Mark Cigos

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

-Howard Thurman

Those were the last words I read before I hit the hay last night. They were also the first thing that came to mind as I awoke today. To come alive – what does that mean? When someone says they feel alive – what do they mean? What’s your definition of alive? How alive do you feel?

Recapping the past few days on my blog, I noticed a trend in my postings. The titles say it all – The Greatness In Being Your Crazy Self. Does It Improve Your Life? When What You Have, Is The Desire To Be. Before I even read those words last night, in my mind, in my soul – I’ve been preaching that crucial message to myself and you, the dire importance in finding that special something that enables you to come remarkably alive. Call it passion, call it your calling – whatever you label it, confidently know that that thing is the launch pad to really living. Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it matters to you.

Look around you each and every day. People gaze. Experience humans in their flow. Are they walking through life for the sake of walking? Or are they walking through life with meaning? A created purpose born from the desire to be something more than a mere passerby. Its an interesting exercise. Watch someone with passion light up the room, beam with confidence and spread a little infectious inspiration along the way. Witness and experience living at its best. What was it that made that person come so alive? What was that thing that enabled them to be so filled with life?

Everyone has the opportunity and privilege to come alive. Some seize it, some wait till its too late to play great. Its all about choices – feel like you’re walking, or feel like you’re flying? Small steps, or soaring? You choose. What will it take to make you come alive? What will ignite you onwards to living the life you’ve always dreamed of – the one you envision from time to time, but never feel quite confident enough to go out and grab it. The only difference between a coulda been and the real deal. The real deal went out and did something about it, they took it. They did what they needed to do that made them feel ultimately better than they felt before. They came alive along the way, and continue to feel so each and every day.

Wow there’s a serious abundance of self help/motivational books out there. Audio CD’s, DVD’s, seminars, workshops, TV shows and more. Everyone’s sharing their principles, laws and rules for absolute success. The secrets to this, the answers for that. I love ‘em. I read as many as I can get my hands on. They fuel me. They inspire me. But sometimes I get confused, sometimes I’m overwhelmed. Who do I listen to? Whom should I gravitate to? Which path will really lead me to success? How many self help/motivational words do I have to read until I become great? What?

While all of these resources available at our fingertips are awesome – what happened to the greatness in being your crazy self? Sure these words of wisdom, insight, guidance and advice are wonderful to supplement – but the real deal lies within you. We’re the right ones to ignite ourselves onto greatness. Sometimes we simply need to polish – not live someone else’s life, or their values. We should have our own core of principles, live by our own set of rules. Our work ethic should be strong, but truly be our own. We should be inspired by others, but live out life as our own superstar. Be crazy. Be yourself. Your humor, vision, intelligence, passion, compassion, curiosity, talent, and more – is all your own. Its your own special mix, and its unlike anyone else’s.

You got one shot to make it hot – and one shot to live you. You are different, everyone is. Live the life only you can live – for it was destined to be lived only by you. Bring that craziness out and live it remarkable. We all have greatness within us, we all walk around with a strut and a swagger of something special. Get confident, realize what you got, expose it and watch your life explode onto greatness never before imagined.

I recently read something, and for the life of me I just can’t remember where I had read it. Several words however did hit me, and stuck solid in my mind – does it improve your life? The things in which you do with your waking hours, days, weeks, months, years – do they, improve your quality of life? Do they enhance your wellbeing, enlighten you, inspire you, motivate you, move you? Do they make you feel more confident, better about yourself, healthier, livelier, more energetic? Do they enable you to do exactly what you want to do/want to become? Does it improve your life? Do you have the right circle of friends, do you read the best books for your mind, do you eat the cleanest foods for your core? Are you living to the best of your capability each and every day – and then when you’ve reached that best, do you keep pushin’ higher?

Think about everything you think of, every move you make. Its ALL about choices – its all about choosing the wiser alternative. I think of it as eating – do you eat the stuff that may taste good, but that packs on pounds and is killing your health for the long term? Or, do you choose the lean foods, the clean goods, the stuff that may not be loaded with sugars and starch and grease (where’d we get off thinking that was good for us anyways?) but packs a flavorful punch and keeps you light and energized beyond anything you ever imagined. Choices. Choices that can either improve your life, or set you several steps/years back.

I’ve made a little list of things in which I feel have made me a better person. I may be delusional, but I feel better when I play these cards. I feel like I’ve made a choice better than the one I could have made, that would have ultimately, sent me the other way. The wrong way. Here goes:

• Reading: It all started when a good friend of mine introduced me to the world of Seth Godin. Author and marketing guru, Seth is remarkable. His books were the wiser alternative for me. They actually propelled me to a whole new level in my working life and opened my eyes wide to a world of people/authors/gurus with his shared intelligence and passion.

