Blogs

  • Don’t check the stats

    Do something just out of love and passion. Don’t check the stats. Who cares how many views or comments you get. Who cares how much engagement your post gets. That stuff matters at times, when you are trying to scale your platform or something, but everything that you do don’t gotta be focused on the analytics. You can create things just because they make you happy.

    When playing in a sports game, it’s easy for an athlete to begin to be too worried about their stats. All of the games when I performed well statistically, I never checked the stats during the game. My focus was to play to the best of my abilities. The stats would handle themselves.

    Whether it’s sports or social media or your business platform, focusing on the stats can be discouraging at times and even counterproductive. You can’t put the value of whatever you do into the stats. The value should be focused on if what you are doing brings you happiness and purpose, or if you are giving all of your effort.

    In sports, stats don’t matter if you don’t win the game. When creating, stats don’t matter if you love what you’re creating. Don’t check the stats. Just produce.

  • Live your dreams, or someone else will

    You can either be a doer or a talker. Just know, while you are talking, there is someone out there that is doing.

    Whenever I have an idea or goal, I go do it. I don’t think too much. Can’t get analysis paralysis. Sometimes I might hear someone else’s idea and do that also, just because that person won’t do it LOL.

    You might want to start that business, or podcast or YouTube channel. You may want to pursue a new career, or have a life changing invention. I encourage you to “just do it” like Nike says, because there is someone out there who actually will.

    You can be the one to live out your dreams and ideas, or you can sit back and watch someone else do it. It’s up to you.

    We all got dreams. Sometimes what separates those who reach their dreams and those who don’t, is that one person actually went out there and tried. It’s that simple at times.

  • Wasn’t born hustlers

    One of my favorite albums by the rapper Jay-Z is “Blueprint”. I was eight years old when I first listened to it. Even though I was so young listening to that album, I resonated with a lot of the songs and lyrics on the album.

    One song on that album that I liked a lot is called “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”. It had a catchy hook and good lyrics. The lyrics in that song that always stood out to me the most was when Jay- Z says “Wasn’t born hustlers, I was birthing ’em”.

    In the book “Decoded” Jay -Z explains a lot of the lyrics in his songs. Regarding the “Wasn’t born hustlers, I was birthing ’em” lyrics, Jay-Z explains hustling and the nature of passing the skills down to the younger generation. He says: “They know that if they find the right kid, they can put him under their tutelage and he’ll get it fast, step right into the rhythm of the life. If that sounds predatory, it’s because recruiting new workers is one of the most predatory aspects of the game. When you’re doing it, it’s hard to see it that way because everyone comes into the game as a recruit – including the ones who eventually become recruiters.”

    I think this explains all of the youth. None of us are born hustlers, or delinquents, or even doctors or lawyers. We are nurtured into these things from our support systems and environment. The kid who was turned into a hustler and is in the streets could have been the same kid that became a doctor or engineer or politician, etc.

    We all have influence on the youth and each other. It’s ok to “birth hustlers” as long as it’s doing something positive.

    I graduated from college as well as played football professionally because when I was a kid, I was put in the right environments to develop my skills athletically & academically, and also develop my morals and values. I was put into sports. The importance of education was emphasized. I went to church/Bible school three days a week. Not all of my peers were fortunate enough to have that. They may have had other influences around them, causing them to go down a different path.

    I don’t think it’s ever too late to change though. Although, it is better to change and help the kid before they are negatively influenced and make a fatal error in life.

    Make sure you are being a positive influence for the youth as well a positive influence for your peers. Also, make sure you are around others that are “birthing” you into something positive and purposeful in life. It’s possible.

  • Temporary conditions

    In the medical world, temporary conditions are injuries or conditions that do not last long and are not chronic. Like a sprained ankle, broken finger, concussions, pregnancy, a common cold, etc.

    I’ve sprained my ankle more times than I can count. Whenever it happens, I don’t panic. I just do what’s needed to get back to normal after a few days. I once tore my achilles. I knew that I would need surgery and about a year to recover, but I knew that was a temporary condition also.

    It doesn’t always have to be injuries. You might be temporarily broke, or temporarily homeless, or temporarily unmotivated. It’s about having optimism and an understanding that these unfortunate conditions are not permanent.

    Temporary conditions do not change on their own though. When I sprained my ankle, I had to rest and put it on ice. When I tore achilles, I had to have surgery as well as months of rehab. I needed to do things to make sure those conditions were temporary.

    There’s always something to do to make your conditions temporary, rather it’s an injury or your financial status. It takes faith and effort. Don’t do things that are counterproductive. If you do that, you will be in that condition longer than you have to be. And like the quote says; “don’t make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion/condition”.

