One day, you might wake up with an insatiable hunger, and just like that, your life will change forever.

For some of us, that hunger will never be satisfied. The fuel needed to sustain living a life of full potential is never-ending. It is of great importance that we are fed, almost by the minute, or we begin to slow down. But beings like us are otherworldly; it is not food that we need, it is a different subsistence we crave and require to get us through this life.

Mediocrity (the state of not being very good), can be a silent dream killer. We may find ourselves floating along through life. Our eyes may be open, but if someone were to look deeply, the lights may be off inside. We might find that we wake up each day and subconsciously search for comfort zones. When this particular mentality has infected our spirit, we may panic at the sight of change. I know this well, because this used to be me.

Excuses are the fabric that weaves the lies together strong enough to prevent the escape of mediocrity. We have all been through things in life, be it divorce, abuse, death, loss of a job, and so on. Life-shattering events can break us down so f*cking tiny that standing next to anyone doing even a tad better than us can fill us with a rage so sharp it could cut through stone. The path the mind follows echoes questions like, “Why me?” The words that leave the mouth sound a bit like, “I am this way because of this.”

What if I told you that this is a learned behavior? What if I told you that your whole life, you have been programmed to disagree with me when I say, “We can all change.” Every person on this great earth can grow their minds and change. But not every person has what it takes to put in the work. Read that twice. On the opposing side to that previous statement, we all have a choice. Every f*cking one of us has a choice.

Circling back to my sentence regarding excuses, they are meant to keep us comfortable. Our brain is wired to preserve our life; anything that makes us feel uncomfortable sets off alarms that make us go into protection mode. It’s hot outside, so we skip our run. Our heart’s beating a little too fast, so we stop our workout. We love someone, so we keep letting them abuse us. We’re cutting a paycheck, so we stay at a job we hate. Comfortability, stimulation, and just the right amount of excuses will be the death of our hunger and potential—that is unless we get up and f*cking change it.

Ask yourself the question: “What are you hungry for, and how hungry are you?”

The past is a great place to reference back to when we need our ego stroked a bit, or some validation. I will not say that is not important, but for the sake of my message here, and the absoluteness, it doesn’t exist. I say this because that is another trap we, as human beings fall into. We look into our past and see our traumas, or failures, which we already know will lead us down a dangerous road. While the past can be a great teacher to an extent, it was only meant to convert the experiences into experience. Read that again. But the reality is, it doesn’t f*cking exist. It is only meant to be let go.

Every morning when we open our eyes and inhale, we have been allowed to start fresh.

The future doesn’t exist either. Life is meant to be lived solely in the present. While it is good to look ahead and know a direction we are headed, we cannot build a home for our minds there. The problem this brings, especially with the human flaw of attachment, is that the roads we travel are never a direct shot. When we focus too hard on the goal ahead, we miss out on the journey of getting there. This is not to say that we shouldn’t make plans or have dreams—those are f*cking necessary—but we cannot hold so tight to them that we refuse to bend and adjust if the path changes.

We have to keep our minds out of the past, keep our thoughts safe from getting trapped in the future, and inhale the sweet smell of the present.

I will share the view from my eyes with you in hope it can touch the part of your soul that needs to be awakened.

When I look up at the sky, or stare out into the stars, I genuinely see these objects. I see them through my eyes, I allow them to etch their existence into my brain and travel down all the proper channels into my heart. When I hear the wind blow, or the rainfall, the sound of laughter, or a sweet sound of music, I allow it to enter through my ears, and write its message across my entire being until it reaches my soul.

When I love or hurt, when I smile or cry, I let these emotions embody my complete human packaging until it has entangled my entire spirit. When I enter my day, my mind is set to experience it as if it’s the first day I’ve ever lived. When I begin an encounter or experience with whatever has made its way into my orbit, I allow myself to be drenched in its entirety.

You see, I woke up one day with an insatiable hunger for life, and it was at that moment, my life had changed forever. I found what fed me and it was not food. It was the air in my lungs, the rain on my skin, and the sun shining through the clouds embracing my body like a lover. I found that my spirit demanded direct contact with nature. I needed to feel the trees and their bark while the vibration traveled up my spine.

I found that people who didn’t feed my soul did not belong. The connections need to be profound and fundamental. I feed off love and raw organic emotion. I feed off truth and awakened spirit. The more I feed my mind, body, and soul, the more I crave. From my job, my extracurricular activities, my love partner, it needs to be digested, and turned into fuel to keep me existing.

When I began to live in this way, life began to find me—I became a magnet for it. When I accepted my truth and not the lies I had been fed my whole life, I realized what was meant for me would always be mine. The excuses ceased, the mediocrity became nothing but an adjective, the past disappeared, and anything could be accomplished. I was built to taste life at its finest and darkest hour. I exist to eat the world.

Now that I have learned this, I crave to share it. Find what feeds your soul, and get after it. Let go of all your learned behaviors, release the past, and immerse yourself in the relentless freedom of the present—or starve. It’s your choice.