#23 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER.....MICHAEL JORDAN!!!

Good morning J todays blog is inspired by the GREATMAN himself Michael #23 Jordan. As some of you may know I have been reading M.J’s autobiography “Driven From Within” but what you don’t know is that I am absolutely taken with it. Not just with the level of success he achieved but more so with him as a person. Without going into too much detail (as I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone intending on reading it) He himself highlights that ‘Greatness’ can’t be replicated and whilst there may be another player who can play as well as him maybe even better, there will NEVER be another Michael Jordan and I agree because it’s not just about ability it’s about ‘Timing’ and ‘Character’ too. MJ wasn’t trying to be the next best anyone….he was just trying to be the best he could be and in doing so he became great. Therefore can GREATNESS be created or merely harnessed?

I heard once that “…Pressure doesn’t build character it REVEALS it” and it stuck with me because it’s so true. I think it’s the same with GREATNESS, pressure merely reveals it which would imply that it is within us in the first place and not something that we need to acquire but rather something that we need to tap into. For instance take two people with exactly the same ‘ability’ or ‘skill level’ and I reckon their level of success will differ dependent on the factors mentioned above. 
M.J isn’t the best because he can jump the highest or is the tallest player or has never missed a shot….he’s the best because he knew “nothing of value comes without it being earned.” His CHARACTER determined his level of success because it was that, that made him practice later than EVERYBODY else, put in more work than ANYBODY else, put practice before partying and pretty much any other distractions. He was disciplined and “Driven from within” so it didn’t matter what was or wasn’t going on around him because he had set his mind that whatever he chose to do he was going to be the best at and in his pursuit of excellence he reached levels that most could only dream of.

Always willing to go above and beyond what others were is what made him comparable to none. I believe it’s not what you do the ‘SAME’ as everyone it’s what you chose to do ‘DIFFERENTLY.’ I don’t know if you’ve noticed but whenever people are referring to those who are deemed GREAT and they are analysing what made them that way, one of the recurring sentiments is that there was just something DIFFERENT about them something that made them stand apart from everyone else. Your difference is where your gift lays not your similarity.

What are you willing to do that no one else is? Will you stay at work later? Will you do extra shifts to get noticed? Will you be conscientious and look for work to do and not just meet the basic requirements of you? ‘Will you do what it takes to get where you want??’

Half of us have no idea how strong we are or can be until a situation presents itself where it requires us to be. We spend so much time hating the problems that arise and the trials that we are facing that we sometimes fail to see what they are trying to show us either about ourselves or our realities.

So the next trial that has you thinking I can’t do this anymore or that it’s going to break you….just remember WHEN YOU DO SURVIVE that just when you think you can’t go any further you always have an extra 10% to give. Anyone who has ever trained at the gym or is an athlete will know when your body feels like it physically can’t do anymore it can always do an extra lap or push one more rep and it’s what you do at this point that counts more than what it took to get you there, ‘pushing past the burn’ as my personal trainer calls it.

This is where you get results; this is where ‘Greatness’ is revealed. You only have to watch Olympian athletes to see that. Setting your mind will ultimately get you further than any amount of physical strength because the body reaches the limitations that the mind sets.  When you say to yourself ‘ I can’t do it’ you are sending a message to your body that it has to stop….when your body is saying you have to stop but your mind says otherwise the body responds to the messages being sent by the brain and PUSHES further. You see as I have said before the race is won in the mind FIRST once you can conceive it then you can achieve it but whilst a lot of us have heard this phrase time and time again how many of us APPLY it and I don’t mean just for that week…..I mean as a philosophy for life?? It’s not enough to know what you should be doing if you’re not doing it.  

What message are you sending to yourself?? How about the next time you meet a challenge or face a situation that you think is beyond you, you trying telling yourself  that you can do anything you set your mind to and maybe try my philosophy that….

