April 26

Earning your way

You get what you pay for. You get what you work for.

If you’re not willing or able to invest in it, you’ll eventually find yourself disappointed by it. What you can give your work, your attention, your care, time, and resources to you can have some reasonable hope of being able to depend upon.

A free ride is not a good ride. A free lunch is not really a thing.

That’s actually great news. Because the necessity of earning your way is among life’s best opportunities.

By very definition, to experience a meaningful life you must fill your life with meaning. What demands the best of you is what engenders the best within you.

In this place, using whatever constitutes this moment, with your energy, intention, and love, make value. And join in as life benefits from the fruits of your efforts.

— Ralph Marston

April 27

Learn from this

Learn from this. Then act on what you learn.

Understand what went wrong and what went right. But rather than bragging or complaining, seek to apply your insights.

Find effective solutions to the problems you’ve identified. Work to expand and to build upon the successes you’ve enjoyed.

You’ve paid for your experience with time, effort, and resources. Now make good and thoughtful use of that experience.

Sweep aside any inklings of resentment, arrogance, anger, or complacence. Instead, set an ambitious goal informed by what you’ve been through, and work to make it happen.

You promised yourself that next time you’ll do better. Now, next time is here.

— Ralph Marston

There no better time then right now.

April 28

Best face forward

Think beyond the moment. Consider beyond the immediate transaction.

It may require a little more of your time, effort and resources to be reliable, friendly, helpful. Yet by doing so you’re investing in the long term, working to build relationships that can be of great value.

Be polite when you don’t need to be, and honest when no one is looking. In every encounter, in every choice, encourage habits within yourself that gain you the trust and genuine respect of others.

Not everyone will respond positively to your kindness and integrity, but don’t let that discourage you. Because the people who do resonate with such behavior have the potential to bring great value into your life.

For better or for worse, your reputation matters, and your reputation is not based on what you want it to be. Your reputation comes from what you do, again and again, consistently, year after year.

Even the smallest interactions make a big difference in the way the world sees you. Put your best, most authentically helpful face forward every chance you get.

— Ralph Marston

April 29

One day at a time

Day after day you live your life. And day after day is when you can make progress.

Walk a few miles one day, then again the next day, and the next. One day you’ll turn around and realize you’ve covered thousands of miles.

You cannot do everything in life all at once. Yet you can fill each day, and the next, and the one after that.

Very soon it begins to add up. Achievement comes one day, one step, one action, one advancement at a time.

If you’re in a hurry, there are limits to what you can do, or have, or experience. Give it more time, though, more consistent effort, and many of those limits fall away.

Where do you truly want to go? Life goes where you take it, one day at a time.

— Ralph Marston

April 30

Live for you and yours

Did you hear the latest? Are you up to date on everything that happened five minutes ago?

Or, did you instead take a thoughtful and peaceful walk in the woods? Have you reached out and re-connected with a good friend from long ago?

It’s very easy to spend large chunks of each day obsessing over the endless stream of headlines, tweets and videos. Yes, it keeps you constantly in the know, but at the end of the day that doesn’t get you much.

It’s helpful to be aware of what’s going on in the world. Yet what matters much more is the living of your life, in the moment, where you are, with richness and meaning.

The celebrity scandal of the hour might be somewhat interesting. But spending time with a good book written 150 years ago can profoundly improve your life.

Your attention has massive, irreplaceable value, and it makes a great difference where you direct it. Choose to direct it so as to live for you and for all those who truly matter to you.

— Ralph Marston