How you choose to be seen determines not only how you feel, but how others perceive you. Confidence is huge because it sets up your own mood along with the mood others will embrace and engage you with.

Sure, I may be working a desk job until this gets moving independently. Technically, that will be my profession, but I chose to see myself as a motivator, as the 5 time marathoner and an up and coming life coach for as many people as I can fit into my schedule.

How do you feel about yourself? The way you feel about yourself is how you should present yourself to others. Embrace what you love and what makes you happy. Seize that and relish in how it makes you feel. Doing that will create a stronger opportunity for others to reflect how you feel about yourself onto you, thus reinforcing what makes you happy and ultimately bringing you more fulfillment in your day to day life.

I often speak about making a difference and doing something meaningful for other people as a way to fulfill your lives. As much as I try to help better other peoples' lives, there is one group of people who have truly touched my life in the last year.

O.A.R. is a band that formed in my home county. I have been to their concert in Columbia, MD for the past 3 years. Last year I was dealing with a break up and in a job that I did not like. I'd been saving my money to get my speaking career started and eventual launch Determination.  Then came the concert last year and everything came together.

Somewhere between I Feel Home and Mr. Brown I realized that I need to do what makes me happy. Motivating other people makes me happy and gives me meaning to my life. Marc, Jerry, Chris, Richard and Benj of O.A.R. reminded me of this. They bettered my life and gave me meaning to pursue my future.

Not even a week after the concert and I was planning when I would put in my 2 weeks at work. Since then I have gotten my personal trainer certification, have spoken at multiple venues, built out this website and, possibly most importantly, finished writing and editing my book, An Uncharted Life. O.A.R. was my intial spark to get me out of my rut and remind me what had been missing from my life-- what makes me happy!

I met these guys tonight before seeing them for the third consecutive year. I got to talk to each member of the band and tell them how they impacted me last year. I gave them two chapters from my book, with the second chapter mentioning them. They were an inspiration and motivation for me. Not only did they get me out of a slump, but they resparked my determination to embrace life fully. My desire to embrace life fully is to help others realize how they can embrace life fully.

That's what O.A.R. gave to me through their music. I'm only one person they touched, but because they touched me so powerfully, I am now extending their inspiration to help reach other people.  It's a trickle effect. I'm surely not the only person who they have inspired with their music and their actions, but they touched me in such a real way that I had to tell them.

I'm still beating myself up for not giving Benj my card, but he has my contact information. I made sure to put it at the end of my second chapter, which I mentioned them in, with a note explaining the significance of my book. I promised each of them a signed copy of my book. If any people deserve such, it'd be the people who intitially pushed me to make it happen. Tonight's concert renewed that motivation to make my life meaningful. They made mine meaningful and nothing would mean more than to give that gift to as many people as I can.

My uncle taught me determination. Uncle Ron is my hero, but O.A.R. reminded me of the importance in embracing your determination.  Never give up on a dream--make it happen.

It's weird to think about the little pieces I included in my book relating just to them. I specifically used the word shattered to describe a huge part of my life. When they played Shattered tonight, I just danced and sang right along.

After a speech or during a marathon, people will tell me how much I have impacted them and inspired them. Reverence and having it voluntarily given by someone is the most humbling and affirming gift. Knowing that you are making a difference for someone else is the most beautiful action anyone can feel. I am so happy to have had the chance to tell each member my story and how they sparked my desire towards actually making it happen. It's an amazing gift to give as well and the fact that they want to read what I gave them gives me every reason to see the desire they envoked in me through until the end.

Life is like a gathering of pearls. You add them on a chain. Each experience, each significant person adds another pearl on the chain…until you get the diamond. And for me, I believe life is like hopscotch game. You sometimes need to jump on some to get to another. I had an aneurysm, met Mayra and thru her I met you

Don't get me wrong.  There are days when I don't feel like working out or doing every aspect of my workout, but I do it.  I enjoy being active, and while my level of activeness is a bit sadistic for a healthy number of people, my motivation for doing this extends beyond a desire to be active.

I survived a stroke.  Who knows if that stroke saved me from some other damaging effects that could have been inflicted by my aneurysm.  However, it's molded who I am so there is no need to analyze other possible resulting outcomes.  What I do hope is that whatever could have happened would have led me to the same outlook I embrace life with today.

Distractions, temptations, apathy all exist.  Everyone has to battle them, but when I battle them I choose to look at it from a future perspective.  "I don't want to do this, but it's 10 AM now.  If I start now, I can be done by 11:15.  The longer I push it off, the later I am going to be done.  Why not do it now and get through it asap?"

