Latest / Rise and Thrive with Dr. J. Nicole Podcast / Becoming Starts with Believing: Coach George Rice III on Faith, Discipline & A Spiritual Growth

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Becoming Starts with Believing: Coach George Rice III on Faith, Discipline & A Spiritual Growth · Rise and Thrive with Dr. J. Nicole Podcast

• 0:18
  Good morning. Good morning.
• 0:20
  Welcome to Rise and Thrive with Doctor J Nicole.
• 0:24
  On this podcast, we are talking all things faith, Wellness and
• 0:30
  empowerment and we are focused on rising in faith and thriving
• 0:33
  in purpose. Today I have a very special
• 0:36
  guest with me, Mr. George Rice, the third.
• 0:41
  Some of you may know him as Coach Rice.
• 0:43
  Some of y'all may know him as chief.
• 0:45
  You may know him from his work as a consultant, as a speaker,
• 0:50
  maybe even as a counselor. He has more than 20 years of
• 0:53
  experience in education, and he's impacting many lives.
• 0:58
  He's worked in the public sector as well as public schools,
• 1:02
  nonprofits, higher Ed. He's been a little bit of
• 1:05
  everywhere touching and changing lives.
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  And he's also an author, right? He has a passion for college
• 1:12
  students and helping teams, whether they're athletic or even
• 1:16
  professional, to be able to improve their team chemistry and
• 1:20
  their productivity. So please join me in welcoming
• 1:24
  Coach Rice. Great morning, Doctor Jane.
• 1:27
  Nicole, thanks so much for having me on.
• 1:28
  It's a pleasure. It's it's an honor.
• 1:30
  Let me just give you your soil, not your flowers.
• 1:34
  It's just something that you have manifested.
• 1:36
  You know, we've known each other about a year and I'm just proud
• 1:39
  of your your evolution, your obedience to the creator and
• 1:44
  even the ancestors as they visit us in their certain ways.
• 1:47
  And so I'm just super honored by your honored and humbled by your
• 1:51
  invitation and I'm looking forward to having a a rich
• 1:54
  discussion with you today. Yes, thank you.
• 1:57
  Thank you so much for being here.
• 1:58
  And I love that you said soil because I do talk with people
• 2:01
  about the difference between like dirt and soil and the think
• 2:04
  about flowers, although they are very beautiful, by the time we
• 2:07
  get them, they're already dead. So not to say.
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  And then I want the florist mad at me because I still like my
• 2:15
  flowers. And anybody want to send them,
• 2:16
  I'm gonna receive them, right? But soil is much more, you know,
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  it's nutrient rich. And this is where we can grow.
• 2:23
  This is where we can thrive. So thank you for that.
• 2:26
  And I love your choice of language.
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  And yes, we did meet not quite a year ago, but it hasn't been
• 2:32
  that long, but it feels like a while.
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  But that's what happens when good people connect, right?
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  Like you are a friend of a friend of a friend is how we
• 2:41
  met, right? So, but that's what happens when
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  you have good people in your life who have other good people
• 2:47
  in their life, who have other good people in their life.
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  And then it becomes we're good people in each other's lives.
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  So it breaks down the distance. So today we are talking about
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  spiritual growth, right? And spiritual growth isn't just
• 3:01
  about like what we believe, but it's about how we cultivate our
• 3:05
  faith on a daily basis. And journaling, meditation and
• 3:09
  prayer are ways in which we can do that.
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  They're extremely powerful tools that can help us deepen our
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  relationships with God. It can help bring clarity into
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  our lives. It can also help us navigate
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  different challenges and bring about peace as well as wisdom.
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  But how do we build these consistent practices?
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  And how can we make them more meaningful rather than just
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  another thing on our To Do List? And we live in a society that
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  very much values output. And some people measure their
• 3:39
  worth by how much they're doing right?
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  So in this episode, we're going to explore these transformative
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  practices and the power that they really have to change our
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  lives, to help us lifting purpose and to get into
• 3:55
  alignment with God's plan for our life.
• 3:57
  So am I calling you Coach today? Am I calling you Chief?
• 4:01
  What what, what you want me to call you today?
• 4:02
  Trey, you got the third. I could call you so many things.
• 4:06
  Look, I, I answer to all three coach, chief, but my friends, my
• 4:10
  really, really good friends call me Chief.
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  My clients call me Coach. But I tell now probably about
• 4:15
  the last four or five years, I'm listening.
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  My nickname is Chief. That's that's how people know
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  me. But you know, you know, it is
• 4:21
  what it is. But you know, as you said, that
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  said that about how we've been programmed and how no matter
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  how, no matter how when and where you grew up, what area you
• 4:30
  grew up in, there always has been a, an emphasis on doing
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  since we're in the spiritual realm, let's just, let's just
• 4:40
  get right to it. We, you know, we have songs, we
• 4:44
  have scripture, but if we talk about a song, one of the first
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  songs I learned when I was a kid was God is and we're created in
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  his image. And so a lot of times people
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  think our value is based on what we do.
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  But in a word, he also says, I am that I am that I am.
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  Does he not? He never says I do not so
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  readily. We probably hear about who God
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  is more than what about what what, what God does.
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  Now, you can say who God is in your life, but the song says God
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  is the joy and the strength of my life.
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  He moves now, of course. But what I'm saying is when we
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  talk about spiritual practices, it's really a mindfulness
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  because I, I believe the, the God that we serve, the divine
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  love that we serve is mindful about who we are, not what we
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  do. Now, of course there's a record
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  of what we do, but I think he's more concerned about who we
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  become and who we are and how we serve people.
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  So of course, when you think about God, there's a whole bunch
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  of names that we could say. But more than anything, God is
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  love and love is mindful when it's real.
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  So when you think about how you go about your daily routine or
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  if you have a system or whatever you want to call it, your
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  ritual, it requires mindfulness. And so when I think about who I
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  am in spirit and truth on my worst days and my best days, I'm
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  just reminded I have a affirmation that I've been
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  writing all this year. And it says I faced this day
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  with humility, with humility, gratitude and confidence and
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  prepared and, and, and rhythm. It's very, very simple.
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  And so when you talk about the spiritual nature of that, it's
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  just a time to be mindful. It's not, I'm writing that as a,
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  as a thing that is a practice, but I'm also doing it in the
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  hopes that I will just be versus do.
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  So I'm saying I face this day with gratitude, with humility
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  first and foremost, because we didn't know we were going to
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  wake up. Humility like thank you.
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  Because in all, I'm all worst. You know, you decide when I
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  enter, you decide when I exit. So I'm humbled by the invitation
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  to greet the day and face the day #2 I'm grateful that I have
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  at least as far as I know, I'm in my right mind, right?
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  I am able bodied for the for the for the near future in the
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  current present and. You'd be out as long as you stay
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  in a gym. What?
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  Yeah, I mean, and, and listen, it, it's, it's one of those
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  things in which we take for granted the day we take for
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  granted the ability we take for granted the gift we take the, we
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  take for granted all the things. And even on the days where I'm
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  not in prayer and or meditation, I'm always saying, well, I thank
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  you for a place to call work, a place to call home, a place to
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  call church. And again, that's just based out
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  of mindfulness because only we know the depth and breadth of
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  who we really are when nobody's watching.
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  And so when I think of who I would like to become, I think I
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  am becoming who I intended to become in terms of not by what I
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  do, by accolades or activity, but by that humility and
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  gratitude. I trust and pray that I show up
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  that way. Some people show up and, you
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  know, people you work with, go to church with.
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  People show up angry. And again, that's fine.
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  People show up in a bad mood, people show up antisocial.
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  Some people show up with an amazing amount of energy and
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  joy, which is a beautiful thing. And that's why I say I greet
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  this. I face this day with humility,
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  gratitude and confidence, prepared and in rhythm.
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  And when I say I'm in rhythm, I'm not too high and I'm not too
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  low. And every morning I, I take a
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  temperature check on my own self and I say, what's your mood?
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  Is it a :)? Is it as a middle of the road
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  faces? A frown face?
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  And so some days, yeah, I wake up, I'm like, I'm not in the
• 8:59
  greatest mood in this moment. But I realized that that moment,
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  just like all seasons, don't last.
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  And I have control over my mood. If I choose, if I'm mindful
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  enough, I have control over my mood.
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  I don't have control over my life because we know who has
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  control over our life, but I have control over my mood.
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  So for me, it's, it's just, it's an ode to gratitude for the
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  creator for giving us the opportunity and just being
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  mindful. Like, look, brother, if this is
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  the last day of your life, who did you talk to?
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  Who were you kind to? Who would you speak to?
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  Who did you share your feelings and thoughts with?
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  And what was it? Was it, was it explained and
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  communicated properly? Was it understood properly?
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  So I'm just very mindful of how I approach everybody that I
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  consider to be instrumental in my growth and development.
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  And those who I know may depend on me to listen, not necessarily
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  tell them anything, just allow me to, or just they just want me
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  and expect me to be for whatever purpose that I need to fulfill
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  for any given. I love how you put in there with
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  rhythm, 'cause when I heard rhythm, I heard flexibility,
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  right? Because there's not just one
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  rhythm. The rhythm is what the rhythm
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  needs to be. So I got from that ease, right?
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  Just going organically. We're not fighting the day,
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  we're not forcing things. So that's what I heard when I
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  heard rhythm. And I really like that part
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  that's in there because I think sometimes we hold ourselves to a
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  standard of best, representing the best we've ever done.
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  But that likely happened and ideal circumstances and all of
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  that. So I love to hear that that
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  freedom is in there. So first let's talk about the
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  power prayer, the power of prayer and communicating with
• 10:54
  God. And just like what that is,
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  right? Like 'cause we can, prayer is so
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  multifaceted, like, and I think even though most people the one
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  of the first prayers they're learning is like the Lord's
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  Prayer or like blessing food, right?
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  But talk to me about your understanding of prayer more as
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  a conversation rather than a ritual.
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  Look for my grandfather, Lawrence Jacobs, senior, born on
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  September 11th, 1911, transition on May 11th, 2011, who was a.
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  Wow. He and my grandmother were
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  farmers in Huntsville, AL. My people were farmers too.
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  Yeah, and when you talk about faith.
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  Yeah. Before technology, you literally
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  had to rely on every season to do what that season did.
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  Yeah. And you had to plan accordingly
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  and you could, you could try it without talking to the creator,
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  but it helped, it helps a little bit if you do.
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  And so my grandfather to this day is the and again, I know
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  he's my grandfather. Maybe it's a biased opinion, the
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  thing I hold dearest, not just the lessons he taught me about
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  being and a stand up guy and, and you know, just being a
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  gentleman and, and doing the best you can and, and treating
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  people right. The example he set of just
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  talking when he would pray, it was never, it never came from
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  here. It came from his soul.
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  It came from a place of God. You've looked out from me.
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  Look out for them. That's how I've, that's how I
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  really learned that, that posture of humility and that
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  mentality of gratitude and humility.
