Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Are you underestimating this power? - Best Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." — Aesop In this episode, Eddie Pinero explores the profound impact of simply being there for someone. We often believe that making a difference requires grand gestures, but sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is show up and let someone know we're in their corner. In a world where genuine connection feels increasingly rare, a simple message or word of encouragement can make an unfathomable difference. Eddie reflects on the loneliness that can come with building a business or brand and the immense value of support from friends and family during those challenging times. Who can you reach out to and encourage today? Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

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along to you guys. They're currently offering 40% off their entire website if you use the code EP40. The website is pro-compression.com. And again, that's code EP40. This episode's going to be a little different, perhaps a little heavier than usual. I want to talk about the power of reaching out. how simply being there for someone can make an unfathomable difference. Right?

We tend to think of, you know, a monumental impact requiring monumental action. And sometimes that's simply not the case. Sometimes it's just showing up and letting someone know that, hey, I'm in your corner. And I've been thinking a lot about this, right? This came to mind because over the past couple weeks, I've had two people I went to high school with Passaway, right? Young men in their mid-30s, gone. And by the way, there are two of many people from my high school

that have either OD'd and died or taken their lives. It's an epidemic. And I'm sure it is across the board, right? But being that I am one and hear about it often, I know that particularly young men are feeling isolated. They're feeling lost. they're feeling depressed. Pandemic exacerbated this quite a bit.

It's a problem. And it's a complicated problem. You can point to a lot of things. The way we connect now doesn't actually make us feel connected. We can't trick our brains into thinking that followers online are the same as friends grilling steaks with us in the backyard. It's different. It's not only isolation.

I think there's a crisis of meaning, of purpose, of feeling a part of something. there's a societal void. I don't think there's any question about that. In my little corner of the universe here, I talk frequently about the process of growing a business, of building a brand. A lot of you are in the midst of the same thing. And so I delve into the highs and the lows,

the ups, the downs, I have convos about it, live. And I can tell you, right, Nothing was as challenging as the loneliness of trudging through that, right, the middle. Not rejection, not failure, not being humbled by life, not being broke. No, it was the feeling of solitude, right? Almost haunting. And you can make the argument part of that self-induced, right? It was focused.

Social life took a back seat. but regardless, it was very real. And what was worth gold were the texts from family saying, hey, I watched her video, great work. Or it was my friend Zach, you know, out of the blue saying, hey, this will be worth it, you're on to something, don't you dare stop?

You can call me on a Tuesday just to get me excited about my own company. Right? And like, when you're deep in the best, battle. That's not a little thing. That's not like a smile and appreciate it thing. That's everything. That validated my reason to get up when things were difficult. One message. And let's be real, right? My process was not catastrophic. You know, I had it pretty good. That was a pretty fortunate situation. My brain goes to imagine the people really

fighting, right? Really going through something. Battling with their demons. And I'm reminded, you know, as I watch all these people from previous chapters of my life decide the pain of being here is too much, that we can help. No, we're not magic. And no, there's no singular cure to a complex issue, but I'll tell you what, we all have the power by taking 30 seconds to, to shoot over a message that says, I love you, or I see how hard you're working, or keep pushing because your effort matters, to give someone hope.

That stuff is life-changing. And not only that costs us nothing, but can mean everything on the other end. Some of the email responses I get from my newsletter just reminds me. It's like, you don't know what people are fighting. You don't know what demons they're living. with when you walk by them on the street, right?

And if we can be the ones to be a bit more compassionate, the ones where hope and reassurance is derived and then distributed out to the world, think about how incredible that is. How amazing it would be to simply be a part of that. And for those of you going through it now, thinking, yeah, you know, I would love to. I will spread that message,

but my own glass feels empty right now. I'm having a hard time getting through in my own world. I want you to know two things. One, you're not alone. A lot of us are going through it with you. In our own arenas, fighting our own battles. So don't think this is a burden placed solely on you. Life is hard.

That's the challenge, but it's also the beauty. Which leads me to number two, there will be, I promise you, a point where you look back on the storm of right now and smile because you made it out. You're different now. Better equipped now, stronger now. That's not a possibility. It's an inevitability, as Churchill is famously quoted, saying, if you're going through hell keep going because you're strong enough and what awaits will be worth every second of the journey. I wish we could see that in the middle, understand that in the thick of it, but we can't. That's not how it works. That's why we need to remind others and it's why I'm reminding you.

