Look What You've Made Me.......

It's funny what one conversation can do to/for you. Having a casual chat with good company then finding yourself in a personal moment of self examination and deep perspective change. 

Let's set the stage a bit. I'm a 31 yr old man......a Black Man........a Black Man in America. That's what I am. It is not all that I am but if you ask me how I view myself then that's what you'll get. That comes with much good, much bad, much ugly. To this point in my life everyone I've dealt with understood what that means without need of explanation or clarification. In my world pre Toronto, that was just how it was. There was never a questioning of that. Issues of race come up all the time but always with the understanding of where I was coming from. As America's 1st Black President prepares for re-election season, the nation's racial tensions have been on an extreme wave that I've never seen before....case in point Trayvon Martin. Trayvon's name sparks those sensitive convo's pretty consistently. That was the case last Saturday.....

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Source of Motivation

In the past 5-6 months I've been blessed to socialize, network and befriend quite a few individuals who have become great sources of motivation to me. The up north homie Ms Jaz in particular has me on my mega grind to legitimize my business. This woman runs her own businesses fully. No 9-5job  to supplement things. She sustains herself off of her own ventures and the things she's told me shes experienced due to her work amaze me continuously. I need to get like that. I have problem being moved to action by a male or female figure of inspiration.

So this is just a quick shout and thank for the positive kick in the ass...

Need Motivation for your Fitness Goals???

I think we should all be able to take some serious motivation from this story. Ernestine Shephard is showing what true hard work and dedication can result in. The holder of the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest female body builder, is the ultimate example of something I say to people a lot. Our fitness, health & appearance are the few things we have almost 100% control over. This woman didn't start hitting the weights until she was 56 years old!!!! Check her words out below.

You can be a body builder; you don’t have to take a lot of supplements. You can do it naturally and you can look good. The mission that I’m on and I call it a mission is to help and try to inspire and motivate people on the importance of being fit. God has placed that in my heart to do this work.
I always say you need to be determined, dedicated, and disciplined to be fit.
Each morning I awaken at 3 o’clock before I do anything, I have my morning devotions because I have to thank God for what he has done for me. Prayer is so important. All the exercising in the world is not going to help you if you don’t pray about it. God is so good and I can say that I truly, truly love the lord.
Exercise is fun for me because here I am 74 years old or should I say young? It’s fun, I want to see how far and how long I can keep up the running. If I had it in my mind that it was work, I wouldn’t want to do it.
As long as I am healthy, I will continue doing this. I really want to help as many people as I can to let them know don’t let life pass you by, you can be fit. Also, to let them know that God loves them too. What he has done for me, he will do for them too.

Via Elev8

President Obama Shares His Faith in the American Youth Via Uncle Russ

“I’ve always believed that here in America, every young person should be able to set goals and reach them; to discover their passions and follow them; and to earn their piece of the American Dream. That’s why, during the last two years, my Administration has worked hard to give people like you the opportunities you need to reach your potential and win the future. We passed the Affordable Care Act that allows young people to stay on their parents health care plan until they’re 26 – allowing more time to find a job that carries insurance.


“We reformed the student loan system to put billions of dollars back into the pockets of students paying for college instead of watching it pad the profits of big banks. We’ve invested in clean energy and encouraged a generation of innovators working to start the companies and build the technologies of the future. We’ve ended combat operations in Iraq and brought more than 90,000 troops home from the battlefield, and also made sure they get the care they have earned when they got back. And, even though there’s still a tremendous amount of work to be done, I promise that every decision I make in the years ahead will be made with you in mind. Each of you represents our hope for this country. Your generation will be the one leading America into the future. And if we do our part, I know you’ll make us proud.” -Barack Obama

More at GlobalGrind

Haven't found my fire so Hump Day is still on Ice.

..but I'm sure y'all will have a good day regardless.

Success......progression.......we watch each other...

An early morning bbm convo opens my mind to something that is a very regular part of life to me and I think to many others. We watch. We watch those around us. I watch my people and pray and hope for them to succeed. Then I wonder, am I doing enough. Am I moving toward my own success at a pace that works for me. It's go time. No space for trying things out and playing games. So I make sure that everyday I'm in some way better then the day before. Its not easy but keeping people in your life that strive for that same goal of progression Makes it easier. Bright Eyes hits me to tell me good news, Evita is bouncing with a new project.....its great motivation.

How do you define success for your self? How do you react to the success of your peers?

Motivation....

...I draw it from anything and everything.Anyone and everyone.
Everyday I get another push.

Re-Energized

The cycle of how my emotions relate to my state of being is so interesting. Every dive into uncertainty is followed by a new awakening of strength. In other words I feel good about things. As this week continues it's time to get my plans on pace again. For the strong 2nd half of 09.

