Monday, April 30, 2012
Beyond the challenge
Certainly there are challenges facing you. To get yourself successfully through them, make sure you have a strong, meaningful, compelling reason.
Imagine, with all the richness you can give it, how good life will be on the other side of the challenge. Let your imagination give good, solid purpose to the strength that will carry you beyond the challenge.
When your authentic purpose is aligned with your efforts, you will absolutely find a way to be highly effective in those efforts. You'll have the strength and ability to innovate, adjust, improve and persist for as long as necessary to get the job done.
Before the journey even begins, use your imagination to immerse your mind and spirit in the rewards waiting at the end of that journey. The more vibrantly you visualize and relate to the goal, the more energy you'll have to get there.
Though it may be extremely challenging, there is a path from here to there. Connect solidly with your purpose for getting there, and you will soon have worked yourself successfully beyond the challenge.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Something magnificent
Today, you have the power to think and act and live as you choose. Choose to focus your thoughts on the positive possibilities and to live with real meaning and fulfillment.
It is only a convenient illusion that life seems to happen to you. In fact, the life that matters is the life that happens from you and through you.
Live this day from the perspective of authentic purpose, and nothing can keep you down. Use the grand opportunity of this moment to more fully be the beautiful, unique person you truly are.
You are alive and aware and filled with a vision of how life can be when it is at its best. Feel the rightness of your purpose and live it with everything you have.
Today, life's abundance and limitless possibilities stretch out in every direction. Today, you can make it all into something magnificent and uniquely you.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Worth living
You experience life in a way that's unlike anyone else. You have things to say that can benefit everyone else.
You have dreams, visions, and values that can make a real difference in the world. You can give love and joy and meaning to every moment you're in.
You can make a difference today. You can make life worth living by the way you live it.
You are a priceless, unique expression of what it means to be. Through the focus of your existence, all of existence is brought to life in a way that has no equal.
Live this day with joy and richness and substance and love. Show all of life, in fresh new ways in every moment, why it is so very much worth living.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Practice creates mastery
If you seek to do it well, then do it often. There is nothing that can take the place of practice.
Do you wish to be more confident in unfamiliar situations? Then transform them into familiar situations by rehearsing them in advance, with lots of practice.
There are some things your mind remembers, and then there are those things remembered by the entirety of your being. Practice instills that powerful holistic form of memory.
Sure, it can be immensely frustrating when you're not as skilled as you'd like to be. Make use of that frustration by channeling its energy into determination, and with that determination, practice.
Practice winning, practice losing, practice making the effort, practice peacefully accepting disappointment and gracefully accepting success. Every time you practice, you make yourself that much better.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Keep moving
Don't use success as an excuse to rest on your accomplishments. Don't use failure as an excuse to give up.
Whatever has happened before, your best choice now is to keep moving, keep learning, keep making the effort, and keep improving. Build new value with what does work, and accumulate valuable experience from what doesn't work.
When you realize you've been distracted and wandered off course, don't let it get you down. Just accept where you are, figure out the best way forward, and quickly get going again.
When you're standing still or being pushed backward, you have no control over what happens to you. Keep moving, because the way to control your direction is to have some direction, and the more assertively you move, the more control you have.
Life's abundance is all around you, and each day brings new opportunities for fulfillment. Use every day to keep moving, and bring your best possibilities to life.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Open-ended experience
If you allow others to define you, then you enable them to control you. Choose instead to take full responsibility for your own life, and to do whatever is necessary to bring real fulfillment.
The world will throw all sorts of assumptions your way about what is possible and what is not possible. Look beyond the presumptions and limitations that others imagine, and connect with your own highest vision of how life can be.
The fact is, you can achieve what you set your mind and your efforts to achieve, with honor, integrity and joy. Life is an open-ended experience, and the results you achieve come from what you expect to achieve and what you work to achieve.
Certainly, you can be fruitfully guided by the past experiences in your own life and in the lives of others. Yet nothing about what has already been has to stand in the way of the best you can now be.
