Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 4 Hours for the NEXT 40 Years of Your LIFE | 2026 Best Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

This episode is brought to you by Cowboy Colostrum.Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code Eddie at https://cowboycolostrum.com/eddie.🧠 Join the free community: https://www.agns.lifestyle/pages/raise-your-standard📖 Get my Free Ebook While the World Sleeps https://eddiepinero.com/ebook🧢 AGNS Code "YWW20" for 20% off http://www.agns.lifestyleThe path ahead is yours to build...one step at a time.Your future is a reflection of the choices you make today.The next 40 years begin with the vision you have for yourself right now.Change your focus, change your future.One day, today will be forty years ago. Make it count.The next 40 years are shaped by what you choose today.📱 Follow Along:Support the Podcast on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/your_world_within/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@your_world_within📝 Comment below with what's been holding you back as of late. Would love to help you 🙏🙏🙏#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

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Don't miss Buick's employee pricing for you event. Visit buick.com for more details. Life doesn't ask permission before it changes. It doesn't knock lightly on your door before it rearranges everything you thought you knew. No, life barges in. It bends the road you're on. It shifts the ground beneath your feet. And it looks at you without an apology as it asks,

what are you going to do about it? And here's the truth. The people who win in this world, they're not the ones with the biggest muscles. They're not the ones with the most money in the bank or the most degrees on the wall. They're the ones who can take what life throws at them and adapt. Because life is not predictable. It's certainly not neat. It's not orderly.

And those who cling to what was or get angry when they're not. when life deviates from how it was quote unquote supposed to be, well, they get left behind. But, on the other hand, those who bend and shift and move with the chaos, well, they are the ones who rise. And like so many of us, time teaches. I've learned this the hard one. I used to think if I planned enough and prepared enough,

if I controlled enough, I'd be safe. But life does not reward control. roars flexibility. You know, I look back to jobs that ended, friendships that dissolve, unexpected detours. Every time I thought, you know, this must be the end.

But it never was. It was always some sort of beginning. The moment I let go of what I thought should happen, the moment I stopped demanding life play by my rules, well, that was the moment I started to find freedom. because life obviously does not care about Eddie's rules. It's interesting that, you know, Darwin, who we all know from grade school, right, was he did not coin the term survival of the fittest.

That was Herbert Spencer later. What Darwin really said was it's not the strongest that survive, not even the smartest, it's the one's most adaptable to change. And I think about that. I think about the importance and the weight of the ability to be agile, to evolve with the circumstances in your environment. I mean, think about it. Entire species disappear because they just couldn't adjust.

Entire industries collapsed because they couldn't evolve. And the same is true for us individually. Adaptability is not a luxury. It's not a nice to have. It's survival. It's the growth. of success, of, you know, you could say life itself. And I want to share a story that kind of exemplifies this.

First time I heard it was, I mean, maybe a decade ago on a podcast called Business Wars that I'm not even sure is around anymore, but it stuck with me. And it's the difference between Blockbuster and Netflix and their sort of battle during a very transitory time in the digital space. And so at the height of its power in the early 2000s, Blockbuster was unstoppable, right? I'm 37, almost 38. And if you're, in my age, you remember how awesome it was going to Blockbuster on the weekend.

I mean, that was Peak Living, Pizza and Blockbuster, right? And they had over 9,000 stores, millions of customers walking in. Every weekend to rent those movies, they were the kings of entertainment. But then something happened. A small company called Netflix started mailing DVDs to people's homes. No late fees, no trips to the store, just convenience, right to your door. And the critical part is Netflix, as they went on this venture, kept adapting. They moved from the mail to streaming.

They were looking ahead, ahead, ahead. Well, everyone else was, you know, at best stuck in the present moment, sometimes even looking back, right? They asked, how is the world changing? And then they moved with it. Blockbuster did not. They laughed at the idea, right? In fact, Netflix once offered to sell themselves to Blockbuster for like $50 million, and Blockbuster turned it down.

Today, Netflix is worth billions, obviously, and Blockbuster is no more. And it is, to me, the quintessential story of adaptability. It's the difference between thriving and disappearing. between leading and becoming a memory. The ones who adapt, they don't just survive. They define the future. And, you know, on a personal level, most of us are not running billion-dollar companies.

But we all are navigating a life that doesn't go as planned. As much as we wish that it did, it's just not the way it works out. You know, the relationship that ends, the job that disappears, the health scare that comes out of nowhere, the opportunity that arrives when you least expect it, these are curveballs.

And in those moments, the question isn't, ah, did I have a perfect plan? Never, right? The question is, here's the situation, can I now adjust? That's everything. Can you take what's left and work with it? Can you still find a way forward?

Because if you can, there's nothing you can't handle. Adaptability is a superpower. It means no matter what comes, you're not defined by circumstance, you're defined by response. You're not chained to what you lost. You're empowered by what you can build.

You're not afraid of change. You are fueled by it. When you're adaptable, the world becomes an ally instead of an adversary. Obstacles become teachers. Setbacks become merely points to pivot.

And endings become new beginnings. It's a game. I've had to play many times in the storytelling, podcasting, media space. And it's one I'm playing now, right? How do we evolve with the times, with the changing landscape? And, you know, I'll give a quick example of the first time that happened. And I won't go in too deep here. I don't want to bore anybody.

But essentially, you know, on YouTube, I used to write three-minute speeches. I mean, they were essentially songs. I'd write the background music, there'd be a slow beginning, a middle, and then a crescendo, and that's what I did, and for a while it worked. And then the media landscape sort of changed, and the algorithms changed. Podcasting started blowing up, and people wanted to put headphones on and walk for an hour, run for two hours, you know, listen on their way to work. And it was like, listen, if you don't learn to adapt your style and figure out how to entertain

and captivate an audience over a longer period of time, you're going to lose. And so that was the first time where it was like, all right, as a writer, as a creative, as a speaker, storyteller, you've got to figure it out. And that was scary, right? The safety nets I thought I had disappeared. I wanted to resist and fight the change.

I wanted to scream, this isn't fair. But what good is resistance when the world's already moved on? The road had already bent. The question was, would I bend with it? And once I did, I found opportunities I never would have seen. Doors I never would have knocked on suddenly open, because what happens when you adapt, you stop clinging to the door that closed,

and you start noticing the doors that are open all around you. The world is changing faster than ever. Tech, culture, the economy. What worked yesterday won't work tomorrow, right? That saying, what got you here won't get you there. And the people who thrive in this world, They aren't the ones waiting for things to go back to normal. They're the ones creating a new normal.

They're the ones that can wake up every day and say, I don't need to be perfect. I don't need it to go my way. But whatever comes, I will find a way through. That is the edge. That is the advantage. So I'll sum it up with this. You have infinite upside and opportunity.

There is a world laid out for you beyond comprehension. But we need to adjust the mindset. Don't pray for a smooth road. Don't hope life stays the same because it won't. Instead, build the muscle, build the resilience, build the superpower. The ability to adapt, to bend without breaking, to shift when life shifts. Because if you can do that, you are unstoppable. Maybe not the strongest, the fastest, the smartest,

But the one who can take what life throws and make it fuel. Blockbuster didn't fail because it was small. It failed because it refused to change. Netflix didn't succeed because it was invincible. It succeeded because it was looking forward, because it adapted. That can be your story too. Not that you had an easy road, but you had the courage and the flexibility, the adaptability to rise no matter what.

Remember, life is not about having performance. It's about finding a way, finding a response to whatever shows up, and the greatest response you'll ever give is simple. I will adjust, I will adapt, and I will rise. You're not frustrated because things go wrong. You're frustrated because you thought they wouldn't. And that expectation is where things start to unravel. Because most of the time, nothing necessarily catastrophic happens. Your day doesn't fall apart.

Your life doesn't collapse. Things just don't go the way we pictured. Traffic slows. Someone interrupts you. A conversation shifts. The plan changes, right? Fill in the blank, A, B, C, and D. And suddenly, your state changes with it.

Again, it doesn't even have to be operating in the extremes. The situation isn't wildly chaotic. It's just different than what you expected. That creates a lot of tension in our lives, whether we realize it or not. There's a pretty cool story or anecdote that I feel like exemplifies this idea. A long time ago, Epictetus said something simple. He said, if you're going to the public, public baths. Remind yourself what happens there. People are going to splash. They bump into you.

They're loud. They're careless. So before you go, simply tell yourself, today I will encounter noise, chaos, and inconsiderate people. Then he said, if you do that, you won't be upset when it happens. And that's it. That's the idea. That's the lesson. No complicated philosophy. Just accuracy. The problem isn't the chaos. The problem is walking into the chaos expecting control. See, most people move through life like it's supposed to cooperate with them. And, hey, I am just as guilty of this as everyone else. It's a very easy trap to fall into, right?

We expect things to go smoothly. People to act rationally. That's a big one. Situations to unfold predictably. And when they don't, we really. act. Boom, frustration, stress, anger. But here's the shift. Nothing actually went wrong. Reality just doesn't match the version of it. You've created in your head. You walked into, as Epictetus said, the bath expecting silence. Then you got upset when it was loud, right?

So now zoom out. Because obviously this isn't about Epictetus and his bathhouse. This is about how you move through your entire life. You go into conversations expecting agreement. You go into relationships expecting consistency. You go into your day expecting flow. And when reality does, what reality does, you know, you feel thrown off. The issue is not reality, right? The issue is the gap between reality and what you expect it.

That's where the frustration lives. I had a friend reach out recently and said, you know, He's got a podcast, right? It's relatively new. And he said he was sharing some wins with friends and was just disappointed by their lack of excitement and encouragement. And it's like the perfect example of this, the gap between how you wish reality was and how it is. It's not personal, right? No one's praying for your downfall if, you know, they're healthy in the head.

People just, they're caught up in their own lives, doing their own thing. And it's like when you understand that, it sort of releases that whole line of thinking. It's like a breath of fresh air. Everyone's just doing them. No one cares. Good, bad, or indifferent. I remember linking with someone on the East Coast not too long ago. And this person has a pretty big platform.

And I'll never forget it. Like, it took up a lot of mental real estate in my head. It was a guest on our podcast. And she says, you know, I listened to you every time I went on stage with some of the biggest names in the industry. And you were like my best kept secret. I didn't want anyone to know about you. And I thought, how, like, why would you want to suppress something that you thought was valuable?

Not to mention selfishly, just pragmatically. I'm thinking, man, when you're growing back then, I could have used that love and support or a shout out. And I sat with it. It bothered me. And then I thought, again, what's the reality versus my expectation? The reality is it's not personal. She's not thinking about some dude across the country trying to grow his platform and get his stuff out to as many people as possible.

She's thinking about her and her trajectory, in her life, in her day to day. Like, of course, we all are. And, you know, in a perfect world, do we wish that was different? Maybe. But we don't live in a perfect world. And so it's just an example of like the frustration simply being, living in that delta between how things are and how you wish they were, expected them to be, or hope they'd be. You set the right expectation and, you know, a lot of that pent up anger just dissipates. People are going to do what people do.

Life will throw curveballs because that's what life does. Can't control what happens, but you can't control what happens. control what you expect, and that changes everything. You know, imagine walking into your day already knowing, hey, things are going to go wrong today. People will be unpredictable, and plans will shift. And that's not negative. It's just being proactive.

Now, when something happens, you don't react. You recognize it. Ah, there's life-lifing, right? Of course, the traffic slowed or the meeting shifted, or the person responded that way. adjust. That's the superpower. You're not fighting it, you're moving with it.

It brings peace, not from controlling the world, but not being surprised by it. You learn with time that you don't rise above the chaos by eliminating it. You rise above it by managing it, by expecting it. So the next time something frustrates you, worth that. The crux of this speech or episode, if you will, is that you simply remind yourself of this. You ask yourself that one question, well, what did I expect moving into this?

Because the answer is going to tell you everything. And if you can align your expectations with reality, you don't just reduce frustration, you remove it. You're no longer asking life to be something it's not. You're meeting it as it is. That's where control begins. Not out there, but here. And that changes everything.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is accepting good enough as normal. And normal does not always mean optimal. In fact, a lot of the times, it's the opposite. So I've been trying to challenge that mindset in every area of my life, yes, mentally, but also physically as well. And that's what led me to today's sponsor, Cowboy Colostrum. I originally started taking it for gut health. That's what pulled me in, but noticed some secondary things too.

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And so for you, if you've been settling for feeling less than your best, if you've been tired or bloated or inflamed and just chalking it up as part of life, maybe it's time to question that narrative. Head to cowboy colostrum.com slash eddie. And if you put in code E-D-D-D-I-E at checkout, you get 25% off. Thanks for watching. Back to the episode. I'm about a mile in.

Everything feels good. Almost too good. You know, and I've been here before. This is the lie. This is where you start thinking, oh, wow. You've got this, man. Today is your day. No demon.

here, but I know better. Because the run doesn't start when it feels good. It starts when it doesn't. Like that old Muhammad Ali adage, I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting because

they're the only ones that count. And so about three miles in, light bulb goes off. Ah, there it is. That shift, subtle at first, right, breathing gets a little tighter, legs, a little heavier, and a voice shows up. A familiar voice.

Hey, ease up. Let your foot off the gas. It's not loud or dramatic. It never is. It's just suggestive. Take a little off. You can still finish strong. You'll find some later.

And that's how it happens. Not collapse. Never collapse. It's drift. Right? That version of me, the one that negotiates. The one that says, uh,

maybe it's right. Right. We don't need to push here. We can make it up later. And I've listened to him before. That's the dangerous part. He sounds like me. But then another voice cuts in, quieter, sharper. Nah, Eddie, that's not who you are. Right. And now it's not about the race anymore. It's about identity because nothing around me has changed. Same road, same body, same sky, same landscape. But I feel myself at that metaphorical fork standing there. Do I fold or push?

Five miles in, it gets loud. Everything in me is screaming now, right? Slow down. Just survive this. Just get through. This is where most people think the battle is physical. It's not. It's permission.

Permission to back off. permission to break character, permission to become someone else just for a moment. And I've done that. I've stepped away from who I said I was just for a second. But you see, that's all it takes a second. Because you break once and it gets easier to break again and again and again. But today, I catch it right as it starts. that thought, hey, you don't have it today.

Ease up, chill out. And I stop it in its tracks. Not with motivation or hype, just a decision. No, that's not me. And then nothing changes except everything. Pain's still there, legs still heavy, but now there's no negotiation, no conversation, just movement, silence, steps on.

the pavement, breath, in and out. Because the truth is, you don't rise to the level of the moment. You fall to your identity. To who you know yourself to be. To what you see back when you look in the mirror. Who are you? Eight miles in, I'm not thinking anymore. There's no story left, no justification, no how much longer just one thing hold the line. It's a very simple job, Not an easy job, but it's simple. And amidst chaos, simple is everything. This is who I decided to be. Not at the start line or when it felt good, but here.

That's how it all works. If you see yourself as someone who conquers, you don't magically feel stronger, you just stop giving yourself a way out. No more off-ramps, no more cracked doors. It's funny, the people that have no plan B, They tend to figure out plan A. So if you see yourself as someone who folds,

know that you won't collapse all at once, you'll just keep accepting those small exits, those off-ramps, the plans, B, C, and D, until there's nothing left to hold on to. The body follows that always. Crossing the finish line, there's no surprise, no shock. Because this was decided miles ago. the moment I chose who I was going to be when it got challenging.

So don't tell me about your goals or your plans. Tell me who you are. Who are you when the voice shows up? That's the only moment that matters. And the thing is, like so many things, that voice doesn't just show up in a foot race. It's everywhere. It resides around you.

Different race. a few months in building something and it's quiet, no sales, no traction. But there it is again. Eddie, maybe this isn't it. Maybe you're not good enough. Maybe you can't do this. It's not loud. It's always reasonable at first. Dude, maybe it's time to pivot. Maybe it's not working. And I recognize it immediately. Same voice, different race. Same voice, different race. Because nothing's actually changed. Same effort. Same path. Just less proof.

And this is the moment. Not strategy. Identity. Do you fold or hold the line? Because quitting doesn't feel like quitting in these moments. You have to remember, it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Here, quitting feels like logic. It's intuitive.

It makes sense. But I've seen this before. This is where people step off and tell themselves, it was the right call. You had to. So I go back into the archives. And I pull out the memory, the recollection, boom, this is where I must stop the conversation. Same decision.