Life is a beautiful thing, but beauty can't exist without its inverse. We all endure chaos so that we can appreciate the calm. We all endure valleys of despair so that we can experience the rush of climbing out. It's a duality that's not always fun, but appreciating that is liberating. So keep going. Keep trusting. Keep pushing through. Hope is the greatest gift one can give. So give it to those around you and let it evolve. into strength in your own world. It matters, more than you know, it matters. There's a saying that in order to become something new,

you have to leave something behind. You have to detach in some capacity, remove yourself from the physical realm, because the obstacles that we face are not physical. Ninety-nine percent of our problems are not physical. not physical, they're mental. And you know, as you sort of drive that metaphorical ship into the horizon, the biggest turn is never going to be the anchor or the headwind or the bowline.

No, it's going to be the storyline. It's going to be the narrative of the person navigating that ship. And it's interesting, because our first inclination when we feel stuck, it's always to point out. Attribute our problems to the world in this predetermined position within it. Maybe that's the issue. We take our power. We put it into the universe, cross our fingers, and hope things work out. But that will always be a losing proposition. It will always come crumbling down. Because it's not the world that keeps you from showing up. You're not physically incapable of taking that first step or growing or evolving, developing, becoming something new.

No, that demon lives in your head. That's the mental Goliath we struggle with. Right? Because there's cognitive dissonance between who we know ourselves to be and who we want ourselves to be. That's the sea we have to cross. The terrain we have to navigate. It's not the physicality of ten.

taking the steps. Anyone can do that. It's believing that you are worthy of the journey. And you have to ask yourself, is it that you can't become something new? Or is it that you can't, won't refuse to detach from who you used to be? You're still tucked away in that container, that box you've been building for years and years and years that you've placed yourself in, because I can promise you. One of the most liberating things to understand is yesterday is not a life sentence. Yesterday's not forever.

Yesterday's not defining. It's simply a stepping stone. And every morning when you open your eyes, sun comes through the window, illuminates life around you. That's never your cue to put on a fake smile, play the same role you've been playing day after day after day.

No, it's an invitation to do anything you want to do. To begin again. To start fresh. It's an opportunity to detach from that character. Detach from the people and the things that don't push you

towards what you want. Detached from the negative self-talk. And when all that's gone, everything is removed and it's only you and your self-belief, a will to me. move forward, I promise you that pendulum shifts. Life becomes simple and how beautiful simplicity is.

It's shining a spotlight on what matters. It's clarity. It's taking control. It's picking up the clay and molding what you want to mold. It's opening the door and deciding to walk through. Everything else is variable. Everything else is noise. Everything else is detail and distraction. because what you want, it's there. And it's waiting for you to simply remove yourself from who you used to be. To step into right now and believe that you are worthy of everything else. Had a window seat on the plane a few days ago. And during the descent, I watched as we lowered into a thin layer of clouds.

which anyone who's flown before knows creates turbulence. The plane starts to shake. For a brief moment, can't see anything outside the window, only white. No matter how many times I watched this happen, and at this point probably in the hundreds, I can't help but feel a little uneasy. Heart rate increases a little bit. It's just an uncomfortable thing, and here's the deal.

Not only is a problem, plane going through turbulence safe. A quick, you know, Google search will explain to you that no plane was ever brought down by turbulence. They were built specifically for that to endure it. And I know that. I understand it. I believe it.

I guess that, you know, faint nervousness, I feel, highlights the divide between my mental capacity to understand something and, you know, my physical. reaction to it. It shows, to put it simply, that often what's necessary will be uncomfortable. We'll get easier over time. But the point is there's a very real biological resistance associated with doing what's necessary. Even when we know the necessary thing is the right thing, even when we know we're capable

of enduring the journey, right? Just like that plane was built specifically to endure turbulence. Well, in your own world, so were you. And yeah, that world might shake. Yeah, you might look around and see an unknown providing no clarity or visibility, at least in the moment. But that feeling of discomfort

should not be interpreted as negative. A sign to stop or turn back. Has a signal that the world is too much. No, it's where you close your eyes and remind yourself how much you can handle, despite life trying to make you feel to the contrary. You were built to overcome, made to push into uncharted territory,

to take your losses and uncover the hidden away value within them. Sometimes to grow, it's required that we learn not to resist that trembling, but to see it as the courage to say yes, when it would have been infinitely easier to say no. And that's what this is about. Nothing groundbreaking, no secret formulas,

just the reminder we often need, but don't hear enough. That during the ascents and descents of life, and there are and will be many, know that you were built for the turbulence. You can harness the chaos, you can get through to the other side. What's required is simply that you remember who you are and what you're careful.

