IN EVERY EXPERIENCE

Every choice is an opportunity to make the best choice. Every difficult decision serves as an occasion to firmly reinforce, with your actions, your most deeply held values.

From every mistake, there is much you can learn. In every setback, there are seeds of a more determined, purposeful and effective life.

Every disagreement is an opportunity to more fully understand. Every disappointment helps to shine a light on what you truly value most.

Whatever this day holds, somewhere in it there is positive value. Each moment is filled with possibilities for adding to the richness of life.

If you're determined to make negative judgments and criticisms, you'll find plenty of ways to do so. But what will that accomplish?

Instead, let your life and your awareness resonate with the magnificent abundance that is present in each moment. And you'll find real, useful, enriching value in every experience.

-- Ralph Marston

TRULY CARE

Sincerely care about what you do. Give your full attention and respect to the task at hand.

There are those who depend on the work you are doing. Put yourself in their shoes, and look at the world from their perspective.

You have within you the potential for excellence. That excellence will be realized in your work when you truly care about each thing you do.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that some particular task is somehow beneath you. Instead, seek to raise up the significance of that task by giving your very best to it.

Each effort is an opportunity to express your highest, most treasured values. Each job is a chance to transform your vision of what life can be into something real and concrete.

The greatest, most valuable achievements are those built with genuine passion. Put passion and sincere care into the work you do, and the results can be astounding.

FEEL GOOD ABOUT LIFE

When you can change things for the better, do it. When you're unable to make any changes in the way things are, you still can change the way you feel.

And your feelings will end up changing your world. Because your feelings have an effect on what you do from moment to moment.

The person you feel like being is the person you will become. The life you most feel like living is the life you will find yourself experiencing.

Feel good about your life, and almost immediately your life will begin to align with that feeling. In each area, on every level, you'll start creating the results that validate and fulfill the feelings.

It may at first seem ridiculous or impossible to feel good when things are not going well. Actually, though, feeling good is really quite pleasant and something you can easily do whenever you choose.

So decide to feel good about life, right here, right now, and as often as possible. Put your feelings to positive use, and they'll help you build a more positive life.

-- Ralph Marston

EXPRESSIONS

An expression of love can be beautiful and moving, yet an expression of love is not love itself. Expressing your intentions, your goals, your hopes and dreams can be powerful and inspiring. Yet the expression alone is not enough. The fulfillment of those intentions, or those hopes and dreams, requires commitment, sacrifice and persistent effort.

Love is more than saying "I love you." Accomplishment is more than saying "I'm going to." Caring is more than saying "I care." No matter how profound the expression, it must be backed up, and followed up, with real and effective action if it is to truly be meaningful.

The best way to make a statement is to make a difference. The best way to show your intention is by doing what you intend to do. If you really want to express your hopes, then work to make them a reality.

The most meaningful expressions are not what you say or how you appear. True expressions are in what you take the time and effort to do.

RALPH MARSTON

REDUCING YOUR NEEDS

One day, a friend of Mahadev Govind Ranade sent a basket of mangoes to their home. Ranade's wife Ramabai washed the mangoes and kept them before Ranade to eat. Having two three slices of mangoes Ranade praised its taste and said to his wife, "You also eat this and give it to the servants also." Ramabai was surprised to see that her husband only had the two three slices of the mango. So she asked her asked husband if his health was all right. Ranade said, "You must be thinking if these mangoes are so delicious then why didn't I eat much? These mangoes are indeed very delicious therefore I am not taking much." Ramabai didn't understand her husband's strange reply.

Then Ranade said, "During my childhood there was a woman in our neighborhood who was extremely rich, but unfortunately lost all her wealth and riches. With great difficulty she used to earn two meals a day for her son and herself. Many a times sitting alone she used to say to herself, "I have been an epicure throughout my life but now I explain my tongue that the days of getting four-six dishes a meal have gone. Many kinds of sweets are now rare and there is no use missing those dishes, still my tongue doesn't understand this, while my son feels contented even after eating this dry meal." Hearing that woman I made a rule to eat only a little of the food that my tongue likes."

Moral: Reducing your needs not only let you enjoy the comfortable days of life but also not let you suffer in the days of pain.

MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

Make something meaningful

The results you get don't come from the situation. The results you achieve are determined by what you choose to focus upon and what you choose to do.

From the very same set of circumstances, two different people can achieve two vastly different results. The outcome is not based on what they're given, but on what they do with it.

If the results you're getting are not the results you desire, stop looking for someone or something to blame. Start looking for the possibilities that you have not yet considered.

Make your most positive and compelling purpose the filter through which you view everything that happens. That will cause outstanding, powerful possibilities to pop into view.

The world around you is constantly changing. There is always a way to harness the energy of the ever-changing landscape to suit your purpose.

Look calmly and confidently at the situation in which you find yourself. Then step gratefully forward, and make something beautiful, valuable and meaningful out of it all.

-- Ralph Marston

TO BE STRONG

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