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If you hear a voice within you say, "You cannot paint" then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
-- Vincent Van Gogh
 

 

Daily Motivator Special Feature

Your opportunity is now

by Ralph Marston

Your life is an opportunity. Every moment of it is a profound opportunity. In each moment is the chance to make a positive and lasting difference. And in the next moment is another opportunity to build on what you’ve achieved in the moment before. The moments are fleeting, yet their power is cumulative. You can let them pass by with nothing to show for them, or you can use each one for the special opportunity that it is, and then build upon it in the next one.

You may be tired. You may be discouraged. You may be uncomfortable. No matter what, your best option is to move positively forward. Hanging on to past disappointments will only hold you back. Taking comfort in being a victim gives you no real comfort at all. Staying safe by never venturing out, by never taking risks, is the riskiest thing you can do because it guarantees you won’t get anything accomplished.

Your dreams come from your most deeply held values. Those values are yours for a reason. They are yours so that you may fulfill your own unique purpose and possibilities. Your life matters very much. It cannot be replaced and it cannot be duplicated. You are the person who has the privilege of living it, the person who will make it a grand and shining achievement, the person who can fulfill its incredible promise.

It takes effort to move forward through the setbacks and disappointments. It takes courage and determination. Fortunately, you are filled with courage and determination. Yes, you may feel some fear and trepidation. But courage is not the lack of fear. Courage is the ability to feel your fear, to listen to what it has to say, to allow it to prepare you, and to move forward. Determination is surely yours. You know what you desire. You know why you desire it. Just keep those things in your mind and you’ll have plenty of determination. It’s not complicated. It’s within your reach. Go ahead, feel how easy it is to transform your fear into determination. Just take the energy that’s already there, and give it a positive, purposeful focus.

You are filled with valuable experience. The things you’ve done and learned and seen and lived through have left behind a unique and powerful substance of experience which is yours alone. It would be a shame for that to go to waste. It is yours to make use of, yours to build upon, yours from which to grow. By making this present moment count, by tapping into the value of your experience and doing something productive with it, you also make all the past moments count even more. You cannot live in the past, yet you can draw from the value you created there. Invest today’s actions with the wealth of experience you’ve accumulated, and that investment will immediately begin to pay dividends.

You deserve the best. You are worthy of the best. You are capable of the best.

You have a life in front of you that’s waiting to be filled. Whatever has happened in the past in no way prevents you from filling that life to the brim with positive goodness and joy. Right now is completely up to you. Right now is your time to make a choice. Choose to focus on your positive possibilities. Choose to look upward. Choose to look ahead. Put a smile on your face. Stand up, shake yourself off, and step confidently forward. Step forward in the direction of your dreams—yes, your dreams. You owe it to yourself, and you owe it to all the world, to bring those dreams to life. Here is your day. Here is your opportunity. Here is your life. Now, right now, fill it with meaning and purposeful energy.

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