Focus less on what others think of you, and more on bringing your own unique beauty more fully to life. Make the commitment to live each moment with richness and authentic purpose, and show all of life how very much goodness you're able to give.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Now and later
Sure there are momentary pleasures that will have a negative impact on your future. Yet you can fully enjoy this moment without resorting to those empty, fleeting pleasures.
Yes, there are responsibilities you must tend to right now in order to create a more positive future. But there's no need to feel burdened or oppressed by them.
In fact, one of the best ways to enjoy the present moment is by being productive and creative and focused on a meaningful positive purpose. Instead of filling your moments with shallow pleasures that will soon be gone, you can fill your life with deep, profound joy that will continue to grow stronger.
Being disciplined and responsible toward your own future is not really a sacrifice at all. When you continue to remind yourself of the value of what you're doing, it is a constant source of satisfaction and abiding richness.
Make the choices that will enrich your future while also drinking in every bit of the richness of right now. Live with authentic positive presence and purpose, and you can have it all.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Achievement is in you
Your dream is beautiful. Let it compel you to bring it to life.
You are highly skilled at making things happen. So choose to take the best things you can imagine, and to make them real.
This day will come and go, whether you do anything with it or not. So decide right now to do every good thing you can imagine with it while it is here.
Don't be ashamed that your dream is too big or too small or too quirky or too difficult to explain. Just get busy with that authentic dream, and find great delight and fulfillment in making it happen.
There is beautiful, valuable, unique achievement in you, longing to be expressed. Make this the moment you give in to that longing, and make your whole world a more wonderful place.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Run toward the efforts
You have a fundamental, driving desire to matter, to make a significant difference. Effort is what gives you the opportunity to do that.
The obstacles, problems and challenges will demand great and sustained efforts from you. And through those efforts you can bring immense value to your world.
Your efforts have brought you to where you are today. The quality of your life is driven primarily by the quality and quantity of your efforts.
The necessity of effort is not a burden, but rather is a powerful opportunity. For it is through your efforts that you express and fulfill your most treasured purposes, desires and dreams.
Instead of fighting the efforts, embrace them and enthusiastically seek out many more. Run toward the efforts, and reap life's most valuable and meaningful rewards.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Choose enjoyment
Whatever you do, you do more effectively when you're enjoying it. Enjoyment makes you more interested and more interesting, more engaged and more engaging.
The enjoyment you put into your own life spills out into the lives of those around you. And the more enjoyment you give to life, the more you have to offer.
Even in moments of sadness, you can enjoy how that very sadness focuses you on what truly matters most. Even in times of disappointment, you can enjoy the powerful sense of determination you feel to get to work and make things better.
Enjoyment gives you the power to fully accept what is, and then to make the very best of it. Enjoyment is a profound gift you can continually give to yourself and to all of life.
Choose to put real, sincere enjoyment into this day. Choose enjoyment, and give power to your best possibilities.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Gratitude in action
It's nice to be appreciative. It's even better to put that appreciation into action by being creative and productive.
Life is overwhelmingly abundant. The way to enjoy and benefit from that abundance is by putting it to purposeful use.
In this place, in this moment, you are a vital steward of life's great abundance. You have the opportunity, and the responsibility, of transforming that abundance into unique value.
Whatever may be going on in your world, be truly thankful for it. And then put that gratitude into action by making a positive difference.
Life's goodness is not meant to be hidden away and hoarded. Life's goodness is best used for making even more.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
When you are willing
There is nothing to be gained by filling yourself with despair about what is or what has been. Empower yourself by letting go of the need to pity yourself.
No matter where you have come from or where you are, right now you can take a positive, productive step forward. Right now you can choose to create value instead of excuses.
The best opportunities require effort and commitment and persistence. And the great thing is, you're absolutely capable of making the commitment, of putting forth the effort, and of persisting for as long as necessary.
You are indeed capable of transforming even the most difficult situation into bright, shining, meaningful richness and joy. The thing you must decide in every moment is, are you willing?
Be willing, and live up to your beautiful, unique potential. Be willing to join forces with your best possibilities and to show life how great it can be.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Get it finished
Are there other things you'd rather be doing? Go ahead, finish what you've started, and then you can more fully enjoy moving on to those other things.
Don't waste your time wishing for it to be easier, or resenting that you must get it done. Stop fighting against your own effort, and put all your energy into getting the job finished.
