Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - CHANGE YOUR MIND - Motivational Speech Compilation 2024

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

"When you put the man together, the world falls into place" - unknown A collection of motivational speeches by Eddie Pinero focusing on building yourself up and taking control of your life.  YouTube: youtube.com/yourworldwithin

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If you build yourself up, the world conforms. One of my favorite stories is in Gary Keller's book, The One Thing. Towards the end, he talks about a father and a son. I'm going to kind of paraphrase it and give my best interpretation here. It's been a while since I've read it. But in this story, there's a father and a son. The father's tucking his son into bed. And he says, son, I want you to know tomorrow.

I took the entire day off, and it's going to be you and me. And we're going to play and enjoy the day and have an amazing time. And the son is so excited to hear this that he can barely fall asleep. It just makes his day, lights him up. So father says, good night, walks out. Eventually the kid falls asleep. Fast forward to the next day. Bright and early, the father's downstairs sitting at his table.

He hears his son, you know, the little footsteps sprinting across the hall. and he goes, here we go. Down the stairs, the kid comes, sits at the kitchen table right across from his father. He goes, Dad, let's go. Let's go. It's time. Let's go play. Let's go have fun. And the father's excited, right? The dad is ready to rock and roll. But he also thinks, as many of us have,

it would be nice to just get 15 or 20 more minutes here to enjoy the morning, right? Sip the coffee, finish reading the newspaper. And the dad comes up with an idea. He says, okay, son, how about this? He rips a page out of the newspaper he's reading, and he tears it into about 20 pieces. And on this page was a globe. It was a picture of the earth.

He places these 20 pieces of the earth in front of his son, and he says, the second you complete this puzzle and you put the earth or the world back together, I'm going to be done with my coffee, we'll go right outside, and the day will begin. Picks up his newspaper, continues reading, smiling to himself, thinking, hey, you know, I just earned myself that 15 minutes. Well, sure enough, a minute, minute and a half goes by, he feels a tug on his newspaper. He looks up, he goes, no way.

Son says, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, I finished it. He looks over, sure enough, the puzzle is complete. He says, son, how did you do that? And the kid said, well, a piece fell on the floor. They have a glass kitchen table. And he said, and when I went down to pick it up, and I looked up through the glass, I could see that on the other side of the globe

was a picture of a man. And so I put the man together because that was easier. The idea being, the concept being, when you build the man, when you put the man together, the world falls into place. And that right there is, I believe, one of the most critical things I've ever learned. And I'll talk a little bit about when I feel like

that light bulb went off for me. But that was everything, right? Jim Rohn says it a little bit of a different way. Again, I'm paraphrasing, but he says, you know, it's not getting there. It's not the result or the mountaintop. It's who you become along the way. It's those instances where you look over your shoulder and you realize during the pursuit,

throughout the process, you've become more capable. You've become wiser, more competent. And that's the ticket to so many doors opening. So I want to talk about three things that I believe help you build yourself. The first thing is identifying a North Star or identifying an ideal. Which might seem simple, but again, it's the simple things that we often overlook. And by the way, there's often a hefty price for overlooking them, right? So that's the first thing, identifying the North Star.

The second thing is, okay, we have our North Star, but what can we say goodbye to? What can we cut off that we no longer need? And the third thing is, once we have that information starting, which is a project in and of itself, and I'll talk a little bit about the mindset behind that. First things first, identifying your North Star. To me, this comes down to a simple understanding. You have so much more control of your life than you think you do.

And it's not your fault for not thinking that or not seeing that. It's just something we do without being conscious and being. aware. We conform. We live the life. We feel like we're expected to live. I've often talked about in my videos being 26 years old and that being the moment, the turning point for me. Why? Well, because went to high school, to get to a good college, to get a good job, to move up the corporate ladder. I was four years into that job and I looked around thinking, maybe I don't need to live for the weekend, right? Maybe I don't need to get up every day

feeling obligated to do something that doesn't light me up. Maybe I have more control over my life than I thought. There's an idea that everything around you, everything in your life is there because in some way or another, you've allowed it to be there. You've said yes to the people you see every day, how you spend your time, where you go, what you do, all those things.

