Daily Motivator - August
 

August 1

Eager to be proven wrong

What is there that you cannot see? What is in front of you that you choose not to notice?

What you know of life is considerable, yet there is much more you don’t know. All that you don’t know provides an endless pathway for discovery and improvement.

Can you open yourself to the possibility that you might not be sufficiently informed? If so, you will right away begin to be better informed.

Humility makes you much smarter than smugness. It also makes you more enjoyable, effective, and interesting.

The point of knowledge is not to prove how much you have or how right you are. The value of knowledge is in applying it with useful and practical action.

Embrace the opportunity that exists in all you do not know. Be eager to be proven wrong, and learn how to live even better than you already do.

— Ralph Marston

August 2

Problems are not the problem

No situation is going to solve all your problems. But that’s okay, because the existence of problems is not really such a problem.

Much of what makes life good is the satisfaction of dealing with its problems. If there were no problems, such satisfaction would be impossible.

Go ahead and be thankful for the problems. Then get to work dealing with them in creative and enriching ways.

Let go of the fantasy that you can somehow make your way to a perfect utopia that’s free of all problems. Instead, use your creative energy to envision and implement ways to thrive and to spread joy even when problems keep cropping up.

Rather than letting the problems nag you and disappoint you, allow them to energize and inspire you. Appreciate the power they have to direct your focus toward what truly matters.

Look confidently out at life, and see every problem as an opportunity to enrich your experience. Then go out among those problems and reap the rich rewards of a life well lived.

— Ralph Marston

August 3

In your hands today

Think of how today will look from the perspective of tomorrow. Think of how this month will look from the perspective of next year.

Are there opportunities you will wish you had taken advantage of? Are there efforts you’ll wish you had made or destructive habits you’ll wish you had abandoned?

Today you have a combination of time and resources that you’ll never have again. Today you can envision a better world and actually move toward it.

The quality of your future is in your hands today. That’s a profound opportunity, one you deserve to fully utilize while you can.

Today you’re able to send good and valuable things ahead to tomorrow and beyond. You can give the rest of your life added confidence, satisfaction, effectiveness, and richness.

Imagine yourself looking back on today with gratitude and admiration. Now, do what you can do to make sure that really happens.

— Ralph Marston

Be the best you today, plant the seeds of love right now, and enjoy the beautiful flowers later. thank you God for the right now so i can have the later on.

August 4

Do your part

Notice and understand the difficulties, the things out of balance, but don’t obsess endlessly over them. Instead, focus on what you can do to make things better.

When the outside world offers nothing but despair, that’s the time to fill your inside thoughts with hope. When the situation is going downhill, point your own intentions in a higher, more beneficial direction.

The negativity is bad enough on its own, so don’t add to it with your thoughts. Choose to center your thinking on positive alternatives.

That doesn’t require you to be unrealistic about what’s going on. On the contrary, it puts you in the best position to improve on whatever difficulties have arisen.

Clearly see those difficulties without letting them dominate your thinking. Call upon the power of your values, your vision, your faith and positive expectations.

No, you won’t improve the whole world on your own, yet you absolutely can improve yourself. So do that, and do your part to make life a more positive and fulfilling experience.

— Ralph Marston

August 5

Enjoy the goodness

Take time to see the beauty. Allow yourself to enjoy the goodness of being alive.

In every moment is the potential for new value, new fulfillment, new discovery. Keep your heart, your thoughts, your awareness open to the possibilities.

Bright green leaves dance gently in the breeze as clouds drift slowly across the sky. Treasure the opportunity to be a part of the wonder.

Life’s difficulties are real but they are far from unbearable. Though the challenges demand much of your attention, you also have many things to be thankful for.

Remind yourself often of those things. And make plenty of room in your life to enjoy them.

You’re deeply invested in the life you live. So live it well, and enjoy the goodness that is always with you.

— Ralph Marston

August 6

Be for what you are for

Don’t get angry at those who oppose you. Get smart, get creative, get energetic, get busy.

When you fight against a person, an idea, an institution, you’re not fighting on your own terms. You’re fighting on their terms, putting yourself at a severe disadvantage.

Instead, dig deeper and connect with the positive vision behind what you support. Craft an authentic, compelling story that inspires you and attracts others to join you.

Be for what you are for, in full and passionate support of what you love and care about. Rather than getting drawn into fighting, put your time and effort into building, maintaining, strengthening.

Raise yourself to a higher level than those who would go against you. Create so much enrichment and affirmation that their negativity is rendered irrelevant.

If all you can think to do is complain and oppose, think some more. Zero in on what makes you care so much, on what you seek to lift up, and aim yourself solidly in that direction.

— Ralph Marston

August 7

Miracle of meaning

In a universe with infinite potential for chaos, there is order, there is beauty, there is love. It cannot be anything less than a miracle, and that miracle lives deeply within who you are.

The miracle has become so thoroughly ingrained, so widely expressed, that you rarely even think about it. But you wouldn’t want to be and you couldn’t stand to be without it.

In a realm that seems random there is meaning. You can see its light shine through the deepest darkness.

When you stray too far from the miracle of meaning, life quickly falls apart. What once worked flawlessly no longer functions, what you once understood becomes mired in confusion.

