“I’m not a creator. What I do is discover and uncover. See my job is to take the spark and fan it. When it starts to become a little flame I feed it, and I feed the fire until it becomes a roaring blaze, and then when it turns to a roaring blaze I pour used logs on it. Then you really got a fire going.”

Yes, another Cus D’Amato (Mike Tyson’s manager) quote — and isn’t life about feeling exhilarated and on fire versus allowing ourselves to get burned out?

So how do we do this in the midst of a myriad of obstacles, crises, the “sh*t happens” reality of day to day life?

In Cus’ quote, he is describing what he does as a coach, a manager, a champion for these fighters and yet doesn’t this description fit who each and everyone can potentially be? For each other? For ourselves?

Imagine for a moment if we were to apply Cus’ description to our interaction with our relationships or as leaders in our businesses?

What if we could uncover the sparks of enthusiasm and greatness within our work culture? What if we could create an environment where we were encouraged not to merely tread the path that has been tread before? What if we were championed to find that brilliance within ourselves that creates a passion — maybe even a purpose? A new approach? A spark of ingenuity?

And what if we fused all of these sparks together, can you imagine the roaring flame? The unstoppable energy that would create? The impact that we could create within our organizations?

It’s a powerful vision indeed.

And yet, the heart of this combustion lies within each of our own journeys.

What if we were to take Cus’ s words and lay them across the experience of our own lives?

I think that each of us at some point has been asked, “what are you going to make of your life?” Maybe we have even asked this question of our selves? Maybe we have even chastised ourselves for not being able to answer that question?

What if the reason that we can’t answer that question is because we’re not really supposed to create anything? Bear with me…. I understand the concept that we can “create” the life of our dreams… and yet, what if the beauty is more a Dorothy/ Wizard of Oz type of beauty?

When we go looking for fulfillment and happiness outside of what we already have — believing that the experiences that we call negative couldn’t possibly lead to this wonderful life — we have trouble finding it. What if we keep trying to “put out” fires and blow out the sparks? And then sometimes we despair, believing that the life that we imagine must just not be possible. Or that we are simply incapable of finding it…. Or even that maybe we’re just not “meant” to find it. We’re unworthy of finding it “because”…. (insert a lifetime of reasons)

When perhaps the “truth” is that we are not meant to create this life. We are meant to discover this life that is created by the sparks and flames of each one of our experiences. Like the diamond, we grow more brilliant with the intensity of the flames.

Our mission is to uncover the unique combination of flame that creates our own brilliance. Not anyone else’s brilliance— OUR brilliance. And it’s the used logs — the areas of our lives that we have perhaps lit fires under for decades — that ultimately will allow our fires to burn the brightest.

I have smiled recently seeing a lot of the beautiful inspiration revolving around quitting. Personally, I don’t quit. I explode. I ignite.

Precisely because there was a time when I cared about fitting in, I now know how luscious it feels to stand out. Precisely because there was a time when I felt like I wasn’t enough, I know how brightly the flame burns when it is truly mine. Precisely because there was a time when others told me that I can’t, I understand just how powerfully and unstoppably I CAN.

Respectfully, to say that I quit implies that those things that I’m quitting have power over me. Do the  matches and the logs have power over the flame? Or do the matches and logs work together with the flame to create a brilliant light, a potentially eternal flame?

I embrace the fuel that has created my fire. And when I find myself surrounded by darkness, I realize that I can sit quietly like a single star in the night sky or I can use every bit of my combustible moments to explode like a firework creating a color run in the night.

We live in a magical world, friends. We live in a magical time when we have the potential to create huge flames in our lives, our businesses and indeed in our world.

To an amazing future! One spark at a time…. #The SkyisTheLimit