Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 30 Minutes To Start Your Day Right | MORNING MOTIVATION | Motivational Speeches Compilation

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

"Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life" - Mark Twain

We all enjoy the prospect of perfection. Everyone has an ideal outcome. We all make plans. But very rarely do they unfold as they were drawn up. Why? Well, because life is predictably unpredictable. It's mysterious. Yet for some reason, we march on

toward the acquisition of a flawless, existence. Scared of anything but an undamaged, untarnished, immaculate reflection staring back at us in the mirror. But in the real world, you know, our happiness, contentment, growth, progress that are not a product of perfection. They're built from the imperfections that we collect along the way. The trials, the tribulations. You know, when you piece all that together, like little puzzle pieces, they depict beauty. They show the image that's always been so highly coveted. In other words, the process of rebuilding creates something more valuable than the same pieces before they were broken down, when they were untouched.

In Japanese philosophy, there's a concept known as Kinsugi, which is the art of repairing broken pottery with a golden lacquer. It's the idea that we don't want to hide the damage, but we want to rebuild it into something more meaningful, more valuable. Embrace the imperfect, own and cherish it. There's an old story about a tea master known as Rikyu, And he was attending a Japanese tea ceremony with one of his followers. And the follower tries to impress Rakeu by buying this fancy clay jar and making it visible during the meeting.

But Rikyu never, you know, once acknowledges it. The praise never comes. So the student, you know, obviously upset by the lack of recognition, he pushes the jar off the counter. It falls to the floor. It breaks into a bunch of pieces. And another student ultimately repairs it. using Kinsugi. He puts the pieces back together

with a gold lacquer. And next time, Rickue attends the tea ceremony as a guest of honor, he sees the jar, rebuilt, and says, now it's beautiful. Now it has character. He acknowledges its value.

And this story reminds us about the myth of perfection. Life's not about dodging and avoiding the difficulty. It's about facing it head on. Because when we come out on the other side, we transform into something that was previously unobtainable and rise to a world beyond imagination. See, we change not by running around life's obstacles, but by running directly through them. Like a muscle being repeatedly broken down and built back up, the pain, the exhausted energy

is the vehicle. The micro creates the macro, the difficult becomes the exceptional. We need the very things we're inclined to avoid. Our shortcomings, they not only precede and establish our greatness, they are our greatness. Being broken is not a tragedy. It is a step along the way. It's the beginning of something new, a launching pad, a chance to be better than you have ever been. Because look, here's the reality.

If your status quo has never been shaken at its foundation, if you've never stopped and questioned the way things are, reality as it is, if you don't take risks, there will be no fragments to take and rebuild. You won't have the tools or capacity to change the world around you. And that is the thing of note. Beauty is not fearing the rebuild. It is the rebuild. It's not feeling sorry or hopeless but hopeful, seeing your situation for what it is an opportunity.

It is what you need, a blank canvas, your chance to make art while redrawing creative boundaries. If perfect is the goal, why take the step? Why take the chance? Why risk messing things up? It's never been about perfect. It's about picking up the pieces and rising again. Don't you dare reach for your pocket, I told myself. In fact, take that phone and go put it in another room.

Shut your internet off, set your devices to do not disturb and think. Please think. You are losing yourself to distraction. Cal Newport puts it, you know, we're in a world that demands more thought, more deep work than ever before, while we all simultaneously become more and more incapable of that focus. And to me, it feels like more than a chuckle at our outrageous screen time or a self-deprecating joke about how reliant we are on our phones, the dopamine hit. you know, I think it's antithetical overall to what we need, to where we find our purpose,

which is a dichotomy that's frustratingly true with so many things. Like that balance for me to have a digital business that means so much to me that I'm so proud of, but also tiptoeing around that same digital world like it's a hungry lion capable of devouring me. That's a real feeling. It's water that's foundational for life, but in too large a quantity will kill. It's the sun that, while integral and responsible for this planet as we know it, also has no problem ending, you know, anything that's too openly exposed to its rays, to its heat. There's always a sweet spot between too much and not enough.

right that happy medium that intersection is why we're all here because when i don't take time to deeply think when i lose the big picture i remain in a cycle of routine and sometimes that's great right morning routine is great i don't really have to think about it i'm programmed things like driving a car as do he explains in the power of habit your foot stepping on the gas it's involuntary and thank god for that But one must be able to step outside that loop and ask the big picture questions. We have to make time to at least roughly chart the course. And it'll change. Life will present its obstacles,

but we'll have at least parsed out what matters and what doesn't. When life is all habit and reflex, when you've lost the ability to examine the same, because one minute alone with your thoughts is agonizing, well, you won't be able to see past the surface of who you are and what you're capable of. I want to be clear here, this is not me complaining about perhaps the most prosperous society ever to exist.

