Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Best of 2020 - Motivational Speech Compilation

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

"I trust the next chapter, because I know the author" Another amazing year in the books. Certainly a challenging one, but one that will ultimately push us to bigger and better things. Here is the collection of the best Your World Within videos for 2020, as chosen by you! 0:00 Just Do More 3:44 You Vs You 8:50 Make You Proud 14:24 The Quiet Believers 19:44 No Matter How Hard It Gets 24:49 Live Your Own Life 29:16 Don't Waste Your Life 36:02 For Those Who Walk Alone 44:17 Life in Color 51:24 When Others Would Let Go

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We need to know the reason. We need to capture the whys and why not. But sometimes it's simpler than that. Sometimes it's just about giving. Sometimes it's so incredibly simple that nothing else is necessary. See, here's the deal. there is more in you to give. And every once in a while you have a decision to make.

Not because you owe it to anyone or because you're supposed to. But because your mind wonders what it would be like to look back on this moment and ask yourself, what? So you stress. You give more. And maybe it's... one extra set of push-ups.

Maybe it's one more mile. Maybe it's one phone call, one more hour in the studio. It is the little advantage. The one that you didn't have to do, and why would you? You could have easily walked out and left it on the floor just like everyone else does. But what if? What if you dipped your toe in the crazy? What if you left the rationality behind you with yesterday's standards?

After all, greatness requires a little insanity, actions out of the norm, the yes, when most would say no. Why? Because it hurts. More hurts. Being proud hurts. Greatness hurts. Oh, but the top. How good it. And see, this is the part where you think about one thing. Digging deeper, finding more. The part of you waiting to be uncaged. It never reveals itself. It must be found, discovered, it must be brought to life. See, that pain that you're feeling in the moment it goes away.

The body, it recovers. They're not in this equation. equation, it's just you and the victory that will live with you for the rest of your life, the conquering of this moment. Again, our world, it is simple. There is more on the table. Will you take it? Will you build something now?

That will stay with you forever. So imagine you're sitting down, having something to eat, thinking, relaxing, reading, whatever you're doing. Someone walks up to the table across from you, pulls out the chair, sits down, kind of leans back, puts one leg over the other. Casually tells you, you know, you probably don't have what it takes to do anything significant in your life. What would you say? It would be outrageous, right? That's a ridiculous scenario. Well, let's say that the next day you get up, you go to walk, run, work out, and he shows up again. Starts running next to you.

casually reminding you that the odds of you changing, doing anything for the better or slim to none, that this is kind of a waste of time for you. You brush it off, you go to work, and guess who? He passes by your desk, leaves a little note saying, you know, that your bosses, your higher-ups, they're cut from a different cloth. They just see things in a way you can't.

You'd probably tell that person to take a long walk off a short pier, right? Or at the very least, you'd understand how absolutely insane the situation is. People can't just walk up and talk to you like that. But now imagine that same person as you, living rent-free in your head. And here's the catch. You invited him in. You allowed the negativity and the doubt to live there. See, every time I think about that self-talk, I can't help but wonder in a world of obstacles to navigate and challenges to tackle.

Why is it acceptable for your biggest obstacle? to be you. Why should you allow or be okay with that? And I'm not saying everything's perfect all the time. Every thought's pure bliss. But I am posing this question. If you don't believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to? If you're not your biggest ally, if you don't respect the person staring back at you in the mirror, how do you expect the world to? Why is our inclination to tense up and refute the negativity from others, but sit back and accept the same nonsense in our own heads. If those words don't support what you're trying to build,

I don't care who they're from, where they come from, why they're there, they don't deserve your time. And it's a simple awareness that they are not truth, but merely your fears and your insecurities trying to stop you from becoming who you might be. My biggest leaps in life, they didn't come from physical milestones or benchmarks. They came from mental shifts, convincing myself, believing myself, trusting in myself. When the road is untravelled, when the story is untold, the positive and the negative are both make-believe.

