Mikes Blog

Do you really need it?
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It’s easy to develop the feeling that you depend on certain things to be certain ways. It’s liberating to realize you don’t need nearly as much as you thought.

Do you really need all the things you think you need? Do you really need, for example, all conditions to be perfect in order to get your work done?

Many of those things that feel like needs are not really necessary. Some might just be convenient excuses rather than hard and fast necessities.

Sure, there are plenty of things and conditions that would be nice and convenient to have. Yet just because something is desirable does not mean it’s absolutely necessary.

Almost always, you can identify multiple ways to get from where you are to where you want to be. And if you don’t have all you need for one route, there will be other routes you can choose.

When your progress is blocked by something you need but don’t have, step back and take a closer look. You’re likely to find another way that frees you from whatever need might be holding you back.

— Ralph Marston

Choose a positive future
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How do you envision the future? Whatever you expect plays a key role in the way your future unfolds.

Of course, nothing is going to work out exactly as you anticipated merely because of your expectations. Yet the best chance to end up in a positive place is to move in a positive direction.

Your future is fast approaching, and the way you live right now makes a difference in how that future will be. Your future is as bright and fulfilling as you choose in the present to make it.

Sure, there are plenty of understandable reasons to be discouraged about the future. Yet because the future isn’t here, and because you play a key role in it, being positive about the future is just as realistic.

At this point, the future you envision is completely up to you. So your best strategy is to envision the most positive future you can imagine.

Go ahead, choose to be positive about the future, and arrange your actions accordingly. By so doing you’ll lift your world higher starting right now and extending into all the future days to come.

— Ralph Marston

Give love
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If your experience of love depends solely on being loved, you are sure to be disappointed. The power of love is in giving it.

Waves crashing on a sandy beach are wholly incapable of loving you. Yet you can have great love for them, and that love can bring much beauty and fulfillment into your life.

By letting go of your expectations about receiving love, you open yourself up to give more love. From that perspective you can fill your life and your world with the power of love.

Love inspires you to do what you would otherwise be reluctant to do. Love brings you courage, confidence, competence, as well as the energy and focus to apply them well.

You are always able to experience love because there is always some way for you to give it. It is in giving love that you find the wherewithal to live with meaning and fulfillment.

Give love and expand its beneficial power into every corner of your existence, of your world. Give love, and live at your most purposeful, authentic, and effective level.

— Ralph Marston

Kindness is being your best
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You don’t have to look far to find a place where your kindness will make a difference. Kindness improves any situation and every situation where it is given.

It can be all too easy to get caught up in blame, drama, resentment, retribution, and other harmful thought patterns. A little kindness will bring a more positive perspective back into play.

Kindness reconnects you with what matters. Kindness reminds you about the best you can be.

When you’re not sure what to do, let kindness guide you in making a choice. If you’re filled with despair or discouragement, an act of kindness points your awareness in a more positive direction.

Kindness is you being your best. That’s a very powerful and productive way to be.

Right now there’s an opportunity for you to bring new kindness to life. Take that opportunity, and everyone will benefit when you do.

— Ralph Marston