You Must Graduate, Not Escape The Bottom: Birthplace of Your Breakthrough

There are seasons in life when it feels like God doesn’t answer when you call, when the climb is slow, the burden is heavy, and progress feels distant.  Yet, somehow, in ways we can’t always predict, God still shows up right on time.

When you’re building from the bottom and reaching toward the summit, the journey doesn’t always feel inspirational. It stretches you. It humbles you. It reshapes you. But one truth I’ve learned along the way is this:

You don’t just escape the bottom, you must graduate from it.

The bottom is not only a place of struggle,
it literally the birthplace of your breakthrough as a true place of formation.

It teaches discipline.
It reveals character.
It refines calling.

I’ve come to understand that I was built from the bottom to rise with purpose, from the struggle to the summit seemingly right on time. 

Not rushed. 

Not forced. 

Not compared to anyone else’s journey. 

Just faithfully, intentionally becoming ME.

Through every season of pressure and resistance, I realized:

I did not just survive the struggle, I used it to help me ascend with intention.

The distractions will come.

The setbacks will try to speak permanence into temporary moments.

Doubt will whisper that the climb is impossible.

However, I need you to understand that a setback is not a life sentence and delay is not a permanent defeat.

Everything around you must be used:  every challenge, every voice, every breakthrough can actually become fuel. When you allow your experiences to calibrate your consciousness to a higher frequency, your best self begins to rise and shine daily.

You stop running from the bottom and start learning from it.

You stop asking, “Why me?” and begin asking, “What is this building in me?”

Then somewhere along the journey, the bottom becomes the ultimate birthplace of strength, a proving ground for purpose and a launchpad into who you were always becoming.

I can’t always tell you when, where, or how the breakthrough will come but this much I know:

We are not climbing alone.
We are not healing alone.
We are not rising alone.

Together with resilience, faith, and intentional ascent we are going to make it, right on time.

This is more than surviving.
More than recovering.

This is graduating from the bottom.

No Weapon Formed: The Story They Didn’t See Coming

 

No weapon formed against me.

They tried to count me out.

I’ve been down to the lowest; not just in circumstance, but in spirit.

But faith, it took control, and now I move with protection.

You can’t break a man who walks in the resurrection.

People see the fruit, but they don’t always know I was the seed that had to use the dark soil, better know as the process to grow through.

Before leadership, before culture work, before transformation became my calling, I was learning how to transform myself.

I faced doubt, heartbreak, pressure, and days where silence was louder than hope.

I fell 7 times but I got up 8.

Every time I rose, something in me transformed. Another layer of fear died. Another chain began to break.

See, purpose doesn’t show up polished.

It shows up in the valley, in the nights you pray more than you sleep, in the moments you wonder if God forgot your name, only to find out He was preparing you.

My story isn’t about perfection.

It’s about persistence.

It’s about choosing obedience over ego.

It’s about walking when doors closed, speaking life when life felt heavy, and deciding to become the man God was calling me to be instead of the man pain tried to create.

That journey birthed No Box Thinking.

It birthed the frameworks, the books, the systems, the message that schools, leaders, and young people across this world will feel.

Not because I’m strong but because I learned where my strength truly comes from.

Now I lead with conviction.

I build with intention.

Every step forward is proof that God still resurrects dry bones, broken dreams, and weary hearts.

So if you’re reading this feeling low, remember my story.

Remember yours.

No weapon formed means it can form, but it won’t prosper.

Fall if you must, just rise one more time than you fell.

Because there is power in your comeback and purpose waits for no excuse.

This is only the beginning…

Master Your Mindset: From Gym Floors to School Culture Architect: Blogging From The Bottom Reignited

 

Master Your Mindset: From Gym Floors to School Culture Architect

Blogging From The Bottom Reignited

It feels surreal typing this but Blogging From The Bottom is officially back.

More than a decade has passed since I published my first post, sharing the story of a young coach in the Golden Triangle of Texas who unknowingly began a journey that would change his life.

Back then, I was just a PE teacher with a whistle, a gym floor, and a belief that students could learn anywhere, even in a place most people dismissed as “just PE.” I remember sitting across from a sharp, no nonsense principal during my interview. She asked:

“How can you help our students succeed on the state assessment?”

Most would have talked athletics, drills, or sportsmanship.

My answer was simple: I can teach them how to write and I did.

90-minute A/B blocks.

First 30 minutes of class was set aside for WRITING.

We wrote about real questions, real scenarios, real life.

The one they loved the most?

“What would you do if you found a bag of money?”

When the state writing test rolled around, students ran to tell me that they felt very good about the writing prompt as it was something about money.

They were ready.

Not because I taught ELA but because we broke the mindset of what learning “had to look like.”

That year, we scored the highest 7th-grade writing results in school history.

That moment planted a seed.

It made me realize something powerful:

If I stayed in the gym, I’d impact a few.

If I became a leader, I could impact the entire school.

That principal:  firm, fearless, relentless with accountability showed me what leadership with standards looked like. She didn’t accept excuses. She held everyone to a championship expectation.

She walked classrooms.

She led from the front.

She built culture not by talking about it but by modeling it.

Watching her planted in me what I now know as the spark of leadership.

Leaving that school was my first tough professional decision.

To grow, I had to let go of comfort.

I stepped away from coaching, became an elementary teacher, and enrolled in grad school at Stephen F. Austin State University.

It wasn’t glamorous.

It wasn’t easy.

But it was purpose.

So why share this story now?

Because the journey comes full circle.

Back then, I was writing from the bottom still hungry, grinding and learning.

Today, I’m returning to that energy intentionally.

But this time, I bring with me:

🔥 Ignite the Culture

🔥 Leadership frameworks

🔥 Mindset systems

🔥 Student empowerment models (S.P.A.R.K., L.E.A.P., B.E.A.T., R.I.S.E.)

🔥 GATOR GUARDIANS Playbook

🔥 No Box Thinking

🔥 Youth leadership literacy units

Not just motivation but an infrastructure for transformation.

That’s what this image represents:

A visual reminder of the formula that changed me before I ever knew I needed it:

Conscious Mind → Attitude → Alignment → Action → Subconscious Mind

Your habits become your reality.

Your beliefs become your ceiling or your wings.

Your mindset determines your level.

Know who you are.

Decide what you want.

Align your habits.

Take decisive action.

This is how you go from struggle to success not overnight, but brick by brick.

Just like I did.

Just like I’m still doing.

Just like I’ll help others do through this blog.

This relaunch is bigger than nostalgia.

It’s a commitment.

A return to roots.

A reminder that greatness grows from the bottom, not the top.

So here is the new declaration:

We’re building culture, mindset, and legacy together.

From the bottom.

With honesty, leadership, and no excuses.

The same way I learned it years ago.

Welcome back to the journey.

New posts. New frameworks. New fire.

Same hunger.