SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MOTIVATION

The way out of doubt is to do. The way to get beyond discouragement is with action. Thoughts have a powerful influence on the way you feel and the way you are. Yet deeds have an even more powerful influence. When you’re doing something positive, effective and meaningful, it’s difficult to be negative. When you’re actively making a difference in life, there’s no energy left for discouragement or despair. When you want to get your spirits up, get yourself up and get going. Your actions can change life for the better, and that will most certainly change you for the better. Think of how truly amazing it is that you can make things happen. Then go beyond thinking, and start doing it. Don’t just wish or dream or complain or worry. Step decisively away from the negative, limiting thoughts with positive, purposeful action.

You cannot escape the necessity of balance in your life. Anything taken to an extreme will soon cease to have the desired positive effect. If you relax all the time, relaxation will become nothing but a tedious burden. If you work all the time, with no break for fun and relaxation, your work loses much of its effectiveness. Be ambitious, be diligent, and work with commitment, but don’t make that work the only thing you do. Have fun, enjoy life, and take it easy, but don’t make leisure your full-time pursuit. Make it your goal to make sure there is balance in your life. If you don’t, eventually balance will be forced upon you in ways that won’t be to your liking. It’s only natural to seek more and more of a good thing, yet that can be counterproductive, whatever the good thing may be. Instead, consider adding more good things, new and different good things, to balance your life. Balance in your life can make every part of it richer and more satisfying. Keep things in balance, and make t...

A powerful first step in getting anything done is to assume you can do it. When you start by assuming you can do it, you don’t have to fight your doubts all the way there. Even if you don’t know how to take the first step, assume that there’s a way. Assume you can do it, and you’ll find that way. You are extremely good at solving difficult problems because you’ve done it all your life. You are very good at making things happen when you have a good enough reason to do so. So make sure your objective is what you really, truly desire, and make the assumption that you can indeed reach it. With a meaningful purpose and a positive perspective, you’re already well on your way. Instead of complaining that it’s too difficult or complicated or unfair, just get busy. Work under the powerful assumption that it’s possible for you, and it will be. Dare to dream and dare to believe without a doubt that you can reach your dreams. Assume you can, and eventually, with effort and commitment, you will.

If every one of your wishes were instantly granted, you’d probably regret most of them. Fortunately, it takes more than wishing to make it so. The wishes that come true are the wishes you really, truly want to come true. That’s because you must commit to them and work to bring them about. Just imagine how disordered and superficial life would be if you were granted every little thing you wished for. Nothing would really have any value to you, because you would not have the opportunity to build that value with your time and effort. The work you do to achieve what you desire is what makes that achievement meaningful. That work gives you the chance to put your own unique value into the achievement, and that’s what you truly desire. So, by all means, wish for the very best for yourself, your community, your family and your world. Then get busy bringing those positive wishes to life. Because you deserve much more than merely a wish that comes true. You deserve to be the person who makes it ...

Things will not always go the way you had hoped they would. Do your best anyway, give your best, live your best and be your best. People will not always act the way you think they should. Give them your love, respect and understanding anyway, for it is the best choice going forward. The past and the present are not always to your liking. Even so, especially so, the future is always yours to create. The people and conditions around you will not always be supportive, but you don’t have to let them drag you down. You can choose to move forward, no matter what others may or may not choose. Life might just give you a big, valuable break, but don’t count on it. Make it your business to give yourself an endless series of positive breaks, and anything else you get will be a bonus. Though things may not always go your way, life can always be good and fulfilling. Because you can always choose, with your thoughts, your attitude and your actions, to make it that way.

