Blog Archives
3 years ago today!
3 years of blogging and so many goals achieved. So many new goals and new experiences. The best part is there are more goals to come, more adventures to live, and more great people to meet! So excited to have kept up with this blog for so long. I was never a big writer before but practice makes perfect! I do not strive to be the greatest writer ever and my grammar and quick writing can show for that, but I do strive to make a positive difference in our world! My writing and Ideas can show for that!
This is where it all started: https://upwithmarc.com/2012/08/29/hello-world/
I LOVE ALL OF YOU WHO SUPPORT ME. I SEE GREAT THINGS IN OUR FUTURES!
So much gratitude,
UPwithmarc
You WANT and You WILL!
I have something here you may want to do for yourselves! The First book I am reading for my May reading goals is called “Black Hole Focus”, by Isaiah Hankel. It is a very motivating book about changing your life around to give your life a greater purpose. It is also a very easy read to start my routine of reading regularly. Isaiah has talked about many things so far in the amount that I have read and I want to share one of the things he wants us as readers to do. He wants us to make lists; everything we want to own, everything we want to do and everything we want to be. He wants us to write down “BIG” things not daily to do lists.
I am going to share the lists I made with you and I am going to change one word on it to make the point of these lists even more powerful. I am going to change all of the “wants” to “WILL”. If you make these lists yourself, the idea is to not just have a list in your head or on your computer. Print these lists out and put them somewhere you will see them every day:
MY LISTS (lists in process)
Everything I WILL own:
– A house
– A new car more fitted to my lifestyle now
– A wave runner
– A multipurpose building fit for speakers, weddings, or other social events
Everything I WILL do:
– Go to Alaska for the summer (I had to write it)
– Go to Hawaii, Australia, and India
– Get married, and have a kid(s)
– Motivational speaking at a kids level
– Motivational speaking to scouts
– Motivational speaking to adults
– Speak in front of 10,000+
– Write 2 books (I already have my 2nd one but I need to write the first one. 😉 )
– Learn Spanish and German
– Continue to make a name for myself in the general public
Everything I WILL be:
– A successful motivational speaker
– A leader and example of a more positive lifestyle
– A spiritual energy worker
– A inspirational writer
– An avid traveler
– A successful author
– A geological and archeological surveyor by hobby
I feel inspired already just writing this stuff down. Now I will print it out and leave it places I see every day. This does not have to be a list set in stone. It could change as you change but you need to put your initial goals and dreams on paper and let the motivational process take place. I will also be shrinking down my list to wallet size and carrying them around with me. I just wrote my list on the fly and will make changes to it but I also noticed how small my want list is, and how much bigger my will do list is. I have been swaying away from a materialistic lifestyle and focusing more on achievements! I have also been focusing less on money and more on living life! These are things that Ultra Positivism has already done for me and I feel more and more how a positive personality is building a home in my heart, mind and life!
I love this life and I am grateful for all of it, and I am most grateful for all of the support from all of you readers in helping me get there, and helping me spread the word.
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.
Never Give Up
It’s hard to wait. It’s hard to try over and over again without any good result. It’s hard to fail and not feel a little worse each time. How much can you take before it’s time to give up?
Most of my close friends and family can a test to how close to edge of life I have got. They have seen me fall hard, again and again. They have seen me ready to give up, ready to say I am done. They have seen me scream, cry, and beg the universe for an answer. All of us will literally stumble upon hard times. In fact if you have never faced a challenge that has pushed you to your limits, you have so much more of your life to experience yet.
As the sweat from my forehead beads into the tears of my face, the monster has arrived. I have fought the good fight that my journey may be over. My next destination is thru the thick fog and I have no idea what is inside there, or what lies on the other side. I’m going in and you better believe I am coming out the other side as a better person! This I do know. Every challenge I face makes me stronger more willing to face the next.
You know what the people I care about have never seen? They have never seen me stay down when I fall. They have never seen me stop when there is just so much more road to follow. They have never seen me make a goal and not go after it with everything I have got. Those I keep close to my heart have never seen me give up.
Don’t give up on your dreams and you goals it is not worth it. No matter how long that journey is, keep going. No matter how many times you have to try and try again, keep at it. When you fall get up and never stop. When you have to wait and there is nothing else you can do, you wait. Your goal is close by, your destination is right around the corner, that treasure you have been looking for all your life you are about to run right into, but the only way to see any of it is to never give up. NEVER GIVE UP.
Anyone that says life is easy is a fool. Anyone who wants to experience their full potential is going to stumble through the gates of victory out of breath with scraped knees. Carrying the satisfaction of making it is what strengthens everyone for the next seemingly impossible journey. Everything is possible in life but it takes a person willing to never give to get there.
Meme Monday (Dreams)
Each day is a new day, with a fresh start!
Be sure to follow me here and like my Facebook for more things positive!
Are You For Real?
