January 15

Beauty and significance

You’ve talked yourself into needing it, but do you? You’ve become accustomed to having it, but is it what you desire?

How much time do you waste chasing things you’d be better off without? How much treasure do you give up to acquire and maintain what you don’t need, what you don’t even want?

You have true, consequential needs and authentic desires. Take care to focus your efforts on those.

You live in a world with an unimaginable number of things to own, to experience, to consume. Meet that enormity of possibility with a sober responsibility.

Everything you have that you don’t need takes time, space, money and focus away from what truly matters to you. You owe it to yourself to make more room in your life for real joy, purpose, and fulfillment.

Don’t let yourself, or anyone else, convince you to need what is needless or to want what is meaningless. There is too much beauty and significance in life to settle for anything less.

— Ralph Marston

January 16

Trouble into treasure

What would happen if you could be thankful for what you usually complain about? Think of the power in that.

Transformation doesn’t happen just because you want it to. Transformation requires you to think different, to act different than you’ve been acting.

Are you perpetuating a pattern of negative thoughts and undesirable results in some area of your life? Gratitude smashes through that pattern, and positions you to rebuild it in a more beneficial way.

Can you really express your thanks for those things that aggravate you? Yes, you can, and by doing so you transform aggravation into admiration, frustration into enthusiasm.

Do you really want to keep complaining about what’s wrong, or would you rather work on making it right? Gratitude harnesses what was negative energy and enables you to put it to positive use.

Choose to be thankful. And watch yourself transform trouble into treasure.

— Ralph Marston

January 17

Misunderstood

Often you will not be fully understood. Don’t let that stop you from doing the useful things you can do.

No one will ever understand you as completely as you would like to be understood. Yet even when you’re a little misunderstood, or a lot, you can do plenty of good.

It’s great to work with people who understand you well. It’s also possible, though, to make progress with those who misunderstand you to varying degrees.

Be clear with yourself about your standards, set them high, and live up to them. Rather than feeling you must explain those standards, let your valuable results be sufficient explanation.

Seek to understand, to be understood, and step forward with confidence in your purpose. Never let your creativity or ambition be stifled by the fear of being misunderstood.

Do your best, and let others do with it what they will. Give your best, and let others make of it what they make of it.

— Ralph Marston

January 18

Let life be as life is

Seek to know, and seek also to accept the limits of your knowledge. Work to make a difference, and make peace with the reality that you cannot change everything.

Let life be as life is, and allow yourself to be as you are. Make good use of nature, including your own nature, without fighting against it.

Learn all you can, and grow in appreciation for the fact that you can never learn all there is. Feel your strength as you put it into action, and know the even greater strength of letting things be.

When you are bitten by the sensation of need, see if you can let it gently dissolve into nothing. Open yourself ever more fully to the abundance that has always been.

Relinquish any restrictions or conditions you may have imposed on joy. Surrender yourself to the beauty of each moment, each place, every experience you inhabit.

The wind blows, the snow falls, the sun shines, and the richness unfolds in every direction. Let it all be, and live it all well.

— Ralph Marston

January 19

Overwhelm the negativity

It is difficult to care in a world that doesn’t ever seem to care. Yet it is possible, and ultimately it is your best choice.

You can care deeply, actively, even when no one else steps forward to care. There is much you can give, even when no one else is willing to give.

You can put yourself on the side of real goodness. You can make a difference, and make the world brighter with your commitment to do so.

It is a challenge being committed to excellence when it feels like indolence and incompetence are rampant. Yet it is possible, and it is powerful, and of great value.

Your best response is to do what’s good, what’s right, what’s smart and valuable and effective. In this way you overwhelm the negativity with your own action.

Instead of being distraught about how bad things can be, imagine all you can do to improve life. Then get to work and make it so.

— Ralph Marston

January 20

Energy everywhere

Life’s energy swirls constantly around you. Help yourself to its power.

You never have to be apathetic or bored. There’s more than enough to fascinate you, to energize you, no matter where you go.

A squirrel runs down the branch of the tree outside your window. A long-time friend hopes you’ll give her a call.

Look a little higher, dig a little deeper, open your mind a little wider. You are always enmeshed in the endless energy of existence.

Invite that energy into your awareness, into your being. Feel the spark as it provides fuel to your passion and power to your purpose.

From the tiny speck of dust on your finger to an impossibly distant star, energy is everywhere, always. Get yourself some, get yourself going, and live the great experience of life in this moment.

— Ralph Marston

January 21

Door to the future

Right now you straddle the dividing line between what you have been and what you can become. With every choice you make, you’re stepping out of your past and into your future.

Ask yourself, as you take each step, what do you choose to carry forward and what do you prefer to leave behind? Those choices have great consequences for your life.

Are there burdens you’ve been imposing on yourself, that you can now release? Are there dreams you’ve been holding back, that you can now work to make real?

In the past you’ve discovered much about yourself and your world. Now you can take all you know, all you’ve experienced, and apply it to the possibilities emerging in your future.

That future can mirror your past or diverge from it in whatever ways are best for you. Now is your opportunity to choose.

As you live this moment you’re stepping through a door that leads from your past to your future. Take that step with care, with positive, authentic intention, and with love.

— Ralph Marston

January 22

The good you do

When you compromise your integrity, it never turns out well. What seems simple and easy in the moment, becomes devastating eventually.

