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

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, we explore the idea that life challenges us to see what we can achieve, even when we're not at our best. We discuss handling difficulties, the pitfalls of waiting for perfection, and aiming high while recognizing that perfection is an illusion. Life always provides the ingredients for growth and progress, but it's up to us to make it happen. Greatness means viewing discomfort as an opportunity, as there is no serenity in growth. We cover how to manufacture momentum, create possibilities, and ask: What will you do with what you have, where you are, right now?

I used to think it was 100%. How do I get back to 100? Let's get this fully charged. No cracks or flaws. And so I'd wait. I'd rest. I would prepare. But guess what?

Aiming for 100% is a perpetual almost there. Turns out life doesn't. It doesn't care much about 100%. It wants to know what you can do when you're at 80. Can you find a way to push through when you are at 75%. How about 65? See, life is innately difficult. How do you handle that?

How do you compartmentalize it? He's recently back in Boston running around the Charles River first time in a while. felt a little back spasm reoccurring. That right knee, a little sensitive as it often is, and I thought, man, again, if I waited for perfection to run, I would never run again. I can count on one hand

the times everything felt great. Life bulb moment. We work towards that. We aim high. We give the body what it needs, but we also understand perfect is more of an idea than a reality. reality. Sometimes you just have to lace up the shoes and go. Just like sometimes you have to wake up even though you're tired. Walk into the room even though you're nervous. Make the change even though

you're fearful, cut ties even though you're sad or disappointed. There is no 100% that is going to come down and save it. Life will always provide the necessary ingredients, decline to grow, to grow, and achieve. It does, though, leave it up to you to decide how bad you want it. So what's the plan? To wait until you're 100%, until everything is perfect and you're living the problem-free life you dreamt of? Or is this a find-a-way now type thing? An acknowledgement that we aren't given perfection, but we are given enough to move forward anyway. An understanding that while most view discomfort as an end, greatness means seeing it as an invitation,

an unavoidable cost to move into the realm of accomplishment. So while the rest of the world waits for their 100%, I dare you to conquer your adversaries while at 80. I challenge you to surprise yourself while at 70, to disrupt the status quo while at 65, There is no waiting here. There is no serenity in growth. And how could there be?

Growth is a restructuring of comfort, a tearing down to build again. Yeah, I used to think it was 100%. But now I know waiting for that 100 just becomes hope and stagnation. No, we cross finish lines and reach mountain talks while manufacturing momentum and creating possibility. Yeah, anyone can succeed at 100%, but seldom do we get there. Seldom do we see that? So that leaves us with this simple question.

What will you do where you are with what you have? What will you do now? I recently heard someone say, it's not about doing your best. It's about doing what's required. Are they different? Very. Here's my take. Doing your best has an emotional component attached to it.

It's subjective. What exactly is your best? Well, it's a story that you tell yourself. A narrative, opening the door to limitation. I've always found that when we put our backs against the wall and venture into scenarios where it's essential, that we get something done, we somehow always find a way. When we leave no plan B for ourselves,

we are required to make Plan A work. And so we do. It's a testament to both the resilience and power contained in the human spirit, as well as the reality that we can astound ourselves when we're unwilling to take no for an answer. that it's not the resources that are the problem. It's usually our unwillingness to move forward into the dark,

our hesitance to try, explore, test, build, and rebuild. Actions that are surprisingly unrelated to one's best and have everything to do with accepting nothing less than an identified outcome. One of the reasons I fell in love with the sport of running because it reinforced this notion in my life. It became the template with which I could repeatedly amaze myself. I talk a lot about earning confidence, and oh, how I earned it. Step by step by mile by day by day, in the sun, in the rain, in the desert, in the woods,

through city streets, all over the country and the world, I came to understand the relationship between the terrible. herbulence of now and the satisfaction of later. It was on those days I'd push beyond my usual level of comfort when that cloud of pain and agony would hover over me. I couldn't even really point to where my body hurt. It just all seemed to come together into this one giant hell and to learn that I could not only endure that but grow in those moments. To see myself rise above any preconceived notion or understanding of best in order to defeat my demons, conquer the day's objective,

it changes the way you see yourself in the world. Now, could onlookers be tempted to call these self-created goals arbitrary, even unnecessary? Sure, and I get why they would, but I'd also completely disagree. Those days were a master class in doing what is necessary. Realizing that when you shut your rational brain off and don't give your mind a chance to talk your body out of it, you can see just how powerful you are. You realize that story of your best

is nothing more than a house built on sand. Life is not about that story you've told yourself. It's not about your personal rations. and peak performances, what you think you can do, or how far you think you might be able to go. It's about not stopping in the moments when it hurts. Doing what is required, a decision that compounds over time to create what was once impossible.