They are both fairy tales, their options, their theories, and guess what? You get to choose which option, which one will be yours. My favorite quote is, you are always stronger than you think you are. Not so much because it reiterates how high the bar is, but because it reminds me how low we often set it for ourselves when we're not paying attention. How loud that negative voice can be. You know, when I was unemployed, I was writing, I was running out of money, my life changed because I stopped seeing myself as some lost, jobless mess.

And I started seeing myself as one of the greats with a hell of a row. to travel. See, people always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. I refuse to hear that you might fail and the not good enough and I buckled up for the road ahead and when you believe you can change and know that the road to your goals will be rocky, it will be uncomfortable, but worth it, you are taking that hostile voice and making him or her a spectator, not a decider of fate and yeah, you will lose, you can't win all the time and you will feel stuck, but life's not always smooth sailing, and sure, you'll be mad at yourself, but not every decision is a home run.

But these situations are the byproduct of a journey, and here is my point. Self-belief is being able to differentiate your situation and pointless negative talk about the situation. It's about remembering that you are the gatekeeper of your own mind. When you believe in you, it places your fate, your self. strength and your determination in the driver's seat. It makes everything else trivial, meaningless. It makes it an option that you are simply not going to choose. I woke up last night and I remembered my debt to you. Being that I stand by the promises that I make, I jumped out of bed

and I walked over to my desk. I turned on a light and I began writing. At a minimum to explain myself, but a best case scenario to provide some reassurance, that every storm ends, that nothing is forever, and that someday, without question, I'll make you proud. See, things haven't been the easiest lately, and it's funny. Sometimes things seem so intuitive. Sometimes they make so much sense. And then sometimes it feels like you open up a novel right in the middle, and it's in a language you can't read. Life feels more complex than it really is, and I feel smaller than I really am,

but don't be concerned. I've fought my way through worse. I promise you you'll be satisfied with the result. And yeah, you might have noticed that sometimes I face the obstacle of juggling two sets of standards. You know, two definitions of success. Mine in the world. What I love and what matters to me,

versus what will increase my status, my standing in society. And honestly, it pulls me in two different directions sometimes. Makes me think back to years past and that discomfort of experience, you know, standing on an empty foundation. But believing someday something meaningful would stand there. Realizing that when you put your head down and when you block out the noise, you can finally hear the most powerful voice of all your own. That's why you take L's in the short term,

to acquire meaning in the long term. I've found that courage before. And I'll find it again any second now. Don't you worry? Sure. You might have seen that every once in a while I forget about life's abundance. I mean, I just do. I know it's true,

but it feels sometimes like the world pushes me to forget. You know, I start comparing myself to other people, and I start thinking about what I could lose, what people might say, about what could go wrong. And it's like, sure, I know I'm the gatekeeper to my own mind. I understand that. In fact, I cherish the idea. But I guess sometimes doubt catches that gatekeeper napping and slips through.

I always catch him eventually, though. I've had doubts before, and really all I did was to keep moving by them. Kind of like that time I went snorkeling. in Key Largo, you had to make your way through this jellyfish field to see an underwater statue. My first thought was, this is crazy.

But then you move in and you realize they just exist. They don't have control or an agenda. And if you find the courage, they become meaningless. You can float right by them. So don't worry, I'll swim through and you'll see

me on the other end. And I will catch that view, not for Facebook or for Instagram. Because in a way, I owe it to myself and I owe it to you. I didn't make these promises to run when things got challenging. I made them because they meant something. And yeah, from the outside in, things are not perfect. I get that.

I understand. But if you just hang tight, if you just remember that I've been, been there before. I've climbed out. I've come back. In fact, the deeper the valley and the darker the night, the clearer the answer always becomes when I emerge. And it may be a journey, but however long it takes, I've gotten there. And I have to admit, yeah, it feels funny writing a letter to myself, but I need you now more than ever. You've always been my toughest critic, and I appreciate that, but now I need you to be my biggest fan,

to remind me that life can be confusing and seemingly contradictory, uncertain, and even chaotic. But that doesn't mean I'm not right where I need to be, right where we need to be, and if you'll just believe in me, if you'll hop along for this ride, You'll see that as sure as I'm sitting here writing to you now, I will make you proud. Life is built by quiet believers.

