Daily Motivator - May

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May 1

Tend to the little things

A big difficulty is made of hundreds or thousands of small difficulties that were never addressed. A great achievement is built by making one small accomplishment after another, after another.

What will you be doing a hundred days from now? Imagine the power of doing a little preparation for it today, and a little more every day from now until then.

Small things matter because they grow and assemble into big things. Small things matter because you are easily able to influence them.

Look around, right now, and ask yourself. What small problems can you solve, and what small opportunities can you act upon?

Do the difficult things while they are still easy. Allow the passage of time to amplify the power of your positive actions.

Tend to the little things now. And when they pile up, as they will, they’ll do so to your great benefit.

— Ralph Marston

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May 2

Strong sense of responsibility

The people who will create success in the future are those who learn from the past and present. What have you learned, and what are you learning?

Enduring progress is never the result of forcing people to act in a certain way. The world is led forward by those who enable, inspire, and encourage everyone to live with responsibility.

A strong sense of responsibility gives birth to innovation, resilience, courage, achievement, and generosity. Those who see themselves as responsible to life, are the ones who contribute most to life.

Plenty of individuals want to take credit for making a difference. The people who truly make a positive difference are not those who seek to take credit, but those who take responsibility.

A few agreed-upon rules can be very helpful for people to get along with each other. But all the rules and regulations and enforcers in the world can never take the place of responsibility.

The difficult, overwhelming problems won’t be solved with quick, easy answers. Those problems will be transformed into opportunities by lots and lots of people who choose to act with responsibility.

— Ralph Marston

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May 3

Small improvement

What can you do a little bit better today than yesterday? A small improvement is easy, and it can make a big difference.

A small improvement is much more desirable than no improvement. And a small improvement is always within your reach.

Even if no one else notices your small improvement, you will know. And that will set you up for further improvement tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.

When you decide to make just a small improvement every day, those improvements add up on top of each other. Soon, you will have made significant progress.

Once you’ve done the necessary work, do just a little more, make it a little bit better. Take advantage of the momentum you’ve already worked to put in place, and get a little more value from it.

Your effort has earned you the opportunity to add to it, to improve on it. Do your work a little bit better each time, and those small improvements will add up to big results.

— Ralph Marston

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May 4

Give today a purpose

Treat today with the respect it deserves. Give it a clear purpose.

If you’re not sure what you intend to do, you’ll waste the most precious resource you have, which is time. When you know exactly what you must do, you’re highly likely to get it done.

Define your goals for this day, and provide all the details. Every specific detail creates a platform upon which you can take action.

Give this day a purpose and give yourself the enthusiasm and energy to live it well. Entice yourself into sustained productive action by being clear about where that action will lead.

You have one opportunity to live this day. Make the most of that opportunity by being clear about what you intend to do with it.

At the conclusion of this day, vast potential rewards await you. Bring those rewards to life by seeing them, clearly and in specific detail, right now.

— Ralph Marston

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May 5

Positive influence

There are plenty of negative influences in your life. You don’t have to be one of them.

You’re always making choices. Every one of those choices is an opportunity to send your life, your actions, your outcomes, your world, in a more positive direction.

Many factors are beyond your control. And yet, you have significant control over your thoughts, your attitude, your words, actions, and priorities.

Exercise that control in an intentional, beneficial way. Choose to serve as a counterbalance to the negativity you come across.

Be a positive influence in your own life, and in the lives of those around you. Yes, the pull of negativity can be strong and compelling, yet you can be stronger.

Decide to focus your strength in the direction of all you love and care about. Let your light shine through the darkness, and lift your world to a more positive place.

— Ralph Marston

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May 6

Time for gratitude

Give yourself time for gratitude. Think of what you can be thankful for, and linger on those thoughts.

Gratitude leads you to think more clearly, to sleep more peacefully, to act with positive intention and resourcefulness. Give your life the benefit of its good and gentle power.

Those times when gratitude doesn’t seem warranted, are precisely the times when it will be most beneficial. Look for the gift in the situation, and persist until you uncover it.

Envision your time for gratitude as a pleasant place of refuge and renewal. Go there often, and stay for a while.

You’ll empower yourself with a new measure of positive, purposeful energy. You’ll open your awareness to valuable possibilities you never considered before.

Spend time in a sustained experience of gratitude, and learn to treasure the feeling it brings you. That feeling is real, and will spread its goodness to every part of your life.

— Ralph Marston

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May 7

Go all in

This is not the time for half measures. This is your opportunity to take bold action, to make a difference.

You have an extensive list of diverse priorities and options. Make the choice, make the commitment to what truly matters, and go all in.

No matter what you do, or what you neglect, the irreplaceable time in this day will soon be over. Before that happens, you have the chance to make good and meaningful use of it.

Sure, conditions are not perfect. Yet you are perfectly capable of going forward with whatever conditions may exist.

Think of all those you love, of all the aspects of life that mean the most to you. Now is when you can put your love, your caring, your wonder, your values, into action.

Right now, step decisively toward a more positive future. Go all in, and live this day in the most generous, productive, and fulfilling way you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

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May 8

Adapt and thrive

You can change, you can adapt, you can learn, you can adjust. And because of all that, you can thrive in a wide range of situations.

You don’t have to cower in despair and helplessness when the world around you changes. You have the amazing ability to rise up and meet those changes with ingenious changes of your own.

You are never stuck where you are, never confined to doing what you’ve always done. You can choose to improve numerous aspects of your life, and then you can follow through on that choice.

Your prospects for next year are not limited by the circumstances of this year. You can change, and by so doing can transcend your circumstances or, better yet, transform them.