One of my favorite quotes is by Admiral William McRaven, an absolute hero of mine. Funny enough, he says, If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in your darkest moments. And what a beautiful idea to rise when life presents its periods of turbulence. And sure, it may be a matter of semantics. But in those moments of darkness, I think of your best, not in the traditional sense. Not as a personal metric, but as a willingness to do what must be done.

A removal of the spotlight from you altogether and instead pointed to, directly at the road ahead, at the task at hand. When you choose to make the journey, not about what you can and cannot do, but instead make it about what must be done, the universe, as Paolo Quoilo has so elegantly stated, conspires to make it happen. I think back to my journey and at so many periods my best wasn't good enough. I was so lost and so overwhelmed that the only thing I could do was not stop moving. That was my superpower, simply trudged through the fear of things falling apart, the nagging pride and hurting ego.

And what I learned was that life is no different than all those miles I'd put in running. How I felt what my previous capabilities were, what I deemed my best to be. It was all noise. It was all irrelevant. What was required was that I move forward through the chaos and to something better, and so I did. And in your world, so can you. The stories we tell ourselves are so powerful and in many ways valuable in our journey through life. But there's one narrative that eliminates the necessity of so many others.

You can get to the top of whatever mountain you are. seeking to climb so long as you do not stop, so long as you let go of the limitations tied to your quote-unquote best and instead do what is required to get there. You'll see how adaptable and transformative that best really is, how it's a lagging indicator. It will take time, but you're capable of being patient. And it will have its moments of chaos, but you are capable of weathering those storms. It will present obstacles that leave you unclear, uncertain, sometimes unprepared,

but you're capable of picking your head up and moving through that hate. What you know of yourself now is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what you're capable of doing. And how far that goes will be determined not by putting a stake in the ground and calling it your personal best. But as Emerson has said,

by hitching your wagon to a star and pulling yourself towards its light, a little bit at that time. Yesterday I drove out a little bit into North Carolina, parked the car, found a path, and went on a long hike to take in some scenery, think about life holistically,

kind of contemplate where I'd go from here and why it matters, which is always funny to think about, right? The idea of having to carve out time amidst our frantic and often chaotic journey to get somewhere to, well, define where somewhere is. But I think about that a lot. Our days consist of so much running around that I can easily forget what even my calculated decisions add up to. Why?

It's a simple enough question, perhaps one I could ask more. Why? What's with this whole get comfortable with discomfort thing? Why do I place so much emphasis on the quote unquote path less traveled? Which is a term that one of my buddies was recently given me a hard time about using in all my speeches, right? It must mean something to me. It's got me here. But it's here better than over there. After all, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I'm the one who's missing the mark.

And it's okay to examine that possibility. In fact, that's why I'm here. And I bounced this around in my head as I made my way up the trail and noticed as I looked around, everything just felt perfect. Have you ever had one of those moments where it just seems surreal? The morning was incredible. I loved the sound of the earth under my feet as I took each step, the chirping of the birds in the early morning, the sun making its way through the trees.

And I thought, it's amazing that you can live 20 minutes from this feeling and just never experience it. I guess proof that a decision to not go, to do nothing, is still very much a decision. And in this case, would have been the less desirable one. I'm glad I went. My phone was in my backpack, and for the first time in a while, I didn't even think about it.