Yet the moment you immerse yourself in the truth of who you are, you reclaim the power that was there before the beginning. Love asserts its infinite generosity, hope emerges, and life rises to an even higher level of excellence.

What you seek will never be found in any scheme or place or thing. For what you seek is who you are, the miracle of meaning that is always there.

— Ralph Marston

August 8

Adventure

Adventure is a story that never gets old. When you make your way out beyond where you belong, you discover a whole new dimension to life.

Whether you experience it directly or vicariously, adventure puts you in touch with your vulnerability. That’s actually a very good thing.

The experience of vulnerability brought on by adventure brings a renewed sense of humility. That opens you up to gain new wisdom, to develop new capabilities, to grow stronger in the truth of who you are.

Adventure is rich in risk and reward, and that’s precisely its point. When you crave adventure what you are craving is life in its most meaningful state.

You have the power of purpose, the power to prevail through challenge in service of that purpose. Adventure makes that abundantly clear.

Adventure is when you know how it feels to be fully alive. And that’s an essential thing to know.

— Ralph Marston

August 9

Get good at challenge

Challenge energizes your life, pushing you to higher levels of creativity and resourcefulness. What can you do today to give yourself a nourishing measure of challenge?

Go somewhere you’ve never been. Learn something complicated and useful.

Engage in a friendly, substantive conversation with someone who disagrees with you. Undertake a task that requires more focus and discipline than you’ve previously been willing to invest.

The more challenge you experience, the more challenge you can handle. And that’s an essential skill for any kind of achievement.

Whatever you seek to create, to become, to acquire, to undertake, you’ll work through challenge to get there. Get good at challenge and you set yourself up to make great progress.

Willingly choose to give yourself more experience at working through challenge. You’ll develop strengths and skills that can serve you in every part of life.

— Ralph Marston

August 10

Sleep on it

Ask yourself a question before you go to bed, and then set the subject aside. In the morning you will have an answer.

Your mind is always eager to answer questions. But if you try too hard, you diminish its power.

You self edit, you overthink, you introduce needless doubts. But there’s a simple way to avoid those things, and that’s to sleep on it.

Your mind is still working while you are sleeping. The big difference is you’re not interfering so much with that thinking.

The answer you wake up with may not be what you wanted to hear. Yet it will be authentic, well-considered, and something you’ll benefit from knowing.

When something in particular has you perplexed, give your mind a chance to do its best work. Sleep on it, and wake up with a valuable new perspective.

— Ralph Marston

August 11

Choose positive

It’s nearly impossible to change someone else’s attitude. It’s surprisingly easy to change your own.

A negative perspective will waste your time, blunt your effectiveness, ruin your day. Fortunately, you can get rid of it the moment you decide to do so.

Stop looking backward at the unfortunate, undesirable things that may have happened. Start looking forward to a future that’s open and available for you to influence.

You don’t have to automatically let the frustrating circumstances frustrate you. Decide instead to be amused by them.

Smile at the troubles, thankful that you’re able to recognize them and deal with them. Enjoy the fact that you’re alive and experiencing whatever you are experiencing.

Being positive is just as reasonable, just as accessible as being negative. Choose positive, and choose a more enjoyable journey to a much more favorable destination.

— Ralph Marston

August 12

Invite surprise

Life can become very predictable, yet it never has to be. Just a little bit beneath the familiar surface is magical surprise.

Look at what you’ve always looked at and see something you’ve never seen. Notice a detail you’ve never examined, and let it start you on a path to more.

It’s nice when life behaves as expected. But when that goes on too long you become sealed off from the wonder, the joy, the exhilaration of new discovery.

In your childhood, you made many more discoveries in a single day than you have in the last month as an adult. Make it your goal to reduce that imbalance.

Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, go where you will encounter what you have not experienced before. Open yourself up, set yourself up, for more surprises in your life.

Get yourself in the habit of going beyond your routine habits. Invite genuine surprise into your life, and its magic will enchant you in ways you never could have imagined.

— Ralph Marston

August 13

Authentic experience

What if you owned the most beautiful home in town but were unable to ever live in it? What if you had a magnificent yacht but were never able to go aboard?

What if you had dozens of fascinating friends but were never able to talk with them? What if you visited a magnificent destination but never left your hotel room?

What you really want is not what you want to have, to be, to do. What you want are the experiences you’ll gain from those things.

What you want is experience, and no one can give it to you, no one can do it for you. The experience at the heart of every desire is up to you.

Your fulfillment is not dependent on any particular possession, activity, or relationship. You can find many alternate pathways to whatever experiences you seek.

Whatever your goal, what’s driving that goal is the desire for authentic experience. Keep that in mind, and your options as well as your outcomes will be greatly improved.

— Ralph Marston

August 14

Go with the best

You have choices, in how to see the world, in how to respond, in where to deploy your efforts. You have choices, and the choices you make in every moment make a difference.

Go with what makes you strong. Go with what raises and expresses your competence.

Go with what gets you to work. Go with what brings you inspiration, passion, energy.

If it drains you, discourages you, distracts you, keep yourself away from it. Turn instead toward the good work you can do, the valuable results you can achieve.

Cut through the confusion and doubt, and ask yourself this. Which choice, which option will bring real benefit to the situation right now?

Go with that choice and give yourself fully to it. Today, every day, whatever the circumstance, go with the best you can be.

— Ralph Marston