Daily Motivator - April
 

April 1

Live richly

A lot of people have gone to a lot of trouble over thousands of years, making it possible for you to live this day. Do not take lightly that priceless legacy.

Your situation is not perfect. But it’s a whole lot better than no situation at all.

You sense and feel, think, express, and connect with others. You act to make a difference, and strive to understand and appreciate what matters and what doesn’t.

You’re able to experience and interact with reality on countless levels in endless domains. With each dawning day, the possibilities for richness and fulfillment grow more numerous.

Invite some specific form of that richness into your life, live it with zesty gratitude, again and again. Share it with others and work to expand it in ways that are helpful and enlightening.

Embrace the opportunities and put your best effort into fulfilling what’s possible. Live richly the life that is yours, the time that is here.

— Ralph Marston

Happy New Month family always
Thanking God for getting us though the month
Of March sober happy and free.

Three awesome prayers to start your week off.

He is
Risen Hallelujah.

Risen Christ, thank You for the power of the resurrection. You have made real for all your children. My darkness is turned into light and the rough places are made level. Open my eyes to the truth of Your word. I recognize You as my living Savior. Because you live, I too shall live. What joy! Hallelujah! Amen.

A Prayer to Know God’s Presence.

God, continue to be the focus of my daily life. Make Your presence known to me. Draw me close to You so that way I can know You more deeply. I want to seek You all the days of my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I prayer of Thanks.

Father God, thank you for caring about every detail of my life. Forgive me for spending so much mental energy worrying about circumstances I can’t control. I give each pressing situation to you. Please work in miraculous ways. Thank you that I can trade my anxieties for your peace. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

April 2

It pays to care

It pays to care about life, about others, about meaning. It pays to care about time and effectiveness and achievement.

It pays to care about truth. It pays to care about what’s good, and what contributes to life.

To the extent you care, you get involved and make a difference. When you care, that caring drives your priorities, your actions, your results.

Caring is more than just feeling or saying you care. To care means to act on what you care about.

Do that, and life resounds with purpose. Do that, and fulfillment, deep satisfaction, and enrichment all come your way.

Go to the trouble, make the commitment, to care, in matters small and large. It’s an essential part of how life is well lived.

— Ralph Marston

April 3

Add beauty

Beauty is more than just something nice to look at. Beauty uplifts life in multiple dimensions.

Experiencing beauty connects you with higher possibilities and aspirations. Creating, maintaining and expanding something beautiful will challenge you to put your best abilities into action.

Beauty serves as a physical manifestation of time well spent in meaningful and intentional focus. Beauty expresses love for life in ways that cannot be rendered by any other activity.

Beauty can seem to be optional and even frivolous. But life without any potential for beauty would be a dreary, dismal existence that would quickly drain your energy.

Fortunately, you can find and produce true beauty in all sorts of different times and settings and modes. Beauty requires commitment in order to experience, to appreciate, to bring into existence, yet it is always within reach.

Never pass up the opportunity to add beauty to your experience of life. It’s always worth your time and effort.

— Ralph Marston

April 4

Abundance and richness

A simple joy offers far greater nourishment to your soul than a sophisticated spectacle does. What’s modest and genuine brings you more richness than anything that’s brash and contrived.

Emptiness in life cannot be filled by the equally empty promises of others, or by pre-packaged experiences that have no enduring substance. Emptiness is best filled with your commitment, effort, care, love, and generosity.

What’s fulfilling is not easy, and what’s easy is not fulfilling. That’s abundantly clear from the history of the world and the story of your own life.

Keep reminding yourself not to fall for the deceptions of ease, extravagance, and self-indulgence. You deserve so much more from your own priorities and actions.

Whatever you seek to gain from your experience of life, consider how to offer it in similar form and measure. Participate deeply and persistently in what matters, in what makes a positive difference.

Find abundance and richness in all that is true, and real, and good. Refuse to compromise your time and your life with anything else.

