Daily Motivator - November
 

November 1

Engage your imagination

You can always get more from each experience than just the experience itself. Engage your imagination to add its own flavor of richness.

Beauty is just as much about what you perceive as what is actually there. Enjoy the kinds of beauty that enable imagination to play an active role.

Make every day an immersive and creative experience. Find ways for your imagination to fill in the details.

Your imagination can turn an ordinary chore into a satisfying adventure. No day, no task, no situation is ever boring when you bring along some imagination.

With your imagination, you invest a deep, meaningful part of yourself in life’s moments. Layered right on top of what is, imagination shows you what can be.

Don’t limit your life experience to mere sensations. Add to them with a unique, active imagination, and elevate your experience into entire new realms.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 2

Get the job done

Sure, the task might be mundane, frustrating, difficult, inconvenient. Yet you have nothing to gain by fighting against it.

Complaining and feeling sorry for yourself will produce no real benefits. Skip all that wasted time and energy, get the job done, and move on ahead.

If you feel like avoiding the work altogether, that’s understandable. So feel that feeling, understand it, then let it go completely and get to work.

If you feel like giving up, stopping, making excuses, let those feelings go too. Feel the resistance, then stride right on past it and get the job done.

Remind yourself how fortunate you are to be able to take action, to make a difference, to get good work done. Then get busy and claim that good fortune, with action, with enthusiasm and gratitude.

Once you get started you’re well on your way to getting it done. Now is the time for action, and you know what to do.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 3

Raise your perspective

Do what you do not for attention or glory. Do what you do because it is good and right and worthwhile.

Live your life not to gain social standing or to collect empty sensations. Live to make each moment more filled with love, care, and goodness than it would have been without you.

Seek positive, beneficial results, yet don’t let them define you. See yourself not as a collector of trophies but as an enabler of possibilities.

Let go of any need to prove you’re right, or to be praised, or to feel superior. Fill yourself with peace, gratitude, and the love of making a difference.

The world rushes by, its false urgencies shouting, shoving, mostly ignoring the great beauty that is life. Lovingly raise your perspective high enough so you can see more of the beauty and less of the pettiness.

The value of your life today exceeds all you can imagine. Fill it with what matters.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 4

The good you do today

Before you respond to anything that happens, consider this. Does your response diminish life, or does it enhance, support and encourage all of life to move forward?

Instead of worrying, take positive action. Instead of complaining, take positive action.

You won’t make progress by scolding others about their poor choices. You’ll be much more effective when you demonstrate by example how to put better choices into action.

Get clear about what matters to you, about all you love and value. Then act affirmatively to support it all.

Every moment is an opportunity to live with meaningful, positive intention. In every situation you can deepen your commitment to your highest values by putting those values in to action.

Increase hope for the future by the way you live in the present. And position yourself to look forward to tomorrow because of the good you do today.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 5

Joy and grace

Put joy and grace into this day. Have fun, jump into some adventure, make a little mischief.

Go up in the air and come down where it surprises you. If what you’re doing doesn’t gush out tears of joy, do differently.

Pages torn off the calendar cannot change the fact that you’re just getting started. See with fresh wonder the possibilities as they grow in value and number.

Leave the pundits to do their punditry and the worriers to do their fretting. You have your life to live, your work to do, your gifts to offer the world.

Express your love, your caring, your concerns with positive action rather than with anxiety. Always know you can respond with joyful intention to whatever way events play out.

In what you do, do your best. And joyfully embrace the rest with grace, confidence and purposeful energy.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 6

Smile from your heart

Offer the world a smile from your heart today. It's a simple, easy act that upgrades whatever situation you're in.

You look better when you smile, because you are better. A genuine smile pushes away negativity and supercharges your attitude.

Say what you say with a smile on your face, and you exude confidence, enthusiasm and credibility. Spread that smile into the core of your being, and a world of new possibilities suddenly appears in front of you.

Smile when there's a reason, and smile when there's no reason. Smile, and let your smile create its own reasons.

Dare yourself to visualize this day in the most positive, empowering light. Smile with your face, your words, your actions and your attitude.

Give life permission to shower you and all those around you today with goodness and value. Smile, and turn up the brightness in this world.

