Daily Motivator - April
 

April 1

Getting started

Talk yourself into talking. Act yourself into action.

Write yourself into writing. Think yourself into thinking.

Whatever you need to do, or wish to do, start with whatever version of it is right here within reach. Get the ball rolling, establish some momentum, and then you can build on it.

Contrary to the widespread assumption, getting started is not hard. It’s deceptively easy.

Make a phone call, read a book, pick up a stack of papers, put on your socks. Right here, right now, is your opportunity to get started.

You’re already standing at the starting line. Now is when you can go.

— Ralph Marston

Happy April 1st my awesome recovery
reading page Family. Let's thank God for
getting though the month
March one day at a time.
God bless you Tammy for all you do.
God bless you Kracker, thank you
my Reading partner.

April 2

Let your ambition come forward

It’s not selfish to move forward with ambition. What’s selfish is to waste time, skills, opportunities, and resources on aimless diversions.

You deserve a purposeful day, year, life. What’s more, you owe it to all those who sacrificed throughout history to make your opportunities possible.

It’s not easy to zero in on a worthy and compelling purpose. It’s more difficult still to follow that purpose with commitment and determination.

Yet what’s worse is to languish without any driving purpose. And then the regret for doing so can be unbearable.

Fortunately, there’s always plenty of good work to be done. Life, awareness, ability, and passion are yours to put to use.

Let your ambition come forward, and make yourself of continuing benefit to who and what you care about. Be the positive presence and force you are destined to be.

— Ralph Marston

April 3

Doing what matters

Do things that matter. Avoid things that don’t.

Think thoughts that exert a positive influence on your actions. Gently let go of thoughts that waste time and needlessly push you into dark desperate places.

Your time is precious beyond any measure. Spend that time doing what you know is good, and right, truthful, helpful, appreciative and supportive of the wonder that is existence.

Every moment, every action has a cost. You are fully entitled and obligated to make sure each cost produces a genuine benefit.

That does not in any way give you an excuse to avoid the difficult pursuits. Rather, it summons you to focus the whole of your being on meaningful pursuits, as challenging and inconvenient as they may be.

You are here today to make real, meaningful, beneficial progress. Respect the miraculous nature of that opportunity, and spend this day doing what matters.

— Ralph Marston

April 4

Trade in discouragement

What if you could act to stop discouragement the moment you feel it? The good news is, you can.

In fact, you can transform the negative energy of discouragement into positive, productive energy. To do so, recognize the power you have over your own thoughts, and put that power to use.

Discouragement exists in your mind. It is only one out of many possible interpretations of your situation.

Choose to go with a more empowering interpretation. Choose to go with a positive projection of your possibilities, of the future, of what you can do.

Let discouragement serve its purpose by alerting you to what’s important in your life. Then, trade in that discouragement for courage, energy, and effective action.

Where you go next is a function of where your thoughts are right now. Exercise the power you have over your own thoughts, making them as positive, realistic, and motivating as they can be.

— Ralph Marston

April 5

Embracing the truth

Dealing with an unpleasant truth is difficult. However, what’s far worse is to avoid that truth.

Reality is what it is, whether you acknowledge it or not. And it’s only when you do acknowledge what is real, what is true, that you provide yourself some ability to cope with it.

It’s understandable that you would want to avoid what frightens you. Yet as frightening as the truth can be, there’s no question that the suppression of truth is much more frightening.

When you’re unwilling or unable to know what’s really going on, you render yourself powerless. Retreating into lies, illusions, and self-deception only makes the situation worse.

Embracing the truth is not going to magically make everything okay. But it will provide real hope and real possibilities for moving forward.

There is no alternative to the truth that you would want to maintain for the entirety of your life. Keep that in mind and you will find the courage to speak what is true, and to successfully deal with it.

— Ralph Marston

April 6

So very much good

You lament that the good possibilities are all gone. But that’s just an easy, flimsy excuse.

You blame this person, that person, some odd factor or common situation. Yet assigning blame fails to accomplish anything of value.

Scrub your mind clean of distracting, defeating thoughts and consider this question. What can you do right now to add value, richness, and goodness to life?

Set aside the unproductive habits and obsessions, and focus in on the opportunities of the moment. Take a deep breath, thankful for the energy that fills you, and go to work.

Push yourself a little bit past what is comfortable. See how right and thrilling it feels to be you, doing the good work you can do.

Now is too valuable to waste on anything less than being your best. There’s so very much good you can do.

— Ralph Marston

April 7

Chance to give your best

Progress comes when you desire the attaining just as much as you desire what you wish to attain. Achievement is a matter of seeking the necessary skills just as earnestly as you seek the rewards.