Those who see what is not and transform all that is. Who poke holes in truth and embrace the absurd. the ones who dream while awake and cherish every. See, for the quiet believers, it's not about talking. There's nothing to really talk about. Words are just noise. It's footsteps that inspire. It is the journey that tells the story.

And what quiet believers understand is the subtle, line that separates truth and perception. They get that dancing to a beat means sometimes you dance alone. And as Nietzsche points out, sometimes they're even thought to be crazy by those who can't hear the music. In this life, no one comes up, places a hand on your shoulder, and pronounces that your future is great. No one looks you in the eyes and says they can see the life you'll build, money you'll make

or shape you'll be in. No, that doesn't happen until the next life, the one you've yet to create. So patience, quiet believer, the abstract is just as real as the hand in front of your face. Just with a little more road to travel. The sun is as real at night as it is when it rises. Things are simply not always what they see. The impossible, the unimaginable.

They're stories, stories that need to be transcribed from one's mind to the paper in front of them. They need a delivery mechanism and quiet believers. They quietly scream with a megaphone. so loud the world can't help but listen because ready or not it will be shaped and reshaped again every moment is a new beginning they are the wizards that flew around in a young author's head before she courageously shared the magic the feeling of that game-winning shot making its way through the basket after school in a north carolina driveway

An entrepreneur starting a bookstore in his garage, but seeing not books, but accessibility. Time a better way. See, the truth about life is some created and some merely react to it. And while you, you hold the pen. So dream away, quiet believer. Because you have a world to construct. Mountains to climb. Oceans to cross and stories to tell.

Quiet believer, today is yours. And those changes they'll propel you. The naysayers will inspire you, the stars they will guide you. Shining bright is a reminder that you are made of the very elements lighting your path. You are an architect. Not talking or explaining or promising, but simply. showing, leading, earning respect from yourself, attention from the masses and a place in history because quiet believer looking back, if you found the courage to change even one thing,

every second will have been worth the fight. 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. Or 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 still. act against them. Same exact situation that causes most to doubt, to run, to lose their self-belief. What they see that eludes 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 rulebook. 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 is a choice. There are no problems. There are stepping stones. The very situations that make you who you are

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. Why is it that the average person seeks out the advice of what feels like a million people

before consulting himself? Knocking, looking, hoping, is he looking for answers or looking for permission to be who he already knows he is? Is he looking for insight or just validation that his reflection is in fact okay? See, I think we all deep down know who we are, know what drives us. And even if we don't know exactly what the destination looks like our hearts know the direction, best suited to begin the pursuit. So how is it so easy to forget? Why do we get our antennas crossed?

See, when life becomes about meeting requirements and fulfilling obligations, checking off boxes and checking in on time, we forget the basics. We forget to live for ourselves, as if our job is to play a part, not direct the movie. and playing apart is living up to expectations,

directing the movie, well, that's creating your own expectations. This world, your world, it belongs to you. It's a world with both unimaginable happiness, bliss moments of ecstasy, and the occasional suffering, chaos that we have to navigate through, but I think all of it comes down to whether you trust yourself to live it for yourself. To remove the shackles, take the training wheels off, stop asking permission and do what you've always known was the right thing. That part never changed. It just had to wait amidst all you're looking for external direction for you to pause and find the internal courage.

Freedom is not a life without chaos. It's trusting yourself to determine which dragons you will slay. It's not a life without battles. But fighting those battles that result in your liberation, dismissing the oppressors that build fences in your mind and chains around your soul, I've thought a lot about the idea of a life well-lived, what it means, how it feels, and it seems to me it's about intentionality. Where are you going?

