"To live an awesome life, you have to be the hero of your own story."
Malik Taylor
Malik Taylor is in every way “that guy”. That guy who listens to vinyls. That guy with an amazing podcast. That guy who will always say what is on his mind. That guy who will cross the street, just to say hello to someone he knows. That guy who is obsessed with superheroes. That guy that’s totally into self-improvement. That guy who works almost too hard. He is the face of awesome.
Taylor has called himself Mr. Awesome for some time now, so this word comes as no surprise to those who know him. When he was younger he admired WWE star “The Wiz”. He was cocky, arrogant and confident; all things Taylor admired. “The Miz” made a point to always refer to himself as awesome, hence Taylor’s namesake, Mr. Awesome, was born.
To Taylor, being awesome is becoming the best version of oneself. He wakes up each morning with one thing on his mind: being a better person than he was the previous day. “I am really competitive by nature and ambitious, so I try to make a competition out of everything,” he said.
Since beginning his self-improvement journey in 2017, he’s learned that competing with or comparing yourself to others isn’t beneficial; competing with one’s past self is. This is mainly due to the fact that while external support and validation can be appreciated, long-term it only goes so far. “You have to believe in yourself,” he said, “You have to be your biggest supporter, your own hero.”
According to Taylor, becoming one’s own hero starts within. “It’s all about your mindset,” he said. He believes in order for someone to begin their journey to self-improvement they must first discover what brings joy to their life. The answer to this question is different for everyone. For him it’s “...touch[ing] and inspir[ing] as many people as [he] can in a positive manner.”
He hopes to do so as Optimus Prime does. Taylor has always admired this beloved character because, “He is kind hearted and cares about other people, but when it is time to do work he’s about that action,” he said, “His experience, knowledge and wisdom is enough for people to follow his lead. It’s not about power or prowess when it comes to him, he solely does what he does to make the world a better place.”
After discovering what brings happiness to their life, one must next find what they want to do in life and assess what they are willing to do and sacrifice to achieve it. Next,—quoting one of his favorite books “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey—Taylor believes we should all “begin with the end in mind” or create a concrete plan of action.
Last but certainly not least, have fun with it. Many individuals on self-improvement journeys put too much pressure on themselves to succeed in a given timeframe. Alleviate the pressure, know that we all have much life to live and take things one day at a time. “Life is like a game to me,” Taylor said. He is always asking himself how he can “beat this level”.
All in all, Taylor’s hope for himself is to leave a lasting impact on the world when he is gone. He wants his awesome-ness to live forever. “I want to leave a legacy,” he said, “When people talk about me, I want them to say Malik helped me out. This good thing happened because of Malik.”
He is the face of AWESOME.