Envision your goal and clearly connect that goal to the forces deep inside that drive you. Then connect yourself just as intimately to the challenging adventure of bringing that goal to life.

The reward is part of the process and the process is part of the reward. What has real and lasting value for you is what you give your time and effort and value to.

You won’t ever get meaningful value for nothing. And you wouldn’t want it if you could.

What gives anything value is what you’re able to put into it. Every day, every challenge, relationship, situation gives you the chance to give your best.

Grow in strength, wisdom, capability, and resilience. Every ounce of value you give adds to the richness and fulfillment of life.

— Ralph Marston

April 8

Treasure the memories

The past is over, yet its brightest treasures remain within you. Though you cannot live in the past, every day you carry its value forward.

In your attic the memories gather layer upon layer of dust as time goes by. In your heart, however, the memories gain more vitality and relevance as fresh experiences are woven into them over time.

Much of what you know about yourself comes from who you’ve been, how you’ve lived, all that you’ve discovered. Even the most difficult times in your past can offer you something of benefit today.

And today will itself soon be in your past. Let that thought remind you to live it honestly, authentically, with courage, curiosity and kindness.

For though this day is only yours to live for a short time, the way you live it will become an enduring part of you. Use the opportunity of its hours to give yourself and your world a gift that keeps on giving.

Treasure the memories, whatever they may be, and continually build on them. Learn to become even more of the best you have been.

— Ralph Marston

April 9

Tend your own garden

As enticing as the prospect may be, there’s not much you can do to control or influence the behavior of others. Yet there are plenty of improvements you can make to your own thoughts, choices, and actions.

It’s great to keep yourself informed about what the rest of the people in the world are doing. But it’s best to keep the majority of your focus and energy on the good and useful things you can do.

Tend to your own garden with care, discipline, persistence and high expectations. That will accomplish infinitely more than scrutinizing and complaining about the weeds in your neighbor’s garden.

A modest positive change in your choices can often lead to a massive improvement in the quality of your life. By contrast, fighting to control the choices of others will likely just lead to more and more fighting.

Even if you could somehow get everyone in the world to do as you wish, that would not come close to solving your problems. And then where would you turn?

The most powerful, positive, and far-reaching way to influence your world is by example. Work toward excellence in the living of your life, and let your success inspire others to do the same.

— Ralph Marston

April 10

Ideal choice

On very rare occasions you can make the perfect choice. At all other times the perfect choice is not available to you, so you must make the best choice.

None of the alternatives you have to choose from may be ideal. Yet at least one of those alternatives is likely preferable to avoiding a choice altogether.

Or it could be that all of the alternatives are highly desirable, and you don’t want to miss out on any of them. Even in that case, choosing one and excluding all the rest is better than not choosing at all.

You can’t have everything, and you don’t want to have nothing. So you must choose, and make a commitment to your choice.

Value, success, and fulfillment are general, all-encompassing terms. Yet for each of these good things to be present in your life, it must exist in a specific form.

Your choices give life to your vision, to your ideals, even when what you have to choose from is not ideal. Choose the best that you can at every juncture, and you’ll steadily work your way to where you want to be.

— Ralph Marston

April 11

Thinking about

What have you been thinking about doing? Why have you not done it?

Maybe you’ve been overthinking it. Perhaps all that thinking has gotten in the way of doing.

Thinking is an essential component of improvement and achievement. But it is not the only component.

Your thoughts bring results when they prepare you and guide you to take action. Be careful not to let those thoughts get to the point where they become a substitute for action.

Focus your thoughts not only on the results you desire, but also on all the actions necessary to get you there. Fill your thoughts with enthusiasm for the process of achievement, with excitement for getting that process started.

Then get going and get it done. Give your good thoughts the expression they deserve by putting them into action.

— Ralph Marston

Faith without action is dead.

April 12

You can be

You are not all that you could be. Today you have the good fortune to work on that.

Think of the most awe-inspiring experience you’ve ever had. What is it exactly, within you, with which that awe continues to resonate?

The beauty that leaves you stunned, the wonder, the awe, all call to your higher self. Life’s moments of extreme excellence push you in the direction of being all you can be.

There is a reason why you are drawn to stare at the ocean’s distant horizon, or the endless night sky, or a flawlessly beautiful painting. There is a reason why certain musical passages can radically alter your mood and physiology.

It is because your life has great meaning and in certain moments you can feel the extent of that meaning throughout the whole of your being. In those moments you understand that although you are not all you could be, you can be.

Let yourself be awed by life and see that in the middle of that awe, there is you. Feel the promise, feel the challenge, and commit once again to being all you can be.

