Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Are you missing this key perspective? 🔑 BEST MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES FOR SUCCESS EVERY DAY

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." -Denis Waitley Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, Eddie Pinero explores the idea that much of what we seek in life is already within our reach. He discusses the power of shifting our focus to recognize the abundance around us and how true contentment comes from appreciating what we have rather than constantly seeking more. Eddie highlights the importance of gratitude as a transformative force, reminding us that the real value in life lies in the people we love and the moments we share. Tune in as Eddie shares insights on how life’s greatest gifts are rooted in awareness, connection, and the ability to see beyond what’s right in front of us.

I want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's podcast episode, Pro Compression. So a big part of my fitness journey has been understanding that it's more than the work, right? It's more than your feet on the pavement or the weights at the gym. A big part of being fit is in recovering well. And so on my off days, I've made a habit of using pro-compression recovery socks, always black, have to stay on brand, with my slides, and just giving my body the love and attention it deserves. I was able to team up with them, and for a limited time, they're willing to give 40% off their entire inventory at pro-compression.com.

If you use the code EP40, that's compression socks as well as marathon socks, running socks, and a whole variety. Again, that's EP40, get you 40% off their entire inventory. It's not just the work you put in. It's how you recover. It's always fascinated me that we spend so much of our lives, searching for the things that we realize in time we had all along. That our journeys bring us full circle.

Our stories end how they began, and in the end, we fade away holding tightly to that from which we emerged. Not because we fell short. No, but because eventually we realize how simple things really are from the outside looking in, we realize what we have. Speaker Dennis Waitley once said, Happiness cannot be traveled to. Owned, earned, worn, or consumed.

Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. That's why times like these, when we get to look around and recapture our perspective means so much. Almost as though it's reassurance that, yeah, life can be hard, frustrating, abstract, but that at the core of everything is contentment is enough. It's why we need not search for love we are in fact surrounded by it.

We need not search for hope when it's ingrained in every breath or reassurance when it's a phone call away. I once heard an interesting idea that we only see what we focus on and not only metaphorically, but literally so much of life exists outside our periphery. If you can walk down the same street every day and see something new each time, imagine the power of readjusting how you see life as the sun comes up in the morning. Imagine pulling more of what matters into focus, becoming living proof, that we don't need to wait until things are gone or changed to appreciate what we have and who we are.

I think that's why Cicero said gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. Because when one can look around and see all that they have, scarcity has to give way to abundance. Fear becomes hope, the mundane becomes beautiful. Gratitude is power because it's not acquisition. It's awareness. A reset button. A tap on the shoulder reminding us that life is about the people who may be. make it worth living, the times we spend together.

It's a reminder that the minutes aren't ticking towards some light, altering grand finale, but that each second is in and of itself a miracle. And of course, I'm a believer that we are here to evolve, to grow, to test the waters, to push our limits. But I'm also a believer in asking why. And it seems to me the answer is not to obtain something new, but to share who we are with the world.

Not to get what we don't have, but to make the most of what we do. Not to impress or fit in, but to take that passion that increases our heart rate, that curiosity that pulls us towards new horizons, the incredible friends and family by our side, and simply realize that we are, this very moment, embarked upon the adventure of a lifetime.

and for that, I am forever grateful. There's a quote that states, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Which means that your reaction is drastically more important than this circumstance. And that's critical to know. It's critical to understand that nothing.

No one in life has more power, over your own situation than you. And there's an old story that hits on this point, exactly. There's a father and a daughter. And basically the daughter's complaining. She's complaining about life, how difficult things are. She's just know how she's going to make it in whatever it is she's doing. I mean, the bottom line is she's tired of the day to day.

Right. And her father gets this idea. He says, come with me into the kitchen. And he gets three pots. of water puts them on the stove and turns the burner zone as soon as they start boiling he drops a potato in the first one an egg in the second one and some coffee beans in the third one and after some time goes by and they boil a little bit he pulls them out right he puts the potato in a bowl he puts the egg in a bowl and he takes a ladle and he

puts some of the coffee in a cup he says what do you see she says well I see a potato I see eggs and I see coffee. He says, yeah, but look closer. There's more there. And she goes and she touches the potato and it's now soft. And he hands her the bowl with the boiled egg. And she takes the shell off and breaks it open. She sees that it's hard inside.