It's not that you can escape suffering or eliminate fear. It's not that you'll avoid getting lost along the way, but it's the why. Why we endure these things makes all the difference. Is it for a better tomorrow or simply to get through today? And it's amazing. Accidentally stumbling upon that which scares you and intentionally facing that which scares you are so different that their occurrence has triggered

completely different neural networks in the brain. See, overcoming fear is ingrained in us. We want to grow. We want to evolve. We need more. The question is whether you will step out of the line that someone else made for you and live a life that is your own. And if it's crazy, great. Let it be crazy.

If it's unique, perfect. Stand out. And if it scares you, my God, if it scares you, don't turn back. Don't you dare turn back. Give yourself the most important person. permission one can give, the permission to follow your intuition and your curiosity into tomorrow. Let the stakes be higher, but the rewards be meaningful. Let the chaos be your own to tame and to master. Every twist, every turn becomes not only a part of you, but a chapter in the story of your becoming.

And as the seed you've held in your hand for so long finally meets the earth and grows so high that it connects you to the heavens remember that this is your life it's your obligation to live it fully so you're stepping onto a rocket ship leaving planet earth and you have one message to give to the world before you take off what is it for me it's an easy one it's that life is not as serious as we make it out to be it's the most important thing I've learned. And perhaps the simplicity of that message might make people a little uneasy or take them by surprise, right? How exactly is it helpful? We'll all explain, right? Waking up every day is not an obligation or requirement. It's not another test or make or break audition

to impress those around you. It's a gift. It's a challenge. It's something to be explored. If the odds of being alive, living, breathing, or one in 400 trillion, you've won. You have, as you sit or stand right now, already done the miraculous. So why not cash in? Why not live, push boundaries? To live scared. To play safe or do nothing with your life is like winning the lottery and keeping that bag full of cash under your bed for the rest of your life because you're scared of what could happen. to it. It defeats the purpose entirely. And I'm not exaggerating. This mentality has changed my life. If I lose, who cares? If people laugh, who cares? But I have to swallow my pride and be broke for a few years. Who cares? If I'm the unsure one, the one who doesn't know what the immediate future looks

like? Fine. Who cares? I'll take the upside. I'll take the fun, the hard work, and the adventure. I talk about this all the time. I'll never forget. Walking into this bar with my friends six years ago now, I just left my job. And I remember I'm talking to this girl at the bar, story time here, and she asks me what I do for a living, because of course she does. And, you know, I tell her I just left my job. I got this really cool idea for a YouTube channel. I think it's going to be incredible.

And I'll never forget how fast that convo shut down. I blink and she'd walked away. And I thought, you know what, this is perfect. I'm going to remember this probably for the rest of my life. Why? Because it's a symbol. It's a sign that the immediate is what stops us from the best things down the road. Leaving my job, as hard as that maybe one or two years stretch was, was the best thing I've ever done. I am living exponentially better than I was before I had the courage to make that move. See, if life is about not screwing up, then yes.

I'm still in that cubicle getting yelled at for including too much color in my PowerPoint presentations. But that's not what life is. Life is opportunity. Not hiding so that you don't lose. No, it's about making something where you are with what you have. And my friends, there is so much out there. There is a win on the other side of every door you walk through, even when it's hard to see.

Right now, this is a perfect time to be talking about this. A little crazy coronavirus has people being quarantined, everyone freaking out. Guys, take a step back. and find the opportunity. I just read the other day, Shakespeare wrote King Lair when he was being quarantined because of the plague. There is always a win.

Use the time, find solutions. Maybe you've always wanted to start a business. Great, take a small step, create the business page on Facebook, do something small, get the ball rolling. See, when life is a game, you're finding ways to win. Why do all these entrepreneurs

talk about the hardship they've encountered before they found success because they knew that losses wouldn't define them but in life just like in a game you win and you lose but what happens is through repetition you get better and better and the winds start accumulating becoming more substantial and consistent see most decisions and let's say worst-case scenario you take the leap and things implode let's just be dramatic for a second everything goes wrong, loss, loss, loss. The reality is 99% of your decisions, they're reversible. If you don't get the intended result, you can backpedal and adjust. You know what's irreversible though? Inaction.

