Mt Olympus

This is a piece written based music that inspired me to make a change by waking me up and admitting to myself that I am good enough to do what I do the my way and not the way others think or feel I should do.

This song is made by a Mississippi based musician name Big K.R.I.T.

“Now they want to hear me”

The moment that everyone “finds out” that you know how to do something but chose to ignore when you said you could.  This can be a very defining moment.  Defining moment as in, do you give them what they want or do you give them what you want.  I chose both. 

This is one of those crossroads where people normally chose the wrong path to walk down.  Just because you were never given the chance in the beginning does not mean you should continue to play the background.

You have to realize and admit to yourself, not everyone is going to see it in you but you have to keep believing in yourself. 

I remember hearing the line of, “we already have our people chosen and there is no room for anyone else”.  In all honesty, it stung, but the insult and exclusion that came with it stung more and was telling, to say the least.  I say this all the time, “you may not like what someone has to say but you have to respect the honesty and boldness that they say or speak from”.

But then the question became…what now?  What do I need to break though?  What can I do to break through the barrier?  What must I do to move forward?  The answer was, and remains, simple…work! 

Just because they don’t want you does not mean there is anything wrong with what you are doing, it’s simply not for them or that moment. 

Another simple answer is this…it takes time.  You must be willing to show and prove that you are what is needed in the area you are pursuing.

“Thought they wanted…”

We’ve all had those moments when we compromised and gave someone, be it a boss, co-worker, whomever what we thought they wanted.  More over, what they said they wanted, and still wound up with the short end of the stick.

If eight things seem to be the flavor of the month or the wave that everyone is riding, that doesn’t mean you should conform and hop on.  Taking that approach means that you are compromising.  In the end, compromising and still not getting what you wanted can be a very deflating, depressing, and extremely frustrating problem for most people.

I’ve been there as well.  Compromising and still not getting what you’re seeking is almost as bad as working as hard as you can and still coming up short of the goal.

During 2013, up to early 2015, I was trying my hardest to break through and have people see me. I was taking the advice of those in higher positions than me like it was gold. I acted upon their information as if it would guarantee me the win or level of success that I was longing for. When all of that did not pan out, and I mean all of it did not work, I begun doing some self-reflecting, deep thinking, and then it happened… I became honest with myself. The honesty, over-arching thought, was this…success is subjective and you only lose when you start becoming what someone else wants and not what you want.

I did not realize that we are all looking to arrive to a certain point or place in our lives and some tell themselves that they can only get there on the backs of others. They ask themselves this question, “why work harder myself, when I can get enough to do it for me?”. Let me be very clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that type of thinking or execution. There are those that do not want to do anything extraordinary with their lives. They do not want anything, which means they are okay with “helping” others achieve what they want at their own personal expense.

I was never looking to use others to achieve what I wanted. I do not believe in riding coat tails. The problem I was facing, and was blind to the fact until 2 year later was this, I thought I needed their validation and affirmation to break through. Like I stated before, you can do it yourself and the way to do it yourself is to work hard and allow time for your breakthrough to happen.

So I say all of that to say this, stop caring about what other people want. If you do not stop caring about what they want, it will be the quickest way to lose, waste, a commodity that you cannot get back, which is time. There is no re-up on time, when it is gone, it is gone…and that’s it!

“Hope that wasn’t too simple”

You do not have to be complex in your actions or your thinking. People tend to overthink things, over present things, because they think or feel that those actions will garner more recognition. There is absolutely thing wrong with simplistic thinking. The vast majority of people walking this Earth’s surface is failing to hit the mark because they are delivering “deep thoughts” when the question at hand is extremely simple.

Do not get caught up in spending 7 days to develop an answer when the answer you came up within 10 minutes is the true answer. There is nothing wrong with expanding on an idea but an idea is just that, an idea. An idea can be an answer but an idea has to be planned out and acted upon, which takes time.