This is me saying, you know, there are some dangers that we way too easily overlook. That when you outsource your thinking, you outsource your thoughts. outsource your future. And it's not hard to fall into that trap. I just referenced the book Deep Work a few minutes ago. I think it's one of the most important books someone can read in this day and age.

You know, Cal Newport talking about separating ourselves from distraction. I remember the day I first listened to that book, I was sick, so I wasn't on my usual run. I was walking and because of that, I felt this urge to, as the book, was playing to reach into my pocket and check for notifications. And it really was eye-opening. It's like, we are scared to completely immerse ourselves in solitude. But solitude is where we uncover so much. Silence is where we hear what our souls have to say.

It's where we understand who we are. My favorite Joseph Campbell quote, The cave you fear holds the treasure you see. And man, I hate to say it, but I think being alone, even for a short period of time, is that monster lurking in the cave. You know, the one we're scared to confront, even though it's what we need. Solitude is the demon we are consistently masking in a constant influx of media and small talk and DMs and emails. You know, that stuff has its value, but it's not real. in the sense that I find it disconnected from purpose.

So here's something that I've been doing, and I would suggest that you give it a try. It's been certainly helpful in my life, and start small, even if it's 15 minutes, but take a walk by yourself. No phone, and it's challenging at first because you want to be consuming something, even if it's educational, valuable.

Still, right? No phone. Solitude. Think about life. Think about who you are. Think about what you've always wanted and where your current reality aligns. Think about how much you have and how lucky you are. Think about any or all of these things, but think. Let your mind go where amidst the push and pull of life, you don't often let it wander. For example, some thoughts. from my walk today, some of it random sporadic noise, some of it more valuable than others, but all of it valuable because the process in its entirety is valuable. You know, I spend some time thinking about the week ahead, the things I'm excited about and how to prepare for them, and realize one of them I didn't want to do. I then had that debate with myself,

well, do I not want to do it because it doesn't align with my goals or because it makes me uncomfortable? came to the conclusion that I think it's the latter, so it's staying in my schedule, but I'll reassess. I thought about Florida. I consistently think about how lucky I am to be down here after living in so many cold places. It's just such a beautiful environment, and you know one that I don't take for granted. I thought about a statement I just heard from a professional athlete. After his surgery, talking about how hard it was on him, but that he would rise from the ashes and he would have the best year of his life and you know my mind went to one of the most

important rules of leadership that it's not about you or your rise or fall right to lead is to make it about the team about the overall goal and how grateful I was to come across that video to see that and really dissect it you know sometimes the best ways we learn um is by seeing what not to do right And I'll take that with me. I'll take that understanding with me on my own journey. Last thing I remember, I thought about some of the books I've been consuming. I've taken in an insane amount of books over the years. But I practically stopped reading physical books, right?

And now I consume mostly on Audible or other audiobook methods made me wonder whether the value is equivalent. How much that varies from person to person, maybe something to research later, right? That's all I remember as I sit here now, but the point is, you know, this is stuff that if I don't immerse myself in solitude and break through the barrier of boredom, I don't get to. You know, and maybe you go through a week where you don't find much. But as the saying goes, right, one idea, one concept, one epiphany can truly change the dynamic of your life. It could change everything.

right there are answers just beyond the realm of distraction we operate in some of them pertain to trivialities like the audiobooks in the cold front some of them pertain to your goals and your development who you are where you're going and how you'll get there as newport says to simply wait and be bored has become a novel experience in modern life and while his emphasis and focus is primarily on work in creating an environment to be productive, I want to suggest that it's not only our work that needs saving, but ourselves. We can't lose touch with what matters most. We can't become so shallow in our thoughts and our actions that the beauty remains buried away. There is something in you that's untapped, unfinished, raw

talent or desire. There are pieces of you that need to be assembled. And if you, if you, you, left alone will wither away, unremarkably, quietly, and probably without your noticing. So my ask is that you think of this as more than me cheering on long walks. It's not about the walks, right? It's about time alone with yourself and what that opens up for you. It's about recognizing the spaces we need to carve out from the outside world. So that when we re-enter the outside world, we know who we are. We understand where we're headed. We don't go where the wind blows.

