Daily Motivator - March
 

March 1

You can take it

You can take disappointment and channel it into determination. You can take criticism and use it to change weakness into strength.

You can take a difficult problem and find the positive opportunities in it. You can take an idea and develop it into a valuable advantage.

You can take what doesn’t work and figure out how to improve it so it works well. You can take what does work on a small scale and expand it into new and larger endeavors.

You can take confusion, disorder, noise, and craft it into structure, focus and harmony. You can take a dreary situation and inject fresh energy and enthusiasm into it.

You can do all this by engaging your intention, driven by the power of positive purpose. Every moment is subject to change, and you can choose to make those changes beneficial for yourself and those around you.

Whatever life sends your way, you can take it. And with it you can make something great.

— Ralph Marston

March 2

Do the good work

You don’t have as much time as you’d like, yet with the time you do have there’s much you can accomplish. Go ahead and get started.

It won’t be perfect, yet it can be very good. Go ahead and get it done.

You’ll run into some complications, setbacks, inconveniences, yet you’re fully capable of dealing with all those things and more. You’ll be interrupted, distracted, challenged, maybe even made fun of, but even so, you can persist and prevail.

Your initial decision to move forward is a good one. So stop second-guessing yourself and start getting the work done.

The excuses are many, yet your intention is stronger than any of them. Exercise that strength, and with confidence in your choice to do so, keep going.

Rise above the struggle with your own reluctance and doubt. Do the good work you know you can do.

— Ralph Marston

March 3

Respond with love

Let love be your first response, for your sake, and for everyone’s sake. Advance goodness in the world, not pain or outrage.

Love always has a place. Love frees you from the burdens of judgment, retribution, and the downward spirals they engender.

When love is your first response, you won’t waste energy on anger, blame, or conflict. Love can soothe the stress of the situation and melt away anxiety.

No matter where others are coming from, you can operate from a perspective of love. Seek to act from genuine love, and you’ll uncover the most beneficial options.

Love will not magically solve all the problems. Love will challenge you to work on truly making the situation better without creating new problems.

Let love be your first response. And give yourself an advantage that’s in everyone’s best interest.

— Ralph Marston

March 4

The value inside

Encourage, honor, support and add to the value inside. Strengthen that inner value with new experience, love, learning, peaceful and joyful moments.

The value inside can never be diminished or taken away by anyone else. The value inside propels quality and substance into every experience.

The value inside makes you more articulate, more interesting, more understanding and effective. The value inside is grounded in truth, in authenticity, in the unique beauty of the real you.

The quality of your inner life directly drives the quality of your entire life. Although the value inside is not everything, it touches and positively affects everything that matters to you.

Take good care of the value inside. Respect and appreciate it, and share it freely, for the more you express it, the more powerful and beneficial it becomes.

Make frequent use of the value inside. Let it give wisdom, purpose and energy to all you do.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 5

Keep going strong

Leave no room in this day for what might have been. Make no place for regret to hide.

Fill the hours with action that’s true to your purpose. Adorn each moment with thankfulness, wonder, and joy.

You have a great chance and you have it right now. You have time, energy, life, and love, and the good sense to know what to do with them.

Though it would be easy to waste this bright moment, you’re much too smart for that. You know from each choice flows a cascade of results, and you’re determined to create the best ones.

This day is now yours, yet it won’t be for long. So you’ve already started to fill it with life.

Keep going strong, for you’re doing great. You have much to accomplish, and you’re well on your way.

— Ralph Marston

March 6

Stay with now

Don’t postpone your joy while working toward or waiting for some arbitrary milestone. Delight in the process as you move through it, long before the completion.

Remember to enjoy life when you are living it, which is now. Allow yourself, your world, your experience to be enough for the moment, in the moment.

Seeking to get more later, to do something different later, will not fulfill you. When that anticipated moment arrives, you lose out on the enjoyment because you’re already yearning for the next one.

Jump free of the never-ending cycle that has you striving and striving, only so you can strive some more. Open yourself to the beauty, fulfillment, and joy that is already here, now.

What you have now, what you are now, what you do now, expresses the magnificent sum of life’s goodness. Stay with now as it carries you along, rather than trying in vain to rush ahead of it or clinging to what it once was.

All existence, all possibilities, are now. Stay with now, and live the immense value as it steadily unfolds.

— Ralph Marston

March 7

Decide exactly

Whether it is easy or difficult is not the issue. What matters is whether you choose to do it or not.

Is the intended result important enough to earn your commitment? Then you’ll carve a path through all the difficulties and complexities.

