Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - DETERMINED | Best Motivational Speeches of 2023 (So far)

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself? - Epictetus

There's an old quote that stays 80% of life is showing up. Now, showing up means many different things to many different people, but the idea is not complicated. You can't do anything of significance unless you have first and foremost arrived. Which brings me to today. See, I had a list of concepts I've been excited to talk about things that I've either read or have been recent epiphanies in my life. life. And I can't wait to share those with you. But this morning, oh, let me tell you about this morning. Finding the energy to do anything, felt like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. I woke up with a headache, exhausted because I didn't sleep at all the night before. And you know that feeling.

Like when you didn't sleep at all the night before, you're oddly constantly reminding yourself the next day that you didn't sleep. And everything just felt off. And really, as I'm speaking now, things still kind of do. And so I got up and I sort of played with the idea of taking today off altogether. Maybe I'm due for one anyway. I thought about resting. The little devil with the pitchfork on my shoulder continuously reminded me how great sleep would feel. And I was sitting there, you know, kind of weighing my options.

Took some ibuprofen, started the coffee, sat down on the couch, just kind of looking at the wall, what to do, what to do, what to. to do. But realistically, I knew. And I want to explain why. Over the years, I've taught myself through repetition that sitting down and writing and recording, unless I plan intentionally to do otherwise, is it non-negotiable? It's helped me see that the goal, in any meaningful pursuit, should be getting to the point where despite the circumstances, you show up. Stephen Presfield, whose voice often echoes in my mind when I come face to face with these situations. He wrote, art is war, between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior.

artist being anyone bringing something to the world that does not yet exist. And he goes on to describe the battle with the mind over sitting down in that chair and writing when we know we must write but don't want to. When a tired or distracted mind begins looking for off-ramps, as mine clearly started doing this morning. These seemingly trivial moments, when any rational soul could argue for the validity of postponing their date with Microsoft Word, will they come to matter more than ever? Because greatness is a byproduct of intentionality.

If you become accustomed to breaking promises to yourself, if you leave that door cracked for exceptions here and there, it will ultimately be kicked open. And that's why I inject little reminders like that into my life to keep that mental muscle working. For example, there can never be dishes left in my sink when I go to bed. Why? Because if I skip it once, there will always exist reasons to skip again.

It's a very easy thing to not care about. Because here is the reality. Progress is a lifestyle. Growth is a lifestyle. At least if we're talking about any meaningful type of evolution. I just finished reading, It Takes What It Takes by Trevor Moad. One of those three to five hour listens on Audible,

depending on how fast it's playing, really packs a punch. And I'm going to be diving into a few of his concepts a little more in the coming weeks, but one thing he discusses that I found incredibly valuable is the illusion of choice. And what the illusion of choice highlights

is that there are a seven, behaviors that must be carried out to be effective. The idea of alternate roots is an illusion. There are no choices when it comes to what's necessary. We know what must be done to win. Now, knowing that is one thing. Knowing that and having to propel yourself to action when you feel like garbage is something different entirely. But that's why it's so valuable to get to that place where you can take the emotion out, remove the internal deliberation, and automate the things you know are going to help push you to be that better version of yourself. In other words, you show up for you, period, and that is a non-negotiable.

The level we all need to get to. And I'm thinking about this, drawing parallels to a lot of different aspects of my day, right, the interval training I have this afternoon. When you're exhausted, 40 minutes in and are switching from squats to mountain climbers or whatever it is, right? Instructor makes the announcement. I don't think about anything. I don't give myself a chance to try and rationalize any weakness. I know.

If this is important to me, keep that door shut. No thinking just doing next. Simply doing what you always do, what you've signed up for, cannot be self-perceived as some monumental sacrifice. It's just what you do. It's neutral. Sometimes you feel like it. Sometimes you don't. But you do what you do.

And that puts you on track to accomplish some incredible things. And so remembering this, ultimately pushed me through that studio door this morning and placed me down right in front of my mic. Sure, I had to adjust some things. Definitely picked some, you know, mellower music. There's going to be no Christian.

shendos today or my head will explode. But this is not torture. In fact, I'm really happy with the way the episode's turning out. I would have missed out on something that I think is going to be pretty valuable in a variety of ways. But what I'm telling myself is that this is not a victory. It's certainly not defeat. It's just what I do.

And so the question worth asking yourself, when facing the adversity life presents, and whatever arena you were in is are you willing to show up for you? Can you turn that internal deliberation switch off when it comes to the necessities before you? Minimize that rationalizing that I battled with this morning. We don't need or want that. There should be no thinking, no crack doors,

no metaphorical dishes in the sink. If you decide something is, important and you signed that dotted line when it's time to execute you act and then you move directly onto the next the goal is to not even negotiate with weakness now that's not to say Pressfield's aforementioned War of Art won't rage on as you journey to the new horizons you've set out for but just like anything it's an understanding that will help you focus. We'll help you say no to the distractions and the minutia and continue writing your story,

constructing your reality line by line and piece by piece. It's been almost two years since I first read it, and still the main idea from the book, The Courage to be disliked by Ichiro Kishimi deeply resonates with me. The idea that being happy is essentially dependent upon the courage to be disliked. And at first, it might not seem like the two, you know, whatever be related. Happiness and being disliked. An odd pair. Maybe even seemingly counterintuitive.

And so you realize that happiness comes from such a personal, authentic place that allowing the expectations of others to charge. your course means that you'd probably never arrived there. You have to do what's best for you. And doing what's best for you is going to create a divide somewhere. Why? Because everything creates a divide. Everything is subjective.

I knew I wanted to dive into this topic, but wasn't sure the best way to do it. So the other morning I was trying to think of like an objective truth, something that no one could disagree with. They're sitting on my balcony and pointed up towards this sky. Thought let's start there. Simple as it gets. Hard to refute that, right? I am pointing up.

And I remembered we're floating on a globe, a giant sphere. There is no up. Up is perspective. Everything is perspective. What's the difference between one and two? Some might say it's one. But technically, there's in fact. between one and two.

You can have infinite decimals. 1.999.9 goes on forever, right? Point being, there's subjectivity when we drill down into even the seemingly obvious truth. Now, the value here is not to go running around, arguing with everyone that there's infinity between one and two. No, there are certain aspects of society that we must adhere to,

otherwise we couldn't function together. Right? But it's simply to show. that you following the path you believe is right for you cannot be rightfully assessed by someone else. It's to place trust in your internal personal judgment. And when people don't understand your infinity, that doesn't mean it's wrong. And by the way, I don't have blinders on to the fact that it's hard to do. In many ways, it goes right up against our lizard biological wiring, right? We're fitting and equates to survival and ostracization becomes a death

sentence, but we are, fortunately, beyond that. It's in our interest now, and in fact, I think the courage to be disliked is a critical lifelong journey. I'm better at this than I was 10 years ago, no question, but do I still have a ways to go? Absolutely. There are still things I'm working on every day to let go of. I remember reading in Jefferson's biography about how it was so hard for him to be demonized in the press all the time that it almost dissuaded him from jumping back into politics before his presidential run. Being attacked is a hard thing. But ultimately, he let his beliefs and personal values drive him, his ambition in a lot of ways, and came to see the scrutiny as a cost, decided it was worth the price.

Or like I use this all the time, take one of the biggest pop stars of our day, say Justin Bieber. You look at what people are saying about him in the comments of his video. A lot of it's wonderful. Some of it's great, sure, but some of it's awful. And that's just the price of anyone putting themselves out there. And again, you think of an inverse scenario. Imagine if he didn't. Imagine if he limited himself or didn't dive fully into what he does because he knew some folks out there would have some bad things to say.

Now, we are, for the most part, neither famous politicians nor pop stars, but our worlds contain the same elements at different scale. There are things we're all scared to do or say because of how it will be received. There are parts of ourselves that we repress because we don't know what the feedback will be. We're all scared to fail in some capacity because of how it will look or what others will say about it, which is why being disliked is courageous. As Aristotle has said,

the only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, to say nothing and be nothing. The opposite of being fully, truly yourself, is becoming the manifestation of that quote. It's never pushing yourself. It's never pushing yourself, never seeing what you're capable of, never exploring or executing on your dreams, your ambitions. Now, this is speculation, but if I were a gambling man,

I'd place everything I own on the idea that when we're old, looking back on our lives, we'll spend less time thinking about who criticized us or disagreed with us than how we spent our days and who we shared them with. Did we live in a way that made us happy that was meaningful? Because on a sphere, everyone believes they are pointing up. But in actuality, none of us are. We're all merely navigating the subjective universe behind our eyes.

So why not truly explore? Why not capture the magic out there before the hourglass runs out of sand? It's hard, sometimes it hurts, it takes. all we have, it requires courage. But I think we'll all come to find that the decision to live fully in our authenticity, regardless of whether others agreed, disagreed, or were indifferent, was the best decision that we ever made. The first step towards creating the life you want is taking a responsibility

is taking responsibility for the life you have. What does this mean? Well, it's easy to accept the good things. The things you're proud of. It's easy to move forward under the banner of victory. But what about the things that may not be under your control? The things that happened unjustly. Or what about the things you did in your past that you're not proud of?

See, if you're going to own the good, you have to own the bad, too. Because you can't change anything. You can't alter the reality on the ground until you own it. You can't make something better that you have not acknowledged and claimed to be yours. See, our inclination when we feel like we've been wronged by life, is to shake our fists at the sky, innately aware of the cosmic injustice that has occurred. And I get it, we want to point out that injustice,

label it as an adversary, maybe even an excuse. It feels good in the short term. But ultimately, it's depriving you of your strength, the ultimate advantage, which is substituting the word fault for, responsibility. When you're fixated on the word fault, the emphasis is placed on finding the blame. It's replaying yesterday's movie. The responsibility, on the other hand, says regardless of how or why this came to fruition, it's mine to fix. Maybe it was brought forth by your doing, maybe it wasn't,

but you'll learn and adjust in the present. That attitude will place you in position to succeed in ways most couldn't even dream of. When others project out, it leaves you to find the solution. Where others assert blame, it pushes you to begin the process of building again. See, there's nothing so detrimental as one who, feeling slighted by life, doesn't start where they are to make the most of what they have. Feeling so angry and disparaged by the path that brought them to the present moment, that they forget it's not the same path that will lead them forward from here. This moment is yours. And there's a lot packed into that statement.

It means looking in the mirror, accepting the face staring back at you, letting go of what you cannot control, forgiving yourself and the world around you for what may or may not have happened yesterday. Look, you're here now. With all the opportunity in the world, everything in front of you, the question is will you take it? Will you leave fault behind so that you can accept responsibility for the greatest gift one can be given? The chance to begin again. Even if there were a magic box, with the answer to every single question imaginable inside,

You'd still have to know what questions to ask it in order to take anything worthwhile away. The output is only going to be as valuable as the input. But why won't the world just give me what I want? Why can't I have something new? Why won't life grant me a fresh start? Well, the question worth reflecting upon is what are you doing to prompt the change? What are your inputs? The jukebox only plays the song you select.

What are you selecting? And I say this, well, I say this because my expectations are sometimes inclined to diverge from the actions that I take. There can be a gap between what I want and what I'm actually spending my time doing. A gap that without the necessary time and attention, widens. But what we want to do is close that gap. We want to take the ideal on one side and the reel on the other and squeeze them as close together as possible. That requires, though, that you recognize and take control of your input. A friend of mine in the medical field

and I were talking about weight loss not too long ago, and I, something he said that stuck with me. He says, yeah, weight loss can be complex. There's certainly variability, but there's a simple underlying truth to all of it. If you burn more calories than you take in through eating, your body will lose weight. It's inevitable. You're creating a deficit. Simple. Your input controls your output. We can move to personal finance, something everyone can relate to. If you spend less than you make, you'll have money less. to save. Again, personal finance also has its nuance.

There are certainly plenty of variables. But this piece will always be true. If you want to increase your savings, you can either make more or spend less. Your decisions here, your inputs here, will dictate your output. And so I think it's worth calling our attention to those things we're doing day in and day out.

