Daily Motivator - April
 

April 1

Purpose to right now

Every minute of every life has within it the possibility of purpose. Every thought, every action, every word, feeling, experience, can add richness to it all.

Don’t judge this moment, this day, this life before you’ve lived it. Resolve instead to put the best of yourself into every bit of it all.

Joy doesn’t care where you are or what you’re doing. Joy is happy for the chance to shine anytime you let it.

Life doesn’t need this particular thing or that specific circumstance in order to be good. You can discover more of how great life can be in every kind of situation.

If you delay the expression of your highest vision for even a single moment, you’re cheating yourself. And you’re depriving a whole world of the beauty only you can give it.

Here you are today with life, and a whole universe in which to live it. Touch the wonder, feel the possible, and give new purpose to right now.

-Ralph S. Marston

April 2

Driven by love

Your life has great power, beyond what you can even imagine. Keep that power always pointed in the direction of love.

You act, you speak, you remember, you feel. You imagine what can be, and then call upon your power of intention and your presence to bring what you imagine into reality.

Do all these things, and everything, tempered, informed, driven, by love. Let love be your motive, let love be your reason, let love be your guide.

You cannot define what love is, nor put any limit on its meaning. Yet you know without question when you feel love, and when you don’t.

Go always in the direction where you feel led by love. Transform everything you are into the highest and best you can be, with love.

Refuse to be swayed by anything less. Let your actions, your words, your energy and thoughts, your life, be driven by love.

— Ralph Marston

April 3

When truth hurts

When the truth hurts, that’s precisely when it can be the most helpful. Though it’s tempting to deny or avoid such painful truths, you’re best choice is to pay close attention.

The friend who points out the truth even when that truth is painful to hear, is a real friend. For when you’re encouraged to acknowledge the reality of the situation, you can begin to successfully deal with it.

Listen carefully when the truth hurts. You’ll gain the wisdom to avoid even greater pain in the future.

The painful truth is doing you a favor. It’s providing you an opportunity to make a change for the better.

When the truth hurts, be thankful it has gotten your attention. Seize the powerful opportunity that gives you, and go forward with it.

Decide to transform the pain of truth into the energy of determination. Feel the painful truth, then let its power set you free and push you ahead.

— Ralph Marston

April 4

Free of worry

You’ll never run out of things to worry about. However, you can walk away, whenever you choose, from the need to worry.

To stop worrying, you don’t have to stop caring. You just have to make sure your caring doesn’t immobilize you.

When you feel worry coming on, ask yourself this. What step can you take to replace useless worry with useful action?

Life is full of potential pitfalls. But worry is never an effective response to that situation.

Rather than worry, what you can do is learn, prepare, strengthen. Work to position yourself where you can successfully deal with whatever challenges arise.

Focus your care, your concerns, your energy into action. Choose to live free of worry and full of achievement.

— Ralph Marston

April 5

Fill this day with life

You have this whole day to fill with life. Marvel at your good fortune, and make the most of it.

Go ahead and allow yourself to be overwhelmed with gratitude. Then focus the energy of that gratitude into rich, generous, purposeful living.

You have countless good thoughts to think, good people to connect with, invigorating and enlightening experiences to claim. Get up, get excited about the possibilities, and get going.

You can learn, teach, experience, encourage, explore, and assist. You can make your unique good fortune even better by finding new ways to express it and share it with the world.

Give all of yourself to each moment, to each experience, to every effort and encounter. Be eager to combine time-tested values from your past with fresh new possibilities for the future.

This day is where your wondrous life has time and space to really live. Imagine the best, then give life to what you imagine.

— Ralph Marston

April 6

Let your efforts flow

Put your thought, time, effort, commitment toward the ideal result. Then embrace whatever result you get, and apply the value of the experience to your next effort.

Give your best to create the outcome you seek. Whether that outcome overjoys you or disappoints you, give your best again.

There are many factors you can control and influence, and many more that you cannot. So it’s foolish and counterproductive to take the results personally.

What you can control, what you can do, is to let your efforts flow, free of contamination. Lock your focus onto your intention, while at the same time being open to all the goodness that is.

Feel the power and energy of life as it flows through your being, moment after moment. Feel the magic, feel the miracle of being able to make a difference.

Every moment, whatever the situation, is fertile ground from which you can create meaning and value. Let your efforts flow, with purpose, with confidence and the highest expectations.

