We teach kids that you must share at all times. But we should never teach kids to be naive and share when they dont wanna share. I dont know if we should raise everybody with the goal of trying to save the world….but idk…maybe if that was the goal the world would be better
When I started making music, It was mainly a outlet for my passion of writing. It was the best way for me to express myself in the most honest way I can think of. And where I’m from, rapping was a easier sell to my peers than saying I’m a writer. From those passions, naturally I started to think of reasons of why I would want to be a successful rapper, artist or writer. Or why would I want to be a successful person in general. I had a few reasons that I wanted to “make it big.” One of the reasons was to start a record label and give opportunities to the people I grew up around because I felt they were just as talented as the artists who were all over the TV and Radio. Another reason was to help build a strong local music scene in Newark,NJ. Strong enough where we could create our own “Industry” similar to how they did it in Houston, Atlanta, and the Bay Area. But my main reasons for making it big was to provide opportunities for my family. Moving my Grandparents and Mother out of the projects was the BIG GOAL. But opening up a Restaurant for my Aunt Michelle was also right there in my top goals to do. I would always tell her “I’m a open up a Restaurant for you one day because the world needs to taste this cooking.” Lol. Especially the Baked Ziti. ESPECIALLY HER BAKED ZITI. 🍽. Wishful thinking of a 15 year old. But those were some of the reasons. That was part of the WHY. Build something for US. Take care of the people who took care of me, and create something that the family could own. Because if you don’t own something in the world, the world owns you.
Of course as a kid you’re gonna think of the material things you want too. But the things that you know deep down would make your soul happy are the things you never forget. Like helping to build a strong local music scene out of pure belief in the talent of my hometown. Like starting a family owned Restaurant because I, like every other person in the world feels like nobody can make that mac n cheese like my cousins 😋 or them yams like my sister. Lol. An if that’s not true, that’s ok. Hopefully it’s good enough and the story means enough to keep the business open for generations. That’s how one day you become Antoine’s Restaurant(New Orleans since 1840) or Jones Bar-B-Q(Arkansas since 1910) or a New Jersey staple like Hobby’s(since 1962). But this post isn’t about building a local music scene or a starting a family owned business. It’s about Purpose. It’s about WHY. Never forget your purpose or your why. It’s ok for the plan to switch up. It’s ok to fail and start over. It’s ok to fail again….and start over agaiiiiin. But don’t forget the purpose. Don’t forget the promises you made to yourself.
Most successful people say money won’t make you happy. Most people without money would rather find out if that’s true for themselves. We tell kids to hurry and grow up. We tell grownups to keep that child like passion when it comes to chasing their dreams. We say speak it into existence and you shall receive. We say talk is cheap. Action matters. Which way is the right way of thinking? One thing I can say is you have to do what’s best for you and be responsible with information that you gather. Which way of thinking is the right way depends on you. Focusing on the purpose should be the driving force. One side will tell you one story and the other side will tell you a different story. But this is YOUR book that’s being written and YOU are the author. Believe in your pen.
Tell your friends you can’t go out this weekend. You’re working on your dreams. Tell your spouse “Let’s cook in instead of going out for dinner this weekend and start saving for our dreams.” Tell your kids to give you 10 ideas this weekend. Make that dream thing a family thing. Tell your job you can’t do voluntary overtime this week. You need this free time to work on your dreams. Tell your TV it gets no love this weekend. Falling down the rabbit hole of just FINDING something to watch is not an option. Nope..not this weekend. Tell social media you’re gonna need 2 days to lock in. Just 2 days. You’ll be back on Monday recharged. 2 Days. This weekend. Not next weekend. Not New Year’s Eve. Not the 1st. No New Year New Me. That way didn’t work the 1st 12 times. Well at least for me it didn’t. I dont even know if this new way of trying is gonna work. But the old way didn’t. And they say the first sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. As long as the purpose remains genuine, the plan should be flexible. But start NOW. Make this weekend be the weekend you decided to show yourself how important you are.
