The Becoming Great Podcast - Episode 0

The Become a Great Podcast, hosted by D. Jermaine Williams, aims to inspire listeners to break away from societal norms and develop an original mindset. Williams shares his personal story of overcoming challenges, including food addiction and obesity, to become a better version of himself. He wants to create a legacy and inspire others to believe in themselves and achieve their goals. The podcast offers motivation, self-improvement tips, and perspectives on life. Williams encourages listeners to make small changes to level up and become the best version of themselves. Welcome to the Become a Great Podcast and I'm your host, D. Jermaine Williams, here to assist you on your journey into greatness. This is episode zero, greatness starts within. In this episode, I'll be going over what the podcast will generally be about, as well as what I hope to accomplish. So why am I making this? Well, the podcast's purpose is to reach as many people as possible in order to give them an alternative way of thinking that is necessary to break away from the societal norms and move on to a more original mindset. Many of the greatest people in history have all strayed away. They started as outliers and they worked their way up using what they had in order to become the great people of history. So you might be thinking, what qualifies me to give you to this type of information? Well, once again, many of the greatest people in history started out as nobody. But then they worked their way up to achieving what they did. So start from the beginning. Work your way up day in, day out, progressing towards your dreams. They aren't going to chase you. So you got to keep going, even when no one is standing by you. This is where you have to dig deep. This is where the power comes. This is where you are tested. This is the make or break moment. And that moment starts now. So in addition to inspiring you all, hopefully I have thus far, I'll be discussing many ways to help improve yourself and maybe become a little bit happier and more fulfilled in your life, as I've learned to do with my own through constant change and persistent effort and trying to do so. Einstein said once, it's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with my problems longer. So let's sit and reflect on that for a little bit. What does that mean? Well, a big part of it has to do with to rise. I'll save that for the first episode. So now I'll get into who I am, how far I've come, and why I'm starting this podcast. I started out as a small child, came from poverty, didn't grow up with both parents in my household. Pretty typical story as far as child and poverty goes of the black community, unfortunately. Statistically speaking, I mean. We didn't have much to eat at times. So when we did, I ate, and I ate, and I ate some more. And that became a bit of a coping mechanism to deal with my stress as a child. When I eventually went to live with other family, we didn't have that much of a problem as far as food went. It was more plentiful. And so that's when the food addiction came to play. Like I said before, it became like a habit, I guess, so to speak. I never felt stressed or overwhelmed. Food was my pleasure, it was my getaway. For years it went on like that, until eventually I was 511 pounds back in 2017. Yeah, I know that might be hard to believe. Yeah, you heard that right. 511. It's pretty substantial for any human being to be, but you know, that was my life. And I went through a lot of hardships, went through a lot of bullying, stuff like that in school. Even outside of it, I didn't have much confidence in myself. Didn't know what I wanted to do in school or in life, obviously. Most young teenagers don't, but still. Had problems with, well, didn't really have problems. The lack of problems with the girls, there were, and I just kind of gave up, so to speak. Went through depression, suffered with anxiety, day-to-day life, stuff like that. But then I graduated high school. After that, moved out of state. My grandmother got me enrolled into child court. She thought it would be very beneficial for me. And I could do more with my life, and it gave me a chance to step out of that life that I grew up with, I was so used to. Even after it got better, you know, still had its problems, like anyone says. So, went to job courts in Kentucky, one of the second largest campuses in the U.S. It was a lot of walking. A lot more walking than I was ever used to. And I did take the bus to high school for a time, but I still wasn't used to walking a mile to everywhere. It seemed like every building was a mile apart. And so, that is when I started to become more fit, so to speak, but subconsciously. I guess naturally, I always wanted to, and it helped that I had found friends while I was there to help support me, and funny enough, I lost my first 50 pounds. I didn't even notice. Like I said, the campus was huge. They did have a side-up bar, so that was really helpful. I started delimiting myself to one glass of milk a day, coming from drinking a literal gallon per day. Terrible idea, very high in estrogen, not good for a young kid, not drinking that much at least, nowhere near, but you know, that's what happens when you drink it every meal. You know, I drank it like water, but anywho, my friends really helped support me. The campus offered CrossFit, and there were other fitness competitions as well, and just participation events. We had 5K on campus, stuff like that, so those different things really helped me to become more active, and through that process, that's when my drive kicked in. That's when I became more inspired to keep going, to see how far I could go. So now, fast forward, I've become a young man with this dream to become respected in his own right. One day I'll have my own family as well, and I want to be someone my family and everyone around me can be proud of. I want to create a legacy that I can be proud of. I want to inspire things in others that I needed in myself when I was going through as a child, coming into adulthood, from being a teenager. I want to inspire people to believe in themselves enough to go out into the world and become accomplice members of society or whatever makes them feel happy and fulfilled. I didn't have people, or at least not many people, in my life that I closely connected to and related to that could push me to be more than just what I was. But at the same time, going through so much stress and anxiety and depression, often I did have those people in my life, but I just didn't see them. I couldn't see that they were trying to push me. I was blind, which comes down to perspective. