what up, though, and welcome back to. I'm growing man. It's your man, john d, in the building definitely wanted to get on here and talk about some eye-opening moments that I've had in the past weeks. I don't know if y'all been watching my social media, but I talk about maturity a lot, and maturity is a complete blessing. Those of you that don't understand what I mean. When I really mean maturity, I mean when you consciously make decisions that are in the best interest of everybody around you.

I know a lot of times our people are compromised and they will take advantage of a situation because they feel like that might be a blessing, but the universe works in a way where everybody has the ability to get what they earn. So, as I've went on this journey, I look back when people talk about maturity when you're young, and I can tell you as a youth I was so immature in areas and I often think about how did I become so? Why was I so immature? Then you have to think about the parenting, the environment you grew up in. A lot of that plays a complete impact on how soon a kid can mature. I know a lot of people say it's like it deals with age and chemicals that's going on in your body. But I really do believe if you grow up in a sound environment where you have parents and you have family, friends, in an area where you can learn and grow together, it's easier to mature, because a lot of times when you're compromised for example, you're compromised where you don't get to eat every day or, let's say, you don't know if you're going to get a meal on a consistent basis, and a lot of times we have kids that go to school to just eat. So if you're compromised like that, there are going to be a lot of things that you find that think that this is for me because I have to live like this. Unfortunately, your parents have to be able to deliver or translate why life is like that so that you don't feel like you have to take from somebody else. And I have seen kids take advantage of other kids because it was done and their boundaries were crossed. So the maturity aspect of life never really happens.

I think maturity comes when you situation or other people similar, because I think about the kids that I would consider mature at that time. They didn't have to worry about things like I did and I think if you're immature, there's a level of comprehension on why maturity is so important. You know you could tell a kid, hey, this is why you shouldn't do it. But if you don't explain it properly they won't understand. And a lot of times I grew up in a, in an era where if I didn't do what I was told I was hard headed. But they don't realize, parents don't realize at that time. If the kid does it, they didn't understand the message when it was given. Now, of course, kids cross boundaries all the time. But if the kid is properly taught and when I say taught I mean where the kid receives it A lot of times they're like I've been telling you the whole time and you're not following directions. It's because they don't understand. Kids love their parents. You have to be, like I said before, completely diabolical, or what my wife says for a kid to stop liking her parent. So kids only want to impress their parents. So the immaturity part is because they did not get the attention they needed to be able to understand why certain things aren't supposed to happen.

Now, I didn't get on here to talk about immaturity as a kid. I got on here to talk about immaturity as an adult. My wife said to me the other day. She said you can't be in a relationship with a person who's a grown kid and when I say a grown kid, you're an adult but you have immature ways where you're so selfish that it's killing the relationship because of the messages you follow. And I told my wife that I didn't realize that I was a grown kid, like I could pay bills. She wasn't worried about me doing anything to destroy the family, but she wasn't her happiest and a lot of that had to do with my interaction happiest and a lot of that had to do with my interaction. I didn't know that I should have tried to improve how I communicated with her. Even in um, in happy moments, there were things that she felt like maybe I could go too far and disturb her peace and I didn't know. I thought like I'm your husband, you, you, you know how I am, you know I love you. I'm not doing any of this to destroy your peace. And that hurt. You know to know that that's what she she was afraid of. She was like I didn't know what, what John, I was getting. She was like for the most part I was fun, but I just didn't went too far sometimes and the reason why I did that? Because I was immature. I did not grow up from my childhood, I became a mature child, but my behavior still were childlike.

And when I look around and I start to reflect, the worst thing in the world is to reflect on a time period where you can't believe you did something and you thought you were doing the right thing, and I think that's really the only reason why I'm here today with the family that I have, because I was completely ignorant and I know my father always told me that ignorance is no excuse for the law and I think it works with the universe opposite, because I was completely in and it protected me. And then when I, when I found the information that I needed, it was almost like a near-death experience where you feel like, oh my gosh, I know what I'm doing now and when I say know what I'm doing, I know not to make mistakes that could jeopardize everything that I'm trying to build. If I make a mistake, it's because I totally didn't know, I didn't do enough research, and that's the reason why, before I do a lot of things now, I'm completely doing research because I don't want to compromise my family or anybody around me at any point or anybody around me at any point. So when I go into anything I feel like I'm as prepared as possible to do whatever I want, and that came with maturity. You become confident in areas that you're not good in because you know you're willing to put the work in to improve them.

I was just listening to somebody or I read something yesterday and it was talking about how if people knew the process like what it actually took, more people would complete it. But there's so many people they don't understand the process. So you have people following other people and I think once you realize that so many things are distractions and if you could single handedly remove your distractions, that's a level of maturity that you'll appreciate once you realize what your distractions are and that now you can isolate and remove them. But I will say this during your process of maturing into the person you want to become, in order to truly remove a distraction, a bad habit or something you don't like in your life, you have to have something that you can replace it with, and it has to be something of value, because if it's not a value, it's going to be easy to fall back into the behaviors that got you to that point and when I started removing my distractions and my poor behaviors, I developed a confidence.

Now I do want to say this I've always been arrogant, but I was arrogant for the wrong reasons. But now I don't believe I'm arrogant. I believe I'm just confident because I'm better prepared for what I have to face. And I believe I'm just confident because I'm better prepared for what I have to face. You know, there are things that I cannot control and if something happens to knock me off my square or knock me out of that moment, my job is to find a message and then move on, not let it put me in a place where I can't grow and appreciate this life I've been given. I know a lot of people that are in really tough situations, mentally and physically, and being that I'm disciplined, where I'm taking care of my body and I'm looking for ways to improve, not only as a father and a husband, but just as a fellow man, a friend, somebody that could be of help.

