Faith, Fun, and Fentanyl – Storms

Good Morning –

Today marks the first topical post for Faith, Fun, and Fentanyl. I hope you will enjoy my thoughts. Hopefully you will embrace some of my thoughts, debate some, and ponder others. Here at Positive Imbalance we hope to provide a thought provoking atmosphere that will allow both the reader and the writer the opportunity to experience change in his/her own life in a positive way.

My opening topic will be on my “faith,” as it is the basis for all other aspects of my life. I’d simply say “I’m a Christian,” but in today’s social media environment, everyone claims to be a Christian. I describe myself as a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe the gospel message of Jesus’ virgin birth, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection. I believe that this life is our “window of opportunity” and what we believe about Jesus Christ will determine what happens next. My faith has helped guide me through this life and weather the many storms that life has thrown my way. Sometimes is seems life consists of three weather patterns; We are coming out of a storm, In a storm, or heading into a storm. When life is going good be grateful! At times I’ve been blindsided by life’s storms, but usually I stubbornly walk head on into a storm. I’ve stumbled through twenty-seven years of marriage, raising two children, working a job, and all the extra life that goes along with it. I am thankful that my faith has provided shelter through each storm I have encountered. I believe the storms in any life provide the very seeds needed for us to grow into who we are today. I read where the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges are some of the highest in the country. On one side of the mountain you have a vast number of national forests, parks, and a variety of flourishing wilderness. On the other side is the Sierra Desert, a vast area of nothingness. The theory is, the many storms that are present form the wilderness side. The storms weaken before they can pass over the mountain range into the desert. Our life is like the desert, without the storms, there is no growth. Just something to think about until next week. Think on it!

Nothing to Something, Together

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Derek Davis and I am from a small town in North Carolina. I have decided to take a chance and move to Raleigh to pursue a career in sales, starting with real estate. During this journey I will constantly be working on increasing value to myself by creating better habits, a healthier lifestyle and learning from those who are where I want to be. I am doing this by making a more conscious effort to learn every day and then focus on mastering one specific improvement each week. I am hopeful that you will use this as motivation to help better your life and bring value back to you. I already know that if you are reading this, then you too have the drive and determination needed to make something more of yourself. We can go from nothing to something, together.

I am 25 years old and haven’t done much since I got out of high school. I played college football and had four surgeries before I finally quit after only three years. I then spent the next four years doing hard labor jobs for not very much money. Hell, the last year and a half was spent cleaning out porta johns. I was stuck and I had put my faith in the hands of others. I am telling you this because I finally had enough…and a beautifully driven girlfriend who reminded me of my true potential. But it doesn’t matter where you’re at right now because you do have the potential, and the drive. Laziness is a direct result of poor time management leading to snowball effect of depression. The most important thing, is to finally decide to go for it. But before you do that you need to honestly believe in yourself. Who are you? What are your goals? And who are you doing them for? I am a smart good looking guy who will make at least six figures, one year from today. I am going to do this for myself, my girlfriend and my future family. I have surrounded myself with a very reliable cast that I can go to for help. Do not let others bring you down, especially those closest to you. With my faith, I am taught to trust in the Lord.

This upcoming week I will be spending time studying to take my real estate exam. So my focus outside of that will be time management. I will try to eliminate useless time spent doing nothing. I believe time is the most valuable resource there is simply because it cannot be bought and eventually it always runs out. By maximizing the 80/20 rule I hope to make the most of my valuable time. I thank you for taking the time to read my article and hope you will continue to follow me and apply these things to your life as well. Remember to know who you are and go for it. Let’s go from nothing to something, together.

 

How You Do

There is no doubt that to become fit, strong, or just skilled at a sport what you do is important. If you want to be good at running you have to run a lot, if you want to become strong you have to do resistance training, if you want to be good at basketball you have to play etc.etc. This is common knowledge, and although there is much more that goes into those three things to excel at them, you get the general idea.

The thing is that many people want to be good at least one of these three things, but so few people really end up excelling at them. I know most of us aren’t training for the Olympics, or to be NBA champions, but if you’re reading my post than you probably want to be good at something that involves fitness. So, you may be sucking right now, or you may be pretty good, but wherever you are I’m sure you’d like to better.

I have a lot of friends who tell me about new workouts, supplements and diets all the time. They talk about how this new concept is the best way to train, and how you’ll get the best results with this, and to a certain extent they may be right (I may have actually been this friend a few times). I am not going to argue with the science behind what they are saying because I am all about a good shortcut, but the way the fitness gurus who advertise some of this stuff talk it is as if there is no point in training if you don’t do it this way.

Some of the things that are advertised in training are actually good, and like anything else most of it is garbage, but that really is not the point. If you get this stuff great, but the problem is that most of the people who get any of this are the people who go through the motions during their workout.

If you train I have a new idea for you. Start focusing on how you do what you do. So many people preach resources and what you do, but there is not that much on how you do what you do. You may have the best routine, or supplements there is, but if you go through the motions with your training than it won’t help you any. You can stay at the gym and get 500 shots up, or run 5 miles a day, but if you do not do any of it with zeal and intention to get better than progress will be so much less than what you could have had. If you go through the motions during your workout I guarantee you are missing out!

Stop focusing on the shortcuts to you goals. The best thing about training is that your really can have almost anything you want. If you want to lose 50lbs, you can. If you want to get your bench press 100lbs higher you can, and if you want to become a great shooter you can do that too, but it will take some time, and more importantly it will take quality time.

One my favorite things Michael Jordan ever said was, “I’m not out there sweating for three hours a day just to see what it feels like to sweat.” There was some real purpose and intensity to the way he trained. Jordan did this first of all because he was passionate about what he was training for, but I think it was also because he understood the principle of getting the most out of every workout. I encourage you to ask yourself what you are going to do today, but also and maybe more importantly start asking yourself how you are going to do it.