I’m NOT Special

We live in a world where we’re conditioned that giving up is normalized.

Conditioned to give into fear or not even begin going after our dreams because of others insecurity / past experiences of “failure” projected upon us.

April 16th, 2010, I signed over my life to the hands of a neurosurgeon & his team as I said goodbye & “I love you” to my younger brother & parents.

I was 21 years old & was responsible to sign off of all the profound risks of said brain surgery as a young adult, & the risks consisted of paralysis, going blind, having a stroke, or death as the top of what stood out & caught my attention.

As I sat there signing my life away, I remember this being the first time I truly experienced what life or death fear was like & the thought of dying, never seeing the people I love again, & never riding my bike again consumed me.

Not fear in the sense of thats “scary” or anxiety/worry. More like fear of actually dying & accepting this fact as they inserted the IV into my arm & prepared me for what’s to come with no looking back.

This moment in time where I accepted I may die was a turning point in my life in that something switched inside of me that no longer gave into fear of dying & I presented myself with a choice.

A choice to put my focus, & therefore my energy, into a worse case scenario I didn’t want. Or, a choice in the vision I desired after I woke up from surgery.

This choice to focus on my desired future-vision was a by-product of my being raised to work hard for the life I wanted & from BMX teaching me if you fall once, try twice if you want it bad enough.

This choice was a pivotal moment that would serve as fuel to overcome what was to come in the next 10 years leading to my reality today.

It taught me that so often do we make decisions disguised as fear to take the “easy route” rather than the route most would give up on.

I’m not special. I just made a choice to not give up. A choice to learn & grow.

A choice to prove to myself & others we’re capable of what we set our sights (internally & externally) on & the potential we all possess with a believe in ourselves.

What do you want to be true about your life?

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

Detachment & Desire

I’ve taken all I’ve learned from BMX and have shared as much as I can but I’ve also uncovered deeper learnings from BMX and applied to my personal and professional life outside of the sport.

This has allowed me to build a 6-figure business based on my purpose to shift perspectives and empower others to achieve success in their lives, and it’s allowed me to experience the freedom I desire more and more.

For me, freedom means an equal balance of detachment and desire.

It means to surrender and let the feelings of empowerment and joy shine through liking the path to freedom.

The more I’ve reflected on the “things” we want in life and for what purpose, the more I’ve become aware that it traces back to an emotional feeling we’re seeking. Often times to cover up an insecurity we haven’t yet faced and accepted.

Steps one and two of freedom is to become aware / familiar with yourself and accept who you are in order to surrender to detachment and desire.

From there, you can begin paving the path to freedom with the simple internal decision to let go and put your focus on your intentions and match them with a heightened emotional state.

The thought sends the signal out and the emotion draws the event into your life.

If you want to speed up time, you gotta let go of past emotional baggage and focus on overcoming your past “known” self to create a new idea version of you that’s doing, feeling, and having the things and experiences you truly want.

I’m practicing this more and more, and I’ve been challenged to let go of many things that I did on a daily basis to affirm my identity.

I’m learning I don’t need that identity and it’s so freeing to know and feel.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

What Are You WILLING To Do?

What are you willing to do for the things you say you “need” and “want” in your life?

Are you willing to sacrifice moments of instant gratification for the long game of sustainability?

Are you willing to put yourself in uncomfortable ale situations or moments of immense pain like I experienced in this photo?

The difference between a pro and amateur is the willingness to push past moments of physical and mental pain, fear, doubt, worry, judgment, stress and whatever else comes your way.

The future vision we create as a pro of our life’s journey is what defines us. We’re not defined by our past, who we showed up as yesterday, the times we fell down or “failed”, or the times we heard the word “no”. We are clear on our purpose behind the vision and won’t let anything stop us, no matter how far off course we find ourselves.

Pain is just information. Use the information to trouble shoot navigating forward to success.

When you find yourself comfortable, that should set off an alarm that it’s time to optimize.

Adaptations are healthy and necessary to build strength, but comfort can lead to stagnant phases in life and lead to unhappiness.

That’s what I’ve found in my life and BMX has taught me there’s always more in us to optimize our current level in area of life, if we’re willing to put the work in.

Get after it with clear, purposeful, and align intent that matches the vision you’ve created for your life.

Don’t settle for anything less and don’t let moment of pain persuade you off the path.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

BE Before You Become

Without consciousness (awareness) of our personality, we can’t expect to change.

