Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 1 Hour Long INSPIRING Motivational Speeches | Listen When You Wake Up | Morning Motivation

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

"There was never a night or problem that could defeat sunrise or hope" Bernard Williams

With New Year's resolutions, many of us will make a vow to eat healthier, and that's a good thing. But what about our beloved pets and their nutrition? Greetings, I'm naturopathy, Dr. Dennis Black, and here at Meow Greens, we're on a mission to provide better nutrition for all cats because, truthfully, all cat food is dead food, which is why we created Meow Green's in the first place. We bring their dead food back to life with live vitamins, minerals, probiotics, enzymes, omega oils, antioxidants, and so much more. all with the tasty formula that your cat will love. You can improve your cat's coat, digestion, and energy, and have less vet bills. Let 2025 bring a new year and a new pet.

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Sometimes success is merely hanging on when others would let go. Not doing anything spectacular or out of the ordinary. Not leaping a mile or jumping over a mountain, but simply carrying on. Thomas Edison has a famous quote that's really stuck with me over the years. He says, many of life's failures are people who did not really really. realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Right? How close they were to the finish line when they turned their back and said it wasn't worth it.

It's really an interesting thing to grasp. Success is seeing what others can't. It's believing when others don't. It's taking the abstract, those visions, those pictures in your head. to make believe in finding the courage to make them real. Bring them to life. It's this constantly evolving process, and it grows a little bit every single day.

Sometimes we feel that progress. We feel the momentum. We do something big, and it's exciting. And sometimes the progress feels small. And then there are times when we get knocked down, and we don't see it at all. We feel like because we weren't validated that we lost, that we failed, that it wasn't enough. We forget that's part of the process, that progress is a journey.

And it goes when you go, and it stops when you stop. Just like that famous Dalai Lama quote, right? The only way to fail is to quit, period. No one ever stops because they can't. They stop because they decide to. They stop because they see that huge mountain and they think that's impossible. They forget it's only made of little rocks. They stop because they get so disheartened by the distance of the finish line

that they forget it only takes a collection of little steps to get there. You don't have to leap the entire distance. You know, I've been there. This is me speaking from experience. It took me years to figure it out. And even now, life is rapidly evolving. I've poured my heart into things that, let's be honest, no one cared about. I've invested in opportunities that fell apart right in front of me.

And each time it felt like the end of the world. I've been lost. I've been unsure. Gotten up after things didn't go as planned and it felt like a loser. I had to look myself in the mirror and pick myself back up off the floor. But there's one thing that I kept doing that I never thought twice about. And that's continuing on. Whether life lifted me up or it beat me down,

my plan for tomorrow was always the same. Get up and try again. Keep going. And as I sat down this morning with my pen and a piece of paper, What's the one thing I would want to be told if I started out again? What's the one thing that people need to hear most? And it's to simply keep going. Keep taking steps.

Because one day the world will start to make sense. And you'll look around and you will be thankful for one thing. That when most would have stopped, you didn't. When the world said no, you said yes. There is nothing so powerful as a soul that refuses to back down. See, persistence is not an important thing or an essential thing. It's everything. So live as to see.

Not what can be lost, but what will be gained. Find that light in darkness, even if it's a... a flicker, even if it's a spark. See, every loss makes you a little tougher, and every instant of sadness uncover something beautiful. Every moment of fear teaches you to be a little braver. Every broken heart opens the door to a new connection.

Instead of doubting yourself, feeling inadequate in life's darkest moments, know that you need what you are going through. You are uncovering the little victories hidden in plain view. So when the world feels like too much and your patience is thin, be stronger than that voice in your head, begging you to think small. Stand on every experience, the good and the bad. Let it elevate you to a beautiful tomorrow. Find a way.

First and foremost, there always is one. Find a way because you are more than strong enough. Because anything other than a solution or some semblance of progress means you gave in, called it quits, threw in the towel, and giving in is not who you are. Find a way because that doesn't, discomfort today, well, it becomes our greatest source of pride tomorrow.

The simple decision to carry on or stick it out now is so much more than it appears to be when under duress. Sure, it's easy to turn around, but everything, everything relies on your moving forward into that darkness. Find a way. Because while we may think we want safety and need predictability, our souls want adventure. Life's meaning is comprised of the mountains climbed and dragons slayed, so step out and slay your dragons.

