Daily Hustle Report • February 14, 2019 (Happy Valentines Day)

I say this but not the way you think.  With today being Valentines Day we think about love as husband and wife. There is more to life than just that love.

True love starts within yourself.  I have had to battle with this for years. I never understood how much I didn’t love myself until October 2002.  

In October of 2002, I was in a very dark place.  I was serving in the US Navy, underway in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and hated myself.

On October 24, 2002 I had sat down on a computer and found that I had lost two friends in a car accident & had another friend murdered.

That night I laid down with headphones on listening to the music from the “Good Old Times”.  I had been crying for hours and that mp3 cd was the only thing holding me together.

That night I took a razor blade to my wrist and leg.  I can’t say I knew I was doing it.  I want to call it a black out.  I “came to” or “woke up” around 2:30 in the morning with blood running down my arm and my leg.  I luckily had not cut too deep and had a first aid kit in my bunk. I cleaned myself up and pulled out my long sleeve uniform top.  I covered it up and went about my day, until about 10:30 that morning.

I went to a good friend of mine that I was living with when we were stateside. I broke down in the galley and luckily he was understanding and took me to see the chaplain. 

Later that night I had more and more issues with people on the ship who didn’t understand what was going on. They thought I was trying to use the chaplain to get out of work. 

There were two individuals that kept at me like a 2nd grade bully poking at the weak kid in class until he broke. 

This time I did black out. I was ready to kill or die … either was fine with me.

Six hours had passed and they had thought I had jumped ship. They had called man overboard and sent search teams throughout the entire ship.

I was found by my department officer, Ensign J.

Fast forward one year.

I met the man who changed my life and is responsible for the man you know today.

Mr. C! 

Over the first few weeks of meeting him, he introduced me to personal development.

We sat down one night at the Dunkin Donuts on the ODU campus and he said something that changed my life forever.

“Happiness only happens when you love yourself”

That night, the “Stay Boosted Guy” was born.

Remember that nothing you do matters if you don’t do it with love from within.

Love yourself and the rest will fall into place.