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  And so, you know, just, I realized, yeah, it was a
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  conversation. So as, as our grandparents got
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  older, we, the cousins, me and my sister, my cousins, we used
• 12:57
  to make fun of my, my, my grandmother and grandfather, not
• 13:00
  in front of them. But of course, it's funny after,
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  you know, as my grandfather's friend, my grandmother is
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  whispering out loud and she's just so it's like a tennis
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  match. So, you know, as a kid you kind
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  of like, but we learned I really and, and as, and as a, as a
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  grandson of a farmer, a lot of people, a lot of people are
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  upset when it's raining for too long.
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  I said, do y'all realize farmers are like, Lord, please let it
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  rain. We need the sunshine, but we
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  need that rain too. And so I, I, I learned by the
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  example of my grandparents, they, again, I grew up at
• 13:35
  Venice. They were at Venice.
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  So if you know anything about Adventism, Friday night to
• 13:39
  Saturday night, sundown to sundown, that's the Sabbath.
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  And so that they're like, get all your stuff done before the
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  sun goes down so you can truly rest.
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  And so it was a story my sister told.
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  There were times when my grandparents made sure that they
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  were in rhythms, getting back to what we.
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  Were talking about. So that on Friday the all of
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  their work was done and they were waiting.
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  They were waiting and facing, they were inviting the Sabbath.
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  And like, Lord, please give us this rest.
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  This is our day. This is your day.
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  We want, we want to be obedient in our rest, not just in our
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  work. And so when I look at making
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  that connection, I used to think it was just about having a
• 14:19
  certain place to pray or certain prayer to pray.
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  And now as I'm on my walk with the Creator every morning, as
• 14:27
  consistently as I can walk, but even at times in my car,
• 14:29
  sometimes I'll, I'll drive to work and it's just silent.
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  I may not say a word out loud. I mean, I it's just kind of
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  like, OK, that's my meditation time with God.
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  Or just like, allow me to be in rhythm.
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  And so there are times I'm like, God, listen, I'm in a season,
• 14:42
  man. I know you see me like, yeah, I
• 14:44
  know what I'm going to do. You know what I'm going to do.
• 14:46
  But God, I just, I hope, I hope it comes out the way it's
• 14:49
  supposed to. Or God, why is this impacting me
• 14:52
  this way? Or you know, God, you know I'm
• 14:54
  upset with you. Listen.
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  And that's that's a blessing you.
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  And a lot of people hear that it'll hit, it'll hit a lot of
• 15:02
  people's ears wrong. But how dare you say it?
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  Listen, God, he already, he already know I'm mad at him.
• 15:08
  He already knows, but. Also.
• 15:10
  This is the most authentic relationship we can have.
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  It's also the most secure relationship that we can have.
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  He already knows your thoughts. He already knows your feelings.
• 15:22
  He is your father. But the difference between our
• 15:26
  earthly father and like our heavenly, like caregivers or
• 15:29
  anyone, we're in an intimate relationship, whether that's
• 15:31
  friendship, dating, marriage or whatever, right?
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  Like there's, we have to have room to have those real
• 15:38
  conversations and we can have that with God.
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  But we're taught, especially with our caregivers, we don't
• 15:44
  question authority, right? And God is the authority.
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  So, but it's like, no, we have to talk to him like he is both
• 15:53
  to be feared and loved and respected, to be revered and all
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  of that. And it's not just one, one
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  thing. And so I think that's a
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  significant part and a real true marker of an intimate
• 16:05
  relationship with God is to be able to give him your honest,
• 16:09
  raw feelings and it be like, I'm not feeling you.
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  So like that's so important because sometimes we do be
• 16:16
  beefing with God or we don't want to do what he asking us to
• 16:18
  do. I know one time I was like, God,
• 16:20
  you got me being weird, but I'm a do it because I seek to serve
• 16:25
  you rather than man. I'm weird to man, but I'm a be
• 16:28
  obedient to you, right? And guess what, it was fine.
• 16:31
  It was just in my head that I felt uncomfortable doing a
• 16:35
  thing. Sure, sure.
• 16:37
  I mean, I know my mother is a lupus thriver.
• 16:41
  She was diagnosed with lupus when I was 2.
• 16:44
  She didn't have a flare up, a major flare up until two months
• 16:47
  before I graduated from college. And I was interviewing, of
• 16:51
  course, as all seniors are doing.
• 16:52
  I was going to get this job. And because I just knew I, I was
• 16:55
  ready to work and make some money.
• 16:56
  I was tired of being a broke college student.
• 16:58
  But I'm thankful because in the moment I was like, God, why are
• 17:01
  you doing this now? But I realized it brought me
• 17:06
  back to my hometown of Toledo, OH 419 stand up Glass City.
• 17:10
  We represent. But it it took me back to my
• 17:13
  hometown because number one, it was family business and I for
• 17:19
  all the years that my mother has sacrificed for me, gone to work
• 17:21
  sick. It was my turn to care for her.
• 17:24
  But in that same stroke of genius was which God is?
• 17:29
  Genius. He threw me into the ministry
• 17:32
  that I, I have never let go of and I'm so grateful for because
• 17:36
  I believe had I gone and just chased the money, who knows?
• 17:42
  I wouldn't have been there to help care for my mom and her
• 17:45
  time of need. And as God will have it, like
• 17:48
  literally in 2003, I'll never forget.
• 17:49
  It's been like 22 years. Like, yeah, it was 22 years.
• 17:53
  She was officially, you know what They end and when you're
• 17:58
  when you have cancer, they say you're in remission, but then
• 18:00
  with as they say, you know, you're in a you're in a you're
• 18:03
  in the clear for a certain amount of time.
• 18:06
  And it's interesting because you know, you know, there there were
• 18:11
  times I'm like, wow, why are you taking her through this and give
• 18:17
  it to me. But in my mom getting sick, I go
• 18:22
  back home, I fall in love with a profession I was pulled to.
• 18:27
  I was trying to run from it and I was like, no, God was like,
• 18:30
  this is where I need and want you.
• 18:32
  It's giving Jonah, it's giving Jonah a little bit because you
• 18:36
  were trying to do your thing. You was like, I'm graduating
• 18:38
  from Morehouse. I'm going to get this job going
• 18:40
  to get this paper and running in opposite, opposite direction.
• 18:45
  And it sounds like in the context of this, right, like
• 18:48
  your mom becoming sick and having that flare up that was
• 18:52
  like the whale that brought you home and it like and and and you
• 18:58
  got into position. Yeah, and here I didn't.
• 19:01
  I didn't even give you this. When they originally diagnosed
• 19:04
  her with lupus when I was two years old, they gave her six
• 19:07
  months to live 0. Come on testimony.
• 19:11
  So it went from six months to how many years before like to
• 19:17
  the flare up? So from your the the six months
• 19:20
  to live to the flare up to. To now and I he, he, I said OK,
• 19:28
  So again, I, I, I go back to my original statement.
• 19:31
  I faced this day with humility, gratitude and confidence.
• 19:37
  Not necessarily confidence in myself, but in confidence who he
• 19:42
  is. Yes, and what he can and will
• 19:44
  do. OK, listen, I'm I'm here for it.
• 19:51
  So I heard a couple other things, right?
• 19:53
  Like, so for some people, they think prayer or it's, it's, it
• 19:57
  could be like a rigid thing or has to look a certain way.
• 20:00
  Like there are things in the Bible that tell us like going to
• 20:02
  a quiet place. We see a model where Jesus goes
• 20:05
  into silence sometimes to or out into the wilderness to pray.
• 20:10
  So I guess there's different ways.
• 20:12
  There's also scriptures that says like kind of like go into
• 20:14
  your secret place, close the door or whatever where you're
• 20:18
  praying, right? And also.
• 20:20
  To not be like the Pharisees and Sadducees who were like doing it
• 20:23
  outward for public recognition, right?
• 20:26
  So even as you're talking, I heard that you pray in different
• 20:30
  ways, right? Like you absolutely is going
• 20:33
  through that mantra, that acknowledgement in gratitude for
• 20:36
  God waking you up in the morning, formal prayer
• 20:40
  conversations that are happening in the car as you're going about
• 20:43
  your day. Is there anything else like you
• 20:46
  wanted to say specifically about that and how you like, so it
• 20:54
  came from your grandparents, right?
• 20:56
  But like, how did you maintain that?
• 20:59
  Like think about it, you're out of the house in college, right?
• 21:02
  In Atlanta is the backdrop, right, of being being a college
• 21:06
  student. How did you maintain these
• 21:08
  practices through different stages of your life?
• 21:11
  Well, I didn't. I'll be.
• 21:12
  Honest. Mm Hmm.
• 21:15
  And it seemed like I would only pray when things were looking
• 21:19
  like they were going wrong. Yep.
• 21:21
  Freshman year, 2 days, three days before Thanksgiving.
• 21:25
  Leon Anderson the third, who was from Jackson, Ms. I was like,
• 21:31
  yo, man, you know, we were, we're all cause of course, of
• 21:33
  course, all of us had that Boo at home.
• 21:34
  We thought we was going to be together forever.
• 21:37
  Forever, forever, ever. We were young.
• 21:39
  We hired that young love. I can't wait to give back to my
• 21:42
  girl, man. I can't wait to have some of my
• 21:43
  mama's food. I can't wait.
• 21:45
  I can't wait to see the homies hug my granny's neck, so on and
• 21:47
  so forth. So I'm like, OK, look, let's,
• 21:49
  let's, let's get it popping. So, OK, well, look, let's see if
• 21:52
  we can get somebody to go get some drink for us, right?
• 21:54
  Boom. So I was like, OK, well, hold
• 21:58
  tight, man. So I'll go upstairs to see if
• 22:01
  the homies wanted something to drink.
• 22:03
  So I get sidetracked. They out there playing spades,
• 22:06
  talking mess, whatever, whatever.
• 22:08
  About 30 minutes goes by, I'm on the 2nd floor, Huber Hall.
• 22:11
  Shout out to Huber Hall. I go back downstairs to the
• 22:14
  first floor. Which is where?
• 22:15
  Which is where I which is where my dorm room was, but Leon
• 22:18
  stayed on 2nd floor. OK.
• 22:22
  Only find out when I had gotten shot and killed.
• 22:24
  He didn't wait for me. He went to the store.
• 22:27
  Whoa. And it just so happens that
• 22:30
  there was a guy who had been on the killing spree, so I guess he
• 22:33
  had murdered two or three people.
• 22:35
  Open it with people that used to be called Ashby Street, is now
• 22:38
  called Joseph P Lowry Blvd. A guy, you know, I guess he he
• 22:44
  he just pulled out a firearm and, you know, Leon ran, pulled
• 22:48
  out a 357 Magnum, shot him once in his back or shot him twice in
• 22:51
  his back. So the bullet came from the back
• 22:54
  throughout it to pull out his, you know, came through his chest
• 22:57
  and he ran into the street because he was running for cover
• 23:00
  and he was hit by a car. So I mean, either way, that
• 23:02
  assault to injury, he was hit by a car.