Find a way. Because an evolved self. has to be earned. Keeping promises to yourself is no small ordeal. Putting your head on the pillow at night, knowing you followed through on who you decided you would be. That's power. It creates a trajectory towards infinite possibility. It points you at the stars. Find a way because you must reinforce the fact that the world is clay to be molded, not a checklist. It's a game, not a chore, a gift, not an obligation. When you find a way, you become the ruler of your own kingdom.

Look, there exists a way, a path. That's not the question. The question is one of effort. Is there a willingness to move beyond the parameters imposed upon you by others, by the past, by the thoughts that bounce around in your head? Is there a willingness to endure duress in the short term? Is there a willingness to fall down now, to look dumb, to not always be perfectly packaged or assembled?

Are you willing to endure that in exchange for the infinite? I remember hearing the mantra, there is always a way to get to your finish line. It's not can I. It's not, is it possible? No, it's how. How do I get there? The dots exist.

You have to be the one to connect them. You have to build bridges over the oceans of unknowns. the valleys comprised of the unforeseen oh there is a way remember that remember that it's not the destination that's in question but one's willingness to knock and knock and knock until the right door opens remember that you have everything you need that you are armed with all that is required. You were made to connect those very dots before you. You just have to decide what's more important to you. That feeling of reaching the top of the mountain or the feeling of its shade at the bottom. What will you give to be more than you've ever been? Do more than you've ever done.

there is always away. Are you willing to find it? Decisions, decisions. Isn't that what it ultimately comes down to? Is it a dead end or a new beginning? An obligation or an opportunity? Because today it can be whatever you want it to be, whatever you decide it is.

And when you lay your head on the pillow at night, that's what makes all the difference. Imagine for a second being on a beach, dragging your foot and creating an indented pathway in the sand. And when you finish taking a bucket of water and pouring it into that very same channel you just sculpted, the water is going to follow the path that you laid out. It will flow within the confines of the channel that you just made.

And the way I see it, life is just like that water. It flows within the boundaries placed before it. And how you decide to see the world creates that channel that contains the water. It's the driving force behind everything in your life, guiding every single thing that comes through. Have you ever thought about how small the details are that sway our perception of reality? How different people interpret the exact same event in different ways? Why does some people rise when criticized and others crumble?

Why does some see fear in hardship when others see opportunity? Why does some aspire to build and others to tear? down. See everyone has the same clay. People just decide to sculpt to mold it differently. Your external world is a reflection of the internal decisions you make, decisions that dictate everything, decisions that take what the world throws your way and transforms them according to your viewpoint. Life runs right through your moat every day, that channel in the sand, that you created, that you direct, you control how events unfold because you decide how they will be handled and harnessed. You choose the map that will take you to your final destination.

So decide what you want and let it transform your perspective. Own it, become it, accept nothing less. Why is it that when we look back on our lives, it's never the easy days or the simplicity? It's not the calm that changes our reality or makes us who we are. Don't get me wrong, calm and simplicity. They're wonderful, but they're not transformative. And why would they be? Why would we change or seek to obtain more without a reason or incentive? It's times of struggle, of turbulence.

It's when life was hard that we had to rethink who we are. reshape the way we look at the world. Because without chaos, you don't get calm. Without the storm, you don't get those crazy neon colors and golden rays it leaves as it passes by. In order to triumph in any capacity or any area of life, there's always a sacrifice that must be made. The adversity is the fire that forges the iron. There's a saying hard times create strong. strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men and weak men create hard times.

It's a cycle. And this is generally used in a sociopolitical sense and I think in a lot of ways it applies today, but where I've really found it useful, where I've found value in it is at the personal level. Because what I've noticed is that growth also appears to have a cyclical nature. And when we're in a rough situation or overcoming an obstacle, we have to push, we fight, we grow. Sometimes without even realizing it, we achieve a result. And by default, this transformation that in one way or another makes us something new. But then it becomes easy to level out, right? And that's the challenge. It creates this period of stagnation. It's like we made the jump and it becomes real easy to stay there. And that's why I have found value in when life is not providing resistance to manufacture some.

