Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - BECOME OBSESSED | Running Motivational Speech | Start Your Day Right

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

"I suggest that you become obsessed about the things you want; otherwise, you are going to spend a lifetime being obsessed with making up excuses as to why you didn’t get the life you wanted." - Grant Cardone

To life's adversity, thank you. To the challenges, the ones I hated in the moment, I am beyond grateful. They became invaluable. Those moments that forced me to be more than I was. Step out before I was ready so that I could arm myself for the path that was meant for me. Thank you to those times I was afraid. You taught me that the darkness is never as bad as our thoughts make them out to be. And when we learn to trust ourselves, we realize that fear becomes strength.

Thank you to those times I fell short of expectations, the times I didn't quite hit the mark. You taught me that it's not about me. It's not personal. It's about taking that awareness and going at it again more intelligently. Thank you to the times I felt alone. The times I didn't get the support I hoped for anticipated. You did two things. Reinforce the value of an effective, committed team, but you also emphasize that if that

candle is going to stay lit, it's going to be because I commit. to keeping it lit. And when tempted to point out and blame the external world, I must pause, reassess, and focus on the world within. Thank you to those times of stagnation, the valleys of despair, of uncertainty.

You reminded me that momentum has to be manufactured. And the answers we need are never big or complex. They are small and they are simple. We are always one step away from getting back on track. Thank you to the unexpected setbacks. The from out of nowhere obstacles. You taught me that the trials and the tribulations, they are not the exception, they are the rule.

That success isn't running from them, but learning to deal with them. There's a saying that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. Thanks for showing me to allocate my energy to the reaction. Thanks for the times I looked around and couldn't find a conceivable way. The times things seemed helpless and hopeless. You taught me that even in our darkest moments there is an answer that I am capable.

I am strong enough. And who would have thought that all these things, all these situations I would have loved to run away from, were a gift more valuable than any other. Who would have thought that predictability and comfort were wolves in sheep's clothing? The danger is never the obstacle. It's in thinking you've been slighted by life when the obstacle arrives. In reality, every setback is a chance to be more, to step into that future self, to live life.

It is from our struggle that we acquire our strength, from our pain we find just how far we can go. So to these challenges that made me who I am, thank you for the insight, the lessons, and the evolution. Thank you for showing me what no success could ever have shown. The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to do. start. John Bingham. We all share a commonality. The runner on the starting blocks, the one at work, the one studying, the one trying to create the best life possible for their family. See, we are all at a beginning, looking up at an idea. Nothing given, nothing to adjust or react to no just an idea.

And ideas when we are at the bottom looking up, they're deceptive in nature, their size, their weight, their breadth. They like to present themselves as much more than they actually are. And so, to turn ideas into things one needs to see themselves, not as some descendant of Mount Olympus tasked with lifting that 2,000, ton boulder before them, but as one armed with an understanding, the awareness that the 2,000 ton boulder before them can be broken down, piece by piece that it is nothing more than a facade, and while it may stop most in their tracks, you are simply not most. Not because the world treats you differently, but because you see the world differently. By knowing you are bigger than the sum of its parts, you have defanged this wolf, you have

put yourself in position to do that which makes the world tremble, that which causes even the most confident to doubt. You have put yourself in position to begin. See, there is a time to look at the top of the mountain, breaking through the clouds, powerful and majestic. And then there is a time to look at your feet. And right now is the latter. You're not concerned with the big things.

No, not right now. Your job is to move forward into this haze, to not see but adapt, to not know but trust. Things will materialize, and you know that. But at the same time, you can't control the future. Your battle is right now, and it's with the space immediately in front of you.

It's with the thoughts attempting to deceive you. It's with the things the outside world will tell you, but forward motion is the antidote to all of that. And so forward you must go. The beginning is always the hardest because our thoughts are a mightier foe than life's obstacles. Thoughts take on lives of their own. They become monsters, demons, dead ends,

obstacles, on the other hand, just ask that we adjust. There is no obstacle that can't be addressed by stepping into it. And so while the temptation is to sit, thinking, speculating about how challenging the road ahead, this is where you think less and move more. Harness the world as it comes, because the truth is nothing is as big as it appears to be. Life is incredibly solvable. Every problem has a solution. Every bad chapter ends, every setback is a chance to be more than you've ever been,

but how would you know that if you bowed down to the mountains in your head? How would you know that if you never began? So let today be the dotted line you sign with your future self. A promise to be aware that the mountaintop peers over you, but to not be distracted by its shadow. To take the climb one rock, one step, one second at a time. Let it be an acknowledgement that nothing light throws at you can't be broken down and conquered so long as you don't get in your own way.

Gone are the days of being held captive behind steel bars of self-doubt and fear. That road ahead is not the problem. It never was. Refusing to give yourself permission to travel down, it was the problem. So without constraints, meet life head on. Let the trials and tribulations emerge because they will, but know that you will rise to meet them. Let the unknown highlight all that you don't know. You can't see.

Fine. The one thing you are sure of is that you will, one by one, transform the unseen into strength. And when those thoughts emerge, telling you that you've gone too far, that you're in over your head, that this isn't meant for you, know them, not as truth, but as the only obstacle that can derail and distract. You don't have time for make-believe monsters. No, not today.

So onward you go. To map the unknown, to tame the untamed, to live your. life the way it was meant to be lived. When the run got difficult, I would often count street lights. Why? Because at some point I realized that it wasn't so much the immediate moment that was painful as it was the idea that I had to continue on, a fear of the unknown. Our minds are brilliant because they have the power to gaze into the future, to anticipate, to predict, and sometimes that prediction materializes in the form of stress and pain in the present.

A pain that, let's face it, is manufactured. See, the present moment may be uncomfortable, but it's manageable. It's always something we can harness and adapt ourselves to. But make-believe scenarios, the imaginary monsters we let in, well, I don't know how well-equipped we are to handle those, so I've found solace in simply keeping them out. See, counting streetlights, it brings me to the now. I can always get to the next street light.

In fact, it's always visibly in front of me. It's tangible. It's real. There is no space for tricks or scary stories when I count streetlights. My mind's job is to focus on those tall metal fixtures. And the body's job is to listen and move accordingly. And while sure, there is pain, it is manageable. When you look it directly in the eyes, not with regard to what it can be, but as it exists now in this moment, we can always rise to be more than we once thought possible.

These streetlights simply remind us of that fact. And so beyond this moment, when the running shoes are off, long after the finish line crossed, it's imperative. that the idea remains, that yes, life will be painful and life can hurt, but it never gives you in one instant more than you can handle. And sometimes it might seem so. Sometimes it might appear overwhelming, but when we remind ourselves that we're simply borrowing pain from a future that has not yet arrived,

When we refocus on what is within our control, we empower ourselves. Our greatness expands and our strength intensifies. Because look, there's a time and a place for everything. And in our moments of duress, when the world is weighing down on us, I've found the answer to be thinking less and trusting more. And the next footstep transforms into not the detail but the story in its entirety. Sure, sometimes life is about planning and calculating and strategizing, but sometimes life also calls us to put our heads down, shut our minds off, and find a way to move towards something greater.

It's step, step, light post, step, step, light post, demoting the discomfort from the star of the movie or the main character to a subtle observer. Sitting quietly in the background as you do what you were going to do anyway with or without it. Never forget how much control you have over the current moment,

and that our greatest pain is often masked in a fiction, a delusion. When we find ourselves stuck, it's because of a future that has one not arrived, and two is outside the scope of the task at hand. It's not because of what's around the corner that we survive. life's trying times, it's because we dig deep enough to get to that next light post. That next day, that next stop, that next chapter. Look, you will emerge victorious. Not because of the future, but the now.

Because you realize your strength, shut off the world and conquered your next. Why chase down the difficult things? It's certainly not being productive for the sake of being productive. It's not for the flex or the trophies. It's because meaning in life is directly tied to conquering the unconquerable. Harnessing the outside world. It's about seeing what we can become when we put ourselves in position to grow. The adventure of a lifetime that awaits anyone who chooses to accept. That's why. But it's not a

one-and-done affair. That's the thing. Life has a way of filtering out the timid and the unsure to identify those that really want it, as though it sees us sign that dotted line and asks, Is that so? Let me remove that comfort and predictability. See if then it still sounds good. Let me place the value on the other side of the pain. See if you're still enthusiastic about the pursuit. In fact, let me burn the map.

Dim the lights, add some obstacles along the way, see how giddy you are about all this now. And see the difference. between those who make change and those who dream about change. It comes down to one simple thing. How do you view the obstacles? Are they a problem? Are they an anomaly?

A red flag? Because if they are, you've lost before you've started. But the ones who see adversity as simply the expectation, the water that grows the seed, the wheel that turns the car, the switch that lights up the room, well for them it's a little different. They have armed themselves with adaptability. See, life is not smooth sailing with aberrations in the form of rough waters. No, it is a non-stop influx of trials and tribulations. You can't be mentally prepared

to evolve if your expectation and your hope is always for calm. No, flip that on its head. The expectation is turbulence. Calm is a rare gift and as it turns out you were built to endure. So when the waters are rough and the many turn back you, you push forward because this is not the world saying no. It's certainly not a referendum on you. It's the cost of admission a chance for you to prove yet again that where you place your focus to emerge victorious if only the world could see could understand that the challenge isn't the problem it's the answer if only everyone knew what you know that the great tragedy

isn't falling down it's avoiding discomfort in order to preserve what mediocrity Why do you want this? Because you know it's an option. It's there. You know that if you move forward when you're fearful, push harder when it hurts, find something in yourself when there appears to be nothing left.

The game of life becomes one of unending reward, beauty, and prosperity. For those few, it's simply knowing that you can have the world if you just give yourself permission to take it. I used to think it was 100%.

How do I get back to 100? Let's get this fully charged. No cracks or flaws. And so I'd wait. I'd rest. I would prepare. But guess what? What? Aiming for 100% is a perpetual almost there. Turns out life doesn't care much about 100%. It wants to know what you can do when you're at 80. Can you find a way to push through when you are at 75%?

How about 65? See, life is innately difficult. How do you handle that? How do you compartmentalize it? It was recently back in Boston, running around the Charles River first time in a while, felt a little back spasm reoccurring. That right knee, a little sensitive as it often is, and I thought, man, again,

if I waited for perfection to run, I would never run again. I can count on one hand the times everything felt great. Lightbulb moment. We work towards that. We aim high. We give the body what it needs, but we also understand Perfect is more of an idea than a reality.