And I'm talking about the most basic of things. Are they contributing to what you want most or not? That's why I reference my whiteboard list so often, right? Incredibly simple, which I think is what we need. One column on the left is your goals, you know, the things that you want. The other column on the right is what you're doing to bring about what you want. What are your actions? And if you make that list and notice that your days wildly deviate from that list, there's a problem.

Either you're wasting your time with meaningless action or you've selected the wrong goals. You can wildly change the results you get by tweaking the actions you make or inputs, as I've called them here. Here's an example. This is an adversary. I've been dancing around for a decade now. I have injury problems. Talk about it all the time. Left ankle, right knee, left elbow, right shoulder.

I'm constantly working around these things until inevitably something happens and I have to take a step back and rest and rehab it, right? What did I do? I saw a physical therapist. Definitely a valuable input, but not enough. I'm consistently working on my diet. Valuable input, but again, not enough.

Hydration, right? gallon of water a day, valuable input, but not enough. I decided not too long ago to take yoga seriously, like be obnoxiously serious about it. I'm going almost every day, and I think I don't want to speak too soon, but I think I'm seeing something that I haven't seen in a decade. I feel good and I'm able to do some weight training that previously I really couldn't. You know, the output here is finally starting to look Like, I want it to look. But here's the thing, right?

It's been so frustrating over the years. Like, I get so angry with the situation that I forget that I have control over the outcome. It just seems like when you've exhausted so much time and energy, like it's beyond you. And it's like, no, there are still your inputs creating your outputs, and you can continue to change those things. don't stop trying, testing. You know, and that's really it. And I mean, this is such a basic concept. It's so almost painfully simple.

But as I like to say, you know, the wheels don't fall off the wagon when we get the minor details wrong. No, it's when we're getting the basic things wrong. That's when we lose ourselves. That's when we fall off track. And that simple input and output idea is amazing to me. Because it waters all that seemingly complex stuff down into the simple. It puts the power in our hands to do something about it. Even when it's frustrating, even when we feel like we've exhausted all our options,

no, there's always more. Why? Because you put something in, you get something out. If you don't like what's coming out, change what's going in. You are your own experiment. you are responsible for closing that gap between the real and the ideal. If the people you're spending your time with don't make you feel good or bring you down, adjust the input. If you aren't happy with your financial situation, adjust the inputs. If you aren't happy with your physique or overall health, adjust the inputs.

If your business or platform or personal brand isn't evolving the way you'd like it to, stop blindly repeating what you're doing day in and day out and adjust the inputs. The real world results will change right in front of your eyes. Not because anything was given to you, but because your persistence, your adaptability, and your commitment to growth demanded it. Time waits for no one. Look, the earth will continue

to spin, the sun to set, clocks to tick. There are no perfect moments, only moments, waiting to be interpreted by those passing through them. And as a raindrop in this thunderstorm, an actor in this play, the only rational question in my mind is if time will not wait, why should I? If time will continue its steady march, why let it leave me behind? I'm in my mid-30s, and here's what I've already seen. I've already seen songs I grew up with, referred to as classic rock. I've seen some of my childhood sports heroes struggle to throw a first pitch before a baseball game. I've seen a substantial portion of my social interaction become digitized.

I've seen once forever people in my life fade away and become memories. I've audibly laughed at the ridiculousness of things that at one point I was sure were important. I've redefined the meaning of the word home in my life more times than I can count. In fact, the way I see the world and the way I see myself operating, and it continues to change. As the saying goes, the only constant, in our lives is that things change, evolve. Why does this matter so much to me? Well, because when I look back,

the single thing that would consistently keep me from truly pushing that pedal to the floor to truly capturing all life has to offer was a fear, a very specific fear, the fear of losing what I had at that moment. I was scared to death of loss, as we all tend to be to varying, extends. In fact, we're biologically wired to respect the fear of loss to a greater extent than the

prospect of acquisition. There's humor in all this, though, a deeply rooted irony. It emerges when we discover that we lose everything. It all goes. The song that's playing ends for each and every one of us. And is this a sad thing? No. No more than the credits to your favorite movie rolling after the final scene. It was the show, the experience that meant the world. It's a beautiful thing if you let it manifest in all its beauty. If you move along with it, immerse yourself in its brilliance. My point is that the only way to lose is to wait.

It's to not realize that you're starring in your own. cinematic masterpiece and those credits will at some point roll. It's to sit in a chair on the side of the gym while the rest of the room dances. Life is finite and the power is not in a flawless existence. It's an understanding to our core that there is nothing to lose, that the window is small, that we should carry out the human equivalent of a fireworks show. We should be obnoxiously bold, absurdly courageous. We should go, live, try, experiment, explore, build, create.

And yeah, sometimes you'll fail. And sometimes you'll fail spectacularly. But sometimes you'll triumph. And along the way, the mistakes they become, wisdom. They become courage, both of which are integral to any meaningful grand finale. And as I make my way around the sun for the 36th time, the priority is to remember that these rides are not forever. They are precious. And that I have the strength to live accordingly. Fearlessly,

courageously, my hope is that you find it within yourself to do the same. To pull back the curtains and see now that failure was never the adversary. No, not even close. The adversary is an unwillingness

to make the most of your moments. The adversary is freezing amidst the constant hammering away of ticking clocks. The adversary is the prospect of removing failures mask years down the road, only to stare directly into the eyes of regret. These outcomes constitute your greatest adversary. So for the sake of all that is meaningful, go push into the questions and the risk and the curiosity that makes life worth living. After all, it is not about failure. It's about time. We have so much to let go of.

To dismiss. Ideas, narratives, they're not ours, not in our best interest anyway. Yet we carry them around. Carry them around like we're perpetually tied to the lies they espouse, the fiction they propagate. We have to let go. Before we add a single thing, before we adopt another way, it all has to go. I don't remember where I've seen it, but I know I have. Maybe cartoons when I was younger, but I'm imagining that character that is taking off their jacks, or shirt and there's always another one underneath it. Right? And they're like confused, frantically pulling off shirts and more and more keep emerging. They had no idea how many layers they were carrying around with them.

And funny enough, 20 years later I'd be thinking that we are no different. There are so many layers and so many of them should be gone, should be left, should be confined to the dustbin of history. Those boundaries in your life, in your life. Who set them? Who said this is as far as you can go? Who put that little fence around your world and ask that you stay obediently confined to its borders? Who said that what you have is all there is? Who said upside is too dangerous? Who said life is about predictability and routine, so stop asking questions? No one. No one. No.

No one said those things. So hey, there's a start. Empty your pockets of the boundaries that are making life heavy. What about yesterday? Might as well take off that backpack, tip it upside down and pour out the yesterday. You made mistakes yesterday. Ah, but that's not today. You didn't like certain aspects of who you were yesterday.

But that's not today either. Your friends, maybe family, maybe others in your life knew you to be someone, someone you don't think you are, or someone you wish you weren't. Well, more breaking news, that was yesterday. Did you even realize you're still carrying around who you were yesterday on your back? Your next step has a lot to do with now and very little. to do with yesterday. So embrace and wave goodbye

to those calendar pages you've already turned. That's the best move for everyone. Oh, and those concessions you make, you didn't think I'd forget those. You can't forget those. Unshackle them from your ankle.

Those things you say, eh, you're not ideal, but it's easier to live a lesser life with you in it than it is to go through the trouble of pushing you away. Perhaps the people that darken your light, the actions that you know are not you,

the time exhausted living for someone else, gone, gone, and gone, it has to go. And look, we all know life is tricky. It's hard to walk away from things so ingrained into our daily lives for so long. But let's play a game. Let's pretend it was. Pretend life was that simple.

things I need to leave behind A, B, and C, well that's definitely simple. Perhaps not easy, but simple. And now through this simplified lens you have a target to aim for. Something to chip away at. You have your block of marble. Now comes the process of chiseling a little bit at a time. And that's the goal. Because to not carry these things ends up.

up meaning everything. Space no longer occupied by the wrong things creates space for the right things. Knocking down what doesn't belong creates a platform to build what does. So onward, we must go, not falling into the trap of pointing at externalities, blaming the world for our confinement. But instead understanding that we have been, perhaps without even realizing it, taking our confinement with us, in our pockets, on our back, trailing behind our every step, a subtle resistance. And when it goes, we can finally grow. We can become more. So what can you do

now to live a life that's more meaningful, that's more true to yourself? Well, you can start by doing less of what weighs you down. I put on my shoes, stepped outside, and as I made my way down the street for my midday run, I felt the wind at my back, tailwind.

My first thought, well, nice, this is convenient. Especially running along the beach where it can be pretty windy. It's definitely a luxury to have wind at your back. Sure enough, My mind went, oh, but that leaves me a headwind when I turn around and come back up the coast.

My mind started to wander. I started imagining what it was going to be like turning around at that 6.6 mile mark. I was doing a half marathon that day and knew that the way back would require that I level up. And every once in a while, the thought popped into my head, sort of reminding me of the inevitable. And sure enough, the moment arrived. The sun pressing down onto my skin, the humidity wrapped around me like a blanket. I hit 6.6 miles, turned around on A1A, and there was that headwind.

But the first thing I noticed was not the force pushing back against me. No, in that moment, I felt the breeze, the coolness. It was refreshing. And there, underneath it all, was my light bulb moment. What we are presented with day in and day out is a question. It's a choice. Would the wind become my adversary? Something that, yeah, pushed me forward on the way down but then held me back on the way up?

Or would it be what pushed me forward on the way down and then cooled me off as I made my way up? And if you think that mental alteration or perspective shift is just nuance or too small to matter, I suggest you give it a go when you're doing whatever your equivalent of total exertion is, whatever your mental stressor is that pushes you beyond your state of usual comfort. When you're in the middle of, let's call it, hurt, whether it be physical activity or a personal situation entirely unrelated to athletics, How are you internalizing the world around you? It's become clear to me over time that winning during our most trying moments

comes down to mental shifts so small that they seem almost laughable in normal conditions. But your mind will always stop you before life will. So why not put yourself in a position to win? Everything around you is trying to help you in some capacity. Allow that to be the case. Remember that what you look for you'll find. So if you look for resistance and obstacles and adversaries, they'll be everywhere. But if you look for and seek out value,

you'll see that you are surrounded by nothing but value. Even those metaphorical headwinds become hands reaching out, working to cool you off as you make your way to greater things. So understand that when they arise, those headwinds, the ones that typically hold you back, they hide within them small winds, small winds that will be the difference. The deeper one descends into chaos, the more important it is to find those victories, the ones hidden in plain view. The ones that look to many like problems.

but you'll know. You'll know just how malleable this world around us is. The world seems to provide not definitive but tools. So which will you pick up? What will you build with them? See, life is never happening to you. It's happening for you. So keep your eyes open, keep your feet moving,

and remember that you will win, not despite the headwinds of life, but because of them. Because you've trained yourself when those around you see can't and won't to find a way, to pull from the chaos the very thing you need most. Life gives you the canvas, but you are the one who must paint. I saw a quote that read, people wait all week for Friday. all year for summer and all their lives for happiness. And many respects, waiting is what humans do.

We wait to start or wait to stop, wait to go, or wait to leave. We wait and we wait and we wait. And in doing so, fool not time but ourselves. That clock is going to tick away regardless of the IOUs we write to it. It will take those plans and dreams and ideas, and with its two hands carry them away as part of the perpetual rhythmic march. See, one of the most dangerous words in our vocabulary is tomorrow. A concept, illusion, a hesitance that becomes oxygen to the eventual flame of regret. It becomes the stories we tell.

about what could have been if only tomorrow arrived a little sooner. But the problem with waiting for tomorrow, as Jim Rohn has famously said, is that when it arrives, it's called today. Tomorrow is the box in which we place the things we've not yet found the courage to start. But I want you to be that courageous. I want you to take the shot, to step out, to create momentum, knowing that your journey will be one of imperfection, but imperfect is how everything valuable begins.

Perfect, on the other hand. You know what's perfect? Tomorrow is perfect. Ideas that never start, that contain no mistakes are perfect, wishing is perfect, hoping is perfect. But capturing the beauty contained in today, that's not a perfection game. That's a willingness to start and adjust along the way.