When we live each day as our past self, making the same choices, having the same thoughts, and creating the same emotional experiences, we trap ourselves into a loop of auto pilot.

The thoughts we have, the actions we choose, and the emotions we feel as a result creates our state of being.

In order to change, we must be greater than our state of being, which takes an immense amount of awareness, commitment, and faith in what we can not yet see.

I had a long conversation about this work with @lifesamitchism last week and something he reminded me of clicked. He reminded me that once we leave the “program” (our subconscious personality made of our thoughts, behaviors and emotions) and get into the seat of the observer, let go of judgment and just OBSERVE ourselves for what we see and surrender from controlling our past or future.

For me, letting go of past judgments of myself is a huge success in overcoming myself. I’ve always been so hard on myself and put unneeded pressure “to succeed” when in reality, we’ll “succeed” once we choose to feel as if we have already and can feel that emotion.

In order to get into the seat of the PROGRAMMER and change our reality, we have to let go of any intention and emotion that makes us the current version of “ME”. Once we can establish this new observation and behavior pattern (personality), we can begin to rePROGRAM our personality defined by a vision of the future we have for our lives.

To create a new reality, we have to shed the past / current state of being of ourselves that’s creating the current reality in which we desire to change.

Of course, if you’re truly happy and fulfilled with you’re reality then this may not apply but I argue this applies to all us striving to be the best we can be.

Biggest lesson so far from learning about this topic is “be before you become”. Don’t wait for a cause and effect situation, create the effect that draws the cause into fruition.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

When You Grow Up

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

We all remember being asking this as a kid, right?

The possibilities are endless we were told.

But, how sincere was this question when it was asked & how true is the latter statement? How many of us manifested that dream into our reality, better yet, how many of us actually took a risk on that dream?

It seems, although sparking creativity & inspiring imagination, this question was a mask for confirmatory disguised as an idea of a dream when those asking this question most likely didn’t take a chance on theirs…maybe they did, maybe they didn’t.

I’ve realized there are few of us that take a risk on who it is we truly want to become when we grow up & that’s because few are often supported in being that person when they’re younger.

I was encouraged to “go big and fly high”, as my mom always told me, & my family backed anything I chose to do, as long as I worked hard at it and gave it my all.

I realize not everyone has a support system as I did growing up with, but I also had my own struggles along the way.

I often hear the phrase “must be nice” or “you’re so lucky” & it pisses me off.

To me, it negates all the hard ass work, the sacrifice in a “secure” career left behind to pursue and unlikely & unconventional path, pain and suffering endured to find my way (mentally and physically), risking my life, & the countless times I fell down (figuratively and literally) in order to get to a point people have the audacity to say such things to me.

To be on a path speaking my truth to people I don’t know, 100% fueled by passion & purpose, is crazy to sit back & reflect on.

It started with a self filled dream to become a professional BMX athlete and after many unfathomable adversities along the way, I got real clear on my purpose in life to show others what’s possible when we dig deep within ourselves, even when we thought we had nothing left.

This purpose is fueled with a mission to inspire new perspectives in others to step into that untapped potential empowerment by living through the lens of my life rather than waiting for catastrophic events to occur in your life to wake up.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

Purpose > Giving Up

Never in a million years did I think this was possible.

That I would be speaking to a crowd of hundreds to thousands of people I don’t know.

Especially with my insecurities of being “good enough” to speak on such a stage.

Or, my social anxiety of speaking with strangers and how they may judge me and my life decisions.

Or, thinking “who wants to hear what I have to say? I’m just a high school dropout that pursued BMX as a career option, overcame some challenges along the way, and am trying to find my way in life beyond my past identity as just a BMX athlete living with brain tumors”. That’s the thing about being on PURPOSE, though.

You overcome the mental challenges to pursue the mission at hand while finding yourself in situations you never fathomed being in.

In this case, my mission is to inspire new PERSPECTIVE in others that leads them to making the choice to step into their power of creating the best versions of themselves.

With that said, I find myself speaking around the world, making videos sharing my journey, experiences, passions and my TRUTH, and reaching out to strangers to have a conversation to what value I can provide and what perspectives/insights I can learn.

The last decade of my life has taught me 3 valuable pieces to life that I live by and am passionately sharing as much as I can:

– perspective is essential.

– Health is internal.