There is no question you can achieve whatever matters most to you. The question you must answer is, what exactly does matter most to you?

What are you willing to invest the powerful substance of your effort, your time, your resources, to create? Specifically, and in rich detail, what is it?

You are capable of more things than you could ever name. What you must do is precisely name those objectives upon which you wish to expend your amazing and versatile capability.

You’ve successfully lived every day of your life, and now it’s time to do more. Decide exactly what you will achieve, and experience the extraordinary thrill of making it happen.

— Ralph Marston

March 8

Positive perspective

Time you spend being resentful is time you’ll never spend being joyful. Energy you consume by worrying is energy you cannot use to move forward.

You decide what gets to you and you decide what doesn’t. You decide what merits a response and what that response will be.

The world around you may often seem angry and divisive. But that in no way forces you to be angry and divisive too.

It’s in your best interest to consider your best interest before doing whatever you do. Almost always, your interest is better served by positive intention than by negative reaction.

Kindness, compassion, and understanding toward others is also great kindness toward yourself. Ease away from the burdens of blame and retribution, and reward your spirit with forgiveness and love.

Resolve to be a source of goodness rather than a receptacle of negativity. Live with a positive perspective, and live at your highest level.

— Ralph Marston

March 9

Bigger

Connect to a purpose that’s bigger than your fear. Latch on to a goal that’s bigger than your hesitation.

Do something right that’s bigger than what’s wrong. Rev up your current enthusiasm to be bigger than your past disappointment.

Don’t get sucked into fighting against negativity. Be smart, be effective, and overwhelm it with your positive presence.

The possibilities are already big. Engage them, work to fulfill them, and make them even bigger.

Make your intentions bigger than the distractions. Choose your actions so they’re bigger than the challenges.

On any day, in every situation, life has real value. See that value, appreciate it, and with all you do, make it bigger.

— Ralph Marston

March 10

Your intention

Achieve by taking action when it is necessary, not just when it is convenient. Forge new value from the situation as it is, not by waiting until circumstances are ideal.

Create not just when the mood strikes you, but on a regular, consistent schedule. Get into a creative, productive state with your own efforts, not by yearning for perfect conditions.

The distractions are too powerful and widespread already. Don’t add to their distracting, destructive power by being flimsy or equivocal with your intentions.

Decide what you will do, and stick to your decision. Remain aware of and informed by what’s going on, but refuse to be knocked off track by the turbulence around you.

You can’t control weather, politics, markets, culture, traffic, and such. Still, you can decide precisely what you will achieve each day and then do the work to make it happen.

You have great things to do. Don’t let a little discomfort, inconvenience, or distraction stand in your way.

— Ralph Marston

March 11

Real world action

Not sure what to do? Don’t let that stop you.

The only way you can be sure of what will happen is after it happens. Take action, see where it leads, and use that experience to improve your next action.

Of course, consider what you’re doing, and think through the possible consequences. Just don’t think so long and hard that you fail to make a move.

Don’t take foolish risks, but do be willing to experiment. Do step forward into unknown territory, for that’s where you’ll encounter rich new possibilities.

Put thought into what you do, and remember this. You’ll discover much more by doing than you will by thinking.

Allow real world action to solidify your direction. Go ahead, get going, and soon you’ll be doing something great.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 12

Mode of achievement

A small improvement is enough. Because a small improvement sets your direction, upgrades your attitude, raises your perspective.

Look around, become aware, ask yourself. What small improvement can you make right now?

Notice what troubles you and think of what you can do about it. Then act on it.

If you’re not presently willing or able to do anything about it, look again, keep looking. There’s something you can improve, right here, right now.

Doing so will alter your entire outlook for the better. Doing so will put you in the mode of achievement, and open up vast new expanses of possibility.

Today, embrace your responsibility to make the world a better place. Make a small improvement, put yourself in the mode of achievement, and keep at it.

— Ralph Marston

March 13

All the good you have

There are so many things to be thankful for, you cannot ever know what they all are. Though you face difficult problems, and life is not perfect, you have potential beyond anything you can comprehend.

Just in the last sixty seconds, processes you’ll never understand occurred within your body to keep you alive. You can see, think, hear, speak, take action, move from place to place, make choices and then act on those choices.

For thousands of years, people have acquired knowledge through unimaginable toil, pain, patience, inspiration, ingenuity, and heartbreak. Most of that priceless recorded knowledge is now immediately available to you with a few mouse clicks.

What you have is amazing. What will you do with it today, to live up to the limitless potential that’s right in front of you?

