Daily Motivator - February
 

February 1

You can control you

You cannot control the weather. You can control you.

You cannot control other people. You can control you.

You cannot control the market, the government, the culture, the seemingly random hand of fate. What you can control is what you think, how you see and feel about life, and what you do.

You can control you, and that is more than enough for great fulfillment. You control you, and with that control you can forge a positive result out of any situation.

In what you have gained, in what you have lost, there lives the same opportunity. Through purposeful self-direction and control, you can make it into something great.

You control the beautiful, unique, creative bundle of possibilities that is you. Every day, every situation is your chance to transform that control, that power, into meaningful value.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 2

Free of worry

Worry is a waste, and more than that, it is destructive. Because worry prevents other, more positive and effective thinking.

Yes, you have problems, but you don’t have to let them overwhelm your thinking. Yes, you have concerns about the future, and you also have the ability to deal with them.

Feeling sorry for yourself focuses your mind on limitation, weakness and despair. There is nothing useful in doing that.

No matter what your situation, you can choose to think anything, literally anything. So choose to think thoughts of strength, progress, empowerment.

Acknowledge the problem, and also acknowledge all the good things you have going for you. Then face forward, with energy and confidence.

You have the opportunity to make a positive difference, so don’t let that opportunity slip by. Grab this time now, free of worry, filled with clear, positive thoughts, and act to make life better.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 3

Fear of missing out

It is uncanny how often fear brings about the very thing you fear. That is definitely what happens with the fear of missing out.

If you’re afraid to choose one thing for fear of missing out on another thing, you end up choosing nothing. Fear of missing out on something can cause you to miss out on everything.

You cannot have everything all at once, and actually, you wouldn’t want to. You cannot experience everything there is to experience, and if you did, it would be meaningless.

If you’re obsessed with what you’re missing, or rushing to get to what’s next, you contaminate what’s here, what’s now. Anxiety builds and builds, your attention gets frazzled, and you’re unable to enjoy anything.

Don’t drive yourself crazy lusting after more and more of everything. Instead, create true fulfillment by savoring whatever you have, whatever you’re doing.

Gently let go of that fear of missing out, and invest all your attention where you are. When you’re living your life fully here and now, you’re not missing out on anything.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 4

Day of enrichment

Make today a day of enrichment. Rather than just getting through the day, make something valuable and lasting out of it.

Take a moment to look back on your life, and recall the things that have meant the most to you. Today you have the opportunity to create more of those things.

Instead of filling the moments with empty distractions, you can create new richness. You can make more of what makes life good.

You don’t have to settle for pointless, random occurrences that come your way. Today you can live with positive, purposeful intention, with substance.

Fill your time with the people, the places, the work, the fun, the experiences that matter to you. Invest your energy in fulfillment, in richness, in meaningful substance.

Take this opportunity to live this day as a day of enrichment. You have what it takes to make it the best one yet.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 5

Freedom within

Forgiveness eases the burden of resentment. Gratitude releases you from the need to need.

Love unbinds you from fear, anger and worry. Caring and generosity push away the despair.

Understanding liberates you from stale old assumptions. Kindness lifts you out of cynicism and disappointment.

Within you already is the power to escape whatever gets you down. Because within you is the choice to live with goodness and integrity, strength and responsibility.

The latest bright flashy gadget will not save you, really won't even interest or entertain you much. The good values within, though, can light up the whole world.

Feel the power you have for spreading goodness, love, wisdom and all things that matter. Free yourself from within, and dance through life bringing joy to all.

Ralph S. Marston

February 6

Work without delay

Procrastination achieves nothing positive. Go ahead and do what must be done, before it must be done.

Purposeful effort is a joy. Fill your moments with an abundance of that particular joy.

Delaying the work just makes the work more difficult. So choose to do the work without delay, to do it now.

No longer will you be burdened by what must be done. You can be satisfied with what you have accomplished.

Do the work now, and earn the freedom of knowing you’re out in front of it. Then you can use your time in highly meaningful and productive ways, not just striving to catch up.

The sooner you do the work, the more leverage you have. Time has great value, so get that value working for you instead of against you.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 7

Keep going, get through it

Going through the dark valley can be difficult, frightening, painful. Yet once you manage to climb out, you’ll be stronger, more inspired, more creative, more energetic.

Challenge is tough, yet you are tougher. Keep going, and get through it.

You’ve benefitted in countless ways from past experience. Soon you’ll have even more of that valuable experience.

When things are too good for too long, you begin to take those good things for granted. A difficult challenge changes all that, making your resources, skills, connections more useful as a result of your renewed appreciation.

Keep going, and get through it. Every day of hardship builds more strength, opens more possibilities.