No. And nothing changes except that there's no way out now. No negotiation, just execution. Why? Well, because if you're someone who keeps going, you keep going here. And if you're someone who folds, well, right now is where it happens. And then some time passes. You're a few weeks in, different race.

Someone leaves your life and it hurts. And everything feels different, quiet or heavier. And that voice shows up again. Hey, you don't have to be strong right now. You can stay here a little longer. You can let life collapse around you. You have every reason to. Let it go.

It's not loud. It never is. Just inviting. But I recognize it. Same voice. race because nothing has actually changed. The world is still moving. Life is still asking. I'm just slower to answer. And this is the moment. Not emotion. Identity. Stay or step forward. Stopping doesn't feel like stopping. It feels like protecting yourself.

Again, intuitive. I hope you see the pattern here. It doesn't matter the race. The same rules apply. We're still governed by the same principles. This is where people get stuck and call it healing. So I stop the conversation and move. Not fast, not perfect, just forward. Because if you're someone who keeps going, you keep going here. And if you're someone who folds, this is where it happens. Different race, same test, same answer.

That's the truth. It's always the same moment. Different stakes, but same decision. See, and in all three of these examples, It's not about being the strongest. It's not about never feeling doubt. It's not about avoiding the voice, so that voice will arrive.

It's about who you believe you are when it shows up. Because if you identify as someone who pushes through, you don't need perfect conditions. You don't need certainty. You don't need proof. You need a decision. And if you don't identify that way, and you'll simply keep finding reasons to step off.

So again, I'll leave you with this. The question isn't what you're facing. It's not the particular race or the context. It's not the business. It's not the loss. The question is who are you when it gets hard? Because that moment, that decision, that answer, decides everything.

be you always. You might hear that and think, well, that's obvious. That's simple. That's easy. Not if the world has something to say about it. In fact, Emerson is quoted as saying, to be yourself in a world that's constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment.

It's not always obvious, but rather the subtle erosion of ourselves. perhaps not intentionally deciding to wear a mask, it's never taking the time to examine the reflection in the mirror and ask the right questions. Losing our intentionality means we end up wherever the wind blows us, and that could very well be a destination we aren't too happy with. Now this next part will seem a little trivial and insignificant,

but bear with me, right? because sometimes the most important lessons are small, but they become a portal or a gateway to understand the bigger things, right? So for me, this started with a black T-shirt. Walking into a group meeting with some amazing people from all over the country and world doing different things and helping people in various ways. And all of them, as I entered the conference room,

happen to be wearing business casual, which is great, except I haven't worn a collar in a pretty long time. I've been doing my podcast, recording videos, building my businesses in a black t-shirt. And so that's how I walked into the room. And I found it interesting that almost immediately this self-talk emerged. It's like, you stand out right now. They're going to think less of you. Is this disrespectful? Is this showing that perhaps I don't care, right?

all of these things. And so I left that day and I sat with the thoughts. They bothered me, so I wanted to spend some time with them. And here's where I landed, taking those same points one by one. Number one, if they think less of me for being me, then that would be on them and not me, right? I'd gladly fight that uphill battle to earn people's respect in my authenticity. Number two, it's not disrespectful because I am happy to be there, proud to be there. I do take pride in my appearance. I just do it in my way. And number three, be you always.

How you show up is what matters. Having the courage to live in a way that aligns with who you are and what's important to you. And why do I say this? Because if we can grasp this idea with something as trivial and as small as a black t-shirt in a conference room, perhaps we can then push it into other areas of life. The bigger things, the more important things. Like who's in that room to begin with, right? Who are we surrounding ourselves with?

How do we spend our time? There's two ingredients to this recipe. One, who am I slash what matters? And two, how can I position myself so that, That is the arena I'm operating it. Sometimes we don't do it because we're scared, but sometimes we don't do it because we never ask the right questions. When you can find and hold your authenticity,

you feel it and so will others. The question transforms from how can I blend in and not disrupt to how can I use the abundance that surrounds me to live a life that's meaningful. There's a lot of us metaphorically walking around in collared shirts, when they're not what we're meant to be wearing. A lot of us asking, how do I not screw this up? Instead of asking, how do I go get what's mine

and do it in a way that matters to me? Be you always. And the closer you are to that, the more powerful you will be. It means understanding who in your life adds to that and who in your life detracts from it. It means looking around and asking, am I doing this for me or for others?

It's that old airplane mantra. You have to put your mask on first before assisting others, or no one gets saved. No one gets the value. In a way, life is a beautiful pursuit of simplicity, of really distilling your world down to what matters and pushing away the rest. Because like moths to a flame, the complexity and unnecessary minutia finds us. It latches on and becomes what we carry around. I better not let go, says the lizard brain. This is how things are supposed to be.

This is what everyone is doing. But when you find that clarity, truly capture it. Yeah, you earn the respect of others around you in that metaphorical conference room. But most importantly, you earn your own respect. You, to a greater extent, appreciate that face staring back at you in the mirror. Think about it this way. They do not build statues for those who blend. who are funded in the best, who conformed.

Right? No, we build statues for those who had the courage to live in their authenticity, to do things their way. Because we understand how unique, how powerful, how difficult that is. Be you always. There's nothing more powerful than that.

Before anything else, anything else, you have to teach yourself that it's okay. What do I mean by this? Well, let's share a quick example and then I'll expand it. I often joke around that part of growing up is realizing you never really feel 100%. Especially as I've been, you know, trying to stay fit and hit the gym and run and all that stuff, it's like the mind truly shifts from how do I feel perfect all the time to look, there's most likely going to be some ache or pain. The question is just, how do you best manage it? Stay on top of it. How do we maintain, quote unquote, good enough to keep showing up and pushing the envelope every day? And man, I'm learning that can be a full-time job,

right? It's like yoga, stretching, supplements, chiropractor, body work. Sometimes it all just feels wild to me, but, you know, it's a cost metaphorically I'm willing to pay. And recently had some knee discomfort pop up, and I know now these things can be targeted and over time resolved. I called my friend, who's a mobility specialist, and, you know, he's looking at my lower body. He's like, dude, your ankles are like bricks. They don't move. You don't have the mobility needed to do what you're doing, which he continues on, makes your calves, tight. Feel this.

Then he pokes the center of my calf, and I let out this unexpected yelp. And he continues, he goes, which means the inside of your thigh and the outside of your leg are working really hard to compensate, and your knee's just a messenger here. It's screaming. Something's wrong, pal. And so here's the cool thing, right? Eventually, he goes, Eddie, get into the squat position. And no weight or anything.

Just think of an air squat. You know, he says, sink down to the bottom and hold it there, the bottom of your squat. And my body, like, it really didn't have the ability to do that, right? So he sees it, he acknowledged. He says, stand up. Hands me a rope. I have one end. He has one end.

And he says, do it again. And you know that you're not going to fall backwards, right? You're completely supported. The tension on this rope is going to hold you up. Yeah. I know that, right? Makes perfect sense to say, okay, and I squat again. And when I'm at the bottom, the discomfort was crazy.

It was like a full-on panic as I'm trying to hold it there. You know, my heart rate was really jacked up and everything's screaming. And I feel like I'm on mile two of a full-on sprint, but I'm not even doing anything. I'm just trying to stay stationary sitting there at the bottom of a squat, and it's just, it really was just unexpected. It was crazy. And he's like, he can see what's going on. He says, okay, stand up.

And basically explains to me, so your body is so convinced that the depth at the bottom of that squat is dangerous, that it's doing everything it can to avoid it. Every time you get close to the bottom of that squat, it's sounding an alarm. It's thinking, oh no, injury, injury, injury. We don't go low. We don't do that. Depth equals bad, negative, right? Pulling every alarm it can.

And so he goes, Eddie, what you need to do is literally teach it that it's okay. You need, through repetition, to show all those nerves and all that stuff down there. Clearly, I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember what he said, but we'll go with stuff down there. You need to teach it that you can get low. and that depth doesn't equate to horrible consequences. Because right now, your body's desperately trying to protect you from what it thinks is the problem. In the way that, you know, that was framed made perfect sense to me.

I'm like, okay, the reps make sense, right? A little at a time makes sense. It's like showing a child that the water in the pool is okay. Little at a time. You walk up, you put your toe in. You walk up, you put your foot in. or whatever metaphor you want to use. So where am I taking all this?

Well, as I sit there and I think about it, isn't that what speaking in front of an audience was for me? It's like getting a little less nervous and a little more comfortable every time I did it, teaching myself that I don't need to stay up all night the night before or sweat backstage. I taught myself, that stage by stage,

conference by conference, event by event, that if I showed up, this was home, that I didn't need to protect myself from this. In fact, I needed more of it. Or another example. Starting always grateful, never satisfied.

The mind thinks it's protecting you by saying, hey, dude, this could fail. Did you consider that? Hey, you tried a few years ago. and you decided it wasn't for you, you walked away. You remember how that fell? You don't want that feeling, do you? It's like, you hear this, but my mind doesn't hate me.

It's not saying these things to tear me down. It's saying them just like that squat hold, because it's trying to protect me. It doesn't want me to get hurt. But the problem is that's simply first-order thinking. My mind doesn't realize that the discomfort is how we get what we want. It just says pain. I'm going to do you a favor and steer you away.

And so as we all go through life, there are these commonalities that bind us. Absolutely. But there are also individual goals and interests and pursuits that make us different and unique. And I want you to know that whatever is in front of you, if it means something, if it matters, it will feel like the bottom of that squat. It will create panic. And your mind and body will signal, hey, stop, this is dangerous.

Again, not because your mind wants you to fail. Certainly not because the pursuit in and of itself is a bad one. It's because you need to teach yourself through reps that what feels scary is actually okay. It's good. Right? as the famous saying goes, what feels like the obstacle is actually the way, but you need to show yourself, earn that confidence.

So allow yourself to get a little bolder with that depth every day. And some days will hurt more than others. Some days maybe you don't make progress like you thought or wanted, but you keep showing up and you keep pushing. And eventually you'll convince not your neighbors or your neighbors, or your family, your friends, not your critics. They don't matter here. You'll convince yourself that this pursuit is where you need to be.

That beyond the pain lives your destiny. And see, most people stop when the alarm goes off and the mind signals concern. But the truth is, the greats see that as a challenge, a trade-off, as a way, the way. To depths otherwise unobtainment. Netflix, The Hawk. From the mind of Will Ferrell,

Oh, mama, I'm back. Comes a new original series. Get ready, get ready. That's it. Did I stutter? When an iconic pro golfer. Lonnie? Hawk died!

Takes one last swing at greatness. You were a big shot golfer. I still am a big shot golfer. No one. Dad, I'm the Hawk now. Will stand in his way. That's how it's done. The Hawk, now playing.

Only on Netflix. 90 seconds is too much. It just is. I can't do 90 seconds. And I can't do 90 seconds because my brain can't compute 90 seconds. But I can do 30 seconds. And I can do 30 seconds forever. As we navigate our day to day, it's hard to see that.

Because so often our day to day lacks clarity. So what can we do about it? Well, we can place ourselves in situations where we are reminded. One of them, I've talked about before, being the cold plunge, immersing yourself in cold water. Well, sure, there are health benefits, some of which are debated and disputed, but I certainly notice value in that department. But to me, that's not the biggest value at. Not even close. To me, it's simply the daily reminder that I can do hard things, that it's who I am.

We need to reestablish that consistently. Confidence is earned. And I know in my life I must earn it repeatedly. And when I'm immersed in the cold and shivering, there's always a point in my mind, however brief, that I'm thinking, I want out now. The other day, I was at this point, looked at my watch 90 seconds left, and that day and that moment,

it felt like an eternity, just too much. And those of you who are endurance athletes, for example, you know that when your body's operating at max capacity, you're suffering, you're exhausted, 90 seconds is truly a lifetime. When you look at it like that, it's too much discomfort for a minute and a half. Your heart starts beating,

your mind starts worrying. So what do we do about it? We look at it a little different. Because from a different angle, you can skip it. You can do 30 seconds. The brain can grasp and digest 30 seconds. You can do anything for 30 seconds. So you start counting.

All of a sudden, 30 gone. Now what? Well, you just did 30. You see how quick that went? Do another 30. Okay. Done. Just like that.

Now what? 30 more. But this is the last 30? You don't even feel anything on the last 30, right? Come on. Adrenaline's going. You can feel the finish line. This is free time. This is a gift.

This is cruise control. And now done. You didn't have to do 90 seconds. You only had to do 3 by 30. And anyone's saying, come on, man, that's the same thing. Yeah, it's the same when you're not under duress. But it's a miracle when you are. So why is running life?

Why is cold plunging life? Why is putting your body through stress or difficulty life? Because you remember that life is taking big, difficult, seemingly complex things and breaking them down into manageable tasks. that is life the pieces are always manageable now the monster we allow the pieces to become when we stack them up and give them an invisible face

that's not so manageable that's self-sabotage and so to arm yourself with the understanding that all big things must be broken down is to green light the extraordinary On day one in 2014, a YouTube channel with zero subscribers growing to help over 100,000 people a day, that's a 90-second cold lunch. That's unfathomable, unthinkable, impossible.

But one video weekly, at least, for nine years, that's a 30-second cold. It was very doable. Standing in front of the mirror, practicing storytelling, and speaking, it's 30 seconds in cold water. Reaching out to others to learn to get better 30 seconds in cold water. It's like you look back and you see that you endured that 90-second plunge simply by breaking it down. That's all growth is. That's all evolution is. finding the smallest piece possible in making it action.

And then watching that transform, multiply, compound over time. In one of my favorite books, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, this reminder comes through beautiful. Louis Amperini, an American prisoner of war in Japanese internment camps during World War. He basically experiences unimaginable hell and suffering. He watches his friends die, he's beaten, he's starved, he comes close to death himself, and at the end when he's rescued, and I'm paraphrasing, but I remember this part incredibly vividly, he's asked if he could do that again, and he states he'd rather die. Because turning around and viewing it holistically like that is too much. It's unfathomable. that pain is bigger than one can even comprehend.

But taking something like that, day by day, step by step, he did the unthinkable. He survived. In breaking the 90-second task down into 30-second pieces, he walked away, in breaking the seemingly insurmountable down into the manageable, and looking at each individual step as a superpower, he emerged. You talk about perspective. His experience was as challenging as it gets, right? My cold plunge is laughable in comparison.

But my mind doesn't know that. It's up to me to reinforce it. Building a business is nothing in comparison to Louise Zamperini, but my mind doesn't know that. Healing my shoulder and getting stronger in the gym is nothing in comparison, but my mind does not. know that. It's looking at the mountain and reminding myself, Eddie, you can't leap those. I've seen you jump, buddy. But the good news is no mountains need be leapt here. We ascend this thing one rock at a time and mark my words, you conquer those manageable tasks day in and day out. You will find your summit. So when you feel stuck or too small for the task at hand, remind yourself you're looking at a 90 second block here. Break that down.

Ask yourself what your 30 is. Ask yourself what you can create that's manageable. That will create your momentum. That will shoot you into a trajectory that will allow growth and position you someday to look back over your shoulder and go, wow, I endured. All that. A transformation too big to understand on day one, but I got there. It's a beautiful thing watching all those little steps add up to create the extraordinary. Our most challenging chapters are like running a marathon with ankle weights on.

But that's unfair, you might think. It's heavy. It's something obviously slowing you down. But imagine hearing that and thinking, well, wait until they come off. And you see how fast you really are. This morning I met a friend for coffee. Amazing guy, sharp, thoughtful, just someone who's energy is contagious, right?

And we're talking about life and business and, you know, the usual things. But eventually we peeled back the layers a little bit and got deeper. And I won't get into the details, obviously, because it's personal, but he's going through a very difficult chapter right now. The kind of thing that doesn't just sit in the background, it takes up space, a lot of space. In fact, I think the estimate he gave me was 50% of his life right now is solely dealing with this.

And what struck me, it wasn't so much what he was going through. It was how he was going through it. Because I could see myself in that situation, feeling like the walls are caving in. Like the wheels are coming off the wagon. That's my favorite term to use. But I'm looking across the table at someone who's the opposite, who's very poised, very calm,

wasn't frantic or spiraling, he was just steady. And maybe that's the word, right? And I realized in the moment that steadiness, you know, he's earned that. It didn't come from nowhere. It's come from everything he's already been through. Every challenge that taught him how to stand still when life does everything it can to shake you. And, you know, I'm paraphrasing a lot of this, obviously, but he told me he's learning every day, getting better every moment at not letting it derail him.