Gratitude is good, but woefully insufficient. Your own immense good fortune obligates you to so much more.

Be thankful that you have more to be thankful for than you can ever know. So put your gratitude into action, and discover how much more good you can do with all the great things you have.

— Ralph Marston

March 14

Do it now

Putting off a difficult task until later makes it more difficult, more burdensome. Instead, do it now.

Act now, and you’ll act with maximum effectiveness. Act now, and the work will be done.

Sure, it’s more fun to do what you want to do instead of what you have to do. Yet doing what you want is even more fun when you’ve already done what you have to do.

Exercise your own discipline to do it now, when you have a choice. Or you’ll be disciplined by factors outside your control to do it later, when you don’t have a choice.

The more difficult and undesirable the task, the more reason you have to go ahead and do it. You’ll spend much less time having to do it, and much more time having it done.

Do your present self and your future self a big favor. Do it now.

— Ralph Marston

March 15

Take action

Don’t let your doubts stop you from taking action. Don’t let your hopes become a substitute for action.

There’s one sure strategy to determine the best way forward. Take action.

Take action, and you’ll find out soon enough what works and what doesn’t. Take action, and with each experience you get better at it.

You can guess, plan, speculate, and argue over what’s the best approach. Or you can take action and find out for sure.

Your doubts may be valid or they may be completely unfounded. Your hopes may be pure fantasy or they may point you toward the best thing you’ve ever done.

You owe it to yourself to find out once and for all. You owe it to yourself, to the world, to take action.

— Ralph Marston

March 16

The choice is yours

Before you do the next thing you do, consider the consequences. Will it help or will it hurt?

Will it add goodness to life, or will it ultimately have a negative effect? Will it endow the future with great joy and meaning, or lead to more difficulty and pain?

Will it solve a problem, ease suffering, help to fulfill a dream? Will it offer support and expression to all you love and value?

Every choice carries you off in one direction or another. Before you make the choice, be sure to remind yourself of its direction.

Choices occur in the moment, yet their consequences continue for a lifetime. Each choice is a powerful lever, and with slight present effort can alter your future by a million miles.

Exercise that power intentionally, with wisdom, with love. Now, the choice is yours.

— Ralph Marston

March 17

Peak performance

You have a lot of difficult things to deal with. That’s no excuse to do less than your best.

In fact, it’s a reason to up your game. It’s an opportunity to boost your effectiveness, your knowledge, your energy level.

You could easily and justifiably gain the sympathy of others, and of yourself. But as you already know through long years of experience, that won’t do you any good.

What will help immensely is to operate at peak performance regardless of the situation. Things are tough, life is unfair, and yet you can be better than you’ve ever been.

The energy required to articulate your excuses could be better used to tackle your challenges. Plus, in addition to making real progress, you’ll feel a whole lot better about yourself.

Grab the difficulties, pull inspiration and determination out of them. Move forward, more purposeful and effective than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

March 18

Make goodness

With your time, with your life, with awareness, actions, thoughts, make goodness today. Make the memories of today as positive as you can for as many people as you can.

Do right now what will continue to feel good later. Create value that will keep on echoing tomorrow, next month, a decade from now.

Live fully in the present moment while doing what will benefit moments to come. Mix together some caring, truth, effort, wisdom and joy, and make new goodness.

What makes life rich is not how much stuff you possess or how many people you control. The goodness you make is what will matter most when you look back on this time.

Offer a small kindness, make a big difference, initiate a joyful experience. Show life how much you treasure it by what you do today.

The world can gain from the good things you have to give. Make goodness, and make life on this day a great thing to experience.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 19

Able to persist

The first attempt doesn’t work. Even so, you can keep going.

The next attempt makes the situation worse. Still, you are able to persist.

Your next action does not have to be limited by your past results. Choose your next action based on where you wish to go, not on where you’ve been.

There’s no rule that says you have to be discouraged by what has happened. There’s every reason to be passionate and enthusiastic about what you can now do.

If the past hasn’t met your expectations, leave it in the past. Learn from what went wrong, and apply that knowledge to the opportunities of now.

Persistence is nothing more than stepping free of the past and doing what you know is best. You are always able to persist, and your persistence will take you wherever you wish to go.

— Ralph Marston

March 20

Add to the richness

Don’t wish for life to be easy, for whether you get your wish or not, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, live, seek, work for life to be meaningful.

Give up the fantasy of everything magically falling into place. Live the truly magical reality of employing your efforts to make each day a little better.

A story in which every good thing effortlessly materializes would be unbearably boring. You wouldn’t want to read about a character with no challenges, and you wouldn’t want to live that way either.

