Daily Motivation 10-11-2012

Thursday, October 11, 2012
Today's Gift

A musician must make music; an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. —Abraham Maslow

The same is true of a seamstress, carpenter, homemaker, lawyer, or mechanic. The question is, who and what am I? What must I do to be at peace with myself? What can I be, for that is what I must be?

A lucky few of us find the answers to these questions fairly early in life, and we work to develop into the people we can be and must be. We do that by looking at our deepest desires, and ask what would bring fulfillment for us. We ask what we would enjoy doing most, what we believe we have the ability to be really good at. What is it that sometimes burns within us to be expressed or done? The answers to what we can be, what we must be, come from within, through asking ourselves these questions.

What kind of a person am I capable of being?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Keep It Simple

Be still and listen to the stillness within. --Darlene Larson Jenks

No answer eludes us if we turn to the source of all answers--the stillness within.
Prayer accompanied by meditation will always provide the answers we need for
the situations facing us. The answers we want are not guaranteed, however. We
must trust that we will be directed to take the right steps. Our well being is
assured if we let go of the control and turn our wills over to the care of our Higher Power,
our messenger within.

How comforting to know that all answers are as close as our quiet moments. Our Higher
Power never chooses to keep them from us. We simply fail to quiet our thoughts long
enough to heed them. Our minds race, obsessively, all too often. We jump from
one scenario to another, one fear to another, and one emotion to another. And
each time our thoughts capture a new focus; we push the answer we seek further
into the background.

The process is simple, if I want to follow it. The answers await me if I truly want
them. I need only sit quietly and ask my Higher Power to offer the guidance I need. And then

Action For the Day: I will sit quietly some more.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Vigilance ~
Vigilance is the price of my sobriety, because as a recovering alcoholic and/or addict,
I forever walk in the shadow of tragedy.
I am always only an arm’s length from a drink and a drug.
But, on the other hand, I am also always only an arm’s length
from the tools of the AA program.
- The AA Grapevine, October, 2012

Thought to Ponder . . .
Sobriety is a gift, the price of which is eternal vigilance.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Aware.

 

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Daily Motivation

Worthless excuses

If you feel the need to make an excuse, see it as a very clear indication that something is wrong. Instead of offering excuses, take the opportunity to make improvements.

Excuses don’t solve problems, and excuses don’t get the job done. Rather than working to craft a good excuse, your best option is to work on making things right.

Excuses are easy, and worth very little. Purposeful, focused, persistent effort is what will really make a difference.

Don’t be concerned with merely saving face. Get to work on getting the job done.

Sure, the challenges you face are real and noteworthy. Yet the truly important thing is working through those challenges and creating the value you’ve committed yourself to create.

See the situation not as a reason to make an excuse, but as your chance to make a difference. Forget the excuses, and focus on living life’s great opportunities.

— Ralph Marston