Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - BREAK YOUR NEGATIVE THINKING || Wake Up Positive || Powerful Motivational Speech

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

"Our life is what our thoughts make it" - Marcus Aurelius

I find it interesting that what we want most is often brought about by the inverse of what we'd expect. It's a paradox that's amazed me for much of my adult life. And what do I mean? Well, here are a few examples. The best way to achieve freedom in your life is to be incredibly disciplined. two things that are seemingly opposite in a sense. Or the worst of times often open the door to the best of times. Or it's from a position of strength that one is best able to ensure.

Or from our suffering, our pain comes our purpose and contentment. And you get the point, I could go on and on and on. But the reason this is so important, why I think it's worth discussing, is that it sheds light on the value hidden within our struggles. You know, when you realize the paradoxical nature of growth, the discomfort makes a little more sense. It's easier to wrap our hands around. So let's say getting up early. Perhaps you weren't a morning person, but you're trying. You're trying because you think those few extra hours in the morning will add.

some lift. The alarm clock goes off. The last thing you want to do is open your eyes. Maybe you even start thinking who cares, right? This isn't that important. You begin rationalizing ways. You'll go back to bed and just make up for the time throughout the day. But when you simplify the equation, you realize what you have is an opportunity. And you're either going to say yes and capitalize on that opportunity. or say no and stay where you are. Discipline, even with the small, seemingly trivial stuff, becomes freedom. And if you want to position yourself for a life on your terms, where you're at the wheel on your schedule,

it means facing demons just like this. It means you fight your fight now so that you can mitigate it later. rather than saying, I wish, or beating yourself up for not being a little bit tougher in the moment, you instead get that sense of accomplishment. You get the luxury of time and freedom. And I think that's a simple but perfect example of how discomfort in one moment becomes contentment in future moments. Not a very intuitive trade-off.

Or how about our low points? We all know no one escapes low points. I've always found them easier to handle and internalize when I know that it's bringing me closer to something valuable. When I know that there's something good on the other side and that the pain I'm feeling, the thoughts that are inevitably going to pass through my mind like clouds on a windy day,

they're obviously not ideal. But they're not a waste either because something will come of them. And the goal in that moment under the duress is not to move the immovable. After all, you can only control what you can control. But it's to simply put one foot in front of the other until you emerge from the storm because we all eventually emerge from that storm. It's when we get into the habit of trying to do what is outside the scope of our storm. our control that we do ourselves a disservice.

Because look, we're human. Equipped with human biology and human emotions, navigating a tough world that is indifferent to how we feel or what we think. And while we can certainly strengthen and fortify that emotional IQ, the reality is no one is on a high all the time. Life is ups and downs. And when we realize our superpower is not to fight the down times, but to accept them, take them in stride, learn from them, and extract the value,

we empower ourselves. We're giving ourselves permission to live life just a little fuller after what we've experienced. The human experience requires many seemingly contradictory puzzle pieces, all working together in unison to create that final, illustration we're looking for. Not just discipline and freedom, not just low points and high points, but countless others. Jordan Peterson, of course, famously discusses chaos and order and how both not only exist, but are pivotal to a fulfilling life. We are designed for chaos.

We must step out into unknowns, situations that feel bigger than us. the courage to do so ultimately becomes the pathway to order as we get used to the change we acclimate we find our answers and ultimately create a sense of fulfillment the challenge being that now we have conquered our demon we must prepare for the next because just like too much chaos isn't good too much order is equally destructive right another example of something we'd assume as negative. Chaos. Being the thing in actuality that paves the way for better days. It's a staircase.

I've heard Tony Robbins say something similar when talking about our need for both certainty and uncertainty. We must have some elements of everyday life mapped out, but too much creates a mundane existence without the adventure and growth we've been looking for. It's from the unknown we capture more of ourselves. It's from the uncertainty we get growth. And I say all of this, not just because I think it's fascinating in and of itself, but because it's incredibly easy to forget, especially in the thick of things that it's all essential to life working the way it should work. Those losses become gains. The disappointment becomes growth. The downtimes become launching pads to evolve experiences, greater adventures, and new chapters.

