I caught a quick interview clip yesterday with LL Cool J. Now, I was probably a freshman in college when LL and his pals started making rap more mainstream (yes, I’m that old. I also remember Dairy Queen without the Blizzards. True story.) We all know Rap and variations of it had been around for a while before that, but LL brought it to the white kids. He had, still has actually, a quality about him. A bit hood, maybe, but not really. Well spoken, he always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and stayed out of trouble.

He has style along with almost an approachable and charismatic personality. Anyways, I’ve always like him even though I could never get into Rap. He was in a shark movie once where nearly everyone was eaten, of course. Even Samual L. was munched and to kill him off was pretty badass.  LL made it to the end and I was glad.

Anyways.

In the interview, he was asked some stupid Hollywood interview question as to biggest regrets or if there’s something he hasn’t done yet that he wants too. Ya know, nothing of real value. Until he spoke. LL said that with each success, he instantly looks towards the next venture. What’s up next? How does he make it the best? Something he hadn’t done very well up unto this point is to celebrate each success.

Ya know, take a couple of victory laps.

I liked it. I wonder if it’s a common theme among people who are highly driven and/or have high expectations of themselves? That we reached our goal is good, we expect to. That we fail to recognize how high our goals were…well, that’s probably normal. There’s always work to do to be better. And I guess sometimes that gets in the way of recognizing how far we’ve come.

There’s about 100 people who come to mind when I think of friends/family who should be taking a few more victory laps in life. I hope they do so. They’ve earned them.

You probably have too. Go ahead, even if it’s only around the dining room table or your cubie or your classroom’s. No one’s watching (but your co-workers probably are and are grabbing their phones to get that shit on video so make it good.) True story.

If you do cardio one day and the next day you can do weights, do it that way. If you need to do it at night or in the morning, do it that way. Whatever you need to get done, just get it done.

LL Cool J