He's getting better at compartmentalizing it, giving it the space it demands, but not letting it consume everything else. And that's not easy. That's not, quote-unquote, natural. That's discipline. That's awareness. That's someone deciding, this is hard, but it's not going to take me with it. And I think the most powerful part of the conversation was this. He said, you know, I can't wait until I'm beyond this.

I'm going to feel so free, right? Because if I can get through this, I can get through anything. Now that, my friends, is perspective. Because most of us, if we're being honest, myself included, don't always think like that. When we're in the middle of something heavy, we don't zoom out and say, oh, perfect. This is shaping me. Thank God for this pain. No, that's not human.

We shrink into it. We get caught in it. We let it define everything. Again, I do it. You do it. We all do it. We don't always see the chapter. We see the moment.

and the moment has a way of feeling permanent. And that's why I was so excited to share this convo, why it was so inspiring to me. Because he saw it differently. He understood that this is a chapter, not the whole story. And most importantly, he understands what it's doing for him. And I couldn't help but kind of smile and say, Dude, you're running a marathon right now with ankle weights on.

Every step costs more. Every mile is harder than it should be, and no one sees that, right? No one's going to give you extra credit for the weight you're carrying. But one day, my friend, one day those weights come off. And when they do, you don't just go back to baseline. You don't just feel normal. You feel light. You feel fast.

You feel like you can handle anything because you've already proven that you can. They say confidence is earned. What an example. Right? That's the part we miss. We think weight is punishment, random, unfair, something that's just happening to us. But my friends, it's so much more than that. It's preparation.

Because when you're forced to carry something heavy, you adapt. You become more patient and resilient and focused. You learn to move forward when everything in you wants to stop. You learn to think clearly when emotions are loud. You learn how to stand your ground when life is pulling you under, or at least trying to. But what it's really doing is building a version of you that literally could not exist without it. So in your world, when that chapter ends and it will, will, know that you won't be the same person that walked in.

You'll have momentum and perspective and an edge because you'll know what it feels like to carry that weight and keep going. That's why all this matters. In your darkest moments when things feel the heaviest, when it feels like life is just stacking weight on top of weight, on top of weight, that's not the end of your story. That's the training ground. That's the foundation.

The moment where if you can just hold perspective, even a little bit, you start to see, this is not breaking me, it's preparing me. So maybe the question isn't, why is this happening? Maybe the question is, what is this building within me? Because again, one day those ankle weights are coming off. One day the storm passes. The darkness fades. And when it does, the world doesn't see the weight you carried. It sees how fast you are now.

It sees the strength and composure and resilience. It sees the result. But you'll know exactly where it came from. And you'll be grateful that you didn't quit in the chapter that made you. That version of you isn't gone. It needs to be reclaimed. I remember sitting in my car one night, engine off, hands on the wheel.

Long after I'd parked, no phone or music, just silence. And I caught myself doing something I hadn't done in a while. I was sort of replaying a version of my life that didn't exist anymore. A version where things felt lighter. Where I woke up every day with energy, where everything felt possible. You know the face. where you don't even realize you're in a good chapter until it's gone.

And now you're sitting there looking at the pieces, trying to remember what it felt like, trying to trace your way back. I sat there thinking, man, what happened to that version of me? Not necessarily the achievements or the results, but the feeling, the spark. And here's the dangerous part. When you sit in that long enough, it starts to feel like something you lost. Like it belongs to the past. It's behind you.

And I think that's where most people fall flat. That's where it ends. They turn their best memories into museums, visit them every once in a while, admire them from time to time. But they never think to rebuild them. That night, though, something shifted because I realized that version of me,

the one I missed so much, he wasn't living in a better time. He was living in a better state. He moved differently, thought differently, he chose differently. He woke up and attacked the day, didn't wait to feel inspired, he created momentum, he didn't wait for light, he became it. And the truth hit me hard. Nothing I missed was actually gone. I'd just stopped being that person who created it.

See, we romanticized the past like it was magic, like something special was happening. to us. The reality is we were the ones making it special. We were the ones showing up differently. We were the ones creating momentum and creating energy, creating life. So if you've been sitting there like I was thinking about how things used to be, let me remind you of something. You don't need to go back.

You need to reclaim. Because the spark you're chasing, it's not behind you. It's within you. In fact, some might say it is an entire world within you. See, you can wake up tomorrow and decide to move like that person again. You can choose discipline over comfort, action over hesitation, creation, over consumption. You can stop waiting for the perfect feeling and start building it. One intentional decision at a time.

Because your best moments weren't access. They were the result of how you showed up, and that means you can do it again. This isn't about nostalgia. It's about responsibility. It's about understanding that the light you're missing was never something you found. It was something you built. It began internally and was projected out. And look, if you built it once, you can build it again.

Stronger, even. Wiser. more intentional. So stop daydreaming about who you used to be or how good things once were or a feeling that lives in the distant past and start becoming the person who creates that feeling again. You don't have to chase the past,

you just have to step back into the fire and remind yourself exactly who you are. What have you been holding on to just a little too long. There's an old story that hunters used to tell. And this parable that's been passed down over the years, I did a little digging, and there's, it seems like some truth to it. I wouldn't take it as gospel.

I'd more pay attention to the overall message. But apparently in Western and Central Africa, this was an approach that Hunter used to catch animals, particularly monkeys in some instances. And so the idea here is not about strength or speed. It's much more subtle. The idea is a little bit quieter than that. The values under the surface, if you will.

So here's what these hunters would do. Here's the context. They would take this sort of narrow-necked jar, and they'd place something sweet inside of it. So say fruit or nuts or something just valuable enough for the animal to want to grab, and they'd leave it alone. And then theoretically, a monkey would come along eventually, and it would be curious, and it would peer inside,

and it would reach its hand down through the narrow opening, wrap its fingers around the food. And it was in that moment where there was a turning point, right, where things changed. Because with an open hand, it can move freely, can release his hand from the jar, but with the closed fist, it's stuck. The opening that allowed it in is now too small to let it out.

And here's the part that matters. The monkey doesn't understand the trap for obvious reasons. It doesn't think, hey, I should let go. It thinks I need to pull harder. So it struggles and struggles and struggles, and it jerks its arm and twists and panics. And, you know, the more it fights, the more convinced it becomes that something outside of it is holding it there.

And all the while the solution is just sitting quietly in its hand. It's like let go. That's it. That's all you need to do. No strength, no struggle, no effort, no force, just release. But it won't. Because what it's holding feels valuable. Because the monkey chose it, because the monkey wants it.

And so it stays. and it often stays long enough for the hunter to return, long enough for the trap to work. And again, this is an important distinction, right? It didn't work because the monkey was overpowered. It worked because the monkey refused to let go, to open its hand. It's very much a self-inflicted wound. So now take a step back from the story, right?

Because obviously this is not about monkeys. It's about how often we do the exact same thing just in more sophisticated ways. We are just more evolved chimpanzees. You know, we hold on to things that keep us stuck. And I can make a nice long list, I'm sure you could do. Old identities, past failures, expectations that no longer fit, the need to be right, they need to be seen a certain way, the version of life we thought we'd have by now.

we grip them and my God do we hold them tightly. Not because they're helping us, but because we've decided they matter. And when we feel stuck, we don't question the grip, we question everything else. We say, why can't I move forward? Why does this feel so hard? What's holding me back?

Right? Just like that metaphorical monkey in the parable, we pull harder. More effort. More frustration, more force. But the truth is quieter than that. Again, subtle. It's not always about pushing forward.

Sometimes it's about opening your hand and letting go. Letting go of the thing you thought you needed. Letting go of that version of yourself that does not belong in your future. Letting go of the story that says, hey, this is just how things are. Because the trap isn't always obvious. It doesn't always look like a cage. It looks a lot like something you chose. something you justified, something you're not quite ready to release.

So here's the shift. Here's the win. Freedom is not always about gaining something new. As much as our brains are wired to associate growth with acquisition. Sometimes the biggest steps forward come from momentarily stepping back. It comes from opening your hand. from realizing that what you're holding on to is the only thing keeping you where you are.

Not the fruit, the jar, or the world around you. You. So the question isn't what do I need to do. It's what am I still holding? What am I keeping that I need to let go of? Because the moment you do, the moment you release your grip, you'll find something surprising. You were never really trapped.

You are just holding on. The world isn't going to change. It's waiting for you, too. There's an old story about a man who needed to cross a river. This river was pretty intimidating. Wide, strong current, at least strong enough to make him pause at the riverbank. So he stood on the edge watching it, studying it, waiting.

And he told himself, the day that thing calms down, I'm going to cross it. When the water slows, when it's a bit safer, when it's a little easier, I'll make my move. And so he waited. And of course, that river kept moving. Minutes turned to hours, hours turned to days. He'd revisit it constantly. And every time he thought about stepping in, he'd see that current. powerful, still moving, still uncertain, still far from ideal.

So he stepped back, he told himself the same thing. Not yet. The perfect time is just around the corner. Eventually someone passed by, they saw him standing there, and asked, hey, what are you doing? To which the man replied, well, I'm waiting. for the river to calm down so I can cross. The traveler kind of paused and looked at the water, then back at the man, and said simply,

sir, it doesn't calm down. And that was it, right? No long explanation, just that, those words. Emphasizing that the river was never the obstacle, the expectation was. There was a mismatch in reality. Now sit with that for a second. because this isn't about water.

It's about how many things in life we approach the same way. We wait for the right moment, for things to feel stable and predictable and controlled. We tell ourselves, hey, I'll start when life settles down. I'll go for it when I have more time. I'll take the risk when I feel ready. But life doesn't work like that. The quote-unquote current doesn't stop. It's always moving.

It's always uncertain. There's always a reason to hesitate if you are looking for one. And the longer you wait, the more convincing that hesitation becomes. Because now it starts to feel logical, responsible even, safe, practical. But in reality, it's just a lay. It's just fear that wolf in sheep's clothing. Because the people who make it across aren't the ones. who found a calmer river. They're the ones who stepped in anyway, carefully, imperfectly, uncertain,

but moving. And that's the million dollar message here, right? You don't wait for life to settle. You learn to move within it. To dance through the chaos, to adapt and evolve. You don't wait for fear to disappear. You act while it's still there. So the question is, is that? never, when will this be easier? It's, am I willing to start even if it doesn't? Because the river isn't going to change for you. But you, you can decide to step in, and once you do, you'll realize something most people never see from the shore.

You don't need perfect conditions to move forward. What you need is to stop waiting for them. So much of life comes down to control, understanding what we cannot control, while simultaneously capitalizing and making the most of the things that we can. A constant awareness that's critical to our evolution. Epictetus wrote, we must be at once cautious and courageous. Courageous in what does not depend upon choice. and cautious in what does.

And this idea has been shared many, many times in many ways over the centuries. Another of which a lot of folks have heard is the serenity prayer, right? God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. But regardless of how it's said and who it's said to, the point is the same. There are things we cannot control that we must find a way to stop exerting ourselves, stop exhausting our energy on. They are, as the saying goes, what they are.

These obstacles are immovable. And rather than continue to push and push and push with all our strength and energy, our time is best suited, learning to effectively navigate them. And then there exists those things that are in our control. I believe it was the power of now by Eckart Tolle. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, if something cannot be changed, stop thinking about it, right? The future represents anxiety. It's worrying about things that haven't happened yet.

The past is essentially depression. It's worrying about things that already happened. We can't do anything about the past or the future. All we have is now. And if it can be changed, then act now and bringing about a desired result. Take that first step. create some semblance of momentum, no matter how small. But to worry about what is behind you or in front of you is actually insanity. I remember loving the simplicity and pointedness of that message.

Accept it, eliminate it, or adjust yourself to it. Sometimes it helps when I think about things in metaphors, and I tend to do it often. This morning I was drinking coconut water. right of all things and I was thinking man it'd be nice you know those little pieces of of coconut that float around in there it's like it'd be great if they if they were not in there right so I have this idea just grab a strainer pour it through the strainer into the glass I'm leaning over the counter watching the pieces of coconut collect in the strainer and I'm just thinking sort of zoning out like imagine if those were my problems just being separated out of my life just like that how nice it would be, captured in a little net, and then, you know, discarded, thrown away.

But, you know, it didn't take me long to realize a couple things. One, such an idea would never happen. Life will always have some obstacle to place before us. That's what light does. After all, the word is predicated upon the avoidance of death. It's a struggle and a necessary one. Which leads me to the realization number two, we want hardship. You know, purpose and meaning they're derived from our willingness to overcome adversity and transform because of it.

A life without struggle is a car without wheels. And sure, you might avoid the fender benders, but you're not leaving the garage. So that's a thumbs down. So I thought, okay, well, what if I slightly adjust? I slightly adjust that thinking? What if it's a subset of problems that I can remove? That's when it kind of hit me, the opportunity at hand, right? Not the so-called problems, but my thoughts about them. There are the real difference maker here, the negative storytelling that can be removed, pushed through the strain. Again, not novel or groundbreaking. Like I said, a few minutes ago,

This idea has been around for thousands of years, but sometimes things land perfectly, right moment, right time. And I knew what I needed to do was remove the worries and concerns pertaining to the events that I could not change. Yet I exhaust my energy dancing around and around with my thoughts about them. You cannot change the future. You can change right now. which ultimately becomes the future, and there's a difference. I had to, you know, pull that back in. See, I think most of our problems are derived from anger or emotional attachment to the immovable, the unchangeable.

One of my favorite sayings is you can't change the direction of the wind, but you can always adjust your sails. And see, when you remove the self-tormenting you have going on about your past, things you wish you did or didn't do, when you remove the concern that the future won't be exactly what you want it to be which tends to be where I lean of the two you're left with one thing the present right

clarity you have officially empowered yourself because the things you allocate your energy to can be changed can be made better or adjusted and that's really what it's all about you can't change the fact that someone you loved or cared about let you down.

But when you dwell on it, you're now giving up the present as well. You're preventing yourself from doing what is required of you now to make your life better. You can't control the fact that your company is reducing its size and your department is being eliminated. Can't control the fact that 8% get accepted to whatever you're applying to. to. Can't control the fact that you will be criticized for doing the unpopular thing, the thing that you believe to be right. And I say these things not to be a downer. I actually don't think there's anything sad about this. To the contrary. Now that you've accepted these truths, accepted this as reality, now you can move toward what's best for you. No more dwelling on the unchangeable. No more fighting unwinnable wars.

No, it's time to go put yourself in position to conquer whatever mountain is next. By straining out the things that cannot be changed, you are left only with what can. You can't change your company's personnel reduction, but you can find something else, something better out there. You can set the stage for a new journey. You can't increase the acceptance rate, but you can increase your value. Go above and beyond. Put yourself in position to succeed. And if you don't, they're lost.

Continue learning. Continue growing. Continue moving forward. You can't stop the world's criticism. But you can learn to toughen up emotionally. Learn to trust your intuition and decision making. Surround yourself with people you trust who lift you up. See, when you stop wasting time and energy on the wrong things,

You get the right things. Like Greg McEwen says in essentialism, it's now but we can acquire. But often what we cut away, removing the things that weigh us down, that we're dragging along with us everywhere we go. They don't need to be there. I say to myself often that I have everything I need. It's there. Some of it's materialized. Some of it exists as a seed that I need to identify.

and water and nurture, but it's all right here. Which means the problem will never be that I'm incapable. It will never be that I'm not good enough. No, when I'm in the wrong, it's because I've forgotten to see it. I've either become consumed with the wrong things or lost faith in myself to do the right thing. And knowing this has been a gift. It's been tremendous.

It's helped me even during the darkest moments to reacquire what matters most. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes days, even weeks or longer, but I get there. Eventually I arrive and so can you. You have the ability to parse out why you feel the way you do to categorize the thoughts in your head Can I change it? No, okay, gone and with all that's left begins the journey the good stuff The adversity and the problems that will make you who you are and don't misunderstand I'm not saying it will be easy, but I'm saying it will be worth it.

And that's critical to understand. Your world is there to maneuver and adjust to reshape. But its transformation depends on a laser-like focus on that which is malleable. That's saying, do what you can, where you are with what you have. It will lead you to exactly where you need to be. even if you don't trust the road before you, trust yourself to walk down it. Your future is built on the promises you keep to yourself.

