LIVE TO SPREAD GOODNESS

Live To Spread Goodness

Live each moment with integrity, and you’ll find value and goodness in every experience. Make truth your priority and let your life gain from its great power.

Fully benefit from life’s goodness by fully committing yourself to uphold it. As tempting as it can be to cheat others, you cannot do so without cheating yourself more.

The way you treat people is a major part of the way you treat yourself. Act always with respect toward others, and you’ll live with great respect for yourself.

The most loving, compassionate, generous activities are the most enriching activities. Live to spread goodness, and you’ll spend your moments immersed in goodness.

Being truthful feels right because it is right. Being genuinely helpful feels good because it is good.

Align yourself with the power of life’s highest values. And live at your highest, most fulfilling level.

— Ralph Marston

LOVE IS ...

“Love is the absence of judgment.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

TREAT PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE

Treat People Like People

Empathy makes you a better communicator. Empathy makes you a better person.

Your perspective has value, but it is not the only perspective. Always take the other person’s point of view into consideration.

Don’t assume just because you know it, think it, feel it, that everyone else does too. Nothing ever entitles you to be rude, arrogant, or inconsiderate.

Empathy helps you understand, understanding helps you relate, and positive relationships facilitate real progress. It’s always better to work with others than to work against them.

Empathize, understand, find common ground and common objectives. Remind yourself that the way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.

Whether you’re dealing with a customer, customer service rep, family member or stranger, empathy works wonders. Treat people like people, the way you want to be treated, and they’ll almost always return the favor.

— Ralph Marston

IF YOU TREAT AN INDIVIDUAL AS HE IS, HE WILL REMAIN HOW HE IS.

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

PEACE IN THE MIDST OF CONFLICT

Peace in the midst of Conflict

To be peaceful in the midst of conflict,
you must create respect
for everyone’s ideas and experiences.

That creates emotional and physical safety
so that people know that they won’t be attacked
when they express themselves honestly.

When people are committed
to equality and mutual respect
disagreements do not result in separation,

but in dialogue and increased understanding.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

WALKING THROUGH CLOSED DOORS

Walking through Closed Doors

Even if you don't know why a door is closed,
at least respect the fact that it is closed
and don't struggle with the doorknob.

If the door was open, you would know it.
Wanting it to be open does not make it open.

Much of the pain in your life happens
when you attempt to walk through closed doors
or try to put square pegs into round holes.

You try to hold onto someone who is ready to go,
or you try to get somebody to do something
before s/he is ready.

Instead of accepting what is and working with it,
you interfere with it and try to manipulate it
to meet your perceived needs.

Obviously, this doesn't work.
It just creates strife for yourself and others.

From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Obligations and Responsibilities

The obligation to do something is not the problem. The problem is your anxiety about it.

The responsibility you have is not the problem. The problem is your resentment of it.

Instead of trying to avoid obligations and responsibilities, focus on their benefits. They burden you only to the degree you see them as burdens.

Following through on your obligations will earn you respect. Upholding your responsibilities will give you influence with others.

Every person has a desire to matter, to make a difference. Obligations and responsibilities enable you to make a difference in a meaningful, positive way.

Choose to stop fighting, stop worrying, stop complaining about obligations and responsibilities. Embrace the great richness they can bring.

— Ralph Marston

JUST TO BE ALIVE IS A GRAND THING

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

― Agatha Christie

LIVE WITH INTENTION

Live With Intention

The distractions distract you not because of their power, but because of your weakness to resist. Intention eliminates that weakness.

When you’re clear about what’s important, you don’t have to be bothered by what’s not. When you’re committed to a specific result, distractions bounce right off you.

Ask yourself this and insist on a detailed answer. What do you intend to do today?

Your life is too important to let it be controlled by people you don’t even know. Your time is too precious to waste on things that have no meaning.

Today is filled with opportunities to create value, satisfaction, fulfillment. Instead of getting pulled in a hundred meaningless directions, choose your path and stay on it.

Live this day with respect and appreciation for the beautiful, unique life that’s yours. Live this day with intention.

— Ralph Marston

"THIS IS A PROBLEM I WANT TO HAVE."

“We’re all seeking that special person who is right for us. But if you’ve been through enough relationships, you begin to suspect there’s no right person, just different flavors of wrong. 

Why is this? 