The wrong you do comes back to you, every time. The sooner you make it right, the better.

The good you do comes back to you too. Every choice has a consequence, and you can employ that truth to great benefit.

You get from life precisely what you give to life. Indeed, they are one and the same.

Trust in the power of the goodness you can give. Act with the irrefutable confidence that comes from doing what you know is right.

Give to life what you love to experience, what you value, what you treasure. In that act of giving, you are getting the life you want.

— Ralph Marston

January 23

Magnificent experience

Breathe in, breathe out, rise up into full awareness. Today you carry with you all the beauty you’ve ever witnessed, all the hope you’ve ever felt.

Around you, life changes faster than you can see. Within, unique value lives, and endures, shining brightly.

Seasons pass through your recollection, old years fall forward into new phases. And your living presence grows more deeply entrenched in the vast fabric of life.

The challenge is great, the pain is real. Yet the magnificent experience of existence surpasses it all.

Surrounding every frustration are dozens of possibilities for transcending the conditions that gave rise to it. As twisted and difficult as your trail has been, you persist in forging a better path forward.

Contemplate for a moment the vast extent of all there is, and your connection to it, and all you can do. Now, offer the best you have to the wondrous reality of all that is.

— Ralph Marston

January 24

Choose sincerity

Don’t hide yourself from yourself and others. Pretense provides nothing of value in the present, and nothing but regret in the future.

This day is too beautiful to spend it as someone you’re not. Allow your own true beauty the space to live and to flourish.

In all those choices you make, choose sincerity. Enjoy knowing and sharing the power of the real you.

You are so much more than a flat, boring, predictable image. You are the essence of life itself, complex, vulnerable, curious, loving, and passionate.

Forget about whether it will make you look good or not. Do what you care about, what makes a real difference, what resonates with all you love and value.

Be the real you and live the real richness. Nothing you could pretend is as valuable and precious as who you truly are.

— Ralph Marston

January 25

Thoughts in moderation

Think about what you experience. But don’t let your thoughts be so overwhelming that you ignore the experience.

Put thought into what you’re doing. But don’t let the thoughts hinder the doing.

Respond thoughtfully to others. But don’t get so involved in crafting your responses that you fail to hear what is being said.

As powerful as your thoughts can be, they are not everything. To use them well is to use them in moderation.

Keep your thoughts fresh and valuable by giving them a chance to rest. Enjoy and improve your thoughts by taking regular breaks from them.

If thoughts are getting you down or holding you back, do something other than just thinking. Use your thoughts, but don’t let them use you.

— Ralph Marston

January 26

Rich on the inside

It’s nice to gaze out over grand, exotic vistas. Yet it’s just as nice to spend a quiet afternoon reading a good book in a simple sunlit room.

You don’t need to have an impressive experience to have a good and fulfilling experience. You don’t need to have the ultimate adventure to enjoy an interesting and satisfying day.

You can live very well without a lot of money or fame. You can enjoy a rich and fulfilling life without frantically rushing to get in front of the latest trend.

Gently and joyfully do what you love instead of struggling and clamoring to do whatever happens to be in vogue. Give yourself the time live to well rather than striving to accumulate possessions and experiences that mean very little to you.

Spend more of your life fully enjoying all you have, and less of your energy yearning to get more. Have the confidence to be truly happy without the need to keep up false appearances.

Let a genuine love for the beauty of life guide your choices and priorities each day. Be rich on the inside, for that’s where it really matters.

— Ralph Marston

January 27

Wasted effort

Be honest with yourself. If your efforts are not bringing the desired results, admit it, and make changes.

Effort is necessary, admirable, satisfying, but not always effective. Often you must adjust the nature of your effort.

Commit to making the required amount of effort. But don’t get trapped by your commitment in an approach that’s not working.

It can be painful to realize you’ve wasted your time and effort. Yet when that happens, be willing to quickly change, or the wasted effort will continue.

Here’s the key thing to keep in mind. Wasted effort is not wasted when it leads you to improve your efforts.

See that opportunity, and take it. Harness the experience of your ineffective effort to make you more effective than ever before.

— Ralph Marston

January 28

One little positive step

Take one little positive step. You can do it, and you can do it now.

Take one little positive step, for yourself, for those you love. Take one little positive step, and then you can take another.

Let the troubles in the world be as they are. And respond not with despair, but with a small, upbeat action.

Being sad, or angry, or disappointed, won’t make anything better. What will make something better is pointing your energy in a positive direction.

Feel how good it feels to improve life in a small way. Then do it again.

You deserve some positive momentum, and an optimistic outlook, today. Take one little positive step, and get it going.

— Ralph Marston

January 29

Things going right

Do you feel overwhelmed by all the things that are going wrong in the world? That’s because you’re ignoring the massively greater number of things going right.

Flip a switch and the light comes on. Do you realize how many things have to go right for that to happen, and to be as reliable as it is?

Consider the electronic screen that delivers all the bad news to you. Thousands of things have to go right, and work in perfect synchronization, for that information to appear.

Bad things do happen, often. Yet every moment of every day, many, many more good things happen, things you don’t even notice.

Yes, pay attention to the problems, act on them, work to solve them. At the same time, keep them in perspective.

Appreciate, support, and maintain all that reliably goes right and works well. You’ll be well equipped to successfully deal with whatever goes wrong.

— Ralph Marston