Sometimes you just have to lace up the shoes and go. Just like sometimes you have to wake up even though you're tired. Walk into the room even though you're nervous. Make the change even though you're fearful. Cut ties even though you're sad or disappointed. There is no way. There is no 100% that is going to come down and save you. Life will always provide the necessary ingredients,

decline to grow and achieve. It does, though, leave it up to you to decide how bad you want it. So what's the plan? To wait until you're 100%, until everything is perfect and you're living the problem-free life you dreamt of, Or is this a find a way now type thing? An acknowledgement that we aren't given perfection, but we are given enough to move forward anyway.

An understanding that while most view discomfort as an end, greatness means seeing it as an invitation, an unavoidable cost to move into the realm of accomplishment. So while the rest of the world waits for their 100%, I dare you to conquer your adversaries while at 80. I challenge you to surprise yourself while at 70, to disrupt the status quo while at 65. There is no waiting here.

There is no serenity in growth. And how could there be? Growth is a restructuring of comfort, tearing down to build again. Yeah, I used to think it was 100%. But now I know waiting for that 100 just becomes hope and stagnation. No, we cross finish lines and reach mountaintops while manufacturing momentum and creating possibility. Yeah, anyone can succeed at 100%, but seldom do we get there.

Seldom do we see that? So that leaves us with this simple question. What will you do? where you are with what you have. What will you do now? 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 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 thick of things, your legs start to burn, heart rates elevated, and you can start to, you know, 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 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 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 400 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. 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 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. Every next level of your life will demand a different version of you.

Why? Because life is about reaching outside of your comfort zone, acclimating until you are comfortable, and then repeating the process. Every time you leave the familiar, you are granted a new set of armor. As Jim Rhone said, if you want to have more, you have to become more. For things to change, to change. For things to get better, you have to become better. If you improve, everything will improve for you. And every time we expand ourselves, we are forced to change in some way, evolve. So many of us fall into the trap of waiting for the perfect moment to jump. There is no perfect moment. How could there be? There's no perfect time to step out into a world you're not prepared for. But that's life. We

We jump and we grow wings on the way down. We step into the chaos and acclimate. By walking into the dark, we are forced to become the light. This makes staying where you are the most dangerous thing you can do. Let's use our imagination for a second. Let's say you reach for the next thing. You stretch yourself. Move towards something you really want and you fall short.

Okay? Time to breathe. Reassess. back for a second and re-approach a little better this time, a little wiser this time. As long as one remains engaged in this cycle, growth is inevitable. But now, let's say you never step in. Let's pretend the idea of moving into the unknown is too much, and you'd rather stay with the familiar, pain-free, you think to yourself, but you would in fact be wrong.

See, that discomfort one step up, it would force you. to evolve, to see yourself as someone who steps into hostile territory and survives. And maybe it's not pretty. Maybe it's not perfect, but you attack and you survive. And sure, the difference between where you are now and only one step up isn't much. But what about that second step or evolution? Because you'd miss out on that too. And the third and the fourth and the compounding that would completely redefine who you are.

yourself identity to your skill set from the mental to the physical you put the whole chain reaction on hold because why you didn't want to take one step you didn't want to be uncomfortable in the short term but discomfort is not a punishment it is a ticket to everything you could ever imagine so when the crowd runs out i challenge you to run in and when the world goes left i do you to run in and when the world goes left I dare you to go right, not because the masses are evil, but because human beings are wired to take the path of least resistance. But you, no, not you. You're here to rise above the mental constraints that holds so many down, because there is always another level. When you feel good, there is another level, and when you don't, there is another level.

And see, our world has been defined, not by the best or the brightest, but the ones willing to throw themselves into foreign arenas and compete. To see adversity as the answer, not the problem. You want to change your world, then change yourself. You want to change yourself, then go where you are scared to go. Where your heart beats and your hands sweat. Turn and face the direction you know you should have been facing. This is about you. This is about what you can become by simply saying yes when most would say no.

Today is yours. Not because it was given to you, but because you looked through the haze and you decided it's so. Life's best kept secret? Simple. Show up. Show up when you're tired. You're down. show up after defeat.

Show up when you're stressed, when you're worried. Show up when you don't feel like it. In fact, that's when it's most important to show up. That becomes the great differentiator. See, a lot of us somewhere along the way we adopt this idea that winning is about the home run. It's stepping up to the plate and swinging so hard that the ball leaves the park and it never comes back to Earth.

And while, yeah, that's a fantastic sentiment. And if or when that happens, that's great. But sustained success isn't one monumental occurrence. It's little victories. Consistently occurring over and over and over. Very small. In fact, to those walking by, they're probably too ordinary to be considered successful or acknowledged. They're too mundane.

They're only victories because you decided they are. And when you think about it, the evidence is out there. Successful teams don't build game plans around the hellmary with no time left on the clock. No, they show up every day and master the task in front of them. They compound the opportunity available on a daily basis because it's there. And that puts them in a position to execute. However the situation unfold. They showed up when it quote unquote didn't matter.

And that of course means everything when it does matter. And something I remind myself every day and something I think everyone should hear. Those waiting for life to hand out miracles will always be left behind by those willing to, well, show up. When it's not fun, not sexy or not. or exciting, days when you're tired, when you're weak, when you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders because, well, we all know that happens. We all know how easy it is for that to be the excuse

or become the free pass, especially when you know in the back of your head this is practice, right? This is a rep, the world won't end if you sit this one out. But if you wouldn't sit out the real thing, the Super Bowl of your pursuit, then we have to understand the value of the mundane staircase leading to that event. Each seemingly insignificant step is your Super Bowl.

It's not that it's close to the same, it has to be the same. It's the old saying you play the way you practice, but turned way up. Now we're saying there is no difference. And when the lights are turned on and you're standing on that stage, It's not some new experience you have to figure out and navigate. It's the continuation of that staircase, of the old, of the familiar. You showed up then and you'll show up now.

When you were unsure of yourself then, you didn't hide. You trusted yourself and now that same trust stands by your side. When you were tired, weak, when you had nine million things on your mind, you didn't fail. You blocked out the world and you found clarity. And now that same clarity simplifies what lays before you. When you felt discouraged where the finish line felt too far away, you reacquired your meaning by simply executing, by being there. And now every part of you will execute.

here just the same. So while it's their Super Bowl, their championship, their one shot, this is your every day. It's your DNA. It's watching that ball roll down the hill that you created, pushed by momentum you brought to life. You'll do what you came here to do because you made that decision. Every step along the way, every single day leading us. up to now. We all fall down, but only a few choose to get back up. A few depersonalized failure. A few understand that falling is the cost of greatness.

Your reality is not what happens to you. Your reality is how you internalize what happens to you. Our obstacles stop signs. Or are they checkpoints along the way to something greater? Checkpoints that make you stronger, build you up, become your armor, that is ultimately the difference. What we misinterpret in life is the meaning behind that difficulty, that pain, that suffering. No one gets a pain-free life. No one gets a free ride.

Suffering is inevitable. As Nietzsche says, to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. And what's changed my life, and I don't mean here and there, I mean truly transformed the course and trajectory of what's possible, is simply redefining that which is difficult. I grew up watching the Kobe's and the Brady's of the world. I remember thinking, how do these guys get better when things get difficult? I mean, as a kid, I could feel the pressure watching from the couch, but they somehow elevate themselves when the odds are stacked against them. Same exact situation that causes most to doubt, to run, to lose their self-belief.

What they see that alludes most is that in every pressing moment, there's opportunity. Every loss has something to gain. In every failure, there is victory. Everyone has the same rule book. It's just that some people only see what is right in front of them. Others learn to read between the lines and create outcomes that have not yet arrived. When things are hard or challenging or uncertain,

it's not that you should keep going. It's that you must keep going. Everything good, everything rewarding, worth having is on the other side of that struggle. Everything meaningful is built from the days you felt like there was no possible way to move on, but did anyway. That is the core of greatness, carrying forward

when it would have been easier not to. When you feel the hurt, the emotional turmoil, and I get it, we all do, but beyond that feeling, what are you willing to see? Beyond the ashes, what are you willing to build? What are you willing to do with those pieces? Because it can be nothing or it can be everything. It all depends on how you choose to step back and look at the world.

Your perspective becomes the roadmap for your reality. So understand that feeling down or loss is normal, but staying down. Staying down is a choice. There are no problems. There are stepping stones. The very situations that make you who you are. The little decisions that over time equip you to step up when it matters most. When the pressure's on, the odds are against you, the rest of the world says no.

No matter how hard it gets, there is an answer. rise above the emotion, the chaos, the present moment, and see the big picture. Not only will you survive, you will be better because of this, because you kept moving forward when it wasn't easy. No matter how hard life got, you never lost sight of the opportunity. And that made all the difference. It all starts with a thought. You didn't ask for it.

You never wanted it, but it's here. And now the game has changed. Because that thought is not your friend. It's not telling you how strong you are, or reminding you that you always find a way. No, it's informing you that you're finished, tired, weak, chanting that you'll get them tomorrow,

kid, softly at first, then a little louder and a little louder until the message becomes unmistakable. And in this moment, it's not your legs that become vulnerable. It's not your lungs. This situation transcends the physical. You are in the ring with your mind. This is when the gloves come off. It's fight or flight and in your gut you know it's nothing more than a front intimidation. Life's way of separating the average from the exceptional but this is not about knowing the truth. It's about having the courage to stand up to it. Because that voice is continuously showing you your distress, your pain, your fatigue. It's pointing to an empty well telling you that you have nothing left and perhaps in a different universe you'd listen.

But in this world, the well always goes deeper. There is always more to give. That moment when you begin to hurt you, the second that voice pops into your head, you have only given a fraction of your maximum effort. When you meet resistance, your limits haven't even been tested. Obstacles do not make the destination any more or less real. They simply call for an adjustment. So adjust.

See, time stops when you stop. Goals stop when you stop. Dreams stop when you stop. And in a world with infinite possibility, There's simply no reason to relinquish that control. So let your forward progress silence the dissenting voices. Let those on the sideline talk about their empty tanks and fantasized limitation. You are not running on empty.

My friend, you are simply running. Running into the storm. When the skies are black, the wind pushing me backwards, everyone and everything around me running away in the opposite direction. Yet I continue on. Step by step to the heart of the dark looming, ominous unknown. Is there a doubt in some capacity? Yeah, of course there is. When everyone around you is acting in unison, doing.

the same thing, any rational mind's going to stop and ask why. Do they know something I don't know? Perhaps. Yet I continue on. Initially, the struggle isn't even physical. Rain drops fall, the temperature cools, the wind intensifies. I have to put a little more emphasis into every step, but there's no pain. At the beginning, the struggle is meant.

