Hurricane Season

In the past month, I experienced the storms of two hurricanes. One in Hawaii and the other in Southern California. When the storms hit and they will, we have to be ready with our resources. Plan for it! Then we weather the storm, as everything just passes through. Next, is the restoration phase of any damages that may have occurred. 

During these “stormy seasons” of our lives we will get cut from the teams, face rejections in jobs, life, etc. You will experience loss and pain, but that doesn’t mean that the game is over. We are still destined to hold onto the gold by overcoming all that was thrown at us. Sound familiar? I feel like I keep repeating the same story. Is this Groundhog Day? Today is actually Labor Day! People will wonder how you’re still standing victoriously, but maybe will one day learn to never underestimate the heart of a champion. All glory to God. 

Like everything in life, relationships, sports, monopoly or poker games, I fail at everything at first. I miss the shot, fail at my follow through, fail to close the business deal, etc. Even professionals fail. I’m not sharing this for pity. This is not a victim mentality, on the contrary, it’s not poor me, it’s poor world because the next shot is going in. This is good for the world. Victory and prosperity awaits. Failing leads to more winning.

“Your work. Your suffering. Your fears. Your family. Your unanswered prayers. The sin you are fighting. The future, you cannot control. You can place all of it before God.”

In order to do the will of God, you must face resistance. Not because we’re victims, but because we’re heroic in overcoming and loving. Resistance builds strength.

Sometimes you are in your walk with the Lord, then all of a sudden you get confronted by an ugly mob. This is a good sign. There must be a hurricane going on. 

Sometimes you get ready for a fun event, vacation, celebration, or some fun plan, then you experience a setback or a curve ball is thrown at you. Surprised? Nope. There is a hurricane happening.

Sometimes you’re performing at a high level, overachieving in things that seem impossible to achieve, let alone excel in them. Then, it will feel like it is not enough, like there’s more in the tank, more to do, more winning needs to happen. More rescuing. El huracán anda suelto. The hurricane is on the loose. Are you of little faith? 

Has this all ever happened? This happens all the time. There’s nothing wrong. Study these human behaviors, wind patterns, self reflect, and look at the fruit. The fruit is evidence. That usually tells me everything I need to know. Then, I continue my journey, as if nothing ever happened. The hurricane has ran its course. The lesson is learned and I take that as armory to the next level. Pass Go and collect my $200.

The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him? Matthew 8:27

God leaves the present to us, under His guidance. In our free will we must keep breathing, sailing, executing, and loving. Love yourself first so that you can love others. Focus on yourself kings and queens. Focus on you and God. Do things that are pleasing to Him. The rest is up to Him.

Imagine a person who gets up every morning in paradise, their kingdom, says their prayers, works out, maintains a positive attitude, wins some more, takes care of finances, helps others in need, does charitable work, ministry, social time, event time, back to the prayer routine, gets a good night rest. Repeats. Then vacation, competition, more meaningful relationships. Back to the gym, back to the church. All in the middle of a hurricane. Is this all even possible? During your storm, is Jesus still asleep in the boat? Do you still think the storm is threatening?

Oh, you of big faith?! I can already feel the calmness, as Jesus commanded. 

Hurricane Season, what’s suppose to be a disastrous period, if approached well is the best time of the year. Fortes fortuna adiuvat. In Latin means: fortune favors the brave. Or like my graduate school professor used to say, “El mundo es de los valientes.” The world belongs to the brave. Jesus, wants us to be brave, trust in Him, and continue sailing in faith. He’ll wake up when he needs to. 

The best part is seeing Jesus awake in the boat. In our own boats. “Jesus is the King and He’s alive. Alleluia.” 🎶 The song below is on repeat all hurricane season long:

 

Another Day in Paradise

Another Day in Paradise

Something in me discerned this, said yes, and currently holding on for the ride. Sounds like paradise to me. 

I didn’t just come here to die, I came here to live to the fullest. Dying is part of living, but I needed to feel again. To suffer. To go through everything that it feels like to be human. 

