion, and find your way along that path.

Here is your time, your life, your potential. Consider all you have, here, now, and live it well.

— Ralph Marston

January 2

Enrich your life

It’s not standing in your way. It’s pointing the way.

It’s not holding you back. It’s strengthening your determination to move forward.

It’s not an inconvenience, frustration, embarrassment, or ordeal. It’s a situation through which you can enrich your life.

Some day, you’ll be thankful it’s behind you. And you’ll also end up being thankful you went through it.

Life’s richness does not simply pour forth unimpeded, with no effort necessary on your part. Indeed, your effort to build, acquire, nurture, sustain and preserve anything is what makes it into richness.

So go ahead now, go to the trouble, give whatever it takes. And you can make new richness out of whatever comes your way.

— Ralph Marston

January 3

Making time into achievement

Intention transforms empty time into a fulfilling life. Supply yourself with intention, and you’ll provide your world with achievement.

You are highly capable, yet mere capability doesn’t put food on the table. Intention activates your capability, with results that seem miraculous.

Know with clarity what you are choosing to do. Harness all your energy, focus it, apply it, with intention.

Shield yourself from meaningless distractions, with intention. Put your time, your attention, your skills to worthwhile use, with intention.

Set an ambitious intention, and discover how very much you can accomplish. Live the day with intention, and give yourself cause to be thankful for the way you’ve made use of your time.

Live with the power of intention. Decide what you’re going to do, and let that intention continue transforming time into achievement.

— Ralph Marston

what an awesome message for the New Year.

January 4

You are responsible

Yes, you are responsible. Yes, your most powerful, effective choice is to embrace that responsibility.

Avoiding the difficult issues will only make the situation worse. Seeing yourself as a victim will only separate you from your best options.

It’s your life, it’s your future. Take full ownership of your circumstances, of your consequences.

Actively participate as each new moment unfolds, with purpose, integrity, care, and love. Give expression to your values, give life to your dreams, by giving your best, again and again.

Recognize the immense value of opportunity that’s always available to you. Continue to discover the beneficial results of empowering your thoughts, your attitude, and your actions with responsibility.

Yes, responsibility is a serious challenge, one that will impart focus, strength, wisdom, skill, achievement, and an abiding sense of purpose. Yes, you are responsible, and that’s a very good thing.

— Ralph Marston

January 5

Welcome the resistance

Seek to create or improve, and you’ll meet resistance. The more ambitious your goal, the more powerful the resistance is going to be.

Welcome that resistance, because it represents the value of what you’ve decided to do. Welcome the resistance, because it proves you are making meaningful progress.

Welcome the resistance, but do not succumb to it. Do not let it stop you, or distract you, or turn your focus away from your intention.

Smile knowingly at whatever person, force, or situation seeks to block you. You knew it was coming, you’re ready for it, and you’ve taken full responsibility for getting around it.

Whatever you seek, the resistance you encounter is your opportunity to prove how much you want it, how much you deserve it. Be eager to seize that opportunity, and enthusiastic about the great value it enables you to create.

The resistance is strong but you are stronger because you have a worthy purpose. Welcome the resistance, and do exactly what it’s trying to prevent you from doing.

— Ralph Marston

January 6

Begin by being thankful

Before you dive headlong into the scramble to get more and more, step aside. Take a moment to let yourself be overwhelmed with gratitude for all you have.

Your choices matter, all of them. And you’ll always make better choices when you come from a perspective of gratitude.

You’ve worked your whole life to get where you are, to have what you have. Whatever that encompasses, the more you respect and appreciate it, the more you can make of it.

There is great value in your life, and great potential value as well. Gratitude shines a bright light on all that value, enabling you to make the most of it.

Gratitude gives you the ability to see the positive aspects of each situation. That positions you and equips you to achieve useful, beneficial results.

Whatever the challenge, whatever the activity, whatever the ambition, gratitude makes you more genuine, more purposeful, more effective. Begin by being thankful for what is, and you’ll soon be thankful for even more.

— Ralph Marston

January 7

Put joy into life

Whatever the task may be, put joy into it. However the moment may be, put joy into it.

Make an unpleasant situation into an enjoyable experience. Put your own joy into it.

You don’t have to let your feelings be dictated by random, outside events. You can let your feelings be driven by your own choice.

