wRapped

Franchesca Ramsey hashes out the negative responses to Michelle Obama’s speech.

New Podcast || Color Full Lives

Loudspeakers Network and State Farm present a special edition 8-episode podcast, Color Full Lives, geared towards people of color looking for advice on how to get started (or advance) on their dream careers.

Angela Yee of The Breakfast Club offers her perspective on the field of Entertainment.

Tatiana King Jones of The Fan Bros Podcast offers her perspective on the field of Tech.

Fran of HeyFranHey.com offers her perspective on the field of Wellness.

Listen to the 1st episode on building your brand and knowing your worth

Listen to the 2nd episode on being a creative and managing finances

Listen to the 3rd episode on balancing your career and personal life

“Who need validation.”

“Whose sadness is inconvenient.”

Life without challenge is a meaningless life, a life of total boredom. We often hear someone saying: “I’m bored to death.” It is an expression that is equally common among children, teenagers and adults. We all need some excitement in our lives. Often, we wrongly get this excitement through momentary pleasures like television series, video games or shopping expeditions… but what follows is usually more boredom.

However, there are ways to truly eliminate boredom from our lives. We can do this by learning new skills, pushing our limits further, acquiring new knowledge, and feeling that we contribute something meaningful to our surroundings. We need to feel useful to ourselves, our families and our society. We need to fulfil our mission on earth. That’s why our internal instincts will not be satisfied with less than continuous achievements. These achievements do not need to be big, but they have to be ongoing and cumulative. They need to be meaningful, at least to us. They need to be part of our lifelong quest to develop our potential and seek the pleasure of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He).

This is why a very important part of defining your goals is to keep yourself constantly challenged. If your objectives are too easy to reach, you will get bored after a while and become dissatisfied. As soon as you reach your goals, you might lose interest in them, feel unmotivated and lose momentum. On the other hand, if your challenges are well suited to your abilities, and if you are gradually meeting your goals, you will be self-fulfilled and satisfied. Constantly meeting your short-term goals gives you the required stamina and driving force to continue your pursuit of bigger and higher goals. It gives you the excitement and delight that is necessary to stimulate your willpower and keep you going.

(Credit to reddit user ryans01).

No zero days. ‘What’s a zero day? A zero day is when you don’t do a single fucking thing towards whatever dream or goal or want or whatever that you got going on. No more zeros. I’m not saying you gotta bust an essay out everyday, that’s not the point. The point I’m trying to make is that you have to make yourself, promise yourself, that the new SYSTEM you live in is a NON-ZERO system. Didn’t do anything all fucking day and it’s 11:58 PM? Write one sentence. One pushup. Read one page of that chapter. One. Because one is non zero.’

Be grateful to the three yous. ‘There’s the past you, the present you, and the future you. If you wanna love someone and have someone love you back, you gotta learn to love yourself, and the 3 you’s are the key. Be GRATEFUL to the past you for the positive things you’ve done. And do favours for the future you like you would for your best bro.’

Forgive yourself. ‘Maybe you got all the know-how, money, ability, strength and talent to do whatever is you wanna do. But lets say you still didn’t do it. Now you’re giving yourself shit for not doing what you need to, to be who you want to. Heads up champion, being disappointed in yourself causes you to be less productive. Tried your best to have a nonzero day yesterday and it failed? So what. I forgive you, previous self. I forgive you. But today? Today is a nonzero masterpiece to the best of my ability for future self. This one’s for you, future homes. Forgiveness man, use it. I forgive you. Say it out loud.’

Pedal On by Daniela Andrade

Driving in my car who’s to know at all where my mind is going where the pieces fall and if i hit the breaks or put the pedal on feels good to do alone good to do alone A thousand miles away between two crossing roads nothing but a whisper nothing but the stone and if i dial up and roll the windows down feels good to do alone good to do alone

Ask me where I’m going where my future’s heading