Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - CHANGE THE WAY YOU SEE YOURSELF | Powerful Motivational Videos

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Your journey matters more than you think. There are people right now standing where you once stood, facing the same doubts, the same struggles, unsure if they can push forward. But you did. You kept swinging the axe, step by step, and now you’re in a better place—not by chance, but by choice. Your growth, your resilience, and your wins, no matter how small, can be the light that guides someone else forward.Don’t diminish your progress by comparing it to someone else’s. If you’ve gone from zero to one, that’s a victory worth sharing. There are people at zero who need to see it’s possible. Your story holds power—own it, share it, and keep moving forward.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

I want to share my story, but there's a problem. My pain is not as severe as the pain that a lot of people have endured. He said this to me on the phone, kind of working his way through the chaos of his mind and towards that calm and freedom of a blank piece of paper. And all I could think was, sure, maybe some folks have had it worse. After all, there's always going to be some who do and some who don't, but here's another truth. There will always be people right now who are where you were six months ago. Yeah, you didn't barely survive a car wreck.

You didn't climb the tallest mountain in North America, no open heart surgery for you. But you did navigate heartbreak. And you did lose yourself and your purpose, in your direction, and you did look in the mirror and ask yourself, how in the hell you were going to put these pieces back together. And you didn't just sit there and let life fade away. In fact, you picked up the axe and you took a swing at that tree every single day. And now you're mentally tougher than you were.

physically stronger than you used to be surrounded by people who want you to win further along than you've been in a long time and I'm speculating but maybe ever these things don't happen by mistake and you're going to sit here and tell me you don't feel worthy of sharing that because you didn't climb Everest with one leg or something

you went from zero to one So brother, this is no longer just about you. This is about the people currently sitting at zero. Do you get that? You are a gift. See, this is an example of something we all do. The Lord knows I wouldn't be able to recognize it if I wasn't myself guilty of doing it. The brain wants to tell us why we aren't ready, aren't enough, aren't worthy,

why everyone else is more deserving. They've climbed higher. ran further, but everyone, and I mean everyone, has their demons. So maybe I've triumphed in my particular lane over the hurdle of being vulnerable online. But guess what? When I walk into a room of ten people, five who know my work and not me, you don't think I feel worried? I'm not perfect. I'm beyond flawed, in fact. But these videos that have helped so many, they're a product of pain being experienced in real time. There is a fear of not living up or even being found out, right?

What if I'm not the man on the screen? After all, this is but a fraction of me. And so, how do you solve for this? Well, you keep showing up. You keep earning that confidence for you. and for the people who will someday be where you currently are so that you can be the one who says, see, you're not alone.

This is the cost of entry, my friends. I don't speak from a place of perfection. I speak from a place of someone who's adamant about figuring it out because I'm capable and I'm worthy and it's possible. I can change the world, not because I was miraculous or broke records, but because when it hurt the most I kept going, and that's all, that's it, that's the message in real time.

And that message, at the right moment, at the right place, landing amidst the right ears, well, that's worth more than gold. And so you, in your current situation, I would go as far as to say, not only can you do that, not only can you be that, but you have an obligation.

to. To give that to yourself and the world. When I say the words, you are enough, I mean it, not in the sense of roll over and go to bed, son, you've arrived. Not stop moving towards meaning in your life, but I mean it in the sense that you are armed with enough to take this life anywhere you want to take it. Just keep showing up. Look over that shoulder of yours. Stare into the distance and focus on that version of you way back there.

That's who you were. Do you remember that? That's where it started. And every so often I need you to reflect back on the storms you've walked through. I want you to think about the times that you felt broken or hopeless. Reflect back on the moments it felt like the whole whole. The whole world had it figured out. Everyone but you, and how small those moments made you feel.

And now, close your eyes and think, not only did you survive it, but to evolve. You've grown, you moved beyond the loss and the heartbreak, you stretched further than the fear and the doubt and the anger. Through it all, you were relentless. You kept going. That's who you are. And so if you ever doubt whether the road you've traveled is enough, kindly remind yourself not to disrespect the work you've put in. The hills you've climbed, the losses you've overcome and transformed into wind at your back.

When you were there, remember how sweet the words, I was once there too. So keep going. Because every step you take is not only etching into stone your new story, the next evolution of you, but it's lighting a path for those just a step behind. You are both the innovator and the messenger, the warrior, and the poet carving answers out of stone so that others may know the way. And friends, I'll leave you with this. your greatness is not just about you

and it was never just about you your courage is a vehicle so keep your eyes fixated on the horizon and keep moving forward until you can reach out and touch it with your hands because God will that feel good for both the child inside you who wondered whether it was

and the people miles away who see a little flickering light in the distance that prompts them to be delusional enough to think, hey, maybe I can too. Behind our house, there were rolling hills as far as the eye could see. And we would run them, we would run up and down until the sun disappeared over the horizon. And we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. In a sense, it bothers me that 25 years later, I even have to ask why something so simple and elementary could be fun. How something so out in the open could be profound, something so basic.