You know what you can't improve upon? Steps you've never taken. You can't be propelled by dreams that are hanging out in your head. Living scared is looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, I hope nothing goes wrong today. Living fully, is looking in the mirror and saying, I'm going to make something significant today. I'm going to take risks. I'm going to find solutions. I'm going to propel myself forward.

So that, as I make my way onto this rocket ship, would be my message. Stop playing to avoid losing and start playing to win. Life is not serious. It's not a standardized test. It's a blank page waiting for a story. And stories are written by the bold. risk takers, the ones who stop wishing and go out and make things happen, wrong actions can be corrected, improved upon, but life through a lens of scarcity is a sealed fate. So how about living

like this is the only life you have? Like each day is a metaphorical currency that you can't take with you to your grave. It must be spent, it must be cherished, and utilized fully. So here's to not only dreaming, but finding the courage to delve head first into a journey so great that no stone is left unturned. No day is without the magic of your creation. Because if life is serious, it is a serious opportunity to live fully. And nothing less. That to find ourselves requires we must first lose ourselves is, I believe, life's greatest paradox, leaving that carousel of comfort, the predictability of what we know, the certainty

of who we believe ourselves to be. For a promise with no real guarantee of being kept, well, it's nothing short of irrational. Are the odds in our faith? or perhaps not. But by stepping off, by placing our bets on a different track with a different prize, at a different time, we have increased those odds from zero to, well, I guess we decide. And see, the world teaches us that it's advantageous to spin. A spinning carousel is predictable, it can't be cheated, there's very little room for loss, for loss or humiliation or setbacks or even life to get in the way.

You know where you start and you know where you end and that's just the thing. This spinning world is so easy that people don't want to leave. In fact, it's not until you walk away from the crowd that you even face the unknown. And that's precisely why it's so hard to walk alone. It's hard, it's challenging because of the now. Not because the now can't be measured or understood, no, we get it. But because there's this little whisper in the back of our heads that the now might go on and on and on forever, that that check will never be cashed, the summit never reached. No, just footsteps down a perpetually long, windy road.

And that's, you know, when maybe, just maybe we miss that carousel. We miss the safety and security. And that's what sometimes makes it such a stressful thing to walk alone. We think about all of ourselves, our mind, our heart we've left behind along the way. Truths, we now have to face things. They never taught us on that carousel. We had to learn that we were wrong about who'd be by our side through it all. We could no longer hide behind the notion that when things got tough someday,

every one, everything would be there would be the same. We learned to swim by jumping into the deep end. Seeing in real time that people only believe it already exists. What's put in front of them. That ideas are empty. That a dream is a language only spoken by its creator. And if you want it to mean anything, you must dedicate your life to translating it.

We learn how much is backwards, how much of life is reactive. That success is being, one of the few who don't react, but build a world to react to. And in the thick of it all to internalize the process, because talking while talking does nothing, plans are just potential energy confined to your pocket.

You have to be okay growing that seed by yourself. Like a runner making her way past a crowd, right? The crowd sees calm, sees peace, sees the finesse of an athlete gliding over the pavement. They have no idea the war being fought behind her eyes. The silencing of constant whispers to slow down to do less, the repression of pain that consumes her to such an extent. It can't even really be pinpointed.

It just kind of floats over her body. They'll never know that. And what we learn is that they don't need to. It's the truth. And see, it's also what makes it quite lonely to walk alone. Walking alone, well, it's a lot of things. But it's never boring. It's never dull.

And if you can hang in there long enough, without even noticing, the headwind you've been fighting, it becomes a tailwind. And where we may have felt alone, the idea pops into our heads that maybe that's not quite right. If anything, the wind at our back is now momentum. It's a partner along the way. That carousel, yeah, it's still spinning, but somewhere else. Some far off place beyond our field of vision. And no, things don't ever become easy.

