Daily Motivator - January
 

January 1

The journey continues

Some of the days have been memorable, and others you forgot about a long time ago. Yet every experience has served to bring you where you are today.

Now is the time to continue. Now is when you can take the wisdom, the connections, the experiences and resources you’ve accumulated, and use them all to move forward.

You have the opportunity to avoid mistakes you’ve made before. You’re able to put hard-won lessons and skills to work in positive and meaningful ways.

There’s much more to see and do, to learn and discover. You can continue contributing to life in the ways you’ve always done and in new ways as well.

You’ve known challenges and triumphs and so much more. It’s all made you stronger, more purposeful, more caring toward those you share this existence with.

Now the journey continues, new possibilities await, and you’re better equipped than ever before. Step forward with confidence, with eager anticipation, and discover how far you will go.

— Ralph Marston

Happy January the 1st Tammy and Kracker, let's thank God for getting us
Through the month of December always thanking him for his grace and mercy
each and every day, one day at a time. God bless us for this joyous
New Year.

January 2

Kindness matters

You’re overwhelmed with work and your patience is wearing thin. Remember though, kindness matters.

You’re running late, in a hurry, frustrated about forces that are out of your control. Even at times like this, your kindness matters.

In every direction you turn, someone is trying to scam you, and it seems like no one cares. Yet it’s important to keep in mind, kindness matters.

Kindness matters in ways that are easy to understand and in ways you’ll never realize. Your kindness matters to those you care about, to strangers, and to you.

Every time you come within the vicinity of someone else, you have the chance to make a difference. Your kindness could be completely ignored, or it could end up being a lifesaver.

Whether it merely lifts your own spirit for a minute or eventually reverberates around the world, your kindness matters. Never pass up the opportunity to discover how much.

— Ralph Marston

AMEN. Happy New Year's to y'all. May God bless us and guide us in 2023

January 3

Push forward

Every honest effort moves you ahead, even when the progress does not appear immediately obvious. Every attempt brings you closer to the result you seek.

When the going becomes slow and difficult, keep going. Up ahead you’ll turn a corner that accelerates your progress.

If momentum is on your side and you’re getting all the good breaks, keep going. Don’t let your own complacency steal that momentum away.

When you’re in motion you’re able to choose your direction. So commit yourself to staying in motion.

Sometimes you’ll know exactly what to do next and other times you’ll struggle. Whatever the case may be, you’ll find a way to push forward.

Your next step keeps you going. Now, and always, keep taking that essential next step.

— Ralph Marston

January 4

Small choices, big impact

For any given big choice you wish to make, there exist multiple small choices that support it. Diligence in small matters serves to greatly expand your options when it comes to bigger issues.

When you always keep your word, always speak the truth, always act with respect and consideration, people will trust you. By earning and keeping the trust of others you give yourself a significant advantage in achieving what you seek to achieve.

Think of what happens if you choose to learn from every experience, no matter how seemingly insignificant. Not only do you begin to recognize patterns, you also develop an understanding of how to make valuable use of them.

The path to a particular success is often quite narrow. Yet the knowledge, skills, and habits that enable you to create success come from a wide set of experiences.

Every moment, every interaction, every small choice is an opportunity to become more positive, more purposeful, more effective. Success is a pattern, not an isolated event, and all the little things you do will build that pattern.

With each small choice you demonstrate to yourself and to the world your most authentic priorities. And those priorities largely determine the quality of life that you live.

— Ralph Marston

January 5

Today is when

In the vast entirety of forever, today will only happen once. Now is your single chance to get the most from it and more importantly, give the most to it.

Today is far from perfect. Yet as difficult and inconvenient and frustrating as it may be, you can fill it with much richness and meaningful living.

Today encompasses all that exists in the whole universe. Within its broad boundaries you’ll connect with fascinating people, powerful possibilities, unique experiences, love, beauty, and more.

Today might feel like many other days, making it easy to convince yourself you’ll get the chance to live it again. But don’t let today’s familiarity cause you to put off living it, for if you ever try to reclaim this day later it will be long gone.