Then finally he asked her to take a sip of the coffee and, you know, she smells it. She takes a sip and a smile comes to her face. She says, so what does all this mean? What are you trying to say? And he says, well, the potato, when I dropped it in the water, it was rigid, it was tough, it was uncompromising. But in the boiling water, it became soft, weak. Then you have the egg that was basically the opposite.

This delicate layer protecting a liquid center, and the boiling water made it hard. And then there was the coffee. That wasn't just changed by the situation. It created something new. It took the same adversity and used it as a lever to bring something beautiful into existence. He then looks at his daughter and says, look, when things become challenging, when things become difficult, which one are you? What's your approach? See, maybe the question is not about how challenging this situation is, right?

Maybe we've been asking the wrong question. Maybe it's how do you transform yourself and by default the world around you? How do you take your strengths, your values, your loves, your joys, your happiness? And let that lead you into something bigger. When life gets hard and it does, what do you become? I always remind myself, you know, we are not defined. by life at peak state. As much as I wish that were the case, right?

We're not shaped by the easy days or the times that we floated by. Because those times are great, they're enjoyable, but they're not what make or break us. It's the times that challenge us and ask us to be what we have not yet become. That's the good stuff. And this is another one of those, you know, simple but not easy. type things because on paper it makes sense. It's understood. But it's an outlook that manifests over time.

It's slowly stacked piece by piece and brick by brick, realizing that every situation provide you with tools to make something out of an apparent nothing. And then it waits because fate is in your hands. And I can certainly think of times in my life. one of the reasons I love these stories, I can reflect, where each one of those pots of boiling water was relevant. I can think of times I was too headstrong,

like the metaphorical potato. I thought success would be easy. I thought projects would be simple to execute. I spent months doing things that just weren't good, because I didn't ask, what is the world need? I asked myself, what do I want to give the world? And there has to be a marriage there, right? And it was a quick reminder that the world owes me nothing.

I was humbled or softened as the story goes. I've been the egg, I've been timid, I've been uncertain, thin-skinned, worrying about what people would say or the content I was creating, worried about perception, how would things look if I failed? And very quickly I learned that when life is a game of comparison or one-upmanship, when you You do things for reasons and people other than yourself can't win. You overcompensate. You do things for the wrong reasons and you lose yourself.

You become hardened. And then there's the good stuff, right? Getting to the coffee, not bowing down to the circumstances, but shaping them. Not letting life dictate how the story goes or the fate of your character. And what's interesting is I'm pretty sure that being that metaphorical egg and the potato, they lay the foundation to become the coffee, the life lessons, the falling down, the picking my ego up off the floor, learning to trust myself, not be led by the opinions and expectations of others.

You essentially learn that you can take the world around you and change it, that it is malleable, it is flexible. You have that power. You have that ability. It's up to you to believe it. And that's critical because no one comes along and cosigns that understanding for you. It's an internal process. You start to learn that things aren't there to provide instruction.

They're there to propel you. But can you see the unknown as the opportunity, the obstacle is the way, and the loss is the armor that you pick up during the journey. And so, you know, all of these words essentially come to one point. And that point is you have so much more control over your life than you think you do. As I've said before, you are stronger than you think you are. You are more resilient than you can even imagine. and when life tests you

and again it will remember that the challenges are not happening to you but for you the world isn't taking away what you have it's giving you what you need so long as you're willing to adapt with it to grow

expand out because you not only have the ability to change yourself, but the world as well. This morning I went down the street to go to this class. It's basically 45 minutes of body circuits in a heated room, which I love. I love mixing that in with the running that I do. And basically the thing kicks off. And somewhere in, you know, maybe the last third of the class, we were doing some weighted squats.

And right at that point where, you know, you're in the thing. thick of things, your legs start to burn, heart rate's elevated, and you can start to really feel the temperature of the room. The instructor said something that I thought was absolutely incredible. She goes, and I'm paraphrasing, the discomfort that you feel right now is a privilege. It's a privilege to suffer through this. It's a privilege to be here working on yourself when most people are at heart. home, it's a privilege to be in a position to move through the resistance you feel right now.

