Often times many of you will say, “I’M NOT A MORNING PERSON”, because you don’t “function” well in the morning, or you don’t like waking up early, or you don’t feel like socializing with people in the morning. Whatever your excuse is, something or someone has tainted your morning experience by word and/or action. Quite frankly it sends a message that you’re just plain lazy most of the time. The fact is that you’ve allowed yourself to succumb to a way of life that deliberately shuns valuable opportunities. Morning time is the ideal time to pray, meditate, collect your thoughts, brainstorm, exercise, read, write, strategize or just be still for a moment. Ultimately the early morning is the key to getting a head start on your path to greatness. In the words of Richard Whatley, “lose an hour in the morning and you’ll be all day hunting for it.”

I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! Who? Who are you talking to?

I’M NOT A MORNING PERSON! What? What is wrong with being a morning person? What is your motivation or strategy for improvement? What does the quality of life look like for an “I’m not a morning person”?

I’M NOT A MORNING PERSON! Where? Where does a path lead for a non-morning person? Where is the I’m not a morning person association leadership conference being held this year?

I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! When? When did driven people let this self-fulfilling prophecy fill their heads and furthermore fall out of their mouths? When have you ever seen a successful person highlighted who gets up late? When will you become a morning person?

I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! Why? Why are you constantly giving yourself a justification for mediocrity? Why aren’t you willing to see the benefits that the morning has to offer you?

I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! How? How can you look at yourself in the mirror with this belief and do nothing to change it? How much further along in life do you expect this proclamation to take you?

The answers to the who,what, where, when, why and how of this topic are rooted in our willingness to change our pattern of behavior so that it is congruent with our dreams and aspirations. If you have resolved in your mind and manifested in your actions that you’re not a “morning person”, you will eventually be a person in mourning. You will mourn the time you’ve wasted, choices you’ve made, people you’ve mistreated, and the opportunities you’ve abandoned. Ultimately you will shake your head at the life that you’ve missed simply because you made the best part of the day your worst enemy.

Maybe some people had to work. Maybe my timing was bad and some people worked out before or after I did. Maybe, some people’s re-occuring new year’s resolutions are not to make any resolutions at all. I find this to be interesting because it could be viewed as keeping it real or keeping it routine. This whole notion stretches way beyond exercise. In fact, it leads me to believe that most people have experienced a New Year’s Revelation.

A New Year’s Revelation? Yes. That is not a typo nor is it a Freudian slip. A New Year’s Revelation is a moment of clarity that occurs as the dawn of a new year approaches. It’s a time when people take inventory of their blessings, strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, shortcomings, wins, losses, friends, and enemies. Once they’ve done a thorough assessment it becomes clear to them who or what should remain a priority and who or what will challenge them to get better and who or what will facilitate and support their holistic development. It’s not an exercise in waiting. It’s not an exercise in talkin the talk. Rather, it’s an exercise in walking out our self-assessment as we cultivate a relationship between our gifts, our work ethic and God’s purpose for us. That said, I challenge you to resolve to reveal yourself to yourself. Deliberately and proactively live WHO YOU ARE day after day, week after week, and month after month without excuses and without regrets. External goals can’t be set until a commitment internal transformation is underway.

• A wingman passes no judgement

• A wingman proudly flies on the shoulder of the lead pilot while pushing those in front to keep the lead

• A wingman is more effective being seen and not heard

• A wingman never asks for credit

• A wingman never leaves unless the lead pilot has enough fuel & ammunition to complete the mission

Therefore, I repeat; Today I had the honor and pleasure of being a wingman. YES, it was indeed a pleasure, but moreover it was an honor. My student didn’t ask me to be her wingman because she needed me to, but because she wantedme to. The reality is that I didn’t do anything except obey my wingman; God. As a result of me doing nothing He empowered her to do something. I simply complied with God’s timing and his command. Thus, the title of consummate wingman belongs to Him. He doesn’t ask for the credit. Why? He adheres to the aforementioned creed. However, he deserves it and receives it with the utmost humility. So today, I won’t ask you who your wingman is; I’ll simply ask for whom have you served as a wingman?