Fortunately, right this minute you are alive, aware, well informed and highly motivated to live this day with the best you have. In fact, you’ve already started to do so and you can accomplish even more with every passing hour.

Today is when you are, today is when you can, today is when you will. Imagine the best and then make it happen, today.

— Ralph Marston

Yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery,
Live you very best today and right now.

January 6

Common good

There’s more to your interest than your interest alone. What’s in the common good also very significantly includes you.

It’s tempting to think you can gain some personal advantage by gaming the various systems and institutions of society. But that is impossible because you are a part of society, a beneficiary of its institutions, and whatever harms them also harms you.

Yes, you can take more than your share from the cookie jar again and again. Yet eventually, if you keep doing it, whoever was filling that jar will stop, and there will be no more cookies.

But if everybody else is taking unfair advantage of the system, aren’t you also forced to do so in order to get an equal share? Absolutely not, because such a situation is unsustainable and it is in your best interest, in everyone’s interest, not to normalize such transgressions.

Everything has a cost and there is no such thing in material reality as something for nothing. To think and assume and live in opposition to this fundamental truth is to cheat yourself out of life’s richness and best possibilities.

The common good survives only when goodness is common and widespread. In this highly interconnected world, being good to yourself means being honest, respectful, understanding and considerate toward everyone else.

— Ralph Marston

January 7

You know you can

You know you can do better. Make use of that knowledge.

It’s not an indictment of the way you’ve lived up until now. It’s an acknowledgement of your best possibilities.

You know you can do better, so consider precisely what that would look like. Then with great enthusiasm let those thoughts inspire you into positive action.

You have a wealth of experience about what enhances life and what diminishes it. Resolve to put that valuable experience to more intentional and consistent use.

As time moves forward you have the choice to move with it in a positive direction. While each day quickly recedes into the past you can bring forth value and goodness that endure.

You’ve created much that’s good, and now you have the opportunity to do even better. See the great worth of that opportunity, and embrace it with all you have.

— Ralph Marston

January 8

Against the wind

When conditions are ideal you can make much progress. Yet even when conditions are not so favorable there are good and useful things you can do.

It’s always great to have the encouragement, support and assistance of others. But even when you have little or no help you can move forward.

You’re wise to make the best of a good situation. Yet what’s even more powerful is to make the best of a difficult situation.

Sometimes the winds of fate and circumstance are blowing your way, and that’s great. Much of the time, though, you’ll need to make your way against the wind.

Sure, you can claim the powerful headwind as an excuse, and wait for better conditions, an no one will blame you for that. Or you can go forward anyway in the direction you’ve chosen, and make progress in spite of the difficulties.

The situations, events, and people in this world will not always align to push you ahead. Fortunately, that never has to stop you.

— Ralph Marston

January 9

Grand opportunity of now

What physical possessions, thoughts, and feelings are you holding on to that are no longer useful and never again will be? Let them go, and clear out space for more value and fulfillment in your life.

Stop forcing yourself to dig through useless artifacts to get to what you need. Enable yourself to spend more time living, thriving, creating meaningful value and experiences.

Treasure, preserve, and continue to find joy in your good memories. At the same time, keep them in perspective.

Appreciate the past rather than keeping yourself continually bound to it. Carry forward what has true value and move on beyond the rest.

Don’t let the past burden your present or contaminate your future. Free yourself from the regrets, resentments, and closets full of stuff that serve only to hold you back.

Open yourself fully to the grand opportunity of now. Lighten your load and discover how much more effective and purposeful you can be.

— Ralph Marston

January 10, 2023
Get going with it

All is not totally and perfectly well, but neither is all lost and hopeless. Everything is as it is, and what’s more important, you can improve upon it.

You can be fully aware of the difficulties without being completely dismayed by them. You can remind yourself that opportunity comes embedded in every problem.

Life is not exactly how you’d like it to be. That opens you to the satisfying experience of guiding life in your chosen direction.

