By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Disgraced former police commissioner Bernard Kerik prepared himself and his family for his four-year prison sentence set to begin Monday by watching the movie "Rocky," he wrote in his blog.
"As I prepare to serve my sentence, I have had to likewise prepare Angelina and Celine, my seven and 10-year-old daughters for what is next to come," Kerik wrote Sunday in a blog post titled, “It is Time to Move Forward."
“I sat with them and watched the movie Rocky Balboa, for the sole purpose of having them watch one scene where Rocky speaks to his son and says, ‘The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are….it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it,'" Kerik continued.
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward!"
Before turning himself in to federal prosecutors Monday, Kerik wrote that he hopes to be remembered for his "30 years of public service ... and not by tabloid headlines."
Kerik, 54, wrote that he pleaded guilty on Nov. 5 to corruption charges because he was running out of money and was faced with needing a public defender to try his case.
At the plea hearing, he confessed to lying to the IRS about $255,000 renovation to his home.
He also admitted to making false statements to the U.S. government when he was under consideration for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Kerik took himself out of the running after allegations of impropriety that eventually led to formal criminal charges.
"The confirmation process was quickly deteriorating into a tabloid nightmare which threatened to make a mockery of everything I had ever accomplished," Kerik said.
The former head of the city's corrections and police departments gained national recognition after Sept. 11.
Kerik will reportedly be serving his time at a Cumberland, Md. prison.
