Daily Motivator - December
 

December 1

Giving all you can

Here is your opportunity for a day of richness and fulfillment. Seize the opportunity by giving the best of yourself.

Look beyond the empty, contrived spectacles that do nothing other than waste your precious time. Seek instead to engage your body, mind, and spirit in pursuits that genuinely challenge, enlighten, and inspire you.

Pass right on by what is free and effortless and demands nothing from you. You’ll find zero fulfillment or satisfaction there.

Get yourself into situations where you can contribute consequential value. Spend your moments in the service of life, making a positive difference for yourself and others.

Grow stronger by making use of your strengths. Expand your skills by putting them to the test.

Refuse to be trapped by worn out assumptions, false dramas, and hollow transactions. You deserve the incomparable fulfillment of giving all you can to change life for the better.

— Ralph Marston

Happy New Month My Dear Family,
Thanking God for getting us though
the month of November safe and
sound, I pray that this month of
December will be full of peace,
love and joy. Season Greetings.

December 2

Enough time

Set aside enough time, but not too much. Challenge yourself to get the job done in the time you’ve given yourself to do it.

If you rush through while filled with anxiety about the time it’s taking, you won’t produce your best work. Yet when you have way more than the necessary time, you’re more likely to lose focus and to let self doubt creep in.

Up to a point, the more time you spend on a task, the more value and quality you create. However, you will eventually reach a point of diminishing return, and after that point you’re just wasting time or worse.

Decide on a reasonable amount of time and allow yourself that amount. Also, commit yourself to what you’ll do afterward, to the next activity, so you won’t have the option of lingering.

You can get the work done effectively and in a timely manner if you’ll simply make that your intention. Then you’ll have it finished, and be able to move on to whatever is next.

Respect yourself and your skill enough to give yourself the right amount of time that will challenge you without rushing you. Then rise to the challenge and use that time to get your good work done.

— Ralph Marston

December 3

When life talks to you

Listen when life talks to you. And that is all the time.

Watch what life shows to you. See its beauty in endless forms and iterations.

During obscure as well as normal encounters, in the routine and in the unexpected, life conveys a wealth of wisdom and perspective. Take the trouble to pay attention, have the courage and respect to do so.

What you know about is good and useful, yet it’s woefully short of all there is. Life always has more to teach you, to inspire you with.

So watch, and listen, and learn, and feel. Remind yourself of the limitless opportunities ever within your reach, and partake, and share.

Most of all, honor life by living it, immersing yourself fully in its wonder, challenge, tribulation, and joy. Open yourself to the richness as it continually unfolds at every level and in every dimension.

— Ralph Marston

December 4

Enjoy the day

Enjoy the day. Enjoy your life.

Bask in the sunshine when it appears. Revel in awe at the drama of storms that occasionally pass through.

Walk through the seasons with steady intention. Find wonder as you wander across the truth of existence.

You’re sure to encounter trouble and pain, but they don’t have to stop you. Use your strength to keep going, for there’s always beauty ahead.

Something new, someone fascinating, is waiting to be seen, appreciated, treasured. Delight in the discoveries you’re able to make, the genuine good you’re able to do.

Whatever the day holds, decide to enjoy it. Experience again and again how beneficial and fulfilling such a choice can be.

— Ralph Marston

December 5

Truth of who you are

Your mind is too precious, your thoughts and values too hard won, to let them be stolen by trivialities. Yet that danger lurks every time you settle for mere pleasure or convenience when serious contemplation and effort are called for.

Take care that you not lay to waste everything your discipline and focus have earned. It’s tragically easy to do when you select the easiest options in lieu of the best ones.

Fortunately, your diligence can keep your indolence at bay. With humility you’re able to avoid the gravitational pull of arrogance.

You have the tools with which to fill each day with positive purpose, with meaning, solid substance, achievement and value. Those tools are yours when you choose the challenge of truth over the convenience of lies.

You can quickly learn again to love the rarefied air of authenticity. You can allow yourself to experience and express the truth that has always existed at your deepest level of perception.

Insist on living as who you are, not who it’s easiest to pretend to be. Live the purpose that is always a challenge to articulate yet ultimately impossible to deny.

— Ralph Marston

December 6

Room to run

Your standards are already high. Raise them higher.

