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Keep on Pushing

In case you've been, M.I.A. over the last day or so, here's the new Lebron commercial that debuted last night.  I'm not even a huge Lebron fan, but this is dope.  Proof that hard work pays off.

Monday Inspiration: "Will"

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you "Will" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:


There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it, soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?

Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim. Why, even Death stands still,
And waits an hour sometimes for such a will.

Well, that's good enough for me to start my day.

Cheers,

JIP

Gifted and Cursed: Confidence

Good people, it's been way too long. Check out the piece below that I wrote for The Infamous L a couple of weeks back. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Ah, a gift and a curse. You could probably make an argument that most things in life can be looked at as either, so this was tough to narrow down. But today, I’m going to focus on my gifted curse (see what I did there?) of confidence.

From a young age, I was blessed enough to have people in my life that instilled in me a sense of self-confidence that I have carried with me and continue to develop each day. It’s actually a part of my life’s motto: live confidently, control the things that I can control, and have a good time while I’m here. Possessing self-confidence is certainly a gift. Self-confidence, however, isn’t necessarily as easy to identify as you might believe.

I find that cockiness is often mistaken for confidence, and this mistaken identity is the curse. It’s like mistaking Memphis Bleek for Jay-Z. Yeah, you’ve seen them together a lot, but it’s completely disrespectful to confuse the two. Cockiness is basically me putting myself up on a pedestal and convincing you that I should be there. You could make an argument that some level of cockiness is not a bad thing, but it’s not a substitute for confidence. The main reason is that cockiness lacks a solid foundation.

Cockiness is a “what have you done for me lately?” type of feeling. Oh, you got her number? You start feeling yourself a little bit, BOOM, that cockiness level goes up. Oh, you crushed that interview today? Double BOOM…cockiness level goes even higher. Your swag (yes, swag) is on a whole different level right now. But wait…the number she gave you is disconnected? Oh…that cockiness comes down a little bit. And about that interview, maybe you didn’t crush it like you thought you had. Let’s bring that cockiness down a little bit more.

The point I’m trying to make is that cockiness is fleeting. It starts to come out when random events are going in your favor. But life tells us all that you can’t always win. So what keeps you going during your down times? That’s where your confidence kicks in.

Being confident doesn’t mean you’re invincible. We’re humans, we all lose, we all are vulnerable, but it’s not about any of that. Being confident doesn’t exempt you from human emotions, but being confident in yourself allows you to fight through your down times, knowing that something better is out there. Confidence has the sustainability that cockiness lacks because it’s based on a foundation. Whatever that foundation is: your circle of family and friends, your spirituality, or something completely different, it exists, and it’s your source of strength. That’s why it’s a gift; it keeps you going when that’s all you got.

Be careful out here, good people. Don’t let a pretty curse convince you that it’s a gift.

Cheers,

JIP

Inspiration: Good Ol' Jim Beam

Happy Friday, all.  Hopefully everyone's had a solid week and is looking forward to the good times that the weekend brings.  As we mentally withdraw from work, school, or whatever daily task should technically have our attention now, I want to bring your attention to a tv spot from Jim Beam that I saw a while back which deals with the choices that we make or don't make and the impact that they have on our lives.

Check out the ad below, featuring Willem Dafoe:

Great ending line: "All choices lead you somewhere, bold choices take you where you're supposed to be".    There's a fine line between providing a memorable message and just coming off as trying to hard and Jim Beam nailed it.  Plus, combining whiskey with a positive message (or anything else) is my idea of a winning combination.

Have a great weekend, good people.

Cheers,

JIP

JIP's Ramblings: In Defense of the word "Cool"

Good morning, good people. Let me pose a question: what does being cool mean to you? How is it that when we first meet someone we normally decide after a few words whether or not we consider a person “cool”? Taking it a step further, is this even a fair assessment for us to make?

Personally, I think that being cool has gotten a bad rap due to the surface-level connotation that’s become associated with it, so humor me and allow me to play defense attorney for the word “cool” here.

After discussing this question with some friends (more on them later), we came up with this: cool is the unapologetic approach for being who you are. So, I’m not talking about your exterior presence; that’s not who you actually are. Being cool is not about fitting into some mold of what society has deemed to be popular. That’s a trend. Trends come and go all the time and leave a trail of untagged Facebook pictures that we hope disappear from existence.

When I discuss being cool, I'm talking about what’s inside of you. This does not come and go. The person that you are when you’re all alone and forced to face yourself is the essence of your cool. The person who has a firm understanding of this and lets that individual shine through is the person who is truly cool.

Being cool is being true to who you are at all times, knowing that this might not always be the popular thing to do. You’re not a party person? That’s fine, go find what gets you excited in life. We all have our individual preferences, so never let anyone tell you what yours should be. The bottom-line is that you have to be yourself.

Finding this person is definitely a journey. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I’m the same person that I was when I was 16 (thank God). As you go through life, the goal is to grow and evolve into a better, more complete person. Just to reiterate, though, be careful not to confuse your exterior person as what makes you cool. That person is going to change as the years go by. The person you are on the inside, however, isn’t going anywhere. You’re pretty much stuck with him/her, so you might as well make him/her the best that he/she can be.

Alright, that’s probably enough from me, so I’ll let the defense rest at this point. As I take my seat (and ponder whether or not I should take my awesomeness to law school), let me just add that I would love to hear your individual perspectives on what is cool to you. My ramblings aren’t the end all, be all, so feel free to join the conversation.

I don't say this enough, but thanks for visiting and I hope you come back soon.

Cheers,

JIP

JIP's Ramblings: The Fighters

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”- President Abraham Lincoln

What I’m starting to realize more and more over time is that you have to fight for your happiness in life. For those of us who are fortunate, there is an initial period of happiness that we are granted through the innocence of our adolescence. At some point along the way, however, our innocence is taken away from us. This process can be gradual or it can be a dramatic, life-changing, experience; in either case, at this point we begin to realize the complexities of the world and the people within it and that things aren’t as simple as we once thought. Through these realizations, the world becomes a colder, less familiar place than the one we thought we knew. This is when it is most important for us to realize that we have a fight on our hands.

The reality of it all is that we all will experience moments of sadness and disappointment. Things will not always go our way. That’s why we have to have some fight within us to carry us through these moments of hardship. It’s the rare individual that happiness is handed to without any trials or tribulations. The true question is are we willing to fight for our happiness or do we let life get the best of us? Are we willing to take a couple of bumps and bruises in pursuit of something greater or does fear of more hurt and pain cause us to shy away from our God-given right to be happy?

And when our good times do come, we must not get full of ourselves, especially knowing how quickly things can change and how fragile life is. The humble person appreciates life’s blessings for however long that we have them. We know that we will have our ups and downs. We have to have the fight and the strength within ourselves to make sure that our good times are more frequent visitors to our lives than our bad times are. I hope that we all are ready for a hell of a fight because our happiness is out there.

Cheers,

JIP