My mind was stimulated. My senses were taking in something new, something different, something not my studio or laptop or social media analytics pages. In fact, all that stuff felt kind of, trivial now that I was removed from it. And I wondered, why don't I do this more? I thought popped into my head earlier that morning. I thought, hey, that's a cool idea. I just had to get through that initial pushback, the hesitancy of, well, what's the point? What's the desired outcome of a hike? And after all, this little jaunt is just going to distract you

from your work and your progress. But at that moment, I think you have to just shut out reason for a second. You have to remind your job. that there's value, period. Otherwise, we open the door for rationalizing. We talk ourselves out of some of life's beautiful secrets. Sometimes you have to just go. And as I made my way down this trail further and further, I started to feel better. I felt reassured. Like I had something that I otherwise wouldn't have had, something that's my own. And maybe that is it. Maybe that alone is the reason for everything. To collect those incredible things, large and small,

that we might not have had. After all, isn't life just an accumulation of memories, of experiences that are spread out like a choose-your-ending children's book? And with so much control over the outcome, I think that matter deserves my attention in order to acquire the good stuff. Whether it's in a different location or context

or time in my life, I still learn again and again, that to get that we have to leave some things behind. And that's the essence of life. You usually get out what you put in. And I think about that a lot. I think about the forks in the road I've come across, those same ones, the life-altering decisions. I guess it's only human.

Walking away from that promising career that I spent my whole life building towards. Every once in a while, sure, I miss the security. Leaving this city and the people that made my life what it was, it so haunts me from time to time, trading permanence and structure for the freedom to condense my life's work into a laptop, take it anywhere in the world.

Empowerment can be lonely, right? And I guess I can't help that in the midst of those situations, the easy decision always feels like the wrong one. I've just been pulled by the upside. I gravitate towards this grandiose version of what life could be on the mark that I hope to make.

And to me, the scariest thing has always been not having the courage to see more, to explore. The phrase, what if has always been my adversary, the monster in the closet, and it's a costly one to slay. Right? But life is both suffering and infinite beauty. And it's like you have to choose where you're going to endure pain and why that matters so that you can climb the mountain that means everything to you. That makes life worth it. In other words, meaningful discomfort now or painful regret later.

And I strongly believe that life is about pursuing something meaningful. And even the triviality of a hike wants to remind me of this truth. I could be at home playing guitar, watching Netflix, relaxing. I mean, that would have been easier. But there's only one way to catch that sunrise over the trees. And that way is not Netflix. All those beautiful views, they require an output of energy to reach them. They come with fear of something going wrong and in doubt that perhaps the turn you made wasn't the best one and that's okay.

But I believe that happiness to be truly fulfilled requires trade-offs. And with each step, it becomes easier and easier to understand. For the gym rat, it's the discipline and the belief, knowing that muscles break down so that they can can be built up. For the relationship to flourish, it's overcoming disagreements, accommodating the needs of that person that you love, so that they can be the last thing you see before you fall asleep. For the free spirit, it's walking away from what you know in pursuit of something that excites and invigorates, even if you're not entirely sure what it means. It's about enduring one so that you can collect the other. Now, what you choose to endure and what you choose to collect is

up to you, but that's what makes life such a beautiful ride. A roller coaster taking you through lows to reach highs into darkness to see how life changing the light is when it pushes its way through. Little decisions that become the collage that explodes off the paper when you step back and look. That's what you get back when you make a point to see more. That's why my love affair with the trivial and the mundane lights my path. It's not just a little thing. It's a microcos. of my everything. It's my saying yes to the opportunity that we work so hard to ignore in an effort to avoid inconvenience. But a life worth living is not always convenient. You could even argue at times, it should be inconvenient. Because the higher the climb, the more we give of ourselves, the more precious the world looks from the top down.

And the challenging times, the things we sacrifice and leave behind, they're not so much a part of our selves. Part of the picture is the paint on your palette. That in breaking down, you can now recreate using your own ideals, metrics, and guidelines, a world that you now have the ability to transform. That's why life to me is nothing more than color, decisions, nothing more than paint, steps, nothing more than brush strokes and life. Well, life is nothing and everything. Which as the morning breeze reminds me, is a decision that is entirely My own. There's something about the way we perceive success that results in one of the greatest tragedies

of our time. And that's the belief that successful people, the ones at the top of their game, that talent is what punched their ticket, that destiny brought them to the finish line. And that's wrong. It's wrong because it takes the journey, the struggle, the scratching, and clawing. that it took to get to the top of the mountain and throws it out the window. It completely mitigates what's most important.

