Mark Cigos

I just got laid off yesterday. The current and forthcoming global economic realities led to the repercussion of me losing my job. Oh well, that’s life, shit happens. It’s the end of something, something that was my life for several years, but the beginning of something else. Naturally. Something that could and should be more spectacular. Something that should use the end as a launch pad catapulting onto new, exciting and expanding frontiers. This isn’t just positive lingo, this is reality. When something ends, especially something that consumes the majority of your waking hours, something beautiful has to begin. Something remarkable and passion driven. Anything less than moving forward strong, propels you to crawl backwards all wrong. For me, the end means nothing less than a beautiful beginning.

This thinking and moving is not just limited to losing your job, its applicable to everything in your life. That long loving relationship with your guy or girl, that deep friendship, that lucrative business partnership. Things do end. That’s just life. And when they do, will you reflect, recover, let go and open your soul? Seeing the light that beautiful beginnings can radiate. Will you turn a temporary negative into a prosperous positive?

You can always look at one thing in so many ways. Its all about choice. How do you choose? Is it win/win or lose/lose?

We try so hard to ensure that our life is always safe, secure and fruitful. Yet life itself isn’t built like that. Life throws curveballs, takes cheap shots, challenges us and attempts to breaks us down. There’s no avoiding that. Life can hurt real bad at times, but once again, its all how you look at it and what you do with it.

We love beautiful things, yet we over indulge in negativity and ugly shit. We push out the right, powerful thoughts and feelings in our mind and soul by focusing on the worst of the worst case scenario. Life may be hard on us, but that’s its job. Its here to test us, to push us and crack us. Its working hard to enable us to grow, enabling us to evolve. It wants us to experience real heartbreak, so that we can pick up the pieces and build our hearts into something remarkable along the journey.

Life’s not fair and all that jazz. Bullshit. Life is more than fair. Its just fairly common for us to cry victim. Poor us. Get over it. Reality is most good things do come to an end. Just as much as most great things come to a close. The way I see it, another death means another birth. The cycle never ends. What ends today, begins beautifully tomorrow. Life goes on.

Its always up to you. How you interpret it, how you put it all into perspective, how you choose and what you do. For me, this end ultimately means this is just the beginning. Stay tuned.

They say the best things in life are for free. Ok sure, I agree, but the VERY best things in life are also free, we just have to be willing to work a little harder for them. We have to be willing to go the extra mile in order to make those things real great and more permanent in our lives – like our family, our health, our education and our appreciation for life and everything around us.

Yes, the best things in life are free – like love, relationships, the earth we walk and a world of information which leads to education. We are free to take advantage of these free things, yet most of the time, because they are free, we take them for granted. We pursue them, we get them, and then we don’t do anything great with them. We get married, make babies and simply go about the day expecting these free and glorious things to just evolve and get better with time. We fail to act and take initiative, working hard to make sure that that marriage lasts a lifetime; to ensure our children are raised to be beautiful, compassionate and passionate people. We chase, we get and then we let those free things go somewhat static. They stop and slug about their days, us failing to ever go out and make the right plays – put in the hard work that’s a must to take the best life has to offer and make it remarkable.

If I took these free things in life and gave them everything I had, worked real hard, put passion and energy and everything I could into them, wouldn’t the end result be something spectacular? Wouldn’t the partner you’re with appreciate you so much more, wouldn’t you appreciate he/she so much more? Wouldn’t our love explode into something so deep that no petty obstacle would ever break us down? Wouldn’t the love we make shake the room? Wouldn’t the relationships in my life flourish, benefitting all involved? Wouldn’t my positive and loving energy enable those connected to me feel like anything is possible? If I greeted everyday with an early morning workout, ate the cleanest foods and forbid my body of any narcotics, wouldn’t I feel like a billion bucks and be able to take full out advantage of the body and life I was given, for free, the day I was born? If I couldn’t afford or have the patience for school earlier in my life, wouldn’t reading the best books and the endless upon endless abundance of information available to us now, for free, enable and propel me onto greater things? A better income, a stronger outlook, a brighter future? If I would work just a little bit harder at the best things in life which are free to me, wouldn’t I be able to morph them into something really great? Wouldn’t I launch myself onto a greater life?

What were you thinking a year ago? How did you see the world, the way you were living, the people around you, the future? How did you envision way back then, how today would turn out? Or did you? Did you have a vision, a plan, a hope for what could and would eventually be? I did, somewhat – truth is it didn’t quite turn out the way I envisioned it. Aint that shitty? Yes and no. Reality is life never goes exactly according to plan, but when we move to envision, strategize and do something about it, we have a better chance of creating what we dream of for the future. Those with a vision and mission (and who act on it) make shit happen.