And that message moved me. And how can you even think about discomfort after that perspective had been laid out? How can you see a few minutes of fatigue as anything other than the small price of improvement? It's funny how the same things we consider to be torture or punishment, if they're externally required of us, they become empowering when we know that we deliberately chose them. You know, in this feeling, it was definitely self-induced. It was chosen, right? I decided to be there in class that day. It was what I needed. To become just a little bit better, to obtain just a little bit more. And what a privilege. I've learned over the years to manage pain. You have to. You have to,

immerse yourself in an often less than ideal short term so that you can bring about results of greater magnitude. I've always accepted this. I've always known it to be true. I believe, you know, in my own world, I've sacrificed accordingly. But I don't recall the last time I was overtly thankful for the obstacles in my way. I don't remember the last time I saw my struggle, not as a necessary burden, but a gift. There's something not thrown at me, but presented to me. Think for a second about the finitude of life. The one in four hundred trillion odds of being born,

a number that I came across somewhere that I certainly can't validate, but I don't think you need to to get the point, right? The odds of being here are incredibly slim. Yet somehow we won. We all received winning lottery tickets. Here we are. On a strange planet with options to choose from, paths to decide between and a giant ticking clock.

And given these circumstances, aren't we doing a disservice to ourselves to not at least see what we're capable of? What we can do, build, create, and become? I certainly think so. And what is the cost of that evolution? It's discomfort. It's forging our future by walking through fire.

It means intentional hardship. And to not see that as the gateway to life's infinite opportunity is missing the mark. Why shouldn't you feel lucky about yourself transforming in real time? Why shouldn't you feel proud of paying a steeper price for a better view? Why shouldn't you be delighted to unpack the mystery and the adventure contained in life? This isn't something you have to do on your way to point B. This is something you get to do on your journey to become whoever you choose to become. So when the pressures of life press down upon us, test us, perhaps solely acknowledging its utility is insufficient.

Maybe it's more. Maybe it's something that should be celebrated, adored. Today, it was a reminder to be thankful for the body that can endure the turbulence, thankful for the mind that can manage and overcome the chaos. Thankful for the opportunity to be here to begin with and the freedom to choose the difficult thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to live in such a way that as I place my head on the pillow each and every night,

I'm grateful for the privilege. Strong enough is all life asks of us. Strong enough to carry on. Strong enough to take an uncertain step forward. Strong enough to be better than we were yesterday. Everything starts with strong enough. The decision to make a single move towards an existence that is not yet yours, not yet. But it's arguable that understanding it could be yours.

is a greater accomplishment than making it so. As the old Latin proverb states, once you've started, you're halfway there. Halfway, not because you found a shortcut or some previously undisclosed path, but because convincing yourself that you have everything you need is the greatest barrier to entry.

It's the wall around the castle, and once you scale that, well, everything else, works itself out with time. But life asks that we be strong enough to start the clocks. It asks that we have the strength to begin. See, because just as things start with strong enough, well, they could just as easily find their end there as well.

How many journeys weren't started because we forgot that our responsibility wasn't to suddenly arrive at the destination, but rather find the courage to take a small step in that direction. How much of ourselves do we leave on the shelf? Because we forgot that transformation overnight wasn't the goal, but rather a trust in the process. The heart to paint a first stroke, make a first call,

walk out the door, strong enough can be an ending or a beginning. It's a fire that can't. enhance it can nourish or it can burn out and that is perhaps the greatest question of our lives when the time approaches when life demands more of us will we only see the finish line the mountain tops the vastness of the terrain will we feel small and inadequate or will we remember that we are strong enough to advance to push back against the chaos of life, and that's not only all that's required of us, but it's the key to everything worth doing.

The start of transformation, the seeds of beauty, the foundation of impact, that is our challenge. Where some bowed down to the impossible. You have to see it for what it is, the many possibilities that comprise it, the hope, The understanding that an improved existence is about having the strength, not to change reality in one foul swoop, but to carry on. To take another step and see that as time unfolds, those steps become the blueprint to a better tomorrow. Those steps, that courage, that strength is everything you'll ever need. I went on a run yesterday. My mind, as it often does, began to wander.

Reflecting back on all the streets I've jogged down over the last 10 years, all over the country, up north in Canada, down in Mexico, across the Atlantic, as long as my body would allow me, I was running. You could say it's become over time something of a spiritual occurrence for me. So as I made my way down A1A, I asked myself, why? Why has it meant, and why does it continue to mean so much to me, this sort of arbitrary activity or exercise?