Ralph S. Marston

November 7

Follow through on inspiration

It’s good to be inspired, but merely being inspired is not enough. Get inspired, and then follow through on that inspiration.

Inspiration without action is wasted. Not only that, but with no action the inspiration itself soon turns sour.

Don’t waste the inspiration and don’t waste the opportunity. Do the hard work, take the difficult actions, meet the challenges with inspired effort.

Let inspiration lead you to take the first step. Keep renewing and refreshing that inspiration as you persist through every effort.

When you add action to inspiration, you get even more inspiration. And, you get results.

Get yourself inspired, then do something with that inspiration by acting on it. Discover how very far your inspired effort will take you.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 8

Here you go

You know what you must do. So here you go, making it happen.

Here you go, with confidence, with enthusiasm, persistence and purpose. Here you go, living richly and giving generously of your own spirit, your wisdom, your effort and kindness.

Here you go, breaking free of outdated assumptions. Here you go, knowing the vastness of abundance exceeds anything you could imagine.

Possibilities pull you forward to envision and create new value. Excuses, limitations, pains and inconveniences fall by the wayside as achievement floods into your world through your efforts.

Here you go, living life and enriching its moments with your highest values. Here you go, sharing the richness, transforming lives in ways large and small.

This place, this instant, this confluence of purpose and energy creates your greatest opportunity ever. Here you go, transforming it all into goodness and fulfillment.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 9

Keep the richness growing

Life is about the living, and you can do that right now. Fulfillment happens in the moments, and there’s always a new one arriving.

Sometimes events will unfold to your liking, and other times you’ll feel painful disappointment. In either case, in any case, a new day arrives for you to fill with purposeful positive living.

Through the years you’ve experienced life’s goodness, seen the beauty, felt the wonder. Now is your chance to create some more.

Whether conditions are pushing you forward or pushing against you, one thing is always true. You can act to make a positive difference.

Use the opportunity of this day to breathe new energy into your sense of purpose. Do something to show life how good, how rich, how fulfilling it can be.

Whatever has happened, whatever comes next, give your best to life. And keep the richness growing.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 10

Invested

To be creative, be invested. The more you put yourself into the work, the more creative you’ll be at it.

You don’t have to wait or search or hope for people, places, situations or stories to inspire creativity. Just go to work, then keep the effort going, and you’ll have plenty of creativity.

The more you care, the more you’ll see, understand, empathize and resonate with life. Powerful, useful, appropriate creative ideas will spring from your thoughts.

Get interested, involved, active and committed. Where you focus your love, effort and awareness is where creativity manifests.

Your most brilliant and creative ideas revolve around what you care about the most. Put all of yourself into the work and liberate the full extent of your creative power.

Invest your time, effort, energy, attention, and your love. Great new value will be the result.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 11

The deeper you go

All people have very real reasons for believing what they believe, for feeling what they feel. Your best strategy is to understand those reasons.

If you want to find common ground, you have to do more than just advocate your own position. You have to listen, understand, empathize, compromise.

Drama and outrage are the junk food of human relationships. Their empty calories quickly satisfy, but provide no lasting nourishment.

Understanding and cooperation are difficult, time consuming, demanding, humbling. Yet they are what produce real progress.

Problems are not solved by shouting, blaming, judgment and recrimination. Choose instead to take a deep breath, let go of anxieties, and get to work creating value.

No matter how much you differ with someone on the surface, the deeper you go, the more you’ll find in common. Do the work, spend the time, care enough to create deep connections, and get great things done.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 12

Stronger than negativity

Being positive is not a matter of hiding or denying what’s negative. Being positive is being stronger than the negativity.

When you’re wrong, admit it. Then you can let the error go, correct it, and move forward.

When you’re frightened, admit it. When you no longer fear the fear itself, that fear loses power and you gain the strength to deal with it.

When something is not working, admit it. The sooner you do, the more solidly you can move on to something else.

You have the power to face the problems, to act on them, to come out ahead. Engage that power by admitting what’s wrong, by choosing to see it clearly.

Have the courage to shine a bright light on what’s holding you back. And you’ll find the strength to move successfully beyond it.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 13

Feel good about yourself

Sure, it's easy to feel sorry for yourself. Yet feeling good about yourself is just as easy, and a lot more empowering.