In the real world, the one we are living in, it doesn't matter who you are, you are never entitled to a result. Victory is a product of the fight. This favor you can ever do for yourself as you progress through life's up and downs through the good and the bad when things get rough is know that you are going,

through what every successful person, every champion, every innovator has gone through in the history of mankind. Struggle is beautiful. It's a sign that you are in the midst of what separates great from average. It's a necessary step, and it's the most important step you will ever take because 99% of people can't see past it. Right? The world sees struggle, sees hardship as a time to pack it up, to walk away, to be intimidated. But the best, I'm telling you, they look at struggle differently.

Just like you can't get fit without blood, sweat, and tears at the gym. You can't make deals without the hustle. You can't make things happen if you don't move forward in the face of adversity. When the word no is staring you in the eyes, it's all part of the process. Winners walk on. If you want something bad enough, you know that being uncomfortable is an ingredient. If you want to be the best, your mindset has to reflect the best. Right, let others focus on the tip of the iceberg.

You know excellence lies in everything underneath the surface in what cannot be seen. not be seen. So take mediocrity and make it excellent. Take what's yours and hold it up for the world because what hurts now in the present is the very same thing that will transform your life down the road. There's a saying that some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. I've always found this interesting, this idea how the same subject, same situation or occurrence can be interpreted so differently, right? It can plant the seeds for such different outcomes. Like Yashimi and Koga mentioned in their book, The Courage to be disliked, well water is 60 degrees, and it's always 60 degrees in the summer and the winter, but depending

on what time of year, right, the makeup of the outside world, that 60 degrees feels different. The water didn't change its circumstances did, and our thoughts are no different. It's not the world that writes the story, we do. And every second moment day is merely an interpretation. Does time tick by? Or is it driven into a state of flow? Is it transformed into something more? Was losing an indicator that, hey, maybe you're not good enough? Or is it your motivation to be better than you've ever been? Is your day an allegiance to the present or an invitation? to chase down tomorrow. See, the world doesn't get to tell the tale. The world is paper, it's ink, it's ideas. The world is everything you need to decide how your story's going to go.

How does he see the world? How does she define reality? That's the question. Because you don't need to change the world. You need to change the way you see it. And you don't need to change who you are. you need to change the imaginary shackles you've placed around your ankles that are limiting the heights you could reach. In fact, the world as far as I'm concerned is an accumulation of thoughts, ideas.

It's 8 billion individualized movie screens attempting to interact to coexist together. And when you look at it like that, it's not that your mindset plays a role or it's kind of important. No, it's that it narrates the play. It's the glue that ties everything together. What you see is what you get. And this isn't a one and done thing. It's an everyday thing. Because there's always going to be occurrences in our lives that challenge us,

to threaten our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of. There will always be the temptation to make the opportunity into the problem and the hero, into the villain. but why forfeit that control? I remember hearing that if you find time to be grateful, both in the morning and at night it changes your life. Not because the world transforms, but because it reinforces the perspective you need. We are lucky to be here.

We're lucky to have challenges that push us forward. Lucky to have ups and downs that bring us closer to the people in our lives. We're lucky that chaos and discomfort open a door for transformation on the other side. And look, I get life isn't perfect. And not everything can be great all the time. But I do believe that if we can bring ourselves to stop, to breathe, to even focus briefly, we can find value in any situation.

What's in front of you, it exists, right? It's the well water. You can't go back in time or remake the obstacle at your feet, but you can always decide how to make that work for you. And that's a superpower. And I use that. I use it when my short-term ideas or videos or projects underperform. I use it when people let me down.