• 23:04
  Yeah. In that moment, I just was like.
• 23:07
  If that's heavy. I could have very easily been
• 23:09
  the person that Leon was telling the story about.
• 23:13
  Or you could have been with Leon and it would have been both of
• 23:16
  you. Well, that's what I'm saying.
• 23:20
  So in that moment I was like, OK, God takes care of fools and
• 23:22
  babies. Clearly I don't have a pacifier
• 23:24
  in my mouth. But I realized that some things,
• 23:32
  all things that God does, we cannot.
• 23:35
  We can question it as much as we want to, but for some reason
• 23:41
  there was a lesson that somebody had to learn.
• 23:44
  Or somebody's. Was it me?
• 23:47
  Well, I don't. I know I learned it.
• 23:49
  And in that moment I realized being in the Morehouse
• 23:52
  Brotherhood I was already in, you know the place like
• 23:55
  literally where you can't, You can.
• 23:59
  It's the only place in America you can five 25101 black men on
• 24:04
  the same mission. And ain't nobody scrapping and
• 24:06
  fighting and killing each other and selling each other drugs.
• 24:09
  He's not our right. And here I am.
• 24:13
  And I lost my brother because I was not my brother's keep.
• 24:17
  I hear you're blaming yourself, your brother.
• 24:19
  It's no. In the moment, yes, I did.
• 24:22
  Absolutely. I blame myself.
• 24:25
  But at the same time, I realized the lesson was chief, it is your
• 24:30
  job to be a brother to whomever. OK.
• 24:35
  That's a hard lesson to have to learn, but it's a lesson all the
• 24:38
  same. And so now it brings me right
• 24:41
  back to the to the job I do, the work I do now with black and
• 24:44
  brown men at Montgomery College. It's like there's a reason that
• 24:48
  I cherish my inner circle. There's a reason I cherish
• 24:51
  brothers like Dewan, who I met you through, right?
• 24:53
  There's genuine brothers that I like.
• 24:55
  If I meet a brother that's genuine, we vibe like, bro,
• 24:57
  let's stay in touch. There's anything I could do to
• 24:59
  help you with yours. Say it.
• 25:01
  I would. If I can't do it, I'll find
• 25:02
  somebody else who can. And so I just really, that was
• 25:06
  really that, that was the only lesson.
• 25:08
  I really need to be a servant and to be a brother and be a
• 25:11
  person of your word. Like bro, you said you was
• 25:13
  coming right back and you didn't.
• 25:15
  You OK? I hear you, and I really do hear
• 25:19
  you. I'm not going to bill you for
• 25:20
  this, OK? Please don't.
• 25:24
  I hear you and I don't. So you told him something and
• 25:27
  you said it early. He made a choice to not wait.
• 25:31
  I would imagine by this point for you to call him your brother
• 25:34
  and the relationship y'all had. He knew that you would keep your
• 25:37
  word. He made a choice.
• 25:40
  You didn't do anything wrong. You came back.
• 25:42
  That's how you know you did. You went back.
• 25:44
  Maybe you got a little sidetracked by him playing
• 25:47
  spades, but you told him you were coming back.
• 25:50
  Absolutely. I I just want to make sure if no
• 25:53
  one's ever said that to you, that I said it, I heard it, it
• 25:57
  wasn't your fault. No, I, I don't, I don't carry it
• 26:00
  as such, but I thought I realized the the responsibility
• 26:03
  that I have to be a brother. OK.
• 26:05
  So it just made it, it highlighted it more.
• 26:08
  Yeah. And so a lot of people, like
• 26:10
  even even in my LinkedIn description, I say convener.
• 26:13
  I'm not necessarily a I'm a connector, but I'm more of a
• 26:16
  convener. I'm known for introducing
• 26:19
  people, getting people in the right atmosphere to say, OK,
• 26:23
  look, let look just good people like that's How I Met you,
• 26:26
  right? Dwan is another connector and
• 26:28
  convener. I mean, Dwan is another
• 26:30
  connector and convener. He was like, no, come on.
• 26:33
  I mean, it was the same way I went to go visit my friends.
• 26:37
  OK, so there's a whole lot of connections and convening that
• 26:39
  happened, right? So my boy Torjay, we did our
• 26:42
  masters together at University of Arkansas and higher Ed.
• 26:45
  And that's so funny that you and I never met when I was at higher
• 26:49
  Ed, that we met after I left higher Ed, right?
• 26:52
  So me and him in the same program, we share the same last
• 26:56
  name that people thought we were either related or married.
• 26:58
  And it was hilarious. We were like, we don't even know
• 27:00
  each other but went to visit him and his wife and and his wife.
• 27:08
  She also works at higher Ed. So I I was able to witness their
• 27:11
  like love story. They met at one of the
• 27:13
  conferences. I can't remember if it was NASA
• 27:15
  placement exchange or whatever, but it was so cute.
• 27:18
  And so have my own relationship with her to talk to her more to
• 27:23
  him now most of the times. But she knows Dejuan.
• 27:27
  So she's from Chicago, went to DePaul and had like, the whole
• 27:31
  Chicago connection, met through the field.
• 27:34
  And then she's like, oh, well, some of my friends are here from
• 27:37
  a conference. So it was Dewan and Landis.
• 27:40
  And so we all met up at this food hall in Charlotte, and they
• 27:43
  were like, hey, well, we're coming to DC for his birthday.
• 27:46
  Oh, Dewan's brother was there too.
• 27:48
  OK, Yeah. And so yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:51
  And so they're like, we going to be in DC.
• 27:53
  We're coming for Broccoli City. So we're like, BAE, hit us up,
• 27:56
  we'll pull up or whatever. And sure enough, they follow
• 27:59
  through. Because, you know, people say
• 28:01
  that and then it never happened. It'd just be like, Oh yeah.
• 28:05
  And so no, we, we spent the whole day with y'all.
• 28:08
  Like, I really thought we were just going to come go to brunch.
• 28:12
  Next thing you know we had karaoke.
• 28:15
  Yeah people was hungry again. So then we with the stands and
• 28:19
  if you need DMV, you know, you know what we talking about and
• 28:23
  then we finally shut it down. But easily folks could have kept
• 28:26
  going easily but it was just like it was just a good day.
• 28:30
  And what I will say that I appreciate it.
• 28:32
  It was me, my home girl and we were with a crew of all men.
• 28:36
  It was like, well like 8 of y'all.
• 28:39
  By eight of us, yeah. And the whole time I felt so
• 28:42
  safe, I felt so covered. And some people, they would just
• 28:47
  feel uncomfortable just being around that many men.
• 28:49
  But y'all were just, yeah, like I said, I just felt safe.
• 28:54
  I felt covered and it was a great feeling.
• 28:57
  Well, thank you. That's probably one of the the
• 29:01
  greatest compliments I've ever gotten from a woman.
• 29:06
  When you said, you know, just think and again, let's speak
• 29:08
  freely, you were like, you know, you know, you like chief, thanks
• 29:10
  for you know, it's just good to be around, you know, like safe
• 29:14
  masculinity. Like safe masculine energy, Yes.
• 29:17
  And yeah, that's what you said, safe masculine energy.
• 29:20
  I was like, no, I said, listen, I know it was.
• 29:23
  Thank you. Thank you for acknowledging it.
• 29:25
  Thank you for sharing it. But I think of course, the
• 29:29
  creator for finding out robbery for us to conduct ourselves as
• 29:34
  gentlemen, yes, in every form and fashion.
• 29:38
  Like of course, you know, we hanging out, we you know, we
• 29:40
  hanging out, whatever. But it's like, no, man, I mean,
• 29:43
  you know, and again, good energy recognizes good energy, so.
• 29:47
  Here we are, True, true, true, true, true.
• 29:50
  OK, anything else on prayer before we jump into journaling?
• 29:54
  Yeah, I think I'll say this. My thing with prayer is even for
• 30:00
  people who think they don't have time.
• 30:03
  How can we not have time but OK. Even for the people that feel
• 30:11
  like they do not have time, just imagine saying that you don't
• 30:18
  have time with the person that provides the time that we
• 30:21
  actually have. I say even if I'm running late,
• 30:26
  I oversleep. I make sure no matter what I do
• 30:32
  it's have your way. Come on, surrender.
• 30:38
  Jesus. Jesus interceded to the Father.
• 30:42
  Amen. Amen in.
• 30:44
  Other words, there's too many things right now to call by
• 30:46
  name. Lord, have your way.
• 30:48
  Yeah, there's a an acknowledgement.
• 30:51
  Have your way. I know you're, I'm being mindful
• 30:54
  of you, Lord. Have your way.
• 30:56
  Lord, allow me. Allow.
• 30:57
  It's not what, it's not what you allow me to do today.
• 31:00
  Lord, allow me to be. Allow me to be quiet and listen
• 31:04
  more than I talk, Lord, allow me to be in a space as I work with
• 31:08
  men and help them evolve. That I never raised my voice.
• 31:14
  I start raising my voice. In my household, I was.
• 31:16
  Going to say, but I 10 years sometimes it's appropriate,
• 31:19
  right? But some people they use that
• 31:20
  too much. But you set the tone and I love
• 31:23
  that you recognize that and every like Chief, don't raise
• 31:27
  his voice or coach, don't raise his voice.
• 31:31
  If I raise my voices in practice and of course so they can hear
• 31:34
  me, but in terms of me yelling at players, oh, I stopped that.
• 31:37
  I stopped that after during my first year, during my first year
• 31:41
  of coaching. Really quick story.
• 31:43
  I don't profess to hear voices in my first no end of my yeah,
• 31:49
  end of my first season crosstown rivalry Gym is packed, sweaty,
• 31:54
  funky, nasty. We are losing by 15.
• 31:57
  We can't throw AP in the C, right?
• 31:59
  So I take a time out and I'm yelling.
• 32:01
  Can't hold on. That was so country.
• 32:04
  We can't throw up in the sea. I've never heard that Listen and
• 32:08
  I'll be telling people how country my family is and you
• 32:11
  took it up a notch. My people are from Jackson and
• 32:14
  from from like George, from Atlanta, right?
• 32:17
  Like from Colley Park on my. No, no.
• 32:21
  OK, That's what a Huntsville, AL come comes out of me.
• 32:23
  But as a basketball coach, you say can't throw.
• 32:26
  They couldn't throw up PNC. In other words, they, they, you
• 32:28
  know, you got to be terrible not to be able to throw something in
• 32:30
  the water and they don't touch the.
• 32:32
  Surface. I understood it, but I said, oh,
• 32:34
  that's country, that's good. You don't believe fat meat,
• 32:37
  greasy. And I'm like, remember the first
• 32:39
  time I heard that? I digress.
• 32:41
  We have a way of speaking that's so different, but go ahead.
• 32:46
  I'm yelling and I'm like, what are we doing?
