I Am Not A Blogger

A few months ago I created a 30 Day Challenge for myself to write a blog post every day. It was a really REALLY important challenge for me because too many times I’ve found myself not following through on ideas. Long story short lol..I completed the Challenge and counted it as a big win personally. But noooowww another big win personally was turning the 30 blog posts into my 1st published book which was also a life long goal of mine. 🤷🏽‍♂️📖. Ok long story short fareal.. The book is titled I AM NOT A BLOGGER and it’s available on Amazon RIGHT NOW (E-book and Paperback Available). Feel free to support. Feel free to share. Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this journey. I’m just tryna do the all the things I wrote in my notebooks over the years. The people who’ve known me for years can cosign I never go anywhere without my book bag and notebooks.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this lifelong goal of mine. I’m really on a mission to empty out all the ideas from the notebooks I’ve stashed over the years. I’m really on a mission to inspire anyone who has followed my story from day 1 or from today to empty out their notebooks too. And people from Day 1 know my message has been consistent. Work on yourself every day. Work on your dreams everyday even if it’s just 1 thing to get you closer. Another Day Another Chance. It might work. It might not work. But I’d rather shoot 0 out of 100 then 0 out of 0. 🤷🏽‍♂️ . That’s a little what the book is about.

Watch what you say

Watch what you say because somebody might believe you. We often find ourselves making bold statements and announcements about what we’re gonna do without a actual plan in mind. It seems like Manifestation has become a buzzword. Speak it into existence is what is being said. Or at least that’s what I’ve been hearing a lot lately. An although I do believe it to be a lot of truth in that, most of the places I hear or read about that process isn’t saying that it will take a lot more than just making the announcement. Goals without plans just pile up in our to do list. An if we keep announcing to the world what our goals and dreams are with just the idea of Speaking into Existence, and no plan of action, soon our words become a little more meaningless by the day. Watch what you say. Because somebody might believe you. Until they no longer believe you.

Never Forget Why

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.

Reprogramming (Cold Showers)

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 😒🚿🛁