Daily Motivator - May

[willbe275]

Hey Kracker, missing you here.
I hope and pray that that all is
well with you. Stay safe.

[bluidkiti]

May 11

High standard

Hold yourself to a high standard. Don’t make it an impossible standard, but don’t let it be too easy either.

Remind yourself frequently of that high standard. But never speak of it to anyone else, at least not in so many words.

Instead, let your actions, your results, your priorities do the speaking. Express your high standard in the life you live, in the love, and value, and joy you give.

Take your high standard into consideration when making decisions small and large. As you grow in wisdom and experience, look for how you can raise that standard.

No one has a flawless concept of what makes life good, but you have some pretty good ideas from your own life and others. Codify those ideas into an intentional, specific standard that can nudge you to live in the ways you know are best.

Give yourself a good, honest and reasonable standard to optimize your own choices and viewpoints. Keep that standard at the front of your mind, from where its benefits will spread to every corner of your world.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 12

Live as who you are

Some people will agree with you and some people won’t. And in most cases, there’s nothing you can do to change that.

Some people will like you, admire you, respect you, and others won’t. That will be the case no matter what you do.

Yes, you can strive to impress and accommodate people in an effort to gain their favor. But such overt desperation is unlikely to earn any agreement or genuine respect.

Your best option is to simply be your authentic self. You cannot force everyone to admire you, but you can enable people to see who you truly are.

Some people are never going to resonate with you. Yet many people will appreciate and admire you for being open and honest about who you are.

Do and say what’s real, what’s true, what’s in line with your values, your preferences, your passions. The most impressive thing you can ever do is to live as who you are.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 13

The work of life

You never knew everything you had. You still don’t know the full extent of what you have.

So what can you do with it all? You can be grateful beyond what you even know, and determined to live what you have as fully as you can.

Today gives you the opportunity to allow, experience, and extend new vitality into existence. Here is where real life takes place.

With your thoughts and efforts, you’re able to bring goodness into focus. Out of raw and uncaring time, you create meaning and sweet fulfillment.

Do the work of life because it matters, and because you can. It is your heritage, your responsibility, your path forward.

In stillness, in turmoil, in long stretches of sameness, offer the unmatched warmth of authentic living. This is the beauty of what you do, and nothing can take the place of it.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Amen, That was a awesome read l.

[bluidkiti]

May 14

Experience now

Not sure what to do, what to say, how to feel? Start doing, start saying, start feeling, and find out.

It’s great to plan in advance based on what you think you want and believe. But no plan, no matter how elaborate, can take the place of experience.

You must step forward and actually deal with the day, with the situation, with your life. To know what is the best way forward, you must experience yourself as you move forward.

That experience will include pains, disappointments, and mistakes as well as joy, satisfaction, and achievement. Every bit of it adds value and substance to your life and your world.

Only through experience can you discover who you are and what you care about. As your experience continues to unfold your life gains new truth, strength, competence, and meaning.

Stop wondering what to do and start doing what you wonder about. The time to experience is now.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

There is no better time than the present.

[bluidkiti]

May 15

Make the time

If you’ve been meaning to get it done but haven’t, here’s what will help. Make the time.

Show yourself and everyone else that you’re serious. Carve out sufficient time to get it done.

Don’t trick yourself into thinking you can just squeeze it in between everything else. Give it the time and focus it deserves.

The difference between an empty wish and a real achievement is the commitment of your time. Set aside a specific block of time, and fill that time with effective effort.

Every hour is filled with potential. Choose to transform more of that potential into lasting value.

Make the time. And you’ll make it happen.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 16

Invest your effort

Where effort goes in, meaning comes forth. When you invest time, thought, focus, and action, you end up with value and fulfillment.

Machines and elaborate systems can leverage your effort but they can never take the place of it. Because expending actual effort is essential to any rich, satisfying experience.

When everything is done for you, nothing of significance comes from you, or accrues to you. All the material wealth and convenience in the world cannot ever substitute for the experience of making a difference.

What effort can you make today that will provide real substance? Go forward with that effort and bring its many benefits into being.

Seeking to be completely free of effort is an empty and disappointing pursuit. Put your energy instead into making your efforts more effective, beneficial, and influential.

Giving your best effort creates goodness that reaches deep within you and extends far beyond you. It’s an opportunity you cannot afford to ignore.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 17

Obligations

You need to be needed. As burdensome as they may be, your obligations add greatly to your life.

Obligations don’t care about your resentment of them. So rather than resenting them, make it your business to embrace those obligations.

By doing so, you are embracing your own competence, perhaps your generosity and thoughtfulness as well. You are actively making yourself more useful to yourself and others, and that’s a beneficial thing.

Obligations impose structure on your life. That structure can end up providing enduring support to all aspects of your existence.

You enrich your life when you take on new obligations. You raise your level of discipline by meeting those obligations.

Have the courage to obligate yourself in meaningful and beneficial ways, and find the strength to honor your obligations. You’ll simultaneously add value to your own life, to all the lives you touch, and beyond.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 18

Slow and steady

Perhaps you’ve entertained the fantasy of rushing in on a white horse and saving the world. But it doesn’t work that way.

Much of what improves life comes out of boring and tedious work. The good things in life don’t require saving so much as they require ongoing maintenance, support, and appreciation.

Glamour and cleverness don’t matter nearly so much as commitment and persistence. It’s important to do what must be done rather than doing merely what appears fun and exciting.

In the ordinary hours and ordinary efforts, extraordinary achievements are built. The work that no one gets excited about will end up being the work everyone benefits from.

It’s thrilling to drive a sports car down the highway at 70 miles per hour. Yet for that to happen, someone must build the highway, a few feet at a time.

Enjoy the exciting experiences when you can. But don’t dismiss all the value and fulfillment you can create with ordinary, slow and steady work.

— Ralph Marston

[bluidkiti]

May 19

Plain old ordinary work

Life’s dramas are interesting, invigorating, instructive, and often consequential. But a good life is about more than drama.

The mundane, tedious parts of life matter, perhaps even more than the drama. Because it is in those circumstances that much of life’s important work gets done.

Keeping an electric generation plant maintained and running is not particularly dramatic. Yet it makes a major difference in the lives of thousands of people.

Driving a truck that delivers fresh groceries to supermarkets is a somewhat tedious job. Nonetheless, it provides families with reliable, healthy nutrition.

In the ordinary is great value. In the mundane are widespread opportunities to make a positive difference.

Drama can be very entertaining. What sustains life, though, are quiet competence, dependability, and the willingness to do plain old ordinary work.

— Ralph Marston

[willbe275]

Amen, I'm missing my daily
Motivational friend Kracker I pray
All is well with them.
Amen.

[bluidkiti]

I have sent them a message but have not heard back from them.

[bluidkiti]

May 20

Discovery and experience

Make something beautiful just for the beauty of it. Do something meaningful just because it has meaning to you.

Fulfillment is not a formula, not a step-by-step recipe that you can mindlessly follow. Fulfillment is a process of discovery and experience.

Be curious about the big picture as well as the minor details. Keep yourself aware of what’s going on around you and look for how you can add your own positive value to it.

Appreciate what exists solely for its own sake. Give your love generously and you won’t feel the need to demand it.

Life is more than just a game to determine who can collect the most trinkets. It is a vast and dynamic domain with wonder, mystery, and possibility in every direction.

Engage in the endless discovery, live the unbounded experience. Fill today with a life that’s real and worthy of the beautiful and unique person you are.

— Ralph Marston