capable of. Because again, when visibility is limited and our world's shake, it's easy to forget. You will not lose because of the challenge. You will win despite it again and again and again. And sure, stepping up to face that adversary, you may never detach from that nervous feeling in your stomach or the shaky hands, but that's okay. That's your indicator, that you're alive, that you weren't tricked into submitting to a very beatable opponent, that you didn't turn away from the things that meant the most. We are, in some ways, helpless to what occurs around us. There are things that are beyond our control. But the gift we possess, our power, if you will, is the ability to determine

what we let in, how we internalize the externalities. We are responsible for being the gatekeepers of our minds, protectors of our worlds. There's a little saying that I aim to live by. It's incredibly simple. Basically, the idea is, if something is not a net positive on your life, start working to eliminate it. If there's a person that is draining, creating more negative than positive, then they don't deserve to be in your world. Stop letting them in. If there's some place you're going that doesn't align with what you value. Start working to eliminate that destination from your day to day.

Stop letting it in. If you find yourself constantly thinking about worst-case scenarios, it's always, well, what if this is, goes wrong or that goes wrong. If you find yourself missing the opportunity and instead spotlighting the problem, start working to identify and isolate those thoughts so that they can be eliminated. Stop letting that stuff in. The great part about having so much control over our lives and our perspectives is that we get to choose what gets our time and attention.

The tough part, though, and it is tough, is that it means we also have to ask ourselves questions that perhaps we don't want to ask. We have to be honest with ourselves. Like truly honest, and the reality is sometimes it hurts to do that. To ask, how am I contributing to this pain, this struggle? What am I letting in that needs to be kept outside the gate from now on? And what we often find is that the answers are there. The opportunity is there, sometimes even in plain view.

But our attention is often diverted from it and instead allocated to the things that don't even serve us or align with who we are. We've habitualized finding the problems and not the solutions. And I can list examples of this over the course of my life, life all day, right? Epiphanies where I realized I needed to defend the thoughts that enter my mind and better cultivate a world where I can succeed, where I can be happy. Money, for example, to switch from seeing it as a scarce resource, something that everyone's fighting over, how to outmaneuver

the guy to the right of me, how to get my hands on this elusive object. Nope, block that mentality at the gate and let in instead the idea that money is merely an exchange of value. How can I be more valuable to more people where value goes, wealth follows? Or as I've talked about before, the injuries I deal with so frequently, right? Keeping the poor me or I can't deal with this. Or whining, I'm willing to put in the work, why won't life let me succeed? Keep all that outside the gate and let in, here is an opportunity to get better in other areas.

I can't lift. Maybe I'll take a month or two to crush cardio, to eat better, to build mental acuity. Find a way. Or maybe it's that person who made their way into my life that over time became a net negative, that we've gotten to the point where our coexistence takes away more than it has. They no longer belong inside the gate.

in my world, right? Only let in people who do make your life better. And we have control over all of this. It's about accountability. It's about personally understanding the authority you have over what comes in and what stays out. Very few things in life are just because.

Things exist in our day-to-day because we have somewhere along the line allowed them to be there. So take some time to see yourself as the gatekeeper of your world. Audit what you're letting in and what you're keeping out. To do so will set you up for a life on your terms. A life that's not wasted or even merely endured, but one that's lived to the fullest.

I had a friend recently tell me consistency is more important than in ten. Intensity. Interesting, I thought, right? Put it in my back pocket and moved on with my day. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how valuable those words are, how necessary. I think because typically my brain associates the acquisition of more with an increase in intensity. It's like you want more, okay, find a way to give more, to be better. That's the equation my brain was familiar with. And while not necessarily wrong, what it can do is diminish the power of showing up.

