Intention

Happy New Year!!

2017 has just begun. Whenever the new year hits I always look at it as "back to school" time. What do I want to accomplish in the form of life goals and dreams?  What material items do I want that I hope will add value to my life? Where do I want to travel? And most importantly....what will my New Years' Resolution be? 

Last year, I think my resolution may have been to listen more or take more risks. I took a big one in letting go of work and people that didn't feed my soul. That risk led me to reclaiming my music passion and spending more time in Los Angeles. This year I will be building on that. Not by running myself ragged like a machine (in the rat race that we New Yorkers become used to) and listening to every human being with an opinion of who I should be & what they think I should be doing.

I will be focusing inward towards my God given spiritual connection and setting an intention with my thoughts, beliefs and actions and trust that I will be taken care of.

The word intention is a noun that means..a thing intended; an aim or plan. An intention is focused like a laser, it is centered, it is steady and it is forward moving.

This morning I made the time to watch a powerful speech given by Oprah at the Essence Festival. In this speech about empowerment, she mentioned the word intention. She spoke about setting the intention for all the future episodes of her talk show after an episode where she "unintentionally" gave KKK members a platform to express their hate towards others.

She decided that the direction of her show had to change. She would now set an intention of helping others be their best selves and providing platforms and information to make that happen. That move was risky but she trusted a higher source/God/universe with that intention. The rest is history....25 years of being #1 on tv, a cable network owner and powerful brand in media.

That led me to thinking about my intention. What is my intention? I had to dig deep and go back to my childhood. Growing up in the projects in Brooklyn I was exposed to chaos in my home and environment due to my Dad's alcoholism, the crack epidemic and gun violence. These things were traumatic in many ways. But what got me through was my God given imagination, hopes, dreams and my creativity. Deep down inside...I knew that there was more than the fighting inside my household, the brick buildings outside my window and the hopelessness that was in the air.

I knew I had to make it out or I would die.

I would stare out the window..through the metal bars and one day I got this feeling that I guess one would call hope. It was a feeling of "there's something else...there's something better" and it got me through that existence.

When I would turn on the radio and hear songs of my favorite artists like Michael Jackson...that hope would increase. I loved the feeling that music would give me. It was comforting, soothing and the opposite of what I heard around me. I needed something healing to conquer the sound of breaking objects and gun shots. When I would turn on the tv and see Aaron Spelling shows like Dynasty and 90210.... I could see landscapes and environments that looked nothing like mine. It wasn't anything like my reality. It was fantasy of course....but it affected me and I connected to it. My exposure to entertainment in the form of music, tv and film... were like seeds being planted. It became...like MJ said.... "another part of me."

My aim is to continue watering and nourishing those seeds. I will continue to strengthen my creative craft. I will do it to nudge others towards the feeling of there being "something else....something better." With my creativity, I hope to inspire someone else to go after their dreams and hold on to it through all the noise and chaos of the world. When they're listening to my music or watching me on the screen, I hope that they will see that it's possible for them to succeed/overcome/prosper any adversity. 

Like the words of one of my favorite rock songs by Boston...it's "more than a feeling" it's a path towards an intention. And I'm on it!

This is message is brought to you by Benjamin Hey! - leader of the "#Hey!Team"