You are heading toward a place where you can do more than you’ve ever been able to do. Keep going, and you’ll be there soon.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 8

Inspired effort

Place no judgment on what is necessary to be inspired. Free yourself to gain inspiration from anything, from everything, from nothing.

Enjoy life’s beauty to its fullest by not being dependent on it. Sink into the beauty, absorb it for your own, while not allowing it to consume you.

Inspiration radiates from your true nature. To feel inspired is to feel your authentic essence.

Distractions need not tarnish your inspiration when love and truth are at its source. Every big and little thing contributes to the magic that is your experience.

Give to every effort the benefit of being an inspired effort. Do this simply by making the effort, with persistence, with joy, no matter what.

Inspiration is not something you must wait for, wish for, strive for, or arrange. It is yours in your truth, in your love, in your desire to make a difference.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 9

Lessons of life

Take no satisfaction in the failure of others. Learn from it.

Harbor no resentment at the success of others. Learn from it.

Learn from what works, from what doesn’t work. Learn from sparkling new ventures and grand old stories.

Learn from the pain, and from the pleasure too. Learn from what amazes you, what repulses you, what drains you, what energizes you.

Learn by challenging what you know. Learn by admitting what you don’t know.

Life’s lessons contain some of its greatest value. Seize every opportunity to learn, and claim that value for your own.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 10

To be strong

What does it take to be strong? You must activate the strength that is yours with which to live.

The flame burns strong simply because it is a flame. The river runs strong because that is what rivers must do.

Strength grows by being exercised. To be strong, do what you would do with strength, and to be stronger, keep doing it.

Strength is in your nature. It is up to you to deploy that strength into the experience of your life.

You are strong enough to make a start. And you are strong enough to get stronger.

The strength to act, to wait, to persist, to resist, does not spring from clever strategy. Your strength begins the moment you begin.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 11

Pressing on

When you’re ready to quit, that’s when you can make the biggest difference by pressing on. When you feel like giving up, you’re closer to a breakthrough than ever before.

How do you find the strength to keep going? You don’t worry about finding strength, just take one step after another.

Feel weariness as you choose to transform it into new energy. Feel discouragement as you choose to make it into fresh enthusiasm.

You can persist, because the reward for doing so is great. You’ve pushed yourself this far and you can use that same kind of push to keep yourself going.

Achievement is hard work, and you’ve already done a great deal of it. Now, as the payoff nears, keep going and do the rest.

Feel new determination as it floods into your awareness. You’ve already earned great value, so keep at it and claim your reward.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 12

Embrace the resistance

Don't see it as an obstacle. See it as a chance to discover how committed you are to moving forward.

Don't see it as a problem. See it as a way to gain new strength.

Does it seem that the world pushes against you every time you set out to make progress? Actually, the resistance you encounter is providing a path to your goal, and a way to create something of value.

If the quest were too easy, reaching it would have no significance. It is precisely the difficulties, challenges and obstacles that give your work meaning.

You're already strong and capable, becoming stronger with every challenge. Embrace the resistance, appreciate it for what it offers, and you'll find yourself moving steadily through it.

Instead of complaining that the work is too hard, celebrate that it's sufficiently challenging to produce a valuable, meaningful reward. Then keep up the good work, reaping all the benefits that come from doing so.

Ralph S. Marston

February 13

Get yourself doing

Action improves your perspective. Action expands your choices and begins to fulfill your possibilities.

The moment you stride forward, the goal feels more attainable. That’s because it is.

The life you seek is within reach. It is you who must do the reaching, and action is the way.

Step beyond wondering, wishing, doubting, speculating, strategizing, second guessing. Get yourself doing.

Innovative, creative ideas are great, but only when you actually implement them. Combine the power of persistent action with the beauty of your creative thought, and reap rich rewards.

Action is the way forward, and now is the time to act. Get yourself doing the work, and keep yourself fulfilling the best possibilities.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 14

Reward life

The fear ends now. The progress begins today.

What you once saw as a struggle, you now realize is a great opportunity. What first presented itself as a challenge is now your path to achievement.

Attitude, perception, expectation, enthusiasm, action, they’re all yours to choose. In these things choose value, substance, meaning, fulfillment, love.

Energy and abundance flood into life, into this moment. Now, apply your purpose, your passion, your effort to it all.

Reward life with the beauty and greatness you can bring it. Sparkle with joy at the experience of making a positive difference.

Allow goodness to flow through your every thought, action, word, feeling. Live as an expression of all the great things you know life can be.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 15

Activate your focus

Lock your mind on the positive possibilities. Refuse to let go.

Invest your time in advancing, encouraging, building, supporting the good things that matter. Look far beyond any trivial issue that might distract or dismay you.

