March 16

Hurt feelings

What if you could simply laugh at the things that might hurt your feelings? Actually, you can, and when you do, it’s powerful.

You cannot control the behavior of others. Yet you absolutely control the way you respond to and internalize their words and actions.

You can choose to be hurt, or you can choose to be amused. You can choose to be angry and offended, or you can choose to be informed, calm, thoughtful, in control.

Sometimes other people seek to hurt your feelings, sometimes they do it out of ignorance or carelessness. But none of that matters because it is their problem, not yours.

Laugh it off and move on. You have better ways to invest your thoughts, your time, your energy.

Let your feelings be based on what you choose, not on anyone else’s foolish choices. And feel the solid, authentic power and confidence it gives you.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 17

Thrive on the challenges

When one path is blocked, you’re forced to look for another path. There’s a good chance that other path could be a better one.

When the usual options are unavailable, you must look for other options. That could very well lead you to a more valuable option.

It’s easy to get complacent when things are going smoothly. But if you remain complacent for too long, you’ll wake up one day to discover you’ve been left behind.

Sure, unexpected challenges can be bothersome. But they can also keep you on your toes.

That sudden, difficult situation can lead to new, valuable skills, knowledge, wisdom and vigor. When events don’t go as expected, it’s your opportunity to expect more from yourself.

You are flexible, adaptable, resourceful, able to transform setbacks and surprises into new progress. Decide to thrive on the challenges, and you’ll find an even better way.

-Ralph S. 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

One great thing after another

If you let yourself get pulled in too many directions at once, you'll never make much progress in any of those directions. In order to say yes to real achievement, you must be willing to say no to other things.

There is much you can do, yet you cannot do everything. As compelling as the entire universe of possibilities may be, you must narrow your focus if you're to fulfill any of them.

Though your love has no limit, you are limited by the number of hours in each day. Though your love may encompass all that is, to express that love you must be more specific.

Just because you give your focus and attention to something in particular, does not mean you're ungrateful for all else. On the contrary, it means you're making effective use of your life to create value for all of life.

Saying no can be positive. Because it frees you to focus on something that makes a real difference.

Give yourself to a purpose that feels right to you, and don't let other possibilities pull you away. Instead of vainly trying to do it all at once, choose to succeed at doing one great thing after another.

Ralph Marston

March 20

What you do with what happens

There is what happens. Then there is what you do with what happens.

Helpful, hurtful, caring, indifferent, frustrating, joyful, surprising, predictable things happen to everyone. Each person makes something different out of all those things.

You are not special because you are a victim or a beneficiary of circumstance. You are special because of the unique life, the substance, the richness you carve out of your circumstances.

Pay attention to the situation, to what goes on in the world around you. See each situation not as a locked enclosure, but as a starting point, a stage upon which you can express and fulfill your purpose.

Life is demanding, extremely difficult at times, but life never imposes itself on you. On the contrary, every twist and turn of circumstance provides opportunity for you to more fully become your best.

Welcome that opportunity, in whatever form it may arrive. Every moment carries your best possibilities, ready for you to fulfill.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 21

Live your joy now

Don’t wait for life to be perfect, or fret and complain that it is not. Live it as it comes, doing all you can, thankful for each day, enthusiastic about making it count.

Happiness does not suddenly appear when you get what you want. Happiness is a state of being that empowers you to create what you choose.

Rather than harboring resentment about what you lack, be resourceful with all you have. Feel your miraculous ability to make a difference, and put it to work.

If all your dreams had already come true, you’d have nothing to look forward to. If everything was perfect, you’d have no way to make a positive difference.

Expect great things, but don’t let joy be held hostage by your expectations. Live your joy now, with the way things are, as imperfect as they may be.

Despite its flaws, this time, this place is your opportunity to live with richness and fulfillment. Stop wishing for it to have been different, and start living at your highest and best right now.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 22

Care because

Care, not because anyone else does. Care because it is one of the most meaningful things you can do.

Care, not because you are expected to. Care because of how your caring fulfills you.

Care because you are so grateful for the opportunity to live this day. Care because you can envision great possibilities, because you yearn to make them real.

Care, and fill your actions, your words with sincerity. Care enough to contribute to life, and do what you were born to do.

Care, by listening, by working, by understanding, by giving, by being there. Care, by being patient, by being supportive, by being honest and generous.

It’s easy to become jaded and cynical, yet far better for you, for everyone else, when you care. Care, and create even more goodness to care about.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 23

Miracle that is your life

Do you really need to do, say, possess, defend all the things you think you need to? Are there useless, even destructive, parts of your life so familiar you’re afraid to let them go?

Invest some time in a space quiet enough to hear your soul whisper. Step away from the frenzy and remind yourself who you are.

Break free of endless insistent deadlines imposed by digital algorithm. Understand that the data is your servant, not your master.

