Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - DISCIPLINE YOUR BRAIN | Wake Up Positive | Morning Motivational Speech

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - Emerson

Reality is the existence of two entities, those who create change and those who merely react to it. And so I've wondered what separates the one from the many, what differentiates a fleeting moment from a chapter in a history book. See, I think we all come to a point where we look up and we see no top to the wall we seek to climb. We look down and see the water rising at our feet with every breath. We look to our left and see those who are where we want to be tomorrow. And we look to our right and see the trail of decisions we love to take back from yesterday. This is where most create their limiting narrative, where most succumb to the world around them, but most is not all.

And every soul eventually comes to find that it was shaped not by sunny days or easy roads, but by walking to the edge of the only world it's ever known and daring to risk the normalcy to which it's accustomed. Because our appearance in the light is the manifestation of what we do in the shadows when we're alone fighting the little battles. Greatness isn't just a different level of results. It's a whole new set of rules. In the monumental task in front of you is the culmination of a battle that's already been fought thousands and thousands of times. It's been won or lost over and over again. Every time you decide to stand apart instead of follow the crowd, decide to flourish instead of

just survive, decide to lead instead of follow, build instead of conform, when you endure, It's because you've decided that you are different, not in that moment, but every single day leading up to that point. This is not a reinvention. It's living out who you already chose to be. So the wall is high, you will climb because it's what you do. So the water rises, you will swim because it's who you are. So the people to your left have succeeded. there is always room at the top, and you will claim yours.

So you failed in the past, good, because falling then means you endure now, and so you will. There's a quote attributed Heraclitus on the realities of soldiers in battle. He says, look, out of every 100 men, 10 shouldn't even be there. 80 are just targets. Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle but the one one is the warrior and he will bring the others i was recently reading a book

called the boys in the boat about nine american rowers from washington that won gold in the nineteen thirty six olympics and there's this incredible exchange at one point in the book uh between the main character of joe who's part of that historic boat and a man named George Pocock, who was not only a brilliant rowing mind that helped the team out, but he also had his own business crafting in making the boats or rowing shells, as they were called, and he would make them and send them to schools all over the country. And so Joe's deal is that he's this natural talent, strong kid, tough as nails, but just seems to lose his composure from time to time. When he's in the boat, there are these moments of jaw-dropping excellence,

unprecedented speed across the water, and then there are moments when he loses his focus, and the boat sort of follows suit, right? They're inconsistent. And so George Pocock, being the rowing expert that he has, made a commitment to see if he could help Joe figure that out, right, the mental game. So he calls Joe into his shop. And he starts showing him how he puts together these highly coveted boats, showing him the tools and the pieces, and how it's nothing short of an art. He has sort of this divine respect for his craft. And at one point, he pulls out a cedar plank

that he'll be using to make one of the boats, and he points to the growth rings in the wood, mentioning that they tell the story of the tree's 2,000-year life. So here's a quick quote from the exchange. He says, their thickness and thinness spoke of hard years of bitter struggle, intermittent with rich years of sudden growth. The different colors spoke of various soils and minerals

that the tree's roots had encountered, some harsh and stunting, some rich and nourishing. Flaws and irregularities told how the tree endured fires and lightning strikes, windstorms, and infestations, and yet continued to grow, almost as if there was something sacred about. The wood taught us about survival, about overcoming difficulty, about prevailing over adversity, but it also taught us something about the underlying reason for surviving in the first place.

Something about infinite beauty, underlying grace, about things larger and greater than ourselves, about the reasons we are all here. I paused after reading that and thought for a minute or two. What is it about those rowers crossing the finish line after giving everything they have that touches us so deeply? What is it about a cedar tree standing the test of time, those 2,000 years of adversity only to triumphantly pierce the sky when all is said and done? It moves us because it tells us what we already know, yet forget. in our hearts believe, but often fail to see, that we are greater than the sum of our parts.

