Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 7 INSPIRATIONAL SPEECHES THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE (2023)

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.” – William James I'm excited to share this personal collection of motivational talks I've put together with your journey in mind. Each one is close to my heart, speaking to the challenges we all face and the triumphs that await us. Over the next decade, let these speeches be your companions, guiding you through growth, resilience, and the pursuit of your dreams. They're more than just lessons; they're conversations meant to inspire action and spark a fire within. So join me, and together, let's shape a future that excites us. Sign up for my free newsletter" eddiepinero.com/newsletter

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

It's really an interesting thing to grasp. Success is seeing what others can't. It's believing when others don't. It's taking the abstract, those visions, those pictures in your eyes. head, the make-believe, in finding the courage to make them real. Bring them to life. It's this constantly evolving process, and it grows a little bit every single day. Sometimes we feel that progress. We feel the momentum. We do something big, and it's exciting. And sometimes the progress feels small. And then there are times when we get knocked down, and we don't see it at all. We

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

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

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

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

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

or an essential thing. It's everything. So live as to see, not what can be lost, but what will be gained. Find that light in darkness, even if it's a flicker, even if it's a spark. See, every loss makes you a little tougher, and every instant of sadness

Uncovered something beautiful. Every moment of fear teaches you to be a little braver. Every broken heart opens the door to a new connection. Instead of doubting yourself, feeling inadequate in life's darkest moments, know that you need what you are going through. You are uncovering the little victories hidden in plain view. view so when the world feels like too much and your patience is thin be stronger than that voice in your head begging you to think small stand on every experience the good

and the bad let it elevate you to a beautiful tomorrow sometimes when you don't know where you're going the best thing to do is go there a while Wise man once stated that an object at rest stays at rest. And while his rationale is a little different than mine, I'm gonna borrow from his premise. Right? Because when you move, even if you don't know where you're going, you put yourself on a collision course with something.

You put into existence an entity to react to. Some call it destiny. Others call it fate. I call it simply initiative. Because if your journey is hypothetical, you have nothing to celebrate nor correct. A sailboat can adjust its sails once it leaves the harbor, right? It can learn from and manipulate its surroundings.

Make sure it arrives at a destination, right? It learns and adapts along the way. But from the harbor, it speculates. It expounds upon a path that might be straighter, might be faster, might be more thought out and tied together than the crazy sailors who took off for the horizon, but in actuality, it goes nowhere. In the real world, it is stagnant, and I could be wrong, but I'd make the argument ten out of ten times that the real world is where we want our result. And my proof? Well, a journey that started with insurance and evolved into music, in songwriting, in audio production, then video production, and creative writing, then a sweet spot that kind of combined everything. A spot that didn't make its way to my inbox with an exact address.

A spot that required a lot of failure and lessons learned and disappointment, but man, more than that, so much fun. My proof is sitting down right now in real time, letting my fingers create a bridge from nothing to something of value. By the way, after sitting here staring at a blank screen for hours, it's just starting. Could I be wrong? Could I screw up? Could I wildly miss the mark? Yes. In fact, it happens more than I'd like to admit. But here's the beauty, even if I am wrong. I now have something to work with. Something has been brought into existence. And well, that means I'm officially further along than I once was.

And I've heard over and over again that there is no perfect moment, that you have to just go. And the idea, I mean, it makes sense. It's impossible not to understand, but it's one of those things that until you feel it doesn't mean anything. How can you miss something you've never experienced? Well, to put it in a way that help me understand, you aren't going because what do you have to lose? You're going because everything is to be gained.

The answers that you pick up along the way, like the little coins you pick up in Super Mario, right? You have to start collecting pieces of a puzzle that you can then arrange. I truly believe that one of the most important ideas we need to hold on to moving forward is personal age. self-belief. And I say that because I feel like I'm watching it slip. There are cases where we literally don't know or understand that it's within our own ability and control to change our lives. No person or group or letter in the mail is going to come along and green light your idea.

In fact, you might not even really know what your idea means or how it will look. And that's not only okay, it's amazing. It's the marble that you get to chisel away at to create something. See, life is not the perfect execution of a plan. Life is the courage to make your way into a world that no one really understands or knows anything about. And I'm not talking physics or biology or quantum mechanics. I'm talking about the real life that is a,

emergent from those areas of study. There is no perfect formula for happiness. But it will always be true that immobility or standing still is antithetical to progress. And there is plenty of data that supports the idea. Progress equals happiness. We want to move towards something. So that's what this is about. Here's to not being scared of what we don't know.

we don't know. Because somewhere in the realm of what we don't know exists what we need most. So yeah, stop waiting for the perfect moment. And yes, begin. But not because it's an ultimatum. Do it because the things that make life fun and intriguing and exciting and ultimately worthwhile, they live on the other side of your front door. I recently heard someone say, it's not about doing your best. It's about doing what's required. Are they different? Very.