If they are in your life, you know, whether it's subconsciously or, you know, very blatantly, you have said yes. And so it's realizing, hey, there's something else out there for me that matters. That's meaningful. You know, the last 10 years, it's big. been the hardest 10 years of my life, there's no question. Bringing something into existence that was not there, working to grow it, to expand it, working to grow myself as a person, right? But throughout it all, I've cultivated meaning. I get up in the morning and I think this matters. I have

a purpose that I care about that lights me up. To me, that's the goal. And to find that and identify that is everything. J.R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, he says, not all who wander are lost. We need to give ourselves permission to seek that out. To look around and realize, hey, some of this, some of my life, some of the things I do every day, I'm sure some of it's beautiful, right?

But some of it just happens. That's life. Some of it falls into place and doesn't make us better and doesn't excite us. And there's nothing to do with where we're, we want to go. And so we need to be able to differentiate those things and start gravitating towards something that matters.

The second one is a little bit, it's quicker, it's associated to the first one, right? The idea of, okay, now you have that thing or you have an idea of that North Star. Find the courage to cut away those things that aren't going to help you get there. Another form of freedom, that shackle around your,

your ankle that you've been carrying with you. Greg McCune, his book, I scream it from the mountaintops. Essentialism was the first person to teach me, hey, growth is not always acquiring. Sometimes growth is getting rid of those things we are carrying around. We carry too much. Empty your pockets of the burdens. Free yourself of those things. And that, again, comes back to this awareness.

It comes back to looking around and doing an audit of how you spend your time. And it's mind-boggling. Like to take a day, for example, and really pay attention to everything you did and try and look into the rationale behind it and where it's taking you. A lot of things we do just to do. That's what you need to take an axe to. It's been said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. The internet attributes that quote to everybody from Lincoln to, you know, Da Vinci. But it's absolutely true.

When you can identify what matters and allow your world to revolve around that, magic. That's number two. And number three is go. Start, which seems easy, right? You take a step. How complicated could that be? Perfection, fear, not knowing. All those things keep us from moving forward.

and I want to gift you with this thought that helped me tremendously. You're not supposed to know. You're not supposed to know how things work out. You're not supposed to have the answers. You're not supposed to have a perfect map or game plan. Life is chaos. It's supposed to be messy. And the people that get the most from it smile and step into that abyss

knowing they'll pick those pieces up along the way. That's not a little detail involved in personal growth. That is personal growth. That's the whole thing. the story. You go before you're ready because you'll never be ready. And I can find those people, I can point to them talking about what they're going to do if only. They're going to start something when X, Y, and Z happens. Well, that's a forever game. You go before you're ready. Even this studio, right, this is a new studio, it's a new setup, just a little spark to reinvigorate creativity

in production. It's like moving things around. Is it perfect? Is everything lit up? Should I be closer to the camera, further from the camera? All these things that I'm going back and forth with until I hit that ultimate,

you know, light bulb moment. Who cares? Pick up the mic, say something, and iterate. Ten versions from now, 10 videos from now, this probably will not be the same. Perfect. But there will not be the same. be 10 videos from now if you don't go and so that's what I encourage you I

encourage you to remember that perfection is just fear in disguise the people that wait for all the answers before they start they wait forever your time is now so go I'm gonna leave you with that the beautiful story from Gary Keller's book the one thing when you put the man together the world falls into place so give yourself permission to put the man together the world wants you to It has all the tools. It has everything you need. You just got to go. Put the man together. And the world will fall into place. It's when we most want to turn around that we must keep going. When all we see is darkness, that we must have faith in the light. It's when we feel

most vulnerable, that we must become unshakable. See, there's a misconception that strength implies a total absence of weakness or doubt that courage means never feeling fear or uncertainty. When in reality, these things are human. They've been wired into us. As Ernest Becker has said, we are simultaneously worms and gods. Worms in that, sure, we're animals. Flesh and bone unable to avoid death or misfortune or tragedy in life.

But most importantly, God's, in that we have the divine ability to transcend these inevitable circumstances, to find hope in this seemingly hopeless, to see opportunity in life's obstacles and growth when we fall, to take the meaningless and give it meaning. And one of the most important things I've learned is that when life knocks me down, pushes me to my limits. It's not some indication that I walked the wrong path. It's no referendum on who I am. No, it's a hand-extended offering the chance for me to be more than I've ever been. And in a world of delusion and distraction, it's a reminder that we have the capacity to turn life's hardship into a better tomorrow. between fact or fiction, possible or impossible, success or failure, is the decision to get up

when life knocks us down. This world, it's not easy. It tests us, challenges us. It makes us think we are but a cog in the wheel of life. It can be tough. But your weapon, your strength is knowing that you are tougher. Look, I know that adversity hurts, but I also know that you're capable. You are strong enough to turn that struggle into something meaningful.

