Instant Inspiration: Jimmy V

As someone who has struggled with psoriasis, I often find inspiration and motivation from those who struggle with chronic diseases of their own. Being employed at The James Comprehensive Cancer Center reinforces the struggles, pain, and losses ones can experience in battle with disease, and reinforces it everyday.

Part of my breakthrough in 2013 has been finding a treatment plan that works well for me and that I can easily incorporate into my life (home phototherapy treatments); this is often the case for anyone with a chronic condition. As with cancer, there is no treatment for psoriatic disease, but an excellent treatment plan can bring about “remission” of the disease – basically an eradication of the symptoms and side effects in this case. Because there is no cure – that’s only a portion of the battle.

Another part, sometimes the biggest and most complex aspect of “remission”, is recovering on the emotional and mental side of things. To do so, I believe it is important to heed the advice of inspirational epicenters – one of them being the late coach, James “Jim” Valvano. I am a huge fan of sports, so this name is a common one for me. For those who aren’t, Jim Valvano won the 1983 NCAA championship at North Carolina State before succumbing to cancer some decade later at the too-young age of 47.

Before his passing, he gave one of the cornerstone speeches in sports. Aching, ill, and with cancer having metastasized all over his body, he gave his motivational “Don’t ever give up” speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards. His mettle during one of the worst imaginable circumstances one can ever be presented with should give pause to us all – persevere no matter the situation, and not to ever give up.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.” – Jim Valvano

We all have our struggles, and will encounter situations that create anxiety, stress, melancholy, pain, and turmoil. No matter what, I urge you to always handle them with class, with dignity, with humility, and with the mindset that things will improve with time, patience, and dedication.

Six things we can take away from Jimmy V’s speech to not only help us live unconquered, but to live life in general –
 

§                                      Remember where you come from

§                                      Know where you are headed

§                                      Enjoy your life, and the precious moments

§                                      Keep your dreams alive in spite of hardships, pressures

§                                      Work hard to make your dreams a reality

§                                      “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”

Full Jim Valvano ESPY Award Speech

L | u

J. Junior II

Abracadabra Positivity

It’s been a while since I last posted, and since my last post, a new year has been ushered in for all of us. Whenever we begin our journey into a new year, I’ve found it important that we go into with a “clean slate” mentality. For those of us who have trouble finding a “starting” point for a lot of initiatives we want to implement in our lives, New Year’s Day is a breath of fresh air – hence the throngs of new year resolutions most of us enact.

In my experiences, I’ve found one of the hardest things to alter when we create our resolutions is mindset/ mentality. A lot of the times, when we do attempt to tackle mindsets and mentalities – we really only dress it up with a shiny coat of paint (versus the hard work – sanding it down, identifying imperfections and repairing them, then putting up a new coat of paint). After a while, if you add enough “new coats of paint” to anything without removing some of the old ones – blemishes will permeate through, and whatever you’re painting over will become weighed down.

Think about it – you can paint a pig green, but there is still a pig underneath. Cover it in yellow, and that green layer is still there, along with the pig itself. Proceed to cover it in red; the yellow and green won’t go anywhere unless you clean them off first.

One step in tackling adverse mindsets and mentalities is to indentify the root of the problem and why that mindset/ mentality exists. For example – you won’t just have grudges or prejudices just because (if you’re of a sane mind); they are either learned (taught at an early age) or developed by the examples of negative influences and environments. Maybe a terrible incident happened that created a grudge or a prejudice you hold, sometimes a misunderstanding can cause those feelings as well. The point – the negativity had a seed that grew. It must be uprooted and destroyed for it to dissipate. Visualize all pessimistic thoughts, mindsets, mentalities, and environments as your house in disrepair. To fix it, you can’t simply put up a few coats of paint and new shingles; you’re going to have to do some extensive construction and renovation to get it back to the pristine shape you want.

This is where the term abracadabra comes in. Abracadabra is a word very familiar to conjurors – as it is most often a word used by magicians in magical acts and performances. In elder times, it was a magical charm/ incantation that had the power to ward of disease, famine, or catastrophe of any kind. Unfortunately, try as we might, there is no magic or incantation of any kind that will snap you out of an unconstructive funk – only hard work, restructuring, dedication, and discipline will. You aren’t going to wake up and instantly have all the stars aligned and be this bright and completely optimistic person overnight – abracadabra positivity does not exist – it takes time so be patient.