— Ralph Marston

April 5

Freedom to live richly

Give yourself freedom from worries of what others might think or say about you. Offer yourself freedom from the limitations your doubts have imposed upon you.

Choose to escape from the misguided assumption that focused effort is something to be avoided. Discard a few of the comfortable yet negative habits that waste so much precious time.

There are plenty of great things you can do right here and now. Allow yourself freedom to experience the joy of creating new goodness as you live each moment.

Consider all the positive possibilities open to you today. Free yourself to explore and fulfill the best of them.

Let go of the need to be troubled by troubles. Accept what is, then allow and encourage yourself to make the very best of it.

Now is when you can free yourself from whatever may have held you back before. Here is your day to live richly, with all the spirit and energy you can muster.

— Ralph Marston

April 6

Strengthen your patience

Listen with patience, and you’ll understand much more. Work with patience, and you’re able to create lasting value.

Offer your life and your world the power that comes as a result of patience. Express genuine love and care, through your patience.

With patience, you are able to avoid careless mistakes. In a state of patience, you can feel anxiety melting away.

Patience gives you genuine and meaningful refuge from the frustrations you encounter in the world. Patience builds in you a character that’s strong, resilient, and enduring.

With persistence, you’re able to achieve almost any meaningful objective. And patience is a crucial element of persistence.

Today you’ll encounter many opportunities to give benefit to your life and your world with patience. Every time you exercise and strengthen your patience, you greatly expand the positive possibilities available to you.

— Ralph Marston

April 7

Forgotten options

You have good options that you’re not exercising. How do you put yourself in a place where you can see them?

Most of the time those options remain hidden behind your assumptions and habitual routines. It’s helpful to occasionally take a break from those routines, to question those assumptions.

Imagine another person looking at your life from a radically different perspective. What would that person see?

What resources, connections, opportunities, and skills would that person observe? What bodies of knowledge, what interests, what values would that person be able to detect?

In your life you’ve made lots of choices, and once you choose a particular option you tend to forget about all the others. But many of those options are still available to you and might be more attractive now.

Get a little curious about the options you’ve forgotten or never even realized you had. You might even find some that can change your life.

— Ralph Marston

April 8

Energy of richness

Stop fretting about getting it done. Just get it done.

Don’t complain about what has gone wrong. Just take all the necessary steps to make things right.

Let go of the worry and the drama. Allow the focus, the discipline, the effort, persistence, and effectiveness.

From moment to moment, it’s your decision where to direct your energy. Put that energy where it will bring new richness to your world.

Live on your own terms and make those terms positive and purposeful. See yourself not as struggling against what has been but as fulfilling the best of what can be.

Live on the highest level you can envision. And cheerfully encourage everyone else to come along.

— Ralph Marston

April 9

Responsibility is essential

Responsibility enriches life. Accept responsibility, and insist on it from others.

The constraints imposed by responsibility can indeed be burdensome. But responsibility is not a form of oppression or punishment.

Responsibility is an acknowledgement, acceptance, and embrace of the reality that every choice has consequences. Responsibility is essential to true empowerment.

It is not an act of compassion or kindness to give anyone a way to avoid responsibility. The compassionate thing is to assist and encourage others as they participate in the fulfillment of their responsibilities.

You do not benefit your own life by avoiding or escaping responsibility. For in every responsibility is the opportunity to grow stronger, more experienced, more effective and purposeful.

See responsibility for the good and essential part of life that it is. Be eager to take on meaningful responsibilities, and diligent in following through on them.

— Ralph Marston

April 10

Create goodness

You can’t solve all the problems of the world. What you can do is create goodness right where you are.

Create goodness in the way you live, with the people you encounter. Create goodness with the problems you solve, with your kindness, with your positive presence.

As entertaining as it might be to fantasize about, the world doesn’t really need a dramatic superhero. Life always has, and will continue to benefit from good people living good lives of purpose and integrity.

A small kindness has the capacity to reverberate endlessly through life. And there’s always some small kindness you can offer.

