Daily Motivations - REMEMBER YOUR DREAM

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do. Pope John XXIII Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learning. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not cliches but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path. Phillip Sweet The 6 Most Catalyzing Quotes to Help You Go For Your Dreams 1. “Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it.” –  Steven Conrad 2. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho 3. “20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain 4. “When you have a dream that you can’t let go of, trust your instincts and pursue it. But remember: Real dreams take work, They take patience, and sometimes they require you to dig down very deep. Be sure you’re willing to do that.” –  Harvey Mackay 5. “Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.” – John Updike 6. “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?” – George Bernard Shaw Instagram - @daily_motivationsorg     Facebook- @daily_motivationsorg Interested in sponsoring this show reach out to us via [e-mail] Speaker: Eddie Pinero Grab your Ultimate Female Body Fitness Guide Ebook  copy now at an exclusive 50% off discount  https://selar.co/42zb40?currency=USD Kindly Support Us Below to sustain future episodes. Support the Show.

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Bet on the sports you love with BetRivers Sportsbook. Take a chance. We'll be right back. Yesterday I drove out a little bit into North Carolina, parked the car, found a path, and went on a long hike to take in some scenery, think about life holistically, kind of contemplate where I go from here and why it matters. Which is always funny to think about, right? The idea of having to carve out time amidst our frantic and often chaotic journey to get somewhere, to, well, define where somewhere is. But I think about that a lot. Our days consist of so much running around that I can easily forget what even my calculated decisions add up to. Why? It's a simple enough question, perhaps one I could ask more. Why? What's with this whole get comfortable with discomfort thing? Why do I place so much emphasis on the quote-unquote path less traveled? Which is a term that, you know, one of my buddies was

recently giving me a hard time about using in all my speeches, right? It must mean something to me. It's gotten me here. But is here better than over there? After all, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I'm the one who's missing the mark. And it's okay to examine that possibility. In fact, that's why I'm here. And I bounced this around in my head as I made my way up the trail and noticed as I looked around, everything just felt perfect. Have you ever had one of those moments where it just seems surreal? The morning was incredible. I loved the sound of the earth under my feet as I took each step,

the chirping of the birds in the early morning, the sun making its way through the trees. And I thought, it's amazing that you can live 20 minutes from this feeling and just never experience it. I guess proof that a decision to not go, to do nothing, is still very much a decision, and in this case would have been the less desirable one. I'm glad I went. My phone was in my backpack, and for the first time in a while, I didn't even think about it. My mind was stimulated. My senses were taking in something new, something different, something not my studio or laptop or social media analytics pages. In fact, all that stuff felt kind of trivial now that I was removed from it.

And I wondered, why don't I do this more? That thought popped into my head earlier that morning. I thought, hey, that's a cool idea. I just had to get through that initial pushback. The hesitancy of, well, what's the point? What's the desired outcome of a hike? And after all, this little jaunt is just going to distract you from your work and your progress. But at that moment, I think you have to just shut out reason for a

second. You have to remind yourself that there's value, period. Otherwise, we open the door for rationalizing. We talk ourselves out of some of life's beautiful secrets. Sometimes you have to just go. And as I made my way down this trail further and further, I started to feel better. I felt reassured. Like I had something that I otherwise wouldn't have had. Something that's my own. And maybe that is it. Maybe that alone is the reason for everything.

To collect those incredible things, large and small, that we might not have had. After all, isn't life just an accumulation of memories? Of experiences that are spread out like a choose-your-ending children's book? And with so much

control over the outcome, I think that matter deserves my attention. In order to acquire the good stuff, whether it's in a different location or context or time in my life, I still learn again and again that to get that, we have to leave some things behind. And that's the essence of life. You usually get out what you put in. And I think about that a lot. I think about the forks in the road I've come across, those same ones, the life-altering decisions. I guess it's only human. Walking away from that promising career that I spent my whole life building towards, every once in a while, sure, I miss the security.

Leaving this city and the people that made my life what it was, it still haunts me from time to time. Trading permanence and structure for the freedom to condense my life's work into a laptop and take it anywhere in the world. But empowerment can be lonely, right? And I guess I can't help that in the midst of those situations, the easy decision always feels like the wrong one. I've just been pulled by the upside. I gravitate towards this grandiose version of what life could be on the mark that I hope to make. And to me, the scariest thing has always been not having the courage to see more, to explore. The phrase, what if, has always been my adversary.

The monster in the closet, and it's a costly one to slay, right? But life is both suffering and infinite beauty. And it's like, you have to choose where you're going to endure pain and why that matters so that you can climb the mountain that means everything to you. That makes life worth it. In other words, meaningful discomfort now or painful regret later. And I strongly believe that life is about pursuing something meaningful. And even the triviality of a hike wants to remind me of this truth. I could be at home playing guitar, watching Netflix, relaxing. I mean, that would have been easier.

