Daily Motivator - December

[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

Speak the truth

When you are at a loss for what to say, speak the truth. Truth is always your most powerful choice.

There is no way you can hide behind a lie for very long. Although the truth can be extremely difficult at times, it ages very well.

You don’t necessarily have to be rude or confrontational to speak the truth. You are fully capable of speaking the truth with respect, consideration, and understanding.

In fact, speaking the truth is one of the most respectful things you can do. People appreciate it, people remember it, and people remember you in a good light because of it.

The way to successfully deal with reality is truth. Anything else is at best a delusion that will eventually set you back.

Don’t let yourself be tempted to sidestep the truth. Speak the truth, and speak in everyone’s best interest.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Speak and know the truth, and the truth will
set you free. There is no right way
to do a wrong thing.

[bluidkiti]

December 12

Overcome temptation

How do you overcome temptation? You focus on the consequences.

Anything tempting you is going to give you pleasure in the moment and painful regret in the future. Jump beyond the moment in your imagination and feel the intense pain of that regret.

Realize that you can completely avoid that future regret with a simple choice in the present. Feel your own power and exercise it in a positive and life-enhancing way.

Giving in to temptation is a compromise of your own integrity. Don’t do it, because it’s not worth it.

Whatever momentary pleasure you might gain from what’s tempting you will soon be long gone. The negative consequences, however, are likely to linger for a very long time, forcing you to pay their price over and over again.

Temptations can be powerful and persuasive, yet you are able to summon even more power. Exercise that power, avoid the temptations, and very soon you’ll be thanking yourself for doing so.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 13

Work your way through

Don’t make your work more difficult than it has to be by resenting it or avoiding it or over-thinking it. The most frictionless approach is to just do it.

Don’t add to the burden of what you must do by pushing it again and again into the future. Get it done now, get it over with, and enjoy all the benefits that come from timely action.

Embrace what you must do. See the value and fulfillment in it all.

Respect, be thankful for, and make good use of your capabilities. Realize the opportunities you’re able to access by putting forth effort.

This day is now here and you have good, significant things you can do with it. Without hesitation, begin to work your way through them.

Here is your chance to live at your most effective and purposeful level. Go for it, and get it done.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Amen big time.

[bluidkiti]

December 14

Respectfully disagree

When you disagree say so, with respect, with precision, with confidence and a sincere desire to further understanding. Have the courage and the compassion to be honest and generous with your perspective.

Truth becomes stronger and is clarified when it is subjected to robust and well-articulated challenges. As differing perspectives clash in a curious, respectful way, a stronger, more unified truth can emerge.

Winning an argument is a hollow victory. Building a higher level of understanding and cooperation has far greater value for each participant, for society at large, for truth itself.

You learn, you grow, you forge connections by doing the uncomfortable work of engagement. By respectfully voicing and examining specific disagreements you open a path to move toward agreement.

Every person with a differing perspective has a reason underlying that perspective, and a deeper purpose behind that reason. With sufficient engagement you can go deep enough to find common ground.

Respectfully disagree, with the goal of transforming disagreement into understanding. Seek what is true and useful and good, and employ plenty of honest effort to get there.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

I can agree to disagree respectively.

[bluidkiti]

December 15

More than you expect

Expectations are powerful. Take care not to let their power blind you to the richness of reality.

You see what you expect to see. That can put you in danger of failing to notice what you’re not expecting.

As creative as your imagination may be, reality can be even more creative, interesting, surprising. There is much to experience beyond what you can imagine or expect, no matter how much previous experience you have.

This is especially true of the people you encounter. No person alive can be reduced to a standard, one-size-fits-all narrative.

Each person in your world has more depth and complexity than you can imagine. Recognize that, avoid jumping to conclusions, and everyone benefits.

Be guided by your expectations, but don’t let them close you off from reality. There’s a whole lot more goodness and substance in life than you can ever expect.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 16

What matters and why?

Spend a moment thinking about this question. What matters to you right now, and why?

You have skills, resources, knowledge, experience, and people with whom you’re directly and indirectly connected. You have time to make use of all those advantages in the service of what matters most.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get caught up in urgent but mostly meaningless endeavors. Or you can become infatuated by fashionable, alluring pursuits in the moment that have no value beyond the moment.