I saw paradise, then a hurricane rushed through the scene and it was still paradise. 

I came back from vacation to corporate America, it was still paradise. 

The dawn of a new era. A chapter with a map that leads to paradise, again.

The road is wide open. The pavement is your own gym floor. Even the gym, which is known as the Iron Paradise, has become a sanctifying place. Objects seem more closer than they appear. Paradise is right here in front of us.

I will be starting swim lessons soon. Boxing too, maybe even martial arts. Why do I always feel like I’m preparing for war? Sunny from the F1 Movie said Plan C. Which means, C is for combat. Paradise and war sounds like a paradox. War is my paradise. When you’re a soldier in God’s army, your mentality always shifts to its default setting. Enduring and conquering. 

I think the Lord is up to something. He always has something up His sleeve. I’m here for it. I need more time in the adoration chapel. He won’t reveal what is ahead, but will at least give me assurance that He is already there. My guardian angel made sure the path was safe. Working overtime again. Praise the Lord!!

I love this chapter that I’m living. It’s everything I’ve been praying for and more. If you would have told me ten years ago that I was going to be doing what I’m doing now, I would have thought you were crazy, but I would have smiled because I would’ve still believed it. I am not surprised because I worship a God of surprises. Deep down I always knew the future was going to be great. The best is still yet to come though.

Paradise may seem closer than it appears. Paradise is what you currently see. I used to think it was at a far distance. It was here all along. Paradise is everywhere I go. Jesus is present in the midst. Paradise exists because Christ is present among us.  

I can hear the birds chirping; the waterfalls flowing; every day feels like Friday or Sunday morning. It feels unreal. This is my ODYSSEY filled with a myriad of adventures. If somehow our paths cross, being in the right place at the right time, every once in a while, it would make everything much better. Fun maxxing, living in paradise. It’s as good as it gets, on this side of Heaven.

Jesus, I trust in You, Great King!

Otro día en el paraíso…

The Road to a Fulfilling Life

Something big is about to happen. I don’t get this feeling too often. Maybe just at the beginning of a new chapter, when I recollect and remember, “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” Every year, it happens. The best season of my life. It never stops! Not because I ignore unnecessary things, but because I spend more time and energy on what is necessary. Something feels different this time. This is about to be the most important season of my life. 

When I say something big, I’m not referring to career or business. I’m relating to my personal life. I’ve always known that as much as we pour into our jobs, we must be more excited and work harder outside of our jobs. That’s where optimal fulfillment comes from. 1. Work more on your life outside of your job than you do at your job. 

Connection is greater than purpose. Build healthy holy human connections with people. They will inspire you to be better and push you beyond your limits just by their presence and support. Positive friendships are influential. Without the right human interaction, you are depriving yourself of love. Self solitary confinement is detrimental to your development and growth. The opposite is also true. 2. Healthy holy human connections are essential to a prosperous lifestyle. 

When you live to your potential, you begin to attract beautiful things in your life. Heavenly things. You find God in those moments, if you look closely. God reveals why you’re His favorite. God blesses you suddenly, abundantly, and right on time. Then the world starts seeing what you already knew about yourself. 3. Acquire a devotion to your faith and give God the glory for everything.

Every bit of resistance, friction, or tension becomes the blessing. That’s why you never really hear me complain about circumstances or people. Even with the trials, challenges, changes, and everything else, that is when you realize everything you prepared for, led you to this moment. This is why we play the game. When someone disrespects you and you create a boundary, it’s all part of the game. This is the most exciting part of the episode. These conflicts propel you to have the best season of your life. 4. Embrace the friction. 

The fulfillment of a job well done has a cost of admission that most people never pay long enough to collect. There’s a resiliency that needs to be applied for you to push past surrendering. Most will never want to pass that threshold and persevere because it is too much work and it is too painful. In fact, if you look around in today’s society most are being steered in the wrong direction with behavior that does not bring fulfillment in the long run. The easy road of empty promises that actually leaves people more broken than before. Actions that make you take steps backward and not forward. Discipline. Boundaries. Love. 5. There’s always a price. It’s expensive, but worth everything! 