I want to, for a second time, revisit my recent rucking of the MS-150 in Texas, where a few others and I put weight on our backs and tracked the same course that's intended to be a bike. grace. And it was definitely, you know, hands down, the most challenging four days in my life. And so, as you can imagine, as soon as I crossed that finish line and returned back to quote-unquote normalcy, left me with a lot to think about. In fact, there are so many takeaways I could go on forever. But out of respect for the less is more principle, I've cut it down to what I believe to be

most important. And so to set the scene as brisk walking turned into slow walking, slow walking, to limping and limping into more of a shaped duck walk. Classic case of me watching the footage back, by the way, and thinking, man, I felt like I looked so much cooler in my head. But hey, it was a game of however you can finish, right? Just get your body over the line, drag it there. It's not about looking pretty. It's about finishing the thing. And over the course of the venture, we'll call it, there were multiple times where a camera was put in front of me, and I was asked, why?

Why are you doing this? As far as questions go, that's, hey, fair. Well, there were a handful of reasons. But the one that mattered the most to me revolved around promises. And not promises. made to others, but the ones we make to ourselves. See, lately, in full transparency, I've been somewhat letting myself down.

Not all at once or spectacularly, but slowly, subtly, a sort of death by a thousand cuts. You know that feeling when you tell yourself you're going to do something, where you get a moment of inspiration and make big plans, and then you just don't. You don't do anything. It's like, Eddie, you're so much happier when you wake up at 5 and go on a walk. You know that.

That's irrefutable. Do it. And then the morning would come around and my brain would go, eh, you're training so hard, though. Your body could use the sleep, man. Be practical. Snoose. And the morning goes by. Or I'm going to test this new idea, this new concept.

And then I don't really have time to it. experiment right now. I have a system and a routine and you know you get the idea. It leaves this little feeling in the pit of your stomach where you know you know that you've let yourself down. And I didn't like that chapter. I knew I was better and knew I was capable of more. If only I could pull myself out of the cycle of lying to myself, right? If only I could remind myself who the hell I am. And what a better way than to do something that 99% of the world wouldn't do.

Not because they couldn't, but because they wouldn't. What better a way than to push through some of the most extreme discomfort I've ever faced? See, walking 150 miles with a weighted vest on your back, it simplifies things dramatically. Life becomes nothing more than, hey, you're a lot of, point A get to point B, period, that's all. No nuance, no complexities, you go until you arrive.

And it was like upon starting, everything snapped into place, my focus, my self-believe. My whole being behind a singular mission, it didn't matter if or when people around me stopped. It didn't matter if it was hot or cold or sunny or rainy. It didn't matter if the blisters or shafing or stiff legs. had to say, I had this certainty that, you know, aside from an unforeseen monumental injury, God forbid, I knew I would finish. I would crawl if I had to. And please hear me. I'm not saying this to sound cool, right? That's the beauty. Anyone can sign their name on that dotted line. But I guess the part that lit me up is the notion that few ever,

would. See, sometimes we have to remind ourselves who we are. We have to renew vows to the person looking back at us in the mirror. And that's how I saw this mission. Nothing at home is harder than this, Eddie. Nothing is this painful. Nothing is this long in agonizing. Yet here you are in this arena, a pursuit completely voluntary, an unofficial march through endless backroads, resembling some sort of beautiful, scenic hell. And you're stepping up and leading yourself through it to an obtainable greatness. See, waking up at 5 is easier than this.

Not scrolling social media is easier than this. Completing the things you wrote down on your daily task list is easier than this. So the problem is not your drive. It's not your capability. or desire, that fire's still in there. My friend, you have it. It's the simplification of identifying what you love

and creating your life so that you are embarking upon the pursuit of that North Star, highlighting the things that matter and committing to them. It's not an easy march, but it's a simple one. It reminded me that I am, in fact, the kind of person who keeps those promises to himself, I just needed to feel it again, to taste what that was like. If, as the saying goes, people follow through on who they believe themselves to be, I needed to rediscover the hero that somehow fell into the background along the way. And sitting here now, I can tell you truthfully, I did.

So if you're listening, I hope you hear me. I hope you recognize that there exists a warrior in you, a hero, a leader, the person you're capable of becoming. Perhaps you just need to remind yourself, to reconfirm it to yourself. Does it need to be a 150-mile rock? No, not even close. It can be anything that pulls you out of your comfort zone. anything that creates some unease that places you in an arena with a formidable adversary for you to conquer. Nothing is quite like stepping out and showing yourself who you are.

Becoming someone who doesn't hide but slays the dragons before them. If you can keep your composure there, you have all the proof in the world that you can keep the little promises you make as well. and the ones who keep the promises they make to themselves own the future. What's the difference between simple and easy? Well, simple is straightforward, uncomplicated. Easy, on the other hand, means achieved without great effort. The difference between those two words is subtle, but essential to understand. One deals with the complexity of an outcome.

The other, your will and determination to achieve that outcome. Becoming who you most want to be is simple. But becoming who you most want to be is not easy. Just like walking is simple, yet hiking up a mountain is not easy. The procedure didn't change the context did. So let's talk about context. Let's talk about this cyclical nature of growth because it's not that most people can't. It's that most people won't.

It's not that most people don't get how. It's that they don't have a strong enough why. The path is laid out before you. You just have to be willing to walk down it. Will you? Step one, realize there's more out there. It's not that what you're doing now isn't amazing. It's just that yesterday's act of courage is now today's status quo.

What was the spectacular is now the mundane. What was once the ceiling you had to jump to touch is now the floor you walk on. So at the very least, it prompts you to ask, well, what's next? Simple. Not easy. Step two, the acquisition of courage. Yesterday's courage was a fight. It took a lot out of you, and it's ultimately what got you here.

But it dropped you at the curb, it waved goodbye and went on its merry way, and here you are. You can stay here. A lot of people do. You can reminisce of the glory days, the old path, yesterday's triumphs. Or, you can do that perpetually, uncomfortable exercise of vulnerability. Stepping into tomorrow's unknown, reminding yourself that life's greatest rewards have a hefty price tag and that price is discomfort.

But I've already played this game, one might think. No, what you did was learn the rules. Now it's time to apply them to a new setting and around goes the merry-go-round. It might seem like a replication from the horizontal, but here's the secret. You can't see the vertical. You have yet to look down and see your ascent, see what you're becoming. Just by staying on, holding tight, just by believing in yourself enough to begin again, you are fanning those tiny flames of courage in your soul that wait to be spread like a wildfire.

Simple, but not easy. Step three, mistakes. Now, of course, it's not the mistakes themselves you fear. It's what you think those mistakes will mean. Ridicule, embarrassment, lack of direction or identity, losing what you have, but here's the catch. When you realize the upside is greater than the downside, you liberate yourself. When you realize there's more to gain than to lose, your potential for greatness is born. How does one act on this?

Mistakes. By making mistakes. By injecting yourself into the turbulence of progress. Our biology has not yet learned that the uncomfortable thing is the right thing. And that's why you get resistance. That's why it hurts. And it's why few people will accomplish what you will. When it comes to your climb every day is opposite day.

When they run out, you're running in. When they play safe, you play for the victory. To become who you might be, you must learn how to get there. Mistakes are your curriculum. Simple, but not easy. Step four, trust yourself. Okay, sure, no problem, easy. Well, yeah, it's easy when you're getting what you want.

But evolution takes time, and there's nothing quite like giving and giving and giving and not getting. There's nothing quite like stepping up to the plate again and again and again and again and bringing no runners home. So how does one find the strength to continue walking up to the batters box? Well, growth is exponential. And those swings and misses matter. The infield singles matter. Everything matters. Because it's all chiseling your future self out of stone.

Nothing is dependent on the next at bat as much as all at bats in the aggregate. That's why success is so often considered to be sheer will, dependent not on the home run, but on the discipline, the self-belief to keep walking up to the plate. Repetition and adjustment. Repetition and adjustment. Repeat and refine, repeat, refine. Those are the materials from which all things are made. Simple, but not easy. And then we have the finale.

The ending, step five. Celebrate and adjust. At some point you'll be able to look over your shoulder and notice something that perhaps you hadn't before. Space. Space between where you are and where you started. It's not sudden but gradual. And undoubtedly, with enough persistence, it will emerge.

These moments, they are precious. They are times to acknowledge what you've accomplished, the sacrifices you have made. They are life's way of reminding you what you're. are building and who you are becoming. It's a time of celebration. Every little win means something. Every small victory matters so relish in it. And then transform it. Normalize it. Recognize that that mountain top is your foundation now. Your starting point has changed and so have you. Which means so have your expectations. With an increase in ability becomes an upgrade to what's possible, what's expected.

And look at that. We have arrived at a new step one. Realize there is more. This is the process for capturing that which life has to offer. If you can fall in love with that, appreciate it, respect it, while simultaneously understanding it's not scary, it's dependent entirely on your ability to push forward. If you can understand that, there is nothing you can't do.

Nowhere you can't go. Simple, yes, easy, no. But you're not in this for easy. You're in it for the journey, the growth, the adventure. You're in it because it's not easy. You'll see in time, as will the world, that this decision to endure was simply the best one you ever made. Someday the things that you currently don't understand will make sense.

Someday the big things you're dealing with won't seem so big anymore. Someday the doubts you have about yourself will be revealed as false. Someday you'll see that the things you worry about didn't matter at all. Someday you'll see that the road before you wasn't something you had to walk. flawlessly, but rather something you had to trust and believe in. Someday you'll look in the mirror and see that you had it in you the entire time, that there was nothing you needed or should have been hoping for. Yeah, someday. Someday that will all be true. But what about some days from the past? I remember years ago thinking someday I would venture out into the world.

Someday I'd speak my mind. Someday I would start my own business. I would surround myself with people who believed in what I believe. Someday I'd make a little more money, have a little more time to do what I love. Someday I'd have all that. And as I look around, I realize it looks a lot like someday. But guess what? As we grow, so do our some days. It's a chase that never ends. There's always something more. There's always something bigger and better. And the problem is not the ambition. The problem is forgetting that in so many ways, you've dreamt of being where you stand right now.

You have arrived. You're not the same person that 10 years ago was throwing some days out into the universe. No, you have grown. You have learned. You have evolved. Why does this matter? It matters. Because without acknowledging how far you've come,

you cannot acquire the strength needed to go where you might. must go. When you don't feel good enough, it's often because you haven't looked over your shoulder and opened your eyes, the evidence is right there. It's hiding in plain sight. There's proof that you've been there, that you faced demons and conquered them, endured your battles and overcame. You did that.

And at one point not that long ago, you couldn't say that you had. You weren't yet that person, but things are different. Now what you have today was once only that hopeful someday. It was a fleeting thought. It had no merit and no value, yet you brought it to life. Look what you've done. Understand how far you've come. You ran when you could.

You walked when it was possible. You crawled when you had to. And continued on to arrive at a someday that is right now. You, my friend, are a maker of things unseen, an architect of tomorrow's and some days. So don't you dare. Don't you ever entertain the delusion that this gift suddenly stops now. Suddenly the burden is too much. The mountain is too tall.

No, what you do is overcome. That is who you are. You've done it for you. You've done it for the ones you love. And in some cases, the ones who didn't even understand, but you kept going, marching through the fires of hell to turn some days into right now. And I get that the road before you is uncertain.

There's no way to know exactly how life will unfold. But that's besides the point. A bird can't predict every gust of wind it's going to encounter. It spreads its wings, takes off, and adapts because it can, because it always has, because that's what it does. I'm not advocating that you should have all the answers. No, I'm suggesting that you trust yourself to find them. To move forward into the haze that surrounds you,

to make sense of the seemingly illogical, bring about reality from the make-believe. Someday, you will have what you're aiming for. But here's to never letting a today go by without realizing that you are always living out a someday from your past. You are always arriving and leaving simultaneously. The accomplished end the student, crossing a finish line and on the starting block

with another race around the corner, another chance to stretch your legs and reach for the heavens. If you ever forget that, I ask that you find it within yourself to look over your shoulder, to remember what you once asked for, and to appreciate the journey that you have undertaken. You did that.

Now onward you go, you have more some days to bring to life. I want to share something my friend Michael recently said on a call. And for context, he's essentially describing the last few weeks. And I found it pretty profound. He said, we don't actually value what we say we value. We value what we do. Words don't mean anything, right? The proof is in what we see when we play back the tape.

It was pointing to sort of a disconnect between what he personally was saying matters to him, you know, if someone were to ask, and how he was actually spending his time, which was essentially working a lot. And, you know, I'm paraphrasing, obviously, recapping the convo, but he was basically like, man, I talk about how much these things mean to me, people travel, freedom. But I look back at my life over the past, whatever it was, X many weeks or months. And it's essentially just work, work, and work. So based on my output, what do I value? Well, I value work. And, you know, this recognition prompted an awareness and a plan for change.

And I just found it to be incredibly powerful, obviously the main point, but also the self-awareness. It's challenging. It's hard to view your life with that clear of a lens to step back and really see things in totality. And see, I don't think I know of any super detailed, complex, intricate strategy that's ever changed someone's life. You know, it's always an adjustment to the basics, the big picture things.

I'm on the wrong track. I'm off course. I'm missing what matters. It's correcting the dissonance in our lives. And it made me think, wow, right, where's the disconnect between what I say? You know, what I claim to value and how I'm living my life. Where's the gap between what I want most and how I spend my time? And so as I was thinking about this, right, there's a very specific kind of story or anecdote that comes to mind.

I'm sure over the, you know, last 11 years of me speaking and sharing and creating. I've touched on it before, but 11 years a long time. So I'm going to repaint this picture. It's essentially an old story about a teacher or a professor standing in front of his classroom holding an empty jar. He's doing a demonstration for his students. And he places a few big rocks inside the jar until they reach the top. He then asked the class, is the jar full? And the class, the students, seeing the jar filled with rocks, they nod. Yeah, looks full. So he reaches underneath the table, has a little cup of pebbles that he pulls out,

and slowly pours the pebbles into the jar. The pebbles slide through the cracks between the rocks, taking up space. So he asks again, now is it full? Students laugh a little this time. Probably not, they say. Correct. In comes the sand. He takes out another cup,

pours the sand into the jar, the sand fills those spaces that even the pebbles left behind. What about now? Class is perplexed. Takes out a cup of water, pours the water in the jar. Eventually there's no room.

The professor says the lesson is simple. If you don't put the big rocks in first, they'll never fit. And this matches perfectly with the sentiment of Michael's story. Most of us can tell you what our big rocks are. It's family, it's health, freedom, creativity, peace, presence, adventure, love, fill in the blank. You ask someone what matters most, and usually the answer comes quickly.

But then you roll back the tape on their actual life, and you find that something else was put in the jar first. Work you don't like or work you're not passionate about, about or notifications or obligation, distraction, noise, survival mode. And by the time we finally make room for the things we swear matter most, there is no room left. That's what struck me so deeply about that conversation.

You know, he said something incredibly honest. I don't think we actually value the things we say we value. I think we value what we repeatedly do. And that makes perfect sense, right? our lives are already telling the truth. Maybe the calendar is honest. Our habits are honest. The repetition is honest, not our intentions.

In fact, I had a fifth grade teacher who used to constantly say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Maybe a tough lesson for fifth grade, but it stuck. Because the truth is, life fills up quietly, right? No one wakes up one day and consciously decides, I'm going to neglect the things I love. Yeah, I'm going to skip everything that matters. No, it happens gradually. It's like one postponed trip. One more late night.

One more waiting to live. One more season of saying, once things calm down, it's go time. But life never completely calms down. The star's never a line. There's never a perfect. Which means self-awareness becomes everything. The ability to stop and ask,

what actually fills my jar? Because if the big rocks really matter, they can't be what we squeeze in afterwards. They have to go in first. So maybe the question isn't what do you want? Maybe the real question is, what does your life suggest you want? Our days leave fingerprints, our habits tell stories, our calendars become evidence. And eventually, whether we meant to or not, we become the product of what repeatedly fills our jar. That's the uncomfortable part, but it's also the hope.

part. From the pain comes the answer. Because just like Michael, once you become aware of that disconnect, once you finally see the gap between what you say matters and what your life reflects, you can change it. You empower yourself. Maybe not through massive reinvention or a perfect plan, but through the courage to do the things that matter first, to put the big rocks in first, to stop treating the things that matter like leftover. Because just like a meaningful life is rarely lost all at once, a beautiful life is also built quietly. One intentional day at a time. One aligned decision at a time.