And not only that, particularly during the times where everything else in life feels so unsteady, when there's chaos and turbulence all around me. Well, this is the conclusion that I came to. It was the clarity. It was the simplicity that continued to play. pull me in and keep me going. See, when I was running, I always knew what I had to do. And there was calm in that.

Reassurance. Perhaps most importantly, a purpose. Looking back, those days where it's 94 in Miami and August, the sun's coming down, you know, I'm suffering through the run. Or days where I'm running through storms, thunder, you know, cracking all around me, my heart racing, because I know it's kind of dangerous. to be there, but what am I going to do? I have to keep going. Those days up in New England in the northeast, right, in the winter, that first mile where you step outside and the wind sort of

cuts through you, you feel it in your bones. All that's uncomfortable. But problems, they seem manageable when you know where you're going. When you understand the rules of the game. And the rules of the game every time I laced up my shoes they were simple. You start at one point and you don't stop until you arrive at the other specified point. It placed stability into an ever-evolving landscape. It reminded me during the most difficult times what it was like to be in full control. I'm going to say something that may appear drastic here. I'm sure many of you know that saying simplicity is the ultimate sophistication attributed to everyone from Lincoln to DaVinion. sheet to your next door neighbor. Well, I believe that simplicity saved my life. And I think it did

many times. It's been a very up and down journey, as they all are, right? And growth is injecting yourself into a world you don't understand. It has to be, definitionally. It's being oversaturated with options. The road less traveled is paved in distraction. And one of my, I'm a bit purpose and my path felt like they were deteriorating before my very eyes when my understanding of life felt like it was slipping away Which is a pain pretty different than stubbing your toe right? It feels much bigger. It's much scarier It was faith in my ability to slay the dragon and find the treasure that empowered me It was the thing that reminded me when I break things down into little objectives not only only do you conquer them, but you identify as someone who conquers them.

It's peeling back the layers of complexity. That reminded me amidst the clutter and the noise. There's simplicity in what I was meant to do. The shiny objects need not divert my attention. We just need to take the time to identify our finish lines, and they can change what matters sometimes does. But the moral of the story is you can't live life trying to hit targets in the dark. And it just makes sense.

Issues with the project I'm working on, go for a run. Feeling confused, frustrated, go for a run. Argument with the girlfriend. Go for a run, run, run, run, right? And I'd come back with less in my head than I left with. Which would, funny enough, ultimately, be more than I left with, right? The space to think about what matters. The simplicity of starting points and ending points.

Nothing in life is that complicated. It's not. But we have a tendency amidst life's storms to stop running. During the heat waves, we forget why we're there. We lose that simplicity. We lose our purpose and our meaning because we let the unimportant things become the big things. I think that's what running is. A reminder that when life is simple, we understand where we're going.

Simplicity isn't convenience, it's what keeps your heart beating in your eyes open. It is life. It's waking up, knowing what matters to you so that you can push away the things that don't. It's that reassurance that, yeah, there's a world of infinity outside the window. But what makes you brilliant is that you can identify and latch on to a small few things. The world around us often says, you know, we need to use the whole canvas. But I say there's nothing wrong with identifying your favorite color and going from that. and going from there.

I say identifying your destination and moving towards it wholeheartedly with conviction is a superpower. And it doesn't mean we don't stop along the way. Doesn't mean nature won't push us off course from time to time. But for one who's taken the time to identify for themselves a finish line, they are never truly lost, even during the most trying of times, because all that's required is a repointing of the compass.

I will continue to run for as long as I can because the further one moves into that abyss. The Morlives says, look over here. A is important. No, B is what you need. You'll never succeed without me or him or them. This way, that way. Some in-between way is the right way. But no, all that is distraction. It makes you feel small very quickly and will make you feel small very quickly, and will make you feel unsure and ill-equipped just as fast.

In my mind, the beauty in life is taking all that supposed complexity and finding within it what's required to paint our own masterpieces, to run our own races. Life is a run around the Charles. A run down the Hollywood boardwalk, a run to the Dania Beach Pier.

It's knowing where your heart needs to go and following it there. It's saying yes when required and know when required, but understanding you are the one who decides what required means. Beauty is simple. Contentment is simple. Meaning is simple. And we can always access those things. They're buried under the complexity we spend our day-to-day swimming in.

So, neighbor, here's to the ultimate sophistication. To getting more than you've ever had in your life by being. building your own parameters out of less. That to find ourselves requires we must first lose ourselves is, I believe, life's greatest paradox, leaving that carousel of comfort, the predictability of what we know, the certainty of who we believe ourselves to be.

