Life Lesson's: Protect Your Mind, Command Your Life
YOUR VALUE IS LIMITLESS
YOU DEFINE YOUR OWN WORTH.
THE QUESTION IS:
ARE YOU AN APPRECIATING ASSET OR A LIABILITY?
THIS ISN'T JUST ABOUT FINANCES.
WHO ARE YOU BEING, & WHO DO YOU DESIRE TO BECOME?
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Belief & Accountability
The only true limitation on your value is your belief system.
What do you believe in?
Do you look upon your life negatively, or with positive gusto?
A common theme orchestrates our life, referred to as Environmental Programming. Every individual, regardless of their path; the ones that settle, the hustlers, the ones that rise to the upper echelon, or those that stand amongst the elites have been influenced by the world around them. We are born, absorb, develop an inner world, & take action on our thoughts and desires. Our reality is what we make of it, we are all our own protagonist at the end of the day.
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We flow through the ebbs and flow of this current we call life. Trajectory unknown we hold on grasping to what we can. Picking up things along the way through this potentially treacherous path. Often actions we take divert us off course. Yet we must continue flowing, for time is unbiased to all.
Two years ago I moved from Arizona to Los Angeles. I went from a food and beverage director, to taking a break and picking up a bartending gig, starting my consulting business, and now working in luxury spirits sales.
I am thankful for all my life’s experiences, the blessings, and abundance. All I desire is to be of more service and value. I have the ambition, I know my why, I know it is my duty to do more, I understand my mistakes and shortcomings, I understand my past sins against myself, yet there are still many boxes left unchecked.
Caught between an uncomfortable balance of doing the things I NEED to do in order to survive, doing the things I DESIRE to do in order to show up in the world, and trying to understand my PURPOSE so I can leave my legacy and live a life worth living.
“I understand the masculine need to overstretch, and bring oneself to the brink in order to fully understand ones capability.”
I appreciate my thoughts, within the thoughts, midst the fourth wall breaks. Thank you for reading. Now lets get back to this motion picture…..
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Our brains have limitless computational power. Yet, like that of a computer there is only so much space readily accessible at any given time for basic computation. Let me paint this picture:
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Too many open windows…. How could one get any work done here?
“But it’s organized to my liking, I know where everything is at….” Is what my partner would say….
Bottom line, this is our mind.
“How can this be? I am way more organized?!”
I wouldn’t put it past you, but your mind is also subconsciously heavily influenced by the external world. Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, etc.
Please let me walk you through the following setting:
You walk into a sports bar on a regular night, What do you see? Tv screens all over the place. It’s not the big game day whatever sport it may be. It’s a regular Tuesday night. You have the Monday night football highlights of the season prior in one corner, the 2 different NBA games, the other two filled highlights form college basketball, one with golf highlights, the other with the news, one with a trivia game, one a docuseries, Not to mention what you came there for, to imbibe. It all sums up to: Decisions, Input, Actions, Distractions, Excitement…..
…Equaling…
SYSTEM OVERLOAD, frying our brains with so much dopamine that we are going to need even more to jumpstart our metaphorical battery so we can get going again, thus making mundane tasks even that much harder to complete.
After we have consumed our fill what left is there to do? There is no need to hunt, we have no more social battery (or lack thereof) and have further contributed to the demise of our health. Filling our brains with useless information just to fill the time, (I write this as I witness a younger couple stare at their phones and not engage with each other, I refuse to allow myself to reflect such behavior with my partner.)
You must protect and cultivate your mind and preserve your peace.
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I often think of this quote:
“We're the middle children of history, man: No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war; our Great Depression is our lives.”
-Tyler Durden, Fight Club
This spiritual war is comprised of relentless attacks that take us away from our source. From THEE source. From OURSELVES. We give away our vital energy willingly and we question why we are where we are at in our lives.
It is the enemy’s mission to impart a mind constantly flooded with external input. Rendering it too burnt out to align with the frequency to create (the purpose for why we are here).