It neglects the compound effect. The reality is that consistency over time becomes intensity. A snowball rolling downhill doesn't just increase in size, it increases in speed. Intensity is... Second to consistency, because consistency creates intensity. Consistency is the material from which everything else is made. And we forget that.

Thinking about how much bigger, better, stronger we'd like to be, why can't I just leap a mile? Well, my friend, it turns out you don't have to. Miles are comprised of single steps. I wanted my run yesterday to be about three-fourths intensity. Decided the goal would be to land just under eight minutes per mile. 759 would put me in a good spot for my plan for the week. But as happens, from time to time, the sun, the heat, my body weren't about it, right?

And halfway through the run, I'm a little higher than I wanted to be, averaging about 801, 802 per mile, a little above my mark. And I thought to myself, you have to be better. You have to make a move right now. You have to find something in there. But did I? Did I have to find anything? Because it turns out I was right on track and didn't see it.

What I needed to do is simply hold the eight-minute pace, 801. Just hold it. That keeps me in the game. Then we kick it up at the home stretch. And the last sprint will be enough to get my. cumulative average down to $7.59 per mile. No miracles here. Forget the intensity. All the world is asking of me is consistency. Show up step by step. Keep myself in the game. It's amazing that when you're hurting the mind plays highlight reels of everything you lack, everything you're not doing,

right? It's reaching. We get so uncomfortable or impatient that we think we need to perform magic. tricks and it's like no keep showing up keep yourself in line the intensity is a derivative of the consistency and it will make its presence known so during those first seven miles I showed up I committed and I held on right understanding the assignment big picture not only about consistency staying calm and then as planned picked it up at the last mile hit that goal These little mental games are packed with value. They reinforce bigger picture truths.

Show up, put in the work, find your rhythm, and hold. Don't stress yourself out looking at finish lines you have not yet crossed. Don't let the delta between where you are and where you want to be intimidate you. That's precisely the reason people quit and walk away. They get so caught up in where they are not that they forget little steps over time are what bring about change. They don't understand that the snowball is increasing in velocity as well as it rolls down the hill. That by staying focused, their output becomes the avalanche.

So when you have to, when you feel like the world is increased in size and its obstacles in number, know that there is value in holding the eight. The 801, the 802, know the power of simply getting on base, of getting up again and again and again, of putting yourself in position to succeed. Because your time to sprint will arrive. And when it does, you'll be battle tested and prepared. But the sprint only matters because you stayed steady, stayed consistent throughout. step, step, step. So remember when the rest of the world

is talking about the shortcuts, the life hacks and the secret solutions that will change your reality, they're missing the mark. Because one brick at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time, you're building something that can't be manufactured overnight. You're committing to the process

and will ultimately experience that which can only be experienced by those who paid the price, those who didn't panic or over-analyze, but put one foot in front of the other consistently, every single day. The difficulty we face in life is not personal. If you remember this, you disarm every adversary, obstacle,

every complication you'll ever face. So, quick story. Recently, I was renewing a lease for my apartment. Something that usually is pretty simple, right? Only this time, things were not simple. Confusion, chaos, misunderstanding, after misunderstanding. I received emails and letters saying, you know, you need to provide these documents in order to renew.

You need to have X, Y, Z information submitted to his ASAP. And I'm sitting here thinking, guys, you have all this info. I've lived here a year. Same guy, let's put two and two together. And after a while, I started to get truly annoyed, eventually to the point of taking it personally. So I stopped what I was doing and go down to the front office thinking I'm going to go scorched earth here. I really wanted to emphasize how absurd and ridiculous all of this. was I opened the door and just kind of stop in my tracks.

First thing I see, it's a crowded room filled with tenants, asking for things, making requests, looking for info. And the people that worked there were so patient and kind, running around doing their absolute best to make everyone happy and get everything done. And almost immediately I realized, Eddie, you made this about you. This is not in any way.

in any way about you. Basically, I created this fallacy that because things weren't working the way I wanted them to, then there must have been some universal resistance, right? There's an idea I heard a while back that very rarely steers me wrong, it's that two things can simultaneously be true at once. So in this case, is there opportunity for these guys to tighten up a bit, bring more clarity to their operations and best practices. Yeah, certainly true.

