Mindset: Change

This past year has definitely been a year of change. For the first time in over 15 years which is pretty crazy to think about. I am not scheduled to be in a football preseason training camp. The reality of life here on Earth is that nothing lasts forever. When I started playing football the NFL seemed a million miles away but as we know time does pass and eventually I was able to see my dream come true of playing in the NFL. It took a long 9-10 years of playing football before I reached the level of the NFL. It goes to show that great things take time. You cannot rush to a certain destination. If you want to achieve some form of greatness whatever that may be I advise you and myself to start now. Just because my football career may be on the verge of an ending doesn’t mean that life has ended. It may be time to start a new challenge. One that may take as long as it did as a football player to be considered one of the best at it. As I go through this time of personal change I see a lot of lessons that I have previously taught come to mind and ones that I must battle. It seems that God wants me to take what I learned in the NFL and put them to the test. One of the lessons that I was taught during the NFL is that we must move before we are ready especially when experiencing change. If we want to get to where we are going faster we must stop weighing all the little minor details and go after those opportunities that we have in front of us. We cannot sit and wait for the right moment. Opportunities come and go. We must take the leap of faith when these opportunities present themselves no matter how big or small they may be. If we want to truly change our situation than we must act swiftly and be prepared to fail. I remember when I made the change from running back to wide receiver when I was in college. It was a hard change because I had to learn how to catch the ball better instead of them just handing it off to me. At times I wanted to shy away from opportunities because I thought I wasn’t going to be able to catch the ball and make the play. Guess what? Most of the time I was right, I would miss the ball. The key was over and over again showing up and trying again. Eventually with enough practice and I mean 3 years of dedicated practice it paid off and I lead the NCAA in receiving yards. Another key point to understand is that I didn’t look back at missing out at being a running back. Although, I loved playing running back. I had to let it go completely in order to move on and become a great wide receiver. Sometimes in life we are required to let go of something in order to move on and get to the next location that we are meant to go to. Change requires you to change and let go. Keep going, you are closer to your goals than you think!

Photo: Training with the FLoriea’s. Luke balling out with the Cleveland Browns and his sister is running for team USA. Remember to try to surround yourself with other savages!