Crossroads

As I sit in my hotel room ready for a weekend full of dance I begin to reminisce about how I got to the place I'm at. How I'm able to teach hip-hop, and how I've come to be able to choreograph. I begin to ask myself why I wanted to be in this field in the first place. Did I think of all the pros and cons that came with this position? Did this passion of mine fall into place because it was a fun idea? God must have had this planned all along; to have me teaching kids and be able to do what I love doing. 

I never knew I would be dancing let alone teaching it. I wanted to be in the marines before anything. I've always had this adventurous and edgy side about me. At the same time I was thinking marines, I was enrolled in the education program at Clark college wanting to get my degree teaching elementary kids. 5th grade to be exact. Well, long story short, I had a friend going through the education program at CWU and she would come home and tell me all the stuff she was doing and I got uninterested really quick. I have no idea why but the thought of teaching kids that stuff felt meaningless to me. I wanted to influence them and teach them something that mattered. Something they can actually use, something that meant more in life. Dance came along and I loved dancing. I've always liked challenges and trying new things. I was already in love with the hip-hop culture. I grew up in it so I've always had a special place dedicated to the art. I've spent the last 8 years dedicating myself to the culture and I literally changed my lifestyle from wanting to become an educator of academics to an educator of life. I've realized that life nowadays is so much more advanced and we learn way differently compared to back then. The way we teach and view life is way different from 10 years ago. We are much more technologically advanced than we ever were and for that reason the way we teach has to be that much more profound. I feel that sometimes choreographers don't understand themselves or even the logistics behind choreography enough but want to make money in the field. There is no university that will give us a degree in hip-hop education. The only way to acquire said knowledge is from taking class and paving your own way. Hanging out with the people that are making it. Showing up to class/rehearsal with intention to learn and not socialize. Being that person that wants to become better and not allowing excuses to hinder you from being the best version of yourself. Having people kick your ass in class because you wanted to be part of something that challenged you. All these things can make you a better person in whatever field you choose. It doesn't have to be dance. What I've learned is that you have to have the right people to make all of that possible. In the end the only person stopping you from achieving anything in life is yourself. Not your parents and certainly not your friends. Only you. 

I think a lot about my career choice and if it still makes me happy. There are times where I want to quit. There are times where I love what i do. There are even times where I think that another career path is where I should be headed. I wonder sometimes why I love teaching. Why I like seeing people succeed and why I feel so much emotion during times of happiness in someone else's life whether I know them or not.

It all comes down to my relationship with Jesus. Hands down I'm a Christian and I love it!!!! High on my list of spiritual gifts is the gift of faith. Everything makes sense now! This is what it's defined as:

'Those with the gift of faith trust God in difficult, even impossible situations when others are ready to give up. These people are often visionaries who dream big dreams, pray big prayers, and attempt big things for Jesus. These people tend to be optimistic, hopeful, persevering, change-oriented, and future-focused. These people also tend to be very convincing about the truth of Scripture because they themselves are so convinced of the truth and power of God and his Word.'

This is exactly ME :)

In my moments of questioning whether I'm doing a good job of being a servant or being a mentor, I rest in the fact that God has my back in everything. These last 3 months have been rough for me and I don't really like to let people into my life when there's trouble. You can say I'm stubborn and I will admit it but I feel no need to bring my personal issues to work and vice versa. Sometimes it slips and my worlds collide. These last 3 months have been quite tough for me in regards of continuing to teach kids as a career. Is this something I really want to continue to do, or do i look into other outlets for inspiring and reaching the next generation? Everyday I feel like I wear so many hats and at the end of the day I'm so worn out that I just don't want to wear any hat at all and I just want to rest my head without any thought running through it. 

There are some big changes brewing for the future. Changes that will impact a lot of lives and some changes that will have a minimal effect. I've been in the game long enough to know whether it's worth it or worthless. The current status of pros versus cons at this point is about even. I live life with no excuses and only excepting results. Whether bad or good results, I live with it. I'm excited for a new chapter to unfold and very excited to start writing my book. In the meantime, teaching is my passion and I will continue to inspire and change lives the best way I know how. I've gotten to this point through a lot of hardship. A lot of mistakes and more so trial and error. I've been through the ringer more than enough to learn from previous mistakes to see what works and what doesn't. I'm an open book with chapters not yet read and lessons not yet learned. But that doesn't stop me from continuing to write and teach from failure. The best lessons ever learned weren't from a class room, they were learned from experience. You can't teach life from history, you have to live it!