Because you yourself are wrong in some way, and you seek out partners who are wrong in some complementary way. 

But it takes a lot of living to grow fully into your own wrongness. 

And it isn’t until you finally run up against your deepest demons, your unsolvable problems—the ones that make you truly who you are—that we’re ready to find a lifelong mate. 

Only then do you finally know what you’re looking for. You’re looking for the wrong person. But not just any wrong person: it's got to be the right wrong person—someone you lovingly gaze upon and think, “This is the problem I want to have.”

"I will find that special person who is wrong for me in just the right way.” 

― Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe

FACILITATING HEALING

Facilitating Healing

You cannot help people heal
unless you are feeling love in your heart.

Then what you say and do will flow through your love,
not through your fear,
and you will inspire, encourage and uplift.

Remember, you are here to empower others,
not to fix them or to take responsibility for their pain.

So don’t force your gift on others.
Give to those who ask for your help
and are ready to receive it.
Then, you will not trespass on them
or exhaust your own energies.


From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

RIGHT AND WRONG

Right and Wrong

You and your partner are both right
in your desire to be loved and respected.
You are both wrong in your attempt
to blame the other person
for your unhappiness.


From Everyday Wisdom by Paul Ferrini
www.paulferrini.com

STAND UP FOR YOURSELF

Stand up for yourself. Do not allow someone, just because they have had a few drinks, or because they are going through hard times, to take out their frustrations and anger on you. Require others to honor your space, and respect your dignity as a person of worth. Let the people in your life own their choices, and do not give them permission to dump their problems or crises on you. This includes your grown children, parents, relatives, people you work with or go to church with, and/or friends.

Refuse to buy into the guilt trips; pay for their consequences. Stop taking on their responsibilities. If you were not there, they would have to figure it out, and they would. Sometimes helping is actually hurting them, and keeping them from helping themselves. Take the time to focus on your own needs for a change, and let others do the same! You Deserve!


LES BROWN

RESPECT YOURSELF

RESPECT YOURSELF!! Listen to your own voice, the one in your heart that is the keeper of your dreams. Never let someone convince you that you can not do something ~ especially if they have not done it. Take the time to find your own path and trust your inner voice. Know what is true for you!

Respect yourself by limiting access to people who are negative and unhappy. Many times they project the anxiety and dissatisfaction with their own lives onto your life. One negative comment can be more damaging to you than one positive comment. Own the responsibility for your life and your journey. Give yourself the gifts of experiences and relationships that strengthen your deepest convictions about your dream and honor the calling on your life. You have something special. You have GREATNESS within you!


LES BROWN

DON'T ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME CAUSTIC

JOYFUL ATTITUDE

Joyful Attitude

Give this day, this world, this life the highest respect you can by being positive. Show appreciation for all you have, for all that is, by living with a joyful attitude.

Complaints and disparagements earn you nothing, no matter how well justified. They push away the goodness that could be yours in each moment.

Living with a positive perspective is not naive or unrealistic. Being positive raises your awareness, actions and results to a higher, more beneficial reality.

Faith in the future begins with faith in the present moment. And faith in the present moment is possible only with a positive outlook.

You don’t have to sugarcoat the world, or your situation, to be positive about it. You simply have to see it and live it from a place of love and gratitude.

Though life is never perfect it always carries an element of goodness with positive possibilities. See that goodness, joyfully build upon the possibilities, and give life the love and respect it deserves.


— Ralph Marston

YOUR WORDS CREATE YOUR WORLD

Avoid foul mouthed people. If you are one of them, commit to losing this part of yourself. Do not allow yourself to be a vessel or a sponge for filthy or disrespectful language, or a garbage disposal for violent words ~ especially from people who are supposed to love you.

Some people enjoy using profanity, even when talking to children, or when in their presence. Many people pay to listen to foul mouthed rappers, comedians, and various entertainers. However, the acceptance of this as normal only speaks to our loss of spirituality and self-respect. It highlights the tragic lowering of our standards for language which has negatively impacted our children.

Cursing is the strongest expression of a weak mind. Do not fool yourself! Death and life are in the tongue. Your words create your world and your world reflects your reality. You always have a choice. Use words that represent the highest and best expression of yourself and of what you see for your future and your life. You Deserve!


LES BROWN

PORTION & SHARE OUT YOUR ENERGY WISELY