Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Commit To Yourself For Success In Life | Powerful Motivational Speeches | Wake Up Positive

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson

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I recently came across a simple yet powerful idea. It's that when you become accustomed to doing the hard, things, life becomes easy. When you become accustomed to only doing the easy things, life becomes hard. It's a trade-off of sorts. A little example that I think epitomizes this idea. I recently just started cold plunging in the morning. So right now, I'm doing about six minutes in 38 degree water. And I'm thinking that my body will acclimate to it over time, that it will get a little bit as I move forward into this, but right now it's pretty uncomfortable. But you do what you can.

You breathe deep and ultimately you get through it. And as I was in there today, I thought of three ideas that I think are worth sharing. So they all have to do with sitting in the cold plunge, which is where I was when I thought of them, and then I'll sort of pull them up, expand them out to everyday life, which I obviously like. love to do and I think is impactful. Here are the three ideas. The first one is don't give your brain room to negotiate. When you have your mind made up, when you're set on a target, you go.

First thing I was told when getting in the cold plunge is don't stop, don't feel the water, don't get in slowly, don't give your rational brain an opportunity to do any convincing or negotiating. Go get in, right, before your body realizes how cold it is and can talk about it's. out of it. Because by the time you realize what's going on, you're submerged. You've already begun. And as we know, beginning is often the hardest part. Number two is you can do anything if you make the discomfort work for you. You don't work for the discomfort. So it's about positioning yourself to focus on the right things, which this exercise reinforces. You count

time, you play mental games, you make each of this six minutes, its own thought experiment, whatever you need to do to get through it. And, you know, this video right now, this episode, the idea for it happened between minutes three and four. You know, that's just value that was squeezed out of the process. I've started calling this 60 seconds between minute three and minute four, the bridge. In my mind, I hype it up as the most important minute, that way the last two feel like a celebration and not the most difficult. And sure, it's silly, it's ridiculous, but that's exactly the point. Right? It's what works for me. It's the name of the game. It's positioning the little pieces

around yourself so that you are able to do difficult things in that environment. And third, the takeaway, right? I feel amazing afterwards, which I was hesitant to call. anything but a placebo for about a week or two, but definitely the inflammation in my body's noticeably lower, that soreness in my forearm and elbow, which occurs after most workouts, is better. But not only that, everything else throughout the day in comparison is more comfortable. It's that simple. Life is relative. Running a mile is hard, but not compared to running six miles. The work I've scheduled is challenging, but not the same kind of challenging as being submerged in 38 degree water. It creates perspective. It's as though I've built a foundation to do the hard

things with less trepidation and far more enthusiasm, which is a beautiful thing. So let's take these three thoughts and bring them a bit outside of the cold plunge. Why do we not want to give our brains room to negotiate? Why jump right into the metaphorical ice water? Because when we go, we give ourselves something to react to. We create change. The worst thing we can do is very often nothing. But that doesn't keep our brains from screaming, stop. It's too dangerous.

It's too uncertain. It's too cold or hot or different or challenging. The simple act of moving forward with conviction is so powerful. Teach your brain that losing isn't whatever exists outside the door. Losing is doing nothing. Losing isn't the disson. discomfort of the cold water, it's getting your hand in the cold plunge so slowly that you talk yourself out of it. Pick your North Star and go there. Next, on making the discomfort

work for you, this is a perspective shift. It occurs when you start seeing what's uncomfortable, not as a stop sign, but as a challenge. As the good stuff, the water that grows the plant. It's not supposed to be easy. That's the point. No puzzle is easy. right? Again, the question is how do you arrange the pieces so that they become manageable? Your innovation and your imagination are required. Make this, you know, we'll call the discomfort an opportunity.

Make this opportunity work for you. When the instinct is to stop or quit or run, ask how you can take that feeling and make something with it. Find your value between those minutes three and four. the rules to your game so that you come out on top. I've found this to make a big difference in life's outcomes. You don't work for the discomfort. It works for you. Lastly, remember why. That little exercise every day is six minutes, at least right now. Six hard minutes that makes the rest of my

day easier. Six minutes that unlocks a tremendous advantage. The little hinge that swings the big door. We do the hard things because they make the rest of life easier. It makes me feel physically better, mentally stronger, and accomplished. And let's face it, people follow through on who they believe themselves to be. Someone who's willing to do the difficult thing is very hard to beat in other aspects of life. The moments of enduring short-term discomfort, they're not trivial or unnecessary. they set us up for those big picture victories. They become defining in the long run.

