Mikes Blog

Engage with existence
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Possibilities dance around you, tempting, warning, inviting. Pick the one that best serves your purpose right now, and go with it.

Don’t settle for merely wondering what might have been. Engage with this magnificent existence you’re part of, and discover what can be.

Is the weather cloudy, sunny, stormy, hot or cold? Are the people around you disagreeable, helpful, distant, or kind?

Whatever the situation, there’s something good you can do with it. A few short steps away is a new experience ready to be lived.

In the next few hours you can transform potential into concrete value. You can pull some particular and meaningful form of richness from your imagination and bring it into reality.

Give yourself a big, healthy dose of the satisfaction that comes from participating fully in life. See what great things happen when you embrace the good fortune of being here right now.

— Ralph Marston

Not knowing
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What I know, what you know, what anyone knows is only a small fraction of the way the world works. That’s a good thing to keep in mind.

Anyone who pretends to always have insight into everything that could possibly come up is doing just that, pretending. Someone with a firm grip on reality is someone who willingly admits to not knowing.

It is a whole lot smarter to admit you don’t know than to pretend you do. Such pretense fools no one and even worse, it sabotages the opportunity to learn, to cooperate, to gain trust.

When stumbling forward in the dark it’s helpful to have the modest light of a small truth. That small truth is the fact that you don’t know the entire truth.

Fortunately, you can always learn. You can shine that small, honest light of humility and curiosity in more and more places.

Begin with the accurate assumption that you don’t know it all. From that point, you can learn much and go far.

— Ralph Marston

Kindness matters
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You’re overwhelmed with work and your patience is wearing thin. Remember though, kindness matters.

You’re running late, in a hurry, and frustrated about forces that are out of your control. Even at times like this, your kindness matters.

In every direction you turn, someone is trying to scam you, and it seems like no one cares. Yet it’s important to keep in mind, kindness matters.

Kindness matters in ways that are easy to understand and in ways you’ll never realize. Your kindness matters to those you care about, to strangers, and to you.

Every time you come within the vicinity of someone else, you have the chance to make a difference. Your kindness could be completely ignored, or it could end up being a lifesaver.

Whether it merely lifts your own spirit for a minute or eventually reverberates around the world, your kindness matters. Never pass up the opportunity to discover how much.

— Ralph Marston

Get over it
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Is there some negative experience or situation that keeps weighing you down? Make the choice, in your thinking, to get over it.

That doesn’t mean running away from it, or pretending it never happened or doesn’t exist. All you have to do is disconnect yourself from it.

Yes, when there’s a problem by all means work to solve it. But don’t let it infect everything you are, everything you think, everything you feel.

Letting the negativity become a part of you won’t do anything to make it better. Decide to get yourself back in a positive, creative frame of mind, and then you can make some progress.

A bad day is not a good reason for a bad attitude. Neither is a difficult encounter or a frustrating task or a painful experience.

It’s in your best interest to quickly get over it. Make that choice, and put yourself in position to make things much better.

— Ralph Marston