August 16

Keep your thoughts real

If you let your mind wander too much, it can wander into some very dark places. Your thoughts can get so far away from reality that your life is impaired.

Yes, keep your mind open, let it run full throttle. But keep it on the pavement of reality.

You can literally think anything you choose to think, and those thoughts build upon one another. There is great power in your thinking, so use that power wisely.

One effective way to keep your thoughts focused where you want them to be focused is to write them down. That forces you to think about your thoughts rather than letting them build into obsessions.

Another useful tactic is to seek the feedback of others. If you have trouble explaining what you’re thinking, perhaps those thoughts are getting outside the bounds of reality.

Your thoughts have great power and influence over your life. Let them soar to the highest heights while also keeping them real.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 17

Fresh breeze

The day is still, hot, sweltering, and suddenly a fresh breeze appears. Think of how the experience can lift your spirit.

So many in this world so often feel despair. Think of how you can be a fresh breeze in the lives of others to ease that despair.

Be the fresh breeze that brings positive energy to a dismal situation. Be the fresh breeze that brings real hope and a change in perspective.

Surprise life with new goodness. Surprise yourself with how good it feels to do so.
Though the temperature is still just as hot, a fresh breeze makes it feel much more tolerable.

Though a positive perspective does not change the situation, it improves where the situation leads.

In an instant a fresh breeze brings relief, a fresh perspective brings hope. Be that fresh breeze, for yourself and for others.

Ralph Marston

August 18

Treat people like people

Empathy makes you a better communicator. Empathy makes you a better person.

Your perspective has value, but it is not the only perspective. Always take the other person’s point of view into consideration.

Don’t assume just because you know it, think it, feel it, that everyone else does too. Nothing ever entitles you to be rude, arrogant, or inconsiderate.

Empathy helps you understand, understanding helps you relate, and positive relationships facilitate real progress. It’s always better to work with others than to work against them.

Empathize, understand, find common ground and common objectives. Remind yourself that the way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.

Whether you’re dealing with a customer, customer service rep, family member or stranger, empathy works wonders. Treat people like people, the way you want to be treated, and they’ll almost always return the favor.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 19

In the midst of it all

Every moment, new flowers bloom. Fresh saplings rise from moist ground, destined to be towering oaks one day.

Around the world, new love takes hold. Through joy and despair, success and setback, love grows stronger.

People you’ll never know work to advance your life in ways you can’t possibly realize. Life continues to gain new knowledge, and even a little wisdom.

On the outside, everyone seems drawn to all things flimsy and superficial. Deep inside grows a longing for meaning, for substance, for making a difference.

Stars, planets, moons, galaxies drift silently, endlessly. Space, time, energy and possibilities have no discernible limit, and then they expand even more.

Here you are in the midst of it all, able to choose what to do. Pause, consider, and make each choice worthy of all that makes it possible.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 20

Your potential

You know what you can do. Are you doing all you can?

You know how capable, how effective you can be. Engage that effectiveness to its fullest extent today.

Life has given you much. Now is your chance to give even more.

Stop wondering where you’ll start, and just start right where you are. Quit asking yourself what you can do, and begin doing what you can.

Rise calmly, confidently above worry, anger, ego and despair. You have good work to do, so experience the satisfaction, the fulfillment of getting it done.

Today, you are new achievement ready to happen, new goodness ready to be born. Now, live up to all your potential.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 21

Eventually, it will

You don’t have to get the desired result from every single effort. Even if just a small percentage of your efforts pay off, you can achieve spectacular success.

There’s no need to get dejected when you take an action and it fails to produce results. Just do it again, and again, until it does bring a positive, valuable outcome.

Often, the way to succeed is to fail enough times. The way to get it right is to get it wrong enough times.

Those who enjoy the most success are also those who have endured a lot of disappointing results. Even when you fall short of the goal, you’re closer to that goal than you were before.

Certainly there’s no reason to purposely seek out disappointing results. But there’s also no reason to let them get you down.

So go ahead, make the effort, even if you’re not sure whether it will produce results. Because eventually, it will.

— Ralph Marston

August 22

In charge

Your situation will never make you happy unless you choose to be happy. All the money in the world cannot change the way you feel until you change the way you feel.

No, your feelings do not alter the circumstances. Yet they radically change what you do with the circumstances.

If you feel optimistic, you will see the opportunities and seize them. If you feel despair, you will find plenty of reasons to confirm your feelings.

So which will it be? How will you choose to see the world, your life, your situation today?

For every person, crafting a life of quality and fulfillment is difficult work. Your attitude determines whether that work results in reward or punishment.

You're in charge of the one factor that decides how to handle all the other factors. Choose the most beneficial outcome by choosing the most positive perspective.

Ralph Marston

August 23

You can make it through

You can make it through this trouble. You can make it through this day.

Don’t take any of it personally. Do take it all in stride.

Fix your focus firmly ahead. Take a steady, solid step forward, then another.

