Destiny and Your Gift

T.J. reflects on destiny, success, and the impact of his actions on his children. He talks about how he would often quit or lose interest in things, and how video games would distract him. He realizes the importance of using his time wisely and setting a good example for his kids. He mentions his cousin who talks about using talents and gifts. He acknowledges the difficulty of breaking old habits and routines, but encourages listeners to seek new experiences and make choices that lead to personal growth. hey what's up everybody this is your boy TJ and this is the letters to you podcast so I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and I've been kind of coming across like destiny and fate and just thoughts like that that are popping up into my head and kind of like getting me getting me thinking about what I'm doing and what I'm teaching my children and what I'm showing my friends and family about what my destiny and what I really believe my destiny to be I remember when I was younger my mother especially but lots of people always told me that I was going to be really successful that was really talented and whether I was writing or playing ball or that's the wall that is or just anything that I did you know every job that I worked at you know people thought that I would excel and and kind of move up the ladder and it just never went that way I would always either get bored and quit or I would just altogether just stop doing things like not necessarily quit but just like things would just fizzle out I wouldn't make a conscious decision to quit doing something I would just stop doing it you know or just move on to something different that kind of either distracted me or just kind of took my attention away I remember telling this guy that I used to work with in Iowa when I was in Iowa I was like man I've never had a dream that a good video game didn't destroy you know what I mean or not destroy just take away you know it was a joke but like you know I'm a big gamer I was at a time for sure and you know things with things like that would just happen to me all the time and as I get older I kind of reflect and I mean I feel like as any older person does who looks back on their life and isn't always exactly where they want to be or doesn't always exactly experience the kind of life that they they dreamed or imagined they would have you know at a younger age and as I look back I look at like the kids that I have now I have a two wonderful kids a boy and a girl and and I wonder what I'm showing them and what I'm teaching them through my actions about creating forward motion you know or doing things that lead toward your talents and ultimately what I believe like your gifts and your destiny are tied to and so and it wasn't a good feeling you know it wasn't a good feeling in the beginning it was just like more of like a despair and a regretful you know trip down memory lane and eventually I had to settle on the fact that you know there's there's still time you know you don't want to you know rest on that theory or that thought but in reality there is you know and what I do with the time that I have going forward the time that I have now is very very important very very crucial like I read a thing speaking about the kids again that Ayala Vasant wrote in a devotional that I read and it says kids don't always do what you tell them to do sometimes they do what you tell them not to do but they always do what they see you do you know and that that kind of reigned true like I remember I spent the whole weekend with the kids and we just kind of lazed around and did nothing all weekend like for three straight days we did nothing literally nothing to play video games and it's like what am I what am I showing my kids you know what am I showing my myself you know what am I what am I telling myself about the value that I feel like I have to this world and to the people that I love the most so I think I think yeah I was I was thinking about that like and like what are you what are you doing for yourself what are you what are your talents or what are your gifts and my cousin my cousin Walt he's he's like a an amazing amazing man and he does these things called too many to do on Instagram and I don't have his IG handle right now but but uh but he talks about that a lot like what are your gifts what are your talents what are you doing what are you using them for are you using them at all and yeah it's a gut check you know to hear a lot of those messages when you know in your heart that you're meant for more or that you know in your heart that you desire more and you just have built these habits over time that just don't allow you to break out of the routine that you put yourself into you know creating a new routine and creating change in your life it's a much more difficult task than it seems and a lot of people just aren't willing to do it they don't want to go through the discomfort of breaking that cycle or that routine that they already have set in place but that's kind of what you know what I was thinking about you know and you know that's the question today like what are you doing to set yourself apart from what you've always known what you've always done you know what you've always experienced you know and life is about some experiences man like go through things you know and choose to go through them rather than be forced to go through them you know if you have the choice at all which I believe you do so and this has been my letter to you and you guys have a great week