From the time that they waited in the hallway, I immediately sensed an array of energy from these young people. Several burroughs were represented from Brooklyn, Harlem and Queens. When the shout-outs were solicited there was a buzz in the room and a sprinkle of hate, but all the same there was a friendly, competitive commraderie and respect that abided within.

As I began to speak to the group I began to zero in on the people who were listenting not just hearing, focusing not just looking and responding, not just reacting. I sensed that these young people were a little tired from the events of the day and the rainy weather conditions, but what remained constant was their Empire State of Mind. As I shared with them my stories, philosophies, and experiences, I also challenged them to intellectually reach beyond their comfort zone and critically tackle the issues that face them as they plan their present, yes their present not their future. To have an Empire State of Mind is not reserved or limited to native New Yorkers of the universe, however it is a unique and infectious state of mind altogether; a fast track.

Is it a state of mind that dreams? Yes.

One that pursues dreams?Yes

One that will succeed? Yes.

One that removes obstacles? Yes.

One that affects change? Yes.

One that will rule the world? Yes

One that doesn’t take NO for an answer? Yes.

It is all of the above and then some. However, an Empire State of Mind should never get old, it should never be off key, it should never be in one language, nor should it ever be a song that falls out of your mental rolodex. It’s about building an empire with the skills you have been blessed with. Just remember that you are not the only builder that will make your empire complete. It’s a team effort that requires each team member to stick to what they specialize in. You are the architect so sit down at your desk and design the BLUEPRINT.

Whatever the case may be, your offseason workouts determine how you perform during training camp and furthermore during the season. In the offseason, you may have taken some extra courses to get ahead or catch up, secured an internship that helped you develop professionally or figure out what you don’t want to do. You may have attended a leadership conference/symposium, traveled abroad, read some additional books instead of watching TV or volunteered in your community. If you did any or all of these things, then your status on the team shouldn’t be in question once the whistle blows. If your preparation is strategically thorough and your practice is consistently intense then your performance will be undeniably excellent.

Your offseason workout will ultimately determine whether you make the roster, the practice squad or are waived. Training camp is underway. Somebody wants your spot. Will you be on the field making it happen or in the stands watching it happen?

The last 2 months I’ve been remiss and inconsistent with my blogging. Why? Because I’ve put unnecessary pressure on myself to share thoughts that are profound, insightful, clever and empowering. Don’t get me wrong, it’s what I love to do. However, it is not absolutely imperative that I empower and motivate readers every week or every other week. Nevertheless, it is imperative that I share what is on my heart first and then what’s on my mind.

In the last few days I’ve just been in awe and I’ve also been in prayer about God’s purpose for me. I’ve been in awe at how great God is and how great my life is and has been. Lately God has just shown me how great living can be if you just exist, listen to and follow your heart. So I submit to you today me, a man who is humble, honest, realistic, idealistic, excited, scared, apprehensive, fallible, inconsistent, unsure at times, yet a child of God who just wants to do what he loves and allow it to be acceptable in God’s sight and encouraging to those who struggle with the same questions of this life daily.

That said there is no title for this blog entry today, because frankly there is no title for this day, this hour, month, or this lifetime. Allow me to re-introduce myself, my name is Coach Rice. I have dreams, aspirations, prayers, fears, questions, demons and shortcomings. However, I’m still here and so are you. So let’s be mindful, grateful, and ready to play this game the right way; together, win or lose, blood, sweat and tears, home and away. Ball up top!!!

It’s a phrase whose impact is just as dangerous as “I can’t”, “it’s too hard”, “forget this”, and “I don’t care”.

I just don’t feel like it. What could this possibly mean? To “feel like it” is to instinctively and confidently know in your heart that you can execute, achieve, and even conquer if necessary. Truthfully there are some things we can do at 75% effort and still yield a 100% result/response. However, to say that “you don’t feel like it” leaves your team to fill in your role because of a choice you made, not an impediment. This gives your competitor the edge every single time. With this phrase you give yourself a reason to be below average, stubborn or just plain lazy.