But there's only one way to catch that sunrise over the trees. And that way is not Netflix. All those beautiful views, they require an output of energy to reach them. They come with fear of something going wrong and doubt that perhaps the turn you made wasn't the best one and that's okay. But I believe that happiness, to be truly fulfilled, requires trade-offs. And with each step, it becomes easier and easier to understand. For the gym rat, it's the discipline and the belief, knowing that muscles break down

so that they can be built up. For the relationship to flourish, it's overcoming disagreements, accommodating the needs of that person that you love so that they can be the last thing you see before you fall asleep. For the free spirit, it's walking away from what you know in pursuit of something that excites and invigorates, even if you're not entirely sure what it means. It's about enduring one so that you can collect the other. Now, what you choose to endure and what you choose to collect is up to you, but that's what makes life such a beautiful ride. A roller coaster taking you through lows to reach highs but that's what makes life such a beautiful ride. A roller coaster taking you through lows to reach highs into darkness to see how life changing the light is when it

pushes its way through. Little decisions that become the collage that explodes off the paper when you step back and look. That's what you get back when you make a point to see more. That's why my love affair with the trivial and the mundane lights my path. It's not just a little thing. It's a microcosm of my everything. It's my saying yes to the opportunity that we work so hard to ignore in an effort to avoid inconvenience. But a life worth living is not always convenient.

You could even argue at times it should be inconvenient. Because the higher the climb, the more we give of ourselves, the more precious the world looks from the top down. In the challenging times, the things we sacrifice and leave behind, they're not so much a part of the picture as the paint on your palette. That in breaking down, you can now recreate using your own ideals, metrics, and guidelines a world that you now have the ability to transform. That's why life to me is nothing more than color, decisions nothing more than paint,

steps nothing more than brushstrokes, and And life Well, life is nothing and everything Which as the morning breeze reminds me Is a decision that is entirely my own My own. Do you ever wonder how much of you has materialized? Like if what F. Scott Fitzgerald says is true and our lives are defined by opportunity, even the ones we miss, then how much remains in the ether? And I don't think it's about playing a game of what if.

You know, that would be endless. It would be self-defeating. No one's perfect. I don't even really think it's about making a right turn instead of a left. Because as long as you're moving, and moving with conviction, life ultimately brings you where you need to be. But more, my concern is the steps never brought to pavement. My ideas on the hatch. My opportunities I either knowingly or unknowingly left on the shelf. Because it didn't seem real enough.

Like a Broadway play between my ears. That as a spectator I knew would end. After all, that's what stories do. How much of ourselves have we cast aside as simply the things we don't say out loud? At first, it's infinite. We've yet to be taught to limit because limits aren't things, they're ideas, and ideas must be adopted. That's why they say some of life's best things were done by people too ignorant to know they were impossible, too naive of the notion that they couldn't say them out loud. Then it's comparison. They have what I want.

But it was meant for them and not me. How delusional to think I could have it. How crazy to think that life has yet to be written and I am an author. My date is with normalcy in the box where I keep those things we don't say out loud. And then we look around and we see highlight reels. We see awards and vacations and smiles, but we don't stop to think maybe they're just like me. Maybe they're people who struggle and question themselves and doubt the road ahead. No, it must be the past diverged.

They took happiness and I took those things we don't say out loud. And then there's everyday life when things don't go as planned when the world presents curveballs and you haven't learned to hit off speed so you feel small and you feel inadequate and ill-equipped and you could reach out but that's not cool that's not right that's something that you don't say out loud but we keep it in like all in and eventually it becomes the if onlys and I wish I had it's the quiet envy gazing longingly towards those who just cared less, who realize maybe life's not as serious as we make it out to be, who turn thoughts to things not by burying but by embodying them. And maybe that's the trick to unlock the gate, keeping your perceived reality from the possibility of a new

one, the one you could create if only you promoted your fleeting thoughts to forward progress. See, dreams can fail to come to fruition in two places, in your head and outside of it. But at least outside, it has a chance. At least outside, you can take the common, normal, everyday background and make it the backdrop to your movie where you play a lead role. But it must be accepted and acknowledged, not thought of or even whispered, but screened so that the details and the trivialities that exist now work for you.