Here's my take. Doing your best has an emotional component attached to it. It's subjective. What exactly is your best? Well, it's a story that you tell yourself. A narrative, opening the door to limit. I've always found that when we put our backs against the wall and venture into scenarios where it's essential that we get something done, we somehow always find a way. When we leave no plan B for ourselves, we are required to make Plan A work.

And so we do. It's a testament to both the resilience and power contained in the human spirit. spirit, as well as the reality, that we can astound ourselves when we're unwilling to take no for an answer. That it's not the resources that are the problem. It's usually our unwillingness to move forward into the dark, our hesitance to try, explore, test, build, and rebuild. Actions that are surprisingly unrelated to one's best and have everything to do with accepting

nothing less than an identified outcome. One of the reasons I fell in love with the sport of running is because it reinforced this notion in my life. It became the template with which I could repeatedly amaze myself. I talk a lot about earning confidence, and oh, how I earned it. Step by step, mile by mile, day by day, in the sun, in the rain, in the desert, in the woods, through city streets, all over the country and the world,

I came to understand the relationship between the turbulence of now and the satisfaction of later. It was on those days I'd push beyond my usual level of comfort when that cloud of pain and agony would hover over me. I couldn't even really point to where my body hurt. It just all seemed to come together into this one giant, hell, and to learn that I could not only endure that, but grow in those moments. To see myself rise above any preconceived notion or understanding of best in order to defeat

my demons, conquer the day's objective, it changes the way you see yourself in the world. Now, could onlookers be tempted to call these self-created goals arbitrary, even unnecessary? Sure. Then I get why they would, but I'd also completely disagree. Those days were a masterclass in doing what is necessary. Realizing that when you shut your rational brain off and don't give your mind a chance to talk your body out of it, you can see just how powerful you are. You realize that story of your best is nothing more than a house built on sand. Life is not about that story you've told yourself.

It's not about your personal records and peak performances. What you think you can do or how far you think you might be able to go. It's about not stopping in the moments when it hurts. Doing what is required, a decision that compounds over time to create what was once impossible. One of my favorite quotes is by Admiral William McRaven, an absolute hero of mine. Funny enough, he says, if you want to change the world, you must be your very best in your darkest moments.

And what a beautiful idea to rise when life presents its periods of turbulence. And sure, it may be a matter of semantics. But in those moments of darkness, I think of your best, not in the traditional sense. Not as a personal metric, but as a willingness to do what must, be done, a removal of the spotlight from you altogether and instead pointed directly at the road ahead, at the task at hand. When you choose to make the journey, not about what you can and cannot do, but instead make

it about what must be done, the universe, as Paolo Quoilo has so elegantly stated, conspires to make it happen. I think back to my journey and at so many periods my best. wasn't good enough. I was so lost and so overwhelmed that the only thing I could do was not stop moving. That was my superpower, simply trudged through the fear of things falling apart,

the nagging pride and hurting ego. And what I learned was that life is no different than all those miles I'd put in running. How I felt what my previous capabilities were, what I deemed my best. best to be. It was all noise. It was all irrelevant. What was required was that I move forward through the chaos and to something better. And so I did. And in your world, so can you. The stories we tell ourselves are so powerful and in many ways valuable in our journey through

life. But there's one narrative that eliminates the necessity of so many others. You can get to the top at whatever mountain you are seeking to climb so long as you do not stop, so long as you let go of the limitations tied to your quote unquote best and instead do what is required to get there. You'll see how adaptable and transformative that best really is, how it's a lagging indicator. It will take time, but you're capable of being patient. and it will have its moments of chaos, but you are capable of weathering those storms. It will present obstacles that leave you unclear, uncertain,

sometimes unprepared, but you're capable of picking your head up and moving through that hate. What you know of yourself now is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what you're capable of doing and how far that goes will be determined not by putting a stake in the ground and calling it your personal best. But as Emerson has said, by hitching your wagon to a star and pulling yourself towards its light.

A little bit. I used to separate building up and tearing down as if they were two totally different ideas rather than one perpetual loop. The energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Simply transfers from one thing to another. We are renting everything in this world, grabbing little pieces of life as we run through it. And what we leave behind in the rear view has the potential to tug at our heartstrings as we see it collapse into the horizon, sure. But it also has to. Yesterday was in its own way

the beginning, a nurturing parent, preparing you for the world of today. Pushing you out the front door and maybe you don't feel ready, we never do. But things have to go in order for more to arrive. The tearing down is the building up. I have a significant relationship with this idea, letting go. I think because it's personally been one of my greatest adversaries.