Five years from today, or twenty, you could be looking back at a lot of wasted opportunities. Or you could be celebrating a span of time in which you added great richness to your life and your world.

One major factor in deciding which outcome you reach will be how much you focus on meaningful purpose. That’s a difficult thing to do, and it’s also a highly valuable thing to do.

Every day is an opportunity to be intentional, to be purposeful. So get in the habit of asking yourself, of reminding yourself, what matters, and why.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 17

Fresh new opportunity

You cannot bring back lost opportunities. What you can do is learn from them and transform the regret they bring you into determination.

Your past is not perfect. And that makes the present even more precious.

Maybe you would be in a more favorable situation today if you had been more diligent yesterday. Fortunately, the sun rose this morning on a new chance to redeem yourself.

Feel within you the spark of goodness, of creativity, of kindness, love, and enthusiasm. Now, in the moment you have, do something with it.

Embrace the way you feel, whatever that may be, and challenge yourself to find positive, productive energy in that feeling. Accept the way life is, however it is, and discover avenues of improvement and fulfillment that you can embark upon.

All the successes, joys, disappointments, treasured and forgotten experiences have brought you to this fresh new opportunity. Now, make what you do with it worthy of all you’ve been through to get here.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 18

Stronger inside

No one will question you, no one will stop you when you seek to be stronger inside. And the stronger you are inside, the more successfully you can deal with every aspect of your life.

You need not ask anyone else’s permission to become stronger inside. You can nurture your inner strength wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

Love yourself, love others, be thankful, and you grow stronger inside. Open yourself to new thoughts, ideas, experiences, and grow stronger inside.

Engage with life, laugh, embrace responsibility, indulge your curiosity. As you do all this, your inner strength grows.

There is great treasure to be found within you. As you grow stronger you uncover more of that treasure, causing it to resonate throughout your life.

What thought, what attitude, what feeling right now would increase your inner strength? Take every opportunity to give yourself, your life, your world the benefit of becoming ever stronger inside.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 19

Slightly stronger

You become stronger by making use of your strength. You become stronger one small step at a time.

In this next minute, see if you can be just a little bit stronger than you were a minute ago. It’s a small choice that can end up making a big difference.

See every challenge, every encounter, every situation as your opportunity to be slightly stronger than before. Make it your intention to make good use of your strength, and by doing so you make more of it.

Strength can build on itself when you let it, if you exercise it. With patience, with persistence, with intentional choice, grow stronger.

The same dynamic applies in the other direction too, causing you to gradually lose strength if you don’t use it. Either way, what you choose day after day, moment by moment, is multiplied over time.

Point the trend in your favor. Be slightly stronger, repeatedly, consistently, and build great strength in your life.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 20

Finish the work

You had the idea, you gathered the resources and put in the initial effort. Now see it all the way through.

It probably won’t turn out exactly how you imagined. Even so, there’s value in it or you wouldn’t have started it in the first place.

Yes, plenty of new, different possibilities beckon. But what good are possibilities if you never see them through to fulfillment?

Just because you’ve run into obstacles and frustrations is no reason to give up. On the contrary, those challenges confirm the value of what you’re doing.

Perhaps some adjustments are called for. So make those adjustments to your expectations, to your strategy, to your day-to-day tactics.

Then give yourself a push forward with renewed energy and commitment. Finish the work, do what you have chosen to do, and bring to life the value that is yours to create.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

December 21

Make more goodness happen

The potential for goodness lives within you here, now, always. Each person you come in contact with provides you opportunity to offer kindness, a positive presence, genuine connection.

Every choice you make is a chance to leave the situation better than you found it. Every thought, every word enables you to focus on what matters, on what can be beneficial and life-affirming.

All around are opportunities for you to work toward fulfilling, valuable outcomes. In every direction you look, beauty and possibility are there to be seen, lived, and expanded upon.

Do some corners of the world seem dark and hopeless? Find comfort, inspiration, and energy in knowing that your own actions can make things less forbidding and more hopeful.

Goodness is always possible. What goodness requires, and always has, is active participation.

Right now is another opportunity to make more goodness happen. Imagine what you can do, then go beyond merely imagining and give life the benefit of your own unique goodness, again and again.

— Ralph Marston