You have accomplished much. Utilize what you’ve accomplished in the service of greater accomplishments.

Every creation comes from other creation and facilitates more creation. Whatever comes of this, something in turn comes of that.

Your work is not finished. The joy that arises from being able to create has much more room to run.

Even with its inevitable setbacks, yesterday brought some measure of progress. Today offers the chance to expand on that progress.

You’ve done what you can. Now you’re able to look forward to the incomparable fulfillment of doing even more.

— Ralph Marston

December 7

What’s difficult

The fact that a particular undertaking is difficult is not a reason to avoid it. Not a valid reason to dismiss it as unattainable or undesirable.

Yes, be realistic. But don’t let your realism descend into fatalism.

Difficult is not at all the same as impossible. Not only is a difficult task possible, it has some advantages over things that are easier.

A difficult challenge forces you to up your game, to call forth your best thoughts and efforts. The endeavor leaves you stronger, more capable and confident.

If it’s hard to do, then few have done it, maybe even no one. Therein lies great opportunity to bring unique value to life.

Choose to see difficulty as a feature of possibility, not as an indictment, not as an excuse to give up. Within what’s difficult, there is much fulfillment for you to create.

— Ralph Marston

December 8

The best within you

Perhaps today is not your best day. And it’s likely you’re not in an ideal situation.

Nonetheless, you can visualize what you would do if you were in fact experiencing your best day. And you can, to the best of your ability, work on doing it.

You can imagine how you would move forward if indeed you were in an ideal situation. And you can incorporate elements of that response into the existing situation.

External circumstances certainly have their impact. Yet your internal drive, purpose, motivation, and concept of yourself also have important roles to play.

The best within you is always present, always possible, even in the worst of situations. And it is precisely at those times that the best version of yourself can come forward to push life in a more positive direction.

No matter where you go, no matter what you encounter, you carry with you the desire and ability to make a difference. When that ability is called for, when it’s needed most, reach inside, call it up, and put it to good use.

— Ralph Marston

December 9

The good

Treasure the good you have known, and still know. Let it inspire you to make more of its kind, in its image.

See if you can recognize what’s good in the eyes and ways of people around you. Remind yourself also of all that’s good about you.

Refuse to use goodness as a weapon, as a way to blame, cudgel, shame, or embarrass. Practice goodness instead as an offering, a connection, a humble invitation to elevate the experience of life.

The good in you is real and needs no exaggeration, contrivance, or hidden agenda. Just let it be in you, from you, and with you in words and deeds.

The world has no shortage of difficulties and iniquity. Even so, life can be good, and goodness abounds when you appreciate it, and let it.

See the good that is true, that is possible. Have the confidence and love to continue bringing the good to life.

— Ralph Marston

December 10

Make good use

You can wait for what you prefer, for the ideal tools, situation, opportunity. Or you can make use of the options currently available to you.

You can complain about what you don’t have. Or you can find new ways to get the most out of what you do have.

If you’re looking for an excuse, there’s always a perfectly reasonable explanation for not moving forward. Yet if you’re looking to make progress, there’s always a way to start where you are and move steadily toward where you want to be.

So which will it be, the excuse or the action? You owe it to yourself to choose action, progress, fulfillment.

You deserve a life that’s filled with richness, with meaning, with the experience of creating value. And that begins from where you are, with the situation as it is, using the skills and resources you have.

Focus not on what you lack or what’s holding you back but on what you care about and on what you can do. Make good use of what’s available to you, with purpose, with commitment, with persistence, and you’ll find it’s more than enough.

— Ralph Marston

December 11

Treasure of now

Now is what you have. Now is all you’ve ever had, and look how much you’ve done with it.

Now there’s more to do, and now is when you can. Now comes with opportunity, so be careful not to turn it into regret.

Now is what every person has in common. That makes now especially nice to share.

You recall what was, you imagine what will. Yet when you live, when you touch the richness, when you breathe and feel and love, that’s now.

Now the sun shines, now the wind blows. Now you make your way through the experience of being.

The treasure of now fills your life. Give to it your full embrace.

— Ralph Marston

December 12

Start now, and continue

You can’t do it all at once. But you can do it.

