Love – Page 13 – Daily Brainstorms

Fear Disguised as Practicality

“So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it. I’m saying, I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it.” -Jim Carey

This resonates with me so much. Although I pursued my dream 100%, I battled with fear and anxiety in regards to not doing what others expected me to do. Although my family and friends supported me every step of the way, I still had that society voice in my head saying it was the wrong path because I chose to drop out of school and get my GED, disregard college because I didn’t believe in it, not have a “grown up job”, actually enjoy what I did/do, and not have any guarantee of a future or stability.

Once I began to foster the belief that my inner being and desires were correct, listen to my intuition, and full heartedly commit to what I love to do and brought me the most joy, the fear, worry, and anxieties all were stripped away. I had/have a desire to accomplish something bigger than the norm and what most believe to not be capable of doing, continue along that path pursuing progressive goals, and help others do the same. I also have begun to understand my purpose for my life and legacy is, for one, much bigger than me and any accomplishment tor success, and two, the driving force behind my motivation to push through hardships, which I have had many along the way.

I share all I share and do all I do because I want you all to believe in yourself, even if you feel you are alone. You are never alone. There are many many of us out there even if some are scared to shine through the void of being heard due to fear of judgment or failure. I was once there but saw so much positivity from owning my reality, sharing it with others, and collaborating with many forms of motivation to get past my fears and do what I wanted and indirectly started to see I was helping others along the way.

The point of this post is to share the fact that if a kid from Cape Cod that comes from no money, no upper hand at life, a rough up brining, and battling death multiple times along the way with only a dream and motivation to pursue that dream can do it, so can all of you. It starts with a belief and manifests with action. I am grateful for my love for BMX and all its shown me in and about life.

-Josh P.

Growing Past Expectations

People have these perceptions/ expectations of how they view you in life and expect you to show up as. When you work on self growth and development, you acknowledge you’re not the same “you” as you were yesterday, let alone years before.

You’re a new version of you and others tend to not like the “new you”. That’s ok. We’re all on our own journey in our human experience on this planet earth that we call home. You’re not responsible for how others act, think, or feel about you or anything for that matter. You’re responsible for YOU and only you.

Don’t feel bad that others haven’t got to a place of open-mindedness to the world of change and love. Just keep doing YOU and stay true to your inner being and what it gravitates towards. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

A Change In Priorities

Starting & operating my own health coaching business, continuing to work on my non-profit event with the Athlete Recovery Fund, and prioritizing my training, I haven’t been able to ride as often as I’d like. But that’s ok because I’m still riding and maintaining a professional level.

With time, priorities change and life is always evolving. Although I ride at the same level as when I was solely providing for myself off BMX, there’s no pressure to ride any way other than what I want. I still love it as much as ever and push myself to maintain that level with some progression mixed in.

That being said, it’s a really cool feeling to be pursuing new found passions of promoting nutrition, fitness, and mindset techniques to help people become as well as they possibly can while utilizing my love and hard work over the years to bring this information to the people in a fun and exciting manner through BMX

Moving forward, I’m still creating partnerships with brands and corporations to fuel my riding/training lifestyle while being able to reach more people along the way with my passion for healthy living. As for competing, if it makes sense then I’ll compete. If not, I don’t NEED to.

I’m in a really cool place in life where I have nothing but gratitude for the opportunities my hard work and experiences have led me to along with the belief to make it all possible.

-Josh P.

Stay Hydrated

I used to drink copious amounts of soda when I was a teenager-early twenties because it was cheap and I was addicted to sugar.

Nowadays, I value my brain and performance on and off the bike so much more that I prioritize my health by staying hydrated.

Did you know quality salt helps you stay hydrated? Not the white table salt that’s heated, treated with chemicals, and stripped of all important minerals that contribute to hydration. I use Redman’s Real Salt

I add a pinch or two to my water during riding/training and in my protein shakes afterwards. I also add some throughout the day on all my food. Tastes better and helps the body in so many ways beyond simple hydration. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

Fail & I Fail Some More

We, as BMX athletes, fail more times in a day than people are willing to in a lifetime. BMX teaches us how to get up when we fall and try again. Not to look at it as a failure, rather a learning opportunity.