Give your perspective a positive boost with some effective, productive effort. Follow through on your intentions and commitments, and get it done.
It was important enough for you to start, so go ahead and get it finished. Get it finished, and bring new value to your world.
Accomplishment feels so much better than idleness, wishful thinking or resentment. Make the effort, tackle the challenges, get it finished, and enjoy some good, solid, fulfilling accomplishment along the way.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Real richness
If you feel you are impoverished it is not because you are impoverished. It is because you refuse to see and to participate in your great fortune.
The way the world defines wealth is trivial and inconsequential compared to the immense richness of your life. Wake up to this priceless moment and to the true and boundless value in which you are immersed.
There is no limit to the number of possibilities. There is no end to the beauty.
As big as the biggest problems may seem, they are nothing when compared to the positive possibilities. Those possibilities connect you to every good thing you could ever imagine.
Focus your awareness on what is good, on what is right, and on the great fortune that is your existence. Live the real richness that is now.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Needless needs
Remember, just because everyone else has some particular thing, does not mean you need it too. Just because someone says you need something, doesn't mean you really need it.
If you're being held back by the need to satisfy your needs, stop and ask yourself a key question about each one. Do you really need it?
Life can be difficult, and yet there's no sense in adding to the burden. Instead of assuming more and more needs, choose to question those needs.
Live more by intention, and less by reaction. Put your time and effort into those things that create real fulfillment for your life, rather than into needless needs.
Choose your own priorities, based on what's most important to you. Let go of the need to need so much, and free yourself to live life at its authentic best.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Sincerely caring
Sincerely caring about others isn't just a matter of being nice and agreeable. In fact, when you truly care you often must disagree, even if it would be much easier to just be nice.
There are times when the most loving and compassionate thing you can say is no. There are times when the most respectful and considerate response is to disagree.
Challenging people to do their best is much more empowering than letting them get by with halfhearted efforts. Helping people to become self sufficient is much more generous than letting them become dependent on your generosity, though it is also much more difficult.
Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do for someone is to hold that person accountable. One of the most valuable things you can give to another person is the opportunity, difficult as it may be, to grow stronger, more capable and more dependable.
The world cries out for caring people, yet merely being nice and generous is not enough. Care enough to respect, to positively challenge, to insist on nothing less than the best, and permanently raise those you care about to a higher level of living.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Be inspiring
Certainly there are many things in life that can lead you and prompt you to be inspired. However, even without any positive factors in the outside world, you can be positively inspired.
Inspiration is a powerful fire that burns on the inside. Sometimes there's nothing else to ignite that fire, so you must do it yourself.
Sometimes life's experience doesn't validate or encourage your most deeply held values. But that's not any reason to abandon those values.
Instead of always depending on the world to inspire you, choose to be a brilliant, positive source of inspiration yourself. The spark of inspiration must begin somewhere, so if life seems to lack inspiration, let that spark begin with you.
The most reliable way to be inspired is to be inspiring. Feel the simple, yet profound joy of being, and let your positive spirit shine a light that lifts up all those around you.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Small improvements
Small improvements are easy to make, and they can make a big difference. The key is to keep making them, to continue improving on the improvements.
Are you frustrated because you're not as effective as you'd like to be? You can begin to change that right now, and put an end to your frustration.
Accept that you can't instantly get all the way to maximum effectiveness. Yet you can very realistically make one small, easy improvement after another.
Don't worry about how you will get a whole lot better. Just find a way, right now, to get a little bit better.
Make a small, easily accessible improvement, and then make another, and another. Soon, you'll be much further ahead than you ever could have imagined.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Decide
Decide that there are valuable opportunities in the challenges, and you'll find those opportunities. Decide to make a positive difference, and you'll have what is necessary to do so.
There are many factors in life over which you have no direct control. And yet even with those things, you can decide how to handle them.
Decide to live and work and play from a perspective of love and gratitude. Decide to greet each day, each moment, and each new situation with a determination to make the world a better place.
Life is a continuous series of choices. Decide where you want those choices to lead, and put yourself on your own path to fulfillment.