— Ralph Marston

And Works without Faith ain't much Better.

April 13

This day is here

This day is here. Solve its problems, deal with its challenges, make the most of its opportunities.

Actively involve yourself in life as it unfolds. Leave each moment richer for having lived it.

Ask yourself, what will make this better? Then step forward and do what must be done to bring that about.

There’s nothing to be gained by waiting for the perfect opportunity. Make something good of the opportunity that’s here right now.

Go to the trouble, endure the discomfort, push yourself beyond where you’ve gone before. Life is enhanced when you make progress and that’s precisely what you can do today.

Feel the possibilities, discover new levels of courage, of competence, and experience the joy of taking meaningful action. This day is here, and there are so many great things you can do with it.

— Ralph Marston

This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Singing Gratitude.

When I'm feeling overwhelmed, I can pray and praise. I can give thanks. What am I grateful for right now? I am grateful for a meal. I'm grateful for the bird using my bird feeder. I'm grateful for the opportunities to try again. I'm grateful to be able to love my family, our friends all the Earth. What song can I sing in praise today?

Love is the key that unlock peace.

April 14

Amazing life

Take a moment to remind yourself how fortunate you are to be here on this day. Then step up and make good use of that good fortune.

Look past the worries and complaints. See the possibilities and act on the best of them.

There’s a world of positive difference you can make today. Using your time to make that difference is what will bring you the highest possible satisfaction when the day comes to an end.

Yes, life is filled with risk. Fortunately, you are filled with courage, intelligence, creativity, passion, and purpose.

You can use what you have to do what you can. With every bit of progress you make, you can build more progress and value on top of it.

Look clearly and enthusiastically at the massive opportunity that’s right here in front of you. Discover once again what an amazing life this can be.

— Ralph Marston

April 15

Serenity of now

Allow your thoughts to come and then to peacefully go. Sink in to the serenity of now.

Let your feelings be your feelings, without judgment or conflict. Be filled with the peace that is always possible.

Spend time with that peace, free from the demands of needs and desires. Notice how your spirit is cleansed and refreshed as each peaceful moment passes.

Enable all that you are to be present in the serenity of now. Know that it is available to you at any time, just by letting it be.

Allowing serenity to envelop you will not make the difficulties and complications of life go away. Yet it can strengthen your connection to positive purpose and enhance your power to handle life’s challenges.

Give yourself the gift of peace. Spend time in the serenity of now.

— Ralph Marston

Glorious Good Friday to my recovery family.

There is always peace possible with God

April 16

Loving benefactor

By all means keenly observe the world and make note of the things that can be improved. But take care not to internalize the entire deficit between life as it is and life as it could be.

You are a part of all that is. But the good you can do, as extensive as it may be, does not depend on you absorbing every burden that exists.

Your best hope of repairing what is broken is to operate from a perspective that’s apart from what is broken. Healing flows not from sickness, but from health.

Feel that healthy part of you, focus on it, celebrate it, and expand upon it. Rather than letting the problems of the world pull you down, live with so much goodness as to overwhelm them.

You have a great responsibility to yourself and to all of life. Yet that does not oblige you to agonize endlessly over every last one of life’s imperfections.

Every day, in every situation, you can make a meaningful positive difference. Seek to do so not as a grieving victim, but as a joyful, confident, and loving benefactor.

— Ralph Marston

April 17

Joy of existence

Enjoy today to the fullest extent possible, but not so much that you compromise tomorrow. Enjoy yourself in every imaginable way, but not in ways that depend on harming anyone else.

It is not selfish to engage in joyful experiences. What’s selfish is to deny joy to others, or to your future self, merely to serve the expedience of the current moment.

Neither your situation nor the world’s situation has to be perfect, or even adequate, for you to experience joy. Genuine joy is not something you take from life but is something you’re able to give that improves all of life.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a lack of joy in your life is anyone’s fault, including your own. Realize instead that joy is your potential, obligation, responsibility, and a pointer to your highest level of fulfillment.

Joy bears little resemblance to mere pleasure. Joy fulfills, engages, and energizes your deepest values, your integrity, your body, mind, spirit, and soul.

Seek to be a source, a conduit, and a grateful repository for the joy of existence. Know that in every circumstance there is life-affirming joy to be lived and shared.

— Ralph Marston

Happy Easter.
Risen Christ, I am blessed to be part of your holy lineage. As you sent out your disciples, I hear your voice now sending me. You quite my doubt with your forgiveness. You promise me courage for the journey. Please walk with me today as I share your message of peace. Amen.