Where most would turn back, you have it in you to take one step forward. Let the walls crash down. The skies open up and the ground shake. See, this is minor detail in your world. Transcend. transcend the average, the earthly constraints and the mental limitation. Remember who you are. Why you started.

Remember that when your surroundings attempt to pull you back down to Earth, you have no interest in the narratives they offer to you. You are unshakable. There's a quote attributed to Seneca. that states no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself, meaning it's in pursuing the difficult thing that we obtain meaning, recognition that we prove ourselves,

but prove ourselves to whom. This is the same Seneca who famously stated that we suffer more in imagination than we do in reality, that he is most powerful who has power over himself. And that's one of the beautiful things about stoicism. It makes us ask a very simple but often overlooked question, who's really the adversary here? Who's the opposition we're dealing with as we fight our battles?

What is it that must be transformed? Is it the outside world? Or the way our eyes view the outside world? What's really holding us back? The circumstances? Or our own personal thoughts about the circumstances? And I think this is where we misunderstand the challenges before us. I want to delve into this power of perspective

to explain that we are the gatekeepers between ourselves and our ideal lives. And very often we do a good job of ensuring that gate stays closed. We sabotage our own goals, our own dreams, our own happiness, while simultaneously pointing the finger at a million externalities. See, when we look at the difficulties of life, and there's no doubt that life can be a very difficult thing, it's easy to look at the world as this binary playing field, me versus the world.

And in fact, we often visualize the world as the enemy pushing back against us, as if its motives were counter to ours. So many of these narratives, these stories, they actually say nothing about the outside world. And when we look deeper, it becomes apparent that they actually say a whole lot more about us. It's the one viewing that gets to decipher what the circumstances. means. And so all narratives are reflections of the observers. Jim Rohn used to tell a story about two brothers who had an alcoholic father. He'd come home drunk, he'd abuse his sons. They had a terrible childhood. And as they each grew up and had families of their own, their paths kind of diverged. One became abusive and the other was kind and loved. And love.

loving and caring. And when confronted, the now abusive brother stated, well, look, how can you blame me? Don't you see how I was raised? But the kind, loving and caring brother, stated, of course I'm like this. I could never put my family through what I went through as a child. Same circumstances, different lenses, interpretations,

which means different real world result. And the idea here is to emphasize how one of the most important abilities a human being possesses is the ability to interpret the world around him. I think of us as subjects navigating a world of objects, as though the things around us don't have meaning until we place meaning upon them. That's what humans do. create narratives out of objects. And that often overlooked, seemingly insignificant ability, places a lot of power in our hands. Very rarely is it what we see,

it's what we think and what we do about what we see. You ever hang out with people that just tend to be happy, upbeat, positive energy. I have a very good friend like that where his first inclination is always to find the positive. In moments where I've sort of trained myself to pause, take a second, sift through the emotion,

uncover the value in a tough situation, refocus, and take a strategic step forward. I look over at him and he's already arrived there. He's been there for three minutes, right? Eliminated the negativity. It's his first instinct. He's the metaphorical kid hopping around in puddles, whistling at the top of his lungs, while everyone else is hiding out from the rain, or at least trying to find the courage to run out onto the street with him. Then there are people who seem to always find the negative. It doesn't really

matter what this situation is. Happiness is fleeting, only to reveal the negativity that never seems to go away, right? The kind of person that if they won the lottery, their first thought might be, Oh no, but what if I lose it all? Both examples are people projecting themselves onto the world around them. The same way that smoke covers and consumes an entire room. It's not the room that's the culprit. Here's another example from Jim Rohn, since we're on a Jim Rone kick. He's making a similar point, and this is all from a collection of speeches.

He has on Audible comparing humans to oranges, which is probably not a comparison you've made recently. but he said there's consistency to an orange and that it can be filled with one thing. When you squeeze an orange, orange juice is coming out. Period. It will never be apple juice or grape food juice. It will only emit what it has inside, which is orange juice.

