Local Spotlight (352)
Motivational Monday 4-9-18
Opportunity of today
You have precisely one opportunity to live this day well. That opportunity is now, so act on it now.
If you want this day to bring value, then give it value. Now is when you start.
Right now you can establish positive momentum. And you can continue to feed that momentum with action.
Think of the most productive, successful day you’ve ever lived. As you recall and feel the reality of that day, commit to make today even more productive, even more successful.
Within you right now is the ability to make this the best day yet. Within you right now is the willingness to push your life to a higher level than ever before.
Act now with that ability, with that willingness, with your knowledge, skills, and resources. Now, embrace and enjoy the unique opportunity of today.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#
Motivational Monday 4-2-18
Driven by love
Your life has great power, beyond what you can even imagine. Keep that power always pointed in the direction of love.
You act, you speak, you remember, you feel. You imagine what can be, and then call upon your power of intention and your presence to bring what you imagine into reality.
Do all these things, and everything, tempered, informed, driven, by love. Let love be your motive, let love be your reason, let love be your guide.
You cannot define what love is, nor put any limit on its meaning. Yet you know without question when you feel love, and when you don’t.
Go always in the direction where you feel led by love. Transform everything you are into the highest and best you can be, with love.
Refuse to be swayed by anything less. Let your actions, your words, your energy and thoughts, your life, be driven by love.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#
Motivational Monday 3-26-18
Lay the foundation
A secure, stable house is not simply placed upon uneven, unprepared ground. Before the house is built, a strong, solid foundation must be prepared.
A winning sports team does not win merely by showing up and playing each game well. The players must drill and practice in all the fundamental skills, for hours each day, over months and years.
Whatever you desire to have, to be, to experience, you must build the structure in your life to support and develop it. You must lay the foundation, and continue to keep that foundation strong.
True commitment to a goal means commitment to create and maintain the structure that will support it. You accomplish that with your habits, your attitude, your thoughts, your choices large and small.
What day-to-day activities are building the foundation for the life you envision? What can you do right now, and again and again, to create a solid, supporting structure for your dreams?
Each moment gives you the opportunity to infuse the character of achievement into every part of your life. Lay a strong, robust foundation, and let the great achievements flow.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#
In today’s podcast, Greg talks with Kimberly Fraser, Executive Director, Lake County (Ohio) Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board, and Jessie Baginski, Ph.D., President/CEO, Leadership Lake County. Both guests have been touched by the opioid crisis, with family members falling prey to its draconian outcomes. They are overseeing Operation Resolve, a unique program designed to help fight the opioid crisis by reaching out to employers and offering them resources with which they can engage their workforce. The educational information they provide relates to drug abuse, addiction and where to find help.
Motivational Monday 3-19-18
Able to persist
The first attempt doesn’t work. Even so, you can keep going.
The next attempt makes the situation worse. Still, you are able to persist.
Your next action does not have to be limited by your past results. Choose your next action based on where you wish to go, not on where you’ve been.
There’s no rule that says you have to be discouraged by what has happened. There’s every reason to be passionate and enthusiastic about what you can now do.
If the past hasn’t met your expectations, leave it in the past. Learn from what went wrong, and apply that knowledge to the opportunities of now.
Persistence is nothing more than stepping free of the past and doing what you know is best. You are always able to persist, and your persistence will take you wherever you wish to go.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#
Greg learns about a new Drug Enforcement Agency program, DEA360, in an illuminating conversation with Sean Fearns, the chief of community outreach. He describes how the programming takes a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of drug trafficking, drug violence and drug abuse. DEA360 was first introduced in 2015 with a pilot program in Pittsburgh.
Motivational Monday 3-12-18
Mode of achievement
A small improvement is enough. Because a small improvement sets your direction, upgrades your attitude, raises your perspective.
Look around, become aware, ask yourself. What small improvement can you make right now?
Notice what troubles you and think of what you can do about it. Then act on it.
If you’re not presently willing or able to do anything about it, look again, keep looking. There’s something you can improve, right here, right now.
Doing so will alter your entire outlook for the better. Doing so will put you in the mode of achievement, and open up vast new expanses of possibility.
Today, embrace your responsibility to make the world a better place. Make a small improvement, put yourself in the mode of achievement, and keep at it.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#
More...
The Wilderness and the Well
"The world feels high lonesome and heartbroken to me right now. We’ve sorted ourselves into factions based on our politics and ideology. We’ve turned away from one another and toward blame and rage. We’re lonely and untethered. And scared. So damn scared.
But rather than coming together and sharing our experiences through song and story, we’re screaming at one another from further and further away. Rather than dancing and praying together, we’re running from one another. Rather than pitching wild and innovative new ideas that could potentially change everything, we’re staying quiet and small in our bunkers and loud in our echo chambers”
The excerpt above from Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness aptly describes the relationship of the Samaritans and the Jews in Jesus’ time - as we heard in the gospel story of the Samaritan woman at the well on Sunday. Religion and politics and culture were too often divisive instead of opportunities to learn, to invite, to encourage to new life. Jesus and the woman used humor and patience and truth as vehicles to break down barriers and restore right relationship. Although God initiates, it always takes two, for no relationship can happen in isolation.
Are we any different as people today in our homes, our communities, our world? Do I take the time to know and embrace that God loves me – and then accept the challenge to generously pour out that love on others? Am I willing to sit at the well of life in the noonday heat and build relationships instead of walls?
Jesus was “wild and innovative,” willing to give his life to “potentially change everything.” He asks us to “look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.” Am I, are we willing to dance and pray together, to share out songs and stories and join in creating the world anew this Lent and beyond?
Sister Laura Bregar
Motivational Monday 3-5-18
Keep going strong
Leave no room in this day for what might have been. Make no place for regret to hide.
Fill the hours with action that’s true to your purpose. Adorn each moment with thankfulness, wonder, and joy.
You have a great chance and you have it right now. You have time, energy, life, and love, and the good sense to know what to do with them.
Though it would be easy to waste this bright moment, you’re much too smart for that. You know from each choice flows a cascade of results, and you’re determined to create the best ones.
This day is now yours, yet it won’t be for long. So you’ve already started to fill it with life.
Keep going strong, for you’re doing great. You have much to accomplish, and you’re well on your way.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#
Motivational Monday 2-26-18
True success
Let go of the need to chase mere tokens of success. Allow yourself to create your own unique, authentic success.
Detach the idea of success from your ego. Connect it instead to your soul.
Get away from needs and worries and the toxic tension they produce. Immerse your awareness in the abundance around you, in the possibilities, in your love of making a difference.
Gently embrace each challenge, grateful for the opportunity to transform it into value. Recognize in each person you encounter, in every situation, the chance to bring new fulfillment into the world.
What can you do with this day, that you’ll remember and be thankful for ten years from now? In pondering such things, you will discover yourself pointed toward true success.
Seek ever to serve, to expand, to celebrate and share what nourishes you at the deepest level. Live the reality of true success.
— Ralph Marston
Read more at http://greatday.com/#