For a promise with no real guarantee of being kept, Well, it's nothing short of irrational. Are the odds in our favor? Perhaps not. But by stepping off, by placing our bets on a different track with a different prize at a different time, we have increased those odds from zero to, well, I guess we decide. And see, the world teaches us that it's advantageous to spin. A spinning carousel is predictable. It can't be cheated.

There's very little room for loss or humiliation or setbacks or even life to get in the way. You know where you start and you know where you end, and that's just the thing. This spinning world is so easy that people don't want to leave. In fact, it's not until you walk away from the crowd that you even face the unknown. And that's precisely why it's so hard to walk.

hard to walk alone. It's hard, it's challenging because of the now. Not because the now can't be measured or understood, no, we get it. But because there's this little whisper in the back of our heads that the now might go on and on and on forever, that that check will never be cashed, the summit never reached. No, just footsteps down a perpetually long, windy road. and that's, you know, when maybe, just maybe we miss that carousel. We miss the safety and security. And that's what sometimes makes it such a stressful thing to walk alone. We think about all of ourselves, our mind, our heart we've left behind along the way.

Truths, we now have to face things. They never taught us on that carousel. We had to learn that we were wrong about. who'd be by our side through it all. We could no longer hide behind the notion that when things got tough someday, every one, everything would be there would be the same. We learned to swim by jumping into the deep end,

seeing in real time that people only believe it already exists. What's put in front of them. That ideas are empty. That a dream is a language only spoken by its creator. And if you want it to mean anything, you must dedicate your life to translating it. We learn how much is backwards, how much of life is reactive, that success is being one of the few who don't react, but build a world to react to. And in the thick of it all to internalize the process, because talking while talking does nothing, plans are just potential energy confined to your pocket.

You have to be okay growing that seed by yourself. Like a runner making her way past a crowd, right? The crowd sees calm, sees peace, sees the finesse of an athlete gliding over the pavement. They have no idea the war being fought behind her eyes. The silencing of constant whispers to slow down to do less, the repression of pain that consumes her to such an extent it can't even really be pinpointed. It just kind of floats over her body. They'll never know that. know that. And what we learn is that they don't need to. It's the truth. And see, it's also what

makes it quite lonely to walk alone. Walking alone, well, it's a lot of things. But it's never boring. It's never dull. And if you can hang in there long enough without even noticing the headwind you've been fighting, it becomes a tailwind. And where we may have felt alone, the idea pops into our heads that... Maybe that's not quite right. If anything, the wind at our back is now momentum. It's a partner along the way. That carousel, yeah, it's still spinning, but somewhere else.

Some far off place beyond our field of vision. And no, things don't ever be. become easy. We wouldn't want that. But difficulty is interpreted differently now. Not a burden, but a cost, and one we'd gladly continue to pay. And that space that once felt so empty, so desolate, so helpless. Well, now it's made up of people who see what you see. Who hopped off their own carousels and wandered through the desert. They too navigated. through the impossible and the never been done. It's funny how at some point we always find each other.

And I suppose now, having traded the carousels for the adventure, we can walk alone together. Us against the world, standing up in defiance of the odds, chasing that glimmer of hope, all in on a pursuit to find what most won't, see what most can't. Not because we were made different, but because we chase down the idea of different.

It gets a tough rap walking alone. And in so many ways, it's a fight. It takes all of you. But you don't come out the same person you were when you stepped in. The same person you'd still be today had you stayed on that carousel. So if you are still spinning, step off. And if you have, if you're still adjusting to the discomfort of reality, if you're making your way through the hell of uncertainty, or questioning whether you have what it takes, or have

the strength to commit, I promise. In fact, you're right where you need to be. So don't be distracted by those screaming of their successes or communicating, capturing every small wind as they make their way around the carousel. It's the quiet ones who change themselves. The ones who take life one step at a time, one battle at a time, who redefine reality. And I'm sure you can't see it now.

No one can. No one can see the sun amidst the storm, but you'll emerge. stronger than you ever were. You will navigate towards the ideal and away from that life you once settled for. It's a long path, but it's worth it. So get up and let your feet guide the... Let's go walk alone.