You’re not going to master a new language, run a marathon, or build a thriving business the day after you decide to do so. Yet you’re able to accomplish all those things, and more, with small steps.

You can put time on your side. You can use the hours, weeks, and years to make steady progress.

That progress usually doesn’t occur in a straight line, or as quickly as you’d like. But it will come over time, and over time is better than never.

The way to fill your life with achievement is to fill your moments with the efforts that build achievement. Several of those moments are immediately ahead of you right now.

At this point it makes no difference whether you’re starting early or starting late. What’s important is to start now, and continue.

— Ralph Marston

December 13

Just be you

It’s a waste of your effort to try and second guess what people want you to be like. Just be you, just be true.

Some people will not respond positively to the way you are. That’s a good thing to find out early so you can move on from them.

Fortunately, there are plenty of people who will value your authenticity. You’ll discover who they are by being who you truly are.

Do seek to listen, to understand, to respond in a generous manner. Do be open to changing your perceptions, opinions, and behaviors when that’s what you sincerely believe is called for.

But avoid putting forth a fraudulent facade. Because that’s not going to do anybody any good.

Point all your energy in a genuine direction. You can do a lot of good for a lot of people, and for yourself, by being you.

— Ralph Marston

December 14

Enduring richness

What a sad and empty life is pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, but with no joy. What a torment to be consumed with possessions, possessions, possessions, but no substance.

How hollow is an existence of ease, convenience, gratification, but no fulfillment. Days are full of spectacles, dramas, thrills, but no meaning.

Experiences unfold with speed, activity, sensation, but no understanding. There’s great power, leverage, and potential, but no purpose.

It doesn’t require genius to avoid such existential emptiness. What it does take are effort, commitment, responsibility, gratitude, discipline and humility.

The meaning you experience is the meaning you’re willing to give. Fulfillment grows out of value created, not from anything that’s merely consumed.

The quick and easy shallowness can be supremely enticing, but can never be sustaining. At every juncture, choose instead the enduring richness of investing yourself in improving life for all who share it with you.

— Ralph Marston

December 15

Value for your time

There’s no time to waste, so what do you do? You hurry, and while all that hurrying can create much activity, it often produces poor results.

Rarely is it a good tactic to put yourself into such a rush. In the effort to hurry because time is short, you can easily end up wasting even more time.

Consider a couple of things. First, if you really don’t have time to focus and do a good job right now, could you wait until later, when there’s more time?

Second, is that urgent next activity you’re rushing off to actually urgent, actually important? Or is it something that could be delayed, maybe even canceled altogether?

If you regularly find yourself pressed for time, there’s an excellent chance you can benefit from a re-evaluation of your priorities and procedures. Rather than assuming that rushing is inevitable, challenge yourself to make your time more intentional and focused.

Instead of convincing yourself you’re making progress by rushing around, look for a better way. Give respect and value to your time, and it will return great value to you.

— Ralph Marston

December 16

Pushing the possibilities

You are right now situated at the center of your own unique universe of possibilities. Those possibilities can assemble to oppress you into oblivion or lift you to unimaginable heights, depending largely on how and to what purpose you interact with them.

You perceive only a few of the most adjacent possibilities, and can imagine a little of what extends out beyond them. But you simply cannot fully conceive of all that’s possible across time, space, function, and thought.

What you can do, and indeed cannot avoid, is to seed those possibilities with purpose, with meaning. To yield desirable results you must move through that infinitely complex universe of possibilities with truth and sincerity of purpose.

When it comes to your most immediate options, you can sometimes succeed in deceiving yourself and others. But one possibility quickly leads to another and then another, far beyond what you could ever anticipate, and the deception inevitably breaks down.

Your universe of possibilities is so complex and dynamic, and extends so far beyond your comprehension, you cannot hope to manipulate it. Yet with an honest and beneficial purpose, what you can do is traverse that immense field of possibilities into a life of greatness and fulfillment.

Love, beauty, truth, and purpose all exist for good reason. They constantly enable you to push life’s possibilities in the best direction.

— Ralph Marston

December 17

Fresh new opportunity

You cannot bring back lost opportunities. What you can do is learn from them and transform the regret they bring you into determination.

Your past is not perfect. And that makes the present even more precious.