Ernest Becker, when he was touched on the aspect of the human predicament, he famously noted that we are simultaneously worms and gods, earthly and divine. And I think it's in those moments, the crossing of finished lines. The times we did more than we ever thought possible, or looked back and smiled about all we overcame. It's in these times we're able to transcend the mundane, the everyday. We're able to remind ourselves that, sure, some aspects of us are merely human, but no aspects are ordinary.

The greatest power one can witness is that of the human spirit, bending but never breaking. never breaking, making light of the odds and an example of the predictable. So know that whether now is difficult or not, it's part of your journey, a defining chapter in the incredible story of your life, and if you find yourself up, cherish that. It's more precious than gold. if you find yourself down. Remember that you'll look back on this growth ring of your life and be grateful that it gave you that which smooth sailing never could.

Because at the end of the day, all you have is what's in front of you, the next move, the next step and the faith that all these little pieces will someday mean something, that standing the test of time will speak for itself at your finish line, whatever that may be, it will. look back and see that without your knowing or awareness, they propelled you into the current moment. They gave life to something beyond the realm of worms and dirt, beyond the realm of humans operating in their day-to-day world. No, they allowed you for a moment in time to touch the infinite, if only to prove to yourself that you could. There's a very specific place I encounter almost every day, where the sidewalk ends, a crossroads exists, and anyone who

approaches it is presented with a handful of options. As time's gone on, I've formed quite the relationship with this spot. You're probably wondering why. Who cares? Don't you have better things to think about than the end of a concrete slab? Well, let me ask you something. At its core, how do you define success. What is getting what you want? What does that take? Because if someone asked me, I wouldn't have to say a word. I could point to that random, arbitrary intersection and let it do all the talking for me. So let me explain. For those who know nothing about me, I am an avid runner. And almost daily, I put my running shoes on. I hit the pavement. Most of the time, long distances, sometimes middle distance, and it's a sacred time for me

to push myself, to test my will, ultimately to see if I can be better today than I was yesterday. And every time I approach the end of my workout, I inevitably arrive at this spot, which is about a mile from my doorstep. And it forces me to ask a serious question, how bad do you want? to win. My situation is simple. I can continue going straight. I can stay on the paved road where eventually another path forms and leads me to my doorstep. Or I can go left, I can jump onto the beach and finish that last mile off on the sand. Certainly not a life or death decision. Both paths lead me home. But I'll tell you something, when you're tired, when you're tired, when you're thirsty, when you've been running in the South Florida sun in August,

running in the soft sand sucks, and it sucks just enough that you question every step. And I remember the first time I opted for the beach, right? Didn't think too much of it, but very quickly that changed. Has every step sunk into the sand? Has the sun glared down at me? I immediately began looking for a cop out. Every thought revolved around the idea that I could stop,

that this was stupid, it was unnecessary discomfort, why the hell didn't I just stay on the sidewalk? But as you can imagine, time passed and I arrived home. The next time presented with the same situation, I went left and I felt the same way. But having done it before seemed to ease my mind. I put up with the physical obstacles, the mental gymnastics, and I got home.

And then there was a third time, and a fourth time, and a fifth time, and then it became part of my routine. In a few weeks in, I realized that my thinking was completely different. And this is the important part, okay? See, now, at this point, there were no negative thoughts. There was no self-loathing. My brain wasn't creating a sob story or attempting to highlight the impracticality of my decision. No, it was just routine. It was just what happens when you approach the end of your room.

It doesn't matter how far you've gone, how hard you've pushed, how tired you are, you go left. You run on the beach, that's it, period. And it's a funny thing when you've convinced yourself there are no other options. It becomes incredibly easy to adapt. You may understand where I'm going with this little story because the moral isn't about running. Or the beach or Florida summers. It's about laughing in the face of those little inconveniences life throws at you. doing the small things that make you better,

putting yourself through the struggle in the short term for the win in the long term, training your mind to become stronger. Because I'll tell you when it's hot, when you're tired, it becomes incredibly difficult to think about the macro. Our mind focuses on the small things that now, why put yourself through unnecessary hell?