Because that's the only way to grow. Progress is happiness. Victor Frankel and Man Search for Meaning, you know, he says purpose is to find from struggle. If things are too calm or simple or quiet, life begins to lack meaning. And that's never a spot we want to be. Life is about the pursuit of something. You just have to figure out what that blank will be. you get to decide which mountain to climb.

There's a story about a butterfly making its way out of a cocoon, and it makes a little hole. It starts attempting to push its way out. Someone walks by, they see it struggling, and open the cocoon up to help the butterfly out, right? Thinking that they did this great deed, but in doing so, that butterfly has now lost its ability to use its wings to fly. Why?

Why? Because the strength that was necessary to fly would have been forged when he fought his way out. The butterfly was deprived of the very thing it needed to become something more, and that's the point. It's easy to get lost in the now and seek to eliminate everything that doesn't make the moment more comfortable. To remove that, which doesn't make things easier. But whether we're talking about collectively or the complacency in our individual lives, we have to remember that avoiding discomfort isn't the answer. When your biggest problem is Amazon taking five days to deliver or that your feelings are hurt by someone's comments or opinions on social media,

you've lost track of yourself. You may be living in a world lacking the resistance necessary for growth. Maybe it's time to ask what matters. And I remember when I lived in Boston, I'd walk around listening to podcast downtown, and I'll never forget hearing Ryan Holiday differentiating between passion and purpose. He called Passion temporary, a dopamine hit. It's the excitement before the project begins, the beginning of a journey, the honeymoon fate.

But passion alone falls short. And it falls short because anything worthwhile is hard. It tests us. It repeatedly presents us with those metaphorical cocoon. We have to fight. We have to earn our stripes, grow our wings, and if we stop at passion, there's no reason to battle on. To take the punches, knowing that they will create for us a tomorrow full of infinite possibility, and that's where we need purpose.

That's why it matters. We need something bigger to March Toys. a destination that's meaningful. To remind us that those challenging times, they're not a burden. There is no poor me here. They are the fire that sharpens us. That whispers to us,

not only the importance of carrying on, but the power contained within ourselves to do so. This world, it is not stacked against. It's never the problem or the obstacle. No, it's the opportunity laid out at your feet. And it's in those very times when we're uncomfortable, when we're unsure, when we don't know where to draw our strength. That we need to remember it comes within.

It's an idea that is brought to life through courage, Through courage, through understanding, through the trials and tribulations of life that didn't intimidate or hold you back, knowing that life has given you everything you need to blaze your trail. So don't be afraid to let it take you somewhere new. I'm no tech genius, but I know if I want my business to crush it, I need a website now. Thankfully, Bluehost makes it easy. I customized, optimized, and monetized everything exactly how I wanted with AI. Within minutes, my site was up. I couldn't believe it.

Plus, Bluehost keeps me protected 24-7. No more worrying about hackers. I just relax and focus on my customers. So, whatever your hustle may be, secure your online presence in 2025 with Bluehost. Head to bluehost.com to start now. With New Year's resolutions, many of us will make a vow to eat healthier, and that's a good thing. But what about our beloved pets and their nutrition? Greetings, I'm naturopathy, Dr. Dennis Black, and here at Meow Greens, we're on a mission to provide better nutrition for all cats

because truthfully, all cat food is dead food, which is why we created Meow Greens in the first place. We bring their dead food back to life with live vitamins, minerals, probiotics, enzymes, omega oils, antioxidants, and so much more. with the tasty formula that your cat will love. You can improve your cat's coat, digestion, and energy, and have less vet bills. Let 2025 bring a new year and a new pet. Get a jumpstart trial bag, normally $20. Get a 100% discount with promo code Meow. You discover the shipping. Bring your pet's food back to life. Get your free jumpstart trial bag. Go to meow greens.com. Use promo code meow, M-E-O-W. So good, your cat will ask for it by name. to the starting line.

You're waiting, thinking about what's in front of you. Essentially, you have 2,000 meters. That's more or less six minutes to determine your fate. In the grand scheme of things, it equates to a grain of sand on a beach, a bucket of water in the ocean, right? Six minutes is nothing. But at the very same time, it's everything. Because when you dissect it, it's not just about those six minutes, is it?

