Tag: Bronson Hill Eastern Michigan

Faith

Count your blessings

bhillay

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.

Motivation

An object at rest remains at rest

bhillay

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.

Motivation, Random Thoughts

Lane Ends – Merge Left

bhillay

Don’t panic, it’s not the end of the road, just the end of that lane. You can still get to your destination, you just have to merge into a more suitable lane.

Follow the signs in life to merge lanes when needed. Also understand that you might be in the lane that people are merging into. So give them room to merge. Don’t be a hater. We can all get to our destination.

It’s when you ignore the signs of the lane ending, that’s when you have a problem. Or when you ignore the sign and drive to the end of the lane and then force your way into the line of those who already merged. That’s not how things work. You should not feel so entitled.

The sign was put there for you to successfully reach your destination. Follow the laws of success.

As you gain more experience in life, you’ll be better able to anticipate the signs you may come across on the road to success. Trust them and follow through in order to reach your destination.

Uncategorized

Diversify your skills

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Diversify your skills so that you will always be needed.

In football I always aimed to be a “complete running back”. This means I didn’t want to be good at just running the ball. I wanted to be a good catcher, run good routes, a good pass blocker, have good ball security… I wanted to run with both speed and power. I wanted to have good vision and I wanted to be smart. This helped me be a more valuable running back, which in return helped me win the starting running back job time after time.

If a running back cannot catch the ball or pass block, they will be limited to just playing on first and second down. If you aren’t that fast, you might be limited to just short yardage plays. If you have bad vision or fumble the ball a lot, you might not play at all.

When I made it to the NFL I knew that if I wanted to see the field I would have to diversify my skills even more. I had to be able to add value to the team by also playing on Special Teams. This helped me be needed more, which in return helped me make NFL rosters. At practice, I would help wherever they needed me. I might be on scout defense one period, then scout offense the next. It did not matter to me what I was doing as long as I was contributing to the team in some type of way. I always tried to find ways to diversify my skills. In the NFL, if a team feels as if you are not valuable or not contributing to the team enough, they’ll quickly get rid of you. I began to build this sense of urgency that I should always be doing something or adding to my skillset in some type of way. This now is how I approach everything in life, and how we all should.

You have to do things to separate yourself from the competition. Your resume might be very similar to another job candidate’s, but if you have more valuable skills on your resume such as coding or knowing another language, that can help you win that job. Even when you get the job, you still can gain more skills to grow within the company or go somewhere that is a higher position.

We can work on personal skills also, such as communication, time management, problem-solving, etc. Really, it’s not just about sports or work. The more skills you have in life in general, the more valuable you are. This can make life a lot easier. Might even make you happier.

So with that being said, I encourage you to make it an effort to learn a new skill this year. The future you will thank you.

Motivation

You’re only as strong as your weakest trait

bhillay

Thomas Reid said “The chain is only as strong as its weakest link, for if that fails the chain fails and the object that it has been holding up falls to the ground”. I believe that same concept can also be applied to your personal traits.

The president might be a great leader, charismatic, courageous, a visionary, good crisis manager, etc. But if they don’t have integrity or are adulterous, that will be their downfall and perhaps all they will be remembered for.

You can be the best athlete ever and have generational talent, but if you aren’t coachable, or even make bad choices outside of your sport, you will never reach your full potential as a player.

Someone can have intentions to be a nice, loving parent who cares about their kid, but if they have a bad tempter and anger problems, they can negatively impact their kid and how their kid views them as a parent.

I was always a fast sprinter. In track, I had a good acceleration phase and could maintain my speed for a long time. My start phase was my weakest trait. I could beat most kids with a bad start out of the blocks, but as competition got better, my weakest trait of coming out of blocks slow became a bigger problem. I wasn’t able to start off slow and catch everyone mid race like usual. Some sprinters I couldn’t catch because they ran to the best of their ability and were good in every sprinting phase. The same goes for life. My weak traits might not be a problem at the moment, but that doesn’t mean they won’t cause a problem once things get harder or when I am faced with character defining moments.

We must work on our weakest traits because they will eventually hurt us in some type of way. Whether it’s sports or personal life. The good thing is we can get better and improve those weak traits before they become a real problem.

We must be conscious of all of our traits and continue to find areas where we can grow and improve. This can happen through self-reflection as well as through the help of others. This does have to be a deliberate effort though. There should be a sense of urgency to improve our weak traits because you don’t know when they will cause a problem, if they haven’t already.

Faith, Motivation

Your future is more valuable than your past

bhillay

We all got past trauma. We all got past trials and tribulations. There’s nothing you can do about that. The good thing is; each day that we are blessed with, we can create new memories, new achievements, reach new goals. We can become a completely new version of ourselves.

A lot of times we let our past limit us. We let our past experiences dictate our future. The thing is, our future is much more valuable than our past. No matter what happened to you in the past, you can look back and see that you got through it one way or another. Let that be motivation that you can get through anything in the future also.