I use it when in the moment I'm either under or overwhelmed. The question, where is the win? In this spot, this situation where most would hang their heads and let the outside world rewrite the story, how can I find a way to hold mine high and maintain my own accountability? Extreme differences in life outcomes are so often prompted by such subtle realization, subtle decisions. Their reason to stop

could be your reason to not only carry on, but thrive. And the best news is you don't need approval or authorization. You don't need the stars to align or doors to open up. You just need to give yourself permission to see the sun amidst the clouds, the hope amidst the doubt. to remind yourself that there is always something to cling to always a second chance there is always a win all you have to do is choose to see it never let yourself be the victim

if i could go back in time and have a conversation with my eight to ten year old self that would be the message i would give because when you see think about it you're a kid things don't go your way what do you do you cry you whine you throw a fit you want your parents to feel sorry for you you feel sorry for yourself how how you deal with things at that age and then you grow up but you don't necessarily shed that habit that mentality and it becomes obvious right I mean you can talk to someone for 30 seconds and you know right away if they have that victim mentality the world falling down they're tired they have so much to do they're so busy x y and z

look having that mindset does two things for you one it makes you come across helpless and weak and no one wants to come across that way two it does not get you to where you're going it does not change the situation right here's the reality there is always a way to get what you want. There is always a way to position yourself to move away from what you don't want. You can quite literally become what you want to become, but you cannot look at life like it's this problem, like it's against you. The ball is in your court. You know, it wasn't that long ago, two, three years ago that I was not the happiest guy in the world, right? Did not like what I was doing, did not like how I was spending my time, was not energized, was not passionate about very much.

But the time came where I didn't want to live like that. I had a conversation with myself. I stopped being the victim. I stopped complaining and I asked myself, dude, what do you want? What is your purpose? What is your goal? Who do you want to become? And I literally made the decision and walked away a different person. And the things around me changed my life. changed because I made a decision to never be the victim again, to get what I want. I became the author of my own story. And you realize just how simple it is to transform your situation. Not easy, right? And it takes time, but there's always a way to get from point A to point B. And this separates the world into two kinds of people. People who look at how things are, who accept reality as truth, who complain, and people who look at what can be, who make the most of any situation, look at life as if it's clay, to be molded, to be shaped.

It seems funny to me, knowing what I do now, that I went through any of my life like a hamster on a wheel, that I talk to people every day who didn't energize me, that I didn't want to be around, that I did things I wasn't passionate about. That is insanity. Because if you don't like something, but you do nothing to change it, what's left for you to do? Complain. Wine.

Stay where you are. That's it. See, one of the reasons I reference athletics so much is because they bring this mentality on you. That when things become difficult, when things become challenging, your one job is to find a way figure it out and I always did and I took that and I brought it to everything else I do

and now it's eye-opening to see people achieving success financial freedom these things everyone wants and know that the difference between them and everyone else is that they felt like they deserved it a lot of the time they weren't smarter stronger they weren't more gifted starting out but they moved toward what they wanted they didn't cry or grown about problems they didn't look for sympathy, those at the top of the mountain are not victims. They would never let themselves be victims. It's about the other side, the opportunity, getting from where you are to what you want. I often ask myself, what differentiates those who wish for better outcomes and those

who do something about it? separates the dreaming from the progress and the wishing from the reality. Sure, life is complex. There are a lot of moving parts to understand. But I think this element is simple. Those who build things in life are willing to not only see a reality that hasn't yet materialized, but they also understand that in a world, of no, they have to be the yes.

They have to believe in their ability to drive towards finish lines that no one else sees and see meaning cannot come to fruition without that discomfort. Or as Nietzsche put it, one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star, and that's just it. Most people see what is. Most people conform. They do not create. To change something means you have to be the metaphorical eagle amongst pigeons, flying above all that, everyone, everything else, superseding the limiting beliefs that shackle others to their one-dimensional realities. But most importantly, it means you can see. You can see what no one-one

else can you have line of sight to what no one else understands see in this world no one walks up to you on the street puts their arm around you and says hey kid that dream follow that because I can tell you're going to do big things no one says hey that business idea you're going to thrive next year I know it that relationship it's going to happen that level of fitness oh I can see it already nope People see what's right in front of them. And as it pertains to you and your world, your life, people are those pigeons. And so that leaves you with a choice.

