Daily Motivator - July
 

July 1

Step up to life

Step up to life, to responsibility, to effort, achievement, fulfillment. Step up, with purpose, enthusiasm, energy and love.

Calmly embrace the moment and all it entails. Know, beyond any doubt, that you will give your best to it.

Set aside any need to judge. Fill your awareness with intention to make a difference.

You’ve spent a lifetime learning what works and what doesn’t, what creates progress and what blocks it. Step up, put your unique wisdom and experience into effective action.

This is your chance to move your world forward, perhaps even to have a major breakthrough. Feel your vision, feel your purpose, step up and follow it with all you have.

You are already well on the way to making this a great day. Step up to the challenges, step up to the possibilities, and give new goodness, new value to life.

— Ralph Marston

July 2

When the truth hurts

When the truth hurts, that’s when you better pay attention. In each painful truth is opportunity for new strength.

Those who agree when they know you are wrong are doing you no favor. Listen instead to those who care enough to tell the truth even when you don’t want to hear it.

If you run from the truth it will soon overwhelm you. If you fight against the truth, you will lose.

Choose instead to face the truth. Learn from it, do what you must to align yourself with it, and grow stronger.

When it hurts to hear the truth, be thankful. Because you’ve been given the opportunity to avoid much more pain later on.

Get yourself on the side of truth, whatever it may be. The more the truth hurts, the more it can help you.

-Ralph S. Marston

July 3

Your privilege

Consider it your privilege to be living this day. Consider it your privilege to be where you are, doing all you are doing.

You are not a victim of your circumstances. You are strong enough to make something valuable from this time and place.

Consider it your privilege to be able to take action. Exercise that privilege, moving your life and your whole world forward.

Do not argue in favor of your limitations. Do not argue that unfairness and injustice have rendered you helpless.

Instead, consider it your privilege to demonstrate how you can prosper no matter what pushes against you. Consider it your privilege to dig deep and activate new strength, new skill, new power.

Put yourself in the best possible position for dealing with every challenge, every opportunity, every possibility. Consider it your privilege, and keep putting that privilege to use.

— Ralph Marston

July 4

Add your courage

Your life benefits greatly from the courage of those who have gone before you. Add your own courage to the legacy, and expand those benefits.

Courage is not being free of all fear. Courage happens when you free yourself to act in spite of doubts and fears.

Courage knows there is no guarantee of success, and proceeds anyway. Courage knows there will be inconvenience, pain, risk and disappointment.

And yet courage also knows the glory of the summit is worth the difficulty of the climb. The gain of each advance is worth the strain of making the effort.

Courage is yours the moment you decide to live it. Reach deep inside, feel the insatiable need to make a difference, and courage springs to life in you.

Life is carried forward each day, every millennia, with courage. Let the courage and its rewards flow freely, generously, passionately through you.

— Ralph Marston

July 5

Open to know more

If you read, watch, listen merely to confirm what you already know, you’re wasting an opportunity. Some of the best learning obliges you to admit you were wrong.

Don’t let the illusion of knowledge prevent you from gaining actual knowledge. Don’t let the smug satisfaction of thinking you know the answer, hold you back from actually knowing the answer.

Expose yourself to concepts that challenge your assumptions. When you discover you have been mistaken, be thankful for the opportunity to correct your mistake.

When it comes to gaining new knowledge, humility outperforms arrogance. Put mental energy into learning rather than into proving how much you know.

Seek to grow and refresh your knowledge, your opinions, your assumptions as you experience each day. Consider what you already know as a starting point, not an irrevocable conclusion.

Your knowledge has great value. Increase that value by always being open to know more.

— Ralph Marston

July 6

Live with passion

How long has it been since life stirred your heart? That’s too long.

If you’re not feeling intensely, you’re not living fully. Let passion carry you away, for passion will carry you to amazing places.

Substance matters, quality matters, excellence, awe and magnificence matter. Life is about so much more than just checking the boxes.

Bring to each moment the whole of your multifaceted self. Feel the confidence of all you are and all you know, the mystery of all that is beyond, unknown, unknowable.

Be more than a mere caricature of who you are supposed to be. Be your real, alive, enigmatic, passionate self.

Yes, be sensible, use your head. At the same time live with passion, feed your dreams, and follow your heart.