It's about hour after hour, day after day of sacrifice, of carving out your place amongst the elite. And your measuring stick is a race that takes a little bit longer than it does for you to brush your teeth in the morning. That's all. So the gun fires, the race starts, and almost immediately that inevitable pain sets in. Right, you take one stroke at a time, one second at a time,

executing a race plan, maintaining composure, and before you know it, you've crossed the finish line, done. Just like that. And now those six minutes not only symbolize all the preparation leading up to the race, but now they set the table for everything ahead. The result of that six minute race is just as much a part of you now as the legs that pushed you through. It's what you have to take with you, to think, to reflect on, to build from.

And my point is, opportunities come and they go quickly. A window for execution is often so small that before you know it, it's gone. You're left holding onto a result that better be favorable because it encompasses everything that remains. The ones who can capture, who can truly make the most of those brief moments are the ones who will rise to the top. The ones that can see that six minutes of suffering is a small price to pay for a lifetime of pride. So when you find yourself mid-race in the heat of the moment, you can take it second by second, you can focus on the now, on evading the pain to get to your result,

or you can think about it a little differently. You can think about every day from now moving forward, because long after the discomfort has subsided, and it's just you, you and your thoughts, you will remember how you walked away. What will those six minutes have left you with? How will you have turned your opportunity into something that will change your life?

Next time, you are at the starting line, whether it be in sports, whether it be with family, whether it be at work, know that you will face those six-minute stretches, those moments where you know that the time ahead of you will suck. But just like a race, it will come and it will go. It's your performance, the result that's going to mean everything.

So come prepared to treat those six minutes like they are life and death. Fight like hell. Because the pain will subside, the victory will not. Today, we're going to talk about keeping your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground. Simultaneously managing the big picture and the small stuff. Non-stop belief that things will work, that there's an answer, that you're ultimately going to get there, and that you won't quit until you do, while also being brutally honest with the facts on the floor, the reality around you. A lot of times I think there's a tendency to conflate positivity with a detachment from

reality. But they're very different things. You need them both for success to unfold. You need the big picture and you need the minutia, the steps, the little things that add up over time. In the book, Good to great Jim Collins calls this the Stockdale principle. Or Admiral Stockdale, I think at the time Commander Stockdale was shot down during Vietnam. He was prisoner of war for over seven years in Vietnam, and it was just obviously a brutal experience. And, you know, one of the things that helped him survive

was being painfully pragmatic. while also knowing in his soul, right, with every ounce of his being that he would ultimately get out, that the men he cared about and helped so much would ultimately get out. And so when Jim Collins is interviewing him, you know, he says, Adamal Stockdale, what differentiated the ones that made it and the ones that didn't? And the answer is incredibly surprising. He says optimism. because the people that were overly optimistic said,

we'll get out by Christmas. And Christmas comes, and they don't get out. And then they say, okay, we'll find we'll be out. We'll see our families by Easter. And Easter comes, and they're still there. Okay, maybe next Christmas. Next Christmas comes, nothing changes. He says, those are the people that died of a broken heart.

There was too big of a gap between the reality, the components needed to progress the way they wanted to. to progress in the way they were thinking. You know, you have to be willing to look in the mirror and diagnose a situation. You know, that's applicable to business. It's applicable to your personal life. Dream big, step small. Believe, but act.

Be cognizant of the world around you, the reality that you're living in. You can't change something that you don't understand. intrinsically. You can't progress if you haven't analyzed something. And this is not about your capabilities. This is never a call to doubt yourself. It's to be strategic. This is just saying that you need to understand the realities so that you can improve upon them. If you want to be the next Michael Jordan, that's a huge ask. That's a lot. It's possible. You can do it. And you need to believe with every ounce of you that if that's what you want to do,

it's a pursuit, you know, worth taking. But you also need to know what it means to be Michael Jordan. You got to understand the commitment. How he sacrificed relationships. He sacrificed, you know, his friends, his love life. He got up every single moment. morning, all he did was basketball, how he took thousands of shots a day, how his mentality and his aggressive behavior, right, his mindset, the way he looked at life and approached life on and