That's right, they are now yours. Not because you thought about it, but because you reached out a hand and you took. You asked the world for something. And in life, it will always be true that you don't get what you do not ask for. So when you find yourself staring up a wall comprised of self-defeating narratives and manufactured limits, be ignorant, be irrational, Be the reason your dreams have a chance. And when you look around and you see more

and wonder why you don't have it, know that you can. You're allowed to. If you sacrifice, you will. But you must believe that you are worthy of it. Not in the back of your head where you keep your locker combo and movie quotes, but in reality where words bounce off lips.

And when you feel like life is treating you unfairly, like they're happier or have it better, know that life is peaks and valleys, not just for you, but for everyone. And how you internalize that and carry on makes the difference. And when you feel lost or stuck. You are not hopeless. But in progress. Being broken down. So that you can be reconstructed. Stronger.

Better. Victory is not in hiding those struggles. But accepting them as the difference. As the reason you created the miraculous. Not because you had dreams, but because you said them out loud. Welcome to Daily Motivation, where you get motivated and inspired. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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on their fitness journeys, offering advice on balancing exercise with life's demands, and breaking free from societal norms. Don't miss out on this incredible deal of 50% off. Get your e-book now before it's too late. I've come to accept the fact that I'm a loser. The more people say otherwise, the more I prove over and over again that it's just who I am. Stuck in my ways, an outsider, outcast, out of my mind, loser.

See, it started with my old identity, who I used to be. I lost that. Then I lost those people that made me feel small, the ones holding me back, bye. Would the streak continue? You bet. Lost that need to please others. Hey, turns out I know what's best for me better than they do. Lost the things being done out of obligation and not purpose. Lost the wrong metrics I was using to measure success, gone. Lost my way so that I might find something better. That was hard.

Thought I might lose my mind, but I found it. Just lost my old way of thinking, and hey, that's a win. Lost yesterday. Found tomorrow. Lost scarcity, but found abundance. I lost to the people who were more talented, better skilled, the ones who outclassed me, fine. Showed me what it took to win. I lost my heart a few times. That sucked, but it looks like it still works, so we're good. I lost my purpose, followed the shiny objects instead of the things that matter, but sometimes seeing what doesn't shine puts a spotlight on what does. Keeps me swinging from star to star, and yeah, I like it. I lose my discipline from time to time, but hey, regret hurts more, so I force myself to find it. As I write this out, speak it into existence, I'm losing track of time, all is forgotten. But I think that's how it should be. I hope I lose more tomorrow.

Yeah, I lose a lot. Thank God. That to find ourselves requires we must first lose ourselves is, I believe, life's greatest paradox. Leaving that carousel of comfort, the predictability of what we know, the certainty of who we believe ourselves to be, for a promise with no real guarantee of being kept, well, it's nothing short of irrational.

Are the odds in our favor? Perhaps not. But by stepping off, by placing our bets on a different track with a different prize at a different time, we have increased those odds from zero to, well, I guess we decide. And see the world teaches us that it's advantageous to spin. A spinning carousel is predictable, it can't be cheated, there's very little room for loss or humiliation or setbacks or even life to get in the way. You know where you start and you know where you end and that's just the thing. This spinning world is so easy that people don't want to leave. In fact, it's not

until you walk away from the crowd that you even face the unknown. And that's precisely why it's so hard to walk alone. It's hard, it's challenging because of the now. Not because the now can't be measured or understood. No, we get it. But because there's this little whisper in the back of our heads that the now might go on and on and on forever, that that check will never be cashed, the summit never reached. No, just footsteps down a perpetually long, windy road,

and that's when maybe, just maybe we miss that carousel. We miss the safety and security. And that's what sometimes makes it such a stressful thing to walk alone. We think about all of ourselves, our mind, our heart we've left behind along the way. Truths we now have to face, things they never taught us on that carousel. We had to learn that we were wrong about who'd be by our side through it all. We could no longer hide behind the notion that when things got tough, someday everyone, everything would be there, would be the same. We learned to swim by jumping into the deep end,

seeing in real time that people only believe it already exists. What's put in front of them. That ideas are empty. That a dream is a language only spoken by its creator. And if you want it to mean anything, you must dedicate your life to translating it. We learn how much is backwards. How much of life is reactive. That success is being one of the few who don't react, but build a world to react to. And in the thick of it all, to internalize the process, because talking, well, talking does nothing. Plans are just potential energy confined to your pocket. You have to be okay growing that seed by yourself. Like a runner making her way past a crowd, right?

The crowd sees calm, sees peace, sees the finesse of an athlete gliding over the pavement. They have no idea the war being fought behind her eyes, the silencing of constant whispers to slow down, to do less, the repression of pain that consumes her to such an extent it can't even really be pinpointed. It just kind of floats over her body. They'll never know that. And what we learn is that they don't need to. It's the truth. And see, it's also what makes it quite lonely to walk alone. Walking alone, well, it's a lot of things.