Do you accept that? Do you blend in, take the scraps you're allowed to consume, the crumbs laid out in front of you? Or do you step back and acknowledge that this is going to be tough? This is going to hurt. It's going to push me further. as a person that I've ever been pushed. But you know what I get in return? That view.

I get to live above the clouds with those who don't wait in line. No, they become the main attraction. They transform what is into what will be because the world, it has a way of ensuring that we really want what we say we do, greatness in any area of life is reserved for those willing to carry forward when most would turn back. To build a bridge to something greater, when most people point out that your bridge is not connected to anything, that it's a waste of time, it's trivial, useless, irrational. Good. Changing your life in the world around you has to be irrational.

Taking the status quo and shaking it, saying I'm going to alter this landscape is irrational. But from irrationality comes the future. So when you feel like the world is against you, when you have an uphill battle to climb when there are a million reasons for you to turn around, understand that this is nothing more than an indicator, that you are right where you need to be. against the current, bringing something new to life. See if it were easy, it would already exist. But changing your life, that makes you an architect of the unseen.

So build. On the days you want to build. On the days you don't build. When they understand build, and when they assume you've altogether lost your mind, build. Sure, it's not easy, but it's worth it. And when tomorrow comes, and it looks a lot different from today, when you've grown, evolved, transformed, and you look back and don't even recognize the person you once were, that won't be because you listen to the chirping of the doubters and the naysayers. It won't be because when strangers told you to give up, you packed your

bags and went home. No, it will be because you rose above all that. They saw empty space and you saw a world undiscovered. They saw your head in the clouds while you built those castles in the air. You were always on a trajectory to something greater. You didn't need to convince them. You needed to convince yourself. To unlock the shackles and take to the sky, leave everything that once held you down behind. This isn't about anyone else. It's about the conversation between you and the horizon that await. That thing that gives you butterflies, that lights you up, that world you see when you close your eyes, chase that world you see when you close your eyes.

Chase that. With all of your soul, chase it. It's easy to brush off life's potential. It's just outside the realm of possibility. To see the ideal as some form of window shopping that you can almost touch. A fantasy to be explored when you sit back in your office chair or pass time in the doctor's office waiting room. But I think these aspirations mean more. more than that. Not distractions, but a North Star. Not a diversion, but the path. And by the way,

I'm not naive about this pursuit and all that it entails the truth behind it, I'd never advocate that what's possible or meant to be is somehow easy. In fact, I'd argue the only way something is meant to be is if you're willing to commit to the difficulty in bringing it to life. Otherwise, it wasn't meant to be anything but a missed opportunity because it surely will be a difficult road. And here's what we come to learn. Everything of value is difficult. You know, in an attempt to oversimplify, I often break life down into the easy thing versus the difficult but meaningful thing, and in some ways, sure, that's true. But I can also honestly say it would have been more difficult for me to have stayed where I was, not moved at all, to not have pursued what I believed in. And it would have been more difficult thinking about that life I could have lived, the doors that could have opened.

And that's just it. Life is about choosing your difficult. The difficult you seek out intentionally, or the difficult you come and let take control, render you helpless. And I think when we find ourselves in routines or we built for ourselves, the world, you know, we know we don't want to love. live in anymore or we've outgrown. It's not that the current is real and the future is not. It's that we somewhere along the way decided to face the wrong opponent. Some adversaries make us strong. They force us to be more to grow. Other adversaries or opponents, they sit back and they let us defeat ourselves.

And that's what we don't want. See, when the world knocks you down, you get to rise again. Wiser, tougher, stronger. But when you keep yourself down, well, there's nothing to be gained from that. Those two opponents, they are not the same. I reference my speaking career,

because for me, it's where that transformation is most evident. It's where it all began. My opponent was very much me. Avoiding opportunities, hiding from failure. I didn't give life a chance to knock me down. And so it didn't. How could it? I'd already placed myself in chains.

And because of that, guess what? I stayed the same. I couldn't avoid. My ideal future was an idea that would briefly entertain me from time to time and move right on. It wasn't until I found the courage to switch my opponents. From myself to the world, I let life humble me. I gave talks where I was nervous and had cold feet, keynotes where my delivery was mediocre at best, where I barely got it.

where I barely got by. But with these battles came metaphorical riches, came that trust that had to be manufactured, that confidence that had to be earned. When I got out of my own way, I was able to let the trials and tribulations of life create a new foundation for me to stand on, to redefine reality.

