When you stop caring what everyone thinks, you stop thinking about who cares.

Have you ever gone a whole day with a stain on your shirt but you didn’t know you had a stain until the end of the day? Don’t you wish someone would have told you?

Ladies, what about the lipstick on your teeth?

I have a friend who obsesses about keeping my nose clean. I mean… she literally looks up my nostrils to make sure I don’t have any crumbs, as she calls them. That’s a good friend…

Then, there are those people that don’t say anything to you but talk about you behind your back. Those ain’t your friends…

There’s a scene in the 2002 movie “8 Mile” starring Eminem when the rapper is on stage battling wits with his words. Eminem’s character, B. Rabbit, has choked on the main stage several times before this final scene in the movie. He’s up against his biggest rivals – Free World, his best friend has left him, and well… I’ll let B. Rabbit tell you himself. Here are the lyrics from that final scene.

B Rabbit vs Free World

Now everybody from the 313
Put your mothersucking hands up and follow me
Everybody from the 313
Put your mothersucking hands up
Look, look

Now while he stands tough
Notice that this man did not have his hands up
This free world got you gassed up
Now who’s afraid of the big bad wolf

1, 2, 3 and to the 4
1 Pac, 2 Pac, 3 Pac, 4
4 Pac, 3 Pac, 2 Pac, 1
You’re Pac, he’s Pac, you’re Pacs: none

This guy ain’t no mothersucking MC,
I know everything he’s got to say against me,
I am white, I am a f*ing bum,
I do live in a trailer with my mom,
My boy Future is an Uncle Tom.
I do got a dumb friend named Cheddar Bob
Who shoots himself in his leg with his own gun,
I did get jumped by all 6 of you chumps
And Wink did f* my girl,
I’m still standing here screaming, “f* the free world!”
Don’t ever try to judge me, dude
You don’t know what the f* I’ve been through

But I know something about you
You went to Cranbrook. That’s a private school
What’s the matter, dawg? You embarrassed?
This guy’s a gangster? His real name’s Clarence

And Clarence lives at home with both parents
And Clarence’s parents have a real good marriage
This guy don’t wanna battle, he’s shook
‘Cause ain’t no such things as half-way crooks
He’s scared to death
He’s scared to look
In his f*ing yearbook,
f* Cranbrook

f* a beat, I go a capella
f* a Papa Doc, f* a clock, f* a trailer,
f* everybody
f* y’all if you doubt me
I’m a piece of f*ing white trash, I say it proudly
And f* this battle, I don’t wanna win, I’m outty,
Here, tell these people something they don’t know about me.

The opposing rapper has nothing to say about him at this point. B. Rabbit has exposed himself and done it so poetically using his gift for wordplay and lyricism. His dejectors have to back down from their onslaught. He stepped into the moment and let his gift shine.

Now, I hope you’re not offended by those lyrics. There’s a point to this message that is best demonstrated by those words. They are so powerful not only because they took the ammo away from his critics but because B. Rabbit finally accepted the stained shirt that he was wearing. He decided that the shirt didn’t make him. It was just where he was right then.

Are you ready to take back the reigns of your life? I’d love to help you do that. Right now, I am offering you a free call with me to help you do it. Go to www.bit.ly/30withfortune to claim your time and reclaim your strength. The free call is 30 minutes one-on-one with me. Get more details on the page.

Every person that you meet has lied, done the wrong thing, made a mistake, and f’ed up at some point. Most of them have gotten over it. Some of them haven’t. Those are the ones that walk around with their head down, not making eye contact because they are too ashamed. Or even worse are those that have their nose up in the air claiming to be ‘holier than thou’ because they are saved. (You know the ones.)

Stained shirts and clean noses…

It all sounded weird when the thought smacked me in the forehead. But, the more I have looked at my life, the more I have noticed that some of my favorite t-shirts have small stains or holes in them from years of wear and tear. You know the ones. There the ones you wear around your house because you don’t care what anyone thinks. You’re in your house and you’ll wear what you darned-well please.

Now, what if you began to treat your life the same way? What if you wore that t-shirt like it was a suit of armor? That doesn’t mean you have to beat people over the head with your failures. When you do that, you’re doing it for your own feelings and not because it was necessary. You actually weaken your armor when you use your story that way. After a time, you won’t see a need to wear that shirt anymore. You can get a new shirt and know that your new life is just as much a part of you as that old shirt.

I hope you get this extended metaphor. But, for those of you still trying to figure out if I’m asking you to wear your high school gym shirt out in public, let me break it down practically.

The goal is to keep your nose clean. Don’t be afraid to wear your problems if they will help you move forward. This is your life. A lot of things depend on your image. The most important image is your self-image. What do you see when you look in the mirror?

When it’s time to release that past and put on a new outfit, here are a few things to do:

1. get a new community or shrink the size of the one that you have – #Realpeople
2. remove yourself from the environment – #Realplaces
3. do the work necessary to clean up your life – #REALgrowth (more on that in my book – www.bit.ly/unlpot)

My offer stands. If you’re looking for help making this transition, go to www.bit.ly/30withfortune I am ready and willing and excited to spend 30 minutes discussing your future. Oh, and it’s free.

What steps will you take today to make some #realchange in your life?