Select a perspective that acknowledges and celebrates the positive possibilities. Choose to put joy into it.

When the work is difficult and demanding, put joy into it. That’s always better than complaining and making yourself miserable.

As long as you’re going to make yourself one way or another, make yourself joyful. Put joy into life, whenever, whatever, wherever, and you’ll get great things out of it.

— Ralph Marston

January 8

Grab the opportunity

Getting started late is a whole lot better than not getting started at all. Go ahead, and do it.

Conditions are less than ideal, yet you can move forward nonetheless. Go ahead, and get going.

You can think of a hundred perfectly valid excuses for not taking action. But those excuses will add zero value to your life, and contribute nothing positive to your world.

Stop fighting against your own possibilities. Stop avoiding, procrastinating, and wishing things were different, and just get yourself going, right now.

Ten minutes from now, when you’re well into the effort, you’ll realize it’s not so bad. A day or two from now, you’ll thank yourself for going ahead with it.

Whatever the past has been, however the present may be, get yourself going. There’s a whole lot of good you can do right now, so grab the opportunity before it slips away, and do it.

— Ralph Marston

January 9

Fulfilling life

Would you like to experience yourself living today at your highest level of fulfillment? Then make yourself useful.

Even the most luxurious luxury gets tedious and boring after a short while. Don’t let yourself settle for mere opulence, overconsumption and overindulgence.

Instead, put your skills, your knowledge, your discipline, your competence and persistence to use. Figure out what you can do to make a positive difference, and then do it.

There are things you are passionate about, people you love, ideas you believe in. Engage that passion, that love, that belief in worthwhile endeavors.

No matter what burdens you face, or how much or how little you have, one thing is always true. You can instantly make your life better by working to make life better for others.

Lift yourself far above the dreary indifference that saps life out of your spirit. Make yourself useful, and enjoy the fulfilling life that you deserve to give, and to live.

— Ralph Marston

January 10

This is life

Give time and space to your curiosity, your taste for wonder. Let all of life amaze you and enchant you.

Allow this moment to be the way this moment is going to be. Accept its unique value and experience.

Stand in awe of all that is. Find great hope in all that is now possible.

Treasure the beauty of existence as it unfolds before your eyes. This is life, your life, right now, its depth, breadth, and substance incomparable.

Forge new, uplifting connections, with love. Give your most authentic gifts, with joy.

Another day, another moment of life comes into being. Let it be the best one yet.

— Ralph Marston

January 11

Positive spin

Being cynical doesn’t make you more sophisticated. It just makes you miserable.

Being positive doesn’t mean you’re ignoring or denying the problems. It means you’re choosing to move forward with hope rather than languish in despair.

Your attitude doesn’t have to be dictated by the way things are. You can choose your attitude based on where you intend to go next.

A more positive future begins with more positive thoughts. A more satisfying future begins with higher expectations.

You can think whatever you want to think, and feel however you wish to feel. Doesn’t it make sense to focus your thoughts on positive possibilities, to feel hopeful about your efforts?

Whatever is going on, give your attitude a positive spin. And you’ll give your results a major boost.

— Ralph Marston

January 12

Best of what is possible

What can you do, that you’ve forgotten you can do? What can you do, that you’ve never known you could do?

What would cease to be impossible if you could stop assuming it to be impossible? What would you achieve if you were convinced you could achieve it?

Reality is more than what has already been, or what is now, or what you’re sure of. The most exciting and valuable part of reality is what is possible.

Your possibilities are just as real as your memories, your doubts, and your assumptions. Which will you choose to believe, to express, to follow into the future?

Instead of focusing on the obstacles, you can decide to see the opportunities inside the obstacles. Instead of being dismayed at what has happened, be encouraged and excited about what is now possible.

Open yourself beyond your fears, beyond your doubts, beyond the excuses and assumptions. Open yourself to the best of what is possible, and make that your central reality.

— Ralph Marston

January 13

Fresh baked cookies

You remember more than you think you do. At the same time, you remember less than you thought you would.

What you remember is what matters to you. And the way you remember is not with logic, but with emotion.

The mind of anyone else works the same way. You make yourself memorable to others by making your words and behavior meaningful to them.

You can accomplish this in a good way or a bad way. Good is better, by a long shot.

How much and how well do you want yourself, your business, your ideas, your cause, to be thought of? It comes from you, making a difference in the way people feel.