Create, whatever that may mean to you:
Start the blog,
Make the t-shirt,
Take the photo,
Buy the book,
Take the class,
Start the business,
Increase your athletic potential,
Learn the instrument,
Join the community,
Greet your neighbor (create the positive ripple effect),
This list is beginning to seem overwhelming, is creation simply just more and more actions when I already have a busy schedule filled with itinerary to survive and track all these little tedious minor nuances of the day to day and people I engage with?!?!!?
(You can do this, I believe in you.)
Only if you let it.
It is also creation to do nothing, to simply exist.
In other words, to create space.
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Furthermore, in the pseudo new age/ holistic phrase, “You must let go in order to let in.” As foo foo or woke this may sound, it is 100% fact. We are not robots that can go days connected to a battery pack. We must recharge and refuel.
I like to quote my Father a USMC veteran in regards to a “tactical withdrawal”(because to retreat is not in a Marine’s vocabulary). In order to win the mission, you must pull back, lick your wounds, reassess, and devise a new plan in order to push forward. It’s not quitting, that is not in our vocabulary, we don’t understand what that means, this is us giving ourselves the grace needed for us to go forth once again and conquer!
Also to further quote:
“Retreat, Hell! We just got here!” – CPT. Lloyd Williams, USMC
This is a highly competitive world and no matter how filled with accolades your resume has, you can be replaced by 1000 other people that have equal, more, or less value than you. You are unique, that is your God given right, but you are not better than anyone else, so no matter how integral you think you are to your organization, every day is a blessing.
Going Forward, Take the initiative, Carpe Diem, Be relentless.
“Anthony you’re saying to take a break, give myself grace, and to be relentless?!?”
It’s a balance.
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Similar to that of Philippe Petit, we are showcasing and creating our own artwork on the canvas of our livelihood. Too far left or right and we will fall to our own demise. There is no exact black and white.
It’s all in the middle.
The gray area.
Give yourself the grace required, notice your signs of exhaust, recharge, fill your cup, then take the offense. If you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off then you will not only burn out, you will also lose sight of your path faster than it took to go running amuck.
You don’t need the external validation to tell you that you are on the right path. You are on your own path so why would you need the recognition for being a pathfinder? Pave the way so you can shine the light for others.
As an only child, I have often wished for a sibling either a younger (to teach him from my mistakes) or older (to learn from his mistakes, or to help me find my way) brother. In this moment, specifically an older brother, I have often projected the need to bounce ideas off or idolized those that I believed to have agency over me and aspired to be like them. It wasn’t until I took a management position several years ago that I started realizing to lead others you must lead yourself. I then began my journey. It was a weird feeling going from looking externally to looking inwardly.
It begins and ends with us.
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Now in my next endeavor I am hit with even more of a reality check, venturing on my personal brand, my business, and thrown in the pool of corporate America amidst the chaos….
(I chose this picture of Jon Snow at the Battle of the Bastards because it embodies the feeling of hustle culture/ corporate America, cornered left right, up and down, you have your mission but the external is chaos. Reality is, sometimes the only way forward is to stop, stand still, and aggressively take your breath)
The only thing I have control over is myself. I must lead my life with authority. I must live with awareness. I must take a second to breathe. If I don’t, time will keep ticking unbiased to my feelings, and I will remain floating through it’s currents thinking “What if?”
To me this is a worst-case scenario. To not live a life, especially when I have the physical and mental capability to do so.
“I am blessed & highly favored.” -Les Brown
This spiritual war we are in, this balance on the tight rope, this scale of life. It can always go either direction. The enemy is relentless and will never quit. Yet, neither will you.
For you are powerful beyond measure.
Are you investing in yourself, In your relationships, In the habits that lead to abundance? Or are you letting distractions, complacency, and self-doubt erode your potential?
Choose wisely.
Choose growth.
Be an asset.
BE GOOD. LIVE ABUNDANTLY.
Guido Reni, Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan, c. 1635, oil on canvas, Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, Rome.