So opt in for the richness, for the challenges and the incomparable experience of conquering them. Remind yourself that the value is built in the investment you make, in the effort you give, in the troubles you work through.

Whatever trophy you get at the end is just a small fraction of the achievement. The real substance of achievement is in the achieving.

And that’s something you can experience every day, with every twist and turn of the journey. What awaits you today is your opportunity to add to the richness.

— Ralph Marston

March 21

The only time

The only time you can escape regret is before you create it. What can you do today to prevent regret from descending on you tomorrow?

The only time you can act is now. How will you live this moment you have, to honor and fulfill its best possibilities?

Everything you’ve ever experienced has led you to where you are right now. This is your time to utilize all you know, all you feel, all you are, in giving birth to new goodness.

Don’t get lulled into complacency by imagining how much time you have. Don’t let yourself become fearful of how little time you have.

Remind yourself that this is the time you have, here to be lived, to be filled with effort, meaning, love, joy. Feel your courage as it grows to meet your highest expectations, as it pushes you into action.

While now continues to unfold, fill it generously with your positive action. Now is your time, and it is everything you choose to make it.

— Ralph Marston

March 22

Working toward the goal

Dreams do not instantly come true, and that’s a good thing. If your dreams were to immediately be fulfilled, you would never have the pleasure of dreaming them.

Anticipating an achievement contributes much of the value to that achievement. Having something to look forward to gives great richness to life.

It is good to achieve your dreams, and yet it is also good to hold on to them, to nurture, refine and appreciate them before they have been reached. By the time the dream is achieved, it has developed a real and profound meaning.

Working toward a goal is what makes that goal worth having. The fact that a goal, a dream has not yet been fully realized is what makes that dream so enticingly desirable.

Go ahead and dream big, wonderful, positive and intimately meaningful dreams. They’re the ones that will get you to move forward with energy and passion.

Your dreams do not come true in an instant, yet they will instantly begin to provide focus, direction, and a driving force. You can then enjoy each and every moment as you steadily bring those dreams to life.

— Ralph Marston

March 23

Watch what you think

Watch what you think, because your life is certainly doing so. Choose wisely the thoughts that fill your mind, because those thoughts lead to the actions that fill your day.

Thinking feels easy, seems to come naturally and automatically. Yet the most useful, beneficial thinking calls for intention, focus, discipline and a strong sense of purpose.

Thinking, at its best, is more than just repeating what you’ve already heard or already thought. Each thought is an opportunity to create a new, unique vision of the world in your mind.

If you catch yourself repeating the same old thoughts, or letting others do your thinking, stop. Remind yourself of the great things that come from working to develop your own original thinking.

Call upon your purpose to guide you and encourage you to put work into your thinking. There’s no limit to what you can think about, so let purpose help you by focusing your thoughts.

Your thoughts form the basis of the way your life unfolds. Make them powerful, purposeful, positive, and constantly improving.

— Ralph Marston

March 24

Continue forward

The original path you envisioned may have been blocked. Yet the goal still beckons, and it’s still accessible, because somewhere, somehow, there’s a more realistic, more effective way.

You haven’t been knocked off track. You’ve been challenged to find that better way.

Stay committed to where you intend to go, while being open to all the many ways of getting there. Be flexible enough to keep moving forward no matter what.

If you’re prevented from taking a big step right now, take a small step. If your original strategy doesn’t work, be thankful you don’t have to spend any more effort on it, and fashion a new strategy.

All the while, stay focused on the goal, on the destination. Identify yourself, your efforts, your energy, with that goal, rather than with any specific path.

The obstacle in your path does not have to block your progress. Decide instead to make it an opportunity, to learn, to improve, to adjust, and continue forward, more effective than ever.

— Ralph Marston

March 25

Imagine well

Imagine well, and imagine often. Imagine well, because imagination becomes reality.

You always have more power, more capability than you know. Imagine, and discover more of the great, meaningful, valuable things you can do.

Imagine what you have never before dared to imagine. See possibilities that have not yet been seen.

Life has many limitations. Yet when you imagine, you exist in a place where thoughts are not bound, not limited by anything.

Such a place is well worth exploring. What you bring from that place into the world can have great, transformative value.

Seeds of magnificent, original achievements are waiting to be found in your imagination. Imagine well, and bring new treasures to life.

-Ralph S. Marston

March 26, 2018

Lay the foundation

A secure, stable house is not simply placed upon uneven, unprepared ground. Before the house is built, a strong, solid foundation must be prepared.