It's a war of ideas, that unsettling feeling in your stomach. And whatever this is, this darkness overhead, it's certainly out of their comfort zone. Should it be out of mine? Am I brave or crazy? Wise or naive? Living on the edge or just being stupid? How fine is that line? Why expose yourself when the world takes shelter?

What should I be afraid of? The water? The sound of thunder? the one in 280 million odds of a lightning strike? Why can't I completely separate my endeavors from theirs? Am I just wired to care this much? Man, just run. Turn up the music, add the miles, count the steps.

Remember, I will understand why I'm doing this. This seemingly trivial pursuit. I know the pieces will add up. They always add up. Eddie, just trust yourself. Push through the heaviness in your legs. Isolate the fear, the anxiety, the emotion that causes humans to act on impulse,

to act irrationally. Your job isn't to follow precedent here. It's not to conform to normal or do what anyone else does. It's to continue into the storm. And I do. And then, like all things, it ends. I arrive. I hit my turning point. My destination is still alive, predictably unharmed, but uneasy. Like I missed the memo. Like I'm disrespecting this norm at the expense of an unwritten social contract. However, I am in too deep now.

I'm obviously not calling a cab. I'm halfway there, so I am running back. And the second I make that 180-degree transition to part two of my journey, I get it. I mean, you really can't help but get it. The light bulb has to illuminate. The wind is now at my back. Not only is it pushing me along, it's pushing me along after having to trudge through it for miles. The tables have turned.

Now it's this buy one, get one kind of deal, and I don't think I could slow down if I wanted. The previous stress and resistance had me work overtime, simply so I could acquire and appreciate this feeling of bliss. It reminded me of the old days. Sitting down on the floor after a 2K test on the Urg, dead, winded, exhausted, finding peak happiness in just being removed from the hell that it just transpired.

In that window, you see life differently. I could walk up to that same spot and sit down any day of the week and it would mean nothing. But after that, 2,000 meters, it was heaven. And here I am recapturing a small piece of that on this very sidewalk. The sidewalk that I walk down all the time, unaware, unmoved, but now I am light.

I am flying, suddenly becoming less and less aware of my surroundings. The streets are empty, but they might as well be Times Square in December. I'm in a world of my own. And look, I am a world of my own. I understand why most people would skip this little excursion altogether. The first 50% it is sheer intimidation. The castle walls threaten.

But don't people wonder what's inside? Don't they know that you can't learn to fight back at life if you don't allow yourself to get hit or take a jab once in a while? Look, the point is not the run or the storm or the street. The point is that you don't know what you don't know. And a life of continuously seeking shelter ensures that ignorance lives on. If you continuously follow the crowd, you don't get to carve out a space for yourself. You don't taste excellence, that moment of temporary euphoria.

And sometimes I forget that. Honestly, it's easy to forget that, but that is why I run. There's always the initial question, the physical and mental turmoil. The pulsing temptation to just stop. After all, this is definitionally unnecessary. I could go away, I could live, wake up every day and exist without this. It's not needed, it's not required,

but at some point, whether it's the middle, the end, or after I've crossed the finish line, I remember. At some point it always hits me. I'm awarded that feeling of completion, a high that can't be found, can't be found unless you've paid for it. See, people run towards security.

People run towards safety because it's instinct, because they don't know. These trivial runs they teach me over and over again that you literally do not know what you're missing until you grab fear by the hand and take it along for the ride. And yes, I feel doubt. Yes, I feel the anxiety of the unknown.

unknown, but they don't stop me, they don't dictate my result. They are nothing more than those dark skies overhead in the rain in my face. They are along for the ride. I run through them while they watch, silently observing as I transform into something extraordinary. That discomfort, it did not deter me, it made me, and that's why I run. Most often, our greatest source of pain comes not from the moment, but what we suspect that moment will mean. It's not the situation, but in how we perceive the situation. And this is an idea or a concept that I connect pretty directly with fitness or running,

simply because that's where, to me, it's most apparent. It screams at me. So being that I run quite a bit, let's dive into that. Most days, when I'm out for a jog or I'm running it strictly for endurance, you know, cardio base, chance to get out there, breathe or reset thing. But then there are times when I say to myself, this run's going to be a little different. It's going to be dedicated to seeing what I'm made of. Right, I'm going all out, going to push.

And what I find is I gradually increase. my speed over the course of the eight-mile route is that my brain likes to focus on what's ahead. It becomes fixated on how much is to come, consistently warning me about the distance yet to be traveled and asking whether I have enough left in the tank to get there. It's most extreme in the last mile or so when my body is most exhausted, when I'm pushing as hard as I possibly can. It's a straight shot. I'm looking up at the road ahead. My eyes are constantly reminding my brain that I'm not yet done, that there's more. Creating an association between more road and more hurt. In a way, creating a little cycle of panic that sometimes appears and hangs out as I'm

simultaneously talking myself out of slowing down. Now is not the the time to pump the brakes have come too far and the finish line is so close. But it eventually dawned on me that while the adversity contained in this last stretch of the run is difficult, it's the idea that more weights ahead. That's what hurts the most. It's not the body, but the internal voice that's creating the discomfort. In fact, I bet I could run for hours and hours and hours at this speed if it were a life or death situation. If I had to, it's not the task laid out before me. It's my perception.

And so this little line has helped me rethink and readjust my approach. Not just in situations like this, or when doing interoperations. training or working out, but when trying to do everything else associated with my life, grow my business, build a brand, nurture relationships, push boundaries in any other aspect of what I do. Three words. Stay within yourself. It goes to the idea that your job is so incredibly simple that it's Almost insulted. Put one foot in front of the other. Sure, look up so you know where you're going.

But you don't need to analyze or interpret or dissect. There's no gap between there and here, then and now. There is only this moment. And so step. Again and again and again. When the brain starts thinking about how much is left to go, I've betrayed the mantra. Nothing external is allowed. Stay within yourself.

You have a job to do, and you're capable, beyond capable of doing it. But the external must be kept out. The distraction must be kept at bay. And sometimes when you get it right, you hit this stride, this pace that is equivalent to flying, a rhythm that's unparalleled. Stay within yourself. Step by step by step, the air making its way into your lungs and then exhaled back out into the world when you simplify life down in such a way.

seemingly large things are exposed for what they really are, a mere commitment to do the little things consistently. It's funny to look back on all the places I've run over the years and identify or match the geography with the lesson. The routes with the epiphanies, the maps forever entwined in my life, what they gave me and what it meant as I took. it all forward into the world. And here we are again, new chapter, new lesson. Then after the shoes come off, the rest of the day commences this little stretch, this last mile plays the role of mentor. Eddie's simplification is everything, it says.

The hard thing is not that hard because it's not that big, it's not that complex. your monsters are self-created. Your hurt isn't a spotlight on the now. It's pointed at the road ahead. It's asking what if things go wrong? It's asking how long can this be sustained. It's asking whether I have the strength to endure this. Every question breathes life into an adversary

that has no business existing in my world. They're not helping me get to any finish line. In fact, they're that negative self-talk. I try so hard to mitigate. Except here they are, very good at disguising themselves as reality, as just facts of the case, but they are not. They don't belong anywhere near me or around me. Breathe and step.

In fact, I need to deconstruct the world around me down into one word now. And what you find when you remove the emotion, the excess, is the simplicity of the task at hand. Maybe not easy, but simple, and complexity is the enemy of progress. Right now may not be comfortable, but at least you're operating with clarity, and that is always enough

to simply carry on, to move forward, to stay within yourself. And that's what this is all about, asking the question, where are you letting what's down the road get in the way of what you're doing now? Where are you letting the pain of what's not yet here, the pain of roads not yet traveled, keep you from doing something that is 1,000% in your wheelhouse, that you are capable of. See, in this example, it's to breathe and step.

It's to, in a sense, turn the mind off and go into autopilot. Find the pace and hold the pace. But the question is, what is your last mile? What metaphorical race are you running? Have you identified, one, the finish line, and two, what needs to happen right now? to get there. Forget about the gap right now. What is the simple solution? What is required of you in this moment? And perhaps most importantly what needs to be

pushed out and mitigated. It's often true that we stagnate not because we don't have the tools or ability but because we're oversaturated with the wrong things, the wrong routines, the wrong thoughts. The best way to break through that self-imposed wall to actually build walls that will prevent complexity from even attempting to rear its ugly head what is your run breathe cycle so stay within yourself because when you do you see how strong you are stay within yourself because you are the author of your story. Stay within yourself because all you need is now to push forward. Stay within yourself because that is where the power lives. Stay within yourself because the only way to lose is to let the

external end. Stay within yourself because at some point that road will have been traveled down. The finish line will have been crossed, and it will have been precisely your ability to condense it all down into the simple, the ground under your feet that allowed you to get there. Life tried to pull you 1,000 different directions, tell you 1,000 different stories, but you pushed it all away. Found that power within the moment and stayed within yourself. Today belongs to the architect. He sees towers before they pierce the sky, an opportunity before it transforms into the extraordinary. He knows that what he wants most cannot be given.

It must be sculpted. So he builds. He builds because those skylines don't raise themselves from the earth. The extraordinary does not appear on its own. They are dreamed into existence by the architects of reality. The ones who seek not to take from the world, but to contribute to it. Today is the beginning of something new, something new, something

better, something worth remembering. And it's existed long before the present moment waiting for your vision, your courage, your persistence to bring it to life. Too many times we fail to reach into the realm of what we know and get more of ourselves. It's okay to struggle, to be wrong, to have to rebuild a thousand times. But the great tragedy is closing our eyes. and walking by life's opportunity. Everything you need to rebuild the life you dream of

is around you. Your every move. If only you'd reach for it, see it before your eyes, you become the architect of change. Nothing is impossible when you are the one setting the rules, when your hand draws the guidelines. You are not at the mercy of the world. the world, you are creating it. This is yours. And there will never be a moment like it again,

so don't run from it or hope life gives you what you want. Take the pieces in front of you and construct your masterpiece. Relax, you're here. That's a clever little sign hanging above the sidewalk, right at the border where Pompano Beach turns into Loderdale. by the sea. And as it turns out, that spot is almost directly in the middle, one of my favorite running routes, almost exactly halfway, which at first I found kind of annoying, being that, no, I was not where I wanted to be or intended to be, and no, I certainly could not relax. The heat and the sun and the miles to go always begged to differ, right? False advertising. It was not in fact here.