But what we learn when we do this is that not only do we become a, custom to anything but we want the next thing. The reward becomes bigger than the temporary struggle. It's a mutual exchange, sweat for progress, pain for momentum, for a win. Humans are incredible in what they can achieve, how they can adapt to problems and rise above any set of circumstances. And this means when you come to your crossroads, maybe it's not

physical. Maybe it's completely mental. Maybe it's a decision that you're scared to make, an obstacle you've been avoiding. It means you stop taking the easy road and you run right through it. You collect your bruises and scars and come out better for it because those small decisions matter. The meaningless runs in the sand become very meaningful. They're the roots that grow into your subconscious mind that encourage risks that whisper in your ear that you're better, that you're worthy of more. And if you can't train your mind to fight the small battles, the big victories will forever remain a myth.

Reserve for the people you see on TV, the biographies you read on the weekends, and that's not you. You're not average, so stop thinking like you are. evolve. Start stacking your pain, your discomfort, the little inconveniences you avoid. Stack them like bricks. Because in time, you'll have something very real to stand on. Hated but never simply tolerated. In life, you can live to chase opportunity, or you can live to avoid failure. And there are two ways. very different things. Rather than pursue, we often avoid, we avoid failure, we avoid criticism, we don't want to ruffle feathers or disrupt, no, we choose to simply exist, never condemned,

but never extraordinary, just tolerated. And it's an interesting dilemma, because the best things exist on the extremes, life's fringes. That's where you find your accolades, your accomplishments. That's what we celebrate. It's where you need to be. And you get there not by worrying about what everyone around you thinks, but by taking your strength, your unique self holding on and pressing the pedal to the floor going all in.

And yeah, that means suddenly, my friend, you are exposed. You are vulnerable, you are now out there. It means those who don't have the courage to chase their dreams, they will find you threatening and they will let you know. But it also means that the shackles are up. The door is open. The light is green and you can build from the ground up. You can build the life you want.

The finish line has now become more visible than the prospect of falling along the way and you've granted yourself permission to run through it. Sure, some will love you for these accomplishments, some will hate you for these accomplishments, but let me reiterate the word accomplishment. Because when you live to be invisible, it's a term that rarely presents itself, I promise. Life, it rewards the bold. Those who are bold in their beliefs, bold in their actions, their dreams, and their pursuits. They are not for anyone, but you. And years later, when you look in the mirror,

you'll know that you gave every single thing you had to a life that meant something to you. Loved, yes. Hated, sure, but merely tolerated. No. The mind is like water. Necessary for survival. Productivity.

But can just as easily drown out. that likelihood of success. And I can tell you with confidence, you've never seen your body's limitations. What you've seen are the limitations of your mind. When you're tired or uncomfortable, weak or unsure, these things start as fear.

Being planted in your brain and attempting to grow roots, looking to acquire the real estate that exists between your ears. It's a powerful source. It can manipulate you, your reality, anyone and everyone around you. But it only exists with your permission. And we're not always cognizant that we've opened the gate and let it in. That's the crazy part.

Oh, but we do. Subconsciously or not. It's the reason you haven't gone as far as you can go. Pushed as hard as you possibly can, because at some point fear stood between you and what you want. At some point, you started asking yourself if you've gone too far. Look, it doesn't matter if it's athletics or business or art or anything. When things become uncomfortable or hurt, fear always shows its face.

It's not because, you know, you're dragging your leg on the floor or your knee gave out. It's not because you can't go on. And it's because those thoughts trickle into your mind about not being able to finish. What if I can't handle this? I don't usually go this far. Am I pushing harder than I normally do? Is this right? Is it dangerous?

Is it over the top? These thoughts are the seed of destruction, a virus. But here's the remedy. There's a saying in naval special operations that when your mind is telling you you're done, when you feel maxed out, you are only at 40% capacity. You haven't scratched the surface. And value isn't obtained until, in one way or another, you're able to realize this and push the panic,

the anxiety back underground. You're not stopping because you can't go on. You're stopping because of the what-ifs and the worst-case scenarios. You're stopping because you're pre-conditioned to, stay within boundaries. Because that seed has grown into concerns about the world conspiring against you, but the body does not control the mind. The mind dictates what the body does.