— Ralph Marston

July 7

Adventure awaits

Adventure awaits, nearby, right now. Can you feel it, see it, sense it in your bones?

Your purpose is eager to meet up with a worthy challenge. The challenge is out there with its adventure and its reward.

What you must do is get up and go to it. Step eagerly into the challenge and boldly pursue your purpose, for that is you at your best.

Adventure awaits, and you must go to it, go through it. The only other choice is never-ending regret.

Woven into every desire is a desire to know you matter. Take up the challenge, step into the adventure, and create the answer you seek.

Adventure awaits, and part of its reward is the chance for even greater adventures. Adventure awaits, and it is your life.

— Ralph Marston

July 8

Pick yourself up

If your efforts fail to bring the results you intended, don’t get discouraged. Get busy, adjust, and make an even greater effort.

Positive feedback and positive results are good, helpful, nice, but not essential. You can be positively motivated by disappointing results too.

Life is not fair, and complaining that life is not fair won’t change anything for the better. What will make things better is to persist in what you do.

Sooner or later you will pick yourself up and get yourself going again. You might as well make it sooner.

Let go of judgments about whether it’s easy or hard, inconvenient or complicated. Just look ahead, toward what you wish to achieve, and take the first step.

After you stumble, the way to feel better is to feel yourself taking action. Go ahead, and bring on that good feeling as soon as you can.

— Ralph Marston

July 9

See the pathway

You are surrounded by valuable opportunities right now. How many of them can you see?

Mostly, you see whatever you expect to see. So on this day, in this place, what are your expectations?

There are far too many details in the world for you to notice them all. Your expectations act as a filter for your awareness.

When you change your expectations, you change the things that catch your attention. Raise your expectations, and new opportunities pop into view.

What good opportunities have you missed because you did not expect to see them? What opportunities would you like to see now?

Choose a destination, and expect to reach it. Suddenly you’ll see the pathway there.

-Ralph S. Marston

July 10

Rid yourself of painful echoes

Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was acceptable. Forgiveness means you are ready to move past it.

Keeping score just prolongs the pain. Seeking to get even, creates more pain.

Forgiveness is not about what’s right or wrong, what’s justified or what’s not. Forgiveness is about being free to focus on creating a positive, fulfilling future.

No person in your world is perfect, many are far from it, and will always be. You can choose to fight that reality, or you can learn how to live with it.

Forgiveness enables you to live well, no matter what others may do or fail to do. Forgiveness fills you with the power of peace, of clarity, of purpose.

Rid yourself of painful echoes from the past. Forgive, and turn yourself toward the beauty and possibility of now.

— Ralph Marston

July 11

Powered by intention

Worry renders opportunity invisible. Don’t indulge in it.

Panic sets off a cascade of mistakes. Make the choice to never let it take hold.

Knowledge, practice and familiarity remove the fear from whatever you undertake. Cultivate them to the highest degree possible.

Every action changes something, makes some sort of difference in your world. Let your actions be powered by your intentions, not by fear or worry or panic.

You have what it takes to thrive, to advance, to prosper in any situation. What it takes is smart, well-rehearsed, intentional, courageous action.

Decide not to succumb to negative emotion. Seize the opportunity by getting yourself engaged in effective action.

— Ralph Marston

July 12

Dig it out

Lean in to the challenge. Step right up to the obstacle.

Choose to thrive not in spite of what happens, but because of what happens. Use each difficulty as a starting point for success.

Transform the obstacle into purpose. Transform the challenge into energy.

Outside forces can push against your actions. Yet no outside force can diminish your intentions.

You can adapt, adjust, persist and in so doing, flourish. You can turn the problem on its head, transform it into a win.

Buried within every challenge is achievement. Get to work and dig it out.

— Ralph Marston

July 13

Missed opportunities

Let go of your regret about missing that opportunity. Clamp your focus now onto seizing this opportunity.

In wistful hindsight, missed opportunities can look like they would have turned out well. Yet obsessing over them will do precisely nothing good for you.

You have the chance now for something even better. You have the chance now to act on opportunity and to eliminate future regret.

Learn a valuable lesson from your own experience. Apply that lesson, put it into action, now.

Stop the empty wishing that you had done something about it then. Put your time, focus, energy into doing great things with the opportunity of now.

Decide that this is an opportunity you will not miss. And it will be the best one yet.