So with that said, is this an endorsement of cold plunges? It could be, if that's true thing. But it could be any exercise or action you deliberately immerse yourself into for the purpose of growth. Anything that reminds you enduring the discomfort of today opens up the possibility of a new world entirely tomorrow. It's an easier life brought you by a willingness to do what is not easy. Find something

to make yours. I connect every few months with some of my good friends to strategize, kind of reflect back on the previous quarter plan for the new one with each of our businesses, kind of share ideas, stuff like that. And I was chatting with my friend Keith about life before he found success and what he's doing now, the struggle and the turbulence he faced, as well as ultimately his decision, and that's entirely what it was, to turn things around. And I've talked about his backstory before, so I'm not going to get too much into it, but essentially he grew up in a very negative environment. Dealt with a ton of adversity, but got through it. Started his own national business installing and repairing commercial pizza ovens, and the guy's just crushing. And, you know,

Our conversation in that moment wasn't so much about the doing. It was more on the overcoming and how mentally we had to recreate ourselves to have any chance of moving beyond what we knew. I've talked about it a little before. Kids are simply not taught in school how to thrive, how to build, how to ask more of themselves in the world. They're taught to follow instructions, to do what they need to do in order to pass the exam,

to progress to the next level. Then there's a gray area, because I'm not saying this is totally valueless, but I am saying that anything beyond that requires a reworking of sorts. You ask anyone who stepped out of that cycle, and they'll tell you the mental and psychological shift that needed to take place,

it was almost overwhelming, right? It's a lot, but it's imperative. I recently looked up the word entrepreneurship, And this is the definition. The activity of setting up a business or businesses taking on financial risk in the hope of profit. And in my mind, it is the risk precisely that's challenging that brings us so much pain, but also contains within it the reward. It's one of the craziest dilemmas we face. You know, you'll have to endure some of the worst times of your life, but because of that,

you'll get to experience highs that would otherwise have been almost completely improbable. We have to rework the thinking that says discomfort equals run away. It's like no, discomfort equals the price of something better, and sure it's by no means mandatory, but it's where the upside lives. You have to train yourself to step out into the chaos with the expectation of taming it. And yeah, everything could go wrong, But also everything could go right.

And just imagine. Imagine what that would look like. That possibility alone validates the risk. We just need to convince ourselves. And that risk, by the way, is not just financial. In fact, most of the time it's not. It takes a variety of shapes in our lives. You run the race.

You risk losing. You go up and talk to the girl. You risk rejection. You pick up and move somewhere new. You risk winding up somewhere you don't want to be. And maybe temporarily things do fall apart. But maybe you win the race. Maybe you find the love of your life.

Maybe you relocate to the happiest place you've ever called home. Calculated risk is the beginning of everything that matters. And so back to the convo. We were talking about the different risks we've taken, how some chapters were fun, some were challenging, and some were both, and how for me there was even, from time to time, a conversation where I was asking myself whether it was really worth it. You know, when you're uncomfortable, the mind wants to do one thing, get rid of the discomfort.

And I had to convince myself, remind myself that I'm someone who risks good to pursue great. Risk hurts. And somewhere in that conversation was when Keith said he remembers the exact point the risk became worth it. The discomfort became easier to manage. We're so used to taking orders to playing scared that the incentive just wasn't there until Keith's words, it became mine. The most invigorating thing he ever did was find a pursuit to call his own. That's powerful. His business injected him with a new energy and in essence a new life because he suddenly had a stake in the game.

And I think that's what so many of us in so many areas are missing. The risk appears bigger when it's not counterbalanced by something meaningful. So find something to make yours. The simplicity there is beautiful. Complex ideas expressed in simple ways are always worth holding on to, right? We are programmed to lose because we are programmed to live according to someone else's standard, to think small, to ask ourselves, how do we not screw up? But when you can step outside that little self-imposed circle,

and instead ask yourself what's something I can create that is my own, something I care about, that I can nurture, invest a part of me into, that's when life really starts paying dividend. You're not existing, you're living. Or as I recently discussed, you're empowering yourself to not just sit in the room, but be in the room fully. I use entrepreneurship as the model for this discussion, because that's been such a huge part of my life, where I've been injecting my time and attention and, yeah, risk.

But the point is not that everyone needs to stop what they're doing and become an entrepreneur, that's one path of many, obviously. The point is that there is a risk-reward dynamic in entrepreneurship that we should all understand, extract, and inject into our own lives where it best applies. We've learned to settle in so many ways that we must know there is tremendous value in asking, what is it in my life I want to invest in? Make mine. Give myself the opportunity to experience the excitement. of defining the things I care about and watching them grow.