When you know what you desire, you'll find plenty of opportunities to bring it about. Decide to live the very best life you can imagine, and delight in making it happen.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
An active role
Life is rich and fulfilling. In every moment, take an active role.
What you put off until later, becomes more difficult and less effective the longer you wait. Now is the time you have, so use it for all it's worth.
Move beyond your need to make judgments about what has already happened. Peacefully and confidently let go of your fears and anxieties about what may or may not happen.
Fully appreciate all that's going on in this wondrous world, but don't just sit back and watch it happen. Jump in, get positively involved, and make life happen in the way you know is best.
Celebrate and participate in the joys along with the challenges, for it all comes together to make life great. Take an active role, and bring your very own greatness to life.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Push yourself forward
Your own thoughts, assumptions and fears can hold you back just as surely as a solid brick wall. And yet, just as you created those self-imposed obstacles, you can let them go.
Instead of fighting against yourself, use the amazing power of your thoughts to more fully enable yourself. Instead of constructing elaborate excuses for avoiding your dreams, just go ahead and let yourself live those dreams.
Yes, life is difficult and challenging, and requires great effort and commitment on your part. Instead of adding to the difficulty with your own negativity, you can choose to enthusiastically transform that difficulty into profound fulfillment.
Remind yourself what a privilege it is to be alive, and to be able to make a difference. Then, focus your awareness on the positive possibilities and do what you do best.
Use your thoughts not to hold yourself back, but to push yourself positively and lovingly forward. Aim the power of your thoughts in a positive, fulfilling direction and your whole life will go in that direction too.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Joyful effort
Sometimes it is difficult to be joyful about what you're doing. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.
Remember that the joy doesn't come from the effort itself. Any joy you feel is joy you choose to feel, that comes from within you and flows outward.
Even the most mundane task can be an occasion for joy. Because every moment of life provides you with the opportunity to express your own joy.
You don't have to be naive or in denial to feel joyful. All you have to do is choose to live and work with joy.
Give yourself and your efforts the gift of real joy. Not only will you be more effective, you'll also feel great, no matter what you might be doing.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Promise yourself
Promise yourself that you will be yourself, in a truly loving, authentic and effective way, in all that you do. Promise yourself you won't waste your valuable time on useless anger, resentment, envy or worry.
Remind yourself what an extraordinary opportunity you have on even the most ordinary of days. Show yourself how great and fulfilling life can be with the way you choose to live each moment.
Give yourself good and compelling reasons to get up each day and get going in a positive and productive manner. Give yourself great, wonderful, special dreams that are absolutely worth living for.
Allow yourself to see the value and beauty in every situation. Tell yourself, again and again, how fortunate you are to be able to zero in on the positive possibilities and use them to make a real difference in life.
Fill yourself with joy and enthusiasm as you greet each dawning day. And promise yourself to make each one rich and truly meaningful in your own unique way.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Be good to life
Decide precisely and specifically what would make life great. Then get busy making it happen.
It's not your fault that life is often so difficult. It is, however, your responsibility to deal with those difficulties that affect your world.
The challenges, unfair situations and injustices do not excuse you from your responsibility to make a difference. In fact, they compel you to act and to create meaningful value.
If you can find things to complain about, then you can also find ways to improve your world. Let go of the need to complain, and work instead on bringing the improvements to life.
As many problems as there are, there are even more positive possibilities. Grab the best of those possibilities, be good to life, and enjoy how good life is for you.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Build a life
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Get in the habit of seeking new and meaningful challenges.
Don't just give lip service to the things that matter most in your life. Invest yourself fully in building and growing and supporting those things with your time, your effort, and your passion.
A life that is easy and predictable is a waste of your best possibilities. Get out there, jump in, get involved and make the commitment to your highest vision of what life can be.
Don't merely care about what you care about. Do something about what you care about, in a way that is positive, substantive, and makes a lasting difference.
Move beyond observation, curiosity and empty wishes, and do what it takes to manifest your vision and your dreams into magnificent, rock-solid reality. Every moment is your opportunity to build a life that's rich and full, so take a deep breath, aim for the stars, and make it happen.
-- Ralph Marston
Copyright (c) 2012 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.