Monday, December 27, 2010

Daily Motivation 12-27-10

Monday, December 27, 2010
Today's Gift

Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value. —Albert Einstein

The marketplace and fashion entice us in countless ways to indulge our individual pleasures. Some say that success will be with the man who follows those seductive beckonings. Even sacrificing long hours by working two jobs to become a financial success or to achieve high career goals can be self-centered activity. It may be time and energy spent seeking power and glory at the cost of time with our family and friends - time for enjoying each other and growing. Sadly, external success leads to superficial pleasure but never to peace within ourselves.

However, when we pursue the values of honesty, humility, and service, we will find enduring self-respect and close friendships. This path provides a genuine experience of life's greatest rewards rather than the glitter of passing excitement.

Today, I will strive toward the greater values rather than superficial successes.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©

 
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
 
Walk In Dry Places
 
No harm to others.
 
Limiting Gossip
"When you've told me their names, do not tell me their faults," a person said at an AA meeting. She was explaining how careful we must be to keep gossip within tight limits. However, it is possible to identify people in gossip without actually speaking their names. We can give so many facts that the listener can identify whom we're discussing. This is no less malicious and thoughtless than actually naming the person.

 
We can avoid these dangers by giving up both the desire to gossip and the wish to listen to gossip. We will always have matters to gossip about; we can always find weaknesses in those we envy, faults in people we want to see taken down a notch or two. But if we persist in the program, we should find ourselves moving out of this limited way of thinking. We'll put severe limits on gossip at the same time.

 
Action for the Day: I'll sidestep gossip if it starts to find a way into my life today. Under my Higher Power's guidance, I have better things to do.
 

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One Day At A Time
 
Acceptance
And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
When I am disturbed, it is because some person, place, thing, or situation
-- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity
until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation
as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 417

Thought to Ponder . . .
My serenity is directly proportional to my level of acceptance.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C =
Acceptance, Belief, Change
.
 
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Daily Motivation
 
Life is always good
 
Life is always good, because you can make of it anything you choose. Life is good, because it is exceptionally flexible.
 
Life is good because you can express what it means to be alive in your own unique and fulfilling way. And that is precisely how you make your life good and rich and full.
 
On this day, in this place, just as you are, life is good. For you have the opportunity to live with passion and purpose.
 
You can explore, you can invent, you can question, you can taste, you can give, you can observe and you can build. You can commit your whole life to what you value and quickly move away from what you don't.
 
The possibilities spread out endlessly in every direction. And you are here, right now, to consider, select and act upon the ones that most appeal to you.
 
Life can be frustrating and challenging and painful, difficult and unfair. Even so, life is always good because you can always make it better, and in so doing you make it great.
 
-- Ralph Marston

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