And while here's the connection. When life pressures us, challenges us, or metaphorically squeezes us, we only emit the emotions that are contained and available, that are alive and well within us. If there is no jealousy contained in our thinking, we're not going to project jealousy out into the world. If there is no hatred within us, we will not project hatred onto others. Why is that powerful? It's powerful. Because, again, it's one of the most important things.

things you can do. Certainly one of the most important things I've learned to do is take that finger pointing blame at the outside world, slowly turn it around and point it back at myself, and ask, what thoughts, what emotions, what ideas am I letting live inside my head that's altering the narrative, the story I'm telling about myself and the world that I live in. And while one might think, well, That's uncomfortable, that's unfair, a little extreme. Why should I point at myself? It's not my fault. I would challenge you, at least for the sake of the next few minutes,

to see such a change as empowering, as your advantage. As the bridge from where you are to where you want to be, see, if you always have feelings of, let's say, jealousy around a particular person, that feeling in your stomach, like, oh, they have it all. They're ahead. They live how I want to live. They're this and that and I kind of hate them for it. You're naively giving the external world the power.

You're saying I feel the way I do because of that out there. Some cosmic injustice. You are powerless because you're neglecting your personal agency as a factor. But when you turn that finger around and say, I only feel this way because I'm allowing myself to, then you can ask the question. So many never think to ask. Why? Why do I feel this way?

Which lights a path to how can I fix it. See, the key to a better life is realizing you don't have to be in the passenger seat pointing at and blaming the driver, complaining about the road being taken. No, you can get into the driver's seat. You can take the wheel, you can take control, inherit responsibility. And there's more at stake, there's greater vulnerability.

But the upside is unfathomable. And I find myself thinking all the time, man, people are blaming the wrong things. They're shifting blame to the wrong adversaries. The real villain here is not the driver or the road or the weather. The real villain is the voice in your head pleading with you not to take the wheel. Pleading with you to ride shotgun and complain as the world passes you by. And of course it makes sense to qualify that. With the inevitability that there are some things placed upon us that are just bigger than us,

that we can't control. And you can make a list however long you want to. Natural disasters, decisions, and actions of others, health problems. problems, we don't often get to choose the landscape. So as the Stoics would say, understand that. Understand what you can't control and what you can. Because the beauty is that you can control how you navigate that landscape and that is power. That is what makes the difference. See the two brothers, I mentioned a few moments earlier, same landscape. Different navigational tactics, different view of what it all meant.

One took the wheel and one did not. So that's Seneca quote. That states, no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself. Well, it's perfectly clear as far as I'm concerned. The question is not whether or not to face adversity. I think we all understand that. What I hope we take from today

is a better understanding of what the true adversity is. A better understanding of the fact that in front of us, there is always an answer, a key to every lock. Some people just don't think to look. They're so busy peering around every corner for external enemies and scapegoats they don't give themselves permission to succeed. Maybe unfortunate, but it's true.

You can hit the bullseye over and over again. But if it's the wrong target, it won't do much for you. You might as well have missed by 50 feet. And I think that is what we overlook. You can't always fix the outside world. You can't change the unchangeable, but you can always change yourself. You can always fix you. His Tolstoy said everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

You're capable of being both your greatest adversary and ally. So choose wisely. Because the world around you will do nothing more than respond accordingly to your decision. Hardy fiber cement siding handles conditions that can cause damage to vinyl. From fire to hail, Hardy siding stands tall through it all. Helping trade professionals look their best when they recommend Hardy siding and trend. See the proof at James Hardy.com. Everyone wants to be great.

Everyone wants to be the best, the top, the 1%. Or as the saying goes, everyone wants to be a beast until it's time to do what beasts do. See what life has revealed and continues to emphasize his, is that our most vital decisions. They present themselves in the dark of night. The chaos of the battle. They show up amidst our discomfort. We know these moments.

The ones that seek to stop us in our tracks and turn us around. They are what must be prepared for. They are the gateway to excellence. So let's look at the big picture for a minute. in totality because consistently doing this simple easy things they're important consistency of that which is simple is the foundation it's what we build the structure upon but it is far from everything moving right along we have the difficult things that push us to be more that show us who we are that hurt

that test us the temporary storms They are the armor we come to wear. They're what prepares us to endure the trials and tribulations of life like a muscle that must be grown and developed. But the difficult things are far from everything. Because lastly, we have our defining moments. The moments that put it all together. When the sky feels like it's falling, the body feels like it's falling, the body feels like it's failing, the mind feels like it's dwindling.

