Not to envy

Why waste your time and energy, and poison your attitude, by being envious? Instead of being envious, be inspired.

Not only is it impossible for you to live someone else's life, even if you could do it you wouldn't really like it. What you can do is joyfully live your own life, informed and instructed by the joy you see in others.

Your greatest fulfillment comes from being you. If someone else's life looks appealing, the most realistic and effective response is to emulate, not to envy.

Envy is centered in an overwhelming sense of lack and limitation. So if you envy, you push away the very things you desire.

A much more powerful and positive response is to be sincerely thankful for the good fortune of others. When you do that, you're able to benefit from that good fortune too.

Stop creating envy. And start allowing your very own version of life's great abundance.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

The best there can be

It is by giving of yourself that you fully understand and appreciate how very much you have available to give. It is by making a small difference, again and again, that you realize what an enormous difference you can make.

Do you ever feel like hunkering down and hiding from life because it has been so cruel and difficult? In fact, your best choice is the complete opposite.

If life has disappointed you, it's because you haven't opened yourself fully to its wonder and richness. When life is pushing hard against you, it's because you've been holding back.

The external disappointments are possible only because there is beautiful and worthwhile and meaningful internal value. Let that value freely flow out from you, and delight in the experience as it colors your world in a more positive light.

Life's goodness is made possible by your vision of that goodness. Your dreams are made real by your commitment to them.

Give the best that you have. And you'll experience the best there can be.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Demand results

One of the most insidious ways to avoid doing what you must do is to spend your time and effort doing what's not really necessary. When you're constantly busy, it can be difficult to recognize or to admit that you're not getting anything done.

Taking action is good. Yet taking effective, productive, meaningful action is what will move you forward.

When you purchase a product or service from someone else, it's likely that you demand results in exchange for your money. Get in the habit of being just as demanding of results from your own time and your own efforts.

Pay attention to the results you're getting, and to how much value those results bring to your life and to your world. If you're not getting results that are valuable and meaningful, it's time to change your approach.

Your time is a highly precious and irreplaceable resource. Make sure that whatever you exchange your time for is even more valuable than the time and effort you spend getting it.

Instead of telling yourself that you're doing enough by merely being busy, demand results. Wisely use your time to bring real and meaningful richness to your world.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

You cannot lose

You cannot lose because you already are. Many of those things that seem like needs, are nothing more than comfortable habits.

Abundance is a beautiful and limitless blessing. Yet when you impose needs on that abundance, you make it into a burden.

If you worry about what you will lose, the worry itself creates the loss. Rather than being so worried about losing it, put your thoughts and energy into using it.

When you feel the worry beginning to take hold, make the choice to overwhelm that worry with gratitude. When your thinking gets bogged down with needs, open yourself to more positive possibilities.

Instead of needing to prove you're right, choose to be lovingly and generously truthful. Instead of needing vengeance, choose the freedom of forgiveness.

You cannot lose what really matters. Because what really matters is the value that continues to flow from the beautiful, unique person you are.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Let go of the trying

If you're trying hard and not making any progress, quit trying. Quit trying and start being.

When you see yourself as trying, you don't see yourself as succeeding. The perception and perspective of trying makes everything into a struggle.

There is great value within you. Allow it to come out, naturally and without a fight.

Instead of trying to get to some other point, give your love and attention to doing your very best right where you are, with what you have. Instead of seeing yourself as not there yet, be thankful that you are right where you are meant to be.

Yes, by all means envision a bright future in which your dreams are fulfilled. And see how everything that comes your way is the unfolding of that beautiful future.

Let go of the trying and let yourself make purposeful, effective efforts. Let go of the judgments, and let each moment of your positive energy bring new richness to life.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Go with what is great

If you worry about whether or not you have enough time, you certainly won't have enough time. Just go ahead and get started.

If you wait until conditions are ideal, you'll be waiting forever. Instead, go with what you have, from where you are, and you can make it work.

If you make yourself dependent on the support and approval of others, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Be you, be authentic, be great in your own unique way, and let others think and say what they will.

There are plenty of powerful excuses and rationalizations. Yet the only thing they have the power to do is to stop you.