• 32:49
  And I'm like and literally like I used to always, I always pull
• 32:52
  my team away from the from the stands because what we're
• 32:55
  talking about is family business.
• 32:57
  OK. Oh, my team is in 1/2 circle
• 32:59
  around me and my my assistant coach is to my right and my
• 33:04
  players are in front of me and all of a hurt all of a sudden I
• 33:07
  heard some I heard a voice said talk to them.
• 33:12
  Yeah. And I stopped like in the middle
• 33:14
  of my round, I said and and I literally like Jean Doc.
• 33:23
  It's loud. My my assistant coach is there.
• 33:25
  Nobody else is behind me. Listen, you got to explain it to
• 33:29
  me. And I said and literally,
• 33:34
  literally this quiet at this volume, I said, all right,
• 33:37
  fellas, here's what we're going to do.
• 33:39
  You sub in for him, you sub in for him.
• 33:41
  This is what we're in on a make. This is what we're in on a miss
• 33:44
  123 dominate. These dudes go on a 13 to two
• 33:48
  run. Now we end up losing by three
• 33:51
  points. But y'all close that gap.
• 33:55
  What I do realize is that energy is never created nor destroyed,
• 33:59
  is transferred from one party to the next.
• 34:01
  So if I'm yelling and I'm rattled when they hit the floor,
• 34:05
  they going to be rattled. Never in the history of my
• 34:07
  coaching career have I ever put the ball in the basket and it
• 34:10
  counted towards my team. So if my energy is nervous and
• 34:15
  anxious, so is theirs. If I'm, if I'm, if, if I'm.
• 34:19
  And what I realized with the young men that I've worked with,
• 34:21
  not a lot of people acknowledged their presence.
• 34:25
  And what I realized was I wasn't communicating.
• 34:27
  I was corresponding. And in that moment when I heard
• 34:31
  him say talk to them, I had an opportunity connect to connect.
• 34:35
  So people were like, well, what does it mean to coach?
• 34:37
  It means to connect. And so once I did that, the game
• 34:41
  got easier to teach, Mistakes got easier to correct,
• 34:45
  fundamentals got easier to model and community got easier to
• 34:51
  scale because even after guys played for me, they come back,
• 34:55
  they check in on my family. Remember when my kids were
• 34:57
  little, man, how you man? How old are your kids now?
• 34:59
  Like I ran it when I was home 2 weekends ago.
• 35:02
  I ran I, I literally had just spoken his name.
• 35:04
  He just finished his first year as a high school coach in
• 35:07
  Toledo. And I, and he's my frat brother
• 35:09
  too. I ended up running into him and
• 35:12
  I'm like, bro, I said I was just talking about you.
• 35:14
  I said, do I have the right number?
• 35:15
  But I literally owe him a call this afternoon.
• 35:18
  So that in, in terms of knowing, being mindful of the presence,
• 35:21
  like I said, when it happened to me, I was like.
• 35:23
  So what you're in case listeners, it's not clear.
• 35:27
  You heard the voice of God, absolutely.
• 35:30
  And you're also describing one of the benefits of being in an
• 35:35
  intimate relationship with God. He speaks to you.
• 35:41
  Honestly, one of the things that we did as a team before and
• 35:47
  after was we prayed when we never prayed for a victory, we
• 35:52
  simply prayed for sportsmanship as to recall to join ourselves
• 35:56
  as a team, that nobody from our team or other team ever got
• 35:59
  hurt. And I remember after I won my
• 36:02
  first city championship, we stood in after after the trophy,
• 36:05
  after the trophy presentation, we stood there and prayed.
• 36:09
  Yeah. And people around was like, yo,
• 36:11
  I had never seen anything like that before.
• 36:13
  And I ain't coach at no Catholic school.
• 36:14
  I coach at a public school. Some young men that have that
• 36:17
  played for me had never dressed up to go to church.
• 36:19
  I was like no, we've pre games with with shirt and tie fellas.
• 36:22
  Yeah. You know, we prayed before games
• 36:24
  like and it was just, again, I knew in that moment that was the
• 36:30
  ministry I was meant to be in for as long as I wanted to be.
• 36:33
  OK, one last thing in this area, what is like 1 tip or
• 36:37
  recommendation that you would give our listeners and viewers
• 36:40
  to develop and or maintain a heartfelt prayer life with
• 36:45
  consistency? As my grandparents were farmers,
• 36:51
  every relationship we have requires the same elements.
• 36:57
  Water, sunlight and love. So water comes in whatever form
• 37:04
  you feel it needs to come in. That's it, that's that's a
• 37:06
  source. Sunlight is energy and or love.
• 37:12
  Treat it as if if you don't nurture it, it could literally
• 37:18
  die at any moment because we do what we do most.
• 37:23
  My grandfather was a phenomenal prayer warrior because he did it
• 37:28
  more often than not. Yep, it's like a muscle.
• 37:32
  Muslims play pray five times a day, Jews pray three times a
• 37:36
  day, and nobody's in competition.
• 37:39
  But what I'm saying is it becomes who you are, not what
• 37:44
  you do. So I say treat it as if it's a
• 37:47
  plant. Now, one thing I'm doing to
• 37:49
  stretch myself, I used to be a plant murderer.
• 37:53
  I am. Not the not the grandson of the
• 37:56
  farmer murdering the plant. Well, I had it.
• 37:58
  Well, I used to. Then I got a garden and once I
• 38:01
  got the garden, I realized, OK bro, it takes, it's not just
• 38:05
  planting and water, it's a lot of other preparation.
• 38:08
  But it's a mindfulness of oh, I gotta attend to my crop.
• 38:13
  Like he never has a reminder to attend to us.
• 38:17
  So why do we need a reminder? OK.
• 38:22
  OK. There's so much in there.
• 38:24
  I guess I can keep going. OK, so we're going to transition
• 38:30
  now into journaling as a tool for reflection and revelation.
• 38:36
  And y'all, this is one of those things that has completely
• 38:41
  transformed my life. I've journaled in the past and I
• 38:46
  would treat journaling kind of like how you describe prayer,
• 38:48
  like earlier in life where I would just journal when things
• 38:52
  got really, really bad, right? Versus just consistently
• 38:56
  journaling. And it was helpful during those
• 38:59
  times because they helped me process feelings, get things
• 39:01
  out. I used to be more creative and I
• 39:04
  would write poetry and things like that.
• 39:06
  Sometimes the process over the summer, I wow, I was going
• 39:17
  through this whole transformation with God and I
• 39:20
  knew it was happening and I could see that he was answering
• 39:23
  my prayers and giving me clarity and even the humility and
• 39:29
  vulnerability to like talk to him, right?
• 39:33
  And the transformation was so like intense that I was like,
• 39:37
  yeah, I feel like I need to be re baptized, right?
• 39:40
  And I talked to my minister about it and he was essentially
• 39:45
  saying, like Ginny, you don't need to be re baptized.
• 39:47
  Like Jesus died on the cross was one time was enough.
• 39:51
  Excuse me, Excuse me. And I'm like, you're right.
• 39:54
  We not going to disrespect Jesus in that sacrifice.
• 39:56
  He already paid the cost. But like, I knew I was changing,
• 39:59
  but I felt like I needed something to match it, right?
• 40:03
  And so he was like, Jeannie, all you have to do is repent, right?
• 40:07
  And so he was like, you could do that publicly.
• 40:09
  You could do that privately. I was like, OK, bet.
• 40:12
  So then I came up into my apartment.
• 40:16
  I think I might have put on that deep focus playlist you gave me
• 40:19
  or I listened to it afterwards, but I remember it was in the
• 40:22
  same day I listened to that for the first time.
• 40:24
  I put it on and I just took out my journal because I started
• 40:28
  writing some. But this just really took it to
• 40:31
  the next level and I wrote dear God and I start writing a letter
• 40:37
  of repentance, a letter of apology to God and that we
• 40:43
  turned into like 6 or 8 pages. I'd have to go back and look and
• 40:49
  man, when I tell you things start clicking and shifting and
• 40:52
  moving that much more quickly. And I would do it every day.
• 40:56
  Like I could feel like I was dog tired and I'm like, I'm going to
• 40:59
  Elise write, thank you for this day, express some gratitude.
• 41:02
  Next thing I know I've written 4 pages.
• 41:05
  And so I write pretty much every day.
• 41:08
  I travel, I take a journal with me, but when I tell you it's
• 41:13
  been so transformative, so like I just, I really want to hear
• 41:17
  what it has done for you and how you've done it as a practice.
• 41:21
  Where for me it was AI thought it was one thing and it it, it,
• 41:27
  it just turns into like a way of living for me.
• 41:29
  But yeah, tell me about your experience.
• 41:32
  I. Think what we do in in our own
• 41:34
  infant and own in our own finite wisdom or infinite wisdom is
• 41:42
  it's easy to get caught up in what we do.
• 41:47
  And again, this is no strike against anybody who doesn't know
• 41:50
  I This is a personal story about how it helps me.
• 41:55
  Yeah. Last night I was at Morgan State
• 41:57
  University. Shout out to the bears of Morgan
• 41:58
  State. Thank you all for having me.
• 41:59
  We were talking about time and energy management and I told
• 42:03
  them there are are a couple of things that we go through in any
• 42:07
  given season. There's the three Rs, which is
• 42:09
  recognition, relationship, and reintroduction.
• 42:14
  So think about any time you've been in a scenario that those
• 42:17
  are the three Rs. Not reading, writing and
• 42:18
  arithmetic as our grandparents told us because our grandparents
• 42:22
  told us and parents told us wrong.
• 42:23
  I was like, look, only one of them starts with AR.
• 42:25
  But anyway, I digress. Y'all like catch that at the red
• 42:28
  light because arithmetic starts. With AT and.
• 42:29
  Last time I checked, writing. Starts with AW, so.
• 42:33
  But I also told them there are three M's and this is what I'm
• 42:36
  really, really proud of myself for doing.
• 42:39
  The first M is measure. You want to change things.
• 42:46
  Nothing changes without measuring.
• 42:49
  So if you have a problem with your car before they work on it,
• 42:52
  they have to measure. Before you get that fly haircut
• 42:56
  that you got Doctor J Nicole, they have to measure.
• 42:59
  Listen, My Barber, My Barber is the episode before you.
• 43:02
  Yeah, you're right. It's the skill.
• 43:04
  Before, before you fit into a suit, you have to know the.
• 43:08
  Measurements. Before you try, you have to know
• 43:10
  the measurements. And when we measure, we have an
• 43:15
  opportunity to create momentum. But that's not the second M.
• 43:20
  The second M is mastery. We can't master anything we
• 43:25
  haven't measured. So my goal was to make sure that
• 43:28
  I got more quality rest in the last two years.
• 43:31
  So this year I'm I'm focused on measuring and mastering when I
• 43:38
  go to bed. Like, bro, get your butt in the
• 43:41
  bed. Like stop playing.
• 43:42
  You're already an early worm. Get be prepared.