Allow inner strength to flood every chamber of your being, of your awareness. Let love, beauty, possibility inspire you forward.

Join spirit, mind and body in harmony to make good things happen. Embody the progress you seek to make, feeling sweet satisfaction as it drives you to do more.

Life is as it is right now, and you can make it through. Take the steps, do the work, fulfill your promise, for that is what you do best.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 24

What you know is best

Base your decisions on the outcomes you wish to create. Look to the future, to what will happen as a result of what you do, and let the eventual consequences guide you.

If it’s complicated, embarrassing, or inconvenient in the moment, so what? Do what will make the biggest positive difference in the long run.

However difficult this day may be, it will soon be over. For a long time afterward, you’ll live with the consequences of the actions you’ve taken and the ones you’ve avoided.

Doing what’s good, what’s right, what’s valuable, is not usually the easiest choice. Yet when viewed from a future perspective, it’s the best choice.

You can get through the discomfort and inconvenience. Once you do work through it, you’ll be thankful you did.

Position yourself now to be always thankful for the way you live this day. Do what you know is right, and what you know is best.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 25

Generous heart

Live with a generous heart. Walk through the world with a generous spirit.

Care, not just to improve your image, but because you do care. Help, not just to look good, but because it is your nature.

The less you make things about you, the more effective you’ll be. The less you struggle to get your way, the more fulfillment you’ll experience.

Generosity is love translated into action. Let love harness your energy to lift up the world around you.

Feel the positive power of a perspective that extends far beyond you. Let your own generosity illuminate and activate the abundance in which you’re always immersed.

Remind yourself of the beautiful paradox you already know. The best thing you can do for yourself is to do for others, for all.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 26

Drama of the moment

Your anger is justified. But that doesn’t make it any less harmful.

Your frustration is understandable. Even so, it is not your best choice.

Plenty of valid reasons exist for you to be resentful, annoyed, envious, disappointed. Yet you’re better off letting it go and moving on.

Renew your commitment to live by intention, rather than by reaction. Choose to base your thoughts, feelings, actions, priorities on your highest purpose.

Look up, look forward, fill your awareness with what you deeply care about. Feel the power of love as it pushes you in a positive direction.

Envision the good you wish to create. Rise above the drama of the moment, and put your energy into what matters most.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 27

Give focus, get excellence

You’ve spent time and exerted effort to get focused. Add great value to that focus by maintaining it for a while.

Bright shiny distractions tempt you to look away. Take a deep breath, remind yourself how worthless those distractions are, and stay focused.

Diversity of experience enriches life. Yet there’s no point in doing many things unless you do each of them well.

There will be time later for other activities. For now, focus all you have on doing your best to finish this one task.

The more committed you are to maintaining your focus, the more effective, productive, creative you become. Give what is in front of you the time and attention it deserves.

Gently let go of the urge to know it all, to see it all, to experience it all at once. Give focus and get the excellence it produces.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 28

Push life in a positive direction

When the bad stuff gets worse, you can get better. When hope is nowhere to be found, you can create a whole lot of it.

You don’t have to deny reality in order to be positive. You just have to be willing to change reality, and you can.

You can think, you can act, you can learn, you can adjust, you can dream, you can do, you can persist and you can help. There are a thousand ways for you to make a significant positive difference in the next month, and even more ways after that.

There’s more to greatness than just looking good as you sail through life. True greatness is built in times of adversity by refusing to accept the finality of that adversity and by working to turn life around.

The world could use a little true greatness from you right now. Use your intelligence, your love and your energy today to push life in a positive direction.

Push life in a positive direction, and keep pushing. This great experience of life is ready for you to make it even greater.

— Ralph Marston

August 29

Think you can

You have enough challenges and obstacles working against you. Don’t let your own thoughts work against you too.

Thinking you can do the work doesn’t mean the work will get done. Yet it’s certainly preferable to thinking you can’t.

Do you ever feel that certain conditions prevent you from getting anything done? Imagine what could happen if you took a more positive, enabling view.

If you insist on perfect conditions, you’ll never get much done. So instead of insisting, start adapting.

Decide you can get it done, then get to work. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, give your attention to making progress.

Whatever else is going on, you can put yourself in a positive frame of mind. Think you can, then proceed to do what you think.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 30

Feed your curiosity

To discover something new, look where you’ve never looked before. To energize your thinking with a pleasant surprise, get out of your regular routine.

There are things that would fascinate you, help you, change you for the better. Problem is, you don’t know to look for them.

Don’t assume life is the way you assume. Let your curiosity run ahead of you like a beagle puppy, sniffing out unexpected treasures with wild abandon.

Go beyond merely opening yourself to new experiences. Get into places, relationships and situations ripe with new facts and experiences.

Despite all you know, all you’ve done, you’ve only been exposed to a fraction of reality. Be thankful there’s so much more to experience, and get yourself out there where you’ll encounter it.

What at first seems random can take to you what’s meaningful and valuable. Feed your curiosity, and follow where it leads.

-Ralph S. Marston