It's a commitment to begin now. So let's disarm tomorrow by making our magic today. By pointing directly at all those things you've been worried or scared or intimidated by and simply taking one step towards them. Rather than waiting for life to push you forward, walk yourself there and let life react. Dear 2022, a few days remain before we officially part ways. before you become another chapter in my story,

and I become one of many characters to have passed through yours. I'm writing to you, as I've made an annual habit of doing, to both share my gratitude and say my goodbyes, to both celebrate and reflect, because while we'll physically no longer share the same stage, your lessons will be deeply ingrained in an older, wiser of me. And as the curtains are pulled back on the next stage and the play of life goes on, our time together will live in each passing moment.

2022 in totality, this year felt different. In fact, I've grown more with you than any other year of my life. I saw a lot of the usual people coming and going, ideas emerging and receding. I saw what were once concrete plans require alteration and patience. At times, 2022, you pushed me further than I'd ever gone. You asked that I bend but not break, wander, but not lose sight of the summit. You initiated through failure and increase in confidence that I'd never had had.

prior to our knowing one another. 2022, you essentially became a new baseline allowing me to turn last year's ceiling into this year's floor, which is wonderful. I think bigger, I understand more, expect greater things of myself, but also now understand that what was required to get to this point

is no longer sufficient to arrive at the next level. And that's probably, the most valuable gift you've given me. The reminder that we must be evolving. That the tactics required to reach the 5,000 foot summit are very different than those required to progress on to the 20,000 foot summit. And so as I continue my ascent, your voice will be echoing in my ear. The reminders that growth is uncomfortable because change is uncomfortable, but that discomfort is and always will be the cost of admission. Looking back 2022, I can see the value tucked away in my endeavors. You didn't necessarily make it obvious.

You didn't highlight them. But you knew what you were doing. losing some things in my life made room for others. Thank you for that space. Doors closing pushed me into new rooms with new people and new ideas. Thank you for those opportunities. Struggling to find answers forced my innovation. Thank you for that vision.

You know, with the turn of every calendar year, I used to sit, reflect on the ride and think, now next year. Next year is when the stars align, the big break happens, the world opens up next year. But 2022, if you've showed me anything, you showed me that that line of thinking is somewhat inverted. Things won't happen next year because it's my turn to stumble across the winning lottery ticket. Now, the things that arrive are directly proportional to the opportunity we create. Your successor, 2023, has nothing to grant or give to me. It merely provides the arena for me to perform.

It's going to allow me to carry on, to progress, to take the magic of the last 365 days and make something beautiful with them. It's not so long as fate allows, it's so long as I don't get in my own way. 2022, we set the stage for the performance of a lifetime. You helped reassure me that my world within mattered, that I was hitched to the correct star. That so long as I don't stop,

So long as I continue to believe, so long as I trust the man in the mirror, the external world can be manufactured like pieces of a puzzle. I am stronger, wiser, bolder, I've honed in on my vision, reduced the dead weight, specify that which means the most, I am not the same person I was standing before you on the day we met. And now, 2022, it's time to take all you've gifted me on to new horizons. Adjust my sails to the ever-changing winds of time. I'll use the carefully selected stars to navigate,

fully understanding that you didn't show me the way, but you showed me I was and am always equipped to uncover the way. the metaphorical teaching of the man to fish so that he never goes hungry again. And so I leave our time together with a heart, a mind, and a soul fully nourished and ready for all that comes next. Goodbye 2022 and thank you for everything, the good, the bad, the ups, and the downs, while our dance inevitably couldn't last forever. Your melody will echo across. Standing at the edge of the pond, looking down at my reflection,

I asked the man looking back at me if he was willing to make a deal. What kind, he asked, seemingly intrigued. Well, I need you to be there. See, I have big plans and big aspirations, and sometimes things get really hard. Sometimes I feel lost and confused and overwhelmed, and I need you to be there. I need to know you'll always be.

I see, he said, eyes shifting up towards the sky as he thought through my request. This is doable, but I'll need something of you in return. Of course, I responded. anything. Okay, you replied. Do I have your word that when you fall,

that when you don't succeed, you'll get up until you do. Yes, you have my word, I replied. Do I have your word, he asked. That when you're lost, when the world shakes beneath you, you will continue on until you find steady ground.

Yes, You have my word. Do I have your word? That when you feel life's resistance like wind pressing against you with all its might, you'll keep pushing into it. Not hoping it gets weaker, but knowing you'll get stronger. Yes, I said for a third time, you have my word. Then I'll be there.

I'll be there every step of the way. I'll be your biggest fan. I'll have your back when you feel alone. I'll remind you how strong you are when you feel weak. I will point to the upside when you have a hard time seeing it. But you have to keep moving forward. That's your end of the bargain. I'll open those doors for you.

I'll be your light in darkness, but listen to me. It will all be in vain if your feet are not continuously in motion. It will all be for not if you don't, regardless of what life throws at you, commit to carrying on. So for the last time, look me in the eyes and promise me, promise me that you will not stop. Yes, you have my word, I said. then my friend, we have a deal, and I will be there for you always. Pressure, as in those burdens we sometimes feel as we navigate life, it's complex, it's powerful, but like all powerful things, also delicate.

That same pressure that creates diamonds, and create diamonds, it does. Well, it can also remind you that in the meantime, you are beneath the surface, buried away amidst that process of creation. In other words, pressure is a beautiful driver because it is, in many ways, a standard of excellence, of more.

It pushes us towards a life of abundance like wind, our backs. But see, two things can be true at once. And it's impossible to look at the word more without acknowledging that in order for more to exist, something must be lacking in the present. And there lies the challenge. Pressure gone too far becomes a feeling of inadequacy. The same driver to explore the depths of one's potential can

And also, if mismanaged, take them to the spiral of never enough. See, you are a brilliant human being with natural strengths and talents, and while certainly imperfect, we all have something to offer the world. This floating rock is a better place because you are on it. And as we go about figuring out what it all means and how to bring it to life, we have to also understand the nuance. We want to get better every day, not because we lack value in the present,

but because the journey is a remarkable adventure. Progress is happiness, humans love and need progress, growth, and expansion, and exploration, inject meaning into life. They help us manufacture peak moments. And it's taken me a long time to understand, that distinction. I want to be more,

not because I'm inadequate in the present, but because against all odds I'm here, and what a gift to be able to push that pedal to the floor. To squeeze from life as much beauty as I possibly can. The pressure doesn't

say, because without it, you're less. It says, oh, but what a ride awaits if you're willing to step up and seek it out. I used to get so annoyed when I'd see stories or memes on social media that are anything along the lines of you're special just the way you are right it felt tacky it's lacking substance and sometimes to be honest it just felt like a lie but my thoughts on that have changed I don't think it's a lie it's just an

extreme in one direction just like never being good enough is an extreme in the other look you're not perfect just the way you are. We're all flawed and we all have room for opportunity. But you're also not void of value until you reach point X, Y, or Z. If we're going to grow, we need to understand why we're growing. My favorite thing about this platform, you know, over the years has been trying to identify the obstacles in my life. Understand them to the best of my ability and then share that, hoping maybe there's a piece or two there that's relatable, that you can take value from. But this topic in particular,

I've never really felt like I've solved or been able to grasp. This constant weight or pressure, I'd consistently feel to do more. And I know others feel it as well. I talk to them about it consistently. It can be almost suffocating. I do attribute a lot of good to it, right?

It helps me get back up. It makes me work. want to be better, find new ways to share, add value to as many people as I can. When I have my down times, that pressure says, hey, man, you're made for more. Lift your head up and go. I wouldn't be where I am without it. But then there's also the ugly side, right? Like I mentioned above, the cost of ambition is sometimes the inability to be in the moment. Always reaching for more is the younger brother of never being enough. It can be exhausting and so what to do what to do, right?

The question that I've been playing in my head. And here's where I am in the present. I think this is an ever-evolving process. But as I mentioned above, I believe the answer is in why. The why is everything. There are no have-toes in life. Life is a collection of get-toes. We're not dipping into life's infinite abundance so that we fill holes within ourselves. No, we're doing it to take in the show, to absorb, so that we can consequently add our verse to the play of life. As the saying goes, the ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. And that's where the distinction lies, as far as I'm concerned. Where the ship is in the moment doesn't make it more or less beautiful or valuable.

But to deprive that ship of open water, to deprive its sails of the wind, well, it just feels like a shame, like something's missing. And so with all that said, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that as I move towards those distant horizons, I need to remember that the journey comes with a few understandings. I need to know that at times it will feel exhausting. I need to know that while building you can become so fixated on the plans that sure you'll forget about your progress. I need to know how easily the future can steal from the present.

But also, I know that taking in the best life has to offer comes with the price tag and being tired from time to time seems fair. fair. I know that the builder with the plans can ground him or herself by looking over their shoulder every so often and appreciating how far they've come. I know that the future is always out of reach, like that carrot hanging just beyond the grasp of the runner on the treadmill. But the gratification can be both delayed and current when we're pointed to the right North Star. So I invite you to reimagine. the word pressure.

Understanding the notion that you've already won the lottery, you're here on earth against all odds with your strength and the greatness that makes you, you. Venturing deeper into life's potential, asking more of the world and from yourself is not to compensate for anything. It's not an obligation. It's not even responsibility.

It's not even required of you. No, it's an extension of the human soul. The best of life. The magic all around us, an invitation to live fully. That pressure like water through a channel will flow in the direction you lead it. It's nothing more than your vehicle to distant shores. your process for crafting diamonds with the adversity most would refuse. That pressure doesn't always indicate where it's taking you

or even guarantee that its destination will be preferable to where you are now. But it does promise quite the ride. And that, for me, is enough. 22 lessons from 2022. Number one, life has hidden costs. This is an idea that Jim Rohn spoke about a lot really resonates with me. And it's something that I tried to keep front and center in 2022. Here's a quote from him.

He says, it isn't what the book costs. It's what it will cost if you don't read it. In other words, sometimes in an effort to avoid a price up front, we end up paying a greater price on the back end. Along the lines of, if you think going is expensive, wait until you see the price tag associated with not going. Missing that opportunity is what's expensive. But he also comes at it from another angle.

He tells a story about his friend who bought a TV. And Jim asks him, hey, how much did that TV cost? His friend says, $400. Jim says, I don't think so. Try again. And his friend says, Jim, I bought it. It was $400. And Jim says, no, I think it's costing you millions.

Referring to the amount of time that he wastes sitting in front of that TV when he could be improving his life, his business, his relationships, his health. The moral of the story is sometimes what we don't do costs us more than we can imagine, and we have to be aware of those hidden costs. Lesson number two, find the good. So this Christmas, I just got back from spending it with my family up in Boston, and while I was there, our cat that we've had for 20 years, since I was a kid basically, you know, passed away.

And, you know, when we went to put her down, I was definitely sad about it. But it was even harder for me to see my mom and my sister, you know, really devastated by it all. You know, having to say goodbye to fuzzle, right? It's hard to see people you love in a dark place. And so as we walked out of the vet clinic the day after Christmas, I thought to myself,

What's interesting is this whole thing was unavoidable. Obviously, 20 years alone is a very long time for an animal or a cat to live. Our time here is temporary. We're passing by. And death aside, there are devastating things in life that are unavoidable, but you can't miss them, right? Pain is very good at making itself recognizable. We always seem to see it and feel it. But contrast that with the happy things, the meaningful things, the things that we appreciate.

