Monday, May 25, 1998

Crystal clear vision

The more profound the challenge that faces you, the more it clarifies your vision. If something offends you, or disturbs you, or angers you, or disgusts you, ask yourself why. Why does it conflict with your vision of how life should be? The things that elicit a negative response in you, can help you to understand and strengthen your own positive vision.

Consider the diamond, one of the rarest of gemstones and the hardest of all known substances. Diamonds are a crystalline form of pure carbon. So how does the same carbon that forms the soft, black graphite in your pencil become a hard, clear diamond? It happens only under extremely high temperature -- more than 1,500 degrees Celsius -- and pressure -- more than 65,000 times the normal atmospheric pressure. Only then do the carbon atoms line up in just the right way to form the clear, sparkling diamond.

Similarly, only when your vision is subject to the challenges and pressures of life, does it become clear, strong and unyielding. Whatever makes you deeply uncomfortable touches your vision and serves to clarify your very essence. Be a diamond in the making. Let the challenges bring out your best.

— Ralph Marston

Persist       The front of your mind

Copyright ©1998 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.