See, the thing about life is that we all have narratives. We all have stories that we believe. And here's why that's important. Everything that happens to you or around you will be molded into your narrative. If you see something as crazy or far-fetched or impossible, life will be nothing more than evidence of that belief. Pain will be a wall ten feet high. The old saying is seek and you shall find. What you look for is what you get.

Expect greatness and the body will listen. Your world will conform. That's why believing is being. Body, it executes. Loyal to every belief. You'll always be what you decide. I'll never forget, listening to Jim Rohn, was taking a walk in the middle of the day.

I needed to get out, decompress, rethink, realign. And this message came through my headphones. He said, we must all suffer from one of two pains. The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. And I needed that. I needed that because sometimes we forget why. In the midst of the day-to-day, the trials and tribulations of life, we forget why we endure.

And there's a strange dichotomy that exists. Because, you know, you can't measure discomfort that hasn't arrived yet. You can identify regret that hasn't materialized. Yet in a way, you have to. You have to somehow make that tangible. You have to know that sacrifices of today deliver you from the anguish of I wish, or if only, or maybe I could have. I've heard it said that humans' ability to delay gratification is what makes us so unique.

incredible even. But that doesn't mean it comes easy. So as I walked, I became reacquainted with the trust that I had in myself in the future, in the steps I was taking. It wasn't that I'd reached some grand finale, but that I gave myself permission

to stop constantly expecting one. Worrying when things didn't go as planned. feeling disgusted with myself when I fell short. This is, after all, part of a process. And if one stays the course, builds a foundation of discipline to guide them towards what they believe in, things will evolve.

We feel uncertain because new things don't have a precedent, at least not a personal one. And that feeling of, I wish I knew or had some predictability. It's real, it's common. But if minimizing regret is what means the most, then it also means that we must have the discipline

to walk steadfast into the unpredictability of tomorrow. A long-term, sustained discipline. And one of my favorite interviews, Brani Ware, who wrote the top five regrets of the dying, was talking about surrender and how she mentioned in her book, Letting Go. And I asked her, can you explain that? What's the angle? Because the way I look at life, there's always something you can do. You can always improve your situation somehow.

And she basically said, it's not about what you can control, what you can do. It's about putting yourself in position to live, life you want to live and then letting go of that which you cannot control. It's about not worrying over external forces as you walk your path because all you can do in life is walk your path and that became the marker or the question, am I walking my path? Right? Now look at it like this. First, a vision gives you direction. keeps you excited, injects meaning into life. Second, discipline keeps you moving, becomes the tiny steps that transport you through your pursuit of meaning.

And third, trust in the process. That you are here to give everything you have to give, and then the rest, as Bruni says, must be surrendered. But the reason I bring this up is because all of it fits together like a puzzle, like three pillars of a Parthenon. And when people reach out to me all the time, they're upset that they're not as disciplined as they'd like to be. And they're listening to the speeches, they're watching the videos, they're absorbing the content, trying to improve.

But nothing seems to get the engine going. I'm wondering, what is your North Star? What are you aiming for? Because as far as I'm concerned, it's impossible to be disciplined if you don't have a reason. You know, when Jim Rhone states that the pain is in ounces now, well, there's an implicit compared to what being asked, right? Compared to that top of the mountain that you'd presumably miss out on. So if the mountaintop's not defined, you're on a fool's

errand. It's why I had so much trouble with my old career, for example. It's hard to be disciplined. There's no buy-in on the purpose. Using my previous metaphor, it's little steps, sure, but towards what? If you don't know, it's only practical then to look around and ask yourself, why am I taking them? Why not go drink with my friends? Why not stream this series on Netflix until 4 a.m.? Why not skip the workout? You can listen to people on YouTube scream at you to do more and be more and try harder all day, but without that piece, it will not get you very far.

A vision, the discipline to pursue it, and a trust in the process. And you could say the same with someone who might have a clear vision, a dream, a perfect idea of what they want, but never take action, right? The discipline never materializes. It makes the endeavor just as meaningless. Things don't change until you take that big picture, that vision, and you break it down into little things you can do every day.