My son was telling me today. He said do you think that all the people on the side that says they'll work for food and have families out asking for money, do you think all of them are poor. I told him I was like I would hope they are. I wouldn't want people to manipulate the system and take people's charity and live life off of. But he said if you knew that they were rich, would you give them money? I was like you know, I'm going to tell you something that my, that my wife, that your mother told me years ago back in Atlanta. And I was in Atlanta and I went into this shoe store and I want you to say okay, so I'm in Atlanta.

We moved to Atlanta in the summertime, spring, the warm weather. You see kids everywhere with these like folders, clear folders, with like um, a message that they speak to an adult, that they're raising money for a sports team. My mind is the first time I've seen this and I was like that's dope, it's so organized. So after about a year or two I've been there, I'm in a shoe store, so I'm looking at shoes and kid walks in with the thing and one of the salesmen was like what up player, you get enough money to get them shoes? And I was like what In my head? I'm like man.

At that point I said I'm not giving any more money out and I told my wife that and she was like you can't really worry about what you do. When you give somebody money, it's coming from a good place. Now what they do with it, that's on them, but the universe works for those who works for it. So I can't be upset that somebody might've taken advantage of me and then hold everybody else accountable, because life needs help right. So at that point I decided if I ever, or when I ever, give money out, I can't worry about what they do with it, because my heart just wants to help.

And I was telling my son if I remained, if I remained that way and I stopped giving people you know the, the, the help they needed, I think it would have made, it would have hardened me as a person, and I'm not that type of person. If I got it, I want to give it to you, regardless if I know you or not. I am that type of person. And I remember feeling like I ain't giving nothing, no more. But then, when she told me that it just changed my whole energy, I'm like you know what? I'm a good person, I want to help people. So if somebody takes advantage of me, that was just one of those moments, you know. But it's not. No, I don't, don't get me wrong, I'm not giving out all kinds of money or whatnot. But you know, you do see those people that may need some help and it's in my best interest to always help.

And I believe that's a part of maturity when you feel that you're in a place that you're, you can help other people. And I remember where there's parts of my life where I just wasn't mature enough. And that's why I say maturity is a blessing, because the decisions I make now are so intentional that if I fail or come short, I know that I'm getting closer. It's not like what did I do wrong? I'm working, it comes in time. It's not like, uh, what did I do wrong? It's I'm working. Is it comes in time? You know it's just a little step at a time. You know if you work towards your goal, whatever your goal may be if you put in that work every single day, you will get there faster than you would ever imagine Before I go. I want to. I want to Say what, when I mature, what I learned that everybody should do?

You should create a routine, as young as you can start Parents, educators, workers in the work field you should create a routine that you can do every single day. Your routine should consist of an effort that you put into things that makes you better. It's going to change your environment around you and make you feel more prepared and more confident. Every part of your day should have something to do. Even if you decide that you're just going to slack, it shouldn't be longer than a certain period of time, because if you get too caught up in slacking, you become that person and you don't even know it. And if you get in the hamster wheel of slacking, you become that person and you don't even know it. And if you get in the hamster wheel of slacking, you're going to complain a whole lot more than regular people. But if you get that routine and a routine consists of what time you get up, what do you do when you get up, what do you do during the time before you have to be somewhere? What does this look like? Every day should look very similar, and this is the reason why I'm telling you this.

Your body is a series of habits. You move through a series of habits and if you get into the routine of working on something, there are things in the background that's going to develop right before your eyes, but if you don't do it every single day, you cannot see anything like that develop. And that's one of the reasons why I feel like when people say 90% of businesses fail two to five years because they don't know the process it actually takes. They knew the process, it would succeed. And it's more than money, it's more than time. You have to learn everything in between so that it doesn't happen in the future. Now, things can happen in the future, but preparedness will set you in a place where you don't worry about those things, and that is the preparedness you need for your routine in your life.

The biggest thing I got from professional athletes that did well versus those that didn't they didn't know they needed a routine. They were just really good at basketball or good at football or whatever, and they had a bunch of free time. But what I heard those who did well they created a routine where they did it every single day and it would work on their craft, but it would keep them out of trouble. It would keep them stimulated in some type of interaction that would reduce any type of failures. A lot of people fail in life is because they don't have a routine that can support the lifestyle that they're living. They find themselves just finding things they shouldn't be finding. So, with that being said, use your downtime to write down or put in your phone type, do whatever.

A routine Okay, I'm going to wake up this day, every day, and if you want to sleep in on weekends, go for it, but you still should be completing a routine. That is the key. When you become mature, you have a routine that you do every single day that supports your well-being, whether it's exercise, meditation, putting the right foods in your body, drinking enough water to stay hydrated to make sure that the systems in your bodies are properly functioning, putting out positive energy and being the best version of yourself that you can be. Imagine becoming that person, and it just improves every day. Your routine creates the best version of you every single day, without you even trying.

They say I don't know how how many moments were actually conscious, conscious, in like, in an actual moment, because they say we're kind of like, just kind of like. I can't think of the word I'm thinking about. I don't know, I can't. I can't think what I want to say properly.

Autopilot, that's what I mean. A lot of times we're in autopilot and if you don't have a routine. Your autopilot is doing what you want. To make sure that when you're in autopilot, you have a routine, that your body is constantly working on something to improve you, so that when you are in the moment, you're like I am glad I created that, because if you did it, how was it going to develop? So, those of you that are looking for ways to improve, you want to mature and when you mature, you create the routine you need. You watch what you put in your body and you develop an energy that you'd be proud of yourself for Y'all. Make today better than yesterday. Don't worry about anything you can't control. G-a-t-a Get after that action or that action will get after you. Be great on purpose.