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You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.
-- Joan Baez
 

 

The MONTHLY Motivator - December 2017

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Grow stronger

Every day of your life is an opportunity to grow stronger. Every situation is an environment in which you can increase your strength. Within each encounter, challenge, victory, setback, insight, there are responses available that enable you to grow your strength. The stronger you become, the more opportunities you will have to grow even stronger and to live life on your own terms. The stronger you become, the more options you have.

Growing stronger in one area of your life opens up opportunities to grow stronger in other areas. Mental discipline, for example, facilitates physical discipline. Stronger, more positive and empowering thoughts compel and encourage you to work on becoming more physically fit, healthy and energetic. Increased mental focus and physical energy can enable you to grow stronger in your career, your finances, your leisure activities, your relationships and social life. You can start with a little bit of new strength, build on it, and soon you’re experiencing positive changes throughout your life.

So what builds your strength? Everything, if you choose. The key factor is in the way you respond to life. When you see a situation as an opportunity to exercise and increase your strength, that’s exactly what it can be. Your job is to do the work, to put your strength into action, to focus and to persist in that action.

No, you’re not super human. You cannot lift a 10-ton truck with your bare hands. Yet in every situation, there is something you can do. There is some degree of strength you can exercise, when you make the choice to do so. You can choose not to have a drink, and to be the designated driver. You can choose to pick up the phone and call a friend who is grieving. You can choose to do a new analysis and make improvements to your marketing plan. You can choose to walk up four flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. All these things build your strength. And building your strength feels good, so good you’ll want to do it more and more. Exercise the strength you have, build a little more, and you’ll be motivated to keep at it.

Sometimes strength is built with action. Other times it is built by doing nothing. One very empowering kind of strength is the ability to hold your tongue. Life presents all sorts of opportunities to make rude comments, snide remarks, in person and online. As much as they may be warranted, such comments rarely lead to anything positive. As tempted as you may be to throw verbal flames, you can grow stronger by choosing not to do so. You can train yourself to focus your attention on what matters rather than wasting your time on petty arguments.

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--Ralph Marston

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