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