But it's never boring. It's never dull. And if you can hang in there long enough without even noticing the headwind you've been fighting, it becomes a tailwind. And where we may have felt alone, the idea pops into our heads that maybe that's not quite right. If anything, the wind at our back is now momentum. It's a partner along the way. If anything, the wind at our back is now momentum.

It's a partner along the way. That carousel, yeah, it's still spinning, but somewhere else. Some far-off place beyond our field of vision. And no, things don't ever become easy. We wouldn't want that. But difficulty is interpreted differently now. Not a burden, but a cost. And one we'd gladly continue to pay.

And that space that once felt so empty, so desolate, so helpless. Well, now it's made up of people who see what you see. Who hopped off their own carousels and wandered through the desert. They too navigated through the impossible and the never been done. It's funny how at some point we always find each other. And I suppose now, having traded the carousels for the adventure, we can walk alone together.

Us against the world. Standing up in defiance of the odds, chasing that glimmer of hope. All in on a pursuit to find what most won't and see what most can't. Not because we were made different. But because we chased down the idea of different. It gets a tough rap walking alone. And in so many ways, it's a fight. It takes all of you.

But you don't come out the same person you were when you stepped in. The same person you'd still be today had you stayed on that carousel. So if you are still spinning, step off. And if you have, if you're still adjusting to the discomfort of reality, if you're making your way through the hell of uncertainty or questioning whether you have what it takes or have the strength to commit, I promise you do. In fact, you're right where you need to be. So don't be distracted by those screaming of their successes or communicating, capturing every small win as they make their way around the carousel. It's the quiet ones who change themselves. The ones who take life one step at a time, one battle at a time, who redefine reality.

And I'm sure you can't see it now. No one can. No one can see the sun amidst the storm. But you'll emerge. Stronger than you ever were. You will navigate towards the ideal and away from that life you once settled for. It's a long path but it's worth it. So get up and let your feet guide the way. Let's go walk alone. Living is easy. It's my inability to die that kills me. My hesitance to lock my old persona up and place it within the ship's cargo hold, watch it sail away to some far-off place. Maybe for a minute.

Maybe forever. But the bird has to be uncaged. It must unlearn its constraints. It must metaphorically die to transcend that which it knew itself to be. I think we all have wings. I think very few of us put them to use. And isn't that the challenge? Perhaps we're too busy living.

I've always had the ability. Now I've captured the fleeting awareness. Next I must obtain the courage. Because the rule, the truth, the beacon of light to be followed is we're always one decision away from a totally different life. If dare I decide to take the mask off that's been so effectively fooling others that I've begun to fool myself. Dare I decide to play new games with new rules to see life with new eyes. Perhaps upside down.

But when your sight is finally, finally set on infinity, when you're looking at the clouds while lying on your back, who's right, them or you? Who gets the honor of deciding? And sometimes I wonder how far we need to walk to understand that the danger isn't stepping into a new pair of shoes. It's thinking you need to walk the same path down the same street in the same pair of shoes you've had on your entire life. Strange, right? Peculiar, according to previous cognitive mappings.

But maybe there, crazy is your oxygen. Maybe crazy is pure. It's desirable. It's been the goal all along. And well, where I thought I dedicated my life to its pursuit, I see how wrong I was to think something new could emerge. No, not without the death of the old. Not without that caricature of myself slipping away. Not without that ship taking everything, every last thing. I want roots ripped from the ground. I want new heroes and new villains, new street signs telling of new roads, new tears from eyes stimulated by that which I've never seen, the increased rhythm of a new heartbeat, an anticipation of all that lies ahead, new beginnings, maybe for a minute or maybe forever.

I'll let you know once I learn to die. Could it be that the answers to our most challenging questions are so small that they're brushed off as insignificant? That in pursuing that bulldozer we think is necessary to knock the door down, we refuse again and again the key that would simply open it. Why is our first instinct to think our next action needs to be as big or as glamorous as that intended result? Again and again, my default has been to look for some brilliant monumental insight or some secret answer that would unroll like a scroll containing a treasure map. But again and again I learn and I relearn

that what I need, what is required, is so reasonable, it's so accessible that it almost feels like the universe has a sense of humor. It's sitting back and chuckling while we run around with keys in our pockets looking for a sledgehammer to break the door down. This is kind of a funny story. So last year, I had my first Year World Within Live event. And Evan Carmichael was one of the speakers. And after the event, we were talking about YouTube, right? He says, why don't you swing by?

We'll look at your channel. We'll see if I can offer any suggestions or pointers. And, you know, I gladly accepted the offer. And so I showed up later in the evening. He's got his laptop open. He's running all these tests, right? There's graphs and there's charts and comparison tables. And my first question is, obviously, what are you doing?

