April 16

Everything in stride

Life will not unfold exactly the way you’d like it to. Of that you can be certain, no matter how much care and effort you put into arranging your affairs.

But that doesn’t mean you must be unhappy when things fail to go your way. Indeed, your biggest disappointments can often, eventually, lead you to your most profound joys.

Here’s a strategy you might want to consider. Take everything in stride.

Yes, plan, prepare, do the work, give your best. Then be thankful for the result, including all the unforeseen consequences.

Your fate won’t ever be precisely the way you envisioned it. Still, it is yours, it is something, and you’re better off living and enjoying it, than cursing it.

Let life be the way it has come to be. And let yourself find something good, useful, joyful, and thankful to do with every precious moment.

— Ralph Marston

April 17

Take good care

Take good care of yourself. Take care, not merely as a concept but as a continuing endeavor, hour after hour, day after day.

What you can do, for those around you, for all of life, proceeds directly from the person you are. The quality of the person you are is fashioned by ongoing attention, care, love, and diligence.

To be your best for others you must first, and always, be good to you. The strength you can give is the strength you enable yourself to establish.

Accept nothing but the highest good from yourself, for yourself. In all matters that affect your body, mind, and spirit, choose with great care, give well, and live well.

Nourish yourself, challenge yourself, reward yourself, improve yourself, and enjoy yourself. Shield yourself from undue harm while also pushing yourself to experience, to grow, and to appreciate.

Life looks to you to keep it good, and meaningful, rich, vibrant, and enduring. Take good care, and fulfill the great potential of your unique and beautiful life.

— Ralph Marston

April 18

Treasure of wisdom

You have great wisdom, earned day after day over the years of your life. Don’t let that wisdom lie dormant, trapped in old experiences and forgotten words.

As every new day arrives, you can put that wisdom to use. As well-established in the past as your wisdom may be, it is always relevant in the present.

The fact is, you have an excellent sense of what to do, of what to avoid, of what to revere, of what to dismiss. Pay attention to that sense, and follow its guidance.

If something seems too good to be true, it very likely is. Rather than hoping that your wisdom is wrong, assume that it is right.

Your victories, your defeats, your disappointments and your joys, all empower you now to make your best choices. Life gets better when you learn from it and make good use of what you’ve learned.

Keep yourself connected to the growing treasure of wisdom that’s always yours. And keep your life going in a successful direction.

— 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

Specific progress

It is good to have faith that things will get better. Especially when you express that faith by committing to a specific, well-formulated plan for improvement.

Yes, yes, believe in the future. Then put your intelligence, your competence, and your discipline to work in service of that belief.

What exactly is the nature of the challenge you face, of the goal you seek to achieve? What precisely are you doing, and when, and how, to address that challenge, to reach that goal?

Every aspect of your being supports your amazing, highly adaptable ability to get things done. That ability works best when you know clearly what those things are.

Fundamental to any success is a detailed and accurate description of that success. In what exact way will life get better, and what will you do to make that happen?

All progress is specific progress. Define what you must do, how you will do it, and give yourself the tools to get it done.

— Ralph Marston

April 21

Constant adjustments

No one can accurately predict the future. But anyone can adjust to the present.

In fact, those adjustments, made by billions of people, are what end up creating the future. Tomorrow’s situation will never equal today’s situation, because so many people are busy making adjustments.

That’s why pretty much nothing ends up being as bad, or as good, as it was expected to be. As events unfold, people adjust, and the calculus changes.

When something becomes scarce, people find more of it, or figure out an alternative. When a good idea emerges, people improve on it, quickly, creatively, enthusiastically.

Billions of innovative minds are motivated right now to make tomorrow better than today. The process is chaotic, not particularly elegant or efficient, and virtually unstoppable.

No one knows what the future will bring, yet everyone is constantly making adjustments to improve it. And in ways that even the most highly accredited experts could never imagine, life moves forward.

— Ralph Marston

April 22

Accept it

You can find great peace in acceptance. When you’re not consumed with proving one thing or opposing another, you’re free to create real value.

A few issues are clearly worth fighting for, and some others are necessary to fight against. Most, however, you can simply accept, and quickly enable yourself to move forward.

There will always be plenty of things you don’t agree with. But that doesn’t mean you have to drain all your energy by being disagreeable or miserable.

Take a deep breath, and accept it. You don’t have to agree with it, or like it, or even think about it any more.

Accept it, and then you can devote your full attention to what you really care about. Accept it, and save yourself the pain of resentment, of retribution, of hostility.

Don’t fight those useless battles that will never produce a winner. Accept what has happened, what has been said, what is, and free yourself to make the very best of it.

— Ralph Marston

April 23

Wish you had done

In a few hours, in a couple of weeks, what will you wish you had done right now? This is your chance, your only chance, to make that wish come true.

Later this month, later this year, what will you regret not taking care of today? Now is your opportunity to avoid the pain of that regret.

You know from past experience that it’s easier to go ahead and get your work done than it is to keep putting it off. Yet that realization is somehow not as compelling for the work you must now do.

So project your thoughts ahead into the future. Envision a time when the actions you can take now, have become the things you desperately wish you had done sooner.

