SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MOTIVATION

You have your own perspective, and it is well-informed and valuable. Yet you do not know it all, and it’s a good idea to avoid the assumption that you do. Other people may often frustrate and annoy you, and you may wonder how they could be so ignorant, immature, misinformed or whatever. But you only see a very small part of their perspective, and cannot possibly know everything that goes into their decisions. Being overly judgmental rarely does anyone any good. Look for opportunities to replace judgment with empathy. By all means, live and act with excellence, and expect excellence from others. When others fail to live up to your expectations, find ways to offer help rather than to cause hurt. Seek to understand, and to encourage genuine understanding in others. Let go of the need to lecture and to rant, so you can spend more of your precious life in a positive state. Make connections instead of judgments. And make the best of every situation and of every person you encounter.

Intention empowers your life. Intention activates your passion, energizes your efforts, and pushes you past your fears. For intention to do all these things, it must be authentic. When it is authentic, intention carries the power to achieve anything. To put that power into what you do, acknowledge and embrace who you truly are. There are specific things you really want to do with life, so give yourself the intention to do them. Point yourself in a direction you have chosen, a direction you care about. Set your path based not on the superficial fashions of the moment, but on the spirit living deep inside you. Feel that spirit, and the positive values connected to it, and you feel your power. Resolve to give new beauty, excellence and substance to life, and you will suddenly find yourself doing it. Empower your day, your year, your life with authentic intention. Live the way you are meant to live, and do all you are meant to do.

Life is demanding and you have succeeded in meeting all those demands. You have persisted through every challenge and you can do it again. In fact, you’ve become skilled at working your way forward. Today is another great opportunity to put your skills to work. Over and over again, you have proven you can make a difference. Think of how you can apply that ability to make this a richer, more fulfilling and enjoyable day. Take a deep breath, feel your strength, your competence, and your desire to bring new beauty to life. Remind yourself of how thankful you are for the progress you’ve been able to create. Then turn toward the world, turn toward the possibilities, and create some more good substance. Seize upon the chances to put your skills to work in meaningful ways. Make good things happen today. Because that is what you do.

Creativity is not making something out of nothing. Creativity is making meaning out of something. The raw material of life and of creativity has always been present. In order to be creative, you don’t have to make anything materialize out of thin air. Creativity is never out of reach because life’s abundance is always very much within reach. To be creative, take what is already there and apply it in a way that makes life richer and more enjoyable. Whether you wish to create an object, an idea, a story, song, picture or experience, the ingredients are already present. Start with what you know, with what you have, add a lot of what you love, and you’ll create value. Instead of waiting for a great idea to hit you, realize that you already are the great idea. Go with what feels good, interesting, useful, satisfying and fulfilling, and you’ll go far. Creativity is your birthright, so claim it in every area of your life. Take what is there, add yourself to it, and live creatively every day.

Every restaurant has many different items on the menu, yet you have to choose one or two of those items in order to enjoy a good meal. Every day is filled with countless possibilities, and you must narrow down those possibilities if you are to get anything done. If you attempt to do everything, your focus becomes scattered and diluted. And you end up doing very little. Eating every item on the menu, if you could even do it, would make you miserable. Choosing wisely, sticking with your choices and seeing them through, creates a much more enjoyable experience. The quality of your life is not based on the quantity of things you can stuff into it. The quality of your life comes from the love and attention and genuine joy you are able to give. Don’t drive yourself crazy in a vain attempt to know everything, do everything, see everything and have everything. Instead, choose a few things at a time and enjoy giving depth and meaning to them. Narrow the possibilities of each day down to the one...

It’s great to make detailed plans, but you can’t possibly figure out every detail in advance. Get going, keep going, with a clear destination always in mind, and you’ll discover how to make your way there. Much of the value of any achievement comes from all the new things you learn along the way. So even if you’re not sure you’re ready to start, go ahead and start. Embrace experience as your teacher. Welcome the challenges that will strengthen every part of you. Speculation, pondering and learning from others all have their place. At some point, though, you must put it all into practice and work your own way to the goal you have chosen. Make that point sooner rather than later. Give more of your life the benefit of your real-life experience. Demolish your doubts with action. Go ahead, get started, and enjoy discovering how great you can do.

Tell yourself something often enough, and it becomes truth for you. What are you telling yourself over and over again? If you tell yourself again and again that you can’t do something, you’re never going to do it. Even when you are perfectly able, you can convince yourself you’re absolutely not. As you look at your world and make your way through it, whatever you’re repeating to yourself will have significant consequences. That can be a big burden, or a grand opportunity. There’s no benefit in deluding yourself to believe you have superhuman powers. Yet there’s great benefit in constantly reminding yourself of the real and accessible powers you do have. You can think, you can act, and you can focus your actions toward a specific purpose. You can feel, understand, create, adapt to new situations, build, improve, love and enjoy. When you think to yourself and talk to yourself, think of all the good you’ve done and all the good you can now do. Remind yourself, again and again, that you ca...