World Of Possibilities! Opportunities!

Your treasure today

Expect to find a special treasure today. Somewhere in the moments, the people, the situations, the challenges, the experiences of this day will be a unique and valuable gem which can truly enrich your life.

If you start this day with the goal of just getting through it, that treasure will most certainly elude you. If you spend your energy on anxiety, anger, blame, despair or vindictiveness, you’ll go right past that special treasure and never know its beauty.

Today is the day when you can bring truly good things to your life. Today is the day for you to live with real and substantial meaning. Putting it off until some day in the distant future assures you of never having the treasure which can be yours this very day.

Look around you. Count your many blessings. Open yourself to the treasure which can be yours right now. Live each of today’s moments as if they were special and irreplaceable, because they most certainly are. See the beauty and magnificence that is yours to live as you gather the golden treasure of today.

Your expression

The people who earn the most are usually the people who are most difficult to replace, the people for whom there is no competition. They have managed not merely to rise above the competition, they have transcended the concept of competition itself.

The best route to being irreplaceable, is to put as much of yourself into your work as possible. If you’re just doing a job, chances are that someone else can do that job just as well. Yet, when your work is a creative expression of your own uniqueness, no one can do that like you can.

Whether you work in a factory making circuit boards, or direct films, or sell telephones, or drive a truck, or run a company, put yourself into the job you do. Give your work the considerable value of your unique essence. As a result, that work will grow more rewarding in every sense of the word.

Some people try to do things the other way around. They become obsessed with their work, thereby putting the work into themselves. Keep in mind, though, that your work is not your reason, it is your expression. To the extent that you put forth the effort to make it so, it will bring value and true accomplishment.

Goodness

There is no shortage of tragedy, pain and despair around us, and yet there is also in this life an abundant goodness. It doesn’t often command headlines, precisely because it is so normal and expected as to not be considered newsworthy. Still, it is a powerful and continuing positive influence, and it is essential to our way of life.

Every moment of every day there are countless decent, honest people doing their jobs with competence and integrity. They keep the machinery of civilization running smoothly, providing food, warmth, shelter, entertainment, medical care, transportation, education, and energy along with scores of other useful goods and services. They take care of their families. They contribute time, attention and resources to their communities.

And all of this is so normal that, for the most part, we take it for granted. Though the monumental achievements command our attention and inspire awe, it is the enormous quantity and quality of small, everyday accomplishments which keep this world moving forward.

There is a wealth of goodness so thoroughly ingrained in this life that we barely even notice it. Truly it is a blessing beyond compare.

Look at what’s right

How often do you define yourself by what’s wrong with your life? How often do you limit yourself by using “if only” or “as soon as” as excuses for not living life fully?

Sure, you have goals and aspirations. You can envision a better life for yourself and those around you. But putting down or limiting who you are right now is not the way to achieve that better life.

Rather than dwelling on what is wrong with your life, focus on, celebrate and be thankful for all the things that are right with your life. That is where you’ll find the strength and the resources to make it even better.

How can you ever get up if you keep putting yourself down? Whatever your situation may be, you have many blessings which can move you toward wherever you desire to go. Rather than being held back by your limitations, focus on your existing abundance and use it to pull yourself forward. Start every day by considering what’s right with your life, and by using the good things you have to make it even better.

Ever more valuable

Each day is filled with countless opportunities to make a positive difference. Each of us is blessed with numerous ways to do so.

Lift the world a little higher, and everyone benefits. The effect can be contagious. Make a positive difference, and it will spread. The caring and goodness you invest in others will multiply, going on and on far beyond you. What a way to make an impact!

There are plenty of justifications for being cynical, but there is no good reason to be. Likewise, there are plenty of excuses for not giving your best, and yet every reason in the world to do so anyway, and to be a genuine positive influence.

Be true to the best that you have and let it shine through each thing you do. The richness of your life grows ever more valuable each time it is shared.

What will it accomplish?

Life is too precious to waste. Time is too valuable to squander. And yet, out of habit or carelessness, too often we put our time and energy into efforts which have no prospect of accomplishing anything.

What positive, useful result has ever been attained by vindictiveness? Is anyone ever truly elevated by putting someone else down? Certainly there is a place for constructive, thoughtful criticism, but what purpose does name calling achieve?

Empty pursuits such as these are all too common. Ironically, they bring the most harm upon those who carry them out. They waste time, they waste life, and they put the focus on destructive negativity.

Before taking any action ask yourself this one simple question. What will it accomplish? Stay away from empty pursuits which have no chance of bringing results. Even if you succeed at those, you fail. Instead, put your efforts where they will make a positive difference, and reap the happy benefits of your wisdom.

Past your limits

Most of us are in the habit of looking at the world through the narrow, limited perspective of our own interests. Certainly it is important to look out for one’s own interests. Yet there’s a big world out there with a lot of people in it.

You benefit immensely when you can expand your horizons and fortify your own perspective with the diverse perspectives of others. Look at the situations in which you find yourself not only from your point of view, but also through the eyes of those with whom you interact.

For each person you come into contact with, ask yourself this question. What can I do to provide something of real, substantive value to this person? The answer to that question will open your eyes to a whole world of possibilities and opportunities which may have previously been hidden from view.

Going past your own narrow interests is ultimately the best strategy for serving the most sincere of those interests. Every person with whom you come in contact represents an opportunity for you to provide real value and, by so doing, to add genuine value to your own life.

— Ralph Marston