Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Lessons from LeBron James
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Lessons from LeBron James: Lessons from LeBron James By Jay Jay Speaks August 8, 2012 LeBron Raymone James is an American professional basketball player for...
Lessons from LeBron James
Lessons from LeBron James
By Jay Jay Speaks
August 8, 2012
LeBron Raymone James is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is an NBA champion, NBA Finals MVP, 3-time NBA MVP, and former NBA Rookie of the Year and NBA All-Star Game MVP. He is also one of co-captains of the Miami Heat. LeBron is an eight-time NBA All-Star and has earned eight All-NBA honors and four All-Defensive honors.
Nicknamed "King James", James had a storied high school basketball career at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. A three-time "Mr. Basketball of Ohio", he was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar. After graduating, he was selected with the first overall pick of the 2003 NBA Draft by his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. In 2010, he left the Cavaliers for the Heat in a highly publicized free agency period. In 2012, he led Miami to their second ever NBA title, winning his first overall. His list of achievements and leadership during the Heats' 2012 championship run have led many basketball analysts, experts, and writers to consider him the best player in the NBA today. (www.Wikipedia.com)
LeBron James has been one of the most criticized, scrutinized, televised and idolized players in the history of the National Basketball Association. In his 9 year career he has been one of the most “loved” players and one of the most “hated” players in the league. LeBron has surely and certainly had his highs and lows, ups and downs, victories and defeats. As I look back on the last couple of chapters on his life’s book I think there are some valuable lessons we can all take away. LeBron went from owning the city of Cleveland, Ohio and being the most popular person in the state of Ohio, to being the most hated man east of the Rocky Mountains in one night. The basketball world laughed at his failure(s) in the 2011 NBA FINALS as the heavily favored Miami Heat lost to Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2. But at the conclusion of the last season 2011-12 LeBron James silenced ALL HIS CRITICS by winning his 3rd League MVP and the leading his team to the NBA Championship, a championship the basketball fans of 49 states said his team wouldn’t win. Not only did James lead his team to the championship but he secured the Most Valuable Player of the championship series.
After the championship all the haters, naysayers and bitter fans, fell absolutely silent. The social media universe on Facebook and Twitter became a vacuum. The “he will never,” or “you know he won’t ever” jokes and criticism immediately became extinct.
LESSONS from LEBRON JAMES
1. As Charlie Sheen once famously said, “AHHHHHH...WINNING!”
2. Everyone who starts out with you won’t finish with you.
3. IRON SHARPENS IRON; surround yourself with talented people if you want to keep getting better.
4. Leadership is within all of us, but only when you are truly comfortable with WHO YOU ARE.
5. No matter how much you love your parents, you are not responsible for their behavior.
6. No one else can live your life for you.
7. Often times you have to leave home (or what you’ve always known) in order to really grow up.
8. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall,” (Proverbs 16:18 KJV).
9. Keep your words soft and sweet just in case one day you have to eat them (someone ask Cleveland Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert).
10. Sometimes less is more.
11. The best revenge is to LIVE WELL!
12. The BEST YOU is the REAL YOU. Don’t try to be what other people what you to be. Be yourself.
13. When you enjoy what you are doing, you get better at it!
14. You have to do what’s best for you in life (your family, business, brand, etc.).
15. You will never truly be successful if you are afraid to fail, TAKE YOUR SHOT WHEN IT IS OPEN!
16. You won’t be able to please everyone, so don’t try (ask Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard).
(This list is not meant to be comprehensive or all inclusive, feel free to add your own)
Whether you are a sports fan, basketball enthusiast or have never heard of LeBron James, you can still learn some valuable lessons from the recent pages of his career. These lessons are not just for athletes, entertainers or millionaires. The lessons above are for each and every one of us.
I’m sure if you put your dislike for him, his team, his actions or sports aside and just read the lessons you’ll find there is room for you to improve your life or your outlook on life from some of these lessons.
Don’t wait until Monday, do it today.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Listening Your Way Out of Failure
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Listening Your Way Out of Failure: This isn't my essay or column but I found it worth sharing. I hope you find it worth reading as well. Daily Devotional Listening Yo...
Listening Your Way Out of Failure
This isn't my essay or column but I found it worth sharing. I hope you find it worth reading as well.
Daily Devotional
Listening Your Way Out of Failure
We lead such messy lives sometimes, directionally challenged, bad-decisions-scarred lives. And sometimes when we least expect it, we turn around and discover that we’ve sunken into a ‘pit’ that welcomed us so open-armedly that we didn’t even notice when our sinking began.
Renowned Bible teacher, Beth Moore, teaches about the ‘pit’, and how we can become so familiar with it that most people don’t even bother to seek a way out. We often decorate our pits, she says, so that they seem more homely. We move in our emotional couches and tables, recline and put our feet up, because in our minds we’ve hit a dead-end and after all, what’s so bad about being in a pit anyway? So it is we get stuck.
Though there is only one explicit mention in the Bible of someone being thrown into a pit, the idea of being hurled, whether by others or by our own doing, into a low, ditch-like situation is common throughout the entire biblical text. The human dilemma is that we are imperfect beings armed with free-will and a whole slew of emotions. Thus, we sometimes make choices based on how we feel, rather than slowing down and really giving thought to the possible repercussions. Our choices, or those of others, can wind up impacting us so negatively that we turn inward and assume the status of a pit-dweller.
Yet, pits are not homes, neither are they meant to be comfortable. At best, the pit is a place of testing and development, it is the place of processing deep hurts and disappointments and navigating through major life changes, but it is never supposed to be a place of permanent derailment. Your pit should produce a greater level of fortitude within you rather than weaken your resolve.
