What Defines You?

What defines youWhat defines you?

Think about that for a moment.

What defines you? Who are you? What makes you who you are?

My family defines me. It took me 30 years to truly define me and what I stand for. I have a beautiful wife who keeps me grounded on a daily basis. My son Mason is the fuel for the fire of life in me. I have one on the way who I know is going to steal my heart.

That is the definition of me. You really want to get to what I am all about, what keeps me going day in day out, why I do what I do – it’s my family.

Ask yourself that.

Why do you do what you do? What drives you? What is it deep within you that keeps you ticking day in and day out?

Election Day 2016

As I am writing this, today is November 9th, 2016. Yesterday was November 8th, 2016 – election day in the United States of America. And it was a historic election.

Last night, we the people elected Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States of America.

And the morning after – social media let us know of our mistake.

People took to social media to give their opinion both against, and for the new president. People are treating this decision as something that defines who they are. It has affected their core emotions.

People are in despair. People are losing hope. And I can understand why – but keep in mind – nobody should define who you are but you. And you should not be defined by a president, a politician, or really anyone else for that matter. You should be defined by you. You need to find within you, what makes you who are.

You are human. You are not defined by Donald Trump. You are not defined by Hillary Clinton.

We all have different paths we take. We all have different motivations. We all have different things we are after. Don’t let this one moment in time take who you are or define who you are.

We as humans are better than that. And I know – with 4 years of uncertainty of the unknown – it’s scary. Take a deep breathe and think about who you are and what you do.

On today, November the 9th, I woke up after watching the entire election and went about my day. I woke up, got my family out the door, went for a walk, worked till they got home, played around a bit, made them dinner, sent the son to bed and went back to work.

I didn’t loathe on Facebook. I didn’t protest. I didn’t lurk around like my life was over. And no – I am not on the winning side. I was able to go about my day because the president doesn’t define me. My family does. My wife does. My son(s) do. I work for them. I hustle about my day because I know I am doing good by them and because they define me – that is all I truly really care about. The election doesn’t phase me. BRING IT ON.

Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump. Barack Obama. The local mayor of our city. Nobody can take the fact that my family defines me away from me.

What do I fight for? My family. What do I work for? My family. What is in my mind all the time influencing every decision I make? My family. That is why I do what I do. Day in and day out. I even cast my vote for President based on the candidate that I thought would help THEM get farther in life.

And at this time, you need to define in yourself why you do what you do. What makes you you? What makes you get up in the morning excited about life? Surely it isn’t a presidential candidate. Do you really wake up in the morning going “f*ck ya – Donald Trump” or “Hell Ya – Go Hillary”? I highly doubt it.

Everyone who is moping around Facebook is letting a politician define who they are. You are letting someone else push your buttons and get under your skin because the person who was supposed to point you in the right direction is no longer there. Your hero lost. Your savior is not there.

Be Your Own Hero

Nobody is going to save you. Nobody is going to define you but you. No one is going to put you on a path to success except for you.

Yes – the president can – and more than likely will – inflict external forces upon you that make you uncomfortable.

But they will never make you who you are. They will never define you. You are the one that gets to do that.

You are the ones that get to look inside yourself about the feelings that the election caused and define why they did. Those feelings, those passions, is what defines you. Not a person living in the white house. Hillary may have lost, but you can still battle for the feelings that she drove into you.

You make you who you are. You make your own life what it is cut out to be. You make your own decisions. Stop treating this election like a pity party on yourself.  Go outside, feel the sunshine, take a deep breath. YOU ARE ALIVE! You are powerful. You are who you are because of what YOU have done and the decisions YOU have made. And no one can ever take that from you. NO ONE.

That is the message we need to send to the world. That is the message we need to tell our kids. That is the message we need to spread as adults. As humans. We are human beings. We aren’t Democrats. We are not Republicans. We are not Donald Trump. We are not Hillary Clinton.

Listen for a moment: I don’t give a quarter of a f*ck if you wanted to make America great again or if you were with her. That isn’t the point here. The point here is to make YOU great again. The point is you need to be with YOU. You need to get to where you need to go. You need to get to that spot that you want. This may be a bump in the road – hell this may be a wall in the road. But you need to climb that wall that is put in front of you and get to where you want to go. Stop wallowing in the decision you didn’t get.

This is a moment in time. This is a moment in time where life may have pushed you down in the mud and put its knee in the square of your back. And the only way you are going to be an example to the world is by pushing life up off of you, getting that mud off of you, turning around and giving life the middle finger and start walking forward again. Not posting your political stance or that fact that your candidate did, or did not win.

I don’t care what side of this you are on, we are not done. Not in the slightest. We are just gettin’ started!

This has nothing on your life. As human beings, as powerful creatures, the ability to move forward and not let a single night define us, to be able to get whatever we want out of life, nobody can take that away from us.

Nobody defines me – but me.

Nobody defines you but you.

And the faster we can learn this – the faster we can pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and say “let’s move forward”, the better we – as humans – will be.

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

Life is about being you. We are not red or blue. We are not GOP or DNC. We are not Donald or Hillary. We are not about making America great or being with her. We are we. You are you. It’s about being the you-est you you can be, not the you-est you for the president of your choice.

Go out and be you. Go out and find what defines you (and I can almost guarantee it isn’t this election that defines you). Go out and be human. Go out and change the world.

What defines you?