Personal Meditation no. 186

“There is a lot to be thankful for if you know how to look. There is a lot to be angry about if you fail to look correctly.”

Embrace the Within.

It has been a wonderful week and I am looking forward to a wonderful weekend. I finished up my annual cycle of talking to doctors this past week with getting some blood work done on the Monday after Easter. And despite eating like everyone else all Easter weekend and not embracing my typical eating and drinking habits, all the tests came back fine except for the usual culprit, my cholesterol levels. The cardiologist has me on a routine for that over the next couple months and we will take another look there, however, everything else is looking great. It is amazing that even though I picked one of the absolute worst days to get the blood work done and the numbers were still good is a testament to the work I have been putting in during the past fourteen days. One weekend is not going to set me back. And I am glad that is now proven with data to support those thoughts.

I used to get frustrated with the results when I started this whole process. It takes too long to see change when you first start making changes BUT I had to realize that I didn’t get in this bad of shape in a week, a month, a year, it took years of dedication to another journey to make my mind, body, and spirit that much of a mess. And it was going to take years to get my body, my mind, my spirit back into greatness again. It’s a process on both ends and the means are the ends to getting there. I can’t just eat healthy one day and fix a lifetime's worth of problems and neither can one weekend of poor eating cancel out a routine of living well.

And there is the process. If I don’t exercise today, it does not mean I will stop exercising tomorrow. If I don’t eat well today, it does not mean I will not eat well tomorrow. If I do not tap-tap-tap-a-roo today, it does not mean I will not exercise my mind tomorrow. I have established a routine of focus that will not break from one mistake. I just need to hold myself accountable to what I want and then do it. I need to understand what matters and then go out and produce that result.

Come on out and see the oldest Williams kids at SpongeBob the Musical this weekend. Avoid the mess that is the Tiki Bar opening. And as always, have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin

Be the Change no. 44

"Everyone chooses their level of involvement. We might share the same place BUT that does not mean we share the same space. Not everyone in the congregation is Christian."

Be the Change.

My testimony is all about choices. Fourteen days ago I made a conscious decision to stop living the life of mediocrity and embrace abundance and joy. That choice led to a lot of other choices about what mattered to me in this life I was given. I had to choose whether I was going to get burdened with all the things that the world wanted to yoke to me. I had to decide whether the news was important, whether government was important, whether my family was important, whether my work was important, whether my friends were important, whether my community was important, whether my health was important, there were a lot of choices that sprung from that one decision of deciding on what I wanted. And it began with not wanting to be afraid.

Fear is a great motivator of folks. Fear can get folks to do a lot of morally questionable things. Fear can get folks to turn on their brother and sister. Fear can get folks to act irrationally and vulgarly. Fear can make people ordinary.

What I should have been afraid of losing was not my ability to feed my family. What I should have been afraid of was not being able to make money. What I should have been afraid of was not infection from a biological weapon. What I should have focused on fearing was where my journey was leading. What I should have focused on was fearing the awesomeness of God. That fear comes with a deal of respect and admiration. That fear comes with hope and joy and abundance. That fear comes with a plan.

And that is what separates the fear of the eternal from the fear of the temporal. Fear of the eternal makes you into a better person while fear of the temporal brings about some of the worst character traits in humanity. And we all get to make that choice. As I said, my testimony is all about choices. I can talk for hours about choice and the importance of self ownership and personal responsibility and liberty. And I will gladly light up when people talk about making better choices because that is where my journey lies.

I struggled for those fourteen days and those fourteen days lasted a long time. And now that I am coming out the other end of those days and folks are starting to see that some of their choices during that time were none too helpful for their mind, their body, their spirit, I am hopeful that folks that didn’t change back then are looking to change their minds about things now. All we can do is pray about that because there is nothing you or I can do to change that. You got to leave that all up to God. And there used to be a part of me that found that as a cop out or backing down from doing something meaningful BUT I now understand there is a lot beyond my control, beyond your control, beyond anyone’s control and that all goes on God’s control. Nothing lies outside that control.

So, sometimes when you need to think about choices and making better ones just know that I am out there daily talking about choices. It is my journey to get out there and make better choices each day and talk about making better choices each day. And all of those choices tell the story of who you want to become. All those choices tell the story of what matters the most to you now and in the future. You can’t make temporary choices and expect an eternal solution. Eternal solutions require eternal choices. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #BeTheChange