What Is Race To 5000?

The year was 2014. My life was filled with darkness. My dad had been diagnosed with cancer. I was working at a job and struggling with a meaningful reason for having it.

I started to wonder why even though dad was battling cancer. He always had a smile. I had to ask myself. “Where was my smile?” I had a good-paying job and all the trappings of a good life.

I sat down and thought about what I needed to do to find my smile. Race To 5000 was born. It was a race to have or be earning $5000 or more a month outside of my unfulfilling job.

So I began to run my race. As I was running it Dad lost his fight against cancer. The darkness surrounding me found a way to get even darker.

The darkness evolved into stress making for many sleepless nights which kept my wife awake as well. I soon found myself sleeping in another room so she could sleep.

It was during this time my dad came back to me in a dream. He had a question he wanted me to answer. “What are you doing with your life? You have all this talent and you’re wasting it.”
It was a wakeup call I knew I had to answer. I had no choice now. So I doubled down. I had to finish the race.

As I was running my race, I heard Les Brown’s message about laying on your death bed and the ghosts of the ideas, the dreams, the abilities, the talents given to you by life and realizing you had done nothing with them.

Even though I was running my race. I was on my way to being someone who had not used the ideas, the dreams, the abilities, and the talents given to them.

I stopped for a moment and began to question where I was in the race. The answer was I had won the race and just had to go up and accept my metal.

So I quit my job and went back to school. Before long I found a smile returning to my face. I was beginning to live life on my terms.

Yet, I knew there were still parts of me holding me back. Fears I had. I began running another race to overcome everything still holding me back and the fears I had.

My fear of speaking in front of a crowd was also holding me back. It was defeated when I spoke on Les Brown’s stage in front of an audience of over 200 people. Members of the audience included Les Brown and his family.

It was in this speech I found a way to sing a line from AC/DC’s song “It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock-n-Roll” Singing in front of a crowd was another fear. Defeated.

Throughout this time, I began every day to write down random positive thoughts to myself with an action step. I posted them on a Facebook page I created called Race To 5000.

I even found time for a bit to record videos sharing these thoughts. Seeing and hearing myself on video and sharing it out to the world was one more fear defeated.

These posts have become a calling. My day doesn’t start until it had been written and shared with the world.

So, dad, you asked me. “What are you doing with your life?”

I am living life on my terms.
I am sharing my talents and gifts with the world.
I am making a difference.

Thank you for pushing me to find my smile.