One moment where you stop, look honestly at the tape, and decide, no. These are the things that matter most to me. And starting now, they are where I'll point my compass. We tell ourselves the path is complicated because it excuses us from taking the first simple step. But let's dive in further. If things are complicated, then we don't have to jump yet. We don't have to feel exposed yet. We don't have to step into discomfort yet.

Perfect. Our lizard brains love that. We can instead go on our comfort. fact-finding mission, looking for answers that really can never be found. Because what we're looking for only materializes in motion. It only shows up along the way. Sometimes I don't think it's conscious. Sometimes, I'm convinced we have no idea we're doing it.

Let me give you an example. You know, on this podcast, this channel, I like to share about my friends a lot because I'm fortunate enough to learn a lot from the people around me. So I'm going to do it again here and talk about my buddy Stephen Selly. But first, a little context. So recently, I've had some writers block just kind of stuck. Believe me, I talk about it a lot. It's not that I'm always stuck.

But when I'm not, when I feel like I'm cruising through a particular chapter, I don't share as much because that's not. really where I learn the most, right? Most value is in the overcoming. And so that's where I like to, you know, shine my spotlight. And so back to the example, right? Here I am, essentially trying to pivot on YouTube again. As we all know, this is an adapter die platform. And, you know, while my episodes and stories are popping off on Spotify and that's doing really well, that has not been the case on YouTube, right? At least not recently. And so what am I not going to do? I'm not going to blame the platform. Certainly not going to throw a fit. I have to adjust, right? I have to get better, period. I have to make sure I'm giving as much value to the audience as possible. That's it. That's the thing. That's the challenge. And so I'm thinking, all right, I finished a pretty powerful adventure a few weeks back with some friends. I documented it all. How about turning that into a masterpiece for YouTube, right? And really excited about the challenge.

A more advanced production, a pivot to that next level. And so I get all the video clips. I grab my mic. I have these ideas in my head. I have notes in my notebook. I sit in front of my computer. Day after day, I just freeze. It's bizarre, right?

I start telling myself, well, maybe you need help. Eddie, why are you even editing, right? Have your editors do this. These clips aren't good. enough you shot most of it on an iPhone right you didn't get drone shots ah this is too much like what I usually do oh now it's too far removed from what I usually do right you get the idea it's like you know this internal dialogue driving myself insane and the video still sitting there with zero progress okay

In comes Steve. And Sir Steve has many talents. But one of them is being in front of the camera. The dude has courage. Period. Objectively. He'll try things. He'll take creative risks.

And it's a numbers game, right? He'll tell you himself, sometimes he hits, sometimes he misses. Sometimes he really hits. Sometimes he wildly misses. That's the life of brand building and content creation. But the last year or so, he's gone all in on music. And I get a message from sends me this music video where he's at the beach performing one of his songs, right? And he asked if I'd give feedback.

I said, of course, happy to, right? And I watch it. And as I'm watching it, I'm like, wow, the cinematography is beautiful. And the idea is simple, you know, simple but well done. Like a cinematic simple, the kind that's hard to do. because when you're filming that type of thing, you take one step too far and you kind of overdo it.

It's easy with that kind of thing to quote unquote do too much, right? And so in my humble opinion, the dude just nails it on this video. And so we're talking, and I'm like, hey, who did the video for you? And he was me. And I said, and who else?

And he said, just me and a tripod. And I watch it again, and sure enough, y' up every, shot is still, right? There's no movement, clearly set up on a tripod. But the setup and the placement of the subject and the changes of scenery and the color grading was all so good that I didn't even notice. He's just having fun in front of his camera with, by the way, a lens and setup that cost one-third of what mine does. This is not about complexity. And that's kind of when I realized, like, I'm trying to complicate the simple,

trying to reverse engineer an outcome instead of just saying what I want to say. Instead of pressing play and letting it fly, right? I'm trying to find little pieces of perfection all around me when it's the imperfection that connects with people. It's the realness that matters. You do it because your soul is pulling you in that direction.

You're doing it because you're doing it because you love it. You're doing it because you have something to say. This isn't a paint by number. This isn't how do we get views. And deep down, I know that. I've always known that, but fear has a way of exposing you. It's subtle. And I didn't even realize the reason I was dragging my feet

is because somewhere deep down I was afraid. I was afraid that if this didn't work, I'd be back to square one. If this fell flat, I wouldn't have the answer that I was so sure I had. See, you don't win afraid. You can't win afraid. I don't need a Hollywood film crew

or sound engineers or some secret formula. I don't need to study 30 Mr. Beast videos or watch every ultramarathon documentary ever made. I need to trust myself and my abilities and what brought me here. What I need, like Steve, is to trust myself. enough to turn the camera on and just go to relish the simplicity because simple means less friction.

It means fewer obstacles between where you are and where you want to be. And look, I've been doing what I love for over a decade. And still, these reminders changed my life. Still, I get yanked under and need to be pulled up by those around me. Still, the basics become camouflaged behind things that don't matter at all. and I'm not ashamed of it.

It's life. The difference is now I recognize it. I remember that being stuck is being afraid. They're not different. And for every excuse we make to ourselves about not being ready, not being good enough, or having what we need, there's Stephen Selly on a beach

singing into a camera, set up on a tripod with zero excuses. Sure, this is me sharing a personal, epiphany, but it's also a call to arms, because I don't know you, but I bet you have some version of this in your world. I bet there's something you want to try or start. I know there's something that's been on your mind, perhaps tucked away, kept in the shadows until you promised yourself, the time is right. It will never be right. You'll never have everything. And the people that live lives of freedom, the ones who change things, they go. They don't tell themselves

they need Steven Spielberg. They grab the tripod and they walk outside. And you, in your world, you have what you need. And when your brain whispers that you don't know what that is, fear attempting to take you down. And so here's to making sure that fear misses. Here's to doing what matters to you simply because it matters to you. The rest, not some of the rest or pieces of the rest, but all of the rest is noise. He wasn't the best father, but he was the best father for me. A banger of a quote from my friend Michael, who I actually referenced a few days ago. I'm putting my buddy on blast here.

but I thought it was so moving that I asked if I could share it on the podcast. And a little bit of context, you know, we were talking, he was asking me about my childhood. And I said, you know, I'm a very lucky guy. I have two incredibly supporting, loving parents, and I don't ever take that for granted. And he goes, yeah, well, man, my childhood, it was hell. It was toxic. And I could give you a million examples, right? He goes on, he starts talking about his father and sort of the pain around that relationship.

And he says, you know, my dad wasn't the best. But over the years, I've learned that he was the best dad for me. It was because of that situation that, you know, I learned to be resilient. I learned to deal with hardship. And so Michael, for context, he's a fireman now. And obviously deals with some pretty gruesome stuff and says, you know, there's a, There are situations where, you know, the average person would turn white, you know, but I'm able to stay composed and deal with it and, you know, take the curveballs life puts in front

of me in stride. And I attribute a lot of that to the battles that I once fought in the work I've put in over the years to find good in those things. And I'm just thinking, man, everyone could use that, could hear that. Because even if it's not issues at home, as a kid, right? Maybe it's a toxic and unfortunate relationship. Imagine thinking, well, it wasn't the best relationship, but it was the best relationship for me. Because maybe it taught me, you know, what I want and what I don't. Maybe it reminded me how important it is to show up for yourself. Maybe it taught me to stand up and say never again, or a work experience that was brutal. It wasn't the best work experience, but it was the best work experience for me.

Because maybe I learned that starting with less money, but existing in a lane with the trajectory I care about, means more. Maybe I saw how important it is to work with people who bring positive energy and light. Sports injuries. Wasn't the best situation, but it was the best situation for me, because maybe it was an opportunity to rest, to strengthen other areas of my body, to improve form, to improve supporting muscles, and on and on, you get the idea. It's seeing value where others don't.

See, the thing about misfortune is it's often the portal to change. When things are, quote-unquote, okay, there's very little incentive to change or evolve. And funny enough, it's our darkest moments that prompt us to look within ourselves for answers. It's feeling down that brings us to the mirror. Where we're finally able to look ourselves in the eyes and say,

I'm ready, I'm ready to change. I'm ready to evolve. This is not going to define me. This is going to be a staircase. Remember that life is not happening to you, it's happening for you. But the value is very much dependent on you. Will you take this seemingly unfortunate outcome? and cash it in, turn it into something beautiful, or will you give it power over you?

See that quick convo with Michael? It reminded me that those things, things we often deem disappointing or tragic, less than ideal, they're the currency required to build a new life, to renovate our realities and expand the way we look at the world. Life is never going to be perfect. It's never going to be all rainbows and butterflies. It's a game of taking the pieces before you and building something with them. And as you know, you could drop the same pieces, the very same pieces, same ingredients, same circumstances at the feet of two different people. And one of those people could build a city on a hill and the other could build a literal cell with steel bars around themselves.

This convo was a voice whispering, hey, don't forget you have that choice. You get to choose what you'd like the world around you to look like. So when life drops something in front of you that seems counterproductive, that's painful, that on the surface certainly doesn't feel like the best thing for you, remember, it's very likely the best thing. for evolving into that person you're meant to become. There's a giant sleeping inside every one of us. Not dead or gone.

It's dated by routine, the normalcy of every day. Comfort, distraction, repetition of days that all kind of look the same after a while. And the dangerous thing about a sleeping giant is that eventually the giant forgets that it's a giant at all. It starts identifying with the cage instead of its strength. With the alarm clock instead of the dream, with survival instead of possibility. You see it every day, right? People with oceans inside them speaking in buckets of water. people born to create, lead, move, build, inspire, convincing themselves to, quote, be more realistic.

You see it in people standing inches away from a life that would light them on fire, that would totally transform their world. But they never touch it, because somewhere along the way they learn to fear their own. power and maybe that's the real tragedy of life. Not the things we usually think of, not failure or embarrassment or loss. Maybe the real tragedy is reaching the end and realizing that giant stayed asleep. I remember reading a story once about an old circus elephant. When that elephant was young, they tied its leg to a wooden stake. As a baby, no matter how hard that little elephant pulled, it couldn't break free. So what did it do?

The logical thing, eventually it stopped trying. But see, years later, that same elephant weighed thousands of pounds. Powerful enough to uproot trees, let alone that little wooden stake. Powerful enough to destroy the entire circus if it wanted to. But the trainer still tied it to that same tiny piece of wood.

And that elephant never moved. Not because it lacked. strength, but because it lacked belief. It didn't understand its power. It didn't understand the giant it was. See, that's most people, not trapped by reality, but trapped by memories, by limiting beliefs, by stories of not being adequate, good enough or capable, old identities, old fears, old failures. Old versions of themselves, they should have buried. years. You tried once and got hurt, so now you hesitate, right? You opened your heart once and got betrayed, so now you stay guarded. You chased a dream once and looked foolish, so now you play

small. But listen to me carefully. Your past is not proof of your limits. It's merely an indicator of where you chose to stop, and there's a monumental difference, because giants, They don't disappear. They sleep. They sleep under disappointment, sometimes under insecurity or years of distraction and numbness. Make no mistake, they're still there. And every time you feel restless, that's the giant shifting in its sleep.

Every time you look at someone fully alive and feel something ache in your chest, That's the giant recognizing itself, saying there has to be more than this. That's not sadness, my friends, that's a pulse. That's the part of you that remembers. And maybe awakening isn't some massive cinematic moment. Maybe it starts quite subtly. Maybe it's the morning you stop hitting snooze on your own life. The day you decide to train again or pick up the pen and write

again, the camera and create again, the mic and speak again. It's opening your door and believing again. Maybe awakening is simply refusing to abandon yourself. No, not for even one more day, because yeah, giants wake slowly. First comes awareness, then discomfort from the dissonance you feel. then hunger because of the possibility that exists around you, right? Then one day the things that used to intimidate, you start looking a little smaller and a little smaller and a little smaller.

You stop asking permission, stop negotiating with fear, you stop waiting for perfect understanding that perfect doesn't exist. And suddenly, the same person who once doubted everything becomes dangerous. Not dangerous to people, but to limitations, to mediocrity. Dangerous to that version of you that desperately wanted to settle. That's the moment life changes.

Not when the world finally sees you, but when you see yourself. Because buried beneath the fear and the insecurity and the exhaustion and disappointment, the hesitation. Underneath all of that, there's something enormous. enormous inside you, a force, a fire, a sleeping giant. And one day, if you let it, it will wake up. The question is whether you'll wake it intentionally or spend your entire life hearing it breathe beneath the surface. Wondering what could have happened if you'd answered.

Hold the vision, but trust the process. An idea that should act as our North Star, right, as we make our way through life, it proposes believing in a goal, but at the same time understanding that its manifestation will be unpredictable. Challenging, it may not unfold the way we thought it would. To me, though, the most challenging aspect of personal growth, of building the things that matter, creating realities we dream of. It's the mandatory dance we must do with time.

The patience that's woven into the equation, it's the empty spaces that we tend to use for manufacturing doubt and disbelief. When life has given us nothing to react to, it's like we create monsters in our heads. And it's really an incredible thing, when you think about it, right? I look back on the past decade of my life in the hardest parts,

and some were excruciating. They were pain derived from what I knew I hadn't yet accomplished. It was a feeling like I wasn't moving fast enough. Like the winners in life had that over there and all I had was this over here. Completely nonsensical narrative, but one that certainly felt real.

discomfort from the delta or the gap between what I wanted and what I had, a feeling that would randomly dip in and out of my conscious mind as I sort of chipped away at my goals day in and day out. And I started to wonder, how can I better position myself to grow, to maintain that ambition, but also to do it with less anxiety, right? As I stated a few seconds ago, hold that vision, but perhaps improve my trust and relationship with the process. My ability to immerse myself in various pursuits without dwelling on the fact that I hadn't yet arrived. Because look, I know this game. We all know this game. There's always going to be another finish line to cross. That's a great thing, but can also, when we're not looking at it

correctly be to our detriment. There are always higher numbers to achieve. Again, incredible opportunity, but with the wrong perspective, dangerous. If you can't find a way to appreciate the now while you climb, you will be forever lost. There will always be a hole that's never filled. I think we need to be better about supporting ourselves along this journey. No one can be there for me like I can. And I think that's true for everyone. We need to be our greatest allies. So I brought this question up, as I tend to do, with a few of my friends, right, with different perspectives. They look at the world a little differently.

And basically ask, you know, how can we get out of our own ways? Is there a lane to both be tenacious in our pursuit of evolution to continue doing the things that excite and challenge us, while also being a little easier on ourselves, trusting that dance we do with time. as the process unfold. And so I present this question to one of my friends sitting across me at the table and he thinks about it. He says, Eddie, well, that's what's got you where you are. That feeling like there's always more. It's the reason for the success you've had and the success you'll have in the future.

It's what will push you. It's why you will succeed. People that accomplish things are never satisfied. Jordan was never satisfied. He was never happy. And in that context, greatness and happiness are not compatible. And, you know, I took it in. I certainly appreciated the perspective, right?

In many ways, I think he's right. Sort of reminded me of the idea behind Tim Grover's book, Relentless, that it's an obsession that must take place. It doesn't leave room for much else, right? Incredibly valuable to understand, if anything, just to see, just to grasp what it means to achieve in a world of obstacles. but truthfully, I wasn't entirely satisfied. How can we better visualize the process

so that we're more powerful allies to ourselves? That's what I wanted to understand. And a short time later, I'm at the kitchen table, kind of going over some analytics for social media, YouTube channel, podcast, stuff like that. And my father, who happened to fly in from Boston, he's at the kitchen table with me. We're having some coffee.

And I made a comment about the trajectory of the numbers. You know, I forget that particular week. Maybe it was higher or lower than expected. I don't really remember. But he made this comment about the patience that I've had with the channel over the years. Just an offhand remark. You know, he said the numbers are like the SMP 500, right? The stock market.

There are days when it drops. There are days when it rises. But over the long haul, it's steadily. pointed up and it continues to point up. And I found that so interesting. You know, I harp on the small things a lot on this channel, the little breakthroughs that paved the way for larger transformation, ideas that change the way we look at things, which ultimately changed the way we act, which change the results we get, and this happened to be one of them. You know, it hit me just right. what is perhaps the most important piece in the famous book,

The Intelligent Investor? What is the idea that made Buffett a billionaire? It's that you invest in things you believe in and you remove the emotion. You hold the dips, right? When the stock market takes a hit and everyone's panicking and acting emotionally and selling, you don't sell. You buy more.