Since we’re unable to instantly conjure up that state of perfect optimism, we have to draft plans on how to get there the old fashion way – a journey to success. Here are a couple of examples; the more detailed are just a couple of the ones I created for 2013, with a list you may find helpful afterwards.

- Eliminating hurdles present within my controlled environment (those who are voluntarily placed within your realm) – family, friends, associates, co-workers, church members, significant others, etc.

- Work on any physical things that can contribute to me not performing at my best – improving diet, new psoriasis treatment plan, significantly increase exercise, become less dependant on caffeine, vitamin supplements, etc.

- Narrow my focus onto my goals, principles, and objectives for 2013. This would include school, manuscripts for the next couple of books, continue to grow career, continue to professionally network in my career and writing fields, etc.

- In the words of the infamous magnet principle: remember that “like attracts like”. What I become, I will attract. With that in mind, grow in a pattern that will allow me to continue to attract positive/ constructive like-minded entities versus those of the unconstructive/ uninspiring/ stagnant nature.

- Mentoring

- Proctor for inspiring writers

- Volunteering

- Running

- Actively advocating (psoriasis)

- Writing more

- More involved with family & friends

- More extroverted (shake off your winter rust)

- Keep busy (draft daily agendas and objectives)

- Be (or become) more proactive versus reactive

- Be (or become) more aware

- Appreciate everything (and show it)

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The biggest thing is to find something that brings you joy and peace within your life, because it assists with you disassociating with the negative. This can take time, but work on it everyday. Distancing yourself takes on a snowball effect, for the positive and the negative, just make sure you get the ball rolling in the right direction. 

Don’t focus on your anxiety – focus on your productiveness.

Don’t focus on your depression – focus on your gratitude of life.

Turn your eyes away from your fears – embrace change and flexibility.

Abracadabra positivity doesn’t exist – but permanent positivity sure does, and it’s ok if it takes a little time to get there; it’s worth the wait!

Live Unconquered.

1/26/2013

J. Junior II

October Updates

Now that Weathering The Storm has been released (August 28th), I am working to expand my footprint as a new author. This takes significant time and effort, but thus far I've made tremendous progress towards accomplishing all the goals I set. Part of this expansion includes establishing a presence on Goodreads (amazing site) and Amazon, and letting that presence trickle down from there. In the coming weeks, I will also have more information on niche events I'm planning to schedule in both Ohio and Virginia. All of the work I do now will serve as a major launching pad into 2013, which is usually how the life cycle of a book operates. In the meantime, here are a couple of links -

Goodreads, October Giveaway (will hold monthly) - http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/35579-weathering-the-storm 

Goodreads, Weathering The Storm page -
 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15897883-weathering-the-storm

Goodreads, my author page -
 http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6496672.J_Junior_Reynolds_II

Amazon, Weathering The Storm seller page -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1618627457/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

Amazon, my author page -

www.amazon.com/author/jjunior2

These pages are all still under construction, so will change a over the course of the next few months. If you'll note - Amazon lists the book at a $7.99 rate instead of the list $9.99 price - consider it a sale. Since these books will come directly from me, books purchased via Amazon will be signed.

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By the first day of 2013, my goal is to export my blog (Live Unconquered) to its own website. This will allow me more formatting and web creation freedom than I have under the Blogger domain, and offer a united website to post all my links (Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). I have already started working on this project and look forward to completing it over the holiday season.

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With all eyes already focused towards 2013, Live Unconquered's mission will shift towards psoriasis advocacy. This was the foundation upon which Weathering The Storm was constructed, and is the true direction I would like to steer all of my future efforts. Of course, the topics will remain viable to everyone - but in working to create a "mission" for Live Unconquered (and my goal to make it more than just a blog), I will be using my fight against psoriasis as the bedrock for everything here on out. I plan to post the full official mission statement of L|u by Thanksgiving.

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Please keep updated on changes as I will be more active on the blog (and other websites) going forward, including a motivational/ inspirational writing towards the end of every month. As usual, stay positive, and make the most of everyday because tomorrow is no guarantee.

LIVE | unconquered

October 17th, 2012

J. Junior II