Maybe you would be in a more favorable situation today if you had been more diligent yesterday. Fortunately, the sun rose this morning on a new chance to redeem yourself.

Feel within you the spark of goodness, of creativity, of kindness, love, and enthusiasm. Now, in the moment you have, do something with it.

Embrace the way you feel, whatever that may be, and challenge yourself to find positive, productive energy in that feeling. Accept the way life is, however it is, and discover avenues of improvement and fulfillment that you can embark upon.

All the successes, joys, disappointments, treasured and forgotten experiences have brought you to this fresh new opportunity. Now, make what you do with it worthy of all you’ve been through to get here.

— Ralph Marston

December 18

Spark of hope

Focus on the opportunities. Persevere through the difficulties.

Remind yourself that those difficulties and opportunities are often two aspects of the same reality. Offer yourself the wisdom to consider differing perspectives on the same situation.

As you do so, take good care of yourself. Nurture and engage your potential to bring good out of whatever happens.

Your circumstances are never perfect in every way. Neither are they ever without hope.

From a tiny spark of hope take a tiny step. Feel the power of doing so, of the difference it makes, then take another step, a little more ambitious.

Even when the pains are more evident, the opportunities are still there. Continue to choose hope and to reliably act on it, for that’s what will bring you to a more positive place.

— Ralph Marston

Meditations for the Heart??

As a child I recall playing a game of tag, where, if I was about to be tagged, I could yell out, “Force Field” and know that I was safe. This force field was imaginary, but it prevented the person who was it from tagging me. In recovery we have a force field that is real. God can and will shield us from harm's way. None of life’s daggers can cut into our lives and truly harm us when we let God become our force field. This does not mean that life will be problem free. It does mean that any problem, any scorn from others, or any shame can be kept outside of this force field if we put our trust in our Higher Power. This trust acts as a shield we can attain. It will build an inner peace that will allow us to deal effectively with life’s problems. We learn that resentment has no place in our lives. We find a healthy path to walk on. Do I allow God to be a force in my life?

December 19

Refining your desires

Value arises from effort, not from desire alone. Desire helps you understand what has meaning, but it is neither the source of meaning nor the fulfillment of value.

Desires have great power and also much variety. Like every other powerful force, any particular desire can be highly beneficial or can lead to disastrous results.

The desires that push you to bring real, lasting value to life are the ones that align with your long-term goals. While every desire involves feeling good in some way, it’s essential to identify which desires will lead to a sense of goodness that endures.

Before you put energy into chasing a desire, put some time and thought into refining that desire. Seek to understand the desire behind the desire, and the even deeper desire behind that.

Do you really desire a bag of potato chips? Or is that actually a superficial indication of a deeper desire for more nutritious nourishment?

Every day you are motivated by your desires. So it pays to invest yourself in understanding where they come from, and where they’re likely to take you.

— Ralph Marston

December 20

What you don’t know

You don’t know it all, you won’t know it all, you can’t know it all. Free yourself to think more clearly by accepting that you haven’t thought of everything.

Certainly your knowledge and reasoning bring great value to your world. Yet that value can be destroyed by arrogance.

You know what you know, and that’s great. Yet there’s always more to know, factors you haven’t considered.

And therein exists great opportunity for discovery, improvement, and deeper levels of understanding. Whatever you already know is your starting point, and the possibilities for seeking truth have no limit.

From where you’ve never been, from those you’ve never agreed with, you can learn. Offer yourself sufficient confidence and curiosity to expand your levels of enlightenment and effectiveness.

Be thrilled by the prospect of encountering someone who has knowledge different than yours, who sees the world from an alternate perspective. Because very soon, so will you.

— Ralph Marston

December 21

Know by being

Know not only with your mind and your senses. Know by doing, know by living, know by being.

Know with the whole of your existence. Know through the integration of your experience with your spirit.

Some things in life are far too important to be mediated through the pages of a book or the pixels on a screen. Fully know the richness and the wonder by being an integral part of it all.

Don’t settle for being two or three degrees removed from the essential values of life. Dive deeply into the experience of each moment so as to directly know the miracle of being.

Know love, beauty, and fulfillment by allowing them to manifest through your focus, commitment, and persistence. Know truth by putting it into action from moment to moment.