They say guilt may be uniquely a human emotion. Maybe we can learn from other animals. I have learned to forgive myself of anything I’ve ever done wrong in the past and move on. Living with past guilt can be counterproductive to your future success. There even might be someone who will try to hold your past mistakes against you forever. As long as you’ve genuinely changed and you know you will not make those mistakes again, you are good.

There are also good things that have happened to you in the past. Past success is no guarantee for future success, but it can serve as a reminder of what can do in your future if you make the right choices and do what’s necessary.

Jim Rohn said “The Future Does Not Get Better by Hope, It Gets Better by Plan“. So use your past failures and past success to plan for an even better future. It’s possible.

Uncategorized

Take your kid to work

bhillay

As a kid I always loved “Take Your Kid To Work Day”. Actually, I’m old enough to remember when it was called “Take Our Daughters To Work Day”. My mom was a nurse who worked 3rd shift, so my sister would be able to go to my mom’s job (most of the time a nursing home or a hospital) and stay the night. It always seemed so fun. I always wanted to participate.

Although I never got the chance to visit my mom’s job on that national day, I still got the privilege to visit my mom’s job quite a bit growing up. It was always cool to see my mom interact with her patients. She was always so nice and loving to them. She would talk so gentle to them, and if the patient was not in the best mood, she would try to cheer them up.

The only bad thing I did not like about going to my mom’s job was the smell. Nursing homes and hospitals have this smell that I will never get used to. I never understood how it did not bother my mom. Another thing that I didn’t like that I appreciate now, is that my mom would take me and introduce me to all her coworkers and all of her patients. I can still hear her telling all of her patients ” This is my youngest boy, Bronson, he’s the baby of the family”. I used to be like “mom, you don’t gotta introduce me to EVERYBODY”.

Now I am happy that she did. I remember meeting quadriplegics, stroke victims, patients who couldn’t talk but would use an eye-gaze device to speak to me, very old patients, and sometimes younger patients. Seeing my mom interact with all these people and also getting the chance to meet them myself changed me for the better. I believe it made me more compassionate, caring, nonjudgmental, a better communicator, and even helped my ability to cope with death. Most importantly it showed me how to have a positive impact on someone’s life, and to also appreciate all of my blessings.

My sister ended up becoming a nurse also. I believe “Take Our Daughters To Work Day” is part of the reason she is a nurse like my mom. I believe kids are heavily influenced by their parent’s occupation. I think my sister becoming a nurse is something my mom can be proud of. Also, I think all the morals and values that were instilled into me from visiting my moms job is also something my mom can be proud of.

So my question is; Would you want your kid to grow up to have the same occupation as you? Would you want them to grow up to earn money the way that you do? Would you like them to grow up and have the same morals and values that comes with your job? Would that make you proud? If yes, then take your kid to work. If no, then maybe you shouldn’t be doing whatever you’re doing.


Faith, Motivation

Let the doubters doubt

bhillay

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” – James 1:6-8

It’s perfectly normal to have doubters. They are inevitable to have, actually. Not everyone will believe in your ideas or dreams. I’ve had all kinds of doubters in my life. Everyone from family, friends, teachers, coaches, significant others, random people on social media, you name it. That never bothered me though. I’ve always had self-worth and I’ve always believed in a God who believes in me. That’s all I’ve needed. Plus, it’s fun when you prove the doubters wrong. They will humbly be your biggest congratulators also when you accomplish that goal.

Sometimes we may doubt others and don’t even realize that we are doing it. So don’t take it personal when others doubt you. But whatever you do; don’t doubt yourself.

It always amazes me whenever someone doubts themself before even trying to achieve that goal or task or activity. Most of the time it is a self-limiting belief. At least give yourself a chance. Then continue to give yourself a chance until you achieve whatever you set out to do. Don’t just automatically count yourself out. That is a bad habit to have because you will begin to believe yourself. That’s the wrong type of belief to have in yourself. You may not be able to do it right now, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to after practice, and hard work and dedication.

I’ve reached so many goals and milestones in my life, that I could never doubt myself. I made it to the NFL after having statistically one of the worst football seasons during my senior year in college, the most crucial year of my college career (350 total rushing yards, 0 rushing TDs). I was benched and didn’t play the last 7 games of my senior year. I even had my coach look me in my eyes and straight up tell me that he did not think I was that good of a running back. I didn’t budge. I still believed in myself and just made the next right moves to try to get to the NFL. I thank God that I never doubted myself for one second and I never gave up. Don’t get me wrong, doubt will always try to sink into your head. You just have to fight it and keep moving towards whatever goal that you have in life.

I understand that we are not all the same mentally. There’s been plenty of times when I believed in someone more than they believed in theirself. All I can try to do is do my small part and try to encourage and help them. The final choice and actions will be theirs. But like the Bible verse says, you shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord when you doubt. You gotta have faith that God got you, and that He blessed you with the abilities to achieve whatever you want in life. Cause He did. Next time things get hard, or you begin to feel the doubt come, double down and bet on yourself and go even harder. That’s when you’ll see the power of having faith in God and yourself.