It's certainly not intuitive to look in the mirror when amidst life's chaos and say thank you to the universe. I get that. I'm not implying that you should. But I am saying it helps to know, it helps to be aware of the paradoxical nature of your journey. I look back at the times I was most fearful or angry at myself. And if I could go back and tell that version of me one thing, it would be that all that adversity is going to push me forward. That I'd never have the things I wanted most if I didn't step into all that discomfort. That it's going to be okay. That I'm going to be incredibly thankful for it all. And so will you. This is the push pull of life. The chaos and order of the day. It is not in spite of, but because of those moments, you'll be more than you've

ever been. The human experience is a paradox. And the quicker we get that, the quicker we let it work for us. No more fighting unwinnable wars, but rather taking all that we can control and using it to lift ourselves up, to be our best selves, to make tomorrow the miracle that it can be. What is the difference? When I think back to the first time I deviated from my comfort zone, my routine, I lost the certainty in my life. And as much as I wanted to go back,

I remember telling myself one more day, just one more day. until someday became the current day and that made all the difference. Day one starting my company. I remember turning the camera on and feeling so lost saying words into a microphone that I almost didn't press record. But I did. Until one day I realized not only was it bearable, it was my purpose.

The vehicle that transported my thoughts to the world and that made all the difference. made all the difference. During the time when some of the projects I invested the most time and energy into flopped, I remember almost saying this isn't for me, but I kept creating. I kept creating until I found that intersection of what I love and what adds value to the world, and that made all the difference. What's crazy is how small a decision that difference seems in the moment, how insignificant the decision feels. As one stands and looks out from their doorway, the difference between going and not going, stepping out or staying in, making the move or waiting one more day.

That difference is sometimes disguised in a cloak of tributtal. but do not be fooled. The little decision to move forward, to hang on when your ego is screaming at you to just let go, walk away, find some semblance of comfort and predictability. Those decisions to endure in the moments of hardship are what we come to look back on as the turning points that reshaped and redefined life as we know it.

The courage required to make the call, release the video, register the business, send the message, reconnect with that loved one, deviate from what your friends are doing. All those things, they may seem small enough now to spend a minute or two thinking about before moving on to our routines and what we are comfortable doing. After all, it's easy to disregard the small things. But the acorn that becomes the oak tree is small. We must, along with the current reality, see the potential in what those things become. And sure, there are times where the present and the ideal are so different that it seems almost incomprehensible. But how do we get there? We get there by making the little decisions that will ultimately make the greatest difference.

You were always one decision away from that evolution. So next time you find yourself looking down at the step in front of you, the step you know in your soul is the right step. Reminds yourself, yes, it sure would be easy to walk away here. It sure would be easy to turn back. Yeah, it's just one tiny step. But in totality, it's exponentially more than that. It's the lifeblood of your new reality.

The water to your sea, the oxygen to your lungs, the crossroads in front of you will be, with your permission, the beginning of something larger than life. It will ultimately be the difference. You don't have to know everything. In fact, you don't even need to know most things. But you do have to know that progress often. calls for us to move forward without knowing. It asks that we're willing to learn along the way, to pick up the pieces as we walk by them. That's a vulnerability that is sometimes tough to face. Right? It's a nakedness that we never really shake. The idea that in order to grow, we have to

leave the now, ill-prepared for tomorrow, but knowing that we have everything we know. We know. need to make the transition. The losses become lessons, the failures become data points, the mistakes become our clarity. And until we understand this, there really isn't an upward trajectory. We place too much value on the known, the things we understand, the cyclical nature of a day-to-day that is as much as life can be. predictable and determined. Characteristics that are actually antithetical to growth.

In fact, one could make an argument that in this incredible day and age of information, our need and ability to know often comes at the expense of true transformation. I studied podcasts for so long before I started one that I could have created and improved upon my own, I don't know, 400 times over. I had to find out who uses what, when to upload, how long the episode should be, and on and on. There are books and videos, there are classes and coaches.