Why is it that the average person seeks out the advice of what feels like a million people before consulting himself. Knocking, looking, hoping, is he looking for answer? Or looking for permission to be who he already knows he is? Is he looking for insight

or just validation that his reflection is in fact okay? See, I think we all deep down know who we are, know what drives us. And even if we don't know exactly what the doubt, It looks like our hearts know the direction best suited to begin the pursuit. So how is it so easy to forget? Why do we get our antennas crossed? See when life becomes about meeting requirements and fulfilling obligations, checking off boxes

and checking in on time, we forget the basics. We forget to live for ourselves. as if our job is to play a part, not direct the movie. And playing a part is living up to expectations. Directing the movie, well, that's creating your own expectation. This world, your world, it belongs to you. It's a world with both unimaginable happiness, bliss, moments of ecstasy, and the occasional suffering, chaos that we have to navigate through.

But I think all of it comes down to whether you trust yourself, to live it for yourself. To remove the shackles, take the training wheels off, stop asking permission and do what you've always known was the right thing. That part never changed. It just had to wait amidst all you're looking for external direction for you to pause and find the internal courage. Freedom is not a life without chaos.

It's trusting yourself to determine which dragons you will slay. It's not a life without battles, but fighting those battles that result in your liberation, dismissing the oppressors that build fences in your mind and chains around your soul. I've thought a lot about the idea of a life well lived, what it means, how it feels, and it seems to me it's about intentionality. Where are you going? It's not that you can escape suffering or eliminate fear. It's not that you'll avoid getting lost along the way, but it's the why. Why we endure these things makes all the difference.

Is it for a better tomorrow or simply to get through today? And it's amazing. Accidentally stumbling upon that which scares you and intentionally basing that, which scares you, are so different that their occurrences trigger completely different neural networks in the brain. See, overcoming fear is ingrained in us. We want to grow.

We want to evolve. We need more. The question is whether you will step out of the line that someone else made for you and live a life that is your own. And if it's crazy, great. Let it be crazy. If it's unique, perfect.

Stand out. And if it scares you, my God, if it scares you, don't turn back, don't you dare turn back. Give yourself the most important permission one can give, the permission to follow your intuition and your curiosity into tomorrow. Let the stakes be higher, but the rewards be meaningful. Let the chaos be your own to tame and to master. Every twist, every turn becomes not only a part of you, but a chapter in the story of your becoming. And as the seed you've held in your hand for so long finally meets the earth and grows so

high that it connects you to the heavens, remember that this is your life. It's your obligation to live it fully. You can't make something that already exists. You find it. Unmask, unveil, allow it to shine through in its original state. It can be improved upon or enhanced, but who you are is who you are. And that's a beautiful thing. Because success. is not about looking around you and trying to replicate someone else's idea of a life well lived. No, it's about removing everything you're not. Until all that's left is what matters most. You, in your most authentic state. That state that most people don't bother to uncover. And see, in a world of acquisition, of longing for more, it's the ones who learn to cut away that truly

live. It's in refinement, simplification that we find clarity, that we're gifted with peace of mind, because it's the burden of constantly doing something that doesn't excite, or playing a role that is not yours to play that is the costly one. Life is about meaning. And to deprive yourself of that is to remove the wind from the sale. We are not free until we decide to be. As Greg McCune mentions in his book Essentialism, the Latin root of the word decide, siss or sid, literally means to cut or kill, it's to walk away from what you're not. Unearthing the power, the value, the potential that always existed despite our ignorance. So let's no longer ask what do I need in order to be who I want to become.

And start asking what can I remove that is in full? infringing upon who I am. What can I dismantle so that I might give wings to that which means the most? I once heard a metaphor that our existence is like standing behind a curtain with tears or holes and reality becomes which holes we decide to look through when we're peering out at the world on the other side. What do we want to see? And this message, well, it's for who I'm going to see.

Whoever out there feels like giving up or folding their hand. Whoever's been waiting for things to change but only sees the clock moving forward, this is a reminder that the very thing you need is on the other side of that curtain. And you don't need to change who you are. You just need to position yourself to see it. Because it's there and you're ready. When life hurts, we might have every reason to be in pain, to feel lost or confused, but I always find it to be a beautiful

reminder that we also have every reason to seek out from that pain, something we've never been before. Why is it that our greatest accomplishments come when our backs are to the wall? Our greatest acquisitions after losing something dear to us? Why is it that we find ourselves in our way only after being lost? I've never heard someone say, thank God, I never changed or left or tried something new. No, it's thank God the adversity forced upon me, the courage to evolve into something more. Pain is to our potential what water is to a seed.