And the words that escape our lips pull back the curtain on who we are. Humans are just projectors with eyes. As my words escape, the hope is something beautiful will be let in. As I'm sitting here, writing, speaking, I'm thinking about how exciting the prospect of scaling, this message, growing this brand, helping more people, adding more value, while simultaneously dancing around the terror of relinquishing some level of creative control with my work. You can't, of course, grow and still do things how you did them in a one-bedroom apartment in

2014. This isn't new. They've been grappling with it in different contexts for years. It's so personal to me, but the reality is there's no grace space here. This situation is clear as glass. You have to let go in order to acquire. You have to tear down those barriers in order to make room for more. This is and always has been a me conversation. I'll look at myself in the mirror conversation.

Eddie, what are you willing to let go of because there are ropes that must be cut? See, these conversations hurt. but they are the transfer mechanism to all that is beautiful. Being self-aware hurts. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that it hurts less than operating in a state of consistent delusion.

So I offer this question to you. What was the last conversation you had with yourself? When was your last is what I want and what I'm doing, aligned conversation? When was your last? Am I holding a line conversation? on to too much conversation. Your last, if I want parts of me to be reborn, am I willing to let the unnecessary things die

conversation? Life is a cycle. And we forget that. As we get comfortable, as we become accustomed to routine, it's easy to forget. Are we shedding the old or hiding within it? And Gary Keller is one thing, he mentions how a domino can knock over another domino 50% larger. So if you were to start with a two-inch domino and keep increasing the one next to it by 50%. The 23rd domino in the progression would be able to knock over the Eiffel Tower.

The 31st would be as tall as Everest. The 57th domino would be able to bridge the gap. between the earth and the moon. See, but it must be understood that it's the 50% growth from domino to domino that makes the difference. If each domino stays the same size, you don't get any remarkable transformation.

And in many ways, that's what we do. We want the moon, but we stay that two-inch domino. That's my example of holding on to perhaps too many aspects of the creative process. That holding on prevents the 50% jump. For you, the journey before you will be a different one with different characteristics. But the rule is the same. The old dominoes must fall in order to create something new.

That energy must be passed on. And it is capable of transferring, this is the important part, to something much bigger than itself. That's why we allow the old to fall. It's not that it's valueless. It's that its value was in setting up the brilliance that now awaits. You can't be afraid to tear down the old, right?

We have to seek out that fearlessness that exists within us. It's crippling our growth, diminishing our capacity to live life to the fullest. That's what's scary. Protecting that which no longer serves us is what's dangerous. So let yesterday, fade into the rear view. It may hurt, it may tug at those heartstrings,

but when you look back years from now, it will be the reason, the very reason you'll have embarked upon the adventure of a lifetime. It's what you destroyed that will have opened the door for everything, brought forth the manifestation of the beautiful life you ultimately came to build. 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 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, how you ran when you come. 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 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 and 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. Every day there is a specific decision you have to make. It's the first and it's the most important decision because from it you effectively roadmap your destiny. What I'm referring to is the choice to either have a positive outlook or to allow negativity and doubt to chart your course. It's a dilemma that truly is that simple. Every morning you choose to be a problem.

how you want to view the obstacles ahead of you. And what you get out of life will be very different depending on your decision. There's an old Cherokee legend that touches on this conflict. And in the story, there's an older man. He's talking to his grandson about life. He explains that inside all people, there is this fight going on. The struggle consists of two wolves. One manifests itself through negative energy.

He's anger, envy, sorrow, inferiority. all that is evil. The other is joy, compassion, faith, truth, all that is good. So he finishes explaining this. The boy sits there, he thinks about it for a minute. Ask his grandfather, well, which one wins? The grandfather replies, whichever one you feed. What we sometimes forget is that we are the soul makers of our own destiny.

There are always going to be external factors. Whatever they may be, negative people, tough circumstances, maybe a lack of resources. They'll be there. But they cannot dictate your happiness or your success unless you let them. Yeah, they may cause you to alter your approach. You might have to make adjustments. That's good. That's how we develop.

