Mikes Blog

View from the mountaintop
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You cannot have every sensation all the time. You cannot have every pleasure, comfort, indulgence all the time.

Yes, increasingly such things are possible. But just because something is possible doesn’t mean it is desirable.

The enjoyable times are enjoyable because you have gone through the less enjoyable, more difficult times to get there. If all you ever experienced was enjoyment, it would quickly cease to be enjoyable.

You have to pay the price or you cannot possibly experience the full benefit of the reward. You have to do the work, make the sacrifices, invest yourself to create an outcome that has meaning for you.

By definition, the exceptional moments are exceptional because they are rare. If you expect them all the time, and especially if you somehow manage to get that, you’ll be miserable.

Give yourself the ability to truly enjoy the feast by not feasting all the time. The view from the mountaintop is most meaningful when you’re familiar with all that’s in the valley.

— Ralph Marston

Begin and continue
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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
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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
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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