Presenting the question, will you do the hard thing when you feel like you can't do the hard thing? It's doing what's difficult when the situation around you is screaming at the top of its lungs. You've gone too far. You've separated from normalcy. You are wandering into something that can no longer be. deemed predictable or safe. See running is hard. But running when you're tired, when you didn't get a great sleep last night, you don't feel good, when you're busy, when your schedule's full, when you have things to do, when you're in the midst of your workout and your lungs are screaming for air, the cloud of pain is hovering over you as you make your way forward for no other reason.

then you told yourself you would. That's not hard, that's transformative. Going to the gym is hard. But going to the gym when you don't want to, when you don't even feel like stepping into the car, when your mind is trying to rationalize a day off, when you're asking yourself what the point was to begin with, that's not hard.

That's transformative. Growing your business is hard. But growing your business when you've experienced a monumental letdown. When you went all in and were left empty-handed, when you were chewed up and spit back out, yet you showed up, kept your eyes locked in on that win. That's not hard. That is transformative.

See, these monumental moments, the ones that break so many of us that we've all come face to face with over the course of our lives they're not about easy versus hard they're about doing the hard thing when it seems as though you cannot do the hard thing the world is saying no your body is saying no that chirping in your head is saying no can you separate yourself from that hurt and that anger and that disappointment, can you segment the negativity knowing that you will do what you can to remedy this situation? But that life's curveballs can't stop you from moving forward

for the simple reason that you won't let them. When life gets hard, you have to be harder. The one who gets bolder. You have to learn to surprise yourself. Here is what I believe to be the goal, the penitence. It's what I aspire to become when life puts me through hell. To dig deep and find the emotional IQ, the awareness, to know that right now is the invitation I've been longing for.

My chance to level up. See, you might be wondering what brought this concept to the forefront of my mind. And well, it was one of life's inevitable setbacks. And I had to look in the mirror. and say, I'm not going to think about the technical issues. It just cost me thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of my time. No, I'm going to one learn, but put parameters in place so it never happens again. And two, find the opportunity.

See, when we build back, we tend to build back stronger, clean slate, new lease on life. Where can I be better than I was? Where can I pinpoint and capitalize on the value I want? walked right by. When we adopt this mentality, we become unstoppable. Someone on the outside looking in might say it's over the top. And it is. But so are the things that I want.

They might say it's not that simple. Correct. Running away from our problems is simple. I'm not about that life. They might say it's impossible to do all the time, to think that way every day. and perhaps so. But if we bow our heads and retreat, every time life isn't perfect,

we'll never attempt anything. I'm not aiming for perfection. I'm aiming for progress. Those who aim for perfection tend to spend the entirety of their lives doing exactly that. Aiming, planning, speculating. Wanting more for yourself

means receiving more rejection from the world. It means elongated valleys of despair. It means deeper treks through the heart of the vast unknown across distant lands and through turbulent waters. It means doing the hard thing when the circumstances are what mere mortals call impossible. At some point, we must transcend the versions of ourselves we once were. We must recategorize and redefine the adversity we face in life. Be the ones who find something where others see nothing.

Find value in the seemingly valueless. Let us start from the premonition that there's always a solution. And if there is always a solution, there is always a way to bring it to existence. Some will stop it easy. Fine, let them. Some will stop at hard, great to each their own. But if one dares to push further, to trudge forth into the night, they will be tasked with doing the hard thing

when the circumstances are devastating. They will be asked not just to sail the ship, but to sail it through the storm, to not just build the tower, But to build as the skies open up, the wind blows and the ground shakes, that will be the difference. That has always been the difference. So what will you do when the time arises? Who will you choose to become?

Day is not like any day I've lived before. And why should it be? This very second. There are roads to be explored that I've never before walked down. There are actions to take that I've never before taken and ideas to bring to life that I've never before given the respect they deserve. That's saying, my golden rule, you are always one decision away from a totally different life. You are always one realization.

from pulling the lever, opening the door, finding the answer you've been walking by all your life. The problem is you don't see today as today. You see it as a continuation of yesterday, the same movie with the same characters and same rules, without even realizing you need to change the script. Emerson said, write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. Why? Because it can be. Your job is to remember that things will continue on and on and on until we give them an end. We must manually close the book on yesterday's story and start anew because we can. We often don't realize, but we can.