— Ralph Marston

April 7

Choose wisely

Your choices brought you here. Your choices can now take you wherever you wish to go.

Nobody gets it perfect all the time. Yet you can learn from what did go right and from what went wrong, making your choices more and more informed and beneficial.

It may seem there are times when no one is watching the choices you make, but that is not the case. Because your future self is watching every choice.

And soon, your future self is going to be either very disappointed or extremely grateful for the specific choices you are making now. Today is your opportunity to make the choices your future self will thank you for.

Your choices combine with and expand upon each other to define the path your life follows. Consistently choose in a way that makes it a path to joy and fulfillment rather than a path to regret and despair.

Whatever your choices in the past have been, your choices now can move you precisely in the direction of the life you desire. Remind yourself all day long, in every situation, to choose wisely.

— Ralph Marston

April 8

True capability

When you doubt yourself, smile and realize this. You’re wrong.

When you think you’re invincible, stop and remember this. You’re mistaken.

Doubt and ego push against each other, and neither of them does you any good. Your best move is to toss them both out of your awareness.

Replace doubt with humility and replace ego with intention. Now, instead of a squabbling quagmire you have a winning combination.

No, you can’t achieve everything and yes, you’ll need assistance with what you do achieve. Look clearly at reality, free of delusion, eager to get to work.

Embrace your true capability, powered by intention, tempered with humility. You have many wonderful things to do.

-Ralph S. Marston

April 9

Opportunity of today

You have precisely one opportunity to live this day well. That opportunity is now, so act on it now.

If you want this day to bring value, then give it value. Now is when you start.

Right now you can establish positive momentum. And you can continue to feed that momentum with action.

Think of the most productive, successful day you’ve ever lived. As you recall and feel the reality of that day, commit to make today even more productive, even more successful.

Within you right now is the ability to make this the best day yet. Within you right now is the willingness to push your life to a higher level than ever before.

Act now with that ability, with that willingness, with your knowledge, skills, and resources. Now, embrace and enjoy the unique opportunity of today.

— Ralph Marston

April 10

Life changes

Life changes, circumstances change, and so can you. If you have been defeated, you don’t have to remain defeated.

Yes, accept that things are the way they are. But don’t be so zealous in your acceptance that you assume nothing will ever change again.

Change can be a great opportunity when you see it and make use of it as an opportunity. Otherwise, if you simply sit still and hope to avoid the changes, those changes are likely to destroy everything you care about.

Life is dynamic. To be successful in life, you must be just as dynamic, perhaps more so.

Accept that life is always changing, then find ways to get yourself out ahead of those changes. Be willing to change, open to change, enthusiastic about its benefits, and you’ll discover you’re quite good at it.

The dynamic nature of existence is literally what keeps you alive. Embrace change, expand on it, extend it, and you’ll create many new ways to thrive.

April 11

Treasure every moment

Treasure every moment. Align yourself with the goodness, the value, the positive possibilities in every situation.

Your life is too precious to waste even a tiny fraction of it. The opportunity for richness is too valuable to let it slip away without making full use of it.

Say yes to each day as soon as it dawns. Then make it your business to fill the day with joy.

The beauty of all existence is yours to behold. Countless possibilities are yours to fulfill.

Do what you would do if you were the most fortunate, joyful person who has ever lived. Imagine new and creative ways to express the wonder of life’s limitless abundance.

Remind yourself in each moment of the great opportunity you have. Treasure it, love it, live it, give it everything you have.

— Ralph Marston

April 12

Keep going

You are a work in progress. Today, do the work, make the progress.

You are on the amazing journey that is your life. And the very nature of a journey is to keep going.

When you achieve some success, don’t be so smug and satisfied that you stop making any further effort. Keep going.

If you encounter disappointment, don’t be so dismayed and dejected that you give up. Keep going.

Realize how fortunate it is that you always have more to do. Embrace each opportunity to make a difference, to make new progress, to keep going.

Always there are the new wonders to see, new wisdom to be gained, new experiences to unfold. With ever-growing love for the journey and all it brings, keep going.

— Ralph Marston

April 13

One little thing

You can’t instantly make everything better. But you can quickly make one thing better, and then perhaps another thing, and another.

You can’t make the whole world perfect. Yet you always can make real, specific, meaningful improvements.

Even one small success is highly empowering. It establishes positive momentum, and gets you moving in a good direction.