Oh, how we've flipped the script. Now, today I build and scratch and claw and fight and chase and seek and climb. But my soul just wants the hill. And you might hear that and think, well, how tragic to live in that gap, to exist without that which you so deeply desire. But let me reframe the scene. I never gave up the hills, and neither did you.

They're there. Covered in complexity, deemed at some point to be just a little too simple. Little too elementary, so we built on top of them. We laid a foundation of external expectations. We erected structures that would bring us validation. In other words, we built someone else's world on top of our own. Called it a day. And as been one of my favorite sayings, two things can be true at once.

Moving into the world means responsibility. It means more complexity. But it doesn't negate the fact that the precious things are the simple things. And while we often spend our days fixated on distant horizons, looking for those things, I continuously find that they're often under our very feet. The ground we walk on. It might be more conventional to look back on those moments as childish.

This kid's doing what kids do, but I see it as more. In fact, I see it as more. the essence of life, the reason we're here, it need not be abandoned. And when you close your eyes, I wonder what that looks like for you now. The air cycling through your lungs, a smile on your face,

your hair blown back by the wind, what is that moment? See, because when that's yours, you ignite. And if you think that's selfish, I have news for you, you pass that light right on to those around you. It comes through in the world you build and the structures you make.

When you find those hills again, you give meaning to the meaningless. It's paint on the canvas. It's a melody to the song. And to say, oh, I don't have time for that. It's like saying, I'll breathe later while your head is being held underwater. No, it is the oxygen you need.

We get one chance to do this, one ride here. And your gift need be presented to the world. Your heart should race just like it did when the setting sun was calling you in. And nothing else mattered in the world. The entire universe is rooting for you to find those hills again. You have everything. are everything you need. I just hope you'll summon the courage to grab it.

Create like you're going to throw it all away. Like not one word matters. Like there is no audience. Because when you do it for yourself and yourself only, you can finally do it honestly. In so many ways, courage is just honesty. I think the inclination is too high. hide from our shadows. To attempt to outrun them, leave them behind. But the world I want to live in

is a product of dancing with those shadows. It's in bringing them in and not keeping them out. A world with no separation between your hopes and your fears is one of freedom. See, throughout each chapter of life, excellence has evolved, and it's evolved along with me, like a chameleon of sorts, changing, bending, transforming to fit the time. Excellence has looked like the courage to start at times, to continue at times, to not stop the right thing at times, and to walk away from the wrong things at times. It's been learning to put the armor on, and now perhaps it's learning to take it off, to step out and present that same message to the world unpolished.

Less thought through. More flaws, more cracked. See, to be pristine is to be admired. To be brave enough to be flawed, though. To be so honest it increases your heart rate, to be so much of yourself that it creates a seismic shift, that's excellence. And we know excellence seems to always require,

of us what hurts the most in the moment. It demands we become what we most fear. It makes floors out of ceilings. It does excellence as it lifts us up each new stair in the staircase. And it's always amazed me looking back. How while the context has changed so much over the years, the premise has remained consistent.

Do that which you are most scared to do. It's Joseph Campbell's quote that the cave we fear to end. enter holds the treasure we seek. Well, one can only peer into that black abyss for so long before the anticipation grows worse than the discomfort of the darkness itself. And so it has become time. Time to dance with the shadows, not to destroy, but to make them mine. And so dance we will round and round the flames. Casting shadows and reeling them in. This moment is an inflection point.

It's an inception. The first crack of sunlight at dawn. The first step of a journey to the stars. It is the day you transformed and excellence right along with you. Look, the truth is that what got you here is not always sufficient to get you there. That what's made you will not sustain you. And so the question is what lives beneath the surface? What lives under the hood and behind the

curtain? And will you dig deeper? Will you allow your younger self to follow you into the abyss? Even if out of sheer curiosity, will you step up and heed the call? Perhaps to be less produced, rehearsed, packaged, and in the wake of these things, become courageously you. Where courage and authenticity intersect, excellence is born. So what better time than now to rise again? to start anew, and I know you've pushed. I'm aware you've fought.

But for what? To lay down here? To give up now? When the greatest story is yet to be told? When the finale still lies ahead, when all that is meaningful waits just around the corner, No, move further into the darkness. Push higher into the night.