That's how we improve. But no one and nothing writes your story but you. Your attitude, your emotions, they directly coincide with how you do. see the world. So anytime you feel discouraged, negative, envious, anything that's not positive, just stop. Don't waste your time with thoughts that aren't bringing you closer to your goal. There's just no value in it. Tony Robbins says this beautifully. He says you have to be the guardian of your own mind. Allow in only what will help you. Because God knows the world will crush you if you let it. So take the wheel. What you need to do tomorrow when you wake up is look at yourself

hard in the mirror. Make a conscious decision to feed the good wolf. You'll be amazed at how far we'll take you. The sunrise is not the best part. I want to explain something I've tried to articulate over the years. But at least in my mind, have never quite captured how I used. feel or what I mean because I think it's important. Now, a tad trivial or could be seen that way. In fact, I picture one of those memes where the top says nobody. The bottom would say Eddie's screaming about the sunrise for 10 years. Whereas a buddy of mine recently said, you know, a bird flies over my right shoulder and I want to go home and write a novel about it. But, you know, I'm a buddy of Truth be told, there's beauty in the mundane.

And I think when looked at correctly, some of our greatest lessons about ourselves, about the world, and about how those two things often aren't as different as we might be inclined to think, shine through. So we're going at this again one more time. The beginning, 4 a.m., couldn't sleep last night. So I got up, I got dressed, went to the Dunkin' Donuts, drive through around the corner.

I was sitting there right as it opened at 5.30. Got my French vanilla coffee and headed to the beach to see night turn today. And here's an interesting thing. If you were to search sunrise, Pompano Beach, on that particular day, it would have told you 6.28 a.m. I got to the beach around 5.40. and this will become more and more relevant as I sort of progress here. But when I arrived, it was dark.

It was not a soul outside, except for a man with a dog, who for some reason warned me that he had a dog, and another man twirling around a glow stick. Listen, Florida's the best place I've ever lived by far, but it keeps you on your toes, man. So I walked by them and found a spot by the water. and it was truly theatrical. It's almost hard to find the words

for the South Florida sky in the morning as night turns today. And as I'm sitting there looking out over the Atlantic, you can see right where the ocean and sky touch these little patches of teal and orange and pink that start to slowly break up the darkness. Almost like someone's dipping their brush in paint in just, just flicking it at a canvas. Random assortments of colors.

And it's very interesting because it happens subtly and somehow all at the same time. Piece by piece, these little neon strips start making their way over the horizon. I just sat back with my coffee and I watched the world around me come to life. Birds start flying over the water. The sand rake, if that's what it's called. started driving around, preparing the beach for everyone that would come visit that day. You start to hear voices and laughter, infiltrate, you know, the beach around you. And here's my thing.

Here is that thought that I truly feel is important but have a hard time with the why. It's how people show up at 615 and make their way to their way to their. sand to watch the sun come up. Obviously, understandable. It is an incredible sight. To see that giant ball of fire emerge in the distance seemingly make its way up into the sky. I get it. I just can't help, but feel like in some way, you know, it's similar to fast-forwarding a movie to the point where the villains already been defeated, where the problems already been solved.

It's like, it's the post-game interview after the Super Bowl. The magic in my eyes is the before. Before the sun rises. It's watching something so dark, so empty, so hopeless, replaced by a masterpiece

that takes your breath away. It's seeing, out in the distance the light that was coming, it was always on its way, make itself known to you for the very first time. And as that extravagant march from nothing to something takes place above and all around you, suddenly you can see your hand in front of your face. It's like you blinked and night became day. That type of transformation, that journey from one extreme to the It's so incredible, so emotional, it screams hope. It makes it that much harder for me to say, I can't.

I can't change, I can't let go, I can't build. It's like, look, you just watched the black of night become day. It's a reminder that things are always dark until they're not. We can never see until we can. It's just make believe until it's real. until it's real. It's a process of holding on. Sometimes it's just holding on.

Until that paint begins to color in the world around you. So it's not that the others are wrong. Again, I totally get it. I get the appeal of putting the beach chair down at 615, snapping some pictures of the sun and its magnificence. I get it. It's real. It's tangible.

It's the shiny object. Theoretically, it's what we should be looking at. But let's not forget that magic in its infancy. Because for everything that is, for every sun that rises, its origin was once darkness. It's beginning so convoluted and so bleak that it's only logical one would look around

and fail to see reality stretching beyond those desolate, it confines. The world seems to like pointing out the shiny things and the obvious spectacles. But if you ask me, the power precedes that sunrising. The power is navigating through nothing, knowing that things will not only be different, but that a light show is soon to emerge. That the line between possible and impossible, between heaven, and hell is showing up.

It's settling in and hanging on as the darkness fades and gives way to mourning. It certainly reminds me to hold on. It reminds me that amidst every storm, I'm living moments that when zoomed out, comprise the masterpiece. It reminds me to hold on, to find color,

to see the beauty, to appreciate the journey, because the sunrise is not the best part. I was thinking this morning about a conversation I had with my grandfather. This particular example, I was living in LA at the time, my grandmother, my grandfather, they flew in from Boston, and I think we're doing some family stuff, but I wanted to hang out with my friends down the street, right?

