This is my daily thoughts. It's all about my personal life, my believe, my hobby, my daily activities, mobile/wireless technology, books review, movie review, and new media design related. Mixed language using in this weblog (Indonesia/English).
Creativity is more than just making stuff, and more than just making stuff up. Creativity is expressing, in all sorts of ways that have no limit, what it means to be alive.
You can be creative in such a way that the whole world celebrates your creativity. Or you can be just as creative in ways that only you will ever know.
Being alive is being immersed in an ever-expanding set of possibilities. Being creative is giving your own special meaning and purpose to those possibilities.
Creativity is a special kind of magic. It produces more value than it consumes.
When you are stuck, creativity will move you forward. When the goal seems completely out of reach, creativity will open up a way there.
In all you do, find new ways to be creative. Creativity is one of your most valuable skills, so put its power to work every chance you get.
-- Ralph Marston
Calm your thoughts and be peaceful. Know that all is well, all the time.
This moment is already the best it can be, and is everything it can be. Accept it and move forward.
Do not fear the worst, for your thoughts of fear give great power to whatever it is you fear. Instead, sincerely expect the best and you create the best.
Know that the positive possibilities are always present, and your eyes will be opened to them. Everything that is, can be put to good use in moving toward your highest vision for life.
As life unfolds in each moment, new opportunities are being born. No matter what has already happened, choose to create the very best you can imagine.
This is the day that you have to work with. Live with peaceful purpose, and use it to create a magnificent world.
-- Ralph Marston
Don't waste a lot of time making judgments about what you have. Instead, put it to use.
Stop complaining that it's not enough or that it's not fair. Just get busy and make the most of it.
Fighting against what already is, will only slow you down. Instead, make good and productive use of what is, whatever it may be, and you'll find many ways to move forward.
If you wait until things are perfect before taking action, that day will never come. Use what you have, as flawed and imperfect as it may seem, and you'll soon be making massive improvements to it all.
Don't worry about comparing what you have to what others may or may not have. Just concern yourself with doing the best you can do.
Start from where you are, with what you have, and persistently do what you know you must do. There is no limit to where you can go.
-- Ralph Marston
When you don't feel like doing what you know you must, that's the best time to go ahead and do it anyway. That's when you can break through your old habit patterns to a new level of focus, performance and achievement.
That first step will require you to go against your natural tendency to put it off until later and to stay comfortably where you are. So how do you get beyond that?
Use your power of visualization to do two things. First, use your thoughts to make it even more uncomfortable, even more painful for you not to take action.
Next, visualize in great detail all the positive and desirable rewards you'll create by going ahead and getting it done. In your mind, make it so compelling to take action that you cannot avoid doing so.
Many times in the past, you've successfully avoided action by telling yourself why you can't or why you won't. Now, choose to use that same power to tell yourself why you can and why you will.
You control the awesome power of your thoughts. And with your thoughts you can successfully visualize yourself into action every time.
-- Ralph Marston
Stop waiting for the task to get easier. Waiting will only make it more difficult.
Go ahead and get it done. Then you can move on to something even better.
The effort may indeed be difficult and painful. So it's best to have that effort behind you rather than in front of you.
Imagine how great it will feel to have it done. Imagine being free of that little voice in the back of your mind that keeps nagging you about it.
You cannot avoid the pain of effort. You can either prolong that pain by procrastinating, or you can get it done and get it over with.
Start right now to get it done, and soon you'll have it finished. Get it done, and delight in the glorious feeling of freedom and accomplishment.
-- Ralph Marston
Be truly decisive by acting on your decisions. Decide what you will do and then get started on it right away.
The sooner you take action the more you'll accomplish. Once you decide to do it, begin immediately.
Commitment is more than just a mental exercise. It's not a commitment until you back it up with action.
Once you have invested some effort, the goal is no longer a vague, far-away concept. You have begun to make it real.
When you start by immediately taking action, you're naturally going to continue taking action. Put momentum on your side right away, and you immediately have a powerful ally.
Make your decisions real and present in your life, and give them the energy they deserve. Act on them right away, and truly make them happen.
-- Ralph Marston
Don't just generalize about what you wish to achieve. Don't just have a vague idea about where you would like to go.
Tell yourself exactly what you expect of yourself. Make your goals vivid, clear and precise.
Whether you are traveling around the block or across the ocean, your destination is always a single, specific point. The only way you can reach that point is by clearly and unambiguously defining where it is.
The same is true for every destination you seek to reach, whether it is a place, a person, an object or a set of conditions. When the goal is clear and specific, filled in your mind with all the color, the texture, the sounds and the feelings, you'll surely be able to work your way there.
Success is largely a matter of deciding upon every little detail of what you wish to achieve. For each detail you envision provides you with an additional pathway to your goal.
Know what you seek, and know it with richness and precision. For that's exactly what you'll achieve.
-- Ralph Marston
What is the path to true happiness? How far must you go to find happiness?
You need not go very far at all. For happiness is always inside you, ready whenever you are.
No object, no person, no circumstance will make you happy. You are always happy when you decide to be.
The good things in life do not cause happiness. It is precisely the other way around.
Allow happiness to flow out from you, and the good things in life will surround you and fill your world. Choose to be happy, with no conditions imposed upon that happiness, and you'll create the ideal conditions for your life.
Happiness is a beautiful gift you can give yourself no matter what. Give it freely and it will change your world.
-- Ralph Marston
Give your goal a feature that will vastly improve its chances of being fulfilled. Give your goal a deadline.
A deadline provides a firm boundary for your efforts, yet it does not limit or constrain those efforts. On the contrary, a deadline will focus your efforts toward a single point, giving them more power and practical effectiveness.
Without a deadline you can exhaust yourself and still not arrive at any meaningful accomplishment. A deadline compels you to prioritize and to expend your best efforts in the most meaningful direction.
With a deadline, you are constantly reminded of how valuable and precious your time is. You're able to see resources and opportunities that would otherwise remain hidden.
A deadline encourages you to do the best you can with what you have. And that's a skill that reliably leads to great accomplishment again and again.
Give yourself a deadline. And get the job done sooner rather than never.
-- Ralph Marston
You have time. It is now.
Think of something that is truly a priority for you. And know, without a doubt, that you can find the time to get it done.
Of course you're busy, and your time is valuable. That's why it is so important to make sure you use your time to achieve the outcomes you desire.
Simply being busy won't really get you anywhere. Being effective, in a way that's meaningful, is what will take you places.
Achievement takes time and you have the time. As each moment passes, grab the immense value that's in it by using it to move your world forward.
There is plenty of time in this day to take action. Choose right now to stop making excuses and to start making progress.
-- Ralph Marston
What can you do when there seems to be no hope? You can keep going.
What's the best option when you feel like giving up? The best option is to keep going.
How can you respond when circumstances are acting against you? The most effective response is to continue working your way forward no matter what other factors may be present.
All that you know is based on past experience, and yet the future does not equal the past. For right now you can take action to determine that future and to change the way things will be.
Though it can be easy to give up, remember this. When you're at the point of giving up, you're also at the point where maximum value can be created.
If you feel like giving up, then you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by continuing to push forward. Keep going, for the reward is closer with every step you take.
-- Ralph Marston
At the heart of all value in your life is the purpose of your life. No person, no group, no situation, no series of events can take that purpose away from you.
Everything to which you assign value, has that value because it expresses or resonates with your purpose in some way. The value that lives at the core of all value in your life, grows ever stronger no matter what.
If it feels like something valuable has been lost from your life, that is only because you have become too focused on outside events and conditions. Calmly and confidently let go of what does not really matter, and reconnect with your authentic living purpose.
The momentary expressions can indeed be wonderful and beautiful. Yet they will always come and go, clearing the way for your true purpose to be more richly fulfilled.
Without purpose, you could have all the material riches of the world and they would mean nothing. With purpose, you can create value, meaning and sweet fulfillment out of even the most challenging circumstances.
When you are driven by true purpose, anything is always possible. Whatever may be happening on the outside, let the value from inside lift your world ever higher.
-- Ralph Marston
No matter how much joy you've known, there is always more joy to be experienced. Each moment brings new possibilities for adding richness to life.
The best days of your life are never behind you, unless you choose to see them as such. For no matter how life has been, there will always be opportunities to experience more goodness.
Everything you know about has already happened, so it can be very easy to view life as nothing more than what is receding into the past. Yet life is infinitely more, because life is now.
By all means, hold firmly to the goodness you've already known and carry it forever in your heart. At the same time, open yourself fully to the positive possibilities that are yours right now.
Now is the moment to live. Now is the time for all that can be.
The sun is just now rising on the bright golden possibilities of this day. Life's great and beautiful promise is now.
-- Ralph Marston
Look back on your life up to this point and you'll quickly see that many of your worries and concerns were completely unfounded. So why do you still insist on cranking out those worries at every turn of events?
How many times have you looked back on an occasion with the regret that you didn't simply enjoy yourself? There's nothing you can do about those past regrets, but there's plenty you can do about right now.
It's ridiculously easy to enjoy life, no matter what the situation. It's just a matter of letting go.
Let go of the worry and anxiety, of the anger and envy, of the need to be right and the need to control everyone else. Let go of the need to have everything your way.
Underneath all those layers of need and worry and negativity, there is pure joy. When you simply accept what is, and choose to enjoy the goodness in it, life can be wonderfully rich and beautiful.
Stop worrying and fighting so much, and start enjoying a little more. Give joy some breathing room and it will flourish in your life.
-- Ralph Marston
You are a natural-born achiever. That's why focused effort feels so good and so right.
Trees grow toward the sky because that's what trees are meant to do. Storm clouds drop rain across the land because that's what clouds do.
You create new value and solve problems because that is what you are born to do. You make valuable use of opportunities to achieve because achievement is part of who you are.
Whatever else you may possess, you also have a diverse and powerful set of tools for achievement. You can observe, interpret, adjust, respond, prioritize, and imagine.
You can learn valuable lessons in one situation and put them to effective use in another, completely different arena. You can build and teach and cooperate and integrate the best of what has been into a vision of what can be.
In short, you are destined to achieve. Get your excuses, fears and doubts out of the way and allow that destiny to fully unfold.
-- Ralph Marston
Even the smallest accomplishment has great value. Because it sets in motion a positive momentum.
Once you begin to create value, you easily and naturally move toward creating even more value. The best thing about success is that it provides greater opportunity for even more success.
Go ahead and start small, and if you're unable to start small, then start tiny. The point is, do whatever you can with whatever you have, and that will be plenty to get you moving in a positive, productive direction.
There is always something you can do. There is always some small step forward that you can make right now.
Your ability to accomplish does not get used up. In fact, the more you use it, the more powerful it grows.
Create a little bit of success, and experience how great it feels. From that positive, empowered place, there's no limit to where you can go.
-- Ralph Marston
There is a quick and easy technique that can vastly improve your effectiveness when dealing with other people. It can make you a better parent, spouse, friend, coach, negotiator, marketer or leader.
What is this technique? It is simply to imagine yourself in the other person's place.
By so doing, you can quickly create valuable and genuine rapport with others. You can significantly improve your ability to understand, to persuade and to motivate.
You'll find that you can work through difficult, conflict-filled situations in such a way that everyone emerges a winner. You'll discover countless ways in which you can contribute real value and make a positive difference.
Everyone desires to be more fully understood. By imagining yourself in another person's situation, you greatly improve both your understanding and your ability to be understood.
Each individual is blessed with a unique, one-of-a-kind perspective. By seeking to know perspectives other than your own, you can accomplish many wonderful and useful things.
-- Ralph Marston
Arrogance is the worst kind of loneliness because it is entirely self-imposed. If you become impressed with your own importance, everyone else ceases to be impressed at all.
The worst kind of ignorance is to think you know it all. For that is an ignorance into which you sink more deeply as each moment passes.
Those who are most genuinely admired are those who have no need to be admired. Those who learn the most are those who have the honesty to admit what they do not know.
Anyone who must announce that he is an expert most likely is not. The real experts are those who spend their time listening and learning rather than boasting and preening.
Humility is a virtue that will carry you far. When you are free from the crushing demands of ego, there is so very much more you can accomplish.
Let go of the need to be better than others. And you'll free yourself to reach magnificent heights of success and fulfillment.
-- Ralph Marston
You may not think you have what it takes to persist in your efforts for long periods of time. Yet all you must do is persist for just a moment, and then another moment, and then another.
The energy necessary for achievement is never going to be fully available to you when you begin. But go ahead and begin, and that energy comes to you as you require it.
Do not be dismayed at how long the journey will take. Instead, be thankful and enthusiastic about the one particular step you can take right now.
Success creates its own capacity for fulfillment as it moves along. Your job is to keep moving it along.
Give your best to the task at hand. That will prepare you and equip you for the next task, and the next.
Build what you can with what you have, and then build upon what you build. In this simple, steady, accessible way, whatever you envision is within your reach.
-- Ralph Marston
The more burdensome the challenge, the more valuable the response. Out of extreme difficulty, greatness is born.
When things seem to be at their worst, they are likely to soon get much better. The more intensely the problems are illuminated, the more effectively they can be addressed.
Always remember that life is incessantly dynamic. Life is able to respond with innovation, determination and an underlying goodness that cannot be denied.
The best cure for a problem is the problem itself. Because each problem is a well-defined opportunity for improvement.
Whether you judge something to be a problem or opportunity says more about you than about the situation. The way you choose to see the world is the way the world will be for you.
In life there is challenge and in challenge there is life. Rise to each challenge, and continue adding value to the ever-growing richness of life.
-- Ralph Marston
Just think,
you’re not here by chance,
but by God’s choosing.
His hand formed you and
made you the person you are.
He compares you to no one else-
you are one of a kind.
You lack nothing that His
grace can’t give you.
He has allowed you to be here
at this time in history
to fulfill His special purpose
for this generation.
Roy Lessin
Make the world brighter today. Do it not because you should, but because you can.
The reason for joy is joy. It needs nothing more than to be.
Feel the warm glow of life. Marvel at the exquisite beauty in every detail.
Gently accept and embrace the richness of this moment that is now. Give sweet expression to the unique voice living within you.
With each fresh gust of the breeze, there are new possibilities. There is more to experience than you can even imagine.
Choose to live and to fulfill just a small fraction of the immense promise that is now. And you'll find life to be rich beyond all measure.
-- Ralph Marston
Enjoy life as it comes, in the precious moments of each day. Live your success and fulfillment here and now, not in some distant, imagined future.
Do not set yourself up as a hostage to your circumstances or your inventory of possessions. Choose right now to live richly and fully no matter what.
Make joyful and thankful use of whatever you have, wherever you are. There is so very much you have going for you.
Pay no attention to those who scream that you must have this thing or that experience in order to be happy. Ignore them, and simply choose to be happy by creating your own interpretation of happiness all around you.
Keep in mind that most of the people who tell you how bad things are, seek to gain their own power or profit from your dismay. Life is good, life is rich, life is joyful and fulfilling to the extent you choose to make it so.
Open your eyes, look around, and see how truly beautiful your world can be. Real success is yours the moment you begin to make it.
-- Ralph Marston
Get up and get going. If you feel lousy, it will make you feel much better, and if you already feel good, it will make you feel great.
You know all those things you've been meaning to get done for the past six months? Pick one right now and make it happen today.
Life is much more rewarding when you actively participate in it. This very moment there are good times in your life just waiting to be created.
Do you feel the need to be more positive about life and about the world in which you live? Then get moving and get yourself positively engaged in it all.
The moment you take positive action, your outlook begins to change. When you're making a difference, the world is suddenly a much better place.
Get hot, get cold, get tired, get informed, get out of your comfort zone and get involved in this magnificent life. Drink in the delightful richness of a life fully lived.
-- Ralph Marston
You do not get what you want, or even what you need. You get what you are.
When you want this or need that, you are supporting the reality that you do not have it. Instead of putting your energy into wanting or needing, put it into being.
By your thoughts and actions, with your words and feelings, you can choose how to be. Use that powerful choice to give energy, attention and the substance of your life to those things you value most.
Instead of working to convince the world that you need some particular thing, put your effort into expressing it through your own life. Give up the habit of wanting more, and put your energy into living exactly as you choose to live.
Through the miracle of your life in this moment right now, you already have access to all that is. Your challenge is not one of want or need, but of appreciating and making full use of all that is available to you.
Instead of pushing life's abundance away with your wants and needs, let that abundance freely flow through you. Always live according to the best you can envision, and know all the joyful treasures of life.
-- Ralph Marston
If everything was free and required no effort, nothing would have any value. If there were no challenges in life, there would be no place in which to create achievement.
The very factors that push against you provide a fertile ground from which you can raise yourself up. From your most burdensome limitations can come your greatest triumphs.
Can you identify what's holding you back? Then you've also determined exactly what must be done to take the next step forward.
When the side of the mountain is steep and treacherous, the view from the top is spectacular. By steadily working through the difficulties and challenges, you can reach the summit of increased strength and value.
It is by working toward a goal that you make the goal worth reaching. The difficulties you encounter along the way serve as opportunities to add value to the achievement.
Life is worth living precisely because it requires effort and challenges you to be your best. Rise to the challenge each day and add your own special gifts to life's treasure.
-- Ralph Marston
Responsibility is not a burden. It is the key that enables you to exercise control over your own destiny.
Only by taking responsibility are you able to move life in the direction of your own dreams and visions. Responsibility fully engages the best of who you are.
Responsibility can be difficult, time-consuming, unfair, inconvenient and uncomfortable. Yet it also brings you to a level of empowerment that cannot be reached in any other way.
At the heart of true achievement is responsibility. An essential element of meaningful fulfillment is responsibility.
Every great opportunity is an opportunity to take responsibility. Whatever the situation, the most successful way forward is to act with responsibility.
No matter what has happened, or who is to blame, or how it all came to be, choose to take full responsibility for your life. For that is the first step in making it great.
-- Ralph Marston
No ocean can hold it back.
No river can overtake it.
No whirlwind can go faster.
No army can defeat it.
No law can stop it.
No distance can slow it.
No disease can cripple it.
No force on earth is more powerful or effective that the power of Prayer.
The way you frame your life has a major impact on the way your life unfolds. The way you see yourself and your place in the world determines who you truly are.
The unstated assumptions upon which you rely are constantly exerting their influence. Your deepest, most sincere feelings about life have a way of coloring every circumstance.
The events in your world do not just happen without reason or source. They are driven by your most fundamental expectations of how you will find life to be.
In each small moment and in every large undertaking, your frame of life sets the stage. So choose to frame your life with love, with respect, with beauty, grace and a focus on the most magnificent possibilities.
The way you see the world determines the kind of world you see. So decide to assume, expect and look for the very best you can imagine.
Live with a positive, enthusiastic and thankful frame of life. And within that empowering frame, you will create a masterpiece that grows more beautiful with each moment.
-- Ralph Marston
Positive energy is very nearly the same as negative energy. It's just focused in a different direction.
The best way to deal with negative energy is not to fight against it. Instead, make positive use of that energy by redirecting it.
For example, at the heart of frustration, when you strip away the circumstances, it feels a lot like enthusiasm. And in fact, by simply focusing the energy of your frustration in a different direction, you can transform it into enthusiasm.
For everything that you feel the urge to oppose, there's something else that you can support. Each instance of negative energy has a positive counterpart.
When you're feeling negative, you're actually quite close to being positive. Just make the choice to focus the intensity of your feelings on what you value and appreciate, rather than on what you don't want.
No matter what is coming your way, you can point the considerable power of your life in a positive direction. Remember what you're in favor of, and put your life into it.
-- Ralph Marston
Have you ever thought about what a powerful, flexible and creative thing your imagination is? With your imagination, you can create whole worlds that have never existed before.
What's even more amazing is this. The creations of your imagination are not confined to your imagination.
There are absolutely no limits to what you can imagine. And much of what you imagine works its way into the rest of your life.
You can completely control your powerful imagination simply by choosing to do so. Imagine the very best for your world in rich detail and intensity, and the things you imagine begin to grow in the reality of your life.
For your imagination reaches beyond your thoughts and your mind. Its transforming power comes from the fact that it is connected to all you are.
Life becomes the way you most sincerely and consistently imagine it to be. What do you dare to imagine?
-- Ralph Marston
Give for the sake of giving. Love for the sake of love.
Live for the sake of living. Learn just because you can.
Don't fill the future with ambiguous motives or imagined fears. Fill the moment you're in with the extraordinary richness of ordinary life.
This day is a gift that you've never had before. Jump in and explore the exquisite treasure that is right now at your feet.
Life's beauty appears at exactly the place where you choose to see it. Choose to see the beauty and value of whatever situation you find yourself experiencing.
Listen to the part of you that resonates with life's true and never ending goodness. Experience again and again, in a new way each time, what it means to be alive.
-- Ralph Marston
As you go through this day, make an effort to notice one small, insignificant little frustration that you'd normally get upset about. Then do yourself a favor, and simply let it go.
Experience, in that small way, the freedom of being in control of the way you feel. And realize that you can extend that control to every situation in which you find yourself.
The little things most certainly do not have to get you down. And neither do the big things.
At any moment, the way you feel is the way you choose to feel. The way you respond is the way you choose to respond.
Do you really wish to be under the control of those who do not have your best interest at heart? Of course you don't.
Base your feelings on the unique, valuable person you know you are, and on the positive possibilities available to you. Feel the genuine greatness of this moment, and you can bring it to life.
-- Ralph Marston
Life has a beautiful rhythm and pace. Live it as it comes.
If you try to outrun life, you miss much of its beauty. Instead of racing ahead to cover more ground, see the treasures that are right here and now.
Rather than resenting or regretting what has already happened, focus your thoughts on the good you can do in this moment. There are plenty of opportunities when you choose to see them.
If you're constantly chasing life, the best of it eludes you. Decide to do a little less pursuing and a lot more enjoying.
You cannot do all of this week's breathing, or eating, or sleeping in just one day. There's plenty of time to get everything done if you'll just stop wasting so much effort on jumping ahead.
Seek to live in harmony with the rhythm and flow of life. Live life as it comes, and it will come to you in great abundance.
-- Ralph Marston
Fall in love again each moment with life. Breathe in the rich, new wondrous possibilities that are continually being born.
Realize what a grand opportunity exists in even the smallest of matters. Today is a day like no other, and you are magnificently blessed to be a part of all that it encompasses.
The wind blows, the sun shines, night falls, and some days bring brutal cold while others offer stifling heat. There is beauty, there is tragedy, and there is exquisite fulfillment along with bitter disappointment.
On the surface, life is filled with much adventure, activity, change, confusion, excitement, joy and frustration. Underlying it all you'll find abiding peace and goodness that can never be denied.
You have the unique, unmatched good fortune of being you, right here and right now. Take a brief moment to realize and remember who you truly are.
Then look out at the vast expanse of possibilities that surrounds you. And dive lovingly into it in your own special way.
-- Ralph Marston
Instead of striving to get where you wish to go, simply allow yourself to be there. All that is, is available to you in the moment you're in.
As long as you're trying to understand something, you will fall short. Let go of the desperate need to understand, and you'll find that the understanding is part of you already.
When you think you lack something, that blocks it from your awareness, your experience and your life. Instead of filling your thoughts with what is missing, focus on what is possible.
Relax into the limitless abundance of now. There is always enough, and it is all here for you to allow.
Life's overwhelming richness is mirrored in every little detail. The only thing separating you from that richness is the wall you imagine to be around yourself.
Allow the goodness, the possibilities, the value and joy to fill your life in this moment that is now.
-- Ralph Marston
There are some events that you can influence by making intelligent choices and by taking decisive action. There are other events and situations that are completely out of your control.
You have what it takes to successfully deal with both. There's no need to worry endlessly about what the future will bring, for it always brings you new opportunities to make a positive difference.
You can do your very best with those situations that are under your control. And you can adapt and adjust to those situations over which you have little or no influence.
The foolish actions of others can leave you hopelessly frustrated if you allow them to do so. Keep in mind, however, that there's nothing to be gained by working yourself into a knot of frustration and resentment.
Instead, accept whatever comes your way and commit yourself to finding the value in it and making the best of it. With a positive, generous sense of purpose, there's no limit to what you can achieve, even when conditions are less than ideal.
Greet each new day and each new turn of events with confidence and enthusiasm. And you'll emerge a winner no matter what.
-- Ralph Marston
When you don't need anything, then you truly have everything. When you know that you already have enough, that you already are enough, that everything is as it should be, then your life will be rich indeed.
Get past the need to possess and you'll discover that the whole world is yours. Abandon the need to be right and you'll find real truth.
Let go of the need to impress others and you'll have their sincere respect. Move beyond the need to control every detail, and your influence will grow stronger.
As long as you feel you need something, it cannot possibly be yours. The more you focus on the need for anything, the more you deny it to yourself.
Why would you want to do that? Instead, realize that whatever you desire is already available to you, and enjoy the process of expressing it more fully as you move through each moment.
Appreciate, understand and focus your energy on the good and valuable things in your life. And you'll know that your most authentic desires are already fulfilled.
-- Ralph Marston
It is your true nature to create and achieve. Today, allow that true nature to be fully expressed.
If you think you must struggle to get things done, that is precisely how it will be. If you see life's abundance as being apart from you, that abundance will be out of your reach.
Consider how completely right it feels when you are living in harmony with your most authentic purpose. Think of how effective you can be when doing something you love.
The objectives for which you strive and agonize will bring no real fulfillment, even if you're able to reach them. When you're moving toward a goal and the effort feels effortless, that is a goal that will bring real lasting value.
Let go of the need to struggle for what you don't really desire in the first place. Instead, allow your life to unfold each moment in accordance with your true creative nature.
Connect to the purpose that is sincerely you. Express that purpose, and you'll fill your world with richness.
-- Ralph Marston
The problems seem so big and imposing because you focus on them so intently and see them so clearly. Imagine looking at some of your best positive possibilities with the same intensity and level of focus.
The past seems so real because you know so much about it, and as a result it commands much of your attention. Consider what would happen if you could put your full, undivided attention on the valuable and creative things you're now able to do in the present.
Whatever you focus upon grows more and more influential in your life. Because the things you focus upon are the things you act upon, and every action has real consequences.
Your life is what you choose to make it, and the time to choose is right now. What you do with the moment at hand is more important, by orders of magnitude, than any past disappointments or present difficulties.
This is the day for you to make a difference. This is your moment to transform nagging problems into magnificent opportunities.
You are able, right now, to choose any thought, any action, and any path. This time, you can choose the very best and truly make it real.
-- Ralph Marston
When you encounter resistance, it means you are moving forward. When you come across a challenge, it means you have reached the point where you can successfully meet that challenge.
Life becomes more rewarding as it becomes more demanding. You are destined to achieve, and each successive achievement positions you for an even greater, more challenging achievement.
Each new challenge is an opportunity to stretch beyond your previous limits. Most of the advantages you enjoy today were born in the difficulties through which you traveled in days past.
Every day brings a new way for you to more fully give of yourself. It is by so giving, in ways that are familiar and in ways not yet imagined, that you create the life you most sincerely desire.
In everything there is treasure to be found. The richest treasures are those that ask the most of you, for they resonate wholly with your deepest purpose.
Delight in the living beauty of each challenging effort. Give your best to life and life returns the favor, a million times over.
-- Ralph Marston
You can choose your thoughts. And you can choose, for a while, to be free of those thoughts.
Serenity does not require any particular environment or conditions on the outside. Serenity is a state you can achieve on the inside, whatever else might be going on.
At any time, you can choose to calm your mind. Clear your thoughts away and for a while, feel the refreshing and renewing peace of simply being.
Discover how easy it can be to let go of the thoughts racing through your head, and let in a feeling of serenity. Choose to put yourself in a state where even the distractions cannot affect you.
See that the disappointments of the past are far, far away. Let your peaceful, accepting experience of the moment fill you with a solid, confident energy.
Step back for a little while and feel the calm reality of who you are, of the life you are living. Enjoy a serene moment, and your eyes will be opened to the positive possibilities that are all around you.
-- Ralph Marston
Your anger hurts you much more than it affects anyone else. When your energy and awareness are tightly wrapped around anger, you're not much good for anything else.
There are many things beyond your control that can be perfectly legitimate reasons for anger. Yet the amount of time you maintain that anger is completely up to you.
The more quickly you move on, the better off you'll be. When you feel the first sensation of anger, let that be a reminder to let it go.
Anger can be useful in calling your attention to matters that require your response. But anger itself is not an effective response.
Take a slow, deep breath and remind yourself of how much more effective you can be by maintaining a positive, results-oriented approach. Decide, in a cool, calm and thoughtful manner, exactly what response would be the most powerful and valuable, and then make it happen.
Don't let the foolish, thoughtless, destructive actions of others catch you in a trap of anger. Take note of the anger, let it go, put your focus on being your best, and you'll surely emerge as a winner.
-- Ralph Marston
To strengthen your beliefs and assumptions, challenge them regularly. You'll rid yourself of those outdated assumptions that hold you back, while at the same time strengthening those valuable beliefs that can move you forward.
There is no doubt that challenge builds strength. It is a key theme of life.
Muscles that are challenged to lift heavier and heavier loads become stronger as a result of the training. Minds that are challenged to solve more and more difficult problems become increasingly adept from the experience.
Questioning and challenging your beliefs can transform them from mere beliefs into absolute certainties. The willingness to challenge a belief demonstrates your commitment to, and confidence in that belief.
By being your own most effective skeptic, you add real depth and substance to your beliefs, perspectives and assumptions. By continuing to ask why and why not, you learn much and grow stronger.
When you challenge your beliefs, you compel yourself to make them a reality. You transform them from vague concepts into living, breathing certainties upon which you can build great value.
