Daily Motivation 8-14-2012

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Today's Gift

The moment an individual can accept and forgive themself, even a little, is the moment in which they become to some degree lovable. —Eugene Kennedy

If we owe a bill and pay it in full, do we return to pay that same bill over and over again? If we did, someone would surely question what was wrong with us. Yet, how often do we ask forgiveness for the same thing over and over again?

How wonderful to know that we do not have to condemn ourselves, even for not living up to a goal we have set for ourselves. Once we say we are sorry, we need to be willing to forgive ourselves. After all, how else do we learn and grow except by mistakes?

When we have forgiven ourselves, we become free to take risks again without fear of unforgivable failure, and who knows what new successes we might attain?

Is there something I can forgive myself for today?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Keep It Simple

 

Often when we're being tough and strong, we're scared. It takes a lot of courage to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to be soft. --Dudley Martineau

We've developed defenses for protection because we have felt the need for protection from the abuses of others, parents on occasion, bosses, spouses, even strangers. And in certain situations, our defenses served us well for a time. However, they have taken their toll. Hiding behind them for long makes them habitual, and we move farther and farther away from our center, from the woman each of us needs and wants to be.

Exposing who we really are invites judgment, sometimes rejection, often times discounting. It's a terribly hard risk to take, and the rewards are seldom immediate. But with time, others respect us for our vulnerability and begin to imitate our example. We are served well by our integrity, in due time.

Letting others see who we really are alleviates confusion, theirs and ours. We no longer need to decide who we should be; we simply are who we are. Our choices are simplified. There is only one appropriate choice to every situation--the one that is honest and wholly reflective of who we are at that moment.

 

Action for the Day: Rewards will be forthcoming when I am honest.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Acceptance
Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
When I am disturbed, it is because I find 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.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 417

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

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Acknowledge Acceptance

 

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Daily Motivation

Act by choice rather than by need

When you act out of need, you are acting from a perspective of weakness. When you act out of authentic choice, you make yourself much stronger and more effective.

Certainly there are things you must have to survive and prosper. Yet you can choose to put yourself in a position where those things are available to you in abundance.

Get out in front of your needs, and transform them into choices. Instead of needing them, you can have them and benefit from them.

As much as possible, put yourself in a position of power by choosing to meet your obligations before they become needs. Instead of needing more money at the end of the month, choose from the beginning of the month to earn more or spend less, or both.

Need puts you in a position of desperation and weakness. It initiates a negative momentum that intensifies and further deepens the need.

Choice puts you on a far more positive trajectory. Every good and purposeful choice you act upon will steer you away from the need to need, and provide you with much more favorable options.

— Ralph Marston