Whenever I don’t wake up between 4am and 5am, I start feeling the day suddenly crashing in on me lol. Maybe I’m exaggerating but today it kinda makes sense in my head. Those 2-3 extra hours before chaos of the world starts are so crucial for me. Especially on a day like Wednesday. My Wednesdays have been my most occupied and precious days for the past 150+ weeks. For the past 3 years now, that’s the day me an a few of my good friends have produced our weekly Open Mic Night “Vibes In The City.” 152 weeks. 150 Open Mic Nights produced. 2 missed due to record breaking snow storms earlier this year. For the past few months I’ve been very consistent with starting my days between 4 an 5am. It gives me time to work on my personal projects an ease into the day before the rest of the world awakens. But last night I wanted to go support Another Open Mic Night as well as a good friend of mine who I’ve been talking about collaborating with on some projects. I’m glad that I went and when you’re out enjoying the great talent of your local scene and moving forward on potential business ventures, time can fly. And that’s how you end up staying out late, then going home to have a night cap with the Mrs. only to fall asleep at 3am. Yes a night well worth it an before any other day than Wednesday would’ve been perfect. Opening my eyes at 4am this morning would’ve been nice but not off 1 hour of sleep. Lol 😴. So now fast forward to 7pm. 2 hours before we open our doors to our Open Mic Night and I’m feeling like the day has came and went. Pen in my hand. Notebook on the table. Nice cup of coffee because…just because I made a commitment to myself to at least start my blogging days off with 30 Days of Consecutive posts. An I didn’t wanna take the easy route and just post a few pictures and cross off a extra day. 2 hours late to start the day but now I feel like I might’ve just got back control of the day. Commitment grabbed the wheel for me. Or maybe it was the coffee. I don’t know but I had little to do with it myself. 🤷🏽♂️
Sidebar: The pic used for this post is old but ironically I just came across it again. Lol. Dunkin Donut gotta cut the check for the free promo 😂😒
“Hey what’s good man how’s everything going?”
“You know man. Just tryna stay busy.”
“That’s wassup bro. Busy is good.”
I cringe every time I can remember giving those generic responses. I cringe every time I can remember texting those mundane words. Because honestly, busy isn’t good. Busy is …just busy. What does it even mean. For me, usually it means doing a bunch of meaningless things to avoid the big projects and ideas that we hold off out of fear. Busy just to be busy is one of the main reasons we procrastinate now and regret later.
Lately I’ve been trying to stay aware of when I’m about to say “I’m Busy”. Because for me, busy usually doesn’t mean Productive. It goes like this. *Checks social media. Checks email. Return Text. Back to Social. Looks at goals, ideas and plans for big project. Rabbit hole of online research then Repeat*
Too often have I found myself doing that exact process only to start kicking myself at 10pm because the day is over an all I have to show for it is 6 likes an a comment from a bot that only came to my social media profile because of a hashtag. “Wassup man. Great photo. Your profile is awesome.”
Thankfully, in my new quest of self discipline..things are changing. A little bit. My productivity isn’t where I want it to be but I’m beginning to get more out of each hour. Once I can break it down to getting more out of each minute, then second, I will feel like I cracked the code. I’m not the most religious person by any stretch but I found it interesting that God considers being a “busybody” a sin or sinful.” That definitely raised my eyes a little bit an I understand.
Being busy just to be busy instead of doing our due diligence sets up a domino effect of decisions that leads to a culture of procrastination. Sometimes we need to disconnect from the chaos of the world and drown ourselves in our own personal goals. Sometimes we need to just lock in with those personal projects that we keep finding ourselves too “busy” to get to. Because who wants to stay busy just to get nothing done except things we’ll regret later.
