Mikes Blog

Put joy into it
+++++++++++++++++++

What would the next hour look like if you made the decision, right now, to put joy into it? How would the next few days unfold if you were to focus on adding joy and gratitude to every activity?

It’s easy to assume that your circumstances and surroundings have complete control over the way you feel. But what if you made the choice to flip that around?

What if you brought your own irrepressible joy to the people, places, and circumstances you encounter? It’s perfectly reasonable, entirely attainable, and has the power to make a dramatic positive difference.

You don’t have to always be mentally scrolling through a list of problems and complaints. Instead, you can direct your attention to the blessings and opportunities of each moment you’re in.

There’s no reason to let every random occurrence dictate the way you feel. You have the option to choose joy, gratitude, positive intention, effective action, and love.

Whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re with, wherever you are, put joy into it. See what a positive difference that can make.

— Ralph Marston

Bestow a little goodness
+++++++++++++++++++

Every aspect of your life is connected to every other aspect. Negativity, indolence, or negligence in one area can weigh down your whole world.

Fortunately, a little goodness in one corner of your experience can begin to lift up all the other parts of your life. When you value and nurture and support that goodness, it will grow.

Find a new place where you can inject a little positivity. Once you do, you’ll discover other opportunities for doing so in your own life and in the lives of others.

Often you cannot do anything directly about the troubles that descend on your world. Yet you can balance those troubles, and even overwhelm them, with goodness in other places.

You won’t be able to solve every problem. However, you can always do something real and genuine and beneficial.

Bestow a little goodness in your world when you can, where you can. Push life in an upward direction, and keep up the good effort.

— Ralph Marston

Looking up
+++++++++++++++++++

If you want to get things looking up, start with yourself. Look up, look forward, look at the best possibilities, and look at how you can bring them to life.

Sometimes you have to look back, sometimes you have to look down, just to establish perspective. Once you’ve done that, though, it’s time to look in a more positive direction.

Look up, and notice there’s really no limit to how high you can go. Look up, replenish your energy, and activate your inspiration.

Look up, and you’ll be able to see beyond the obstacles that stand in your way. Look up, toward where you most desire to go, and begin to see the positive path that will take you there.

Feel the strength you’ve gained from the troubles you’ve been through. Look up, and give that strength a good, meaningful direction to go.

Get yourself looking up. By so doing you’ll invite and encourage the world around you to unfold in that same direction.

— Ralph Marston

Sadness and happiness
+++++++++++++++++++

Life can sometimes become consistently good for a long, continuous stretch. Yet eventually difficulties will show up.

In other times, life can feel like a never-ending string of problems. Even so, there are sure to be new joys to experience ahead.

Through the prospect of future joy and your confidence that it will come, you’re able to endure the hard times. And because of those difficult times, you’re able to more fully appreciate the joys when they do come.

Sadness and happiness are not as far apart as you might imagine. Over time they continue to enable and contribute to each other.

Because of this dynamic, in your happiness you can feel genuine gratitude. And in your sadness you can feel well founded hope.

Life has been changing for a very long time, and will reliably continue to do so. And in that very process of change, life always gives you much to be thankful for and much more to look forward to.

— Ralph Marston