Beyond that, you can have the audacity to be happy every now and then, to enjoy life, to share the joy. You can delight in the beauty, wonder, mystery, and challenge of the universe in which you exist.

Life’s enduring goodness is made in the countless ordinary moments, not in some grandiose scheme. Make some more of that goodness right now.

— Ralph Marston

April 11

Rise to the occasion

Rise to the occasion of your challenges. Rise to the occasion of your opportunities.

Face the reality of the situation you’re in, with grace, with purpose, with courage. Create value, fulfillment, and worthwhile experience as the moments pass.

Take an active role and make a positive difference in the unfolding of life. There’s good you can do today, right here, right now.

Make the effort, go to the trouble, learn from what works well and what doesn’t. Speak the truth, endeavor to better understand, and offer kindness whenever you can.

Choose today what you’ll continue tomorrow to be thankful for choosing. Do what adds enduring richness, not merely what creates momentary satisfaction.

Respect and value the miracle that is your life, that is all of life. Rise to the occasion, and give to it your best.

— Ralph Marston

April 12

Real and present

Now is when you live your life. Now is when you get work done.

Here is where you address the problems. This is the place from which you follow your dreams and achieve your objectives.

These are the circumstances you must contend with. This is the situation in which you operate.

You might have imagined and wished for a more ideal environment. Yet here is where you are, now is the time you have.

Instead of waiting for someday, make full use of this day. Rather than wishing for a perfect scenario, figure out what to do with the real and present one you have.

You’re entirely capable of moving forward from wherever you happen to be. You happen to be just where you are, so pick yourself up, focus on your purpose, and get going.

— Ralph Marston

April 13

Opportunity to learn

The most valuable lessons are not what anyone else seeks to teach you. They are the lessons you learn for yourself.

How do you learn those lessons? You learn by doing, by living, by experiencing.

You learn by making mistakes, then enjoying some progress, then making bigger mistakes, followed by a little more progress. You learn by observing and contemplating, by putting yourself on the line and accepting the consequences of your actions.

You learn by experimenting, by adjusting and adapting. You learn from paying close attention to what works and why.

Even when you have no intention to learn anything, there’s something to be learned. Ask honest questions, listen with care and respect, and learn.

With what you learn you can make real improvements to your life, your work, your world. And every moment, in any situation, you have the opportunity to learn.

— Ralph Marston

April 14

Life changes

By very definition, life does not stand still. Whatever you’re not working to improve, time and circumstance are busy eroding.

You are in some ways different today than you were yesterday. Tomorrow you’ll be a little different than today.

You will change, the world around you will change, and there’s no getting away from that. What you can do is embrace the changes and do your best to push them in a positive direction.

That’s one reason gratitude is so beneficial to your life. Gratitude shines a bright light on what’s valuable and enables you to build upon that value.

Changes can be painful and frightening, yet they also open up new opportunities. Instead of wishing in vain that the changes would stop, look for how you and others can work to benefit from those inevitable changes.

Life changes, and with each change comes some positive potential. Choose to make the most of that potential, and do what you can to change life for the better.

— Ralph Marston

One thing that is absolute, and that change.
Guaranteed.

Three Prayer to Start your Week Off.

Show Me
Your Will.

God, I sometimes struggle with seeing You as a good Father who wants to talk to me. When that happens, help me to remember that when my requests are in line with Your will, You hear me. So today, please show me what Your will is. And as You do that, remind me of Your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

A Prayer for Focus.

God, thank You for being the author and perfecter of my faith. I give my past troubles, my current pain, and my future thoughts to You. Keep my eyes focused on You, not on the distractions and worries of this world. In Jesus' name, Amen.

A Prayer to Stand Firm.

God, give me the strength to stand firm against the devil’s tactics. Remind me that my enemies are not the people in front of me. When bad things happen, comfort me and flood my mind with truth. Do not let me forget that I belong to You, and You fight for me. You are in control, and with You—I am safe. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Have a blessed 2nd
Week in the Month of April
One Day at a Time.