But on the other hand, was building this up as a them versus me match in my head dumb and counterproductive. Yes, also true. The world will always provide adversity, right? That's not news to anyone. It's just what the world does. That adversity will take a thousand different shapes

and appear an infinite number of ways. But here's the deal. life is neutral. Things just happen. They aren't good or bad. They just exist in the ether. We as storytellers decide to put a charge into things. We decide whether it's happening to us or for us.

We choose. And that's a takeaway here. There's power in remembering not to take things personally in any aspect of life. Because when we do, we actually lose our grip on reality. We become emotional and not rational. And this is visible everywhere. Take rejection, for example, something we all deal with. It's not personal. The person on the other end is thinking about themselves. They're locked in on their own incentives. They're not thinking

about you. And however you feel about this, it's just the truth. So assess the situation. Sure, maybe find some areas where you can improve and carry on. Being mistreated. Again, not about you. As the saying goes, hurt people, hurt people. Same goes for criticism and hate online. It's something that a lot of people truly fear. It will almost always be true that people who are more accomplished than you

or further along in their career trajectory won't waste time bringing you down in the comments section. No, it's people saying things hoping that their comments will get approval and attention so they can feel validated. Their actions are being carried out for, ready for this, themselves. And to misdiagnose or take it as a shot to the heart, well, that's creating a battle scenario that doesn't need to exist. It's not them versus you, it's them versus them.

you're just in the crossfire. Now, does this perspective or point to not take things personally mean that we abdicate personal responsibility? Does it mean we say, well, it's not me, it's the world, so not my problem? No, of course not. This perspective gives you the power to do the right things and the necessary things because you understand that the problems you face are not a giant indictment. of you as a person. Getting angry creates a scenario where, you know,

you reallocate your energy from doing what's best for you to instead being mad at him or her or this group or that circumstance or the world in general. You know, bad things happen. And by the way, they happen to everyone. Everyone gets rejected at some point. Everyone gets let down by people close to them at some point. Everyone loses their way at some point.

Everyone has their expectations fall short. Everyone has pushback. It's not just you. It's the world doing what the world does. And there's eight billion of us running around operating in our best interest, trying to navigate a big, crazy world that's often incredibly difficult to understand. So with this perspective, right, going forward,

you know, my lesson from a few weeks ago, what would I have done differently during all? all that chaos with the apartment, a handful of things. First of all, remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, it's trivial. It's just not that important. Two, understand incentives. These folks aren't trying to make things hard for me.

They're trying to do their jobs well so they can live their best lives, which brought their attention to other things it happens. And three, when you're calm, you can actually solve the problems at hand. When you don't stack your problems up to look like adversaries working against you, when you instead see them as merely a challenge or puzzle to be solved, life starts to look a lot different. It just feels different to walk around as though life is on your side,

as though hardship is nothing more than the water necessary for the seed to grow, as though all those challenges you face are opportunities being presented to you. Because I'm not sure you can simultaneously fight and solve. I think one of our most important decisions is to select one. You can make the rejection, an opponent, the criticism, a rival, you can make the disorder your nemesis. Or you can realize that all of it falls squarely into the same. the box that is like. Pieces to be taken out one by one so that you can construct the ideal.

Life comes down to the advantages that exist all around us, the choices we make, to live freely with the wind at our backs or confined by the walls we build around ourselves. And sure, your current obstacles might be because of decisions you've made, maybe even decisions you wish you could But the current moment right now in this second is neutral. It does not hold a grudge or have an agenda. Now, right now is simply right now. In the same way that 2 plus 2 is 4. 4 is not good or bad.

It doesn't want you to win or lose. It's just 4. Same goes for the crossroads before you. And that puts the onus entirely on you. you to decide what you will make it all mean. Will you slow things down to find clarity? Will you open your eyes to see the value? Because look, there will always be a delta between reality and the stories we tell ourselves about reality. That's just how human beings work. It's how we've managed to survive for millennia. So understand that and gift yourself the narratives that bring

you closer to the place you want to be. The road before you will be challenging, not because its pushback is personal, but because amidst the resistance, you'll find the components you need to live your very best life. Just one more day. The power is in just one more day. Don't need to have the whole book written. Stories told or city built. It's not about one universal solution to all your problems.