And that is why the morning, each new day is so precious. It's taking the mistakes and sometimes disappointments of yesterday and transforming them into today's lessons and the opportunity to begin again. A new journey seen through a new lens, walked through a new pair of shoes, a new sense of self. So here is your reminder that the words were and are they're very different. That's why each sunrise transcribes into the sky the hopes and dreams of the you that you've always wanted to be. It's not a crazy formula or some secret code.

It's simply untying your boat from the harbor that is yesterday and moving towards tomorrow's horizon. The miracle isn't that I've finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start. John Bingham. We all share a common out. The runner on the starting blocks, the one at work, the one studying, the one trying to create the best life possible for their family. See, we are all at a beginning, looking up at an idea.

Nothing given, nothing to adjust or react to no just an idea. And ideas when we are at the bottom looking up, they're deceptive in nature, their size, their weight, their breath, they like to present themselves as much more than they actually are. And so, to turn ideas into things one needs see themselves. Not as some descendant of Mount Olympus tasked with lifting that 2,000-ton boulder before them, but as one armed with an understanding, the awareness that the 2,000-ton boulder before them, can be broken down, piece by piece, that it is nothing more than a facade. And while it may stop most in their tracks, you are simply not most. Not because the world treats you differently,

but because you see the world differently. By knowing you are bigger than the sum of its parts, you have defanged this wolf, you have put yourself in position to do that, which makes the world tremble, that which causes even the most confident to doubt, you have put yourself in position to begin. See, there is a time to look at the top of the mountain, breaking through the clouds, powerful and majestic, and then there is a time to look at your feet, and right now is the latter. You're not concerned with the big things. No, not right now. Your job. is to move forward into this haze, to not see but adapt, to not know but trust. Things will materialize, and you know that, but at the same time, you can't control the future.

Your battle is right now, and it's with the space immediately in front of you. It's with the thoughts attempting to deceive you. It's with the things the outside world will tell you, but forward motion is the antidote to all of that. And so forward you must go. The beginning is always the hardest because our thoughts are a mightier

foe than life's obstacles. Thoughts take on lives of their own. They become monsters, demons, dead ends, obstacles. On the other hand, just ask that we adjust. There is no obstacle that can't be addressed by stepping into it. And so while the temptation is to sit,

Thinking, speculating about how challenging the road ahead. This is where you think less and move more. Harness the world as it comes, because the truth is nothing is as big as it appears to be. Life is incredibly solvable. Every problem has a solution. Every bad chapter ends. Every setback is a chance to be more than you've ever been.

But how would you know that? If you bow down to the mountains in your head, how would you know that? if you never began. So let today be the dotted line you sign with your future self. A promise to be aware that the mountaintop peers over you, but to not be distracted by its shadow. To take the climb one rock, one step, one second at a time.

Let it be an acknowledgement that nothing light throws at you can't be broken down and conquered so long as you don't get in your own way. Gone are the days of being held captive behind steel bars of self-doubt and fear. That road ahead is not the problem. It never was. Refusing to give yourself permission to travel down, it was the problem. So without constraints, meet life head on. Let the trials and tribulations emerge because they will, but know that you will rise to meet them.

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

So onward you go, to map the unknown, to tame the untamed, to live your life the way it was meant to be lived. So imagine years from now. Way down the road, you're older. older sitting on your front porch, kind of fists propped up under your chin, you're staring out and thinking about your life. You're thinking about the decisions you made, the things you did and didn't do. What would you be thinking? What would you change? Would there be regrets? There's a lot of research around this topic in one of the most important books written,

on it by Bronny Ware talks about the regrets of the dying. And one of them is wishing I had the courage to live a life true to myself. So you're sitting there, you're looking out and you're imagining what if you acted differently? What if you tried? What if you started? And you go back to that moment where you were looking fate in the eye, then you had to make that decision, right? that singular decision. It showed its face repeatedly, but the decision more or less remained the same. It was vulnerability or safety, choose one. Vulnerability or safety. Safety, that innate desire to not disrupt or challenge the way things are. Even when you know in your core, there's more out there. See, safety is the wolf in sheep's clothing.

Watching life happen through a window is incredibly safe, but it means you're forfeiting the essence of life in exchange for a front row seat to watch others live it. It means you don't capture that adrenaline that drives us. You don't take part in the emotion that excites us. It means you don't meet the people who would change your life and you don't see the places. that would take what you know of reality and transform it. No, equating safety with contentment is the product of outdated thinking, an outdated operating system. It's indicative of a way of looking at the world that used to be life or death,

but now in 2020, in modern day society, it's regret. And the first step in changing something is to become aware of your current circumstance. It's to realize you're not wrong or guilty for thinking small or taking a backseat to fear. That's what humans do. It's our default setting. But it's your fault if you don't do anything to change it. It's your fault if once recognized you don't pick up the pieces and create a different narrative. You know, I always say the most important changes we can make, they're simple.