For some reason, they tend to be better at going undercover. Right. Like, we don't realize some of our most important moment were our most important moments until they're gone. And I look at this and it's like, okay, Fuzzle wasn't just our cat for 20 years. She was her childhood. And in a unique way, she represented the Christmases and the birds. birthday parties, the sports games, the friends graduating high school, going to college, moving to new places. A lot of things along the way. And I use this quote all the time because I just

think it's so perfectly captures the essence of what I'm trying to say here. Ed Helms' character in the office, Andy Bernard, says, I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them. In other words, we can't be reminded enough to look for the meaningful things, the happy and beautiful things. I believe they're more numerous than the painful stuff. They're just so well camouflaged that we walk by them. We don't realize until 20 years later we look over our shoulder and go, yeah, that was special. 2022 taught me to be better at recognizing and appreciating those good things. Lesson number three, sometimes progress is unremarkable. I was going through some older videos on my

YouTube channel. And I found a few that I couldn't help but cringe watching back. And just to be clear, I'm proud of everything I've done. Everything played a role in getting me to where I am now. It's all a journey. And I did a lot of experimenting and pivoting and trying things and I'm proud of that, right? But I took a little trip down memory lane to roughly 2017 to 2020. I was really experimenting trying to craft my style. And I remembered how during that time the viewership had dropped pretty substantially. Finances were inconsistent. I was looking ahead and starting to worry, right? And a lot of the time, I just felt embarrassed to still be going. Like my ego hurt when I woke up in the morning. That's just me being truthful. I was working so many hours, more hours than I'd ever worked,

and was just seeing things slip. And looking back now, I realized how easy it would have been to quit during that stretch specifically, to have walked away and done literally anything else. But I didn't. I made adjustments, I got better, ultimately pushed through it. But the most important thing I've done in my life was keep going during that stretch.

A powerful reminder just how unremarkable the most important progress we're making can seem. James Clears ice metaphor. Water placed in a freezer doesn't immediately turn to ice. No, things are happening. Transformation is occurring long before we see that physical confirmation. It takes a while to hit that 32 degree mark, and I hope everyone is aware of that. Every step counts. and I learn this again and again.

Lesson number four, find and push out the negativity. In the book, it takes what it takes. Author Trevor Mollad performed an experiment where he made a point for 30 days. And actually, I think you only got to maybe day 27 or 28. But regardless, he made a point to listen to

and consume negative media. His list included country music, which was eye-opening for me. I listened to it all the time, but he references that joke. You play a country song in reverse. You get your wife, your trailer, your dog, and your job back, right? A lot of it's inherently sad stuff.

He listened to national news nonstop. Sad movies. And the list just goes on and on. And he said, the change was so drastic that it was hard for him to function. He stopped feeling good about, himself in social settings. He stopped early because it was so debilitating. And this got me thinking about what I consume. Let me tell you there's a lot of negativity that creeps in there from a wide

variety of places. And this is number four because I think we can all be better at recognizing and mitigating those things. Number five, it's not about you. Or at least it's rarely about you. This is a quick reminder I picked up while working through the end of a lease for my apartment. A couple months ago, I decided I was going to renew for another year. But it just so happened that the process was a nightmare. Everything seemed to go wrong. Eventually, I got to the point where I started to get angry and took the situation personally. Enough was enough, right?

So I went down, kind of barged into the office to ask what in God's name was going on, only to find the people that work there running around, trying to put out fires, help a bunch of folks with all these questions, and they were being patient and kind under the circumstances. And in that moment, I was reminded that I made something about me that has nothing to do with me. Like, was it annoying? Sure.

But chill on the emotion. It's like detach yourself from the problem. And instead of throwing a temper tantrum like a seven-year-old, reallocate the energy to finding solutions. That was a great reminder at an important time. You know, it goes for so many things. Stop taking things personal that are, in actuality, not personal at all.

Lesson number six. It's okay to say no. All right, and this applies to a variety of areas. When things aren't right, a lot of the time you know immediately. Whether in my case, it's a project I said yes to, but felt burdened by and not excited about. Maybe a relationship that felt like a chore, but instead of walking away,

you tried to negotiate with the pragmatic side of your brain, or something you're spending a lot of time doing that you know isn't pushing you closer to where you want to be. You know, a lot of life is being able to break the complex down into the simple. And while immersed in these situations, or situations like them, you know, I frequently saw them as more complicated than they were, right? Rationalizing, well, maybe it's right, maybe I'll see down the road, you know, whatever the situation is.

But there's a pretty simple rule here. If you get that feeling in your stomach that what you're doing is not aligned with who you are or something isn't right, probably isn't. And at the very least, it requires some thought. I think we need to be better about trusting that intuition. The things you spend your time doing, the people you spend your time with, they shouldn't feel like a burden or a chore. They shouldn't break you down.

No, they should more often than not light you up. Lesson number seven is hope versus pragmatism. This year, both personally and professionally, I grew in a few areas. One of them was keynote speaking. It took part in some of the biggest speaking engagements of my career so far, and it was really cool to have taken part in them. But here's what I find interesting. Things seem to have happened so incrementally

that I didn't even realize each event was an accomplishment or the completion of a personal goal until after the fact, like on the car, on the way to the airport or on the plane, thinking, nice, that was awesome, right? Each event just seemed like the next logical thing. And that's one of my biggest lessons. when you're ready for something,

it doesn't feel like the universe is doing you a favor. There is no hoping. There are no crossed fingers. It's just you doing you. It's the compounding of effort. And when I go back to some of my previous New Year's Eve thinking, it was, man, I hope this is the year I get that big break. I hope this is the year I reach more people.

Everything happens. It all changes. But at the time, I wasn't ready for any of those things I was hoping for. What we get is proportional to the value we add, and I had a lot to learn. The overall point being, don't ask the world to give you anything.

Ask yourself to live your life in such a way that you are ready for it. Build yourself up in such a way that you don't even notice the transformation. Lesson number eight, turn your goals into a lifestyle. There are things that I wanted to change in 2022. I wanted to stay healthy, and that meant less injuries.

It meant cross-training, diversifying my workout, it meant eating healthier. And where I saw the most progress was when I stopped looking at each of those changes as one-off alterations and saw everything in totality as a lifestyle change I was making. One of my favorite quotes is people follow through on who they believe themselves to be. Well, when I started thinking of myself as a healthy, athletic person, living a healthy athletic lifestyle, not only did things feel right, but I found everything easier to maintain. When something's your identity, almost subconsciously, you push out the things that don't fit that personal identity. You invite in the things that do.

And of course, our lives are not. the manifestation of the little things we do, right? The compounding of habits. But to me, this highlights the value of creating an umbrella for those little things to fit under. Human beings are storytellers. So tell yourself the right story. Reverse engineer the big picture goal. When you adjust and create a lifestyle, change is inevitable. Lesson number nine, make it count. So this is about the Charlotte Airport. Someone once asked me if I'd been to Charlotte. And I thought, not really, right?

The airport doesn't count. I didn't see any of the culture or the food or the sports teams or any of that stuff. Which got me thinking, what does make you present? What makes anything count? Did you really have dinner with someone? If you were both on your phones the whole time? I'm not so sure. Sure. Did today count if every second you were consumed with worries about what's coming in the future, constantly replaying the past? Maybe. Who's to say? Obvious gray area here. But I'd like to more frequently and definitively move the needle in 2023 to the it counts category of life.

Now I still have to figure out exactly what that means and how it will play out. But I know I can't let my time on this planet be a metaphorical passing through the Charlotte Airport. In a world where distraction seems to be everywhere, I want to position myself to live fully. Lesson number 10. First, find faith in yourself. One of my favorite stories this year was when I was having dinner with a friend of mine, and he was reflecting back on an investment he made to be mentored by someone he thought very highly of. It was like a two-day job shadow. And he's going through the experience, telling me how he flew over there, met up with the guy. And the entire

thing was underwhelming. He was unorganized, seemed to be winging it, wasn't a very nice guy. And my natural reaction was to say, man, I'm so sorry to hear that. And I'll never forget him pausing and saying the line, oh no, Eddie, that was the best investment I ever made. I learned that if this guy can do it, then so can I, right? What's my excuse? So much of our success is predicated upon us giving ourselves permission to achieve it. Step one is always believe yourself worthy of the journey. Lesson number 11. What you do speak so loud that I cannot hear what you say. That's a quote from Emerson. And this one's short and sweet. Remember that what people in your life tell you is one thing, but it's what they do that means the most.

The way I see it, words are meant to supplement action and nothing more. Lesson number 12. the old way is in always the right way. Something that stuck with me as a creator and a business owner was someone telling me that I had to make some substantial changes to the way I approached my business. And after explaining that, hey, this approach has been incredibly valuable to me in the past, they responded, well, if where you are is where you aim to stay, then, yeah, of course, don't change.

And that simple statement helped me, me gain some perspective. As the saying goes, what got you to where you are is not the same thing that's required to get you to where you need to be next. You don't climb a 1,000 foot mountain the same way you climb a 20,000 foot mountain. You don't make six figures the same way you make seven figures. Adjustments have to be made. And that's not a referendum on your previous approach, that's just evolution. You have to evolve along with your ambition. Lesson number 13. Embrace the turbulence. I was on a flight and we hit some turbulence at some point. And no matter how many times I go through this, I can't help but feel that unease in my stomach.

When I got home, I actually Googled the question, you know, how many flights have crashed due to turbulence, surprising to find that answer to be zero. No plane has ever crashed because of turbulence. Still, even after that, right, when I sit through turbulence on planes, that same feeling surfaces. Fear. No matter what we're doing in life, we'll never completely detach from fear. The unknown is an innately scary thing.

Now, this is not that feeling of moral or personal conflict I mentioned earlier. When you know in your heart, you're stepping into shoes that aren't your own. I'm talking about knowing something is right, but fearing the road before you, a very human thing. Change comes with turbulence. It's inescapable. It's unavoidable. But down the road, we often find it was a small price to pay for the new reality. we've just made for ourselves.

Lesson number 14. Expect a lot of yourself, but give yourself grace. Life is often a dance between extremes. Aim high, but step small. Hold a vision, but make, you know, tangible, pragmatic moves. There's something I'm guilty of doing. It's setting the target incredibly high,

and then when the swings and misses inevitably happens. and being very upset with myself. Sometimes you don't get through everything you plan to do. Sometimes the outcome falls short and that's okay. Make the adjustments. Be proud of yourself for expecting great things of yourself and come back better tomorrow. Being your own toughest critic only makes sense

if you are your own greatest ally. Which leads perfectly into lesson 15. Yesterday is merely a data point. There's a quote that states the windshield is bigger than the rear view for a reason. Well, one thing that life has emphasized this year is that when you attempt to innovate and try new things, you'll make mistakes. You just will, that's how it goes. It can be frustrating, you know, replaying the story in your head again and again, the if-onlys and I wish I had. But there's no sense in doing that.

because life gave you something valuable. It gave you a data point. So take that and use it to guide and shape future decisions. The rear view gives you a condensed depiction of what's behind you because its role, while valuable, is nowhere near as powerful as what's before you in the present. Lesson number 16, distraction versus achievement. This is another quote I came across in 2022 that is extraordinary.

It's Robin Sharma. He says you can either be distracted or you can do incredible things, but you cannot do both. That is everything. And it's something I come face to face with every day, you know, to the point where, as I've said before, I have to put my phone in a different room, sometimes even cut the internet when I write. Because if there's room for distraction, it always seems to find a way. You know, when there's so much distraction in our world. A very obvious example, right?

I post my work on like nine or ten different social media platforms. It would be crazy for me not to care at all about them once I send it out there. Of course I'm intrigued and curious. I want to see how it affected people, what they're saying, right? But being better at emotionally detaching once I hit that upload button has been incredibly valuable for me. As well as, like I alluded to before, creating boundaries between myself and the technology that houses that back and forth. You know, and it begs the question, what are your distractions? What can you do to mitigate them?

Deep Work by Cal Newport is an amazing read for those looking for strategies on this top. to build upon, I cannot recommend it enough. Number 17, you're never alone. I've noticed that when we feel most vulnerable, we feel the most alone. Those two things, in my experience, always seem to go hand in hand. But I think it's a feeling that's detached from reality.

