Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve/1224


Why the 1224?  My twitter name, my email.

What a perfect day to explain why my name always ends with 1224.

There are really 3 reasons:

1.  Because of this day.  The date of this post.  Christmas eve.  When I was growing up Christmas Eve was the day.  The day full of excitement, tradition, and the many questions of what tomorrow could bring.   The one night during the year where I would go to bed at night and just lay there with my eyes wide open in anticipation of the morning.  The one night as a kid where I woke up every hour of the night wondering if it was time to get up yet?  And now, I want to have that 1224 to my name for the reminder.  The reminder that I want to live all my nights when I go to bed as if it is 12/24.   The reminder that God has blessed me with that next day, that next morning, and I should be super excited that I get the chance to take full advantage of it.  Excited to wake up and live with a PURPOSE.  Excited to wake up to a beautiful, loving wife.  Excited to wake up and be in a warm house. Excited to have the ability to have a job.  Excited and blessed to have the relationships I have around me.

2.  The street I grew up on.  1224 Lynn St.  It is my roots.  It is my home.  It is where I come from.  1224 will always be my home.  Even if my parents were to move out of that address.  1224 would still be my home, and where I was raised.  So I grew up with 1224 being a part of me and I want to keep it that way.

3.  It is great when you sign up for something online because on most websites the chances of their being another cking1224 as a sign in name is highly unlikely.  So that is a huge plus for me.

I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas Eve, a 1224, as we look forward to celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tomorrow!

"The virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel." Matthew1:23




Friday, December 14, 2012

Can Dreams really become a reality?

You may have all heard the phrase "make your dreams become a reality".  Do you believe this is possible?  Do you believe you have what it takes?  Do you really even want your dreams to become a reality?  Are dreams just that, a dream, and they should stay there?

When I focus on the phrase "make your dreams become a reality".  The first thing that pops in my head is, well, the dreams I actually have while I'm sleeping.

Do I really want these dreams to become a reality???
Sometimes I dream of building a go-cart with my bare hands in one day.  Sometimes I dream of doing bodybuilding poses next to Arnold Schwarzenegger on Venice Beach.  I once dreamed of leading at least 200 people waving both their hands and arms high in the air to  Hip Hop Hooray by Naughty by Nature  In 2008, as the best man of my brothers wedding, giving the best man speech I was able to make this dream become a reality.  Was it fulfilling, absolutely, but I don't believe those are the types of dreams that give our life purpose, or the truth behind "make your dreams become a reality".

When Martin Luther King Jr. announced "I have a dream..." I can promise you he wasn't talking about or going to follow that sentence up with "...to build a go-cart with my bare hands in one day" type of dream.  He was talking about a mind set change, a change in what the future was for our whole country, a challenge to himself and others, AN ULTIMATE GOAL.

That is what it truly means to have the want/desire to make a dream become real.  Setting a goal that may or may not be able to be accomplished, but we are going to challenge our self to the best of our ability to make it happen.  An ultimate goal/dream, can't be accomplished by tomorrow, but by changing how we act/react to the day of tomorrow will ultimately affect the reality of our ultimate goal/dream being accomplished in the end.

We all have goals, whether we sit and write them down (highly advised by me) or we just know in our head what we want to accomplish on any given day, month, or year.  It is a goal.  But if we set goals that we know are achievable then is it really a goal at all or more of a to do list?  You don't have to change anything about your life to attain a goal that you know you can achieve.  But you will have to change to be able to accomplish a dream.  When your motivation changes, your mind set will change.

When you focus on your dreams, you will find your purpose, and when you find your purpose you will have the drive to make those dreams become your reality.

What are your DREAMS?  
You will have to change your mind set to make them become a reality!  So start TODAY!

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world.  BUT IT TAKES PEOPLE to make the dream a reality." - Walt Disney

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Why are you waking up early?

7 Weeks ago I began waking up 30 minutes earlier than I normally would.  I began to do this week after week, which lead to me getting down to waking up at 3:45 a.m.  The first question people ask is, why are you doing this? The second, what do you do during this time? And third, what time do you go to bed?  Which are legitimate questions, so this post is my response:

In a nut shell; Purpose, Passion, Motivation/Being Hungry to be Successful, Proverbs 6:4-11

To hit a little bit on all of these:

Purpose - Living for a Purpose is what is most important to me and my faith.  I teach a college success strategies course at Virginia Tech and I am always telling my students to live with a purpose because I know when I was a freshmen in college I wasn't, and I am on a mission for them to not go that route as well.  So by telling them each time I have class to focus on their purpose, I came to the realization, am I just saying these things and not acting on them?  Am I talking the talk and not walking the walk.  So I decided it is officially time to start walking my talk, putting my positivity, energy, and drive in my daily life to fulfill my purpose.  Not going to just talk about it, it is time to BE about it!

Passion - I knew if I wasn't truly passionate about living with/for a PURPOSE, then this wouldn't be able to be accomplished.  I started to think about the components of my life I am the most passionate about.  My Faith, my wife/family, my health, my friends, and being a positive influence on others.  So I set out with wanting to wake up early to securely exceed at the things that I am the most passionate about and take advantage of all 24 hours we are given each day. In essence, applying my passions to aid in the ultimate success of my purpose.

Motivation/Being Hungry to be Successful - I feel like most people in this world when they see success they think about a persons job, possessions they own, and truly how financially stable they are.  When I state being hungry for success, this is not what I am referring to.  I am talking about actually being successful in my PURPOSE, and this will eventually lead to ultimate success .  Lets take my wife for example, as I stated earlier, this is a relationship that I am very passionate about, so early in the morning I am working towards becoming the best/greatest husband I can be.  I am not going to sit back and let someone else show me up.  If you truly care about something, then you are going to get out of it what you put into it. And I am on a mission to put as much energy into my marriage with my wife Morgann as I can for us to be successful.

Proverbs 6:4-11 - "Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids...Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! ... How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man."  Motivational?  It is what has motivated me and put procrastination on the back burner!

So what is it that I am actually doing when I wake up four hours before I have to leave for work.  My morning agenda has looked very similar to this pretty much every morning for the last 5 weeks:
Wake up - 3:45 a.m.

Tweet a #risandgrind message on my twitter account @cking1224 at 3:50

Dive into the word of God/devotionals/sermons/prayer for at least an hour or however long I am lead to - till around 4:50 a.m.

From 4:50 to 5:50 a.m. I work on my immediate goals for the day.  (will explain in a later post specifics)

At 6 is when I workout, the workout itself changes daily but I will usually get back home by 6:55

6:55 is when I began making packed lunches for the day for my wife and I, then I get ready for work, have quality time with Morgann for 30 minutes, and then I am out the door by 7:45.

I have no desire at the moment to wake up before 3:45 because I do feel like I am accomplishing what needs to be done for me to pursue my PURPOSE in this amount of time.  I go to bed usually around 9:30 to 10:00 pm.  If it is needed for me to stay up later than this than you better believe I am willing to do it!

So I say all that to say this...
Take a step back and ask yourself, "am I really doing everything I can do to be successful in all aspects of my life?"  If change is necessary then do it and don't look back, BE HUNGRY for your passions and in the end it will make you successful!

BELIEVE YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON,
YOUR PURPOSE IS GREATER THAN YOUR CHALLENGES!  
(it MUST be)