Going That Extra Mile

Free yourself

The more you avoid doing what needs to be done, the more burdensome you make each moment. Those things you’ve put off until later can build up and drag you down with regret, worry and negativity.

Putting something off until later is certainly no way to free yourself from it. Instead, such procrastination and avoidance actually extends and expands whatever it is you desire to avoid.

One of the most liberating things you can do is to free yourself from the gnawing burden of a task you’ve been avoiding. And the way to achieve such freedom is simply by going ahead and doing what needs to be done.

Rather than continuing to worry about it, rather than putting your energy into making excuses and rationalizations, just go ahead and do whatever you’ve been putting off. The sooner you get it done, the better off you’ll be.

Just think how great you’re going to feel when it’s done. Imagine how great it will be to free your energy, your mind and your spirit from the burden of procrastination that has been hounding you.

Don’t worry for another minute about something you’ve been putting off. Go ahead, make the effort, and enjoy the immense freedom and satisfaction of already having it done.

Don’t take it personally

Life can sometimes be terribly painful and extremely unfair. When it is, the strongest, most positive and effective response comes from not taking it personally.

Whatever difficulties may come, when you refuse to take them personally you move powerfully beyond the limitations of your own ego. You immediately place yourself at least one level above whatever has happened, and from that vantage point your options are vastly increased.

If someone screams in your face and your reaction is to simply scream back, what have you accomplished? Yet if, instead, you can step back, take your own ego out of the picture, and look objectively at the situation, you can craft and execute a much more effective response.

How do you avoid taking things personally? By keeping in mind that although they may affect you greatly, they do not reflect who you are. Although they have happened to you, they are not an integral part of you. You always have the choice to not take them personally.

That does not mean you do not care. On the contrary, it means that you care enough to put forth your most powerful, effective response.

Past the struggle

When you feel yourself struggling with something, then the time has come to grow beyond it. Effort and persistence can bring much value to any endeavor. Yet trying too hard, to the point where the effort becomes a constant struggle, brings nothing positive.

Struggle means it is time to grow, to go far beyond your previous limitations, to set new and expanded expectations for yourself. When you feel that something has become a struggle, see it as an opportunity. See it as a pointer showing you the direction in which to grow, and use it as a powerful motivation to do so.

Fighting the same fight over and over will just make you skilled at fighting. At some point it becomes time to develop some new skills, and to take your efforts to a whole new level.

What is it that you’re struggling with? Instead of looking for ways to maintain your end of the struggle, consider how you could get to the point where you are beyond the need to struggle. Look for how you can stop struggling and start growing.

Enthusiastically forward

You can persist through every discouragement and when you do, anything is within your reach. In fact, the more discouragement you move beyond, the more valuable and magnificent will be the things you accomplish.

Certainly there are plenty of things which can frustrate and discourage you, but that doesn’t mean you have to be frustrated or discouraged. You have a much better, much more effective, much more positive and fulfilling path that’s yours to follow.

You can choose to persist, to rise above the challenges, no matter how difficult and complicated they may be. You can choose to keep moving enthusiastically ahead, and refuse to let anything discourage you.

Those things which might otherwise discourage you will positively energize and revitalize you when you’re committed to reaching the goal. Those things which might otherwise be reasons to give up will instead compel you to move forward when the results you seek are meaningful enough.

Give no time or energy to being discouraged. It feels lousy and it does not get you anywhere. Instead, stand up tall, put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Persist in doing what you know is right, what you know will make a positive difference for yourself and your world, and thrill to how absolutely great it can be.

What is best

Sure, it’s a lot easier to think you’ve already missed the big opportunity than it is to make that opportunity work for you. And it’s easier to assume you’ve done all you can than it is to put in just a little more effort to make absolutely sure.

It’s much easier to tell yourself that you know all the answers than it is to go through the effort of learning something new. And it’s much easier to talk about doing something than it is to actually get busy and do it.

But the easy way is not usually the best way. The best way is to do what you know is right. Do you know what is right? Of course you do.

You know that opportunity is always there for those who are willing to put in the work that it requires. You know that often your extra efforts can make the difference between spectacular success and mediocrity.

You know that the smartest people are those who have the courage to admit what they don’t know. And you know that it takes more than just talk to make things happen.

You’ve seen how life works, and you’ve seen what makes the difference between success and failure. Keep that in mind when making your own choices, every moment, every day. Enjoy the benefits that come from choosing what is right and what is best.

Filled with gratitude

Whatever this day may hold, you can quickly and profoundly make it even better simply by rejoicing that it is here. Be genuinely and jubilantly in awe of your good fortune at being a part of this day.

The problems are problems only when you remain on their level. Rise above them and suddenly you see the way beyond them.

This is a great and wonderful day that is filled with positive possibilities. When your heart is filled with gratitude, the best of those possibilities become abundantly clear. The sincere appreciation for what you have gives value to all that you are. The blessings you enjoy are blessings precisely because you see them as such.

Consider what a real and astounding joy it is to be who you are and where you are on this day. The more you appreciate it, the more you give it, the better it will continue to become.

It is yours

Go ahead and think of the most wonderful thing you can visualize, the most fulfilling achievement you can imagine. Whatever it is, you can begin to truly enjoy and benefit from it this very moment, or any time you are ready to do so.

Because no matter what it is, its real value will come from the effort and commitment you put into achieving it. And no matter how ambitious it may be, or how distant its accomplishment may seem, you can begin to put effort into it right now.

What is it you truly desire? The instant you begin working your way there, the best of your desire, the true value of it, the authentic experience of it, begins to be yours. The real value of any achievement is not in the attainment, but in the attaining. Because whatever you do to arrive at that achievement, is what creates the value it holds for you.

Whatever you sincerely desire begins to be yours the moment you begin to reach for it. The value starts to build and accumulate as soon as you make the commitment and begin the process to get it done.

— Ralph Marston