We are all working, fighting, climbing. So many folks out there are battling their own private. battling their own private hell. In fact, I hear every day from so many incredible people overcoming such a variety of obstacles that it's changed the way I look at the human experience. I see how powerful human beings can be on a daily basis. How we all have our own battles,

but we are also all equipped to persevere. And sometimes I imagine, in our darkest moments, how incredible it would be to jump into this instant conversation or Zoom call with millions of others going through something similar, everyone feeling like they are the only ones until they see that reassurance, until they hear the voices of others battling as well. Because half the fight is knowing that you are not alone,

and I can assure you you never are. Lesson 18. It isn't until it is. Remember that everything is crazy until it's not. Everything is imaginary until it's in front of your face. It's the ability to, as many people describe it, play the fool that changes things. To do big things, you have to start at square one. You have to be vulnerable enough to step out, to see the understanding.

seen, walk the path untravelled. And it's a gauntlet that, while not fun to run, is the only way to get to innovation and change. You have to step into a world that is not yours in order to make it so. Everything isn't until it is. Lesson number 19, invest in yourself. Often effort brings tangible results, right? But sometimes the most important investments don't pay dividends immediately. It's a long-term play on our personal capability, right? Like reading every day, for example, doesn't bring a tangible result. You don't close the book and see more clients or a bigger bank account. But when there are one or two ideas or strategies from that book that you can now implement into everything you do moving forward, those hours spent reading become truly invaluable.

And that's just it. We want results and we want wins, but we have to remember that investing in ourselves positions us for an unlimited tomorrow. Lesson number 20, life is an adjustment game. As I've been trying to expand what I'm doing, I consistently find standard operating procedure being something I stumble into. You know, basically, things rarely work flawlessly the first time. Throwing things against the wall, picking up the pieces, adjusting, and repeating. That's how you learn, oh, wow, okay, this works. Let's do more of that.

And that's an entirely different philosophy than expecting excellence out of the gate. In many ways, I don't even aim for the bull's eye. I aim to be near it with the trust and understanding that I'll get there in due time. Life is not a perfection game. It will never be a perfection game. It's an adjustment game. Lesson number 21, you are always one decision away. Once you understand this, you understand that you're never down and out.

It's never the end. You've never lost. No, it's about using what's around you to make the decision that will change your life. There's change you can make right now in this moment that will redirect your life trajectory. There's something you can do in this moment that will make you better, happier, more fulfilled. Step one is understanding that. Step two is seeking that decision out. No matter how lost or stuck you feel, I wholeheartedly believe this to be true.

And lastly, lesson 22, you can often get two for the price of one. This is the ever-relevant idea that although we feel like working harder is the answer, it's often working smarter. It's utilizing what's around us. And I'm speaking after a year of primarily being in the digital space, but this applies to so much more. There are so many ways to utilize and streamline what we do. To repurpose our effort.

To take our work and utilize it in a slightly different way. Take a concept and share it to a different audience. Maybe in a different place on a different platform. I've noticed that so many of my greatest wins come from very small alterations to something that already exists or repurposing an idea. Maybe the story's slightly off. Maybe the delivery needs a little bit of a change. Or maybe it just wasn't the right time the first time.

You know, I catch myself looking outward for never before seen solutions when what I need is already in the palm of my hand. of my hand. Start from the premise that you have everything you need and work backwards. You will be amazed at what you find. I hope these lessons will bring you as much value as they brought me and that next year we will all be better off because of it. Wishing you a safe, happy, healthy, prosperous, 2023. A cheat code in life is understanding the significance.

of getting to one. Because if you can get one, you can absolutely get two. And if you can get two, you can get three, four, five, five thousand, five hundred thousand, or five million. Once you realize that something is possible, you're no longer the same person you once were.

Your hands need not be held to the sky, though the universe is going to drop something into them. No, you've cracked the code. You have the info. And the burden has now been placed directly onto your shoulders. That little question, is this possible, dissipates. Getting to one was your proof of that. And then the obvious accompanying question,

now what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do? Because the race isn't to one million, it's to one. One is the power. One is the reassurance. One is everything you need. If you can sell one painting, you can sell 50,000 paintings. If you can make one three-pointer, you can make thousands of three-pointers.

If you can create one genius marketing video that goes viral, you can create hundreds, thousands, millions. Again, the evidence, you got one. Anything beyond one is procedural. It's a testing of methods. It's becoming relentless in your pursuit to repeat the process with the pieces at your disposal. But make no mistake, those pieces are there, everything you need is there, so long as you get to one. I had to recently break through to this realization. Like so many of us, I'm an ambitious. person. I love the game. I want to add value to more people, reach more listeners, generate more revenues, scale impact, all that stuff, of course. But for a while, I just couldn't figure out how. I became almost disillusioned. What am I doing wrong? Maybe, what if maybe, do I dare say,

do I dare even think for a second that I've gone as far as I can go? But was ultimately rescued. rescued by the realization that I was asking the world for things I didn't have instead of leveraging what I did. I needed to separate the value I possessed from the logistics that would transport it. Because, and this is what we forget, I've already performed my miracle. I've added value to one person, and if you can add value to one, why not 10? Why not 10 million? It's not a product issue. It's a scaling question. The car works.

Figure out how to get it to the racetrack. The tool is effective. Now get it into the hands of the builders. You see the difference, the confidence that comes with that? Instead of doubting all that you bring to the world, asking yourself if more is possible, you say, yeah, of course it is, because I've already done it. Here is my proof.

Now what's around me that I can use to deliver it? How can I try things? Reposition things. Figure out how to scale and get further, but I know it's possible. So many of us have already gotten to one. We're adding value. We're doing what we believe in. But we're asking the wrong question.

We're still asking whether more is possible. It is. The burden is just un-use. to bring it to fruition. The burden is on you to find a way. To scale the value contained in your one thing. And by the way, if you haven't arrived at one yet, buckle up.

Getting to one was one of the best periods of my life. Finding your value proposition, enjoying the process, exploring, finding that intersection of value and personal contentment, you'll eventually arrive there. But remember, for you, the goal is not one million, it's one. One idea that works, one approach that lights you up. One action that opens your eyes to the upside.

That makes the world better to those around you. When you found your one thing, when you know it makes a difference, then you move on to the scaling chapter, right? Then how do we turn one into one million? But they're two different questions. So remember that moving. forward. No matter how stuck you feel, if you have one, you simultaneously have a little seed capable of producing infinity. It just needs attention. Trust yourself to work through the

logistics because that's all it is. Transform the if into how and start building that staircase straight to the moon. In 1519, Arnon Cortez arrived on the shores of Mexico with roughly 600 Spaniards, all of whom quickly realized that a mighty empire waited for them not too far inland. And Cortez, inspired by Spain's current golden age and the encompassing sense of ambition and adventure that gave life to the whole journey to the new world, he pushed his men forward into the unknown ordering them, as Winston Reynolds writes in Hispania, to destroy the ships behind them. symbolizing the valiant push forward with no return, everything would be on the line. And over the years, this act has become folklore, evolved into the famous phrase we all know, burn the boat.

Burn the boat. Why is this an important idea? Well, I look at it in very simple terms. Doing anything meaningful is hard. Not planning on it or hoping to do it, but actually doing it. And when you're in the heat of metaphorical battle, right, when you're on your way facing the adversity and the challenges and the hardships, whether it's social, physical or mental, that growth comes with discomfort. Our instinct is to want out.

When we are in pain, our brain's default. is how do I stop the pain? And what I've learned is that if you give yourself off ramps, you'll take them. If you allow for a plan B, it will become more and more appealing. If the mentality is give it your all until it's inconvenient,

well, we all know what happens, since excellence doesn't allow for skipping the inconvenient. When you can't turn around and get back on those boats, you're forced to create outcomes. Because suddenly everything depends on it. Does this mindset come easy? No, I don't believe it does. Took me into my mid-20s to realize, hey, I'd never done anything without a life-wrapped or a safety net. I always carried option B, C, and D around with me in my pocket.

And the result was above. average at plenty of things was great at none. But when your back is to the wall, and those demons are closing in, it's incredible what you can do, which you can create. You will shock yourself with your competence and your ability, waiting to be unlocked. Now, I'm not saying keep jamming this square peg in the round hole if you know something's not for you. I'm simply saying if there is something you want, something that you know in your soul is pulling you in and you really want to see that thing come to fruition, you can't have pre-made off-ramps for yourself when the inevitable difficulty comes in. Because it will. It always

does. I refer to those moments as checkpoints, areas of internal deliberation, high security, guarded gates, where many arrive, but few get to pass through. Not because they couldn't, but because the cost of access was expensive, too expensive, mentally, physically, and socially expensive, taxing. Most simply say no thanks. They get back on that boat, waiting for them by the shore they arrived on and return to the world they've always known. The way I see it, this is not about right or wrong. No, that's missing the point entirely. I see the question being, how bad do you want it? A little? A lot? How about enough to go all in? Because if you want to see levels of yourself, you never thought possible. You need to kick the ladder

down behind you. Force yourself to rise to the occasion amidst the chaos. Map your path straight into the darkness of night. Not because it's the most convenient, but because you gave yourself no other choice. You burned the boats and are content to watch their flames slowly disappear behind you as you go where few have gone. When I was younger, I want to say maybe third grade,

I remember reading this poem by Shel Silverstein called Where the Sidewalk Ends. This place where the cement stops and the grass begins. An inflection point of sorts. And I obviously don't remember what we talked about back then, but I certainly remember the book. And a few weeks ago, I happened to be at the airport.

I was walking through, and I saw a bookstore and a Shell Silverstein book propped up in the front. And I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had that title stuck in my head, right, playing on loop, where the sidewalk ends. Some things just hit you, like that title sounds perfect to me, this larger-than-life, transitionary place. It feels like some sort of graduation. But graduation from what to what? That's the question.

Is it simply checking off the current box before moving on to the next one? Is it the end of a paved, calculated path? And the beginning of something a little less defined, a little more free? Is it the place where you step away from what's expected of you and instead do what you are called to do, what you know when your soul is right. I guess depending on who you are and what you need, it could be any and all of those things.

But as I sat 36,000 feet in the air, it kind of dawned on me, not necessarily what Shell Silverstein wanted the takeaway to be. Fair, right? I mean, it's a famous poem. There's a lot of analysis and writing on this. But I'm more interested in the question, what do I need personally.

Now, with everything going on in my life, what would I want that place to be, where the sidewalk ends? And the more I thought about it, the more I realized it's not a transition. I don't think where the sidewalk ends is where you step out from one place and arrive in another.

But I think what's more applicable in this moment is a perspective shift, almost a lifestyle invitation, to straddle that line where you have one foot on the cement, right, the stable ground, holding onto that structure we need to maintain healthy lives,

to build, to take who we are and effectively share it with the world. And one foot on the grass. Unpaved, no parameters. Where our childlike curiosity runs rampant and reminds us that life is no standardized test. Right, like if the cement represents the frame, the capsule, that rocket going to the moon, the grass represents the precious cargo it will be taking into orbit, that substance that must be found.

And I think the reason my mind goes here is because in my life I've swayed too far in both directions. You know, I've spent entirely too much time on the sidewalk where I've limited myself, my beliefs in my trajectory, I've abandoned what I wanted to do because I was terrified to stray from what I was supposed to do. I've let routine kill creativity. I've let plans suffocate freedom and exploration. But I've also spent too much time entirely in the grass, beyond the structure, dreaming but aiming for no target,

free but not grounded. Perhaps at times having worked so hard to tear down the purpose, parameters and the structure in my life that I found myself with no foundation to build upon. Right? And I think the deal is sometimes we need more sidewalk than grass and sometimes we need more grass than sidewalk. There are times in our lives that call for exploration and there are times in our lives where we put our heads down and build. But the critical thing is we remember that beautiful balance between the structure that's ultimately imperative and the freedom to step beyond it so that we can pull in more life. That when things feel too stiff or constrained,

maybe you lean more towards the edge of that unkempt, undefined world. And when you crave structure, when you've been wandering too long, when you want to build a little, when you want to build something with the pieces of life you've been casually collecting along the way, you lean in towards that foundation, towards that which is both known and dependable, and maybe that's where we leave it. As you navigate each segment of your life, it's knowing that you have your hand on the dial, the dial that will allow you to be your best at that particular moment in time, something no one knows but you. So think of that spot.