After all, here in this context suggests one has arrived. And how can arrival feel like missing pieces and unknowns? How can it feel like so far to go? In the valley of despair, can one really be here? But the more and more I took that route, the more the little sign became a landmark in and of itself. Something that I looked forward to, its own little destination, a point in which I could both look over my shoulder and realize how far I've come,

as well as find reassurance for the journey ahead. It was a manufacturer pat on the back, a change in narrative, because here's the deal. It's easy to feel lost in the middle. It just is. It's easy to feel empty-handed after days or months or years. it's easy to fall into the trap of never enough. But if you step back and adjust your perspective, you see it for exactly what it is.

A beautiful process. Here doesn't have to be the predetermined destination. Here can be the culmination of all the steps it took you to arrive at the now. Here can be the lessons learned along the way, can be the reassurance that while you're not done, you've overcome every obstacle up until this point, and there's no reason to think you won't continue that pattern moving forward.

So relax. You're here. Perhaps here being a place of trust. The ability to look in the mirror, and sure, see your opportunity areas, but way more importantly, see your brilliant. Your tenacity, your courage, after all, when armed with those traits,

it doesn't matter where you're dropped off at or placed. There's no finish line that's too far away, no mountaintop that's beyond you. Where you end up in the game of life will be directly correlated to the level of trust you have in yourself to play. So relax. You're here. Maybe here being that point where you can make the leap you've always wanted to make. Where you can feel confident that the unknowns don't stop you, they inspire you,

where you see the past as proof that your limitations exist, only where you decide they do. and here is not a wall or a barrier, but a springboard to the next great adventure, where you find that spark of inspiration to push against life and see what comes back, to test the waters, ride the wave, that self-identified beginning, that lights a fire in your soul. So relax, you're here. Maybe here being the point where you're right. realize you've been selling yourself just a little bit short, where the image of yourself

that you've created in your head is lacking. The metaphorical shoes you've been wearing have been outgrown. And here is where you change them for something that better suits you, where you make a contract with yourself to endure the growing pains and the discomfort, where you willingly pick up the pace and exchange for that adrenaline rush associated with leveling up. The excitement of the wind on your face, the increased speed opening up your mind to the realization that you haven't even scratched the surface with regard to your potential. And that alone is a gift. So relax.

You're here. Maybe here is a reminder to simply enjoy the now. To stop thinking only about what's down the road and look around. To realize that the future is just a fantasy about what might come. In the past is a retelling of stories that have already occurred. Making your experience on this planet only right now. A culmination of right now is stacking. up to comprise your entire life and while the destination is the purpose that pulls you through,

the very idea of a destination is essentially trading a current right now for a future one. So maybe look around and enjoy what you have. Appreciate the moment in all its glory. Relax. You're here. See, we're here. See, we're whatever hear means to you, it's essential that we know even in the heart of the storm, the chaos of battle mid-jurney, that you have everything you need. Not just to survive, but to adjust and re-examine, to identify what means the most to you, and follow that like your life depends on it. You are here.

Here being the inflection point that separates the past from the future, that cuts your negative self-talk and those self-imposed limitations down to the nothings that they are. For me, that sign and its message have become a reminder of the duality of life. The tightrope that I have to walk between chasing. down the dreams that pull me out of bed every morning, and simultaneously cherishing the moments that comprise the journey. Sure, it's the halfway point of my run, and sure, I have ways to go.

Sure, celebrating now would be counterproductive, but breathe in. Look what I get to do. Look where I am. Look what I have. They say we live not for the destination, but the journey, and I think that's right. I think in a way the finish line might just be the excuse we give

in order to experience the steps that take us there. It's the chase, the pursuit, and so relax, you are here, reminds me that I'm in the thick of the good stuff. Ed Helms, at a commencement speech, quotes his character from the office, Andy Bernard, as saying, I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you've actually left them. Well, this might just be that reminder.

Grow to something you've yet to become, but with everything you have, appreciate who you are now. Respect that finish line, but cherish the race. When the time comes, and we've reached the end of our days, reflecting back, I think there are two successes that I'll identify as I'm reminiscing. First, I don't want to look back and feel regret for a lack of courage. I don't want to wish that I'd been bolder in pursuit of my dreams. No, I want to accomplish the unthinkable, capture the unobtainable. But second, I also don't want, when reflecting back, to realize that I'd never

looked around and enjoyed the ride, that I didn't know what I had the entire time, that when things felt like a lot, I forgot that a lot was in and of itself a gift. So when the pressures of life seemed to consume us, the expectations overwhelm us, the story disappoints us. Let's find the time to pause,

Take a breath and relax because it just might be life's way of telling us that we're here. What's the difference between simple and easy? Well, simple is straightforward, uncomplicated. Easy, on the other hand, means achieved without great effort. The difference between those two words is subtle, but essential to understand. One deals with the complexity of an outcome. The other, your will and determination to achieve that outcome. Becoming who you most want to be is simple.

But becoming who you most want to be is not easy. Just like walking is simple, yet hiking up a mountain is not easy. The procedure didn't change the context did. So let's talk about context. Let's talk about this cyclical nature of growth because it's not that most people can't. It's that most people won't. It's not that most people don't get how. It's that they don't have a strong enough why.

The path is laid out before you. You just have to be willing to walk down it. Will you? Step one, realize there's more out there. It's not that what you're doing now isn't amazing. It's just that yesterday's act of courage is now today's status quo. What was the spectacular is now the mundane. What was once the ceiling you had to jump to touch is now the floor you walk on, so at the very

least it prompts you to ask, well, what's next? Simple. Not easy. Step two, the acquisition of courage. Yesterday's courage was a fight. It took a lot out of you, and it's ultimately what got you here. But it dropped you at the curb, it waved goodbye, and went on its merry way, and here you are. You can stay here.

A lot of people do. You can reminisce of the glory days, the old path, yesterday's triumphs. Or, you can do that perpetually uncomfortable, exercise of vulnerability. Stepping into tomorrow's unknown, reminding yourself that life's greatest rewards have a hefty price tag and that price is discomfort. But I've already played this game, one might think. No, what you did was learn the rules.

Now it's time to apply them to a new setting and around goes the merry-go-round. It might seem like a replication from the horizontal, but here's the secret. You can't see the vertical. You have yet to look down and see your ascent, see what you're becoming. Just by staying on, holding tight, just by believing in yourself enough to begin again, you are fanning those tiny flames of courage in your soul that wait to be spread like a wildfire. Simple, but not easy. Step three, mistakes.

Now, of course, it's not the mistake. mistakes themselves you fear. It's what you think those mistakes will mean. Ridicule, embarrassment, lack of direction or identity losing what you have, but here's the catch. When you realize the upside is greater than the downside, you liberate yourself. When you realize there's more to gain than to lose, your potential for greatness is born. How does one act on this? Mistakes. By making mistakes, by injecting yourself into the turbulence of progress. Our biology has not yet learned that the uncomfortable thing is the right thing, and that's why you get resistance.

That's why it hurts, and it's why few people will accomplish what you will. When it comes to your climb, every day is opposite day. When they run out, you're running in. When they play safe, you play for the victory. to become who you might be, you must learn how to get there. Mistakes are your curriculum. Simple, but not easy. Step four, trust yourself.

Okay, sure, no problem, easy. Well, yeah, it's easy when you're getting what you want. But evolution takes time, and there's nothing quite like giving and giving and giving and not getting. There's nothing quite like stepping up to the plate again and again and again and again, and bringing no runners home. So how does one find the strength to continue walking up to the batters box? Well, growth is exponential.

And those swings and misses matter. The infield singles matter. Everything matters. Because it's all chiseling your future self out of stone. Nothing is dependent on the next at bat as much as all at bats in the aggregate. That's why success is so often considered to be sheer will, dependent not on the home run,

but on the discipline, the self-belief, to keep walking up to the plate. Repetition and adjustment. Repetition and adjustment. Repeat and refine, repeat, refine. Those are the materials from which all things are made. Simple, but not easy. And then we have the finale. The ending, step five.

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

They are times to acknowledge what you've accomplished, the sacrifices you have made. They are life's way of reminding you what you are building and who you are becoming. It's a time of celebration. Every little world. win means something, every small victory matters, so relish in it, and then transform it. Normalize it, recognize that that mountaintop is your foundation now. Your starting point has changed and so have you, which means so have your expectations. With an increase in

ability comes an upgrade to what's possible, what's expected, and look at that. We have arrived did a new step one realize there is more. This is the process for capturing that which life has to offer. If you can fall in love with that, appreciate it, respect it, while simultaneously understanding it's not scary, it's dependent entirely on your ability to push forward. If you can understand that, there is nothing you can't do. Nowhere you can't go. Simple, yes, easy, no.

But you're not in this for easy. You're in it for the journey, the growth, the adventure. You're in it because it's not easy. You'll see in time, as will the world, that this decision to endure was simply the best one you ever made. It makes perfect sense in our busy lives that we sometimes lose sight of fun. fundamental truths. At least from time to time, that's part of being human.

And I want to talk about an important one. The tendency to forget that parts make a whole. Sounds simple, sounds obvious, not so much. That pieces make a stack, that little actions create big change. And I can tell you that every time in my life I've found myself in trouble or overwhelmed or intimidated, It's because that very simple concept has alluded me. And all I can see in the moment is how far I have to go. All I can see is this big, intimidating result, and I'm not there.

And I want to tell a quick story to provide some context. Those of you who have seen my videos, you probably guessed it. It's running related. But if you're not a runner, hang tight because this is not in any way specific to running, It's just a good way to articulate the message and you'll see that. So the realization occurred a few days ago, doing a distance run down A1A, which is just a long, straight stretch down the coast of Florida.

It's perfect to kind of zone out and just run. And that's exactly what I must have been doing, zoning out, because as I'm pretty far along, realize that they were kind of closing off the street. There were people lining the sidewalks. there was some kind of organized event, realized that I couldn't go back the same way that I came up. So had to run up the beach.

And it was one of those things where we've all been there, right? The idea was great. Our body didn't necessarily like it. It just was one of those days. It did not feel good. And I was really trudging my way forward. And I noticed that every time I thought about the distance I needed to travel, I felt worse.

You know that feeling when you're uncomfortable? It's the thought of having to endure that for a long period of time that's most taxing. Sure, right now it's uncomfortable, but what creates the anxiety is that it goes on for a long period of time. We don't see an end to the immediate. We can't stop thinking about the space between where we are and where we have to be. So I'm continuing along and, you know, my mind sort of making. it's way back to my freshman year in college. And this is an important part in my life,

specifically because it's when I really learned what it meant to work hard. I had no idea. And I speak about this often because I went through high school. I had good grades. I was a decent athlete, but I didn't understand what it meant to truly work. You know, my first month in college

in college as part of the rowing team there was where I learned that just because you're suffering, just because you're hurting, doesn't mean you're entitled to anything. Someone else out there is suffering just as much. The difference is they might be getting more out of it. They're not feeling sorry for themselves, and that mentality was eye-opening for me.