You have good, meaningful work to do. You have the opportunity to make a positive difference.

Experience has taught you how to be purposeful and effective. Here is your chance to once again put that experience to use.

With honesty, love, and courage, look at the reality that surrounds you. Realize how much good and fulfilling living you can do, and get going with it.

— Ralph Marston

January 11

Time for intention

Today is too valuable to waste. Today is a time for intention, focus, and meaningful progress.

Get clear about what you can do with the time that currently stretches in front of you. Get clear about the connection between the actions you’ll be taking and what you care about most.

Then, unleash your energy, your creative impulse, your skill, experience, and knowledge. Feel the power of your intention as it blossoms into achievement.

A world of possibility awaits your action. Right now, let that wait be over.

Make it your business today to fulfill your potential, and then go beyond it. Discover how much you can achieve, and how each achievement sets you up for even more.

Now is a great time to live with intention. Show yourself again and again how deeply satisfying it feels to do so.

— Ralph Marston

January 12

Reaction

Sometimes it’s good and necessary to respond. Other times it’s more appropriate to let things be.

Wisdom is knowing the difference. Strength is abiding by that wisdom.

Will your response actually contribute value? Or is the primary reason for it to prove a point?

If you’re too eager to respond, too quick to react, you can get drawn into situations where no one wins. Is that really how you wish to spend any of the priceless moments of your life?

When you can jump in and make a useful contribution, by all means do so. But when all you have to offer is an angry reaction, you’ll soon come to thank yourself for having the restraint to leave it alone.

Just because you can respond, just because you want to react, doesn’t mean it’s the best choice. Consider the actual value of what you can offer before you put it forward.

— Ralph Marston

January 13

Impossible becoming possible

You probably can’t do the impossible. But you’ll never know for sure unless you make the attempt.

The history of achievement, perhaps even including some of your own, is filled with examples of the impossible becoming possible. People give it a shot and sometimes they do succeed.

You may or may not achieve the impossible. Yet on the way there you’re likely to make some pretty impressive progress.

The higher the challenge, the more strength, skill, competence and persistence you’ll gain from pursuing it. Seeking to do what you cannot do gets you a whole lot better at what you can do, even if you fall short of achieving the impossible.

At the outer boundaries of what’s possible you’ll find fertile ground, rich opportunities, and a new perspective on your own capabilities. It’s territory that’s certainly worth venturing into now and then.

There have always existed possibilities beyond the possibilities. Experience the value in seeking some of your own.

— Ralph Marston

January 14

The work of right now

One step, then another, then another. That’s all you have to do to get wherever you wish to go.

Work through one challenge, and the next, then the one after that. You’ll be able to work your way in a positive, fulfilling direction.

Answer one question, write one sentence, make one phone call. Clean out one drawer, reply to one email, finish one workout.

The entire undertaking need not be overwhelming. Because you can choose to focus on as small a portion of it as necessary.

So give your attention to the task immediately at hand, to the work of right now, to the step you’re currently taking. Find joy in the process, and fulfillment in the experience of making a difference.

Do the work of right now. And you’ll be getting it done, one step at a time.

— Ralph Marston

January 15

Exaggeration

You wasted thirty minutes this morning so now the whole day is ruined. No, actually it’s not.

You gave in to temptation and ate a cinnamon roll so now you decide you’ll never be able to lose weight. But that thought is nothing but an extreme exaggeration.

It’s helpful to recognize problems and mistakes so you can correct them and avoid them in the future. Yet exaggeration is not really helpful at all.

Yes, perhaps you wasted some time early in the day. However, you have the rest of the day to make up for it.

Instead of punishing yourself endlessly for a small slip, take the opportunity to let it motivate you. Instead of exaggerating problems so far out of proportion that you give up, do what’s necessary to solve them, to get beyond them.

Make sure your thought process is working for you rather than against you. See the problems and challenges realistically, for what they are, and enable yourself to successfully deal with them.

— Ralph Marston

January 16

Jump into the adventure

Today offers you adventure. Accept the offer and embrace that adventure in whatever condition, whatever situation you find it.

