Category: Brainstorms

Are you living a life you desire and believe in, or are you living life for someone or something else?

Momentum and success start with a clear vision and then progress with gratitude, perseverance, and choices.

If it’s fear holding you back, it’s quite simple. Do you want the outcome that fear provides, or do you want the outcome that your heart desires?

If is the latter, then take action and focus only on change and that desired outcome.

When you lead a life you believe in and do it with gratitude, the possibilities are endless. You may also inspires others among the way. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

CANNONBALL! 🙃 I learned this trick when I was about 16 and it was one of the scariest tricks I could do at the time.

It’s all about timing and trust. You have to time it just right for when you jump off and let the bike go away as you reach for the seat because if you do it too early, the bike goes up and flys away from you before you can grab the seat.

I’d be 50/50 when I was younger with the timing because I was afraid of waiting for the right time and would end up missing my seat. Now that I’ve had over a decade of practice, I now trust the timing and technique of the trick allowing me to jump off and reach for the seat at the right time, which allows the seat to be in the correct position for my hands to catch it.

This technique of the “Cannonball” can apply to life. Most things (goals, dreams, visions), especially those that we desire and are not a current reality, are possible once we let go of the fear of failure and just trust the timing and patience will allow for success.

I can relate to this analogy so well and not only because I relate BMX to anything in life 😂 but because I see it show up in my life on a daily basis. When I fear failure or get impatient for whatever reason, I have to remind myself that timing and trusting the process will lead to success. When I trust in my actions aligning with my vision, I then see great success with my vision manifesting.

The things we desire are already created and waiting for us to align our beliefs and actions with them. It’s easy to not believe the things we desire are not possible for us because the resistance that presents itself to make a change (take action for the things we desire that we do not have yet) has costs that our egos protect us from. Those costs are usually psychological and non threatening, but our subconscious doesn’t know the difference between an actual threat and a made up mental threat we call fear.

This leads to a stress hormone response in the body that promotes raised levels of cortisol, which create havoc in the body and causes cravings. But, that’s for another post. 😎

Bottom line, set an intention for your life, trust the process, and continue taking action that aligns with your hearts desire. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

Admitting I was a sugar addict took me some time to admit.

But the more I learned about brain health and saw this statement show up, the more I accepted how I was addicted to sugar and didn’t even realize it. The more I learned, the more I found it in pretty much everything I was eating. “Healthy” or not.

From “healthy juice” and whole grain cereal with skim milk to the massive amounts of carbohydrates “you’re supposed to consume for energy” as an athlete and the fast-food, soda and sports drinks, ice cream treats from sonic and MC Donald’s, microwaveable meals, frozen foods, etc. it was in everything!

Once I cut the sugar out completely, and all the sugar laden processed carbs, the better I started to feel and think, the more positive changes to the way I thought and dealt with stress appeared, and the excesses fat I was carrying around effortlessly melted away.

The best change I noticed was how the headaches left, the mental clarity improvements, the digestive improvement, and the mid-day energy crash leading to cravings in the evening were no longer a daily thing and sustained energy on less volume of food was my new reality.

There’s more context to this equation than just eliminating sugar, like adding in healthy fats (especially first thing in the morning) and eliminating the excessive drinking I was doing that I didn’t know I was subconsciously addicted to because it relieved the pressure from my brain that was causing the headaches due to the unknown brian tumor & so much more.

Personally, the carbs/sugars I consume are from berries, above and below ground veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, and cabbage are my favorites), nuts/seeds, and raw honey from time to time.

Bottom line, processed sugar &a Foods has no place in human diets. This doesn’t mean once you clean up your nutrition that things like wild, organic and local berries, raw local honey, veggies, below ground veggies, and other local fruit don’t belong, because they can. It’s all a matter of their origin, your goals, and how YOU react to them. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

BMX has shaped my life more than I ever could have fathomed.

Loss of vision, debilitating headaches to where i’d throw up and not be able to function qualified me for drugs that we say we have an “issue” wth in our country but didn’t qualify me for an MRI…

One day while training back in Greneville, Nc, I fell and hit my head, which led to an MRI that i’ll never forget.