A winning sports team does not win merely by showing up and playing each game well. The players must drill and practice in all the fundamental skills, for hours each day, over months and years.

Whatever you desire to have, to be, to experience, you must build the structure in your life to support and develop it. You must lay the foundation, and continue to keep that foundation strong.

True commitment to a goal means commitment to create and maintain the structure that will support it. You accomplish that with your habits, your attitude, your thoughts, your choices large and small.

What day-to-day activities are building the foundation for the life you envision? What can you do right now, and again and again, to create a solid, supporting structure for your dreams?

Each moment gives you the opportunity to infuse the character of achievement into every part of your life. Lay a strong, robust foundation, and let the great achievements flow.

— Ralph Marston

March 27

Opportunity in the trouble

When trouble arrives, don’t cower in the corner feeling sorry for yourself. Stand tall and make it better.

When a challenge arises, don’t make it into an excuse. March boldly into the heart of that challenge and find what you can turn to your advantage.

Refuse to be offended, insulted, dejected or drained when life fails to go your way. Smile and remind yourself that none of that will do you any good.

Then, engage your ability to choose. Choose energy, choose determination, choose action, choose enthusiasm for making things better.

Being positive in the midst of trouble is not naive, not as long as you affix your positive attitude to positive action. Doing so is shrewd, and a common trait of those who are wildly successful.

The negative circumstance is temporary, yet the way you respond will echo through your whole life. Find the opportunity in the trouble, act on it, turn it on its head and transform it into great value.

— Ralph Marston

March 28

Live life well

Don’t just wish you could get it right and live life well, someday, somehow. Open yourself to the great possibilities of this moment, and live well on this very day.

If you’re worried about anything, consider this. Worry is only possible when you’ve forgotten how strong, capable, flexible, resourceful, resilient you can be.

Remind yourself of all the successful actions you’ve taken to get to this point. Implore yourself to put all that powerful capability to use, today.

Go ahead, allow yourself to feel the way you’d most like to feel. Then go ahead, and act on those positive feelings, empowered by your own will to do great things.

Today belongs to you, and is your time to make a difference. Watch your courage as it carries you forward, giving new value to all you love.

Jump far beyond mere planning, wishing, and hoping for a great life. Push yourself into positive action today, and live life well in your own beautiful way.

— Ralph Marston

March 29

Feel good about you

You deserve to feel good about life now. Stop being so hard on yourself.

Imagine you’re someone else who is discussing the way you live. That imaginary other person would not be nearly so critical of your life as you are.

In fact, that other person would see plenty of good things about you. What are those good things you’re overlooking in your life because they’re so familiar?

Step back from the harsh judgments you’ve been imposing on yourself. Give yourself some breathing room, relax, and let yourself feel good, now, about you.

No, you’re not perfect, you’ve made mistakes and will continue to do so. Yet there’s a great reservoir of goodness in you.

With quiet confidence and humility, and the best of expectations, feel that goodness. Feel good about you, about the good you can do, and allow beneficial actions to flow freely from your good feeling.

— Ralph Marston

March 30

Bring new value

What you invest yourself in, has value for you. What demands no effort, attention or expense, has no value in your life.

If you want some particular part of your life to have value for you, invest yourself in it. Value, from your perspective, depends on how much of your life you devote to it.

Your relationships have value because of what you put into them. Your work has value based on the time, attention and effort you give to it.

What you care about, what you care for, what you spend your energy to support, results in value for your life. What matters most is not what it is, but how much you care, how freely you give of yourself.

From a modest tea ceremony to a massive construction project, life is full of opportunities to create value. When you give, when you care, support, pay attention, persist, the richness of life increases.

Do the work, go to the trouble, take an interest, spend the time, pay the price. And bring new value into your life, into the world, every day.

— Ralph Marston

March 31

Success is when you take action

The foolproof way to convince people you’ll do something is to do it. Promises can be broken, delayed, amended, but actions and results cannot be denied.

The best way to sell yourself is to be yourself, without pretense, with sincerity and enthusiasm, with action. Your actions are far more compelling than any words or mere appearances could be.

If you wish to make a great impression, then accomplish something truly impressive. Spend your energy creating real, unique value and you won’t have to be concerned with what others think.

It’s great when you do what you say you’re going to do. What’s even better is when you don’t need to say what you’re going to do because it has already been done.

Don’t wait to be prodded, don’t hold off until conditions are perfect. Just move forward, take action, see a need and fill it, recognize a problem and solve it.

Success is when you go beyond wishing, planning, talking, and promising. Success is yours when you take action.

— Ralph Marston