• Eating: I could confidently say that the RIGHT choices started immediately after my first full time job at 16 years old – working at McDonald’s (yeah that lasted a whole 2 months). Do I really need to say more?

• Exercise: I can’t sit still – so why not use that never ending energy. It started out with hockey, then soccer. Then swimming, then basketball, then running, cycling, weight training, yoga and the one that really kicks my ass – Crossfit. Check it out if you totally want to morph your body to something Greek god like.

• Career: I made a choice a few years back – never work on anything that doesn’t seriously turn you on. Life’s simply to short to throw your energy into something that you only somewhat like doing or hate entirely. That’s how I take on each and every job, career, project, hobby. I gotta be drooling to get at it, in order to do my best job. Why settle for anything less?

There’s more to this list, but I think you get the grand idea. Play the pros and cons in front you – you’ll be amazed as to where a little reflecting, thinking and creativity can take you. Keep asking – does it improve my life?

That’s what I’m doing. As I move through life, I can’t help but be curious. I can’t help but experience something and not give it my twist. I cannot refrain from sharing it with the world. So I write it down. I write in my notebook, I write on this blog and I write en route to completing my first book.

Which brings me to this. We all write. We all write through life leaving behind something tangible/some sort of imprint. Something that is different than it was several seconds/minutes/months/years before. A trail of triumphs, heartaches, glory and stories. Battles won, mergers done. Lives saved, roads paved. We all write. We all write along this journey called life. Leaving the world different – whether for better or for worse – than it was before.

Know that every move you make, changes everything as it once was. Your thoughts, your dreams, your vision, your actions. The words you speak, the words you write. The people you interact with, those you inspire. That’s responsibility right there. A boat load. Treat it with care. Comprehend the power in that. Understand that we all write. And when we write, we change the world in which we live in and the life in which we travel.

I wasn’t born with pen in hand. I wasn’t praised in school as a future sure shot writer. I never won any awards for the words I put to paper, and I swear to you, I never ever thought I’d wake up one day with this deep deep desire to be. To be someone who tries his heart out hardest, to change people for the better, by putting to paper via pen, the thoughts/ideas/vision and words storming inside my head. I never thought this would keep me up at night, make me rise damn early each day. I never thought I could be obsessed, with anything less than me. Kidding. But here I stand, with a desire to be, something truly remarkable, something I never envisioned I’d want to be. A new found energy is now instilled in me – its like a calling, my meaning, the one thing I was put here on earth to do and be. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it real, for my desire just keeps on growing. I won’t slow down for even a second, cause right now my desire is all I’ve been knowing.

You got desire – hell yeah you do. You’re hot, talented, bursting with desire all round. You have so much power in you, that you don’t even know what to do with it. That’s why your burning desire lay like a fickle flame inside you. You’re creative, you’re energy, you’re bursting at the seams. You simply gotta let it go. You gotta let it out. Show the world that you care, show ‘em that your desire is so deep, that you could move a million people in the streets, to your contagious and desirable beat.

Cause what we should all have, is that ultimate desire to be. To be something we want, to do something we need. To prove to ourselves that there’s nothing wrong with us – its simply a case of the desire to be. That’s all we have, that’s all that need be.

We fail because we stop. We stop believing in ourselves, we stop believing in our dreams. We stand still, freeze and fade away. We kill the faith and courage it takes to make reality of our dreams. Dreams plus action equals reality. What looks real to you these days? Are you living your dream? Are you moving towards what you want, who you want to be? Its easy to quit. Anyone can. But it’s a hell of a lot harder to look back 20 years from now and say, shit, why did I, ever stop believin’? What cement solid reasons did I have for not investing my time, sweat, tears and cheers in me? Why did I not have faith in the one person who truly could determine my outcome? Why did I ever stop believin’? Was it fear? Was it so many people saying no, that that’s all I became to know? Was it this, was it that. What was it?

Believin’ takes courage, takes guts, takes discipline and it takes all of you. It demands fully your mental and physical contribution. It builds up at the core of you, energizing your entire being and the world around you. Its believin’ in you that enables you to do anything you want to. When you’re on a healthy hot streak of believin’ – you become addicted. You feel so remarkable, so juiced, that nothing in this world seems impossible. You dream big and move even bigger. You are someone others feed off of as you continue to feed yourself. You’re a leader. A leader who believes in himself/herself, moving through life, bringing hope to all those you encounter and touch.

Forget following the heard. You’re better than that. You’ve got too much natural creativity in you, too many precious dreams/goals and ambitions to just go with the flow. Everyone is born different/unique – therefore its our responsibility to live our life like no other. Live it with inspiration from others, but execute with our own different/unique twist.