We are able, as the saying goes, to adjust our sails to get to our destination. All you need is more time with you. I'm going to make everything around me beautiful. That will be my life. Elsie DeWold. Changing for the better is not about the creation of miracles. It's about choosing to see the ones that already exist. Life is hard, but coincidentally, hard things tend to be the gatekeepers to the important one.

We are let in when we bring ourselves finally to shake hands with and embrace the very things we once saw as the problem. Whereas Ryan Holiday has famously put it, the obstacle tends to be the way. How funny, how counterintuitive, how upside down life can see. But I think that's it. Sometimes it's not even that we're looking at the wrong things. So we're looking at the right things the wrong way. Avoiding the call to step further into the world and deeper into ourselves. Terrified of scraping our knees on the climb, we burden ourselves.

With the much more painful choice of staying at the bottom of the mountain and looking up. But the scars we've collected and will continue to collect on the way up, they do not make you less than. No, they are what make you beautiful. You see yourself and those scars is imperfect. I see someone who has lived, who has taken risks, fallen, and bounced back. I see character and wisdom and elegance and boldness. In an imperfect world, those quote-unquote flaws and scars may, funny enough, just be the closest thing to perfection we'll ever experience.

It's from our courage to step out, our willingness to crack that we flourish. Living necessarily includes a deterioration over time. But a deterioration of the external, because the internal, the soul, it stays young. It's underneath that forever crumbling world around us that we find the divine. It is because of our scars, not despite them, that we grow our wings. They aren't to be feared but coveted. You are more because of the mistakes you made. challenges you face, the adjustments you had to see through. And I believe our value increases

with each tear and break, resembling the Japanese art of Kinsugi, where a pot that breaks and is put back together with golden lacquer holds more value than the original unblanker. Lemished peace. See, Wolf says, I'm going to make everything around me beautiful. And I think this simply calls for an optical adjustment. A shift in relations between things and how you perceive those things. Me, I don't want the whitest, cleanest, newest shoes. As far as I'm concerned, there's very little beauty to preserve there.

I want shoes with worn souls from the miles and miles they carried me. Holes from the distance I had to walk to find the people who add joy to my life. Cracks from running in the rain while the rest of the world stayed inside. I want my imperfections to show that I lived while. while I was here. So from now on, let's stop conflating perfect and beautiful. Perfect is no skin in the game. Perfect is standing forever in the doorway looking out.

Perfect is dreaming and wishing and hoping, but never leaving. Because leaving is where our vision brushes up against a reality we may see. as too big. No, we want not perfect but beautiful. We want scars and flaws and lessons and loss. Because from those things as difficult as they may be, we're born again. Imperfection is life, and life is beautiful.

So here's to more scuffed shoes and scrape knees. knees to walking an imperfect yet beautiful road. The little E on the car dashboard reminds me that I'm pointed east. As I sit at the red light perpendicular to ocean abs staring out at the water, this is it. This is as far as I can go. There are no more streets or towns or cities. There can't be any more stops along the way, just miles and miles of ocean. It's interesting for me to think about all the changes I've made up to now, growing up outside of Los Angeles on the opposite coast, relocating again and again, sometimes very targeted methodical moves,

sometimes just for the sake of change, but always moving, always going. There's a saying that wherever you go, you take yourself with you. You can change this scenario, circumstances, the surroundings, but ultimately you can never outrun yourself. You are accompanying you on whatever journey awaits. And it's often not until you run out of real estate until there's no more road or options that you're forced to look in the mirror and acknowledge that it is you who must change. It's you who must evolve and become that person that you need you to become. And that can be a scary thing. After all, anyone can get in a car and head east.

Anyone can point the compass away from the chaos of now. Move away from their demons. But how many of us can find this strength to look those demons in the eye? How many of us can make ourselves bigger than what attempts to weigh us down? All of us can, but how many of us do?

Are we running to something or from something. Because there is a difference, and that difference is not small. One of my favorite speakers, Jim Rohn, when referencing our journeys through life, our push to make more of ourselves, he essentially said, it's not what you get at the other end.