-- Ralph Marston
In the darkest darkness, love is more magnificent than ever. In the deepest sadness, hope has the strength to create anything.
When the whole world is against you, every positive action can bring miraculous results. When the burden of being is unbearably heavy, the spirit can fly to infinite heights.
If all is lost, there is no end to what can be gained. Completely let go of everything, and you surely do have it all.
The more confusing and noisy and complicated the world becomes, the more power there is in stillness. When the day is filled with harshness, gentle actions grow more powerful and effective.
In a world filled with fear, truth gains new clarity. In a time of severe discontent, the possibilities for real joy grow ever greater.
At the deepest level, goodness always prevails. For truth by its very nature will not be denied.
-- Ralph Marston
The best athletes don't care about whether or not they're the best. What they care about is the game.
The best actors, musicians, doctors, scientists, teachers and businesspeople are not consumed with being the best. They're consumed with a passion for what they're doing.
If your desire is to be the best merely for its own sake, you will strive and struggle against a world that absolutely does not care. If, on the other hand, your most abiding desire is to make a positive difference, you will surely end up being the best at some particular thing or another.
The real substance of accomplishment is never in the trophies or the praise or the recognition it brings. The substance of accomplishment is in the value it delivers.
The best performers in any field are not the ones who hope to be the best or even the ones who already think they are. The best performers are those who never have to even think about where they stand in the rankings.
Commit yourself to delivering value, and you won't be burdened with the need to keep score. Indeed, you will always be on top of the game.
-- Ralph Marston
If all your limitations were suddenly removed, what would you do? If you were able to make absolutely anything happen, what would it be?
If there were no challenges standing in your way, where would you go? With absolutely nothing holding you back, what would your life become?
It's easy to get so caught up in pushing against your limitations that you start seeing yourself solely in terms of those limitations. Yet you are so very much more.
Instead of identifying yourself in relation to the challenges you face, dig deeper and find the real person inside. For the truth is, you exist apart from any challenge or limitation, and it is a powerful exercise to get solidly in touch with who you are.
Yes, there will always be obstacles and limiting factors. And the best way to get beyond them is by knowing that they do not define you.
Imagine a world with no limitations, and discover who you are in such a world. One by one, the challenges will fade in the distance as you express the limitless vision that is yours to live.
-- Ralph Marston
There is a miracle in every moment. Look closely, and lovingly, and you will clearly see it.
There is an innate and elegant beauty in even the most ordinary of things. Learn to love that beauty, and to let it be, and your eyes will be opened to wondrous possibilities.
There always and everywhere is a quiet yet unyielding peace, upon which rests all that is. The more often you reach in and touch this peace the more fully you experience its power.
Anything that is negative, deceptive or destructive will eventually consume and obliterate itself. What is authentic, peaceful and creative will continue to grow more pervasive.
When you need nothing other than to simply be, you have every beautiful and wonderful and miraculous thing there is. Life's richness is never more than a single thought away.
Breathe in deeply the beauty, the wonder, the miracle that is now. Know the joy that cannot ever fade.
-- Ralph Marston
Don't let a relatively small setback ruin an otherwise beautiful day. Choose instead to take it in stride and quickly get back to being positive, productive and effective.
Don't waste your time being outraged or offended by someone else's careless, inconsiderate remark or gesture. Use the opportunity to strengthen your valuable sense of patience, and move on ahead to something that truly matters.
Life's little annoyances can quickly add up to have a big negative and destructive impact if you let them. Fortunately, you don't have to let them.
Instead, you can choose to let them go. You can decide to see the small, relatively meaningless annoyances for what they are, and move quickly beyond them.
Do you really want your attitude to be held hostage by rude, careless, inconsiderate people or random events beyond your control? Of course not, because within you is a positive purpose that is big and beautiful and filled with real meaning.
Each time one of life's little annoyances comes along, let it just keep on going right past you until it fades away into its own insignificance. You have plenty of much more positive and valuable things upon which to focus your attention.
-- Ralph Marston
A small, simple action is infinitely more effective than a big, complicated excuse. Instead of putting your energy into avoiding effort, put that energy into the effort itself, and you'll get something of value in return for it.
There is something right now that needs to be done. Imagine how great it will feel to have it finished, see what a heavy weight will be lifted from you, then get busy and get it done.
In this moment, in this place, you have a valuable opportunity. You can make something happen, and you can make a difference.
Forget about judging whether one task is difficult and another task is easy. Don't be concerned about figuring out what is pleasant and what is unpleasant.
Just take a deep breath, sit up or stand up straight, and with a steady and confident sense of determination, get busy. Soon you'll find yourself moving rapidly toward real and fulfilling accomplishment.
You can worry and complain about how nothing ever gets done, or you can take it upon yourself to make a real and positive difference. The moment for action is now, so get busy and convert this fleeting bit of time into an accomplishment that will bring you value for a long, long time.
-- Ralph Marston
The good things in life do not create happiness. The good things in life arise from happiness.
If you wish to be happy, then be happy. It really is as simple as that.
There's no need to wait until you acquire this or achieve that. If you constantly place conditions on happiness, you'll prevent yourself from experiencing it.
Go ahead and be happy now, today, this very moment. Be happy for no reason at all, and you'll find that you're more effective, more productive, more creative and more fulfilled.
Indeed, happiness is a powerful state of mind that is available to you when you allow it to be. The best reason to be happy is because you can.
Being genuinely happy is a powerful way to express your confidence and your expectation that positive things will happen. And when you confidently expect the best, that's precisely what you get.
-- Ralph Marston
Questions can have a powerful effect on your thinking, and here's a question that can profoundly improve your perspective. What's good about this?
When you see a news story, or hear about something that's happened to a friend, or come across a challenge in your own life, ask yourself. What's good about this?
Get in the habit of asking the question and you'll be training your mind to always look for the answer. After a while, without even asking, you'll immediately see the positive aspect of every situation you encounter.
And that is indeed a powerful place to be. For when you can zero in on the positive possibilities, you have the opportunity to create enormous value.
People who attain magnificent levels of achievement live in exactly the same world as those who never seem to go anywhere. One big difference is that high achievers have learned to see real value where others see nothing but dead ends and despair.
Choose to be the person who sees the positive possibilities by remembering to ask this question, whatever the situation may be. What's good about this?
-- Ralph Marston
When your mind hears a question, it has no choice but to accept the premise of that question, and to think of an answer. Otherwise the question would be impossible to understand.
When you hear a particular question often enough, you'll naturally seek to answer it. Even if you don't realize that you're doing it, your mind will set about to find an answer.
The questions to which you're regularly exposed have a powerful influence on the direction of your life. And many of the questions you hear most often come directly from you.
What questions are you asking yourself? Are they negative questions, such as wondering why you can't ever get anything done, or are they more positive such as asking yourself what's the best thing that happened to you today?
For the next few days, when you catch yourself asking yourself a question, think about what kind of influence that question will have on your life. Pay conscious attention to what you're asking yourself, and make an effort to make the questions positive and life-affirming.
The questions you ask yourself will continue to influence your life long after you've forgotten what they were. Do you understand why it's such a good idea to make those questions as positive as you can?
-- Ralph Marston
If you could snap your fingers and make the life of your dreams instantly appear, exactly what would that life look like? While you're working so diligently to move forward, do you have a clear and detailed definition of where you intend to go?
An essential part of achieving what you desire is to know exactly what it is. Unfortunately, the people and events in your world often discourage and dissuade you from seriously considering your own ideas for what life at its best can be.
If you're not diligent about exploring and clarifying your own authentic desires, the world will impose its pre-packaged, shallow and empty desires upon your life. This can leave you frustrated, discouraged and unfulfilled as you strive to work toward goals that have no real meaning for you.
On a regular basis, allow your desires to come bubbling to the surface, so you can more fully understand them and connect with them. Enjoy the fact that there are things for which you truly long, and know that there is a path to every one of them.
Let your vision of what life can be pull you consistently toward its fulfillment. When you are clear about what you seek and why, you'll gain access to the resources and the strategies that will enable you to achieve it.
Instead of suppressing your desires or placing judgments on them, make yourself more and more familiar with their substance. Put real meaning in your life by giving life and energy to the things that mean most to you.
-- Ralph Marston
In most cases, responsibility cannot be successfully shared. When it's not clear who is responsible, then in effect no one is responsible, and disaster often results.
When everyone assumes that it is someone else's responsibility to get the job done, then the job never gets done. The alternative, in which everyone involved assumes full responsibility, creates the most successful outcomes.
When you have chosen to shoulder the responsibility for something, it can feel burdensome. Just imagine, though, what an even greater burden would result if there was no one responsible.
Responsibility creates and maintains the conditions that make advancement and achievement possible. And the most powerful, useful, effective kind of responsibility is full responsibility.
Though others may also be responsible, that's no reason to reduce your own level of responsibility. When everyone makes the commitment to be fully responsible, truly great things can happen.
In responsibility there is enormous opportunity, for working through challenges, for achievement, for fulfillment and for much more. Whatever the situation, choose to take full responsibility, and there will be much value that you can create.
-- Ralph Marston
Relax and allow this moment to come. Savor the richness of it as it passes through your experience.
Then, just as peacefully as you let it in, let the moment go. And allow the next moment to flow freely into your life.
There is nothing to be gained by fighting against perceived difficulties, or by running away from them. There is nothing to be gained by worrying that the things you value will be taken from you.
Instead, enjoy, appreciate and make full use of your many treasures and blessings. By so doing, you'll make it impossible for them to ever be taken from you.
Welcome each new challenge as it appears. It is by moving through the challenges that you enrich yourself and the world around you.
Let each unique moment flow freely through you, with whatever it may bring, and experience it fully, with passion, purpose, and positive expectation. Then let it go, while holding on to the richness it has added to your life.
-- Ralph Marston
Unlike most things, challenges almost always look bigger and more imposing from a distance than they do when you get close to them. Most of the challenges you're avoiding will not seem nearly so overwhelming when you choose to actually face them.
The challenges that intimidate you require your assistance to do so. On their own, they're really not so tough, yet in your imagination they can grow to monstrous proportions.
The way to cut those challenges down to size is to get busy working on them. Once you're immersed in the details you'll realize that they're not so bad after all.
How many times have you desperately avoided something, only to discover later that there was really no reason to avoid it at all? Very often, the effort spent avoiding a difficult challenge is more demanding and burdensome than the challenge itself.
What have you been avoiding because you just didn't want to deal with it? Imagine how great it will be to have that burden fall completely away.
Go ahead, pick a challenge that has been intimidating you, and get busy working your way through it. Then, instead of living with constant intimidation you'll be enjoying the real value you've just created.
-- Ralph Marston
If you feel like you're stuck, in many ways that's a positive sign. It means you're eager to get moving.
The feeling of being stuck shows that there's somewhere you truly would like to go, and you're ready for some real progress. It means you're highly motivated, and that's a powerful state to be in.
Instead of focusing on the particular problem of the moment that's making you feel stuck, step back and look at the big picture. Recall the reasons why you originally chose to be on this path in the first place.
Most likely, the challenge you're facing right now is trivial compared to the goal you've set for yourself. Put things in perspective and you'll realize that what's really keeping you stuck is not the situation itself but rather your response to it.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed, choose to start working your way through the challenge one step at a time. There is a little bit you can do now, a little bit of progress you can make later, and bit by bit you'll make your way through.
Take advantage of the frustration you feel, and redirect the energy of that frustration into positive, thoughtful action. You'll soon be looking back on this moment with the grateful realization that you just cleared a major hurdle and are quickly moving forward again.
-- Ralph Marston
If you've been waiting to start really living your life, today is the day to begin. As of this moment, your wait is over.
Sure, it would be nice if you could wait just a little bit longer, to get in better shape, to get a little more organized, or to save up some more money. The fact is, though, that things are never going to be perfect, so why not just go ahead and jump right now into the fullness of life?
You know all those things you've been telling yourself that someday you'll get around to doing? That idealized someday is never really going to come, yet the good news is that today is just fine and is here for you right now.
Today is what you have to work with. Today is when you can actually give life to your dreams.
Today you can put those things you've been meaning to do into real, effective, fulfilling action. Today you will experience how good it is to go beyond merely planning, dreaming and intending, and to bring those beautiful plans to life.
Though it may seem very ordinary, this is the day you've been waiting to live. Breathe in the sweet air of limitless possibility, and make life as rich as you know it can be.
-- Ralph Marston
Children do it, animals in the wild do it, and you can benefit greatly from it too. One of the best ways to learn and to grow, to improve, and to gain useful, practical experience, is to play.
Playing is not merely for those who are young or irresponsible. Playing is for anyone who seeks to have a fresh perspective on life.
Begin to play, and you become free of prior limitations. When there is no goal or specific focus to the effort, there is no telling what wondrous and valuable things you will discover.
When you're playing and there are no serious consequences on the line, you're free to experiment with lots of different approaches. Spend some time in which the outcome doesn't matter, and the outcome will be that you gain valuable new insight.
You perform at your best when you're doing something you enjoy. Increase your play, and you can significantly improve your work.
Remember always to set aside some time, energy and resources for play. Explore and experience life just for the fun of it, and enjoy the serious benefits that come from being playful.
-- Ralph Marston
Look carefully and thoughtfully at the things that frustrate you. In each of them you will find real and workable ideas for positive growth.
Frustration occurs when you realize, sometimes painfully, that things are not working nearly as well as they could be. Follow that realization to its natural conclusion and you will find a clearly marked pathway for improvement.
Great inventions, successful companies and immense fortunes have been built through positive responses to frustration. Indeed, frustration has always been a major catalyst for creating value.
People frustrated with the way things are, can develop insatiable appetites for making the world better. Frustration can get you thinking and acting, building, creating and persevering toward a positive purpose.
Frustration is the feeling of knowing it can be better, and the greater the frustration, the more positive and exciting are the possibilities. When you are feeling frustration, remind yourself what a truly great blessing it can be leading you toward.
When you know without a doubt that things can be better, you've already started the process of improvement. Go ahead, feel the frustration, and let it give you a powerful positive push.
-- Ralph Marston
Even the smallest accomplishment will boost your confidence level. And with increased confidence, you can set your sights on a larger accomplishment.
Confidence is not something that comes to just a lucky few. Confidence is not something that anyone else can simply hand over to you.
You can't buy confidence, you can't inherit it, and you cannot gain it by taking it away from others. Everyone who has real confidence has earned it, one accomplishment at a time.
Start with what you have, with what you know you can do, and then add a little challenge to it. Soon you'll know without a doubt that you can do even more.
As your confidence grows, so will your achievements, because the biggest achievements come to those who have the confidence to take on the most difficult challenges.
Confidence requires work, and it is well worth the effort. Use every opportunity to earn yourself more confidence, and many valuable doors will continue opening for you.
-- Ralph Marston
Something good is going to occur today. You can count on it.
Something good has already happened. And it will continue.
Even if you don't expect it, something good is now underway. Expect it, accept it, and you'll more fully reap its value.
Something good is going on and growing stronger. You can choose to grow along with it.
Something good is everywhere. Open yourself to it and you'll know.
Today is a day for something good to happen. Let it happen through you.
-- Ralph Marston
The influence of anything in your life is determined primarily by the amount of focus you give to it. Your focus can make things bigger or smaller, depending on its direction and intensity.
Have you ever been so totally engrossed by some little something that you completely forgot about everything else for a moment? It can indeed be startling when you experience the raw power of your own focus.
And you can choose at any time to put that power to use. By directing your focus, you can positively affect every corner of your life.
What things would you like to make more abundant in your world? Focus the energy of your thoughts on them and they will grow.
Have you been disappointed, slighted, frustrated, angered or insulted? Point your focus toward the positive, fulfilling possibilities and you'll quickly put the negativity behind you.
Focus can get you moving forward with a powerful, nearly unstoppable momentum. Focus on the world you would most like to see, and with the power of focus you will make it appear.
-- Ralph Marston
How many small opportunities do you routinely ignore because you're waiting, wishing, searching and hoping for a big opportunity? That big opportunity may or may not ever arrive, yet all the while those small opportunities are there for the taking.
Every moment is an opportunity to create a little bit of value. Although the progress you can make in a single moment may not seem like much, those small moments can add up over time to big achievements.
Take one small step and it hardly seems like you've gone anywhere at all. Yet when you continue taking step after step, you can get anywhere you choose to go.
The most reliable path to success is a simple one that anyone who chooses to do so can follow. Dream big dreams and take small steps, one after another after another until you're there.
If you attempt to leap to the top of the mountain in a single effort, you will almost certainly fail. Yet make the commitment to reach the summit step by step, and you will surely get yourself there.
Right this moment there are dozens of small opportunities just waiting for you to seize. Create a little value here, a little value there, again and again, and there's no limit to where you can go.
-- Ralph Marston
First impressions are helpful and important. Yet they are certainly not everything.
A quick first impression can give you a feel for what's going on. Still, there's much substance that lies beneath the surface.
Allow your instincts to guide you without letting them dominate you. Do the work and dig deeper before making any long-term judgments or commitments.
In presenting yourself, seek to make an excellent first impression. Be sure, however, to also have the depth of substance that will faithfully back up that initial positive impression.
Those who are quick to judge, without considering all the facts, often make serious and irreversible mistakes. More often than not, hasty judgments lead to trouble, alienation, anger, frustration and regret.
Pay attention to your first impression. And let that first impression be a starting point rather than a final conclusion.
-- Ralph Marston
When you're willing to make an initial effort, you'll succeed sometimes. Take the next step, make a second effort, and you'll succeed more often.
If you're prepared to make a third, fourth, or fifth effort, you'll reach a much higher success rate. And when you commit to putting forth whatever effort is necessary, you will achieve whatever you choose.
Real and lasting success usually requires more than one attempt. If you make just a single attempt and then give up, you haven't given yourself much of an opportunity to achieve.
There is no reason to become discouraged if you fail to reach your goal on the first attempt, or even the second or third. For each effort, though it may not get you there, gets you closer.
Even an unsuccessful attempt gives you valuable knowledge and experience, and vastly increases the likelihood of success on the next attempt. When you continue getting closer each time, you surely and eventually will get where you intend to go.
The roads leading to the most beautiful places always twist and turn and double back on themselves. Keep making the effort, no matter what, and you will reach the beautiful places where you wish to be.
-- Ralph Marston
By recognizing and admitting your own weaknesses, you begin to move beyond them. When you're clear and honest about what you need to work on, you can make real progress.
When you identify a weakness, you've found an opportunity. By exploring what's holding you back, you can create a realistic and workable path to success.
Weakness is nothing to hide from or to be ashamed of. For in each weakness is the promise of real strength.
From each weakness there is much that you can learn. By understanding your limitations, you can find a way around them.
Instead of constantly fighting against your weaknesses, work on getting rid of them completely. Then all your time and energy can be put into moving quickly ahead.
Have the courage to look clearly at your weaknesses. What you'll see in each one is the potential to create powerful, effective new strength.
-- Ralph Marston
Where there is great difficulty, there are also great opportunities. Where there is sorrow, there is also much possibility for real joy.
In places of darkness, even a small light can make an enormous positive difference. When the situation seems hopeless, that's precisely when acting on hope can turn things around.
The greatest achievements often have their origins in the most complicated and perplexing problems. By accepting the possibility of dreadful failure, people are able to create magnificent success.
When it seems that no options remain, that's when a breakthrough is about to happen. Each setback along the way makes the eventual success that much more precious and valuable.
No matter how good or how difficult life may be now, there is always a realistic and accessible way to make it better. For you can learn, you can adapt, you can grow stronger, and you can take effective action to move forward.
Whatever may be, whatever may happen, lift your head high with thankfulness and enthusiasm. For when you so choose, the best is yet to come.
-- Ralph Marston
When a stone is dropped into a lake,
it quickly disappears from sight-
but its impact leaves behind
a series of ripples that broaden
and reach across the water.
In the same way, the impact of
one life lived for CHRIST
will leave behind an influence for good
that will reach the lives of
many others.
- Roy Lessin
There is a joy in productive effort that is like no other. When you create value, the feeling is so very good and right.
It may sometimes seem that work is a burden. Yet work is a burden only for those who decide to see it as such.
Actually, work can be one of life's greatest blessings. For it is your opportunity to create the future.
If you resent having to work, consider the alternative. Imagine how truly awful life would be if you were never able to make a positive, productive difference.
The main thing that makes work unpleasant is your attitude toward it. With a positive, thankful attitude, not only are your efforts more enjoyable, they produce more valuable results.
Make your life full and rich by taking a joyful approach to the work you do. Discover joy in the effort, and the rewards will be great.
-- Ralph Marston
If you don't have a plan, random circumstances will make one for you. And you probably won't like it much.
Decide what you would like and go for it. Success is no more complicated than that.
The energy and time you spend can either bring you toward your dreams or it can keep you in the service of someone else's dream. Choose to follow your own dreams.
Explore your own most deeply held values and purposes. Decide precisely how you would like your world and your life to be.
The most dismal failures are not caused by the inability to reach a goal. Those failures are the result of not having a clear enough and meaningful enough goal.
Know exactly where you intend to go, and you're much more likely to get there. Have a plan, follow it with persistence, and enjoy being where you sincerely choose to be.
-- Ralph Marston
There are things you can see, things you can hear, things you can touch, taste and smell. And beyond all those, there are things you can know.
There is wisdom within you that requires no outside validation. There are things your heart knows that nothing can dispute.
Don't become so caught up in material, worldly matters that you ignore the miraculous living presence always glowing inside you. Pay attention to the incomprehensible essence that is your life.
In your hands you hold things that, sooner or later, will rust and decay. In your heart you can keep things that are timeless.
Food, clothing and shelter sustain and protect your body. Be sure to sustain and nourish your spirit just as diligently.
Deep inside the person the world sees, is the real and indivisible person you are. Let your inner self play an active and positive role in all you do.
-- Ralph Marston
Rather than thinking of reasons why you can't, think of the reasons why you must. Instead of focusing on your problems, focus on your purpose.
There will always be challenges in any endeavor. Yet for every challenge, there is a way to get through it.
The secret comes in knowing why. With a strong enough sense of why, anything can be done.
What specifically do you wish to do, and why do you wish to do it? Dig down deeply into the reasons why, for that is where you'll find the energy, the persistence, and the commitment to carry you forward.
Don't be afraid to desire it, and to explore your own personal, meaningful reasons. By understanding why, you'll have what you need to figure out how, and to make it happen.
Know why, and watch the challenges melt away. Know why, and it will be.
-- Ralph Marston
Have you noticed how beautiful life is today? Look around with thankful, loving eyes and you'll see.
Can you comprehend how many wonderful possibilities are available to you right now? Follow one or two of them, and you'll understand.
Do you realize how creative and effective you can be? Allow your thoughts, words and actions to express what's in your heart, and you'll discover.
Are you aware how much of a difference you can make in the world? Move forward with sincerity and positive purpose, and you'll be astonished at what you can accomplish.
Do you know all the good things you're capable of achieving? Make use of this moment to begin to find out.
The possibilities for joy and fulfillment are all around you. Jump in right now and explore them fully.
-- Ralph Marston
You can choose to be annoyed by just about everything. But why would you wish to be annoyed by anything?
As easily as you can choose to be annoyed, you can choose to be peaceful, patient and understanding. Instead of putting your energy into being annoyed, you can put it into more valuable and productive pursuits.
Would you like to make yourself into a victim, or would you prefer to be firmly in control of your life? Peaceful patience, tolerance and acceptance will keep you in control.
If there is a situation that needs to be changed, take action to make that change happen. Don't waste your time with being annoyed.
The next time you encounter a situation that would normally annoy you, stop and remember that you have another choice. Instead of letting outside events control your attitude, choose to control it yourself.
Being annoyed is a waste of your life. Be peaceful, calm and powerful instead.
-- Ralph Marston
What is possible to imagine, is possible. The distance between imagination and reality is not very far.
Your imagination has great power to direct and influence those things you create in your life. So why is it that many of the good and desirable things you imagine do not ever happen?
Because along with the positive things you imagine, you may also be imagining fear and doubt in nearly equal proportion. Although your imagination is indeed powerful, it may be using up much of that power to fight against itself.
Your dreams, minus your doubts, equal your reality. To make real progress in your life, you can either make your doubts smaller or make your dreams bigger.
As you move through life, your imagination leads the way. Is it pushing you back with doubt and fear as much as, or even more than it is pulling you forward?
Choose to imagine the good and valuable things with such great passion and purpose that they far outweigh any doubts or fears you may have. And you'll soon find yourself living the reality of your most treasured dreams.
-- Ralph Marston
What's so great about today? That's for you to decide, determine and fulfill.
Is there any reason for today to be a memorable one? There is when you create a good reason.
This day does not have to be bland and indistinguishable from all the others. Because you are here to make it special.
There is something exciting and compelling that you've been meaning to do. Today is when you can put your plans into action.
Today is the moment to give life to your dreams. Today is your opportunity to offer your dreams to life.
Take a deep, slow breath, and focus on all the positive possibilities that are here on this day. Then get up, go out and live the richness.
-- Ralph Marston
Avoiding effort is more difficult than just going ahead and getting it done. Because not only do you spend time and energy avoiding the effort, you also must suffer the consequences of failing to do the work.
Take the time to do what must be done. Don't get caught up in making judgments about whether it is easy or difficult, pleasant or unpleasant, for that will just hold you back.
If you're interested in finding the easiest way out, consider this. The easiest way is to just go ahead and get it done.
Is there something you've been avoiding because it will require too much effort? Is there really anything at all that you've gained by putting it off?
Imagine the sense of satisfaction and release that you'll enjoy when the task is completed. Think of how great it will be when you're no longer constantly dreading it.
Then get busy and get it done. Make the effort, finish the work, and you'll find that you've truly taken the easy way out.
-- Ralph Marston
You will never solve your problems by getting other people to change. The way to move beyond whatever is holding you back is to make positive changes within yourself.
The problem is not the particular situation you are in. The problem is the way you interpret and relate to that situation.
The problem is not the way you are treated by others. The problem is the way you allow the actions of others to affect you.
The problem is not what has happened in the past. The problem is that you're letting it continue to hold you back.
Take complete responsibility for a problem, and suddenly you are ninety percent of the distance toward solving it. For when you truly take responsibility, you gain real and powerful control.
Fully accept that it is up to you to get where you choose to go. And you'll find everything necessary to make it so.
-- Ralph Marston
The solutions to your most difficult problems already exist. Open yourself to their possibility and you will most certainly discover them.
Whatever you desire is already connected to who you are and what you now have. Bring that connection to life with your thoughts, your feelings and your actions.
Your worries, complaints, anger and resentment cast a dark fog on the world that appears in front of you. That prevents you from seeing all the good things already available to you.
Accept that anger, that resentment, those worries, and then quickly let them go. Allow yourself to enter fully into this moment that is now, with a clear mind and a peaceful heart.
Allow the joy, allow the sadness, allow the triumphs, the disappointments, the rich texture and fullness of life. Allow it all to work for you, and to carry you steadily toward the ever-increasing fulfillment of your very own special purpose.
Make loving use of this day to do what you can do, from where you are, with what you have. Trust that it will move you quickly forward, and it surely will.
-- Ralph Marston
Those who achieve are those who give. The greatest leaders are the leaders who are most devoted to service.
Every encounter, every challenge, every relationship, every situation is an opportunity to give of yourself. Each day brings with it new ways to create value for the people around you.
Think of the individuals you most sincerely admire. You'll see that they all make it a habit to give of themselves to life.
It is not always easy to give of yourself. It takes discipline, commitment, creativity, humility, preparation, effort and resilience.
What it brings is true fulfillment. Give your best to each moment, and you fill the world with rich meaning.
Do the work, make the commitment, and discover all the good and valuable things you have to give. Make a gift of who you are, and be amazed at what you become.
-- Ralph Marston
In your mind you can go anywhere. And where your mind consistently goes, the rest of your life will follow.
There is no limit to what you can imagine. And what you imagine, you have already begun to create.
Allow your thoughts to travel often to beautiful and magnificent places. In your mind, construct all the rich details of the life you wish to live.
In order to reach for a dream, you must know what it looks like, how it feels, and where it is. Long before you actually get there, your mind can enable you to experience all these things.
Every success is first a success of the imagination. What wonderful pathways will you dare to imagine?
Set your imagination free, and it will show you who you are. Let imagination guide your efforts, and your dreams will be fulfilled.
-- Ralph Marston
Any task can become effortless when you let go of all your resistance to it. Creativity and effectiveness come easily and naturally when there is nothing blocking them.
Do you resent the things you will be doing today? Then not only will you be miserable all day, you will end up with very little to show for your efforts.
Choose instead to eagerly and enthusiastically embrace each task, each activity, and each situation. Fully accept whatever you are doing, and you will give it great value.
Great accomplishments do not arise out of miserable struggle. Great accomplishments come from being able to see the goodness in everything, and then focusing that goodness in a specific direction.
It's impossible to stay focused on what can be when you're obsessed with complaining or worrying about what already is. Yet by accepting what is now, you are free to create what you know can be.
Make your efforts effortless by letting them happen and letting them be. Let life freely flow, and you will go anywhere you desire.
-- Ralph Marston
Author: Unknown
Sometimes I ask the question, "My Lord, is this your will?" It's then I hear you answer me, "My Precious Child...be still."
Sometimes I feel frustrated, cause I think I know what's best. It's then I hear you say to me, "My Busy Child...just rest!"
Sometimes I feel so lonely and I think I'd like a mate. Your still small voice gets oh so clear and says, "My Child...please wait!"
"I know the plans I have for you, the wondrous things you'll see; If you can just be patient, Child, and put your trust in me. I've plans to draw you closer. I've plans to help you grow. There's much I do you cannot see and much you do not know.
