Mikes Blog

Begin and continue
+++++++++++++++++++

The problem is not the problem. The problem is that you let the problem stop you.

It’s not a lack of preparation that holds you back. It’s not an absence of passion, or resources, or opportunity, that keeps you from achieving.

The only things that can hold you back are your failure to begin and your failure to continue. Fortunately those factors are completely within your control, right this moment.

Begin, and you’ve opened up a way forward. Continue, work through each challenge as it arises, and you’ll get where you intend to go.

Achievement begins when you take responsibility for it with your actions. Achievement happens when you follow through on that responsibility.

Ultimately achievement boils down to what you do. Begin the work, continue until it’s done, and you can make many good things happen in this world.

— Ralph Marston

Live with balance
+++++++++++++++++++

Be flexible enough to absorb the blows. Be rigid enough to hold together.

Be curious enough to explore new ways for moving forward. Be skeptical enough to avoid being led down dead-end paths.

Be tolerant enough to initiate and inspire genuine cooperation. Be discerning enough to create reasonable, valuable results.

Be impulsive enough to know what satisfies and fulfills you. Be disciplined enough to achieve what you seek to achieve.

Be respectful of the structures that already exist. Be fascinated by the possibilities of what is yet to come.

Life at its best is not any one thing or another to an extreme. Live with balance, and draw richness from every quality of life without being overwhelmed by any of them.

— Ralph Marston

The power of kindness
+++++++++++++++++++

Do you want to make the situation better for everyone involved? Add kindness to it.

Do you want to make beneficial use of your strength rather than merely showing it off? Invest your strength in kindness.

Those who attack you expect you to attack in response. Genuine kindness confounds those expectations and gives you the opportunity to move the encounter in a positive direction.

Cruelty and pettiness come from a place of weakness. Kindness is an undeniable demonstration of strength.

Kindness does not mean you’re letting anyone else take advantage of you. It means you’re setting the agenda, one that’s positive and productive.

Whenever you can, which is almost always, activate the power of kindness. The biggest victory is when everyone wins.

— Ralph Marston

Let life be beautiful
+++++++++++++++++++

Self-imposed misery does not provide anything of any value to anyone. Let it go, and let life be beautiful.

Stop any obsession you might have with taking offense, giving offense, cataloging and enumerating all the offenses and potential offenses. Step back, chill out, and let life be beautiful.

Enjoy experiences that you did not expect or plan. See the beauty in what you cannot control or possess.

Have faith that what is built on truth will outlast and overpower all that is not. Uphold your values by living them rather than by merely preaching about them.

Recognize the beauty that exists in your own uniqueness, and in the uniqueness of each person you encounter. At the same time, see the beauty of your connection to all that is.

Life is endlessly difficult yet you have the power to transcend that difficulty. Despite it all, and because of it all, you can let life be beautiful.

— Ralph Marston