• 43:46
  Get in the bed so you can have the quality rest so that you can
• 43:50
  be so that you can be not, so that you, so you can be who you
• 43:54
  need to be. And that's what you can do.
• 43:57
  Right, so now there's the measurement phase.
• 43:59
  So again, entire 2025, I've been writing.
• 44:04
  This is what I'm writing every day.
• 44:06
  My word for this year? Single tasking.
• 44:09
  So yo-yo, it's 2 words but I'm with you.
• 44:12
  Or you Did you give it a little? It's hyphenated single task, my
• 44:19
  phrase for the year. It's part of the process.
• 44:22
  And every day I measure my 4, what I call my core 4, mind,
• 44:25
  health, balance and wealth with three checks.
• 44:28
  Three checks means excellent, 2 checks means average, one check
• 44:31
  means terrible or poor. And I I assume every day, so I
• 44:35
  assess myself every day in. Addition to that ability.
• 44:38
  Camera I also put up there my mood.
• 44:42
  My AMU is a :) regular face, frown face.
• 44:45
  I need you to put some more faces in between those though,
• 44:47
  'cause it's a whole lot. Well.
• 44:49
  Well, I mean, it's just, it's. Got you.
• 44:51
  I love it. Your mood tracking is what I
• 44:53
  call it with my clients. Your mood tracking.
• 44:55
  Exactly. And then I have what is
• 44:57
  required, what is the return and what is the reward for myself
• 45:01
  today. Required return reward you you
• 45:04
  do these threes. Well.
• 45:06
  Which is also my line number by the way.
• 45:08
  Is it really? Yeah, I'm the third.
• 45:10
  OK, alright. So it was meant to be.
• 45:11
  So what's funny is that our brain remembers things best in
• 45:14
  threes. And So what I do is make sure
• 45:17
  that I check in with myself the things that that are required,
• 45:20
  the things that I can that I'll do that have a return.
• 45:23
  Sometimes the things on my return list say, yo, who do I
• 45:25
  need to call or leave a voice message for like the other
• 45:27
  morning? I just literally my my sister is
• 45:29
  literally my best friend and so. Love that.
• 45:32
  She's three years older than me. Shout out to my big sis.
• 45:35
  So I just realized, yo, normally me and me, her and my mom text
• 45:38
  almost every day, but I realized I hadn't heard her voice and I
• 45:40
  was like, yo, let me, let me, let me holler at my sister just
• 45:43
  on her way to I know she's on the way.
• 45:43
  I said, hey, my nickname for her is Luda.
• 45:46
  All right, Luda, I know you're on the way to work, but she, we
• 45:48
  call each other Luda, but that's a whole inside joke.
• 45:50
  But anyway, I was like, I hadn't heard her voice, but that was a
• 45:55
  return on that. And the reward.
• 45:57
  So my reward today is the last night because I have a rule.
• 46:00
  The 1st 90 minutes of my day belong to me.
• 46:02
  Period. Love that nobody.
• 46:04
  Interrupted nobody. From the time I get up, from the
• 46:07
  time I wake up and look at my phone, the 1st 90 minutes belong
• 46:10
  to me. I don't talk to anybody.
• 46:12
  I I barely, I barely look at my phone.
• 46:14
  And this is another reason why you need that intentional rest,
• 46:18
  so you can rise early before people can even ask things of
• 46:21
  you. Exactly.
• 46:22
  But what I'm also measuring too, and it's it's happening already
• 46:27
  Doc my fault. My screen time, my screen time
• 46:32
  last week was 4 hours and 23 minutes per day.
• 46:37
  No, 4 hours and 31 minutes per day.
• 46:39
  The week before that it was 6 hours and 31 minutes.
• 46:42
  The week before that it was 8. No, the week before that it was
• 46:45
  less than that. It was two hours and but I was
• 46:47
  on vacation so I was like. Yeah, you, you just taken a
• 46:51
  couple pics and that's about it. But before March it was probably
• 46:55
  upwards of 8 to 9 hours. I was like bro, that's too much.
• 46:58
  So now how did? I measure, yeah.
• 47:01
  I was like, how did you imagine that being too much?
• 47:05
  Well, for me, it was too much for the things that I would like
• 47:08
  to do and the things that I want to give more of my energy to.
• 47:12
  And I need. To get more of my energy to I
• 47:14
  got to get off my phone. OK, because you could do a lot
• 47:17
  of tool, there's a lot of things you can get done on your phone
• 47:21
  because some people they're like, it's just being on the
• 47:23
  phone. For me.
• 47:24
  I believe it's what you're doing on the phone and how it aligns
• 47:27
  to those, you know, purpose and what you're doing.
• 47:31
  Yeah. And and until I've gotten those
• 47:33
  things up, but what I'm saying in terms of getting back to
• 47:34
  your, your original question, what journaling has allowed me
• 47:37
  to do everyday is literally mass.
• 47:39
  I mean measure where I am so that I can master what I need to
• 47:44
  start doing or what I need to stop doing.
• 47:48
  The last M is manifest. OK, measure mastery manifest
• 47:55
  manifest. So I we can't manifest what we
• 47:58
  don't master, and we can't master what we haven't measured.
• 48:04
  So it helps me on any given day to remember what kind of mood am
• 48:08
  I in, how am I really feeling. So when I ask people how you, I
• 48:12
  don't ask. I don't ask people more
• 48:14
  specifically, I don't ask black men how they doing anymore.
• 48:17
  I stopped. At my doing the same thing too,
• 48:19
  I said how you? How you feeling black man?
• 48:21
  Hey bro, I'm tired, OK? And I had a student shout out to
• 48:25
  a former student of mine. She graduated from GW in 2017.
• 48:29
  She had recently, she recently lost her father.
• 48:32
  And so I was like, hey sis, I'm just checking in on you.
• 48:35
  How are you feeling? She was like I am.
• 48:42
  That's rich. I like say less.
• 48:45
  Yeah. I like say less, I appreciate
• 48:48
  your authenticity. 'Cause I, I just in case
• 48:51
  listeners and viewers aren't catching that right.
• 48:55
  Sometimes for people, a way for them to even recognize their
• 49:01
  humanity is because they can feel things.
• 49:04
  Because some people go through it so deep that they're so numb
• 49:07
  that they, they're disconnected, they're dissociated from
• 49:11
  themselves, experienced, they're so detached.
• 49:13
  So for her to say I am, man, that's that to me.
• 49:18
  I heard a whole lot more, even though like you said, say less
• 49:22
  Understood. And now for some people, when I
• 49:26
  hear brothers, especially on the phone with my inner circle, you
• 49:29
  know, brothers that say stuff, I'll be like, say more.
• 49:33
  Tell me more. If if you got the time, I got
• 49:36
  the ears yeah right. I'm like say more because I I
• 49:40
  felt what I felt your I felt what you've I felt your energy
• 49:45
  there like bro say more. I feel like if you don't get it
• 49:47
  out I won't understand, but moreover it could possibly carry
• 49:53
  over into the next person you come in contact with.
• 49:56
  I'd rather you get it out while we're in community and that way
• 50:01
  you don't transfer it into other places.
• 50:04
  I, I do some work with, I've done some work with Montgomery
• 50:08
  County Police and I asked them the question.
• 50:11
  I said, since, and this is right after getting, they've just
• 50:14
  taken their oath. They're literally when we're
• 50:15
  finished with them that very next day, they, they start their
• 50:18
  first day and I say to them, I said, well, let me ask y'all a
• 50:21
  question. I don't care where y'all grew
• 50:22
  up. Who were you when the cops
• 50:23
  showed up? And I said, just remember that
• 50:27
  when you show up as the cops, I said, because you see, you're
• 50:32
  going to see most some of the most horrific things or there
• 50:35
  going to be sometimes you're going to have to show people a
• 50:38
  dark side of yourself in order to maintain order and peace and
• 50:41
  and be on your post and make sure everything is in rhythm.
• 50:45
  Yeah. The very next place you go to
• 50:49
  maybe somebody who's been in a car accident and they are shaken
• 50:52
  up. They got to shift a lot.
• 50:55
  Yeah, so I'm always very mindful, especially when
• 50:58
  brothers are sharing how they feel.
• 51:01
  I'm like, brother, I'm listening.
• 51:03
  I asked you how you feel because I got time if you need it.
• 51:06
  Yeah. And I think what happens because
• 51:08
  we're so separated by devices that are meant to help us, we
• 51:14
  don't leverage them. We don't leverage our in person
• 51:17
  energy the way we should. And that's what it was intended
• 51:21
  for. And getting back to how it
• 51:23
  relates to helping us in our spiritual walk, our relationship
• 51:28
  with God is the most intimate one we've ever had the
• 51:30
  opportunity to embark on and invest in.
• 51:32
  But. Some people never tap in or they
• 51:35
  weren't in a position like you were to have it modeled by your
• 51:40
  grandfather, where maybe they were born Into Darkness, right?
• 51:46
  Where people had turned away. And some people they, they have
• 51:51
  to rediscover it, right, 'cause we're born, we, we're mind, body
• 51:54
  and spirit, right? Like that's in US, God is in us.
• 51:57
  But if that's not cultivated, it's not nurtured.
• 51:59
  If it's not water, if it's not getting the sun, if it's not
• 52:03
  getting all of that, then then what?
• 52:05
  Right? Like we have to understand
• 52:06
  people are in different stages of this journey or like we might
• 52:10
  be on the same track but we don't start at the same point.
• 52:16
  Absolutely not. And it's the intimacy that I
• 52:20
  feel that has not been modeled. And what happens is if it's not
• 52:26
  modeled, people don't want to begin to understand what it
• 52:33
  means to be intimate with the Creator.
• 52:35
  Or they don't know so. Why a lot of people can't commit
• 52:38
  to this? Yeah.
• 52:40
  It's. Because.
• 52:40
  Somewhere you to be a beginner and people are like what's
• 52:43
  what's your advice with people? I was like no, be OK with being
• 52:46
  a beginner. I love that.
• 52:49
  Because guess what, today is what, March 26 to 25, we both
• 52:56
  began. Indeed.
• 53:00
  Tomorrow, God willing, we will begin again.
• 53:05
  So it's not success or failure that people fear, it's
• 53:12
  maintenance. What really maintenance is the
• 53:17
  determination between success and failure too.
• 53:23
  I'm pushing. I'm.
• 53:24
  Tracking, we could easily go from three to five.
• 53:26
  M's measure momentum. Uh huh.
• 53:31
  Mastery, Mastery. Manifestation.
• 53:35
  Maintenance. Maintenance could go before and
• 53:38
  after that, but it's still in it.
• 53:40
  I really, I, I think you got to update them because not saying
• 53:44
  those other M's, I feel like we're, we're missing some of the
• 53:48
  things that are not going to allow the people to be as
• 53:50
  successful, right? Because, you know, I mean,
• 53:53
  because it's a lot of steps in there and sometimes people tell
• 53:55
  you what to do, but not the how. And these other M's are the
• 53:59
  how's they are the bridges between your core M's.