Our freedom to frequently use of this cop out phrase is a sure-fire way to give up the best thing about this life; trying. With one fell swoop we often brush the seemingly tedious and/or grandiose things under the rug and never give thought to who it affects and how it affects them. Whether we pronounce the phrase verbatum or show how much we don’t feel like it through our body language we take for granted that our teammates will understand and that our opponents won’t sense it or ever take advantage of it. Thus, our teammates question our desire to try, to win and help the team get better.

Take one minute to think about the people in our lives who have meant so much to us. Think about those people from our past and present, from far and near who are related or unrelated and how they have motivated, mentored and guided us. I’m sure there were days they didn’t feel like it, but they made themselves feel like it. They pushed through and re-defined hard work, re-defined driven, re-defined focused, re-defined committed, re-defined role model, re-defined mentor, and re-defined team player without wincing or crying aloud. Some people don’t get another day to “feel like it”, but you’ve been given another day. So the choice is to feel like it or not feel like it. God gives it to all of us whether we really deserve it or not or whether he feels like it or not. But what if God didn’t feel like it????????

Mothers have such a major effect on us not just by what they say and do, but by how they say it and do it. While prayer changes things, Mom rearranges things. Our mothers have helped us fine tune our value system, appearance, speech, work ethic, and our attitude. She has been the one person whose timing is deliberate. Every scolding, punishment, chore and lecture had a designed intent to let you know that she brought you in this world and would surely take you out if necessary. Every hug, kiss, smile and high five comforted, and empowered us to go back out into that world again knowing that Mom gave us her blessing and achieve the unseen and unheard.

It’s not just a cliche, but every day is Mother’s Day. Every day that you can think about her, talk to her, listen to her, learn from her, touch her, hug her, kiss her and remember her is a day that you should celebrate, cherish and take advantage of.

Today and every day I thank God for my mother. I thank my mother for being my angel and my everything. I love and honor her for being a relentless, reliable tower of strength, love, compassion and beauty in every single way. Mom, I love you so much. Thank you for choosing to bring me into this life. You had a choice and I thank you for making the choice that you made. Hopefully, my life is an indication that your choice was not in vain.

The first time my mentor shared this with me years ago I paused. True indeed it was clever, however it wasn’t a thought/proverb that he created although he made me think so initially. So often growing up, we were stabbed in the back by people we put our trust in. These people, in our minds, were our true friends until we discovered several blunt objects protruding from our backs. Sometimes we actually felt the knife go in, other times people had to let us know that they were there. No matter the case, it’s potentially a deal breaker. It’s the kind of harsh reality we must face in our lives more than we care to.

It doesn’t limit itself to our childhood. We will remove knives from our backs continuously but it is up to us to decide whether we will leave the knives there and press on or remove the stab throwers from our circle of trust having learned from those stab wounds. If we must remove knives allow them to ones that we can see coming. It’s much easier in my humble opinion to remove knives when we have been stabbed in the front. When this occurs at least we know the who, when, why and how. Although the knives still hurt, the act of the stabbing in and of itself has no malicious intent, but the intent must be intepreted correctly by the target. When someone stabs you in the back, it’s betrayal, but someone stabs you in the front, it’s deference.

To be shown deference can be an ego/confidence killer depending on how or when it is shown, and why or by whom it is shown. Deference done in a sincere manner can build character and allow for a moment of clarity. Initially it may hurt and make us furious and confused yet it is intended to makes us more analytical, cautious and ultimately more appreciative of those who hold the knives. As a result we know where we stand with those whose opinion we value and trust. Thus, when someone shows you deference, take into consideration the nature of your relationship, see the intent, critically analyze, make the necessary adjusments and proceed with no regrets. There is a blessin in every lesson thus give thanks to those people and the role that they play in your life, growth and development. As we learn from friends and family allow their deference toward us allow to the make the difference in our lives and others.