Fresh baked cookies arriving at your front door will surprise and delight you. Be like that, and you’ll earn a positive place in the thoughts of others.

— Ralph Marston

January 14

Welcome this moment

Refresh your spirit, renew your energy, right here, right now. Where you are is the perfect place to deepen your connection to the best of life.

With anything that happens, or with nothing at all, you can elevate your thoughts, your awareness, your gratitude. Choose to live with a positive, empowered perspective, and it is so.

You control the way you perceive all that happens as this day unfolds. You decide, again and again, what to think, what to say, what to do with it all.

You choose which opportunities to follow, where to invest your energy and time. You decide how to express your purpose, and find new ways to support all that you love.

Remind yourself, what is now is more than enough. From wherever you are, you constantly transform your life into what you imagine.

Welcome this moment and with it, the best of what is possible. Now, let the richness within you come fully to life.

— Ralph Marston

January 15

Beauty and significance

You’ve talked yourself into needing it, but do you? You’ve become accustomed to having it, but is it what you desire?

How much time do you waste chasing things you’d be better off without? How much treasure do you give up to acquire and maintain what you don’t need, what you don’t even want?

You have true, consequential needs and authentic desires. Take care to focus your efforts on those.

You live in a world with an unimaginable number of things to own, to experience, to consume. Meet that enormity of possibility with a sober responsibility.

Everything you have that you don’t need takes time, space, money and focus away from what truly matters to you. You owe it to yourself to make more room in your life for real joy, purpose, and fulfillment.

Don’t let yourself, or anyone else, convince you to need what is needless or to want what is meaningless. There is too much beauty and significance in life to settle for anything less.

— Ralph Marston

January 16

Trouble into treasure

What would happen if you could be thankful for what you usually complain about? Think of the power in that.

Transformation doesn’t happen just because you want it to. Transformation requires you to think different, to act different than you’ve been acting.

Are you perpetuating a pattern of negative thoughts and undesirable results in some area of your life? Gratitude smashes through that pattern, and positions you to rebuild it in a more beneficial way.

Can you really express your thanks for those things that aggravate you? Yes, you can, and by doing so you transform aggravation into admiration, frustration into enthusiasm.

Do you really want to keep complaining about what’s wrong, or would you rather work on making it right? Gratitude harnesses what was negative energy and enables you to put it to positive use.

Choose to be thankful. And watch yourself transform trouble into treasure.

— Ralph Marston

January 17

Misunderstood

Often you will not be fully understood. Don’t let that stop you from doing the useful things you can do.

No one will ever understand you as completely as you would like to be understood. Yet even when you’re a little misunderstood, or a lot, you can do plenty of good.

It’s great to work with people who understand you well. It’s also possible, though, to make progress with those who misunderstand you to varying degrees.

Be clear with yourself about your standards, set them high, and live up to them. Rather than feeling you must explain those standards, let your valuable results be sufficient explanation.

Seek to understand, to be understood, and step forward with confidence in your purpose. Never let your creativity or ambition be stifled by the fear of being misunderstood.

Do your best, and let others do with it what they will. Give your best, and let others make of it what they make of it.

— Ralph Marston

January 18

Let life be as life is

Seek to know, and seek also to accept the limits of your knowledge. Work to make a difference, and make peace with the reality that you cannot change everything.

Let life be as life is, and allow yourself to be as you are. Make good use of nature, including your own nature, without fighting against it.

Learn all you can, and grow in appreciation for the fact that you can never learn all there is. Feel your strength as you put it into action, and know the even greater strength of letting things be.

When you are bitten by the sensation of need, see if you can let it gently dissolve into nothing. Open yourself ever more fully to the abundance that has always been.

Relinquish any restrictions or conditions you may have imposed on joy. Surrender yourself to the beauty of each moment, each place, every experience you inhabit.

The wind blows, the snow falls, the sun shines, and the richness unfolds in every direction. Let it all be, and live it all well.

— Ralph Marston

January 19

Overwhelm the negativity

It is difficult to care in a world that doesn’t ever seem to care. Yet it is possible, and ultimately it is your best choice.

You can care deeply, actively, even when no one else steps forward to care. There is much you can give, even when no one else is willing to give.

You can put yourself on the side of real goodness. You can make a difference, and make the world brighter with your commitment to do so.