It's not, look at me, I'm a hero for putting myself through this. It's, yeah, it's uncomfortable. She's also uncomfortable, which one of you guys is going to turn that into results? That's what defines winners. And I remember the first workouts I did. I remember doing jump squats and wall sits with my teammates and emphasizing ways to break down the exercise

into simple pieces mentally, right? Little pieces that the mind was okay with that weren't so scary. A two-minute wall sit is pretty intimidating. A 20-second wall sit, that's not so bad. So do six of those. Say something funny between each set. Find a way to tear down, you know, the mental obstacles because the body can take so much if the mind lowers its defenses and simply allows it.

So anyway, I'm making my way forward up the coast, and I stopped thinking about how far I had to go. I just stopped. I did not let it enter my brain. My focus went very specifically to every two steps, counting one, two. one, two, one two, because anyone can do anything for two steps. It's not hard. Again, it just so happens that they stack up and create miles, but miles is not my concern, right?

I'm not physically able to leap a mile. No one can do that. What I'm capable of doing is taking steps. That's all I can do. And it's manageable, and I can say without a doubt, that that changed my experience. It took the pressure off. And if you don't feel like you're in control,

you will have a very tough time generating results. Because again, no one can leap a mile. And so a big part of success is rearranging the deck so that you have that control. You're behind the wheel. Sometimes it's just reminding yourself that the little things create the big things, the pieces stack up,

and every single thing in the little thing, life can be broken down in those little pieces. And guess what? They're not scary. When you take the cover off, they're not overwhelming. Most importantly, they're completely within your control. On a similar note, a friend of mine recently asked the other day about YouTube. He's got a follower base of entrepreneurs. A lot of them are looking to take their business onto the platform. It was asking me some questions. And he asked, you know, what was the moment that sparked your channel's growth. And it's a funny question because the 100,000

subscriber mark was something that, you know, right from the get-go, the onset that I was looking forward to. I was aiming for. But there was never that mile leap, right? There was no single video that changed the trajectory of my viewership or channel or business. That's not how it happens. It's a step-by-step process.

You can't jump to 100,000. or 500,000 or a million subscribers. And starting out, all I would think about is how far I had to go. I'd get all worked up and stressed out and, you know, disappointed. But you learn lessons as you go through things. And I realize that you don't get X many subscribers in a day. And if that's your focus, of course you'll be overwhelmed. Because you can't control that.

But what you can control is every thought, every video, every interaction with someone who cares about your message. And if you stay true to that, your consistency manifests itself in the form of a growing subscriber base. You know, and the point is it doesn't matter what you're doing, right? Talk about running, talk about YouTube, could be sports, it could be relationships, it could be anything. Yes, you want to understand where you're going, you want to know your target, you want to lock in a direction, then let go. Goals derail us because we forget what they're made of.

They're made of little vulnerable pieces. To get to the top of a mountain, you have to climb it rock by rock. And when you're looking up from the base, yes, it's demoralizing. It might even seem impossible, but no one can cover that distance. It's about the steps to the top. And then at some point, so long as you decide not to turn around,

so long as you remain committed to overcoming each tiny obstacle, each barrier, you'll be at the top looking down at everything else, everything below you. Why? Because you didn't see the stack. You saw the pieces that were laid on top of each other one by one. And that makes all the difference. Success is seeing what's beyond the surface.

what's past the thing staring you in the face. And if you can manage to do that, you'll see that nothing in life, nothing is too big or too tough for you. I was running over the weekend, middle of the day, right under that smoldering South Florida sun. I was doing about a 3.7 mile stretch, which is one of six or seven legs I was doing

for the Ultramarathon that day, against the clock, fighting the heat, you know, starting to really suffer, which is the perfect environment for the thoughts that we don't want to let it. It's where we engineer compromise, create excuses. And I've been running all morning. So as I got more and more tired, you know, my mind inevitably started looking for a way out, rationalizing, slowing down.

I think everyone's been there, right, in one way or another. And after wrestling with this for about, a mile came to a realization. I'm doing too much. Not physically, but mentally. Building cognitive enemies, creating complexity. See, when you're uncomfortable, when you're in pain, things become incredibly convoluted.

They seem chaotic. Lack of clarity, at least for me, it creates anxiety. But that lightball moment was, you know, during that leg running to Key West, at 12 p.m. with miles to go and questions unanswered, that there's nothing complex about the situation, no mystery to resolve or riddle to figure out. In fact, on paper, this is one of the easiest things I have ever done.

Why? Well, because all I have to do is not stop. That's it. Do nothing. Keep this pace, one foot in front of the other. That's my only task. No rabbits out of hats. I don't need to create the unthinkable.

No, there, in that moment, all I had to do was not stop. And that meant really that the heat didn't matter, that the distance didn't matter, that the world didn't matter. Those are details far too complex for me right now. In that moment, they're way above my pay grade. I'd boiled the objective down into the simplest of tasks, embarking upon the easiest thing I'd ever done, simply moving forward. And I started thinking about the things that accomplished in my life that I'm proud of, being knocked down, getting back up, fighting for what I believed in, creating, searching for answers. And now here, I'm really going to entertain the thought that I can't simply move forward. I'm going to be upset that this pace doesn't feel like lying in a bed of feathers.

No, I like simple. I love simple. Simple equals clarity, equals progress, equals happiness. Who cares what's around the corner? because knowing that won't mitigate the next 10 steps I have to take. And eventually that's exactly what I did. I started counting my steps in groups of 10 because that was really all that mattered.

And like all things, you know, before you know it, you look up and the storm has passed. And I got to the end where my teammates waited with water and cold towels, and I got there without abandoning my one mission. Not by an act of heroism, but by thousands of little acts that will remain unseen forever, that will disappear into the universe. I simply carried on a mission that I hold dear.

My favorite quote, an old coach mine used to always remind us, sometimes success is simply hanging on when others are letting go. That's it. That's all. That's everything. Because we're so inclined to overlook that simple truth because we think big results require monumental action. And when you're exhausted,

when the miles ahead feel like a huge task, We dig deep for huge solutions. But the answers are not huge. They're minuscule. They're little things that make big things. And when I think back to my youth, my childhood, the times I'd given up or been discouraged, it was always because I didn't immediately cross the finish line

or hit the home run right away. I didn't get the immediate answer. But I can look back now and just think, if I realized that a walk or a single every day takes you to the moon, that it's not about the miraculous, it's about simply carrying on, which becomes the miraculous. See, we can't let ourselves be lured in by the guise of immediate triumph or false expectations. No, let's remember that anyone, anyone can simply move forward.

Anyone can take one more step, and that's all that's required of you. That's all you can do. Breathe, compose yourself, take that very next step, because if you can do that, The big picture things, they materialize. You start crossing finish lines. Balls start leaving the park. Little victories accumulate and evolve. Life changes.

Do not miss what matters. Don't overlook the simplest of things because that's what ultimately carries us home. Every run tells a tale. All those streets, sidewalks, and paths, paint a picture. Each footstep enshrines forever a moment in time that comes together to comprise the now. From my time in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, it was asking, why not? Why not find out if I could be a little faster than yesterday? My first dance with the clock, waking up,

Waking up early, running up Snake Pond Road, sun shining in my face, inhaling that crisp morning air. It was running along the canal, where the distance was precisely mapped out in paint on the ground below, tattooing a path that seemed to go for as long as I wanted to push forward. It taught me that we could do amazing things when we decided to. that we have more in us than we could ever imagine. In a sense, Cape Cod was my eyes opening up to the idea that

what life gives us is directly correlated to what we ask of ourselves. So ask for a lot. In Boston, it was exploration. It was pushing myself harder and further, but also stretching my life. stretching my worldview wider, a time for transformation. It was beginning to see the mundane, the commonplace for the wolves in sheep's clothing that they are. I began exploring City Street, like I simultaneously began exploring life's possibility.

I saw how taking new routes often came with two distinct components. One, an unsettling, nervous feeling in my stomach, and two, an eventual gratitude for finding the courage to go there. The world will never tell you to go where you have not yet gone. It will never assign you a map and hand you keys, a plane, or a bus ticket. That desire must be cultivated internally. Boston was me realizing the unknown wasn't a border keeping me in. It was a hand extended.

In Roanoke, Virginia, it was, in a sense, a rebirth. Moving away, post-college. Everything was new, was foreign, but everything was exciting. I had to learn who I was in new surroundings with new people. My Nike running shoes took me through woods, downside streets, into the heart of downtown. I ran, and I ran, and I ran, because with all that change, it was one of the few constants in my life.

It brought me to the realization that with so many moving pieces, so many things shuffling in and out, there are parts of me that are non-negotiable. That in life, it's okay and even necessary to change, but one should never lose themselves in that process. They call Roanoke the Star City, the star city of the south for the giant glowing star that lights up on the mountain overlooking the city. Perhaps a reminder to never lose that north star in our own lives. In South Florida,

it was about connecting the dots. It had been relentlessly doing. Now it was seeing. Seeing myself as that person. As someone ready for more. worthy of a spot at the table capable of creating monumental change. Those soft sand runs reinforce the notion that I get stronger when the world moves under my feet. Those hundreds of thousands of footsteps under the hot sun reiterated that I'm willing to do what is often deemed unnecessary or even over the top. And lastly, living in the luxury of no winter, reminded me to appreciate the sun, the perks, the advantages, and the victories we collect along the way.

But to never take them for granted, to be ready. Because life's winters don't always wait until after fall to show up at your doorstep. See, every step we take is a lesson. Every street, sidewalk, and path is part of a story. And sometimes we don't understand, until we look back at the chapters. We don't get it until we have the luxury of hindsight. I didn't know that I looked back on Snake Pond Road as sacred ground, as a launch pad to everything

that would come next. No, in the moment, it was nothing more than a temporary escape from a world that felt bigger than me. I didn't know I'd see the city of Boston as the place that taught me to question the normalcy of everyday life. To show me that one could be moving awfully fast and still going nowhere at all. No, in the moment, it was merely a decision to dip my toe in the water, to entertain the curiosity and sense of adventure that always seemed a few feet ahead.