Go beyond thoughts, feelings, sensations, and representations, as valuable as they can be. Come to know the reality of your existence, of all existence, by doing, by living, by being.

— Ralph Marston

December 22

Who do you imitate?

Much of what you do comes from the influence and examples of others. Ask yourself, who are those others?

Who are the people whose desires, habits, values and perspectives you respect and seek to emulate? Even more significantly, how well have those people done in living lives of quality and fulfillment?

When so much of the information you consume comes from anonymous sources, do you even have a good grasp on all the people you’re imitating? It’s all too easy to be inspired by glittery images pouring out from people whose lives you know nothing about.

What appears compelling on the surface often has little depth. When seeking someone to follow, to look up to and admire, to guide your actions, it’s in your best interest to know that person as deeply as possible.

That takes time and effort, thought and commitment. Many other people have many great perspectives, but there also exist a whole lot of false promises.

From time to time it’s good to consider, who do you imitate and why? Pay particular attention to the why, and find your way to those who can influence you in the most positive and fulfilling manner.

— Ralph Marston

December 23

Working within constraints

The airline limits the weight of your bag to 50 pounds. They’re doing you a favor.

They’re forcing you to prioritize, to be thoughtful and intentional about what to take with you and what to leave behind. By working within such constraints you become more purposeful, more innovative, more focused on what’s truly meaningful.

The reality is, you don’t have infinite space or time or resources with which to do whatever you seek to do. By embracing that reality, by figuring out how to live within the limits, you can live with amazing richness.

Your nature is to be creative and resourceful as well as purposeful. You’ve been operating within reality’s constraints your whole life and you’ve become skilled at doing so.

And though you’d often prefer to be free of limits, those limits provide a clearly defined realm in which to operate with success and fulfillment. Without limits life would have no structure to provide support or impose valuable discipline.

What would it look like if, instead of cursing the limitations you were to be thankful for them? It would look like a life of strength, of purpose, of discipline and achievement.

— Ralph Marston

December 23

Expression of life

Make today an expression of life. Craft that expression in exquisite detail, honest, authentic, original.

Put your hopes, your doubts, your passions into it. Generously offer your expression of life solely for the sake of doing so.

Life survives and thrives to the degree it is genuinely expressed. Do, experience, grow, share, and perpetuate the beauty of existence.

Ride the energy of your innate creativity into new and challenging territory. Then rise to the challenge and bring into being a flavor of experience that’s never been known before.

Let your voice be heard. Transform the substance of your inner spirit into outer realities.

Today is when you can make the conceptual and the possible into the actual. Joyfully express the life you’re so fortunate to live.

— Ralph Marston

December 24

Return to peace

It’s natural to feel anger, but you don’t have to let it consume your precious time. Choose to quickly return to peace.

Feeling anxiety can at times be appropriate and useful, but you don’t want to be overwhelmed by it. Make it your intention to quickly return to peace.

Living with a peaceful perspective does not mean withdrawing from the realities of life. It’s a matter of experiencing and working through those realities with intention, confidence, and purpose.

Much of what happens in your world is beyond your ability to influence. Yet you do have significant control over your thoughts, your perspective, your attitude, and that control gives you much to work with.

Whatever the outer situation, you can live with the power of peace on the inside. Though it won’t magically make everything better, it will help you to be more positive and effective in your words, your actions, your outcomes.

Make it your intention to quickly return to peace. And let its beneficial power be a part of whatever you do.

— Ralph Marston

May the stars shine on you this
season and all the year throughout.
Have a wonderful Christmas!

“It is Christmas every time you
let God love others through you.

December 26

Life moves forward

New experience gives added value to old experience, and vice versa. Treasure them both in their own ways.

What you learn is always built on what you know. That’s good to consider especially when the new turns out to directly contradict the old.

In such a case, understand the old in a new light but resist the temptation to denigrate it. After all, it’s what got you where you are.

What you now know will someday be superseded, but that doesn’t mean it’s ever useless. Life moves forward when you go with what you have, and with respect from whence you’ve come.

At some point soon you’ll have to choose between the latest thing and the most life-affirming, enduring thing. Live your moments and deepen your perspective so you can make that choice wisely.