And the good news is that anyone can do that. Anyone can ask that question? Is something external in my way right now that I need to figure out, that I need to solve? Or am I in my own way? Am I not even giving myself a shot? Have I settled for right now as truth? When right now is just the less ideal difficult. When I was little playing action figures with my buddy,

the street we used to think it was cool to see around corners, to see through walls, to know what was coming before it arrived. For action figures, absolutely. In superhero movies, why not? But in the journey through life, you don't need to see around corners. In fact, it's counterproductive because it is the interaction with the unknown that matters. It's adjusting amidst life's uncertainty that comes to make you who you are, transforms you and your reality. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to lose is to remain behind

that corner, peering out every now and then, hoping to get some kind of advantage or shortcut, willing to let life pass you by while you wait for the stars to align, thinking that that vision of an ideal life will stroll along the sidewalk, see you and reach out a hand, that weight will be a long one, unproductive and difficult, more difficult than trusting yourself to face whatever lurks around that corner. So remember that who you are is built and every time you do something a little bit scary or unsettling, every time you wander a step or two outside of your comfort zone, The reward is not just the short-term triumph you feel as you leapfrog that obstacle and carry on. No, you are investing in a new you, a new reality.

You're investing in something changing before your very eyes, putting a little marble in a jar that is your potential. And you can't see it. Not now. No one's going to announce it to you. You might not even realize or understand until you. You look back years down the road. But those little acts of courage, they matter more than you know. They're not trivial, and they are certainly not insignificant.

When that movie plays in your head and you think to yourself, I wish, or if only, and the delta between that image and the reality on the ground disappoints you, Gives you a little knot in your stomach or dissatisfaction that floats around in your thoughts. Remember that that feeling is transferable. That difficult can be exchanged for one that actually changes things. You can get off the merry-go-round and towards a new North Star. Difficult, yes, but we've seen the goal is not to avoid difficult. It's to pick the difficult that will transform your life.

It's to find meaning in a world that if you do not pay attention, will paint your landscape with routine and obligation. And today can certainly be a continuation of that script. A box that's checked, a calendar square with an X. Or it can be the beginning of something that gives you butter, flies that lights you up, that brings you one step closer to the world you see when you close your eyes. When the ground beneath us shakes, we crave stability. When the heavens open up and rain pours down and we run for shelter.

When life presents us with vagueness, with flashes of possibility, we long for master. It's more instinct than anything else. But could it be that that instinct that we run to like moths to a flame is leading us astray, that it doesn't have our best interests at heart? Could it be that we're so worried about protecting and maintaining an acceptable image for the world that we forget to build something internally that's worth protecting? What if that's shaking is what brings down the foundations that held us back? What if that rain washes away the limits of yesterday as we evolve into something more?

And what if those flashes of possibility require of us not mastery, no, not yet, but a willingness to be the fool? And what if that willingness isn't an unfortunate dead end but a beginning? In one of his lectures at the University of Toronto, Jordan Peterson said, if you are not willing to be a fool, you can't be a master. In the cycle that is self-discovery, that is growth, we have to at some point step into an arena that's foreign to us, that we don't yet understand. We have to be willing to operate with inadequate resources, trusting that they'll be picked up along the way. And that's a lot to take in. It's painful to know that others are going to have knowledge and skills and competencies that you won't.

That you'll willingly inject yourself into the bottom of some hierarchy with nothing more than aspirations. But that willingness is your vehicle. And what's clear is that everyone wants the moon, but very few people have the courage to start constructing that spaceship. Very few have the courage to be the student. That's why our inclination is to quit when we can't snap our fingers and magically be on our way, when we can't leap past that wandering around the unknowns. The reality is we have to fight to scrap to obtain that sense of belonging in a particular competency. And just talking about it brings me back.