I had no idea Roanoke, Virginia would be where I learned that, as Emerson said, to be yourself in a world constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. That there are non-negotiables. And shining down above all the noise and intricacies of everyday life exists the path and the resources to become who you were meant to be. No, in the moment, I was simply stepping off my branch and landing somewhere new. I didn't know South Florida would be my consistent reminder to level up. To hold tightly that intersection of love and value, to find gratitude for what I have and maintain

faith in bringing about what has not yet materialized. No, at the time I was taking my life, my business, and my running shoes to warmer weather. You may not see it now. your path, the one that led you to today, is the right path. You are exactly where you need to be for the beginning of your next adventure. But here's the thing. You, you must keep lacing up your shoes. Keep getting up in the morning and chasing those sunrises. Keep dreaming, growing, keep your eyes, ears, and heart open. Because the world has so, so much to give you, but you have to allow your feet to carry you there.

You have to give yourself permission to take it all in. The normalcy of right now, down the road will end up being anything but normal. These steps are the steps that make you who you are, so own them. Believe in them and most importantly, keep taking them. The will to do anything comes from within yourself. You define your goals, you map out the journey. In my mind, comparing yourself to your competitors or anyone else should never contribute to how you define yourself.

What it should be used as is a tool to drive improvement, to push yourself to make the most of every little opportunity that comes your way. I heard a quote from Mark Cuban. And he said to work like someone is working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you. And I was giving this some thought. Obviously, it's a powerful message. And I started to apply it to my own situation. And the first thing that came to mind was running.

It's something I do every day. A lot of the most important decisions I've made and ideas I've come up with have occurred while running. So I started to think about when I'm at my best. right, when I'm working out and truly pushing myself. Obviously, I set goals, right? I look to stretch my limits, my boundaries, and I can do that on my own. I really don't need anyone or anything.

But when I truly excel is when I feel those footsteps behind me. When I know that if I don't speed up, someone will run by and leave me behind as they go on for a faster time. and this thought drives me insane. Look, I know it's just a run around the Charles River, right? I'm downtown Boston, I'm not at the Olympics. I get why it would seem a little crazy. But to me, it's the same thing as a race,

starting a business, excelling at work. It's instilling the mentality that I will do whatever it takes to stay ahead, regardless of how it's perceived. Just like I do everything in my power to be that same way in all aspects of life. There are always footsteps behind me. That's how I push to stay at the top of my game.

If you're not obsessed with getting better at doing more than everyone else, you will be left behind. The sound of footsteps is a reminder that you haven't even scratched the surface of what you can do. That you can completely transform transform how you think of winning.

And that's how you will get what you want. Listen, every morning when you wake up, you need to know that there are footsteps behind you. That a million people want what you want. They're waking up every day intent on doing what you do and are willing to put in the work. The best, do that and then some. Right? They step up. They're willing to go further.

Be crazy. Put everything out there for their goals. It doesn't matter how ridiculous it looks. Success is doing what it takes. And I know that's vague. I know there isn't, you know, an answer written out in 10 steps. But you will find your way. You will stumble, you'll fall.

But if you truly have that tenacity to outrun, to outwork everyone else, the only thing left to do is win. Surprise yourself. Surprise everyone around you. They will be there, I promise. Only a step behind you. Let's write out of the gate draw a line. The most important line one can draw a line of demarcation separating who you were and who you are.

A line between the past and the present, and this line marks your return. your return. No, not to the days of old, but to step one. Your chance to begin again, to rise above, to transcend yesterday's character and transform today's potential. See, what we often fail to realize is that there are ideas deeply ingrained in our minds that rule over us, a sort of subconscious authority. It says yesterday, you fell short, so today you are someone who falls short. It says your objective was not reached in the past.

So how about a new, maybe easier one? It draws a nice little box, packs you on the head, and says, how about we make a nice, cozy home for ourselves in here? And what this subconscious authority fears most is that you wake up, that you become aware, that you return. Not to the past, but to the power tucked away under all the stories you somewhere along the way decided were real. The second you accept that yesterday is only as relevant as you decided to be,

you unchained yourself. You become unshackled. So return to that place of curiosity, where you're not obligated to perform, but gifted with the journey before you. And that could certainly be hard. It was hard for me to look back at my life and distinguish between what I've simply accepted

and life's objective truth. I'd taken orders and been obedient for so long. I'd been listening to that subconscious authority for so many years that I had to, in a way, relearn what creativity meant for me. I had to learn not to feel guilty, going on a jog in the middle of the day when the rest of the world was working. I had to learn that my instinct wasn't to explore, but to stop short. I wasn't pushing limits or peering around corners.

I wasn't testing the waters or seeking out the hidden opportunities. Life hides away. No, I was on autopilot. And life, it had called for my return. It's funny how when you reject your potential long enough, the universe seems to tap you on the shoulder. It makes it more and more apparent every day that something greater is within an arm's reach,

backs you into a corner until you have to address the dissonance between who you are, and who you've allowed yourself to be. Those orders you've been taking don't align with your best self. And so one must not only create, but in a sense return to their greatness. To accept what they've been running from, you are what you choose to be.

And let's face it, it's very easy to choose to be less than we can be. There's a saying that your reality is not destined to be, it is rather what you've chosen to accept. You only get in your life what you allow. And the entirety of this message is about one thing. That light bulb moment, the light bulb moment, the epiphany, the instant of empowerment, that this world can only give you what you ask for.

And to not ask, to sit back and observe, makes you a spectator, sitting up in the nosebleeds, watching the activity evolve on the court below, it relinquishes control to powers beyond you, and that's existing, it's not living. So ask. Ask life for the things that lift you all. and elevate your existence. The reason a book metaphor works so perfectly in my mind is because when one opens to a blank sheet,

they can write about anything. There's no limitation to what can be placed on that paper. And sure, our proclivity may be to continue on the legacy of last novels cast and characters, but it's by no means required. In fact, with that pen in your hand, you can craft a new world entirely new places, new things, new relationships and ideas, new obstacles to face and defeat.

A blank page can be and mean anything, and so every sunrise, every door you walk through, presents in the same sense a blank page. Realize that there's no obligation to perpetuate the past or continue on in the same way you arrived. No, this day is yours. Take hold of that self you've hit away. Find the courage to unshackle yourself from how you were once seen by your friends or your teammates or your coworkers, level up

and understand that you don't owe the world any type of explanation. Remember, you're not here to conform, to obey, to live a life of obedience. No, you're here to poke, to prod, to explore, to follow the nagging curiosity to embark upon the adventure that is life. When you understand that you are not your past, when you see that the person you were has no control over the person you are in this moment, you are free.

So with eyes wide, a beating heart, a head held high, step into that world. Because if you live with conviction, with absolute certainty that life may not always be easy or intuitive, but it's there for you. When you see not yesterday's constraints, but tomorrow's hope, all roads lead to an evolved existence. It's not about perfect and it never was. It's about understanding that the past has given you everything you need to break away from its grasp. It has provided the lessons it has knocked you back, pushed you down, and tested your resolve all for this moment. This second, the chance to return to the greatness that has been tucked away for too long.

Again, no miracles, no rabbits out of hats, just you allowing. your greatness to emerge from this step forward because you can, because you have that ability, because it's who you are. So go show the world, but most importantly, show yourself. You will be amazed at what's possible for you. If you simply allow it to materialize, if you amidst the darkness of days past, Let yourself light up the night. Every step you take is an investment.

Every decision to do the difficult thing is a gift to your future self. Think about this for a second. One of the many things that makes being human so incredible is our ability to engage in delayed gratification. To do things now that will elevate a... us at a future time. And at a fundamental level, we understand that. We've heard the famous marshmallow study where kids were left alone in a room,

with the marshmallow placed in front of them and the ones who showed restraint and could resist eating it ended up. In many regards being more successful as adults, we've all heard the mantras working hard pays off. That's value. but I'd like to take it a step further because when you say yes in the face of adversity when you move forward when tired seek out a way amidst the chaos of life you are contributing to a foundation so powerful

that it will elevate you in ways outside your current level of awareness by simply saying yes when I was unsure and often fearful by continuing to write and speak, I was unknowingly building these opportunities that would manifest years later, right? Many of which were not planned. They were not methodical.

My dedication and my North Star never changed. I held on tightly to those, but the surrounding components were always moving and transforming. People are in my life today because of steps I took five years ago. I know things about myself and my hopes and my dreams because of risks I took when I was, let's face it, too ignorant to understand their repercussions. But I knew it felt right.

See, here's what I did understand. If I, as Emerson put it, hitched my wagon to a star and moved towards it, when I felt great and when I didn't, when I was confident and when I wasn't, when I was winning and when I was not, I knew the other stuff would take care of itself. I trusted the process. And here's why that matters. Here's why I'm taking you all on a little trip down memory lane. Because writing, speaking, inspiring, storytelling, they are my world within.

What is yours? What is it that moves you, that lights up your soul? I want you to know that. I want you to know that because its pursuit requires not only a delayed gratification, but an acceptance that your dedication will evolve. in ways so incredible that you can't even imagine, that all those little decisions become emergent and together represent something more powerful

than the sum of its part. I love the example or idea of the human brain, right? So complex and powerful that it appears almost divine. It's essentially a universe behind our eyes. Even our understanding, our comprehension is minimal. minimal we are awed by its capability yet it's not about one single piece of the brain the tissues or the neurons individually it's the network all these microscopic occurrences create together something bigger than everything combined creating a

consciousness we can't even find or point to when looking at the evidence but we know it exists and we know it's somehow derived from this ball of nervous tissue. This is not unlike one's pursuit of excellence. The level of achievement or consciousness we are searching for. It can't be singularly identified. It's emergent. It materializes after the discipline, after the consistent work, after the self-belief, after the will to do what is required whether we wanted to in the moment or we didn't. Then we get our quote unquote consciousness. You can't and won't always see the value in your dedication, in your sacrifice. And let me level with you. I get how crazy it feels to think, yeah, but someday

it will mean something. Someday that work will put people in my life that will change my world, elevate my existence. It will create opportunities that expedite my evolution, lessons and occurrences that will amplify my wisdom and worldview. But that's the name of the game. If you know in your heart you are pointed to the right star, then it's just about stepping, adjusting, and repeating. Move, adjust, move, adjust, move, adjust. There will be a time when you look over your shoulder

and are stunned by what you've created, by the distance you've traveled. Look, you can't see the future. You can't know what everything will mean and what will occur, but you can continue forward into the darkness so that when the long-awaited light inevitably presents itself, you are in position to receive it. To stand on the foundation you have been building all.

along. In a way, our eyes are liars. Not in what they portray, but in the implication of their portrayals. Our eyes highlight to us one thing.

