motivation

Leave Your Baggage Behind

April 3, 2023 by Marcus Leave a Comment

Routines are great. It’s because of a great morning routine, modified slightly over the years due to changing day jobs, that I’ve managed to write as much as I have. But even when a routine is good, you can get stuck in a rut. And you might not even realize it. Why? Because you haven’t been able to leave your baggage behind.

Life on the Other Side of Social Media

When I was on social media, I tried to create and share content that was not only engaging, but hopefully inspiring as well. I had spent a good part of my life trying to outrun the doubt implanted in my mindset as a kid. My first foray into the arts was through music, and when I thought [briefly] about the idea of a music career, my mother was totally against it. As far as she was concerned, and she was very vocal about this, all musicians were ‘drunks and druggies.’ That was not the future she hoped for her son. [Read more…] about Leave Your Baggage Behind

Just Be Yourself

March 27, 2023 by Marcus 1 Comment

To become relentless means a lot of different things. I’m once again going to refer to Tim Grover’s book, Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable. In it, he asks this question: “What would it feel like to just let go of all the external pressure and expectations and just be yourself?¹

Just. Be. Yourself.

It’s not easy being yourself in a world that expects you to be on-call 24/7. It takes a great amount of confidence and focus to tune out the noise and everything that is being thrown at us. But have you ever thought that, in trying to keep up with the pressure and expectations, that maybe you’ve lost yourself somewhere along the way? That you’ve forgotten who you are and what you’re trying to do in the world? [Read more…] about Just Be Yourself

Get into the Zone

March 20, 2023 by Marcus Leave a Comment

the zone

When you stop to ask, “Why?” and are open to hearing the answer, everything changes. The answer isn’t always what we expect it to be. And instead of feeling right, it ties our stomach and intestines into reef knots. It mimics the most unbearable case of constipation, the kind that forces you to bend over in pain. While there’s not over-the-counter relief, the cure is simple: go into the zone that holds you to your why. [Read more…] about Get into the Zone

A Call to Rest

March 13, 2023 by Marcus 1 Comment

rest

Even before the COVD-19 pandemic, I rolled out of bed somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. Now, on what I call a ‘good day,’ I wake up consistently around 3:00 a.m., give or take ten minutes. No alarm clock. I’ve never needed one. Perhaps because I’ve been dealing with insomnia for most of my adult life. It’s during the quiet of those early morning hours when I am able to focus, uninterrupted, on my creativity. Getting up that early makes for long days. But with my fiftieth birthday on the horizon, I’m thinking more about how I spend my time. And, more specifically, I’m thinking about how to ensure I am getting enough rest.

An Example Not to Follow

I’ve never been good at rest/relaxation. Whenever I’ve travelled, spending a day at the beach was never high on my to-do list. If you wanted to leave the resort and explore the nearby towns and villages, I was in. (Getting lost in a foreign country at night, where I didn’t speak the language, was a little scary!) As a flight attendant, I often worked the overnight flights to London, Copenhagen, Dublin or Paris. Unlike most of my colleagues, I never went straight to bed. I showered, changed, and headed to a museum or for a run—dodging the curious looks the hotel staff threw at me as I crossed the lobby. And a lot of times, when I use my vacation days (like I will this week), I’m taking time off to write and move my creative projects forward. [Read more…] about A Call to Rest