April 15

Calm and productive focus

You can focus on any activity. In so doing, you transform it into a supremely fulfilling experience.

Various forces in the world have an interest in defining for you what is enjoyable, what is worthwhile, and what is not. But you never have to buy into the assumptions they promote.

At a deep level, what’s enjoyable and fulfilling for you is being you. That means engaging your interests, utilizing your abilities, and interacting with the reality in which you’re immersed.

Arrange some time and space where you are beyond the reach of most distractions. Then, whether you’re doing what you want to do or need to do, give yourself completely to the effort at hand, whatever it might be.

Experience yourself as you make a difference, and as you continue to do so for a sustained period of time. Enjoy the feeling of taking one purposeful action after another, with no rush, no interruption, no further agenda.

Nourish yourself often with a period of calm and productive focus. Discover again and again how good and right it is to be you.

— Ralph Marston

AMEN

April 16

From behind to ahead

Are you tired of falling behind? Then take steps to begin falling ahead.

Falling behind happens when you neglect to take care of something that needs to be done. Then another priority comes along and suddenly you’re playing catch up.

All too soon, the problem compounds and you find yourself so far behind it’s difficult to get anything accomplished. Yet you can work yourself out, and work yourself ahead, the same way you fell behind, one task at a time.

Falling ahead happens when you can anticipate what will need to be done, and then you go ahead and take care of it early. That positions you to anticipate the next necessary task, and you can address it early as well.

Before long, you’re so far ahead you no longer are overwhelmed by what needs to be done. You can focus your energy on the valuable, productive and fulfilling activities you choose to do.

Those who get ahead and those who fall behind use just about the same amount of effort, but the difference is timing. Make each effort a little bit earlier than necessary, and that quickly adds up to an enormous positive advantage.

— Ralph Marston

April 17

Truth of who you are

Muscles morph into marshmallows when you neglect to use them. With strength and power you gain new comforts, but then those comforts set about to make you weak.

Think right now of what would challenge you in a meaningful way. Then immediately take a step to set the challenge in irrevocable motion.

You are far too valuable and unique to sit idle for long. The comfort of the present intoxicates you, but at a much deeper level your desire for adventure calls.

Do something for a reason that’s more than just being able to say you’ve done it. Align your abilities, tools, preparations and passions with a specific purpose, and go.

Not too long ago, such an approach was essential for physical survival. Now, it’s more necessary than ever to connect you with the truth of who you are.

Who you are is beautiful and amazing. Live to make that truth abundantly clear.

— Ralph Marston

April 18

Make the best of it all

Don’t waste your time regretting the opportunities you’ve missed in the past. Instead, make up for them beginning now, today.

Transform every last regret into fresh, new enthusiasm for moving forward. Channel that enthusiasm in a meaningful and precisely defined direction.

Make time work in your favor by making good use of it as it comes. Fill that time with effective effort.

Spend your energy on positive living. Good things happen in your life and your world when you work to make them so.

You have the opportunity right now to do that work. Instead of creating more regret, you can create more value and richness.

Despite the many troubles and shortfalls you inevitably face, there’s a whole lot you have going for you. Make it your business to make the best of it all.

— Ralph Marston

April 19

Fill your day with gratitude

Make today a productive and enriching day by starting it with gratitude. Expand the quality and quantity of your possibilities by being appreciative of where you are and what you have.

Let your first thought be a thankful thought. And connect yourself with the abundance that’s all around you.

You can always identify plenty of reasons to be thankful. And that simple act of thankfulness gives power and persistence to your efforts.

Focus your thoughts on the positive aspects of your life, and you cause their influence to grow. Be grateful, and your gratitude leads to even more for which you can be grateful.

Expand upon the richness in your world by expressing appreciation for what you have. The blessings you benefit from are blessings precisely because you see them as such.

Remind yourself of the great reservoir of real value that’s already available to you. Live with gratitude, tap into that value, and you’ll create even more reasons to be thankful.

— Ralph Marston

April 20

Live robustly

Even when you’re surrounded by apathy and incompetence, avoid letting it absorb you. Remain true to who you are and the good you can do.