The doctor explained how they found a giant mass on the left side of my brain and that I’d probably never ride my bike again. That’s when my world shut down for a moment in time. But my vision for my life kept me strong and motivated to keep moving forward with this potential life ended as just a speed bump that wouldn’t stop me.

I’m grateful for BMX. Im grateful for that crash that saved my life and found the tumor. I’m grateful for that diagnosis. Why? Because it all shifted my perspective on life in more than one amazing way.

We all have a choice when life doesn’t go our way. We can choose to be a survivor and use it as a learning opportunity, or, we can choose to let it take control over us and live in fear as a victim rather than a survivor.

Life is all about choices and perspective.

What’s your choice, to be a survivor or a victim? 💚✌️

-Josh P.

📸 @jciake

Tag a friend who needs to see this!

The journey is not always a walk in the park. The journey is always evolving and presenting challenges.

That said, each challenge presents an opportunity to become conscious to our courage and strength that we posses as well as learn how to move forward one step closer to our goals.

To me, goals are not a final destination. They are steps we strive to take on the journey we call life.

I find myself getting stressed or anxious when I don’t see momentum or progress but then I return to my vision. My vision reminds me that my goals are not final rather they are tools to keep me motivated and pushing forward. I may not see progress in the immediate moment but my vision allows me to reflect on where I started and reminds me that my actions have set my vision in motion and to trust the process.

When we let go of control, we can let go of fear, stress, and worry as well as allow the manifestation process take place. When we let go of “reaching a destination” we can embrace the journey and stay on path to success. It’s all a matter of perspective and choices to take action in the direction your heart desires. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

📸 @jciake

Almost 3 years ago @jciake and I met and she became my athletic trainer.

We instantly bonded over sarcasm and shit talking one another in a fun, competitive, yet loving manner during hours of rehab for my knee surgery she helped me with.

While we were both seeing other people at the time, our routine sessions of athletic trainer and athlete / rehab led to a sort of friendly/sibling kind of relationship. We pushed each other to grow in various areas of life while always making one another laugh every time we saw each other.

Today marks 1 year that Jackie and I became a partnership in life that involves still being best friends but also sharing our lives together.

We still challenge one another to the max, mentally and physically, every day but have also joined forces to create amazing success and support with one another in terms of personal life, business, fitness, nutrition, spirituality, adventure, and so much more that I don’t think either of us ever fathomed becoming a reality from the beginning.

I’m thankful for all Jackie does for me and the rest of the people in her life. I’m thankful to share an amazing and prosperous life with someone I truly love and see as my best friend. I’m thankful for the challenge she provides for me to grow mentally, spiritually, and physically every single day. I’m thankful for the countless hours she’s worked with me to help me becomes a better version of myself while being paid to do so (rehab at the beginning) and on her our time (now). I’m thankful for the ups and down my past has come with because it’s led me to finding my equal yet total opposite of my self. I’m thankful for this photo being captured on a fun day with friends and family. And, I’m thankful for all that’s to come from our non stop efforts to progress in life.

From rehab to romance, from operating a business to fun, from being lazy together to adventure, I love you, Jackie Lauricella!

-Josh P.

📸 @johndfleck

When I was 17, I had a landscaping job making really good money for how I was.

I was being trained in school and on the job to run the business until I started my own one day. Pretty much, I was being set up for the all mighty American dream: to work hard and support myself and a family one day.

But something didn’t feel right. Landscaping a yard didn’t make me feel alive the way riding ride. Laying sod didn’t set my soul on fire.

If was getting old then, what happens in 30-40 years? It was then I made the choice to drop out of high school in pursuit of my dream.

I was young. I was inexperienced and I didn’t care what my teachers or anyone else had to say. I had a dream. I had a vision and that’s all I cared about.

Luckily my parents supported me emotionally but were unable to help finically. So, I made the most logical decision at the time and at the age of 17, I moved 13 hours south from Cape Cod, MA to Greenville, NC risking all the comfort of my family and well paying job at home.

I was on my own with no real guarantee of making money in the near future. But, my vision kept me motivated and the willingness to never give up and always take action in the direction of accomplishing my goals to live my dream despite brain tumors, major injury, depression, abuse, heartbreak, and financial instability.

What do you envision for your life and what are you willing to do, sacrifice, or put up with to see it come true? 💚✌️

-Josh P.

📸 @jciake