It's the beginning of everything, unshackling, opening the gate, and making us realize we were sitting on the answers. that adversity doesn't stop you, it makes you stronger, that the downtimes lift you up, that when you lose yourself, you find a part of you that can now become the bridge to your future. See, I understand that things are difficult and challenging. I understand they're not easy and I'm not asking you to pretend it's not happening or ignore it or close your eyes. I'm asking you to find amidst all of this, that one thing, one thing that will get you to tomorrow. I'm asking you to find the courage to say, yes, this hurts.

Yes, I'm stretched thinner than I've ever been, but I'm still going to find a way. I'm still going to make it happen. Because at the end of the day, you won't remember what hurt or what stood in your way, but you'll remember what you did about it. You'll remember how you arranged those pieces. How when your instincts said run, you stopped and built something you'll never forget. When the path is uncertain, we seek out footprints from journeys that occurred long ago. Opinions from people who know no better than us.

We look for things that can't be given but must be. be made. I once heard Charlie Munger say that we are our own experiment. Life is the extraordinary arranged in infinite pieces and placed inside a box, waiting for us to uncover and unfold parts that contain no meaning until we place meaning upon them. And the danger of looking externally for answers is that no one knows. you better than you. Life is a playground, an experiment, a place to try new things, push, boundaries, build, fail, and ultimately build again. This is the process from which we see what we're made of. Who we really are. Uncover what the best book, the most intelligent

being on the planet can't give to you. It's where you learn that wandering is not the same as lost. See, we must retreat to the depths of vulnerability in order to come back stronger than we've ever been. We must self-examine in order to find our wings. The Bill Gates of the world, the Picasso's of the world, they disappeared for 10 years until they came back equipped to transform everything around them to explore, build, create themselves to acquire something that mere advice is incapable of providing. Don't deprive yourself of that because of the pressures right now.

See, when we realize that falling 10 times brings us contentment on the 11th, falling is nothing to be ashamed of. It's something to be sought out. By falling, I learn to succeed, by losing I learn to win, by looking like the fool I learned to lead, by wandering Off the paved road, I created the map from my soul to where I was meant to be. Your eyes do not create, they obey. They are projectors that play the stories your mind has written. Messengers. Delivering pictures you've already painted.

So you win or lose long before they open, your outcomes decide. long before they see a thing. Your outlook is not a reflection of the world around you, it's a reflection of the world within you. And I wonder how we can be so lucky as to have the opportunity to literally create our own reality, yet we position ourselves so that we're disadvantaged. We act as though the wake of the boat

is more powerful than the wheel that steers it. We remind ourselves of the obstacles, Instead of reassuring ourselves that we possess the ability to get around anything and everything that stops us. If we can create our own landscapes, why insert storms? If we can define our own rules, why penalize our progress? If we're capable of feats beyond our wildest dreams, why do we instruct our eyes to see stop signs? Your eyes long to see the world as it was meant to be seen. With its color, its fullness, its beauty, its perfection,

why not give them permission? See, there is no use for the negative. The downside brings you nothing. There is no value to be obtained or acquired from what doesn't push you. The solution is simple. If it doesn't make you stronger, let your eyes see beyond it. Re-focus, re-examine,

because I promise you the answers you need are in the same frame as the things that hold you back. The problems they are the solutions, the opportunities they are the risk. Life is that portrait, but it is entirely open to interpretation. See the same people that see beauty that find magnificence, they will always see it. They will always find it. In the down times, the winter periods of life, they'll feel it during the days when we look off. when we look up and we wonder how in the hell these dots connect, they will run towards the chaos,

find answers while others see what's not there. Eyes are the tunnel in which all that data is transferred, but understand this, it doesn't begin externally and flow into your brain. No, reality, as you know it, it starts within and is projected out, pouring into every step you take, every handshake, every time you look up and smile, you are painting the world colors that correspond to your story, your paint by number.

And when you can only see the things you don't want to see, when negativity bias latches on and attempts to hold you in place, realize that you are letting the wrong info in, subscribing to what doesn't serve you, so simply change the channel, step back and look again. One more time, Because you are the author of your own story. So see it as you want to.

Live it on your own terms.