Spend your energy and apply your efforts to fulfill your highest intentions. Expect obstacles, expect challenges and expect to work your way through every one.

Focus is not something you have to go out and get. Focus is what you have the opportunity to do in every moment.

Embrace that opportunity. Activate your focus, and make the commitment to keep it going.

Give yourself a taste of sustained, purposeful focus, of what it can accomplish. You’ll want to give yourself a whole lot more.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 16

The task at hand

Do not get stuck, obsessed or stopped by the need to get it done. Just get it done.

Stay away from doubting, wondering or questioning your every move. Just get it done.

Take care of the work that is in front of you. Let others take care of the other things.

Save whatever will come later, for later, letting go of any concern about what has happened, or what will happen, what might happen or could happen. Concern yourself fully right now with what you are doing right now.

Project a powerful force field around yourself with intention as its energy source. Let it repel all doubt, fear, anger, discouragement, distraction and disillusion, for you have great work to do.

In the task at hand is your opportunity to make a valuable positive difference. Do it, and do it well.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 17

You deserve joy

You deserve much joy in life. Now, give yourself that joy by giving love, encouragement, understanding and kindness to others.

Let go of the need for cheap, predictable, contrived drama. Make room for rich, authentic, fulfilling joy.

Open yourself to all the possibilities for elevating your life and the lives of others. Allow your actions, your caring, your joy to bring those possibilities into reality.

You deserve to live in joy, and so do all those around you. It is certainly not a free ride, yet it is well within your ability to create.

Feel the love that constantly pulses within you. Renew your commitment to do something good and meaningful with its positive power.

Make joy your priority, your perspective, the flavor you add to reality. All of life deserves to experience the joy you have to give.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 18

Possibilities you’ve never imagined

There is something you’ve been telling yourself forever you cannot accomplish. Today, prove yourself wrong.

A new moment has arrived, and past assumptions no longer have to hold you back. Decide to be free of those limitations you’ve imposed on yourself.

See now that every big and little thing can inspire you, support you, motivate, encourage and empower you. Today, take the first step toward the accomplishment you’ve been putting off for so long.

Every past experience has prepared you for today, when you can now move forward in a new way. Feel the power of the momentum you’ve already established and point it in the direction you choose.

Push your expectations beyond where they have been. See possibilities you’ve never before imagined and see yourself fulfilling them.

Enjoy watching yourself do what you used to think you could not. Let the satisfaction of achievement energize you to achieve much more.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 19

Full of promise
Your dreams are too important to wait for someday. Act on them today.

Your perspective, your skills, your insights are too valuable to go unused. Jump into the fray, do something good and meaningful with them today.

Your best possibilities plead with you to follow them, to fulfill them. Great opportunities pop into the picture with every turn of events.

Your future is too full of promise to spend any of it wondering what could have been. Let your highest potential continue to unfold today through your focused effort.

Here and there you've had little tastes of how great life can be, of how much good you can do. Decide now to stop fighting over the meager scraps and to start enjoying the whole magnificent feast.

Give your unique existence in this abundant universe the love, respect, attention and effort it all deserves. This is all too precious to waste even a morsel.

Ralph S. Marston

February 20

Unshakable vision

Your thoughts don’t have to be limited by your situation. Neither do your expectations, your attitude, your enthusiasm, your efforts.

As real and as burdensome as the difficulty may be, you can make it irrelevant in your mind. From that powerful inner perspective, you’ll find ways to transcend the difficulty in the outer world.

Claim the full power of thought, of vision, of imagination, that is available to you. Let that power push you into positive, effective action.

You are not your defeats, you are not your victories. You are the person who can make a new choice in every new moment.

You are not your challenges, you are not your skills. You are the person who can craft a rich and meaningful life out of it all.

Carry always a positive, unshakable vision within you. Feel the beauty of that vision as it leads you to make good things happen no matter what.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 21

Later is too late

Some mistakes are made by taking foolish, ill-advised actions. Yet the most painful mistakes are often made by doing nothing.

When mistaken efforts bring undesirable results, you learn from the experience, recover from it, get beyond it. But when your mistake is a failure to act, you’ll create regret that never goes away.

The time to claim opportunity, to act on it, to benefit from it, is when it appears. Later is too late.

Yes, action is risky and there is the possibility of failure. What’s much worse, though, is the certainty of failure that comes from never taking action.

Don’t let moments of possibility, of opportunity slip irretrievably into the abyss of regret. Don’t be so reluctant to act that you create the very failure you fear.

Harvest the full value of now. Summon the courage, the energy, the action to make good and purposeful use of each day while it’s here.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 22

Living it fully

The power, the beauty, the fulfillment in life come with the living of it. Now is the time to live it.