What are you going through now and how can you best position yourself to handle it? This awareness is a power, it's a strength. It's not merely passing through that place where the sidewalk ends. But I think it's an opportunity to embody it. To adapt and carry on as each new chapter begins. begins. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. That's from George Patton, General in the United States Army, integral to the Allies victory in World War II. So why? What makes this statement so powerful? Well, it rings true because we have to move beyond the idea that we can manufacture greatness with one swing.

of the bat, one stroke of the pen. That if we wait for the right moment, perfection will come. The light will turn green. The stars will align and the path will emerge. I feel like I could scream this from every mountain top, and it wouldn't be enough. Life is not a perfection game. Life is an adjustment game. And I'll speak anecdotally here.

in my experience, looking over my shoulder, reflecting, you know, those times that I'd clung to perfection, rationalizing my immobility by saying, hey, you're not ready, this isn't good enough. I'd only have to dig a few layers down to see that my not moving wasn't out of some loyalty to excellence. No, I was standing still because of fear, a fear of going, of starting, a fear of going, of starting, a fear of the unknown. Perfection is the biggest con there is. It's a scam. It says, wait here, your perfect moment will arrive.

Hang tight. The right time is coming. No, there are no perfect beginnings. There's merely the courage to move into something new or the regret that will ultimately come from wishing that you did. And sure, a part of it's almost counterintuitive. It's like, why isn't it benefit? to wait. Why would you want to take the leap before you're ready? Here's how I see it.

One of the most important distinctions to understand is that between the thinker and the doer. The thinker who ponderes, who reflects, who studies and studies and studies thinking he or she can create for him or herself a perfect jump-off point, thinking they can obtain for themselves all the necessary information, all the answers before they begin the journey. The truth is greatness is forged through repetition via wheels on the road, and yes, you are terrible at first, completely unsure at first. You get lost at first. But this becomes the knowledge that shapes the journey.

When you go before you're ready, two important things happen. First, after falling down and feeling embarrassed and insecure, you get back up, you look around and you go, wow, okay, I'm still here. That sucked, sure, but it wasn't as bad as my brain told me it would be. Next, you learn from the exchange. You can start doubling down on what works and eliminating what doesn't. And eventually, as you take this confidence and wisdom onto the next step, repeatedly, the curve becomes exponential.

In doing, you begin stacking bricks, creating a foundation. Those experiences that humbled you become what you lean on. They're what turn into the experience, the knowledge, the credibility. And see, thinking you can skip all that ugly stuff by waiting on the ledge for perfection

to arrive in your hands, that will be your undoing. That's just as crazy as a sailboat waiting for the wind to stop. It's like, no, you need that friction, that resistance to reach your destination. And no, we cannot control everything. Yes, there are powers beyond us. But if you go now, you learn to use and navigate them. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is permission to go.

It's looking a year ahead and dreaming of the moment. We pause and say, wow, and say, wow, what a year. The twists and turns, the lessons, the highs, the lows, the peak moments all brought me here. And how different here is from back there. How far I've come. Knowing, by the way, that life was never asking me for perfection, but rather a willingness to start, to dive in, to adapt along the way.

I know a lot of people with businesses that exist in their minds, but not in reality. A lot of people in shape when they close their eyes, but not when they look in the mirror. A lot of people living their best lives when talking about the future, but not when they pull up to work on a Monday morning. We shorten the gap between our ideal existence and the present moment by going, by stepping now. Even when we can't imagine how the process will unfold. Because let me tell you, life will bend and twist in ways you can't even fathom. It'll take you places that ignite your soul, show you things you never dreamt of seeing. But you have to put yourself in position to receive that from life.

The world wants to help people who help themselves. themselves. So give yourself the gift of progress, of momentum. If a dream is only worth the action one is willing to take to bring it to life, let that action start now. Move beyond the illusion of perfection and towards the opportunity to take the imperfect every single day and transform it into greatness. Every time your mind says you're not ready, let that be your invitation to step forward. See, life may not be a race, but that doesn't mean time will politely wait for you. We must say goodbye to perfection as we evolve, as we grow. I can guarantee you it won't be missed. Today is not an obligation. Today is a gift. Today is a gift.

Why is it important that this distinction comes through loud and clear? Because the same action can differ wildly, depending on what brought it about. Was it an order or a choice? Were we told or did we arrive there ourselves? And we know this innately from a child being told to go to his or her room for punishment, that place where they'd gladly.

be if it wasn't being mandated by angry parents. When we're instructed, being told to, mandated, when we're doing something because we have to, we process this differently than a choice or a conclusion we came to on our own. We think about it differently when it's something we get to do. When I talk about transformative perspective shifts, this was one for me,

going from what's experienced How do I not mess this up? What would make me look like the person I'm supposed to look like? To instead understanding that, listen, today is a gift and I'll never get it back. A series of opportunities and decisions. A choose your own ending story waiting for me every day as the sun comes up in my eyes open. To me, the difference is more than semantics. The difference is between feeling free

and going into autopilot so that I mitigate mistakes and blend in that's not freedom, that's becoming a prisoner of your own making. You can walk the same road and see it differently every time. You can take in the same event and come away with very different interpretations of it. All depending on the role you chose to give yourself

as you walked down the path or peered in at the event. Were you the hero in the story or an extra? Someone who capitalizes on all to be gained or someone who hides from the fear that they might misstep. Obligations are about minimizing risk and doing what is merely required. An opportunity, on the other hand, asks, what more could you do with what you have?

How could you take what you love and multiply it? How could you capture your inspiration and delve further into it? The one living out of obligation will always find the problems and the negative. But the one who knows they have in their midst the greatest winning lottery ticket of all time, well they'd be foolish not to cash it in. And so look, you might be going through some problems, as we all do. all do. You might have your challenges and your struggles. They're unavoidable. But these are part of a greater narrative. They're what will build you up and push you forward as you move deeper into the

miracle that is your life. And that's the difference. The first step in being able to capture the opportunity is understanding that you are living in one. Life is not obvious. Life is not obvious. It is a giant get-to. And when you realize that, you are truly... That was at the Heat Celtics game with my brother a few days ago. And the Celtics at the moment are the best team in basketball, which is fun being that we're from Boston originally. And, you know, right now the team has a handful of really good players.

But one of them, Jason Tatum, has essentially said, separated himself as one of the most dominant players in the game. He's a superstar. And as we watched him play from the stands, we were talking about a narrative that I don't hear mentioned a lot. And maybe it is in, like, basketball circles, but I don't hear much out and about. I think it's incredible.

It's the fact that Boston's general manager at the time, Danny Aange, saw value in Tatum way before everybody else. Now, don't get me wrong, he was always elite. But the Celtics GM saw superstar potential in Tatum to a much greater extent than everyone else. In fact, in the 2017 draft, the Celtics had the first overall pick. And, you know, for those unfamiliar, it's usually pretty obvious how the first handful of picks are going to go.

The players are all ranked before the draft, and the team with the first pick is going to select the first best player, obviously. The team with the second pick is going to select the second best player. And while it was sort of known that Tatum was the agreed-upon third best player in the draft, but the Celtics didn't want number one and two, even though the scouts and draft boards and, you know, the talking heads all around the country saw them as better. Right? So here's Danny Aange with that coveted number one overall pick, which in basketball is so valuable. And he's like, I don't care. I want the guy who's projected number three.

So he trades down. He gives Philly his number one pick, basically saying, hey, if the guy I want is going to go third anyway, might as well trade away the first pick and get a little extra value and still get Tatum at number three. And that's exactly what they did. And here we are, watching him as one of the best players in the game. And by the way, the guy who went first overall is relatively underperformed, given where he was picked. to the guy who went number two overall, same. It's been up and down, constant injury issues.

And I look back at how that played out. And I just think, like, the pressure, the weight of having this coveted pick and being like, no, I don't want it, right? The guy that I want is number three, right? Being so confident that you see value where others don't. It's hard to do that with conviction. You know, so I look at this and sure he made some mistakes. as all GMs do, you can't predict the future.

It's a numbers game, right? But the ability to spot value, particularly in places others seem to disregard, is what I see as the difference between excellence and mediocrity. Life is always trying to give us the equivalent of a draft board, right, in some capacity. It's like, here's what's normal,

here's what's projected. Number one, two, and three options are the quote-unquote best options. And for the most part, sure, it's a decent guideline, but it's not enough. It's not enough. I think we need to train ourselves to be asking, yeah, but where is the move that manifests into that game-changing difference?

Where in my life is the move that pushes me over the top, the action that sets me apart? As staying on the basketball theme, one of the most inspiring things I'd ever heard was Kobe in an interview. talking about the extra value he'd capitalize on throughout the day, being the difference in his career, saying, look, if I get up two hours before everyone else and I get a workout in, not once in a while, but every day, that's the difference. Why? Well, in a week, it's nothing.

In a month, it's not much. In six months, it creates a gap. In a year, that's quite the advantage. In five years, you're not even on the same level. In a decade, he is now untouchable to his competition. Yeah, it's just the morning. Everyone has the morning, but Kobe saw it and recognized it as opportunity, as his value. The consensus out there in the world is that the morning is when you ease into your day.

It doesn't put what you're doing at 6 a.m. high on that metaphorical draft board. Who cares? Well, Tocobi, ah, perfect. There's the value that I can spot, that I can utilize, that most people will not even think about. And in totality, I believe that to be the truth, right? Like, you can do fine, simply anticipating and living in and around the value

as identified by the majority, by following their blueprint. but to separate, to move from adequate to excellence, you need to find those places where you can squeeze more out of life. You need to dive deeper into what's around you than, ah, that's what's expected, or that's what everyone else is doing. That's what's perceived as valuable. Be your own GM, right?

Question the way of things. Not just out in the world, but in your home. in your day to day? Where are the moves that can take you from a, I don't know, a six inefficiency to an eight? What ways can you be unconventional? Flip the script to unveil the value you've been walking by for months, years, maybe even your whole life without realizing? There are always pieces around us to be great.

And not just get by or survive, but thrive. There are the necessary ingredients to our right in life. left always to astound ourselves. We just have to arrange them in a way that allows us to maximize their value. It's a constant moving of parts, trying again and again, but not settling for a ranking system to life as prescribed by the outside world. There's more if you're willing to find it. I was listening to Alan Watts the other day.

And he was referencing a Zen parable, and he asked this question I thought was pretty cool. He goes, when a flag is flapping in the wind, what's moving? The flag or the wind? The answer, neither. It's the mind that moves. It's how our minds interpret our experiences that create our realities. And the reason this reminder is so important to me, The reason I don't believe we could ever hear it enough

is because keeping that understanding front and center in our lives tells us how powerful we are. Sure, we often can't control the situation. We all know that. But we can always control what this situation means. Every event is open to interpretation. And that's what's so incredible. Yeah, sometimes it takes a while to get to the value.

especially when our minds want to default to the negative or what's missing or what's lost. But if you're willing to look underneath every occurrence is exactly what you need. And so take, for example, something we can all relate to, right, losing something that truly mattered, that we found meaningful, whether it was a person, a job, an activity, a physical impairment, right? When asked, what does this change mean, the mind goes loss. It defaults to I had it, I loved it, and now it's gone.

But underneath that, there's a chance to take the pieces of what remains and go down a new path, to find something just as or even more beautiful. The same loss can mark the beginning of an adventure. Is it ideal at first? No, but it's usually not. the ideal that prompts our most important change. It's life's turbulence that pushes us to seek out something new. I love taking this little trip down memory lane, right?

Because it's the business ventures that fell apart that caused me to look in the mirror and choose to be more. It's the projects that just didn't end up being that good, right, that allowed me to see this journey as a creative one. Or hey, some projects hit, some don't, but it's not personal, it's a ride, and what an opportunity. And it's the breakups I went through. And while, sure, if you were definitely brutal, they gifted me with an opportunity to personally level up, to dial in my understanding of what really matters to me.

I can think of physical setbacks, monetary obstacles, all these things that hurt in the moment. Now, I'm not sure I could have controlled the initial emotive response, right? The human reaction. But learning to ask, well, how can I get better from this? That's a different question. How can one month from now be amazing because of this situation, regardless of how it feels in the moment? It's not the flag or the wind that moves.