Whether you decide to feel sorry for yourself or good about yourself, you can come up with all kinds of reasons to support your decision. So make the more positive choice to feel good about yourself.

The way you feel is a choice, not a foregone conclusion. You can make the choice that serves you best, and being positive serves you better than being negative.

Feel good about yourself, and that good feeling will carry over into every part of your life. You'll improve interactions with others, the effectiveness of your efforts, your creativity, resourcefulness, energy level and many other things.

Feel good about yourself, your life, your situation, your expectations and possibilities. Feel good about your own life and you'll resonate with the goodness that's all around you.

Go ahead, let yourself feel good about yourself. And give powerful, positive value to everything you do.

Ralph S. Marston

November 14

Get great things done

You might not feel your best today but that doesn’t prevent you from being your best. The more you give of yourself, the better you’ll feel.

Reach inside, draw upon the strength that’s always there, and take another step forward. With gratitude for all the good you’ve known and all the good you know is to come, push forward.

See the precise reality of your world just as it is, with no illusions. And see within that reality opportunities, possibilities, hope, and a multitude of reasons to move forward.

You don’t have to deceive yourself in order to be optimistic. You just have to apply yourself, and experience the power of your own intention as it drives your efforts.

You don’t have to land yourself in the perfect situation in order to achieve. You just have to be able to work with commitment and persistence, with whatever you have.

Don’t waste another day with excuses, procrastination, self-pity or doubt. Get up, get moving, get focused and get a lot of great things done.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 15

Achieve the vision

Stop wondering why you can’t, or why you don’t or why you won’t. Figure out how and why you will.

Have you successfully avoided taking action? Use that same power now to take the action, make the effort, do the work.

Fulfillment does not come while waiting for good things to drop into your lap, even if that actually happens. The fulfillment is in the challenge, the effort, in actively creating the value you seek.

Leave your past shortcomings, with their reasons, justifications and excuses, behind. Focus on the possibilities of now, step forward, jump in, and participate.

Visualize what success looks like to you, in such great detail that you feel the reality of it. Let that positive feeling drive you to transform your vision from feeling to fact.

Yes, you can achieve the vision. And when you convince yourself to act on that truth, and to persist until it is done, you will.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 16

Perspective of goodness

You’ve done many worthy and valuable things. Let yourself feel good about yourself.

You can see the possibilities, and act on them to make a positive difference. Let yourself feel good about the future.

No one is perfect, yet each person you encounter has something unique and valuable to offer. Let yourself feel good about the people around you.

Life has its ups and downs, with each experience bringing new learning and growth. Let yourself feel good about the direction events are moving.

Let yourself feel good. Then find some new way to express your positive feeling with your life, with your actions.

Feel good about where you are, what you’re doing, and the world you’re in. Live life with a perspective of goodness, and you’ll create real value in every moment.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 17

Choose challenge

Do the things that challenge you, not just the easy, automatic, mindless things. Do the things that challenge you, and get maximum results from the time you spend.

Challenges give you the opportunity to grow smarter, more capable, more effective. Challenges can even make you kinder, more generous and understanding.

When you have a choice, choose the challenging task. When you don’t have a choice, challenge yourself to find a way.

Choose challenge, and make it a meaningful challenge. That’s the kind that results in achievement.

Challenge will stimulate, energize, wake up your passion. Challenge pushes you to discover how much better you can be.

There’s some challenge right now that can change your life, your world for the better. Choose challenge, and choose to live at your highest level.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 18

Add new value

There is much value in this life, in this existence. You can add much more.

If all you ever do is consume value, you’re cheating yourself. Because as you understand at the deepest level, making a difference is what makes life rich and meaningful.

It can be tempting to give in to complacency, to just coast, and live off the value that’s already there. Sure, take a break, relax, do nothing for a while, but not so long that it drains the meaning out of life.

Every person wants to matter, and the way to do that is to make a difference. You are hard wired to create value in some way or another.

So acknowledge that impulse and nourish it. Express in your own special way what it means to be alive by adding new value as the days go by.

See the beauty, feel the substance, experience the wonder. And add your own new value to it all.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 19

Immensity of substance

The most effective you’ve ever been, is still within you. The greatest joy you’ve ever known, is still within you.