When the world emotionally rushes out, you rush in. And when the world emotionally rush in, you step out. Well, in life, there will be days when your metaphorical stock drops. At least you feel like it does. Right? Those YouTube numbers, perhaps numbers in the old bank account, maybe fitness goals fall flat. Maybe you're just not seeing a return on investment. But we are never defined by the events of the day.

Even the worst of days, there are maybe. a small part of a much larger pattern and the truth is sometimes success is so small you can't see it. Of course you're going to be anxious if you think every day should be comprised solely of mountaintops and finish lines if you're always looking comparing contrasting. But sometimes success is 0.0001% better. Sometimes success looks like the S&P 500 taking a hit, dropping for a day, a week, or a month. Sometimes growth doesn't look like what we want growth to look like. But just like intelligent investors, you are putting your money in the belief that at a certain

point down the road, the value will be higher then than it is now. And this idea has been everything to me, particularly on the days when it feels like things are going backwards over periods of time where I feel like I've been standing. standing still where the voice in my head is presenting all kinds of scenarios that I could have been better or done more and maybe so. But these times are nothing more than data points. They are steps along the way. And knowing this, it essentially frees me from the delusion that growth is always visible, that I can always look around and see visible triumph.

It allows me to march towards my goals and my dreams having a renewed relationship with each step. There's a saying that we need to keep our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground. Life is a continual juggling of extremes, and I think this gets it right. Our strength is in the ability to take those steps. Each one a message to the universe

that we are stronger than we were yesterday. But what makes our journeys truly divine is that they aren't comprised of or built with those steps like a house of cards, where one wrong move or some delay will cause the whole thing to fall to come crashing down. No, what makes the journey divine is the infinite number of paths

that can bring about its materialization. There are no wrong paths. Some arrive sooner, some arrive later, some mid-journey, causes to realize that the compass wasn't even pointed in the right destination, right? They change what it means to arrive. But the point is every step is required, every step is a miracle, but the power is not contained solely in one step. But rather, what we choose to make of all the steps combined,

the dips, the lows, and the losses only have. have significance if we give them significance. Otherwise, there are just a few stops along the way to something beautiful. So why exhaust energy on data points that haven't arrived yet, on destinations in the future? Destinations that we trust ourselves to figure out anyway. Our emphasis should be on the present moment, on gratitude for the fact that we get to wake up and choose the pursuits that we've chosen. In some days, those pursuits will feel like the miracles that they are.

We'll see the finish lines, the mountaintops. We'll feel triumphant. And some days, those victories will be hidden in plain view, but they are there nonetheless. As we make our way into the great unknown that is life, piecing each second, each minute, each hour together, to become the path leading us where we need to be most. Sometimes you can do everything right and still not get the result you want. This, as the saying goes, is life.

I was chatting with my friend DJ recently. He plays baseball in Austria in the summer and fall. He's a pitcher and shared something with me that I'd never really thought about. I guess simply being that I'd never pitched, right? But I love baseball, grew up watching the socks, and, you know, really love the metaphors for life. I've talked a lot about that sort of parallel. Most of them we've heard, right?

Like a batter that hits 300, which is essentially three hits out of every tenant bats, excluding walks, is an above average player. That's a lot of failure. That means they fail more than twice as much as they succeed. Right? We've all heard that on and on and on. But this angle I'd never heard. We were a few of us sitting at dinner.

And he said, you know, there are times when the catcher calls for a particular pitch. Places his catcher's mitt exactly where he wants the ball. And then, you know, DJ is the pitcher, receiving the call and seeing the glove, could theoretically execute on that pitch perfectly. He could release the ball, have it move exactly the way he wants it to, on trajectory to land right in the catcher's mitt, but still the batter makes contact. Somehow, the pitcher did exactly what he was supposed to

and still gives up a hit. And I'm listening to him to describe it, and it was so matter-of-factly, you know, when he was talking about it, I was sort of anticipating some animation. I feel like I would be so dramatic if that were me, right? And the guy still somehow gets a hit. But that's not what it was like.

He was just, it happens. You have to immediately forget about it and think about the next pitch. You're always immersed in one thing, the pitch you're throwing. I just thought that was so cool and so powerful. And see, here's the thing, right? None of this is an avoidance of responsibility. I think he'd agree with regard to baseball. You know, certainly in life.

The vast majority of circumstances, let's face it, They are self-created. Not all, but certainly most, and the ones that aren't, it's often on us to have, you know, prepared for that unknown. But when I know I fell short or I can measure where I didn't hit the mark, it's frustrating, sure, but at least it's understandable. It makes sense in my head. It's the way things should be. I wasn't good enough, therefore the result was X. It's easier to get over those things. also because you now know what must be done to improve.

The times, however, when we feel like we've given our all, done what we were supposed to, and life still smirks and says, nope, not today, it just hurts a little more. My parents trying to explain to me gently as a child that life isn't fair. Well, that childlike frustration doesn't seem to leave, right? It's on us to properly internalize and digest the reality. Just like a pitcher hitting his spot and still getting crushed, there is a patience and short-term memory required. Plenty of examples, right?

You can be there for someone. Go out of your way to be kind, add value, make their life better, and still get mistreated. That's not fair, but it happens. Another example, just kind of off the top, right? You can invest your money, do exactly what you're supposed to, the whole 401K thing. And the stock market takes a dive. Is that fair?

Technically, you knew the risk. It's still frustrating. You did what you were supposed to, right? You can practice something for months or years and still not make the cut. You can eat healthy, live a healthy lifestyle, and still get sick. Fair? I mean, not on paper. But it's life.

In theory, there's a certain reciprocity you come to expect from the universe that never arrives, right? Greatness is observing, learning not to take it personally, and moving on, right to the next pitch. If you fixate on what let you down, you give that thing power over you. Here's another sort of different angle on this. Someone recently sent me a link to his substack. And I was taking a look around the platform, right? I'd never really explored it. And came across an article by Dan Coe, who's another content creator on a variety of social media platforms.

And, you know, in this article, he's listing off all his failed businesses. But I almost couldn't believe it, right? Not because it didn't make sense, but because I'd always known the guy as, you know, an intelligent media person. with millions of followers. I never took the time to think about him struggling through failed, you know, drop shipping businesses, SEO consulting, marketing agencies. You know, the list just seemed to go on and on and on. And you can almost feel that sort of short-term memory baked into his journey.

Now, I don't know him. This is all speculation, but it would only make sense, right, to have evolved that far, to have continued. continuously moved on. Sometimes life just shakes its head, and you can't personalize it. You can't see it as the world chaining you down or you not being good enough. It's like, no, you learn from this experience. De-personalize it emotionally.

Next pitch. Next thing. Next adventure. Onward. You just can't stop. Don't get lost in what's gone. Sometimes our idea of reciprocity and vicarity and vans. validation is respected and life makes sense and all is well in the world.

Things are quote unquote as they should be. But sometimes things feel unfair. Whether you're a pitcher hitting the right spot and still getting hit, an entrepreneur in the arena, in the battlefield, putting in work and not having it click or toddler Eddie, right? Taken aback by the notion that suddenly there are no more push pops in the freezer. growth is knowing that fairness or life's supposed to's they are a guide. They're not the rule. And if you feel slighted by life when it pulls the rug out from under you and it will to all of us at some point,

then you're losing the very thing that will make you great. You can't stop someone who refuses to quit, who stays composed and who simply, moves forward. Next. The saddest words in life aren't I failed. The saddest words in life are, I wonder what would have happened if I tried. Imagine that after your final day on Earth,

before whatever comes next, right, you're invited to walk through a museum. And it's this giant building marble floors, high ceilings, silent halls. The first is all familiar. You begin reading the plaques and you start to recognize,

wait a minute, that was a business that I never started. It was an idea that I spent some time thinking about. Huh. Continue down the hall. You see a book that was never written.

On stories that you thought would be cool if they got out to the world, but never quite got to the forefront of your priorities. A giant mural showing a relationship that was never pursued. An exhibit with a city that was never moved to. A conversation that was never had. An apology that was never given. Exhibit after exhibit after exhibit.

A version of yourself that never existed. And every exhibit carried the exact same title. Quote, almost. You keep walking, room after room, hall after hall, almost, almost, almost, almost. You recognize the faces. They're your faces. But different versions of you, different timelines and possibilities. Not fantasies, necessarily.

Not impossible dreams. Things that surely could have happened. Things that wanted to happen. They sat on the edge of your life for years whispering. But fear and comfort. And the need for certainty, they all whispered just a little louder. And suddenly you realize this isn't a museum. This is evidence.

This is evidence of every invitation life extended that you declined. evidence that was impossible to grasp on earth. But nevertheless, evidence that existed all along. And this thought experiment weighs heavy. This is where it gets personal. When I think about the museum, I don't think about YouTube necessarily or speaking. I don't think about the things that worked.

I think about the things that pushed me way outside my comfort zone. Things now on the periphery of normal, on the fringes of life. You know, one being my apparel company, AGMS, always grateful, never satisfied. Because if I'm being honest, there are easier businesses, far easier. Businesses with better margins, less inventory, less complexity, less risk. There's a million roads that would have made more sense on paper. But every time I tried to walk away from that idea, the idea of building a brand and apparel around it,

a community of people that believe in something and want to rep that idea, something just pulls me back. Not because it's logical, it doesn't have to be, but because it means something. Because it represents something, because every design, every message is another way of expressing what I and the people in my,

circle believe. Sometimes I ask myself what happens if I don't do this? Not if it fails, but what happens if I don't do it? What happens if I choose a safer route or a more practical, predictable route? Immediately my mind goes back to that museum. I see an exhibit behind glass, a brand that could have existed, that could have changed things or stood for something, a community that could formed, people that could have connected, lives that could have been impacted, and that plaque underneath that says, almost, that scares me more than failure, and it should scare you more than failure as well. Failure is part of the ride. But becoming a spectator to my own potential, watching something meaningful remain trapped in possibility, that's terrifying. Now expand

this museum, right? First lesson is obvious. Look at the things you've been avoiding, the business, the book, the call, the move, the dream. The thing that keeps tapping you on that shoulder, stop pretending you don't see it, because one day you may have to walk past it hanging on a wall, and that's painful enough. But the second lesson is even more unsettling. Imagine walking into a room you never expected and seeing exhibits that shock you. A painting, a company, a mission, life, a contribution, something extraordinary, and you start thinking, wait, that was available to me? That was all possible? That could have been my life?

You never pursued it because you never imagined yourself capable. You played small and made assumptions. Essentially accepted a definition of yourself that was too narrow. You never even applied or explored. Not because you couldn't. And that's the billion dollar detail. but because you didn't believe that you could. And suddenly the museum becomes far more than a collection of missed opportunities.

It becomes a collection of stolen identities, versions of yourself that never got introduced to the world, not because they weren't real, but because they were never given permission to emerge. That's what I want this museum to remind you. You've wanted, but rather how little of yourself you've explored. Think about how many rooms remain unopened. Think about how many gifts remain undiscovered

and possibilities that are hidden beneath versions of you that are playing it safe. Because I'll reiterate it, the greatest tragedy isn't failing, it's graduating from life without ever meeting that person you could have become. One day we will leave this museum behind. The question is not whether your name will be hanging on the walls. The question is whether those halls, will be filled with exhibits or empty with places you turn that possibility into something meaningful.

May your life be so fully lived that when you arrive at the museum of almost, you walk through its halls as a stranger because everything that belonged there, you brought into the life. A couple days ago, I needed to get away. Nothing dramatic or anything like that. Just one of those times were a change of scenery is warranted. You know, one of the things I love about living in Arizona is an adventure is always, you know, right outside your front door. You just throw some stuff in the car, drive a few hours, and find yourself somewhere that makes you feel small.

And so that's what we did. We packed up some gear, headed north, spent the night camping, and then the next morning found ourselves standing at the entrance to the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon. Now, if you've ever hiked before, and I suspect most of us have, you know how this story goes. Most hikes begin at the bottom, and the challenge is the climb. Every step upwards is the work. And depending on the hike, you know, you'll get your lungs burning and the legs aching and the sweating and a little bit of suffering in there. But that's the point, right? You keep going because you know what's waiting for you at the top, that beautiful view, the reward, a moment.

to take it all in that makes all the effort worth it. And then after you're done, you descend the mountain and gravity becomes your friend. It's like the reward continues. Now you get to sort of float down the hard parts over, the trip back down is easy. You've earned it. That's how most mountains work. But the Grand Canyon isn't most mountains. The Grand Canyon is, well, the inverse of most mountains.

At Bright Angel, you begin at ground level. which is the top, and the first step takes you down. And every other step after that takes you deeper, deeper into the canyon, deeper into the silence, deeper into something that feels almost endless. It's strange how easy it feels going down as you're descending, right? And gravity's helping you, and the views are just, I mean, breathtaking. There's no other way to put it.

It's just towering walls of red rock and ancient lollings. layers carved by time, colors that truly look like a cartoon. It's like the deeper you go, the more beautiful it becomes. You get immersed in this. And I think because it's beautiful, you don't always realize how far you've gone. You just kind of keep walking. One turn becomes another, becomes another. One incredible view after incredible view.

And before long, pretty deep in that canyon. And then you start seeing a signer to. And they say the same thing, right? Going down is optional. Going up is mandatory. Sounds obvious. Of course it is. You have to come back.

But the more I thought about it, the more profound it felt. Because what those signs are really saying is, hey, be careful how far you go. Because every step downward creates a future step upward. Every mile you descend eventually becomes a mile you have to. climb. Every commitment creates a cost, every dream creates a responsibility, and standing there in the canyon, I realize that's not just how hiking works, that's how life works. Life gives us all a trailhead. And from that trailhead, we get to decide how far we're willing to go. Nobody's forcing us. Nobody's standing behind us with the stopwatch. Nobody requires

us to pursue something extraordinary. We don't have to. to write the book or start the business. We don't have to reinvent ourselves. We don't have to chase a dream that keeps us awake at night. We don't have to ask more of ourselves than what is necessary. Life will gladly let us stay at the top near that rim. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you choose to go deeper, If you choose to explore what you're capable of and follow that pull of something bigger, understand what comes with it. Because eventually there is a climb and there is resistance. Eventually there are moments when your legs do shake,

and moments when you do question yourself. Moments as you ascend this staircase into the clouds when you wonder whether that journey was worth it. You'll want to quit, you'll want to stop. And that's where so many people become confused. They think the struggle means they made a mistake. Pain equals wrong, right? That's what the brain likes to signal. They think the difficulty's evidence they should turn back. That the difficulty is an evidence you're lost. Difficulty is evidence that you went somewhere. The climb is not punishment, it's the receipt. It's the natural consequence of caring enough to go deeper than most people are willing to go. Think about the person that walks, you know, a few

hundred feet down that path and then turns around. Maybe they wanted to step in, take a quick snapshot with the camera and get back to the car. Their climb is easy, right? Their legs didn't burn, their lungs didn't scream. There was no questioning themselves. But they also didn't have the experience you did. The same perspective or stories. They didn't get the transformation at the top. In fact, the top probably meant very little to them. Now think about the person who goes all the way down.

I think it's about 14 miles, right? The person who disappears into the depths. The person who keeps walking long after it becomes inconvenient. Their climb is brutal. They earn every step. But when they finally reach the top, top of that rim again, they're not the same person who started. And that's the part that struck me most. When you arrive back at the top, you're standing in the exact same place. Geography has not changed.

Parking lots still there, trailhead, canyon, all still there. The only thing that's different is you. You left one version of yourself at the top and another version came back. Stronger and wiser. more aware of what you're capable of enduring. That's why the view feels different. Not because the canyon changed you did, and that is the lesson. Life does not demand greatness. It doesn't demand extraordinary effort. Certainly doesn't demand you descend into the depths of your potential.

Those things are all optional, completely optional. But if you want an extraordinary life, If you want the perspective that comes from seeing what's possible and the confidence that comes from discovering what you're capable of, then eventually you'll have to go deeper than what's comfortable. Eventually, you'll have to commit. Eventually, you'll have to accept the climb. And when the climb comes, don't curse it, don't resent it.