Nothing has the power to hold you back unless you choose to let it hold you back. Choose instead to find a way, and to live life on your own terms.

Going only with what's easy and comfortable will soon bring you a whole lot of painful regret. Instead, go with what is great and beautiful and meaningful, and fill each moment with the richness you deserve.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

What you know you must

It doesn't really matter what other people say or think about you. Go ahead and do what you know is best.

The disappointments of the past are no big deal, and your fears of the future exist only in your imagination. Step forward and do what you know you must do.

The excuses are so tired and worn out that they've become meaningless. Let them go, and let yourself take effective, productive, meaningful action.

Your dreams are calling you forward. Your highest vision of what life can be is yours precisely because you are the person who can bring it about.

When there's a rich and shining dream on the inside, and you're making your way toward it, life feels great. Even the pains and disappointments cannot bring you down, because you know they're mere waypoints on the journey to the fulfillment you seek.

This moment right now is your opportunity to do what you know you must. This moment right now is the next step on the path to your most treasured dream.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Achieve today

Achievement is not complicated, and it is easily within your reach. Achievement is as close as your next action.

You are made to make a difference, and you have a constant desire to make a difference. So instead of sulking, instead of complaining, instead of filling your thoughts with empty wishes, fill your time with purposeful effort and make that difference.

Now is when achievement can happen, yet it doesn't just happen on its own. Take the first little step, feel how good and right it feels, and suddenly you're making it happen.

There's nothing to be gained by waiting for the perfect time or the perfect conditions. Now is the perfect time because it is the time you have.

You can transform today into meaningful achievement, or you can transform it into painful regret. Make the effort to make the achievement happen, and you'll thank yourself over and over again.

Achieve today, because you can and because it will lift your whole world higher. Achieve today, and experience life at its best.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Embrace freedom

As beautiful and as powerful as it is, freedom is also a frightening thing. Because freedom demands your very best.

It's much easier to be dependent, and much easier to just give up. It's tempting to simply turn your troubles and your responsibilities over to someone else.

If you were to do that, however, nothing worth having would be left for you. If you turn your back on your freedom, you turn your back on the unique and essential beauty of who you are.

To live with freedom, independence, self-sufficiency and responsibility takes great effort, commitment, persistence and strength. Yet what it yields is the far greater experience of a rich and fulfilling life.

True freedom is a lot of work, and true freedom is worth every bit of it. It is in making the decisions, and in making the effort, and in living your own unique dreams that you achieve the life you truly long to live.

Though real freedom can be a little frightening, run out and embrace it with everything you have. For in that freedom, your highest and best possibilities are ready to come magnificently to life.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Why to persist

Don't get bogged down looking for a way to persist. Just make sure you're absolutely clear on why you have chosen to persist.

When there is an authentic why, there is true motivation. When there is a real, solid meaningful why, there is action.

Many times that action won't initially bring the desired results. When that happens, the most effective response is more action that's been informed and adjusted as a result of the previous attempt.

Even if you have no clue what to do, the way to learn is to do something and discover what happens. And the thing that will get you to do something, and then to do more, is knowing why.

There is no secret technique to discipline. There is no closely guarded insider information on how to persist.

You already know how to start, and how to keep going, and how to persist until you achieve the objective. To utilize that knowledge and that discipline, all you have to do is to truly know why.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Choose excellence

How do you achieve excellence? By doing the right thing.

Excellence is the result of caring about what you do, and of putting your very best effort into what you care about. Excellence is an outward expression of inner integrity, and few things are more valuable than that.

Excellence is a choice you always have the option of making. Whatever your level of skill, whatever resources are available, you can take what you have and move forward with excellence.

Excellence is a product of your attitude. Excellence is a product of your passion and commitment.

A life devoted to excellence is not easy, and can at times be frustrating and painful. Yet a life without excellence is even worse, because the pain of regret for what could have been is a pain that never ceases.

If you're going to spend the time and do the work anyway, choose to do it with excellence. Excellence is an investment that continues to pay dividends long after the effort has been made.

 

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2011 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 4,500 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.