If your mind is always jumping ahead to what might be next, you miss the opportunity to fully live what is now. Be patient, be thankful, and let life come at its own pace. Stop looking so much at the clock, and focus more on your purpose. Tomorrow can wait while you make today great. If you hurry, concerned that you don’t have enough time, you’ll waste much of the time you do have. Take the necessary time and give sufficient attention to each task, so as to get maximum value from it. Live each moment with deliberate, peaceful purpose, not with hurried, worried anxiety. In your eagerness to get ahead don’t leave the opportunity of this day behind. Be ambitious while also being patient about it. Then you can truly enjoy the fruits of your ambition. Take a deep, relaxing breath and feel the great value of the moment you’re already in. Fully live that value, here and now, and make it always yours.

Just because the job is challenging doesn’t give you an excuse to be less than your best. In fact, what it gives you is the opportunity to rise to the challenge. Great success is not achieved by just doing the easy stuff. Great success is the result of being willing to, and even enthusiastic about working through the challenges. Each challenge you encounter can either be a reason to quit or a pathway to achievement. Through your attitude and your actions, you decide which it will be. Difficult, complicated, challenging work is not a curse, but rather is a valuable blessing. It is your chance to learn, to grow, to become stronger and more capable, and to achieve. In every challenge is a way for you to make a meaningful positive difference in the world. Welcome the challenges, and you welcome the potential for new richness into your life. You are much more powerful and effective than you’ve ever experienced. The way to know that without a doubt, is to rise to the challenges.

Do what you wish to do, live the way you wish to live, and achieve what you choose to achieve. Yet do it all not in opposition to others, but in harmony with all that is happening. You don’t have to fight to get your way. It is far more powerful and effective to achieve your aims through love, understanding, and giving. Sure, there will always be discord in this world. Yet it does not ever have to come from you. Put your energy into positive achievement, not into spite or anger or jealousy. Use your moments to pull yourself forward, not to push others back. The best possible world you can live in is a world in which everyone prospers. Make it your business to support, encourage and enable such a world. Go peacefully with life’s flow, and make use of it to fashion your own unique fulfillment. Live your dreams with true authenticity so that others may live theirs.

You are an important, indispensable part of life on this day. Yet that is no reason to be arrogant. You have a vital job to do. Yet that doesn’t mean you must be stuffy and overly serious. You do things best when you do them joyfully. Lighten up, have fun, and spread true joy everywhere you go. Be mature and responsible, but don’t be dull and brooding about it. Be purposeful and determined, but don’t be uptight about it. Demonstrate your determination not with a rigid scowl on your face, but with joyous achievement. Life is an amazingly grand adventure, so allow yourself to experience and express delight in every moment. See yourself as happily dancing through the moments of this day, and nothing will be able to bring you down. Live lightly, live joyously, and live well.

You are not too old or too tired or too broke or too disadvantaged. You are uniquely qualified to add substance to life. Don’t get caught up in making judgments about what is fair or unfair or easy or difficult. Just get on with the satisfying and fulfilling business of making a real positive difference in the world. You’ve done it many times before and you know you can do it many more times again. You know how great it makes you feel to know you truly matter. So get busy, get some good stuff done, and feel that great feeling again and again. Forget about the silly excuses and focus on the significant difference you can make. There are lots of great people in this world. Yet there is no one who can do a better job of being you than you. Life is great, and you are essential to that greatness. Do your part, in your own special way, and feel how truly great it is.

Don’t wait any longer. Live your very best life today. Don’t hold your happiness hostage waiting for some imagined perfect circumstance to come along. Choose to be happy, joyful and truly thankful for the moment you’re in. You deserve a life that is magnificent. And you deserve to let yourself live it right now. Don’t put off until someday the richness that you can live on this very day. Remind yourself what a fantastic opportunity you have, and go with it. You can add unique beauty to life, so do it now. You can live in harmony with your highest vision, so do it now. This very day, this very place is where you have the good fortune of being. Live it fully, with love, with commitment, with joy and grace, and live it now.

