March 16

The choice is yours

Before you do the next thing you do, consider the consequences. Will it help or will it hurt?

Will it add goodness to life, or will it ultimately have a negative effect? Will it endow the future with great joy and meaning, or lead to more difficulty and pain?

Will it solve a problem, ease suffering, help to fulfill a dream? Will it offer support and expression to all you love and value?

Every choice carries you off in one direction or another. Before you make the choice, be sure to remind yourself of its direction.

Choices occur in the moment, yet their consequences continue for a lifetime. Each choice is a powerful lever, and with slight present effort can alter your future by a million miles.

Exercise that power intentionally, with wisdom, with love. Now, the choice is yours.

— Ralph Marston

March 17

Peak performance

You have a lot of difficult things to deal with. That’s no excuse to do less than your best.

In fact, it’s a reason to up your game. It’s an opportunity to boost your effectiveness, your knowledge, your energy level.

You could easily and justifiably gain the sympathy of others, and of yourself. But as you already know through long years of experience, that won’t do you any good.

What will help immensely is to operate at peak performance regardless of the situation. Things are tough, life is unfair, and yet you can be better than you’ve ever been.

The energy required to articulate your excuses could be better used to tackle your challenges. Plus, in addition to making real progress, you’ll feel a whole lot better about yourself.

Grab the difficulties, pull inspiration and determination out of them. Move forward, more purposeful and effective than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

March 18

Make goodness

With your time, with your life, with awareness, actions, thoughts, make goodness today. Make the memories of today as positive as you can for as many people as you can.

Do right now what will continue to feel good later. Create value that will keep on echoing tomorrow, next month, a decade from now.

Live fully in the present moment while doing what will benefit moments to come. Mix together some caring, truth, effort, wisdom and joy, and make new goodness.

What makes life rich is not how much stuff you possess or how many people you control. The goodness you make is what will matter most when you look back on this time.

Offer a small kindness, make a big difference, initiate a joyful experience. Show life how much you treasure it by what you do today.

The world can gain from the good things you have to give. Make goodness, and make life on this day a great thing to experience.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 19

Able to persist

The first attempt doesn’t work. Even so, you can keep going.

The next attempt makes the situation worse. Still, you are able to persist.

Your next action does not have to be limited by your past results. Choose your next action based on where you wish to go, not on where you’ve been.

There’s no rule that says you have to be discouraged by what has happened. There’s every reason to be passionate and enthusiastic about what you can now do.

If the past hasn’t met your expectations, leave it in the past. Learn from what went wrong, and apply that knowledge to the opportunities of now.

Persistence is nothing more than stepping free of the past and doing what you know is best. You are always able to persist, and your persistence will take you wherever you wish to go.

— Ralph Marston

March 20

Add to the richness

Don’t wish for life to be easy, for whether you get your wish or not, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, live, seek, work for life to be meaningful.

Give up the fantasy of everything magically falling into place. Live the truly magical reality of employing your efforts to make each day a little better.

A story in which every good thing effortlessly materializes would be unbearably boring. You wouldn’t want to read about a character with no challenges, and you wouldn’t want to live that way either.

So opt in for the richness, for the challenges and the incomparable experience of conquering them. Remind yourself that the value is built in the investment you make, in the effort you give, in the troubles you work through.

Whatever trophy you get at the end is just a small fraction of the achievement. The real substance of achievement is in the achieving.

And that’s something you can experience every day, with every twist and turn of the journey. What awaits you today is your opportunity to add to the richness.

— Ralph Marston

March 21

The only time

The only time you can escape regret is before you create it. What can you do today to prevent regret from descending on you tomorrow?

The only time you can act is now. How will you live this moment you have, to honor and fulfill its best possibilities?

Everything you’ve ever experienced has led you to where you are right now. This is your time to utilize all you know, all you feel, all you are, in giving birth to new goodness.

Don’t get lulled into complacency by imagining how much time you have. Don’t let yourself become fearful of how little time you have.

Remind yourself that this is the time you have, here to be lived, to be filled with effort, meaning, love, joy. Feel your courage as it grows to meet your highest expectations, as it pushes you into action.

While now continues to unfold, fill it generously with your positive action. Now is your time, and it is everything you choose to make it.

— Ralph Marston

March 22

Working toward the goal

Dreams do not instantly come true, and that’s a good thing. If your dreams were to immediately be fulfilled, you would never have the pleasure of dreaming them.

Anticipating an achievement contributes much of the value to that achievement. Having something to look forward to gives great richness to life.

It is good to achieve your dreams, and yet it is also good to hold on to them, to nurture, refine and appreciate them before they have been reached. By the time the dream is achieved, it has developed a real and profound meaning.

Working toward a goal is what makes that goal worth having. The fact that a goal, a dream has not yet been fully realized is what makes that dream so enticingly desirable.

Go ahead and dream big, wonderful, positive and intimately meaningful dreams. They’re the ones that will get you to move forward with energy and passion.

Your dreams do not come true in an instant, yet they will instantly begin to provide focus, direction, and a driving force. You can then enjoy each and every moment as you steadily bring those dreams to life.

— Ralph Marston

March 23

Watch what you think

Watch what you think, because your life is certainly doing so. Choose wisely the thoughts that fill your mind, because those thoughts lead to the actions that fill your day.

Thinking feels easy, seems to come naturally and automatically. Yet the most useful, beneficial thinking calls for intention, focus, discipline and a strong sense of purpose.

Thinking, at its best, is more than just repeating what you’ve already heard or already thought. Each thought is an opportunity to create a new, unique vision of the world in your mind.