• 54:02
  You welcome. You can use that.
• 54:07
  Did not just bring this up, but we are.
• 54:09
  Calling, calling them the bridges between your core, your
• 54:13
  core EMS. OK, All right.
• 54:18
  OK, So OK, I think you kind of gave the people what they need
• 54:23
  so really quick. I like if you want to share that
• 54:25
  framework again, what you do in your journal, your checklist and
• 54:28
  how you're checking in before. My SO I always, this is just,
• 54:33
  this is just my system. I challenge people to have a
• 54:35
  word for your season, if it's for your year, for your quarter,
• 54:38
  for your week, for your month, from there have a phrase that
• 54:41
  means something to you. So for instance, 2023 I put as
• 54:48
  my three statements my sophomore year of high school.
• 54:53
  That's when I played my best basketball, most people.
• 54:55
  Like you said 2023, I thought you said no.
• 54:59
  I'm saying in 2023 this is what I wrote in my journal.
• 55:03
  OK, got it. I was like wait.
• 55:05
  I I wrote. My.
• 55:07
  Girl, please. I'm 21, so so I wrote.
• 55:12
  So my sophomore year of high school, that's when I played my
• 55:15
  best basketball. Yeah.
• 55:18
  That had most people. It wasn't your senior.
• 55:19
  I was like, no, it's my sophomore year.
• 55:21
  Secondly, what I wrote down was every opportunity is the last
• 55:24
  opportunity. I like it and there's pressure,
• 55:30
  but some people respond well. It's what I needed.
• 55:33
  I'm a, I'm a competitor. OK, so that works for you.
• 55:36
  So I'm a competitor, but I also wrote down 3 manifestations. 1
• 55:40
  was I will have joy number one. Number two.
• 55:45
  Number two was to say I, I I will earn over six figures.
• 55:52
  OK. The third one was I will be out
• 55:54
  of consumer debt, so about halfway through the year.
• 55:58
  I wrote these every day in 2023. Yes.
• 56:00
  Halfway through the year, I changed my phrase simply to I am
• 56:04
  joy. Yeah, I am earning.
• 56:08
  Yes. I am out of.
• 56:11
  Yes, so. What do you think happened at
• 56:12
  the end of 2020? All of those things happen
• 56:15
  because they became you became them.
• 56:17
  It's going into every fiber of your being When you write that
• 56:21
  that power of writing is so important because 1 you thought
• 56:25
  it right. Second, when we, I don't know
• 56:28
  about you, but when I think I hear right without any external
• 56:33
  thing. So we think it, we hear it.
• 56:36
  You're seeing it because you visualizing it, right?
• 56:40
  Then you're writing it, which also means you're reading it and
• 56:46
  you're hearing it again because as I'm writing, I'll be thinking
• 56:49
  it right. And then you're also reflecting
• 56:52
  like it's sinking in, it's processing and your body, your
• 56:56
  brain takes all that in and then it is like seeps into even like
• 57:02
  just like your, your, your, the cells of your body and
• 57:06
  everything moves to make those things happen where you might
• 57:10
  forget. You're not even like actively
• 57:12
  thinking about it, but you've already given your body, your
• 57:16
  brain, the instructions. This is what we doing.
• 57:19
  And this is how powerful our brain is.
• 57:21
  Allow. Me to apologize and correct my
• 57:24
  English, I said guess what did I say?
• 57:29
  Guess what happened? I think I may have said guess
• 57:32
  what happened at the end of the year?
• 57:33
  Guess what he did for me? I like that.
• 57:36
  Come on glory, come on glory, give it to him.
• 57:39
  It wasn't because I'm that sweet.
• 57:42
  He heard you. I wrote the vision and made it
• 57:43
  plain. You go into the word.
• 57:44
  Now write the vision, make it plain or you could even go to
• 57:48
  Proverbs 16 verses 3 commit thy thoughts to commit lot commit
• 57:51
  thy work to the Lord and I thought should should be
• 57:53
  established right. We we can do that, right?
• 57:57
  And I'm saying that with that I literally allowed myself to
• 58:02
  submit. That surrender, that's so
• 58:07
  important. It does.
• 58:08
  The song doesn't say I surrender some, it says I surrender all.
• 58:13
  So I surrendered it all to him. How I was feeling 'cause I said
• 58:16
  I will have joy. Like, bro, you had joy, you just
• 58:19
  didn't recognize it, right? Was it common to say it'll take
• 58:24
  a whole day to recognize sunshine?
• 58:26
  I was like, bro, you got joy. You are joy.
• 58:28
  You look joy to me every day. You are joy.
• 58:31
  Yeah, yeah, you are joy. Even on your saddest day, you
• 58:34
  are joy. Because he is joy.
• 58:36
  We're reflection to him. So when I say require return
• 58:39
  reward, I make sure I don't overload myself on what I feel
• 58:44
  like I have to do. It's required.
• 58:48
  Yeah, it's required. Like what's required?
• 58:51
  OK, Is it my day to make dinner? OK, got to make dinner or get
• 58:55
  dinner. Either I got to make it or go
• 58:56
  get. It people got to eat.
• 58:58
  Return. It's like, OK, what energy am I
• 59:01
  going to give to the world? Not expecting anything
• 59:04
  necessarily in return, but at some point it will come back.
• 59:07
  I love that and how I reward. Myself.
• 59:09
  Some people think that that return might be like returned on
• 59:12
  investment and you're like, no, how am I giving back?
• 59:15
  I love that. And the last one is reward.
• 59:18
  How will you reward yourself for today?
• 59:20
  Some days it's just like, you know what?
• 59:23
  Like today, it's early bedtime. Right.
• 59:26
  What's early bedtime? Early bedtime for me, which is
• 59:30
  really going to be my it's like it's it's before 9:45, at least
• 59:34
  I'm in the bed, I'm in the bed, no phone, no book, just in the
• 59:38
  bed and last 90 minutes. So my last 90 minutes would be
• 59:42
  mobility meditation, maybe write out what you know, what did I,
• 59:47
  what, how did I feel do throughout the day.
• 59:50
  And here's a prompt if anybody wants to use it.
• 59:52
  There's a question. You could ask yourself on any
• 59:53
  given day #1 when you wake up in the morning, simply write.
• 59:58
  And I'll. And I only give myself 1/2 a
• 1:00:00
  page to write each day so I don't get along with it on
• 1:00:02
  purpose because I want to get to the point.
• 1:00:06
  I say, what do you know? Like today, what do you know?
• 1:00:09
  I don't care what it is, don't matter.
• 1:00:11
  What do you know? The question at the end of the
• 1:00:14
  day is what did you learn about yourself, about others, period?
• 1:00:18
  And it's just interesting. As I get brainstormed, I write
• 1:00:21
  them there. I hear something that I really
• 1:00:22
  liked. Or if it's a if it's a powerful
• 1:00:24
  question that I feel like I need to ask my clients more, ask
• 1:00:27
  myself more, ask my students or my my friends.
• 1:00:30
  Or some days it's just taking a walk down memory lane.
• 1:00:36
  Or just some days it's literally, it's just, it's, I
• 1:00:39
  mean, listen, look, OK, literally this is January 28th,
• 1:00:44
  2025. I feel like I try to make my
• 1:00:46
  life an Almanac in some way, shape or form.
• 1:00:49
  Now, now, we grew up in a different era.
• 1:00:52
  Some of our listeners and viewers may not know what an
• 1:00:54
  Almanac is. An Almanac OK if OK.
• 1:00:57
  So Doctor J, your your birthday is coming up April 13th.
• 1:01:01
  Yes, so. If we wanted to know who was
• 1:01:04
  born, who died, what the stock market did on April 13th, 1972,
• 1:01:09
  Nineteen, 6419 13, we could find out what happened on April 13,
• 1:01:14
  1913, right? That has a significance to you
• 1:01:17
  for so many reasons. We could find out.
• 1:01:19
  And So what what I'm saying is a lot of times people say, well, I
• 1:01:22
  forgot, I said Nah. And, and I tell my students now
• 1:01:25
  because I'm really trying to get them to get to a place where
• 1:01:28
  they realize, I mean, research shows that when we write things
• 1:01:31
  down, we're 42% more likely to execute them or remember them.
• 1:01:34
  Go ahead, drop them slats. That's that's research.
• 1:01:38
  Don't argue with me, argue with the research.
• 1:01:40
  So on on January 20th, 2025, here was here were some of my
• 1:01:43
  closing thoughts. My PM mood was a :) and I said
• 1:01:46
  dinner was a hit according to the family.
• 1:01:50
  I want to know what was on the menu but.
• 1:01:52
  I don't mean separate. Yeah, OK, I'm a foodie.
• 1:01:56
  Here's here's what's interesting.
• 1:01:59
  Here's one thing I said to myself in my in my journal
• 1:02:02
  today. I feel seen, heard, valued and
• 1:02:04
  appreciated. Yes, that's such a wonderful
• 1:02:07
  feeling and experience. I also said momentum is an
• 1:02:11
  elixir we must sip before we embody mastery.
• 1:02:16
  OK, Elixir. That was random.
• 1:02:18
  I just, I just happened to open it, so I don't know where.
• 1:02:22
  I don't even know where that last thing came from.
• 1:02:24
  Listen. But that's how God shows up.
• 1:02:28
  I went back, I sent my lying sister a photo.
• 1:02:31
  Hold on, let me let, let me find this, 'cause this is how God be
• 1:02:33
  working. And you know, a big, this
• 1:02:35
  podcast is about giving God the glory, right?
• 1:02:38
  So I had she went with me to the continent.
• 1:02:42
  So we spent like all of December on the continent and oh shoot.
• 1:02:48
  I'm jealous, by the way. Hey, don't have to be.
• 1:02:50
  The continent is wide open. So so I wrote this in my journal
• 1:02:59
  on November 21st, right? Didn't tell anybody because
• 1:03:04
  what's in there is between, you know, it's me and God unless it
• 1:03:06
  comes up like I'm about to share now and we were together.
• 1:03:10
  Obviously this was a spiritual experience because my trip
• 1:03:12
  started out it was just supposed to be me graduating or
• 1:03:15
  celebrating my completion of my doctorate.
• 1:03:17
  And then God was the one that told me to book my like toward
• 1:03:22
  December, like I was going by myself, but I, you know, opened
• 1:03:24
  it up to people. She decided she was going to
• 1:03:27
  come. And then it turned into, well,
• 1:03:28
  you know what? I don't want to just go to the
• 1:03:30
  continent and take, I want to give back.
• 1:03:32
  So let me add some service in at each country where I'm visiting.
• 1:03:36
  And then my minister comes up to me and he was like, maybe Gary
• 1:03:41
  trying to take some Bibles with you.
• 1:03:42
  That's not his exact words, but it was like what you be open to.