Whether your current arena is entrepreneurship or motherhood, fatherhood, academics, a particular relationship, some combination of these, or anything else. To make magic out of the mundane requires we first make it ours. We take ownership, responsibility for the journey. We accept the risk and chase down the rewards. You can do amazing things when you realize. is what you're capable of and commit to its manifestation. So in a world where, yes, we are conditioned to fail, step out from those subtle shackles of

learned helplessness. You are anything but helpless. It's just that you've yet to reach out and pull your dreams into your orbit. You've yet to put a stake in the ground and say this matters and it's time to see it through, Because once you do that, the good stuff begins. Ready to prioritize yourself in the new year? Your skin is a great place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master esthetician,

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Razors and Refills and Save up to $3. You won't want to miss out on these deals. Offer ends February 25th. may vary, restrictions apply. Visit safeway.com for more detail. Sometimes all we need is a reset. A new beginning, fresh start, a transformed perspective. Do you remember those pictures that used to make their way around from time to time and looked pretty obvious

at first glance, right? But if you really examined it, you would see that the picture of the young woman or whatever it was, it was also an older woman, right, differing based on how you looked at the lines. And depending on who was looking, they might have a proclivity towards seeing one or the other, but when made aware of the picture's duality, they could always see both. Okay?

And there's something to this. This idea is something we should lean on, because I'll tell you what. Sometimes our natural proclivity is to see the thing that's not helpful. The first thing we see is an excuse or self-pity. The first thing we see is a list of insecurities or doubts. We have to remember to take a step back and look again, to examine harder. Because it's amazing how differently things evolve when you make a point to see their value. For example, let's say someone has something you want.

Something you wished was yours. And maybe your default is, you know, you are less than. Your life is not what it should be. But if you step back and looked again, you would see a few things. One, we're all running different races. You're competing against you, not anyone else. Two, think about everything you do have that someone else would give anything for. And three, if you truly do want that thing, how about applauding yourself for having goals, for having

desires for wanting to push the boundaries of life. Now the question is, can you seek to truly understand what that desire is and map out your path to bring it into existence? This is nothing but an opportunity, right? And how could it be anything else? Life's challenges, life's losses, they are wins. They contain within them the DNA to create change, to progress, but one must be able to move beyond the instinct to label it a problem or a net negative. There are and will always be wins where you choose to see wins.

As I've heard Tony Robbins mention on many occasions, this isn't closing your eyes and saying there are no weeds, there are no weeds, there are no weeds when your garden is full of them. No, it's understanding a simple truth. You'll never leverage value that you don't believe is there. Seeing it is always step one, because it gives you a foundation to stand on as you build. It's picking up the pen and starting that next chapter.

It's choosing your worldview. If you lose money, how would one react to? I can't believe it's gone. Things will never be the same. My life is over. Versus, okay, obviously I learned how to acquire it in the first place. Time to do it again. I'm wiser, I'm more aware, and life is abundant.

The person that wakes up thinking the former would probably have a hard time getting out of bed. The person telling herself the second story would be motivated to go make things happen. Her worldview has incentivized her. That's why thoughts become things. How we think directly translates into how we act. And our daily actions become our reality. Look, we've all found ourselves in situations where we struggle to see the good in things,

where life knocks us down and the opportunity seems to hide itself. But that's exactly what it's doing. Hiding itself. It is there. It's always there. It's there when you've lost something. It's there when you've taken a wrong turn. You get the point.

And I'm going to differentiate here between simple and easy. Because the idea of stopping and forcing yourself to find the positive, it's simple. But it's not easy. It's oftentimes not the natural thing to do. But if you can ask that of yourself, you will find the winds that others walk right by. you'll be the change you want in yourself because the outside world will act as the toolbox to make that happen. Remember, we often can't control what the world gives us,

but we can always control what we do about it. And that ability is what I believe separates human beings and their level of growth, success, and achievement. Next time you find yourself down and out, sure, do your thing, handle it, how you must. But don't forget that golden rule. It's not what you look at.

It's what you see. And when you examine the world around you, point to one, however small value add, that will pick you up, get you back on your feet, and move you forward to that more ideal reality. The world reflects back at us what we currently are. like a giant mirror projecting the movie that's playing in our heads. We lay on the horn in traffic, not when we're at peace with ourselves, but when we're in duress. We gravitate towards the negative, not when we're living in abundance, but when we're living in scarcity. We quit, retreat, contract, not when we're confident in the road ahead, but when we're doubtful, alarmed. In other words, we find out in the world what already lives within us.

