I'm givin' up

When I say givin’ up, I mean sacrificing. I’m sacrificing something. With lent coming up, I figured this was a good topic. If you’re not catholic, it’s cool, neither am I. I still decided I was going to cut out pork, chicken and beef for the duration of lent. Goodbye sweet, sweet hamburgers.

Sacrifice is still a good topic.

It’s such an unavoidable part of life. Choosing, giving something up, leaving something behind. Sometimes you do it by choice, other times, not so much. Regardless, it is still an essential part of living.

A lot of times sacrifice is associated with religion. I guess because for years, people gave up the best of their flock, the best of their crop, their most-loved possessions or most-loved people as sacrifices to various gods or various cults for various reasons.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice Issac for God, Greeks sacrificed animals for Zeus, ancient Egyptians sacrificed people to the gods, and the list goes on.

So I guess I want to share the sacrifices you have to make in order to not only secure your dreams, but secure da bag. That’s right, not “the bag”. Secure “Da Bag”™.

First of all, a great poet once said “late nights mixed with early days, it’ll prolly be that way until the pearly gates”. That’s nothing but FAX. When I hear that all I can think of is the time from my senior year of high school up until the DAY I graduated from college. I don’t know how I did it. I must have made some animal sacrifices to the gods to make it through.

How I'm tryna look in a few years

But seriously, in high school, it was school all day, band practice, then work, then home to do homework until 1am, same routine the next day, band comps on the weekends, church on Sundays. College was, school half the day, homework the other half, extra curriculars, work, study, study on the weekends, work on the weekends, put together seminars, write papers, peer mentor, volunteer. It’s a fucking miracle that I am still sane and I still wonder what on Earth pushed me through to come out on the other side in one piece.

The biggest of moods

The point of that tangent was to say that, even when you think you just can’t keep going, keep going. Because you can make it through and you will make it through and I am so repetitive.

· You have to sacrifice time.

Time, which IS the most precious, most important nonrenewable resource that we will ever possess. Yes, you’ll have to give that up. But look at it as more of a trade-in, an IOU to yourself. You owe this to yourself. You’re trading in that time and losing that sleep (but not that much) because you have a vision that no one else has, that no one else can create but you. It’s just up to you when you’re gunna get off those ass cheeks and do something about it. Remember even baby steps are moving you forward.

You might think you’re nuts for doing this, and the people around you probably will too. SO WHAT.

· You have to sacrifice money.

You know that shitty phrase that you have to spend money to make money. It’s kinda true. It be like that sometimes. As much as that sucks, because not everyone has the money to fund their dreams on hand. And that is so unfair.

Money talks, though. It’s a language that everybody understands. You might not speak the same language as someone but they know what dat mf currency mean doe!

Actual photo of me looking in my fucking wallet

Whether you have to pay for something to finish up the book you’re writing, you have to pay for studio sessions to finish that album, you have to pay for PR services (which I offer, (shameless self-plug)) to get your brand the attention you want it to have, or you have to pay for photography sessions because you need to look professional on your website (I offer that, too hollllaaaa). This greedy world revolves around money and the more of it you have, the easier life gets for you. But in my hoe opinion, I think if you ever want to make that kind of money, you gotta spend some of the chump change you’re making now (no offense to anyone because I am INDEED one of the people making chump change right now).

· You have to sacrifice yourself.

That probably came off wrong. I don’t mean you have to put your whole being into your dreams…oh wait, you do have to do that. But you don’t have to sacrifice your sanity and your health. I mean more along the lines of you have to sacrifice parts of yourself. You have to sacrifice the part of yourself that’s lazy, the part of yourself that procrastinates, the part of yourself that leaves you so paralyzed with fear you can’t make your next move. And I know that’s asking a lot of you. I’m asking you to kill parts of yourself that keep you comfortable, they keep you safe. But how the fuck you ever gunna get where you need to be? Or want to be for that matter, if you’re too afraid to step out of the same old shit you’ve been doing your whole life.

· You have to sacrifice relationships.

Some people do not want to see you win. They don’t want you to be doing better than them in any capacity. Those people gotta go. They GOTS to go. Sometimes, those people are your family, your best friends. Leaving them behind is going to hurt. It will really fucking hurt. But it hurts more to have someone you love downing you all the time or doubting your dreams and all the hard work YOU put in to them.

No one is going to give you the security in life that you are searching for other than yourself. You are your only chance to make it happen. I’m not saying to take your journeys alone, by all means, take someone along for the ride but rely on no one but yourself to get that shit done.

Some things you shouldn’t have to sacrifice however, are as follows: your sanity, some free time, friends who understand your struggles, sleep, all contact, affection, music, some indulgence every now and again.

You shouldn’t work yourself to death. You don’t have to sleep 4 hours a night for months on end to get your shit together. And you might think I am contradicting myself right now because I just told you all that other shit. BUT, I am also a huge believer in taking care of yourself, being kind to yourself and most importantly…treating YO SELF. Life is a balancing act. Some of us haven’t quite figured out the right balance, though and that’s okay. It’ll come with time. Hopefully. If not, give me a call.