Monthly Archives: August 2014
Famous Quote Friday (Oprah)
“The only courage you ever need is
the courage to live the life you want.”
Oprah Winfrey
Do you have the courage to live the life you want, or do you let laziness get in your way and take life’s easy route? I am not going to dabble in the definitions of an easy route to life but to the individual that defines it I am sure the word boring comes into play. We have tons of thoughts and ideas in our heads. We have tons of dreams that we wish would come true. The best part about living the life we want and making our dreams come true, is that all we need is the courage to make it happen.
Do you have the courage to stand up for what you believe in? Do you have the strength to venture beyond the norm of your life? Having courage is about taking risks. Fear not that it will be difficult at times. Be ready to fail, be ready to learn and be ready to live.
It is Friday people, the end of some peoples work week and the end of some people’s school week. UPwithmarc wants you to grab a hold of your courage this weekend and venture beyond your comfort zone. You want to be a painter, start painting. You want to travel, start a plan for where to go and how to save for it. You want to meet new people, there are dozens of ways to do it you just have to get off your butt and go. Do something new this weekend, maybe it is risky maybe not. If you fail try again, if you succeed GREAT!
Have a Courageous weekend everyone.
Picture Quote Monday (Find)
Be sure to follow me here and like my Facebook for more things positive!
Famous Quote Friday (David Starr Jordan)
“The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going.”
– David Starr Jordan
David was an educator, peace activist and founding president of Stanford University. This quote though short leaves so much room for personalized inspiration. When you know where your going in life many things seem to stay out of your way and obstacles you just conquer along the way. That is more simply put, to be determination for your goal. But in order for the world to step aside you need to have those goals you need to know where your life is headed. Sure maybe right this second you don’t know where you are going but if you have a goal in mind of where you are going, everyday you will get closer, and you are essentially in the know of where you are headed! You will encounter challenges, failure and success but the closer you are, the more determined you are, the more passionate you are more the world will not seem to stand in your way.
Do you know where your life is headed? What are you doing with the rest of your life, what stands in your way? The only thing that stands in your way is doubt. So know where you are going and the world will be ready to help you get there.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Caged Bird!
“Song of the Caged Bird” by Lindsey Stirling
This song has inspired me from the first day I heard it. This idea is so simple. The bird flies around and around the cage most liking lost and trying to find a way out. If you open that door it will for sure fly out. If you own a bird you know that it is continuously plotting to get out of the cage. It is determined to get out of that cage.
In our lives we tend to be very lost in a routine. Get up, shower, go to work, etc.! When we have a problem it tends to circle until we solve it. The idea of the caged bird is to never give up because one day that door is going to open for you and you need to be ready to get out and find your way! You need to be ready to solve that problem in your life. Any goal in life you are trying to achieve you may have to try again and again until you finally get there. You may have to do the same thing over and over again just to get where you want to be in life.
Now I do not know what Lindsey’s real meaning to this song is for her, but to me it means never giving up. It means there will someday be an open door that you better take. A chance that was never there before, or always there and you finally figured out how to take it. It means to always be ready even if everyday has been exactly like the last there still is the chance that the next day will be different, it will be better. Most birds don’t sit at the bottom of the cage, they are up high figuring out how the heck to get out of that cage. Just the same in life; we shouldn’t be sitting at the bottom of it doing nothing we should be reaching up as high as we can to see what kind of opportunities we have with our lives. Beside everyone knows what is on the bottom of a bird cage and we certainly don’t want to be walking around in that part of our lives either.
Your chance to soar is coming are you ready for it? Are you reaching for it?
Please take some time to listen to the song it is beautiful and while you are listening please just take a moment and think about where you want to be in life and where your life is going now.
Famous Quote Friday (Howard Thurman)
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
– Howard Thurman
Howard was a very influential African American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. When you’re ready for change you don’t ask of the world. You have to ask yourself, what do you need. What do you need to come alive? Our reality is becoming easier. Or world is offering so many things that are drowning us in pointless futures. How many times can you watch over exaggerated reality shows before you learn anything valuable? How many times can you reach the top level in a role playing game before you feel like you accomplished anything that changed your life? I could keep going but I don’t need to upset too many people with my examples.
Howard has passed on about 33 years ago and I really am taking a modern day view of his inspiration. My point is, what Howard is saying here is we need to get out there and find what really gets our blood pumping, what really makes us original and creative. These are the things that this world really needs. Dig deep within yourself and discover your own creative ideas instead of looking to Pintrest for everything. All of us have the ability to come alive with our own ideas. The only thing current conveniences in our generation do is void us of challenge. Without challenge you cannot truly come alive. Without failing you cannot truly get to know the real person you are within! Originality is where we will come alive.
TAKE IT
We live in a world where we lose things. Things break and things die. People in our lives move on or pass on. Opportunities come and go. You reach a certain point in your life where you finally realize that your time is minimal in this world and you need to make the best of every moment.
In my 30’s and finding myself for the 3rd time, I realized something. The world is still full of beautiful things. I can find love better than ever before. I can find work in the craziest places. Money will be less of a problem for me, not because I make more but because I worry less about it.
Taking such an aggressively positive turn on my life has had its challenges. Though every one of those challenges I feel myself getting stronger. Through all the ups and downs I realize, even more now, that everything happens for a reason and I am more aware of that then I have ever been. Things are happening all around me and all I have to do is take advantage of them. Find what I want in life and take it.