April 18

Race ahead

Fall in love again with the wonder that is your life. See with refreshed and grateful eyes the real goodness that exists all around you.

Through the best of times and the worst of times, the possibilities persist. Imagine the good you can do with them now.

Everything you’ve been through has compelled you to grow stronger. Now you’re positioned to put that strength to work in the service of what you’ve always loved.

Remember the sunrise that took your breath away so many years ago? Tomorrow morning there’s another one with even more potential to spark richness and joy.

Over the years it’s become all too easy to let fear and complacency hold you back. Yet even now, especially now, you have what it takes to re-ignite your sense of wonder at all that is and all that is possible.

Race ahead and meet the sun next time it clears the horizon. See a whole new world of possibilities come to light, allowing the wonder and richness to energize your life more than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

April 19

Plan and act anyway

You plan, you prepare, you put those plans into action. Then something completely unexpected comes along and disrupts your planned activities.

It’s possible life will not unfold as you intended. Yet that’s no reason to avoid having intentions, or making plans, or acting on those plans.

Yes, every now and then your plans could very well fall through. But if you have no plans at all then the whole of your life is what will fall through.

Sure, it might seem like a waste to put a great deal of preparation into something that could never happen. However, an even greater waste is to wander aimlessly, afraid that any plans you make might be disrupted.

So go ahead, choose what you intend to do. Then step forward and put your choices into action.

Though life offers no guarantees, there’s a good chance much of what you act upon will get done. And that’s a whole lot better than nothing.

— Ralph Marston

April 20

Realize that you can

What will everyone else think? It doesn’t really matter.

How do you get started? Identify an action you can take right now and take it.

How do you manage to keep going? Be willing to do what must be done, as often as it must be done.

What if you fall? You can pick yourself up and make another attempt.

What if no one is willing to listen to you, assist you, support you? Figure out a way to make it worth their while.

What if the goal is in sight, but you suddenly encounter a big, complicated obstacle? Realize that you’ve just come across a splendid opportunity to create value, and realize that you can.

— Ralph Marston

April 21

New experiences

Learn, experience, fail, and succeed. Ask questions, listen to the answers, seek to understand.

Wander through places where you’ve previously never been. Take on tasks you don’t yet know how to do.

You’re able to consider new information, adjust to unexpected situations, and adapt to novel environments. Keep those abilities strong by putting them to use.

It’s easy and comfortable to get settled in your ways. Yet it’s refreshing and energizing to introduce yourself to new challenges and to then work through those challenges.

You’ve come a long way in your time and accumulated plenty of interesting experiences. Keep those new experiences coming.

What makes life so good is the fact that you can live it in whatever way it may come. A new day is here, and new experiences await.

— Ralph Marston

April 22

Value in limitation

There is value in limitation. It forces you to appreciate and prioritize.

Often when there’s an abundant supply of something, there can be a tendency to take if for granted. You’re much more likely to fully appreciate resources that are more limited in supply.

It’s not how much you have that matters. It’s what you make of it.

When you’re operating within tight limitations, you can’t do everything. So you figure out what’s most important and focus on that.

In every life, in every endeavor, there are limitations. Those limitations do not have to be a curse.

Rather than letting the limitations impede you, let them challenge you to grow stronger, more purposeful, more resourceful. Within the limitations you’ll find plenty of opportunity for achievement.

— Ralph Marston

April 23

Give yourself time

Give yourself time to think. Give yourself time to focus on your work.

Give yourself time to recover. Give yourself time to heal.

Give yourself time to be with those who matter most to you. Give yourself time to get lost in doing the things you love.

Give yourself time to explore the wonder of life and existence. Give yourself time for the things that challenge you to become stronger.

Give yourself time to relax. Give yourself time to wonder.

Give yourself time to appreciate and to express that appreciation. Give yourself time to truly live.

— Ralph Marston

April 24

Good things you can do

You can take on responsibility and you can handle it. You can make a commitment and you can follow through on it.

You can encounter challenge and then rise up to transcend it. You can envision value and then work to make your vision real.

You don’t have to beg for people to make things easy on you. You’re able to meet life where it is and make it the best it can be.

You can hold yourself together through the difficulties that arise. You can grow stronger and even more capable as the result of each experience.

You have integrity, potential, value, creativity, kindness and generosity within you. You are curious, adaptable, energetic, aware, intelligent, and passionate.

Life is not perfect and you are not perfect, yet there are certainly plenty of good things you can do. And right now, today is eager for all you’re able to give it.

— Ralph Marston

Always give Time, Time.

April 25

Ever young

You cannot go back in time, yet you can be as young as you choose to be. Youth is a matter of how you see yourself and how you live, not how long you’ve been alive.