It's about continuing forward until the breakthrough. It's about knowing that when it feels most hopeless to go on, that's precisely when it's most important to do so. The world is not asking of you. everything, just something. So give it something. Keep yourself in the game. Keep your head up and your eyes open.

Keep your feet moving, even if you don't know where they may be leading you. You need not a billion answers, but one breakthrough. One Breakthrough See, we all fall We all lose our footing Life can be tough And being that this is par for the course

The contract we signed Before we breathe our first breath of air It's a fool's errand to exhaust energy On the occurrence To be angry at the situation To feel bad About yourself for wandering there No, it's about recognizing where you are and then finding it within yourself to step away.

One foot closer to the breakthrough to recapturing what matters. When things become too big, we simply shut down. Complexities crippling. But truth be told, the path is not complex. Our manufactured interpretation is what's complex. So simplified. Step forward one more time, a little bit closer to the breakthrough,

a little bit nearer to the light at the end of that tunnel. Remember, there is no all-encompassing formula. What there is, is, is the strength that emerges from one's willingness two-inch forward. When all seems dark, when temporarily you've forgotten what that sense of excitement feels like. When the thrill of progress seems foreign, shut off the mind. This isn't the time to weigh pros versus cons or this versus that move into the haines trusting that what you need will reveal itself.

Because as long as you don't stop, it most certainly will. You'll find yourself again. Your path again. Things will make sense again. But that right is earned now. We're tired, worn, in our solitude, beaten down. We might not be able to see it in the moment, but that's when the beautiful things are made. So trust that you are the designer you've been looking for all along.

Fear is either a headwind or a tailwind. It's a red light or a green light. It's either an end or a beginning. You get to choose. I talked about this exact thing a few months ago, so it's kind of fun following up now as some time has passed and the technologies continue to evolve. Last spring I heard someone say there will be two types of companies in the future. There will be companies that leveraged AI in companies that no longer exist.

And I didn't know quite what to make of that at the time, but settled on, well, I trust myself to figure it out. After all, that's what humans do. we adapt and we find a way. Well, I was recently in the middle of one of my YouTube audits and I saw something interesting. There's a section of YouTube that discloses 15 channels that are similar to yours. Basically, there's an audience overlap.

So, for example, one of the 15 right now for me is Andrew Hummerman. So apparently a number of people who watch or listen to his channel also make the way over to my YouTube channel, which I thought was interesting. So I wanted to dig a little deeper. And as I was poking around at some of those other channels, here's what I found. About a third, from what I can tell,

of the channels on that list, were faceless YouTube channels with AI voice automation, AI scripting, and what I could only assume is AI video editing as well, which means that the future state is here. It's not knocking. It's not around the corner. It has arrived. Okay, noted. That means two things. I can either, one, water the seat of concern

whispering, hey dude, you're now fighting for real estate on this platform with robots. And two, ask, okay, well, how can I add value in a way that AI automation can't? Right? because there are certainly plenty of ways. And in writing this, you know, it was kind of like, it almost seems a bit tired, right? How many ways can you say, find a way to win?

But in reality, this is a perfect example of the crossroads. We're always at perpetually, right? In every difficult situation, we're tasked with growing or dying. And I truly appreciate that this is forcing me to evolve or at least quicker than I would have right it's putting me in position to inject more into my craft that's not optional that's a requirement

and it's what technology has always done it will always do I was joking around with a friend of mine who you know said the same things like chat GPT creates you know great B minus work how do you ensure moving forward that yours is a plus, right? That's the question now and will always be the question. And in thinking about this, I don't know how anyone could think they aren't powerful. When in almost every situation, the same tool that gives life can also kill you, the same things that make you stronger, have the ability to destroy you, the outcomes entirely, dependent, not on the tool, but on its utilization by the actors.

I call us artists because we all are, and the proof is in what you've made with what you have. I was playing around with chat GPT this morning, seeing if I could write a speech in the quote-unquote Eddie Pinero style, and I was laughing because it gives these, you know, kind of robotic, rigid essays, But every single one of them referred to life as a dance and in the world as a blank canvas. I'm like, wow, I didn't realize I said that that much. I was, what's his name, Woody in Toy Story, and you pulled a string. That would be like my two rotating messages. But I believe that, right?