Release more of yourself to the world. Go until you can go no longer. Do until you can do no more. Fight until there is no fight left in you. That is your ode. to excellence. 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.

During the time when some of the projects I invested the most times, 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 triviality, 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, 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 ensure 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 are 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. It's easy to look back

and think about all the things you could have done differently, especially since as we get older, we get wiser. Right? Time provides this beautiful gift of clarity. And ultimately, we realized things like maybe a lot of our hesitation was unwise. warranted. Maybe a lot of our decisions or indecision was fear-based. And knowing that, it's easy to look over your shoulder and feel like you could have lived a different life or taken a different

path. At the very least wish you'd done things differently. But the reality is, everything you've done has, in fact, taken you here to this moment. And when you dwell on the path, you're going to be past, the should-haves, and the could-haves. You completely diminish the power of right now, the current moment. You completely underestimate the knowledge and the wisdom you've been collecting for years whose single job is to assist you in your next move. It's a compounding of experience. The good, the bad, and the ugly has landed. you right here right now and how beautiful right here is. The infinite blank page.

The forever fresh start. And that's not to say the past doesn't matter. It's to suggest that your prior discomfort, your mistakes and lessons have equipped you to deviate from the routines and the cyclical nature of your past. The past is a gateway to now, not a life sentence. And there's a difference. You say last year or last month or last week is valueless because you did X when you should have done Y.

I say to that, doing the wrong thing has positioned you to now do the right thing. Potential energy, right? Like a spring being pulled back tighter and tighter. and tighter, awaiting its opportunity to propel forward. You don't get that without those could-haves and should-haves. They're integral to the process. The reason you'll be different moving forward. You can say, I wish I'd taken more chances.

I wish I was bolder. I wish I followed my heart. Two pieces of news for you. One, that's fantastic. It seems as though you're now aware of those times you fell short and can therefore mitigate them moving forward. And two, you're not dead yet. We have to stop looking at yesterday like it's anything

but a ladder to greater competence. The gymnasium for your decision making. Anyone can cherry pick the past. But the practical me asks, what does beating yourself up about what's gone do for you? What does it add to your life? Except for enabling and legitimizing the same identity you're looking to evolve and move on from. See, we don't limit ourselves because of right now. It's always because of yesterday.

Look what happened. Look what I lost. Look how things turned out. And it's like, take the data and trudge forward. You now have the tools to move right into that darkness of night. And in five years you'll look back and sure, you'll wish you did things differently. And same five years after that. But that's why life is a journey and not a standardized test.

We are picking up the pieces as we go, painting, the masterpiece one brushstroke at a time. And even though you might wish yesterday's brush stroke was a different color, a little darker, different shade, it's just as valid as all the others in contributing

to the mural in its totality. So sure, be your greatest critic. But be your greatest ally as well. And that calls for being bold enough to let go of what's gone. Extract the value from yesterday and use it to build now. Something, anything, that's up to you, but hear the message. It's up to you now. Not who you were yesterday or what you did, not how people saw you or how you used to live your life. You have an opportunity now to go where

wherever your heart desires, stronger and wiser at this point in time than you've ever been in your life. So rather than dwell on what's gone, how about asking how you can take those pieces of yourself and build? Standing on that ledge, staring out at what we know we need to do at the moment we least want to do it. Well, that's where the future is shaped. When procrastination feels like the answer or avoidance the optimal choice,

where does one draw their strength? They say routine is a powerful tool in this fight, and I believe that when something becomes habit or part of the process instilled in the day-to-day, there's just simply less room for negotiation. We show up with our eyes on the prize. But here's the thing, we are human. There's simply going to be days when the world pushes back. Life is a game of complexity.

It's unpredictable. You want to talk about the good days, fine. It's easy to show up when we're feeling good. And thankfully, those days outnumber the others, right? creating the bulk of our consistency, 10,000 hours. But not all of them. Life is about momentum. Myself, after coming off a pretty terrible weekend for a variety of reasons,

I found myself on that ledge again. When the alternative route made itself known, where it felt mighty tempting to call it off, take a break where my worldview had come into question, I had to ask myself, who are you? Really? It's easy to rationalize walking away in these moments. In his book The War of Art, Stephen Presfield says, our job in life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be,

but to find out who we already are and become it. Well, who would have known how much goes into it? to that process of becoming. How committed we have to be to the road before us, and not only when it's sunny, but when the skies are dark and gray. And how if we allow ourselves in those difficult moments to say, sometimes it's okay to wave the white flag.

It's okay to walk away. Then you leave the door cracked to make that same decision at any other point in time. quitting, conceding can very easily become a habit and a habit we want to avoid at all cost. I have this little rule that no matter what, I can never leave dishes in the sink overnight. Never.