Let the doubters doubt, but never doubt yourself. It’s possible.

Motivation

Always check your blind spot

bhillay

One of the first and most important things that they teach you when learning to drive is to always check your blind spot. As new drivers, we must learn that your blind spots are areas around your car that you cannot see when looking in your mirror. It is so subtle that some drivers may forget that they even exist. This can lead to a lot of car accidents.

 While driving, you should always check your blind spots before reversing, changing lanes and parallel parking. After a while, it becomes an automatic habit. This helps you drive as safe as possible. Living in Southern California, you GOTTA check your blind spots all the time. Especially on the highway. There’s a lot of traffic here, and people also aren’t the best drivers here, in my Midwesterner-safe-driver opinion.

Just today I saw two cars on the highway almost crash into each other. They both were trying to switch into the same lane at the same time. That’s easy to do here because there are so many cars on the highway. The best way to avoid that is to check your blind spot before switching lanes, then check again for safe measures. If you’ve ever rode with someone who doesn’t check their blind spots, you know how scary that can be. You probably also start to get a good understanding of that driver’s personality.

Checking your blind spot also applies to life. There will often be things in our blind spots that can hinder us in our journey of life. This could be things such as haters, fake friends, bad habits, character flaws, vices, anything. Sometimes it might look as if we are on the right path, but we haven’t checked our blindspots yet before making the next move. That’s when accidents happen. One small thing in your “blind spot” in your life can lead to destruction. Most problems in our lives could have been avoided if we took the proper procedures when making decisions. The same way most car accidents can be avoided if we follow the laws of driving.

We can also be the person that is someone else’s blind spot, so we must be conscious of that. We can help check blind spots for others as well. Sometimes you gotta be a back seat driver.

Stay in your lane, check your blind spots, and you will get to your destination successfully. Rather that’s driving, or in life.

Motivation

Do it right the first time

bhillay

It’s difficult starting over, (but) that’s better than going backwards.

I learned that from the rapper Starlito.

Back in 2020, I bought a handwriting workbook. I didn’t really like my handwriting at the time, so I figured it was time to finally go back to the basics and start over. That workbook helped my handwriting tremendously. I went from writing in chicken scratch to… just a regular person’s handwriting. It’s still nothing special LOL.

I began to ask myself why my handwriting was so bad in the first place, and all I could think about was being in elementary school and not caring too much about those handwriting workbooks. I wanted to do other things in school, like disrupt the class or flirt with girls. I didn’t know at the time that my handwriting would look like a 2nd grader’s for the next 20 years.

Last year I wrote a book. It’s a memoir about my life. The book is over 64,000 words long. Would you believe that I typed that entire book with only like three fingers?! I never mastered typing on the keyboard. I remember practicing as a kid, but somewhere along the way I stopped using the home row of the keyboard and all the mechanics they teach you when learning to type went out the door.

The past couple weeks I have been reteaching myself how to type the proper way. I can now use the home row and type without looking at the keyboard. I can’t believe I made it all those years just using three fingers. Although I can type decently with three fingers, I know I will be more efficient typing the correct way.

So here I am, a grown man, relearning how to write and type the correct way. Don’t get me wrong, I love the feeling of self-improvement. I love the feeling of not being able to do something, then seeing myself gradually improve with practice. The thing is, you can practice bad habits and get good at that also. Like I did with my handwriting and typing.

I could have used my free time learning new things, instead of relearning things I was taught as a kid. All I had to do was: do it right the first time.

That goes for anything in our lives. You gotta do it right the first time so you wont have to redo it later in life. Sometimes you might not even get a second chance if you do not do it right the first time. You know how many people are in prison who wish they could go back and do things right the first time? Or that dude who lost his wife cause he wasn’t doing right, who wishes he could go back in time and treat his wife better? Or that athlete who wishes they could go back in time and not smoke weed so that they didn’t fail their drug test?

Doing things correctly the first time saves you a lot of time and stress in the future. One of my favorite quotes is from Marshall McLuhan. He says “The future of the future is the present”. So think about how you want to be in the future, and do it right now. Want to be that healthy, fit person with a nice body in the future? Eat healthy and workout right now. Want to gain 50 lbs of fat in the future and be out of shape? Start eating bad right now and don’t exercise. You’ll get there LOL.

Whatever it is in your life that you may not be doing right, fix it now. Like Starlito says; “Not a quitter at all, but I’m giving up bad habits”. Just start over. Don’t go backwards. Sometimes doing things the wrong way is the same as going backwards. And for all my Christians out there, this might be the only life we get, so if you want to go to heaven, you gotta live right the first time. I don’t know if God will send us back to earth to redo things correctly. Well, there might be purgatory (for my Catholic readers), but even that’s the result of not doing things right the first time.

There are no shortcuts in life, so just do things right the first time. The future you will thank you.