We wouldn't want that. But difficulty is interpreted differently now. Not a burden, but a cost. and one we'd gladly continue to pay. And that space, that once felt so empty, so desolate, so helpless, well, now it's made up of people who see what you see, who hopped off their own carousels and wandered through the desert,

they too navigated through the impossible and the never been done. It's funny how, at some point, we always find each other. And I suppose now, Having traded the carousels for the adventure, we can walk alone together. Us against the world, standing up in defiance of the odds, chasing that glimmer of hope, all in on a pursuit to find what most won't and see what most can't, not because we were made different, but because we chase down the idea of death. It gets a tough rap walking alone.

And in so many ways, it's a fight. It takes all of you. But you don't come out the same person you were when you step in. The same person you'd still be today had you stayed on that carousel. So if you are still spinning, step off. And if you have, if you're still adjusting to the discomfort of reality, comfort of reality. If you're making your way through the hell of uncertainty or questioning whether you have what it takes or have the strength to commit, I promise. In fact, you're right

where you need to be. So don't be distracted by those screaming of their successes or communicating, capturing every small win as they make their way around the carousel. It's the quiet ones who change themselves, the ones who take life one step at a time, one battle at a time, who redefine reality. And I'm sure you can't see it now. No one can. No one can see the sun amidst the storm, but you'll emerge. Stronger than you ever were. You will navigate towards the ideal and away from that life you once settled for. It's a lot of you're long path but it's worth it so get up and let your feet guide the let's go walk alone found a quote the other day said time heals nothing unless you move along with it I thought

well that makes perfect sense you can't pursue a new reality a new world unless you can detach and depart from the current one but that's in theory. And my question was, is it the destination or the path that holds us back? Because in my experience, the greatest struggle in life, it isn't what to do, it's knowing how to do it. How do we get there? We know we need to get back up. But how? How do we initiate a spark and create momentum and take that world of black and white and add color. Because those times of gray, when life seems to lose its purpose, we find ourselves simply existing and not living, that's when we need answers.

And I guess this quote, it jumped out at me because it prompted an equally important question, which is, now what? And I started thinking a few years back, 2017. probably the most difficult year of my life. It was void of, you know, many of that beautiful nuance, the uplifting moments that we like to remember when we look back.

For me, it was, you know, essentially an ended relationship, was relocating away from family and friends, was having a few dollars in my bank account, everything I own in a trailer, and starting over. And when I'll never forget about that experience, you know, in totality, In totality, was that I saw it colorless, bland, dark. Essentially, the road ahead had lost that glimmer that it once had.

See, I used to get so much joy in telling stories. But life had kicked me around so hard that I, at least for the moment, forgot the point. Like, what was my reason? And I knew, like I said, what I had to do, but I couldn't wrap. my arms around the how how do you get the train moving again and then I got this email right I'm gonna paint a picture for you new apartment trash there's stuff everywhere suitcases open I hadn't shaved in two weeks I'm exhausted couldn't sleep sitting there frustrated with my laptop and the email is basically someone

looking to create a documentary asking if they could stay with me for three days and create a film about always maintaining discipline and living a productive life that I just erupted into laughter right I don't think Seinfeld could have written something more ironic it was just it made no sense but it caused me to reflect right I think obviously declined the video just wouldn't have felt right or accurate in that moment but I started to think how is there such a gap between the old me and who I was sitting on that bed is this the new me and if it's not why have I allowed this impostor to stay so long I

always said a life change is one decision away. A light switch away, just reach out and find it. And when you're going through times like this, it's funny, life has a way of doing its best to conceal the beauty. It's like it becomes this black in white painting and it stays that way. It stays that way until you put color into it. One brush stroke at a time. Because life is intimidating when you see everything you're not. When the blank canvas feels like emptiness and not opportunity. But life doesn't require of you the whole picture. Masterpieces, they aren't made overnight.