That's it. And isn't that amazing? The greatest, most influential people from the friends and family that inspire us, to the greatest athletes and entertainers, to our greatest thinkers, creators, world leaders, all they do is a handful of things consistently every day in the direction of something that is meaningful to them. A process that has been talked about since the beginning of time. The compound effect, as Darren Hardy calls it, that breakthrough is huge for me. The realization that I don't need to leap any mountain. I just need to ascend. One tiny rock at a time, and that is not a superhuman ability.

That is a single decision. So here the question isn't, can you be more disciplined? Of course you can. The question is, which few things are most meaningful to you? Which will you be focusing on every day so that they expand and inject value into you in the world? And then, lastly, there is trust, sometimes the most difficult, seeing the unseen, maintaining confidence in that which is unknown. An incredibly challenging expectation in an instantaneous world, a world where things are immediate, feedback is immediate. Messages are sent across the planet instantaneously.

goods and services arrive within hours. We have forgotten patience because it is disintegrating before our very eyes. We are a society of now, but the best things in life, they take time. They require that we hold up our end of the bargain and that we trust life will fall into place. belief in a process that will come to mean more than anything that arrives in 30 seconds ever could. A vision, the discipline to pursue it, and a trust in the process. So perhaps you're overdue for your midday walk, your little excursion into the soul,

to ask yourself, what is it you are moving towards? Why are you doing what you're doing? Does it mean something? And if not, perhaps some adjustment is in order. Perhaps you've lost sight of that North Star that lights up our lives and illuminates the way. Take solace in the fact that life is not as serious as we make it out to be. We don't live in a world of right and wrong, good and bad, yes and no, but a continuum. an opportunity to seek out and find the beautiful ups and the meaningful downs to set our sights

on the horizons that matter. See, when the little things feel too complex or burdensome, it's because the big things are misaligned, and that is a powerful idea to grasp. It's never that life is too difficult. that we have closed our eyes. So don't be fooled by those selling you reality as some problem, some obligation that must be dealt with. No, today is the greatest gift of your lifetime.

And the same will be true every day moving forward. And to echo Jim Rohn, absolutely it is a gift comprised of sacrifice. discomfort along the way, but that's a small price to pay for entry to the show. For the ability to embrace the mystery and embark upon the adventure when you're pointed to the right north star, while the road, it feels less treacherous on your feet, the hills less strenuous on your legs, what we often deem to be a lack of preparedness, a bit of. ability, strength, well, might just be a lack of alignment. So adjust.

Because this world flexible and limitless invites you to do just that. It invites you to explore until you've uncovered your vision. To pursue it like nothing else matters. To sidestep the obstacles, invert the setbacks, and lastly to find And hope when there appears to be none. To set your sails, walk your path, run your race and surrender to that which is beyond your control. And you'll find that with a vision, with discipline, with trust in the process, there is no situation or circumstance outside the scope of what's possible. There's a story about some frogs.

And these frogs as they're sort of making their way through the woods, the ground breaks underneath them and two of them fall into this little pit. Way, way, way down. They tumble and eventually they hit the bottom. They're looking up and they're realizing how far they've fallen, right? Moving around, panicking, essentially coming to grips with the situation that they're now in. They start frantically jumping, trying to climb.

the walls. And as they're jumping, the frogs on top are looking down and they're basically yelling, look, we're sorry this happened to you, but this is a lost cause. There's no way out for you guys. There's no need to jump around. This is a futile situation. But they continue to jump and they're jump, not willing to come to terms with that possibility, not yet. And again, the frogs up top, they yell down, you know, there's no way. It's over, you're going to die down there, guys. You need to ultimately face that. And one of the two frogs in the pit does concede to the situation. He hears the voices and, you know, he stops jumping and makes his way further down the pit and he dies. But the second

one, the second one keeps jumping and adjusting his approach, trying different things. Ultimately, He does get out. He climbs over the ledge and when he gets to the top, he's confronted by the others. And they come up to him, they ask him, hey, didn't you hear us yelling down that this situation was impossible? Didn't you hear us say there was no way out? And as it turns out, he didn't hear because this frog was deaf, right? So we couldn't hear a single word and this ultimately saved his life.