And he says, I'm testing my YouTube titles and thumbnails. And I'm thinking, interesting. Here's a guy who makes so much content. He's got 378 million views, right? Why are you exhausting time and energy on this? So I asked him, Evan, does it really matter? I mean, if your thumbnail picture is orange or yellow, or if there's a face on the left or right side, or if it's capitalized or not, right? If it's good, people will show up and they'll watch it. Isn't

that what matters? Well, it turns out I was wrong. In fact, I couldn't be more wrong. And when you're talking about a channel with millions of impressions, making a small change in color could mean your videos are clicked 1% more, which means thousands, if not millions, more views, which means it's shared more, seen more, which means the channel grows. And that's not from him going back and recreating and reinventing the wheel. No, it's using the key he has in his pocket right now. You know, and that's the reason I found this so incredible, because until that moment, I'd always approached the platform with a sledgehammer, right, using our metaphor. I had

this idea that, you know, I truly found to be an epiphany and change the way I think about things. So I'd get really excited. I'd make a video about it. I'd release it out to the world. And maybe it wouldn't do so well. People wouldn't watch that particular video. It would just kind of sit there. And my thought was always, all right, hey, it worked for me.

Must not a hit for everyone else. That's life. On to the next one. Never did I think for a second that, hey, you don't need to recreate the wheel. You're looking for a bulldozer when you need a key, right? You need to slightly adjust the titling or make the thumbnail more appealing, right? And the idea is these little tweaks are sometimes all that's required. You know, we think we got to reach out and find some answer or readjust every aspect of what we're doing. And it's like,

no, it's a little thing and it's right in front of you and it's very manageable and it's very realistic. And believe me, especially for people that aren't content creators, and there's a lot of you listening to this right now, I get how trivial it seems. But isn't that the point? And sure enough, within the next few months, I changed some thumbnail pictures around and two videos that were just sitting there got hundreds of thousands of more views. And I, you know, as I tend to do, look at the bigger picture. Well, how many times in life are you trying to find this monumental answer? And it's like, no, tweak here, adjustment here, change the way you are measuring success. Then it changes your tactics.

Think about productivity. I've been in the same boat. I want to be more productive. So how? Well, maybe if I get better at scheduling, I'll get scheduling tools, maybe some time management apps. I know I'll do a daily checklist. That'll do it. That's what I need. But in reality, the commonality when I have productive days is they all consist of me waking up not stressed, having time to think, reflect, plan and moving on and it flows into every other aspect of my day. It doesn't require me to buy some thousand dollar productivity course. Big result often requires small, manageable action. And again, the point here is that change can feel overwhelming because I think the default mechanism is to assume the next step needs to be as big as that desired result. It's like, oh, I want to climb that mountain, so I have to figure out a way to jump that high.

No, that's not true. You have to take small steps many times. And where we should be looking for consistency or something within our grasp or looking for some small self-contained miracle. You know, everything feels bigger than it is. It's an interesting part about growing up. You realize everything's not as big and intimidating and shiny and sparkly as it appears to be. We have the tools right now in real time. In fact, they're very ordinary, very unimpressive.

And that's with goals just like people. You know, I grew up seeing pictures of my grandfather, who was an admiral in the Navy, talking to American presidents and heads of state. And I'd ask him, you know, how was that? What was that like? And he'd always say, look, they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like I do, just like you do.

I think in a lot of ways, you know, we need to take the glamour and the mystique away from the things we want and the people we aspire to you do, right? I think in a lot of ways, you know, we need to take the glamour and the mystique away from the things we want and the people we aspire to be like, right? Big goals are an accumulation of little steps. And quote-unquote successful people are ordinary human beings who have the courage to take those steps.

Not for attention or likes or follows, but because they cared and they respected the process enough to stick it out. And so can I. And so can you. You have everything you need. Whether you're talking about creating on YouTube or putting yourself in a position to conquer the day, learning or emulating those you admire, Nothing is otherworldly for you. Sure, you'll have your strengths and your weaknesses, because we all do,

but there's no magic you need to find or acquire, no bulldozer or sledgehammer needed to lessen the gap between real and ideal. Just the understanding that the key in your pocket, the one you already have, will get you through the door. It's not a commitment to perfection, it's a commitment to remind yourself that every time you're stuck or overwhelmed or lost, that perhaps you're looking for miracles in the clouds when the solution is simple at your feet. It's not the mountain, it's one rock.