When nearly everyone else seems to be making flimsy excuses and getting away with carelessness, it’s tempting to go along. It can make you question why you should bother to distinguish yourself when no one else is doing so.

Yet life is about more than merely what you can get away with. You gain great richness with what you accomplish, the positive impact you have, the value that’s generated by your actions.

Every approaching moment offers a choice. You can either coast through with minimal effort, or you can wisely invest your full attention, energy, and action.

Whatever anyone else may or may not be doing, you have the opportunity to live robustly. In any circumstance, in every stretch of time, you can add meaning and fulfillment to life.

Seize the opportunity, now and always, to act as if life has great potential. Continue proving to yourself and others that it does indeed.

— Ralph Marston

April 21

Tradition

You can learn a good bit from your own experience. You can learn vastly more from the experience of others.

Many values, customs and traditions are seen as antiquated, and most are indeed older than anyone can remember. But just because they’re ancient doesn’t mean they’re naive or unsophisticated or worthless.

You’re remarkably more informed today than any person who lived a thousand years ago. But can you really claim to possess more wisdom than the accumulated wisdom of all the people who have lived since that time?

That massive amount of experience-based wisdom has formed and refined the stories and values now considered traditional. It would be the height of arrogance to dismiss those traditions out of hand.

Certainly people in the past were fallible and made plenty of mistakes. That’s precisely why it can be so valuable to consider and understand the truths that still survive from their experiences.

Put in the work to improve upon what has come from the past. But don’t discard the past altogether, for that would be foolish indeed.

— Ralph Marston

April 22

Higher perspective

Don’t waste your effort trying to push the problems down to a lower level. Instead, raise yourself to a higher level.

From the top of the mountain you have a better perspective. So climb the mountain.

Do the work to get yourself above the problem, physically, mentally, spiritually. See the bigger picture, and within that picture will be more possibilities, resources, and connections.

Expand your horizon and suddenly you have a greater area in which to operate. Factors that previously limited you could very well empower you when viewed from a higher perspective.

Consider steps you can take to reach that higher perspective. They likely won’t be easy, yet they will be worth the effort.

Rather than being overwhelmed by any situation, look for how you can rise above it. Work to gain the high ground, and give yourself plenty of good options.

— Ralph Marston

April 23

Maybe

Maybe it’s enough to simply enjoy the sunshine of a warm spring afternoon. Maybe you’d be just fine sitting quietly for a while.

Maybe there’s more to life than merely rushing to whatever’s next. Maybe you don’t really need to know everything that happens the moment it occurs.

Maybe many other opinions are equally as valid as yours. Maybe what you fear is not as bad as you imagine.

Maybe there’s more to the story than what you’ve always thought. Maybe a lot of people, things, assumptions, are worth a second look.

Maybe today could be the best day yet if you’d fully accept and allow it. Maybe it’s not too early, not too late, not too much, not too little, but just about right.

Maybe life can be good just because you’re living it. Maybe this is the moment to find out.

— Ralph Marston

April 24

Jump start

A thousand things demand your time and attention. It seems you can never get it all done.

So start with just one. Get that completed, and immediately your situation looks a lot better.

When you’ve actually made some progress, more progress not only looks possible, but likely. Get a little momentum going, and it has a good chance of continuing.

Take the first step, even though it feels hopeless, even though you don’t like it. That can launch a whole new attitude.

You’ll soon realize you weren’t as overwhelmed as you imagined yourself to be. It’s great to be working your way forward.

Despite the challenges, despite your reluctance, jump start yourself into action. In just a short time you’ll be running reliably on the momentum of your efforts.

— Ralph Marston

April 25

Do better

You’ve fallen short, so now what? Now, do better.

You’ve done good, and what comes next? Now, do better.

Whether you’ve exceeded expectations or failed to meet them, the next opportunity is the same. Make use of your experience and improve on your efforts.

You know to avoid whatever went wrong. You’re able to expand on all that’s gone right.

