Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - COURAGE | Powerful Motivational Speech About Life 2022

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

"Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen" - Brene Brown

The other day, I went to check out an open mic. And basically, people sign up to share their short stories, their poetry, stuff like that. And I'm sitting there soaking it all in, enjoying each one as they went up on stage. And eventually this girl makes her way up. The first thing she does is she tells the room, hey, I've never done this before. But I've always wanted to, so here I am. She takes out her phone and begins reading some of her poems. And pretty quickly, two things stuck out to me.

One is she was brilliant. It's just so incredibly talented that I'm thinking, man, if she keeps doing this, she's going to find herself in some crazy places. She's really going to make an impact. That was the first thing. And the second, as I sat there and watched, was that I noticed that her hands were visibly shaking. I was pretty close to this stage.

And I could see this happening to the point where she had to place one on top of the other, right, to keep the hand that was holding her phone from bouncing around while she read. That's how visibly nervous she was. And immediately my mind went down this road, reflecting back on the moments I've had just like that, because, man, I've been there, where you're both determined and terrified at the same time, but somehow the desire,

to try outweighs the fear just enough for you to find yourself in that exact situation. Just enough that you step into a foreign world, still wondering whether you made the right move, you know, every step of the way from the car, the building, onto this stage, until you hit the point where, okay, well, now you can't turn back. Now you're here, you can't leave. And the thing is, and this is what was so beautiful to me, she was never forced to do this at gunpoint.

No one made her step into that chaos. It was self-created. She could have stayed home. She could have closed her journal or the notes app on her phone, and that would have been the end of that. But no, not today. Today, one yes would lead to another. would lead to another and another,

and despite the nerves, the sweaty palms, and shaky hands, she would open a new chapter in the story of her life, proved to herself that she's bolder than she thought she was just a few hours ago, that there's upside when you confront those unknowns in life, and as I sat and watched, I was so incredibly moved, so proud, so impressed, partly because I know that to many of the people in that room, it might not have looked like much.

You know, it's like, okay, great, round of applause for the new artist or poet. Welcome. But I knew the gravity of the moment. I understood how big it truly was, and regardless of what words came out of her mouth or how well they were assembled, that night was not about the performance. No, it was about new beginnings. It was about outstretched wings, opening one's eyes to the learned helplessness and pinpointing the opportunity that was simply waiting for that first step to occur.

And see, that's what I want to emphasize. That's what I believe every single one of us needs to understand, to fully get the biggest moves we make in life. Well, it's easy to convince ourselves that they aren't necessary or worth it. The things that transform us hide themselves. A lot of the time they don't feel urgent. They aren't life or death decisions. They can be the stages we never step on.

The people we never talk to, the chances we never take. Because, well, what happens if we simply stay right where we are? Say thank you, but no thank you to those fleeting opportunities. Nothing. Nothing happens, more of the same, and realistically nothing is far less scary than all that other stuff. We don't fear nothingness. We don't intrinsically fear more of the same. No, we fear stepping onto the stage. We fear vulnerability. We fear messing up, looking stupid, being judged. And yeah, when you do nothing, you get to skip all that. Avoid all that discomfort and that potential. potential pain. But you also miss the feeling of victory. Of closing your eyes at night

knowing how badly you wanted to just let that ship sail, how terrified you were about what could go wrong, but you did it anyway. You get to feel you have earned the rush of stepping into a chaotic world. And even if temporarily you tamed it. That's what life is about. Always remember that we have a natural proclivity to avoid pain. Not to pursue the things that make us feel alive.

Deep down in our DNA, there exist instructions, instructions to run away from the things that could hurt us, embarrass us. Our minds will race, our bodies will kick and scream, our hands will shake, that's just the way it goes. And so we prove to ourselves that it's all conquerable, that reality can be relearned. It's a layer of resistance that has to be faced and then dismantled.

Why was I so moved that night? Because I got to watch in real time someone dismantling that fear on their way to something incredible. It's courage. Stepping into the arena. Not for the people next to you or any. anyone else, but for you. Because you know there's more. You know that where you are pales in comparison to where you can be.

I'm definitely one to look back from time to time and reflect, and I'll tell you what. I'm incredibly thankful for the hard times that shaped me. The challenges that were forced upon me and made me who I am. But beyond that, and perhaps even more so. The times I stepped out on my own accord, terrified, and manufactured change. The times that the fear of staying the same eclipsed the fear of failure. The times I could have stayed home, woken up the next morning and lost nothing, but instead saw what there was to be gained and threw myself into that metaphorical fire,

fire so that confidence could be forged and new chapters could be written. Let's all remember how out of focus the present moment looks. Remember how inclined we are to look at life through a lens of scarcity. We are trying to avoid, avoid, avoid. But if you can even briefly find the strength to step back and ask, what is there to be gained? You see that not going is the real danger. And those stages that seem arbitrary, that seem like optional, stops along the way,

while they're just as imperative as the air you breathe. They are not some things, they are everything. We all hit a point where we look back on the roads we traveled and see the culmination of footsteps that have come to constitute our lives. And we want that moment to feel full. Like no stone was left unturned, like we put it all on the line. So will you step onto this stage of life? Stand your ground as the curtain opens, read your poems to a foreign audience.

Will you share your voice even though it trembles? Because if you do, you're giving yourself permission to truly live, to feel. Look, we're not here for a long time. This is a very short ride. So why not give as much of yourself to the world for as long as you possibly can? Why not step out knowing that the difference between nothing and everything is what you do with shaky hands?