off the court, it required that he was so intense and so obsessed with winning that some people couldn't handle it. It meant that everything stopped except being the best. That's a big ask. A lot of people can't do that, don't want to do that, but that's what it takes. And to think you're going to be Michael Jordan without understanding, one, the commitment that's required and how you stack up, it's going to be in vain. I remember the CEO of the company that I worked for at out of college, he used to say, look, you have to be able to be honest and say when your baby's ugly. Look at what you have

and be able to draw a line from where you want to be. So you can fix it. So that's the point. If you can juggle those two things, you'll be unstoppable. Unstoppable. If you can be the one to trust yourself enough

to know that there is a big picture, you will pursue it relentlessly and you will get there. If you can tell, take that and you can marry it to the little things, right, to the awareness, to promising yourself that you will continue to analyze, assess, and do what needs to happen on the ground, that you will be realistic, you will be pragmatic. When things fail, you won't sugarcoat it.

You'll dive in. You'll look at why it failed. So that you can pick up those pieces and build something stronger and continue to build and continue to build, stack, and stand on what you've made. Those are the people that change the world. Those are the people that get things done, that get results. Dream big, step small. See you don't have to know everything.

In fact, you don't even need to know most things. But you do have to know that progress often calls. for us to move forward without knowing. It asks that we're willing to learn along the way, to pick up the pieces as we walk by them. That's a vulnerability that is sometimes tough to face. It's a nakedness that we never really shake. The idea that in order to grow, we have to leave the now, ill-prepared for tomorrow, but knowing that we have everything we need to make the transition.

The losses become lessons, the failures become data points, the mistakes become our clarity. And until we understand this, there really isn't an upward trajectory. We place too much value on the known, the things we understand, the cyclical nature of a day-to-day that is as much as life can be predictable and determined. Characteristics that are actually antithetical to growth. In fact, one could make an argument that in this incredible day and age of information, our need and ability to know often comes at the expense of true transformation.

I studied podcasts for so long before I started one that I could have created and improved upon my own, I don't know, 400 times over. I had to find out who uses what, when to upload, how long the episode should be, and on and on. There are books and videos, there are classes and coaches. All of it wonderful, I'm sure, in its own way. but nothing so powerful as that university of experience of life, the idea of the thinker and the doer. The thinker that absorbs and contemplates weighs one option versus another and another exhausting time sufficient for the doer to fall on her face twice,

pick up the pieces, make necessary changes, and beyond her way. See, the information is out there. It exists and can be incredibly valuable, but simultaneously can contribute to us thinking our way into stagnation. A thing can only be what you make it. Things provide the value you decide to extract from them. I like using the example of water because it's simple.

Water is necessary to sustain life. Without it, one cannot go on. Too much of it, however, can sink a ship or flood a building. Too much is disastrous. And you can pretty much fill in the blank with anything else here to demonstrate that point. Life is a balance between not enough and too much. Scarcity and excess. In my opinion is that now, with regard to information and technology, we exist on the too much side of the spectrum.

I mean, I can't even remember the last time I was having a conversation about something I wasn't sure about without interrupting it to pull out my phone and Google the answer. Again, this has its positives. Knowledge is power, but to what extent? And I'm talking big picture here. This is about so much more than, you know, picking up a phone to Google information. This is about never feeling like we're equipped enough to step into something new. Because we can always be obtaining more. And it's like, where do you draw that line? I now, because of the accessibility of information, find myself frequently staring like a deer in headlights.

because some minor detail hasn't been made clear to me. Because everything is not perfectly ironed out, my brain has become conditioned to know. Because knowing is now incredibly easy. But life is about generating a meaningful existence. Meaning is carved from unknowns. It's not Googled or found on Wikipedia. A podcast or a YouTube video can't give you means.

meaning. They might help you prepare or point you in the right direction, but meaning is about self-discovery. It's about, yeah, taking those things you learn, but giving them life. It's pulled out of the world around you like diamonds from the earth. Necessarily calling for going when you don't know exactly what the destination looks like, starting when you don't know what the end result will be. We are consuming at the expense of living, absorbing at the expense of feeling, right? There's the idea that a business book is not the same thing as creating a business.