Like, is there anything better to describe the freedom contained in the time we have? We are painters. We are architects. We're not handed good or bad things. We're handed things. And from our handling, interpretation, and craftsmanship with regard to those things, they take on certain meanings. Everything is opportunity. It's just waiting for us to first grant it permission to become one.

When I was growing my company in the early years, right? every once in a while, I would feel so defeated. Like, just tired of feeling like everything I did wasn't enough. You know, that sort of hamster on the wheel feeling, and I'd have to figure out a way to pull myself up again and again, right? And it was always, hey, remember, this situation is not good or bad, it's just a situation. You have to take it and paint it onto your canvas.

If you think it's bad, what you paint will reflect that. Everyone will seem better further along than you. The road will seem too challenging. Personally, I'll take on a persona of not enough. But if I start thinking that the situation is valuable, is an opportunity, that's what will be etched into my reality. We are vehicles bringing meaning to meaningless things. And to know you have that ability can make all the difference.

And so my thesis here still the same. Technology will evolve, so will I, and so will you. But I think beyond that is an underlying truth. This isn't really about technology. It's about our willingness to adapt and make good things out of neutral, indifferent circumstances. There will always be a reason you can and a reason you can't. Or put in an artsy way, there are imaginary castles in the sky and imaginary shackles around your feet. You get to choose which to believe in. Find something to make yours. I connect every few months with some of my good friends to strategize, kind of reflect back on the previous quarter plan for the new one with each of our businesses,

kind of share ideas, stuff like that. And I was chatting with my friend Keith about life before he found success in what he's doing now, the struggle and the turbulence he faced, as well as ultimately his decision, and that's entirely what it was, to turn things around. And I've talked about his backstory before, so I'm not going to get too much into it, but essentially he grew up in a very negative environment. Dealt with a ton of adversity, but got through it. Started his own national business,

installing and repairing commercial pizza ovens, and the guy's just crushing. And, you know, our conversation in that moment wasn't so much about the doing. It was more on the overcoming and how mentally we had to recreate ourselves to have any chance of moving beyond what we knew. I've talked about it a little before.

Kids are simply not taught in school how to thrive, how to build, how to ask more of themselves in the world. They're taught to follow instructions, to do what they need to do in order to pass the exam, to progress to the next level. Then there's a gray area, because I'm not saying this is totally valueless, but I am saying that anything beyond that requires a reworking of sorts. You ask anyone who stepped out of that cycle, and they'll tell you the mental and psychological, shift that needed to take place, it was almost overwhelming, right? It's a lot, but it's imperative. I recently looked up the word entrepreneurship, and this is the definition. The activity of setting up a business or businesses taking on financial risk in the hope of profit. And in my mind, it is the risk precisely that's challenging, that brings us so much

pain, but also contains within it the reward. It's one of the craziest dilemmas we face. You know, you'll have to endure some of the worst times of your life, but because of that, you'll get to experience highs that would otherwise have been almost completely improbable. We have to rework the thinking that says discomfort equals run away. It's like, no, discomfort equals the price of something better, and sure it's by no means mandatory, but it's where the upside lives. You have to train yourself to step out into the chaos with the expectation of taming it. And yeah, everything could go wrong, but also everything could go

right. And just imagine. Imagine what that would look like. That possibility alone validates the risk. We just need to convince ourselves. And that risk, by the way, is not just financial. In fact, most of the time it's not. It takes a variety of shapes in our lives. You run the race, you risk losing. You go up and talk to the girl. You risk rejection. You pick up and move somewhere new.

You risk winding up somewhere you don't want to be. And maybe temporarily things do fall apart. But maybe you win the race. Maybe you find the love of your life. Maybe you relocate to the happiest place you've ever called home. Calculated risk is the beginning of everything that matters. And so back to the convo. We were talking about the different risks we've taken,

how some chapters were fun, some were challenging, and some were both, and how for me there was even, from time to time, a conversation where I was asking myself whether it was really worth it. You know, when you're uncomfortable, the mind wanted, to do one thing, get rid of the discomfort. And I had to convince myself, remind myself that I'm someone who risks good to pursue great. Risk hurts.

