Daily Motivator - February

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February 13

Seek to understand

You know the facts. Do you understand the reasons?

You know what it does. Do you understand how and why?

Knowledge is power. Understanding carries knowledge even further, to become transformative.

You’re eager to find out what’s going on. Let that enthusiasm inspire you to put in the work so you understand all that’s behind what’s going on.

It matters little what you have, if you don’t also have understanding. The whys of life extend deep and wide, and the more of them you’re acquainted with, the more effective you’ll be.

The story that’s obvious has many other stories supporting it. Delve into those stories and seek to understand all you can.

— Ralph Marston

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February 14

Fresh inspiration

Don’t wait to be inspired before you do the work. Get involved in the work and your inspiration will begin to flow.

A lack of inspiration never serves as a good excuse for avoiding action. Because it’s action that will bring fresh inspiration into your life.

Get curious, get active, become involved, step up to the challenges. And you’ll soon find yourself with an abundance of inspiration.

Inspiration is not some mysterious force that randomly appears and disappears. Look back on your experiences, and you’ll clearly see that inspiration is the result of the way you live.

So when you feel uninspired, that’s your way of telling yourself to get busy. Start with gratitude for the opportunities you have, put some effort behind that gratitude, and new inspiration comes your way.

At any point in time you’re just moments away from being positively inspired. Act as though you’re inspired, and you truly will be.

— Ralph Marston

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February 15

More positive future

You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Yet you do know what you can get done today to keep yourself strong and prepared.

You cannot anticipate the exact details of all the challenges and opportunities that will come your way. What you can do is become skilled at working through different kinds of challenges and capitalizing on various opportunities.

The future will surprise you in unforeseen ways. The more capable and experienced you are, the better you’ll be able to handle those surprises.

Someday you’ll be thankful for the skills you’ve learned, the relationships you’ve nurtured, the wisdom you’ve accumulated. Though you can’t be sure about the days to come, there’s plenty you can do right now to make those days more positive and fulfilling.

What choices and efforts in your past have proven to enhance your life today? What actions and priorities right now are likely to bring similar value in the future?

The quality of your life is something that unfolds over time. What you do now has a lasting impact, so decide on it accordingly.

— Ralph Marston

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February 16

Dialing down your desire

A certain amount of ambition is healthy and beneficial. But don’t let your ambition blind you to the value of what’s already yours.

Yes, you can always desire more, always think of ways to improve your life, your situation, and the lives of those around you. Yet it’s also good to enjoy, appreciate, and fulfill the potential of what you already have.

Perhaps today is not perfect, not completely ideal. Nonetheless, it is here right now, here for you to live.

Instead of obsessing over what would make it better, you could focus on what makes it good. You could dial down your desire and simply enjoy your reality.

Maybe you could simply let yourself be happy and content for a while. After all, you’ve put much time and effort into getting here, and you deserve a little enjoyment.

The challenges will continue to arrive, and it’s good that you’ll continue to have plenty of ambition to deal with them. Yet it’s also good, every now and then, to give that ambition a rest, and to enjoy being the beautiful person you are.

— Ralph Marston

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February 17

Good connections

There are some things you can do well in isolation. Yet there’s so much more you can accomplish when you’re connected with other people, places, concepts, and forces in the world around you.

Whether it’s physical, emotional, intellectual, through finance or technology or countless other means, connection has great value. Consider all the connections you have, and the many more that are possible for you.

You benefit from connections to ideas, people, places, facts, processes, and so much more. The more richly connected you are, the more richness you have in your life.

The best connections require effort, discipline, time and resources. Yet as difficult as they may be to initiate and maintain, good, solid, honest connections bring great benefit to life.

Do the work to discover and develop new connections. Offer your time and energy to sustain, expand, and re-invigorate all the good connections you’ve already made.

The ability to connect is one of your most valuable abilities. Find and establish those good connections that make your actions more effective and your experiences more fulfilling.

— Ralph Marston

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February 18

Enduring purpose

Following purpose is more work than pursuing pleasure. Yet a devotion to purpose can bring much greater value, particularly over time.

In and of itself, pleasure is desirable, enjoyable, and can be harmless. Yet the constant, unbroken pursuit of pleasure deprives you of opportunities for more valuable and productive activities.

With the future by its very nature filled with uncertainty, it might seem that living for the moment is the smartest choice. There is, however, an even better choice.

You can live in the moment, and indeed live very well in each moment, while also living for an enduring purpose that transcends the moment. You can invest in the future while also finding satisfaction and enjoyment in the present.

No matter how much you possess or experience, no amount of pleasure can sustain you. At some point you will be forced to call upon purpose, and the more of it you’ve seeded into your life, the better.

As you enjoy the blessings of each day, seek ways to employ them toward meaningful, purposeful ends. Give your life the power of endurance that can only come with purpose.

— Ralph Marston

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February 19

Balance distraction and focus

Distraction and focus both have their places. Whatever you seek to do can benefit from a healthy balance between allowing distractions and imposing focus.

Distraction brings thoughts to mind that you would never otherwise think. Focus gives you the time and mental space to assemble those random thoughts into coherent ideas.

If you notice your thoughts circling repeatedly over the same ground, perhaps it’s time for some distraction. When your thoughts dance away in one disparate, disconnected direction after another, escape the distractions and seek focus.

Your mind thrives on stimulation and it also thrives on quiet nurturing. Offer it plenty of both, in balanced measure.

Provide your spirit with the thrill of excitement and discovery as well as the satisfaction of deep contemplation. Quench your curiosity with distraction and appease your purpose with focus.

A well-honed sense of balance is key to so much of life’s richness. Learn to mediate between distraction and focus, and reap the benefits of both.

— Ralph Marston

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February 20

Good options

It happens to everyone at certain times. Even the most highly skilled and accomplished people have difficult, disappointing, unproductive seasons.

When it happens to you, whether for a few hours, a week, or longer, your best response is not to wallow in despair and self pity. Of course you know that, yet even so the temptation for such can be strong.

What you can do, though, is catch yourself before that temptation does, and provide yourself some sensible encouragement. Offer a reminder that although plenty of things have gone wrong, you have good options for moving forward.

It may take a while before your fortunes turn around. Nonetheless, you can spend every moment of that time going in a positive direction.

Discouragement might be warranted, but it won’t get you anything good. So turn your focus toward thoughts, actions, ideas and connections that do offer promise.

Wherever you happen to be coming from, you can point yourself toward where you want to be, and re-commit yourself to getting there. Today is an excellent opportunity to do exactly that.

— Ralph Marston