Here's to living, but most importantly, here's to the journey and the things you learn along the way :)

I sit back and analyze life at a distance. What will it be like 5 and 10 years from now if nothing changed and it was the same scene every single day? I also ask myself, what if it was an adventure every single day? Thoughts like these randomly cross my mind when things in life seem out of place. What do I want to do the rest of my life? What do I want to be? It all boils down to how to survive in the end!

I hate that money rules every decision we make, but why does it have to? For me, I've always struggled with money and being able to get a job that paid well and allowed me to have a comfortable schedule with dance. Unless I teach a billion classes at several different places then I can potentially go "full-time" in the dance industry. I would get burnt out eventually. I asked myself, how do I do something I love and get paid for it? Then it wouldn't feel like work! I would love what i do every single day and it would be an adventure. Don't we all think and feel like this? Are you tired of your daily grind with the same scene every single day? There is only one real solution to this feeling. In whatever walk of life you are in whether wealthy or living in poverty, your mindset has to be the same. This is what I mean:

Living the dream:

Everyone has that perfect picture that only happens in movies. We dream of that day where our life will eventually get to that perfect scene in the movie where the family is now wealthy after living a life full of poverty. Take for instance The pursuit of happiness. Will smith busted his ass to get to the very end of the movie where he finally got that big break. Us on the other hand, we want that big break but we tend to forget the journey to get there. We want the fame and fortune and for some of us, just the fortune BUT we fail to realize the most critical thing. THE JOURNEY!!!!!! It's perfectly fine to dream big. I say dream bigger than that. Dream HUGE!!!! I'd rather spend life chasing a dream and getting as close as possible than to spend a life not chasing anything and feeling stuck! See, people GIVE UP too easily because dreams make us forget about reality for the time being and once reality kicks in we talk ourselves out of that very thing because of all the hard work we have to do and lack of knowledge we have doing it. There's a quote that I love, " you dont have to be great to start, but you have to start to become great!" You know why I love that quote? You don't have to be a millionaire to become a millionaire. You don't have to be the best to become the best. YOU don't have TO BE...But YOU have TO DO!
( Just do it-Nike )
There is inspiration everywhere but we never take full advantage of the resources around us. We as Americans find so many excuses to not do things it's embarrassing. Living for a dream is hard work. What's even harder is trying to live making that dream a reality. You know what's even harder? Keeping that dream a reality! The satisfaction in knowing that you've done what most people are too afraid to do is priceless! What is one of your dreams? Have you ever written them down? Do you reflect on your goals daily? Weekly? Monthly? Ever? It's always good to set goals. Once you reach them, set harder goals and so forth! I'm basically preaching to the choir but this is a great lesson for me as well :) in life, you really have to take that risk in order to receive a bigger reward!

Living for a dream:

The other end of the spectrum is basically finding that job that pays the bills and some. The job that pays for you to do the things you would like to do maybe once a year or every other year. The job that provides security because you know how much you make every single month. This is the job that allows you to daydream and look at all the places that you want to go but can't afford to go due to your financial situation. You probably would have to save for 5 years to go on that dream vacation and to accrue 2 whole weeks of paid vacation! Only to go back to work another 5 years for another dream vacation. You live for those moments but then again it's back to the grind. The job becomes frustrating because its the same work everyday, nothing exciting happens and your co-workers complain all the time. Does this sound like your work environment? Does this sound like palace where you would want t work at all? Does this sound like something you want to do for the rest of your life?

I thought so! Living the dream versus living for a dream has one distinct quality that separates the both of them which is HARD WORK!!!!! You have to be able to possess that skill. Otherwise nothing will get you over the hump when everything seems to be falling apart. They say live for the moment! I say live for the future! Dave Ramsey said it best. " you have to Live like No One else so later you can live like no one else!" I want to live that life of hard work and dedication to my passion so that way later on I can enjoy my passion and family without having to worry about working another 5 years to enjoy another vacation. But that's the daily grind and that's what most of us live for. We want that steady paycheck. We want the security of getting paid. But we are super hesitant when we have to invest our time and money to a job or business that is our passion but afraid to start it due to failure. If your biggest fear is failure, then you can also say that you are a PRO at failing because every single time you don't try you FAIL!