Imagine how it will be to know you could have acted but you didn’t, to know you wasted a good opportunity. Feel the power you have, right now, to create a much more positive, desirable outcome.

Then, with a renewed sense of gratitude and determination, get going. Act today to make your future one you’ll welcome, appreciate, and enjoy.

— Ralph Marston

April 24

Envision, imagine, dream, love

The value of a vision does not depend on how practical it is. The value of a vision is in how meaningful it is.

The value of a story is not in how factual it is. The value of a story is in how inspiring it is.

The value of a dream is not in whether you achieve it or not. The value of a dream is in the person you become, the life you live, in pursuit of that dream.

It’s fine that your dream is impossible, as long as it is compelling. It’s perfectly okay that your story gets the facts wrong, as long as you get the truth right.

Within you, there are no rules, no constraints on what you can imagine, and feel, and love. No limits exist on the magnificent castles you can build with such freedom.

The richness you nurture within, also finds its way out into your life, into your world. Envision, imagine, dream, love, without restraint, and be stronger, inspired, and highly motivated in everything you do.

— Ralph Marston

April 25

Long way to go

You can’t do all that must be done. Yet you can do something.

So go ahead, and do something, now, and whenever you can. Don’t let the overwhelming nature of the challenge compromise your ability to make real, meaningful progress.

You’ll never learn every detail you’d like to know. Yet you can always learn something, and then learn more.

There’s always room for improvement. So go ahead and improve, yourself, your world, the lives of those around you.

Though you won’t ever have all the answers, you can find more and more each day. When the road ahead is long, steep, and winding, take the next step.

In fact, choose to be thankful that you have a long way to go. And with love, with purpose, with curiosity and enthusiasm, keep going.

— Ralph Marston

April 26

Do what you can do now

You can’t get it all done right away. Yet you can get some of it done right now.

You can’t immediately get the whole way there. But you certainly can take the first step.

The entire process of achievement is difficult and complicated. Fortunately, you can break it down into as many small pieces as necessary.

Every book that’s ever been published was written one word at a time. If you can write one word, and if you commit yourself to keep going, you can write a book.

If you can lay one brick, you can build a tower. If you can walk one foot, you can walk a thousand miles.

All that’s necessary for now, is to do what you can do now. Keep it up, and get yourself precisely where you choose to go.

— Ralph Marston

April 27

Sustainable success

Here’s a question to ask yourself when choosing between different options. Which option will make life better for the most people for the longest period of time?

How will your choice impact other people? How will your choice play out in the future?

Does your choice feel good in the moment, but with a price to pay in the future? If so, there’s a better choice.

Does your choice benefit you, but at the expense of other people? Repeated choices like that will alienate you, and make your life increasingly difficult.

Sustainable success is possible only when you have respect for the future and for the people living there. Without that respect, any gains you experience will quickly vanish.

You can’t control the passage of time or the actions of other people. Yet by making well-considered choices, you’ll solidly align them both with your own success.

— Ralph Marston

April 28

Journey on

You’ve taken a long journey to get where you are. Give yourself some respect for all that effort.

Realize how strong your experiences have made you. Think of all you can now do with that strength.

Feel the confidence of knowing how many challenges you’ve successfully worked through. Point that confidence forward, to transcend current challenges, to reach new meaningful goals.

After every setback, you find a way to keep going. From every achievement, you carry new value, hope, and energy into the future.

It certainly has never all been easy, and yet you’ve experienced much goodness, joy, and fulfillment along the way. Now you’ve established more momentum than ever before, to continue your journey through life’s great richness.

Look back for a moment with appreciation, and feel the full power of that momentum. Then look ahead with fresh enthusiasm, and continue to journey on.

— Ralph Marston

April 29

Pay attention

Life offers treasures in every moment. Pay attention, and bring the value of those treasures into your life.

Listen carefully, respectfully to what people say, especially if you disagree with them. You have the opportunity to benefit from another person’s entire lifetime of experience, so listen, and learn.

Take in the endless richness of the world around you. See the beauty that’s always there, watch for the dangers, attune yourself to the possibilities.

Your thoughts, your sensations, your values sit firmly at the center of your awareness. Yet there is infinitely more to life than your own limited concerns.

Make the smart choice to direct your awareness outward. Don’t get so caught up in your own thoughts and feelings that you ignore the immense value and wisdom outside you.

Pay attention to what has happened, to what is going on, to what can be. And you’ll greatly expand your opportunities for a rich and fulfilling life.

— Ralph Marston

April 30

Choose courage

Courage is not some magic power that’s only available to superheroes. Courage is a choice that’s available to anyone, at any time.

The world is filled with challenges. Those challenges become especially acute whenever you seek to move forward.

Any kind of progress demands that you work through challenges. Courage is the willingness to do that, to accept the risk so you can achieve the reward.

Certainly it is foolish to seek unnecessary, unproductive risk. Yet it is just as foolish to think you can thrive without ever encountering any challenge or risk at all.

Courage is not a matter of being foolish or irresponsible. Courage is taking calculated risks to produce meaningful rewards.

With love, with awareness, with purpose, with care, choose courage. Step up to the challenges, and do your part to make life better for all who live it.

— Ralph Marston