Rashad Jennings:
It's very difficult for me to answer what are my fears, because I really don't have any outside of a couple animals I don't want to see.
I would say number one is the fear of letting my “why” down. My relationship to God. That is my “why” of everything good that comes out of my life.
Number two is the fear of getting out of shape. And I always say, the best way to get in shape is never to get out of shape.
Number three. The fear of failure. So like, a lot of times people ask me, playing in the NFL, is it hard? I dedicated everything I possibly could to the game. The way I ate, you know? The way I slept. I got muscle activation therapy, massages, chiropractic care. I train in the off season. I ate gluten and dairy free. You know, I’ve never drank alcohol a day in my life. I've never smoked. Like, there's nothing to go back and say, “You know what, Rashad, you should have studied more for this game,” or, “You shouldn’t have gotten into that kind of trouble.” Like, I have no regrets.
Number four is the fear of wasting time.
Number five. Fear of working hard at the wrong thing.
Number six. The fear of bad investments. Yeah. So I'm talking to my friends who say I’m about to buy this, I'm about to buy that. I'm about to buy this car. And I’m like, why did you buy a hot air balloon? I get it if you think it's therapeutic or something, or you just enjoy it, but you don't even use it, you know? And I say, I'm going to get a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. They say, “What? What is that?” I said, listen guys, I don't know the stock market, but I do know me, and I'm an investor in myself. I'm going to give myself the best return I can.
Number seven. So like, there's a lot of people that didn't believe in me. I had a 0.6 GPA in high school. So it's like, if they are right, then I'm wrong.
Number eight. The fear of not growing in knowledge. High school. Ninth grade year. We had to write a research paper about one of our heroes. I decided to write about Dr. Martin Luther King. So we had to put it in MLA format, cite all the sources... I couldn't find anybody to say exactly what I wanted to say. So, I got the bright idea to just quote myself. And at the end of the paper I put the source was, “Rashad Jennings’ mind.” I turn it in. I got a big fat F. So fast forward, I get drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and there was a teacher that worked in Jacksonville who asked me to come speak to the class. As I'm talking to the class, and answering questions, I’m watching the students write down what I say in quotes. They turn in their paper quoting Rashad Jennings and get an A. I took every copy. I showed my high school teacher. I slapped it on her desk and said, “Check this out, Ms. Hudson.” And she laughed, and she looked at me, she said, “Rashad, I knew you were gonna do something special because you saw life differently.” and I said, “I thank you, but think if I didn't get the chance to prove it.”
Number nine. The fear of not being happy. Shoot, I've been happy since probably senior year in high school when I figured it out. Going into college. I ain’t been sad since.
And ten. The full capacity of what it means to fear God.
My name is Rashad Jennings and these are 10 things that scare me.