What surrounds us now. We receive a snapshot of the current moment. And what took me years to understand is that possibility and hope live far beyond what surrounds us right now and it's that pursuit of possibility

that saved my life immersing myself in the unseen perhaps we were given the now not to subserviently accept it but to transform it I believe in our own way we're all architects here's what I've found to be tricky though, as I've spent time thinking about this, what I believe and I've come to recognize is that two things can be true at once. First, all will technically ever have is the present. As Eckartoulli explains, depression is essentially being lost in the past. Anxiety is being fixated on the future, and that a healthy life is learning to cherish the now. but second is the power and control of being able to point the now at something far beyond what our eyes convey. It's the magic of knowing that we spend our days navigating a world of limitation and restraint.

And it's not that we wake up and think, you know, I'm going to restrict myself today. I'm going to not live up to my full potential. No, it's that we go on autopilot. We observe this slideshow, our eyes play for us day in and day out, and exist within those parameters. That seems perfectly reasonable. Our eyes show us a wall, and our brain says, okay, this is where we stop. The end. And what I want to highlight is that world just beyond what our eyes show.

A world that pushes things a little bit. A world in which we ask, okay, but what if I gave a little more? Or why can't I be like those people in my life I look up to? Why shouldn't I change the circumstances that weigh on my mind? Why have I accepted these things that make me unhappy day in and day out? Just because it's the image your eyes show you right now doesn't mean it's where you stop. But we have to learn to look for more. When I was pretty young, like right about the time home PCs were gaining prominence,

my parents got this gateway computer that came with a Star Wars game demo. And you kind of, you have this character, you wander around the spaceship, and, you know, I played it, and I played it, and I played it, and after a while, explored all there was to explore. Or so I thought. I assumed that maxed the thing out because it was a demo. It wasn't the full game. So my assumption was that it wouldn't let me do too much until I went out and bought the real version.

Then one day, my friend from up the street came over and I'm showing him the game. And somewhere he notices a little button that opens up this door and come to find out there was actually a lot of real estate left to explore, a lot of game available. It led to a tunnel that led somewhere else, that led somewhere else.

And sure, I felt like a clown for not realizing that I was needlessly wandering in circles, but at the same time, was excited about this new world. There's something about that concept, the secret door, the bookcase that can be moved to unveil a passageway to something greater, to the value locked away and invisible to the untrained eye. One of the most important things for us to understand

is how many of these doors exist in our lives. lines, that if we choose to recognize and identify something more, something that excites us and invigorates us, we can usually draw a line to it. We can start little by little heading that way, because within the current moment slideshow we see all around us, exist the little passageways, the side streets, the tunnels connecting to something more. That of course those gates won't open up if you've not constructed a destination in your mind worth traveling to. Again, not because you're insufficient or inadequate or wrong, but because our default is to live life on demo mode.

We have to manufacture more, build a higher platform, and then climb up to it using ropes and ladders that we already walk by every day without thinking twice. Our world, our right now, is a toolbox waiting for us to construct a more meaningful, peaceful, happy tomorrow. And so again, I present the question, where are these hidden opportunities or gateways in your life? Where can you find the advantages dressed up as the mundane? Is it in a book? Is it a conversation?

Is it applying to that thing you've been hesitant to pursue because you're scared of what might await? Is it understanding the power of 10 minutes a day? And how starting small opens doors that we can't even comprehend? Is it a little boldness? Is it looking in the mirror and realizing you're still shackling yourself to who you were yesterday? Is it understanding that someone or something in your life isn't conducive to your well-being? Is it an hour in the morning to think, an hour at night to breathe? Is it changing a self-limiting relationship with time or money or resources? What walls can you knock down so that you might open up a world that's meant for you? A world that's malleable and without limitation? Your eyes, they don't tell the story of how

things can be or what they mean. They show you the infinite tools at your disposal. to build, to create, to design, to never accept a now that wasn't chosen with intentionality. That where there exists pain, there also exists a door to lessen and transform that pain. Your journey, it never ends where you are, it ends where you choose to stop. It ends where you plan a stake in the ground

and accept the world around you. So if no one has told you recently, let me remind you how powerful you are. Let me reiterate what you are capable of. And that perhaps your reality requires of you some customization. Perhaps the courage to step outside the routine and the obligation. And as the architect you are, build something beautiful, meaningful, something. something incredible to stand on. To recognize the distinction between what is and what can be, the second one understands

that they are walking by the very solutions they need. That to remain in a state of discontent is simply an indifference to the resources around them. Remember this. What you see, your eyes don't provide an end state, but a passion. a path to the next chapter. A chisel to little by little evolve. As someone recently reminded me, Mark Twain's quote, logic will get you from point A to point B, but imagination will take you everywhere. Why? Because so much exists beyond the parameters of everyday life. It's about mapping new paths with new points and new rules,

because some exist and some live. Some comply and some create. Some see what is around them. And some ask, what can I build with what is around me? So built. Towers that touch the sky, bridges that connect the earth, build like this is a game, and the only way to lose is to stop yourself

from experiencing all it has to offer. Build like there's a world far beyond your front door. Because if you do, that's exactly where you'll find yourself. 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 unchanged. Remember that your greatest strength is focusing your time, talent, 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.

You can complain about the weather all day, but to complain about it, to focus on it, to be seen. 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 connect. 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 anger. resentment at the people that let 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 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. We spend a lot of time asking ourselves, what if things don't work out? What if I fall, fail, or miss the mark? What if I have to head home empty-handed, diminished pride, defeated? But what if we've simply been asking the wrong question?

Imagine flipping the script. What if everything worked out better than you could have ever imagined? What if you learn in going that you have barely scratched the surface of your potential? That you've been accepting too little, leaving too much, much on the table? What if you learn that you are powerful beyond all recognition? Not because someone told you so, no, but because the very steps being taken prove the point. What if the things that held you down can be dismantled? The thoughts that held you back can be demolished. Why is it? We don't ask more of those questions. Generally, you get what you look for, but

What you ask of life is what you shall receive, or so the saying goes. So my thought here is perhaps we need to ask for more. Not of the world, but of ourselves. There's an ocean of opportunity before us, enough of this pointing out in wishing for more while we wade in water that is waste deep. First steps will always be believing that more exists, that the world might not be able to see it. It might not exist to your left or right, but it exists in your head, and that is enough. That is where all great accomplishments start. It's the necessary beginning.

And to disregard a perceived outcome, because it's only in your mind, it hasn't materialized yet, is like disregarding a seed because it's not yet a tree. The two are forever intertwined. They need each other. Simple formula. See greatness and move towards that greatness. Nothing else is relevant. And sure, you'll have your struggle from time to time, no question. But that's not failure. That's what happens along the path to better things. That adversity is simply the price that must be paid for dreaming, for taking the ideal and bringing it to life. And at the end of the day, that price is a bargain. So ask yourself, what if things do work out? In fact, what if they work out better than I ever imagine? What if the current norms can be transformed, reality

altered? What if this is just the beginning of the best life has to You change the questions, you change the outcome, and today feels like the perfect day for change. What is failure? Perhaps when the plan falls apart, maybe when the project results are underwhelming? No, not quite. When your heart breaks, momentum stops when your world is shaken at its foundation. No. To put it simply, failure is not going.

Failure is the plan never falling apart because you were too scared to make one. Failure is never being underwhelmed by the results of that project because you couldn't find the courage to start. Failure is no heartbreak, no setbacks, no challenge to your worldview because you stood. because you stood still. I see life's disappointing occurrences as a sort of transaction. Some temporary discomfort, in exchange for the very wisdom you were looking for,

placed in the palm of your hand. You endure the pain to get the answers. You accept chaos today, in exchange for the map that enables you to navigate the terrain. How can something be a failure if it places you right where you need to be? How can something be a failure if it brings you closer to the life you dream of? Maybe we don't look at life as failure versus success, but rather as being stagnant versus as being in motion, immobile versus mobile.

Maybe it's that simple. If you are moving, regardless of how fast, you're giving yourself a chance to overcome, to collect wisdom and pick up armor. You're giving yourself a chance to be more tomorrow than you are today. And that means we stop accepting the notion that we are standing still

for our benefit. Justifying that we're only stationary because we're waiting for the right moment. We're here because we need this to be perfect. No, there are a million different ways to get what you want out of life, a million different paths to get you there. None of them require standing still. I already cringe at the amount of time I've wasted waiting for the right time. How I would sit on releasing this or starting that.

Oh, it's because I'm a perfectionist, only to learn that perfectionism is really just fear in disguise. You can sit there and wait and refine and refine and refine. But I'll tell you what, the one who moves, who creates, shares, collects feedback, adjusts, and repeats, will have achieved that level of quote unquote perfection before you feel prepared to acknowledge and share your prototype. It was simply by going that evolution took place.

It took me a long time to grasp this, to understand it, and a part of me didn't want to believe it. I found it inherently uncomfortable, but life rewards the bold. It always has and always will, calling for a sort of calculated recklessness. Great things are achieved by doers who can put their egos aside and let the world humble them on their way to the next attempt. In Ron Cherno's biography on Washington, one of the common themes which I've been believe made Washington one of the most influential people in the history of mankind was his ability

to think, analyze, seek out the opinions of people around him, and then once decided that was that. He was all in. The rubber had met the road. This was now the way. And I find power in that. As overthinking is so often our undoing, right, weighing out worst-case scenarios, contingency plans, this versus that. When progress requires that we, sure, spend a little bit of time deciding which general direction we go, but most importantly, that we start. And I think we've all been guilty of this. Over-analizing, over-planning, but just like a sailor can't predict the winds, we can't predict all life's variables. Again, it's deciding on a general direction and then trusting ourselves to navigate life's obstacles as they arise.

It's finding trends and patterns along the way and doing our best to utilize them as we move forward. There will be points where the road ahead seems overwhelming, the obstacles too abundant to make sense of, where the mind compels you to stay where you are and stare out in awe. It will suggest that what's behind you is safer, that the worlds you know contains fewer monsters than the world you don't. It might even convince you that whatever ambitions you had weren't really that important, You could easily live without them. And the longer you stand there, the longer you listen to that voice, the louder it gets. You dismiss it with every step forward.

Your momentum is a dagger through the heart of any doubt that once tried to occupy the precious real estate behind your eyes. You don't have to outthink it, outsmart it. You just have to move forward. And what you find is that the mountains you once peered up at weren't all that they seen. A culmination of little hills that can be climbed, manageable rocks that in actuality can be used to propel yourself up the mountainside. There was never a perfect path up.

