Love by Design

Great day to you! February is the shortest month of the year, but it abounds in activity. From awards shows to Fashion Week to the amazing accomplishments made by African Americans, February is a time of celebration. But there’s one day that I must highlight specially, a day that cannot be overlooked: Valentine’s Day! This is a special day where we gather to celebrate love and lavish our affections on our significant others, spending millions on flowers, candy and teddy bears. While this is a wonderful gesture, I want to challenge you today with this principle: “Love was created by Design, therefore itmust displayed at all times.” In other words, yes celebrate Valentine’s Day, but go a little further and create as many Valentine’s Day moments as possible. I want to share with you a real life example of this principle..

A week and half ago I was at Walgreens buying toiletries, and while I was waiting in line a young man about 18 years old was standing behind me. I noticed he had a teddy bear, a card and some candy in his possession. He had this big smile on his face; it was contagious. I turned and asked him “So is it your girl’s birthday?” he replied “No.” with a smile. I probed further “Oh you guys are making up?” “No sir” he said, still smiling. While I’m talking to him a lady comes behind him in line and joins the conversation. “Oh so you’re getting your Valentine’s gift early? That’s very smart of you.” He smiled “No that’s not it either!” So she and I looked at him to tell us what this gift was for. He gushed “I got this just to show my girl how much I love her. I can’t repay her fully for how she’s loved me through some rough times in my life. I just want to show her as often as I can that she means so much to me.” I smiled and thought this young man gets it. He didn’t have much, but he desired to show his girlfriend that she mattered to him, and that day had little significance in his decision.

Whether you have a Valentine or not is not important, but what is important is that you know that love is meant to be continuous, powerful and on display at all times. Have a great Day!

Pervis Taylor III

Holiday….Celebrate

For me Christmas is all about celebration.  We sing “Joy to the world the Lord has come, Let earth receive her King…” The essential essence of Christmas is to celebrate and commemorate the joy of us receiving our Savior.   I think along the way we got caught up in the commercialism of this holiday.  Seldom do we remember that this is supposed to be a time to party.  If you read the Bible and/or study early civilization, you will find that all throughout that time they partied.  Every occasion was a reason to be festive and enjoy the gift of life.

To take it a step further, when was the last time you truly celebrated what Christmas means? When was the last time you celebrated life?   When was the last time you celebrated you? Being transparent, I struggle greatly with celebration.   I think for me, the only occasion to celebrate, is during the huge milestones of life.  That’s a wrong mindset to have.  We are to celebrate at all times. (This is not a license to go clubbing every night! Balance is the key to life.)  I was speaking to a friend of mine, and I was venting over some present circumstance that I wasn’t pleased with.  His reply pierced me.  He said “But P, do you realize how far you’ve come.  Look at yourself compared to last year.  Look how much has happened.  You need to celebrate!”  I sat in silence for a minute. I thought to myself “He’s right.”  I came home and turned on Madonna’s Holiday and jumped around, sang and reflected over my life and how far I’ve come.   I implore you to do the same.  As Christmas is rapidly approaching, and we spend time with our friends and family make it a point to party.  Dance like there’s no tomorrow and love someone as if you getting paid big bucks to do so (earn every penny). The biggest benefit of celebration, is that leads  us to the ultimate place of joy: gratitude.  As with everything we are supposed to be grateful at all times.  Therefore, we must celebrate at all times!  Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas.

From Pervis Taylor III, Life Coach and Author of the book Pervis Principles Volume One. 

 

Giving by Design

Like most of us, I absolutely love Christmas. It’s a time and season to celebrate the birth of Jesus, to spend time with your families and to put aside our differences to unite for a moment of peace. Moreover, Christmas is also a time of unparalleled giving.   Millions of people around the world benefit from the kindness of complete strangers.  It almost seems as if it’s innate within us to move and operate in the Spirit of giving.   The word spirit is what I find challenging.  Regardless of your personal beliefs or lack there of, we all can agree that a spirit is a perpetual, eternal and ceaseless being.  Which leads me to this question: is that spirit only alive during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays?  Today I challenge you with this principle: Giving is not a season or a moment but it is a lifestyle.