Just passing the time is not sufficient. You are equipped for adventure, longing for adventure, worthy of adventure.

Adventure is not the safe, easy choice. Adventure asks you to put yourself on the line, to say what you care about, to do what you say, to live with the consequences.

The rewards are found in meaning, richness, substance. Adventure is following your purpose and fulfilling your potential.

Adventure demands courage and then builds more courage in even greater measure. Adventure illuminates and empowers what matters most to you.

Do what you are here to do. Jump into the adventure and give the best you have.

— Ralph Marston

January 17

Good life

The good you do may not be noticed by others. Do it nonetheless, because at a very minimum you will notice, and that’s something.

The beauty you create might not be seen by anyone else. Create and care for that beauty anyway, for in the act of doing so you give it meaning and value.

Living a good life is not a matter of being able to brag about the life you live. It’s a matter of being true to your highest perception of goodness, to truth itself.

The frivolous, superficial things are cheap to obtain and all too easy to lose. What’s worse, if you become obsessed with them they drain away your potential for much more meaningful and substantive pursuits.

Instead, create and expand upon opportunities to give of yourself. Look for how you can make more goodness in the world, and act on what you find.

You have your authentic self and the ability to invest yourself in what matters. Put it all together and make a truly good life for you and those around you.

— Ralph Marston

January 18

Fruitful connections

Offer your assistance to someone else, and you’re likely to make that person’s day. Accept the help someone offers to you, and you’ll make that person’s day.

Giving and receiving are two sides of the same beneficial experience. And the value from that experience pours out in both directions.

Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is to give fully of yourself. Other times the most generous thing you can do is to enable someone else to experience the joy of giving.

At some level there’s hardly any distinction between giving and receiving. The interaction creates sufficient goodness to go around.

The connection is what’s important. Through that connection value flows, and grows, giving rise to higher levels of richness and fulfillment.

You benefit this very moment from thousands of years of those fruitful connections. Make the most of every opportunity to keep them going.

— Ralph Marston

January 19

Desire what is

Fulfillment is yours when you allow it. To have what you desire is a simple matter of desiring what you have.

That doesn’t stop you from being ambitious and making new progress. On the contrary, it gives you the confidence and courage to continue moving forward.

If you fear that what you have tomorrow could be somehow less than what you have today, that fear will hold you back. If, on the other hand, you know you can choose to be truly satisfied with whatever you have, the fear dissolves.

Today you are whole, and complete, and have everything necessary for happiness and fulfillment. A month from now, or years into your future, that will continue to be true.

Over time your fulfillment will be expressed in many different ways. Yet as long as you allow it to exist within you, it is a positive force in your life.

Desire what is. And connect yourself with all the good that is present and possible.

— Ralph Marston

January 20

Get curious

Instead of getting angry, get curious. Rather than becoming frustrated, become curious.

There’s a reason behind what’s happening, and a deeper understanding behind that reason. Get curious, and you’ll encounter opportunities for positive transformation and improvement.

Get curious, and develop a powerful appreciation for what you might otherwise take for granted. Get curious, and discover the wealth of talent, wisdom, and creativity hidden in the people around you.

When you encounter a problem, get curious. If you’re not clear on what to do next, get curious.

Curiosity can turn a challenging situation into a valuable achievement. Curiosity illuminates valuable connections you never knew were there.

Who is the person you’re standing next to, what is along that road you’ve never explored? Get curious, and bring new richness to life.

— Ralph Marston

January 21

Following through

Following through distinguishes a spectacular adventure from a temporary dalliance. Following through means you’re serious, and enables you to achieve serious, significant results.

It’s fun to start something new, and plenty of opportunities for fun exist along the way. But fun is a pleasant result, not a reason.

A meaningful reason is what builds an endeavor of consequence and value. Because that reason pushes you to follow through.

When the going gets challenging and you keep going, you’re headed toward a rich reward. That reward won’t come quickly, yet you’ll eventually reach it by following through.