But know this, Child...I LOVE YOU. You are Precious unto Me.
Before I formed you in the womb, I planned your destiny. I've something very special I hope for you to learn. The gifts I wish to give to you are gifts you cannot earn.
They come without a price tag, but not without a cost; at Calvary, I gave My Son, so You would not be lost. Rest Child, and do not grow weary of doing what is good.
I promise I'll come back for you just like I said I would. Your name is written on my palm, I never could forget; Therefore, do not be discouraged when my answer is... "Not Yet!"
Real success is not merely a matter of getting what you want. After all, a newborn infant with a loud cry can accomplish that.
Real success comes from fully being who you are. Real success comes from giving your own unique value to life.
The less you need, the more fulfilled and powerful and effective you are. As your peacefulness increases, so does your energy level.
Choose not to let the small things anger you, or annoy you, or distract you. And keep in mind that most things are small things.
Stop fretting so much about whether or not you're getting your way. Seek instead to relax your judgment, and to find the unique value that is in each moment.
You cannot ever fully control everything that happens, and in fact you would not want to do so. Enjoy true success by learning how to take whatever happens, and to make it work for the good of all concerned.
-- Ralph Marston
The good things in your life are infinitely more enjoyable when you avoid becoming dependent on them. If you see yourself as desperately needing something, the fear of losing it prevents you from getting full benefit from it.
Many of life's frustrations come from being unable to fully enjoy the good things that are already right in front of you. The desire to hold on tightly to the things you have can make those things virtually worthless.
Security is not attained by hiding away from life. The most enduring form of security is found in knowing that you can deal successfully and positively with whatever may happen.
Life's treasures become useless when they remain locked inside a vault of your own making. What good is it to have anything of value if you must live in fear of losing it?
Instead, take the treasure that is your life out into the world and enjoy it. Focus on the possibilities and not on the fears.
The more you think you need, the more those needs will hold you back. The more you choose to give and to live, the more good things you'll find coming your way.
-- Ralph Marston
Abundance is all around you. At any given moment, you are immersed in it.
Through the living of your life, you focus that abundance. And it becomes specific experiences, creations and accomplishments.
There is never any shortage of positive possibilities. Whatever your circumstance, life's abundance is available to be transformed by the guiding power of your intentions.
There is always plenty of raw energy available to you. Your challenge is to consistently and persistently direct that energy into a life that is rich and meaningful.
Consider carefully what you choose to allow and what you choose to block. Every choice you make is amplified many times over by the constant flow of abundance that is always present in your world.
Visualize a life that is the best you can possibly imagine. Hold steady to that vision, and you will make it so.
-- Ralph Marston
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
There's no need for you to strive to be somebody. You are somebody already, with your own unique gifts to offer life.
What a waste it would be to spend your whole life seeking to be someone you're not. What a true joy it is to spend your moments expressing and fulfilling the authentic person you are.
Today is a day to dance your own dance, to sing your own song. Live the joy that is yours to live, and create the beauty that is yours to give.
Pay no attention to the fleeting, superficial vision of success that the world seeks to sell you. Build a success that has real meaning for you by being true to who you are.
Most of the disappointments you've experienced have been the result of striving to follow someone else's dream. Let go of the need to do that, and feel the freedom, the amazing effectiveness, and the exhilaration of living a purpose that is truly you.
You are somebody unique, valuable, beautiful and worthy of the best life has to offer. Now is the time to fully live that truth.
-- Ralph Marston
This is the moment you've been moving toward ever since the day you were born. The world you see in front of you now is the world you've long been expecting.
Now that you're here, perhaps there are some things that you find to be disappointing. Look beyond the disappointment, though, and you'll see so very much more.
You'll see within yourself a lifetime of experience that's more extensive now than ever before. You'll see opportunities for making use of that experience to create new unique and meaningful value.
You'll realize that no matter how much you've already done, there is always some new gift that you can give to life. You'll understand that no matter what may have happened before, there is always a way to move positively forward.
Now that you're here, you can learn from the past and begin to create the future. Now that you're here, you can think and feel and dream and act in accordance with your most treasured purpose.
You've traveled through a lot of living to get to this moment. Now is when you can truly fulfill the best of your possibilities.
-- Ralph Marston
If you're unhappy with what you already have, then getting more is not going to make things better. Instead of fighting against what is, make full and loving use of it.
Instead of striving for what you think you lack, simply change your thinking. Realize that where you are is a great place to be.
Achievements and possessions will never make you happy. They can, however, serve as tangible expressions of the happiness you have chosen to create within yourself.
Do you feel that something is missing in your life? Most likely, the only thing really missing is your commitment to fully accept and live the abundance that is already there.
That abundance comes to you in the people, places, things, events and situations that flow through your life each day. The way to connect with it is through sincere and sustained gratitude.
Be truly thankful for it all, for the ups and the downs, the pleasures and the pains, the progress and the setbacks. Joyfully accept what is, and you'll surely find it is a great place to be.
-- Ralph Marston
You will definitely succeed at something today. What exactly will it be?
Whatever you most sincerely believe and expect, you will succeed in creating. Whatever you focus your thoughts and energy upon cannot help but become real for you.
There is no doubt that you will succeed today at making a difference in the world. The question is, what difference will you choose to make?
Perhaps the choices you have made in the past have not brought you any degree of satisfaction of fulfillment. But that doesn't mean you must settle for a life that's dismal and unfulfilling.
Because you are free and able right now to set new priorities, to make different, more positive choices. Instead of being successful at failure, you can choose to be successful at success.
Every moment of every day, you succeed at creating the reality in which you live. Choose now to use that power in a positive, meaningful, fulfilling way.
-- Ralph Marston
The main thing that keeps an objective out of reach is your assumption that you cannot reach it. You're able to do precisely what you expect to be able to do.
Are there dreams that you dare not to dream because you've decided that you cannot attain them? If so, then your negative expectation has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Before you abandon or downgrade your most treasured dreams, consider this. When your goal is personally meaningful and compelling, you can achieve it, whatever it may be.
You are never too old or too young, too rich or too poor, to direct the energy of your life toward a compelling objective. Life is about making a difference, and that's something you can do no matter what your circumstances may be.
There is somewhere you truly wish to go, something you sincerely desire to achieve, right this very moment. Take the time to find it, commit yourself to it, and make the effort to make it happen.
Your dreams represent some of the most valuable gifts you have to give to life. Dare to dream, and allow the best of who you are to be fully expressed.
-- Ralph Marston
There is enormous power in peace. Seek to let your mind be filled with peace, and your life will benefit greatly.
Worry wastes your precious time, resentment destroys your effectiveness and anxiety drains your energy. A peaceful mind, on the other hand, puts you firmly in control and out of the reach of the world's negative distractions.
Peace comes easily and naturally when you stop fighting against what is. Accept the reality of this moment, let go of the need to need, and experience the peace that is already here.
Peace is what you find when you let go of everything else. Peace requires no real effort other than the realization that you already have it.
Beneath the noise, beneath the chatter, there is beauty, and there is peace. Visualize your concerns as moving quickly away from you, until they disappear into nothingness.
Empty your mind of the stressful thoughts, and peace will fill the space left behind. Be at peace, and every thought, every action, every moment will move you toward real richness and fulfillment.
-- Ralph Marston
Any limitation you encounter is not in the situation itself. The limitation is in the way you choose to interpret and respond to the situation.
As such, you have power over every limitation. Because those things that appear as limitations are powered by your perceptions.
Yes, the difficult situations and challenging obstacles are indeed real. Remember, though, that you can decide to see them and to respond to them in a positive, empowering manner.
There is always a way to reach the destination you have chosen. Focus not on those things that appear to be limitations, but rather on the goal you have set.
It is easy to blame this limitation or that for your lack of progress. It is far better to find a way to move beyond the challenges, for that is where you will experience the success you are meant to create.
Decide not to be a slave to your limitations. For you can always choose to be the master of your possibilities.
-- Ralph Marston
How far beyond yourself are you willing to think and act? Have you ever done anything that will benefit the world not today, not next year, but a thousand years from now?
If you limit your awareness to only your own concerns, you will continually be frustrated and disappointed. That is because your true nature exists far beyond the superficial, petty concerns of your shallow and fragile ego.
Imagine being able to live without fear, in a constant state of pure peacefulness and effortless fulfillment. That is the terrain you can inhabit when you let go of the concerns of self.
When you erect impenetrable borders between you and everything else, you push life's immense abundance away from your experience. The walls of exclusion and judgment that you create do quickly become your prison.
Your awareness does not have to be limited by your perceptions. Beyond the confines of time and distance there is no end to the fulfillment that can be known.
What you can achieve alone is quite impressive. Yet what you create by going beyond yourself can indeed fulfill every dream.
-- Ralph Marston
Sometimes the opportunities that seem the smallest are the best. For they're the opportunities that have the most room for growth.
The biggest, most obvious opportunities attract a great deal of attention. That can make them fiercely competitive because of all the people who seek to make the most of them.
Small opportunities can go largely unnoticed. Yet for someone who makes the effort to see it, a small opportunity can be an ideal platform on which to build great value.
Small opportunities are numerous and widely available. You could spend your whole life waiting for a big opportunity, while many small opportunities come along every day.
Small opportunities usually offer more latitude, flexibility and room for creativity. With small opportunities you can make the most of your own unique passion and purpose.
Open your eyes to the abundance of seemingly small opportunities that arrive in your world on a daily basis. For even with small opportunities you can create big value.
-- Ralph Marston
There is great joy within you. Yet all too often your thoughts can keep that joy hidden away.
Most of the judgments to which you devote your thoughts do not serve any useful purpose. Worries, resentments, and angry thinking will bring you nothing of real value, and will push joy further away from your awareness.
Let go of those toxic thoughts and allow the joy that's hiding underneath them to shine through. Let go of the need to judge and to strive, and make room in your awareness for joy.
Joy is easy and natural and not something you must struggle for or force. It has been there all along, and will flow easily from you when you allow it.
Let your thoughts benefit from joy instead of using those thoughts to cover up that joy. Allow your actions to be more focused and effective by allowing your own unique joy to be expressed through them.
Set free the joy in your life by letting go of the negativity that you don't need anyway. Set your joy free and let it fill your world.
-- Ralph Marston
Without challenge, there would be no achievement. If you wish to own the achievement, you must be willing to shoulder the challenge.
Working through a difficult challenge builds strength. It is a kind of strength that cannot be acquired in any other way.
Challenges are messy, uncomfortable, complicated and demanding. And yet, they are among life's greatest blessings.
For the challenges will make it perfectly clear what has real meaning in your life and what doesn't. The challenges hold your priorities up to you and will show you the best of who you are.
Climbing the mountain of challenge is difficult and treacherous, yet the view from the summit is spectacular. And the experience you gain in the effort will continue to bring value long after the work is done.
You are truly fortunate to have challenges in your life. For within every challenge is a clearly defined path for moving vigorously and meaningfully forward.
-- Ralph Marston
Your imagination may often seem wispy and nebulous. It is in fact very real and powerful.
Look around you and consider all the real, solid, useful and valuable things that began their existence in someone's imagination. What you can imagine, is clearly possible.
Most likely, your imagination has far more power than you realize. There are aspects of your reality today that come directly from long-forgotten stirrings of your imagination.
What would you dare to imagine if you were certain that it would become real? In fact, most of what you imagine does indeed influence your life and your world in some way or other.
Obviously, the things you imagine do not instantly spring into material form. Actually, something even more amazing happens.
Your imagination plants a fertile seed in the capable, creative, intelligent, effective person that is you. Take great care with such seeds that you plant, for they will surely grow.
-- Ralph Marston
What an incredible journey Jesus made;
what an overwhelming expression of love He undertook;
what an awesome purpose He had in mind.
You were on His heart.
When He left His home in heaven, He saw you;
when He became a man on earth, He was seeking you;
when He stretched out His hands upon the cross,
He was reaching out to you;
when He returned to His Father,
He was preparing a place for you.
You are the sheep He has come to shepherd, to guide, to feed, to protect, to shelter, and to carry.
You are the one He calls His own.
- Roy Lessin
If it seems you're having a difficult day, that's not really the case. Though today you may have experienced certain difficulties up to this point, those difficulties do not have to define the day.
The rest of this day will be what you make it. You can choose right now to make it positive and productive.
Those difficulties and frustrations that had you thinking this was a difficult day can quickly be left behind. You can in fact make this a truly great day.
Take a deep breath, and be sincerely thankful for the experience and the wisdom you've already gained today. Then point your energy in a positive direction.
Choose to make this moment a turning point. Instead of allowing random events to control your attitude, select an attitude that will move you forward.
This is a great day. Beginning right now, you have what it takes to live that reality.
-- Ralph Marston
Things you're always going to do later never do get done. What you put off until someday will always be out of your reach.
If anything is important enough to do someday, then it is worth starting on right now. If you're going to actually do it, then you must do it in the moment you're in.
Procrastination may seem like an easy way to avoid taking action. What it really is, though, is an ever-increasing burden of guilt and regret that you place on yourself.
Think of how awful it feels to know that you could have done, or could be doing, but instead you waited until too late. Fortunately, there is a simple and highly effective way to ease that burden.
Take action now. Choose something that you have continued putting off, and go ahead and get it done.
You've made many great plans and promises. Go ahead, act on them, and see how great it is to make them real.
-- Ralph Marston
Never before has life held as much promise as it does on this very day. The possibilities open to you right now are more wonderful and abundant than they have ever been.
You may be suffering under the sad illusion that the best days of your life have already come and gone. Choose now to see beyond that self-imposed limiting thought.
Open your eyes to the beautiful truth that the things in your life with real value and meaning never decline or decay. The longer you live with purpose and sincerity, the more intensely you experience true love and joy.
It may seem that your mistakes have been piled on top of mistakes, and that nothing can free you from your burdensome regrets. Yet the freedom you seek is as close as the next moment.
Every beauty you've ever imagined is real, and exists in you right now. Every joy that you've ever glimpsed is yours to live and to express any time you choose.
You stand in this moment at a beautiful new beginning, full of promise and possibility. See it, know it, live it, and allow the joy to flow more abundantly than ever before.
-- Ralph Marston
Failure is not the opposite of success. Failure is an important component of success.
Suppose you set an objective, take action, and then fail to reach that objective on the first attempt. Even though you have experienced a failure, you're in much better shape than you were before you started.
Because you've just learned, in a compelling and meaningful way, what doesn't work. And that puts you well on the way to finding what does work.
The greatest achievements of all time are built upon multiple failures. The greatest achievers are those who are willing to experience failure on their way to the success they know will most certainly come.
No one sets out with the intention of failing. Yet when failure comes, it is nothing to be ashamed of, and no reason to give up.
Learn to see failure as just another step in the process of success. And even when the failures come, they will serve to move you forward.
-- Ralph Marston
You do not have to keep making the same mistakes. You can choose to change.
You do not have to keep being held back by the same fears and insecurities. You have the ability to move forward if you wish.
There is no good reason why you must settle for anything less than the very best that life has to offer. Anything is possible when you put your full commitment and the energy of your life into it.
The past has brought you to where you are, yet it has no power to hold you back. In each moment, you are free to choose your own direction.
Reach within yourself and connect with a guiding purpose that you know is right for you. Allow yourself to fully be the unique and beautiful person you are meant to be.
This day, this moment is a blank canvas upon which you are now able to paint. Fill it with the magnificent splendor that you know is yours to give.
-- Ralph Marston
Inflicting pain on someone else cannot do anything to ease your own pain. When you have been hurt, there is nothing to be gained by passing the hurt on to another.
When others have caused you pain, give forgiveness. Sincere forgiveness is the fastest way to begin moving positively forward again.
Forgiveness does not mean that you agree with or condone whatever has been done. It means that you no longer choose to let those past actions hold you back.
Your willingness to forgive does not mean that you are willing to be hurt again. In fact, forgiveness frees you to take positive steps that will make you stronger and much less vulnerable.
When you feel the desire for revenge, stop and remind yourself that there is a much more powerful response. Forgiveness is the way to put yourself in the best possible position.
Can you find the strength to forgive? Forgive, and you will surely grow stronger.
-- Ralph Marston
Some of the greatest treasures in your life may be things you set aside long ago. Often it pays to go back and take a look.
A book you read years ago may now hold much more meaning. A friend from whom you once grew apart may now have much more in common with you.
There is a reason why people, places, things and events come into your life. Be careful that you're not too quick to discard them.
The things that interested you in your youth still have a message for you today. They can tell you about who you truly are.
Just because something is old and familiar, does not mean it is irrelevant. Values, passions and purposes grow more robust with time and experience.
You've arrived at this moment carrying a lifetime of valuable treasures. Now is your opportunity to see those treasures in a whole new light.
-- Ralph Marston
You have created many good and valuable things that you don't even know about. For the consequences of your actions go far beyond you.
Many of the treasures in your life are things you are not yet ready to know or appreciate. They will be there waiting for you when you are ready.
Each day you encounter opportunities for joy and fulfillment that you don't even recognize as such. Life encompasses much more richness than you can ever fully imagine.
What you already know, is not all there is. And because of that, there is always room for growth.
There is something in your world today that you can take to a higher level. There is some aspect of life's immeasurable abundance that you have the opportunity to uncover and experience.
Seek right now to connect with a real and refreshing portion of life's goodness that you've never touched before. Know that it is there, and you will find your way to it.
-- Ralph Marston
Joy is not something you find. It is something you choose to create, to live and to experience.
The experience of joy does not in any way deplete the amount of joy available. On the contrary, the experience of joy makes possible even more profound and sustained joy.
Some would say that joy is not possible, or not realistic, or not appropriate in certain situations. Yet those very situations are the ones to which joy can bring the most value.
Joy requires nothing and gives much. And you have the truly magnificent ability to create joy.
Joy is not the result of success. Joy is, in fact, a significant cause of success.
Make this day joyful by filling it with joy. The more you choose to experience it, the more joy there will be.
-- Ralph Marston
You are worthy of the best in life. It's not because anyone tells you so or gives you permission to be, but because you know deep down that you are.
You have every reason to feel great about the good and valuable things you have done. You have the ability to expand on that goodness, on that value, on your own special gifts.
Where you are is a very good place to be. For you are in a position to truly make a difference by expressing and fulfilling your most deeply held values and dreams.
Certainly things are not perfect, and your world is filled with difficult challenges. Yet there is real treasure hidden within those challenges, for you have what it takes to move successfully through them.
You know how great it feels to accomplish something positive and meaningful. Listen to that feeling, for it connects you to your purpose and your ability to do great things.
Whatever you can imagine, you are worthy of reaching. Choose to make everything in your life worthy of the unique and valuable person you are.
-- Ralph Marston
Mistakes are valuable reminders that you do not know it all. And as such, they provide golden opportunities to learn.
Mistakes are a sure sign that you're making progress. For when you make mistakes, it means you are putting forth effort and having an influence.
Mistakes are certainly no cause for shame. The greatest achievements require you to work your way through the greatest errors and misunderstandings.
Mistakes are not to be feared. For the same actions that enable you to make a mistake also put you in a position to correct it.
When you're willing to accept the possibility of mistakes, you're able to follow the best opportunities. When you become experienced at handling mistakes, you'll be skilled at creating real value.
Success comes not from avoiding all mistakes, but from learning to find a positive way forward no matter what may happen. With each mistake, get over it, get wisdom from it, and become even more effective than you were before.
-- Ralph Marston
...It may be difficult
for you
to believe that
GOD knows your name...
but He does.
Written on His hand.
Spoken by His mouth.
Whispered by His lips.
Your Name.
"I have written your name on My hand." - Isaiah 49:16
You have captured
the heart of GOD.
He cannot bear to live
without you.
GOD's dream is
to make you right
with HIM.
And the path to the cross
tell us exacly how far
GOD will go to call us back.
"It is not our love for GOD;
it is GOD's love for us
is sending HIS Son
to be the way
to take away our sins." - 1 John 4:10
If you want
to touch GOD's heart,
use the name HE loves to hear.
Call him "FATHER."
He thinks you're wonderfull
--- Excerpts from the book, GOD thinks you're Wonderful!, by america's best selling inspirational author, Max Lucado
Happy VALENTINES Day!
Every fear you feel is coming from you. All your thoughts of negativity are being created in your own mind.
And because of that, you can be free of them. For it is you who ultimately decides where your mind will go and what it will hold.
Your thoughts are not caused by anything outside of you. They are the result of the way you've chosen to respond to life.
If your thoughts seem to be holding you prisoner, remember that those thoughts are of your own choosing. You can always, at any time, make a different choice.
Simply imagine being free of your fears, and suddenly that's precisely where you are. Fill your mind with positive, empowering thoughts and you'll quickly crowd out the thoughts that bring you down.
Reality is as it is, and you can choose to see it in any light you wish. Cast a positive light on life, and you'll connect yourself with real success.
-- Ralph Marston
When there's something that needs to be done, give yourself a moment to do it. When there's a decision that must be made, give yourself a moment to think it through.
When life demands a response, give yourself a moment to find the most positive and meaningful one. When someone is explaining something to you, give yourself a moment to truly listen and to understand.
Life is made up of many moments, one right after another. The big outcomes, results and achievements depend on what you do with all those little moments along the way.
With each moment you can choose to let it pass or to let it bring you down. Or, you can decide to make good use of that moment with positive purpose, value and love.
How many times have you looked back on your life with regret, and wished you had given yourself a moment to do what could have easily been done? Now is your opportunity to avoid such future regrets by recognizing the great value in each moment.
When life is asking something of you, give yourself a moment to make it right. And when you add up all those moments, you'll find you've made life great.
-- Ralph Marston
Life's most beautiful and fulfilling moments are the most sincere and authentic ones. When you are being yourself, that is when you are at your best.
Why do you so quickly latch on to someone else's idea of success, while at the same time ignoring your own authentic dreams? Why do you so easily dismiss your own instincts and intuitions?
Others may claim to be experts in this field or that. Remember, though, that you are the expert when it comes to your own life.
Listen to the longings of your heart. Pay attention to that little voice inside of you.
For that voice knows you well. It knows what you can accomplish, what brings you joy, and what things you most highly value.
When something feels right, that's a reliable sign that it is. Choose to live each moment as the authentic person you are, and from those moments you will create much real and lasting richness.
-- Ralph Marston
Achievement most often takes place under conditions that are less than ideal. Just because there is some problem or difficulty or shortcoming in your life at the moment, it does not prevent you from moving forward.
Focus not on what is missing or what is wrong. Focus on doing your very best within the circumstances as they are.
Seek not to find an excuse. Instead, do what you have chosen to do, create what you have chosen to create, live as you have chosen to live, no matter what.
If you wait until conditions are perfect, you'll spend most of your time waiting. You'll be far better off when you go ahead and put that time to effective and productive use.
There may be plenty of reasonable excuses for not moving forward. Go ahead and do it anyway.
Sure, it would be great if some things were a little different, yet the reality is that conditions are as they are. Do it anyway, for that is the way it will get done.
-- Ralph Marston
The world around you will follow the example that you set. The shortcomings in others that frustrate you the most are able to do so because they resonate with similar shortcomings in your own life.
Make improvements in your own attitude and behavior, and you'll see corresponding improvements in those around you. Focus your own thoughts on the positive possibilities, and others will pick up on and emulate that focus.
Stop searching for blame and start mending what's broken. Stop seeking to judge and start putting your values into positive, productive action.
Your influence is far greater than you now realize. Use that influence wisely, to build, to grow, and to improve everything with which you are connected.
Every achievement, every injustice, every inspiration, every frustration that you notice has something to teach you about yourself. Learn the lessons well, apply them with true commitment, and you'll change your world as well as yourself.
Set a shining example with the way you live each day. For life is watching and busily following along with your every move.
-- Ralph Marston
What will you make real in your world today? There are so many possibilities.
Will you focus so heavily on your fears that you create and empower the very things you fear? Or will you fill yourself with positive visions that your awareness and actions can then bring to life?
The expectations you have carry a great amount of power. So choose today to expect the best you can imagine in every situation.
Your thoughts attract people, objects and circumstances that closely match those thoughts. Be sure to make them peaceful, positive and empowering thoughts, and they'll be faithfully reflected in your world.
The way you see things determines what you see, and what you see determines the substance that your life creates. Make it a meaningful, fulfilling substance.
The reality of this day will come largely from the way you think, feel, learn, respond, observe and act. Choose to make it the best one yet.
-- Ralph Marston
Appreciate beauty, and suddenly you are the beauty. Experience joy, and you become the joy.
There are times in your past that can bring a smile to your face whenever you recall them. Though those particular circumstances have long passed, the joy from them is still with you.
That joy continues to live within you. It is a part of who you are.
Because you are who you are, joy is able to experience itself again and again. Beauty is able to know how wonderfully beautiful it is.
Through your life, love is able to feel its presence. Truth is able to know that it is so.
You are life itself. And in this moment, the magnificent possibilities beckon.
-- Ralph Marston
A new year is here. It's a great opportunity to re-examine your assumptions, and to get rid of the ones that no longer make any sense.
Assumptions can be very useful because they free you from having to think through every little detail. Assumptions are a practical way to make positive use of your extensive past experience.
Remember, though, that change is a constant part of life. People change, conditions change, the world changes, and all those changes can quickly make your assumptions obsolete.
Outdated assumptions can keep you stuck when there's really no reason for you to be stuck. Outdated assumptions can prevent you from connecting with good and valuable things that are easily within your reach.
As you go through each day, make note of the assumptions you rely upon. Select a few of those assumptions and seriously challenge them.
You'll find limitations you thought you had that are no longer there, and opportunities you never knew about that are now open to you. As the new year begins, free yourself from outdated assumptions, and you'll find all sorts of new possibilities popping into view.
-- Ralph Marston
The confidence to do the big things comes from the experience of willingly and reliably doing the small things. Every moment is your opportunity to build that confidence.
Others can encourage you and support you, yet no one can build your own confidence for you. True confidence is something created for you by your actions.
The confidence you already have comes from the challenges you have successfully faced. Make use of that confidence, and it grows.
Every time you act to create value, you also create increased confidence. No task is too small or unimportant, for every result you work to achieve builds more confidence.
If climbing a mountain seems out of reach, start by climbing a few gentle hills. The confidence you gain will put you on your way to achieving the goals that once seemed so far away.
Today you'll encounter dozens of situations that can build your confidence. The more you choose to do, the higher you'll be able to reach, with real and lasting confidence.
-- Ralph Marston
Love is the greatest gift. It brings warm light to the cold darkness and offers hope where before there was none.
Love changes lives. Even though it has no logical reason to be, love persists after all else has faded.
Love is lighter than the smallest snowflake and stronger than the mightiest army. With love, the impossible becomes real.
What is built and nurtured with love can withstand any challenge. Love understands, enables, protects and inspires.
The more love you give away, the more you will have. In love is the power of patience and the freedom of forgiveness.
On this day of Christmas giving, choose to offer the greatest, most meaningful and lasting gift you can give. With every word, with every thought, with every gesture, with every interaction, give love.
-- Ralph Marston
This day is here to be experienced. So fill it with rich and unique experiences.
Go somewhere you've never been. Learn about a subject you've never understood.
Create something that has never existed before. Transform an acquaintance into a friendship.
Say what you feel, and then live what you say. Put your most treasured values and dreams into action.
Relish the pure beauty that can be found in the most seemingly ordinary moments. Give of yourself just because of how right it feels.
Fill this day with thoughts about things you've never considered before, with meaningful actions, with your own unique beauty and love. Every moment is your opportunity to live more fully than you've ever lived before.
-- Ralph Marston
Before you respond, take a breath. Before you respond, take a moment to think.
When you instantly and automatically react, it allows the people and events around you to take control of your life. When, on the other hand, you thoughtfully and deliberately respond, it puts you firmly in control.
You can watch, listen and learn from all that's going on in your world. Yet you never have to let it all get to you.
Always remember that you can choose how to think and feel about whatever is happening. Even more importantly, you can choose what, if anything, to do about it.
Stay ever connected to your dreams, your values, your experience and your wisdom. Give yourself a moment to consider the best of who you are before you decide how to speak or to act.
Every moment is a choice that you have the opportunity to make. Choose those possibilities that will move you steadily and decisively forward.
-- Ralph Marston
Living in joyful harmony with life is not that difficult at all. What can be difficult is getting away from the negative patterns that have become so comfortable and familiar.
It helps when you can remind yourself often of who you are and who you are not. You are not your problems or your pleasures, and are not the collection of material objects and concerns that surround you.
You are the awareness that can find meaning and bring out purpose in it all. You are the experience of being alive and the wisdom that is able to rise above the commotion.
The negativity you wish to escape is with you only as long as you hold on to it. Can you choose to let it fall cleanly away from you?
Of course you can, and the question to ask yourself is this. When will you?
Remember that you are more than anything that could bring you down. Let go, and let the joy of being rise peacefully to the surface.
-- Ralph Marston
The ability to achieve is part of your very nature. It's an ability you can tap into by the way you live your life.
If you're vague about what you intend to do, the results you get will be of minimal value at best. When, on the other hand, you are clear and specific about your goals, you'll be able to work your way to stunningly magnificent achievements.
If you set your sights too low, your goals will fail to ignite your passion and you'll quickly lose interest in reaching them. Instead, follow the very best, most meaningful and compelling dreams you can imagine, and they will pull you powerfully forward.
When you expect to get something for nothing, you can expect to be disappointed every time. Yet when you seek to give the best you have, then you'll end up reaching the best you can imagine.
When your thoughts and actions are scattered and haphazard, you'll find your efforts getting you nowhere. Discipline yourself to focus all your energy in a consistent direction, and there's no limit to how far you can go.
