I’ll be honest, I struggle with keeping myself motivated in the best of times; I’m often flat on my back on the couch with the TV blaring and an ever-growing list of tasks. And let’s just say my better days are far and few between. However, I did manage to squash enough awkward nervousness to call Grammy Award-winning producer and musical wizard Om’Mas Keith – the man behind Frank Ocean’s incredible debut album “Channel Orange” – to learn more about what motivates him and how he stays inspired. What followed was one of the most motivational conversations I’ve ever had, and a much needed reminder to not take for granted our most powerful tool: our mind. That may sound somewhat cliché and vague for an inspirational message, but it’s really that simple, especially when explained from a mind like Om’Mas.
I’ll start with what he told me early on in the phone call: “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” That basic sentence resonated with me through its almost face-palming obviousness, yet had me questioning why I was face-palming in the first place. It’s because I far too often take my abilities, skills, and know-how for granted. Growing up, the one consensus all my teachers had was that I could work well, as long as I was interested. Once that interest withered, so did the quality of work. Maybe I’m not the only one that has this issue. In this day and age, with an overbearing amount of excuses and petty distractions, finding motivation can be hard. That being said, this isn’t everyone, of course. There are those that find it easy – you know the type. You may have a few in your circles. The ones that feel like they’re running on 100 all day, every day. Those with almost piquing over-eagerness to achieve greatness. If you are one of those people, the point of this feature is to know to keep at it. If you’re like me and you’re not, then start running. Literally, start running.
Om’Mas made it evident from the start that health and fitness were key elements to staying highly motivated. However, there was another unexpected aspect for the 39-year old. When I asked him what state of mind and body he wanted to achieve in his life, he exclaimed, “for my day, for my existence, I just want a peaceful state of mind all day. I like to be calm and level-headed, free from anxiety, etcetera. And as far as my body is concerned, I really like for it to be running as efficiently as possible, so I really strive to be as healthy as I can be.” So how did a peaceful state of mind correlate with the high-strung intensity of working out? “I think it makes life a lot easier if you’re being peaceful. I work at a very high pressure profession. It’s very demanding of one’s time and one’s mental facilities and capabilities. So if you’re not at peace, everything can kind of spiral out of control. When you’re at peace, you have a clear head. You’re able to dissect things and really see things for what they are. And when you’re reacting, you’re reacting from a better place mentally. You’re able to make better decisions, and a part of being at peace is sometimes working yourself out until you’re exhausted. When I say working yourself out, I mean exercising.”
What I didn’t know was that Om’Mas was using exercise – aside from the direct health benefits – to achieve a greater mental state: a state of mindfulness. I asked him to take things back a step and explain why all this was important to him in the first place. What point in his life led him to adopt a health conscious lifestyle that would ensue an all-around better state of being, or “to have a great mind, body, and spirit” as Om’Mas put it? “We can exercise our mind and we can exercise our body. That helps with your spirit. It enhances your spirit and your demonstration – how you are while out in public. How you’re gonna live your life.” In explaining why he originally sought out a way to reach “ohm,” Om’Mas (and yes, that pun was deliberate) told me, “what gets you into a better state of mind: putting good fuel inside of your body. Exercising to reduce anxiety and stress. There was a time when I was going through great stress – maybe around 2012 – and I would notice that the only thing that would keep me from wigging out and having anxiety attacks and shit was going to Runyon Canyon and knocking it out.”
Exercising regularly and being health-conscious became more than a routine. It became a means for stability, a way in which Om’Mas could not only cope with doing the job of a highly coveted music engineer, working with the likes of Erykah Badu and John Legend, but also strive to be better every day. Strive to find “truth,” to find “love, peace, freedom, and justice.” That’s not to say it wasn’t also about losing a bit of weight. “I want to get my body-fat to a way lower number…like a senior year of high school number (laughs).” Om’Mas then told me with solid confidence that he would achieve that, and there wasn’t an ounce of doubt in my mind that he wouldn’t. From the hour long conversation we had, I began to pick up on the type of person Om’Mas was – far from fully understanding someone as enlightened as him – but I did notice that he exuded a level of calm confidence you’d imagine from an advisor on the Grammy board. A person that knows what they want, what they’re doing and, in due time, will damn well get it done. Which brings me back to my initial point of inquiry.
For Om’Mas, motivation isn’t about just one approach, one type of exercise or one simple direction to follow. It’s a much deeper and more complex understanding of life in general. It’s an amalgamation of many lessons and personal development that Om’Mas has gone through personally. “I’m highly motivated by my desire to never be back in poverty again. That’s motivation like a mother fucker. I grew up in poverty bro… I ain’t never going back there. That right there will motivate you to do all kinds of shit. You should be able to provide for yourself because you’re healthy and able enough to get up and go to work everyday and knock it out… I mean, nah, I’m not going back to that place where I didn’t have things. Where I simply didn’t have a meal to eat.” And then there are the beautiful things in life. “I have a daughter. That’s also highly motivating! I’m trying to be here for her. Like, if you have people in your life that you love, think about how disappointed they’ll be if they’re not around in the long run. You look at your child and be like, damn I want to be here for these activities and these accomplishments… so let me just try to not eat this damn, sweet smothered chicken wing, and instead eat this skinless chicken breast thing…” On one end of the spectrum, Om’Mas preaches, “Go crazy Work yourself to the point of exhaustion.” On the other end it’s about finding peace and simply being the best person you can be in order to help others – a calling that Om’Mas gladly embodies. “One of my purposes in life is to help people. Everyone is here to help people but I’m cognitive of the fact that I am here to help people be better. So I know that I gotta be the best that I can be to help these people be better producers, better musicians, better songwriters, better parents. Be better at working out – I’m at the point right now where I can actually give some advice on getting healthy to someone who’s an even worse case than me!”
It’s evident that there’s no formula to motivating yourself to becoming a better person, and maybe that right there is where the real motivation is: simply knowing that you want to be the best person you can be. For Om’Mas, it’s offering a state of peacefulness, it’s helping himself to be in a position to then help others – and more importantly, wanting to help others, it’s displaying a sense of physical well being to showcase to others that you care about yourself first and foremost, which allows you to then care for them. If all it takes is truly knowing that you want to be better in general, and if you stay true to that desire, then everything else will inevitably lead you there. And if I learned anything from this inspiring conversation, I’m pretty sure it starts by getting myself off of the couch.