Being on social media is not the same thing as being social. It's an aspect of those things served up without the risk or the upside. That is not real life. One of my favorite movies, Goodwill Hunting, Robin Williams' character, a therapist, is talking to Matt Damon's character. He plays this brilliant young man who has, you know, a photographic memory, he's read every book in the library, he's a genius. But even with all that, he doesn't quite have the courage to move out of his little world into something bigger, into the opportunity that's available for him. If only he'd find the strength to seek it out.

And here's a segment of Robin Williams trying to explain that to Matt Damon. He says, so if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me this skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about life's work, political aspirations, him and the Pope, sexual orientation, whole works, right? But I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling, seen that. If I asked you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus on your personal favorites. You may have you been late a few times, but you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid.

I ask you about war, and you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? Once into the breach, dear friends. But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him go. gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I look at you, I don't see an intelligent, confident man, I see a cocky, scared kid. And the quote goes on, but the idea is a powerful one. And one of the reasons I've rewatched that scene over and over, it's not that he's trying

to belittle the character. He's trying to help him explore the depths of his own personality, his not. needs and desires, trying to arm him with the understanding that he's strong enough to move beyond the walls he's built around himself, that all that knowledge he's obtained and acquired is meaningless unless he gives it life. Knowing isn't enough. And I want to qualify this again because it's important you meet me where I am. I'm not making a case for ignorance or books, knowledge, understanding, that's critical, but it's the other piece that makes life worth living. You don't get the reward without the risk, and the risk requires that one moves into the haze

without clear understanding of an outcome. It's moving into life without total certainty. And we are hardwired for that certainty. We're built to want to know. And now on top of that, we have the tools to take in infinite knowledge. I want this to be a reminder that we have to circumnavigate that idea to some extent. We have to trust ourselves to figure things out as we go. That waiting until we have everything figured out simply leaves the door crack for regret to sneak in and make itself comfortable. There's an entire world out there waiting for you not to have a all figured out but to instead stumble upon the realization that you don't have to know. To move forward, you have to simply trust. That's when the world will transform before your eyes.

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less shedding, improved joint function, all due to the live nutrients that you've added to their diet. And at 90 days, better digestion, reduced inflammation, improved heart health, and you may even have reduced their cancer. risk. Fetch your dog a free jumpstart trial bag today. Go to roughgreens.com. Use promo code 90 day. That's r uffffgreens.com. Use promo code 90 day. You just cover the shipping. You don't have to change your dog's food to improve your dog's health. Just add a scoop of rough greens. What if I told you that you already know what must be done?

You just need to put yourself in position to do it. You need to, unlearn the rules that crippled you, the ideas that confined you. We are in constant pursuit of the thing that will magically write all our wrongs, the answer that will give us something we've never had. Know everything you need you have now. You just need to allow it to flourish. Declutter, simplify, remove all that unnecessary stuff and walk your path. Einstein once said everyone is a genius.

But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. And what's great about this is the idea that who we are is not found. It's acknowledged. It's accepted. And I think in our world there are so many fish, as Einstein says, trying to climb trees that it creates a sense of learned helplessness. We are judging ourselves using the wrong metrics, equipped with the skills, the characteristics, and the abilities to win in our own arenas, but playing in someone else's.

How loyal are you to your own instincts? Do you do what you know is right? Or what you feel obligated to pursue? When was the last time you listened to you? In Tim Grover's Relentless, he introduces a brilliant metaphor. He says, A lion doesn't have to be taught to be a lion.

It just is. It hunts, runs, roams, explores, lives life the only way it knows how. Now if you capture a lion, bring it to the zoo or put it in a cage, it will carry itself differently. lie down, move around lazily, sluggishly navigate its little space. To passers by, they'd never know what that lion really is. They'd never know what it looks like in its element. But despite all this, it is still in fact a lion. It maintains that killer instinct. His characteristics sticks haven't disappeared, and if it were released from the cage, it would go right back to doing what lions do,

being what lions are meant to be. It just has to ditch the cage. And the point is, perhaps, so do you. There's a little light in your soul that waits day and night to explode into something meaningful. where your nature meets your environment. Where the, I shouldn't do this, the odds are impossible, the I'm not good enough, I can't lose what I have now, where all that fades away, where it's left behind you. And you're finally free to reign over your own territory, your own life, your own empire.