Do you wish to choose achievement? Then choose to be clear, passionate, respectful, productive and focused, and the achievement will surely come.
-- Ralph Marston
How do you get ahead when so many factors are working against you? Choose to take the initiative.
Don't wait until you're so far behind that you end up struggling to catch up. Get out in front of what must be done, long before the time comes.
See every moment as an opportunity to make real progress, and you'll find ways to do just that. See every turn of events, every situation, every encounter as a way to build value.
Learn from your mistakes, and apply what you've learned to quickly recover lost ground. Learn from your successes, and look for ways to multiply your productive efforts.
Stop wishing for the easy way out. Instead, invest your precious time in working on ever more effective ways to create real value.
You won't get ahead by searching in vain for ways to quickly jump there. You will get ahead by using every opportunity to steadily and diligently work your way there, step after step after step.
-- Ralph Marston
Focus not on how old or how young you are. Instead, fill your mind with thoughts of how great life can be at any time.
Think not about how much or how little money you have. Consider the opportunities that are always available for creating true living and lasting value.
Don't spend time dwelling on the differences between you and others. Look instead at how you can make a positive difference in the lives of those around you.
Don't become mired in resentment over your shortcomings and limitations. Instead, find new ways to gratefully explore the magnificent possibilities that are open to you.
You can choose the way you relate to what has been and what is now. Choose to move forward with the very best of it all.
Let go of the shallow labels and limiting expectations that you or others may have attached to your life. Today, right now, be every good thing you know you can be.
-- Ralph Marston
What is today telling you? Instead of feeling that you must fight against the events and developments of this day, decide to carefully listen.
Imagine that there's a message in each circumstance that comes your way. Proceed as if you're receiving valuable information that can make a real difference in your life and in your world.
Instead of becoming completely consumed by what's happening, take a moment to consider why. Then go one step further and look at ways you can make use of the new knowledge that is coming your way.
The challenges that arrive, the joys you experience, the disappointments, the discoveries, and the seemingly random happenings all add up to something. Let go of the need to instantly jump to shallow conclusions about each little thing, and seek to know the whole picture.
Find out for yourself what happens when you make the assumption that everything occurs for a reason, and that those reasons are good. Take a step back from what seems to be turmoil, observe with your heart, and you'll begin to see order.
Choose to see the message that today is bringing. And you'll find in it real treasure.
-- Ralph Marston
You will accomplish whatever you sincerely believe you will accomplish. And you can believe whatever you choose to believe.
When you truly believe you can, then you can. For your actions in each moment are vigorously guided by the things you believe about yourself.
Your beliefs influence you even when you're not thinking about them. That gives them a constant and enormous power to affect your reality.
The things that you believe to be out of your reach will indeed be out of your reach as long as your beliefs stay the same. You can, however, change your beliefs to include whatever possibilities you dare to imagine.
Visualize yourself reaching the goal, and your belief begins to grow. Take solid and consistent steps in the direction of that goal, and your belief becomes more firmly entrenched with each action.
Allow yourself, with everything you are, to fully believe in whatever you seek to do. And it will surely be.
-- Ralph Marston
If you wait for things to be perfect, you'll be waiting a very long time. Instead, go ahead and fill your life with as much love and joy and goodness and positive experience as you can imagine.
There are plenty of reasons for not taking action, and numerous things that can go wrong. Be wise, careful, and reasonable to be sure, but don't be afraid to joyfully live.
This very day is overflowing with wonderful possibilities. Take hold of the best of those possibilities, and dive deeply into their richness.
Let go of your concerns about what others would think. Let go of your far-fetched worries about what might could go wrong.
Fill this day with the unique energy that is you. Make a positive and glowing contribution to the world that comes straight from your deepest purpose.
Today is a day to learn, to explore, to build and teach, to love and enjoy. Everything you need is here, ready for you to make it happen.
-- Ralph Marston
As you go through this day, make whatever choices you wish. And remind yourself with each one that it is indeed your own choice.
Be an aware and observant witness of all the choices you make. You'll find that it adds power and perspective to everything you do.
Many times when you have the opportunity to make a choice, you essentially give that choice away. This happens when you allow yourself to react in a conditioned and predictable manner out of sheer habit.
But you never have to do that. Each choice can indeed be your very own.
You don't have to be offended when someone seeks to offend you. You don't have to become angry when others seek to incite your anger for their own purposes.
You can make any choice you wish. Pay close attention to those choices, and you'll quickly learn to harness their awesome power.
-- Ralph Marston
Effort becomes effortless when it is driven by a deep and abiding purpose. Achievements fall easily and naturally into place when they are in harmony with who you are.
Fear disappears when you realize that the things that truly matter can never be taken away from you. Creativity blossoms with each moment spent in gratitude for the limitless abundance of life.
Distractions lose their power when you focus on your loving intentions. No circumstance can hold you back when you know who you truly are.
Beyond the small and petty concerns of the ego are magnificent and endless possibilities. Beyond the shortsighted need to selfishly control the little things is the very real ability to positively influence everything.
Life goes your way to the extent that you give it meaning and purpose. Your thoughts, words and actions bring unique and lasting value to the extent that they express who you are.
Stop fighting your fears and they will stop holding you back. Dare to touch your deepest purpose and bring it fully to life.
-- Ralph Marston
There will come a day when your innermost imaginings will become your outer reality. What are you choosing to imagine right now?
There will come a day when your habits will be so firmly ingrained that they'll carry you along without you even thinking about them. What kinds of habits are you working to develop?
There will come a day when you'll suddenly encounter a magnificent and wonderful opportunity that's just perfect for you. What are you doing today that will prepare you to make the most of that opportunity?
There will come a day when all the superficial concerns fall away. What are you doing in this moment to give real meaning and purpose and substance to life?
The things you do today affect not only today. They build you and prepare you and position you for all the days that will come.
That makes this very day your most important opportunity. For the person you choose to be today is the person who will carry you forward toward all those days that will surely come.
-- Ralph Marston
Sometimes you can make life much more difficult by attempting to make it too easy. Sometimes the shortcuts you seek end up being a lot more trouble than they're worth.
Often, in trying to avoid work, you can create even more work for yourself. Often, in seeking to avoid an unpleasant or inconvenient truth, you give even more power, influence and recognition to that truth.
Taking the easy way out is rarely that easy. For when you avoid the effort and commitment in life, you end up missing out on the real value.
The more willingly, lovingly and enthusiastically you make the effort, the more value that effort will bring. The more time you commit to making a difference, the more magnificent your world will be.
Instead of looking for ways to avoid work, look for ways to make that work more productive and more meaningful. Instead of seeking to hide from the truth, learn to align yourself with its power.
Be always anxious to give your best to life. For the life you create is the life you will live.
-- Ralph Marston
To change your reality, first change your perceptions. To bring something into your world, first bring it fully to life within yourself.
Go beyond merely thinking about what you would like to do, or be, or create. Go ahead and experience it in detail with all that you are.
In your mind's eye, with your emotions fully engaged, surround yourself with the richness of whatever you envision. Fill your awareness with the sights, the sounds, the feelings, and the texture of it all.
Allow yourself to experience the pure joy of the best life you can imagine. Let that feeling penetrate to the very depth of your being.
Make it real within you, and you'll begin to make it real in the world around you. Know without a doubt that it is, and it will begin to be.
Bring your vision to life on the stage of your awareness. And the positive energy you focus upon it will surely make it real.
-- Ralph Marston
What if you have more power, much more power in fact, than you realize? What would you want to do with it?
What if the way you look at the world could change the world itself? What kind of world would you choose to see?
What if things you always considered impossible were suddenly to happen for you? What new possibilities would you start to consider?
What if you discovered, without the slightest trace of doubt, that your reality springs faithfully and relentlessly from your imagination? What would you begin to imagine?
Do the limits in your life exist because someone or something has imposed them on you? Or are they there because you have chosen the comfort of their familiarity?
Imagine letting go of those limits, and watching them fall effortlessly away. What magnificent world will you dare to create?
-- Ralph Marston
Life's triumphs and life's tragedies often arise from exactly the same situations. When circumstances make it the most likely that the worst will happen, there can be just as much possibility for the best to happen.
Nothing ever has to be as bad as it seems, because you have the opportunity to respond to it. Every troubling situation has within it the seeds of great opportunity.
What are the things that are troubling you most today? Somehow there is a way to transform those difficulties into great accomplishments.
The very factors that hold you back also provide you with ways to move forward. Look at them with an eye for positive possibilities, and you will see them in a new and empowering light.
There is never any reason to be a victim of your circumstances. You can always choose to rise above them.
For you can see, and learn, and think, and act, and you can do it all with a deep and driving purpose. Remember who you truly are, and there is no mere circumstance that can hold you down for long.
-- Ralph Marston
Why do you cling to outdated assumptions? Let them go and free your mind to be filled with more valuable, effective thoughts and perceptions.
Why do you miss out on so much of life in an attempt to maintain a sense of comfort and security? The real security comes from being willing and able to gracefully handle all of life's ups and downs as they come your way.
Why do you let your fears stop you from living the rich and full life you were created to experience? Step back, look at those fears, let them teach you and prepare you, and then move confidently forward.
Why do you allow the least little setback to keep you down for so long? Learn to see the opportunity in everything that happens.
Why do you put so many burdensome conditions on your own happiness? Discover that happiness is a powerful state of being that you can choose, no matter what.
Why do you sit so long and wonder what is to be done? Your most treasured dreams are ready, right now, to be lived.
-- Ralph Marston
Your limits are as real as you perceive them to be. What if you changed your perceptions?
There is a world of possibilities beyond the comfortable and familiar boundaries that you've accepted for yourself. Imagine going into and exploring that world.
There are great and wonderful things you can do that you don't believe you can do. What if your beliefs were to grow?
There are positive and valuable options available to you that you've never dared to consider. Perhaps it is time to consider them.
You have the power to make this the very best, most joyful and fulfilling day you've ever lived. And then, you have the power to make tomorrow even better.
Can you dare to imagine it and believe it to the point where you feel it in your bones? When you do, it will be.
-- Ralph Marston
Life constantly longs for meaning. So choose today to give it some.
Do something that truly means something. Take action that will make a positive and substantive difference in your world.
Take a stand in favor of whatever it is you value and treasure the most. Take a stand in favor of life.
Align your thoughts and actions with your passions and convictions. Do what you know without a doubt is right.
Take an empty moment and fill it with beauty. Find a disillusioned heart and fill it with love.
Be a reminder to all those around you of the depth and intensity of meaning that life holds. In your own special way, give meaning to life and that meaning will surely grow.
-- Ralph Marston
Keep your eyes on the goal and your feet on the path. Let the long-term consequences of your efforts encourage you forward as you give your focus to the task at hand.
Any achievement is within your reach because the next step is always accessible to you. You can take that step any time you decide to do so.
And when you do, the step after that is suddenly there for you to choose. By putting one foot in front of the other, the once-distant goal grows closer and closer.
Yes, it will take sustained effort and commitment. And yes, you are fully capable of doing whatever it takes.
Your dreams are longing for you to bring them to life. And the process of doing so will indeed bring you more fully to life.
You can do it, in this very moment, and in the next, and in the next. Set your sights high and keep moving, for you're already well on your way.
-- Ralph Marston
There is energy available to you in every situation, every encounter and every moment. And you can direct that energy in whatever way you choose.
That's how it is possible, and can even be quite likely, for a tragic situation to give rise to a beneficial opportunity. Once the energy is flowing, it can be directed toward any purpose.
Though it certainly takes effort and commitment, illness, for example, can provide the springboard to improved health. Injustice can similarly be transformed into caring and compassion.
A highly adversarial relationship can be changed into one filled with love and respect. The most bitter of enemies can become the greatest of friends.
The energy is always there. What you do with it and the way you direct that energy can make all the difference in the world.
No negative outcome is a foregone conclusion as long as you have the will to redirect the energy of life toward positive purpose. What energy can you redirect on this very day?
-- Ralph Marston
Let hope encourage you to take action. Don't let it be a substitute for action.
To have hope in your heart is more than to merely wish. The power of hope comes from the effort and commitment it inspires.
Hope can give you a reason when no other reason is there. Hope can make the impossible happen.
Yet for hope to work for you, you must work for it. Hope is not a free ride, but rather is a deeply compelling and meaningful path to follow.
Make the effort, do the work, deal with the challenges, and hope will prove to be an indispensable ally. Add the fervor of your hope to the effectiveness of your actions, and you'll have a winning combination indeed.
Point your hope toward the highest peak you can imagine. Then give the best that you have to see it through.
-- Ralph Marston
From where you are right now, the possibilities stretch out, as far as you can imagine, in every direction. Which ones will you choose to follow?
There are things you currently know nothing about, that you can learn. There are places you've never heard of, that you can discover and know.
There are endless combinations of people, places, things, ideas, and events poised to come into your life. Which of them will you choose to experience?
There are magnificent achievements, perfectly suited for you, which you have not yet even considered. There are things of great value that can flow from your passions, your skills, your knowledge and your willingness to make something meaningful out of it all.
The problems are many in this world, yet they are very small indeed when compared to the possibilities for a rich and fulfilling life. On this day, in this moment, you have the opportunity to choose from among a delicious variety of potential paths.
Life begins anew with the breath you take right now. Seize this grand opportunity and make it truly great.
-- Ralph Marston
Life can be great when you simply go with it. Instead of excessive worrying or endless analyzing, just make your choice and then move forward with it.
Your first instinct is often your best one, because it comes from your authentic self. When you start taking a lot of other conflicting opinions and perspectives into account, your options quickly shrink.
Certainly it pays to think things through, and to consider the advice of others. Just don't let it all dilute the passion that can energize your life.
Trying to make the perfect decision can often lead to no decision at all. Trying to avoid every mistake can be the biggest mistake, because you also avoid getting anything done.
Though you can plan for the future, you cannot precisely predict it. So go ahead with the best you have, and you'll be completely able to deal with whatever may happen.
Even though it has no guarantees, this day is an incredible opportunity. So step confidently, enthusiastically forward with a smile on your face and go with it.
-- Ralph Marston
Choose to live for, rather than against. Focus on what you love and not on any kind of hate.
Practice genuine, cleansing forgiveness, and let the burden of resentment fall softly away. Remind yourself that worry accomplishes nothing worthwhile, and give your awareness to more productive pursuits.
Put your energy into building what is creative, valuable and empowering. And you won't have to constantly fight against what is destructive and draining.
Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possibilities inspire you more than the obstacles discourage you.
You have so very much to live for. Look at each twist and turn in the road with a grateful heart, and you'll find real treasure in every direction.
Live your days on the positive side of life, in tune with your most treasured values. And in each moment you'll have much to live for.
-- Ralph Marston
This is the day that is. This is the day you now have.
There's nothing to be gained by wishing for what might have been today. There's no value to be had in harboring resentment for whatever brought you to this point.
What matters now is that you fill this day with the best that you have. What matters now is that you make full and positive use of the day that is.
This day has the very real potential of being a turning point in your life. Years from now, you could be looking back on this day with an overflowing sense of satisfaction and gratitude.
What can you do, right now, that would cause that to happen? What value can you put into this day that will grow ever more precious as time goes on?
This day is the time and the place for you to carry your life forward. So where do you choose to go?
-- Ralph Marston
In genuine humility, there is enormous power. Free yourself from the demands of your ego, and there is no limit to where you can go.
Let go of your desire to control others, and you vastly improve the ability to control, focus and direct your own actions. Let go of the illusion that you already know it all, and you open yourself to higher levels of enlightenment.
Move beyond the need to blame, and you gain a greater degree of responsibility. Get past the impulse to place judgments on others, and you're able to focus much more clearly on matters of real and lasting value.
Give up the thought that you're better than everyone else, and a whole new world of opportunity opens up to you. Stop seeking unfair advantage, and you're free to develop an unstoppable effectiveness.
Quit demanding the most and start expecting the best. You'll experience a level of true abundance that you never before could have imagined.
Live each moment with humility, love, respect and gratitude for the whole of life that surrounds you. And you will find a treasure that has no end.
-- Ralph Marston
If you allow others to define happiness for you, then you're not going to truly experience it. If you allow others to dictate what your dreams should be, you will never reach them.
The way to surely and reliably realize your dreams is to choose the ones that have real meaning for you. The way to know happiness is by allowing it to be what you want it to be.
Happiness is whatever you decide it is. And as such, it is always well within your reach.
In any circumstance, happiness is yours to define and to know. No outside factor, no other person, no twist of fate can keep happiness away from you when you allow it to flow out from you.
Putting conditions and restrictions on happiness keeps it at a distance away from you. Let go of the restrictions, and happiness is free to fill your awareness.
The smallest, plainest, simplest moment can be fertile ground for the most extraordinary happiness. Let happiness be from you, and it will absolutely be with you.
-- Ralph Marston
Diligent preparation leads to outstanding achievement. What are you preparing for right now?
In every moment, in every action, you are preparing yourself for one thing or another. Prepare yourself for the life you desire to lead, and it will come to be.
Opportunities are constantly coming your way. Yet in order for them to be of any value, you must be prepared to take hold of those opportunities.
The sooner you begin to prepare, the more you can achieve. Being prepared gives you considerably more options, and puts time on your side.
Live joyfully and completely in each moment, knowing that you are preparing yourself for the times to come. Build one day upon another, with focus, positive intention and purpose, and you'll build a life that's truly spectacular.
Each moment is your opportunity to prepare yourself for reaching higher and higher levels of fulfillment. Prepare well, and your life will reap many great rewards.
-- Ralph Marston
You can have anything you desire when you have something to offer in return. The path to lasting success is traveled by continuously creating something new and valuable to offer.
If your focus is on getting, and taking, and acquiring, you will meet up with much resistance. Such an approach will make it nearly impossible to accomplish the goals you've set for yourself.
Focus instead on finding ways to give, to create value, and to make that real and meaningful value available to others. When you seek to give of yourself, the possibilities for doing so will have no limit.
Many people are, by nature, quite thoroughly self-centered. Do you realize what an incredible opportunity that represents?
By giving people what they want, you can readily achieve whatever you want. Work to advance the interests of others, and your own interests are even more profoundly advanced.
Look at the world around you and ask yourself what you're able to offer that can bring value to the moment and to the situation. Answer that question and you've figured out how to move quickly ahead.
-- Ralph Marston
Even the smallest light cuts a path through the deepest darkness. Let the light of your own goodness fully shine, and experience the positive impact it imparts.
Those who can only tear down and destroy grow weaker and more vulnerable with every action. Those who sincerely respect and value life have infinitely more possibilities open to them.
Those things gained through deception, repression, fear and intimidation are never worth having. They begin to crumble even before they are realized.
Those things gained through creative, positive, loving and respectful pursuits, on the other hand, quickly spread and multiply. That's because within each act of genuine goodness are fertile seeds of even greater goodness.
Each day life presents many and varied challenges. Every one of those challenges is an opportunity to confirm and intensify the truth and goodness with which life is filled.
Though it is often difficult, choose in each word, each thought, each action, to shine your positive light on the world. For it is in that choice that you will find a world and a life that is rich, and full, and truly beautiful to behold.
-- Ralph Marston
Sometimes the world appears to be spinning out of control. Sometimes there seems to be no end to the distressing news.
Sometimes it feels like troubles are being piled on top of troubles. Sometimes it can look as if there could never be a way forward.
And yet, that way forward is always as close as your next thought. For no matter how difficult and discouraging life may have become, with each dawning moment, a new world of positive possibilities opens up to you.
From the darkest depths of despair, hope does indeed grow and take flight. Out of difficult situations, new strategies emerge for creating real value and spreading life's goodness.
Remember that the future does not have to be an extension of the past. For you can act right now to create that future out of the abundance of positive possibilities.
Life always has its challenges, and those challenges are what enable you to bring real value to life. Whatever the circumstance, step boldly forward and choose to move the world positively ahead.
-- Ralph Marston
There is a purpose that defines you. Live true to that purpose, and you bring unstoppable power and persistence to your actions.
There is a purpose that fulfills you. Find and understand that purpose, and you will achieve great and meaningful things.
There is a purpose that is you. But how do you uncover that purpose?
Learn to let go of all the things that ultimately have no lasting meaning. Choose to look at life and to see what you know, rather than what others tell you that you should see.
Look beyond the fleeting, superficial concerns of fame, fortune and fashion. Focus instead on building real and timeless qualities such as value, wisdom and love.
Seek that which is real, that which has substance, and the purpose that is your own will become abundantly clear. Stay connected to that purpose, and experience its unmatched power.
-- Ralph Marston
Before you complain about how bad things are, take a few moments to make them better. Before you consider the day to be wasted, spend some time and effort to bring it real value.
Before you allow frustration to consume you, step back and put things in perspective. Then take a deep breath and choose to move forward with a peaceful, more effective approach.
Before you begin to fret about your own troubles, give your help to another. When you give of yourself, you'll discover resources and abilities you never before knew you had.
Before you give yourself over to anger, take time to listen and to understand. Before you lash out and tear down, look instead for ways to build bridges and create value.
Before you sink into the depths of self pity, see if you can find something to laugh about. When you avoid taking yourself too seriously, many more opportunities can open up to you.
Before you say or do something you know you'll regret, remind yourself of your highest purpose and vision. Before you take the next step, look where you're going, and choose the path that you know is best.
-- Ralph Marston
Ambition and patience make a powerful team. Ambition gives you the drive and the enthusiasm to get things started, and patience sees them through.
Without ambition, you would never get going. Without patience, you would give up long before the goal was reached.
When you choose to develop and activate both your ambition and your patience, you've created a relentless combination. For not only will you be effective, that effectiveness will continue to be applied over time.
With enough ambition, you can make just about anything happen, but not right away. The most effective effort is continuing effort, and that is what patience makes possible.
You never have to choose between ambition and patience. You can live with them both at the same time, and when you do, great things will happen.
Success comes to those who know when to push and when to wait. Balance ambitious effort with a deep, underlying patience, and the results you achieve will be truly amazing.
-- Ralph Marston
Are you tired of falling behind and always having to play catch up? Then make it a priority to get out in front of your life.
It doesn't take any more effort to get things done before they need to be done than it does to procrastinate. It will in fact save you from the wasteful anxiety that comes as a result of waiting until the last minute.
There are things you don't have to do today that you could still go ahead and get done. And the further ahead you get, the more time you'll have to do what you enjoy and prefer to be doing.
Instead of waiting for the week, or day, or hour before the deadline to get started, go ahead and get it done now. Then, instead of dreading the approaching deadline, you can enjoy yourself and feel good knowing you're already on top of things.
Once you start to get a little bit ahead of where you need to be, the feeling is so positive that you'll be anxious to get even further ahead. Once you experience how much more effective you can be when you're not rushed, you'll want to repeat that experience again and again.
Choose to live life on your own terms instead of always being weighed down by a deadline. Choose to get out in front of your life, and delight in creating your own destiny.
-- Ralph Marston
Know that what needs to be done will be done. Know that even in sorrow there is goodness.
Know that there is more, much more, than your mind can ever explain, and it is beautiful beyond all telling. Know that there is a purpose behind every glimmer of desire.
Know that there is a solid and navigable connection to the reality of whatever you may imagine. Know that what you seek with sincerity and passion, you will reach.
Know that what you give expands with the giving, and comes back to you stronger than ever. Know that all is as it is meant to be, and the possibilities continue to expand and evolve.
Know that every energy is focused on this now moment. And know that abundance has no beginning or end.
Know that the miracle is not something outside of you. The miracle is that you know.
-- Ralph Marston
It's useful to get things done in a timely manner. And yet, the quickest way is not always the best way.
Our culture has become geared to immediate gratification. But often, life's treasures can gain much more value when you wait a while for them.
Though there are more and more ways to achieve instant results, there is really no way to receive instant fulfillment. The things that bring real meaning and joy to life are the things in which you're able to invest yourself over time.
Life is best when it can be savored. Rushing from one thing to the next can fill your days with sensation, yet it leaves your spirit sadly empty.
You don't have to do it all or have it all today. Take the time to fully experience and enjoy the moment you're in.
Life is already filled with more richness than you could ever imagine. Give yourself the opportunity to take it all in.
-- Ralph Marston
Have the courage to appear foolish, for the real fools are those who never attempt anything. Have the courage to make mistakes, for they can teach you like nothing else can.
Have the courage to take action. For even though your actions carry the possibility of failure, if you never act then you are certain to fail.
Have the courage to live each day fully, with enthusiasm and a generous spirit. Though there are many problems in this world, there are a whole lot more positive possibilities.
Have the courage to do what is right instead of what is easiest or most convenient. It will earn you the respect of others and, even more importantly, the respect of yourself.
Have the courage to see and accept things for what they are. That will put you in position to make a real difference.
Have the courage to love, to speak your mind, to follow your curiosity and your passions. Have the courage to give of yourself, for the goodness you give will come back to you over and over again.
-- Ralph Marston
Note:
Turut berduka cita untuk keluarga korban Tsunami di pantai selatan pulau jawa, saat gempa di 17 Juli 2006.
Stop making life so difficult and complicated by being afraid to fully live it. Start spending more time as the person you truly are.
Stop building elaborate scenarios in your mind about what might or might not happen. Start giving your focus and energy to making the most of the moment you're in.
Stop wishing that things had been different. Start seeing the real, positive value and experience you've gained from where you've been.
Stop being so obsessed by the things you don't have and constantly distracted by your desire for more. Start to fully appreciate your blessings and to enjoy the true abundance of always having enough.
Stop worrying and fretting over what others may think. Start confidently offering your own special values, gifts and perspectives to life.
Stop wasting your time wondering about what could have been. And start to discover for yourself the incredible wonders of what can be.
-- Ralph Marston
Does the world around you seem too hectic and frenzied? Then your best response is to be extra calm, peaceful and patient.
Does the world around you seem too greedy and selfish? That's your opportunity to be extra loving, giving and sincerely compassionate.
Does the world around you seem too confusing and aimless? Then choose to be extra focused and purposeful.
The world outside reflects back to you the energy you give it. If you don't like what you see, you have every opportunity to change it by changing the way you are.
When you're a beacon in the darkness, your light will shine for a long, long way. When you're the difference that makes the difference, your efforts will bring abundant fruit.
If things around you seem to be at their worst, that's when you can accomplish the most by being your best. Shine your positive light in the face of negativity, and you will change your world.
-- Ralph Marston
What you need for this moment, you already have. Everything else is a delightful bonus.
There is nothing for which you must strive. For you are here, and alive, and aware and able.
There is no reason for worry or anxiety. There are so very many ways that you can choose to make a difference.
There are no pressures, no demands, no regrets and no struggles. There is only now and the opportunity to fully live it.
In this moment, let go of the illusion of need and you are truly wealthy beyond all measure. Realize that lack and limitation exist only in your mind, and you'll see that you can instantly be free of them.
The whole universe is yours in this moment, to live, to experience, to transform into value and fulfillment. All the best that you could ever imagine is here for you now to bring to life.
-- Ralph Marston
There is much you can know through silence. There is much you can learn by quieting your thoughts for a while.
There's no need to attempt to stop those thoughts from coming. Simply choose not to hold on to them, and soon they will recede from you on their own.
Make the choice to disconnect yourself for a time from your judgments and analyses. Allow yourself to simply be.
Take in the beauty of life without feeling the need to do anything about it. Know fully the extraordinary experience of being alive, aware, and accepting of all the goodness that is there to fill you.
Put a little distance between yourself and the confusion. dilemmas and anxieties that so often insist on grabbing your attention. Give yourself the opportunity to remember who you truly are.
Spend some time enjoying the quiet and profound beauty of being alive. It will fill you with a powerful energy that can add value to all you do.
-- Ralph Marston
In just five minutes, you can accomplish something. You can decide on a small goal, work on it with focus and diligence, and in less than five minutes it will be done.
Anyone can choose a small accomplishment and have it done in just a few minutes. And though it may not seem like much, it can be everything.
For the biggest, most impressive and imposing achievements are made up of small accomplishments. Those small accomplishments are open and freely available to anyone who decides to make them happen.
Sometimes it can be comforting to think that the path to success is a closely guarded secret, and that the lucky few who know the secret are the ones who succeed. But there really is no secret.
Success comes to those who choose to make it happen. Success comes to those who string together the small accomplishments, one after another after another.
Instead of searching or hoping or waiting for a secret that does not even exist, get busy working on what you know must be done. Take every opportunity to bring about a small accomplishment.
And before long, those small accomplishments will add up to something truly grand.
-- Ralph Marston
Imagine for a moment how you would live your life today if you had nothing to hold you back. In your mind, drop all the fears, insecurities, regrets, anxieties, limitations, worries and concerns.
Think of the things you would be free to accomplish. Think of the real and lasting value you would be able to create.
Consider all the positive experiences you could craft for yourself and for those around you. Imagine all the steps you could take to make your world a more positive, fulfilling place.
Then stop imagining and start doing. For once you're able to banish the restrictions and limitations from your thoughts, you have greatly reduced their power in your life.
The moment you can visualize being free from the things that hold you back, you have indeed begun to set yourself free. When you sincerely think you are free to act, to move forward, to accomplish, you are.
Travel in your mind to a place where you can live free of past limitations. And know that you are already well on your way there.
-- Ralph Marston
There are a few things that you must respond to immediately. In most cases, though, an immediate response, without taking the time to think it though, can be worse than no response at all.
Give yourself some valuable space between what happens and what you choose to do about it. And in that space, use your powerful mind, use your experience, use your perspective, use your intuition to craft a positive, effective response.
Lean toward under-reacting rather than overreacting. Not only will you reduce your levels of frustration and anxiety, you'll be able to more effectively handle the challenges that life brings you.
