Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Are You Growing or Maintaining?

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

In this episode, I discuss a quote from "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll: “Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.” “A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” What an amazing way of portraying one of life's most important questions: Are you growing, or maintaining? Working hard, or working smart? Existing, or thriving? Our basic tendency is to maintain. It is why we succumb to routine and lose sight of the ultimate prize: a life of purpose. Like the Red Queen in Carroll's quote, let's ask the tough questions and position ourselves to detach from the easy and the mundane. Today, let's take the first step into that great unknown.

Welcome to Your World Within Daily. In this episode, we're going to talk about the difference between maintaining and growth and how sometimes we can think we're working hard but miss the whole point. So you never know where you find your inspiration, right? That's kind of, it's one of the fun components of life. Like you never know throughout the day what you're going to come across and what value that's going to bring. Well, I found a kind of a random quote, random message from through the looking glass. So this is Lewis Carroll's quote, and he starts off with Alice talking to the Red Queen.

Well, in our country, said Alice, still panting a little. You generally get to somewhere else if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing. A slow sort of country, said the queen. Now here you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that. And I love quoting Lewis Carroll because he paints things in ways very common, everyday things, in ways that are so fun and interesting. And I relate to this, right?

As someone that has to differentiate between output, output, output, and the right things, right? I've made that mistake so many times in my life and continue to, you know, try and be hyper aware of that. What am I doing? And does it align with what I really want, right? A culture that says hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, yeah, but at what? You know, how are you doing that and for what reason? It takes a lot of energy, as the Red Queen says, it takes a lot of time and investment simply to maintain. And we get so accustomed to routine that we stop thinking.

And that's where the danger is, you know, to go on autopilot. You know, it's very easy, in fact, easier to define parameters and stay within them than it is to grow. Growth is a different animal. It's a different kind of awareness. It's a different kind of pursuit. Because you can spin your wheels. You can work three times harder than someone with a clear plan and direct line of sight to where they want to be and end up in a worse situation. So, you know, we've talked about this in some capacity before where when you really simplify it down, you know, life is about understanding where you are and where you want to be.

You need to understand both of those points, A and B, and then realize that, you know, so much of what we're doing is simply maintaining. You know, like Alice running through the woods, it takes time and it takes energy and it feels like you're adding value. But are you? And that's a question only you can answer. All we have, and I forget where this quote's from, all we have is the time that's given to us. That's it. I mean, that's our greatest commodity. And so, you know, placing it in areas that have the most impact is important. So practical application, you know, what I'm going to do today, what I'd advocate everyone do is look at how they're spending their time and ask themselves, are you maintaining or are you moving towards something that's important? Not to mention the idea or the, I'll say the truth that growth is difficult simply because it's new and it's unknown.

Trying something different is like this to me right now, and I'm getting over it, but it's annoying. Like it's annoying to talk into a camera. And for those listening on audio, you can't really tell, but I've sort of rearranged my process and my studio and everything to be able to get a video component too, right, to supplement. the audio that I usually put out every morning, which ultimately means more work and personal growth, right? It's much easier to just face the wall, talk, edit how I want to edit, and then just release the audio. But I know that that's maintaining and that YouTube is, you know, the beauty of it is that it can reach millions and millions of people, and ultimately bring them to the audio, right? Grow this community that I care so much about. So it's like asking the question, right? I had a nice

routine. I've been doing this for two months. I wake up. I record the audio. I release it. Feel good about it and move on. But then I don't have video, right? So it's like you've got to move outside of that little bubble of comfort you've created because the value is so high. What is the ultimate goal? Is it a nice comfortable routine between 530 and 730? Or is it your overall purpose? What matters? Where is your? you place your time? It's understanding those inflection points, right? They say 20% gets you, you know, the majority of your results. Well, what is that 20%? And what's 20% of that 20%? How can you really leverage and utilize your strengths, despite the fact that it's a little bit

discomfort or uncomfortable, right? And you'll have to push, you know, two, three times as hard. It's worth it. It's worth it. Because in life, no one wants to maintain. You know, progress is happiness. And I want to grow. You want to grow. Right? That's why I do this. That's why you do what you do.

We're not here to let life go by. So let's be hyper aware. Let's understand what we're doing to simply maintain and push it. Push the balance. What better day than a Monday to take things up a notch? You know what I mean? Like what better day than right now to find the little 1.5% in your day that you would have mitigated or ignored, and use it to put your toe in the water.

That's all it is. Step out a little bit. Be a little braver than you were yesterday. You don't need to hit a home run. You need to hit a single because those things accumulate. And you'll find, as the Red Queen says, as time passes, you will be running twice as fast. Not because you started to sprint, but because you became aware and you increased just a little bit and a little bit more and a little bit more. That makes all the difference.

I have an amazing Monday, guys. If you enjoy this, my usual spiel here, I'd greatly appreciate you to subscribe, rate, review. Helps me get it out to the world, and that means everything to me. So thank you for that. And I'll catch you guys tomorrow.