Tag: .net blogs

Motivation

Give yourself credit

bhillay

It’s easy to only look at the things that you didn’t do, or to only focus on your shortcomings. Give yourself credit for all of the positive things that you do on a daily basis.

My might not have worked out today, but give yourself credit for even having the desire to want to work out, or for having the guilt of not working out. There may have been a time when working out wasn’t on your mind at all.

You might not complete every task that you set out to complete today, but give yourself credit for the ones that you do complete, and make it an effort to get even more things done the next day.

We need to give ourselves credit for the little things that we do in order to keep that positive momentum moving forward. When we are too hard on ourselves is when can begin to be counterproductive and lose the confidence and desire that we need to reach our goals.

It’s about progression, not perfection, so give yourself credit whenever you do something that moves you in the right direction towards your goals and aspirations. Celebrate the small wins, and understand that the big wins are still achievable.

Uncategorized

Study the consequences

bhillay

Consequences are more important than decisions. We often make choices without thinking about the consequences from those choices. It might sound like a good idea right now, but if it lands you in prison in the future, maybe it isn’t such a good idea after all. You might get some type of instant gratification right now, but that doesn’t mean it will not have a negative effect on your life in the long run. That goes for all decisions, from what we decide to eat today, to what person we decide to get into a relationship with.

A question that I often ask myself before making a decision, that I got from Dr. Myles Munroe, is “will I enjoy remembering this” if the answer is “no”, then I don’t do it. I also like to think about all possible outcomes and consequences before I make a decision. This helps me make better choices in life. You should try it also.

Motivation

Temporary conditions

bhillay

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”.

Motivation, Random Thoughts

Do not cast your pearls

bhillay

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.

Motivation

Just finish

bhillay

“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.

Motivation, Random Thoughts

Study The Greats

bhillay

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.

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.

Uncategorized

The first of many

bhillay

And for my next trick, I will write a blog post every day.

I have always been a very competitive person. I’m not a sore loser, but I can for sure be a sore winner at times. I want to win at anything that I do. I’ve always been that way. I like to challenge myself all the time. There’s no better feeling than when you challenge yourself to do something, then eventually fulfill that challenge or goal. It’s always reconfirmation that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Growing up, I was very competitive with my siblings. Everything was a competition. We even had a game where whoever put their seat belt on first when we got into the car was the winner. Y’all know I won most of the time.

When I was younger, my brothers and I would always play the video game Madden NFL against each other. We used to love to play this mini-game mode called “Rushing Attack”.

The concept of Rushing Attack was simple: A player is given control of a running back and a full back and there’s also a few moving blocking dummies that would simulate a run play. The objective for that player is to score as many touchdowns as possible within a minute. The opposing player would be on defense with two to three players.Their objective is to stop the person on offense from scoring touchdowns. After one minute, you switch sides. The person who was on offense is now on defense, and vice versa. Whoever had the most points after each player got their one minute on offense, won. You earned points from things such as yards gained, stiff arming someone, tackling someone, etc. The most valuable objective was scoring a touchdown. Those were worth the most points. If you scored consecutive touchdowns, you would earn even more points. That’s pretty much all my brothers and I wanted to do; get consecutive touchdowns.

Playing that game mode all those years and trying to get those consecutive touchdowns helped shape me as a football player. “Rushing Attack” taught me how to run the ball efficiently. It taught me how to read blocks, how to set up blocks. It taught me about angles and leverages and even taught me how to do moves such as spins and jukes. It’s amazing what can happen when you do something repetitively. You will naturally get better. You might even be rewarded even more for doing it consecutively.

That is how I plan to approach writing blogs. I will do it everyday. I got the idea from Seth Godin. He has written a blog post everyday for over 7,000 days. That’s crazy! It’s possible nonetheless (Jordan shrug). He says his blog posts are not to get people to read it, or even for monetization. He posts a blog everyday because he made a decision, one time, to write everyday. He doesn’t post a blog post because he feels like it, and he doesn’t post a blog post because it is perfect. He writes a blog post because it is tomorrow. It’s that simple. Having that mentality helps the work move forward.

To reach any big goal, or to do anything of greatness, you have to do it consistently even when you do not feel like doing it. Imagine if your dentist only performed well at work when they felt like doing it. There would be many days where clients got subpar dental services. As an athlete, you got to show up everyday (every play actually) and perform to the best of your ability. If not, someone who does show up everyday and perform will eventually pass you up.

I love to challenge myself. I love to compete. I love to be consistent and I love to stay out of my comfort zone. Only good things have come out of my life when I have done so. I know that the same will be true with writing a blog post every day. I encourage you to do something consistently also. Rather that’s reading everyday, working out everyday, or practicing whatever skill/craft you are passionate about; just do it.

Posting a blog everyday is not too hard. Neither is doing any other task, such as working out everyday, or eating healthy everyday. But as Jim Rohn would say, “What’s simple to do is also simple not to do. The magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect.”

So here’s to my first blog post of many. Each new day that the Lord blesses me with, I shall bless y’all with a new blog post. For this is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice (and blog) and be glad in it. -Psalms 118:24 KJV