What have you started and where has it gone or failed to go, and why, or why not? More importantly, what could you start now, or continue now, in which you could find the motivation to persistently follow through?

Put yourself in position to follow through. It’s a major factor in achievements of every kind.

— Ralph Marston

January 22

Internal encouragement

You deserve encouragement, you benefit from encouragement, but encouragement doesn’t always come your way. When it doesn’t, or even when it does, you can also encourage yourself.

The other people in your life may not often be forthcoming with their encouragement. Yet you can always offer real and effective encouragement to yourself.

You know yourself better than anyone else knows you. So you’re well versed in which thoughts and expressions encourage you and which ones don’t.

It’s not selfish to encourage yourself. Because doing so prompts you to become more useful and to offer more value to all the people around you.

Think of all you’ve accomplished and remind yourself of how much more you can do. Recall how good it feels to make a difference, and offer yourself that good feeling again and again.

Though it’s great to receive external encouragement, internal encouragement can be just as powerful. Encourage yourself today to do all the good things you know you can do.

— Ralph Marston

January 23

Actual efforts

Visualize what you intend to do. But don’t let the visualization be a substitute for the doing.

It’s important to plan before you act. Yet if you have to choose between planning and action, you’re better off choosing action.

The intentions that have the most valuable impact are not the ones endlessly honed to perfection. They’re the ones you actually carry out.

Spend a little bit of time thinking about what will work. Then spend a lot more time discovering what actually does work and what doesn’t.

As perfectly effective as they are in your imagination, conceptual efforts don’t accomplish anything. To get things done you must perform actual efforts in the difficult and imperfect domain of reality.

Go beyond just thinking about it, talking about it, imagining it and planning it. Now is your time to step forward and get it done.

— Ralph Marston

January 24

Early decision

The sooner you decide, the less time you’ll spend on the decision. Decide early and you’ll free up more time to implement your decision.

Certainly there can be good reasons to hold off on a decision for a while, to take multiple factors into consideration. Yet as soon as you’re able to make a good, well-informed decision, go ahead and decide.

Most decisions require you to choose one option and forgo all the others, and that can be painful. But delaying the decision won’t make it any easier.

If you can do so, decide early and give yourself ample time to work out how to live with your decision. Decide early and you have the opportunity to grow more positive and enthusiastic about your choice.

Deciding quickly doesn’t mean being frivolous with your decision. You can decide early and decide well by being honest, upfront, and realistic about your choices.

Don’t rush your decision, but don’t needlessly delay it either. Go ahead, decide, and get on with making good on that decision.

— Ralph Marston

January 25

Lasting value

What can you do today? There are plenty of options, yet they’re not all of equal value.

Choose the activities that add richness to your life and to the lives around you. Spend your time not merely passing the time but filling it with life.

The world offers you endless ways to feel good in the moment, for just a moment. But you, and your unique life, are meant for much more than that.

Seek those activities and experiences you can feel good about long after you’re done with them. Don’t settle for vanishing pleasures when you can create lasting value and fulfillment.

When faced with a choice between enticing and enriching, go with enriching. Consider what you’re thankful for doing five years ago, and do more of those kinds of things.

Today you have a couple handfuls of irreplaceable hours in front of you. Give them the respect, consideration and substance that they, and you, deserve.

— Ralph Marston

Give Thanks to God for yesterday, and even
more thanks for today, and if its God will,
give thanks for what He is about to do
tomorrow.

January 26

Specific priorities

When you think about your future and what you want to do with your life, you envision specific priorities. When you wake up each morning and go through the day, you do so with specific priorities.

Do those priorities you follow on a moment-to-moment basis closely match your long-term priorities? If not, you’re failing to follow those lifetime priorities.

By their very nature, priorities determine what takes precedence for you. They inform and direct your thoughts, your actions, and the results you create.

You cannot have two or more sets of priorities that are in conflict with each other. What you end up with are actual priorities being followed and others being imagined but not acted upon.

So which is it? When you choose what to do over the next fifteen minutes, or three hours, what priorities are driving those choices?