Learn to be ok with the fact that something will not be immediately resolved. Then calmly, thoughtfully, carefully and diligently move forward to obtain the most positive, valuable outcome.
If you're faced with an emergency, then by all means take action right away. Just keep in mind that emergencies are relatively rare, and in most situations you'll be far better off when you take the time to get it right.
A smart response will almost always take you further than a quick, ill-considered response. Invest the time to think it through, and that investment will reap great rewards.
-- Ralph Marston
If everything works out the way you planned, that's great. If things don't work out as planned, that can be great, too, because it opens up new possibilities to you.
Give your best thought, effort and attention to the factors that you can control. And give your full acceptance to the factors you cannot control.
What's the best response when some unforeseen event beyond your control prevents things from working out as you planned? Accept the situation, find the very best of the new possibilities that have been created, and move forward with them.
Acceptance of what has happened does not mean that you agree with it or that you resign yourself to live with it. Acceptance means that you see it for what it is and make positive use of it.
Instead of constantly worrying that something will come along to disrupt your plans, remind yourself that you can adapt to whatever may happen. Instead being paralyzed by the fear of what you cannot control, be confident in knowing that even the most difficult situations harbor positive possibilities.
Learn not to fight against what has already happened or to be stopped by what might. Instead, choose to accept what is and to use it as a springboard for magnificent success.
-- Ralph Marston
As long as there is work that must be done in this world, there is opportunity. And there is always much work to be done.
As long as there are problems to be solved, there is a clear and accessible pathway to success. And there are always problems to be solved.
As long as there are challenges to be overcome, there is a way for you to create whatever things of value you envision for your life and your world. And there are always challenges to be overcome.
When it seems that there is no end to the work that must be done, stop and consider just what that means. It means that the future can be very bright indeed.
For when there is much work to be done, there is much to be gained by doing it. Wherever there is work to be done, there is buried treasure waiting to be unearthed.
Be the person who rushes quickly in the direction of the work that is to be done. And you'll be the person who tastes life's treasures in abundance.
-- Ralph Marston
The only fears you have are the fears you choose. Choose to learn what those fears have to teach you, and then choose to let them go.
The only distractions that knock you off course are the ones to which you give your attention. Choose an interesting diversion to follow every now and then, and let the others flow on past.
The only things that can discourage you are the things you choose to see as discouraging. Keep in mind that there is some positive aspect to every situation, and you can always decide to focus on it.
The only problems that can hold you back are the ones that you avoid working your way through. Choose instead to see those problems as the opportunities they are, and then get busy fulfilling their positive promises.
The only time that is ever wasted is the time you let yourself settle for less than you're fully capable of living. At any time, in any situation, there is always a way to create real, lasting, positive value.
You are at this very moment alive in a vast and beautiful universe filled with every possibility. Choose right now to bring the very best possibilities to life.
-- Ralph Marston
A life of meaning is built out of days that have meaning. Before each day arrives, give it meaning.
Give each day meaning by deciding in advance what you will do with it. Then, when each day arrives you'll be anxious to get going and enthusiastic as you move through it, for it will have a positive purpose.
Don't waste your time looking back with regret at what you have failed to accomplish. Instead, look forward and fill each upcoming day with the challenge, the effort, the commitment, the growth and achievement that will give it real meaning.
Life is as full as you wish to make it. Each day is your opportunity to fill your life with precisely the things that mean the most to you.
By doing so, you will not only be creating fulfillment in your own life. You'll also be giving your own special gifts to the world around you.
Choose to fill each upcoming day with beauty, with love, with effort, effectiveness, discipline, commitment, focus, passion, and meaning. And truly enjoy the fact that life is what you make it.
-- Ralph Marston
Whatever happened on the previous attempt doesn't matter anymore. What matters is what you do now.
Though you may have failed once, or numerous times, or a thousand times, that has no bearing on what you're able to do now. In fact, each failed attempt brings you closer to success.
By discovering what does not work, you have more information to help you know what does work. The more you have invested in the goal, the more motivated you are to make it succeed.
Effort is never wasted, even when it leads to disappointing results. For it always makes you stronger, more capable and more experienced.
Now is the time to make use of all that strength and experience. Now is the time to push forward with more commitment and effectiveness than ever before.
Take great satisfaction in where you have been and in how far you have come. Now is your opportunity to make it into real and lasting success.
-- Ralph Marston
Have you ever changed your mind? If you're like most people, you do it often.
It takes no great effort to change your mind. And yet the consequences of doing so can be significant.
At any given moment, you have the option and the ability to change your mind. By using that ability in a positive way, you can move your life powerfully forward.
If, for example, you've already decided that the day has been wasted and nothing is going to get done, you can change your mind. And then you can set about to create real value in the time that still remains.
If you've concluded that the situation in which you find yourself is hopeless, you can change your mind. If you're thinking that nothing you do will make a difference, you can change your mind.
In fact, anytime you realize that your thoughts are working against you, choose to change your mind. Get your own thinking on your side, and you'll have a power ally indeed.
-- Ralph Marston
Impossible is nothing more than a concept that exists in the mind. Impossible is really just someone's opinion.
Many things that once were considered impossible are now commonplace. Think of all the things you use in your daily life that could not have even been imagined a couple of centuries ago.
What does it really mean when something is thought to be impossible? It usually means that, so far, no one has figured out how to do it.
Given sufficient time, commitment, effort, discipline and purpose, the impossible becomes real. What was once unreachable for anyone can become available to everyone.
Are there things you don't even dare to dream because you assume they are impossible? Rise above your limited perspective, go beyond your limiting assumptions and realize that the impossible regularly becomes real on a daily basis.
Choose to follow your highest vision, in each moment, in each decision, in each thought and action. And leave the concept of impossible far, far behind you.
-- Ralph Marston
You are the person you choose to be. So choose to be the person who fulfills and brings to life the values you hold most dearly.
Today is your opportunity to express yourself to the world through the life you live and the actions you take. The challenges of this moment provide a rich canvas upon which you can paint the highest vision you have.
Listen to the yearnings of your heart and keep pointing yourself in their direction. By focusing on what is truly meaningful, you will cause much real value and richness to spring forth from the life you live.
Choose to glide right past the shallow concerns that hold so many people back. Keep your eye on the big picture, and create new positive substance as each moment passes.
Go beyond merely appearing to be happy, and dive into the authentic joy of making a positive difference. Give the best that you have to life, and you'll find each day to be even more fulfilling than the last.
There is a treasure within you that is yearning to weave itself into the fabric of life. Go ahead and let it come shining through.
-- Ralph Marston
Failure is a normal and natural part of achievement. When the failures come, learn from them and then move quickly along.
Failure is not the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing that can happen is to let the fear of failure prevent you from ever doing anything.
If your top priority is to avoid all failure, then you will surely fail. For only by accepting and living with the possibility of failure can you succeed and achieve.
Failure is not the end of the world. It is merely another step on the pathway to fulfillment, wisdom and achievement.
Though you would never intentionally set out to fail, when failure does come the best thing to do is to gracefully accept what has happened. That will enable you to gain the most positive value from it.
Then you can move right along to the next step, and soon you'll be a long way past the failure, filled with more wisdom and experience. Let failure be, and achievement will surely come.
-- Ralph Marston
Bapa kami yang di surga,
Kami beryukur kepada-Mu karena memiliki orangtua,
saudara laki-laki maupun perempuan,
serta kawan-kawan yang mendidik kami
selama masa perkembangan kami.
Dalam mensyukuri berkat ini,
hari ini kami berdoa bagi orang-orang yang merasa
masa kecilnya masih menghantui dan melukai diri mereka,
dan mengurangi kegembiraan mereka dalam hidup.
Kami mohon bebaskanlah mereka dari
ingatan masa lalu yang menyakitkan,
yang membelenggu mereka di masa silam.
Semoga kasih dan persahabatan yang kini mereka nikmati,
dapat membangun ingatan yang membahagiakan,
yang akan memberi pengaruh positif dalam kehidupan mereka
di masa yang akan datang,
dan memberi sumber penyembuhan luka-luka batin mereka.
Semoga mereka menyadari penderitaan mereka,
dan bisa menerimanya,
sehingga tidak menjadikan mereka
kurang menghargai diri mereka sendiri.
Kami mohon ya Tuhan,
penuhilah hati mereka bukan dengan kegelapan
pengalaman pahit di masa lalu,
tetapi penuhilah dengan terbitnya hari esok
di mana mereka akan melanjutkan
perjalanan hidup untuk mencari persahabatan,
kedamaian dan pemenuhan diri di dalam Engkau,
Allah yang Maha Kuasa.
Amin
Take in the beauty of this moment and let it fill you. But do not try to hold it.
For as soon as you seek to possess it, the beauty is lost. When you grasp it too tightly, you lose the ability to experience it.
Let this beautiful moment flow toward you, and then let it flow away from you as the next moment comes to take its place. Allow the beautiful experience of life to be born again and again.
The real value of this moment is in the way you live it. Live it fully, lovingly, gratefully, and there is no need to hold on to it, for the best of it will always be a part of you.
Each moment offers its own special treasure. Let go of your need to judge, to analyze, to possess, and simply experience the wonder that is yours right now.
You are free in this moment to live, to create, to give, to grow. Lovingly open your eyes to the abundant possibilities, and dive gently into this beautiful moment.
-- Ralph Marston
You can't depend on some expert or guru to provide you with the answer you seek. Instead of looking for the answer outside yourself, choose to be the answer by the way you think and act.
You are the world's most knowledgeable expert on your own life. Put some of that expertise to good use.
Certainly others can give you advice, suggestions, inspiration and expanded perspective. Yet it is up to you to choose what is best for your own unique situation.
The most valuable course of action is not to be found by plugging yourself into someone else's formula. The success you will achieve is the success you work to define on your own terms.
Speak with your own voice, think with your own mind, and act according to your own vision. The expert advice that will be most beneficial is the control you exercise over the choices you make.
Live in such a way as to be the solution to the problems you face and the answer to the questions you ponder. And be the fulfilled, successful person you are destined to be.
Ralph Marston
Each day is filled with opportunities to make the world a better place. In any situation there are things you can do to make life more positive and fulfilling for everyone.
You may not always receive recognition for doing so, but that doesn't really matter. Because you, and everyone else, will still benefit from the positive contributions you make to the world.
When you are greeted with rudeness or indifference, give back genuine courtesy, respect and understanding. Though it may seem more natural to be rude in return, that creates no value for anyone.
When someone hurts or disappoints you, find a way to respond with forgiveness, kindness and peacefulness. Though you have experienced pain, take care not to prolong that pain.
Ironically, the best thing you can do for yourself is to move beyond your own selfish impulses and concerns. Seek to make the world a better place for everyone, and in so doing you'll discover the most effective ways to benefit your own life.
With your thoughts, your actions, your attitude and your spirit, you can make the world a better place, every day, in every situation. Get in the habit of doing just that, and you'll savor the rich rewards.
-- Ralph Marston
It's easy and pleasant to sit back and watch the world. It's even better to jump in and participate.
There is so much you have to offer. There are so many beautiful gifts you have to give.
Weave the thread of your own special perspective into the fabric of life. Become an active part of your world and all will be richer for it.
Get up, get out, get going and get involved. Every day, in all sorts of ways, there are opportunities to make a difference in your unique way.
Put real meaning into life by participating fully in it. Put real value into your world by giving of the value that is within you.
Don't just sit there and watch life happen. Make yourself a vital and positive part of it, and you will make it great.
-- Ralph Marston
Note it's #500 entry in my blog anyway!
You are capable of many wonderful things that you do not even know about. Decide to start discovering some of them.
Outside the walls of your imagined limitations, there is a whole world waiting to be experienced. Allow yourself to venture into it.
There is so very much you can do when you stop being so consumed with what you can't do. There are so many opportunities and possibilities to explore when you stop worrying about your shortcomings and disappointments.
Let go of the small, limiting thoughts that revolve only around your ego. Make room for the big, expansive thoughts that enable you to experience life's magnificent abundance.
There is so very much you can do, so very much you can be, so very much you can give. Choose to open yourself to the wealth of possibilities.
Step outside the walls of your old assumptions. And take life to a whole new level.
-- Ralph Marston
The best experience you ever had is still part of you. The most beautiful day you have ever enjoyed still lives within your heart.
All the love you've ever known is yours in this very moment. Though it arose from specific conditions, its value now goes far beyond them and continues long after those conditions have faded.
What's even better is that you can take that value and expand on it, at any time, in any place. The love, the beauty, the experiences that you treasure can serve as the basis for even more richness.
People, places, events and things pass in and out of your life. What you're left with is whatever you choose to keep.
And what you choose to keep, what you truly value and appreciate and treasure, sets the stage for what will be. The more you choose to see the good and positive aspects of each experience, the more fulfilling life will grow.
You never have to struggle to regain what you think is lost. The best is always with you, and can grow into much, much more.
-- Ralph Marston
Many obstacles don't even need to be there. They can disappear as soon as you turn your attention toward something more positive.
Some of the difficult problems you face are mostly of your own creation. Just as you created them, you can let them go and they are gone.
Certainly there are very real difficulties that you must address in the course of your life and your work. Yet many of the burdens under which you labor have been built up over time by your own thoughts and habits.
What seems to be a big problem may actually be a very small and easily resolved issue that your mind has made into a monster. Stop focusing on how bad it is and start focusing on something positive that you can do in response.
That can quickly cut it down to a manageable size, or even eliminate the problem altogether. Once you break the negative momentum that your mind has established, things will soon look a whole lot better.
It's important to effectively address the challenges that come along, yet there is no need to blow them out of proportion. Keep your focus on the good you can do, on the value you can create, and most of the difficulties will be far less difficult.
-- Ralph Marston
When the challenges become more difficult, that's your opportunity to become more determined. When the end of the race is near, the winner is the person who picks up the pace.
It's easy and common to start out strong. Real achievement comes to those who can also finish strong.
The doubts and challenges along the way can either drain your enthusiasm and commitment, or they can prompt you to grow stronger. When you choose to grow stronger, not only do you reach the goal, you also become more confident and effective in the process.
When you've gone this far, it pays to make the most of what you've already been through. Get maximum value from your efforts by finishing strong.
When the endeavor is nearing completion is when you can add the most discernible and enduring value. Finish strong and make it something you can always look back upon with satisfaction.
Your efforts so far have created a powerful momentum, so continue to make the most of it. Finish strong and you'll be fully prepared for whatever is next.
-- Ralph Marston
Making life faster does not make it better. Enjoy the opportunity to savor each moment, each encounter, each experience.
Having too much of something does not add any real value to your life. Choose to enjoy freedom from the excesses that would weigh you down.
Pretending to be someone you're not will gain you nothing. Live authentically, and put the power of truth on your side.
Worrying, fretting, fighting and resenting will never help to move you forward. Keep peace in your heart, in your thoughts, in your actions, and you'll add real value to your world.
Your life is a unique and most precious thing. Choose to live it with quality in every moment.
This is your day to fill with richness and meaning. Do what is right, what is real, what is true and what is you.
-- Ralph Marston
What you already know can be a great help to you in learning new things. Yet at times, it can also get in the way.
It can be difficult to clearly and objectively see something when you think you already know everything about it. In such cases, you will usually see only what you expect to see and nothing else.
Think of the wealth of detail that you notice when you go to a place where you've never been before. Then consider all the many details in your familiar surroundings that you never even think about because you have seen them so often.
The world is constantly changing. And some of your long-held assumptions about the things most familiar to you could be woefully out of date.
It's likely that there are many valuable treasures all around your life, hidden and at the same time within plain sight. A good way to see them is to temporarily disregard what you already know.
Every now and then, make it a point to look at the world with eyes untainted by expectations, assumptions or past experience. You'll be amazed at what you can see.
-- Ralph Marston
The joy you send out never leaves you. Instead, it carries you along.
Be generous with the joy you express to others. For the more of it you give, the more of it you'll have.
There is no end to the joy that is within you. To know and experience the value of that joy in your life, set it free and let it flow into your world.
You have everything you need to make a joyful day today. For all you need is to let the joy be.
Spread joy, and you rise to a more enlightened perspective. Spread joy, and you build a more positive world.
When you find yourself longing for more joy in life, remind yourself to let it be. Spread joy, and you will surely know it.
-- Ralph Marston
In all its beauty, let life flow. In its quiet stillness, let peace envelop you.
There is much you can accomplish when you focus on the positive possibilities. There is a whole universe to experience when you open your eyes to the wonder.
There is so much love within you. Allow it to come out.
There are so many good and positive things that you can do. Fill this moment with the best of them.
Let the goodness flow in and fill you. Then let it flow out from you with your own special essence.
With calm, peaceful, loving confidence, let life flow in you and through you. Live the real treasure that is now.
-- Ralph Marston
What you truly require and what you truly desire will always come. Open yourself to the possibilities and allow them.
A rich abundance stretches out in every direction. Let yourself see it and it is yours.
Now is the place where life is lived. Take care not to overlook it.
This is the moment when your thoughts and actions have real power. Make the most of it, and there is no limit to the heights you can reach.
There is nothing to be gained by clutching and taking, for you already have it all. The real joy comes when you appreciate the value and beauty of life to such a degree that you make it even more so.
Sing the song that is playing all around you. Add your own voice to the harmony of life in this unique and beautiful moment.
-- Ralph Marston
Is what you're doing now getting you where you want to be? If not, then it's time for some changes.
Yes, change can be frightening and difficult. Yet it is immensely more desirable than continuing to put your effort into going where you don't want to go.
Most likely, some things you're now doing are working and some things are not. It will pay you enormously to figure out which are which.
Achievement is a moving target, and conditions are constantly changing. So regularly adjusting your approach is necessary to a successful life.
Even the most skillful captain must make adjustments in the ship's course along the way. An important part of reaching your destination is recognizing when you've strayed off the path and then finding a way to get back on it.
So take a good look at where you're headed, honestly, objectively, and with the intention of making whatever adjustments are necessary. Keep yourself pointed toward the goal, and your actions will surely take you there.
-- Ralph Marston
Happiness does not depend on whether or not you always get your way. However, when you do choose happiness, events will more often go your way.
You do not need to accumulate a lot of things before you can be happy. Yet when you are happy, you'll open yourself up to all kinds of new abundance.
Happiness is not something that you can obtain by taking it from others. On the contrary, the more that happiness flows out from you, the more of it you will enjoy.
If you limit your happiness only to certain specific situations or conditions, it will almost always elude you. Yet when you seek to bring happiness to every situation, it will be your constant companion.
Happiness is not the exclusive experience of just a lucky few. It is always there for anyone who is sincere and open enough to choose it.
Happiness is always there to choose, in any place, at any time, under a whole wide range of conditions. Give happiness to the moments of life, and you will surely know it well.
-- Ralph Marston
Many of the things that get to you are not worth the energy and the trouble that you invest in them. Do yourself a favor, and give yourself some distance from them.
Break the pattern of automatically reacting in the same way, time after time, to all the minor disturbances that come along. Sometimes, the best response is no response at all.
Seek to rise above the petty dramas that don't do anyone any good. Keep in mind that where you put your awareness and your attention is where your life will go.
There are so many beautiful, positive outlets for your energy. Every day is full of possibilities for building, creating, loving, learning and growing.
Certainly there will always be difficulties in life that must be addressed and attended to. Yet there is no reason to make for yourself any needless difficulties of confrontations.
A sign of true strength is the willingness to completely let go of the things that don't really matter. Choose to exercise that strength, and keep life focused in a positive, meaningful direction.
-- Ralph Marston
Fill your thoughts with peaceful purpose. Focus on the good that you're able to do right here and now.
Fill your mind with awareness of the positive possibilities and thoughts of how you can bring them about. Fill your heart with joy and gratitude for the many opportunities that you now have.
In this moment, the world is the way it is, so decide to concentrate on how good it can be. Choose to invest your focus in making the very best of now.
What has happened has happened and it is now behind you. Take the best of it all as you move positively forward.
Allow peace to fill your heart in this moment. Then send that peace outward into life as your gift to this day.
Let yourself live this day with calm and peaceful purpose. There is so much that can be done.
-- Ralph Marston
Fill your thoughts with peaceful purpose. Focus on the good that you're able to do right here and now.
Fill your mind with awareness of the positive possibilities and thoughts of how you can bring them about. Fill your heart with joy and gratitude for the many opportunities that you now have.
In this moment, the world is the way it is, so decide to concentrate on how good it can be. Choose to invest your focus in making the very best of now.
What has happened has happened and it is now behind you. Take the best of it all as you move positively forward.
Allow peace to fill your heart in this moment. Then send that peace outward into life as your gift to this day.
Let yourself live this day with calm and peaceful purpose. There is so much that can be done.
-- Ralph Marston
There are things you will soon know that you've never yet considered. There are places you will soon go that you now do not even know are there.
How foolish it would be to ever give up hope or to turn loose of your dreams. For every moment that comes to you arrives with a fresh new load of possibilities.
What now seems to be impossible will be commonplace one day. The very endeavor where you face the most stubborn obstacles may well turn out to be the source of your greatest triumphs.
Those who expect the best of what's to come, have a way of finding it. In all the possibilities that are now being born there's surely one that's just right for you.
Lovingly greet each moment as it comes. For in that moment are new opportunities for you to grow, to experience, to live fully and to move positively forward.
A new now is arriving with every tick of the clock. Jump in and make it the best one yet.
-- Ralph Marston
It may take months, years or even decades to get where you want to go. Yet you can begin moving toward that goal in an instant.
You are where you are right now, and nothing will change the path you've already traveled. Yet you can most certainly and most completely change where you are going.
Choose to follow a positive direction, and whatever your current situation may be, it is instantly and significantly improved. Once your focus is on creating a positive reality for your world, that reality begins to take shape.
Though the challenges ahead may be many, they are no match for the power of your intention. To activate that power right now, point yourself in a positive direction.
The next step you take is yours to decide. And whatever that next step may be, it is the step that will determine your direction.
At any time, no matter what the situation, your direction is yours to choose, and becomes real the instant you act on it. Make your direction a positive, fulfilling one, right now, and always.
-- Ralph Marston
You will make a difference in the world today. What kind of difference will that be?
Your life will travel in some direction today as the result of your thoughts and actions. What direction will that be?
This day presents you with a magnificent opportunity that you've never had before. You can take all that you are, all that you've learned, all that you've experienced up to this point, and use it to move your whole world forward.
Every good and valuable thing you do for life makes your world a better place to be. Every time you lift up others, your own experience of life is made more wholly fulfilling.
This day and all its possibilities will soon pass. Yet the value that you create from it will stay with you and will add its own unique flavor to all of life.
You will make a real and lasting contribution to life today. Choose to make it such that you'll always be thankful for having passed this way.
-- Ralph Marston
In the small moments there are big opportunities. For the small moments are where successful, fulfilled lives are built.
The small moments have great power because there are so very many of them. Make wise, effective use of the small moments, and the impact can be enormous.
To harness the power of the small moments you must accept them for what they are. To gain value from the small moments you must make use of them as they come.
One particularly effective strategy for making the most of the small moments is to cultivate positive and productive habits. Habits enable you to choose in advance what you will do with the valuable load of small moments that will surely and steadily come your way.
Keeping yourself focused and disciplined only every now and then is no great challenge and produces no great result. However, when you can stay consistently and persistently focused on an objective, there is no limit to the magnitude of what you can accomplish.
Though the small moments may seem trivial and not worth your attention, they are in fact a crucial factor in the quality of your life. Give your best to the small moments, for they are where much of life's greatest value is built.
-- Ralph Marston
Dreams are not practical yet they have a reason that's as real and as worthwhile as any pragmatic consideration. When was the last time you touched your dreams?
Your dreams show you who you are. And that is very much worth knowing.
If you let them take hold of you, they will steadily pull you forward. When you commit yourself to follow them, your dreams can bring out the best of you.
Your dreams embody your highest hopes and visions. Through the eye of your dreams you see a world in which you have made a powerful positive difference.
Your dreams are not there to tease you with visions of what you do not have. Rather, your dreams truly show you, in a profound and intimate way, what is most certainly possible for you.
Your dreams are yours for a reason, and much of that reason is to entice you into living a life of purpose and fulfillment. Allow those dreams to touch you deeply, and let them work their magic through you.
-- Ralph Marston
Life becomes complicated when you make it so. Yet you never have to make it so.
When you try to avoid life and insulate yourself from reality, you can make it unbearably complicated. When you fight against what is, and obsess over what has been, the complications you create can become a virtual prison.
You can walk out of that prison at any time. Simply choose to accept the reality of the moment and to deal with life it as it comes.
Stop worrying about what is not yet real and may never be. Instead, live with discipline and value, with purpose and commitment, making the very most of this moment right now.
Let go of the anger, regret, resentment and pain of what has already happened. Instead, find something real about this moment right now for which you can be truly thankful, and give the best of yourself to it.
Allow life to happen, and the complications of your own making melt away. Allow life to happen, and you are free to fully experience its true richness.
-- Ralph Marston
For life to move forward, some things must change. For life to have meaning, some things must endure.
It is good to embrace change, because growth, progress and value creation are impossible without it. At the same time, it is wise to be wary and careful with change, for a solid, steady foundation contributes greatly to life.
In fact, new and valuable changes are made possible by the very fact that some things do not change. When the ground beneath your feet holds steady, you can reliably build many new and useful things upon it.
Make the most of the opportunities to change, to grow, to improve, and to move forward into new territory. At the same time, protect and preserve the fundamental, enabling values upon which your life is built.
A successful, fulfilled life is at the same time changing and steady. Understanding what must change and what must not is a key life skill, one that is well worth the time and trouble to develop.
Be ever willing to change some things in life while being reliably able to hold firm in other things. It is a powerful combination that will take you far.
-- Ralph Marston
What can you do with this day that will create real and lasting value? There are countless possibilities.
You could select something that has been holding you back and work your way permanently beyond it. You could gently, sincerely open your heart and strengthen a relationship with someone you love.
You can offer a helping hand to those around you and make your world a more positive and hopeful place. Or you can take real and determined steps in the direction of your most treasured dream.
There's a great idea living in your mind that you could begin making into a reality today. There are things that you can learn and things that you can teach.
There is much potential value in this day. When you make good and productive use of its moments, that value will stay with you long after the day has passed.
Right now is your one opportunity to capture, to keep and to expand the incredible value that today offers. Choose to make the most of it.
-- Ralph Marston
You stand today at the top of a mountain. It is the mountain of your own experience.
Through the years, you have forged ahead on its craggy pathways. Each day you've added valuable experience to your life and have climbed to an even higher perspective than the day before.
Along the way, you have found moments of peace and beauty in the green valleys and still forests. At other times, you have been challenged by the fierce storms and rocky ground as you made your way forward.
This is the moment that all the other moments have been leading up to. Now you stand at the summit on your mountain of experience, and the view is more expansive than it has ever been.
Never has your experience been as extensive or as valuable as it is right now. So what will you do with it all?
Now that you've climbed to the highest peak ever, choose to live a full and positive life, worthy of all you've already been through. Now that you've climbed so high, this is your moment to go even higher.
-- Ralph Marston
Each thought you think builds your character. Every action you take creates your life.
The small moments and the big occasions all go into the person you are. The public expressions and the private secrets all weave together to form the fabric of your life.
Every moment counts, because every moment serves as a starting point for the moment that comes next. All those details, the ones you can't recall and the ones you can't forget, have brought you to where you are now.
Every moment counts, and that can be a terribly burdensome curse or an amazing blessing. It all depends on what you do with those moments from here on out.
Even when no one is watching, what you do still matters very much. Even when it seems that there is no way forward, moment by moment you can surely make your way.
Choose to give your very best to this moment, right here, right now, and keep on making that positive choice. For there is no limit to where your life's brilliant string of moments can lead.
-- Ralph Marston
Listen patiently, and you will better understand. Work patiently, and you will build lasting value.
In patience there is power. In patience, there is the expression of real and abiding love.
Patience melts away painful and destructive anxieties. Patience helps to avoid careless mistakes.
Patience reveals a depth of strong character. Patience provides comfort and refuge for those who are weary of the world's frustrations.
Patience is crucial to persistence. And with sufficient persistence, any goal can be reached.
Each day, there are opportunities to make use of the power of patience. As you strengthen your patience, so do you greatly expand the positive possibilities for your life.
-- Ralph Marston
It feels lousy to be disappointed, whether it is by other people, by circumstances, or by your own mistakes. And yet, in each disappointment there is also opportunity.
When a disappointment comes, acknowledge it and feel it for what it is. Then quickly step away from it and take a more objective look.
You'll discover that in the larger context of your life, that disappointment can have positive value. Though one door has been closed to you, many more have just been opened.
From each disappointment you can gain knowledge, motivation, perspective and a more clearly defined purpose. From each disappointment, you can learn much about life and about yourself, much that will help you move on ahead.
When life lets you down, there is value to be found in that disappointment. Quickly get back up and begin to live that value.
When you go forward, you will occasionally stumble. And when you choose to positively recover from those stumbles, you'll move more quickly ahead.
-- Ralph Marston
When you focus only on yourself, you severely limit your options. When your thoughts are centered only on you, those thoughts cut you off from a whole world of possibilities.
It's all too easy to become frustrated, disillusioned, angry and bitter when your own perspective is the only one you consider. Your own narrow concerns can seem painfully overwhelming if you give all your attention and energy to them.
The way out of such pain and frustration is to expand your perspective beyond yourself. Genuinely take other people into consideration, and your positive possibilities multiply dramatically.
Pay attention to the concerns of others, and you'll gain valuable insights that otherwise would not be available to you. Think, act and live beyond yourself, and all sorts of new, positive possibilities arise.