So how do you get out once you’ve slipped into one of life’s low places? I believe the answer starts with hearing God’s voice. There is such tremendous power, peace, and direction in hearing the Father’s voice in the midst of your situation, that it completely outweighs every other method or agent of relief. The glory of His presence is contained in the fact that He is ever present, and so even at our lowest point we discover, if we look closely, that He is there, lingering still, by our sides. And so it’s His voice that replaces light, when all around us is darkness.
God’s voice heard echoing through His Word is the rope thrown down to us for our rescue. There is undoubtedly nothing more powerful on the face of the earth than the Word of God – written, spoken, and manifested. If you listen closely, His Word will always point you to the ‘Exit’ sign, and reveal the heart of God to you. His Word always comes in to mop up our mess and realign our focus with the will of God. Today, choose to lean on God’s spoken and written Word as you navigate your way out of the place called ‘failure’. His Word is more than sufficient to guide you.
Scripture of the Day: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” - Psalm 119:105
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Can I Go With You?
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Can I Go With You?: Can I Go With You? By Jay Jay Speaks July 11, 2012 “Can I go with you?” is what I hear her every time I grab my car keys from the...
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Give and Take
Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Give and Take: Jay Jay's Thoughts Your Reactions: Give and Take : Give and Take By Jay Jay Speaks May 30, 2012 I got my feelings hurt recently, it wasn’t a...
Can I Go With You?
Can I Go With You?
By Jay Jay Speaks
July 11, 2012
“Can I go with you?” is what I hear her every time I grab my car keys from the small table located by the front door. “You don’t even know where I’m going” I respond with a smirk on my face. “I don’t care, I wanna go anyway,” is her response. This is the dance that my oldest daughter and I do every time I grab my keys to leave the house, or I should say every time she’s within earshot of the sound of dad’s dancing keys. This familiar routine always warms my heart, knowing that she’s my “road dog.” This same daughter has accompanied me to diversity trainings (as far as Cleveland, OH), keynote speeches to college crowds and to work related evening events throughout most of her life. She travelled with me to Chicago (8 hours round trip) to pick up her little sister, a couple of weekends ago. As we travelled across Ohio, through Indiana and into Illinois, she sat in the passenger seat looking out the window in silence for miles and miles, I’d just look at her and smile. She seemed content to just be a passenger. Sometimes we’d talk about silly stuff and other times serious life stuff or as serious as life stuff can be for a young girl, living in middle class suburban neighborhood. I like having her accompany me. She doesn’t talk too much, like her younger sister and she doesn’t totally reside in her own little world distracted and disinterested in other people, like her little brother. I guess as far as travelling companions go she’s just right.
Can I go with you? Just a simple question, consisting of only 5 words but those words arranged thusly can mean so much if you move beyond just the literal and superficial. The answer is usually “YES,” you can come with me, but I realize in the greater understanding of life there are times, she won’t be able to go.
As someone who looks out and sees the largeness of life and the complexities presented by living a full, whole and involved life I understand that there are places I have been, places where I am currently and places I have yet to go that NO ONE ELSE CAN GO WITH ME. There are places that each of us must go alone. There are places we will find ourselves, where few will want to go with us. And others places where valued friends, trusted lovers and dear family, simply won’t BE ABLE TO GO WITH US. Some of these places are the dry seasons of life. Others will be the rainy seasons, not the rain that gently nourishes the plants and causes them to grow, but the apocalyptic down pour that drowns crops, animals and weary pedestrians who happen to get caught by the storm surge. The type of rainfall that ruins houses and washes away a lifetime of work, accomplishment, achievement and good-will. Some of these bad weather seasons will come out of nowhere and seemingly wash away your support and supporters, while others you will see coming, like a storm moving in across the open plains of the great mid-western U.S. You will welcome some of the seasons because you know there will be a purging of hangers-on and the superficial friends who are not really there for you anyway. Other times you will anticipate, prepare, store up what you think you will need to weather the storm, only to find out that some things you can never really be ready for.
Some of you reading this have already encountered this phenomenon. You’ve dared to do something no one else in your family has done and instead of finding open arms and welcoming smiles you’ve been greeted with “I hope you don’t think (fill in the blank) makes you better than me!” Or perhaps someone else has decided to lose weight, to adopt a more healthy lifestyle for themself only to be told by those who were accustomed to the rounder, more ample you, “You ain’t gonna keep that weight off, we always been big-boned and ain’t nothing wrong with that. Who do you think you are?” While others will simply find that family and/or friends don’t agree with some of the decisions they’ve made for their own lives.
As much as we would all like to know that there will always been someone with us, someone to keep us company on the road of life the reality is we come into this world alone and we will leave it on our own as well. If we are blessed and if we are lucky we will have companions to walk with us for portions of our journey. Perhaps we will have company for significant stretches on our pathway but eventually and inevitably we will sojourn on our own for other stretches. Whether those lonely sojourns are self-imposed due to bad choices, ill-conceived decisions and mistakes or we are dealt a blow by the unseen hand of fate WE WILL ALL WALK ALONE AT SOMETIME.
I don’t know if this comes as good news or bad news to you as you read these words. It is bittersweet to me. I would love to have “good company” while I traverse “bad roads” but that doesn’t seem to always be the case. So I am resolving within myself to make peace and pleasantries with my only steady companion, ME.
“Yes, sweetie you can go with me,” until that day comes when you too will have to travel alone.
Be grateful for your traveling companions, whether they are only there for the short trips or the long hauls, let them know that you appreciate their company, because the time will come when you’ll look for someone to go with you and no one will be found. Show your appreciation today.
Don’t wait until Monday, do it today.
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