You have to make time to sit. Just you and your thoughts. It has to be a peaceful meeting. What is being said, honestly?  That’s all you need to ignite something within you to go and achieve something worthwhile. Optimal fulfillment isn’t the achievement, the final result, it is everything before, in between, and the aftermath. God is in the middle of it all. 6. Optimal fulfillment is the whole process. The good, the bad, and the messy middle. 

You don’t need applause or any validation. You will enter seasons where you want to be seen, but great things happen even when they are not noticed. Fulfilling work must derive in the silence, otherwise it is done vaguely. Some work you would expect to be congratulated and you won’t. <insert cricket noise> No one is going to tell you to run the extra mile, no one is going to applaud for you after completing a task, especially if this has become the norm. Envy may follow when you win all the time, win anyway. 7. Learn to build and be grateful for the opportunity without recognition. 

Next time someone says, you’re not good enough (rage bait), make sure you smile inside because you know how to operate your system. Not to prove anyone wrong, but to prove yourself right. AGAIN! The person who is the most calm is the one who is in control. You were winning from the start. You’re winning now! You will win at the end. Winning at life for standing and living what you believe in. Faith in motion is the road to poetic justice. It was never about anyone’s opinion, it was always about the mission, you, God, and the people you serve. God leads to victory not self destruction. Don’t believe the lies. 8. True victory is found in Christ. 

Summer of 2026: The Road to a Fulfilling Life. The Road to the Most Important Season of Your Life…

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph, pray for us!

Martyrdom Mentality

I came here to die.

We look at Christ as example of how to live. In ministry, charity, prayer life, and so forth. Also, we should look to Him as an example on how to die. In His own humanness, he went through anguish especially in knowing what was ahead and having to suffer gruesomely without mercy. When I made the decision to move back home to Los Angeles, California, it was with martyrdom in mind. I had to prepare for the persecution that needs to be endured. Everyone goes through some form of it, in one way or another. I had already gone through prejudice, ridicule, failure, and heartaches. I was battle tested, a veteran, a champion. I felt ready! 

“Affliction produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” 

-Fr. Mike Schmitz 

I was ready to embark into the unknown. I was ready to die, maybe that meant just die to myself. After all, when a man gets married, he is mainly portrayed in a black suit, while the bride is glorified in white resembling purity, and new beginnings. The man basically attends his own funeral by choice, signaling the end, because he chooses to willingly die to himself for the woman he loves. Nevertheless, he also like the bride begins a new chapter. It’s the end of an old life and the beginning of a new! What a wondrous vocation, if it is in God’s will. All vocations, marriage, religious life, consecrated singleness all require sacrifices and dying to yourself in different ways. I came here to die! 

I’m not scared to death of dying, I’m scared to death of dying and having God tell me, ‘(Angelica), this might have been you had you trusted more.’” 

-Mother Angelica (Catholic nun of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration)

Last week, I was going up and down the mountains of Big Bear, California, completing obstacle after obstacle, and hours later felt like I have exhausted every inch of my being. There is something you discover after enduring pain, over and over again. Even when the rankings showed improvement, recognition, and new personal records. Deep down you realize something, that you’re only getting started. There will be faster times and more awards because the more you practice something, the stronger you get. Deep down, you know you have become too tough to kill because you are doing things that most people wouldn’t even dare. This isn’t about running, or competing. This isn’t about marriage or careers. People still wouldn’t even dare. 

“It is YOU, You passed an unimaginable test that many of the toughest Marines, commanders, green berets, astronauts, and geniuses could not. You are made of heroes who ever lived, heroes born among ordinary people and shine in the dark.” 

-Christian Blanchon, French General

20 years ago, I began a teaching and coaching career. I was surrounded by so many mentors. Men with such wisdom. I wanted to be like them. Did I really? I didn’t want their life at all. I wanted their confidence. They told me the story about the young bull and the old bull. Both the young and old bull went up the hill and saw a herd of cows. The young bull, jumping up and down, overly excited, asked, “Are we gonna get one?“ The old bull, calm and collected, very well regulated, stoic, and wise, answered: “Get one? No, we’re gonna go down there, and we’re gonna get ‘em all!” I understood what they meant, and they understood and had an idea of where I was heading.  