They're not instantaneous. They are a product of trust, of faith. Not in the canvas or the brush, but in the artist. Through his eyes, he's capable of transverse. transforming his experience into art, his misfortune into meaning. Victor Frankl uses the metaphor of a movie, each day being its own scene, where often they don't even come together until the very last act. Trust that.

Believe that. But man, start painting. In the very next morning, like everyone, before it I woke up to a yellow beam of light making its way through a crack in the blinds painting the wall of an otherwise dimly lit room but this time I saw it this time I didn't close the blinds I opened my eyes and sometimes that alone is the little hinge that swings a big door a door that I walked through and I saw the green of the palm trees the beauty the simplicity

and thought, how lucky am I to be where I am when I am. I saw a blue sky, a miracle in its own right, that's not confined to story or narrative, and well, maybe I'm not either. The white of the sidewalk leading me to wherever I choose to go next, the red of my running shoes hitting the pavement, the gold of the sun bouncing off the buildings, the black of a cup of warm coffee as I saw.

soak in the day and the teal chandelier that hangs over the horizon as the same sun that started it all retreats after a hard day's work see you have everything you need and life is not always perfect but it is always what you make it how things are it's not how they should be your need to be but how you've allowed them. And most importantly, black and white does not describe reality so much as it describes what's not there. What's missing from reality,

and my hope is to never conform to that sketch or outline that masquerades as truth, but to see beyond it. To find the strength, the courage, the self-belief to pick up the brush, and live life in color.

Sometimes what you don't do is more powerful than what you do. Sometimes the answer is not the home run or some lifetime achievement award. No, sometimes the answer is simply hanging. Realizing that the yes is they're important. But they're nothing compared to the noes. No, to the faint whispering that you came. No to the feelings of inadequacy, and no to the reflection staring back at you

that just feels ordinary. As that feeling, it's wrong. And what this means, as I was once told, is that success is not always the spectacular. Sometimes it is simply hanging on when others would let go. When the world would hear that same faint whisper and bow down, because, oh, we all hear it.

Life is not a movie. There is no fixed ending. And where there are unknowns, there is fear. That's not rocket science. Unknown's equal fear. But if I may, let me explain something. Because where there is fear, there is also something else. And that something is opportunity.

Like a curtain that must be pulled back, an ocean that must be crossed, or a toll that must be while you dance to melodies of songs unwritten and are led by the characters in stories untold. This is not a game of the miraculous. This is a game of self-belief. A game of not personalizing the people that are going to like. you down. The days that will bring you to your knees, it's not feeling inadequate when you swing and miss because you will. And I hope you do. I hope you do because each swing makes you stronger and each loss makes it easier. Easier to say no to that ship that wants to bring

you right back to the port you left from. How comfortable, how safe, how secure it would be. But just like fear and opportunity are one in the same, so are safety and regret. A concession, a wolf and sheep's clothing, and they are a lot of things, but they are not. So forget about the grandiose. The magic is not in the moon. It's in the staircase that takes you there. Each step, each battle, each time you, you fall, smile to yourself, and carry on.

Because the difference between average and exceptional is the ability to make a single decision, the decision to hold on. To stand firm when the people around you turn back, to believe in your foundation when the walls close in, It's running a race with eyes fixated on each step. Not on the finish line. No, the finish line doesn't do anything but distract. It reminds you of the road to be traveled. Your job is not to make a finish line appear.

It is to say yes to the step in front of you and no to everything else. See anyone can take one. anyone can progress one foot, races, journeys, life is simply a culmination of those steps, a culmination of little decisions to not let go. So when your arms shake, in the voice in your head screams, when your thoughts beg you to stop and your mind starts to rationalize, the possibility of surrender. Remember that big things are broken into little things.

Minutes are merely seconds. Mountains are merely rocks. And success is simply hanging on when others would be letting go.