Don’t look at being a rebel as standing for something negative, doing something wrong or breaking the law. Look at rebelling as having the guts, the audacity, the balls to spin and produce something remarkable that enables this world to move towards something better. Look at going against the grain as your purpose – bringing meaning to your life and so many others. Being a rebel is being filled with vision, creativity, courage and leadership. Its someone willing to scrap tradition in order to make history.

Mix the rebel in you with remarkable and you just can’t lose. Dazzle all those around you as you rebel against the norm. Open eyes wide wherever you go. Never let ‘em forget you, inspire them for a lifetime. Give ‘em something to hope for and never stop evangelizing. Make everyone you interact with, feel that you’re different yeah sure, but you’re the kind of different that enables them to be different and remarkable.

Results will come, as they always do when you’re true to you. When you’re true to you and add remarkable value too. You’ll become what you want in life when you unleash that rebel inside. You’ll achieve/accomplish all that you ever dreamed of. Rebel remarkably and experience the results pour in.

Its nothing more than having faith and confidence in what you envision – doing it your way the best you can.

I could sit here and write, write about how the world in which we live in, is making a lot of people feel low these days. Disappointed, depressed, confused, lost. I could write that war, poverty, environmental chaos, company layoffs, economic uncertainty and trouble at home and in the heart and soul – is making many feel like what am I supposed to do? Where do I go? Where do I turn? What can I do? Am I, are we, ever gonna make it? I could sit here and write glum, making things only worse – but I won’t. This blog is about positivity, or at least tries hard to be. And every chance I get to write, I’m gonna write about something that makes me feel damn good, enabling you, to feel even better.

You’ll be more than alright. We’ll be more than alright. We’ll make it. For sure we will. Good always prevails – and we my friends, are good people.

You are alive. You have a fully functioning brain. That mind of yours can do more than you even know what to do with. Nothing is impossible, you simply need to go out and do somethin’ with it – that fully functioning brain of yours. I’ve always strongly believed, that if I’m still breathing, can think with my own mind, speak, hear and have two arms and two legs – the world is my oyster. Heck there are those in this world who don’t even have two arms, two legs – and they still get stuff done. Think times are tough, its even tougher for many others. In fact its tough for everyone, at some point of their lives or another. No excuses. You’ll get through, you’ll see the light and in the end, you’ll be more than alright.

Since I didn’t want to write negative, I want you to think of what you consider real shitty in your world today. Think long and hard and then think how bad is it really? Is it something that you have no chance in ever overcoming? Is it something so devastating that you might as well end it all right now? Or is it something that’ll pass? It is something that with a little creativity, a little persistence, perseverance, faith and will – you can beat hands down with everything you were provided with, the day you were born.

You know, for every book and motivational speaker out there tells you so, that your mind is the most powerful thing you own. It’s the one thing, than when programmed right, can enable your life, to truly take flight. And with that, always know, that no matter what, you’ll be more than alright.

No matter who you are, you’re born with some sort of talent. Some sort of somethin’ special that you’re destined to share with our world. Its that somethin’ remarkable that is the reason you were put here on this earth – put here on this earth to set forth and work, working that talent hard. Talent synergized with passion equals your calling in life. It stands you out from the crowd, enabling you to focus and power ahead to levels and places you never even imagined. Your talent is the gift in which was given to you the day you were born. The only downside, is that far too many of us fail to find that talent, or when we do, collapse with a lack of self confidence, never bringing that talent full bloom into this world.

Some find their true talent close to the day they were born, some several years later. For some its after college, others, the late bloomers, its mid life or further down the line. Talent doesn’t care when it reveals itself as long as it does one day come out. Talent is something you feel fully alive when living. Its passion and skill rolled into one. Its your ticket to somethin’ extraordinary. Its raw yet pure. The real deal all the way. Whether its your talent for throwing winning touchdown passes, to saving lives in the ER – talent is something we all need to uncover and discover and ultimately do something with. Doesn’t matter what it is – don’t be thrown off guard. Just cause that young Hollywood star is working movie after movie, doesn’t mean its your calling in life. Your calling could be helping those in need halfway around the world, or educating young powerful minds in a classroom. Find it.

Work your talent hard. Work what you’ve uniquely got, shake what your mama gave you. Confidently know that your special somethin’ could be somethin’ special for a whole lotta people. The world is yours – yours in the sense that what you were naturally given as a gift, can change the world for the better. Pound the pavement every day – work that talent of yours so well, that you influence others to go out and live their dreams through their talent and passion. Give others a reason for doing what they so remarkably can, by doing what you so remarkably do. Your talent, your passion – that’s the fuel to something higher.