Rejoice and be amazed at the diverse and beautiful lives of other people. But don’t let their words, their attitudes, their follies diminish your own glorious, original spirit.

Often times the urgent matters are not so urgent, and can wait. Sometimes it is good to turn off your phone, to be out of touch with the world and in touch with the miracle that is your life.

Give yourself rich and sustained experience in life itself. Care deeply, feel intensely, thankful for every precious moment that you can.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 24

Choose precisely

Give this day a specific purpose and from it you will get specific results. Focus on a set of meaningful goals and you’ll get worthwhile things accomplished.

It’s great to have positive intentions. For those intentions to be realized, they must be clear, detailed, unambiguous.

You’re capable of doing amazing things every time you aim your efforts in a well-defined direction. If you wish to make something good and valuable out of this day, decide right now precisely what that will be.

An essential part of any achievement is deciding exactly what the achievement will look like. The more details you fill in, the more options you give yourself for making it happen.

How many, what color, when, where, how big, with who? Challenge yourself to transform generalized desires into richly detailed goals.

You have the power to do precisely what you choose. So go ahead and choose, precisely.

-Ralph S. 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

Life as it comes

Today is a great opportunity to put things off until later. But that's one opportunity you don't want to take advantage of.

Instead, you can ignore the opportunity to put things off and grab some of the other, much more valuable opportunities. You can use the time you have today, while you have it, so you'll have no regrets when it is gone.

You have plenty of time to do great, fulfilling things if you'll simply use it as it comes. There's no sense in putting anything off until later, because you won't have any more time later than you will right now.

There is great value in every moment, including this one. But once the moment is gone, the opportunity to add its value to your life is also gone.

So seize that opportunity while it's still here. Put everything you have into fully living life as it comes.

To get the most out of life, give all you can every chance you get. Now is when you have that chance.

Ralph Marston

March 27

Do something with it

Today greets you with opportunity, with frustration, with problems, with possibility. Do something with it, something positive and useful.

Don’t settle for someone else’s idea of what this day should be, or another copy of a day you’ve already lived. Do something unique, original, something that affirms the beauty and value of your life.

Today you have a schedule, a list of tasks, the usual responsibilities, things that others expect of you. Today you also have the chance to go above and beyond all that.

You’ve experienced in the past how well you respond to challenge, and how good it feels to do so. Today, find a meaningful challenge with which you can renew that great feeling through focused action.

You are designed, equipped, driven to achieve. Today, do what you are meant to do.

Dreams, ambitions, skills, experience, wisdom, love and courage all restlessly wait for you to make the next move. Today, do something with it all, and live your life at the highest level.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 28

Grow your success

One of the biggest threats to success is success itself. When you get a little bit ahead, it’s all too easy to become complacent and to quickly lose what you have gained.

To avoid that complacency, respond to success with gratitude and humility. See your success not as a reward, but as an opportunity.

If you merely consume your good fortune, it leaves you with nothing but a bitter and wistful taste in your mouth. Instead, seize the opportunity to expand and build on your success.

The real joy of accomplishment is in the doing. To continue the joy, continue the doing.

Let the small victories become steps on the path to an even bigger victory. Let the big victories become steps on the path to an even more grand achievement.

Make each success into a starting point. And there is no limit to where you can go.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 29

Live generously

So many people fight, claw, strive to gain advantage over others. Yet it is far more powerful to give advantage than to take it.

If you want to live a sad, pitiful life, be stingy, greedy, arrogant and rude. If you wish instead to live a bountiful, rich, abundant life, be generous every opportunity you get.

When your aim is to take and hoard, you’ll encounter strident resistance at every turn. Yet when you sincerely seek to give, people from all corners of life will rush to support you.

Whatever is acquired through deception and exploitation is quickly lost to those who practice even greater deception. What you gain by giving, by generosity, stays with you always.

You don’t have to give away a lot of stuff to be generous. The power of generosity comes when you seek to do what’s best for others as well as what’s right for yourself.

Generosity is understanding that the value inside you grows exponentially when you share it with others. Live generously, in every area of life, and you live richly.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 30

Great expectations

To find new strength you must go beyond the places, concepts, people, ideas you’re already comfortable with. New strength comes packaged inside new challenges.

New strength is abundantly available to you, yet it cannot simply be handed to you. New strength can only be earned by forging beyond what you already knew you could do.

When you must become stronger is when you do become stronger. When the situation demands that you up your game, your effectiveness jumps to the next level.

As challenges pop up with increasing speed, don’t waste energy feeling sorry for yourself. Recognize, appreciate and make the most of the opportunity you’re being given.

Each difficulty you encounter is evidence that you’re ready to grow stronger. Each uncomfortable situation is a place to discover how much more capable you can be.

Life makes you uncomfortable when it has great expectations for you. Make those expectations your own, and feel your strength grow as you fulfill each one.

-Ralph S. Marston