Daily Motivator - August
 

August 1

Humility

When you're pounded by difficulties, humility enables you to step back from taking the troubles personally. Humility allows you to seek and accept advice and assistance.

In times of success, humility shields you from dangerous delusions of grandeur. With humility, you generously extend the benefits of your success far beyond yourself.

Quietly use your strength, your skills, your resources, rather than making a show of them. A humble approach is an effective approach.

Humility keeps you out of fights that have no winner. Humility saves you from the futile need to prove you're right.

The strongest people, you never hear much about. The strongest, most effective people do their work not for praise, but for results.

True confidence has no need to proclaim itself, nor does true competence. In humility, strength is found and gets its good work done.

Ralph Marston

August 2

Achieve all over again

Learn as though all you already know is worthless. Work as though you have no accumulated success to fall back upon.

Do not waste your future being prideful about your past. See each new level of success as a launching pad, not as a resting place.

Comfort and complacency will steal your best possibilities if you let them. Do not let them.

Don't be deceived by the fantasy that an idea or concept, opinion or perspective is worthwhile just because it is yours. Welcome challenge, welcome criticism, and gain great strength by working through it all.

As you acquire more knowledge, the challenge to keep that knowledge relevant grows greater. As you gain more success you must work with even more diligence to build upon that success.

The moment you think you have all the answers, your efforts are doomed. Instead, greet each new day not with complacency, but with eagerness to step beyond the past, to learn and achieve all over again.

Ralph Marston

August 3

Make the vision real

Are the things you’re doing today moving you in the direction you intend to go? Are your actions drawing you closer to fulfillment of your dreams?

If so, be thankful for the choices you’ve made, and add the extra energy of that gratitude to the efforts you’re already making. If not, stop whatever you’re doing and turn yourself instead, right now, in the direction you wish to go.

Look honestly at where your current actions are taking you. Make sure it is where you want to go.

Vision is crucial, yet fulfillment is more than just having a vision. Fulfillment means working that vision into reality, day after day, task after task, without fail, without letting up.

The life you desire can be yours, but it won’t just come to you. That’s because the value of that life is not in having it, but in creating it.

Right now is when you make it happen. Right now is when you make the vision real.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 4

Transformation happens

The way you are today is not the way you will always be. The state of the world today is not how things will continue to be.

Every moment of every day, transformation happens. By its very nature, life changes, and you can direct many of those changes.

What kind of transformation would you like to see in your life, in your world? Now is when you can work to put life’s dynamic nature on your side.

In countless ways, in every imaginable situation, transformation happens. Pain is transformed by healing, anger is transformed by forgiveness, despair is transformed by caring.

Throughout history, transformation has improved lives. You can continue the tradition today.

Instead of being resigned to, or content with, the way things are, remind yourself that transformation happens. Do everything you can to make it happen in a way that is beneficial for all.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 5

Persistent effort

Achievement is not a matter of getting it perfect on the first try. Achievement is a matter of persistence.

If you wish to succeed, be prepared to fail, and to get right back to work after you do. To achieve the desired result, you must learn and grow with each less than desirable result.

Learn from the failures, and keep going. Learn from the successes, and keep going.

If you give up after suffering a setback, your effort has been wasted. Yet when you persist for as long as it takes, every effort, whatever the result, eventually leads to success.

Those challenging times when you feel like quitting are the times you've learned the most. Keep going, and make use of the strength and experience you've just gained.

Make every effort count by being persistent in making those efforts. Keep going, through the ups and downs, and work your way steadily there.

-Ralph Marston

August 6

All the different flavors

Keep up with current events, but don’t let them overwhelm your awareness. Treasure the moment, but don’t get so lost in it that you abandon your responsibilities.

Live with balance. Invest time in focused effort, and enjoy time in carefree relaxation.

You can engage the power of momentum without being obsessive about it. Be diligent about your work, but don’t let that diligence disconnect you from the rest of life.

Put your full focus into what you’re doing. Then stop after a while and do something completely different.

Enjoy being with others, and enjoy some time alone. Delight in exciting, thrilling, challenging pursuits, and treasure moments of quiet contemplation.

Nothing is enjoyable or productive if it’s the only thing you ever do. Live with balance, and benefit from tasting all the different flavors on life’s menu.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 7

Treasure whatever you have

It doesn’t matter whether you start with a lot or with a little. What matters is how diligently and purposefully you use it.

Whatever you have to work with is plenty with which to start. It is plenty, that is, when you choose to make full use of it.

Wishing that you could have it easier, won’t make it easier. Feeling resentful about whatever anyone else has to work with, won’t make your work any more effective.

The more fruitful choice is to be thankful for whatever you have. Your gratitude will shine a light on its true value, and open your mind to new ways for moving forward.

If you start with a lot of advantages and take them for granted, you’ll waste most of them. If you start with next to nothing, and yet truly treasure whatever you have, you can take yourself anywhere with it.

Life is dynamic, and responds very well to what you choose to do with it. So no matter what you have to work with, put all of yourself into the effort, and reap the rewards that your gratitude and diligence will surely bring.

— Ralph Marston

August 8

Let go of anger

In today’s world, there’s no shortage of things to make you angry. But is angry really the way you want to be?

Anger certainly grabs your attention, heightening your awareness, giving a burst of energy. Yet once that happens, anger has nothing more to offer.

Maintaining anger will drain your energy. And what you get in return is nothing of any value.

Be angry if you must, then quickly let the anger go. Free yourself to respond in a way that’s beneficial and effective.

Don’t let yourself be trapped by anger and forced into a destructive reaction. Step away from the desire for revenge or punishment, and find a positive response.

Focus on the good you can do, on the positive difference you can make. Leave anger behind as you move forward with the commitment to make things better.