After recently completing a month long Cold Shower Challenge, I was already looking into how else can I challenge myself. Searching through articles and videos led me to the idea of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is when you eat one meal a day and fast for the rest of the day. I was extremely confident I could handle that so I felt like I needed something more challenging. Soooo..when I came home Monday Night from a networking event, for some reason I told myself I’m starting first thing in the morning. No more holding off challenges. No more I’m waiting until the 1st so I can start the month off fresh. IM STARTING NOW. Well not exactly right now, since I was finishing my last plate from Thanksgiving Leftovers which was washed down with a glass of Red Wine. 🤷🏽♂️🍗🥧 🍷. But I told myself first thing in the morning I’m going on a water fast for 24 hours. Just water nothing else. Water, prayer an a little bit of discipline. After all that’s the point of this fast anyway. Building mental strength and fighting temptation. Of course once the hype died down and the morning came I kinda forgot about those fasting plans an I had my usual cup of coffee to go with my Wife. The funny thing is as soon as I finished the coffee I knew I messed up. “You know you done effed up right.” Even though some people say Black Coffee is ok during a water fast, the point of my recent challenges have been to show discipline, build mental strength, and fight temptations. Plus I had milk and sugar in the coffee so that was disqualified anyway. It was around 9am at that last sip of coffee. Tuesday Morning. So I knew I just had to make it to Friday Morning 9am. Just water. Nothing else. Water, prayer, an a little bit of discipline. Oh yeah, and how do I not mention this challenge to my Wife lol. Because let her tell it, I turn into a grumpy old man whenever I haven’t ate for a while. *Insert “You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry” Snickers commercial. So not only did I have this 24 Hour Challenge. But I also had the challenge of completing it without my Wife knowing. I needed to prove to myself that I can keep my hunger mood in check lol. Along with the more important reasons I mentioned. Since me and my wife don’t see each other much throughout the day, I knew it wouldn’t be that hard to avoid her knowing about the fast. Especially with 2 evening events on Tuesday and Wednesday. Those were nights I knew we probably wouldn’t eat dinner together anyway. But what will happen in the morning once she notices she’s the only one with our usual Coffee to go. 🤔😟. And just like I thought. Wednesday morning. 22 hours into my 24 hour fast, she notices there’s only 1 cup of coffee an of course it’s for her. “You didn’t make a cup for yourself?” I simply replied “Nah not today” Lol. Straight to the point to avoid any possible follow up questions. She didn’t have any follow up questions but she did jokingly say “Oh you changed.” So that’s how my fast was coming to the end. Then I felt like the challenge wasnt enough. There wasn’t much resistance and temptation in that first 24 hours. And the challenge wasn’t about food. It was more about the discipline, building mental strength, and fighting temptation. So I decided at that moment. 72 Hours. 3 Days of Just Water. Water, prayer an a little bit of discipline. That 2nd day was tougher than the first. Especially when it’s Wednesday an I’m at a bar for my weekly Vibes In The City event. I got offered a few drinks that night but I had to decline. So once I conquered that I knew the last day would be a breeze. 48 Hours passed by since I had anything besides Water, it’s Thursday morning and Surprisingly my Wife didn’t ask about the coffee this time. Oh this really about to be a breeze. Lol. NO NO NO. WRONG. As I was functioning through the last day of this fast, I started to feel my energy get low. I was moving a little sluggish and now I was starting to question myself. A lot of doubt start kicking in. And this day was also tougher because I had a lot of running around to do. Running around on a empty stomach was tough but I didn’t let it effect my day or mood. Whenever I felt the grumpy granpa hunger mood kicking in, I changed my thoughts to something positive. As dinner time approached Thursday night, I knew my body would start anticipating the next day when the fast will break. That made it a lot tougher. It was almost like a dog who knows when they’re getting closer to their everyday tree. Lol My body knew but my mind stayed strong for me. 3 Days. Just Water, prayer an a little bit of discipline. And my Wife didn’t notice. Or maybe she did and just thought “Here he go with another one his crazy challenges” Lol