When the concerns of your own ego fall away, an enormous amount of energy is set free. When you are no longer restricted to your own narrow perspective, a whole new set of magnificent opportunities will open up to you.
Seek to make a difference not merely for yourself but for all of life. And many of the limitations that once hounded you will suddenly be gone.
-- Ralph Marston
Take the time to put something back where it belongs, and you'll easily be able to find it next time you need it. Take the time to learn, and you'll make yourself more effective.
Take the time to listen, and you'll much more clearly understand. Take the time to think before you act, and your actions will take you where you want to go with no regrets.
Take the time to say thank you and to appreciate the good things you have, and abundance will grow in your life. Take the time to truly enjoy yourself, and you'll inject positive energy into all you do.
Take the time to offer a word of encouragement, and your world will be a brighter place. Take the time to give a helping hand to someone in need, and your own troubles will suddenly shrink away.
Take the time to work through a challenge, and you'll discover a whole new level of positive opportunities. Take the time to be curious and aware of the world around you, and you'll see magnificent possibilities in every direction.
Take the time to love, to smile, to wonder, to play, and to find out who you really are. Take the time to fully live in each moment as it comes along, and life will be rich indeed.
-- Ralph Marston
Set your goals high. For the stronger your sense of purpose, the more energy you will have to follow that purpose.
Dream big and meaningful dreams with no compromise. The most compelling dreams are the ones that will continue pulling you toward them.
Live each day with a positive purpose set firmly in front of you. When you have a reason, you will find a way.
Focused effort will eventually make you tired, and yet after a brief rest you'll be ready to go again. However, the weariness that comes from living with no purpose can be diminished only by directing your efforts toward a meaningful objective.
There is a powerful, meaningful, compelling vision with which you can personally connect. Choose to open yourself to the things that are the most profoundly meaningful to you, and to fill your moments with powerful purpose.
A strong sense of purpose will give you energy and keep you going past the challenges, distractions and temptations that come along. It will make a positive difference in everything you do.
-- Ralph Marston
Rarely is anything ever as difficult as you first imagine it to be. More often than not, the greatest difficulty you must overcome is convincing yourself to get started.
Imagine what would happen if you could simply stop fighting with yourself and could just go ahead with whatever needs to be done. The great and empowering fact is, you can.
What if all the energy you put into avoiding effort was suddenly redirected into productive action? It can happen much more easily than you think.
What if you stopped making excuses and started making real progress? The good news is, you don't have to just imagine it.
You have the power to get yourself started. You have the power to overcome all those complaints and worries, anxieties, doubts and excuses that exist only within the confines of your mind.
For you control your mind, and your mind directs your actions. Make use of that awesome power, and truly great things will quickly begin to happen.
-- Ralph Marston
Do you have so much to do that is seems overwhelming? Then stop thinking about how much there is and start getting it done.
Feeling overwhelmed is merely a state of mind that you choose. And just as easily as you can choose it, you can choose to let it go.
A new day, a new month, a new year dawns and it can make you feel like time is quickly slipping away. But in fact, time comes to you just as quickly as it moves past.
And that means that each moment you get the opportunity to make a difference. Each moment, the best thing you can do is to make full and meaningful use of that moment.
That is how you get things done. Moment by moment, little by little, small tasks build into great accomplishments, and accomplishments build into a life with real fulfillment.
You don't have to tackle everything all at once. Just do what you can, when you can, filling each moment with positive purpose and action.
And what once seemed overwhelming will quickly become a source of real and lasting fulfillment.
-- Ralph Marston
You can learn, and adapt, and adjust, and persist. You can decide what must be done and take the action that will make it happen.
You can set ambitious goals for yourself and then do what is necessary to reach them. You can dream incredible, meaningful dreams and then make them real.
You can stumble a dozen or a hundred times and keep getting back up until you stumble no more. You can come up against tough, stubborn challenges and then find a way to work through them.
You can live each moment with integrity in a world that seems not to always value it. You can experience real joy and spread it to others.
You can create value and appreciate beauty. You can follow your highest vision.
As the old year draws to a close and a new one begins, keep in mind that you can do all this and more. You can and, if you choose, you will.
-- Ralph Marston
You are a valuable person. There is much you have that you can contribute to life.
There may very well be many people around you who do not adequately value you. But that is their problem, not yours.
You are a valuable person. You have interests, perspectives, knowledge and skills that are unique to you alone.
You can visualize possibilities that no one else can see. You can understand and relate to situations in your own special and worthwhile way.
You are a valuable person. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is merely betraying his or her own feelings of inadequacy.
You are indeed a valuable person. Live that special value in each moment, and you'll make your world a more beautiful place.
-- Ralph Marston
When you think you know it all, then you deny yourself the opportunity to learn anything new. When you decide that you've seen it all, you cut yourself off from new and enlightening experiences.
Every day is an opportunity to grow. Always take advantage of that opportunity, for it is a big part of what makes you alive.
No matter how much you've already accomplished, you can still receive great benefit from new challenges. No matter what your level of learning and experience, you can always raise that level even higher.
When you think you have all the answers, get busy and find some more questions. View each new discovery as a starting point, and not as a final destination.
The joy of life is in the journey. The fulfillment of life is in the growing.
Keep that growing going, and never let it stop.
-- Ralph Marston
Membaca novel tentunya mulai dari depan atau dari awalnya. Demikian juga halnya dengan membaca biografi. Kita membaca biografi seseorang mulai dari kelahiran orang itu, lalu masa kecilnya, kemudian masa remajanya dan selanjutnya. Agak janggal kalau kita membaca novel atau riwayat hidup mulai dari belakang atau dari akhirnya.
Tetapi untuk membaca "riwayat hidup" Tuhan Yesus, kita perlu mulai dari belakang. Saya akan segera menjelaskan hal ini.
Janganlah Anda gusar kalau saya mulai dengan kalimat yang tampaknya seolah-olah menghujat atau meremehkan: peristiwa penjelmaan Allah dalam kelahiran Yesus sebenarnya tidak istimewa. Cerita kelahiran seperti itu banyak terdapat dalam budaya-budaya lain. Hampir tiap budaya tradisional mempunyai dongeng tentang Allah atau dewa yang turun ke dunia dan menjelma menjadi manusia. Ada cerita tentang dewa yang menjelma sebagai pertapa lanjut usia. Ada cerita tentang dewa yang menjelma menjadi seorang puteri yang cantik jelita. Ada pula cerita tentang dewa yang turun ke bumi sebagai seorang bayi mungil tersimpan dalam sebuah semangka.
Karena itu sebenarnya peristiwa kelahiran Tuhan Yesus tidak sangat istimewa. Seandainya kisah tentang kelahiran Yesus berhenti sampai di situ tanpa kelanjutan apa-apa; apakah sekarang kita menjadi murid dan pengikut-Nya? Agaknya tidak, sebab masakan kita menjadi murid dan pengikut seorang bayi?
Kita baru mulai tersentak untuk mengikut Yesus ketika sudah membaca berita tentang kenaikan-Nya ke surga menyusul kebangkitan-Nya dari kematian di kayu salib. Hati kita baru terperangah ketika sudah membaca tentang gaya hidup-Nya yang sungguh lain daripada yang lain. Jiwa kita baru tersentuh ketika sudah membaca pengajaran-Nya yang sungguh unik.
Jadi, keistimewaan kelahiran Yesus baru dapat dimengerti setelah kita membaca bagian tengah dan bagian akhir dari "riwayat hidup" Yesus. Kitab-kitab Injil menjadi lebih jelas kalau kita membacanya "mulai dari belakang", yaitu mulai dari kebangkitan Yesus. Kita menjadi orang percaya bukan karena kelahiran Yesus, melainkan karena kematian dan kebangkitan-Nya. Kelahiran Yesus belum memberi dampak apa-apa kepada iman kita. Dampak itu baru muncul dari hidup dan pengajaran-Nya. Sebab itu Natal tidak bisa berdiri sendiri terlepas dari Paskah.
Seandainya para rasul hadir di kandang Betlehem pada waktu kelahiran Yesus, mungkin mereka pun tidak dapat memberi kesaksian apa-apa. Orang yang menjadi saksi mata kelahiran Yesus belum bisa mengerti bahwa Yesus adalah Tuhan dan Juruselamat. Ketika para gembala datang ke kandang dan menceritakan bahwa menurut malaikat bayi ini adalah Juruselamat (lihat Luk 2:11-12); maka "semua orang yang mendengarkannya heran tentang apa yang dikatakan gembala-gembala itu" (ay. 18). Baru sekitar lima puluh tahun kemudian, seorang rasul secara eksplisit bisa bersaksi bahwa bayi di palungan itu adalah Anak Allah dan Penebus: "Tetapi setelah genap waktunya, maka Allah mengutus Anak-Nya, yang lahir dari seorang perempuan dan takluk kepada hukum Taurat. Ia diutus untuk menebus mereka ..." (Gal. 4:4-5)
Untunglah kelahiran Yesus disusul dengan masa dewasa-Nya di mana Ia mengajar, sebab kita percaya bukan kepada seorang bayi melainkan kepada seorang rabi yang mengajarkan dan meneladankan sebuah gaya hidup yang unik. Untunglah kelahiran Yesus disusul dengan kematian-Nya di salib sebab kita diselamatkan bukan oleh seorang bayi melainkan oleh Juruselamat yang memberi diri-Nya sendiri. Untunglah kelahiran Yesus disusul dengan kebangkitan dan kenaikan-Nya sebab kita berdoa bukan kepada bayi Yesus melainkan kepada Tuhan Yesus yang "duduk di sebelah kanan Allah" (rumus Pengakuan Iman Rasuli, tahun 540).
Sebab itu Natal baru mempunyai arti kalau dilihat dari bagian akhir hidup Yesus. Kita baru bisa memahami kedalaman arti Natal kalau kita memahami karya Yesus sepanjang hidup-Nya yang mencapai klimaks ketika Ia dibangkitkan Allah dari kematian sebagai tanda bahwa Allah mengabsahkan segala karya hidup-Nya. Kesaksian kita kepada masyarakat bukanlah tentang seorang bayi mungil melainkan tentang seorang pria berusia 33 tahun yang memberi keseluruhan diri-Nya sampai mati di atas kayu salib. Pusat pemberitaan gereja bukanlah inkarnasi Yesus (Allah menjadi manusia) melainkan diri dan misi Yesus selama 33 tahun di bumi. Tanpa karya hidup Yesus maka peristiwa inkarnasi di Betlehem tidak ada artinya. Di sinilah letak perbedaan antara Injil dengan segala cerita-cerita mengenai inkarnasi para dewa yang lazim dikenal di budaya-budaya tradisional.
Oleh karena karya hidup Yesus itulah, sekarang kita tahu mengapa kita merayakan Natal. Kita merayakan lahirnya seseorang yang 33 tahun kemudian memberi pegangan hidup, bahkan makna hidup, kepada umat manusia.
Perayaan Natal menjadi lebih berarti karena kita tahu bahwa bayi yang kita sambut ini tidak terus menerus berada di palungan Betlehem, melainkan bertumbuh menjadi guru yang mengajar di tepi sungai Yordan dan kemudian dipaksa berjalan terbungkuk-bungkuk memikul salib menaiki tangga kota Yerusalem, tetapi kemudian bangkit kembali dan berdiri dengan tegap di bukit Galilea serta bersabda, "Kepada-Ku telah diberikan segala kuasa di surga dan di bumi. Karena itu pergilah, jadikanlah semua bangsa murid-Ku dan baptislah mereka dalam nama Bapa dan Anak dan Roh Kudus, dan ajarlah mereka melakukan segala sesuatu yang telah Kuperintahkan kepadamu. Dan ketahuilah, Aku menyertai kamu senantiasa sampai kepada akhir zaman" (Mat. 28:18-20).
Seandainya kisah kelahiran Yesus adalah ibarat bab pertama dari cerita bersambung, maka bab pertama ini baru menjadi jelas duduk perkaranya kalau kita sudah membaca bab terakhirnya. Kita jadi melihat bahwa Natal sungguh patut dirayakan. Kita jadi tahu apa sebabnya kita merasa berbahagia pada hari Natal. Kita jadi mantap dan berucap, "Selamat Natal!"
Bahan diambil dan diedit dari:
Judul Buku : Selamat Natal
Penulis: Dr. Andar Ismail
Penerbit : PT. BPK Gunung Mulia, Yogyakarta, 2002
Halaman: 1 - 4
You live in the present, not in the future. So when your enjoyment of life is based only on getting more, it is always waiting for you in the future, and you'll never experience it.
It doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to base your enjoyment on getting more.
There is plenty of life, right here and now, for you to enjoy. In this moment is everything you need to fully and completely enjoy the wonder and beauty of being alive.
It is great when you aspire and work toward bigger and better things in your life. For that adds positive value to the whole world.
And yet, there is never any need to put off your happiness, enjoyment and fulfillment until later, until some specific condition is met. Now is the moment you're in and now is your moment to enjoy.
So stop perpetuating the deception in your own mind that you don't have enough, for in this very moment you have plenty. Choose to enjoy life fully, right now, for that is the surest way to make it great.
-- Ralph Marston
When you have a setback, that's not a signal to abandon the endeavor. In fact, it is a sign that you are making progress.
You've learned one more thing that doesn't work, and that can be of great value. Because it helps you to eventually determine what does work.
When the desired result is not achieved, you could consider it a failure, but that would be a mistake. Instead, see it as just another step on the path to success.
Taking a step backward can ultimately help you to move forward. For the next step you take is more experienced, more finely tuned, and more closely in line with the reality of the situation.
An important part of the determination to succeed is the willingness to fail, and the confidence to see every failure as temporary. So go ahead and have that confidence to explore fresh ideas and attempt ambitious new projects.
Of course you'll make mistakes and occasionally run into some dead ends. And each time you do, you'll be moving forward toward ultimate, certain success.
-- Ralph Marston
Here's a quick and reliable way to add a burst of energy and enthusiasm to your life. Do something today that you have for a long time been meaning to do.
And suddenly, what was a burden is transformed into a blessing. What before was constantly nagging at your thoughts will turn into a source of satisfaction and delight.
Accomplishment is habit forming. Get something done and you'll be anxious to do more.
There is some intended task you've been carrying around in the back of your mind for quite a while. Get it out of the back of your mind and make it happen today.
You've been thinking, day after day, that you need to do it. Consider what a waste it has been to keep thinking that same exact thought again and again.
Choose to move beyond mere thinking and into doing. Get it done, for you already know how confident and alive and full of energy you will then be.
-- Ralph Marston
In the smallest detail of life there is much for which to be thankful. In all of life itself there is no limit to the possibilities for appreciation.
In each day, in each moment, life's blessings continuously pour forth. In the quiet times, in the grand and magnificent experiences, there is always richness upon richness in the living of life.
Certainly there are disappointments and pains that come along on a regular basis. Yet when you stand back and look at the big picture, those difficult moments, as intense as they are, only make up a tiny fraction of the overall possibilities.
On the whole, life is exceedingly worth any trouble, any setback, any difficulty. For always there are countless possibilities of goodness stretching out in every direction.
The simple appreciation of the positive possibilities in any moment will begin to bring the best of those possibilities to life. Merely recalling how good life can be will serve to make it truly better.
Life asks much of you, and yet it gives far, far more than it asks. Appreciate the countless possibilities, and you can indeed make the best of them real.
-- Ralph Marston
Every joy you've experienced, even years and years ago, is still with you. Time and events can take away the conditions and surroundings of that joy, yet they can never take away the joy itself.
Joy has no need of being remembered, for it is always with you. All you have to do is allow it to fill your heart, and it will.
The terrain will change, the colors will fade, the sounds will grow silent and other experiences will take their place. Yet the joy is always as fresh and new, as sweet and revitalizing as ever.
Even when memories grow dim, the joy will shine ever more brightly. For joy is truly timeless.
Put joy into your life and it will always be there. The more often you let it touch you and fill you, the more of it there will be.
Put joy into your moments and create value that you can always draw upon. Spread joy to others and you give a gift that will keep on giving, over and over again.
-- Ralph Marston
Want to give yourself an instant boost? Be generous to someone and see how great it makes you feel.
Have you been treated rudely, or been the victim of greedy manipulation? Be generous to someone and see how quickly you get beyond that bitter, negative mind-set.
Want to make this a really great day? Then spend it taking advantage of opportunities to give of yourself to others.
You don't need to have a lot of money or spare time or expertise in order to be generous. There are opportunities for sincere generosity in every situation, all day long.
With an attitude of generosity, the experience of life will rise to a higher level of richness and beauty. Each moment lived with generosity will be a moment lived with real and lasting joy.
Give of yourself. And be amazed at how very much real value you receive.
-- Ralph Marston
What you think influences what you see. What you think influences what you do.
What you think influences what you learn. What you think influences how you feel.
What you think has an enormous impact on the way you experience life. What you think determines the very nature of the world you create for yourself.
Thoughts have no physical mass, yet they do indeed have power. And there are no restraints or limitations upon what you can think.
Consider all the many places to which your thoughts have carried you. Imagine the limitless possibilities of where your thoughts can now enable you to go.
Choose positive, creative, loving, life-affirming thoughts. And with those thoughts pointing the way, you can fill your world with value.
-- Ralph Marston
Do you see the beauty in this day? Look around with love and gratitude in your heart, and the beauty of life will look back at you from every direction.
Do you see the beauty in the person next to you? Fill your mind with thoughts of understanding and acceptance, and that beauty will become abundantly clear.
Do you see the beauty within yourself? Connect to your highest, most treasured vision of how life can be, and that beauty will come springing forth.
Do you see the beauty that can be? Open yourself to the most positive possibilities, and that beauty will pull you forward into its delightful realm.
Beauty is more than what is on the surface. Beauty is more than what is obvious.
The most powerful and valuable beauty is the beauty that you bring to life. See the beauty, and you will make it be.
-- Ralph Marston
As soon as anxiety gets your attention, its job is done. From that point on, there is no good reason to maintain that anxiety.
Anxiety can be useful in making you aware of actions that need to be taken. As soon as you have that awareness, anxiety has served its purpose.
After that, give your energy to the positive action and not to the anxiety. Undertake to correct the problem and not to helplessly obsess over it.
It is good and useful that anxiety can get your attention. Yet it serves no positive purpose for anxiety to overwhelm your thinking.
The moment you feel anxiety, look for, and begin to execute, a positive course of action. Quickly choose to let go of that anxiety, for it is of no use to you now.
Anxiety never needs to weigh you down. Let it come, let it have its say, and quickly let it go as you take action to move forward.
-- Ralph Marston
It is good to laugh when you find something funny. It is good to cry when you are sad.
You are a beautiful, unique living person, with hopes and dreams, feelings, values, opinions, thoughts and visions. It is good to let all that shine through.
People sometimes think they can appear sophisticated by denying who they truly are. Yet real sophistication and value comes from fully expressing your most genuine sentiments and truths in the way you live your life.
You'll never find fulfillment by trying to be someone you're not. You'll never find fulfillment by following someone else's dreams.
Life is always best when you live each moment as the real person you are. Though it can be painful and difficult at times, it is far better to live the genuine truth of your own being than to run and hide from it.
Go ahead and feel the joy, the pain, and fully live the ups and downs and twists and turns of the rich and wonderful life with which you're blessed. Be the real, genuine you, and there's no limit to the fulfillment you can know.
-- Ralph Marston
With every ending comes also a new beginning. With every disappointment comes a new opportunity for success.
With every mistake comes a new and valuable lesson to be learned. With every setback comes a new position from which to move forward.
With every frustration comes the energy to move to a higher level of achievement. With every challenge comes a new strategy for taking action.
With every time of darkness comes the chance to make a real difference by shining your own special light. With every sadness comes a deeper appreciation for the joys that life can hold.
With every difficulty comes a new level of strength to be gained. With every loss comes an increased determination to win.
Though life has many pitfalls and problems, there is a positive side to every one of them. Choose to see and live that positive reality, and no problem will be a problem for long.
-- Ralph Marston
It is easy to make up excuses to tell to yourself. For you can choose to believe anything you say to yourself.
But what do those excuses accomplish? Where do they take you?
It's easy to use your thinking to rationalize your way out of taking action. Without much effort, you can think of plenty of good, believable reasons for not making the effort.
At some point, though, you must ask yourself this question. Do you want your life to be filled with excuses or with accomplishment?
In fact, each time you catch yourself thinking up an excuse or rationalization, ask yourself that question. Challenge yourself to consciously choose whether or not you wish to accomplish.
When you force yourself to look at it that way, the excuses will begin to look pretty silly and useless. The more you remind yourself of the value of accomplishment, the more you will take action instead of making up excuses.
And the more you take action, the more you will achieve.
-- Ralph Marston
Right now you have available to you everything you need to take one step forward. Once you take that step, you will have even more available to you to keep going.
The more persistently you move forward, step by step, the more momentum you build. And it is a process that you can begin at any time.
Focus on the one step that you can take right now. Let go of all regrets and resentment about what has already happened.
Let go of all fears and anxieties about what may be yet to come. Put your energy into where you are, and use that energy to do what you can in this moment.
Though there may be noise and confusion all around, you can transcend all those distractions. Decide to focus on the task at hand, for that is what will move you forward.
Think of how great it feels to be moving in a positive, productive direction. Focus your energy right now and make it happen.
-- Ralph Marston
Do something positive and valuable in one area of your life, and every other part of your life will benefit from it. The joy you create and experience in one setting will go with you into other situations.
By the same token, any negativity in one part of your life will exert unfavorable influence on other parts of your life. Everything that is a part of you is a part of all of you.
When you work to improve your skill at one task, it brings added confidence to all other tasks that you undertake. When you nurture a true sense of peace in your home life, your life at work becomes more calm and peaceful as well.
No single part of you can be separated from the wholeness of who you are. Each thought, each action, each feeling is connected to all others.
Your health, your career, your family, your faith, your learning, your interests and enjoyments are all intertwined with each other. And as such, you always have countless specific opportunities to nurture and lift up the whole of your life.
Give your very best to each and every aspect of your life. An abiding sense of excellence and integrity will add much to the whole of your world.
-- Ralph Marston
Before you set off to conquer the world, set out to improve yourself. Build character and discipline on the inside, and you'll be able to handle any goal or challenge on the outside.
When you set for yourself an outer goal, be sure to also create an inner goal. Fully become, within yourself, the person who can reach that goal in the outside world, and you will.
When you feel the need to change others, seek instead to change yourself. Meet people where they are, with true understanding and acceptance, and the relationships you build will bear sweet fruit.
The person you are on the inside determines all the things you become on the outside. Nurture your inner life, and your whole world will prosper.
The solid physical reality of your life is built upon the quality of your innermost thoughts and feelings. Use every opportunity to give power and positive purpose to those thoughts, and every corner of your life will benefit.
In each moment, in every situation, seek to build lasting, genuine value on the inside. And that value will quickly spread outward from you, as far as you can see.
-- Ralph Marston
You can speculate and guess and theorize and envision, and all those things have their place. Yet you will not know for sure what you can and cannot do until you step forward and make the effort.
There are many things that might go wrong, and many obstacles you likely did not anticipate. Yet you must not allow the possibility of those problems to stop you before you even get started.
When something comes up that you didn't plan for, you can learn from it and make adjustments. When a difficult challenge arises, that challenge brings with it the opportunity for even greater value when you choose to persevere.
Everything that is easy and guaranteed to succeed has already been done. Real accomplishment comes from doing the things that no one else thinks you can do.
Lift your eyes up and see the objective at the end of the path. Then lift your feet up, one after the other, and take the first few steps along that path.
Accomplishment is not what is reasonable or practical or certain or without controversy. Accomplishment is precisely what you decide to make it.
-- Ralph Marston
Are you way too busy to get something done? Then go ahead and do it as soon as you can.
Waiting until the last minute never makes the task any easier, and it always makes the work more stressful. Going ahead and doing it at the first minute, as soon as you know it must be done, can save you an enormous amount of time and energy.
Because when you go ahead and do what must be done, you don't have to waste a lot of time worrying about it and wondering how you will ever find the time. Putting something off in order to save time really ends up costing much more time.
So the next time you're tempted to wait until the last minute because of time pressures, think of what you would be doing. You would, in fact, be making things worse.
Instead of putting something off until the last minute, put it on your schedule the very first minute possible. Then go ahead and get it done.
The time you save will enable you to get much more done. The peace of mind you gain will be priceless.
-- Ralph Marston
When a new challenge arises, you might think that you need to first acquire some new skill or knowledge or resource in order to deal with that challenge. Yet in every case, you can begin with something you already have, and then steadily grow into the challenge.
Along the way you will most certainly acquire new skills, develop new knowledge, gain access to new resources. That is a big part of the value of challenge.
Yet the best starting point is where you are. The sooner you begin, the sooner you will grow strong enough to move successfully through whatever challenge you face.
There is a path that leads directly to the most positive outcome you can imagine. And the first step on that path is right in front of you.
No matter how imposing the challenge, no matter how ambitious the goal, you have what is necessary to take the first step. And once you're on your way, you'll find and develop what you need to continue.
Move confidently forward in the direction you know you must go. Start with what you have, and you'll grow into whatever you need.
-- Ralph Marston
Give joy a place to dwell in you and it will fill that space. Set aside time for sincere, simple enjoyment of life, and enjoyment will surely fill that time.
When you make a place for something in your life, you create a powerful, authentic intention. And whatever you make a place for, will surely soon arrive.
Make room in your schedule for the actions that lead to achievement, and that achievement will be yours. Make a place in your heart for love, and love will come to fill it.
Devote a portion of your thoughts to learning something new, and the knowledge you seek will fill your mind. Open yourself to beauty, and beauty will fill your day.
Fulfillment, achievement, peace, love and joy all need a place to happen. Welcome them into the space you provide.
Give the good things in life a place to live. And they will find a home in you.
-- Ralph Marston
Do your outer choices reflect your inner values? If not, then your life will move from one conflict to another.
Yet when the choices you make do indeed come from the person you are, then you will travel steadily in the direction of your highest visions. When your actions are in agreement with your purpose, those actions will surely take you where you most want to go.
Why would you ever act in opposition to who you truly are? Unfortunately, there are plenty of temptations to do so.
It could be that you're worried about what others will think, so you go along with what they expect you to do, even though it hurts somewhere inside. Or it could be that you crave the false sense of security that material possessions and shallow pleasures seem to offer.
Yet the real you, the beautiful, unique person inside, knows better. The more you allow your own deeply held values to guide your moment-to-moment thoughts and actions, the more fulfilling and joyful life will become.
There is real and inexhaustible value in the authentic person you are. Let your life express it in everything you do.
-- Ralph Marston
Instead of being concerned with fitting every new experience into a preconceived category, put your energy into living the experience itself. Instead of using your thoughts to place a judgment on each thing that comes your way, put your energy into being more fully aware of it all.
How many things do you miss completely because you think you already know what you're looking at? How many new concepts do you fail to grasp because you're trying to fit them into concepts you already have?
If your life seems to be stuck in one place, the most likely reason is that your thoughts are preventing anything new from coming into your awareness. Relax your need to judge and to analyze, and you'll glimpse the abundant richness that is always available to you.
Let go of the need to know it all, and you'll begin to experience more and more. Move beyond the desire to always prove that you're right, and your eyes will open to profound truths.
What has it ever gained anyone to be cynical and closed minded? Choose instead to open your mind, to open your eyes to the astounding, ever-increasing richness of what is.
Let yourself out of the prison that your ego keeps trying to build. There's a big, beautiful universe right here and now that's filled with value for you to live.
-- Ralph Marston
Any day can be special when you decide that it is. Any place can be special when you make it so.
The smallest, most ordinary moments can bring the biggest, most extraordinary rewards to your life. It's all a matter of what you make of those moments.
The day can be bright whether the sun is shining or not. For you can choose to make it so.
The only thing that happiness requires is a choice. It is a choice that can be made anytime, at any place.
There's no need to wait for conditions to be perfect. You can fashion a perfectly wonderful moment out of whatever conditions you come upon.
Go ahead and see what you can make out of this very moment, this very day. You'll see that it is whatever you choose.
-- Ralph Marston
Fill your moments with action, and there will be little time left for worry. Fill your moments with meaning, and there will be little time left for despair.
Fill your days with discovery, and you will fill your life with valuable knowledge. Fill your hours with caring, compassion and respect, and you will fill your world with love and friendship.
Fill your thoughts with positive possibilities, and the best things in life will surely be within your reach. Fill your words with encouragement and enthusiasm, and you'll often find people and circumstances lining up in your favor.
Fill your efforts with purpose, persistence, diligence and integrity. And your life will be filled with valuable achievements.
Fill your heart with a love of truth and goodness. And your soul will be filled with the treasure of wisdom.
Your life is a most precious gift. Fill every corner of it with the best that you can.
-- Ralph Marston
Thoughts of anger attract more anger. Thoughts of goodness attract more goodness.
Thoughts of accomplishment enable you to see that accomplishment in every detail. And whatever you can see, you can find a way to be.
Thoughts of peace truly make you more peaceful. And that can lead those around you to carry peaceful thoughts as well.
Thoughts begin on the inside and quickly flow outward. The thoughts you hold in this moment will soon spread far beyond you.
The thoughts you send forth will eventually find their way back to you, yet by that time they will be much more than just thoughts. Those thoughts will return as circumstances, objects, challenges, opportunities and achievements.
Your thoughts attract more of whatever you think, because life has a dependable way of multiplying and manifesting them. So choose to always hold the most positive, enriching thoughts, and from those seeds a beautiful garden will grow.
-- Ralph Marston
The actions you take have consequences, and some of those consequences can be painful. Yet life would be hopelessly more painful if there were no consequences.