I wanted to go to Kyle's house, play Star Wars, whatever it was we were doing and that felt like the world to me. Like I didn't want to miss out on that because I felt like I'd lose it. If I wasn't there, I'd lose something. And I remember him taking me from the kitchen to the living room being like, Eddie, you have to relax. He's like, that stuff, I promise you will always be there. The fun, the escape, the metaphorical going to Kyle's house will always be there. You have to do what's right for you.

And then when you need that, it's there. It was almost like all the nuance and the detail. It's reacquirable. And why I'm bringing this up, and it's a little bit of a pivot, but I've seen throughout my life, right, personally, this sort of loss aversion, like I mentioned a few days ago, where you don't want to leave a bad situation

because you fear that the very basic boxes that you've checked, you can't get them back, right? It's like you can have a job that you're not satisfied, you're unfulfilled, there's nothing great about it. You've lost your sense of self, your purpose, but you get in a paycheck, right? Or at least you have some direction in the day

or in your life. You can say who you are. There's some identity. There's some very basic boxes. You're not happy, but the basic boxes are checked. And what you fear is, if you leave in pursuit of something different, maybe you can't check those boxes again.

Right? Or you're in a relationship and it's like, it's not right. And you know in your core it's not right. But there's very basic boxes that are checked. Right? You're not alone. You're with someone.

There's some predictability in your life. Like, it'd be tough to lose those things. And so that's really the essence of what I want to say. Right. Having the self-belief and the self-trust, because that's really what it comes down to, to understanding that, If you move into the unknown, you can recreate those things.

You can check those basic boxes off. But if you don't have the courage to move out of that situation, you'll be shackled to a world that's not really meant for you. Right? So like, the job thing. And by the way, I always worry about saying this because there are people that love their jobs. I'm never ever knocking a night. to five like it's just my thing right that was for me I felt so constrained and I'm just such a

like I love to be creating and sort of out on the fringes that's just like what motivates me that's not how everyone works so I don't want this to be interpreted as me bashing a nine to five it's just my story um but like I I realize that I could have walked away come back in a year after living in you like Thailand and things would have been exactly the same when I got back. I could have got a similar job. I could have found ways to check off those same boxes, right? Those foundational things, they're reacquirable.

Just like the relationship thing, right? It's like if it's not right for you, there's eight billion people in the world, eight billion. You think one of those doesn't share your value system, one of those you can't have fun with, hang out with, relax, enjoy yourself, improve your life. Like, of course you can.

But you're worried about, losing the very basics, the very basic boxes that you've checked. And it's like you have to have the courage and self-belief to walk away from those things. You have to believe in yourself enough to know that you can recreate a reality, right? With a similar foundation, but with the things on top of that that make you happy, make you feel alive. You know, like I'm prone to do. I found a random internet quote today. It says, I am learning to love the sound of my feet

walking away from things that are not meant for me. And it's that simple. You can never get where you're going if you're shackled to the things that don't move you. If you're staying in a place of discontent. And the message is simple, right? Believe in yourself. Trust yourself.

There's nothing in your life that you can't reacquite. or rebuild. But what you'll miss if you stay in that place is the opportunity, the upside, the people that will change your life, the places that you've never seen, the experiences, the journeys that make life worth living. The upside is just too high. There's an African proverb states every morning a gazelle wakes up and no longer. it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.

And every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up and knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you'd better be running. Because stagnation is losing. Because wishing is a sealed faith. Because immobility is regret. As David Gaghan says, you are either getting better or you are getting worse.

And in a world comprised of no finish lines, that really simplifies the picture, doesn't it? Because this has nothing to do with yesterday. For the self-defeating stories you use, you used to tell yourself. It's about what reality can become. And the best news you'll ever hear is that the steps that brought you to right now,

they are not the same steps that will carry you forward. Every single sunrise is a chance to chase down that which sets your soul on fire. Lion or gazelle, day or night, it is never too late to become what you have never been, to rewrite your story. Not for the doubters or the naysayers, but for you. See, they'll never get it. They'll never understand that your progress is your happiness, while you'd endure the depths of hell twice to be five seconds faster, a little better to build a little higher, it's not nuance.

It is survival, woven into your DNA, and just as much a part of you as the heart in your chest. See, today is a currency, the most valuable entity you possess. Clay where dreams are molded, light that turns unknowns into outcomes, into stepping stones, it's why each step is so precious. Because each one is a bridge to a part of you yet to be explored. See, Nietzsche said it best, one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. It is why we build these metaphorical arenas. Because without them, there are no dragons to slay.