• 1:03:46
  And I was like, absolutely. So then it turns into a mission
• 1:03:48
  trip. So I thought it was about me
• 1:03:50
  celebrating. Then I was like, let me get
• 1:03:52
  back. And then it was like, and you
• 1:03:54
  about to spread the good news. But so she and I, we talk a lot
• 1:03:59
  about our beliefs, our faith, and we got closer on this trip
• 1:04:05
  too. And so at the end of the trip,
• 1:04:07
  she said, God told me to tell you something.
• 1:04:10
  He said give him six months and shoot.
• 1:04:15
  What's the scripture that be anxious for nothing but through
• 1:04:19
  prayer, supplication. Yeah.
• 1:04:21
  Supplication. Yep.
• 1:04:22
  Make a request on the God I wanna.
• 1:04:23
  Is that in Ephesians 4-6 something?
• 1:04:27
  I'll look it up, but so she's telling me this.
• 1:04:30
  This is a month after I've written this and I went back.
• 1:04:33
  God took me to a page 'cause He will take us where he want us to
• 1:04:36
  be to see the alignment. I flipped to this page and it
• 1:04:40
  said I wrote. My life will look completely
• 1:04:43
  different in six months. Oh, now let me see if I can read
• 1:04:47
  this. You've made, Oh my goodness,
• 1:04:50
  you've made such dramatic changes in my life in five
• 1:04:54
  months. I know that this is just the
• 1:04:56
  warm up. I have written it.
• 1:05:00
  Forgot I wrote it. She tells me a month and
• 1:05:03
  something later, and then it pops back up and March 13th that
• 1:05:07
  I'm on this page. Like, gosh, just reminding me.
• 1:05:10
  Because even when she said it to me, I was like, yeah, that's
• 1:05:12
  'cause I tricked off the first six months in 2024.
• 1:05:15
  Trying to heal. Not really trying to heal, but
• 1:05:17
  not just like surrendering to him, right.
• 1:05:20
  And so I love that it's here, it's written.
• 1:05:22
  So like when you say that's the Almanac, you have those things
• 1:05:25
  to go back to and like to really see and track and see how he
• 1:05:29
  really do be moving and working and the way he's moved and
• 1:05:32
  worked. If I was not keeping a written
• 1:05:34
  journal of these things. Yeah.
• 1:05:38
  It's let me do forget. Go ahead.
• 1:05:40
  Let me share something from the very next day.
• 1:05:42
  OK, January 29th, 2025 My pee and move with :) I said
• 1:05:46
  yesterday was a reminder of what delaying fun and connecting with
• 1:05:50
  people and taking care of self can do for my confidence.
• 1:05:54
  I. Don't know where that came from,
• 1:05:57
  but I I I recollected all of the events of the day.
• 1:06:01
  I would encourage you to maybe expand beyond your half a page
• 1:06:05
  and I get why you have it right. That can help with the
• 1:06:08
  consistency and maintain the habit because there are things
• 1:06:12
  you could be repeating. So as simple as that dinner
• 1:06:15
  being a hit, your family giving you that feedback and if you
• 1:06:18
  remember what it is, you can do that again.
• 1:06:20
  And they can feel seen, heard, understood and value that.
• 1:06:25
  Dad listened, my husband listened, you know what I mean?
• 1:06:28
  And and did the thing, you know, we like this and we know that he
• 1:06:33
  does it because we like it, right.
• 1:06:35
  And so even with that, whatever you experienced in that day,
• 1:06:40
  these are things we can replicate.
• 1:06:43
  Right and even as we track our wins biggest wins from January
• 1:06:46
  2025 documented all 31 days in January, finished relentless by
• 1:06:51
  Tim Grover for the second time broke my manifestations daily,
• 1:06:55
  stuck to dry January and a plant based diet got myself back into
• 1:06:59
  a rhythm. Fitness walked 83.2 miles,
• 1:07:03
  prioritize quality rest consistently connected with
• 1:07:05
  people in real time and spoke for Bowie State and Howard
• 1:07:08
  University. Book flights for vacation and
• 1:07:10
  admitting my PTO. They say and to a lot of people
• 1:07:13
  they're like, yo, that's my year.
• 1:07:14
  He did that in a month. But that's what that
• 1:07:17
  intentionality with the you taking that time for yourself in
• 1:07:21
  the morning and the evening, those things are really
• 1:07:23
  important. So I think this is a good
• 1:07:27
  transition to the segue so that we can spend some time on
• 1:07:30
  meditation because these are all things that go together.
• 1:07:33
  And with this, I do want to ground this in a couple of
• 1:07:36
  scriptures, right? Because there is biblical
• 1:07:39
  foundation that supports meditation.
• 1:07:41
  So we have Joshua, Joshua chapter one, verse 8.
• 1:07:46
  Keep this book of the law always on your lips.
• 1:07:49
  Meditate it. Meditate on it day and night so
• 1:07:53
  that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
• 1:07:57
  Then you may be prosperous and successful.
• 1:08:00
  This is essentially what you're talking about too, writing your
• 1:08:03
  manifestations too. And that is there with you.
• 1:08:07
  So then prosperous, successful, right?
• 1:08:11
  So this tells you the benefits of meditation.
• 1:08:14
  Obviously they're talking, this is in the Old Testament.
• 1:08:16
  So they're talking about like the law of Moses, but we can
• 1:08:19
  apply this as well to our daily lives.
• 1:08:22
  And then the other Scripture is Psalms 4610.
• 1:08:33
  And this one says, because the, the, the thing about meditation,
• 1:08:39
  right, is that like we're in a quiet space, we're settled,
• 1:08:44
  we're eliminating distractions, right?
• 1:08:46
  And I believe like with meditation, it opens up a space
• 1:08:49
  for like deeper intimacy with God, for him to communicate with
• 1:08:55
  us how he needs to communicate with us, right?
• 1:08:57
  Because I think it's unique and individual because he created
• 1:09:00
  us. We're, we're each uniquely and
• 1:09:02
  wonderfully made, right? And he knows how to communicate
• 1:09:05
  with us. And so this one, I think a lot
• 1:09:07
  of people do know, he says, be still and know that I am God.
• 1:09:12
  I will be exalted among the nations.
• 1:09:15
  I will be exalted in the earth, right?
• 1:09:17
  So this highlights the importance of that stillness.
• 1:09:23
  So with that in mind, how do you practice like stillness and
• 1:09:30
  meditation and like what recommendations would you give
• 1:09:33
  to others to incorporate this into their daily spiritual
• 1:09:37
  practices? Again, we've been programmed
• 1:09:39
  since the time we were born to move and do.
• 1:09:44
  I meditate daily? It ranges from 5 to 10 minutes
• 1:09:50
  depending on where I am. I used to meditate with
• 1:09:54
  meditation music. Now I meditate in complete
• 1:09:57
  silence. And that's a beautiful
• 1:09:58
  progression. Because sometimes we feel like
• 1:10:02
  we have to have a certain noise to get in rhythm or alignment.
• 1:10:07
  I'm a runner. Six years ago, I start running
• 1:10:11
  with headphones in my ears and there are even certain days I'm
• 1:10:15
  in the gym, I don't put earbuds in my ears.
• 1:10:18
  I was like, dude, unless you know, if I'm listening to a
• 1:10:20
  podcast or something, but like in terms of music was like, bro,
• 1:10:22
  you don't need it. Like if people are like, well, I
• 1:10:25
  gotta have my music. Like no, you need to move.
• 1:10:30
  You think that it's a conditional agreement, but I
• 1:10:34
  meditate in silence. And one thing I said I would do
• 1:10:37
  this year, no matter where I am in the universe, and it's a
• 1:10:42
  challenge for any and everybody. You don't have to do this, But
• 1:10:44
  I, I even challenged my students.
• 1:10:46
  I said, you know what, find one thing you can do every day that
• 1:10:49
  cost you no money and very little time.
• 1:10:51
  Every day I, I watch the sunrise, whether it's raining,
• 1:10:54
  sleeting, snowing, or hailing, like, I don't care where I am.
• 1:10:57
  Some days I'm in the gym and I'll stop and I'm, you know,
• 1:11:00
  I'm, I'm working, but I'm making sure that my, because the
• 1:11:02
  windows at my gym face east. So I'm like, boom, I'm, I'll
• 1:11:05
  make sure I take, you know, my little break or, OK, I'm
• 1:11:08
  watching the sunrise. But what I'm saying is most
• 1:11:12
  people don't realize and that's why it's again every day we
• 1:11:16
  begin. Cause guess what most people
• 1:11:18
  don't know until they watch it. Every day I watch the sun, it
• 1:11:22
  has not risen in the same place ever.
• 1:11:24
  No, it doesn't. And I know that from my morning
• 1:11:27
  like walks as I call them 'cause they're more walking than
• 1:11:30
  jogging. But you know, sure.
• 1:11:32
  But it's a beautiful thing. I say God is the most beautiful
• 1:11:35
  artist ever known to man, woman and beast, because when I just
• 1:11:41
  even as I watch sunsets, right, I love watching sunsets, But
• 1:11:45
  again, that comes from my parents being people, watchers
• 1:11:48
  or or those they say. They say as a kid, you know what
• 1:11:52
  baby best things in life are free and they certainly are and
• 1:11:55
  to watch the sunrise. And again, you don't have to be
• 1:11:58
  this Namaste with if you can just enjoy the quiet of
• 1:12:03
  yourself. No matter where you are.
• 1:12:07
  One minute, just take a moment and listen to yourself breathe.
• 1:12:13
  You can be. And again I tell people if you
• 1:12:17
  don't think, if you think you got ADHD, OK, fine.
• 1:12:19
  We all do to some degree and it's and it's a badge of honor.
• 1:12:22
  We have so many things distracting us.
• 1:12:24
  Who would who? It's hard to maintain your
• 1:12:25
  focus. Start over 30 seconds.
• 1:12:28
  Like if I breathe. Deeply for 30 seconds.
• 1:12:31
  It's a beautiful thing. But even in that, you're doing
• 1:12:33
  something still right. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:38
  So yeah, it it helps me. It helps me be.
• 1:12:42
  And I know another tool that and, and what I love to when you
• 1:12:45
  were talking about, like your progression when you first
• 1:12:47
  started, you started with music, because sometimes it creates the
• 1:12:50
  environment. It's it eliminates the typical
• 1:12:54
  distractions, right? So it's a signal like you said,
• 1:12:57
  like the conditional, did you say conditional relationship,
• 1:13:00
  conditional connection, What was the words you use?
• 1:13:02
  It's a conditional behavior like you feel like it has to be this
• 1:13:06
  condition in order for me to have and it's this has to be in
• 1:13:09
  order for me to have. Yes, you said you said a
• 1:13:12
  different word, but I like the way you said it.
• 1:13:13
  But yes, sometimes we do need to create the environment to
• 1:13:19
  reinforce the behavior and then hope to progress to just having
• 1:13:22
  the behavior and not needing this conditional portion of it.