Smile. You chose it. Hard is proof that you picked something worth pursuing. Hard is proof you went somewhere. You dared to descend farther than most people will ever. And one day, standing at the rim again, you'll understand something most people never do. The view was never the reward the person you became on the journey was.

I am imperfect. A fraction of the man I hope to be someday. You know what? here I go and forward I march if you thought being real took courage wait until you hear about the courage

required to be imperfect to start before you're ready to build without all the tools to present yourself to the world unpolished anything but buttoned up pulled not by guarantee but by belief in your heart

that something better awaits I don't really know what prompted it, but I was kind of in my head running an inventory of the last few friends I've talked to on my phone. I want to share a few of them. Tom, a recovered addict, and now CEO of a multimillion dollar business in OKC. Terry, similar beginning, fought through alcoholism,

a liver transplant. Years later, owns a very successful marketing organization. Happy relationship. Michael, abusive childhood, now a legend of a human being, firefighter, builder, flipping real estate. Eric, ex-cop, saw things so sad and traumatic that it took him years to get over it. In many ways, he expresses he still is, and now one of the most sought-after trainers in the country. Work with a list of clients that would make your head spin. And Wesley, who I recently met, battled through cancer, health issues so much more,

and is truly a source of light in this world, building his own inspirational brand now. And I bring these people up not because they battled, and they all did. I bring them up because sometimes I marvel at the courage to stand back up after being hit that hard and decide to build again. Here's what I know. You don't climb your way back from addiction and immediately think, you know what? I deserve to be CEO of a multimillion dollar company.

Think about the pain, the identity shift, the process of earning your own confidence, the mornings of self-doubt, convincing yourself that you aren't who you were, you're who you choose to be today. See, we don't talk about those things often, because let's face it, we don't see them that often. It's behind the scene.

But that, as far as I'm concerned, is courage to its fullest extent. I am imperfect. I am a fraction of the man I hope to someday be, but you know what, here I go forward. I march. Because the normal human condition is to be so wrapped up in our own battles

that we sometimes feel we are the only ones going through it. We forget. Others dealt with pain. We overlook the fact that many of the people we look up to push through a fog of doubt every morning so thick that

they aren't sure what the other end will look like. Now, there are a couple of ways to take all this. And let's run that thought experiment. Route one, you fixate on the fact that the human condition is suffering. It's inescapable pain and anguish. Or you take route two.

And you think, despite that truth, look what these people rose to create. Look what so many others made with their quote unquote unfortunate situation. And hey, look what I can do with mine. It's funny, I read it so long ago now that I only remember like a handful of ideas from the book. But in Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death, I'll never forget the suggestion that the human predicament is we are simultaneously gods and worms. Worms because we are imperfect flesh, flawed, decaying in many ways lost. Yet despite these natural, animalistic characteristics,

we have this beautiful, god-like ability to transcend, to walk eyes wide into the abyss, not knowing what awaits, feeling anything but ready, and somehow pushing through the terror, avoiding the grasp of despair, And then there's the notion that, yeah, it's one thing to survive. It's another thing altogether to come out on the other side

and build something beautiful on the corpse of what could have been your excuse. To dance on the grave of regret as you offer something divine to a world that desperately needs it. It's easy for us to overthink this, right? Especially since on paper it doesn't really make sense. sense. Ask a five-year-old. Hey, should you go before you're ready? They would almost certainly say no. Is falling good or bad? They would almost certainly say bad. That's sort of intuitive. But these are the truest tests of our courage. Not can I move forward when I feel good. Are you willing to reinvent yourself when you don't? See, what's inside you can take?

you to the ends of the earth. It can unlock any door. It can act as a light in even the darkest of nights. But the requirement, the variable on which all of this depends is can you push through, not as the hero, but as a work in progress. Imperfect. Can you be imperfect? See, the divine wants to work through you. That's a belief. I hold dearly. But you have to trust enough to open yourself up to march forward. Amidst instincts that pull you back. You have to rise beyond an environment that often tries to keep you down.

The courage to carry on when you feel beaten down, small, lost, or hurt. It isn't some of the thing. It isn't part of the thing. It is the thing. The greater your understanding of that, the more that scale shifts away from the worm. You need to trust yourself. Yes, you.

Think about it. Why would you trust strangers over your own intuition? Why would you give others sway over the things in life that matter to you most. Close your eyes and imagine that perfect ending, that North Star. Why would you so easily trade that away? You know, and I'm not sure if it's simply out of caution

because historically I've been overly thorough, but it's always been incredibly important to me that I get consensus that my friends or family or people that have had success in business, I really wanted them to feel what I felt and see what I saw. And I'm guessing that, you know, in some capacity we all do. We like to hear, hey, that's a great idea. You're amazing.

That's incredible. But I want to show that other than validating our egos, feedback, negative or positive, is often pointless. Let me first start with what I'm not saying. I'm not saying ignore the analytics, the number. and data. I'm not saying to go through life blind. I'm not saying your audience or customers or support base is wrong when they push back on something, a product or service or a creation. What I'm saying is simply this. The world cannot see your idea. It is make-belief. It's irrational. Nothingness. Until, of course, it's built and placed in front of them. To have a pull

inside you to create something, but then refuse to bring it to life because of what others say. It's like being judged for a bodybuilding competition two years before the competition date. Quitting, right? It doesn't make sense. You'd be graded on a pure hypothetical. I've had very smart people tell me things in my life wouldn't work or didn't make sense, and they were wrong. And it's not personal. It's just that my goals existed outside of what they understood. Even smart people operate from their own lived experience. I've had friends, you know, poke fun or give me a hard time about some of the things I've done creatively over the years. And then this is zero exaggeration, ask me for help, teaching them how to do those very same things.

I spoke about this a little bit starting out, but in many ways the cycle repeats itself. people ignore or show no support for what you're trying to do until it works. Then all of a sudden, like moths to a flame, they're back, right? Dying to reconnect because it's quote unquote been too long. Time to catch up. All this stuff, I used to take this personally, like very personally. And I bring it up now because it's one of the things people want to talk about with me more than anything else. At least as far as, you know, online questions go or people asking questions about,

starting a channel or building a media company or whatever it is, comments, DMs, emails. Same theme, right? Disappointment for not feeling supported by those who you thought would be there when you're doing something vulnerable. And it's like, it's not personal. You have to remember, it's never personal. The fast you learn that, the better, right? Because of two universal truths.

One, people just act in their own interest. just what they do. And two, people can only see what's in front of them. This means necessarily that their feedback is just hypothetical on top of hypothetical. Hey, I really love your opinion on the weather for July 16th next year. Uh, what? And why? That doesn't make sense.

Same idea. People act in their own self-interest. People can only see what's in front of them to ask. more than that, you're not doing yourself any favors, right? And if that's true, then why would you expect them to see something that doesn't exist? Why would you expect them to feel what you feel? To carry your vision with the same conviction you carry it. The dream was given to you.

The pull is yours. So is the responsibility. Not because you're special or smarter, simply because you're the one who can see it. That's the deal. The artist sees the best. painting before there's paint on the canvas the entrepreneur sees the company before there's a customer the writer sees the story before there's a page you get where i'm going with this right

every meaningful thing begins as something invisible and if you require proof before you move if you require that consensus before you act or permission before you believe you'll spend the rest of your life waiting for other people to validate a future that only you can see you have to learn to trust yourself. Trust that feeling that keeps showing up and the idea that won't leave, the voice beneath all the noise, because one day the world may see it.

You know, they'll understand. And then at that point, I'm sure they'll call it obvious. But long before any of that happens, there will be a moment when it's just you, just you in a decision to move forward without certainty. Build without applause. Believe before there's evidence.

That moment, is where every extraordinary life begins. The world, it needs you. But it needs the real you. Not the one with the mask looking to blend in, nor the one making all those concessions to avoid being left out. No, the real you.

With your flaws and your insolence, your strengths and your gifts, your hopes and your dreams. It needs the you that so often hides away underneath that blanket of caution and skepticism. The you that's coupled with vulnerability. More easily ignored than brought to life with conviction, but that's the you this world needs. When I was younger, I seemed to separate life into two categories. Me and one, and everyone else in the other.

And guess which of the two categories I assumed had it all figured out? In my mind, I was the one, the only one who didn't know. The one who was winging it, stumbling my way through each and every day. All those other people, though, they not only had plans, They had the right plans. They knew the right details. But I didn't. And so in my head, me being right required I necessarily look to them.

I follow their lead. Since there exists an established correct path, that must be where I steer the ship. But then some time passes. You grow older. Maybe pick up a little wisdom. pick up a little wisdom along the way. And you realize that no one really knows what they're doing.

There are very few objectively correct roads that must be traveled. Life is not a paint by number, it's a blank canvas. And understanding this changed the image in my head from one of me knocking on the door of a party everyone else was at, to visualizing almost 8 billion individual souls running around trying to figure things out in the limited stretch of time they have here on planet Earth. I realized I had at times felt small only because of the gravity I attributed to people

who were just trying to figure it out themselves. And the point, certainly not to diminish anyone else's journey, it was to give myself permission to embark upon my own. It's just hard to do that when you view everyone else as one collective, all-knowing entity. As opposed to 8 billion people just like you with thoughts, fears, hopes, and plans. The question is not what is the right thing to do here. The question is, when will you allow yourself to venture out into the world and find what the right thing means for you.

That's what's required. And the world will be better for you having found it. Because after all, no one sees life like you do. No one has the background or worldview. The universe has conspired to put you as you are here now. Almost an impossible occurrence in and of itself. How easy that is to forget. We were born on the summit, yet the inclination for some reason is to keep our eyes closed.

No, open them. Take it all in. Allow the view to propel you forward. The world needs you. It needs you with your mistakes that have helped you evolve into the person you could never have been without them. It needs you with your worries and your fears. Conquering them will be pivotal in your evolution. It needs you with your flaws and blemishes.

How else would life convince you that the things that make you different are the same things that make you strong? It doesn't matter how many people tell you or try to explain to you the magnitude of what's at your feet. Life does not begin until you allow yourself to start living. Until you realize that yesterday does not define you. And the categories in which you've placed yourself, they're transitory. The past is not the reason you can or can't begin again. It's not who you are forever. No, it's the advantage you now possess as you move forward.

Should you choose to move forward? It's in realizing you are bound by nothing that you free yourself. And for the one wondering, why does it matter what I think? Why should I start or try or risk anything? Why should I pick up the brush and start painting on that canvas before me? Well, because that step is where it all begins, the meaning, the purpose, it's all predicated upon our willingness to pick that brush up and start painting. You ask what's the point?

The point is everything. One detail at a time, we disdemean. mantle our previously held notions about what life is supposed to be and finally start living one that matters. No one's masterpiece will look like yours. No one's depiction of life will follow the same parameters you've etched onto that canvas. In fact, there are people that will be changed forever because you chose to live your life fully. There are lives of those around you that will be transformed because you will be transformed because

you picked up the brush. There are stories that will now end in triumph because you found the courage to start, to see light in yourself. You being fulfilled and the world being better off, they're not two different things. When you live a life true to yourself, when you let go of the half-toes and step into the get-toes,

the world experiences the luxury of the beauty that comes next. When you fill your cup up first, you're able to then replenish those around you. That's not nothing. So who are you? Beneath the characterizations, beneath the roles you've taken on,

beneath what you feel you're supposed to be. All that. Who are you and will you give life to that person? Will you be that person? that courageous. After all, that's what life is. It's not a game of right and wrong so much as it's a game of courage. The ones willing to take the leap end up worlds away from where they begin. So my ask of you is that you begin tearing down those walls created in your head. The ones that accumulated over days and months and years. The ones that box you in,

or keep you out that suggest you are anything other than that one in 400 trillion miracle ready to embark upon the right of a lifetime and sure it means shedding the comfort of obscurity the safety of projection looking yourself in the mirror and saying I am worth it and there's more out there means without question you are taking off the training wheels dancing with vulnerability. But it also means when that time comes and you look back on how you lived your days, you can say I truly lived. You can say that the world needed me. And I had the courage to heed its call. And that is the nature of the game. Glory and pain walk side by side. Last weekend, there was a pretty big UFC fight.

Now, when it comes to the UFC, I'll just get this out of the way. I'm as bandwagon as it gets. I know very little, like three or four fighters. But my buddies were super hyped about it. They got me sucked into it. And it was a blast to watch. I want to share something about the fight, or post-fight, I should say. But you don't need to know anything about the sport at all for this to connect.

So hang with me for a second. There was a fighter on the card named Ilya Tuporia, heavily the favorite, and ended up losing. I shocked a lot of people. At least my buddies seemed to be very surprised. And, you know, it's one day later, and I want to read you the statement he shared following the fight after it starts Justin, which is the name of the fighter who beat him. Congratulations. You said you'd leave your mark on my face and you did. You took the sight from my right eye in the first round,

and by the end of the second from my left, too. No excuses. I had one of the best camps of my life. I came in sharp, prepared, and ready. Last night was your night. That's the nature of this game. Glory and pain walk side by side. I'll heal, all rest.

and I'll return stronger, wiser, and far more dangerous. And trust me, this story between us is far from over. We will have our rematch. Now, I'm sharing this, because I believe this should be the ethos we all live by. And I want to dive into it. First and foremost, he was beaten by a supposed, you know, quote unquote, lesser opponent. He doesn't shake his fist at the sky and scream. Doesn't make excuses, doesn't pretend he had a hidden injury or wasn't feeling well,

or was disadvantaged somehow before the fight. No, he says, today you were better than me. You were the better man. And every day we show up and step into the arena, we all know, right, there's a chance that our adversaries will get the best of us. This possibility is what scares a large amount of people into hiding, into a life lived not on the stage or on the court or in the octagon, but in the stands, clapping, cheering, booing instead of stepping in.

Ilya went to war knowing what was at stake. His opponent got the better of him, and instead of deflecting or the inverse, feeling down on himself and his own abilities, he simply acknowledged that every day cannot be your day and vowed to show up again, better prepared, better equipped, and ready to redeem himself. He says, and this is everything, quote, that's the nature of this game. Glory and pain walk side by side. In the octagon, it's very easy to understand this. It's literal, physical, combat.

The winner and the loser endure blows to the head in the body, physical duress, exhaustion, not to mention the training and discipline leading up to the fight. It's very easy to turn on the TV and visualize that, to connect those dots. The game of life, however, while the exact same is slightly more subtle. See, when things happen to us in life, it's not our first instinct to close our eyes, breathe, and say, hey, sometimes life throws haymakers. It's not personal. It's part of the game.

No, we get worked up. We deem it unfair. Project out. It's kind of poking fun at myself. Last week I got a ticket from California for a car that apparently went through a toll with a similar license plate. And just kind of set me over the edge, right? It was like a straw that broke the camel's back thing. Long day.

But, I mean, it's such a small thing. I can fix that with a phone call. It's nothing. Imagine the bigger things that collapse in front of us or, you know, diverge from our expectations. The loss, the heartbreak, the letdowns, the pain. Sometimes a day that should be easy gets the best of us, right? And we have to decide, you know, what it means

and how we're going to process it. We're in the octagon of life trying to win the day, preparing the best we can, showing up, and sometimes it's just not our day. And I'm going to etch that quote into my brain. I encourage you to do the same. That is the nature of the game. Glory and pain walks side by side.

If you want the glory, the growth, the joy, the peak moments, there will be pain. There will be suffering, necessarily. That's the contract that you sign. We go to the gym to break our moment. muscles down so that they can heal and grow back stronger. We run to push our bodies, tax our lung capacity so that we can become slightly more efficient next time. We put out first drafts and rough iterations with our businesses and social media accounts and careers so that we can find

the imperfections and work on them and improve and grow. So many of us get it wrong, backwards even. Pain is not the thing we avoid. Pain is the price to get into the show. Pain is what a life well-lived costs. Pain is the seed that ultimately becomes glory. Some days will be victorious. They will be fully and entirely yours. Celebrate them. Work so that the space between them becomes less and less. but on the days that the adversary wins, the villain gets away or the carefully thought out plan dissipates

like sand through your fingers. Let's commit to a path of not taking it personally or projecting out, but instead to tipping your cap and saying, you may have gotten me today. But you just wait. Just wait for my return because I won't be the same.