“It IS until it isn’t….. I CAN until I CAN’T”

 

 #Mind-set of a Winner “I call myself a WINNER because I have already won” 

 

Season Greetings Peeps,

#ALWAYS LOVE <3

2 MUCH PRESSURE & THE PIPES GONNA POP!!!

Hey, how you guys doing? Have you missed me?? because I have certainly missed you. As always life got in the way this week and I have been really hectic with Uni, motherly duties and working on my book. However it hasn’t been all work ;-) like they say you work hard and you get to play even harder lol….ok maybe that’s not quite how the saying goes but that’s my take on it J

In between trying to meet deadlines, help my princess rehearse for Christmas productions both at school and in church, my little man’s 2^nd  birthday and preparing for Christmas itself…it’s safe to say I’ve had my hands a little more than full. However with all the balls in the air right now it seemed the perfect time to write a blog about dealing with pressure. We all experience it at some point or other but how do you deal with it? When everything’s falling down on top of you, or as in my case everything is up in the air it’s almost as though you’re running on a conveyor belt and getting nowhere quick regardless of how fast you appear to be moving or how much effort you’re exerting….  #TreadmillThinking.

It’s funny but when we are in the best years of our lives i.e. young free and with no responsibilities we rush through them wishing them away, so that we can have the freedom of adulthood and then when we reach those years we spend them looking back wishing we were young again??? For me when it all gets to be too much I used to just switch off and use the straw that breaks the camel’s back to flick my off switch instead, causing my brain to short circuit. That is of course before I became a mother for the second time and realised that if I was to continue with this method I would spend more time in a coma induced state than out of one.

Trying to balance life in general is never easy but when you are left with no other choice, you learn quick to either adapt or quit and as someone once said to me ‘this is real life Nia……it’s YOUR LIFE and you can’t just check out.’ So now instead of wanting to quit, I get out my pen and pad and start writing LISTS. I know I know it sounds so tedious and time consuming and we all think surely that’s just adding one more thing to the already never ending list of things to do? And if you can barely find time in your busy schedule to factor in a toilet break or sleep even, then how the heck, are you going to make time to write a list. Well my friends;

“Those who want answers ask questions and those who want progress, don’t make excuses they make lists.” (Nia-Jai 2012)

Seriously, just think of maybe 5 of the people in the world that you wouldn’t mind having even a quarter of their success and guaranteed there is a series of habits that they ALL practice and attribute to it……. And yes making LISTS is top of the list looool.                                                                

Don’t get me wrong day to day stuff may not require the use of a list, but as you get older and your responsibilities no longer start and stop with YOURSELF, the  art of balance can become quite the circus act indeed and believe me this is when you need to reach for the pen ;-).

Seriously I only survived the last two weeks because I put what was in my head on paper and then prioritised what was most important and actually what I thought would be time consuming turned out to be more economically viable. The best thing is if you have a pen and pad by your bedside table then you can literally write your list for the day before your feet even touch the ground in the morning and then 5 minutes before you go to bed you can tick off all that you achieved ( and silently hi5 yourself) and you can add anything pending to tomorrows list and before you know it  you’re no longer panicking over what needs to be done and what hasn’t been done but you have gained the quiet satisfaction of knowing this is what HAS been done and this is what WILL be done and everything is under control.

Just like cholesterol eventually clogs up the arteries causing an increase in pressure and eventually a heart attack, it’s the same in life…..if we let ourselves get too clogged up with what is or isn’t going in our lives before we know it, either our love lives or our everyday lives find themselves under ‘Cardiac Arrest’. Like a pipe carrying water, as long as it’s free flowing then there is no problem but the moment the pipe is RESTRICTED, the pressure will increase until eventually the pipe explodes.

Surely we’ve all at some point or other had #ThatMomentWhen we’re about to burst if something doesn’t give? We all have obligations its apart of life but that doesn’t mean that they are ALL of equal importance. Prioritise what or where you’re needed most. Whether it’s family, work, friends, self or others...…you need to work out what is most important to you. What you want in life comes at a price; you can’t be EVERYTHING to EVERYONE.

For instance at this very moment in time I’m typing with one hand with my son in my other hand trying to put him to sleep so I can finish this blog in the window of allocated time before I have to then do the school run again. I do it because I love it not because I have to and that makes all the difference. I’d rather be broke doing what I love than rich and hate my job but that’s because I believe that if you invest time in doing what you love sooner or later people will love what you do!!

#MemoOfTheDay : Where ever there is restriction in your life it will cause pressure…..2 much pressure and that pipes going to burst….Breathe, make a list and know that something ALWAYS has to give.

Hope this gift helps anyone feeling stuck, stifled or pressured,

#ALWAYSLOVE <3