I know normally I write as advice but I am learning too. These things are happening to me right now. Changes are happening in my life right now. I worked so hard to be on a cruise ship and something as simple as allergies has pulled me away from that. But without that experience I would have missed so many things in my life. I look at all that has happened and realize I would have missed all of it had I not tried this. My time working on a cruise ship was a lesson in my own life and a blessing to my future. I am finding myself; I will find love, and I will find my future direction. Most of all I am learning that when I do find something I need to go after it now. There is no more time to wait, just take what you want from life. Take that chance, go all in. If it was not meant to be then the adventure begins for you to take a chance on everything else that comes your way.
If you see an opportunity take it. Follow the signs in your life, follow your desires and interest, follow your dreams and positivism will be right there with you the whole time. Love your life and life will love you back. Embrace change in your life and take everything you can from every moment of it! If you don’t take a chance you will never get what you really want in life. You can still be positive when life gets really tough, but when an opportunity comes by to make it better you have to take it!
Famous Quote Friday (Billy Cox)
From all that I have seen, time and time again, at least 90% of success derives from having a dream and knowing what you want.
Billy Cox
Everything in our life starts as a dream. It is entirely up to ourselves if we want to live by those dreams or not. If you know what you want out of life and you go after it, the success of your dream coming true is huge. Now success just does not happen and it does not happen overnight. You have to work for it; you have to work towards it. You need to earn your successes. Most importantly you have to be brave enough to tackle all of life’s obstacles to get to where you want to be in life. You have to be willing to try new things. You have to be willing and excepting of change. A good life is not easy I guarantee that, but doing whatever it takes to have a good life is well worth the effort. What are your dreams? What are you going after? Live your life the way you want and you will triumph over your challenges.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Learning Experience
No matter how much you are prepared for the new things in your life, the hidden challenges will show themselves. Take every bad choice in your life, every bad thing that happened to you, every negative experience and ask yourself what have you learned? No matter what happens in your life never leave it in your mind on a bad note. Sure there will be things in your life that will devastate you and things that will knock you down. Let the tears and fears within, out. Get that negative energy out of you and start to accept what you have learned in a positive direction. What you have learned in your life is of much more substantial value than anything you lost. Put your mind in the positive. You can never completely erase your past but you can certainly set up what you want to remember from it. Remember the good things.
Where are you in your life? Take a moment to cue up all the successes in your life. If you have not filled up your head with tons of positive experiences you are not thinking hard enough. I don’t care how old you are or how big or small these successes are I know each and every one of you has a huge list! It is all about what is important to you and more importantly what you have learned.
You can look at every failure in your life as a success story. When you fell off your bike the first time did you give up and never get back on? Apply that idea to everything you have ever done in your life. I remember just learning how to ride my bike, getting faster and faster, taking more risks, going out farther away from home. I hit a big hole in the sidewalk and went sailing over my handle bars badly scraping up my body from head to toe. You know what? Today on my bike I can ride about 70 miles in one trip and I can hit speeds over 30+ miles per hour. I have mountain biked over dangerous terrains and on the edge of mountain side cliffs. I would say that’s an accomplishment. I would say that is a learning experience. If I fell off my bike and never got back on there is so much in life I would have missed.
Let me relate that to right now. My life bottomed out. My love life was torn to shreds, the luster of my career as a graphic designer has met its end. I had just thought I found myself only to realize I was lost again. Never thought I would say this but there is a lot to learn on the bottom. I was too young to see it when I was down there before but down there again into familiar grounds I found so much potential. I stepped into an amazing talent for cake decorating, I started a big vow of positivism in my life, I started this very blog to share all of my positivism with the world. Career wise I am sampling so many pieces to my dreams. Networking has been an angel of opportunities. I have been sampling marketing, promotions, creative writing, motivational speaking and careers in the outdoors. Just like with my bike I have ventured farther away from home and challenged a career at sea. I will talk more about my experiences with ship life later but this has marked an exciting challenge in my life. I should now say a huge learning experience. More importantly ship life has been an amazing adventure in the future of whom I am and where I am going. There is an entire hallway of open doors for me to walk in and explore now. My best friend and his wife have generously reached out to me with a place to stay and a wealth of opportunities. I would be a fool not to jump on that, so in four days I pack up my life once again and now I am headed to Florida! I am at a point in my life were I expect the challenges and I look forward to what I will learn from them.
Through all of this change I have not only discovered a very heavy spiritual side but, I side that really is telling me to share it with others. There will be a day were I can motivate many, where I can change lives and get people to realize all the positive energy within each one of us. There is a lot that has to happen first but one thing at a time I am on my way.
The most important things in your life are not your failures, but what you have learned from those failures. When you fall all you have to do is get up. Learn from your experience both good and bad. What is the next step in your life? Take that risk in a new direction. The worst that could happen is you learn something new about your life. If I am not mistaken that’s what life is all about, learning new things from new experiences. All you have to do is never give up. Life is going to get hard. If your life is not hard you are not learning anything, and your experiences are slim. Take your life and get out there and do what you want to do with it, challenge it. It is your choice to choose to do nothing or everything.
Thank you so much for all your support. Every current follow and every new follower matters so much to me. This blog is not just about me it is about all of us. Stick around; there is new and inspiring things on the way. Share this with your friends and follow my blog and follow me on Facebook. Upwithmarc is only going one direction….UP!
UP With Marc 