It's who you become along the way. And I think, like everyone, I've forgotten that from time to time over the years, It's forgotten that value is not simply ingoing, but in becoming, in the courageous little steps that accumulate over time. Forgotten that the external world might inspire or excite, that change might invigorate the soul, that the road untravelled might remind me of life's beauty, but these externalities are only as valuable as you allow them to be.

There are only opportunities if you decide them to be so. Change inspires. But will you let it inspire you to do that thing you know you need to do, but are terrified of doing? In that road, it might remind you of life's beauty. But will you let that reminder be your invitation to share your own beauty with the world? Whatever that means for you. Can you be that vulnerable?

Can you take that leap in the story of your becoming? See, it is incredibly easy to look out at the world and pinpoint its flawed. All those little problems and imperfections, they tend to jump out at us. But can you identify what you, yourself, need? Can you be courageous enough to ask those questions of, yourself what matters to me what does a meaningful life look like to me where am I falling short that is a conversation that needs to be had and it needs to be had often otherwise we will drive and drive and drive until we hit water in

are forced to ask that question because it's interesting that when we don't pause and make the changes that need to be made life has a way of ensuring that we do. But when it's mandated by life, it tends to be a lot messier, a lot more chaotic. At least than when we make the decision ourselves, but either way, we cannot run forever. Either way, we must step into a new pair of shoes and learn to walk confidently with them into the night. There are plenty of little mantras floating around out there, little pieces of advice and perhaps it's best for us to weigh them each individually. See what meets our needs and fits our criteria. After all life is not one size fits all. But one of my favorite among these

is to do one single thing that scares you every day. And I'll tell you why. Because when we become conditioned to turning our backs on all the uncomfortable things in life, we cripple our prospects of a better tomorrow. It's synonymous with the seed refusing water, saying no to the very thing it needs most. And what should be noted here, one of the reasons it's so dangerous is that saying no is incredibly subtle. It's not some big event or explosion. There's no fireworks show that occurs every time you walk away from what you need. No, it goes unnoticed. And again, one of the greatest challenges is quantifying that which we don't do. How do you measure that thing you walked away from? Well, unfortunately, you can't. You can't at least until you're staring out at the Atlantic

with nowhere to run, no more escaping on the agenda. You don't know until you're forced to pick the pieces up and make something of them. And I say this so that, Hopefully it can ignite that spark in your soul that you need most. Whether you previously recognized it or not. I say this to remind you how much bigger you are than your problems, how you have the ability to transform all that exists around you when you transform yourself. There's a certain inevitability associated with how we see ourselves. And I believe this to be true at both the purpose.

personal and the societal levels, anyone can look in the mirror and see the past, where they've gone wrong, how inadequate and ill-prepared they are. But the courage to look in the mirror and see strength. To both identify and understand one's shortcomings, but know that you have the power to do something about it. To know that the times you fell or didn't make the cut, they don't indicate that the endeavor was all for not or unequivocally wrong. No, there is so much good tied into your pursuit. So much beauty and courage ingrained in your soul. But imagine, imagine a life where you no longer run from the gaps but close them. Imagine finding it in yourself to begin that hero's journey. And where you used to

to run to protect yourself, now you take the offensive to grow yourself. Where you used to avoid the possibility of failure, now you chase the possibility of victory. You can have that if you want to. You can be that if you choose to. And sure, you may never be able to outrun yourself, but you can always adapt yourself. to be that person you always needed you to be. Sometimes we just need the reminder that we are strong enough. We do have what it takes.

And that the thing that hurts us most in the short term not only saves us pain in the long term, but it becomes what we live for. It is where we find our meaning. And so perhaps this ocean, before me is not there to remind me of my constraints, that I have no road left, but a reminder of just how often we measure using the wrong metrics.

Perhaps I needed to see again that it's not where I end up, but who I become along the way. That when the internal self steps into the shoes it's been too intimidated to wear, that when the world with this, then becomes the beacon you need it to be. The roads and the stops along the way, they matter a little bit less than the eyes that process it all,

that decide what it means, how it will be utilized in the game of life. And so, yes, the little E on the car dashboard, it says that I'm pointed east. But as I sit at this red light, perpendicular to ocean abs staring out at the water. I know this is only the beginning.