That puts you in a great place. You’re well positioned and well equipped to do better.

No matter what has been, your best can be yet to come. This is your chance to do better.

— Ralph Marston

April 26

Desirable alternative

Sometimes you have no choice other than to fight, but fighting is not a good long-term strategy. Because whatever you fight against almost always grows stronger.

What is a good long-term strategy? Building a more desirable alternative.

Working in favor of a specific outcome is always more effective than fighting against its opposition. And whenever there’s something to fight against, there’s always a cause to work in favor of.

Many factors pose a threat to all that makes life good. You can never hope to eliminate all those threats.

What you can do is work to make the good things in life more robust, more enduring, more sustainable and preferable. You cannot prevent all falsehoods, yet there’s no need to do so when the truth is compelling, accessible and self-evident enough.

Invest yourself in what’s good, not in tearing down what’s bad. With sufficient goodness, negativity can crumble into dust.

— Ralph Marston

April 27

What you do best

Possibilities fill your world today. Grab a few and go with them.

Allow the possibilities to energize you out of your weariness. Let them inspire you out of your complacency.

It’s great to develop capabilities and resources. What’s even better is when you put them to meaningful use.

Every moment that passes will never come again. Spend them all in ways that recognize and celebrate the precious value of the life that’s yours.

Transform potential value into realized, enduring value. Experience the satisfaction of reshaping opportunities into achievements.

Plenty of possibilities currently await your competence, your action, and your commitment. Do what you do best, and bring them fully to life.

— Ralph Marston

April 28

Best face forward

Think beyond the moment. Consider beyond the immediate transaction.

It may require a little more of your time, effort and resources to be reliable, friendly, helpful. Yet by doing so you’re investing in the long term, working to build relationships that can be of great value.

Be polite when you don’t need to be, and honest when no one is looking. In every encounter, in every choice, encourage habits within yourself that gain you the trust and genuine respect of others.

Not everyone will respond positively to your kindness and integrity, but don’t let that discourage you. Because the people who do resonate with such behavior have the potential to bring great value into your life.

For better or for worse, your reputation matters, and your reputation is not based on what you want it to be. Your reputation comes from what you do, again and again, consistently, year after year.

Even the smallest interactions make a big difference in the way the world sees you. Put your best, most authentically helpful face forward every chance you get.

— Ralph Marston

My secret is simple:
I Pray.

If you have a family that loves you, a few good friends, food on your table and a roof over your head. You are Richer than you think.

The Truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose, it will defend itself.

Silence and a Smile are two Powerful tools. Smiling is the way to solve many problems and Silence is the way to Avoid many problems.

April 29

Make it happen

You can actually get this done. Start where you are, and keep going.

Don’t be too concerned with whether it’s easy or hard, complicated or simple. Just determine what the next step is, and take it.

Challenges are sure to arise, and you can find a way to get through each one. Distractions will tempt you to wander from the path, yet you have the power to resist them.

Keep reminding yourself how good and right it feels when you know you’re making a difference. Offer yourself the reality of that feeling, again and again.

As each hour passes by, make it count for something. Let the completion of each task inspire you to start right in on the next one.

All of this is well within your ability. So go ahead, keep pushing forward, and make it happen.

— Ralph Marston

April 30

Quality of attention

Notice what enters your awareness from moment to moment. Does it merely promote and support some worn-out agenda, or is it a genuine experience of life?

The quality of what you pay attention to has much to do with the quality of your life and the lives around you. Beauty exists where you choose to see it, and expands when you invest effort to create more of it.

You continually select much of the energy that flows into you, and decide on pretty much all the energy flowing out from you. The more love and generosity you can put into those choices, the better for all involved.

You will never be perfect and you never have to be. For every day you have the extraordinary opportunity to be real.

Remain fully present, eager to know the truth of what is. Generously pass along what you gain from that truth through your actions.

You cannot un-live a single moment. So give each one your honest best as soon as it arrives.

— Ralph Marston

Big time Amen to that reading.