Today's Inspiration comes from Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll;

"Champions don't beat themselves.If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does"

Very simple and very effective

Motivational Words for a Memorial Day Weekend

While reading the newest issue of Men's Health(reading an actual magazine yeah it still happens) I came across a feature on Tyrese. Now I wasn't a fan of his originally. I remember thinking who's these brother singing and smiling about Coca Cola. Buuuuut, after Baby Boy i was like "Ok , he cool." I respect his work ethic and now I see him as an actor more so then a music maker(Lets over look that rapping alter ego thing he does,ok?). Anyway, the article speaks on him dealing with the complacency of stardom and how it had him some 50 lbs over weight. It then spoke on the direction and guidance he received from Will Smith and got him on point again.Smith shared this bit of advice....

The Five people you spend most of your time with will dictate how far your career and your life will go.

It makes sense.It's hard to progress when you fill your time with people that themselves aren't looking to progress. Just take a moment and think of who you spend your time with. I'm thating that will statement deep into my consciousness and internalizing it for those moments when certain people look to get a little too much of my time.

Time is far too valuable and impossible to re claim once lost.Thanks to the Fresh Prince for the inspirational spark.

1st Quarter Review

With the month practically over it is time for me to look at what I've done against the list of goals I've set for myself at the top of this year. Inspired my Jillian's New year New Attitude Plan, Operation Improve U was spawned to bring about personal growth and a number of key areas within our lives. I renewed and fine tuned my focus on personal growth, better fitness, financial responsibility, Professional advancement, Social growth and just working on becoming a better me overall.

This review will touch on everything except the book of the month as I will give that it's own entry.So let's begin....

1)Fitness.


In late Jan/Early Feb I started my 2nd round of P90X and things were going relatively smooth. In all honesty I was not on top of the diet aspect as much as I was the first time around, so due the time the recent birthday weekend and TX celebration came I had basically maintained my weight and strength levels. It wasn't bad but it wasn't my goal of adding 10-12 lbs of muscle. Going into the 2nd quarter I will be shaking up my regiment a bit. I'll be using the 100 push up challenge and the 200 sit up challenge. In addition to that I'll start incorporating more running into my routines. My job has a fitness challenge starting the first week of May so I'll use that as extra motivation. My biggest issue will be my diet. I know among other things I need about 1g of protein per pound to facilitate proper muscle growth, I'll most likely aim for 1.25g per pound just to accommodate the extra cardio I'll be doing. There's still 3 months until summer so I feel good that I'll pull it off. Plus I just got my physical, blood work, STD testing.Everything 100%. :)

2)Financial


Finances are much more straight forward and I'm happy at doing what I aimed for but still a lil pissed that I waited until now to do it but hey that's life. Anyway the goals were to reduce expenses, get a new credit card(at the time I only had one) and start a new savings account. Mission accomplished on all 3. I wanted to expand my credit and improve my rating so after some sound advice and I started on that and got a new credit card. I still have to finish getting some old accounts off my report but that's coming along too. The savings account is up and running well and I've been steadily cutting expenses too. In a month I'll be canceling one of my phone lines too. I'm not running around as much as before so my Curve is more then enough. With my plan to move next year, my top financial missions will be get a efficient moving list of needed items, expenses, etc created so I have a more definitive number to aim for savings wise. Also I think once I reach a certain point I'll open another savings account in a different bank.

3)Professional


This has been quite an interesting 3 months. I enrolled in a Human Resources certification class which I finished not to long ago and the 1/2 have of the certification will take place this summer. In the mean time I'll keep reviewing what I just learned and look for more bits of information online. My 9-5 has thrown a whole gang of new duties and responsibilities at me which actually makes the day move faster and helps build up the resume. Once the HR certification is done I'll see what the job market is looking like.

Now in terms of my REAL business. The Omega Nexus is still growing. After much bullshit the shopping agreement with Jamie Fox's FoxxKing Entertainment company was signed not too long ago and we're in the initial stages of directing this new partnership. We're going at this hard from a few media fronts so god willing the forward motion will continue in a very lucrative direction. I still have a book to write for the main series and new side series to create.

4)Social


Right now the focus is me. Not in a selfish way but I can't do what I want to do for me, a female or a family until my position in life has improved. This means that hell I socialize easy but there's a cap on whats going to happen. That's just the way it is right now. I'll step out for a few drinks but that's it. Bruce Wayne mode right now. I will say this though, that I do see an a part of my social behavior that does in to change. I write about it in TX and I may or my not post about it here. It's a touchy subject but conversation made me realize how immature and down right dangerous some social actions were. God didn't bring through so much just for me to act out. So yeah, have to grow up.LOL, I'm almost 30.

Overall I feel very good. I like the control I'm taking over my environment and look forward to what the year has in store for me. Hope you all are doing what you can to improve your personal lives as well. I'll drop the monthly book review a lil later.

P.S BLOGWAGON COMING SOON......

Family Focus/"Step yo Game son"

Ok why did I wake up this morning to my mom bustin' out another couple miles on the trend mill.She told me she had been up since 5:30am running!!!Damn mom......yeah shes killing me in the focus department.Time to get it moving.This quarter report needs to be on point with the fitness.

Went real hard in the gym for the first time since returning from Austin.
It felt great.Protein time. :P

Taking a moment to pause............

.....Goodnite.