I am a real person with real goals and real failures and real success and real feelings. I am not trying to hide anything, but I will change everything I do not like in my life!
You owe it to yourself to be real! Sure in high school maybe it was fun to try to be real cool, but you know darn well that’s not the real you. What are your passions? What are your feelings? What are your dreams? Are you living your life or some other life?
Stop spending time trying to be someone you’re not because you will NEVER get anywhere you want to in life. Being real is about being yourself. No matter what people say and no matter what people think, your own personal approval of yourself is what matters. You will hit hard times but its your own character that is going to conquer those challenges! You got to live your life from your eyes not from all the eyes looking at you.
I have always considered myself to be original. I truly am on a quest to love all life has to offer and that includes bits and pieces from all over the world, all things, and all ideas. I want to accept everything into my life and use my favorite parts to shape my future and all of you would be wise to do the same. It is one step toward a more positive world one person at a time!
Love your life and love each new year of it. HAPPY NEW YEARS!
Variety Friday (Fortune)
What if the fate of the world relied on your fortune cookie?
Yes, yes, I know fortune cookies are just fun for most, but how many times have you gotten one that was right? I just got one on Wednesday that really nails it for me right now.
“Your spirit of adventure leads you down an exciting new path.”
This fortune could not be more right. My life is full of adventure, including adventures within! You better believe it is an exciting path. Everything in our life has value, every person we meet has value you. The first step in discovering the value of things or people you encounter in your life is to BELIEVE! If you don’t have belief that it will work or benefit you there is no chance it ever will. If you just believe, you are that much closer to an opportunity for something very exciting in your life. I can guarantee that people’s lives have been forever changed simply at the crack of a fortune cookie. Those messages are all pre-written but perhaps we are all meant to find that fortune that changes our life?
I’M NOT DONE YET!
Sometimes you have to give up everything to find the one thing you want the most. Only the strong can make that risk. Only the strong can let go of every comfort they know. Only the strong can venture away from a career they have mastered for something new. Only the strong can walk away from people that love you and the people you love. Only the strong can fail 100’s of times and still reach for what is right in their heart. We can do anything. You can do anything, you are strong. You just have to take that risk and get started. There are better things out there for your life, you have to be strong enough to go after them.
Slowly but surely I will find where I belong and search the planet to find those that share my same views as we unite. I will climb my mountain of failures and raise a flag that says “I’M NOT DONE YET” If I can breathe there is still hope for something better. If I have a heart beat I can still love, and my soul will guide me. All I have to do is listen, hope for the best in life and be grateful for anything hope brings me because this is my life! I decide my life.
The easiest most attractive path is not always the right one and before long you are too comfortable for change. Get uncomfortable and change your path. Change your life, take risks, and be strong. You are not done yet!
Meme Monday (Believe)
Step 1. Believe
Step 2. Succeed
Be sure to follow me here and like my Facebook for more things positive!
Dinner with a 1st grader
Usually I use Wednesdays to talk about ways of positivism but I am going to change it up for a worthwhile story about going to the Chinese buffet.
2 Fridays ago I went by myself to the Chinese buffet. A well known fact about me is that I LOVE buffets and I cannot resist going to them. The daughter of the owner was talking and giggling to her mother while I was paying my check.
The mom then asks me “do you work at (censored) Elementary School?”
I said “yes I do.”
“My daughter says she sees you at P.E.” (Physical Education)
“Yes that would make sense; she must be in first grade.”
“Yes”
I turned to the daughter and told her to make sure she said hi to me the next time she saw me in P.E.
I did not see her the whole week but I did end up going to the same buffet this past Friday. I saw her there but I did not say anything. I sat down went about my business stuffing my face with Americanized Chinese food. That little girl came up to me and asked if I remember her. Of course I did. She was also sad that she did not see me at all last week. I asked for her name and made sure she knew mine.
The little girl said, “I am going to run up to you in P.E. and see if you remember my name!”
This adorable conversation went on for about a half hour or so while I was eating. At first she was standing by me then eventually she sat down in the booth across from me.
In her innocence I doubt she knew that she made my night. So sweet of her to sit and chat with me, so thankful for her mom to trust me, and so grateful for not only a full stomach but a full heart as well that Friday night.
Children are the future of our existence. If we can mold their innocence into a more positive life and way of thinking, we can certainly look for a better tomorrow. We need to be positive ourselves in order to share that positive image for our children. We need to live a positive lifestyle in order for our children to lead a positive life. They don’t learn positivism from books, movies, or lesson plans; they learn from the connection from your heart and soul to theirs. Positivism is as innocent as a child, why not nurture our inner child in order for our children to have the opportunity to live a more positive life!
I literally could start a whole new blog just on my interactions with the students at my school. My experience with working on the cruise ship was amazing but my journey working with elementary school students is a far more amazing experience at heart. Love ourselves, love to children, and love the future!
UP With Marc 