Joy is not hiding in some distant place of perfection and pleasure. Joy is ready and waiting for you to live it right now.

If you’re waiting for conditions to be ideal, stop waiting and start living. Whatever the conditions may be, now is the time to bring the best possibilities to life.

Think before you act, and consider the consequences. But don’t allow worry, doubt or indecision to hold you back from all the living that can be done right now.

Let go of the need to judge whether every little thing is good, bad, happy or sad. Just put yourself into living it fully, giving it your best.

This day, this place, this situation is your opportunity to make a difference, to express and experience joy, to live. Seize that opportunity and run with it.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 23

The past is over

You disappointed yourself, or someone else, and didn’t live up to expectations. But that was the past, and the past is over.

You let your focus lapse, gave in to a distraction, or said something you regret. But now you can learn from all that, and apply your new wisdom.

Every occurrence that has disappointed you is now in the past. Though you do still have the memories and the consequences, you also have the opportunity to change to a more positive course.

Acknowledge and accept what has happened. Then, let go of the remorse, let go of the disappointment, and let in the new possibilities of today.

The past is over, so let its disappointments and shortcomings quickly recede from you. You have today and with it, new and good and useful things to accomplish.

Take whatever energy the past has generated and turn it today toward positive purpose. The past is over, the present is here, and the future is ready for you to create.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 24

Moving the world forward

Don’t let your limitations get in the way of your possibilities. Don’t let what you can’t do get in the way of what you can do.

Don’t let the challenges, disappointments, or setbacks become excuses. Don’t let past failure frighten you away from future success.

Instead, see everything that happens as an opportunity to make progress. Latch on to the positive and push it forward.

Remind yourself there’s always something good, useful, meaningful you can do. Figure out what it is, and do it.

Acknowledge reality but never accept defeat. For within that reality, as difficult and painful as it may be, is a way to make progress.

Face the day, seize the moment, with a smile on your face and confident enthusiasm in your attitude. You’re ready, willing, able to do the work of moving the world forward.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 25

Your day to fill with richness

You are alive and living, so today, act like it. Put your imagination to use, and then put effort and commitment into creating the good things you imagine.

When conditions change, adapt. When you encounter beauty, enjoy it, without guilt, without judgment, without doubt or worry.

Instead of wondering what certain experiences would be like, find out. Instead of wishing for things to be better, get busy making a positive difference.

Say what you think and do what you say. Follow the dreams that live in the heart of who you are.

Welcome the challenges and feel yourself growing strong as you work through them. Admit what you don’t know and make use of what you do know to learn more.

This is your day to fill with the richness of life. See what a great opportunity you have, and live it with all you can.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 26

Always making a difference
Zero in on what you do well, and do it often. Whatever it is you do that makes the biggest difference, ramp it up.

Don't be timid, embarrassed, worried, lazy or arrogant about it. Just get busy and go make a positive contribution to life.

You live in a beautiful world, filled with endless possibilities. This world needs what you have to offer, and is begging for you to add your own unique value.

The fact is, you're good at a lot of things. Have the courage to admit what you love, to put your efforts into what you do well, and to create something awesome from that dynamic, every day.

Pour yourself into the incomparable experience of doing what you do best, of making palpable progress, of knowing that what you do truly matters. Refuse to accept any discouragement or excuses, especially from yourself.

Revitalize every moment you enter by giving your best effort. Delight in knowing you're always making a difference.

Ralph S. Marston

February 27

Rejection

No one seeks or enjoys rejection. No one, that is, except those who achieve spectacular success.

Rejection stings as it pierces the ego. Yet once that happens, and vulnerability spills out, you’re suddenly empowered as never before to pursue authentic purpose.

If you can bear to hear enough people say no, you’ll work your way to the one who says yes. If you can stand to have your ideas rejected, you’ll learn how to make them brilliant.

The more you fear rejection, the less effective you’ll be. Don’t let your best efforts be held hostage by that fear.

Rejection hurts only as much as you let it. Rejection can teach, empower, motivate, energize, as much as you’re willing to allow.

Dream what you desire to dream, say what you want to say, do the good things you choose to do. And be thankful when rejection intercedes to make you even stronger.

-Ralph S. Marston

February 28

Second chance

Give yourself a second chance, and a third, a fourth, a fifth. Give yourself the opportunity to do it better, to do it right, to do it great.

Be clear about the reality of the moment. And be willing to see beyond it.

What matters now is what you do now. What matters now is the future your present actions will create.

Wrap your arms around all you care about. With love, with strength, with purpose, carry it all toward your highest vision.

The challenges are what give achievement and fulfillment their value. You know how those challenges feel, and you know how to work your way through them.

Give yourself another chance. Breathe new life into all you love, and discover how far you can go.

-Ralph S. Marston