Not because it helped him do the miraculous or the impossible, but because it doesn't. blocked out the outside voices, attempting to tell him what possible is. Look, there will always be doubters, skeptics, and cynics. As Aristotle said, there is one way to avoid criticism. Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. But the beauty is that these voices have one thing in common, and that's their irrelevance. Because there's one voice,

that matters in the writing of your story, and that voice belongs to you. Never forget how much control you have. Never forget who holds the pen. Things are real when you make them real. Things stop when you stop, things change when you change them. So here's the following, not orders or expectations,

but that spark that guides you to what feels right, to what means the most, here's to an everlasting, self-belief that will lift you out of any hole, carry you over any mountain, and most importantly turn blank pages into a story that is truly... There's a saying that some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. I've always found this interesting, this idea how the same subject, same situation,

or occurrence can be interpreted so differently. It can plant the seeds for such different outcomes. Like Yashimi and Koga mentioned in their book, The Courage to be Disliked, well water is 60 degrees, and it's always 60 degrees. In the summer and the winter, but depending on what time of year, right, the makeup of the outside world,

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

The world is paper, it's ink, its ideas. The world is everything you need to decide how your story's going to go. How does he see the world? How does she define reality? That's the question. Because you don't need to change. the world you need to change the way you see it and you don't need to change who you are you need to change the imaginary shackles you've placed around your ankles that are

limiting the heights you could reach in fact the world as far as I'm concerned is an accumulation of thoughts ideas it's 8 billion individualized movie screens attempting to interact to coexist together and when you look at it like that, it's not that your mindset plays a role or it's kind of important, no, it's that it narrates the play. It's the glue that ties everything together. What you see is what you get. And this isn't a one and done thing, it's an everyday thing. Because there's always going to be occurrences in our lives that challenge us, to threaten our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of. There will always be the temptation to make the opportunity into the problem

and the hero into the villain. But why forfeit that control? I remember hearing that if you find time to be grateful, both in the morning and at night, it changes your life. Not because the world transforms, but because it reinforces the perspective you need. We are lucky to be here. We're lucky to have challenges that push us forward.

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

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

I use it when in the moment I'm either under or overwhelmed. The question, where is the win? In this spot, this situation where most would hang their heads and let the outside world rewrite the story, how can I find a way to hold mine high and maintain my own accountability? Extreme differences in life outcomes are so often prompted by such subtle realization, subtle decisions. Their reason to stop could be your reason to not only carry on but thrive. And the best news is you don't need approval or authorization.

You don't need the stars to align or doors to open up. You just need to give yourself permission to see the sun amidst the clouds, the hope amidst the doubt. the doubt, you have to remind yourself that there is always something to cling to, always a second chance, there is always a win. All you have to do is just to see it. Hold the vision, but trust the process. An idea that should act as our North Star, right, as we make our way through life, it proposes believing in a goal, but at the same time understanding that its manifestation will be unpredictable. Challenging, it may not unfold the way we thought it would. To me, though, the most challenging aspect of personal growth, of building the things that matter, creating

realities we dream of, it's the mandatory dance we must do with time. the patience that's woven into the equation, it's the empty spaces that we tend to use for manufacturing doubt and disbelief when life is given us nothing to react to. It's like we create monsters in our heads. And it's really an incredible thing when you think about it, right? I look back on the past decade of my life in the hardest parts and some were excruciating. They were pain derived from what I knew I hadn't yet accomplished. It was a feeling like I wasn't moving fast enough. Like the winners in life had that over there, and all I had was this over here.

Completely nonsensical narrative, but one that certainly felt real. Discomfort from the delta or the gap between what I wanted and what I had. A feeling that would randomly dip in and out of my conscious mind. As I sort of chipped away at my goals day in and day out, and I started to wonder, how can I better position myself to grow, to maintain that ambition, but also to do it with less anxiety, right? As I stated a few seconds ago, hold that vision, but perhaps improve my trust and relationship with the process.