Always shoot for the stars but understand this, the basic fundamentals will do you more justice than the starting with the grandiose and flamboyant action and ideas.

Considering everything going on these days, aside from laziness being the most performed action in pursuit of anything, simplistic thinking is being excluded as a way of moving forward with any plan or idea.

“You fooled people into thinking you’re innovative”

Taking 100% of the ideas of others is does not make you a creator. You should not feel accomplished when you steal the idea and plan of action and present it as your own. I have never had an experience in doing this to someone else myself but I have had it done to me.

I will not harp on this because while I am a firm believer in the negative being addressed, this is not the time or post to do that in. So I say this to you, when you are stolen from…let it go and move on. Do not allow yourself to get trapped in the thought of someone stealing from you and become discouraged and believe that there is nothing left for you.

You had one thought, you’ll have another, and another, and then another. What you have to say to yourself is this, “must have been a very good idea if someone thought enough of it to pull the rug from underneath me for it”. Don’t allow yourself to become bitter when someone steals from you. Believe me, it stings to see someone receive the accolades that are meant for you, the trophy that’s meant to be on your shelf, the plaque meant for your wall but you must let it go.

My advice is this, become proactive in guarding your work, not reactive when the theft takes place.

“You a one trick pony”

There is no value in a one trick pony, other than them having that one trick.  You have to versatile to make yourself as competitive as possible.  Do not get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with hanging your hat on your skills but if no one is in need of that skill, how marketable are you?  Let me tell you…not much.

How many times have you been approached about completing a task at work or working towards a personal goal and you couldn’t add too much value to the effort?  I used to stand on the sidelines a lot because I relied on my strengths but when my contributions were not beneficial, the best and only thing I could do was watch. 

Sometimes, you may hear this, “don’t focus on your weakness, focus on your strengths.”  Or, you might hear this, “your strengths are not your problem, it’s the fact that you have done nothing to fix your weaknesses.”  Let me give you my opinion, both are a factor but I say that’s a decision you must make on your own.  You should not let an outsider determine how you proceed with your life, your goals, your career, whatever it is that requires you grow to ascend to the next level.

I allowed and accepted that to happen to me and it hurt me for 6 years.  Those six years cannot be re-lived, and I cannot get those 6 years back…they are gone. I’ll take ownership and accountability of this, it was my fault.  I chose to listen because I thought those individuals had my best interest in mind.  To a certain extent, that could have been true, they could have had my best interest in mind, it just didn’t seem that way when every time I took their advice I failed.

I used to double down and triple down on my strengths and it got me no where.  I worked on my weaknesses, turned them into decent strengths, and all that did was cause me time.  Both methods being used left me in a place where I found myself exhausted.  I was exhausted because I was working two to three times harder and not getting to where I wanted to be.  I increased my abilities, but was still not fully capable of  knocking things out because weaknesses should be viewed as “weaknesses”. 

Versatility is a must but not all areas are yours to control, know the difference.

How many of you are watching from the sidelines out of fear, the fear of the growth process? The fear of being going at some things but not all things? Being a one trick pony by choice is never a good thing, but we cannot be good at everything. The sooner you realize and admit that you are great at one thing, that does not make you a one trick pony. You just have to shift to the mindset of doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on your strengths versus settling for the lesser version of yourself.

I understand that this part of the post may be confusing but in the words of Jim Rohn, “be a student, not a follower”. Study yourself and those around you, do not simply follow what you are told, read, or hear. It’s another one of the quickest ways to fail at something.

“What I’m cooking ain’t meant for yo kind”

You cannot please everyone, accept it and move on. If five out of six people like you and what you do, then those five deserve your best effort. You should not consider finding ways to make the sixth person like you. What you do will not resonate with everyone. Once again, accept that and move one!

“F yo control!”

DO NOT ALLOW OTHERS TO CONTROL YOU!!!!! Don’t allow them to dictate how you do something, why you do it, what you do or when you do it. The only person that is allowed to control what you do is you, and no one else!!!!