And somewhere in that conversation was when Keith said he remembers the exact point the risk became worth it. The discomfort became easier to manage. We're so used to taking orders to playing scared that the incentive just wasn't there until Keith's words, it became mine. The most invigorating thing he ever did was find a pursuit to call his own. That's powerful. His business injected him with a new energy

and in essence a new life because he suddenly had a stake in the game. And I think that's what so many of us in so many areas are missing. The risk appears bigger when it's not counterbalanced by something meaningful. So find something that. to make yours. The simplicity there is beautiful. Complex ideas expressed in simple ways are always

worth holding on to, right? We are programmed to lose because we are programmed to live according to someone else's standard, to think small, to ask ourselves, how do we not screw up? But when you can step outside that little self-imposed circle, and instead ask yourself what's something I can create that is my own, something I care about, that I can nerve. invest a part of me into. That's when life really starts paying dividend. You're not existing, you're living. Or as I've recently discussed,

you're empowering yourself to not just sit in the room, but be in the room fully. I use entrepreneurship as the model for this discussion because that's been such a huge part of my life where I've been injecting my time and attention and yeah, risk. But the point is not that everyone needs to stop what they're doing and become an entrepreneur. That's one path of many, obviously. The point is that there is a risk-reward dynamic in entrepreneurship that we should all understand,

extract and inject into our own lives where it best applies. We've learned to settle in so many ways that we must know there is tremendous value in asking, What is it in my life I want to invest in? Make mine. Give myself the opportunity to experience the excitement of defining the things I care about and watching them grow. Whether your current arena is entrepreneurship or motherhood, fatherhood, academics, a particular relationship, some combination of these or anything else.

To make magic out of the mundane requires we first make it ours. We take ownership, responsibility for the journey, we accept the risk and chase down the rewards. You can do amazing things when you realize what you're capable of and commit to its manifestation. So in a world where, yes, we are conditioned to fail, step out from those subtle shackles of learned helplessness. You are anything but helpless. It's just that you've yet to reach out and pull your dreams into your orbit. You've yet to put a stake in the ground and say this matters and it's time to see it through,

because once you do that, the good stuff begins. Remember what's yours to control and what's not what must be let go. Remember that nothing is so futile as attempting to move the immovable or change the unchangeable. Remember that your greatest strength is focusing your time, talents, and efforts, exhausting your energy on that which you can control. And sometimes this distinction hurts. But to fail to see it is to shackle oneself to delusion. Right? You can complain about the weather all day, but to complain about it, to focus on it, to be stuck in it is not going to change it.

Your time would be better suited looking at how to adjust yourself to it. And that's what life repeatedly tells us. There's plenty we aren't happy about, plenty we wish we could change. But to stay there in that space is to forfeit your greatness, your strength. Why? Because there is so much you can control, so much you can do. You can always position yourself to succeed. But that calls for first separating what's yours and what's not. There are people I wish were different. There are situations I prayed were alterable. There are outcomes that are given without my asking. That's just life.

And a losing mentality is to fight that, to feel anger or resentment at the people that lets you down. Why couldn't they be how I want them to be? It's to dwell on the situation that occurred despite your wishes. Why couldn't it have just happened my way? It's to refuse to acknowledge the outcomes that have already materialized. Why couldn't it just have evolved differently? All that, as hard as it is to see, is embracing a mentality of victimhood. It's walking down a path that has no desirable destination in store for you.

When you accept the unchangeable, you then become the architect of your reality. Sure, people, places, and outcomes weren't always the best, but now you ask, how can I navigate around it, or better yet, use it to be able to be. yet use it to my advantage. It is, to use the famous metaphor, not shaking your fist at the wind, but building sails for your boat, creating a path to take you somewhere new.

So let the energy, the time, and emotion that's wasted on the immovable dissolve. The question worth asking is, where do you most want to be and how can you get there? And while those details outside the scope of your control can feel like a bottomless gap in your way, I promise that what's around you is enough to build a bridge over it. There's enough there for you to find your way. So long as we learn to separate the gap from the bridge, the details from the solutions,

When all you see is why you can't go or how it can't be solved or how impossible something is, it's not that you are looking at an unfortunate truth, it's that you are looking at the wrong supporting evidence. When we stop seeing the details and outside circumstances as the deciders of fate, we win. When we place our eyes upon the controllable, when we step into what is ours to move and shape and transform, we finally see that the journey to something bigger is not only possible, it is inevitable.