It is a challenge being committed to excellence when it feels like indolence and incompetence are rampant. Yet it is possible, and it is powerful, and of great value.

Your best response is to do what’s good, what’s right, what’s smart and valuable and effective. In this way you overwhelm the negativity with your own action.

Instead of being distraught about how bad things can be, imagine all you can do to improve life. Then get to work and make it so.

— Ralph Marston

January 20

Energy everywhere

Life’s energy swirls constantly around you. Help yourself to its power.

You never have to be apathetic or bored. There’s more than enough to fascinate you, to energize you, no matter where you go.

A squirrel runs down the branch of the tree outside your window. A long-time friend hopes you’ll give her a call.

Look a little higher, dig a little deeper, open your mind a little wider. You are always enmeshed in the endless energy of existence.

Invite that energy into your awareness, into your being. Feel the spark as it provides fuel to your passion and power to your purpose.

From the tiny speck of dust on your finger to an impossibly distant star, energy is everywhere, always. Get yourself some, get yourself going, and live the great experience of life in this moment.

— Ralph Marston

January 21

Door to the future

Right now you straddle the dividing line between what you have been and what you can become. With every choice you make, you’re stepping out of your past and into your future.

Ask yourself, as you take each step, what do you choose to carry forward and what do you prefer to leave behind? Those choices have great consequences for your life.

Are there burdens you’ve been imposing on yourself, that you can now release? Are there dreams you’ve been holding back, that you can now work to make real?

In the past you’ve discovered much about yourself and your world. Now you can take all you know, all you’ve experienced, and apply it to the possibilities emerging in your future.

That future can mirror your past or diverge from it in whatever ways are best for you. Now is your opportunity to choose.

As you live this moment you’re stepping through a door that leads from your past to your future. Take that step with care, with positive, authentic intention, and with love.

— Ralph Marston

January 22

The good you do

When you compromise your integrity, it never turns out well. What seems simple and easy in the moment, becomes devastating eventually.

The wrong you do comes back to you, every time. The sooner you make it right, the better.

The good you do comes back to you too. Every choice has a consequence, and you can employ that truth to great benefit.

You get from life precisely what you give to life. Indeed, they are one and the same.

Trust in the power of the goodness you can give. Act with the irrefutable confidence that comes from doing what you know is right.

Give to life what you love to experience, what you value, what you treasure. In that act of giving, you are getting the life you want.

— Ralph Marston

January 23

Magnificent experience

Breathe in, breathe out, rise up into full awareness. Today you carry with you all the beauty you’ve ever witnessed, all the hope you’ve ever felt.

Around you, life changes faster than you can see. Within, unique value lives, and endures, shining brightly.

Seasons pass through your recollection, old years fall forward into new phases. And your living presence grows more deeply entrenched in the vast fabric of life.

The challenge is great, the pain is real. Yet the magnificent experience of existence surpasses it all.

Surrounding every frustration are dozens of possibilities for transcending the conditions that gave rise to it. As twisted and difficult as your trail has been, you persist in forging a better path forward.

Contemplate for a moment the vast extent of all there is, and your connection to it, and all you can do. Now, offer the best you have to the wondrous reality of all that is.

— Ralph Marston

January 24

Choose sincerity

Don’t hide yourself from yourself and others. Pretense provides nothing of value in the present, and nothing but regret in the future.

This day is too beautiful to spend it as someone you’re not. Allow your own true beauty the space to live and to flourish.

In all those choices you make, choose sincerity. Enjoy knowing and sharing the power of the real you.

You are so much more than a flat, boring, predictable image. You are the essence of life itself, complex, vulnerable, curious, loving, and passionate.

Forget about whether it will make you look good or not. Do what you care about, what makes a real difference, what resonates with all you love and value.

Be the real you and live the real richness. Nothing you could pretend is as valuable and precious as who you truly are.

— Ralph Marston

January 25

Thoughts in moderation

Think about what you experience. But don’t let your thoughts be so overwhelming that you ignore the experience.

Put thought into what you’re doing. But don’t let the thoughts hinder the doing.

Respond thoughtfully to others. But don’t get so involved in crafting your responses that you fail to hear what is being said.

As powerful as your thoughts can be, they are not everything. To use them well is to use them in moderation.