There are no mountains to climb or armies to conquer. It is from chaos that order is born. Every crack of the sword brings understanding. When the sun comes up, there is no wishing for a better world. There is creating in yourself the one who will make it better. The one who will lead himself and others who will find amidst the horizon. the existence of a world within. The ability to find calm amidst chaos is a superpower,

finding clarity and focus. Not when the environment is perfect, not when the stars are aligned. When your mind wants to wander and your emotions are high, when the conditions are not perfect, and your brain starts to rationalize. maybe picking things back up some other time. Can you carve out serenity for yourself? Just enough to do what needs to be done because sometimes that is what makes all the difference. I remember way back now, 2017 getting out of a relationship, relocating, starting over in many ways,

just kind of wrecked. And for a period, couldn't immerse myself in my work like I used to. The rest of life felt like it was on such shaky ground that it's like, you know, when everything's shaking, how do I find this stability to talk about it? To turn it all into something meaningful. It just felt impossible. But I was working through it, and one morning I was out on my patio listening to this meditation app. It was a guided meditation. And I'll never forget the voice saying, think of your thoughts as clouds floating overhead. You're sitting and looking up at them, just watching them go by. Which means a few things.

One, it removes you from your thoughts. That shattering in your head is not you, and you can in fact step away from it and observe it. And two, it kind of diminishes the good thought versus bad thought label. They're all just thoughts. And they only mean something if you take them on if you choose to embody them. And now this alone is a practice or skill that people work on their whole lives, right? This concept is just the beginning, but I felt that in many ways it was a light bulb moment. It opened a door for me.

There was a very practical usage here because the easy days are rarely a problem. But life is messy. The easy days are great, but you can't rely on them, right? Life is ups and downs. It's the days that things are turbulent. or the other corners of my life are presenting issues, right? Whether it's people or health problems or frustration or angered something that's occurred, just human things.

To be able to sit down, open my laptop, and envision it all as little clouds floating overhead is freeing. It's like disassociating yourself from the baggage. Yeah, you might be in a storm, but you're capable of, creating an eye wall, manufacturing serenity for yourself. It's saying, no, the externalities do not get to dictate how, when, and where I allocate my attention. It's not about running or hiding. This is about understanding that life does not create perfect moments. The timing will never be just right. And therefore, we must manufacture our starting point. We must create the very

arenas in which we will perform. And one of my favorite examples of this was an eye-opening experience for me being sick on the day I planned to run a half marathon, been practicing, working out for months, right? Woke up with this scratchy throat and a cough, and everything sort of devolved into chaos. I spent the morning constantly reminding myself that I was operating on an empty tank, that I was going to be less than 100%. It wasn't until I stopped talking to myself and just started running that I saw through the story I was telling.

I separated my reality from my thoughts and created a space I could thrive in. I remember about halfway through looking at my time and realizing, wow, like not only am I okay, this is great, I feel good. I'm going to make something incredible out of this. conditions weren't ideal but that's just it sometimes life asks us to make something of ourselves and the world around us with less than ideal circumstances when things aren't perfect

can you separate your thoughts from the task at hand can you find focus when you're surrounded by noise and you create clarity amidst the clutter it's important to understand that life consists of highs and lows. That is the plane of reality we exist on, and so the question becomes, during the lows, can we carve out that environment to succeed? When we want to stop, to turn back, when we want to make excuses,

can we separate the thoughts from what must be done, the emotion from the action, the ability to find calm, Amidst chaos is a superpower. We just need to remember to look. We need to remember that the negative emotions, the ideas and the stories are not us. They are clouds floating overhead. Step back, observe them, let them go by and understand that now it's time to do what needs to be done.

Now it's time to tap into that potential and that strength that's always been there. It's always existed. It just needs permission, not from the external world, but from you now. This weekend, I needed to shut off for a little bit. So I got some Chipotle. Yep, big night. Picked a random episode of Game of Thrones, sat on my couch, and I put my feet up. Apparently, though, the universe had other plans for me,

because I swear I was a few minutes in, and I heard one of the most incredible quotes I've ever heard, which sent me in 400 directions thinking about how to share it and delve into it with you guys on the podcast. So, hey, sometimes you plan to sit there and watch make-believe armies fight, and you end up instead putting together an essay. Life in the big city, right? But the scene I'm talking about, there's a character named Sansa Stark, for anyone who hasn't seen it. And at this point in the show, you know, she's lost her family. been away from home, essentially on the run for a long time, sitting by herself kind of sulking, reminiscing,