If you catch yourself repeating the same old thoughts, or letting others do your thinking, stop. Remind yourself of the great things that come from working to develop your own original thinking.

Call upon your purpose to guide you and encourage you to put work into your thinking. There’s no limit to what you can think about, so let purpose help you by focusing your thoughts.

Your thoughts form the basis of the way your life unfolds. Make them powerful, purposeful, positive, and constantly improving.

— Ralph Marston

March 24

Continue forward

The original path you envisioned may have been blocked. Yet the goal still beckons, and it’s still accessible, because somewhere, somehow, there’s a more realistic, more effective way.

You haven’t been knocked off track. You’ve been challenged to find that better way.

Stay committed to where you intend to go, while being open to all the many ways of getting there. Be flexible enough to keep moving forward no matter what.

If you’re prevented from taking a big step right now, take a small step. If your original strategy doesn’t work, be thankful you don’t have to spend any more effort on it, and fashion a new strategy.

All the while, stay focused on the goal, on the destination. Identify yourself, your efforts, your energy, with that goal, rather than with any specific path.

The obstacle in your path does not have to block your progress. Decide instead to make it an opportunity, to learn, to improve, to adjust, and continue forward, more effective than ever.

— Ralph Marston

March 25

Imagine well

Imagine well, and imagine often. Imagine well, because imagination becomes reality.

You always have more power, more capability than you know. Imagine, and discover more of the great, meaningful, valuable things you can do.

Imagine what you have never before dared to imagine. See possibilities that have not yet been seen.

Life has many limitations. Yet when you imagine, you exist in a place where thoughts are not bound, not limited by anything.

Such a place is well worth exploring. What you bring from that place into the world can have great, transformative value.

Seeds of magnificent, original achievements are waiting to be found in your imagination. Imagine well, and bring new treasures to life.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 26, 2018

Lay the foundation

A secure, stable house is not simply placed upon uneven, unprepared ground. Before the house is built, a strong, solid foundation must be prepared.

A winning sports team does not win merely by showing up and playing each game well. The players must drill and practice in all the fundamental skills, for hours each day, over months and years.

Whatever you desire to have, to be, to experience, you must build the structure in your life to support and develop it. You must lay the foundation, and continue to keep that foundation strong.

True commitment to a goal means commitment to create and maintain the structure that will support it. You accomplish that with your habits, your attitude, your thoughts, your choices large and small.

What day-to-day activities are building the foundation for the life you envision? What can you do right now, and again and again, to create a solid, supporting structure for your dreams?

Each moment gives you the opportunity to infuse the character of achievement into every part of your life. Lay a strong, robust foundation, and let the great achievements flow.

— Ralph Marston

March 27

Opportunity in the trouble

When trouble arrives, don’t cower in the corner feeling sorry for yourself. Stand tall and make it better.

When a challenge arises, don’t make it into an excuse. March boldly into the heart of that challenge and find what you can turn to your advantage.

Refuse to be offended, insulted, dejected or drained when life fails to go your way. Smile and remind yourself that none of that will do you any good.

Then, engage your ability to choose. Choose energy, choose determination, choose action, choose enthusiasm for making things better.

Being positive in the midst of trouble is not naive, not as long as you affix your positive attitude to positive action. Doing so is shrewd, and a common trait of those who are wildly successful.

The negative circumstance is temporary, yet the way you respond will echo through your whole life. Find the opportunity in the trouble, act on it, turn it on its head and transform it into great value.

— Ralph Marston

March 28

Live life well

Don’t just wish you could get it right and live life well, someday, somehow. Open yourself to the great possibilities of this moment, and live well on this very day.

If you’re worried about anything, consider this. Worry is only possible when you’ve forgotten how strong, capable, flexible, resourceful, resilient you can be.

Remind yourself of all the successful actions you’ve taken to get to this point. Implore yourself to put all that powerful capability to use, today.

Go ahead, allow yourself to feel the way you’d most like to feel. Then go ahead, and act on those positive feelings, empowered by your own will to do great things.

Today belongs to you, and is your time to make a difference. Watch your courage as it carries you forward, giving new value to all you love.

Jump far beyond mere planning, wishing, and hoping for a great life. Push yourself into positive action today, and live life well in your own beautiful way.

— Ralph Marston

March 29

Feel good about you

You deserve to feel good about life now. Stop being so hard on yourself.

Imagine you’re someone else who is discussing the way you live. That imaginary other person would not be nearly so critical of your life as you are.

In fact, that other person would see plenty of good things about you. What are those good things you’re overlooking in your life because they’re so familiar?

Step back from the harsh judgments you’ve been imposing on yourself. Give yourself some breathing room, relax, and let yourself feel good, now, about you.

No, you’re not perfect, you’ve made mistakes and will continue to do so. Yet there’s a great reservoir of goodness in you.

With quiet confidence and humility, and the best of expectations, feel that goodness. Feel good about you, about the good you can do, and allow beneficial actions to flow freely from your good feeling.

— Ralph Marston

March 30

Bring new value

What you invest yourself in, has value for you. What demands no effort, attention or expense, has no value in your life.

If you want some particular part of your life to have value for you, invest yourself in it. Value, from your perspective, depends on how much of your life you devote to it.

Your relationships have value because of what you put into them. Your work has value based on the time, attention and effort you give to it.

What you care about, what you care for, what you spend your energy to support, results in value for your life. What matters most is not what it is, but how much you care, how freely you give of yourself.

From a modest tea ceremony to a massive construction project, life is full of opportunities to create value. When you give, when you care, support, pay attention, persist, the richness of life increases.

Do the work, go to the trouble, take an interest, spend the time, pay the price. And bring new value into your life, into the world, every day.

— Ralph Marston