Keep your thoughts fresh and valuable by giving them a chance to rest. Enjoy and improve your thoughts by taking regular breaks from them.

If thoughts are getting you down or holding you back, do something other than just thinking. Use your thoughts, but don’t let them use you.

— Ralph Marston

January 26

Rich on the inside

It’s nice to gaze out over grand, exotic vistas. Yet it’s just as nice to spend a quiet afternoon reading a good book in a simple sunlit room.

You don’t need to have an impressive experience to have a good and fulfilling experience. You don’t need to have the ultimate adventure to enjoy an interesting and satisfying day.

You can live very well without a lot of money or fame. You can enjoy a rich and fulfilling life without frantically rushing to get in front of the latest trend.

Gently and joyfully do what you love instead of struggling and clamoring to do whatever happens to be in vogue. Give yourself the time live to well rather than striving to accumulate possessions and experiences that mean very little to you.

Spend more of your life fully enjoying all you have, and less of your energy yearning to get more. Have the confidence to be truly happy without the need to keep up false appearances.

Let a genuine love for the beauty of life guide your choices and priorities each day. Be rich on the inside, for that’s where it really matters.

— Ralph Marston

January 27

Wasted effort

Be honest with yourself. If your efforts are not bringing the desired results, admit it, and make changes.

Effort is necessary, admirable, satisfying, but not always effective. Often you must adjust the nature of your effort.

Commit to making the required amount of effort. But don’t get trapped by your commitment in an approach that’s not working.

It can be painful to realize you’ve wasted your time and effort. Yet when that happens, be willing to quickly change, or the wasted effort will continue.

Here’s the key thing to keep in mind. Wasted effort is not wasted when it leads you to improve your efforts.

See that opportunity, and take it. Harness the experience of your ineffective effort to make you more effective than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

January 28

One little positive step

Take one little positive step. You can do it, and you can do it now.

Take one little positive step, for yourself, for those you love. Take one little positive step, and then you can take another.

Let the troubles in the world be as they are. And respond not with despair, but with a small, upbeat action.

Being sad, or angry, or disappointed, won’t make anything better. What will make something better is pointing your energy in a positive direction.

Feel how good it feels to improve life in a small way. Then do it again.

You deserve some positive momentum, and an optimistic outlook, today. Take one little positive step, and get it going.

— Ralph Marston

January 29

Things going right

Do you feel overwhelmed by all the things that are going wrong in the world? That’s because you’re ignoring the massively greater number of things going right.

Flip a switch and the light comes on. Do you realize how many things have to go right for that to happen, and to be as reliable as it is?

Consider the electronic screen that delivers all the bad news to you. Thousands of things have to go right, and work in perfect synchronization, for that information to appear.

Bad things do happen, often. Yet every moment of every day, many, many more good things happen, things you don’t even notice.

Yes, pay attention to the problems, act on them, work to solve them. At the same time, keep them in perspective.

Appreciate, support, and maintain all that reliably goes right and works well. You’ll be well equipped to successfully deal with whatever goes wrong.

— Ralph Marston

January 30

Change for the better

Look at what is, and see more than what’s there. Envision what you can transform it into.

Whatever exists in one moment, will not be exactly the same in the next. Life’s relentless dynamic nature is something you can use to great benefit.

Things will change as the day progresses. What can you do to push those changes in a positive direction?

Don’t waste the moment arguing over what got you here. Invest your time in crafting the best possible path forward.

Every situation is a stage upon which transformation can occur. Every problem, success, encounter, disagreement, windfall and challenge provides an opportunity to improve life in some way.

Look at the beauty and power of what is here, and now, what is real, and present. Soon it will change, and this is your chance to help change it for the better.

— Ralph Marston

January 31

Quiet joy

Ease into the fullness of now. All you know, all you feel, all you are, glides gently through the heart of your awareness.

Give to yourself, to all that is, a quiet and simple joy. Let its peaceful energy settle into the deepest part of you.

Taste the brilliance, listen to the stillness, see the harmony as your senses converge upon the wonder of existence. Transform the beauty that surrounds you into joy that fills you.

As all resistance melts away, you touch the pure energy of ineffable purpose. In the quiet, profound joy of now, you revitalize every corner of your being.

Look around. And see a thousand times more than you saw before.

Treasure the quiet joy within. Set it free to multiply and flow into a world of new possibilities.

— Ralph Marston