It's not the forest, it's one tree. It's not the journey, it's one rock. It's not the forest, it's one tree. It's not the journey, it's one step. And as time goes by, you'll find yourself moving beyond that previous reality. Beyond those looking for the home run or other worldly answers. And beyond the narrative that you don't have what it takes because you do and you always did. You simply had to commit to walking that path. There's a saying that some people feel the rain, others just get wet. I've always found this interesting, this idea how the same subject, same situation or occurrence can be interpreted so differently, right?

It can plant the seeds for such different outcomes. Like Yashimi and Koga mention in their book, The Courage to be Disliked, well water is 60 degrees, and it's always 60 degrees. In the summer and the winter, but depending on what time of year, right, the makeup of the outside world, that 60 degrees feels different. The water didn't change, its circumstances did, and our thoughts are no different. It's not the world that writes the story, we do. And every second, moment, day is merely an interpretation. Does time tick by? Or is it driven into a state of flow? Is it transformed into something more?

Was losing an indicator that, hey, maybe you're not good enough? Or is it your motivation to be better than you've ever been? Is your day an allegiance to the present or an invitation to chase down tomorrow? See, the world doesn't get to tell the tale. The world is paper. It's ink. It's ideas. The world is everything you need to decide how your story is going to go. How does he see the world? How does she define reality? That's the question.

Because you don't need to change the world. You need to change the way you see it. And you don't need to change who you are. You need to change the imaginary shackles you've placed around your ankles that are limiting the heights you could reach. In fact, the world, as far as I'm concerned, is an accumulation of thoughts, ideas. It's 8 billion individualized movie screens attempting to interact, to coexist together. And when you look at it like that, it's not that your mindset plays a role or it's kind of important. No, it's that it

narrates the play. It's the glue that ties everything together. What you see is what you get. And this isn't a one and done thing. It's an everyday thing. Because there's always going to be occurrences in our lives that challenge us, that threaten our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of. There will always be the temptation to make the opportunity into the problem, and the hero into the villain. But why forfeit that control? I remember hearing that if you find time to be grateful, both in the morning and at night, it changes your life. Not because the world transforms, but because it reinforces

the perspective you need. We are lucky to be here. We're lucky to have challenges that push us forward. Lucky to have ups and downs that bring us closer to the people in our lives. We're lucky that chaos and discomfort open a door for transformation on the other side. And look, I get life isn't perfect. And not everything can be great all the time. But I do believe that if we can bring ourselves to stop, to breathe, to even focus briefly, we can find value in any situation.

What's in front of you, it exists, right? It's the well water. You can't go back in time or remake the obstacle at your feet, but you can always decide how to make that work for you. And that's a superpower. And I use that. I use it when my short-term ideas or videos or projects underperform. I use it when people let me down. I use it when in the moment I'm either under or overwhelmed. The question, where is the win?

In this spot, this situation, where most would hang their heads and let the outside world rewrite the story, how can I find a way to hold mine high and maintain my own accountability? Extreme differences in life outcomes are so often prompted by such subtle realizations, subtle decisions. Their reason to stop could be your reason to not only carry on but thrive. And the best news is you don't need approval or authorization. You don't need the stars to align or doors to open up.

You just need to give yourself permission to see the sun amidst the clouds, the hope amidst the doubt. You have to remind yourself that there is always something to cling to, always a second chance. There is always a win. All you have to do is choose to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw. And with that in mind, here's a cap tip, a nod to the irrational, the foolish, and the odd, the ones who look around and see a world not as it is, but as it can be from now on, the unreasonable man,

uncapped aspiration, turning thoughts to things led by imagination, makers of hope and designers of fate, dancing with tomorrow, letting their vision light the way. that's never wrong is that life takes the shape of those pictures they've drawn when the page was blank. No chorus in the song, no hope in the moment, but they looked up, they carried on, and normalcy tends to be a list of what's okay, a list of someone else's plans, a list from yesterday, and what's missed when our heads point right down at the ground As we see the path before us But we forget to look around We don't see the could-be's infinities We could reach the hero that stands And he holds up one hand He promises to be an unreasonable man Cause the deal that struck while the world it sleeps

Is you can't wait for luck when life's playing for keeps When you feel fed up when the climb feels too steep Stop and remind yourself what your journey means Life your way, existence on your terms An endless freeway with more twists and more turns Mistakes that you'll make and yeah, you'll learn That the past doesn't last It's just not your concern and normal is not you

And that's why you'll be great. So don't bow down, don't settle or negotiate. You can be a great one. One of those names that stands for all time as a maker of change. Who saw life not as work but the perfect game. Who knew all those pieces could be rearranged, who fought through the unknown to show that unreasonable means more than more of the same. I'm sorry. There's a quote that states, life is 10% what happens to you

and 90% how you react to it. Which means that your reaction is drastically more important than the circumstance. And that's critical to know. It's critical to understand that nothing, no one in life has more power over your own situation than you. And there's an old story that hits on this point exactly. There's a father and a daughter. And basically the daughter's complaining.

