Daily Motivator - February

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February 16

Dive into the richness

What will awaken your sense of adventure? What will energize your desire to make a difference?

What will re-ignite in you the feeling of wonder regarding all that is possible? Whatever it is, wherever you must go, whomever you must talk with, whatever challenge you must tackle, do it.

If you’re not thrilled with life’s possibilities, you’re not paying enough attention. If you’re not acting on the best of those possibilities, you’re letting opportunity and value and fulfillment slip through your fingers.

Wake up to what you already know is there. Make plenty of room in your life for the wonder that is your life.

You have much more power and ability than you’ve been using lately. Set your sights on a purpose that will entice your best efforts out of you, consistently and persistently.

Life is your immense treasure and the challenge to live it well is your great ally. Now, dive into the richness.

— Ralph Marston

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February 17

Select your experiences

Thoughtfully select your experiences rather than grabbing indiscriminately at everything in reach. Don’t limit your possibilities, but don’t dilute yourself either.

To experience everything at once is to experience nothing at all. Just because you can have a thousand simultaneous thrills, doesn’t make it a fulfilling way to live.

Give value to whatever you’re doing by giving sustained focus and care to it. Much of what makes anything in life good is your ability to invest yourself in it.

The quality of each experience is based not only on what you do, but also on what you refrain from doing. Give each moment of your life the respect and love it deserves by not cramming it full of worthless rubble.

Quantity becomes a burden if there’s no quality in it. Say yes to quality experience by saying no to all that would detract from it.

Resist the urge to spread your limited time across every option. Step aside from the fear of missing out on this other thing or that, and give yourself the joy of a focused and meaningful experience.

— Ralph Marston

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February 18

Positive example

Your degree of honesty affects not only you, not only those with whom you interact, but everyone. Your values, acted upon again and again, underpin the values of society at large.

No person, no group, no predetermined process, decides what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Yet these questions do get decided, every day, by the way every person lives.

Your beneficial behavior goes far beyond you, in distance and in time. Every day you change the world, not by your intention to do so, but by the way you choose to live.

What actions would you take if you knew your whole world was taking its cues from you? In a very real way, that’s exactly what happens.

The way you live comes back to you, in places and times and flavors impossible to imagine. Your behavior contributes to the standard of behavior for everyone.

Everything you do sets an example. It’s in your best interest, and everyone’s best interest, to be the most positive example you can be.

— Ralph Marston

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February 19

Will you?

You’ve told yourself for so long that you can’t. And now it’s really true.

But you could. If you would.

You’ve assembled so many excuses, put it off so many times. Even after all that though, you can do it, if you will.

The world, it seems, is against you. And no one is willing to give you a break.

No one, that is, except you. And despite all the other factors, your choice, your commitment to make it happen, that’s what really matters.

So today, finally, after all this time, will you? Your future is in your hands.

— Ralph Marston

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February 20

Heritage

You come from a long line of survivors. Every one of your ancestors survived long enough to raise at least one child.

For vast stretches of time, that kind of survival was rare and hard won. It required strength, vision, intelligence, flexibility, care, compassion, and a massive measure of persistence.

You have all that embedded deep within, passed from generation to generation. You are, literally and undeniably, the product of thousands of the most successful people who ever lived.

And here’s something even better to consider. Right now, today, you live among billions of other people with a similarly successful heritage.

In such a situation, the possibilities for progress are staggering. Though the problems of the moment can seem overwhelming, they pale in comparison to the potential for goodness and value.

Real people successfully traversed countless centuries of brutal challenges in order for you to enjoy this moment. When deciding what you can do, when choosing what you will do, be sure to keep that in mind.

— Ralph Marston

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February 21

True betterment

Give yourself some love. Give your world some goodness.

Fortify your words, thoughts, actions, with truth. Invigorate your relationships with thoughtfulness, with kindness.

Refresh your sense of purpose by choosing what is good, just because it is good. Find great joy in life’s beauty without needing to possess it, or control it, or consume it.

Leave behind the weariness of struggling to keep up deceptive appearances. Feel the sweet relief of allowing authenticity.

Carry hope into dark corners where it has been missing for too long. Allow peace to settle upon ground that has been exhausted by strife.

With your choices, your perspective, your energy, enable life to flourish at its highest level. Envision true betterment, for yourself, for all, and let your life be its faithful advocate.

— Ralph Marston

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February 22

Untapped potential

Many challenges, you could have risen to more effectively. Many moments, you could have lived more sensibly.

Now, let them teach you, inspire you, improve you. For regardless of what you may have squandered, you have useful, meaningful progress to make.

Today you can make fruitful use of the wisdom you’ve earned. In your current situation lives the opportunity to fulfill your untapped potential.

You’re certain you could have done better. So now, discover how much better.

Pain and joy have taught you what works and what doesn’t, what’s meaningful and worthwhile, and what isn’t. With love, with sincerity, put that great store of wisdom into action.

With gratitude for what has been, for what can now be, dive into your untapped potential. And from its depths bring new and wondrous richness.

