The Work-In: Daily Motivation 3-22-2021

Monday, March 22, 2021

Today's Gift

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. ~Doug Larson

Life is never just one thing. It is quite possible to feel optimistic and happy even when some things are not right with us. An optimistic outlook gives us energy to handle the harder challenges we have to deal with. Research shows that people who have a positive attitude have a stronger immune system, are healthier, live longer, and are even more likely to recover from serious illness.

To believe in hopeful outcomes is largely a matter of choice. Many of us have experienced big disappointments and defeats in life. But having come this far, we can look back and see that somehow we had the capacity to deal with it. The Universe guides us to believe in hopeful possibilities. We can’t say that things will always turn out just the way we hope, but that we can cope with whatever happens.

Today, I choose to believe that a Power greater than myself can help me deal with life, and I have reason to be optimistic.

From the book Stepping Stones, More Daily Meditations for Men ©

From: Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation - Thought for the Day http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/recovery/thought-for-the-day

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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.

From: Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums Daily Recovery Readings - http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2

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One Day At A Time

True Tolerance
We begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are to some extent
emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong, and then we approach true
tolerance and see what real love for our fellows actually means. It will
become more and more evident as we go forward that it is pointless to
become angry, or to get hurt by people who, like us, are suffering from
the pains of growing up.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) p. 92

Thought to Ponder
Let us always love the best in others, and never fear their worst.

AA-related 'Alconym'
P U T = Patience, Understanding, Tolerance

From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) http://www.aa-alive.net/index.html

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Daily Motivation

Excerpt of The Daily Motivator

All the work necessary

by Ralph Marston

Pay attention to today’s new possibilities. But don’t be so consumed with them that you abandon the work you’re doing to fulfill yesterday’s possibilities.

Start new things. And finish what you start.

Once you’ve embraced a possibility, see it all the way through. Do all the work necessary to transform it from possible value into existing value.

It feels great to get excited about new possibilities. Yet to fully justify that excitement, you must go beyond it.

You must do the difficult and not so glamorous work of bringing what’s possible into reality. Otherwise there’s no reason to get excited about the possibility in the first place.

Choose those possibilities to which you can give your full commitment. Then maintain that commitment until each exciting possibility has been forged into magnificent reality.

From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/