She's complaining about life, how difficult things are. She doesn't know how she's going to make it in whatever it is she's doing. I mean, the bottom line is she's tired of the day-to-day, right? And her father gets this idea. He says, come with me into the kitchen. And he gets three pots of water, puts them on the stove and turns the burners on. As soon as they start boiling, he drops a potato

in the first one, an egg in the second one, and some coffee beans in the third one. And after some time goes by and they boil a little bit, he pulls them out, right? He puts the potato in a bowl. He puts the egg in a bowl and he takes a ladle and he puts some of the coffee in a cup. He says, what do you see? She says, well, I see a potato, I see eggs, and I see coffee. He says, yeah, but look closer. There's more there. And she goes and she touches the potato and it's now soft. And he hands her the bowl with the boiled egg.

And she takes the shell off and breaks it open. She sees that it's hard inside. Then finally he asks her to take a sip of the bowl with the boiled egg. And she takes the shell off and breaks it open. She sees that it's hard inside. Then finally, he asked her to take a sip of the coffee. And, you know, she smells it. She takes a sip. The smile comes to her face. She says, so what does all this mean? What are you trying to say? And he says, well, the potato, when I dropped it in the water, it was rigid. It was tough, it was uncompromising. But in the boiling water, it became soft, weak. Then you had the egg that was basically the opposite. This delicate layer protecting a liquid center, and the boiling water made it hard. And then there was the coffee. That wasn't just changed by the situation. It created something new.

It took the same adversity and used it as a lever to bring something beautiful into existence. He then looks at his daughter and says, look, when things become challenging, when things become difficult, which one are you? What's your approach? See, maybe the question is not about how challenging the situation is, right? Maybe we've been asking the wrong question. Maybe it's how do you transform yourself and by default the world around you? How do you take your strengths, your values, your loves, your joys, your happiness, and let that lead you into something bigger? When life gets hard, and it does. What do you become?

I always remind myself, you know, we are not defined by life at peak state. As much as I wish that were the case, right? We're not shaped by the easy days or the times that we floated by. Because those times are great, they're enjoyable, but they're not what make or break us. It's the times that challenge us and ask us to be what we have not yet become. That's the good stuff. And this is another one of those, you know, simple but not easy type things,

because on paper it makes sense, it's understood. But it's an outlook that manifests over time. It's slowly stacked piece by piece and brick by brick, realizing that every situation provides you with tools to make something out of an apparent nothing. And then it waits, right? Because fate is in your hands. And I can certainly think of, you know, times in my life, that's one of the reasons I love

these stories. I can reflect where each one of those pots of boiling water was relevant. I can think of times I was too headstrong, like the metaphorical potato. I thought success would be easy. I thought projects would be simple to execute. I spent months doing things that just weren't good because I didn't ask, what does the world need? I asked myself, what do I want to give the world? And there has to be a marriage there, right?

And it was a quick reminder that the world owes me nothing. I was humbled or softened, as the story goes. I've been the egg. I've been timid. I've been uncertain, thin-skinned. Worrying about what people would say or the content I was creating. Worried about perception. How would things look if I failed? And very quickly, I learned that when life is a game of comparison or one-upmanship,

when you do things for reasons and people other than yourself, you can't win. You overcompensate. You do things for the wrong reasons and you lose yourself you become hardened and then there's the good stuff right getting to the coffee not bowing down to the circumstances but shaping them not letting life dictate how the story goes or the fate of your character. And what's interesting is I'm pretty sure that being that metaphorical egg and the potato, they lay the foundation to become the coffee, the life lessons, the falling down, the picking my ego up off the floor, learning to trust myself, not be led by the opinions and expectations of others.

You essentially learn that you can take the world around you and change it, that it is malleable, it is flexible. You have that power. You have that ability. It's up to you to believe it. And that's critical because no one comes along and cosigns that understanding for you. It's an internal process. You start to learn that things aren't there to provide instruction.