— Ralph Marston

July 14

Present reality

A disadvantage is a disadvantage only if you let it hinder you. And you can choose not to let it.

There’s no use fretting about the way things should be. You can direct your energy toward dealing successfully with the way things are.

Past and future implications won’t do you much good today. This is the time to deal with the situation as it currently is.

Yes, it is helpful to learn from the past and plan for the future, to consider what’s helpful and what’s not. Just don’t let that learning and planning and considering get in the way of doing.

Catch yourself when your thoughts wander too far away from the way things actually are. Bring yourself back to present reality, where you can do great work.

Fully embrace present reality, whatever it may be. Within it you’ll find many opportunities to do truly wonderful things.

— Ralph Marston

July 15

Impossible becomes possible

What if your assumption is wrong? What if the thing you think impossible actually can be done?

What if the path that’s blocked is not the only one? What if you mustered a little faith in yourself and your goal, and just got started?

It’s easy to imagine all the things that could go wrong, easy to list all the reasons for giving up. What’s much harder is to step forward into uncertainty, with the commitment to see it through.

No one ever achieved much by taking the easiest course. And you certainly owe yourself a whole lot more than that.

You owe yourself the consideration that what’s impossible might just be possible. You owe yourself the experience and fulfillment of making such things happen.

The history of progress is written as the impossible becomes possible. This is your chance to write some of that history yourself.

— Ralph Marston

July 16

Beautiful place

Each day has its own beauty. See the beauty, live the beauty in this unique day.

Wind blows, rain falls, stars shine, friends cry, families gather, joy appears from nowhere. Your experience of life gains more substance.

Tragedies, pleasant surprises, disappointments, and discoveries happen, journeys are ended and friendships begun. Let it all build your strength, deepen your understanding and liberate your love.

Before you judge, if you judge at all, take a moment to appreciate, to learn, to empathize. Expect to see beauty, especially when it’s not obvious, for it is surely there.

Notice again and again how fortunate you are. The evidence is all around you, and beautiful, and well worth gathering into your awareness.

Fall in love again each moment with the beauty, letting its freshness lift your spirit. Give yourself the formidable benefit of living always in a beautiful place.

-Ralph S. Marston

July 17

Current possibilities

Pretty much anything you can imagine is eventually possible. Yet what you can act upon immediately is whatever is now possible.

Act to transform current possibilities into reality, and you create whole new sets of possibilities. Continue to act on those new possibilities you create, and you can make your way to any result.

By all means, look with determination toward the ultimate goal you seek. Then look around, where you are, and embrace the current possibilities that can move you toward that goal.

When there is just one possibility within reach, then no possibility can continue to stay out of reach. And wherever you are, whatever way you’ve traveled, there is always one possibility within reach.

You don’t have to figure out how to get all the way there. You just have to take one step, available to you right now, that will move you in the direction of your goal.

Take that step, and then the next and the next. By embracing and actualizing your current possibilities, you can achieve whatever you choose.

— Ralph Marston

July 18

Your response is your choice

Decide today that what used to drain you, will now energize you. Direct your thoughts so that what used to frustrate you, will now make you more determined.

Make the choice that what previously angered you will now make you eager to create an alternative. Adjust your attitude so that what once would annoy you will now motivate you to be more focused.

Your response to anything is always your choice. Base that choice on what is best for you, best for all you love and care about.

Consider that nothing is inherently frustrating, maddening, boring or dismal. Whatever you feel about each circumstance or experience is what you have decided to feel.

Choose what you will take from each event, how you will feel about each circumstance, each encounter, each day. Feel empowered, creative, compassionate, effective and enthusiastic about making a difference.

Don’t let random events steal the goodness from your life. Decide how you will approach all the moments, how you will see them, how you will live them, and fill them all with the best you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

July 19

Willing to pay the price

To have anything desirable in your life, you have to do more than want it. You have to make it happen.

There are many great people, things, experiences that will make you feel good, that you want in your life. But wanting is not enough, even if it feels like you want them a whole, whole lot.

If you want the benefits, you also have to be eager to pay the costs. What distinguishes a goal from a fantasy is your willingness to put forth all the effort necessary to achieve that goal.

If you’re not willing to work for it, you don’t really want it. That’s perfectly okay, and the sooner you admit it, the better.

The sooner you admit it, the sooner you can begin creating what you really do want. You enable yourself to move forward toward whatever you are willing to work for.