But what you envisioned a year ago may not be what you envision today for the future. Over time, you grow. Your mind grows, your ambitions grow, your experience grows, your goals change. As you go, hopefully you grow. As a result, you morph the way you want to see your future. What may have been a must for me a year a go, may not sit atop my hit list right now – so many choices, so many possible roads to travel, where to go? Which is why I’m writing about this today. If what I wanted a year or two years ago, is not reality today (even though I promised today as my deadline for it to be reality), why is that? Was it that what I had envisioned was not truthfully what I really wanted deep down inside? Were the wrong motives and reasons pushing me? Was I living someone else’s dream or purpose in life? Perhaps. Maybe. Most likely. Whatever it was, I grew along the way. I’ve grown to envision something greater, something better for me and the world in which I live.

The harshest repercussion I have to deal with when I’ve failed to achieve my goals, is that somewhere along the way, I know I’ve questioned what the guts of those goals are. Therefore the journey in which I embarked on, may not be one I was totally in love with before I lifted off. So why did I lift off in the first place? Its fucking hard to deal with that. Its difficult to look back and think, was all that just wasted effort, was that even something I really wanted in the first place? And so I grow. I grow my mind, my heart, I’m able to envision clearer and more passionately. I give myself a better chance to succeed by looking back, reflecting, letting go; propelling me to think and feel deeper, ultimately moving onto what I really want, what I really see being reality in my future. The future of the world depends on this, it depends on people growing along the way, seeing something spectacular for the future that means something ultra special to them, and then going out and making it happen.

What I envisioned a year ago today, may not yet be reality today, but I know it will be. What I newly envision today, will one day be as well. For who I am right now, is someone much deeper than I was yesterday, someone with the ability to go out and make real what he one day thought about, planned and set out for.

I love when people enhance my life. Smart, passionate, interesting people. Remarkable people. Human beings who enable and propel me to step it up a grand notch. It could be anything. It could be their smile, their attitude, advice, charisma, knowledge, recommendations for a book, an artist, whatever. It could be anything in which moves and shakes me to a higher beat. Luckily I try hard to live open minded and in the process, are exposed to outstanding souls who along their journey, make mine increasingly fruitful. Its awesome. And it happens almost on a daily basis. Because I’m looking for it, in some form or another, its bumping right into me. Beautiful people, edgy people, people with stories that dazzle me, people with facts and ideas and visions that inspire me. Its endless.

On the flipside, we’re exposed to spam no matter who we are or where we travel. Its just the numbers game coming into effect. For the abundance of interactions we experience on a daily basis, not everyone is going to enhance your life. In fact there are a good majority who will, most likely add nothing to your world, sadly chipping away something in the process. Or at least leaving you feel as if you were cheated, cheated of the potential enhancement you could have been exposed to. But that’s life. The good, the bad and the wishing we had; had spent a little more time today with someone special, someone who’d sparked an idea, feeling or thought within us – directing us onto a new avenue of possibility.

(No matter the age or size, we all can enhance the life of another)

And because I expect real value from the people I interact with, I’ve got to be equally dishing it out. In fact, I believe everything we experience on the outside, is a direct result of how we rev ourselves up on the inside. Nothing new there, I’m not preaching just-discovered gospel. This is time-old common sense, and yet we so very often forget, that in order to see what we want to see or get what we want in our world, we must be willing to build it up deep inside our own world, inside our soul. So I do my ultimate best to leave people with something to think about as they walk away, I give ‘em reason to smile and ponder and be grateful that we met, that we interacted – that our separate worlds synergized, even if only for a few moments.

No money? Little education? Few contacts or connections? Sub-par status? Who cares! Some of the poorest people I’ve ever met have enhanced my life in the deepest of ways. Ways that shook my core so strong. Some of the least educated, but highly passionate and dedicated people, have enhanced my life and inspired me in ways I’ll never forget. Regardless of status, degree, diplomas or income, regardless of all that jazz; people from all walks of life can enhance the life/lives of another/others. Its our duty, our already-expected calling. Why not carry it out? Why not give the world something real great to talk about. Leave ‘em somewhat in love what you just left ‘em with. Enhance your life, and someone else’s in the process. And be open to accept the same in return. This way, everybody wins the game of enhancement. Everybody’s life will be enhanced for the better, and the world will shine somewhat brighter.