The difference between “failure” and “success” is the information we gather and the choices we make moving forward. It’s all just information for us to utilize to reach our next success.

Assess what happened and how you want to move forward. This applies to any aspect of life. Success is not easy, quick, or overnight for anyone. There is a lot of background effort to reach that success. Yes, some success are easier than others. But, that’s also built off of the foundation created over time.

When you fall down in any respect of life, don’t be discouraged. Be motivated to use that as an opportunity to learn and grow. Just like any trick, success takes patience, effort, and conscious thinking and self-awareness. 💚✌️

Taken from this Vlog:

-Josh P.

Success Is Rented

People think success is easy for some or “over-night” for others. FALSE! Success is a constant work in progress or practice, if you will.
It’s day in and day out choices we make to better our lives. It’s a constant effort. It may looks “easy” to some, but that’s because they enjoy what they do.
When you lead a path of little to no resistance, have gratitude for your life, work hard to be the best you can be, visualize the life you want and take action towards it, success is inevitable.
Set a goal, have a WHY or purpose for that goal, visualize and take action, and believe in yourself. That’s all it takes. 💯💚✌️
-Josh P.

Depression or Deep Rest?

People are scared to talk about depression for fear of being judged. As someone who has gone through it and gained a new perspective on what depression is compared to sadness, I found that most confuse the two.
The difference between sadness and depression is…sadness is from “happens stance,” as in whatever happened or didn’t happen to you. This could be loss, circumstance, grief, or whatever it is. Depression is your body saying “fuck you, I don’t want to be this character anymore. I don’t want to hold up this avatar you’ve created in the world.”
Depression is your body and mind going into deep rest. Your body feels it needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character you’ve been trying to play. Depression comes about when there is an imbalance and/or resistance with your inner true self and the version of you you’re trying to hold up to societal standards and what you think “they” want you to do, say, or become.
As you know, I am a huge advocate for nutrition and exercise. It is not only for physical well being, but also your mental health. When we make positive choices within the three pinnacles of health (nutrition, exercise & mindset) they play a fundamental role in the health of our mitochondria. The mitochondria are the “powerhouses” of our cells that create the energy our body, and most importantly our brain, uses to function called ATP. When the three pinnacles are weakened or out of balance, they compromise the strength of our mitochondria resulting in less energy production which creates anxiety, depression, fatigue and overall dis-ease.
Once I began taking my fitness and nutrition seriously and I let go of what I thought “they” wanted me to do, say, and/or become, and just did what I felt deep down inside to be true to my loving inner voice, the depression, anxiety, fear, and worry all stripped away little by little the more I stayed true to myself and followed my gut and my heart.
I’ll say this again and again, do what you love and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Take care of your body. You know best and so does your gut. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

Training Is Just For Money?

Training isn’t about “money”, “winning”, or any other nonsense people want to say it is. At least for me and what I represent.
Training is about taking care of my health and my performance with the thing I love most in life, and creating longevity for all the above. Yeah, training will improve your riding. But that doesn’t mean it’s focused on money or winning.
Take me for example, I decided to not compete this year nor take a paycheck from anything bmx related. I still rode at a level to compete and also trained in the gym. That was my personal decision to do so for my health and performance on my bike. It’s made tricks easier, recovering more efficient, sessions stretch longer without fatigue, and increased the ability to take the physical stress from landing or falling on a trick. What’s also an equal part of this equation is nutrition and mindset.
That being said, all this shit about “bmx is just about fun” and blah blah blah is just that, shit. Ones ignorance and insecurity at its finest along with inability to embrace others to do something similar yet take a different approach. Nothing about my riding or career says anything but fun and love for it. If I was focused on money, I would have kept the job I had in high school making twice what I’ve ever made from bmx, which would have been way more by now as well. I don’t do anything for money, I donit for the love!
Bmx has led me to where I am today, shown me paths to passions I’ve developed along the way, shown me the world, saved my life, and gave me a outlet to share my story and passions. Some, like myself, find training fun as well as the benefits that transfer over to the bike to be fun.
It’s funny how many riders enjoy training just from the health perspective and enjoyment, let alone the riding benefits, and the disciplines of riding that people least expect one rider in such a discipline or stay of riding to train.
At the end of the day, if you love something, do what you love! Don’t be afraid others doing it differently or taking a different approach will change whatever it is for you. Bmx is a lifestyle and anyone who wants to use the term “freestyle” to say it has to be one way and can’t involved progressive new ideas is missing the whole point of “freestyle”.
What’s wrong with someone loving the sport of BMX so much that they decide to make a career out of it? What’s wrong with someone putting their heart, blood, sweat, and tears into something for so long they want to make a career out it that and share it with others? What’s wrong with making money in any form that’s positive? There isn’t anything wrong with it other than the judgmental people’s views that have a negative relationship and story with money.
I’ve said this before, money is a tool. It’s not good nor evil. It what you make it. There isn’t anything wrong with someone making money at what they live rather than what society has been washed into thinking the way they just make money- unfulfilled, stressed, no enjoyment, 9-5, hourly pay, etc.
BMX is something special to me a lot of other riders. The amount of sacrifice, dedication, and pain that has gone into should be enough to not need an explanation for training or even making money from the time and skill that goes into it.
I encourage you all to take a risk on what you love, ignore the haters, and believe in the life you want. Why live to do something you don’t enjoy just to make money when you could do what you love to make money and enjoy the fuck out of your life?
I train so my brain, body, and riding all benefit. Not for money. For me! For what I am and what I want to show up as in life. I don’t care what others think because I know my truth and I’m being 100% authentic in life.
Until next time….💚✌️
-Josh P.