The last few months, I’ve been attempting to reprogram my brain. I wanted to break out of daily routines that I felt were assisting in procrastinating habits. I was feeling stuck in life. Happy. But stuck. Nothing getting worse. But nothing getting better. So naturally fear started kicking in. Fear of being in the same place in 5 years. Or even 1 year honestly. Especially since I’ve always been curious about learning and creating. So for me, being stuck meant I needed to figure out something FAST. After doing a little research, everything was coming back to reprogramming your brain. Proving to your mind that things are the way they are because we only do what we we’re use to. And as humans we don’t like being uncomfortable. But when you’re trying to break Generational Poverty in your family like me, it’s going to get more than a little uncomfortable. So I started thinking what’s some of the smallest challenges that would provide discomfort for me. Things I do everyday that I can do the total opposite of. BINGO. Cartoon lightbulb over my head lol. What if I took cold showers instead of hot. That might not sound like a life changing challenge but I tried this before when it had nothing to do with trying to reprogram my brain. It was just one of the hottest summers ever an I wasn’t excited about hot showers and hot weather. So I thought ok I’ll just take cold showers the rest of the summer. That shouldn’t be too hard plus its Soooo hot outside. That lasted about 3 days. Failed challenge that wasn’t even a challenge. Fast forward to now at a time when I was gonna try it for a totally different reason. I knew I had to be serious. No goals though. No expectations. Even though in the back of my mind I felt like if I can do this for a month straight that would be a big win. 1st day was rough lol. My body wasn’t ready for the shock but I gutted it out. 2nd and 3rd day was similar to the 1st. By the time I hit the 7th day, only the initial shock of the cold water was rough but my body adjusted fast. After 30 Days of Cold Showers first thing in the morning. I was thinking “Oh this a breeze” No pun intended. But it what it really did was prove to myself that even when knowing things are going to be uncomfortable, you have to fight through. You have to be discipline and consistent. The cold shower hack was something to create a shift in my thoughts. Something that I knew would be uncomfortable. Those 30 Days strengthened my mental capacity because sometimes we won’t take risks in our lives out of fear and thinking “I can’t do that” or “I tried that already an it didn’t work.” But as I said, when you’re trying to break Generational Poverty in your family like myself…things are gonna be a little more than uncomfortable. You’re gonna try some things and fail a lot. A WHOLE LOT. But once you figure out how to tolerate the uncomfortability you’ll realize things are not as hard as you think they are. We just have to train our minds to get stronger. That mental strength will start to transfer to other parts in your life. An it’s not about the Cold Showers. Lol. That’s just what I did to start my reprogramming. Pick something in your Daily Routine that you think would be uncomfortable to change. And change it. Cold Turkey. No “I’m starting on New Years” Nooooo pleeeeaase Noooooo 😒🚿🛁
Excited about the new music I’m working on. Personal records that are really close to my ❤. Can’t wait to get em out
I’ve only been blogging for 7 Days but I’ve been writing my whole life. Whether it’s been Music, Screenplays(mostly unfinished) Goals, Plans, Ideas etc. I’ve never been short on words to write. Notebooks on top of notebooks on top notebooks filled with a bunch of thoughts from my head. Since I’m not much of a talker..depending on who you ask lol. Writing has always been my best way to express myself. It’s always been something I’ve leaned on for some form of therapy. And when I say I’m not much of a talker I’m not saying it in a standoff type of way but since a kid I’ve never been the chattery type. I don’t even think chattery is a word but it made sense in my head lol. And when it comes to things I like to talk about or people I like to talk to, we can talk forever. In today’s text culture I still appreciate a 2 hour phone conversation with my closest friends or with strangers about intriguing topics. But we come into this world by ourselves. And in the grand scheme of things we leave by ourselves. That’s why alone time is important. Quiet time. The chaos of the world can be overwhelming at times. An for me, writing is that small window of escape. For the last few months I’ve been waking up between 4am and 6am to make sure I get a head start on the day. And I’ve been filling up my notebooks with more of my thoughts. It’s only been SEVEN DAYS since I started blogging but I feel like I’ve got so much out of my system that’s it has opened up so much more room for ideas. SEVEN DAYS. So imagine Seven Weeks. Seven Months. Seven Years. The thought of what can come out of that has me excited. So now the hack for me is to get a bunch of Seven Day wins. Small wins equal small celebrations an I have a beer that’s been in my fridge since last Sunday. But I told myself DONT TOUCH IT until you accomplish a goal that’s important to you. An 1 really important small goal was to post a blog everyday for 1 week. The funny thing about that is with my drinking history that’s another small win in itself. And SEVEN DAYS was all it took to show myself what a little bit of discipline can do. Now that I’m about to post this for my first small win with blogging. I’m ready for the football games to start today to have that Cold One that has been staring me down for SEVEN DAYS lol. Cheers 🍺🍻
Broadway Blake Blog 