Daily Motivation 3-20-2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Today's Gift

I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. —Katherine Mansfield

Growing up to be the best people we can be is a lifelong process. As teenagers, we may have thought that twenty-one would be a magic year for us because then we would become adults. We'd be grown up and able to handle any problems that came along, if any did.

But the older we get, the more we realize that growing up is a process that never ends. We are always becoming the people we are capable of being. We're always learning new things about ourselves, and in that process, we're always coming to new understandings about other people and how we can get along with them.

How wonderful that life always offers us room to grow! It makes new discoveries possible all through our lives, and ensures us that we will always have something to offer.

What discovery have I made just today?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Keep It Simple

 

There's a period of life where we swallow a knowledge of ourselves and it becomes either good or sour inside. --Pearl Bailey

For too many of us, feelings of shame, even self-hatred, are paramount. No one of us has a fully untarnished past. Every man, every woman, even every child experiences regret over some action. We are not perfect. Perfection is not expected in the Divine plan. But we are expected to take our experiences and grow from them, to move beyond the shame of them, to celebrate what they have taught us.

 

Each day offers us a fresh start at assimilating all that we have been. What has gone before enriches who we are now, and through the many experiences we've survived, we have been prepared to help others, to smooth the way for another woman, perhaps, who is searching for a new direction.

 

We can let go of our shame and know instead that it sweetens the nuggets of the wisdom we can offer to others. We are alike. We are not without faults. Our trials help another to smoother sailing.

 

Action for the Day: I will relish the joy at hand. I can share my wisdom. All painful pasts brighten someone's future, when openly shared.

 

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One Day At A Time

 

Habits
Our drinking/druging 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/druging, 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, as drinking/druging used to be.
- Living Sober, p. 1

Thought to Ponder . . .
Habits are like cork or lead -- they tend to keep you up or hold you down.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Attitude Adjustment

 

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Daily Motivation

Ordinary hard work

Achievement often appears easy in hindsight, and from the outside looking in. Yet significant achievement is not easy, and is not without considerable problems and frustrations.

It can be discouraging to look at the already-completed achievements of others, and to compare them with the challenges you now face. Keep in mind, though, that even when you can’t see the challenges that led to an achievement, they were most certainly there.

Working through difficult challenges is, in fact, what creates achievement. Just because it looks easy doesn’t mean it is.

Most of the work of achievement is done when no one is paying attention. Those who achieve, do the work even though it is difficult, demanding, tedious and far from glamorous.

More often than not, even the most impressive results come from plenty of plain old, ordinary hard work. It’s not extraordinary talent that distinguishes achievers, but rather an extraordinary level of commitment to getting the work done.

And that’s great news, because that same level of commitment is always within your reach. Choose to persist in doing the necessary work, and the achievement you seek is yours.

— Ralph Marston