You carry with you every passion, every purposeful feeling, every act of kindness and compassion. Take a moment, let your awareness sink into your very center, and feel it all.

You’ve been up, down, delighted, disappointed, joyous, fearful, focused and peaceful. Consider the immensity of your life substance, and think of what you can now do with it all.

See that you are a dynamic bundle of energy and possibility driven by purpose and love. To any situation, you bring a unique and valuable expression of life.

Today, find strength and confidence in how far you’ve come. Right now, find new ways of adding to the rich substance that is already yours.

Rise above the concerns, frustrations, distractions of the moment. Feel the substance, the goodness, the momentum, and carry it forward.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 20

Do what is difficult

Achievement is the result of doing what is difficult. If you're not willing to do what is difficult, you won't get very far.

Doing what is difficult is not really as bad as it might seem, when you simply go ahead and do it. Stop avoiding, quit procrastinating, and you actually make it easier to do what is difficult and necessary.

Many times you've seen how working through challenges can strengthen you. You've felt your confidence grow by choosing to face life's difficulties rather than hide from them.

In difficulty is great opportunity. Be the person who seizes that opportunity.

Jump in and take on the tough assignments. Be willing to do what is difficult, and you bring success, satisfaction, new value and fulfillment into your life.

Show life how much you love it by having the courage to do what is necessary, even when it is difficult, uncomfortable and inconvenient. Do what is difficult, and leave a positive trail wherever you go.

Ralph S. Marston

November 21

Every choice matters

Reality is what it is, and wishing or pretending for it to be different accomplishes nothing. Yet what you do with reality is up to you, and can make all the difference in the world.

Your perspective, the way you see things, does not itself change anything. However it is that very perspective that inspires and enables you to make valuable, significant changes.

No matter how the situation is, you can be optimistic about it. Because you have the opportunity to do something good with it.

Past experiences and trends can provide valuable guidance for the future. Yet the future depends much more on what gets done than on what has already happened.

Every day, every action, every thought determines how the future unfolds. From the reality of what is, you can create an even better, more fulfilling reality.

Every choice matters. Today, make the choices that make your future bright.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 22

Fresh new moment

Failure persists only when you continue to allow it. Success remains only when you continue to support it.

What happened yesterday, last week, ten years ago is not what matters. What you do today, right now, where you are, with what you have, is what counts.

Let previous achievements inspire you, not make you complacent. Let past disappointments fuel your determination rather than your doubt.

This is a fresh new moment with a whole new set of possibilities. Feel the positive power of now, and make it yours.

Build new achievements on top of the old ones. Build new value on top of the desirable as well as the undesirable outcomes of the past.

What matters now is what you’re doing now, for yourself, your world, and all your treasures. Give care, energy, purpose to each fresh new moment, making more and more richness as time goes on.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 23

Let optimism be the reason

A successful day begins with successful thoughts and expectations. When you sincerely expect to get it done, you’re well on your way.

The reality of this moment is what it is. What truly matters, though, is your interpretation of reality, and that depends on you.

The way you see the world determines the way you respond to it. See this day as an opportunity, and you’ll act to capitalize on the opportunity.

Your thoughts and expectations alone do not influence the situation. They do influence you, and will push you to do great things in any situation.

Stop looking for reasons to be optimistic, and let your own optimism be the reason. Choose positive expectations, a positive frame of mind, and let yourself be driven to create positive results.

Today, live the great day you deserve by first envisioning it in your mind. Then follow that vision and enjoy the satisfaction of working to make it all come true.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 24

Allow gratitude

Gratitude empowers, energizes, opens you to new possibilities. Allow gratitude to flow, now, into every part of your awareness.

You already know how good you feel when you feel thankful. Allow that feeling to put all your other feelings in a positive perspective.

Gratitude connects you, calms frustration, eases anxiety, promotes understanding. Allow your gratitude to spread out to the world that surrounds you.

Allow gratitude to create a positive space within you. Fill that space with joy, achievement, peace and love.

Allow gratitude to inform your thinking, to color your words, to guide your actions. Allow gratitude to shine its light on the endless abundance in which you’re always immersed.

This day, this moment, this situation is a culmination of all the good and valuable things that are your life. Allow gratitude, and allow yourself to make the very best of all that is.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 25

At peace with life

Today, the frustrations do not have to frustrate you. The worries have no power to worry you.

