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Cruise Life Gratitude

Two and a half years ago I went on a cruise vacation. This vacation stacked on a lot of first in my life and started a string of many more. I am so glad I had my sister to share it with. In fact I was grateful she was there. Had she not been I may not have made it back to the ship one day, but that is a story for the memory box.

From this cruise vacation in the Southern Caribbean I fell in love with the ocean and the idea that I need to work on one of the ships. When it’s in my mind I make it happen no matter what. Through extensive research and networking I has seen this dream to be possible. A first time trip to Canada, seeing Niagara Falls in the winter time, and a 45 minute walk in a Toronto snow storm to my interview and I got the job. I was not supposed to find out I got the job for a week or more but I got the call the next day on my drive home. I think I was crying I had to pull over and make some phone calls of my good news. The embankment of this journey certainly makes for the most challenging job search I have ever had. I am grateful for the victory and everyone who was involved to help me get there.

I got my ship assignment and low and behold they put me back into the Southern Caribbean. Working on a cruise ship is an experience like no other. It would take me weeks of posts to tell you everything. I have not even told my family and friends all the stories yet. It was so amazing to meet and friend so many people from around the world. It was so amazing to visit so many places I have never been and 2 weeks later visit again. I am so grateful to have visited these places and still today I talk to several people from my cruise experience. I worked in the gift shop and shortly thereafter I became the Promotions Ambassador for the whole ship. I promoted all over the ship and on the morning show. I got employee of the month my 2nd month on the job and it was out of the entire cruise line fleet of about 20+ ships. Then I became the jewelry specialist. So grateful that is was a constant career learning experience.

This job was not easy. I knew this walking in but far more difficult then I imagined. The job was hard, the hours were hard, the language gap was hard among my coworkers. My reward during time off was a new place to visit, the beach, and the ocean. Ship life is a whole different life. This was still a very trying time in my life emotionally also. I was not homesick but I had a lot of emotions that needed out. I am grateful that this cruise job helped me release those emotions and I am even more grateful for those that endured my sometimes scary emails of venting my feelings while I worked my butt off. I am grateful that I wrote a daily journey. Whenever life gets hard I go back and read its raw emotional content. Through all the hard times sparkles so many good times as well, countless memories that are with me forever.
During my short cruise career I was networking on my ship to secure my next 6 month position but the worst allergies I have ever had in my entire life where striking me down one day at a time. Suddenly every challenge I had just tripled in difficulty. Nothing was working so the only option was to be sent home on medical leave. Through this challenge I rose again. I had many conversations with the ocean, asking what to do next. When I got back home it was the car ride from the airport that I realized I don’t belong in Illinois anymore. This realization and many more signs and hard work has put me in the great spot I am today. You will have to wait till next week to find out what was next for me.

Life will just exist, but in order to make it existing you need to face many challenges, fall, rise up, and move on! One chapter to the next I am living my life. Change to change I am full of gratitude the whole way.

Something I just realized this morning! I started this cruise journey with my sister on vacation and it ended with my sister picking me up at the airport when I had to go home. That is amazing.

UPwithMARCH

31 Days of Gratitude. Check out my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UPwithmarc) participate, like my page and share it with your friends. Let the world know what you are grateful for.

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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!

 

Tony Robbins FQF

“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”
Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins is a Life Coach and Motivational Speaker. Jim Rohn was Tony’s Mentor. Tony began his career promoting speech events for Jim, who is one of the greatest speakers of all time. Tony Robbins seems to be stepping up to be one of the most influence speakers of our time. Some words that Tony took away from Jim Rohn who has passed away recently: “Happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather of how we live. What we do with the things we have makes the biggest difference in the quality of life.” Talking about this quote is a whole other post! 😛

 

Both Tony and Jim are big influences to me. So before I get side tracked with all this awesomeness here we go with the man of the day, Tony Robbins.

 

When you eat better and exercise, you increase your energy levels. You physically feel better, therefore you are more productive with great things. This works the same way with a positive mind. The more you think positive the better you will feel. When you feel better or happier the easier it will be to combat the new negatives and challenges that come into your life. If you want any worthwhile results in your life you need to take care of both your body and your mind. YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOU! If you love your body and yourself, over time more great things will certainly happen. You can begin to find what you are really good at and keep getting better. If you already know what you are awesome at, it is an unwritten rule that there is always room for improvement. When you keep moving forward you may even amaze yourself.

 

Try to amaze yourself this weekend.

Dr. Eric Perry’s Blog

Motivate | Inspire | Uplift

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