“God wants you to be in the world, but so different from the world that you will change it. Get cracking.” 

-Mother Angelica

I was the young bull once, perhaps satisfied with one victory, one accomplishment, or one chance. I wouldn’t call myself the old bull now, but perhaps a polished one. A bull that says, with credibility, experience, confidence, FAITH, and assurance, “We’re gonna get it all!!” Everything is there for the taking with an abundance state of mind. Something small to a giant of a bull. The world is not nice to low confident loud performing bulls, but it bows at the feet of silent deadly (the irony) ones. Like a rebel, always taking the road less traveled. Always taking everything in its path. 

“When you're a little more excited than you're afraid, that's when you begin.” 

-The Better Man Project

I’m here to lead people, I’m here to serve, I’m here to die! Is this my destiny? Martyrdom is daily. Maybe not like a movie plot, but when you trust God, he leads to places for the good of His Kingdom. When you begin to walk in that valley of the shadow of death, there is nothing to fear. All of a sudden a swarm of angels and intercessors are about to rush through. If it is from God, nothing can stop it. Long live Christ the King! 

“Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening but sweet and precious.” 

-St. Rose of Viterbo

Jonsnow GIFfrom Jonsnow GIFs

It’s Primetime!

Every move I make is a risk. Every shot I take is a risk. Every mile I run is a risk. Every rep is a risk, but guess what? Risk still calls my name every single day.

“It's rare, but sometimes, there's this moment…where everything goes quiet, my heartbeat slows, it's peaceful, and I can see everything, and no one, no one can touch me. And I am chasing that moment every time…I don't know when I'll find it again, but, man, I want to. I want to. 'Cause in that moment, I'm flying.”

This isn’t a rom com, it’s an actioned packed film. At the end of the day, whomever she may be, she’s a bonus not a rescue mission. Every woman I meet, is a blessing from above. God has a great sense of humor. God be like: let’s make things interesting. Plot twist! Not for distraction, if it’s from God, it’s for purpose. 

Just when I think it cannot get any better, it gets better. Goals are being met, life is being lived, and joy still calls my name every single day. What does the day look like? It’s a surprise! 

These are the prime years! The decisions and work you do today will show tomorrow. It’s Primetime! How do you know if you have hit your prime? You never know. When I say I’m in my prime, I prove myself otherwise. When I set an expectation or a goal, God surprises me otherwise. It always turns out great when you have full trust in your ability and in the Lord, better than you can ever imagine.

“MVP, MVP, Kobe Bryant, a.k.a. envy me.”

Not immune to the feeling of championships. It never gets old. It becomes the norm. That is why you never truly hit your prime, because when you’re a high valued man, you constantly evolve, so there is no prime. It is a perpetual state of becoming stronger. There’s an everlasting peak version of yourself. You set the bar high, and hit milestones as a side effect to your never ending grind.

From a media perspective primetime refers to: 

• Peak time/hours
• Golden time (Japan/industry slang)
• High-traffic period
• Broadcasting peak
• Top time
• Prime viewing hours

What if it turns out better than you can imagine? I always think this way. You will feel out of place around regular people. You’re not normal. You’re a top 1% person. Elite! The bar is so low. The audience knows this. For the twentieth year in a row, impacting kids in a way no one else can. 

“The whole world is wondering, where is Spider-Man?” 

I never left. Still running marathons, still hooping, still winning, still pissing unhappy people off, still dreaming, still in my prime, but most importantly still praising the Lord! 

 

Momma said they’ll be days like this. 

“Cuando tenía tu edad, me reía de la vida.” These are the years that we laugh, rejoice, and every once in a while reminisce at what led to this present moment. These days continue to be part of the prime years! We can’t waste this time, so sit back and enjoy the show because it’s Primetime!