building a little replica of her old home in the snow that was on the ground as she sat there. And basically, just to set the scene, this little kid comes up, stomps on it, Sonsa gets mad, hits the kid, she's just devastated by everything, exhausted by it all. And roughly that time, a second character walks up,

a guy named Peter Baylish. And Sansa, standing up over her broken snow castle, says, I was trying to remember what everything looked like. I'll never see it again. To which Peter replies, a lot can happen between now and never. If you want to build a better home, first you must demolish the old one. He's implying that Sansa might think she wants to go home, but home is essentially gone, that place she knew, that place she wants to go back to, it's destroyed. The people she loved

are no longer there. She thinks she wants to go back to that place because she's lost and scared and alone and the human condition is always to return to the comfort of what we left, to recapture that feeling of clarity. But to truly find herself, what she needs to do is destroy that version of home and build a new one. To start again. To become something worthy of a new home. One that's more conducive to life now. Which is her character art for the rest of the show, right?

Slowly evolving into that person. See, life is this interesting cycle of dying and being born again. Of leaving old things behind in order to build a new. The old you can only give what. the old you always gave. So when life demands more of us, we have a real problem on our hands. What you knew is now insufficient. It's not enough.

Sure, it was enough yesterday, but today is a different story. And we're always put in this situation, where the road before us is asking more of us than we've ever given. It demands more than we know how to accommodate. This is when it becomes very easy to misdiagnose home. To think the answer is behind us, what we need is buried beneath what was. When in reality what was is no longer sufficient. What we really need is to set the past ablaze in order to create space for what must be brought

to life. Home is an evolution, a cycle. As our world changes, we evolve right along with it. As old beliefs fall, new ones are built. As the old way is lost, a new way is found. By clinging to old, you sentence yourself to the never, Sonsa was so adamant about it, at the expense of the infinite abundance and opportunity that's out there.

It's worth noting that the phoenix does not descend from the clear blue sky. He rises from the ashes. It's after the old world falls that the new one, emerges. I'm not the same person I was in 2014 when I left what I was doing to do what I'm doing now. That version of me died. And then again, when I packed up my things and relocated my life and business in South Florida. And then again, when I changed how I positioned myself, how I thought of myself in the world, and again and a multitude of time since then. This current version of myself, is dying as we speak, making room for the new.

Every time I find myself at a transition point, it's pain, it's unlearning things I knew to be true, I was sure of. It's taking a sledgehammer to the old realities so that new ones can take their place. So that saying, a lot can happen between now and never. Yeah, anything can exist between now and never, The world is limitless between now and never if you understand what never means.

Because the old you could never have the things, meet the people, go the places, or become the person that you will be someday. The old you could never see the world the way you do or the way that you will. But the old you was never supposed to. But we once called home, our past, our understandings of life, they were critical, they set the stage for now. They brought us this strange intersection of who we once were and who we now need ourselves to be.

It's not that crawling on the ground was wrong, it's that we are now required to grow our wings, to set ablaze the previous parameters so that new rules can be written. Change hurts, but it hurts far less than carrying the old you into eternity while infinite possibility is left on the shelf. It hurts far less than equating your life now to what's been taken away or loss. Rise from the ashes of what was. Life will ask you to be better, more capable, it will ask you for more. Meet its call.

Over and over again, meet its call. For anyone willing to let go of the old and give life to the new, a lot can happen between now and never. There's a saying that some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. I've always found this interesting, this idea, how the same subject, same situation, or occurrence, can be interpreted so differently, right?

It can plant the seeds for such different outcomes. Like Yeshimi and Koga mentioned in their book, The Courage to be Disliked, well water is 60 degrees, and it's always 60 degrees. In the summer and the winter, but depending on what time of year, right, the makeup of the outside world, that 60 degrees feels different.

The water didn't change its circumstances did, and our thoughts are no different. It's not the world that writes the story. We do. And every second moment day, is merely an interpretation. Does time tick by? Or is it driven into a state of flow?

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

the question. Because you don't need to change the world. You need to change the way you see it. And you don't need to change who you are. You need to change the imaginary shackles you placed around your ankles that are limiting the heights you could reach. In fact, the world as far as I'm concerned is an accumulation of thoughts, ideas. It's 8 billion individualized movie screens attempting to interact to coexist together. And when you look at it like that, it's not that your mindset plays a role or it's kind of important. No, it's that it narrates the play. It's the glue that ties everything together. What you see is what you get. And this isn't a one and done thing. It's an everyday thing. Because there's always going to be occurrences in our lives that

challenge us, to threaten our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of. There will always be the temptation to make the opportunity into the problem and the hero into the villain. But why forfeit that control? I remember hearing that if you were, you know, if you were a little bit of find time to be grateful, both in the morning and at night it changes your life. Not because the world transforms, but because it reinforces the perspective you need. We are lucky to be here. We're lucky to have challenges that push us forward, lucky to have ups and downs that bring us closer to the people in our lives. We're lucky that chaos and discomfort open a door for transformation on the other side. And look, I get life isn't perfect. And not everything can be great all the time.