– our reality is a manifestation of our choices.

The more I focus on my purpose to serve others, the more the anxiety, fear, and overwhelm disappear but it’s a constant work in progress to do so.

As a former professional athlete and multiple brain tumor survivor, I find myself being incredibly hard on myself and thinking I could be doing more.

I’m learning this perspective is limiting my ability to fulfill my purpose on a archer scale and manifest my goals in an efficient and the least challenging way.

The fact that I get out of bed every day & don’t give up even when I feel as if I’m a failure, I can’t handle the overwhelm & stress, and think “why bother because no one would care either way”, is something to be grateful for.

If you haven’t given up, be grateful & see the value in that.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

Do You REALLY Want To Win?

Who’s guilty of being salty and jealous of others wins and successes?

This is a subconscious fear of “lack” in our lives when we think this way.

That scarcity mindset and fear mentality is what leads us to feeling jealous of others successes and often times leads to throwing shade their way.

When we’re living in this environment, our brain doesn’t know the difference between what we want and what we currently feel.

That said, lowering your energy to that of jealousy and hate surrounding “success”, even if it’s others, tells our subconscious mind that we don’t like success and don’t believe we can achieve success in whatever area we are focused on.

If we truly were happy of others winning, we’d achieve an elevated state of consciousness and signal our brain in different ways to release chemicals in another form that leads to positive and uplifting feelings and emotions.

These higher levels of emotions tells our brain that the thought of winning or success is good and we should act in a manner to create this feeling.

When we relate success or winning with lower levels of energy, we tell our brian that winning and success is negative and therefore, our subconscious avoids the things we must do in order to create this success and win in our lives.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

Gratitude & Progression > Spite & Lack

Don’t get that quote wrong, I live and breath gratitude.

That said, I’m competitive at heart as we all are.

I didn’t make a name for myself in this world by being content.

I strived for more and pushed myself to reach new levels every step of the way.

I was fueled by a lot of spite and anger leading to my success as a professional athlete.

Then, after the first brain tumor diagnosis, my perspective shifted to one of gratitude for my life and all that was in it.

This sense of gratitude led me to wanting even more in my life, which led me on a path of serving others along the way.

What’s the use in my success if others can’t experience their success as well?

At the end of the day, it’s human nature to progress our lives in areas were passionate about.

What this journey up until this moment has taught me is that gratitude leads to abundance in all areas of life.

A simple perspective shift to that of gratitude not only changes our chemical make up, but it also attracts alike vibes from our external environments.

Sounds woohoo and all that but it’s backed by science that we can se and measure, and my life is a clear example of just that.

Gratitude & progression > spite and lack.

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

Bowling Came First

Before BMX it was bowling and it started 28 years ago.

My dad has been bowling for about 10 years prior to my being born and has been bringing me to the alley since whatever age this is in the photo (1-3?).

The bowling alley that we’ve always gone to opened in the 60’s and its last day was yesterday.

In honor of the memories its allowed us all to have and so many friendships formed, I flew in Saturday morning for the goodbye tournament on Sunday.

To develop an average, since it’s been 15 years since I had one from league bowling, I bowled 3 games Saturday afternoon in rented shoes and a borrowed ball that didn’t fit.

I shot a 176 average going into Sunday’s tournament. I shot a 227 game 1 and 2, 145 game 3, and a 223 game 4 giving me an average of 205 I believe and the second seed into the final 8 after my handicap was factored in.

I was bumped out by a few pins in the first head to head by an OG that was paired up with me. I did bowl a sloppy 154 that game tho, leaving a few open frames.

All in all, I had an amazing time celebrating a facility that did so much for my childhood with amazing people.

That said, I’ve now been inspired to order a ball and some shoes to get back into it now that I’m not competing in BMX anymore.

You’ll be seeing some dope video content from @createdbybrian and myself soon in my new @stormproducts ball and shoes 😎 and some training adaptations in the gym to supplement.

My forearms, shoulders and legs are sore in off places than I’m used to from BMX, haha!

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️

Heart or Fear?

Is your heart running your show or fear?

My mission is to show people the potential for their lives in all aspects once they take ownership of their power and lead with their heart and passion.

I spent far too much time living in fear and not living up to my fullest potential and I don’t believe any one of us had to.

Be honest with yourself. What’s leading your life?

Your heart and passion? Or, fear and logic?

Josh P. 💚🧠✌️