Daily Motivation 1-2-2012

Monday, January 2, 2012

Today's Gift

 

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. ~Oprah Winfrey

 

Reflection for the Day

In the old days, I saw everything in terms of forever. Endless hours were spent rehashing old mistakes. I tried to take comfort in the forlorn hope that tomorrow would be "different." As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud. Do I still think in terms of "forever"?

 

Today I Pray

May I set my goals for the New Year not at the year-long mark, but one day at a time. My traditional New Year's resolutions have been so grandly stated and so soon broken. Let me not weaken my resolve by stretching it to cover "forever" - or even one long year. May I reapply it firmly each new day. May I learn not to stamp my past mistakes with that indelible word, "forever." Instead, may each single day in each New Year be freshened by my new-found hope.

 

Today I Will Remember

Happy New Day!

 

From the book A Day at a Time (Softcover) by Anonymous

 

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

 

I believe that true identify is found . . . in creative activity springing from within. It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. Woman can best re-find herself by losing herself in some kind of creative activity of her own. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

Creative activity might mean bird watching, tennis, quilting, cooking, painting, writing. Creative activity immerses us fully in the here and now, and at the same time it frees us. We become one with the activity and are nourished by it. We grow as the activity grows. We learn who we are in the very process of not thinking about who we are.

Spirituality and creativity are akin. There is an exhilaration rooted deep within us that is a lifeline to our Higher Power. Creative activity releases the exhilaration, and the energy goes through us and out to others. We find ourselves and our higher power through the loss of our self-conscious selves while creating--a picture, a sentence, a special meal.

Action for the Day: Creativity is a given. It is another dimension of the spiritual presence guiding us all. I'll get out of its way today.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Habits
Our drinking/drugging was connected with many habits -- big and little.
Some of them were thinking habits, or things we felt inside ourselves.
Others were doing habits -- things we did, actions we took.
In getting used to not drinking or using, we have found that we needed new habits
to take the place of those old ones. . .
After we spent a few months practicing these new, sober habits
or ways of acting and thinking, they became almost second nature to most of us.
- Living Sober, p. 1

Thought to Ponder . . .
Every recovery from alcoholism and/or addiction began with one sober hour.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue.

 

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Daily Motivation

Give yourself a dream

Give yourself a good, solid, clear and meaningful reason to do whatever you’re doing. Give yourself a real, authentic dream.

Give yourself a dream that has meaning, and that compels you forward. Keep yourself solidly connected to that dream.

Let your dream flow naturally and honestly from the vision you have for how life can be. Make your dream so big and exciting that you cannot fail to put the best of yourself into it.

Give yourself a dream, and give it to all the world as well. Choose a dream that enables you to lift others higher as you lift yourself higher and do what you truly love.

Let go of the excuses, the complaints, the anger, envy and frustration. Put the miraculous power of your thoughts, words and actions into the good and positive things that truly matter.

At this time of new beginnings, choose to live with more substance and meaning than ever before. Give yourself a dream, and give all of life the unique benefit of the very best you can be.

— Ralph Marston