If actions had no consequences, there would be no reliable way to achieve anything. There would be no way for you to direct or control the circumstances of your life.
As it is, you can choose the consequences you experience by choosing the actions that bring about those consequences. You are able, in large part, to avoid the consequences you don't want and to create the consequences you desire.
By taking responsibility for the consequences in your life, you gain the power to determine what those consequences will be. By accepting and embracing responsibility for the outcomes of your actions, you are able to bring about the outcomes you prefer.
In each moment, with each choice you make, consider what that choice will bring. You have the power to create your own results.
Choose your actions with care and positive intent, and you'll like the consequences they bring.
-- Ralph Marston
In this day there is real and lasting treasure. Somewhere in the circumstances, the people, the moments, the experiences of today there is a unique and valuable gem that can bring much richness to your life.
If you set out with the goal of just getting through today, you'll likely pass that treasure by without even seeing it. If you spend your energy on anger, envy, worry or gloominess, your eyes will be blinded to the goodness and value that could otherwise be yours.
For today is a day when you can make positive, creative and beautiful things happen, if you will. Today is a day when you can add much meaning and substance to your world, if you choose.
Like precious diamonds that are hidden beneath the ground, the most valuable treasures of this day are not immediately evident. Yet the more love, creativity and effort you put into life on this day, the more real value you will uncover.
The most valuable treasures won't be found in those things from which you attempt to take. The real treasures will be in those things to which you give the best of who you are.
Choose now to do more than simply get through this day. Choose to discover and to live its richest treasures.
-- Ralph Marston
Do yourself a favor and give yourself a goal. There is nothing that can give you the same positive, satisfying feeling as deciding to do something and then getting it done.
Give yourself a goal, and make it one that's truly meaningful to you. Experience the joy of creating exactly what you would like to have.
When you give yourself a goal, you give your actions a purpose. With a real and meaningful purpose behind them, those actions become vastly more effective.
When you are following a meaningful goal, it feels so right that once the goal is reached you'll want to have another. So do yourself an even bigger favor and get in the habit of creating and achieving goals for yourself on a regular basis.
The more goals you reach, the more enthusiastic you'll be to devise new ones. Even when you start with just a tiny, modest goal, you'll find yourself easily and naturally progressing to bigger, more ambitious ones.
Give yourself a goal, and the benefits will go far beyond you. You'll be making your world a more valuable and fulfilling place to live.
-- Ralph Marston
When you proclaim and promote your own bitterness, you do far more harm to yourself than anyone else could ever do to you. When you blame others for all your troubles, you give them control of your life.
When you expect and demand to be taken care of, you give up the freedom and responsibility that account for so much meaning in life. When you become obsessed with revenge and retribution for an injury you have suffered, you prolong and expand that injury far beyond its original scope.
By contrast, the more of your life you accept responsibility for, the more power you have to control your own destiny. The more quickly and completely you can forgive, the sooner you can get back up and get moving forward again.
Do you truly want to live a life of meaning, fulfillment and joy? Then you must set out each day to create that meaning, to build that fulfillment, and to live that joy through the vehicle of your own life.
No other person can provide you with what really matters, and no one can take it away. Because what really matters is what you choose to freely and lovingly give to life.
Bitterness, anger, blame and retribution will bring nothing of value into your life. Let go of their false promises, and give yourself space to truly and magnificently live.
-- Ralph Marston
What if, instead of demanding that life were different, you simply set out to make it better by virtue of your own attitude and actions? What if, instead of placing limitations on your happiness, and holding it hostage until certain conditions were met, you simply let that happiness happen?
Imagine how life would be if you didn't have to worry about getting things or losing them. Imagine what you could accomplish if you could spend your time free of anger, frustration, and regret.
Think of all the places you could go if you didn't have to first ask permission from your own ego. Consider how much energy you would have if you were free from every anxiety.
Such a life is possible, and it is closer than you may think. In fact, the very act of visualizing it begins to make it happen.
Because your ego, your attitude, your anxieties, your frustrations, angers and regrets are all creatures of your own making. And you can choose just exactly how they will be.
Visualize a life of freedom, fulfillment, meaning and richness. Hold on to that vision and you will begin to make it be.
-- Ralph Marston
Now is a good time to finally accomplish some of those things you've been meaning to do. Now is a good time to be thankful for all that you have and for all the positive possibilities open to you.
Now is a good time to set yourself free from the limiting thoughts that may be holding you back. Now is a good time to open your eyes and to more fully realize how very much you can do.
Now is a good time to connect with your highest vision of how good life can be. Now is a good time to focus yourself on making that vision come true.
Now is a good time to sincerely show others, with your words, your actions, your life, how much you care. Now is a good time to take the best of who you can be and use it to create real, lasting value for your world.
Now is a good time to pause and reflect on who you are and on the unique gifts that you have to give. Now is a good time to experience the real joy that comes from making a positive difference.
What makes now such a good time for all these things? Because it is here and it is yours to fully live, now.
-- Ralph Marston
With your thoughts you can open your eyes. What you see in front of you is a function of the thoughts you nourish inside of you.
Have you ever thought about a person whom you haven't heard from in a long time, and then that person suddenly appears again in your life? It may seem magical or supernatural but it's not.
For your thoughts did not magically cause that person to appear. Instead, your thoughts opened you up to connect with that person who was there all the time.
There are vast expanses of reality that you have never even considered. Your thoughts can open you up to experience all sorts of valuable and wondrous things.
Life becomes available to you to the extent that your thoughts allow. And the quality of life that you experience is very closely connected to the quality of your thoughts.
Your thoughts are the filter through which you connect with the world where you live. With your thoughts you can choose to experience the best of life's countless possibilities.
-- Ralph Marston
Fear is often much more destructive than that which is feared. Anxiety can often be far more harmful than those things about which you are anxious.
Avoiding effort can be more difficult and time-consuming than the effort itself. Worrying about a negative situation is usually more prolonged and painful than experiencing the situation itself.
Life is best when you face it directly. Your efforts are far more effective when they don't have to push through layers of denial, avoidance and anxiety.
When something must be said, stand up and say it. When something needs to be done, get busy and do it.
It can be tempting to put tasks off until later, or to think that problems will just go away, or to hope that some magical occurrence will fulfill your desires. Yet the truth is that the real fulfillment in life comes from putting all of yourself into the living of it.
So go ahead and face that fear, make that effort, move forward into new territory and fully live the grand possibilities with which you're blessed. Boldly face life, and you'll find it to be better than you ever imagined.
-- Ralph Marston
How many times have you told yourself that you can't? How many times have you put your most treasured dreams aside and sought refuge in flimsy excuses?
You deserve much better. Your dreams are yours for a very good reason and they deserve to be given life.
Yes, you do have those dreams, though you may have chosen to hide them even from yourself. And yes, you can make them real.
Stop being so busy posing for the world and take a moment to remember the things that are truly important to you. Those things point, clearly and directly, to your most valuable dreams.
Is it frivolous and selfish to follow those dreams? No, what is truly selfish would be to keep them forever hidden from life.
There is so very much you have to give by being the best of who you are. And the more of it you give, the more real fulfillment you will know.
Give life to your dreams. And give your dreams to life.
-- Ralph Marston
The way out of disappointment is through effort. The way out of worry and anxiety is through effort.
The way to respond to unfairness, injustice, tragedy and misfortune is with effort. The way to get beyond the obstacles standing in your path is with effort.
It is truly amazing what some good, sustained effort can do. It will make you wonder why you didn't get started sooner.
When you are discouraged, make a little positive effort and your attitude will remarkably improve. When you are weary, make a little positive effort and it will energize your spirit.
Sitting around worrying, complaining, being angry and frustrated will do nothing to improve the situation. Start to take effort, though, and you enter a whole new positive, productive frame of mind.
With effort, there is a very real and attainable connection between where you are and where you would like to be. Make the effort, and work your way out into the bright light of achievement.
-- Ralph Marston
Doubt is nothing but a thought you choose to have. Just as easily as you choose to have doubt, you can choose to let it go.
Doubt has no power other than the power you give it. Yet the power you give it can be enormous.
When you focus on doubt, your problems and limitations become greatly multiplied. When you give yourself to doubt, your resources and abilities lose much of their value.
So why would you want to hold yourself back in this way? There's really not even a single good reason.
As soon as you sense that doubt is pulling you down, make the decision to leave it behind. Remember that each doubt is your own creation, and once you stop sustaining it, it will no longer be.
Choose to walk away from doubt. And you'll set yourself free to achieve great things.
-- Ralph Marston
Today is now here. And with it has come the opportunity for you to move in the direction you choose.
If you have been knocked off your feet, today is the day to get back up and get going again. If you have made choices that led to disappointing results, today is the day you can change your direction.
If you have been holding a treasured dream in your heart, you can begin today to make that dream happen. If something has been holding you back, today is your chance to start moving beyond it.
All that you've done and all that you are, has now arrived at today. In this day there are opportunities that have been building for a lifetime.
You've learned what works and what does not, experienced pain, joy, sadness and fulfillment. Today you know, better than ever before, just which way to go.
So breathe deeply, feel the fresh air of real meaning and true purpose as it fills your spirit. And make today the best day yet.
-- Ralph Marston
When you can't see how you will get it all done, the thing to do is to do what you can. Even when it's difficult to imagine getting the job finished, the thing to do is to take the first step.
Creating something of value takes time and effort. The thing to do is to make that effort.
Getting beyond the difficult challenges will require persistence and diligence. The thing to do is to keep going.
When you're not sure where to start, the thing to do is to find some action that will move you forward. Even if you start slowly, it's much better than falling further behind.
When you don't know how you'll continue, the thing to do is to focus on the next effort. The more diligently you work on it, the more good and valuable options you'll see opening up to you.
Whatever may come your way, the thing to do is to make the most of all that you have to work with. And every moment will move you closer to where you have chosen to go.
-- Ralph Marston
The things you know without a doubt are the things you discover and experience for yourself. Though others can guide you, lecture you, persuade you, scold you or encourage you, what becomes a part of you is what you experience for yourself.
Your belief may indeed be strong and unwavering. Yet there is a difference between belief and certainty.
Certainty comes when you actually live your beliefs and put them into practice on an ongoing basis. For that is when you will discover and experience for yourself the essence of their truth.
It is interesting to speculate about what might and might not be true, what might and might not happen, what may or may not work. It is powerful indeed to know for sure.
What you've been told is a good starting point. Take it further, put it into practice and discover for yourself.
Honor your faith, your trust, your belief by bringing it all to life through your efforts. Truth will rise to a whole new level when you discover and experience it for yourself.
-- Ralph Marston
There is no real, lasting joy in proving that you're better than someone else. Yet there is endless joy and fulfillment in being the best that you can be.
It will ultimately mean nothing that you've collected a large store of trinkets and worldly possessions. Yet it can truly mean everything when you have worked to create real value for yourself, your world, and those around you.
There is nothing of any value that you will gain by deception. Yet there is a whole universe of richness to be experienced when you seek truth.
Each time you set out to cheat life, you will end up cheating yourself. Yet whatever you freely and lovingly give, will be yours in ever-increasing measure.
Success in life comes not from gaining any kind of secret or exclusive advantage. Real success comes from openly and authentically being the unique, immensely valuable person you are.
Reach into yourself and touch those things that truly matter. The best of life can be yours this very moment.
-- Ralph Marston
There are some assumptions that you have no choice but to make, and they can at times be helpful. Many assumptions, though, just get in the way.
When you assume that a task will be difficult, you'll likely make it even more difficult than it otherwise would have been. When you assume that something will be easy, that can lead to needless frustration and dismay when unexpected challenges arrive.
Instead of putting your energy into making assumptions, put that energy into being fully aware. Pull away the mask of your assumptions, and there is much you'll suddenly be able to see.
Rather than assuming what you'll find around the next bend, make the journey and experience what is really there. Instead of assuming how someone will be, make the effort to truly get to know that person.
When you assume, realize full well that you're doing it. And know that you could indeed be wrong.
Are there assumptions you hold that could be holding you back? Look beyond them and find much value in what is really there.
-- Ralph Marston
Do you fully realize how good you have it? Or do you take all the good and valuable things for granted, focusing only on the troubles and disappointments?
Sure, you have problems, and of course there are challenges and difficulties. The best way to move forward through those difficulties is by staying connected to the real, enduring goodness in your life.
Stop for a moment and think of five things in your life for which you can be truly thankful. Then consider what you could do to build and nurture those things, to make them more influential in your thoughts and your actions.
It's easy for the pressing problems of the moment to overwhelm your thinking. So it's up to you to provide a powerful, positive alternative.
When you have something to be thankful for, you have something real and valuable to go on. You have a solid foundation from which to build.
And no matter where you may be or what may have happened, you do indeed have many things for which you can be truly thankful. The more completely you stay connected to them, the more surely life will move in the direction you desire.
-- Ralph Marston
Trying too hard can often be as unproductive as not trying at all. Pushing yourself too hard sends an unspoken yet powerful message that you lack confidence in your own efforts.
Instead of forcing your efforts, seek to simply let them flow. Instead of being consumed with thoughts of how much or how little progress you're making, focus on the real substance of the effort.
When you wander a little off track, there's no need to despair or to work yourself up over it. Put that energy into pointing yourself back in the right direction.
Real progress will come at the pace at which you can give yourself fully and sincerely to the effort. If you attempt to rush the process, you may accumulate some meager tokens of success, but you will fall short of achieving real success itself.
Life already has enough pressures. There is no need to add more by pressuring yourself. Relax and let your efforts flow. That is how you can be your very best.
-- Ralph Marston
When you can clearly see where you're going, you greatly improve your chances of getting there. The more clearly you can visualize your goals, the more likely you are to reach them.
Pursuing a vaguely defined objective is like traveling through a thick fog. It's slow and difficult to make any progress, and even when you arrive you may not know you're there.
Yet when your goals are clear, specific, and filled with rich detail, all kinds of great opportunities for moving toward them will continue to come into view. Your progress will be swift and sure, and you'll enjoy increasingly abundant rewards as you draw closer to them.
If you're putting forth the effort to get somewhere, take the time to determine exactly where it is, what it will look like, and how it will be. Get clear on your goals, and you'll find plenty of ways to achieve them.
Keep your goals clearly in sight by reminding yourself of them on a continuing basis. Experience them often in your own mind, and you'll soon be experiencing them in the reality of the outer world.
Rise above the fog of fuzzy wishes, and make your intentions clear and specific. That will point you solidly toward wherever you want to go.
-- Ralph Marston
When something goes wrong, even when several things go wrong at once, there are still many more things that continue to go right for you. One of the best ways to deal with any trouble in your life is to put it into perspective.
It's easy to put all of your focus on the problems because they often scream for attention. Yet no matter how intensely the problems assert themselves, you always have the power to put them in perspective.
Use the magnificent power of your mind to visualize all the many treasures and blessings in your life. When compared to all the good things, the problems will not be so overwhelming.
And when your mind is no longer overwhelmed with the problems of the moment, you begin to gain real power over those problems. By putting them into perspective, you put your problems at a distinct disadvantage.
It's common to respond to a sudden difficulty with shock, anger, frustration, dismay and a whole host of other negative emotions. Yet imagine what would happen if you were to respond with gratitude, not gratitude for the problem itself but rather for all the good things still present in your life.
With gratitude, your energy suddenly shifts in a very positive direction. With gratitude, what once seemed overwhelming becomes something you can confidently handle.
Decide to put your problems in perspective, and you'll find everything you need to get beyond them.
-- Ralph Marston
If you had complete control over life, there would never be any unpleasant surprises. But there would never be any pleasant surprises either.
If you had complete control over life, things would always go your way. But you would never have the need to innovate, to adjust to unexpected, changing conditions, and to learn new ways of doing things.
If you had complete control over life, you would be responsible for deciding the nature of every moment, and the actions of every person. But just imagine how tedious and unfulfilling that would quickly become.
If you had complete control over life, your every desire would be granted the moment you thought of it. But it would thus be impossible for you to have anything to look forward to.
Thankfully, though there are many important things you can control, much of life is beyond your control. And it is that fact that is largely responsible for the richness and fulfillment you're able to experience.
Life does not always go your way. And in that truth is a world of magnificent possibilities.
-- Ralph Marston
Just because you've never done it, doesn't mean you can't. Though it may be new and different, it is still within your reach.
For you can learn, you can adapt, you can improve and then improve some more. Start something new, commit to it, and you might be amazed at how far you can go.
Each new skill you master makes your existing skills and knowledge more valuable and more useful. Thus the relatively small amount of effort it takes to learn something new can end up paying off in a big way.
Start something new, and your level of confidence can increase dramatically. Start something new, and you experience a whole new, interesting, exciting corner of the world.
Yes, it takes some initiative on your part to get started on something new. Once you get going, though, your energy level will increase to more than meet the demand.
Start something new in your life. The richness you'll gain is well worth the effort.
-- Ralph Marston
The things to which you give your attention will grow stronger. Think about something, focus on something, give your energy to something, and that energy gives it life, whatever it may be.
What you work toward will grow stronger. What you fight against will also grow stronger.
If you focus on your frustrations, you end up becoming even more frustrated. And if you then continue to dwell on those frustrations, eventually you reach the point where it's nearly impossible to focus on anything else.
Yet when you direct your thoughts toward your blessings, your possibilities, and the opportunities that life presents, those good and valuable things become even more so. The power of your attention can quickly transform modest value into ever-increasing richness and meaning.
In every moment you have the choice of where to direct your attention. Life may throw all sorts of things your way, and yet you can always decide where the power of your attention is focused.
As you go through this day, make yourself aware of how you use the enormous power of attention. Keep your attention locked solidly on the positive possibilities, and you will give them life.
-- Ralph Marston
If you've fallen a little behind schedule, that's no reason to get discouraged. On the contrary, it's a reason to get going.
The sooner you get started, the more you'll get done. The sooner you get to work, the more value you'll create with your efforts.
Do you want your work to bring maximum results? Then get moving on it right away.
It may sometimes seem that the easiest choice is to slack off and delay your efforts until later. Yet by doing that, you're actually making things more difficult for yourself.
To get the most done with the least amount of effort, get started on it as soon as possible. That way, instead of making time your enemy, you'll have time working on your side.
This is your opportunity to fill your life with richness and your world with value. Get up, get going, and get it done.
-- Ralph Marston
You live in a beautiful world. The more you appreciate and enjoy that beauty, the more beautiful it becomes.
Beauty is impossible to define and, at the same time, impossible to ignore. You know what it is without having to learn.
Beauty is much more than mere physical appearance. In fact, magnificent beauty can often be found in what appears to be plain and ordinary, when you explore it deeply enough.
Beauty can awe, inspire and astonish. Beauty can energize your spirit in ways that nothing else can.
One of the nicest things you can do for yourself is to give yourself the time and space to simply take in the beauty that is around you. Beauty asks nothing more than to be treasured, and when you let yourself experience it, beauty has much to give.
There is beauty stretching out in all directions. Dive deeply into it, and it will make you more.
-- Ralph Marston
Your problems are real and demanding. Yet they are tiny when compared to all the positive possibilities for your life in this moment.
You have fallen short in the past. Yet the past is over, and you are free to choose a new and more fulfilling direction, right now.
There are difficult challenges that you now face. And right alongside those challenges, intertwined and intermingled with them, there are stunningly magnificent opportunities.
This is your time to grasp those opportunities. Whatever may try to hold you back is trivial and of little consequence when compared to what you can gain by moving forward.
The difficulties this moment may hold are far outnumbered by the possibilities for achievement, learning, love, joy and fulfillment. Focus your mind, focus your energy on the best of those possibilities.
In this very moment you are free to choose any thought, any action, any path you wish. Choose to step confidently forward on the path to the best place and the best life you can possibly imagine.
-- Ralph Marston
Give, and you will have. Teach, and you will learn.
Listen, and you will be understood. Live with kindness, and kindness will live with you.
Respect, and you will be respected. Be truthful, and it will be nearly impossible for others to deceive you.
Keep a generous spirit, and your life will be filled with abundance. Seek to bring out the best in others, and they'll give you the best that they have.
Give your genuine encouragement to those who thirst for it most, and you'll be encouraged beyond all measure. Speak positively of your world, and your world will be a rich and fulfilling place.
The world you influence with your thoughts, words and actions is the world in which you live. Always be your best, and that world is a great place to be.
-- Ralph Marston
Today is the day things will start to go right. Now is the moment when life can begin to be the best that you can imagine.
The time has now arrived for you to make real, substantial and lasting progress. For you are, without a doubt, ready, willing and able.
The past is no longer in a position to hold you back. This is a new day, and every disappointment is already far behind you.
Ahead, there are possibilities too numerous to even count. Look closely, with your heart, and the best of those possibilities will come shining through.
There is no reason to hold yourself back any longer. This is your moment to shine, this is your day to live with fullness, with richness, with joy and with love.
This very moment, all of life surrounds you, supports you, encourages you and pulls you toward the best you can be. Dive in to the golden opportunity that is now, and know how it feels to be fully alive.
-- Ralph Marston
Your life has an immense and unique value. And you can choose to make that value even greater.
Your life is overflowing with possibilities. And you can choose to expand those possibilities even more.
Your life is filled with unique opportunities that have never existed before. And you can choose to transform them into grand achievements that set the stage for even greater opportunities.
There is much you have to work with. And there is no limit to what you can do.
For you are alive, able to think, to dream, to plan, to act, to learn and adapt, to create and to grow. And deep within it all is a purpose, a meaning, a passion that you are driven to express and fulfill.
Stay connected to that passion, keep listening to that purpose, for there is so much that your life has to offer and fulfill. You are filled with unique value, and the more fully you live it, the greater it grows.
-- Ralph Marston
A Dad is respected
because he gives his children leadership.
A Dad is appreciated
because he gives his children care.
A Dad is valued
because he gives his children time.
A Dad is loved
because he gives his children the one thing they treasure most—himself.
Life sometimes unfolds in ways you never could have anticipated or imagined. Even the most carefully laid plans can be turned upside down by something totally unforeseen.
When that happens, you could moan, complain, yell, scream, throw things and dive into a fog of self pity. But none of that would bring you anything of value.
When one of life's unpleasant surprises comes along, you may be tempted to use it as an excuse for becoming depressed, despondent, and giving up. But do you really want to choose to be miserable and ineffective?
Instead, realize that a positive response is every bit as possible and realistic as a negative one, and a whole lot more beneficial. When events knock you off balance, use the occasion not as an excuse to give up, but rather as a reason to push forward with even more determination.
When a ship gets blown off course to the east, a good captain will steer the vessel back to the west. In the same way, when life pushes you in a negative direction, your best response is to push back even more positively than before.
When an unpleasant surprise comes along, that's a great time for you to create a surprise of your own. Surprise the world with how positive you can be, and everyone will quickly be moving forward again.
-- Ralph Marston
What if you could get paid for doing something that you consider enjoyable? What if you could improve your health, your finances, your relationships, your knowledge and your standard of living by doing things enjoyable to you?
The fact is, you can do all this and more. And it requires nothing other than an adjustment in your thinking.
For you are the person who decides what is enjoyable to you and what is not. What you find enjoyable is precisely what you choose to find enjoyable.
To make a particular task or activity enjoyable, you do not have to change that activity in any way. You can simply and easily change the way you think about it.
When you enjoy what you're doing, you'll be very effective at it and able to create much value. So choose to enjoy those things that will most powerfully propel you forward.
When you decide that something is enjoyable, you'll do it often and you'll do it well. Take what you have to do, turn it into what you want to do, and you can surely achieve great things.
-- Ralph Marston
Replace your worry with hope. And fulfill your hope with action.
Send positive thoughts to your most troubling situation. Soon you'll find yourself starting to act on those thoughts.
Instead of worrying about the worst that could happen, allow yourself to hope for the best that can happen. In your mind, make the most positive outcome real.
Hope for the best, with passion, conviction and faith. For when you do, you'll begin to see real, workable ways to get there.
There is no situation so desperate that it cannot be turned around. Always, there is a place and a purpose for hope.
Hope for the best, and let that hope push you forward. With hope in your heart, you're well on your way.
-- Ralph Marston
If you're willing to settle only for instant results, you're seriously limiting what you can accomplish. Most things of great value take some time to achieve.
It is good to take action. It is far more powerful to take focused, sustained action.
The results you're willing to wait for are the results that will last the longest. The time you invest in creative, productive, effective effort will always pay the greatest dividends.
If you're always chasing instant results, life will be a constant struggle. By contrast, you can do the work of fifty, a hundred, a thousand people or more by spreading the effort over time.
Just imagine the incredible, lasting value you'll be able to create. When your efforts build upon each other, there is no limit to how far you can go.
Persist in your work, and you will be abundantly rewarded. The results that come over time are far and away the most precious.
-- Ralph Marston
The smallest changes can make the biggest difference. Because the smallest changes are the ones you can repeat over and over again.
The once-in-a-lifetime events are indeed impressive, and they certainly command your attention. Yet the routine, once-a-day actions can have a far greater impact because they are done again and again.
Every few seconds, for example, you take a breath of air, and rarely do you ever even think about doing it. Yet this small, regularly repeated action literally sustains your life and makes all your other activities possible.
When you want to make it big, think small. Find the small, easily accomplished actions that will steadily take you to your most ambitious goals.
The biggest problems will almost always yield to the smallest changes. Because the smallest changes can be overwhelmingly relentless, like tiny drops of rain wearing away the most massive boulder.
When you seek a big result, start with the small changes. They are the ones that will most reliably get you there.
-- Ralph Marston
Creativity begins with wondering, with a question. Why is this so, or why can't that work, or what if it were done a little differently?
Real, original value is created by those who dare to wonder. Progress is made by those who dare to ask the obvious, and by those who think to ask the questions that are not so obvious.
When you come across something that can't be done, make the effort to understand why not. For in that understanding you're likely to find a way to make it work.
When you come across something that works very well, seek to understand why. In that understanding you'll find strategies for improving many other things.
As a child, you were endlessly curious. And somewhere within you, every bit of that curiosity is still there.
Combine that curiosity and wonder of a child with the discipline and focus of an adult. You'll find the result to be pure genius.
-- Ralph Marston
Every day is an opportunity to grow. How will you grow today?
Every experience, whether positive or negative, gives you the chance for positive growth. Every situation, every encounter, every victory and every defeat provides you with a way to grow stronger.
With each effort you can grow more capable. With each thought you can grow wiser.
As you grow, you can take the best of who you already are, and expand on it. Growth does not change you into a different person, but enables you to more fully express your own uniqueness.
As you grow, you become more completely and more authentically who you are. As you grow, your own special goodness becomes more prominent and the limitations steadily fall away.
Choose not to merely let this day come and go without any positive progress. On this day, with what you have and where you are, choose to grow.
-- Ralph Marston
Sedikit mo sharing saja, tadi pagi saat saya ber-saat teduh dengan bahan Alkitab Matius 6:5-15 dengan judul "More Than Wishing" (Our Daily Bread 13/05/2005) dengan renungan tentang "Berdoa"...
Doa adalah nafas hidup orang Percaya... "As we grow in faith, our prayers will become less of a wish list and more of an intimate conversation with Lord."
Coba baca 1 Thesalonika 5:17 berbunyi "Tetaplah Berdoa"... Saya ber-doa adalah "respon" dari diri saya, karena saya telah diselamatkan dan ditebus di kayu salib oleh TUHAN YESUS KRISTUS. Semua yang saya lakukan buat YESUS, adalah "respon"... karena DIA terlebih dahulu mengasihi saya, jauh sebelum saya ada...
Birthday Note
Hari ini Jumat 13 Mei 2005 yang berulang tahun Pak Ardian Elkana (Bos AVIGRA Communication Group), My friend Timothy Patisina & Meis Ritiau and Lilik Hartono... GOD Bless you all...
When the truth hurts, it is tempting to ignore it or to deny it. Yet when the truth hurts is precisely the time when it's most important to pay attention to what that truth says.
A real friend is someone who has the courage to speak truthfully to you, even though that truth may be painful to hear. For by knowing and acknowledging the reality of a situation, you can begin to successfully deal with it.
When the truth hurts, it can indeed be painful. Yet if you will listen carefully, you'll gain the wisdom to avoid even more pain and to move positively forward.
When you encounter a truth that is painful to hear, that pain is doing you a favor. It is providing you with an opportunity to make a change for the better.
Take that opportunity and run with it. Be thankful that a difficult and valuable truth has succeeded in getting your attention.
In the difficult truths you will find much power. Though the truth may hurt for a moment, in the long run it can also set you free.
-- Ralph Marston
It's difficult to see what you assume is not there. It's impossible to accomplish what you assume you cannot do.
Be careful not to become a prisoner of your own assumptions. Though assumptions can be useful, they can also become obsolete.
If nothing seems to be working for you, that's a good sign that it's time to re-examine your assumptions. Often, a simple change in your assumptions can open you up to a whole new level of valuable and positive possibilities.
What might seem totally absurd at the moment could very well become completely reasonable after a change in assumptions. What may once have been unquestionably out of your reach could quickly become very accessible with a change in your assumptions.
What is possible for you is firmly rooted in what you assume to be possible. The world you see is based largely on the world you assume is there.
Your assumptions have a powerful influence on the substance and quality of your life. Renew, replace, and reinvigorate your assumptions so as to always keep their power working in your favor.
-- Ralph Marston
Today, you can be a positive force in a negative world. Today, you have the opportunity to truly make a difference.
When you come across greed, incompetence, disrespect, despair, or injustice, don't simply get angry or frustrated. Instead, get busy.
Get busy thinking of what specific steps you can take to make it better. Then get busy committing yourself and taking those steps.
You can't do anything to prevent what has already happened. Yet you can do much, in your own way, to make your corner of the world a more peaceful, loving, creative, intelligent and caring place.