Decide to stop feeling frustrated and overwhelmed by the difficulties and the negativity you encounter. Choose to do something about it.

Just a small positive action can dramatically improve your attitude and your outlook. Even better, you can add another positive action, and build on it, and spread your beneficial attitude to others.

Go ahead, get yourself to act, to do one little thing that makes life better. Feel how great it feels, and allow yourself to expand that great feeling as far as you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

April 14

Future vision

Any concept you have of the future is just a simulation in your mind. It can be extremely useful to consider how life could unfold, as long as you don’t let it overwhelm and disable you.

Go ahead, peer inquisitively into the future. Learn all you can, and then come solidly back into the present.

Sometimes you can anticipate very accurately what’s going to happen. You can make good use of that knowledge to guide your life in a more positive direction.

Many other times, events do not unfold at all like you thought. So don’t get yourself too invested in what, after all, is your own speculation.

Instead, seek to combine your vision of the future with the undeniable reality of now. Apply your best guesses about tomorrow in ways that make a positive difference today.

Don’t be dismayed by problems that only exist in your imagined future. Be inspired to create so much value right now that those problems never have a chance to appear.

— Ralph Marston

April 15

Fill life with great meaning

There is no such thing as something for nothing. Operating on the assumption that there is, can cause great pain, regret, heartache and despair in life.

When you invest yourself in anything, it has value to you. If you don’t, it doesn’t.

You can make your life great, fulfilling, joyful, satisfying. No person, organization, system or stroke of luck can do that for you.

If you ever seek something for nothing, you are seeking to steal from your own best possibilities. Instead, do the work to fulfill those possibilities.

The substance of your life has meaning because you work to endow it with meaning. You have the opportunity to do that in every moment, and as you do, life’s magnificence grows.

Don’t settle for a worthless imitation of life by trying to get it for free. Create the value you wish to experience, and fill life with great meaning.

-Ralph S. Marston

April 16

Thankful for now

Be thankful for this moment, however it may be. Be thankful for the way you feel, whatever the feeling is.

Be thankful, and put yourself in the best position to respond. Be thankful, and enable yourself to see the positive possibilities going forward.

Yes, you could be resentful, but your resentment would not bring you anything of value. Yes, you could be angry, but your anger would separate you from your best possibilities.

What’s done is done, what’s happened has happened, the reality of the moment is as it is. Fill your heart with gratitude and open your eyes to the value that’s now yours.

Be at peace with the past and the present. Allow yourself to focus all your energy on creating a bright future.

Be thankful for this moment and be empowered to make the most of it. Let your sincere gratitude for right now fill you with positive energy and illuminate the best way forward.

— Ralph Marston

April 17

Opportunity to act

If you’re having trouble taking action, ask yourself this question. Would you rather spend the next few hours creating regrets or creating value?

The opportunity to act is not some distant memory, not some future dream. The opportunity to act is now.

The value of that opportunity diminishes with every minute you wait. Stop waiting and start claiming the benefit of your own focused action.

Conditions may not be perfect, but your procrastination is not going to make those conditions any better. Go with what you have, now, and make of it all you can.

Now is when you can leave the excuses behind. Now is when your next achievement begins.

Remind yourself of the power and possibility in your opportunity to act right now. Without waiting another minute, take that power and make it yours.

— Ralph Marston

April 18

What’s right

It’s never the wrong choice to do what’s right. It may be painful, complicated, difficult, and inconvenient, yet your best choice is to go with what you know is right.

If your words or actions feel wrong, they likely are. Those feelings arise from a whole lot of living experience, so respect their guidance.

Many of your best so-called logical, rational decisions are actually just reasoned justifications for what you already feel. Accept that you have an emotional bias, and put it to beneficial use.

Whatever mixture of reason and emotion may be telling you what’s right, listen and follow your own highest guidance. You avoid much regret and create much goodness by doing so.

Your values are what hold your life together. Let them do their job by making the choice that aligns with those values.

Keep offering your life and your world the powerful, abiding benefits of integrity. Take every opportunity to do what’s right.

— Ralph Marston

April 19

Map of reality

What if what you’re hoping for, searching for, striving for, is already yours? What if the thing you fear the most does not even exist?

What if your biggest limitation is your habit of seeing yourself in terms of your limitations? What if you are being held prisoner by the stories you tell yourself?

What if you could embrace your most debilitating weakness and transform it into your most powerful strength? What if your most troublesome worry were to dissolve into quiet, humble confidence?