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people in my family, the people that tried, they pushed me to stay in school, to participate in after school activities, golf, football, track and field, even academic stuff, something called SkillsUSA, which we had, robotics, things like that. So there were people there, but due to my perspective and me being stuck in the negative, I couldn't focus on anything else. So I want to develop myself more so that I can create a legacy where my children don't have to worry about their education. I want to have a wealth of resources, and I know I can accomplish that. I want to provide support to my children the way I would have liked my parents to do for me. Every child goes through so many challenges in life, and every child is so different. I want to have the time to spend with my children to allow them to grow into the people they want to be. Even still, despite being in that state, I started to change, I started to grow, surrounding myself with people while I was in Kentucky, with the people who pushed me. A friend who would get up every morning, he'd do 10 pushups with me, and I started off being so big, I could only do maybe five, and I'm just like, you know, I'm exhausted. He pushed me to get up and get going, five turned into 10, and next thing you know, I was doing 10 throughout the day. I would just think of it, and I would just drop to the floor, and I'd do 10 pushups. So that became once a day, twice a day, three times a day, I work my way up to four times a day, and next thing you know, I'm doing squats after, and I'm doing pushups, and more squats, and pushups, and more squats, and sit-ups, and crunches, and jumping jacks. So it just turned into more and more. I had to instill that discipline, and that drive, and that passion, that I needed as a child within myself, so that I could be more for my legacy. Now I'm not saying parenting is easy. Like I said, like every child is so different, I understand. It can be difficult, especially when you're not exactly set up for success in your own life, but I don't want that for my children, so I have to push myself further. Not just for my children, but for myself, for the people around me. I've come to love inspiring others, which has led me to creating this podcast. I went through a lot of confusion as a child, and I didn't know which direction I wanted to head. You know, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, you know, I was all over the place, and that led me to develop a lot of anger as well, in my childhood, in my life. You know, for most of my life, I struggled with these things, but for these past six years, I've been working on improving myself little by little, every single day, changing one bad habit after another, and sometimes that's all it takes, is just a little change in the right direction, constantly researching how to improve myself day after day. You know, if I thought something was anywhere remotely close to my situation, you know, and that could benefit me, I looked for where I could apply it, and over time, I finally started to make friends, like I said, you know, in Job Corps, and I pushed myself to do things that I hadn't tried before, like a 5K, you know, at 400 pounds, like, that's crazy, you know. It took me like 40 minutes, which is insane, because back in high school, it took me 40 minutes to do a mile, and 5K is 3.1 miles, you know, and it's insane, coming from where you were to being where you are now. You know, you look back, and when you push yourself, you look back, and you see how far you've come, and you know, you want to be able to do that in the future, and so that's why you push yourself here and now. You push yourself so that you can look back, and smile, and be grateful, and that inspires you to look back, and that inspires you to push forward, and keep that going. Create a new cycle, and break that cycle of pain and despair, and create one full of inspiration, and motivation, and drive, and positivity, and it's all thanks to my consistent effort, me desperately wanting to live a better life, brought me to this moment, and think about it like this, if you aren't your best self, then for you, then be your best self for the people around you, you know, whether you have a wife, or a husband, or a girlfriend, boyfriend, kid, you know, even for your parents, anyone else, you know, friends, whatever, if you can't do it for yourself right now, do it for them, and if you feel alone, and you don't have anyone, do it for yourself anyway, you know, you got to push, it's okay, you know, it's okay to cry, it's okay, you know, to feel frustrated, that's a part of the journey, you have to learn to embrace that change, stress isn't always negative, we put stress on our bodies when we do resistance training, we put stress on our minds when we study for that exam, and we finally get that good grade that we're hoping for, you know, no one wants to drag their self to a job they don't like, you know, no one wants to come home to negativity, you know, with the people they live with, or, you know, they don't want to look up at the mirror and see their flaws, you know, but, you know, who has to deal with those emotions every single day, moment of every day? 99% of the time it's you, you know, rule two of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's 12 rules for life says, treat yourself like you would someone you are responsible for helping, don't you want to be happy? Don't you want to live a life you can be proud of? Don't you want to be the greatest person you can be? Then it all starts with working on what's going on inside of you. And that's why you have to level up one small change at a time. So I want to help other people accomplish their goals and ambitions by providing them at least a different look on life, you know, at times where they're unsure where to head to next, or, you know, they're a teenager starting out their life as a young adult, trying to figure out where they want their life to go. You know, or when you're 40, you realize you don't want your life to be like it is anymore. So whether you're unsure of what your next step is, or if you're just looking for a little motivation to spark that fiery passion inside of you, today, I'm bringing you this podcast, where every day, we inspire ourselves and each other to become a little bit better every single day to become greater. Welcome to the Become A Great Podcast. And I'm your host, DeJermaine Williams, here to assist you on your journey into greatness.