All in all, don't let money dictate how you spend living your life. If you have a passion, find a way to make an income from doing that. It won't feel like work if you're having fun! If you are stuck in that job where it feels like its going no where, QUIT and live the dream instead of living for the dream. If you are not ready to quit its totally understandable. Make the money to fund your passion and then take it to the next level! Then QUIT... FIRE YOUR BOSS!!!! Work for yourself!!!! Don't let life pass you by because you get stressed out by the lil things and forget the whole journey. The important part is everything in the middle. The important part is YOU!

If anything, you deserve the very best! Live the dream! NOT for the dream! Be your own person and remember to always love yourself. Remember, Change has to happen from within. When it happens from the outside its just fake :)

and above all, remember this! You can't spell changed without that G... For without that, all you have is chaned (chained) don't be chained to your circumstances!
God is in the center of everything. Put him first in everything you do and he'll show you the kingdom :) my riches aren't on this earth. It's waiting for me in heaven!

Hard work pays off :)

On feb of this year I decided to be a beachbody coach. Before then I just taught dance and occasionally worked out at the gym. I was still overweight, getting gassed out every time I would perform. I decided to make a change for myself because I wanted to be able to have fun with my kids as they got older. I started Insanity in February and one month later my life changed.

I've never really saw myself shirtless in a picture before cuz I never really take pics of my self shirtless ha ha. I made sure to take my before pic and document my journey. It was at my 30 day point where I took another picture just to see my progress and I saw a good change. It wasn't until my 60 day transformation that I was blown away. I had lost 31 lbs in 2 months! That's crazy!!!! The side by side picture had me feeling great and excited about my fitness goals and where I wanted to get to. I would see all these people go from obese to 6 pack abs in their before and after pics and I WANTED THAT!!! More so, If I can do it in 2 months, change my eating and want to live a healthier life and be MOTIVATED to do it, then I want to help other people do the same and watch them reach their goals.

One thing about me is I love watching people that I help,motivate,inspire,teach or just share thoughts with succeed in life. It drives my passion for dance and fitness. Which leads me to why I'm a beachbody coach :) I don't want to work a 9-5 every single day of my life. I want to be home a lot more raising Kingston to be a great man of God. I want to spend more time with Amy and go on dates and not worry about having to wake up early the next day for work. I want to be financially comfortable and not have a cap on how much I can earn in one week of working. I want to be my own boss and FIRE my current boss!!!!! - not dance tho cuz I love dance :)

Why:

the statistics for obesity in America made me think a lot about my family and my life. 154.7 million adults (age 20 and older) are overweight/obese in America alone. If I have to be a statistic, I don't want to be part of that number. If I can help change people's lives for the better and prolong their life expectancy then I'm going to make it happen whether i get paid to do it or not. But how awesome is it to get paid to help people get excited about being healthy and proud of their body. I started out just wanting to help myself reach a goal. Then it became about helping others reach their goals in fitness. Now it's about helping others help others and paying it forward. The financial part is great. I've made more in one week with beachbody then I have in one month working my day job. It's unbelievable to me and I just started this business in march. It's not rocket science but it is a lot of hard work.

Dave Ramsey said it best! "The worst thing you can do in this economy is get a second job, the best thing you can do is start a home based business!"
The reason why is that small businesses drive the economy. It's not the big wigs that create financial peace in our lives. It's US wanting to create work for ourselves and drive this economy to be a country that works hard!

I work hard for my family. I work hard because of my upbringing. I work hard because no one will work hard for me! To me, working hard is natural. I'm a natural born hustler :)
With beachbody, it changed the way I thought about myself as a person and has given me confidence in a lot of what I do. I want to be the dad that is able to do things with my kids and not be that couch potato that's super tired. I want to grow old and see my grandkids and not die from heart failure due to obesity. Living healthier is something that has become really important to me and my family and beachbody has made this all possible by supplying me with shakeology and giving me workouts that produce great results.

My body has become my business. The better it looks, the more my business grows. The saying goes, treat your body like a temple. It is very true! I now treat my body like a business because the more I invest in it, the better it becomes. The more I upgrade different areas, the better the production, the speed, the feel, and overall quality of my life. I love how I get to help people improve the quality of their life! I can only do so much as a coach, YOU have to want it bad enough that YOU work hard to get there. I can get you there!

If you've ever doubted yourself. Holla at me! If you want to be financially comfortable. Holla at me! If you have "no time" to work out, holla at me! If you want to lose weight. Holla at me! If you want to quit your day job and work from home. Holla at me! If you want to be the best version of yourself.... Holla at ya boy!!!!!

Don't be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try! ----> love this quote!