What if you could let go of your need to burnish your image? What if you would stop relentlessly pursuing your lifestyle and start mindfully living your life?

Your map of reality is of your own making, of your own choosing. Your priorities, your assumptions, the actions and results that flow from them are based on that map, on the way you perceive life.

What if seeing life in a little better light, would actually make it better? Perhaps that is worth a bit of thought now and then.

— Ralph Marston

April 20

By the end of this day

At the end of this day, you can be stronger than you are now. Live with that possibility in mind, looking for opportunities to fulfill it.

By the end of this day, some of the problems that now plague you can be gone. Identify the ones you can deal with, and get to work on them.

The clock has already started ticking on this day, and the moments will continue to relentlessly pass. Resolve now to make full use of them all.

There is value to be created, there are wounds to be healed, transgressions to be forgiven. There is beauty to be enjoyed, love to be expressed, kindness to be given.

Look toward the western horizon, where the sun will disappear after offering its brilliance all day. By the time that happens, you will have had the great opportunity to add new richness to life.

Think of how peaceful and satisfied you will be, at the end of this day, knowing you have given it your best. Think of how confident and enthusiastic you will be, knowing you can do even more tomorrow.

— Ralph Marston

April 21

Capability for achievement

Every past experience has given you something of value. Every new experience will do the same.

The triumphs, setbacks, delays, surprises, frustrations have built your character. Now the building continues.

Instead of wishing your situation were different, find what it has to offer you. See what new strength, wisdom, skill, insight you can gain from going through it.

Circumstances that block your progress force you to develop new, more effective strategies for making progress. Experiences that push you back give rise to fresh determination within you to push forward.

Not only is there a way to get beyond each obstacle. In finding that way, in working through it, you add to your capability for achievement.

Whatever the circumstance, whatever the experience, involve yourself in it fully, with the highest of expectations. You have great progress to make, and right where you are is where you can make it.

— Ralph Marston

April 22

Love is always willing

There’s something in you important enough to get you moving. Something in your life matters so much it will persistently push you into action.

Find that something. Connect yourself to it and stay connected.

It could be another person, a dream you have, something you want to achieve, some particular value you hold dear. It could be a feeling you like to have.

Whatever it is, bring it to the front of your awareness. Keep it there, and tap into its inexhaustible motivating energy.

You have a reason to bear any burden, to work through any challenge, to find your way forward no matter what. Think of what you’re more thankful for than anything else, of what you care about more than life itself.

Whatever you love without condition will push you ahead through any condition. Love is always willing.

-Ralph S. Marston

April 23

A little more adventure

Get yourself into places, into situations where life can surprise you. Add to the richness, add to the adventure by not always knowing what will happen next.

Actively open yourself to what you never knew was there. Life on this day is too precious to live it just like any other day.

Exercise your courage to start something without being sure exactly how it will end. Discover wonder, beauty, and awe in places you’ve never found them before.

When you were very young, the world was an amazing place, filled with adventure, new things to learn, exciting experiences to be lived every day. In fact, the world still is like that, when you once again allow it to be.

For the place where adventure resides is within you. That adventure springs to life the moment you open yourself to its possibilities.

Right now, life is longing to experience itself in new and surprising ways through you. Let go of your constant craving for certainty, and let a little more adventure come to life.

— Ralph Marston

April 24

New treasures

Treasure the past, but don’t let it blind you to your possibilities in the present. As memorable as the past has been, now you have new treasures to create.

Hold good feelings from long ago securely in your heart. And let them give you the courage, the enthusiasm, to move forward.

Learn from what you’ve done right, from what has worked well. At the same time, be open to new ideas and techniques, eager to acknowledge you will never know it all.

Draw strength and comfort from people, places, habits and skills that have become so familiar they are a part of you. But don’t seek permanent refuge in them.

Indeed, let your past joys encourage you to venture out into unknown territory, to create new joys. Open yourself to life as it continues to unfold in relentless originality.

You have new treasures to create. Inject all you have done, all you have learned, all you have been, and all you can now be, into making them great.

— Ralph Marston

April 25

Patience to achieve

Enthusiasm may get you started. Yet patience is what carries you to the finish.

Enthusiasm feels energetic and full of power, but it can quickly burn out at the first sign of trouble. Feel enthusiasm, and then go beyond it.

The real work of achievement is not glamorous, does not usually lend itself to enthusiasm. The real work of achievement is done with patience, with persistence.