It's my mind. So how will I choose to paint the landscape around me? How will I choose to give meaning to the things that will ultimately comprise my reality? That's power. Now, I've always felt it easy to conflate, like finding value in our lives with being happy all the time. But again, we're emotional creatures, and life can be challenging for all of us. I don't think it's possible to be happy all the time. That's not the goal.

The true victory is in finding great. gratitude along the way in pausing and asking, how can I take this seemingly unfavorable result and find a way to win from it? Because guess what? The sad truth is most people don't do that. Most people walk right by that stuff. Most people chalk up the L's as L's and leave the good stuff behind. If you know there's a win in everything and you ask that your mind look for it, The reality you create will be one much different than someone undergoing the exact same circumstances with their eyes closed. Remember, it's the mind that moves. It's you who writes the script, who controls the narrative.

And that's not a burden. That's a gift. It's what makes you more powerful than you could ever imagine. Sometimes what we need most is not what we need most. is not what we think we need most. It's not that break we've been waiting for the universe to provide or the answer we've been desperately seeking. No, sometimes we need only three words.

Don't give. Don't turn back now. And see, I know you want to. And that the meaningful thing, the right thing, requires we give all of ourselves. It metaphorically speaking is the most expensive, exhausting, sometimes disheartening. But this is your reminder that there will come a point when you look back on this moment and the best thing you'll have ever done will have been continuing to put one foot in front of the other, continuing forward despite the circumstance.

towards that which means something to you. I remember in South Florida a handful of years ago, I'd just moved down here and was exploring the area a little bit, looking for a place to live, and I found this kind of odd little park in between a parking lot and the beach. And I pulled over, just started walking around, and ended up sitting down on this bench that feels

that faced the ocean and just looked out for a while I remember looking at the people who all seemed so happy they all seemed fulfilled looked like they had it all together and looked at the ocean that was so much bigger than me so vast so powerful at the non-stop stream of planes flying overhead that all seemed to have a direction a purpose they had their course and I think I remember it so vividly because I'd never felt more alone than at that moment. Like deeply, painfully, alone, and it's not that I enjoy bringing up these types of experiences. I bring them up because time has revealed repeatedly that from these moments of doubt and sometimes even despair come what we need most.

So long as we don't know as we don't run from what the world is trying to provide us. It's as though we must experience emptiness before we can become fulfilled. We need to be overcome with this sensation that there's no way out before realizing that there is always a way so long as we're willing to find it. And the pain associated with that willingness, while it far outweighs the alternative.

I often break things down into this dichotomy of the easy, meaningless way versus the hard, meaningful way. But that may be oversimplified, right? Easy compared to what? Hard compared to what? It's easy to shut down when we're at our lowest. It's easy to stop when it hurts. But easy now evolves into what's actually incredibly difficult tomorrow.

A difficult, heart-wrenching, regretful forever. Admittedly, a controversial figure. But regardless, one of the most important quotes I've ever read. It was by Lance Armstrong in his book, It's Not About the Bike. He says, pain is temporary. It may last a minute or an hour or a day or a year, but eventually it will subside.

And something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. See, the easy thing versus the hard thing is too simplified. Void of imperative context. The question is, in our darkest moments, will we stand up when it hurts so that we can walk, run, and ultimately sprint towards what matters? There's a realization that help me. Because when we're in these situations, the thought goes like this. Things are wrong.

Things are broken. and my life isn't what it should be. I need to fix this and make it whole, make it right, so I can live a good life like everyone else. There's a deep loneliness associated with that misconception as though the world is put together, but I am not. Well, let me dispel that notion and end that narrative. The world is a series of objects that mean nothing

other than the value we place upon them. Seven billion people, all fighting their own. own battles, all trying to make sense of things, all pretending like the little fairy tale they've manufactured in their heads is the real thing or the right thing. When in actuality, we are all just passengers along on a ride we do not understand. Fighting battles that we don't often comprehend and cannot grasp, but you are not broken. You are human, perfectly imperfect. You are human. Perfectly imperfect. equipped with the tools to take another step forward despite the chaos and the uncertainty. Steps that become, in the end, everything.

I remember reading about Jefferson how he had migraines so severe while president that he would do most of his important work in the morning because of the high probability he could literally be incapacitated from noon on. And I just thought, man, we are all fighting battles. We're all doing what we can to make the most of our circumstance, to redirect discomfort into opportunity and pain into progress. And what's most incredible is that we can. There's a saying that it's not supposed to be easy.

The getting where you need to go requires the treacherous path associated with a hero's journey. The vast unknowns. The questions that remain unanswered for extended periods of time, the villains that seemingly inject themselves into our lives. Please understand that this is not a reflection of you, who you are and your capabilities. This is the game of life. This is today's difficulty in exchange for tomorrow's meaning. The pressure that creates the diamonds, and you don't have to be sure.

of anything other than that you know you will continue stepping forward because you can. Things won't always go right, but in the failures are the new tools to grow and redirect. You won't always feel on top of the world, but it's in the valleys of despair that we're forced to truly analyze, to think deeply, re-approach. And perhaps most importantly, you may have days where you let yourself down, fall short, perhaps lose sight of the courage to which you have attached your dreams, but that's okay. You are defined not by your mistakes, but by the present moment. Not some impossible expectation of perfection, but by your ability to rise and rise again.

And it requires all of you to lift your head up and carry on. So go into that unknown where fear is transformed into courage and doubt to strength, go. Because if not here, where, and if not now, when, go. All you need, you have. And when life finds you sitting down on a park bench staring out at a world that feels too big and too complex, that seems impossible to navigate, find it within yourself to smile. Smile because of what you've already overcome, what you've been through, who you are. Remember that you are exactly where you need to be staring up at the meaning in life as opposed to down.

at your feet now go no miracles here no mountains need be jumped or oceans crossed but if you one step forward and two believe in yourself to put the pieces together as they arrive there is nothing you can't do or be there is no obstacle before you that is insurmountable just keep going And sure, sometimes that's all we can do. But it also happens to be true that it is your greatest superpower. To simply find a way to run if you can, crawl if you must, but find a way. Because deep down in your soul, the pieces are there.

And it will be at some point as you look at you look at. back the greatest decision you've ever made. So in this parable, there's a man and he's walking through a circus. And what he's noticing is he looks around. He sees these massive elephants, right? I'm sure everyone knows how big and strong an elephant is. They have a rope around one of their legs connected to something and that's what's holding them in place. And he's looking at them thinking, how are these enormous creatures

being held in place by these little ropes, right? They could easily, you know, have enough strength to just break free and run around, yet they're not. They're all staying right where they are. And so as he keeps walking, he finds someone and he asks them, you know, how is it? These elephants are constrained like that. And the person explains, well, when they're little,

we do the same thing. We take a rope, we tie it to one of their legs, connected to something, and at that point, they are too small. They can't go anywhere. And every day, you know, we do the same thing. And as they get older, they don't realize that they're big enough or strong enough to break free. Like, they maintain the idea that they're shackled by that rope or tied by that rope,

that they're bound to the same place. It's mental. Right. And in fact, most limitations are mental. These elephants don't even realize their constraints are self-imposed. And if you take a step back if you look at your own world, I think what you'd find is there are more of these ropes than we'd like to admit.

And changing that is one awareness and two, a willingness. Like what types of parameters have you made for yourself? Are you living in just because that's what you've always done? What is your metaphorical rope? Is it a job? Is it a relationship? Is it a routine? Is it the courage to start something? Like what is holding you back? What stories have you told yourself? Are you living by that dictate your actions and your days and ultimately your happiness that can change with a tug on a metaphorical rope? So reality, your life is nothing more than what you've conceded to, what you've allowed it to be. It's a lot. line in the sand. And the message today is so incredibly simple. It's to look around you and pinpoint where those lines can be redrawn, where that rope

needs to be pulled. What invisible walls have you created for yourself? Because in life there's one truth, right? Things only stop when you do. Life stops when you decide to stop and sometimes you realize it and sometimes you don't. Sometimes you need the reminder to look around you and realize how courageous you are, how much you're capable of if you see beyond the immediate. Because reality was not destined to be.

It's what you've allowed. It's what you've created. It's what you've accepted. So let's tear down those walls and build something incredible. Have an amazing Saturday. Catch you guys tomorrow. Stop apologizing. Stop apologizing for who you are,

what you believe in how you see the world. Stop apologizing for your failures. They lift you up. They push you to be more. Stop apologizing for being different, unusual, or unique. There's a saying that if you are lucky enough to be different, don't ever change, embrace that. Hold it.

Stop apologizing for taking a path less traveled for breaking away from the pack. It's not an insufficiency. It doesn't mean you couldn't go their way. It means you have the courage to be yourself in a world trying to make you someone else. Stop apologizing for words that don't align with someone else's ideal.

or worldview. Your job isn't to appease or conform. It's to grab hold of what lights a fire in you and use it to brighten the world around you. Stop apologizing for your dreams. It's okay to not be content where you are. It's okay to want to grow, to become more.

The roots planting them to the ground, they are not yours. And why waste the opportunity beyond the horizon of your current existence? See, having the courage of your convictions is like unlocking your mind. Realizing that, yeah, you have the key and you've had it all along. No one else gets to set your parameters. They don't get to tell you what's right or what to believe. The people around you are not moral arbiters.

They're not protectors of truth. of truth. Remember that. Remember that no one knows better than you what's best for you. That's why there's power and intuition in following your beliefs, your strengths, in doing what makes you happy, relentlessly pursuing what makes you feel alive. The thing about dreams, ideas, potential, they're always meaningless until they're not. See, everything is crazy.

until it exists. So protect it. Don't bow down to pressures of now simply because you have not yet built tomorrow. You will. If you want it, you will. Some messages, they are incredibly simple, and this, my friends, is one of those.

You have everything you need to become who you want to be. Right now, as you listen to this in real time, you don't need approval or permission or acceptance, you don't need to belong or be told it's normal. You simply need to start to know that you will pick yourself up when you fall and keep going. Not apologize, but continue placing one foot in front of the other. Not look externally for a will to carry on that only exists within you. See, the second you begin rewriting the rules, changing the game, you put yourself in position to emerge victorious. Sometimes the most important things we do in our lives are the product of sheer will.

Of taking little nothings that surround us and making something out of them. In other words, the greatest opportunities, often the ones we need most, they simply aren't obvious they're hidden hidden behind what looks like difficulty what appears to be hopelessness the reason I place so much value on a single step forward when we're overwhelmed or at a low point is because a single step means you're in the game you're giving yourself a chance to find and obtain those little hidden away pieces they can't be found when we stand still and dwell on a situation.

Mobility is empowerment. And when we move forward only with what we have, we're continuously reminded that what we have is enough. We have the tools, the resources, and the ability. We just have to somehow remind ourselves that with those tools we are capable of building, of creating the incredible. A quick story about what I believe is the best song ever written.

Certainly one of them. And it's a little bit older now, but in 1998, a band called The Goo Goo Goo Dolls released a song called Iris. And that song changed my life. It was the first album I bought. It introduced me to music. I listened to it probably thousands of times. And even 24 years later, it gives me chills listening to it. And so I wanted to find out a little more about the song.

And I came across an interview from Johnny Resnick, who is the frontman and songwriter for the band. And in this interview, the interviewer is asking Johnny about the song, basic questions, how it came out, how he wrote it, and stuff like that. And there's a few points that I think are amazing. I want to share them with you. is the state he was in prior to writing the song. He just came out of a divorce, personal life sort of in shambles, coming off of a bad record deal where the label from his previous album had done what record labels are notorious for,

and ended up keeping the vast majority of the revenue. He had writers' block, you know, just felt down, and it left his home to stay at a hotel in Los Angeles. Bottom line is it's not a dream scenario by any stretch of the imagination. And then gets a call from his manager about potentially writing a song for the City of Angels soundtrack. And he says he went and sort of auditioned with what he had, which was two lines of a song and a guitar with two broken strings. It was evidently good enough. He gets a nod from the label and starts writing.

