Goal setting is something that we tend to do from time to time. Sometimes we may write the goal down but more times than not we keep our goals in our head. What we tend to do though is set goals that are "realistic" which therefore creates a ceiling for ourselves. We like to give ourselves a "limit" on how well we can do at any given activity. Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it Helpful to be realistic? Is it best to shoot low so we don't disappoint ourselves? I feel this way of thinking is detrimental to the idea of success. Will Smith once said "Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity." I would have to agree with Smith and dare you to set goals that you may feel right now are out of your reach. But there are examples of people all around us who knock down barriers because they didn't impose any psychological limits on themselves. So what is it that stops us all from doing so?
I am a youth track coach and a couple of weeks ago my team ran in our National Qualifier track meet. One of our runners who is only a mere 8 years old was caught in a bind. She was disqualified from one event in which she placed 3rd (top 5 go to Nationals) and had one event left to punch her ticket, the 400 meter dash. Now in the Preliminary round she ran her personal best and still was 8th out of 8 that make it to the finals. In order to make it to Nationals she would have had to run 6 seconds faster than her personal best. Now I don't know if any of you know about Track & Field but to drop 6 seconds in any sprint is an amazing feat. We as coaches felt that our runner would just have to wait for next season to get her chance at nationals. But that next day in the finals, this girl topped her personal best from the day before by 6 seconds and got the last spot on the way to Nationals! Now what if this young runner would have put limits on herself like we as coaches did? Would she have been able to perform the way she had? I highly doubt it! She saw no limits in her potential to improve.
Now what is the difference between you, I and this young athlete? When you set your goals are you "realistic"? Where do these limits we impose on ourselves come from? Many times they come from other people who tell us what we can or can't do. Or how good we can or can't be. How far we can or can't go. And the reason they tell us that is because that person feels they can't do it so why would you have the audacity to be outstanding? In most cases there is no factual information that can tell us that we can't reach a certain level of success in any given venture. We let outside forces convince our mind to embrace a limitation that only exists because we believe it does. What we believe will end up becoming our "reality". This process leads us to mediocrity and unrealized goals. When does it stop?
Belief in yourself is the most important thing when it comes to achievement. Just take a look around you with all of the technology, athletes, and businessmen that are doing things that some of us thought were unimaginable! It all starts with belief. When you believe, it is much easier to remove limitations and become the first you! Comparing yourself with other's must end. Excuses must end. Listening to what OTHERS tell you is possible for YOU must end. Goal setting without limits must begin! Belief in yourself must begin! Attacking the fear of success must begin! If nothing else know that your understanding of yourself today creates your "reality" tomorrow. To reach those "unrealistic" goals we must work smart, then work hard, be fully dedicated and most importantly BELIEVE.
This blog is brought to you by the RED PILL MENTALITY
Great insight from Will Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSK_Likqv24
I am available for speaking engagements. My focus is young people from high school through college years.
Contact info:
email: saladin.davis@gmail.com
facebook: Saladin Davis Professional Motivator
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Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
BLACK ON BLACK CRIME
On Sunday March 13th ESPN aired a special documentary called "THE FAB 5" documenting the story of 5 freshman basketball players at The University of Michigan in the early 90's. During this documentary, there were some comments made by a couple of the players, notably Jalen Rose about the Duke basketball program and their recruitment of Black American players. Rose said that when he was a freshman he and his teammates felt that, "Duke only recruits Uncle Toms". The words of the Fab 5 created great controversy and spurred comments from a Black American that played on the Duke team that beat the Fab 5 in the National Championship game their freshman year, Grant Hill. Hill wrote an article defending himself and other Blacks that played at Duke and said they were credits to their race and are nothing near an "Uncle Tom". Jalen Rose and Jimmy King of the Fab 5 also made an appearence on ESPN'S FIRST TAKE to discuss the topic with Skip Bayless. One of the highlights of the interview was Rose and King stating that Duke only recruits certain types of Black players and nobody can dispute that. A couple of days later on the same show, ESPN'S Chris Broussard commented about the situation and mentioned the identity crisis of young Black men and the misconception that if you don't grow up in "the hood" then you are less Black. All of these conversations (I will place links to each at the bottom of the post) bring up a few issues that should be the focus of this arguement. I will highlight what I feel we should all be able to take away from this situation that has so many lessons learned.
I was one of the many that watched the Documentary and truthfully if this didn't become an issue in the sports world, I would have never had a second thought about the comments made about Duke. The Fab 5 stated how they felt at the age of 18 in their Freshman year in college and I left it at that. Obviously the rest of the world didn't feel the same as I. After watching the aftermath of the comments Rose and the others made I realized one big lesson that we all probably heard before........you have to watch what you say and how you say it! Rose was speaking of how he felt at the age of 18 but he used one of the most hurtful phrases that could be used toward a Black person. If his choice of words were any different, I may be blogging about something different. Us regular folk who don't have to worry about being under a microscope still have to live with words we have said to loved ones, co-workers, and others. So imagine how some words that we have said in our daily lives will blow up if we were in the position of a Jalen Rose. Rose might still feel the same way....he might not. What I do know is that once it leaves your mouth you can't take it back and it is then left up to the worlds interpretation. Words are powerful no matter how much you sing "sticks and stones".
