The Time We Have
Worth every moment
Some days will be joyful and other days will be painful. Through it all, life is worth every moment.
Some experiences will be frustrating and others will be exhilarating. Choose to see the positive value in all those experiences, and to grow stronger with each one.
On some days the sunshine will feel delightfully warm and on other days the wind will be bitterly cold. Yet every day, each feeling can make you feel more richly alive.
The future may at times appear bright and at other times seem to be deeply troubling. Whatever the case, you can always make the very best of the time you have, as it comes.
Life will always have its ups and downs. Instead of making a judgment about every experience, make the choice to embrace it all.
See each day as an opportunity to grow stronger, more capable and more thankful for life’s limitless possibilities. Use each day to bring the best of those possibilities into being in new, unique and meaningful ways.
More than you must
It is by doing more than you must that you make life exceptionally good. It is by exercising each small opportunity to go the extra mile that you create an incredibly beautiful journey.
When you’re making a difference, and you have some good momentum, keep going. When you’ve finished what you must do, keep going and discover the great value in what you can choose to do.
Even a small extra effort can make a big difference. A little bit bigger extra effort may just change the world.
Instead of fighting against the effort, enjoy it and celebrate the opportunity you have to make it. Instead of resenting what you must do, be delighted about all the great things you’re able to do.
Feel how good it feels to be effective, creative and productive. Keep that feeling alive even longer by making an extra effort.
Grab each opportunity to do more than you must. You’ll end up with treasures that go beyond anything you could have imagined.
Creating fulfillment
Your fulfillment does not depend on getting others to think or act in certain ways. Your fulfillment does not depend on being impressive or successful in the eyes of the world.
Your fulfillment depends on you. It depends on how much of yourself you genuinely give and authentically express.
Governments, corporations, interest groups and institutions cannot give you fulfillment or keep you from it. Regardless of your situation, you are responsible for the fulfillment you experience.
People have all sorts of different abilities, resources, challenges, opportunities and circumstances. Yet every person, in his or her own way, has the possibility for true fulfillment at any time.
Don’t waste your time begging for help, assigning blame, or wishing that things could be different. Wisely use every bit of your time joyfully and gratefully creating the special fulfillment that is yours to create.
Stop imagining excuses and start experiencing the satisfaction of bringing real fulfillment to every day. Now is your moment, so fill it with delightful meaning.
Taking action
You can plan and prepare and talk about it for weeks or months or years, but that’s never enough. Action is what will make it happen.
A verbal commitment is good and a written commitment can be powerful. Yet there is no true, effective, life-changing commitment until there is action.
When you take action, there is no guarantee of success. Yet when you do not take action, there absolutely is the guarantee of failure.
Act early, act often, act intelligently, act with persistence, and be willing to adjust your actions based on the results they bring. The only way to achieve the goal is to get in the game and make the effort.
Right now you have the time in this day. Fill it with effective, directed, focused, positive, purposeful action, and you’ll always be thankful you did.
Action will take you from here to there, from nothing to something, from dream to reality. Get up, get going, take action and make your reality the best you can envision.
Helping others
Helping others helps you, at the very deepest level. Giving real value serves to create real value in your own life.
By providing encouragement, you receive encouragement. When you teach, you learn.
Each day is rich with opportunities for you to make a positive difference in the lives of those around you. And it is through genuinely enriching the lives of others that you find true richness in your own.
Right here, right now, there is a beautiful way to give of yourself, and to make the world a better place. Choose to do so, and immediately feel the benefits begin to manifest.
You have the chance today to change lives for the better. It’s difficult to imagine anything that could be more fulfilling than that.
Reach out, give a hand, make a difference, and offer a kindness. The lives you lift will most certainly include your own.
Energized by the possibilities
Acknowledge and accept what is, but don’t settle for it. You can take what is, whatever it may be, and add great value to it.
If you’ve allowed yourself to fall behind, or if events beyond your control have held you back, you don’t have to stay behind. You can fully embrace where you are, and then begin to step solidly forward.
It is never too late to experience the true fulfillment of making a real difference in life. No circumstance is ever too burdensome to separate you from your authentic purpose.
Don’t let yourself get caught up in judgments or comparisons. Instead, let yourself be energized by the positive possibilities of right now.
Whatever has happened, has happened, and now the thing to do is move forward with renewed energy. You can do it, not because of where you’ve been or what you have, but because of who you are deep inside.
Take this day, this moment, this unique place and time, and give it the best you have. There is greatness within you, so let it come flowing forth right now.
Positive approach
Conflict can be interesting and enticing, but is not particularly useful. Rather than giving in to the drama of conflict, choose to be genuinely helpful and cheerful, and make yourself much more effective.
Sure, you can get attention by being negative. But you can get much more done by taking a positive approach.
Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, offer some workable options for setting things right. When you feel like giving criticism, find a way to give it in the form of encouragement.
You don’t have to be nice just to be nice. Be nice, helpful, positive, upbeat and encouraging because that’s how you, and everyone else, will make the most progress.
You’ll never be able to get back the time and energy you waste on conflict. Yet when you invest your time and energy in being a positive influence, the rewards for doing so will expand exponentially as time goes on.
Your most effective, productive, profitable, compassionate and intelligent choice is to be positive in your interactions with others. It’s a choice that lifts the lives of everyone involved.
— Ralph Marston