[Very Important Read] My Daughter Turns One And The Prices We Pay In Life
Time: 5:33am
Date: 2/10/11
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INTRODUCTION
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Last year ago, at this same time, my wife Traci
was pregnant with my daughter Rhadi.
I can still remember getting the 4D ultrasound
images and saying to myself, "Wow, she looks
so much like Rufus."
Well, tomorrow she will officially be 1 year old.
I look at her around the house and watch her
as she's snatching everything that she can get
her hands on down to the floor.
She's walking around and screaming and laughing
and walking up to whoever she can and putting
her hands up in search of a taker who will
pick her up.
If you are eating something and not offering, she
whines. If you give her something that she doesn't
think tastes good, she shakes her head back and
forth and tries to push it out with her tongue LOL.
She is absolutely hilarious and funny. And her mannerism
are just like mine almost to the point where I have to
ask myself, "Am I that darn stubborn and bullheaded?"
To which my wife answers, "Yes!"
The little girl is determined. She's a 1 year old bully.
Pushing her way through the house, taking things and then
putting her hand behind her back when you say, "Give it to
me" and then running off.
I can see right now she's going to be a challenge, but a
welcomed one. I look forward to the day where she'll be
in school and playing sports.
I'd love to get on here and tell you how much I love my
daughter, but I'm sure you already know that. You know
I love both of my children, Rhadi and Rufus. I try to spend
as much time with them as I can, while still working and
sharing a HUGE portion of my life with you all.
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LIFE IS LIFE..
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At times, life is tough. I'm not Michael Jordan by any stretch
or a Randy Couture for that matter, but I do have my following,
my fans, my friends and a faction of people who count on me
for information, products, a word of encouragement, coaching,
training, teaching and quite honestly, to do the right thing.
It's rough at times, trying to balance the providing to both
areas of my life because quite honestly, one feeds the other.
I think the most recent difficult part of my family and professional
life was when I began training full time again and entered
the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
When I jumped in, I jumped in with both feet. No hesitation,
no retreat, no looking back. I started in January 2010 and when
I say I started..... I mean I started.
I packed up, left the house and began training. I did it the right
way, the professional way, the ONLY way.
Well.... as many of you know. I ended up being so super-focused
that I missed my daughter's birth. She wasn't due to be born until
early March, so I thought I had time to train. Boy, was I wrong.
After getting beat up and knocked around in sparring, I woke up
in the morning to find out that my wife went into labor and
there were no flights for me to get home.
So Rhadi was born and I wasn't there.
Got on the next thing smoking, got home, saw my wife,
my daughter, and then..........
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TRAINING AND PAYING
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Then the training continued.
Everytime I'd visit my home my son would ask me, "Daddy
are you gonna be here when I wake up in the morning?"
If you don't know what that feels like, LET ME ASSURE YOU
it is not good.
But this is the life of the professional athlete.
You train, you compete, you get criticized for your performance
when the critics have less than10% of the facts and you embrace
your wins and your losses, knowing that both come on and off
the mat and that everything comes with a price.
A lot of times the balancing act of life is like walking on a tightrope.
You tilt to the left.
You tilt to the right.
You shake a little, wobble.
The crowd "ooohhhs and ahhhhhs" but you keep walking and
don't fall off. The tilts to the left look bad to some, and the tilts
to the right look bad to others, but only you, on the tightrope, and
other tightrope walkers know the TIGHTROPE walk.
The other people..... well, they've bought a F*CKING ticket and
are sitting in the stands for a reason. So talk to the other
spectator sitting next to you in seat 14B and let me do my job.
There's a reason why I'm doing the TIGHTROPE WALKING and
you're doing the spectating. Well, several reasons. And they
don't have anything to do with me being better than you, because in
many cases, hell a lot of cases, some of us TIGHTROPE WALKERS
wish we were in the stands.
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THE TRUTH REVEALED
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Let me repeat that... "in many cases, hell a lot of cases,
some of us TIGHTROPE WALKERS wish we were in the stands."
Many times,
But.............
...but you can't jump down off the tightrope and into
the stands....THAT'S SUICIDE!
You gotta FINISH the walk and then go down the ladder and then
you can sit in the stands. But you GOTTA finish the walk.
As my daughter turns 1 year old and as my son is 4-1/2 I look
back on my tightrope walk and I smile.
I've tilted, teetered and have even lost my balance a time or two,
but I didn't fall off. To all of you reading this who have children, a
family, a professional life, and other goals and aspirations, I want
to tell you this.
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Rhadi, can I have it all?
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YOU CAN "HAVE IT ALL"...... AT THE "HAVE IT ALL PRICE!!!!"
And that means that you REALLY can't have it all. Because, by
default, if you have to PAY, you REALLY didn't keep it "ALL" now did
you? ;-)
You just have to decide, "How Much It's Worth To You" and then
be willing to pay the upfront and backend costs associated with
your decision(s).
And life is like living in a big house. You have more, because you
pay more, you sacrifice more, you do more.
To the person, who doesn't have it to pay and in some cases, doesn't
want to take the risk of paying, it doesn't make sense to them,
but it doesn't have too. You live there.
But ain't it funny how they always want to visit? ;-) LOL
Because they want to live like you live, experience what
you experience, but not PAY what you pay. Man.... go have
a seat in the stands.... I'll be there when I get done with
my walk. I didn't bother you when you were making yours. ;-)
So as my daughter turns 1 year old tomorrow. I will put out
my digital footprint with this email and blog post. So that if and
when you see her when she's older and you notice her because
she has the same name as I do, you will say, "You father was one
heluva tightrope walker?"
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CLOSING
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I thank you for reading and for celebrating my daughter's 1 year
old celebration with me.
As I said before, if you want to get in on the fun, you can do so by
go here and getting the Rhadi Isabelle Ferguson Birthday Celebration
Discount
Go Here: http://www.rhadiferguson.com/blog/happy-birthday-rhadi-isabelle-ferguson/
Take care and have a super fantastic day.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rhadi Ferguson
2004 Olympian
4-Time National Judo Champion
BJJ Black Belt
Master Educator, Trainer, Teacher, and Coach
....and Rhadi and Rufus's Dad :-)
P.S. Make sure you go here today to join in on the celebration http://www.rhadiferguson.com/blog/happy-birthday-rhadi-isabelle-ferguson/
posted by Rhadi Ferguson at
8:26 AM
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