Make sure the priorities you actually follow are the priorities you desire for the whole of your life. The time to do that is not someday but today, not eventually but now.

— Ralph Marston

Now is all we have, Choose Wisely, and let God do the rest.
Amen.

January 27

A mirror

You are capable of behaviors you despise in others. Indeed, that is why you have such a fervent opinion about what they do, to prevent yourself from engaging in similar activities.

When you strongly disapprove of another person’s actions, still you can have a degree of understanding. Because it could be you.

Happily, you are also capable of engaging in the pursuits you most admire in others. Your identification and admiration can often lead to imitation, bringing benefit to all of life.

No matter how you feel about what others do, what you’re feeling is connection. That sense of connection has unimaginable value and is responsible for a significant portion of human progress.

It is both uplifting and sobering to be reminded of what you can be in every person you encounter. Pay attention, and you’ll learn how to balance humility with ambition, while developing deeper levels of empathy, understanding, and compassion.

Each person in your world holds a mirror up to you. Look, and learn, and find new ways to love what you see.

— Ralph Marston

January 28

Connection to beauty

Invest time and effort today making a connection to beauty. In return, beauty will grow your strength and offer an experience of transcendence.

From abundance, create beauty. Out of challenge and difficulty and great exertion, make beauty.

In beauty exists truth that is impossible to ignore. You can instantly recognize authentic beauty though you cannot explain why.

Let beauty fill you with its mystery, its contradictions, its peacefulness and its energy. Be inspired to put work and commitment into giving life to beauty and giving beauty to life.

Beauty resides at the heart of what makes life worth living. You’ll find great benefit in giving it whatever respect, awe, time and sacrifice you are able.

Do the work to see the beauty, to be the beauty, to live the beauty. And reap all the richness that beauty offers.

— Ralph Marston

January 29

Patience and persistence

If you need something tomorrow your choices are starkly limited. If you desire something in ten years it can be pretty much anything you imagine.

The most desirable results are not immediate results. The most desirable results ask for patience and persistence in return.

Are you disappointed by the choices you have right now? Step back and consider how much better your choices would be if you were to add some patience and persistence.

Patience gives you the serenity of knowing that good things take time. Persistence gives you the energy to continue putting forth effort until you reach your objective.

You cannot instantly jump over to the other side of the mountain. Yet with patience and persistence you can climb up, then climb down, and arrive on the other side.

What particular forms of goodness do you wish to add to life? With patience and persistence they are well within your reach.

— Ralph Marston

January 30

You can do this

You can do this. As a result of what you undertake, you can produce a positive impact on this day.

You can experience the satisfaction of knowing you’re making meaningful progress. You can feel less overwhelmed, more focused and purposeful.

You can do this even with the inevitable interruptions, distractions, obstacles and frustrations. You can do this by making a choice and sticking with it.

It won’t be particularly easy yet it is well within your reach. You can do this because you’ve done it before and you have good reason to do it now.

Take a deep breath, relax your body, quiet your thoughts. In peaceful contemplation, feel the power of your own intention.

Then calmly release your objections and set that intention to work. Notice how highly effective you become when you remind yourself of the simple truth that you can do this.

— Ralph Marston

January 31

Something difficult

You need something difficult to do. You need something meaningful to do.

Find it, start it, complete it and then move on to another challenge. No one, no matter how well positioned, has the luxury of merely basking in pleasure and luxury all the time.

Strength, capability, and competence do not appear just because you want them. They are forged when you push yourself through difficult tasks.

At some point you’ll find it necessary to call upon and depend upon your abilities. Make sure you’re well prepared, with those abilities tested and honed, before you reach that point.

Choose to subject yourself to meaningful challenges, and give your best efforts to meet those challenges. That helps you deal with the inevitable arrival of challenges you haven’t chosen.

Do all you can to make life good, but don’t encumber yourself with the illusion that life should be easy. Instead, seek to grow in strength by continually finding worthwhile ways to put that strength to the test.

— Ralph Marston