They're there to propel you. But can you see the unknown as the opportunity, the obstacle as the way, and the loss as the armor that you pick up during the journey. And so, you know, all of these words essentially come to one point. And that point is you have so much more control over your life than you think you do. As I've said before, you are stronger than you think you are. You are more resilient than you can even imagine. And when life tests you, and again, it will,

remember that the challenges are not happening to you, but for you. The world isn't taking away what you have, it's giving you what you need. So long as you're willing to adapt with it, to grow, expand out, Because you not only have the ability to change yourself, but the world as well. Hope. That bridge that connects the present to a more ideal world. The idea that no obstacle is too big to overcome. No situation too dire to emerge victorious and

that you are never confined to how things are. FDR has said we have always held to hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon. Why does this matter? Well, to put it simply, before one can leave this situation they are in, they have to believe there is another path worth taking. It's not always seeing, but trusting. It's a tale of two components. One, the belief that something better is out there. And two, the belief that you are strong enough

to bridge that gap to create that world. So let's start with number one. There was a study done by Kurt Richter in the 1950s, and he used rats. And it was kind of a gruesome experiment, but definitely worth talking about because the takeaway is incredible. And I kind of cherry-picked the relevant parts of the experiment. Basically, he wanted to delve into the role that hope plays in our lives. And what he would do is he would drop rats into a jar of water and observe. See how long they would swim before they drown. And for the most part, these rats would swim for a minute or two and then ultimately give up, right? There was

this innate feeling of hopelessness. But then he made a change and when they were close to drowning, he'd reach in, he'd pick them up, he'd hold them for a little while. And then he'd place them back in the water. And the results between the two groups were night and day. The rats saw in the second group that it wasn't over. And when they were placed back in the water, they had a reason to continue swimming. And they did. Some of them did for hours. The only difference being that they had hope. They saw there was more. And I don't think that's too different from us. The situation may be different, but the rules generally apply, right? So much of conceding or giving up in life, accepting an existence that falls short of our ideals,

is when we don't believe in something more. We stop swimming. We don't give ourselves a chance. Right? So instead of creating bridges to walk on, we make walls that lock us in. Hope is knowing all pain, all discomfort is temporary. And the second component is belief in yourself. Belief in yourself to traverse that space between current and the ideal. It's self-empowerment. You can be the difference maker in your life and others. And it's funny, the other day after reading about the Richter experiment, I was sitting in a friend's house with my laptop, kind of trying to figure out what to make of it, right? Because the idea of hope I knew was powerful. And then I wanted to share that story.

I wanted to write something that would highlight its value, but it seemed kind of unfinished or simply part of an explanation. I'm sitting there thinking about it. And I hear this loud bang over and over again and i get up and i run to the back of the house right to make sure everything's fine see what's going on and my friend's standing there with goggles on this this grin on his face and a sledgehammer and a huge hole in the wall in front of him and i'm like dude what you doing? You just knocked your wall down. He goes, yeah, I wanted to make another closet. His family's growing.

He needs more space. And he just took it upon himself to make that happen. And I just looked at him and walked back out. Started walking to the living room. And it hit me. This is a component of hope. Seeing what's not there and doing something about it. If the swimming experiment is step one,

this has to be step two in real time. Step one, believing, seeing something more. Step two, taking action to change it now. Buying into the fact that you have the power to change your own world. And it's funny because any house or room I've ever lived in, my thoughts always, you look around and this is it, right?

This is the situation. This is what's being given to me. How do I make the most of it? How do I play within these parameters? Not, okay, this is fine, but it could be better by smashing down the wall in the back over there, creating something new. And obviously the message here

isn't about home maintenance, right? This is about taking a sledgehammer to the places in your life in which you are not content so that you can build in its place something that matters. You look around to your left, your right, and you're unhappy. That's not the end of the story. That's the beginning of the story. That's where the wheels hit the road. In other words, it's looking at life with the lens, with the freedom of knowing things don't have to be what they are. They don't have to stay the same until the universe changes them. No, they can be what you make them and what life teaches us again and again is that walls can be stepped over

no's can become yeses impossibles can become commonplace but first there must be hope. There must be an understanding that your world is a 10,000 foot view of all the little stories you tell yourself and the narratives you believe. See, every day when you wake up and take your first steps, breathe your first breaths. Know that nothing simply is. No, it is simply chosen and can be remade. That's what makes life such a beautiful thing. It's flexibility. It's promise to provide what has been relentlessly sought out. So remember, it's when you can't find your answer, when the odds look grim, when the rest of the world tells you no, that you most need hope.

Hope, the power, the strength to look within yourself and remember that one life can change and two, you can change it. Armed with this understanding, nothing is impossible. When others fail to see the answer, the light in themselves, in the situation, you become the reminder that light is internally manufactured. We aren't given answers so that we may believe them. We are given the opportunity to believe, and thus we create that ending we hope to pursue. And without this, life is nothing more than a permanent status quo. It's holding our hands to the sky and receiving what life chooses to provide. But that's not why you're here. It's not why you woke up today.

Not to accept, but to create. To find hope in the tragedy and the hardship and to find within yourself the strength to move forward with whatever you decide comes next. Next.