Live with courage and you are young. Seek adventure in unfamiliar territory and you’re living a life that’s vibrant and young.

Be true to what you value, in word, in deed, in time and commitment, and you’ll be young in temperament. Greet each day with wonder and enthusiasm, and the energy of youth courses through you.

Look forward to whatever comes next. Find a way to put joy into every situation.

These things give you a youthful outlook and experience, no matter what your age. As you live this way year after year, you’ll add wisdom and maturity to your continuing youth.

Give yourself the dual benefits of experience and of youth throughout the whole of your life. Stay ever young as you continue to let time add more and more substance to your life.

— Ralph Marston

April 26

What matters is what you do

To change the quality of your life, you must change what you do. There is no other way.

Improvement does not come neatly wrapped in a package that’s been put together by someone else. It comes from what you do, consistently, persistently, morning, afternoon, and evening.

What habits are you willing to work to get rid of? What habits are you ready to spend time to establish?

Goals, promises, plans, and intentions can all be very impressive and compelling. What matters is what you do, right now, and in an hour, and tomorrow morning, and next week.

You have what it takes to make your life whatever you want it to be. You just have to do the work, and it has to come from you.

Challenge yourself to string together a half dozen days of purposeful, focused, and persistent effort. Feel the momentum, see all the good you can do, keep on going and never stop.

— Ralph Marston

April 27

Great depth inside

It’s fun and entertaining to be distracted. But life is for more than just fun and entertainment.

You are able to go much deeper than that. And if you go for long periods without any depth and focus, your spirit cries out for it.

When you seek constant trivialities so to escape boredom, you descend into an even deeper and more cynical boredom. At some point the trivial distractions lose all their power, and offer no easy escape.

Eventually you must confront who you are deep inside, and what you feel, and what you value. It’s far better to do that sooner, of your own volition, than later, when you have no choice.

Though you’ll find complexity, contradiction and unsettling substance inside, there’s also great beauty and positive purpose. You owe it to yourself to explore it all, to know it often, to hold it near.

Instead of squandering time and treasure on superficial distractions, seek to grow stronger, more purposeful and focused. You have great depth inside, and with it you can bring much value to all you care about.

— Ralph Marston

April 28

Treasure every moment

Is the stuff that seems so urgent really so urgent? Are you pressuring yourself to do it quickly rather than to do it well?

You feel like time is always running out. Yet as soon as one moment is over, another one always begins.

You hurry through one task so you can hurry through the next task, and the next. Is all that hurrying merely enabling you to do even more hurrying?

Time is too valuable to waste. Yet your life is too precious and meaningful to always be rushing through it.

Step back, take a breath, remind yourself that time will go, and time will come. Make the choice to use it well, focused on purpose, on excellence, on things that truly matter.

Rather than urgency for the sake of urgency, make sure you’re spending your time moving in the direction you’ve chosen to go. Challenge yourself to treasure every moment and you’ll experience great quantities of life’s treasure as time goes by.

— Ralph Marston

April 29

Not all about you

Here’s a thought that can give you access to higher levels of freedom and power. It’s not all about you.

When you’re in the habit of taking everything personally, that imposes a heavy burden on your life. The liberating fact is, most of what happens around you is not necessarily directed at you.

People have all sorts of reasons for what they do. Very few of those reasons involve you at all.

There are plenty of times when it’s perfectly reasonable to object to the actions of others. But if you elevate that objection to the level of taking personal offense, you only make it worse for yourself.

By all means disagree, but don’t make that disagreement a defining part of who you are. Other people will live as they live, and there’s no reason to contaminate your own life with obsession over their negative behavior.

It’s not all about you. Keep that always in mind, and free yourself to live with excellence no matter what anyone else does or does not do.

— Ralph Marston

April 30

Live for you and yours

Did you hear the latest? Are you up to date on everything that happened five minutes ago?

Or, did you instead take a thoughtful and peaceful walk in the woods? Have you reached out and re-connected with a good friend from long ago?

It’s very easy to spend large chunks of each day obsessing over the endless stream of headlines, tweets and videos. Yes, it keeps you constantly in the know, but at the end of the day that doesn’t get you much.

It’s helpful to be aware of what’s going on in the world. Yet what matters much more is the living of your life, in the moment, where you are, with richness and meaning.

The celebrity scandal of the hour might be somewhat interesting. But spending time with a good book written 150 years ago can profoundly improve your life.

Your attention has massive, irreplaceable value, and it makes a great difference where you direct it. Choose to direct it so as to live for you and for all those who truly matter to you.

— Ralph Marston