What’s Next?

My 30 Days of Blogging Challenge is complete. I made it thru 30 days straight after taking years just to make my first post. Finally decided to stop it with the procrastination… finally decided to stop worrying if anyone would care to read it… finally decided to allow myself to be vulnerable through my writing. I’ve often allowed myself to be vulnerable through my music, but never through written form. But now, what’s next. I’m not sure if I’ll continue to post daily but I definitely plan to post frequently on here.

Something in me wants to continue daily blogging but I find myself asking should it come at the expense of tending to my works and projects. The 30 day challenge was very important to me so even on days where I lost control of the day or it just felt like I wouldn’t have anything to post, I dug deep and got it done, even if it took me hours to write, edit and share across my social media platforms. But the great thing about it was it being fun as well as a challenge. So now do I choose writing only when inspired since there’s no carrot in front of the rabbit, in the form of a challenge. Or do I write out of responsibility to myself. The only way for me to grow as a writer is to continue writing…right? Lol. If you have any suggestions or felt this dilemma I’m open to all ideas. But I am very excited and looking forward to seeing what’s next.

It took me 10 years to read the Bible

For the past 10 years one of my top New Years Resolutions was to read The Bible from front to back. TEN YEARS. Each time ending in a failed attempt. And that wasn’t the only failed New Years Resolution. Almost every other resolution ended prematurely. But this year I made a commitment to myself. Honestly, the commitment was made in late September, Early October right around my Birthday October 6th. A commitment that saw me cut down on alcohol consumption, a 30 Day Cold Shower Challenge, a 3 day water fast and finally reading The Bible from front to back. I’m not the most religious person by any stretch but I do believe you can build a closer relationship with God. So reading The Bible was a personal goal for me that always was supposed to be one of the highlights of my New Years Resolutions.

Year after year. Notebook after notebook. 1st page with bold letters. NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS. And like clockwork, somewhere in the top 3 read something like ..”Read The Bible Completely.” Somewhere in between “Write a song everyday” and “Spend more time with my sisters.” The song everyday was wishful thinking but spending more time with my sisters has been happening throughout the years. Not as much time as we could, but always enjoying every moment.

After many years of starting and stopping in my attempt to read The Bible completely, and some years not even starting at all, this needed to be the time it all changed. These last few months I’ve been really working on my discipline and mental strength, so this was important to complete and avoid disappointing myself again. Most days I would wake up at 4-430am so I can read it without distractions. Usually stopping once I had to wake up my Wife and Kids to get ready for their days. Even on the days I didn’t get up that early, I would try to get at least 15-20 minutes in. Some days I got ZERO minutes in but I didn’t let it stop me from getting back to it. I started in the beginning of October an I probably would’ve finished sooner but I was taking notes as I was reading. A lot of things that were Eye Opening. A lot of wisdom. A lot of knowledge. But the main thing is I finally read it in full. An it only took 10 years lol 🤷🏽‍♂️. 1 day at a time. 1 chapter. 1 verse. Early morning. Midday. Night time. I just kept going. Then, this morning, I got to the Proverbs and started to get excited. It felt like a big monkey was coming off my back. These last few months have been so motivating for me to see what I can accomplish once I commit myself. Only time will tell if it becomes more transparent in my life.

Reprogramming (3 Day Fast)

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

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 😒🚿🛁