Many things are instinctive to you, but a whole lot of things go far beyond mere instinct. You can look out at the world, recognize possibilities, and configure your knowledge, skills, and actions to exploit those possibilities.

The future arrives quickly, yet you’re able, even more quickly, to improve your relationship to the future. Learn, adjust, adapt, and make the future brighter by the way you choose to meet it.

— Ralph Marston

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May 9

Life goes on

Opportunities arise, innovation pushes forward, and life goes on. New dreams are born, and established dreams continue speeding toward fulfillment.

Some days are brighter, others bring darkness, despair grows thick and then hope arises. Through the joys and the challenges, the setbacks and victories, life goes on.

When despite your best efforts no progress comes forth, life goes on. After a windfall gain has you feeling on top of the world, life goes on.

The road turns and twists, climbs and falls, expands to a wide boulevard and then narrows to a faint path. And always ahead, more road, more challenge, more treasure, work to be done, moments to be cherished.

Try not to protest and wail too much about what’s already behind you. For up ahead, that’s where you get to make a difference.

Whatever is, however it happened, life goes on. Go with it, and give it your best love and care.

— Ralph Marston

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May 10

Make the problem smaller

How do you make a problem smaller? By going to work on it.

When the problem is just a concept, it can grow in your mind to limitless proportions. But once you start to actually work on it, you see firsthand that it’s not as difficult as you thought it would be.

Simply taking the first step to solve the problem, to meet the challenge, creates a dramatic change. You transform it from a force that is pushing against you to a path upon which you can move forward.

Continue with your effort, and the problem increasingly changes from a negative influence into positive value. As the problem gets smaller, the payoff for your work gets bigger.

Each step you take brings you closer to having the problem completely behind you. All the while, your strength, ability, and confidence continue to grow.

Whatever problem you encounter, don’t let it intimidate you. Quickly get to work on the problem, make it smaller, and keep going until you’ve put it far behind you.

— Ralph Marston

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May 11

Go to purpose

Where there is purpose, there is progress. When you have a good enough reason, you find a workable way.

Conditions change, disappointments arise, and troubles swarm abruptly into the best-laid plans. Yet when those plans have solid purpose, the troubles will soon be left behind.

Purpose gives rise to commitment, persistence, innovation, resourcefulness, and courage. Those are powerful qualities to have on your side.

Ask yourself why, and don’t stop asking until the answer leaves you trembling in awe. Connect with purpose, and tap into a constantly replenished source of energy.

Under all the distractions, diversions, preferences, joys, and worries, lives purpose. It is you, it is strong, it is there to be lived every day.

When you’re not sure where to go, or how to go, go to purpose. And let its unyielding power push your world forward.

— Ralph Marston

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May 12

Go forward

You cannot be certain of what you’ll encounter, yet you can be sure of this. You must either find a way to make it work, or navigate your way beyond it.

Every new day comes with its share of unknowns. You’ve successfully made your way through many of those days, and you’ll get through many more.

Let go of your need to categorize each effort as easy or hard. Instead, put your energy into doing what must be done to achieve the best outcome.

You’ll find your best possibilities when you step away from your most comfortable certainties. Proceed with care and confidence into the unknown future, and discover new strength, expand your skills, enrich your experience.

No one knows all the details of what tomorrow will include. And that gives you the opportunity to influence those details in positive and meaningful ways.

Gather your well-known values, dreams, priorities, preferences, and go forward. Though you don’t know what the future holds, you do know how to make the best of it.

— Ralph Marston

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May 13

Opportunities for kindness

Here’s a quick, reliable, accessible way to genuinely feel good. Offer kindness to someone.

Here’s a surefire way to know you matter, to know without a doubt that you’re making a difference. Give kindness to another person.

Although your kindness may not even be noticed by anyone else, it has great value. Because you notice, and you observe the goodness within you being put into action.

Kindness heals, forgives, forgets past wrongs, and enables future progress. Kindness leaves, in the hearts of those who receive it, the urge to pass it along, to expand it and improve upon it.

Kindness is authentic, not complicated, within the reach of anyone. Those who practice kindness grow stronger, more confident, more creative, connected, and fulfilled.

Today you’ll encounter numerous opportunities for kindness. To the extent you sieze upon them, everybody wins.

— Ralph Marston

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May 14

Highest hopes

Give hope a reason to be. Give life a good and fulfilling place to go.

Focus your thoughts on the things that make life worth living. Center your actions around nurturing, expanding, and sharing those things.

Don’t just wish for inspiration to somehow come to you. Decide to be a source of inspiration by being an authentic expression of the unique person you are.

Give yourself the courage to do more than just pass the time. Transform the passing moments into lasting value, into richness that shines brightly for all to see.

Carry your most treasured dreams boldly into the future. Harness the energy, put forth the effort, and persist in bringing those dreams fully to life.

Make your highest hopes more than just empty thoughts. Give them real expression in the way you live each day, and in all the good results your actions bring.

— Ralph Marston

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May 15

Life wants to live

Life wants to survive, but life wants more than just survival. Life wants to live.

Life wants to learn, to love, to improve, to connect, to wonder, to overcome, to feel. Life wants to give.

Explore, ask questions, forgive, experiment, wander, plan, relax, and laugh. Tell stories, and make lots of new ones.

See the big picture, and attend to the small details. Find excitement in the noise, the confusion, and deepen your wisdom in solitude.

Speak your mind, hold your tongue, let yourself cry and know when to be firm. Find the beauty, especially where it’s not supposed to be.

Life wants to live in every way possible, and even in ways that are not. Go ahead, look, listen, imagine, and give life what it wants.

— Ralph Marston