Ask yourself what you’re eager to pay the price for. That’s what you truly want, and you’ll find great fulfillment in bringing it into your life.

— Ralph Marston

July 20

Heart of authenticity

What if your life memories relied on the intensity of your experience instead of the sophistication of your technology? Would it change the way you approach what you do?

Imagine for a moment that there are no video cameras, no photo sharing apps. How would you make sure that twenty years from now, or even a month from now, you remember this day?

What would you do differently if you were doing it not to create a pretty picture, but to lock in a valuable memory? How would you live this day if all you could put into it were your thoughts, words and actions, and all you could take from it were memories?

Consider how you would live each moment if you never had a single thought of trying to impress others, or of doing something just because it’s popular. Challenge yourself to act from the heart of your authenticity.

Think of being in a place of incredible natural beauty, with no camera. Think of how you would take it all in, to experience it fully, not to merely record it.

Let go of the need to jump through all kinds of hoops for the purpose of projecting a certain image. Experience the genuine beauty of real life as it flows through the person you really are.

— Ralph Marston

July 21

The opportunity in front of you

When there’s an opening, take it. When there’s progress to be made, make it.

Even if it’s not convenient or comfortable, do what you must. Although it may be far from the ideal situation, take the opportunity that’s in front of you.

Stay true to your values, and do what you must. Carry with you the highest of expectations, and seize the opportunity of here and now.

Fulfill the possibilities of this day, then prepare yourself to work on the next ones. New possibilities are always arriving, and they appear first to whoever is already on the move.

The opportunity in front of you may not be the best one you’ve ever seen. Even so, seizing that opportunity will prepare you and align you with the next opportunity, which could very well be much better.

There’s nothing gained by waiting for something better to come along. Go with the opportunity in front of you, and get yourself in the habit of achievement.

— Ralph Marston

July 22

Prepared to persist

Expect your first attempt to work. At the same time, be prepared to quickly make another attempt.

When your initial attempt brings the results you intended, great. If it doesn’t, there’s no time to waste feeling disappointed and sorry for yourself.

Expect to succeed, and be prepared to persist. If one or two or a dozen options are exhausted, quickly round up some more options.

Just because success isn’t immediate, doesn’t mean it is out of reach. Know there’s a way, and persist.

What looks like genius is most often persistence. Be prepared to make enough attempts, and just about any achievement is within reach.

With persistence, soft droplets of water wear away the hardest stone. Imagine what you can now do with the power of persistence.

— Ralph Marston

July 23

Consider the possibilities

Before you decide something is too much trouble, step back. Is it really, or are you just making excuses?

Before you conclude something is out of your reach, pause and ask yourself. Is it really, or are you just reluctant to venture away from what's familiar and comfortable?

There are many factors that can hold you back. Don't let your own thinking, your own assumptions, your own generalizations be among those factors.

It's easy to know something is possible and practical if you've already done it. For everything else, don't let yourself be too quick to dismiss it.

Think of things you now take for granted that were once considered out of reach. Some of your assumptions may no longer be valid, even those that were once indisputable.

With each day, with each discovery, with each turn of events, new possibilities are born. Don't let the best ones pass you by just because you think they're not for you.

-Ralph Marston

July 24

Summon the power of motivation

Are you not motivated to take action? Then take action to get motivated.

Do some little something. That will make you feel like doing something more.

Motivation is not some esoteric power possessed only by elite achievers. Motivation happens when you mix desire or fear with some common sense, and add a touch of momentum.

To summon the power of motivation, first understand what you truly want. Next, remind yourself that you’ll have to take some action to fulfill that desire.

Finally, go ahead and give yourself a taste of that action, even if it’s just a small one. Once you feel yourself acting to reach a goal you really, truly desire, you’ll want a lot more of that great feeling.

At that point, guess what? You’re motivated, and you can ride that motivation wherever you intend to go.

— Ralph Marston

July 25

Each and every step

Pay no attention to how difficult it has been, or will be. Focus only on what you can do right now.

Put the whole of your attention and energy into what you can do now, into what you are doing now. Give your best to it, learn from it, pull more and more excellence out of it.

In the small moments, big achievements are built. Success is a matter of fully utilizing enough small moments.

It’s great to have big ambitions and high expectations, and to let them drive you forward. For today though, focus intently on what you can do today, and on getting it done to the best of your ability.