  • Do not cast your pearls

    Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime… but if that man isn’t open to learn how to fish, don’t bother trying to teach him.

    In the Bible Jesus says “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” – Matthew 7:6. We shouldn’t offer something valuable to someone who doesn’t understand its value.

    You might want to offer help or guidance to someone, but they might not be receptive to what you have to offer. That’s ok. Find someone who is . If someone doesn’t want change or grow or learn, you can’t make them. Find an audience who wants to.

    You might have a good creation or idea, but do not receive the support that you’d like from your family and friends. That’s ok. It might not be for them. If you put the work out into the world, the right people will find it. You shouldn’t keep trying to force it on the same people, and you shouldn’t take it personal when people that you know aren’t as supportive as you’d like.

    It’s also good to self-reflect at times and make sure that you are receptive to valuable advice or guidance and support from others. Sometimes our own non-receptiveness is what hinders us from growth, and even success. No matter who the person is, they can have something valuable that they can teach you.

    Don’t waste good advice on someone who doesn’t want to listen. Find the man who wants to learn how to fish.

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  • Just finish

    “You can’t finish what you don’t start, and you should never start what you’re not committed to finish.” — Gary Ryan Blair

    Always finish what you start. There will be times when you want to quit, but there’s nothing better than the satisfaction of finishing something and knowing that you did not give up. This will help you become resilient. This will make other challenges in life easier to get through.

    You can’t place in a race unless you finish. One of the things I loved most about running track was when it was that person who was in last place in a long distance race, and the entire crowd would clap and cheer for them as they crossed the finish line. They may have taken last place, but they finished. That’s what everyone was proud of. They won the mental and physical battle.

    I never quit a sport or a team in my life. As a kid, my mom wouldn’t let me. I’m glad she instilled that mentality in me. There will be times when you don’t like your team, or your job, or whatever endeavor you choose to pursue. Things will get hard or mundane and quitting will be the easiest thing to do. Not quitting and getting through those times is what helps build character. You’ll learn a lot of life lessons along the way.

    There’s no better feeling to me than finishing a book. Even if I don’t like the book, I’m still satisfied that I finished what I started. This is a mentality that has been very beneficial in my life.

    My senior year in college I decided to drop out of classes to pursue playing in the NFL. I only had about a semester and a half until graduating. I was on a full ride scholarship and chose to give that up to follow my dreams. I knew I would be able to eventually come back and finish my degree (even if I had to pay out of pocket) because I’ve developed the habit of finishing whatever I start. It wasn’t a “if” but a “when” for me when it came to graduating.

    You can separate yourself from competition just by finishing. A lot of people will begin to write a book, or make an album, or take courses in college, etc, but not everyone will finish. If you can finish whatever it is that you start, you already beat out half of the competition.

    The only way to find out what will come from certain situations is to finish. If you are a creator, you have to finish whatever you’re creating and get it out into the universe to really see what will come from it. There might be someone out there who needs whatever you’re creating. They just need you to finish it.

    Just like that person who comes in last place in the distance race, you will be rewarded no matter what, if you finish.

  • Study The Greats

    The good thing about the internet is that you can use a search engine and learn about any person that you want. This can make your journey to success much easier. There are blueprints to success. You just have to follow them.

    For every running back who I liked growing up, I can tell you where they are from, what college they went to, their height, weight, their 40 yard dash time, college stats, and what round they were drafted in the NFL. This gave me a good paradigm of what I needed to do to make it to the NFL. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, I just had to do things that were simular to the guys that have already reached the goals that I wanted to reach.

    These players were like mentors to me, and I never met them a day in my life. I just had to study their actions, good and bad. I learned what to do to get to the NFL and I also learned what not to do.

    It goes beyond sports though. I know the story of my favorite actors, writers, entrepreneurs, etc. This is good for me to know because if I ever want to get to where they are, I know I have to do something similar to what they did to get there. There are no shortcuts to success.

    I’ve had peers who never played college football tell me that they plan to play football professionally. I never crush their dreams, but I also know it’s not that simple . You have to respect the craft and put in the appropriate work. If they studied any player who made it to the NFL, they’d know that their plan to skip a lot of steps and still make it to the NFL is illogical.

    It gets deeper than just studying the moves someone made in their life. You have to also learn their mentality. How did Kobe get that “mamba mentality”? Where did he even come up with calling hisself the “Black Mamba”? The answers are out there, you just have to find them.

    I like to read books that successful people recommend. Maybe I’ll get the same things out of that book that they did. If not, at least I know I am on the right path.

    You can study your friends, relatives, coworkers, anybody. If someone has something that you want, or are in a profession that you’d like to be in, or are at a place in life where you’d like to be, study how they got there and make similar choices. You’re half way there if you can do that.