My ability to immerse myself in various pursuits without dwelling on the fact that I hadn't yet arrived because look I know this game. We all know this game. There's always going to be another finish line to cross. That's a great thing, but can also, when we're not looking at it correctly, be to our detriment. There are always higher numbers to achieve.

Again, incredible opportunity, but with the wrong perspective, dangerous. If you can't find a way to appreciate the now while you climb, you will be forever lost. There will always be a hole that's never filled. I think we need to be better about supporting ourselves along this journey. No one can be there for me like I can, and I think that's true for everyone. We need to be our greatest allies. So I brought this question up, as I tend to do, with a few of my friends, right, with different

perspectives. They look at the world a little differently and basically ask, you know, how can we get out of our own ways? Is there a lane to both be tenacious in our pursuit of evolution to continue doing the things that excite and challenge us while also being a little easier on ourselves, trusting that dance we do with time as the process unfold. And so I present this question to one of my friends sitting across me at the table and he thinks about it. He says, Eddie, well, that's what's got you where you are. That feeling like there's always more.

It's the reason for the success you've had and the success you'll have in the future. It's what will push you. It's why you will succeed. People that accomplish things are never satisfied. Jordan was never satisfied. He was never happy. And in that context, greatness and happiness are. not compatible. And, you know, I took it in. I certainly appreciated the perspective, right?

In many ways, I think he's right. Sort of reminded me of the idea behind Tim Grover's book, Relentless, that it's an obsession that must take place. It doesn't leave room for much else, right? Incredibly valuable to understand, if anything, just to see, just to grasp what it means to achieve in a world of obstacles. But truthfully, I wasn't in the world of obstacles. But truthfully, I wasn't, entirely satisfied. How can we better visualize the process so that we're more powerful allies to ourselves? That's what I wanted to understand. A short time later, I'm at the kitchen table, kind of going over some analytics for social media, YouTube channel podcast, stuff like that. And my father, who happened to fly in from Boston, he's at the kitchen table with me,

we're having some coffee, and I made a comment about the trajectory of, the numbers. You know, I forget that particular week. Maybe it was higher or lower than expected. I don't really remember, but he made this comment about the patience that I've had with the channel over the years. Just an offhand remark. You know, he said, the numbers are like the SMP 500, right? The stock market. There are days when it drops. There are days when it rises. But over the long haul, it's steadily pointed up and it continues to point up. And I found that That's so interesting. You know, I harp on the small things a lot on this channel, the little breakthroughs that

paved the way for larger transformation, ideas that change the way we look at things, which ultimately change the way we act, which change the results we get, and this happened to be one of them. You know, it hit me just right. What is perhaps the most important piece in the famous book, the intelligent investor? What is the idea that made Buffett a billionaire? It's that you invest in things you believe in and you remove the emotion. You hold the dips, right?

When the stock market takes a hit and everyone's panicking and acting emotionally and selling, you don't sell. You buy more, right? When the world emotionally rushes out, you rush in. And when the world emotionally rushes in, you step out. Well, in life, there will be days when your metaphorical stock drops, at least you feel like it does. Those YouTube numbers, perhaps numbers in the old bank account, maybe fitness goals fall flat, maybe you're just not seeing a return on investment.

But we are never defined by the events of the day. Even the worst of days, they're merely a small part of a much larger pattern. And the truth is sometimes success is so small. You can't see it. Of course you're going to be anxious if you think every day should be comprised solely of mountain tops and finish lines, if you're always looking, comparing, contrasting. But sometimes success is 0.0001% better. Sometimes success looks like the S&P 500 taking a hit, dropping for a day, a week, or a month.

Sometimes growth doesn't look like what we want growth to look like. But just like intelligent investors, you are putting your money in the belief that at a certain point down the road the value will be higher then than it is now. And this idea has been everything to me, particularly on the days when it feels like things are going backwards. Over periods of time where I feel like I've been standing still where the voice in my head is presenting all kinds of scenarios that I could have been better or done more and maybe so. But these times are nothing more than data points. They are steps along the way. And knowing this, it essentially frees me from the delusion that growth is always visible, that I can always look around and see visible triumph.

