The Rural We: Tariq Pinkston
The people-person uses what he's learned to help inspire others to be the best they can be, both physically and mentally.
Father, partner, fitness trainer, inspirational speaker, local radio and television program host, volunteer, mentor and all-around morale booster Tariq Pinkston has taken his love of helping people and improving his community into the schools with the XCell For a Better Tomorrow youth mentorship program. Places you may have seen his smiling face include leading a men's parenting group, volunteering with the Berkshire County branch of the NAACP, and leading classes or giving private fitness lessons at Berkshire South Regional Community Center, Berkshire Fitness & Wellness, and the Dalton CRA.
I moved to Pittsfield when I was 2, so this is my stomping ground; I’ve been here for 31 years. I’ve been working out throughout my life, but age 21 is when I first took it seriously and studied at BCC. Fitness, I believe, saved my life. Fitness, growth, reading and spirituality have all helped me. Fitness is not just an external thing, it’s an internal thing. While someone comes into the room to be trained, why not feed them with pearls of wisdom they can carry throughout their life?
I’d been working in and out of schools for 5 years — helping with the backpack drive, coming to speak there, sitting and talking with troubled kids — and I came up with the XCell: For a Better Tomorrow TV show to raise the morale of the Westside neighborhood, where I grew up. Friends of mine, Xavier [Jones] and Warren [Davis], had been speaking in the schools for a long time. They wanted me to become part of it and I was honored that they would choose me. We created the XCell mentorship program.
We go into middle schools and high schools every week and we find out what happened the week before, we de-escalate things, we check their grades and just help the teachers out. It’s been an absolutely enriching experience to work with the youth. I want to see them win. As they say, “It takes a village.” I still believe in that old-school mentality.
When I work with youth, mostly what I do is reinforce what they’ve been told but also reinforce that they’re not an accident, they are worthy. Like the actor and producer Bill Duke says: “You are no better than anyone, and yet no else is better than you.” I try to meet people where they’re at, not talk down to them; there’s a way to word the truth and I just want to enhance people’s life with my words. I’m a firm believer in planting the seed and leaving it alone. You plant a tree knowing that you’re not going to enjoy the shade from that tree in this lifetime. But it’s important for the future.
I was a motivational speaker before I knew I was a motivational speaker. People stepped into my life and gave me book after book to read, and that was my healing period. When I was younger, I was bullied and picked on; I just tried to make it through the day. I always had a love for people, but I didn’t think people had a love for me. I was broken and I had to look at myself in the mirror and tell myself I was a good person and I was worth it. And I eventually started to believe it. The reason I’m so upbeat is that I practice gratitude each morning: for waking up — that’s win number one — for my family, my kiddos, my health, that I’ve made it this far, for hanging in there. It’s hard to be upset when you verbalize all the things you’re grateful for.
My overall goal is to live out my purpose and do as much as I can while I’m here. My biggest fear is to go up to the big guy at the pearly gates and he says, “You could’ve done more.” I want him to applaud. While I’m doing these things for the community, I don’t want people to think for one second that they aren’t helping me, too. It makes it all worth it.