Yes, be enthusiastic about what you’re doing. But don’t let enthusiasm be the only thing, don’t depend on it solely.

Be willing to put in the hours, the months, the years if necessary. Be willing to do the tedious work, the complicated, frustrating tasks, to persist and endure in your effort.

Then, even when enthusiasm wanes, you can get the job done. Because you still have the desire to make a difference, and the patience to achieve.

— Ralph Marston

April 26

Allow yourself to care

Do you feel you’ve become disconnected from what truly matters? Today gives you the opportunity to find your way back.

Purposeful living requires great effort, and it can be all too easy to avoid that effort. Yet the longer you go without any commitment to purpose, the more you find yourself yearning for it.

You may have every pleasure, every comfort, every convenience instantly delivered to you. Yet without purpose, without meaningful effort to make a difference, it all feels so empty.

Within that very feeling of emptiness is the desire, the determination to live, to act, with purpose. Go on past the emptiness, and connect once again to all you value, all you care about, all you love.

Today, allow yourself to care, because it is what you always long to do. Though it can be painful, requiring much work and sacrifice, it is who you are, it is what fulfills you.

You have great, meaningful work to do, and nothing will feel better, deep within, than devoting yourself to it. Today, remember what matters, and how it is worth all you can give it.

— Ralph Marston

April 27

Rise above the noise

Don’t just focus on what makes the most noise. Focus on what makes the most value.

Invest time and effort where they will produce a lasting difference. Apply the power of your thoughts to questions and issues that truly matter to you, to your world.

It’s ridiculously easy to get distracted, moment to moment, month after month. But it’s certainly not inevitable, and you always have a more powerful choice.

Though the minutes and hours pass quickly, there is so much good you can achieve with them, when you choose. Choose intention, choose disciplined focus, choose to rise above the noise.

Choose a meaningful direction and stick with it long enough to gain momentum. Feel the positive power you create when you let your intention do its job.

Fully embrace the opportunity of this day, of this life. Rise above the noise, and get your good work done.

— Ralph Marston

April 28

Respond with determination

When life slams you down, respond with determination rather than dejection. Respond with self-empowerment rather than self-pity.

Self-pity wastes your effort and time. Being outraged that the world has hurt you, or someone else, won’t ease the hurt in the least.

Transform that outrage, that pity, into positive action. There is something you can do in response that will improve the situation, and the sooner you do it, the better.

Injustice is awful. Yet being paralyzed by your own outrage just makes the injustice that much worse.

Summon the strength, do the work, to come up with a better response. Challenge yourself to create a positive way forward that will change conditions for the better.

Difficulties will make you stronger, give you great opportunity, if you let them. Point your energy in a positive direction, and actively do what’s best for the life you love.

— Ralph Marston

April 29

Let richness flow

Invite the beauty of this day to fill your awareness. Wrap your thoughts and your attitude around the priceless opportunity of being alive right now.

Remind yourself of the challenging ground you’ve successfully traversed to get here. Feel your capabilities and the desire you have today to put them to good use.

Marvel at the growing abundance that surrounds you. With a thankful heart, rise to the challenge of making new meaningful value out of it all.

See splendor in even the smallest, most common things. Experience life’s richness in every task, every encounter, every situation.

Focus your energy, your actions on the goodness that is possible. Keep in mind how unique and worthy you are, and live up to the responsibility of being so blessed.

Let great richness flow into you now, and always. Then let new richness flow out from you in your own special way.

-Ralph S. Marston

April 30

Give yourself a target

In what specific ways would you most like to experience life today, tomorrow, six months from now, five years from now? Spell out those goals in clear detail, and focus your life on making them real.

Give yourself a bright and distinct target. You’re already investing your time and effort each moment, each day, so make sure that investment produces a meaningful reward.

You can accomplish pretty much anything, if you’ll just decide what it is and constantly keep that vision in front of you. When you point thoughts, actions, words, and feelings all in the same direction, amazing results materialize.

Your life unfolds according to your priorities. Look around you right now, and see precisely where your past priorities have successfully brought you.

Now, you have the opportunity to choose the priorities that will shape your life going forward. Challenge yourself to decide exactly what those priorities will be, and to stick with them.

Give yourself a target that matters, that excites you and inspires you to live with passion and vigor. Give yourself a target, and create your life according to your highest vision.

— Ralph Marston