I treat this arbitrary little promise to myself, like it's life or death, which, again, random, but hear me out. It's half practical, half symbolic. I know that if I say, okay, just this once, I've effectively removed the barrier separating order from chaos. If it's okay just this once, then it's okay 1,000 times. And a messy sink becomes a messy kitchen, becomes a messy house, becomes a cluttered mind. Extreme, maybe.

But critical, right? Here is where the symbolism comes in. I understand how fragile that divine, how when I'm tired or have a headache or I'm busy, it's still priority. Because I want to hammer my subconscious with the understanding that I show up when it's inconvenient. That very moment when, you know, I could easily trick myself into thinking it's small or dumb or arbitrary. It's a sink, who cares? Right. That's the moment that I need to bleed into the rest of my life.

And I think that's exactly it, right? The floodwaters are always looking to come in. And how many cracks until the room gives way? You know, when you've had a few rough days, when you've lost something important to you, when you're sad or disappointed about an outcome, what then? When life calls you to exceed expectations, what then?

Because the world around you will always give you evidence to support dialing it back. selling yourself short if that's the case you're looking to make. But here's the deal. Should you choose the inverse, you are strong enough to be better than you've ever been in those challenging moments. You can show up when it hurts. You can reestablish your why and carry forward even after the turbulence of yesterday. Life will never be easy. It will never all make sense. And this understanding has helped me to roll up my sleeves and continue forward.

When I'm disappointed with yesterday, or overwhelmed by the conditions or landscape of the moment, when I question how much I have left. But I've found that when I look hard enough, there's always something to draw on. And that's the message of note. That's what we must show ourselves. When you're on that ledge, this can be where you're at your best.

This is where you get to uncover just how deep-rooted your greatness is. This is where you set the standard and the pace for everything to come. 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 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 interval 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, much is left to go have 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's 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, 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? 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. 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 to hear you. 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 mistakes themselves, you fear. It's what you think those mistakes will mean. Ridicule, embarrassment, lack of direction, or identity, losing what you think. 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. 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 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 bat 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. Repeat. refined, 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 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. An undoubted 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 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 at a new step one. Realize there is more. This is the process for capturing that which life has to offer. 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 may be that our greatest gift in life is that we're always one decision away from transformation. We're always one decision away from a new path with new experiences, new beliefs, new identity, one decision away from a totally different.

life. It's almost incomprehensible. That all the days leading up to now, everything we knew ourselves to be can be discarded and left with one swing of an axe gone. What is more miraculous than that? We live at the intersection of two imaginary worlds, right? The past and the future. Past is gone and essentially meaningless. yet as the provider of our identity, it still rules over us. Our sense of who we are comes from our collection of past memories. That imaginary world of yesterday, like the elephant tied to the chair with the rope. It hasn't realized it's strong enough to break free.

It doesn't know that what confines him is not the rope, but acceptance of a lie. And that's what the past, that's what identity is, a lie. We are not yesterday, we are right now. And from the trivial things to the significant things we get wrapped up in that lie. We overlook the gift of control we have over our future. What does it mean to say, I'm not a mourning person? That in your past you hadn't conditioned yourself to wake up early? Okay.

What does it mean to say, oh, I let people walk all over me? That in your past you didn't stand up for yourself? What does it mean to say I'm awkward or shy or I struggle with writing or running or public speaking? So maybe you did. But what does that have to do with right now? What does that have to do with realizing the control you have over your life? Because simply realizing you can disconnect from these narratives that they are not you is the superpower. Realizing that calling yourself a bad student because you fail the test,

It's like never taking off your raincoat because it rained yesterday. It's like, no, the sun is out, adapt. Then once you realize right now is the beginning of the rest of your life, you can start making little changes. Identify not who you were, but who you'd love to be, and move towards it. Read the power of habit and atomic habit so that you can understand change isn't crazy or big or scary.

It's moving little things in your life around so that they work for you, not against you. you, not against you. Start waking up and thinking about not what has happened, but what can happen, not what can go wrong, but what can go right. You are always one decision away from a totally different life because you're always one decision away from change, from walking away from the narratives that you have accepted. And so remember that. But remember it not just when things are fine. Remember it when you're struggling, when you feel restless or uneasy, unsure, uninspired, sad, angry, not content with the reflection in the mirror. When you feel that negativity,

you're not looking at what can be, you're looking at what you have been. And there's no room at the table for that distraction. Not when you can reach out and start building something new. Not when you can put on a new pair of shoes and walk down a different path, you are always one decision away from a totally different life. And that decision should be first and foremost to choose future over past. Your next step over the last one, choose your ideal world and start building.