— Ralph Marston

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February 23

Seasons

The cool of autumn is a welcome respite from summer’s heat. The warmth of spring is a promise that winter has gone away.

Spring would not be so glorious without the winter that precedes it. Autumn would not be so welcome if the heat of summer had not grown so wearisome.

A new season is always on the way, and with it, changes, opportunities, risks, promises, mystery. In every season you’ll find new joys to live, work to be done, progress to be made, greetings as well as goodbyes.

Life changes, for that is its very nature. Nothing you can do will stop the changes that come with each season, and you wouldn’t want to anyway.

In those changes, as inconvenient, difficult, and painful as they can often be, is the glorious substance of living. In every change is your chance to make a change for the better.

Let the relentless progression of the seasons inspire your own unrelenting progress, your own rewarding changes. Live with more purpose, love, kindness and generosity, filled with a joy that no passing season can take away.

— Ralph Marston

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February 24

Increasing gratitude

Gratitude multiplies your possibilities. It compels you to see more than you’d otherwise see.

Extend your gratitude beyond limited, specific things. Seek to create an abiding perspective of gratitude that applies to everything.

Be thankful, and then be thankful for being able to be thankful. As you ascend in gratitude, your view of life’s abundance becomes more expansive, more enlightened, more effective.

With sufficient gratitude, what once would have appeared as an obstacle snaps clearly into focus as an advantage. What once would have drained you, now energizes you.

Find new ways to be thankful. And you’ll surely create new pathways to success.

Make it your intention to live with increasing gratitude. Your experience of richness and fulfillment will keep pace.

— Ralph Marston

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February 25

Your best every time

Sometimes you’ll be disappointed that your actions didn’t make more of a difference. Other times, something you didn’t think would matter much, has a major positive impact.

You simply can’t know in advance exactly how things will turn out. What you can do, is give your best every time.

When nobody else notices, you’ll still know you did your best. That’s a valuable thing to know.

If everybody notices, you’ll be thankful you did your best. And so will many others.

Many factors, you can’t anticipate or control. Yet you can control the quality of your efforts, to great benefit.

Give your best every time. No matter what happens later, you’ve made the smartest choice.

— Ralph Marston

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February 26

Only now

Some of the opportunities you have today, you may not have again for a very long time, if ever. Treasure them, appreciate them, live them now when you can.

When you’re able to make a difference, make it. When you’re able to give kindness, give it.

Looking back from tomorrow, or a year in the future, what will you wish you had done today? Right now is your one chance to make that wish come true.

What, also, will you wish you had refrained from doing? That’s another wish you can fulfill in advance, right now.

This is when your life is lived. This is when you give love and value to all you love and value.

Make the time, do the work, go to the trouble. Today’s opportunities are yours right now, and only now.

— Ralph Marston

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February 27

Pace yourself

Live with purpose and ambition. But don’t burn yourself out attempting to do everything all the time.

When your efforts have established some good momentum, keep adding to those efforts. But don’t work so hard and fast that you lose sight of who you are.

An email, or text message, or other seemingly urgent interruption, on rare occasion requires your immediate response. Yet the vast majority of them can wait for you to handle at your own pace.

Make good use of your opportunities to get good work done. Then set aside your work for a while, and give yourself plenty of time to just be.

Sure, you can make a little progress very quickly by wearing yourself out. However, you can enjoy much more progress over the long haul when you pace yourself.

Make your work sustainable by caring for the person who does it. Go fast enough to get it done, and slow enough to make it endure.

— Ralph Marston

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February 28

Align with reality

Align yourself with reality. And you’ll empower yourself to successfully deal with that reality.

In this time, in this moment, clearly see the world as it is. Calmly, soberly accept that there are many things you can do nothing to change.

Acknowledge the reality of now, letting go of the need to worry, fret, complain or deny. Then, filled with honest energy, you can set about to create the most positive outcomes.

Your fervent wishes will not change what has already happened. Yet your realistic, committed efforts can absolutely improve how the future unfolds.

Face the truth, face the challenge, face the fear. Feel the great power and effectiveness of a confidence that is based in reality.

Even in the worst of times, opportunities abound, new richness can be created, overwhelming problems addressed. Acknowledge reality, and invest your time and energy in making great improvements to it.

— Ralph Marston

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February 29

Tough times

Every setback is also an opportunity to recover. Every challenge is also a chance to become stronger.

You’ve been successfully dealing with difficult, unexpected developments your whole life. It’s a skill you’ll continue to improve upon, and one that always serves you well.

The path forward is never perfectly straight and unhindered. Its twists and turns give life richness, novelty, and unique character.

Your life has value precisely because it comes at a cost. Each day, each new situation, enables you to bear the cost and add to the value.

You’ve encountered doubts, fears, and challenges before, and successfully worked your way through them. When you come upon them again, remember how effectively you can do what you do.

In the tough times of life are the seeds of its great beauty, joy and fulfillment. Nourish those seeds well, and reap the rewards that surely will come.

— Ralph Marston