See, we constantly feel like our glasses are empty, like we're missing pieces in need of something. Just one more thing. That will be our answer. That's all we need. And I can say with confidence, it's not about what you need. It's about what you no longer need.

It's about mitigating the noise so what matters can shine through. Removing those people in your life that drag you down or add no value. It's about getting rid of the things that make your world unnecessarily complex. Removing the need for immediate validation, success, and accolades. And instead embracing the little hinges in your life that, as W. Clement Stone said, will ultimately swing the biggest doors. We all have the lock, the key, and the map right there. Amidst the trivialities of our day-to-day.

And we walk right by them, look right at them, we pick them up and put them down. But have we learned to truly see them? Everything starts with that awareness. My life did not change until I recognized that. Until I began asking myself questions I'd never asked before. Big picture questions. Obvious questions. But just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's always intuitive.

right what do I want out of life what is important to me what's something I love doing that I can dedicate myself to that I can commit to being great at long term that I'm so immersed in that when the inevitable down times arrive the losses when the doubt and insecurity creeps in I can keep moving forward because I'm so in love with the process that I don't let the little things like that define me As Jordan Peterson famously puts it, choose your sacrifice. The life of meaning isn't easy, but there's nothing more fulfilling. Because when you embark upon that journey, it allows for the evolution of the self.

We can become something more. As Nietzsche says, those who have a why to live can bear almost any how. We equip ourselves for anything the universe can throw at us. We position ourselves to evolve. Victor Frankel says man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain, but rather to see meaning in his life. To align yourself with and pursue that which is your reason for living, that's how we transcend the day-to-day life we've come to know.

When we breathe in possibility, dance with it, the infinite and of course something of this magnitude. It consists of ups and downs. It's not the easy road, but it's the one worth taking. Our metaphorical lion doesn't succeed every time he's prowling for food, but he doesn't roll over and die. He doesn't recede or quit being a lion. He gets up tomorrow and does it again because it's who the lion is.

it's who the lion is. And while life doesn't unfold until you find that same thing for yourself. And people say, well, I don't know. That's the problem. I have no idea. That's not the problem. That's the essence of life.

That's the beauty. You're here to explore and find that for yourself. But the power is knowing you're not looking for something or someone to save you. You're looking for an environment in which you can best be you. You're looking for the right terrain to share your gift with the world.

If you have what you need, then you're not looking for the product. You're looking for the delivery mechanism, the vehicle to nurture and transport your value to a world that desperately needs it. You're looking to build yourself up and in the process amaze yourself. Look, what you're capable of is beyond comprehension.

It's limitless, almost unfathomable. But it is, as Ryan Holiday says, a confidence that must be earned. So start now. Earn it. Let yourself succeed. Your intuition knows what feels right and what doesn't. But the seed must first be planted. So make today about setting yourself up for success.

It's turning off the idea that you're one piece away from completion, one minute away from starting, that you're almost ready. No, you are ready now. You have what you need now. You know what's necessary now. You just have to be your own ally. Put yourself in position to be yourself. Let your value shine, double down on what matters to you. Look, it's not a game of acquisition, it's a game of courage.

Do you have the courage to be who you are? To follow that potential, that possibility into the great unknown. In his play, measure for measure, Shakespeare wrote in 1603, a line that I think adequately sums up the reason so many of us fall short of what we are capable of becoming. He wrote, our doubts, our traitors, and make us. lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. Our greatest tragedies and regrets in life tend not to be our mistakes. They're not when we try and we falter. Now, the vast majority of the time they arise when we do not even attempt

because fear is prevented that very first step. It's when we have that perpetual light shined on all that can go wrong while the upside and the opportunity sits in the dark, just out of frame. And in a world where you get what you focus on, to only focus on the worst possible outcome, it's a death sentence. It's debilitating. The way I see it, there are a million ways to improve something. There are infinite roads and paths and possibilities. None are certain, but what is?

Here's the interesting thing though. The only certainty, the only thing that is for sure is that if you don't go, you will not arrive. One will never finish what they do not start. Listen to this quote from Thoreau. It's from his book Walden, which he wrote. After about two years and two months of living in the woods by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He wrote, I learned this, at least, by my experiment, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dream

and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary. New universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him. Or the old laws be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense. In other words, the world does not dictate. it reacts. It becomes what we decide it will be.

