Mikes Blog

Unfamiliar territory
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Do you want a better understanding of who you are and what you’re capable of achieving? Venture into unfamiliar territory.

Put yourself in a situation where you’re forced to depend on your own knowledge, resourcefulness, and strengths. You’ll quickly find out what those strengths are, and you’ll figure out ways to improve upon them.

That new territory could be physical, social, vocational, intellectual, or some combination. Whatever the case, it can energize you, heighten your awareness, and clarify what’s actually important to you.

Though your current situation has its challenges, you’ve mostly figured out how to handle them. Think of what you could learn, and how much you could grow, from a starkly different set of challenges.

Let yourself experience how well you respond to those challenges. Enable yourself to learn and improve from that experience.

A little bit of adventure can add a lot of value to your life. Go where you haven’t been, and gain a deeper understanding of who you truly are.

— Ralph Marston

Invest in the solution
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Don’t invest in the problem by complaining about it. Invest in the solution by envisioning it.

Assume the problem can be solved. Then get to work justifying your assumption.

To change an outcome for the better, you must make changes to the input. One by one, identify the factors you can change, and visualize in detail what each available change would accomplish.

Certain constraints will always be outside your ability to change. Seek to understand and work within those constraints rather than fighting against them or hoping you can wish them away.

Formulate an effective approach that’s supported by reality. Rather than being dismayed by the problem, find satisfaction in stepping up to the challenge.

Invest yourself in the solution, in applying positive action to a difficult situation. There’s great value waiting to be created, and you’re in a position to do it.

— Ralph Marston

Value of Struggle
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Would you be interested in playing a game if you knew in advance you could not lose? Maybe you’d like it for a little while, but it would very soon become boring and unfulfilling.

Do you really want a life that’s all pleasure and comfort and no challenge or struggle? Could you tolerate even a few days of such an existence?

What makes life such a good thing is the fact that it’s not a sure thing. What makes life difficult is also what enables life to have meaning.

A rock never has to struggle to be a rock. But it never experiences any fulfillment either.

Courage, persistence, resilience, and innovation are all buttressed by an appreciation for the value of struggle. Though struggle is not pleasant, it is often necessary and almost always enriching.

You can do what you must when you must. And though it won’t be easy, it’s by far your most rewarding choice.

— Ralph Marston

The boss
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You have significant control over your actions, your thoughts, your feelings, your words, your opinions. It’s not total control all the time but it’s a whole lot more than anyone else has.

The positive and purposeful exercise of that control is called discipline. It is something you can improve upon every day.

The more you experience yourself exercising discipline and the more you experience the rewards of that discipline, the stronger it grows. Certainly there are times when discipline does not come easy, and those are the times when it has the greatest positive impact.

What small part of your life today can you exercise more beneficial control over? Do that consistently, repeatedly, and the benefits will spread throughout your whole world.

Reality is always there to impose its discipline on you whether you want it or not. Answer that by getting out in front of reality with your own discipline.

You are the boss of you. Be an exceptional one.

— Ralph Marston