It's an obstacle that we all face. It's super real to me. I remember being featured on a podcast where the host literally asked me, why should I listen to what you have to say? Like, who are you? Why are you roadmapping your journey? I remember fighting for relevance in an area in which, you know, at the time I knew almost nothing about. And I love how Peterson articulates this battle.

He says at some point, you'll want to make a change and you'll feel like an imposter. And guess what? You are. But you have to be. You'll ultimately feel worse if you don't do it. That's imposter syndrome. Feeling like a stranger in your own body. And guess what?

It's not wrong. It's just a beginning. I like explaining it like jumping into a cold pool. Feels uncomfortable at first. It feels out of place, but then things normalize. They become comfortable. And what's the other option? To fear that minute of discomfort and never jump in?

It's what we need to tell ourselves when we want something but the climb seems too steep. That climb is manageable. You'll acclimate. The adversary is pushing beyond that fear of starting anew. Taking your limited understanding, bringing it to the base of that mountain, a new Goliath, and looking up with confidence. And the question is, can you be foolish enough to do that? And once you've made that ceiling, your next floor, will you be foolish enough to do it again and again and again? And breaking through that fear, knowing that stumbling around for a period of time doesn't kill you, it's required.

It's the inability to show weakness or appear vulnerable. That's what chips away at you for a lifetime. If you want more, immerse yourself in that cycle of mastery. Start at the point. bottom and ascend. And when you approach the top, separate yourself and find another ceiling to chase, replant a seed, play the role of the fool again. This is the formula for growth, for prosperity, for fulfillment. This is the pathway to anything of substance. You take your ls, you embrace your critics, you swallow your pride, and move towards a tomorrow that far exceeds today. your reality changes, your perception changes, the company you keep changes, you'll start to see that what's around you is made by people who were willing to fail and fail often. Our world is when devised by those who could put pride on hold.

By those who were humble enough to crawl through the unknown long before they ran anything. Who knew that before they played for any title or championship, They must first play the fool. Fall down, but only a few choose to get back up. A few depersonalized failure. A few understand that falling is the cost of greatness. Your reality is not what happens to you. Your reality is how you internalize what happens to you.

Or obstacles stop signs? Or are they checkpoints along the way to something greater? Checkpoints that make you stronger, build you up, become your armor, that is ultimately the difference. What we misinterpret in life is the meaning behind that difficulty, that pain, that suffering. No one gets a pain-free life. No one gets a free ride. is inevitable. As Nietzsche says, to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.

And what's changed my life, and I don't mean here and there, I mean truly transformed the course and trajectory of what's possible is simply redefining that which is difficult. I grew up watching the Kobe's and the Brady's of the world. I remember thinking, how do these guys get better when things get difficult? I mean, as a kid, I could feel the pressure watching from the couch, but they somehow elevate themselves when the odds are stacked against them. Same exact situation that causes most to doubt, to run, to lose their self-belief. What they see that alludes most is that in every pressing moment, there's opportunity.

Every loss has something to gain. In every failure, there is victory. Everyone has the same rule book. It's just that some people only see what is right in front of them. Others learn to read between the lines and create outcomes that have not yet arrived. When things are hard or challenging or uncertain, it's not that you should keep going. It's that you must keep going. Everything good, everything rewarding, worth having is on the,

other side of that struggle. Everything meaningful is built from the days you felt like there was no possible way to move on, but did anyway. That is the core of greatness. Carrying forward when it would have been easier not to. When you feel the hurt, the emotional turmoil, and I get it, we all do, but beyond that feeling, what are you willing to see? Beyond the, beyond the, ashes what are you willing to build what are you willing to do with those pieces because it can be nothing or it can be everything it all depends on how you choose to step back and look at the world your perspective becomes the road for your reality so understand that feeling down or loss is normal but

staying down is the choice There are no problems. There are stepping stones. The very situations that make you who you are. The little decisions that over time equip you to step up when it matters most. When the pressure's on, the odds are against you, the rest of the world says no. No matter how hard it gets, there is an answer. Rise above the emotion, the chaos, the present.

moment and see the big picture. Not only will you survive, you will be better because of this, because you kept moving forward when it wasn't easy. No matter how hard life got, you never lost sight of the opportunity. And that made all the difference.