The task at hand may seem minor. Yet this is the task that matters the most now, because this is the task you are doing.

Give all your respect and focus to each and every step along the way. By so doing, you’ll reach the most spectacular destination you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

July 26

Opportunity in misfortune

Something negative, disruptive, disappointing has happened in your life. Use it to your advantage.

Opportunity comes dressed in many forms. Great opportunity often comes dressed as misfortune.

Don’t waste that opportunity mired in feeling sorry for yourself. Jump into it with all you have, and discover how strong, resilient, capable, effective you can be.

When things look hopeless is when positive, aggressive action makes the biggest difference. Instead of shrinking from the moment, seize it and run with it.

Decide to redirect the energy of whatever is pushing against you. Take it and make it propel you ahead.

Embrace the situation, knowing you can make it work for you. Success is there, ready for you to step boldly forward and claim it.

— Ralph Marston

July 27

Go ahead

Your next move does not have to be perfect. Just go ahead and make it.

The situation is what it is. Go ahead, accept it, and you can find good ways to work with it.

You may not feel particularly inspired, creative, effective or energetic at the moment. Go ahead anyway, and give your best effort.

Regardless of what has or has not happened, you can go ahead and make progress today. Instead of wondering what could have been, or making judgments about what is, go ahead and make a positive difference in your world.

Go ahead, even if you don’t feel like it, especially if you don’t feel like it. Now is the time you have, now is the moment to utilize, and you’ll soon thank yourself for doing so.

Step over the doubts, the excuses, the hesitation, and step into action. Go ahead, and give the best you can to this amazing life you’re living.

— Ralph Marston

July 28

Choose strength

What is inside you is completely yours to choose. Choose strength, endurance, kindness, love.

Though you can make great, intelligent, informed effort, sometimes that effort fails. Though you can give your absolute best, sometimes forces beyond your control render your actions useless.

Yet even when disappointment is piled on top of disappointment, you can face forward with hope and the highest expectations. When life utterly fails to reward, you can reward yourself with new strength, with fresh resolve to keep going.

You have your life, you have your choice of how to see it, you have your strength of will. Choose to be strong inside, and nothing can invalidate that choice.

Though you can prudently avoid many problems, and cleverly solve many others, some things you just have to endure. And you can, when you make the commitment to yourself to be strong.

Just because life can be disappointing, doesn’t mean you have to be. Choose strength, endurance, kindness, love.

— Ralph Marston

July 29

Challenge yourself

You’ve done many good things. Challenge yourself to do more.

You’re strong, capable, smart, resourceful. Challenge yourself to push your capabilities beyond their previous limits.

There’s nothing more enriching than a meaningful challenge, and the commitment to work through it. Give that special richness to yourself.

Don’t settle for the assumption that the best of life is behind you. Challenge yourself to look forward with the highest expectations ever.

Don’t allow yourself to hide behind excuses. Re-imagine those excuses, transforming them into reasons for moving forward.

Challenge yourself to exceed yourself, to be better than you’ve ever been. You’ll quickly thank yourself for having the fortitude to follow through on it.

— Ralph Marston

July 29

Get it done sooner

Do you want to get the most out of your effort? Then make that effort at the first minute rather than the last minute.

Is there something you’ve been putting off? The longer you procrastinate, the more difficult it will be.

Instead of spending most of your available time worrying that the job is not done, just go ahead and do it. Then you can spend the remaining time free of worry and full of satisfaction that the work is finished.

You’re going to have to do it sooner or later, so do it sooner. Give it your best by getting to it right away.

Use your time and energy to make progress, not to make excuses. Give yourself more good options by getting way out ahead of the deadline.

Want to make your work easier and less stressful? Then go ahead, right now, and get it done, long before you have to.

-Ralph S. Marston

July 31

Joyful purpose

Discard the doubts. Focus on the work.

Ignore the distractions. Glide right on past the interruptions.

You have good, meaningful, significant work to do. Don’t let shallow, trivial things get in your way.

Expel all the negativity, worries, excuses from your awareness. Breathe in fresh new energy, enthusiasm, vision, and put it all to use.

Feel the joy, the rightness of making good things happen. Remind yourself how silly it is to let anything get you down.

Look forward, and see all the great value there is to create. With joyful purpose, keep bringing that value to life.

— Ralph Marston