And I was thinking about this recently. Have you ever thought about the utility of water? Just water. And how it is obviously essential for life. Specifically, humans can't live longer than about three days without it. Yet, we can also very easily drown in too much of it. The same thing that's required for life can easily take life away. It all depends on how it's being utilized.

And so when I think about this, my mind goes to Shakespeare's message on our doubts, making us traitors if we let them. Or the rose passage about moving with conviction towards the things that matter, towards our dreams. And what I see is an intentional restructuring of the world around us. The idea that life can work for us or work against us. It can be our headwind or our tailwind. The reason we stay or the reason we leave. And who decides that? You.

You decide that. I often think back to my first creative project. Once I took the entrepreneurial route years and years back. I referred to the project as quiet, desperate. in reference to actually another thorough quote, most men lead lives of quiet desperation, because I realized around that time how easily that could become reality

and decided to do something about it. For me, it was a huge step out of the routine and the cycle. I finally, finally ask myself who I was living for. Where did I lose myself? Or had I simply never bothered to find myself. And I don't know the answer to that, but I know at the time, if you ask me, you know, Eddie, what are you truly excited about?

Probably be a lot easier for me to tell you about the things I didn't like. I was afraid of, that I was unhappy with. That's what I saw. That's what I focused on. And that's the point. Until then, I was immersed in Thoreau's dreaded common-hour thinking. And so used to it that I thought nothing of it. there was no next step or other side.

And then I arrived at that moment. That moment I hope we all get to at some point. Realizing there's very little to lose and everything to gain. And it drives me crazy how hard we have to fight for this understanding. How much easier life would be if it was intuitive, but it's not. It's a journey, a muscle that must be built. and so we must build. We have to prove to ourselves that what's big and intimidating can be broken down.

That what we visualize can materialize. That will always be true. But we need to make ourselves believe it. Identity is scripted. Confidence is earned. Not once but every day. And we must understand. The pain associated with staying far exceeds.

The pain associated with moving towards our dreams. The former is destructive and the latter is what we need. They are not the same. So being as we choose what we see, how about a commitment? Not a commitment to be perfect. Not a commitment to have all the answers or avoid mistakes. No, how about a commitment to allow ourselves the courage to be imperfect? A commitment to go when we don't have the answers.

A commitment to see mistakes as a necessity instead of a catastrophe in this world of subjectivity. Make sure that movie, playing in your head, illuminates the opportunity, not the loss, so that when you fall, the inclination isn't to run from the bad, but to look for the good, because I promise you you will get what you look for. That perspective will alter your actions, which will alter how you see yourself, which will alter the trajectory of your life.

Let's leave that mediocrity, that common hour thinking behind as we head for higher ground. Commonality, being average, it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. It seems simpler. Sure, it seems easier. But the ones immersed in that world, they're depriving themselves of the answers they desperately need. They're refusing the hand that is perpetually reaching out.

When we turn our backs on the extraordinary, it is because fear has gripped the wheel, and we are now passengers along for the ride. But you have the ability to be more. You have the ability to move towards what matters to you. To take the steps one at a time, bear the discomfort one second at a time, acclimate one day at a time.

This is a journey dependent entirely on you and your willingness to step out the front door. To finally see the things you previously disregard And when your eyes open, you'll see that you can be your ally or your enemy. This can be the beginning of a new chapter or the continuation of a current one. This is your story. And by the way, that doesn't mean others wouldn't love to make it theirs. Wouldn't love to tell you that life is beyond your control.

Wouldn't love for you to think that you are dependent on the outside world, that you need them and what they are willing to provide for you. But no, this is about you. Understanding that the first step starts with you, your decision, that your autonomy is a strength and a chance to begin again. Change the way you think and what you get changes. It's not magic, but practical evolution. When we force ourselves to see the positive, when we look for a way, we find it.

That's reality changing because you decided that it should. And that's what the power of perception is. Nothing more than unlocking the gate that was previously placed before you. There's no better time than this very moment to walk through it and rewrite your story as it should be written.