And the verses, according to Johnny in the interview, they align perfectly with the movie, right? It's an angel willing to give up anything, even his immortality to be human so he could be with this girl, right? And it's this deep dive into, you know, what it is to love someone so much to you give up everything for them. And then, and this is the icing on the cake for me, that's when it, like, I realized that. I wanted to write about this. The interviewer says essentially, okay, Johnny, the verses align with the movie, but the chorus, this revolutionary, big, beautiful, powerful chorus,

it seems to take a left turn. Like, can you explain that to us? What were you thinking? And he just kind of pauses blankly for a second. And I'm thinking, no, don't you dare say what I know you're about to say And sure enough, he does. He basically shrugs and goes, I don't know, the words just kind of worked.

And, you know, I'm paraphrasing. That's not a direct quote, but that's the idea. You know, one of the deepest, most powerful, beautiful songs I've ever heard is patchwork. Right? Even the song title, he says, was named after a country singer on the cover of a magazine laying next to him, Iris. That's patchwork. It's pieces put together.

And then as I thought about it for a minute, it's like, of course it is. How perfect, how absolutely perfect, the whole thing is an assembly and construction, a metaphor for the human spirit. Conceived when its author was down and out, right, taking L after L, called to present an idea, didn't have some crazy budget or equipment to pitch this song, nope, move forward only with what he had in the moment. moment. And that was enough. Then the song, a beautiful depiction of, you know, the movie's theme combined with elements of real life, his personal situation, what he goes through, maybe even

components that mean nothing other than an ability to encapsulate a feeling or an emotion. Words that allowed him to put a bow on all these little pieces himself and get it out the door. And millions and millions of people listened to that song and were changed by it. Not because of what it meant to Johnny, but because it gave them a chance to take it and fit their own worlds and struggles into those same lines. It became a vehicle to inspire others to push forward, to find things in themselves they didn't know were there. This has become one of my favorite metaphors for finding the hero buried deep within yourself. Changing your life, changing your world, changing the world around you, the lives of others can truly be, and in fact often is the result of just moving forward with

what you have. Realizing that even when the mountain seems too tall to climb, there is a way. We just require that mental shift. Listen to this question. Because I used to ask myself all the time, is this possible? Can this be done? Well, then that becomes the question that I focused on. And everything that occurred around me became evidence that would either support or invalidate that possibility. The second I came up against an inevitable barrier, I'd think, ah, maybe this is telling me the

answers no. Right? Life will always be evidence for or against the questions that you choose to end. ask, which is why it's so important that you're asking the right questions. Because the second, you change that question to, look, I know this can be done, but how will I do it? You start looking at life as a puzzle that must be solved. That same obstacle that was once interpreted as a stop sign is now merely an indicator that the path exists, just perhaps somewhere else. You've extended the pursuit, you've given yourself permission to keep looking, and it's because of these self-created

expeditions that we find more in ourselves. You know, things won't always go perfectly, but when you look at those imperfections through the right lens, you see that this isn't about you. It's about that particular door being locked. All you have to do is believe in yourself enough to move to the next one, to continue knocking until you find a door that opens, until you find that bridge to whatever comes next. And that's why I love that story about Iris, why I wanted to share it today. It's crafted during times far from ideal, with resources far from abundant, with words, far from perfect or related or self-explanatory. But you end up on the other side with this masterpiece, This song that certainly changed my life indefinitely impacted many others.

And it's like we have to realize when we're sitting on the edge of the bed. You know, maybe it's not divorce or writer's block. But whatever it is, holding you back, that's not the end. It's your reason to keep going, to begin again. You don't have to know how things will be, but you do have to know how they won't be. be. They won't be like this because you won't let them stay this way. And maybe it's not two written lines in a broken guitar. Maybe it's moving forward when your strength is not at a 10

out of 10. When you don't really have that spark or you're longing for some resources, some finances, wondering where they'll come from. But pushing forward one little step at a time until things start making sense. And maybe it's not a combining and restructuring of song lyrics, using your personal experiences to fill the gaps on the paper before you. But it's trusting that your own story will ultimately tell itself if you don't put the pen down. That the heroes will rise, the villains will fall, and the adventure will continue on.

After all, that's what life is. one giant adventure testing us, pushing us and transforming us when we're at our lows, while reminding us during the good times, why we're lucky to have been gifted that same adversity we once looked at with contempt. Why we're lucky that when everything's made to be broken, as the lyrics suggest, we get to make something imperfectly beautiful with the peace. When our backs are against the wall, we're forced to become more. When the clock is ticking, we are tasked with finding answers that hide among us.

It's in the darkness. We find light, and while lost, we find ourselves. The paradox of life is that from our pain comes our purpose, our evolution, and our greatness. I love thinking back to about 24. 14, making my way around Boston, having just quit my job, essentially purposeless, clinging to a YouTube channel and a podcast idea that I would name your world within. And why? Why do I think back? Why does this mean everything to me? Well, because at the time, I knew nothing. I understood nothing. Nothing about speaking or media, audio, video, nothing about running a business. But more importantly, I knew very little about life and what's truly required to progress in a world with infinite moving parts.

I didn't know that my lack of understanding is what made everything feel overwhelming and complex, and that it was up to me to simplify. I didn't know the extent to which I'd have to befriend failure. And that was the most eye-opening realization. Because when you gravitate towards a risk-free existence and you box yourself in as I had for so long, of course you don't get the upside,

but you also don't fail as dramatically either. Life was a simple game of cause and effect. Do work, get result, not much room for more than that. And so stepping outside that box in the way that I did, change some rules. I learned some things. First, you can spend time on something. You can exhaust energy on something

and get nothing in the short term for your efforts. And I mean nothing. Unless you count getting your pride stomped on. Unless you count your friends disappearing when you need them most. Unless you count self-doubt in a constant worry about not amounting to anything. I mean, these are very raw, very real human emotions. They tend to arise when we start something new,

but in them is also the power. This is where the light bulb turns on and the path emerges. It's where I learn that we only get what we want when we endure or what we don't. And what a foreign concept. when you think about it. It's like, Eddie, take this mic. Go stand in front of this audience and pour your heart out.

Your knees are shaking, chest is pounding, but dude, trust me, it'll be good for you. And funny enough, it was. It was because the fear in my stomach became the indicator that something new, something exciting, something more was around the corner. Like Pavlov's dog hearing that bell, Anytime the fear kicked in, I could feel myself getting closer to something meaningful,

to a higher version of myself. The pain is an invite. The sheer terror. And let's face it, that's what it feels like sometimes. It's an upgrade. Disguised is the monster that you think you should be running from. When it is, as I recently mentioned, the adversary you should be. friend. We have to change our relationship with discomfort because our initial understanding,

the one that comes stock in our minds, is never sufficient to build anything of significance. Its default setting is to preserve the now, not expanded. And so just like those stock speakers that came in my 1999, Ford F-150, when I was a bit of, my early 20s, let's rip it out. Let's customize. Let's upgrade the quality of the sound we hear and the things we say to ourselves. What an advantage it is to know that the hard things are what make us level up. To find that awareness. What a blessing that when life's difficulty startles and scatters the masses, you could be the one that remains. Standing tall, seeking out the advantage amidst the commotion, every little act of courage becomes more and more meaningful,

powerful. But we must lose ourselves to find ourselves. We must embrace our fears if we are to become courageous. We must fail in order to succeed. And sure, sometimes the price seems steep. But I promise not going costs more. Wishing costs more. If only's cost more. So maybe for you it isn't a YouTube channel or a speaking career. Maybe it's something totally different. But it is something. And should you bring yourself to pursue that which your heart pulls you to pursue, you'll have those moments of defeat, where you're mad at yourself for leaving the comfort and safety of your previous world. You'll have times where you have no idea what to do,

where you feel alone or stuck or unsure. The difference will be whether you see this as the invite you've been waiting, for or the reason to turn around and settle for less. That's the question. How do you internalize all that emotion that will feel like it is consuming you? I couldn't believe how strong that temptation was to go back. Nagging at me every day, just come off the edge,

just be comfortable again. But as my old coach would say in college, when we're doing wall sits or something physically taxing, physically taxing 15 seconds. You can do anything for 15 seconds. And isn't life just a culmination of 15 second windows? It's compartmentalizing the process. It's turning the difficult into the advantageous.

You have the ability to not think like everyone else. You have it within you to rewire your previous of the world, to see darkness not as your reason to hide from conjured up monsters, but as your invitation to become the light. Remember that the best way to be more is to have the courage to put your back against the wall. And you won't want to in the moment. There will never be a perfect time. But committing to that vulnerability will release from within you the power, the strength, the great

that has been for so long tucked away. By moving into the chaos you are simultaneously creating the calm you always dreamed of. You're realizing the possibility that just needed the door left ajar to make its way into your world. What is the complex? But an accumulation of that, which is simple. simple. What are big things, if not just a multitude of little things? There's comfort in the understanding that all we have in life, all there is, is simplicity, easy to understand pieces. It's just that sometimes we stack them so high that they start

to take a new shape. But like Greg McKeown references in his book Essentialism, the power is always in acquiring answers. You already have them. They're in front of you. The power is in cutting away the things that don't need, removing all that stands between you and your ideal existence. And I think that's one of life's great misunderstandings. We don't need to find more.

We need to remove the excess until we're face to face with what matters. And to adopt this principle, it's nothing short of liberating. Chaos, confusion, disorder, they don't imply that you lack the right things. They suggest you haven't stripped life of the wrong things. You have not simplified. A thousand miles is intimidating when you look at it holistically. It's a long journey. But it's just a collection of steps, and well, shouldn't we find solace in the fact that we're

that anyone can take one step. It's not a game of complexity. It's a game of understanding what's in front of you. And what's in front of you is always manageable. So much of our stress stems from forgetting what that journey is made of. Whether it's a change in career, mastery of an art, some kind of personal transformation, the result we want.

When looking at it from the starting line, starting line. It's too complex to understand too many pieces stacked up. So let's break it down. Let's find the foundation. What's really there? What are the one, two, three things we need to do? What is that golden question? What matters? If you lose sight of that, then you will stumble through life. I've learned this. I've lived it. The time I take to myself every day is invaluable to me because I ask myself those two questions, what matter and what are the simple steps I need to take? What can I remove? I was talking about this during an interview this week, my personal growth. And one of the most important aspects has been the understanding and

zeroing in on what's important. I used to take so much pride in composing the background music to these speeches, end to end. I used to live. I used to live. I'd love to be able to say I did it all. That was so I thought the great differentiator. But ultimately I learned to take a step back and ask what matters here. What do you care about? It's the storytelling that I love. It's the impact.

And let's be real. No one cares who wrote the background music. It's holistically. How does the piece make you feel? Right? And this understanding allowed me to cut away. License the music. Save two days a week, acquire clarity.

and realize my goal is not to be Mozart. My journey is to be one of the great communicators, storytellers of our time, and if a day goes by where I'm not taking a little step towards that, it's the wrong move. Small example in the grand scheme of things, but right on point. It's the power in understanding what matters

that makes a difference that allows you to grow, evolve. And I'm confident that this not only about This not only applies to long-term pursuits, but also our challenging times, the dark moments, the periods of uncertainty and discontent. Same concept. Where do you want to be, and how do you get there? What's the simple thing you can do to close that gap? Because you are never helpless. You can always do something.

And my friends, those little somethings ultimately evolve into everything. And when we put our phone away, step beyond the noise, spend time with ourselves, we can see how much of life is running in place. Stacking and stacking pieces that aren't even part of the masterpiece we're trying to assemble. If you want answers, start with the understanding that they're buried under management. mountains of things you don't need. So cut away. Cut away the people and places and things that convoluted your story. Cut away the exhaustion of time that provides no value in return. Cut away the thoughts that make life more complex than your journey from where you are to

where you'd like to be. As you stand right now, you have everything you need and there's nothing greater than that, nothing more powerful than that understanding. So why not step outside the complexity that you've manufactured that you're living in into a world of clarity, simplicity, and capture what matters?