In fact, this is the last time you'll witness this version of me. Pain and glory walk side by side. And I will forever dance with the former in order to create a life worthy of the latter. I had a friend reach out last month and pitch an idea. Eddie, there's a 150-mile bike race called the MS-150. See, it's happening right here in Texas near Houston. But Eddie, instead of cycling it, what if we rocked it?

And for those who don't know, rucking is essentially walking with a weighted vest or backpack on. He continued, so it takes the bikers two days. But if we leave a few days before them, we'll then have four days to cross the finish line at the same time. I did the math slightly less than 40 miles a day it's a lot we laughed no one's done it before

we laughed again crazy but ultimately we agreed partially because he's an amazing dude and partially because I know that the best experiences of my life have all been born of seemingly spontaneous ideas

with people I cared about that pushed me further than I knew I could go We told people They laughed and said it was crazy We smiled and agreed Sure enough the day arrived We were accompanied by a mutual friend Making it three of us rucking total

As well as our significant others who were alongside us The entire time in a bronco filled with food, drinks and medical supplies As we started out we laughed Boys This is crazy This is crazy. But just like it takes a fraction of a second to realize your hand is on a burning stove,

we weren't really sure what we gotten ourselves into. Day one was fun, actually. At least most of it. Setting down the camera, walking past it to get those artsy passing by shots, close-ups of flowers and trees blowing in the wind. The three of us reminiscing about old stories, lessons, some dad jokes, even some friendly debate, which I'm sorry, but you guys cannot convince me

that we haven't been to the moon. As much as it drives all my buddy's crazy, I won't bend. But onward we marched. And erosion is subtle, like waves washing up on the beach, except it was the erosion of mind and body, hot spots under the feet materialized, becoming blisters, becoming open blisters.

The sun beaming down. began to take its toll. And as it set, we realized we still had 10 miles, and it was just day one. It's now evident that we had entered the cage with the beast we underestimated. And for context, you know, I've run quite a few ultra-distant races in my life. I've done the keys 100 a few times, as well as unofficially twice. Ran across Arizona, Texas. I've run a few halves.

The endurance space is not new to me. This type of pain was not new to me. And still, this was the hardest thing I've ever done, by far. To move consistently with weight, just a different ballgame. We're crazy, man, I'd say. Crazy, Keeley would reply with the laugh. Eventually, we wrapped up, collapsed into the Jeep where the girls met us with blankets and electrolytes. Crazy, they'd say, you guys are nuts.

Day two was even harder. And I won't get into every little detail here. But swollen feet, blisters, shafing, overall fatigue, you get the idea each day seemed to get harder and harder until we approach day four, the final day. Let's fast forward. It's 2 a.m. Two hours to go on a freeway

that stretched the entire way to the finish line at College Station. My situation was so bad I was basically walking bow-legged like a cowboy. Step, step, step, step. I could focus on nothing, big picture, nothing else. And then somehow, like all things, it just ends. Even the things you didn't think ever would. And the second that finish line was in front of us, there was a monumental relief to the point that all I could do is cry.

And I mean weep like a baby, delusional, exhausted, and overtaken by the understanding that I just did the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Despite the lightning bolts I was feeling pushing up my body, I was basking in a euphoria that money cannot buy. It's virtually unobtainable without a march of this magnitude. I was higher than I'd ever been immediately after being lower than I'd ever been. Like an elevator that takes you from the depths of Death Valley to the highest point of Everest. What is this feeling? I started imagining a world where I never felt this.

where I gave into the pain on day two or bowed down to the raw skin or swollen blistered feet I was working with earlier that day. That was crazy. We said to each other one more time. But as we got into the Bronco and drove towards the hotel at 4.30 that morning,

looking out the window, I started to think maybe it wasn't crazy. Maybe it wasn't crazy. Maybe it was necessary. Absolutely necessary. Maybe, just maybe, it was everything. A little piece of life reserved for a small few.

Reserved for a select group, a gold mine, gate kept by nothing other than the question, how bad do you want it? Crazy, on the other hand. I think that's more a story of never pushing yourself to that feeling of ecstasy, of pride. Perhaps crazy is having a Ferrari in your garage and never taking it for a spin, never pushing the pedal to the floor. Crazy is being so scared over breaking up with normalcy that there's never that little seed of doubt in your stomach, that fragment of fear, that resistance. Where you know you're strong, but you also know the Goliath before you is no slouch. Crazy is never drawing your sword and confronting him.

I couldn't stop playing it back in my mind. Was it stupid or did it remind me that I'm alive? Was it insane or did it propel me closer to the life I want most? Was it pointless or was it the point entirely? We'd accidentally chosen the path that we needed most. What we'd done is stumbled into the very thing, that makes life worth living and man to look back and realize how easily we could have said no,

missed it, how crazy. If this were my last time picking up a pen, turning thoughts to words and words to sound waves, what would I want most to say? Well, I suppose I'd start with that very notion, the last time. The idea that any point could be the last time.

The last time you pick up your pen, call a loved one, go on a jog, like we just don't know. And the word urgency probably isn't the right framing, but I would point to the magic in giving the present,

the now, the respect that it deserves. Not treating each moment as though it's merely a bridge to the next moment. I'd emphasize the notion that every breath is the opportunity. I'd probably reference some of the things I've learned recently. Not because of recency bias, but because of the fact that it took me so long to get it,

that it took me decades to finally understand so many of them. For example, people. People is a big one. It's been a very big theme, right? Having the right people in your life fixes so many other, What do I do when respect isn't reciprocated? How do I handle constant misalignment in my life? Where do I grow and enhance my energy when it feels suppressed?

Well, if you treat your inner circle the same way security treats a vault at a bank, so many of those questions solve themselves. Spend your time cultivating a circle that lights up your life. not constantly patching up holes left by people who let you down. Let's see, I'd suggest a perspective shift, a very specific perspective shift. See, we look at life through a personal lens. We see the world as we are, and that makes sense. It's logical. But it's important to know that we're often incapable of seeing life through the eyes of others.

It's just impossible to feel their pain or understand where they've been. been. I've come to this recently as, you know, there are just people in my life that I'd swear to you are angels. Like honest to God, angels walking amongst men, they're so kind and loving and they're so giving and they radiate positivity and hope and beauty. They just remind you of the good in life. And so you assume if you were to turn them upside down and shake them, that's all. that would come out of their pockets, right? Good stuff. But behind their eyes is often silent struggle and internal battles, a desire to give others love that perhaps they didn't get somewhere along the way. Look, I'm not saying this to be a downer or to turn an objectively good thing

into a sob story. I guess I'm just suggesting that you take care of the angels in your life. Sometimes their wings are the heaviest. I'd probably remind you of this. I'd remind you that you can go away for years. And when you came back, things would pick up right as they were. You'd see the messages weren't urgent. The emails didn't matter. The job was one of many.

The clothing was stupid. The title. Didn't mean that much. And like, I get it. We have to play the game to some extent. You know, I certainly play it. But it helps me to remember this stuff doesn't matter as much as we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking it does.

Give me a bonfire, good people, and some reminiscing over a cold drink or two over all that stuff. Right, that's one of the cool things about having moved so many times over the last decade. I've realized that. I'd rather be broke with people I love doing something that excites me in a small mountain town than rich and lonely in Miami. And I don't think I'm unique there. Am I saying stop climbing?

No. Absolutely not. Go. Push boundaries. Dive fully into life. See what this short time on our floating rock can become. Just don't let it consume you. In other words, protect your North Star.

What else? Well, I'd probably talk about the things I'm most proud of. And right on top of that list would be the messages over the years from people saying simply, Eddie, thanks. That connected. That meant a lot. Or you help me look at this situation differently. I have momentum again.

That's what it's all about. And I'd ask you, what can you do that you love that leaves this place a little better than you found it? I'm not saying you need to cure cancer or invent a car that time travels, although that would be awesome. I'm saying simply, there is a personal fulfillment that materializes when we seek to become a net positive in the world. Again, hear me. I'm not virtue signaling. This is me shining a spotlight on something that is so easily overlooked. When you think about adding value, when you think about serving, Just like I mentioned earlier, you solved so many problems at once.

People want to be in your orbit. You make beautiful connections. You feel fulfilled and excited. Value very often translates to financial needs being met and often exceeded. Just generally, you live a life of purpose. If you want to spend your life broken, financially struggling, and alone, simply repeat the mantra, what's in it for me. I'd also think about the seasons of my life.

I'd think about running around, partying in college, squeezing every drop out of Friday and Saturday night, saying, never again on Sunday. Going to work Monday, then counting down the days until Friday. I'd think about the artist in me that pushed me down a road I couldn't have even imagined. I'd think about the times I got too conservative with my ambitions and forgot who I was. I'd think about the times I linked with. the wrong people, the times I found myself lost, the times I was on top of the world, I'd

see that it all mattered. It was all necessary. In fact, I could easily trace the best of times to the seasons I would have while in them deemed the worst of times. It's all one giant roller coaster ride. The pain always becomes a seed planted into the earth, waiting to sprout into something better. The wandering always brings you to some door on the fringes of life that takes you exactly where you needed to be, places you couldn't have planned. I'd suggest that we think of life not as a

right or wrong thing, but as a series of valleys and summits. Interchangeable and interconnected like the ocean tides, when you're hurting, when you're down or lost, I'd remind you to keep your head up. to conquer one rock at a time and trust that something new is ahead, because something new is always ahead, as long as you march on. If this were my last time picking up a pen, turning thoughts to words and words to sound waves, I'd encourage you to pick up your pen, to tell your story.

For younger you, present you and older you, for the ones you love, the angels in your life, and even the passers-by you've never met before. I'd encourage you to fight that little bit of resistance in your stomach that wants you to stay small, that says there's no need to go or try or begin. I'd say there's a version of you that can light this place up. I'd say there's a chapter ahead that will leave you breathless.

There's a journey around the bend that can become a map for others, a door for the new possible. There's a wilderness in need of the courageous, those willing to point their compasses towards the horizon and explore. If this were my last time picking up a pen, turning thoughts to words and words to sound waves, I'd tell you to lace up your shoes, open the door and go. Every morning when you wake up, you are living moments you will never get back. Your breathing air you'll never breathe again.

Time is our most precious commodity. And what we do with it is everything. It is your one opportunity to embrace the best gift you will ever receive. And every second sees a little more slip away. We have this mentality that the future is going to somehow mean more than the present. That time tomorrow will mean more than time today. And the best things in life end up being saved for some other time. But the reality is we don't get any younger.

Why wouldn't you allocate your time, your effort to the things that make you feel like today is powerful? You are the gatekeeper. You decide whether you want to take this gift and use it wisely, it wisely or allow it to slip away. Money you can get back. Possessions can be reacquired. But the minutes in your life, while they're finite, today shouldn't be looked at as a bridge to tomorrow, but a once in a lifetime opportunity. You are nothing more and nothing less than what you do with the time you have. And if you know that,

if you live like you are on top of the world, it will be more than enough. It doesn't just appear. It isn't born out of thin air or imagined into reality. It begins with a spark, a belief. The notion that something can be accomplished long before it begins to materialize. Belief is looking at the pieces around you and understanding that in one way or another, they'll all come together to create the outcome that you want.

It's the backbone of any pursuit because you're taking the unknown and you are knocking it down a peg. standing up to the fears, the doubts, the demons in your head. When we fail, it's because we believe that our obstacles are bigger than us. We succumb to that reality. But when one understands that belief, the very same thought process that can be our greatest detriment is also our greatest asset, we become limitless. If you know you're going to cross a finish line, if you're certain, if you can already see it, everything else becomes trivial. Nothing is debilitating, nothing is game ending because you'll get around it.

You know who you are. You know where you should be. That is the most challenging part. Once you're certain of that, it's simply a matter of putting one foot in front of the other. We live in a world of self-induced limitation. We define our best. We define good versus great, possible versus impossible, acceptable versus insufficient. And these limitations guide our behavior.

We live by them. Our understanding of limits paves the way for our reality. Once we define something as our best, it becomes our summit. Once we label it as crazy or far-fetched, we turn our backs on it. But here's a beautiful truth. There are no limits in everyday life unless you place them there. You don't have a true personal best because you can always be better. There is one way or another a route to achieve anything you deem worthy of achieving.

The key is not seeking to define excellence, but to be continuously seeking progress. With that mentality, you'll see that there is always a next level and it's always within reach. It's been said that nothing is achieved without consistency. Short blasts of intensity are great, but what end up defining us in the long run are the things that we do day in and day out. These things become our habits, routines, and ultimately shape the people we become. A lot of attention is given to the home run, obtaining that monumental result without understanding that the big things that the big thing things are simply comprised of smaller components.

Little pieces of paper that stack up everyday bricks that are laid down one by one, you can't see greatness happen because it's not instantaneous. It's not done in a weekend. But it is present and it's present every single day. A building we walk by is comprised of thousands of individual parts and all that knocks down a three-pointer has taken that shot hundreds of thousands of times. A CEO has studied his or her particular field to an extent most people couldn't even comprehend. People don't see consistency.

They see the outcome of that consistency. And while there's nothing technically wrong with that, it's only part of the equation. And that's my message today. These accomplishments, just like any others, they take effort. distributed and routinely implemented every single day. And this consistency is what gets you the larger than life result. It's what constructs your victory. Not once in a while or when it's convenient, but making incremental, manageable progress every day. And these days become the foundation that you stand on. One is not worth more than another. To get the big result,

Every single small step is imperative. Every move forward is your home run. Limitless world. Why set your sights on the obtainable? The prize within an arm's reach. Why not think bigger? Our expectations are the foundation for our accomplishments. The target you aim for

is more than likely going to be the target to be the target you hit. Which means it's quite possible to do exactly what you set out to do and still drastically underachieve for the sole reason that you are worth more. You are capable of more than you give yourself credit for, but like anything, if you don't recognize and do something about it, the impact will be minimal. It doesn't matter that you're the fastest person in the world. if you never sprint.

It's impossible to stumble into excellence. Because to get there, you need to, one, understand that something greater exists and two, understand that you are worthy of it. And anything you do, it's better to aim high, to try and accomplish too much, be bigger than reality, larger than life. And what you'll find in maintaining these monumental expectations is that you grow along with them. You realize that what was acceptable yesterday is no longer good enough that it was merely a stepping stone.

The things you're capable of the life that's possible for you is unfathomable to the human mind. Endless opportunities are not black and white. They're not reassuring because they haven't happened yet. They're not visible or tangible, but that's okay. Just know that no matter where you are or what you want, more exists. If you're willing to go to another level, there is something bigger, period. So take a look at the targets that you've set. Don't waste time asking yourself whether there's something greater there is.

Ask yourself if you're willing to step up to move outside your comfort zone and get it. How many revolutionary ideas were never brought into existence? How many dreams were discarded and deemed impossible before they even had a chance? It's a question we'll never know the answer to because there never was a beginning. There never was a start. Anyone can dream and everyone does. And these dreams, they're the seeds that quite literally change the world, but the hardest part, is the decision to begin.

To transform something from an idea in your head into a reality that you can live every day. To push fear, uncertainty aside. Maybe you don't even know how to approach your goal, but I'll tell you what. Trying a million times and figuring it out on attempt 1 million and 1 will always be better than letting that dream die.

See, Action, movement has a way of sorting things out. There's always a way to succeed, but the wheels need to hit the pavement. It's awkward. It's uncomfortable. It's a vulnerable feeling putting your time and energy into something you're unsure of. But simply starting allows a spectacular process to take shape. Beginning is only the hardest part because of the mental barriers that attempt to

safeguard you from every single thing that can go wrong. But don't think about what can go wrong. Focus on what will go right. All the incredible change that will come your way if you just start. I don't think it's any secret that life doesn't always go the way we drew it up. It's great to have a game plan, but it's just as important to be practical with regard to life's ups and downs. Success lies not in the ability to get everything right the first time, but to adjust. We can't afford to be one-dimensional with our pursuits because the second things go wrong. We panic, we go into emergency mode. Life only begins to make sense when we learn to expect those twists and turns.

Teach ourselves to adapt, move forward despite their occurrence. This brings to light a very important truth. It is not the road ahead that determines your fate. It's the way you internalize the process. It's having the patience and the confidence to take life as it comes and mold it in a way that gets you to your goals. As long as your wheels don't stop turning, you are never stuck. As long as you are willing to adjust, there will never be an end in sight until you're

until you put the stake in the ground and declare victory.