Life

While You’re in the Waiting Room

/ mrlamarkb / Leave a comment

Hey family! I’m officially saying Happy New Year for the first time. HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that you are well and safe and living your best life in 2022.

Today I have a nugget for those of you who feel like they are in a waiting room called life. Waiting for the next big thing to happen. Waiting for the new job, new house, new city, and etc. You are not alone. I’m in the same waiting room probably right across the hall from you or even sitting right next to you. First things first though. Give yourself some grace. Do you know how hard it is to get into the waiting room? You got up, got dressed, drove yourself and showed up. You took a number, signed in and found a comfortable sit until your time came up in the waiting room. Let’s take a moment to celebrate right now. This might include you going to that job you hate everyday. Can I get a amen? Putting in a all nighter to get your paper turned in. Putting tons and tons of applications in and waiting to hear back from a job for employment. Celebrate the milestone and the place you are in right now fam. It could be worse and I’m sure if you took a look over your shoulder you could see the progress even if they were baby steps or giant leaps of faith you took to make it to the place that you are in.

I am here. In the waiting room, now what?

Now that we’ve celebrated your 1st accomplishment, we can now get ready to rise to the next level. Over the past 2 months I have been looking for another job and if I can be honest it hasn’t been easy. You constantly hear news outlets talk about nobody wants to work but when you put 10 to 15 applications in over the weekend religiously and hear nothing for the entire upcoming week from any place you applied for is frustrating. You start doubting yourself and losing yourself. Am I not a good fit? Why wasn’t I chosen? Are they going to call me? This has been my experience for the past two months. I did receive some calls from jobs. I even interviewed and was told I was moved to the next phase but received crickets after that. No call back, no email. Oh and get this one. I got notification to do a phone interview. Carved out time to do it and 30 mins before the phone interview, I got a email that the position was filled and that the interview was cancelled. Like really, what gives. So I’ve been frustrated while in my waiting room. I was constantly asking God why am I still here? Why can’t I move on? His response to me was clear and he simply said to keep doing what you’re doing and do it well. The job you’re at, don’t slack, but do it well. Keep applying and do it well. Use what you have now and do it well. I’m often reminded of the times I would have to go into a place of business and there was a waiting room. You would see people reading books, newspapers as they waited. Some could be doing it leisurely and some could be doing it for personal development but whatever it is while you’re in your waiting room keep doing something. Don’t stop and sit. Keep doing what you’re doing well and when you’re bored with that learn something else in your spare time. So that when your name is called you’ll be completely ready.

Friends that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Keeping busy while waiting has saved my mind from racing with my thoughts. I have tons of things to work on but my mind prioritizes failure or something that hasn’t come through yet as a red flag and high priority. I would spend hours and days pondering on why something went the way it did.

The first week of January started off amazing for me. Remember those jobs I was talking about? Well I got a call and had several interviews and then at the start of this week I had another job opportunity oh and at the end of last week I had a company reach out to me to do a review on YouTube for them (shameless plug) go subscribe to my YouTube channel ☺️. So I’ve been keeping busy and trusting God and doing what I do in this exact moment well.

So friends, I encourage you while you are in your waiting room to pull out your journal of goals, pull out that business plan, and begin to get busy while you wait for your next big thing to happen. I love you Be encouraged, Be Blessed!

Overchoice: The Blessing & Curse of having too many Options

/ mrlamarkb / Leave a comment

Hello Family! I hope you all are doing well and are healthy. Yes, it’s been too long. I sound like a broken record but I plan to do more writing and especially uploading more content. I have been working on my YouTube channel. If you guys would be so kindly to go over there and subscribe because some of the content here will become a visual form afterwhile. The link is here https://youtube.com/user/blb0812

So let’s jump in. You know I am always taking inventory of my life and where I am and where I want to be. I think that it is very crucial for us to do this from time to time. Don’t wait for the new year to come to start setting goals. You can start today! I find myself running into the issue of starting something but not completing the task and even sometimes not starting at all because there’s just too many distractions OR aka options. A great friend of mines asked if I would join him last month in writing everyday a gratitude journal. I did this for the month of October. Starting out was easy because it was super easy to get the simple things out. It’s like in prayer. The way I start every prayer that I prayer is honoring God for who he is. Not asking him for anything but honoring and reverencing him for just being God, then second is repentance, followed by petitions. So I noticed for the first 2 weeks of gratitude journaling, my thankfulnesses mirrored my prayers but after 2 weeks I had to dig deeper. I actually had to think differently from just surface or face value because I had used all of those. I must admit some days I just wanted to hurry up and get the post done for the day, so that I could say I completed the task for that day. In today’s world, that’s usually how we are. We’re not connected with the essence and probably don’t understand the “why” or the motive becomes flawed. It was then that I discovered the danger of having too many options. I begin to think about the homeless and how I’m able to go to my closet and spend 2 to 5 minutes thinking about what shoe to wear today or what shirt to iron. Meanwhile, the homeless person only has 1 pair of shoes and maybe 1 shirt to wear because there’s no options but that’s just the only option. After this revelation, I begin to think more broad on the actual things that I overlook and sometimes take for granted. I also discovered how having too many options could easily make you forget about gratitude. Think about it. If you only had one option or there was one only way you could get something done, it would get done. You wouldn’t ponder or get big eyed over a situation. After carefully review, I realized that having too many options can be a curse because you sometimes you could never make up your mind and decide on something vs the person who only has that 1 option. I believe it’s in these moments where we must continue to recalibrate and come back into alignment with who we are and continue to walk in gratitude.

Now let me go to the other side of this. Yes, having options is great and can be a blessing. BUT, we must be careful not to walk in pride or greed with it. Always remember there is someone out there wishing they had an ounce of what you have. What you might have a lot of someone is in lack of. I also believe that we must have balance. What are you full of? Is it wealth, wisdom, knowlege? Maybe the reason why you can’t make up your mind on something is because you have too many options and are just full. Give something away, and not just the extra or scraps but some of the good stuff. I am a believer in being a giver. People who give always have more coming back to them because they are givers. So the next time you are having trouble picking out what to wear because you can’t decide if you should do the cotton black tie or the silk black tie, remember in that moment someone wish they had just one black tie to wear. Be grateful, be a giver, and be the best version of yourself you can. I love you!