Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - BUILD YOURSELF UP | Best Motivational Speech | WAKE UP POSITIVE

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

"No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again" - Buddha

I was watching a master class by author Margaret Atwood. It was on storytelling. And, you know, I knew going into it, it would be interesting. I'm not a particular fan of her work, at least from a content perspective. But look, we're talking about someone who's, you know, truly made a mark on the world. Right? There's a lot to be learned from her. So I buckled in and listened to what she had to say.

And unsurprisingly, there was a lot of ways. wisdom there. And there was one idea in particular that really resonated with me, both as a writer, yeah, but also outside the quote-unquote creative space, which I'll get to in a second. The idea was centered around finding the moment to begin, a story's true starting point. And it was interesting. She said, you know, people think stories start on page one, but she'll pick up a book. and I don't remember if she was referencing new authors or maybe someone, a book just off the shelf at a bookstore. But she'll be reading it and she'll think,

okay, so this story really begins on page 10. That's the starting point. I think she even referenced her own writing process, being a few chapters in and thinking, ah, this needs to be the starting point. Got to cut away the other stuff and move this up to page one. And, you know, understanding that's obviously important.

for those looking to entertain and captivate an audience. You need to give the reader a reason to stick around. But I can also very easily draw a parallel from that to a bigger picture, our real world. All I could think about was, you know, what story are you telling yourself? And where did it start? Or more importantly, has it even started? There's something both liberating and beautiful

about the fact that all of us, in the stories we are living could at any moment recreate that metaphorical first page. And I believe that with all my heart. Like we think, oh, page one started years ago. This is how things are now. This is where I exist in life. But what about the idea that beginnings don't have to start on page one? What about the idea that you can cut away as much as necessary to create the right beginning?

the story that feels right to you. We don't know anything to the words that were written leading up to now. We're not beholden to the chapters that came before. Robin Sharma talks about the idea of killing your darlings, which is an old saying that refers to that very challenging task, writer's face, of cutting away the things that aren't absolutely essential to the story's main narrative. It's hard to do. We place value and importance on these things because they feel like a part of us.

We feel like they're too significant to dismiss. But in reality, the act of letting go is ultimately a value add because it ensures that what matters is what stays. It's the ability to understand that the story doesn't begin when thoughts become worse. It begins when there's alignment. When the story captivates, inspires, and in the one you're writing, the one that is your life, you can always make that moment right now. There's always a new novel that can be written with new objectives and characters and storylines.

It's okay to chop anything that led to this moment. It's okay to create a beginning as you stand here today, right? It's the idea of sunk costs that changed my life years ago. Just because you spent a long time making a mistake doesn't mean you need to continue making it. Just because you've been writing this story of your life for years doesn't mean the beginning is behind you. You can start this novel here.

You can begin this epic adventure now. And I think there's tremendous power in looking at life like that. that. It's never too late for a new beginning. It's never wrong or impossible to, even at chapter four, put your finger down on a new starting point and say, this is where it all begins. Where the new ideal takes shape. We are all authors. And if authors have anything, it's control over the narrative. It's the ability to design a world that aligns with the one they imagine.