Life in many ways is not absolute. It's evidence. It's evidence that we'll use to justify the things we already believe. Wayne Dyer used to use the metaphor of an orange. It can be squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, but there will never be grapefruit juice pouring out of an orange. No, grapefruit juice doesn't live there. You can only find on the outside what lives in the inside.

You can only extract from the orange orange juice. Recently a good friend of mine said to me that they'd like to change their financial situation. To which my response was perfect. You most certainly can, right? Like anything, yeah, it'll take work and some planning and some restructuring. All that good stuff. but you most definitely can. And his response was, sure, that's what all you motivational people say.

Okay, smart guy. Now you're an example on a podcast episode. Congrats. Why? Because you want the people around you to realize how much is possible for themselves. It's not sorcery or witchcraft to believe something better is possible. In fact, if one doesn't believe it's possible, they're effectively cementing their feet to the ground,

at least with regard to that particular pursuit. Let's face it, you don't begin journeys that are not possible. We don't allow ourselves to do that. And so to not believe in an outcome and somehow still wish for that outcome, well, that's essentially our orange metaphor. Can't squeeze financial freedom out of a mindset that only sees monetary constraint. believing it's possible starts the journey. See, there's so much pragmatism in growth.

You know, people talk a lot about the law of attraction, and yeah, I get it, right? It sets targets. But the picture of, let's say, a dream house on your wall is not why you'll eventually have the dream house. The picture of the dream house on the wall reminds you. It helps you believe that you're someone capable of someday, acquiring that house, obtaining that type of success, which results in you, wait for it, doing things that help bring that to life. It is the doing, but that doing must be connected to belief. Mid-20s, I was unhappy, wanted more, but didn't really believe myself capable of obtaining more,

Right, that was the issue. Back to the old orange expecting grapefruit juice. Can't get results in an area not conducive to their creation, right? It wasn't until I said, you know what, maybe, not definitely, but maybe it could happen. Maybe I can take control here. The odds have to be greater than 0%, right? It's Jim Carrey and dumb and dumber, so you're saying there's a chance. Yeah, it's like starting out, that's all you need, a chance.

the door cracked. In the beginning, I just needed to convince myself something different was possible. The beginning of transformation and that internal change prompted how I interacted with the external world. You do things differently when you believe differently. Or, if you want to phrase it another way,

believing that you can bring something to life doesn't guarantee that you actually do. but believing you can't guarantees that you won't. And why not stack the odds in your favor? I often juggle back and forth between the philosophical and the tangible or the tactical, right? Three ways to do X. Life hacked to change Y.

Yeah, of course. Life does in so many ways come down to the tactics, to the how, to the steps. But does that even matter if you don't believe in the pursuit? Does it matter what Google Maps says if you never step out your front door? You have to convince you. You have to create an environment in your world where change isn't crazy. More isn't absurd.

It might be challenging. But it's possible. And possible is enough. It is enough to be. enough to step out, enough to see the trivialities as tools and the resistance as part of a beautiful game. Remember that the world is a mirror, reflecting back at us our worldview. We find what we look for, so give yourself permission to look for things that make life

beautiful. Give yourself the gift of believing change. is possible. It's no secret that the best things in life come with the biggest price tax. The victories, the transformation, the things that ultimately define your journey, they're made of something different. And in fact, if you look at the etymology of the word extraordinary, it means outside the normal course of events. It means it requires of you a you something bigger. Robert Frost has a beautiful quote that the best way out is always through. The only way to redefine reality is to stop running in place and look the now square in the eyes.

And when I think about my story, my growth, the greatest adversary I've faced hasn't been instances of misfortune or setbacks. Sure, they occur, but we find ways around those. My greatest adversary has been to concede to what I believed was normal. To hope or expect that somehow things would change on their own, that the world would ultimately rearrange itself for me. But this way of thinking needs to be changed, because where there is no accountability, the power is in the situation. But when you find the courage to face every problem

in your life head on, you suddenly find yourself where you need to be in control. Life is about breaking things down and rebuilding. It's remembering the meaning of the word extraordinary, and therefore stepping into the dark, the unknown, the organized chaos, not going around the discomfort, but storming the castle, because it's here the greatness lives. It's by paying a price in strength and courage that reality will ultimately bend to your will. While life might tempt us, while pride might beg us, the best way out is always through.