No magic transport to the summit. You might even think to yourself, what a shame that so many are still on the sidelines waiting to devise their perfect approach, making plans and drawing maps. But that's not how any of this works. To win you go, to make progress, you move, knowing full well that you'll find your dead ends, you'll spend time and exhaust energy going down certain paths that don't ultimately lead you where you wanted to go. But what a gift the ability to reverse course and take the right at the fork instead of

the erroneous left you previously took. Your errors are not permanent. Your errors are correctable. Stagnation is what's permanent. Wishing is permanent. Someday is permanent. But right now that's pure value. So next time you find yourself looking out,

as we all do, remind yourself that there are many ways to transform your reality for the better. Many paths to the mountaintop, but there is only one way to assure you never get there, and that is standing still. So trust yourself to figure life out as it comes, to take the pain and extract from it wisdom,

to find the strength beyond, the uncertainty, life is giving you everything that is required. Not some things or a few things, everything. All it asks of you is that you dismantle the delusion of perfection and begin. Came across a quote recently that said the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. I thought this demonstrated or captured a realization that's pretty hard to articulate. And that is just how tempting it is to rationalize, stopping, or discontinuing your journey when life gets tough. How much sense it always makes to want to call it quits when things get uncomfortable. It's like, it's not just that doing something valuable

is hard. It's that it's hard and every three feet there's an invitation to not have to do it anymore. There's an endless supply of exit signs and escape routes. Therefore, accomplishing a goal is simultaneously saying yes to the challenging things, while also saying no to the comfortable things. It's fighting off two demons at once. The good news, though, is that you were made to do just that. You just have to change the way you internalize the process. You have to change what you see along the way. I talk a lot about perfection as the enemy. And that's something I wholeheartedly believe to be true. But I generally talk about it in the context of perfection keeping us from starting. Right? I try and unveil perfection as this defense mechanism that it truly is. Oh, things aren't

perfect. I'll wait. Things aren't exactly where I want them to be. then I won't go. Emphasizing that it's in going that perfection is crafted, like a statue being chiseled from stone. You fall, you get back up and find that in doing so, you end up with a little more clarity than you had when you started. You let the trials and tribulations of the journey refine the product. And so that's the beginning, right?

That's finding the courage to start, removing the idea of, perfect when really it's just our fears masked. But what about when you've already started? What about when you're underway, when you're in the midst of those trials and tribulations? Because we all know this. When you're in pain, your body wants one thing to remove yourself from the pain. When things are uncomfortable, your default is to seek out those affirmation parking spaces. Reprieve from the grasp of the unknown. Things aren't perfect, then I'm done

here. Things feel awkward or uncomfortable or unclear, then why bother? What I want to do right now is make the argument that it's most important to continue forward when we're in these moments. It's most critical to move forward when the road is unclear and those tempting parking spaces start revealing themselves. Things are not perfect, maybe even far from perfect. And this is right about the time when we forget why we started. I've run into this in my past, right, particularly with injuries. There was a period in my not too distant past when my ankle and shoulder were simultaneously messed up, right? So couldn't run, couldn't really do any upper body work. My physical activity really took a dive.

So I'm a little discouraged. And sure enough, I found the eat whatever you want parking space. It's like, who cares? You're not working out. What's the point? Just focus on the business. Put a pause on all that stuff. And then eating whatever I wanted became, well, what's the point of getting up at five

when I could just get up at seven? I sleep two hours longer is how I rationalized it. It's not like I'm going to be running. And then there goes some very important alone time, thinking time, and you can see how easily the wheels sort of fall off the wagon, not because you're a bad person or don't want the result, but because the second thing stopped being perfect or working the way I wanted them to, I found a parking space. There will be few stretches of time in life when everything's perfect.

Things going exactly how you want them to. It will simply be the exception, not the rule. And then the question becomes, can you put your head down and continue forward knowing that life will call for adaptation and adjustment? But that those tempting exit signs are not for you. They are weakness. They are for those who forget their strength and their courage. I mentioned a little while ago that growth is fighting two demons.

saying yes to the mountain ahead and no to the off-ramps. But when you step back and look at things different, you change the dynamic. You put the odds in your favor. When the off-ramps become reminders of your strength as you pass them one by one, indicators of your commitment to move forward. And when the mountain ahead becomes merely the way,

not some giant sacrifice or monster, but merely a path, things simplify in a way that empowers you on your mission. There is no perfect or imperfect. There is adjusting when necessary and taking the next little step along the way. And using the previous example, it's like I'm injured, okay? This will definitely be a time for adjustment. Maybe it's yoga, stretching, practicing, being more patient. maybe greater emphasis on meditation, mental strength, whatever it is, but we don't stop.

We continue stepping forward. The next step will look a little different, but that's all. If perfect is a standard one seeking to maintain, they'll always be pulling over. They'll always be backing off because very rarely do we have stretches of perfection. Life is an adjustment game, not a perfection. perfection game. Life asks, what can you do when your hands are tied behind your back? What can you do when you're tired? What can you do when you've just endured loss? When your pride hurts, your plans fail. And trust me, that's when you see all those off ramps. That's when something in the back

of your mind says, hey, all this goes away if you just throw in the towel. Just go seek perfection somewhere else, you'll find it there. But you can chase that rabbit down a million paths. There is no perfection waiting for you, and there is no flawless pursuit. Life comes down to what will you do now, where you are with what you have, can you find a way to win when it hurts? Look, we all need to understand that life is innately difficult. And success calls for a simplification. that is adapting and stepping forward.

That's all. Things are hard, you step. Things don't go as you planned, you adapt, and you step. But you are always moving towards that North Star. Whatever it is for you, it's deeming those parking spaces insignificant with regard to your life and your journey. Quitting is not brought about by the external world,

No, failure is a decision. Failure is saying, you know what, this costs more effort than I'm willing to pay. Those parking spaces have become more tempting than the top of this mountain. Failure is a choice. And so, for one to succeed, they must simply stay in motion. Choose adaptation over a self-imposed end. Yeah, enjoy those moments of perfection, the times the stars do align. But see them as the exception, not the rule.

We are not defined when things are great. We are defined by our ability to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward when they're not. Our lives are shaped by the exits. We don't take the parking spaces. We don't even notice as we ascend. the mountain that is life because anything other than the road ahead was never an option. You didn't succeed because things were perfect. You succeeded because you found a way to win when they won.

Everyone wants to be great. Everyone wants to be the best, the top, the 1%. Or as the saying goes, everyone wants to be a big. wants to be a beast until it's time to do what beasts do. See what life has revealed and continues to emphasize is that our most vital decisions they present themselves in the dark of night. The chaos of the battle, they show up amidst our discomfort. We know these moments. The ones that seek to stop us in our tracks and turn us around. They are what must be prepared for.

They are the gateway to excellence. So let's look at the big picture for a minute, life in totality, because consistently doing this simple, easy things, they're important. Consistency of that which is simple is the foundation. It's what we build the structure upon,

but it is far from everything. Moving right along, we have the difficult things that push us to be more, that show us who we are, that hurt, that test us, the temporary storms. They are the armor we come to wear. They're what prepares us to endure the trials and tribulations of life like a muscle that must be grown and developed. But the difficult things

are far from everything. Because lastly, we have our defining moments. The moments that put it all together. When the sky feels like it's falling, the body feels like it's failing, the mind feels like it's dwindling. Presenting the question,

will you do the hard thing when you feel like you can't do the hard thing? It's doing what's difficult when the situation around you is screaming at the top of its lungs. You've gone too far. You've separated from normalcy. You are wandering into something that can no longer be deemed predictable or safe. See, running is hard. But running when you're tired, when you didn't get a great sleep last night, you don't feel good.

when you're busy, when your schedules full, when you have things to do, when you're in the midst of your workout and your lungs are screaming for air, the cloud of pain is hovering over you as you make your way forward for no other reason than you told yourself you would. That's not hard. That's transformative. Going to the gym is hard. But going to the gym when you don't want to, When you don't even feel like stepping into the car,

when your mind is trying to rationalize a day off, when you're asking yourself what the point was to begin with, that's not hard. That's transformative. Growing your business is hard. But growing your business when you've experienced a monumental letdown, when you went all in and were left empty-handed. When you were chewed up and spit back out, yet you showed up, kept your eyes locked in on that win.

That's not hard. That is transformative. See, these monumental moments, the ones that break so many of us that we've all come face to face with over the course of our lives, they're not about easy versus hard. They're about doing the hard thing when it seems as though you cannot do the hard thing. The world is saying no. Your body is saying no. That chirping in your head is saying no.

Can you separate yourself from that hurt and that anger and that disappointment? Can you segment the negativity knowing that you will do what you can to remedy this situation? But that life's curveballs can't stop. you from moving forward for the simple reason that you won't let them when life gets hard you have to be harder the one who gets bolder you have to learn to surprise yourself here is what I believe to be the goal the pinnacle it's what I aspire to become when life puts me through hell to dig deep and find the emotional IQ the awareness to know that right now is the invitation I've been longing for my

chance to level up see you might be wondering what brought this concept to the forefront of my mind and well it was one of life's inevitable setbacks and I had to look in the mirror and say I'm not going to think about the technical issues that just cost me thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of my time no I'm going to one learn but put parameters in place so it never happens again and to find the opportunity. See, when we build back, we tend to build back stronger, clean slate, new lease on life. Where can I be better than I was?

Where can I pinpoint and capitalize on the value I once walked right by? When we adopt this mentality, we become unstoppable. Someone on the outside looking in might say it's over the top and it is But so are the things that I want they might say it's not that simple Correct running away from our problems is simple I'm not about that life They might say it's impossible to do all the time to think that way every day and perhaps so But if we bow our heads and retreat every time life isn't perfect we'll never at I'm not aiming for perfection.

I'm aiming for progress. Those who aim for perfection tend to spend the entirety of their lives doing exactly that. Aiming, planning, speculating. Wanting more for yourself means receiving more rejection from the world. It means elongated valleys of despair. It means deeper treks through the heart of the vast, of the vast unknown across distant lands and through turbulent waters,

it means doing the hard thing when the circumstances are what mere mortals call impossible. At some point we must transcend the versions of ourselves we once were. We must recategorize and redefine the adversity we face in life. Be the ones who find something where other See nothing. Find value in the seemingly valueless. Let us start from the premonition that there's always a solution and if there is always a solution

There is always a way to bring it to existence. Some will stop it easy. Fine, let them Some will stop it hard great to each their own but if one dares to push further to trudge for into the night they will be tasked with doing the hard thing when the circumstances are devastating they will be asked not just to sail the ship but to sail it through the storm to not just build the tower but to build as the skies open up the wind blows and the ground shakes that will be the difference that has always been the difference so what will

You do when the time arises, who will you choose to become?