You will die one day. Make every moment count.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase that means “remember that you will die”. It is meant to remind you of your own mortality, and of the brevity and fragility of human life.

By: Justin Williams- owner of Taino Studios

There was once a man who roamed the face of the Earth named Eugene Bullard. You may or may not have heard of him depending on the amount of education you have surrounding history. Typically, Americans do not know who he is, this is not to blame as African American history has been and is still deprived from many k-12 curriculums in the insular land of the free.

Eugene Jacques Bullard was born in 1895, in Columbus Georgia, just over 20 years before the Harlem Renaissance following the great migration of African Americans from the South to the North. He was unhappy with the state of life being born to former slaves. After several attempts to run away from home, where he was met swiftly with a beating from his father.

At the age of 11, he was able to successfully escape the mental imprisonment of his oppressive family environment and stowed away on the Marta Russ, bound to Aberdeen Scotland- he was 11. He deprived himself from the lifestyle in which he would receive the proper love, care, education, and comfortability he allegedly would receive in order to become a healthy adult of his time, yet Eugene Bullard knew at an early age that his experience of living in America and its conspiration to degrade reflected by his family values was not endurable by the greatness he had within him, and he dreaded the idea of living a limited life through the white gaze. A hard decision was made.

He understood the value of discipline and took a risk! He knew from his brief life that he needed to toughen up and practice the art of being uncomfortable and that would later set him up for being an international historical figure as the first black aviator, French business owner, social justice advocate, and boxer.

Some of us know that the very existence of consciousness understands that self denial is the opposite of self preservation in the un-fearing change during progress and self improvement. In order to live, the previous version of ourselves must die and the journey of such will unavoidably feel unsafe and multiply.

None of us know what the future holds, and the only thing guaranteed is that eventually the light switch will go out and the finite will deteriorate to nothingness. Those who attend your funeral will eventually stop crying and move on. Lovers will find someone new. Friends to begin to meet new people. And jobs will replace the role in which you once inhabited. We must live while we are alive, and there is no right time to start. Even if it feels too early to make a hard decision- Eugene Bullard shows us that adopting the values passed down to us in childhood development and actually stop us from growing and becoming who we were destined to be. Who are you ? The only way to know is to try-fail-and try again.

When we are driven to win the race in this capitalistic system, we have to wake up earlier, plan, and most importantly to rest. Balancing the act of working and resting is the difference between pushing out a bad book, educator burnout, or losing a championship fight. It is widespread in Africa for women to carry a heavy load on top of their head- heavy loads such as buckets of water or bundles of firewood. Many times, the women who move from rural areas, to more affluent urbanized cities in Ghana are called “ kikuyu “ and can carry up to 70 % of their body weight.

African American women continued the practice during the 19th century, which they learned from their respected elders who had previously been enslaved from Africa. This sight of discipline and control of the body to balance almost one hundred percent of one's own body weight is very impressive but that is not the primary reason in which I'm discussing this cultural art of balance.

Clearly many of times, life is very sad, depressing, and devoid of joy. But with good posture and keeping one's head up, women among many African cultures show us that it is important to balance our load in order for us to reach our destination.

We want to be strong and aim for longevity, but that also means we must listen to our body when it is telling us “ I am about to break'' and to gauge how far the destination is in order for us to choose the right amount of energy to expend in the process. No one is invincible- no one is made of iron. And even then, iron breaks down. Iron Mike Tyson- proffessional boxer attest to this.

Many of those who display greatness, are to be disciplined in recovery in pursuit of the economy of prosperity. It is an act of character to sleep and rest, in moderation as sleep is the cousin of death and eventually death will come. We must optimize our energies and aim them towards a goal in an efficient manner in order to not burn out and leave our many different affairs in a state of disarray.

Moments of peak performance do not happen when we are tired. Toni Morrison was able to establish herself as arguably one of the greatest writers of all time while working and being a full time single mother. How? The first thing she did in the morning, before the sun rose was write. Certainly she debated with herself while she laid under the covers whether she should get out of bed because it was more comfortable. But the inner voice she crafted to combat the other inner voice telling her to lay back down and go to sleep was too powerful to submit. Meanwhile, her peers are fast asleep in bed. Burnt out from the previous work day and putting the kids to bed. All we need is one courageous push of waking up in the morning and spending the most essential piece of fresh energy, before it is depleted, on something that matters deeply to us.

I used to have a football coach in high school who I thought was an absolute maniac at the time. Turns out, sometimes the people that we think are crazy turn out to be correct in the long run as we age and become more self aware. Kanye West being example number one- but that conversation is for another blog post. Anyhow, this football coach of mine used to always say “ the most important day is the day before the day before! The only way to rule in the mornings is to rule the night before and the night before that through discipline and consistency. Sleep engenders sleep. Just as death begets death. Early to bed- early to rise-early to live. Late to bed-late the rise-late to live.

What can you endure while you are alive? Why are you suffering? These are the two questions that make the physical ordeal of purposeful existence likely to be understood and utilized in the most efficient manner. In only a few weeks- you can feel more alive, but it begins by an understanding that history repeats itself and with any beginning- there is an end and you will suffer regardless.

We resent the overtime. We despise the grit and hardship of completing tasks. But, accepting the struggle, responsibility of commitment, and the willingness to put our body where the problem is-living! Life is sacrifice, loneliness, and pain because feeling those very sensations is what makes us human. James Baldwin wrote “ People pay for what they do '' Many are the products of what they have allowed themselves to become and they transform into miserable cynicale human beings spewing negativity into the atmosphere. It begins with taking care of our minds, and then the body keeps the score. Choose your suffering.

With that, I challenge you today- read a book and practice being disciplined by finishing it through the resistance of negative self talk and tiredness. One book that I highly recommend is “ Discipline is destiny” by Ryan Holiday. You can purchase the book from our online book store here to get started now. Good luck and best wishes in your journey, beautiful spirit. Peace.