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  • Count your blessings

    If you are reading this blog post, that’s a blessing. If you can comprehend this blog post, that’s a blessing. We have so many blessings that we often take for granted. We can really find blessings in everything in life.

    I always could run very fast. It is just a God given gift. I always appreciated it and used it to my advantage whenever I could. Then I ruptured my achilles.

    Not only could I not run anymore. I also could not walk. I had to learn how to walk again. I’ll never forget the first time I walked again about 8 weeks after my surgery to repair my achilles. I was at Target and I was in a walking boot. I could only walk very slow, and it was still kind of painful to walk. This brought me so much joy. I had taken walking for granted my entire life. It made me think of all of the other things that I do daily without thought that I take for granted.

    We have so many blessings that we should be thankful for. Even when times are hard and you might not be optimistic about things in life, you still have a lot of things to be thankful for.

    When you are thankful for all of your blessing, large and small, you will have a more positive outlook on life, and really just be happier overall.

    It’s when we only think about the bad things in life when we begin to not be happy. When I tore my achilles, I could have focused on all of the bad things. Instead, I was just happy that I could walk again. I was happy that I had insurance to have surgery, and that my surgery went well. Those were all blessings.

    Thank God for all of your blessings right now, because the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Also, whenever you’re in a crisis, there are still blessings in that situation that you can be thankful for.

  • An object at rest remains at rest

    When I was young, I thought that everyone earned more money as they increase in age. I thought that most things change for the better with time. You earn more money, you become wiser, you get rid of your bad habits, etc. That was very young and naïve of me to think that.

    Life is actually like Newton’s first law of motion: an object at rest remains at rest, unless a force is applied.

    You don’t just magically earn more money as you get older. You have to grind for it. You don’t just stop being lazy as you get older, you will remain lazy until you do the deliberate actions that are needed to not be lazy. You don’t get smarter with time, you have to put the effort in to learn. If not, you will not change. You will be the same exact person you were in the past, until a force is applied.

    If you are in a better place in life than you were a decade ago, odds are you put the work in to be there. You might know someone who is in the same place in life after a decade, if not worse. If you look at their actions, you will understand why.

    Your hardships or whatever situation that you are in right now can be as temporary as you want them to be. The choice is yours. But don’t be naïve like the kid version of me and think that things will change for the better for you over time with no action and effort. Apply some force or stay at rest.

  • Your parents are just people

    I think one of the keys to growth and happiness is realizing that your parents are just regular people too. Sometimes we have to take a step back and look at them as just a random person who has their own flaws, insecurities, proclivities and addictions. They also have their own dreams and aspirations that might not involve their children, which is ok.

    Sometimes you are not dealt that ideal parent-child relationship. That is okay. You just have to accept the relationship for what it is and get the most out of it. I’ve heard people say “there’s things I wish my mom/dad would have taught me” or something along those lines. Maybe your parents were never taught those things from their parents.We can’t expect to receive things from our parents that were never given to them.

    I know there are individuals out there who just are bad people, but I think most “bad” parents want to be good parents. They might have never learned how to be one. Maybe they made personal decisions that hurt their ability to be a good parent. Some parents don’t even realize that they’ve had a negative impact on their child’s life. They might be there for the child on a daily basis, but still aren’t doing what they need to do to nurture the physical, emotional and social development of their child. Sometimes an absent parent can be better than a bad parent that is present.

    I think what’s key for a parent-child relationship is empathy and communication. You have to understand and share the feelings of your parents, the same way you can for a random person who is not your parent. You might have to nurture your parents emotionally and spiritually. That is fine. Maybe that is what God called you to do in the first place. Sometimes parents need help from their children. I know a lot of people who find purpose and happiness in life just from the presence of their child. Imagine what’s possible if that child deliberately chose to bring happiness and purpose into that parent’s life.

    Sometimes the circle of life happens much faster than we would like. Most people will have to nurture and take care of their parents once they begin to get older in age. Others might have to nurture and care for their parents at a very young age.

    They say life is the best teacher. If your parents offer you nothing in life, you can still at least learn from all of their mistakes. A smart person learns from his mistakes, a wise person learns from the mistakes of others.

    Communication is also key. Have you ever told your parent how you felt about them? Have you ever ask your parent how they feel as a parent, and just in life in general? We can tell our parents what we need, or needed as a kid. At least they can learn and possibly be better in the future. And even if they aren’t better in the future, that’s ok. Just accept the relationship for what it is. You can drive yourself crazy trying to get something from someone who just doesn’t have it to give.

    At the end of the day, our parents are just people and we are all children of God. That is Who will never let you down. That’s Who we should really look to for direction, purpose, growth and happiness.

    The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. – Deuteronomy 31:8