Everyday is My Glory Day

I can hear the Music from down the street. The smell of BBQ hits my nose as I pull up. Who is that I see? That’s Cuz I haven’t seen him in a while. I Walk in and give my mama a hug and a kiss. Can’t forget my aunt she 70 but still looks good. Where am I at? The family BBQ/outing of course. I see my uncle dancing because he thinks he still got “it” (Whatever that means). I make my way back to the “grown Folks” section where the spades/dominoes table and corona bottles are. I can hear my Uncle from a mile away shouting at the top of his lungs “Gimme dat book” as he slaps the table with a card, looks like he cut my brothers heart with a jack of spade. The excitement of the moment is not only fuel by the intoxication of the coronas in his system but also the thrill of being a winning again. This reminds him of the Glory days, Oooh the Glory Days. We remember the glory days when inspiration, innovation, aspiration, motivation, and imagination stretched as far as the eye could see.

Tales of the Glory days flood the ears with phrases like “remember when” and “those were the days” and the old school jams add more fuel to the Moment. You can hear a chant from the “Grown folks” section that’s says “That’s my Song!!!” Reminding them of their high school homecoming, first love, first kiss, and a time period in their life when they were for the most part Happy. After that song goes off the DJ (who is nothing more then the person standing closest to the radio) is bombarded with song request. As day fades to evening and R. Kelly fades to Ron Isley (you know steppers only) what started of as a joyous day with chants of excitement and fun is now ending as a gloomy night with sighs/cries of “if only I would have” and “if only I could have” because  reality has set in. they were once  filled with hopes, dreams, an happiness but because of a dead end job, relationship, car, house, and the only thing that is really going up are bills  we have become part takers in a life of  Doubt, contentment, and despair.

I have been to many families BBQ’s like this one, not just my own, and the same thing happens every time. I always wonder don’t these people know that Life is not over and it’s not the end of the race. We have become a world of regrets and shoulda/coulda/wouldas but today that comes to an end. I want to show us that you no longer have to be victims of your current reality. We are the masters of our conditions our conditions are not the masters of us. So you say easy said than done Bryant. Well I never said that it was going to be easy I just said that it would be worth it.  In this but call 30 by 30, I believe that’s the name, someone said (not an exact quote) how can you be strong enough to endure the pain of your condition/situation, but too weak to change your condition/situation. So yes changing is hard but would you rather struggle for a short while to get what you want or suffer an entire life time because you don’t have what you need.

So if you’re serious I have 7 easy steps to get your life right back on track and become the man/woman you dreamed of. The steps are Change your thoughts, Recognize your mistakes, Understand your Mistakes, Forgive your mistakes, Reconcile, Learn to love Yourself again, and Establish a perfect union with God.

The very first step is changing your thoughts. The body can only physically produce what he mind can mentally conceive. This process is more mental then physical. You have to get in your mind that you will change your life situation. If you have a hard time believing wake up every morning and do affirmations. Tell yourself you deserve better, will have better, and will do better. Set dates for when you want to have this stuff done. You want a new job? Set a date for when you will have one by. You say Bryant I’ve been looking” you have but you haven’t been believing. You have to come to the realization that nobody is going to save you from your condition but you. A hero lies in YOU but you just have to wake him up. I think that’s a Mariah Carey song, a hero lies in you. Your thoughts produce your reality. They use to say in school attitude determines altitude. Your thoughts mean everything.  They bring into existence every thing that’s in your life. That’s why if you can’t see yourself changing then it won’t happen. Everything you have every done in life, whether small or big, you saw yourself doing it. Even when you make plans for the day you picture it in your mind first. You may say okay going to wake up, get dressed, go to the store, buy some shoes, then get me something to eat, but as you plan it you picture it in fact when you just read my writing you probably pictured it. So thinking believing. Change your thoughts.

The second step is to recognize your mistakes. Determine and figure out exactly where your life took a turn for the worst and the decisions that made it. They say that denial is the first step well you have to come to realize where your mistakes were made and stop denying that you made them. Whenever someone can’t recognize where they make a mistake they usually continue to make that mistake over and over again. The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. So unless you are insane I suggest you recognize and learn from your mistakes.

The third step is to understand your mistake. Just pointing out an event or circumstance in your life is not enough. You have to understand why that mistake was made. What situations, series of events, and circumstances gave birth to that mistake? We all know somebody who hasn’t learned from their mistakes. That girl who every boyfriend she has ever had treats her bad, that guy who saying in trouble with the law, or that friend that always says to you “ its going to be different this time” and you scratch your head and wait on the punch line because clearly they must be joking. These are the signs of people who do not understand their mistake and ultimately can never change their current situations.

The fourth step is forgiving yourself. I know many people who beat themselves up on past mistakes. Once you recognized your mistake and learned from it move on! Every one makes mistakes but once you learn from it it’s no longer a mistake it becomes Experience Lol. Hmmm? That’s sound a lot better doesn’t it? You didn’t make a lot of mistakes in life you just have a lot of experience. Think about it for a second. When a scientist fails at an experiment does he/she call it a mistake? No! He/she says that didn’t get the results they wanted but now they have more data to conduct a better experiment next time. Well life is nothing more than one big experiment and sometimes we experiment and don’t get the results that we want but if we learn from those mistakes then we will eventually get exactly what we want out of life. So forgive yourself and let’s move on with life.

The fifth step is to reconcile. If while in the process of gaining experience in life you hurt, physically or emotionally, a second or third party its time to go reconcile your  differences with them and ask for forgiveness. Take them through the same steps that you went through to have them forgive you. Help them recognize the mistake, understand the mistake, forgive the mistake, and ultimately forgive you. This will not only help them but it will help you too because we all know that if you have wronged someone in your life it bothers you like a torn in your side. So help them forgive you and reconcile.

The sixth step is the most important step. This is all about learning to love yourself all over again. When your mistakes torment in life it’s like walking around with a rain cloud over your head but now you can see the sun, smell the flowers, and hear the birds sing. You have to get in touch with the child in you and allow you imagination to flow and again. When you were 12 how did you think life would be a (?) years old. What would it look like (get a good picture), what would it feel like (reach out and touch it), what would it sound like (turn the volume up), what would it taste like (stick you tongue out and taste it) what would it smell like (Fresh like Bread out the oven or sweet like flowers freshly picked). I want you to get a really good picture because now is the time when the days of your mistake tormenting you are over. This is the time where you reactivate your inspiration, innovation, aspiration, motivation, and imagination that stretches as far as the eye could see. This is the time where dreaming no longer only takes place while you sleep.

And the final step is perfect union with God. This is going to be a tough journey and in order to be successful on this journey you are going to need the support and backing of God because you can achieve anything/everything with him and nothing with out him. With out the last two steps the process won’t work.

For those of you who are Followers of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan you may have realized that my step are nothing more than the steps given to us by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan during the Million Man March of 1995 on how to atone with God. But it’s relevant here too. It wouldn’t be right for me to Copy what he said and at least not give credit where credit is due.

If you don’t take anything from this blog remember this. No one can change their beginning or where they came from but anyone can change their path to have a new ending. You can’t change your parents, siblings, or family. You can’t change the way you grew up and what happen to you in the past. You can’t change the mistake that you made in the past and you never get back yesterday but you can always plan for tomorrow to make it a better day.

I personally want to live everyday like its my Glory Day.

So as I sit at my family BBQ and enjoy my food, listen to my music, enjoy the moment I wonder who will be strong enough to change their life or who will be strong enough to endure their struggle.

Peace

Bryant

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