When you're tempted to curse the negativity that's all around you, stop and remember that your cursing will do little good. Rather than focusing on what's wrong, step forward and do something that's overwhelmingly right.
Improve your corner of the world, and that corner will grow more positively influential. Keep on being a positive force, and little by little, you can create a great and wonderful transformation.
-- Ralph Marston
One of the greatest causes of unhappiness is letting other people tell you what will make you happy. For true happiness is not something you must chase in a particular way.
Happiness is yours when you choose it. Yes, it really is as simple as that.
When you let go of the notion that this thing or that thing will make you happy, something truly amazing happens. You are suddenly free to be happy without condition.
The good things you associate with happiness are not things that will cause you to be happy. Quite to the contrary, they are things that will come about once you allow yourself to be happy.
Putting conditions on your happiness keeps happiness at a distance away from you. Drop the conditions, and happiness is free to flow into your life.
Stop trying to figure out what it means to be happy or what will cause you to be happy. Simply choose to be happy, and you'll know exactly what it means.
-- Ralph Marston
There are days when it can be difficult to keep going. There are times when it seems that all you've done has not done any good at all.
Yet somewhere deep within, you know that your positive efforts are already being rewarded. You know that even though the outer results have been disappointing, a real and lasting inner value has already been created.
The outer results you obtain, even when they are exactly what you want, will eventually fade. Yet the inner value you build will always be with you, and will grow even more precious with each passing day.
Even when the world offers you nothing but frustrating setbacks, the real person deep within grows ever stronger and more beautiful. Even when the world outside gives you little reason to keep going, there is in fact more reason than ever before.
Learn to let the outer world, with all its ups and downs, flow gently and continually past you. And carefully choose what truly matters to add to the treasure inside you.
Stay connected to the real, lasting value that is deep within. And life will grow richer with each passing moment.
-- Ralph Marston
The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it. When you take an active role in your own life, things are far more likely to go well for you.
It's easy to blame your troubles on such influences as the weather, the government, the economy, the media or the culture. Yet it can be exceedingly difficult to do anything about those things.
Instead, step up and accept responsibility for all the factors that affect your life. When you take responsibility, what you get is control.
Even if you didn't create the situation, look first to yourself to create a positive and successful response to it. Even if the challenges you face are not your fault, begin to treat them as your responsibility and you will begin to have control over them.
See your future not as the inevitable result of your past. Visualize your future as the best, most positive, most valuable, most creative response to your present possibilities.
Your future can be so much more than a mere extrapolation of your past. Take responsibility, and your future will express the best of who you are.
-- Ralph Marston
If you fear something with intensity and persistence, it will become real in your life. If you desire something with intensity and persistence, then what you desire will become real in your life.
When you focus your attention and your energy on something, it will grow stronger. So it is far better to focus your attention on what is positive and desirable.
Do you see the world in terms of your limitations? Then those limitations will indeed hold you back. Instead, relate to the world from a perspective of your best possibilities. And you'll surely bring those possibilities to life.
That is not to suggest that you ignore the negative or pretend that it doesn't exist. Acknowledge and accept reality, then direct your energy toward the positive possibilities.
Your attention will give power to whatever it is focused upon. Choose to focus it in a way that will move you positively forward.
-- Ralph Marston
The biggest successes come to those who are not afraid to fail. When you can accept and live with the possibility of failure, then you're ready to go forward into the realm of success.
Failure is failure only when you let it stop you. Yet when you fear failure, it will stop you even before you ever start.
Instead, simply accept the possibility of failure and go on ahead anyway. You may well have some setbacks, but you'll also have the ability to deal with them as they come along.
Each difficulty you encounter along the way will, after you get beyond it, eventually add value to whatever you're doing. Each so-called failure is only temporary when you are committed to reaching the goal.
Any effort that produces real value will also have some risk. To arrive at the value you must live through the risk.
Where there's a possibility of failure, there is also the real opportunity for success. The more you can accept the possibility of failure, the more success you will achieve.
-- Ralph Marston
The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying (to the self) that we are born to eternal life.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Being thankful in your thoughts and words is a good starting point. Yet the real power of gratitude comes when you put it into action.
How do you put gratitude into action? By making the most of the good things you have.
When you hoard and hide away your blessings, they soon wither and die. When, on the other hand, you put them to use, the good things in your life grow and multiply.
There is no better way to show your thankfulness and appreciation for something than by using it for a positive, productive, creative purpose. Do that, and the value you already have grows even more valuable.
Whatever you have is not really yours unless you are truly thankful for it. To be truly and effectively thankful for it, make full and fruitful use of it.
Live with a thankfulness in your heart, in your thoughts and, most importantly, in your every action. All the good things you make use of will grow even better.
-- Ralph Marston
Don't become so caught up in the effort itself that you lose sight of the reason for it. Always remember that there is a living, feeling, knowing person inside of you.
Don't become so overwhelmed by the consequences of your mistakes that you fail to learn their valuable lessons. Always remember that there are plenty of positive aspects to any living experience.
Don't become so angry or bitter or resentful that you bring darkness to the world in which you live. Always remember that you are connected to all you see and know.
Don't be too quick to pass judgment on the people and situations that come your way. Always remember that they are more than they first appear.
Don't use anything that has happened as an excuse to give up. Always remember that you can make a difference in this moment, and move positively forward from any setback.
Always remember that life is magical, miraculous, with possibilities that have no limit. And you are here now to live it fully.
-- Ralph Marston
There have been situations in your life that you thought you would never get through. And yet, you did.
There have been challenges you faced that you thought you would never overcome. And yet, you did.
There have been losses you've suffered that you thought you would never be able to get beyond. And yet, you did.
For you are here today, stronger, wiser, more experienced and more knowledgeable as a result of it all. Though the road has had its rough spots, you've successfully made your way along it.
There will certainly be more rough spots ahead, and there may even be some particularly difficult ones right now. So it pays, every now and then, to look back and remember that even though you thought you wouldn't get through, you did.
And perhaps, if you think about it, you'll see that there's really never any reason to doubt yourself. For when life challenged you to make your way through, you did.
And now, even more importantly, you will.
-- Ralph Marston
You have the power to surprise someone with a sincere act of kindness that's totally unexpected and completely delightful. You have the power to give a helping hand and an encouraging word to those who need it most.
You have the power to set your sights on a goal and then do what is necessary to reach it. You have the power to take an ordinary moment and give it extraordinary value.
You have the power to forgive. You have the power to appreciate.
You have the power to express yourself and you have the power to listen. You have the power to teach and you have the power to learn.
You have the power to look at a problem and to find within it a positive opportunity. You have the power to see what's wrong with a situation and to take the steps that will make it right.
At the end of this day, your world will not be the same place that it was when the day began. For you always have the power to make a positive difference.
-- Ralph Marston
If you're spending your time doing it, then it's important enough to do it right. A quality life is built through quality effort.
Put yourself fully in to every effort, whatever that effort may be. Even the seemingly trivial chores can set the stage for greatness when you put your love, attention and commitment into them.
Put yourself fully into every moment, whatever you may be doing. For each moment comes with its own unique opportunities.
Success depends just as much on the quality of your efforts as it does on the quantity and nature of those efforts. When you consistently put quality and commitment into what you do, then whatever you do will create real, lasting value.
Every moment, then, is a chance to move forward. Every effort, no matter how mundane or tedious it may first appear, can be a crucial step on the path to greatness.
Put your best into every effort. And all those efforts, the big ones and the small ones, will lift your life ever higher.
-- Ralph Marston
You put a lot of energy and effort into living. So on a regular basis, take time to fully experience your life and the world in which you live.
Spend some time that has no purpose other than to take in all the richness of which you're a part. Let go, for a while, of the need to analyze, to criticize, to judge and react.
Allow your thoughts to be still. Feel the wonder, the goodness, the beauty of simply being, and knowing that you are.
Experience life, not in order to gain any advantage or to impress someone. Experience life because the depth of its richness has no limit.
The more fully you experience and appreciate life, the more you'll find yourself needing less and having more. Experience life, and you'll clearly see how truly rich you already are.
Life is a gift so precious that it has no equal. Experience life, and give that gift to yourself and others.
-- Ralph Marston
You can wait and wish and hope for everything in life to be perfect. Or you can get busy making things better and better.
You can complain that life is unfair, and lament that the best in life has passed you by. Or you can get busy and make the very best of your life.
You can compile a big list of all the things you don't have. Or you can get busy and make full use of the good and valuable things you do have.
You can worry that there's not enough time to get everything done. Or you can get busy doing what you can with the time you have available.
You can let the setbacks and disappointments get you down. Or you can get busy filling your efforts with enthusiasm and positive determination.
You can sit and watch as life happens around you. Or you can get busy and make your life into something great.
-- Ralph Marston
Imagine for a moment that you could go to your local appliance store and purchase an achievement machine. How would such a device work?
First, you would need to supply it with a clear, specific, detailed description and image of what you wanted it to achieve. After all, you wouldn't want your achievement machine engaged in work that had no meaning to you.
Next, you would need to provide your achievement machine with plenty of good, quality fuel so it could do its work. You would also have to keep it properly maintained so it would stay in top working condition.
And in return, your amazing achievement machine would use its considerable power and flexibility to bring you the things you desire. As long as you were clear about what you wanted and supplied your goal achievement machine with care and nourishment, it would perform truly amazing feats.
Alas, you cannot purchase such a machine. But the good news is that you don't need one.
For you already have a spectacularly effective achievement machine at your disposal, in the form of your mind and body. The fact is, within you is the best achievement machine that could ever be imagined.
Give that achievement machine clear, detailed instructions along with plenty of quality fuel and careful maintenance. And it will surely find a way to reach any goal you set before it.
-- Ralph Marston
Someday, you keep telling yourself, you'll truly start to live. Someday you will take the very best of your possibilities and make them real.
Someday you'll escape from the meaningless distractions that only waste your moments. Someday you'll focus all your time and energy on what is really important.
Someday your longing to move vigorously forward will overcome the fears and insecurities that have caused you to hesitate. Someday you'll realize that you've always had the courage and the confidence to fully live, and wonder why you didn't start sooner.
Someday you'll laugh at the petty angers, frustrations, worries and annoyances that keep you from being all you can be. Someday you'll learn to let go and live.
Someday you'll decide that your life cannot wait any longer. Someday, you'll realize that living with richness and fulfillment is infinitely better than making endless excuses.
Someday you'll see that someday is here, that there's no reason to wait any longer. And there's every reason, here and now, to be fully alive.
-- Ralph Marston
It is surely a blessing that dreams do not instantly come true. For if your dreams were to immediately be fulfilled, you would never have the pleasure of dreaming them.
The anticipation of an achievement is an important part of the value of that achievement. Having something to look forward to gives enormous richness to life.
It is good to achieve your dreams, and yet it is also good to hold on to them, to nurture, refine and appreciate them before they have been reached. In so doing, by the time the dream is achieved, it has developed a real and profound meaning.
Working toward a goal is what makes that goal worth having. The fact that a dream has not yet been fully realized is what makes that dream so enticingly desirable.
Go ahead and dream big, wonderful, positive and intimately meaningful dreams. For they're the ones that will get you to move diligently and persistently forward.
Your dreams will not come true in an instant, yet they can instantly begin to provide focus, direction, and a driving force. You can then enjoy each and every moment as you steadily bring those dreams to life.
-- Ralph Marston
Most things that end up being urgent didn't start out that way. Most urgent matters, had they been addressed when they first came up, would not have to be rushed.
Putting off a difficult task until later only makes it more difficult. To truly make your life easier, go ahead and take care of the hard stuff as early as you can.
When you put off something that needs to be done, you don't get rid of it. You merely make it more burdensome than it otherwise would have been.
Each time you procrastinate you deny yourself the opportunity to get the work done calmly and carefully, at a comfortable pace. Instead, you push the work to a time and place where it must be hurried.
That ends up creating needness anxiety and reducing your effectiveness. The far better choice is to go ahead and get it done before the need for urgency sets in.
What could you take care of today that would prevent you from having to deal with an urgent matter later? Go ahead, get it done, and bring more peace and positive purpose to your life.
-- Ralph Marston
What do you do when nothing has gone as you had planned? Adjust your plans and get going again.
What can be done when problems and interruptions have drained away most of the time in your day? Step back and smile, knowing that you're wiser and more determined than ever to move forward.
For you've just experienced how precious your time can be, and realized how quickly it can slip by. Allow that realization to sharpen your focus, and then aim that focus on where you intend to go.
What's done is done. You are where you are.
The worst thing you can do is to fret about the time that's been wasted, for that will only add to the loss. The best thing you can do is to get up and get going again, with a fresh determination to make real progress.
Move beyond the time you've lost, and make use of the time you have. You'll soon be so far ahead that your little setback will quickly be forgotten.
-- Ralph Marston
The energy you devote to being annoyed brings you nothing of value in return. So choose to quickly let go of your need to be annoyed.
The time and energy you put into being offended adds nothing positive to your life. So decide to quickly let go of your need to be offended.
Winning petty arguments will do nothing to enhance your relationships. So find a way to quickly let go of the need to prove that you're right.
There are many things that can hold you back. But they'll hold you back only as long as you continue to hold on to them.
Each day is filled with plenty of valid reasons to be angry, resentful, jealous, frustrated, offended and annoyed. All that negativity can stop you cold if you allow it to take up long-term residence in your life.
So make the choice to quickly let it go. And free yourself to soar above it all.
-- Ralph Marston
There are as many definitions of success as there are people who pursue it. Real success is what feels right to you, what you know in your heart that it is.
If you have to compromise your most deeply held values to achieve success, that isn't success. If you have to make yourself miserable to achieve success, that isn't success.
Real success comes from bringing to life the best of who you are. It has nothing to do with acquiring trinkets or exercising power over others.
Real success comes when you use each moment to express a purpose that is uniquely you. Success is a gift you work to give rather than a position you strive to attain.
You can never be happy by accumulating things you don't truly cherish, no matter how many of them you may have. Happiness is yours when you simply let it be, with no conditions and no requirements.
Move on past the disappointment that comes from following a dream that is not yours. Be the best of who you are, and live the joy of real success.
-- Ralph Marston
Your attitude is not something you're stuck with forever. You can change it whenever you wish.
Your attitude does not define you. It does, however, represent you to the rest of the world.
Your attitude does not determine who you are. It does, however, determine what you can accomplish.
Your attitude is not the inevitable result of events that happen to you or circumstances that surround you. It is, instead, based on the way you choose to respond to the events and circumstances in your life.
You can choose an attitude that will open your eyes to the valuable possibilities. You can choose an attitude that will attract success and accomplishment to you like a magnet.
No matter what has happened in the past or where you are now, you are free to choose whatever attitude you wish. So choose, in every moment, a positive, empowering attitude.
For that will always serve you best.
-- Ralph Marston
The mother of a nine-year-old boy named Mark received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son's school.
"Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son's third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about it immediately." The mother began to grow worried.
The teacher continued, "Nothing like this has happened in all my years of teaching. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper:
"The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work.
"Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he begins to beg, 'Please Mr. Ant, you have much food. Please let me eat, too.'" Then I said, "Boys and girls, your job is to write the ending to the story."
"Your son, Mark, raised his hand. 'Teacher, may I draw a picture?'
"'Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story.'
"As in all the years past, most of the students said the ant shared his food through the winter, and both the ant and the grasshopper lived. A few children wrote, 'No, Mr. Grasshopper. You should have worked in the summer. Now, I have just enough food for myself.' So the ant lived and the grasshopper died.
"But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever. He wrote, 'So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died.'
"And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses."
When troubles come toward you, let peace come from you. When the world is filled with anger, frustration and confusion, that is when a peaceful heart can be the most valuable.
The more peaceful you are, the more effective you become. When your heart is filled with peace, your energy is more positively and purposefully focused.
The longer you remain peaceful, the stronger you become. Peace on the inside thus leads to real, meaningful success on the outside.
You can choose to carry peace within you, no matter what may be happening around you. Let the calm, deep power of peace energize your spirit and it will surely make a difference.
With peace at your very core, your thoughts are clear and your actions filled with purpose. Whatever the challenges of the moment may be, you have what it takes to move successfully through them.
Peace is something you can always choose to carry confidently inside you. The more you do, the more moments you'll fill with purpose and meaning.
-- Ralph Marston
Happy VALENTINES day, everyone!
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. —John 15:13"
If you want to be strong, be patient, thoughtful and understanding. Anyone can be rude, but it takes real strength to be kind and polite.
If you want to be strong, be persistent. Enduring strength does not come in an instant, but is steadily built over time.
If you want to be strong, get in the habit of taking action. The strongest people are those who act while others only talk or wish.
If you want to be strong, be humble. Put your focus on doing, rather than worrying about getting credit.
If you want to be strong, be joyful. When you enjoy what you're doing, you are far more effective.
If you want to be strong, be yourself. The real strength you have is in the authentic person you are.
-- Ralph Marston
Where there is nothing, there is room for everything. When all is lost, there is no limit to what can be gained.
When little is known, there is much that can be learned. When nothing has been done, there is much that can be accomplished.
Emptiness is an opportunity to be filled. Limitation is an opportunity to grow stronger and more capable.
Where there is overwhelming despair, there is also enormous space for love to abound. Where there is darkness, there is also the potential to be filled with light.
When you are down as low as you can go, you have the opportunity to be the best that you can be. When you're surrounded by emptiness, there is unlimited space available for real fulfillment.
When the world seems dark, cold, and empty, there is plenty for which to be thankful. For you can fill it with warmth, with light, with meaning, and with life.
-- Ralph Marston
The more grudges you carry, the heavier your burden becomes. Forgive, and let them go.
When someone has wronged you, it hurts. There is certainly no sense in using your own time and energy to prolong that hurt. Forgive, and you can begin to move away from the pain. Forgive, and you can move forward with a much lighter load.
Forgiveness does not mean that you allow others to take advantage of you. On the contrary, forgiveness gives you positive power no matter what others may have done.
Anger and spite can eat away at life until there's almost nothing of value left. Forgive, and free yourself from the grips of that anger.
Forgive, and you'll be much better off. Forgive, and you'll be free to truly live.
-- Ralph Marston
Every action you take has consequences. That may at first seem to be a burden, but it is actually very empowering.
For consequences are what make progress possible. It is in the consequences that life's treasures are to be found.
Yes, many of life's consequences are burdensome. Yet a life with no consequences at all would carry with it a far greater and unbearable burden.
If there were no consequences, there would be no pathway to desired results. Without consequences, true achievement would be impossible.
Though some of them are painful, consequences ultimately point you in a positive direction. By experiencing consequences, both the positive and the negative ones, you learn which actions to take.
Though consequences can make life difficult, they also make it rich. For consequences give real meaning and value to the choices that you make.
-- Ralph Marston
"I wait not for the one who makes me take a second look, but for the one who makes me never want to look away in the first place."
"Saya tidak menunggu seseorang yang membuat saya harus melihat untuk kedua kali, tapi seseorang yang membuat saya tidak pernah berpaling."
Your circumstances do not make you. Your circumstances reveal you.
The events in your life do not cause you to be one way or another. The events in your life give you the opportunity to express who you are by the way you deal with them.
Like a mirror, the world around you reflects your values, your beliefs and expectations. The things you experience outside yourself resonate with the person you are inside.
To bring about a positive change in your world, you must first make that positive change deep within yourself. Life flows from the inside toward the outside.
Any gains you make on the outside that do not have their origin on the inside will be temporary and mostly meaningless. Real, lasting success on the outside comes only after success has first been nurtured within.
Take great care with the authentic person you are inside. And that real value will flow outward to every corner of your life.
The way to take control is to take responsibility. The way to gain maximum influence over anything is to become fully responsible for it.
Responsibility may sometimes seem like a burden. That's because discipline, focus and effort are necessary in order to maintain responsibility. Even so, responsibility is not a burden so much as it is an opportunity. For it is through living with responsibility, day in and day out, that great and valuable things are achieved.
With responsibility, you can take a confusing situation and give it clarity. With responsibility, what was previously considered impossible can become a reality.
You can add significant value to any aspect of your life by taking responsibility for it. Where responsibility goes, success follows.
Get in the habit of looking for ways to take responsibility. And you'll find yourself firmly, positively in control.
-- Ralph Marston
Stress is only what you allow it to be. When you choose not to let it affect you, it is now longer there.
There are no situations that are stressful on their own. There are only situations in which you choose to respond with a stressful attitude.
When you choose to focus on the negative aspects of a situation, you choose to fill your experience with stress. Yet there are other choices.
You can, for example, choose to respond with love. You can choose to respond with positive action and enthusiastic determination.
You can look at challenges and see in them the opportunity for positive progress. You can look at the disappointments and see in them the opportunity for real joy.
When stress begins to fill you, stop and remember that it is only one of many possible responses. Then smile and make another choice.
-- Ralph Marston
If you never attempt anything, you will never make any mistakes. But you will also never enjoy the fruits of accomplishment.
If you never venture out into life, you will never have the pain of disappointment. Yet you will eventually know the even greater pain of regret for never having followed your best possibilities.
If you never go beyond what is comfortable and familiar, you won't run into any unpleasant surprises. You also will never make any exciting new discoveries.
It can seem enticing to stay securely protected within the walls of your comfort zone. After a short while, though, it becomes very empty.
Think for a moment how truly blessed you are that life is yours to be lived. Then make the most of each opportunity to fully live it.
Immerse yourself in the challenges and the triumphs, the disappointments and the joys, the uncertainty and the wonder of a life fully lived. And you'll find real treasure in every moment.
-- Ralph Marston
Be the first to smile. When there is no reason to smile is when a smile is needed the most.
Be the first to forgive. And forever leave the negativity of the past where it belongs, in the past.
Be the first to take action. The sooner you act, the more you will accomplish.
Be the first to say thank you. A grateful attitude will bring more richness into your life.
Be the first to adapt to new and different situations. When you embrace change, you get it working in your favor.
Don't wait any longer for the best that life can be. Be the first to move forward, and be the one to make it happen.
-- Ralph Marston
When the reason why is powerful enough, you can find the strength necessary to get the job done. When the reason why is clear enough, you can develop the discipline required to reach the goal.
When the reason why is meaningful enough, you will gain access to the resources you need to make it happen. When the reason why is compelling enough, you will have the persistence needed to see it through.
Whatever you undertake, it is essential to understand and connect to the reason why you're doing it. With a strong enough and meaningful enough reason why, you will find a way there.
Though the obstacles may seem overwhelming, a compelling reason why will motivate you to get past them. Though the challenges may be enormous, a clear reason why will bring you the encouragement necessary to work through them.
Before you begin, ask yourself why. When the going gets rough, remind yourself why.
Know, understand, and connect to a meaningful reason why. And you'll find a way to get it done.
-- Ralph Marston
Friendship is a quiet walk in the park with the one you trust
Love is when you feel like you are the only two around
Friendship is when they gaze into your eyes and you know they care
Love is when they gaze into your eyes and it warms your heart
Friendship is being close even when you are far apart
Love is when you can still feel their hand on your heart when they are not near
Friendship is hoping that they experience the very best
Love is when you bring them the very best
Friendship occupies your mind
Love occupies your soul
Friendship is knowing that you will always try to be there when in need
Love is when you will give up everything to be at their side
Friendship is a warm smile in the winter
Love is a warming touch that sends a pulse through your heart
Love is a beautiful smile to which nothing compares
A tender laugh, which opens your heart
A single touch that melts away your fears
A smell that reminds you of the tenderness of heaven
A voice that reminds you of the innocence of youth
Friendship can survive without love
Love cannot live without friendship
By Zig Ziglar
Cal Ripken is known for breaking Ty Cobb's "unbreakable" record of playing in 2,130 consecutive professional baseball games, and for signing a five-year contract for more than $30 million in the 1990s. However, during one particular year of that contract, Cal got only about one hit for every four times at bat. Think about it. If you had failed three times out of four in your job, how would you feel about it? What would your self-image or picture of yourself be?
Question: What do you think Cal Ripken's picture of himself is when he steps up to the plate? Do you really think that he's thinking: "Boy, what a waste of time! Chances are only one out of four I'm going to get a hit! I don't know why I bother with this anyhow. Sure, they pay me a lot of money, but this is embarrassing and terribly discouraging to get only one hit for every four trips to the plate. There has to be another way to make a living! I'm just a loser.
I'm no good, and I don't know why I put myself through this torture so everybody else can see what I already know." Do you think that's his self-talk? If not, then what is his self-talk? I believe as he steps to the plate with considerable eagerness to face the pitcher, Cal is thinking to himself, "Okay, you got me the last time, but I've got your number this time. I've been thinking it through, watching you, and I happen to know I'm one of the best athletes in the world.
I've hit that ball under every circumstance known to man. I've gotten hits off tall pitchers and short pitchers, winning pitchers and losing pitchers. I've hit in close games and runaway games, and this time . . . I'm coming after you. This is my turn!"
Cal Ripken sees himself as a winner, and he is elated to have a chance to step back up to the plate.
Message: Regardless of what happened to you the last time you stepped up to the plate, this time it's a brand new day, and at this very moment you are preparing to make it a winning one. That is motivation.
"God loves you just the way you are,
but he refuses to leave you that way.
He wants you to be just like Jesus."
-Max Lucado
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hated.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
---
No one can go back and make a brand new start.
Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
---
God didn't promise days without pain,
laughter without sorrow,
sun without rain,
but He did promise strength for the day,
comfort for the tears,
and light for the way.
---
Disappointments are like road humps,
they slow you down a bit
but you enjoy the smooth road afterwards.
Don't stay on the humps too long. Move on!
---
When you feel down because you didn't get what you want,
just sit tight and be happy,
because God is thinking of something better to give you.
When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it
means ....
---
There's a purpose to life's events,
to teach you how to laugh more or not
to cry too hard.
---
You can't make someone love you,
all you can do is be someone who can be loved,
the rest is up to the person to realise your worth.
---
The measure of love is when you love without measure.
In life there are very rare chances
that you'll meet the person you love and loves you in return.
So once you have it don't ever let go,
the chance might never come your way again.
It's better to lose your pride to the one you love,
than to lose the one you love because of pride.
We spend too much time looking for the right person to love or
finding fault with those we already love,
when instead we should be perfecting the love we give.
---
When you truly care for someone,
you don't look for faults,
you don't look for answers,
you don't look for mistakes.
Instead,
you fight the mistakes,
you accept the faults,
and you overlook the excuses.
---
Never abandon an old friend
you will never find one who can take his place
---
Friendship is like wine, it gets better as it grows older.
If you're mad with someone , and nobody's there to fix the situation... You fix it. Maybe today, that person still wants to be your friend. And if u don't, tomorrow can be too late.
If you're in love with somebody , but that person doesn't know... tell her/him. Maybe today, that person is also in love with you And if you don't say it, tomorrow can be too late
If you really want to kiss somebody... kiss her/him. Maybe that person wants a kiss from you, too. And if you don't kiss her/him today, tomorrow can be too late.
If you still love a person that you think has forgetten you... tell her/him. Maybe that person have always loved you. And if you don't tell her/him today , tomorrow can be too late.
If you need a hug of a friend... ask her/him for it. Maybe they need it more than you do. And if you don't ask for it today, tomorrow can be too late.
If you really have friends who you appreciate... tell them. Maybe they appreciate you as well. That if you don't and they leave or go far away today , tomorrow can be too late.
If you love your parents, and never had the chance to show them... do it. Maybe you have them there to show them how you feel. That if you don't and they leave today , then tomorrow can be too late.
Ada seorang raja yang akan memberikan hadiah pada seniman yang dapat membuat suatu lukisan terbaik tentang kedamaian. Banyak seniman yang mencoba. Raja melihat semua lukisan itu. Tetapi hanya ada dua yang ia suka, dan ia harus memilih salah satu di antaranya.
Salah satu lukisan menggambarkan danau yang tenang. Danau itu bagaikan cermin yang sempurna bagi gunung-gunung yang menjulang tinggi di sekelilingnya. Di atasnya langit biru dengan awan di sana-sini. Semua orang yang melihatnya akan berpendapat itulah lukisan yang sempurna tentang kedamaian. Lukisan yang satu lagi menggambarkan gunung-gunung juga, tetapi tampak tegak, angkuh dan kasar. Langit hitam berawan gelap, ada halilintar di situ. Di bawah ada air terjun yang airnya bergejolak. Tampak tak ada kedamaian sama sekali.
Tetapi raja melihat di belakang air terjun ada sarang burung. Di antara riak gejolak air, duduk seekor induk burung yang sedang memberi makan pada anaknya dengan penuh kedamaian. Lukisan yang mana yang Anda kira akan memang? Raja memilih lukisan yang kedua.
Karena, kata raja, "damai bukan berarti tempat yang tidak ada kegaduhan, permasalahan dan kerja keras. Kedamaian berarti bila di tengah-tengah semuanya itu tetap ada ketenangan di hati Anda. Itulah makna sejati kedamaian."
Anda tidak memimpin dengan memukuli kepala orang-orang - itu penyerangan, bukan kepemimpinan.
Sedangkan seorang hamba Tuhan tidak boleh bertengkar, tetapi harus ramah terhadap semua orang. Ia harus cakap mengajar, sabar. 2 Tim 2:24
Ada sebuah fabel yang mengisahkan tentang percekcokan antara Angin Utara dengan Matahari tentang siapa yang lebih kuat. Akhirnya mereka setuju untuk menyelesaikan argumen mereka dengan pertaruhan ini: yang pertama menyebabkan seorang musafir melepaskan pakaiannya dialah yang menang.
Angin Utara mendengus dan menghembus dan meniup dengan sekuat tenaga, namun semakin