Today, the most annoying things will not annoy you. For you have chosen to live at peace with life.

Today you have no need to prove yourself, plus many opportunities to improve yourself and your world. You can live with a true sense of purpose, and rise above what previously would have kept you down.

You can peacefully accept what is, where you are, and what has happened. Guided by your highest values and most treasured dreams, today you can make best use of all you have.

Today, you can relate to others and respond to events from a perspective of positive purpose. Setting aside differences and disagreements, you can understand and cooperate to do what’s in everyone’s best interest.

Today you can remind yourself how precious and valuable your life, and all of life, is. Today, you can live accordingly, with peaceful, purposeful power.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 26

Live your value

Do all you can to be capable and competent, decisive, effective, successful. But don’t let your whole identity get wrapped up in those things.

You are more than your capabilities, more than your achievements. Those things are great, and important, yet they are things you do, not who you are.

No loss, no failure, no reversal of fortune can diminish the true and unique value of you. You can do impressive things as well as humiliating things, and still your beautiful essence remains.

Achievements large and small are concrete expressions of the value that is your life. Yet that value is always there, with and without the achievements.

From deep inside, you feel driven to share the value of your life and to build upon it. You do so with your efforts, your words, your presence.

And no matter what you do, or fail to do, or how you appear in the eyes of others, the value is ever there. Know this always, and feel the confidence to live your value with authenticity, kindness, love and joy.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 27

Let go of what you're not

Let go of what you're not. Your life, your time and your energy are too important to waste.

Let go of what you're not, and make more room for all you love. Drop the pretenses and embrace authentic goodness.

You can make the biggest positive difference by being you. You can change the world for the better by being your authentic best.

Let go of what you're not and celebrate all you are. Wrap your awareness around what really matters.

You'll never be satisfied following anyone else's dream. Real fulfillment comes from achieving what is most meaningful to you.

Let go of what you're not, and give yourself the space to fully live as the unique, beautiful person you are. Let go of what you're not, and free yourself to give your best to all of life.

Ralph S. Marston

November 28

Actual priorities

Your priorities are not what you say they are, or what you merely think they should be. Your priorities are what you actually do.

There are only so many hours in each day. Your priorities are demonstrated by the way you invest that time.

Are your actual priorities in line with your imagined or desired priorities? If not, you have the power, the opportunity, and a compelling reason to make a change.

Be relentlessly honest with yourself and ask yourself this question. Are you spending the moments of this day, of every day, supporting and expanding what’s most important to you?

Fulfillment is more than just giving lip service to what you care about. You have the chance, with each decision, with each moment, to create meaningful, lasting substance.

This is your life, and this is your day to focus strengths, skills and resources on all you love. Make it your actual, living priority to do so.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 29

Embrace responsibility

Stop hoping that someone or something or some lucky event will rescue you from responsibility. Instead, embrace responsibility.

Embrace responsibility, and feel the power of your own potential as it is deployed. Discover how strong you are and how your strength grows with every exertion.

Effort spent running, hiding from responsibility is wasted effort. Responsibility always will catch up to you.

So don’t let responsibility grab you from behind. Run eagerly toward responsibility, ready to take hold of it, doing the work to make it work for you.

Put yourself in the most advantageous position by aligning yourself with responsibility. Respect and appreciate the power of responsibility, and you’ll be able to handle it well.

Feel your purpose by putting it into action. Embrace responsibility, and live up to your highest potential.

-Ralph S. Marston

November 30

Keep up the good work

Each kindness you offer makes the world a better place. Every word of encouragement lifts life a little higher.

All the times you choose to do what’s right, and good, and valuable, you create new goodness. By speaking the truth, and living authentically, you make truth itself more powerful and present.

You’re making a difference, making life positive and meaningful. Today is another opportunity to keep up the good work.

Your efforts create value, and that value grows. Your love and generosity inspire new richness, and that richness expands.

You know how good it feels when you leave people, places, situations better off than when you found them. It feels so good because it is so good, and you’ll have many more chances to do it again.

You are at your best when you’re enabling love, hope, goodness and joy. And every day is a day to be your best.

-Ralph S. Marston