The way to be highly motivated is not to go out and look for things to motivate you. The way to be highly motivated is to let everything motivate you. Be motivated by the defeats as well as the victories. Be motivated by the challenges and difficulties just as much as you’re motivated by the positive possibilities. When you hear encouraging news, be motivated. When someone gives you discouraging news, be just as motivated. Your level of motivation does not depend on what happens. It depends on the way you choose to respond. Choose to respond with a sense of positive and meaningful motivation. No matter what happens or fails to happen, let it motivate you to reach higher and to create new value. You cannot know everything that will fill this day, yet you can choose right now what to do with it. Let it all motivate you to make the efforts that will make it all even better.

Even when it seems that life is not good to you, be good to life. Even when there is no reason to be positive, live with a positive outlook. The best things in life do not come from reacting to what has already happened. The best things in life come from choosing to make new and positive and valuable things happen. Decide not to be a slave to the way others live their lives. Instead of following the crowd, follow your own highest vision. Choose not to be limited by your history or your circumstances. Choose instead to find the positive possibilities in this day, and to act on them. There are all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons to be disappointed with life, but there is never any necessity to be. You can always choose to be positive, enthusiastic, empowered and effective. Live each moment from a perspective of positive, loving purpose. Your life is, right now, your great opportunity, so harvest its outstanding richness in every moment.

Let go of the need to desire what the world says you should desire. Let yourself truly enjoy being who you are and living richly in the moment you’re in. Worldly fame and fortune are mere artifacts of the things that really matter. Choose to love what you sincerely love, without the unnecessary pressure of having to impress anyone. You don’t need permission, or certain specific circumstances, to be beautiful. You already are uniquely beautiful and worthy of a magnificent life. Go ahead and live that life now, right where you are, with what you have, doing whatever you’re doing. Instead of placing arbitrary judgments on your situation, give your own profound love and meaning to it. There is no limit to the joy you can create and the fulfillment you can experience on this very day. Everywhere you’ll discover beauty to be found and opportunities for living with true richness. Stop fretting about what everyone else might do or say or think. Give your energy to all that you sincerely love, ...

Peace is not arrived at by merely doing nothing. On the contrary, peace is attained by doing substantive and significant things, and doing them without conflict. That means living with purpose, with love, compassion, forgiveness and genuine tolerance. It means putting your very best into the effort while at the same time detaching your sense of self worth from the result. Your life, your work and your whole world are all filled with conflicting interests. Yet that doesn’t mean you must handle them by fighting. In fact, diverse and conflicting interests can absolutely be resolved in much more positive ways, and it happens every day. That is one of life’s great challenges, and working through the challenge produces great value. Seek not merely to do significant things. Seek to achieve what you achieve with a peaceful heart, for that is true and sustainable achievement. Be fully engaged in life while also being completely at peace with who you are. It is indeed a powerful and fulfilling c...

Getting uptight won’t get anything done. Relax, enjoy the moment, and you’ll get more positive value out of it. The work may be difficult, complicated and challenging, but that doesn’t mean you must fight against it. Be genuinely thankful for the opportunity to make a difference, and the difference you make will be a beautiful one. Being resentful about what you must do will only make it more burdensome. You can choose instead to be enthusiastic, and you’ll immediately feel a great weight lifted off your shoulders. There is so much to value, appreciate and enjoy about life. It really makes no sense to fight against it. Take a deep, relaxing breath and remind yourself how good you have it. Choose to use your considerable energy to live your best possibilities. Embrace your precious, unique and wonderful life. And live it with the peaceful, positive power that is always yours to choose.

Every choice you make, makes a difference. Remember always to use that power wisely. Every moment you live provides you with opportunity. Transform that opportunity into meaningful value in your own unique way. You have immense power over the quality of your life and the shape of your world. That power is exercised in the choices you make. When you live with positive purpose, a positive attitude and positive expectations, you’ll make positive, life-enriching choices. Those choices will reliably create a life of great fulfillment. What you think, what you feel, what you say and what you do all matter very much. In every moment, with every choice, you move your life in a specific direction. Make the commitment to always make that direction a good and meaningful one. Choose wisely, and live magnificently. The choice is yours! Life is also yours! The path chosen is also yours!