The Belief
For those who shift, shape, and disrupt.
“Ride the tide, don’t fight with the current that guided you. Melt the ice ‘round the furnace burning inside of you…” - Ab-Soul
“Do Better” by Ab-Soul has been running laps on my playlist all month and has become the unofficial theme song of my summer. There’s a special kind of appreciation I feel for artists who tell the truth out loud and make authentic, self-reflective art. It’s an even deeper gratitude when that music doesn’t just feel like a window into them, but a mirror back to me.
Where am I in life? Parts motivated, angry, inspired, happy, peaceful, prepared, etc. I’m everywhere and anywhere depending on the day and situation, and that’s life for all. A full range of emotions is the only true way to fully live in my eyes.
The only constant I or any of us have is the fact we don’t own time; it owns us because none of us know how much of it we have. That can lead us to live with a daily full throttle attitude that leads us to say “fuck it” or takes us down a path of slow and steady as we’re afraid of making a mistake.
Where’s the balance, Alain?
Still figuring it out, but one thing I do know, whether the day is good, bad, ugly, or somewhere in between, I need affirmations to get through it. So here are three that keep me grounded, and the reasons why:
Pivoting doesn’t mean you’re a quitter. Self-preservation is a gift.
You’re allowed to define and redefine success as you see fit. Most of us have been conditioned to chase validation from everyone’s idea of success instead of our own. That means we’ll always be chasing. What are you going to do when you catch it? One of my biggest fears is not enjoying crossing the finish line after achieving the goal because the applause weren’t loud enough or because achieving the goal is the least that should happen after all the work I put in. How entitled is that? So while this may be cliche, doing the thing is the success.
Whose applause am I really chasing? The same people who spend time comparing members of a rap group who are literally blood brothers. You think Pusha T is losing sleep because his brother is getting his flowers for rapping like a giant on their new album? Doubt it. And yet…those are the people we’re out here trying to impress? Yeah, no.
Every version of me has been necessary.
Full transparency: these Substack posts are basically a recycle bin for what’s not making the next book. The songs that aren’t making the album. And that’s what this next book is, an album. The books before this one were mixtapes, but now I’m in album mode.
Why am I telling you this? Because one of the first things I wrote for the book was a letter to my 17-year-old self. And the more I read it, the more I realized I needed to cut it, not because it wasn’t good, but because I’m just as proud of that version of me as I am of the 41-year-old typing this now.
I used to be ashamed of who I was and how I moved, but I wouldn’t be this without that. Every single time I had to play a Jay-Z song just to keep from crying or going crazy. Every dumb decision I made because I couldn’t see past the day I was in. Every apology I’ve ever had to make. Every night I sat in the dark and ate sleep for dinner is why I can look in the mirror today and thank God for who I’ve become.
Can’t isn’t real.
I’ve made peace with the fact that unrealistic ambition is my baseline. Not because I’m trying to prove something, but because I actually respect the gifts I’ve been blessed with, and I match them with a wild work ethic.
Has it always been like this? Not at all. I used to coast on talent, thinking it’d be enough to carry me. I was that kid who didn’t need to study to pass a test. But what happens when the tests pass you?
Now I know that my imagination is my superpower. It’s carried me, challenged me, saved me. I can, have, and will move through every obstacle in my way…even the ones I put there myself because I can think further than I can see.
In conclusion (real writers talk like that), affirm yourself.
Chasing validation is just ego in a costume: loud, dramatic, and hungry for applause. But sometimes, all you really need is a reminder that you’ve been built for the storm. That the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t some distant miracle…it’s just you, staring at the brilliance of your reflection.