• 1:13:27
  But I didn't realize that I was doing a form of it in the
• 1:13:31
  morning. I love the daily refresh in the
• 1:13:33
  Bible app. And when you get to like that
• 1:13:36
  third part where you're like the prayer and spending time with
• 1:13:39
  God, there's, you know, they have the little play button at
• 1:13:41
  the bottom and it does create like the small like it, it gives
• 1:13:45
  you nice little soft music. It can be like a piano,
• 1:13:47
  whatever. I enjoyed that.
• 1:13:49
  And, and, and I remember when I first started doing them, some
• 1:13:53
  of them would tell you to breathe right?
• 1:13:56
  And I would do it. And now even if they don't tell
• 1:13:59
  me to breathe, I breathe a few minutes And I started talking to
• 1:14:02
  God before I even read like the script in the prompts.
• 1:14:06
  And I have I saved the different prayers that they put in there
• 1:14:09
  too and add those prayers. And so then I'm doing like 5
• 1:14:15
  prayers before I get to the end because it'll show you random
• 1:14:18
  ones if you add them. But saying this carved out this
• 1:14:21
  time. And then I would look up
• 1:14:23
  sometimes and I'm like, yo, I've been on this for 30 minutes, but
• 1:14:27
  it doesn't even feel like it, but it just feels good.
• 1:14:30
  And there's one particular piano rhythm that they have that I
• 1:14:33
  love that when I hear it, it instantly puts me at ease and
• 1:14:37
  brings kind of like a peace where I'm like, yes, and I go
• 1:14:41
  into giving God glory and I just go into talking to him about
• 1:14:44
  whatever's on my heart. So that's a tool.
• 1:14:47
  I still use it, but I do that plus and when it's a regular
• 1:14:51
  rhythm and like you said with your grandfather, like it's
• 1:14:54
  organic. It was just a conversation.
• 1:14:57
  And so these practices, whatever tools you're using, whether
• 1:15:01
  you're starting with music, starting at 30 seconds, like you
• 1:15:05
  just have to build it up and then it becomes organic and it
• 1:15:08
  takes on a life of its own. The language becomes natural for
• 1:15:12
  you, right? Like where it's organic now for
• 1:15:14
  me to talk about God, to thank God, bring him into everything,
• 1:15:20
  right? Like, I don't, I don't even
• 1:15:22
  know. Well, it depends on the space
• 1:15:26
  where I'll acknowledge him. But yeah, I mean, pretty much
• 1:15:29
  everywhere now that I'm just like, oh, thank you, God.
• 1:15:32
  Oh, Father, thank you. Like what we eating for
• 1:15:34
  breakfast today? Like talk to him about
• 1:15:36
  everything. And so I think people can even
• 1:15:38
  take those things for granted or they're worried about, like you
• 1:15:41
  said, I don't profess to hear actual voices, right?
• 1:15:45
  Because you don't want people to think that you're hallucinating.
• 1:15:48
  No, not no. I mean, I don't, I don't believe
• 1:15:51
  I was blessed with that particular spiritual gift.
• 1:15:54
  Oh. Others, but like I said, but
• 1:15:57
  the. Voice of God is different.
• 1:15:59
  It is, but that's what I'm saying.
• 1:16:00
  I, I can't tell you if it's a man or woman.
• 1:16:02
  I just heard a voice. I know.
• 1:16:05
  I just know it was nobody within 5 feet of me.
• 1:16:07
  Yeah. And it was.
• 1:16:08
  It was as plain as day. Like it was like somebody was
• 1:16:11
  standing right next to me and I was like.
• 1:16:13
  Had you had that experience before?
• 1:16:15
  Never. OK, so that was your first time.
• 1:16:19
  Has it happened since? Yes.
• 1:16:22
  OK, OK, 'cause I think once it happens once and you register
• 1:16:27
  and you get more comfortable with it and sometimes and it's,
• 1:16:31
  it's, it's, it's so clear. It's so clear.
• 1:16:37
  I wish, I don't know if everyone can or gets to hear him that
• 1:16:42
  way, right 'cause he communicates to us all
• 1:16:45
  differently. But I would love it if everyone
• 1:16:48
  could 'cause I know what it feels, feels like, felt like
• 1:16:52
  anytime I've heard him like that, you know?
• 1:16:55
  Sometimes he speaks to us retroactively through other
• 1:16:58
  people. Well, yeah, I'll be getting out
• 1:17:00
  all the time too. Like, OK, got it, Got the
• 1:17:03
  message. Yeah, received.
• 1:17:04
  Not even necessarily what people say, but what people did.
• 1:17:07
  I remember more about what my grandparents did.
• 1:17:11
  I remembered a lot of what they said, but I remember more what
• 1:17:16
  they did and how they did it and spirit and truth and as
• 1:17:20
  authentically as they could have.
• 1:17:21
  My grandfather, George Senior, the original coach Rice, may he
• 1:17:25
  rest in peace. Boy, I miss you, man, he used to
• 1:17:28
  say. He said, man, you don't eat
• 1:17:29
  because you're hungry. You eat to keep from getting
• 1:17:31
  hungry. You can apply it to your life
• 1:17:33
  however you want. Being fed you.
• 1:17:35
  Don't eat because you're hungry. You eat to keep from getting
• 1:17:37
  hungry, but that's all about maintenance.
• 1:17:40
  There you go. I love how you brought that back
• 1:17:41
  around full circle. OK, so wow, that was so good.
• 1:17:49
  That was so good in there. Any any last comments on
• 1:17:54
  meditation or journaling prayer, how they all connect together in
• 1:18:00
  your opinion before I take us out of here?
• 1:18:04
  What I said to my students at Morgan State last night.
• 1:18:07
  Your system, your results. Love it and no judgment to make
• 1:18:12
  it what it needs to be for you. I love that your.
• 1:18:15
  System your results and you know one thing I used to say to
• 1:18:18
  students, even I say to them now they'll, they look at their
• 1:18:20
  grades like man, I did terrible. I said wait a second.
• 1:18:23
  First of all, what we're not going to do is beat ourselves
• 1:18:26
  up, right? That's not what we're not going
• 1:18:28
  to do right #2 I always ask them two questions.
• 1:18:31
  I said, OK, are you happy with the result?
• 1:18:35
  And I say no. I said, are you happy with the
• 1:18:37
  work that you put in to get the results you get?
• 1:18:39
  The preparation. And and they're like, they're
• 1:18:42
  like, well, no, I'm happy with the with the work up.
• 1:18:44
  And I said OK. You did your best.
• 1:18:48
  You did though. You.
• 1:18:49
  You, you did. You let go of something you got
• 1:18:52
  a hold of something you did something you had never done
• 1:18:54
  before, and you got a result that you didn't necessarily
• 1:18:56
  expect or desire. But if you have no regrets about
• 1:18:59
  the work. I love how you frame that.
• 1:19:03
  It removed the judgment because everyone does the good or bad.
• 1:19:07
  Is it proper? Is it right?
• 1:19:09
  Is it wrong? Like these polarities, right?
• 1:19:13
  Like, And then if I'm not this, then I'm that, which can cause
• 1:19:16
  people so much stress. OK.
• 1:19:19
  Well, again, Coach Rice, thank you so much for being here today
• 1:19:24
  dropping these gems. We got the triple Rs.
• 1:19:28
  We got the triple M's with the subset of the the twin M's.
• 1:19:33
  You know, we got all the things going on here.
• 1:19:36
  So if you could leave our audience with one powerful truth
• 1:19:40
  to help them rise and thrive, what would it be?
• 1:19:45
  In the words of The Winans, Minions didn't make it, but I'm
• 1:19:50
  one of the ones who did. Now they talk about it as if
• 1:19:56
  they're already in heaven. But I always say every day we
• 1:20:01
  see we couldn't have bet our last $0.50 that we would see it.
• 1:20:06
  So when people say, hey man, how you feeling?
• 1:20:09
  Look man, Minions didn't make it.
• 1:20:11
  But I'm one of the ones who did, so clearly I got something to do
• 1:20:14
  or I need to be somewhere and to be someone and to rise and
• 1:20:21
  thrive. I feel like that's the mantra of
• 1:20:27
  millions didn't make it, but I did.
• 1:20:30
  So who am I going to be today? Who do I need to be today?
• 1:20:34
  And when you find out who you need to be, he will lead you to
• 1:20:41
  serve whoever you need to serve. Yeah.
• 1:20:45
  And what came to me when we say need to be, it's just like who I
• 1:20:48
  was created to be essentially. Yeah.
• 1:20:52
  Alright, thank you again so much.
• 1:20:55
  Alright, to the audience, it's time for reflect action and
• 1:21:00
  affirm. So for your reflection question,
• 1:21:03
  which of these practices do you currently engage in and which
• 1:21:06
  one do you want to strengthen? OK, so that's your unofficial
• 1:21:11
  homework. But to reflect so that you too
• 1:21:13
  can rise and thrive. And then the next step is taking
• 1:21:17
  action. We want you to set aside 10
• 1:21:20
  minutes today to either journal, meditate, or pray, right?
• 1:21:24
  Like Coach Rice said, your system, you can do how you want
• 1:21:29
  to. You want to do a combination of
• 1:21:30
  them. You want to do what you need to
• 1:21:32
  do as long as you do it. Take those 10 minutes for
• 1:21:35
  yourself. You're worth it and you will
• 1:21:36
  never regret investing in yourself, importing in and
• 1:21:40
  finally, I'm going to leave you with an affirmation.
• 1:21:43
  I createspace for God daily knowing that in stillness
• 1:21:47
  writing and prayer, I grow closer to him.
• 1:21:51
  All right, so thank you all again for tuning in for another
• 1:21:55
  episode of Rise and Thrive with Doctor J Nicole, where we are
• 1:21:59
  rising in faith and thriving in purpose.
• 1:22:01
  And want to give one last thanks to our special guest, George
• 1:22:06
  Rice. Where can the people find you if
• 1:22:09
  they want to stay connected? If they're like, man, he was
• 1:22:12
  dropping those gems. Like where, where Where can the
• 1:22:14
  people get some more touch points, be fed a little bit?
• 1:22:17
  More please If you find in our robbery, please add me on
• 1:22:21
  LinkedIn is simply coach George Rice the third.
• 1:22:26
  All right, so LinkedIn or coach, I was going to say, coach, let
• 1:22:31
  me tell you the real funny story.
• 1:22:33
  I told you my family's country. I was raised on my great aunt,
• 1:22:36
  and there were certain words that she could not, oh, that was
• 1:22:39
  her coming through. See the ancestors.
• 1:22:42
  Coach. She would say couch and
• 1:22:44
  electricity, but it was couch. Auntie Marlene just came through
• 1:22:48
  in that moment, so that's so interesting.
• 1:22:51
  But yes, Coach George Rice, the third on LinkedIn.
• 1:22:56
  Stay tuned, stay in touch, and yeah, we'll see you next time.
• 1:23:03
  Thanks for tuning in.