Show Up and Work Hard

It's a simple concept that takes a lot of discipline. To have the habit of showing up and working hard, you can't be a quitter, you can't write your goals in pencil, you can't do things half-hearted. Once you have this habit, good things will come and it will be a lot easier as time goes on. 

The first step is showing up. This means not being late and not doing it. Being on time is something that you should take pride in because it shows you are dependable and you are respectful. If I ask you to be somewhere at a certain time, I depend on you to show up at that time. For school, for jobs, for sports-being on time is crucial and it could make or break your career path. 

A lot of times we don't even have the discipline of showing up. To where we blow off something completely. Doing this creates a habit. It takes a lot of discipline to get up and go to class. But once you miss one class, you start second guessing yourself to where you think it's okay to miss class. 

You could also be on a strict workout plan and you decide to miss a day of training. Then again you start to second guess yourself, do I really need to workout? I think I'm happy with the way I look. Other people are more out of shape than I am. When in reality, you need to train your body physically so you can be healthy. 

Working hard is the next step. You show up to do a job, and maybe you are thinking, "I'm just going to get through this day and get out." Maybe you are in class and think, "I'm just going to sit here and watch the clock tick down to when it is time to leave." Maybe you have practice and think, "I'm just going to go through the motions because I don't feel like working hard today."

Working hard, is a habit. In everything I do, I have to do work or play hard. I don't know any other way. When I play basketball, I could be playing the top athletes in the world or playing pick up games at a local gym, I'm still going to play hard. If you step on the court with me, you will get my all no matter who you are. 

When you don't work hard, you feel more pressure. You cruise through your job and your boss gives you a big assignment. You feel pressured to do something because you can't handle it. You go through the motions in practice but the day a college coach comes in to watch you practice, you feel the pressure of performing well for this particular practice. You don't do the homework right or you copy from a friend, but then the test comes and you feel pressure because you have no one to help you do the test. 

Tony Snell said it best, "When you work hard, you don't feel pressure."

Tony was a guy you constantly saw in the weight room, the film room, the training room, the basketball court, the study hall. Because he takes everything he does, seriously. He stepped up in big games because of how hard he works. The Chicago Bulls see that in him and see that he will have a successful career. 

He doesn't have a secret formula, it's show up an work hard. The matter of the fact is, are you willing to do that? You see the living proof, showing up+working hard=success. 

Thank you for reading and ANY feedback is much appreciated! 

Chris Perez

You Serve He Protects

Attention vs. Connection

This is a comparison that I thought of recently and I don't think people realize the difference between the two. The best way to explain these concepts is through examples. First I want to define what I think these two concepts mean. 

Attention is something that we ALL try to gain. When we seek attention, we do not care who it is, we just want to put ourselves out there for the "world" to see. Sometimes we feel so lost in this world that we cry out for attention because we are so desperate for people to know we have needs. So in essence, trying to gain attention is a selfish act. 

Making a connection means that you are trying to reach out to someone. It could be a friend, family, stranger, etc. To make a connection, you can have an idea you want to share with someone that will benefit them. You learn something and you want to share what you learn to help others. So for making a connection, it is an unselfish act. 

Let's take the use of Snapchat for example. To interact with people on Snapchat, you can do two things: One is creating a snap story, this is where you post a picture(s) or a video(s) so that all of your snapchat friends can see. Your goal to make a snap story, isn't necessarily to interact with people, rather you want to show off what you are doing. You don't necessarily care who views or what others think, you just want show your snapchat friends what you are doing. In essence, trying to grab attention. 

Another thing you can do on Snapchat is that you can send pictures and videos to a snapchat friend directly. Now with this feature, it is more personal. Maybe you saw something that reminded you of one of your snapchat friends, and you want to share with them. That is making a personal connection in order to share a laugh or make a conversation. 

There are people in our lives that do things to hurt us. Maybe they are aware of hurting you or not, but usually when people seek to gain attention, they end up hurting others in the process. 

There are people in our lives that will take the effort to reach out to us, asking what is wrong, invite us to do something with them, share knowledge or advice that we need. We feel a great level of connection with those people. 

Rolls Royce and Bentley, do not have any commercials. The reason for that is they know the VALUE of their product. They don't need to waste money on advertising. People speak on behalf of these companies and they speak well of them, so based on word of mouth, they sell there products with great profit. 

It's the same with humans, when we try to gain attention, we are advertising ourselves, saying "look at me, I'm the type of person you want to be and who you want to be around". And typically, we try to stay away from those type of people. Understand your VALUE, understand that your friends, your co-workers, teammates, coaches, family members, they are your advertisers. If you are good to the people around you, those people will spread the good word about you. 

If you want to know your true value, take a step back and see what people think of you, the people that are close to you. If they don't think good of you, change that. If they do think good of you, don't change who are and don't try to sell yourself for something your not. 

Don't worry about how many likes you get on Instagram, don't worry about subtweeting to grab someone's attention, don't send out a snap story to strictly show off. Be who you are and have a purpose for everything that you do. Don't sell yourself, let the people around you sell who you truly are. 

Believe me, people want to be around someone that wants to make a true connection with them. If you look to help others, your selfish needs will take care of itself. You help someone, maybe they will reward you, maybe they will invite you somewhere, and that is how a healthy friendship develops. Is when two people care enough for each other to where they want to share knowledge, be a helping hand, and laugh in moments of happiness. 

Be who you are, help others, and you will be taken care of. People will like you for YOU, not for what you are advertised to be. 

Thank you for reading! I know it's been awhile since my last blog but I am getting back into it with a lot of stuff to share! Please comment, I am seeking for satisfying the purpose of this blog and most importantly, seeking all types of criticism 

Chris Perez

#YouServeHeProtects