Follow Your Dreams

We have all heard “follow your dreams” but how many people do you know actually pursued their dreams? Or, how about the people sharing “follow your dreams”? Did they take a risk on their dreams or is this some kind of generic statement authority figures in our life share as we’re going through the motions of developing as little humans to “adults”?

I didn’t know many people, if any, that pursued their dreams while I was growing up and developing my own dream. I mean this in a personal sense, not the people I saw on tv or in the magazines.

I’ve come to learn that today’s society and standards of “how you should live your life” limits the number of people chasing a dream, or sustaining that chase, with all the pressure to amount to expectations of family and societal standards. The fear of judgment sets in and “what will they think of me if….”, “will mom and dad be disappointed in me for not following the path they set forth for me?”, or “what if I fail on top of going against their wishes for my life?” All these fears kick in and kill any momentum or effort towards challenging status quo for what you truly believe in as the path YOU want to take in life.

Dreams come true when you believe they will come true and you take ACTION towards them. No amount of suggestion from the outside world (strangers, family, friends, teachers, etc.) can determine your destiny, unless you let that suggestion control your actions. But you also can’t take belief, visualization, and mediation as a cop-out for taking action and risking your comfort zone on a new desirable outcome in your life. You can’t have one without the other, action without belief. Belief without action.

As for suggestions, I mean if someone says “you’re never going to make it”, at whatever it is you want to pursue, this isn’t true or false until your actions determine that suggestion to be factual or not. Meaning, if you let that suggestion control your thoughts, beliefs, and therefore take actions in a manner to not succeed, then their suggestion is true and you will choose fear over your dream. If you take that suggestion and do what I did growing up, turn it into fuel to make your dream happen and dismiss their suggestion as irrelevant, you won’t care what they suggest because it’s not aligned with your inner truth, desires, and beliefs, which then correlates to the actions you choose along your journey.

Bottom line: take a risk on your dream, go “all in”, stay committed, believe in yourself, and take action!
A dream starts with belief and manifests with action. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

Fear or Love?

“You will only ever have two choices: love or fear. Choose love and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart” – Jim Carrey
Far too often do I hear people give me all kinds of excuses as to why they are unhappy, suffering, and/or didn’t/don’t follow their dreams or passions in life. Bottom line, it’s because of fear. Fear of failure or failure again, fear of the unknown, fear of what others may say or think, fear of even succeeding and what that’ll do to their life, and so on. I’ve been there, many times.
Any successful person has. The difference? Gratitude, love, and a choice to not let fear dictate your life. I encourage you all to figure out what it is you love to do most, WHY that is so, and how to make that a regular habit in your life while ditching the excuses. Life’s way more pleasant that way. 💚✌️
This Video trailer is from the original vlog I made at the beginning of this year “JP Weeklies”. Here is the link to the full episode

-Josh P