All of it wonderful, I'm sure, in its own way. But nothing so powerful as that university of experience. of life, the idea of the thinker and the doer. The thinker that absorbs and contemplates weighs one option versus another and another. Exhausting time sufficient for the doer to fall on her face twice, pick up the pieces, make necessary changes,

and be on her way. See, the information is out there. It exists and can be incredibly valuable but simultaneously can contribute to us thinking our way into stagnation. A thing can only be what you make it. Things provide the value you decide to extract from them. I like using the example of water because it's simple. Water is necessary to sustain life.

Without it, one cannot go on. Too much of it, however, can sink a shift. or flood a building, too much is disastrous. And you can pretty much fill in the blank with anything else here to demonstrate that point. Life is a balance between not enough and too much. Scarcity and excess. My opinion is that now, with regard to information and technology, we exist on the too much side of the spectrum.

I mean, I can't even remember the last time I was having a conversation. about something I wasn't sure about without interrupting it to pull out my phone and Google the answer. Again, this has its positive. Knowledge is power, but to what extent? And I'm talking big picture here. This is about so much more than picking up a phone to Google information. This is about never feeling like we're equipped enough to step into something new. Because we can always be obtaining more. And it's like, where do you draw that line? I now, because of the accessibility of information, find myself frequently staring like a deer in headlights.

Because some minor detail hasn't been made clear to me. Because everything is not perfectly ironed out. My brain has become conditioned to know. Because knowing is now incredibly easy. But life is about generating a moment. meaningful existence. Meaning is carved from unknowns. It's not Googled or found on Wikipedia. A podcast or YouTube video can't give you meaning. It might help you prepare or point you in the right direction, but meaning is about self-discovery. It's about, yeah, taking those things you learn,

but giving them life. You know, it's pulled out of the world around you like diamonds from the earth necessarily calling for going when you don't know exactly what the destination looks like, starting when you don't know what the end result will be. We are consuming at the expense of living, absorbing at the expense of feeling, right? There's the idea that a business book is not the same thing as creating a business. Being on social media is not the same thing as being social. It's an aspect of those things served up without the risk or the upside. That is not real life.

And one of my favorite movies, Goodwill Hunting, Robin Williams' character, a therapist, is talking to Matt Damon's character. He plays this brilliant young man who has a photographic memory. He's read every book in the library. He's a genius. But even with all that, he doesn't quite have the courage to move out of his little world into something bigger, into the opportunity that's, available for him if only he'd find the strength to seek it out. And here's a segment of Robin

Williams trying to explain that to Matt Damon. He says, so if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me this skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about life's work, political aspirations, him and the Pope, sexual orientation, whole works, right. But I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in this system. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seen that. If I asked you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus on your personal favorites. You may have even been late a few times, but you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up

next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, and you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? Once into the breach, dear friends. But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.

I look at you. I don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky, scared kid. And the quote goes on, but the idea is a powerful one. And one of the reasons I've rewatched that scene over and over, it's not that he's trying to belittle the character. He's trying to help him explore the depths of his own personality, his needs and desires, trying to arm him with the understanding that he's strong enough to move beyond the walls he's built

around himself, that all that knowledge he's obtained and acquired is meaningless unless he gives it life. Knowing isn't enough. And I want to qualify this again because it's important you meet me where I am. I'm not making a case for ignorance or books, knowledge, understanding.

That's critical, but it's the other piece that makes life worth living. You don't get the reward without the risk and the risk requires that one moves into the haze without clear understanding of an outcome. It's moving into

life without total certainty. And we are hardwired for that certainty. We're built to want to know. And now on top of that, we have the tools to take in infinite knowledge. I want this to be a reminder that we have to circumnavigate that idea to some extent. We have to trust ourselves to figure things out as we go. that waiting until we have everything figured out simply leaves the door crack for regret to sneak in and make itself comfortable.

There's an entire world out there waiting for you not to have it all figured out but to instead stumble upon the realization that you don't have to know. To move forward you have to simply trust. That's when the world will transform before your eyes.