They're not easy, but they are simple. And that road to something new always starts with seeing beyond the confines of the world that you've accepted for yourself. Understanding the reality that dictates your reasoning, thought patterns, and decisions. decision making can change. Because my friends, if you can remember one thing and one thing only, it's this. Fear is not the enemy. It is the ally you need most. Inaction is the enemy.

Doubt is the enemy, not fear. Seneca says we suffer more often in imagination than reality. Mark Twain has says, do the thing you fear most. fear most and death of fear is certain. It's like jumping into a pool on a hot day. You get a second or two of discomfort before you can acclimate into something better. See, people are stronger than they think they are. They are adaptable.

They are resilient. But to see this, we must move beyond the stories in our head. back to that rocking chair you're thinking back that fork in the road and maybe you choose the challenging path the one that scares you and maybe you fall flat on your face but you get up a little smarter a little better equipped and you keep going and maybe you fall and you fail again and again and then comes the criticism but you see that maybe criticism doesn't kill you In fact, it does nothing if you don't let it. And again, you pick yourself up and you carry on.

And you pick up some allies along the way. You expand your skill set. You drive towards mastery. And day in, day out, you continue to fall to trip. But eventually you look back and you see something you haven't seen before. Distance. And you realize you are not the same person you once were. You realize what you have right now.

Simply through a process of falling and rising again, you have redefined your existence. You've redefined what's possible. You've redefined the people, the places, the things that matter. And it dawns on you that falling, that fear, that the unknown wasn't the problem, that that's not scary. It's just part of being better.

It's the cost of greatness. You've been looking at things wrong, hiding from exactly the thing you should have been running towards, allowing into your life the very things that held you down, making you think comfort was the goal when it was shackling your feet to the ground and advising that spectating was a good thing. No, not you. And when you sit down on that rocking chair and you look out, thinking of the life you made, let it be one of adventure.

The failures that made you stronger, the wandering, that unveiled life's beauty, and the ends that became beginnings, because that is the essence of a life truly lift. 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 a rational. Are the odds in our favor, perhaps not. 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, 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 everyone, 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 internal.

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

it 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 awe, 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 different. 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, 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 up.

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 long path, but it's worth it. So get up. and let your feet guide the let's go walk alone. I once heard a metaphor that our existence is like standing behind a curtain with tears or holes and reality becomes which holes we decide to look through when we're peering out at the world on the other side. What do we want to see?

And this message, well it's for whoever out there, feels like giving up or folding their hand, hand. Whoever's been waiting for things to change but only sees the clock moving forward. This is a reminder that the very thing you need is on the other side of that curtain. And you don't need to change who you are. You just need to position yourself to see it. Because it's there and you're ready. When life hurts, we might have every reason to be in pain, to feel lost or confused, but I always find it to be a beautiful reminder

that we also have every reason to seek out from that pain, something we've never been before. Why is it that our greatest accomplishments come when our backs are to the wall? Our greatest acquisitions after losing something dear to us? Why is it that we find ourselves in our way

only after being lost? I've never heard someone say, thank God I never changed or left or tried something new. No, it's thank God the adversity forced upon me, the courage to evolve into something more. Pain is to our potential, what water is to a seed. It's the beginning of everything unshackling,

opening the gate and making us realize we were sitting on the answers. That adversity doesn't stop you, it makes you stronger. that the downtimes lift you up, that when you lose yourself, you find a part of you that can now become the bridge to your future. See, I understand that things are difficult and challenging.

I understand they're not easy, and I'm not asking you to pretend it's not happening or ignore it or close your eyes. I'm asking you to find amidst all of this, that one thing, one thing that will get you to take. tomorrow. I'm asking you to find the courage to say, yes, this hurts. Yes, I'm stretched thinner than I've ever been, but I'm still going to find a way. I'm still going to make it happen. Because at the end of the day, you won't remember what hurt or what stood in your way,

but you'll remember what you did about it. You'll remember how you arranged those pieces. How when your instincts said run, you stopped and built something you'll never. Never forget.