You have a past and you have a future. Keep them on friendly terms with each other, and they will both be good to you now.

— Ralph Marston

December 27

Think, do, learn

Pretty much nothing unfolds in exactly the way you imagine it. You can speculate, re-consider, plan, and anticipate, yet once you start to take action, everything changes.

Action transforms thoughts into reality. Although thought and action each have value, they are decidedly distinct creatures and cannot be substituted one for the other.

Give thought to your actions, then give action to your thoughts. Use the results you get to improve and to better focus your subsequent thoughts and actions.

In the initial stage of any endeavor, be prepared to, at best, stumble forward. On the next iteration you’ll do better, and even better after that.

If you fail to win the gold medal on your first outing, or you’re twenty-fifth, you’re normal. If you let that discourage you and stop you from making the effort, you’re foolish.

Because over time, with persistence, humility, an innovative spirit, and more persistence, you make real progress. Think, do, learn, then think, do, learn, and your tenacity with doing so will bring whatever you seek within reach.

— Ralph Marston

December 28

Sustained ambition

It’s easy to be ambitious for a few minutes, and maybe even get some impressive work done in that time. What’s more challenging, and what will produce results that approach true greatness, is sustained ambition.

If you can muster a little ambition for a little while, then you know you’re capable of it. That means you’re also capable of a steady and sustained ambition over longer periods.

Just like momentary ambition, sustained ambition is driven by purpose, by the desire to achieve that purpose. To keep the ambition strong and influential, find a way to keep the purpose near the top of your awareness.

When you’re clear about why, and when the why is meaningful enough, there’s no need for any further convincing. That reason why will keep you going, and you’ll continue doing whatever it takes, even when it becomes tedious, complicated, and frustrating.

Great achievements come from great efforts, from great sacrifices over long periods of time. Make sure you have a good enough reason to do all that, and you’ll achieve the excellence of which you’re capable.

Imagine where your own sustained and clearly purposed ambition can lead. Bring forth the reason why, keep it always in front of you, and get your most outstanding work done.

— Ralph Marston

December 29

Opportunity for action

Now is your opportunity to do what must be done. Make good and profitable use of that opportunity.

The opportunity decreases every moment it is not utilized. Eventually it is gone for good.

Before that happens, do something worthwhile with the opportunity for action. Transform the best of what can be into the reality of what is.

You have the means and the ability right now to solve a problem, to attain a goal. You can improve or sustain life in a specific, meaningful way.

Don’t just sit there, don’t just let the moment pass. Get up and get something good done.

Every opportunity for action is destined to become either an achievement or a regret. Avoid the regret and claim the value by putting forth whatever effort is called for in the moment.

— Ralph Marston

December 30

Value in every direction

You can find value in every direction, in every place and time. Let yourself be inspired by the value, and in that state of inspiration, expand it.

Perhaps what you once dismissed, you can consider now with thoughts more nuanced and a spirit more generous. Maybe what you’ve always ignored, you could offer a few moments of attention.

Life is often what you expect, but not always. Refresh your soul by being pleasantly surprised.

In some forgotten corner there’s a little bit of treasure for you to enjoy. Buried in what you thought you already knew is a discovery so wonderful it can take your breath away.

Possibilities hide in the limitations. Challenges give birth to opportunities.

Open yourself a little wider and let in some more of life’s value. Where you’ve neglected to look you might uncover exactly what you need to see.

— Ralph Marston

December 31

Improve the future

The future does not equal the past. That’s because the present is a dynamic, open-ended realm where many unexpected things can happen, and do.

You can make relatively accurate guesses about what will happen, but it’s impossible to know everything for sure. Within that truth there exist countless opportunities, and pitfalls as well.

You cannot know for sure how things will be, yet you can exercise control over how you will be. In that way you are able to make your future less uncertain.

You don’t know exactly how much rain or wind or cold will arrive over the next few months. Yet you can work to keep your house maintained and ensure adequate shelter from whatever the weather may be.

It’s difficult to know what the economic and political landscape will look like a couple of years from now. Even so, there are plenty of things you can do to strengthen your own finances and your own community.

Though you cannot precisely predict the future, there are plenty of actions you can take to improve the future. Today, and every day, you have the opportunity to do so.

— Ralph Marston