-Ralph S. Marston,

August 9

Goodness of this day

Embrace the goodness of this day. Embrace the possibilities that exist right now.

Your life has unique value, and there’s much you can do today to express that value. Your life has great potential, and there’s much you can do right now to fulfill that potential.

Take the challenges, distractions, interruptions and disappointments in stride. You can handle life, you’ve been doing so for a while, and you can always find the goodness in it all.

Remind yourself of what you love, of what really matters. You can act to make a positive difference, so enjoy the satisfaction of doing just that, again and again.

You are more than the problems, more than the situations, more than the drama that surrounds you. You are the person who can find the positive possibilities in it all, who can bring those possibilities to life.

Stay strong, stay upbeat, stay thoughtful and purposeful. Embrace the goodness in this day, and make it even better.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 10

Powerful momentum

You’ve done a great deal. Now, challenge yourself to do more.

You’ve created some powerful momentum. Now, let that momentum pull you even faster ahead.

You’ve had a breakthrough. Pile new value on top of that breakthrough by working to move forward.

You have just experienced how great it feels to make real progress. Keep that great feeling going.

It’s easy to become smug, complacent, to rationalize that you’ve already done enough. What’s far better, though, is to immediately set your sights on the next challenge.

Now is your opportunity to build on what you’ve already done. Grab that opportunity, and amaze the world with how much further you can go.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 11

A positive place

Where is there a positive place? Anywhere you want to make it.

In a dark tunnel, on a sunny beach, in a large group or alone, you can be in a positive place. Whether there is confusion or clarity, drama or stillness, you can be in a positive place.

No matter what has happened, or failed to happen, you can make it a positive place. Whether you're comfortable or not, surrounded by challenge, or immersed in beauty, you can be in a positive place.

What makes any place a positive place is the way you choose to see it. External circumstances matter, but they do not have to determine your perspective.

A positive place is a powerful place. Because you're more aware of, and more inspired to act on, the best possibilities.

So wherever you are, whatever is going on, give yourself a decided advantage. Put yourself in a positive place.

-Ralph Marston

August 12

Start with joy

It’s great to have joyful memories. Yet as good as those memories may be, you don’t have to lock away your joy in the past.

Sometimes the memories are not so joyful. Yet that doesn’t prevent you from choosing joy on this day, on any day.

Joy does not require any specific condition. In fact, joy is what creates fondly remembered circumstances.

If you seek a joyful situation, start with joy. Keep giving and feeling joy, and the situation will unfold accordingly.

Stop trying to manufacture joy by arranging external conditions. Just let your joy flow out from the inside.

Start with joy, and live with joy. Add joy to each day, no matter what.
-
Ralph S. Marston

August 13

If you fail to get your way

If you fail to get your way, don’t let it get you down. Take what is, what has happened, what you have, and make the choice to move forward.

It’s great to set positive intentions and to make them happen. Yet if a particular intention does not happen, it’s not the end of the world.

Disappointment reminds you of what you care about, and helps you learn from what went wrong. Feel the disappointment, absorb its benefits, then let it go.

There’s nothing to be gained by extending your disappointment. There’s nothing to be gained by feeling sorry for yourself or seeking the sympathy of others.

Instead, transform disappointment into determination. Use the energy of that determination to be more effective at bringing your next intention to life.

Disappointment is a powerful feeling. Whenever it comes along, choose to use its power in a positive way.

-Ralph S. Marston

August 14

Keep negativity at bay

There is plenty of negativity in the world. Don’t add to it.

Just because unfortunate things are going on, is no reason to be pessimistic. In fact, it is a good reason to redouble your efforts in supporting, promoting and expanding new goodness in life.

You can be entirely realistic without having to buy in to the latest fashionable negativity. The future is yours to create, and you can choose to create a good and fulfilling one.

The only way a negative trend will lead to a negative outcome is if you let it continue. Fortunately, there are a whole lot of things you can do to create much more positive results.

The way to keep the negativity at bay is to keep your dreams and highest visions in front of you. Live in the service of what you know is right with life, and you won’t constantly be pulled down by whatever goes wrong.

Live at your highest level of effectiveness by living with a positive perspective. It’s always the smartest choice.

— Ralph Marston

August 15

Positive options

Instead of worrying about the worst that could happen, accept that it could indeed happen. Then put positive energy into making sure it doesn’t, or positioning yourself to successfully deal with things if it does.

Sure, you have perfectly valid concerns about the future. But don’t let those concerns prevent you from taking action.

Now is not the time to panic or give up. Now is when you can work to give yourself positive options.

The sooner you accept that there could eventually be a problem, the more power you have in dealing with it. You can strengthen yourself, or get out of the way, or implement countless other strategies to ensure a positive future.

Worrying, complaining, feeling sad or sorry for yourself won’t do you any good. Choose instead to be realistic, putting thought, energy and action into creating the best outcome.

Focus on the good things you can do right now, to prepare, to grow stronger, to prosper. Face the future with courage and with the commitment to create positive options no matter what may come.

-Ralph S. Marston

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

August 31

Hidden skills

You have skills you don’t know about. Take on a challenge, and you’ll find what those skills are.

In the process of living life, from moment to moment, from day to day, you’ve been doing much. What you’ve already been doing has prepared you to do much more.

Don’t let your hidden skills remain hidden. Force them out into the open where you can exercise them to create value.

There are plenty of people, things, values and concepts you care about. So consider what you care about, and commit yourself to do something about it.

Launch the whole of your being into purposeful action. Discover levels of wisdom, resourcefulness, skill and effectiveness you never knew you had.

Set off on a meaningful journey. Skills and capabilities will rise from within to power you forward.

-Ralph S. Marston