If I go to the gym Sunday-Friday and it is not Saturday, I'll be at the gym.  We all have responsibilities to maintain and complete.  This is merely a responsibility to myself.  It's work that has given me a freedom physically that I never would have gotten without such a dogmatic approach to a self-viewed responsibility.

A lot of people make the gym optional or extra-curricular.  Each day I live is another reminder of how much more independent my left side is than my right.  I have the power to close in on that gap.  The way I embrace that responsibility is why I am where I am.

Sure, there are things I would rather be doing.  I'd loce to sleep in, go get ice cream, go on extended weekends to the beach and lay around doing nothing.  I do each of those, except they are treats.  I earn them THROUGH my hard work and diligence.  It's not part of my lifestyle, but rather a reward for succeeding at my lifestyle.

Saturday is my day off-- my break from my rigid and strict lifestyle.  After 20 minutes at the gym, I'm simply 20 minutes closer to soaking in a bath or eating that dynamite lunch.

(Small break from this post.  My friend is having surgery on her mouth and she just got my care package I sent her.  She brought Twizzlers to her brother's graduation that I was at, so I sent her a package of extra-long Twizzlers, a Twizzlers pillow and Twizzlers socks.  She LOVES it.  She was feeling down today and it perked her up and made her happy.  Yay!)

We all have things to do every day, every week.  Responsibilities are not always self-imposed, but must be done for the overall good.  My workouts are decreasing my disability, which can show others where hardwork can get them when dealing with whatever their disabilities may be.  I'm strengthening myself, but doing that is strengthening others by giving them hope and showing them an actual result instead of a hopeful dream.

What I'm doing is unprecedented, and that is exactly how I like it.  Each day I live is the strongest I have ever been.  I owe it to myself to see how strong I can become.  Then other people see my journey and make their own further than they ever thought before because now they SEE what happens when you continually try.

There's a lot of good that can be done and is waiting to happen.  Just remember that even though the responsibilities involved may not be the most fun, they'll be over in an hour and then you can relax and treat yourself to a few of those extra-long twizzlers that can be a fulfilling reward versus a seeked attempt to avoid.

I honestly think that this is an artform that really has gone missing.  It's very similar to cursive.  No one ever seems to really handwrite any letters anymore, and when they are written people tend to stress over them so much that they get thrown together in print.

I remember when I was making my last ditch effort to play professional baseball.  Along with a DVD of my pitching, I sent each scouting director a handwritten letter.  I heard back from 4 teams and the scouting director for the Brewers specifically mentioned how impressed he was with the handwritten letter.

Four out of 30 teams is not a bad success rate at all for an unknown 22-year old left-handed pitcher from middle of nowhere, Maryland.  I honestly think people will naturally be inclined to read a handwritten letter because we are gravitated towards it given that it has become such a rarity.  All letters used to be handwritten, then it got to the point where only someone's signature was scripted.  Now, even signatures are digitized.  When I really think about it, effeciency has killed any amount of personalization and appreciation that used to drive society both socially and financially.

My month has suddenly gotten very busy between a last-minute beach trip planned before a concert that I have front row tickets for and a trip to Chicago that I go on the day after the concert.  Then, I get back from Chicago and start a new job.

The more I thought about how I want to sell my book, a trip to New York isn't feasible with my schedule.  That's when I started thinking of alternate ways to sell my book.  I had a lot of success with handwriting letters in the past, so why turn my back on a good thing?  The best thing I can do is represent who I am.  Writing letters takes time.  Writing them in cursive takes a concentrated effort for most.  It reveals a lot, and what better way to pitch my book than showing everyone the depth of how much I care.

Not everyone will see it, but if someone I reach out to does see it that way, that's the person I want to be with anyways.  They understand what I was trying to do, much like Tony at the Brewers organization.  They will be able to relate to me, and given that we already have an established relationship, the chance of seeing my dream of selling this book into reality would have the best chance with someone who recognizes that I have invested a lot of time into my book.

All anyone can do is try and I plan on trying with all my heart.  The only person who can stop me from seeing my dream through until the end is myself.  I can still submit my package and I am going to.  That act alone is seeing my dream through until the end.  The worst anyone can tell me is "No," but if I don't submit my package in some form they can't give any response whatsoever.  I'm going to give them something to respond to, and with that I am going to make it the best presentation that I can possibly send them.