The second thing is the lesson that Grant Hill and Chris Broussard were attempting to teach us. That lesson is in referrence to how we feel about each other as Blacks. Some took Jalen's comments about being an "Uncle Tom" as if he changed the definition to "from a two parent household raised in the suburbs". This is a thought process that is cacerous to us as a people. Since when are you "more black" because you grew up in the projects? Since when are you "less black" because you know how to speak proper English? There is no blueprint to "being Black"! We all are different and take different paths to where we feel we should be in life. Jalen Rose is from a single parent household in Detroit and grew up in a financially strapped home. Grant Hill grew up with both parents, both having Ivy league educations and were financially stable. Tell me which one of these situations discribes racial attributes? We are all Black and need to embrace the way that God made us. Just because you grow up in the suburbs and go to private schools doesn't mean you are a sell out. In my mind selling drugs to your own people and creating death in your own neighborhood is selling out much more than an Ivy league education could ever be! We all, wether upper, middle, or lower class are all Black people and working and learning together is what we need to worry about as opposed to labeling each other.
Finally, on FIRST TAKE, Jalen said that he understands that Duke recruits a specific type of player and he understands why. By pointing that out and choosing not to celebrate it means he is socially concious and understands the depth of why certain things are the way they are. Now I'm not going to focus on if Duke just recruits people from certain neighborhoods with certain family backgrounds. What I will focus on is the fact that we do need to know when practices similar to these are being practiced. There are still many things in sports and in life that have processes to shut out certain groups of people. Many times these organizations have many "politicaly correct" reasons that save them from being scrutinized for their actions. What I got from Jalen's comments was that we have to be more aware of when there are injustices in certain processes that we may normally support. Make sure that we look a little deeper into situations so that we are always supporting causes, programs, products and processes that are in line with equallity and our personal beliefs and values. Making sure that we aren't selling ourselves out, never the less our race.
In conclussion I ultimately just want us all (including myself) to start looking at situations such as this and seeing what we can learn from them. Both sides have points that are important but what common ground can we come to? We have to stop separating ourselves as Black people and falling into the mental trap that was set for us all so long ago! Check out the links for more info on this controversy.
Jalen Rose and Jimmy King on FIRST TAKE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDlfp4ADJRE
Grant Hill's response to Jalen Rose http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/
Chris Broussard on The Fab 5's Comments http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhfA58l6q3f7djCa84
I'M OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS. I FOCUS ON YOUTH MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATION FOR SPORTS TEAMS (YOUTH, HIGH SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE).
CONTACT ME AT
saladin.davis@gmail.com MAKE IT A GREAT WEEK!
I was one of the many that watched the Documentary and truthfully if this didn't become an issue in the sports world, I would have never had a second thought about the comments made about Duke. The Fab 5 stated how they felt at the age of 18 in their Freshman year in college and I left it at that. Obviously the rest of the world didn't feel the same as I. After watching the aftermath of the comments Rose and the others made I realized one big lesson that we all probably heard before........you have to watch what you say and how you say it! Rose was speaking of how he felt at the age of 18 but he used one of the most hurtful phrases that could be used toward a Black person. If his choice of words were any different, I may be blogging about something different. Us regular folk who don't have to worry about being under a microscope still have to live with words we have said to loved ones, co-workers, and others. So imagine how some words that we have said in our daily lives will blow up if we were in the position of a Jalen Rose. Rose might still feel the same way....he might not. What I do know is that once it leaves your mouth you can't take it back and it is then left up to the worlds interpretation. Words are powerful no matter how much you sing "sticks and stones".
The second thing is the lesson that Grant Hill and Chris Broussard were attempting to teach us. That lesson is in referrence to how we feel about each other as Blacks. Some took Jalen's comments about being an "Uncle Tom" as if he changed the definition to "from a two parent household raised in the suburbs". This is a thought process that is cacerous to us as a people. Since when are you "more black" because you grew up in the projects? Since when are you "less black" because you know how to speak proper English? There is no blueprint to "being Black"! We all are different and take different paths to where we feel we should be in life. Jalen Rose is from a single parent household in Detroit and grew up in a financially strapped home. Grant Hill grew up with both parents, both having Ivy league educations and were financially stable. Tell me which one of these situations discribes racial attributes? We are all Black and need to embrace the way that God made us. Just because you grow up in the suburbs and go to private schools doesn't mean you are a sell out. In my mind selling drugs to your own people and creating death in your own neighborhood is selling out much more than an Ivy league education could ever be! We all, wether upper, middle, or lower class are all Black people and working and learning together is what we need to worry about as opposed to labeling each other.
Finally, on FIRST TAKE, Jalen said that he understands that Duke recruits a specific type of player and he understands why. By pointing that out and choosing not to celebrate it means he is socially concious and understands the depth of why certain things are the way they are. Now I'm not going to focus on if Duke just recruits people from certain neighborhoods with certain family backgrounds. What I will focus on is the fact that we do need to know when practices similar to these are being practiced. There are still many things in sports and in life that have processes to shut out certain groups of people. Many times these organizations have many "politicaly correct" reasons that save them from being scrutinized for their actions. What I got from Jalen's comments was that we have to be more aware of when there are injustices in certain processes that we may normally support. Make sure that we look a little deeper into situations so that we are always supporting causes, programs, products and processes that are in line with equallity and our personal beliefs and values. Making sure that we aren't selling ourselves out, never the less our race.
In conclussion I ultimately just want us all (including myself) to start looking at situations such as this and seeing what we can learn from them. Both sides have points that are important but what common ground can we come to? We have to stop separating ourselves as Black people and falling into the mental trap that was set for us all so long ago! Check out the links for more info on this controversy.
Jalen Rose and Jimmy King on FIRST TAKE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDlfp4ADJRE
Grant Hill's response to Jalen Rose http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/grant-hills-response-to-jalen-rose/
Chris Broussard on The Fab 5's Comments http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhfA58l6q3f7djCa84
I'M OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS. I FOCUS ON YOUTH MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATION FOR SPORTS TEAMS (YOUTH, HIGH SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE).
CONTACT ME AT
saladin.davis@gmail.com MAKE IT A GREAT WEEK!
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