But I do believe that if we can bring ourselves to stop, to breathe, to even focus briefly, we can find value in any situation. What's in front of you, it exists, right? It's the well water. You can't go back in time or remake the obstacle at your feet, but you can always decide how to make that work for you. And that's a superpower. And I use that.

I use it with my short-term ideas or videos or projects underperform. underperform. I use it when people let me down. I use it when in the moment I'm either under or overwhelmed. The question, where is the win? In this spot, this situation where most would hang their heads and let the outside world rewrite the story, how can I find a way to hold mine high and maintain my own accountability? Extreme differences in life outcomes are so often prompted by such subtle realization, subtle decisions. Their reason to stop could be your reason to not only carry on, but thrive. And the best news is you don't need approval or authorization.

You don't need the stars to align or doors to open up. You just need to give yourself permission to see the sun amidst the clouds, the hope amidst the doubt. You have to remind yourself that there is always something to cling to, always a second chance there is always a win. All you have to do is to see it. There's a saying that will always be true. It will be true on your best days and your worst. It will be true after victory and it will be true after defeat. It will be true when you have momentum and it'll be true when you're down on your luck doing everything in your power to create momentum. That saying is, your future begins now. Hey, on the surface might not seem like much.

Sure, my future starts now, I know that, everyone knows that. Well, if that's true, if everyone does in fact know that, why do we spend so much time stuck, reliving our past unable to break free? Why do we remain terrified to change? Why do we feel such a connection to who we were? to who we were, how others saw us, why must we remain loyal to the character we've been playing in our mental autobiographies? See, here's the thing about the past and the future.

One is fixed, can't be changed, and the other, well, it's waiting for you to tell it what it is. One is expired time. One is plans to be determined. And it's interesting how we continue to conflate the Epic Titus has said that the more things we value outside of our control, the less control we have. Well, I'm going to be the messenger here relaying the precious truth that yesterday is in fact out of our control. What can be controlled is where we go from here.

The next step. Meaning today is not your failures. It's where you take those lessons. It's not your mistakes. But it's what the stronger you can now and be. you can now endure because of them. It's not the dreams you let slip away, but where your pursuit might take you now. And yeah, yesterday certainly contributes to your outlook, as all information does.

It's value considered, its impact assessed. It guides you, but it's not you. And that difference is astronomical. There's a question about the role the past plays in our lives. That has to mean something, right? Your past is in many ways your story. It's why you think the way you do. It's contributed to your understanding of the world.

It will always be a part of you, and I believe that. But I also believe the past is a story. And just like reading one chapter in a book simply sets the stage for the next one without controlling its direction, so does every day that has led you up to now. Life gives us the tool to the tool to life gives us the tool to experience, to grow, learn, and then shed that which does not coincide with what's important. Your failures are not you.

But they are precious and that they push you towards what you'd like to be. See, you can experience something and not be that thing. As Kirkaguard says, if you label me, you negate me. If you proclaim me to be X, you're essentially stealing from me the infinite possibility that is the future. Yesterday has nothing to do with what I can become. And so taking it a step further, never mind being labeled by someone else, how could you label yourself and see it as anything but self-sabotage?

See, you're never defined by your past, but always learning from it. It's not who you are. It's the cheat codes for what you can be. Without that winding road of misfortune and mistakes, the incredible expansion we long for doesn't materialize. Imagine if everyone who ever felt down in life felt like a loser, who temporarily lost hope. Imagine if they looked in the mirror and said,

okay, this is who I am now. There would be no triumph in the world. Because anything meaningful requires the resiliency to map our way from the hell that was our darkest moments to what will become our proudest moments. Destiny, destiny, destiny means that you separate the finite from the infinite. What you used to call yourself

has prepared you to move towards the horizon. But what you used to call yourself is also as irrelevant now as those seconds that you watch tick away. seconds that maybe you're not proud of, seconds that perhaps taught you about the world, seconds that gave you a glimpse of what's possible, unveiled the happiest of times, all of it.

In its own unique way, it brought value, but none of it is your future. Why? Because back to that beautiful, all-powerful sentence, your future begins now. Your destiny is awaiting its marching orders and all you have to decide as you stand today is where that ship will sail.