Giving is tempered by the condition of your heart.  Therefore, you must condition yourselves to lead lives of giving by design.  You were given as a gift to your parents, the world, friends, families and all those whom you will make an impact on.   When you wrap your mind around that amazing fact, giving becomes second nature to you.  I want to be clear that I’m not talking only about finances.  Finances merely scratch the surface of true giving and believe it or not, somethings are more valuable than money.  When was the last time you gave your full self to someone? Do you mentor? Do you encourage? Do you give hope? Do you smile and give hugs?

I recently had an opportunity to volunteer and mentor at Steve Harvey’s Mentoring Weekend for young men.  I was blessed to be in the presence of some extremely successful men, many of whom I’m sure you’re familiar with.  One invaluable lesson I took away from that experience was that the boys didn’t care as much about who these men were, but rather  if these men were going to give of their time with them.  In that moment I realized that your time is a gift to someone.  So as Christmas approaches, I want you to continue to give to your churches, and charity organizations.  However, there will still be needs to be met in January, February and March and so forth. So in true spirit, let us begin without ceasing, conditioning our hearts today so we can be prepared to give tomorrow.  Have a Merry Christmas!!!

From Pervis Taylor III, author of the book, Pervis Principles Volume One: A Daily Meditation Mini Book. Available now at PervisTaylor.com and Amazon.com

Reflective

I  recently had a birthday this past Sunday and it was amazing! One thing that stood out to me was how reflective I was over the year.  I was amazed at how much growth took place within me.  I definitely saw lots to improve, but I also was  surprised at just how far I’d come in life.  I think as you get older birthdays become more introspective, rather than celebrations.  The book of life consists of 3 chapters! I just entered chapter 2 and I want to make sure that I’m creating a legacy of consistent personal development and spiritual development.  Anyhow this is a short post.

I also wanted to mention the kind words that people left on my Facebook wall.  I was on the verge of tears at some of things that people said. I had no idea some felt such great things towards me. I am truly humbled and moreover, grateful to be used.  A daily prayer of mine is to be able to meet a need of another.  Each day as that prayer gets answered I feel so “purposed” and inspired.  All I want to do with Pervis Principles is to leave a mark of my reflections and hope that someone gets inspired to do the same.  Have a wonderful day guys!

Grace and Peace,

Pervis

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This week’s song for the soundtrack to get you through the storm, is a song that I always remember hearing around the house as a child. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson and Mary J. Blige) are my all time favorite producers and in the early 90′s they formed the group Sounds of Blackness.  Their first single released  ”Optimistic”, is a song that speaks to my heart.  It summons the courage to dream and to seek our goals in spite of the challenges that life brings.  It’s sung with passion and conviction.  It surely will inspire you to keep your head to the sky! Enjoy:

It’s not about being RIGHT…..

One of the overall goals that I want for Pervis Principles is for us (myself included) to always be relentless in our pursuit of personal development.  I emphasize this because your character is making decisions for you. Some good. Some bad. If we want to make better choices, we need to improve our character. Which brings me to today’s topic: it’s not about being right, but about being righteous.

For example, I’ve recently had  disagreements with two people in my life.  I’m going to be honest, I think that I’m right in both situations.  However, after prayer, study, and counsel, I’ve realized that being right doesn’t bring healing to the situation.  Being right is essentially the ego.  The ego is rooted in pride. And pride has no room for making amends to a relationship.  I want to salvage both relationships if possible.  In order for that to happen I must strengthen my character and its capacity to seek righteousness. It’s not easy.

But if we want to grow beyond the elementary things in life and advance to the mastery level, we must train ourselves in personal development.   So for me that means apologizing for my arrogance in my belief that I’m right. Moreover, listening to their perspective of the situation and finding a common ground.   Trust me when I tell you I have to stay committed to the process.  I want to explode at times, but that’s not the answer. I’m a work in progress as we all are.  I hope this little reminder helps someone.

Be blessed guys!!

Pervis