Mikes Blog

Expand the goodness
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Today the world is beautiful. You make it even more so.

Your thoughts, words, perceptions, and actions all have influence and impact. Point them toward truth, goodness, love and fulfillment.

The way you live each moment creates energy that flows into your own experience. Plus, it plays a role in the quality of the world around you.

Your own integrity contributes to the integrity that exists throughout life. Every choice you make echoes far beyond you.

Live, give, care, and share as if you are part of a whole, as if the whole is part of you. For that is surely the case.

Treasure and be mindful of the connection you have with all that is. See the beauty, be the beauty, and expand the goodness of life.

— Ralph Marston

Maybe
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Maybe the grudges you hold are not worth the pain they cause for you and others. Maybe resentments maintained so stubbornly have reached the time to let go.

Maybe there really is magic and wonder all around you. Maybe if you live as though life is good and worthy of admiration, it will be.

Maybe you were wrong about some things. Maybe it would feel really good to admit that, and to move on.

Maybe you have certain possessions, habits, and assumptions you’d be better off without. Maybe it’s time to be more intentional about understanding and supporting what truly matters most to you.

Maybe there’s more to fulfillment than just getting what you want as soon as you want it. Maybe honesty, integrity, responsibility, effort and discipline are more liberating than they are burdensome.

Maybe you have levels of courage, skill, generosity and love in you that you’ve never before discovered. Maybe today is a good day to see just what they may be.

— Ralph Marston

Enduring purpose
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Following purpose is more work than pursuing pleasure. Yet a devotion to purpose can bring much greater value, particularly over time.

In and of itself, pleasure is desirable, enjoyable, and can be harmless. Yet the constant, unbroken pursuit of pleasure deprives you of opportunities for more valuable and productive activities.

With the future by its very nature filled with uncertainty, it might seem that living for the moment is the smartest choice. There is, however, an even better choice.

You can live in the moment, and indeed live very well in each moment, while also living for an enduring purpose that transcends the moment. You can invest in the future while also finding satisfaction and enjoyment in the present.

No matter how much you possess or experience, no amount of pleasure can sustain you. At some point you will be forced to call upon purpose, and the more of it you’ve seeded into your life, the better.

As you enjoy the blessings of each day, seek ways to employ them toward meaningful, purposeful ends. Give your life the power of endurance that can only come with purpose.

— Ralph Marston

Good connections
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There are some things you can do well in isolation. Yet there’s so much more you can accomplish when you’re connected with other people, places, concepts, and forces in the world around you.

Whether it’s physical, emotional, intellectual, through finance or technology or countless other means, connection has great value. Consider all the connections you have, and the many more that are possible for you.

You benefit from connections to ideas, people, places, facts, processes, and so much more. The more richly connected you are, the more richness you have in your life.

The best connections require effort, discipline, time and resources. Yet as difficult as they may be to initiate and maintain, good, solid, honest connections bring great benefit to life.

Do the work to discover and develop new connections. Offer your time and energy to sustain, expand, and re-invigorate all the good connections you’ve already made.

The ability to connect is one of your most valuable abilities. Find and establish those good connections that make your actions more effective and your experiences more fulfilling.

— Ralph Marston