Understanding why

If you have the desire but lack the skill, the strength of your desire will push you to develop whatever skill you must have. But if you have skill and no desire toward which to use it, that skill won't do you any good.

The desire to achieve is what drives achievement. Other factors are important, yet without sufficient desire the achievement will not happen.

Before you focus on how you will do it, be sure you're clear about why you must do it. Before you gather the tools and resources, gather your thoughts and feelings about exactly what purpose you intend to fulfill.

Competence and effectiveness come from knowing what and how. The driving energy to persist comes from understanding why.

You must have passion to successfully work through all the obstacles that stand in your way. And that passion comes from purpose.

The most fundamental necessity of any undertaking is to understand why. Once you know why, the power of your purpose will put all the other pieces into place and bring the achievement to life.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Naturally positive

Taking a positive approach to life will bring many rich rewards. Yet forcing yourself to be positive is not the way to get there.

Forcing yourself to be positive is not being positive. Fighting against negativity is not being positive.

When you merely try to be positive, your focus is on the trying and not on any actual positive substance. The very act of trying to be positive is a clear sign that you're not.

Instead, allow yourself to be naturally positive by experiencing, in your mind or in your world, what you truly love. Let go of the striving and let love be.

If positive thinking is just another item on your list of things to do, it won't bring you any real value. Instead of making it a chore to be positive, just give it room and reason to easily and naturally grow within you.

Seek less judgment and feel more joy. Be naturally positive and authentically empowered.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Beyond stuck

You are capable of much more than just getting by. You have it in you to prosper and to triumph.

If you feel stuck where you are, that means your dreams haven't been big enough or meaningful enough to push you persistently forward. Use that uncomfortable feeling of being stuck as motivation to expand and to solidly connect with your most authentic dreams.

Take full responsibility for what you've done and for where you are. Then take full responsibility and make the commitment to fulfill your most valuable and treasured possibilities.

Painful circumstances and periods of misfortune can be very difficult, but they're not what have held you back. What has held you back is that you've chosen to ignore or discount your most compelling reasons for moving forward.

If you feel stuck, that means you are ready. That means you know deep within that you must do whatever it takes to bring your dreams to life.

Reach inside, touch your true dreams, feel your authentic purpose, and step boldly forward. There's no reason to be stuck for one moment longer.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Subjective reality

If you're having a difficult day, is it the day itself that's difficult? No, it is the way you perceive and interpret the events of the day that make it feel so difficult.

Remember that you can always change your perception. You can always choose the way you interpret and respond to whatever happens in your world.

Those who make a habit of achieving great things operate within exactly the same objective reality as everyone else. What sets achievers apart is a more positive, empowering subjective reality that they create with their own perceptions.

Much of what happens in the world is out of your control. Yet all of what you do about whatever happens is yours to choose, to direct and to perform as you please.

Decide to see yourself as empowered by events, and you will naturally take empowering, effective actions. Focus your subjective reality around the values and goals that are truly meaningful to you, and through that reality you can employ those values to achieve those goals.

Look at life with a positive, purposeful perspective. And make reality work for you.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Live life now

The joy and fulfillment you seek, are here now for you to experience. If you are not fully present in this moment, when will you ever be?

Don't waste another minute by waiting for conditions to improve. The opportunity to live the best day of your life is here and now.

Embrace this moment just as it is, and taste its richness. Step confidently forward just as you are, and fully live life now.

Obsessing over what could have been or what should have been won't bring you any value. Following your positive purpose in this moment is what will create value.

You are now free from all the limitations you had imposed on yourself in the past. You can now see your best possibilities and act to fulfill them.

There is so much richness right here and now. Open yourself to the beautiful experience that is yours to fulfill.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Actions take over

Doubt is a gateway to fear. A small, trivial doubt, repeated again and again, and considered from many different angles, can soon grow into a nearly insurmountable fear.

Doubt can be very reasonable, yet it's not a good idea to reason with it. For whether you argue against your doubt or whether you argue for it, in both cases you make that doubt stronger.

Instead, simply notice your doubts, and then quickly move on. If you have the thought that you can't do something, allow that thought for a moment and then get busy proving it wrong with your actions.

Doubts are born in your thoughts, and as you dwell on them they grow more influential in your mind. So stop thinking of why you can't and start taking action to show how you can.

One small positive action is much more powerful than the most elaborately constructed doubt. Because once you do something, you absolutely know you can, and doubt has no way to stand up to certainty.

Whatever it is you doubt you can do, begin to do it. And watch the doubt quickly dissolve into meaninglessness as your actions take over.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.

Step into the challenge

The more you do, the more you're able to do. Your abilities grow stronger as you use them, so your best strategy is to get busy and use them.

The feeling that you cannot do something is often powerful, and can feed upon itself. The way to get beyond it is with action.

Any project you contemplate may at first seem overwhelming. That's understandable, because you haven't even taken the first step.

Once you take that first step, though, the challenge begins to feel more manageable. As soon as you actually begin the effort, you also begin to get better at doing it.

When the mountain is in the distance, it's difficult to imagine how you could climb it. Once you're on the path up the mountain, though, you'll always be able to easily see the next step and take it.

Go ahead and begin the effort. Amaze yourself by discovering how very much you can do.

-- Ralph Marston

Copyright (c) 2010 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. From The Daily Motivator at http://greatday.com where you will find an archive of more than 3,000 positive messages plus books, CDs, motivational videos and more. Permission is given to post online only if this entire notice is included.