It allows me to march towards my goals and my dreams, having a renewed relationship with each step. You know, there's a saying that we need to keep our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground. Life is a continual juggling of extremes, and I think this gets it right. Our strength is in the ability to take those steps, each one a message to the universe that we are stronger than we were yesterday. But what makes our journeys truly divine is that they aren't comprised of or built with those steps like a, house of cards, where one wrong move or some delay will cause the whole thing to fall to come crashing down. No, what makes the journey divine is the infinite number of paths that can bring about its materialization. There are no wrong paths. Some arrive sooner. Some arrive later. Some

mid-jurney causes to realize that the compass wasn't even pointed in the right destination, right? They change what it means to arrive. But the point is, every step is required, every step is a miracle, but the power is not contained solely in one step. But rather, what we choose to make of all the steps combined, the dips, the lows, and the losses only have significance if we give them significance. Otherwise, there are just a few stops along the way to something beautiful.

So why exhaust energy on data points that haven't arrived yet, on destinations in the future? Destinations that we trust ourselves to figure out anyway. Our emphasis should be on the present moment, on gratitude for the fact that we get to wake up and choose the pursuits that we've chosen. In some days, those pursuits will feel like the miracles that they are. We'll see the finish lines, the mountaintops. mountaintops will feel triumphant and some days those victories will be hidden in plain view but they are there nonetheless as we make our way into the great unknown that is life piecing each second each minute each hour together to become the path leading us where we need to be most why is it that

when we look back on our lives, it's never the easy days or the simplicity. It's not the calm that changes our reality or makes us who we are. Don't get me wrong, calm and simplicity, they're wonderful, but they're not transformative. And why would they be? Why would we change or seek to obtain more without a reason or incentive? It's times of struggle, of turbulence. when life was hard that we had to rethink who we are. Reshape the way we look at the world. Because without chaos, you don't get calm. Without the storm, you don't get those crazy neon

colors and golden rays it leaves as it passes by. In order to triumph in any capacity or any area of life, there's always a sacrifice that must be made. The adversity is the fire that forges the iron. There's a saying hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men and weak men create hard times. It's a cycle. And this is generally used in a sociopolitical sense and I think in a lot of ways it applies

today, but where I've really found it useful, where I've found value in it is at the personal level. Because what I've noticed is that growth also appears to have a cyclical nature. And when we're in a rough situation or overcoming an obstacle, we have to push, we fight, we grow. Sometimes without even realizing it, we achieve a result. And by default, this transformation that in one way or another makes us something new.

But then it becomes easy to level out, right? And that's the challenge. It creates this period of stagnation. It's like we made the job. jump, and it becomes real easy to stay there. And that's why I have found value in when life is not providing resistance to manufacture some. Because that's the only way to grow. Progress is happiness.

Victor Frankel and Man Search for Meaning, you know, he says purpose is to find from struggle. If things are too calm or simple or quiet, life begins to lack meaning. And that's never a spot we want to be. Life is about the pursuit of something. You just have to figure out what that blank. will be. You get to decide which mountain to climb. There's a story about a butterfly making its way out of a cocoon. It makes a little hole. It starts attempting to push its way out. Someone walks by. They see it struggling and open the cocoon up to help the butterfly out, right, thinking that they did this

great deed. But in doing so, that butterfly has now lost its ability to use its wings to fly. Why? because the strength that was necessary to fly would have been forged when he fought his way out. The butterfly was deprived of the very thing it needed to become something more, and that's the point. It's easy to get lost in the now and seek to eliminate everything that doesn't make the moment more comfortable.

To remove that, which doesn't make things easier, but whether we're talking about collectively or the complacency in our individual lives, we have to remember that avoiding discomfort isn't the answer. When your biggest problem is Amazon taking five days to deliver or that your feelings are hurt by someone's comments or opinions on social media, you've lost track of yourself. You may be living in a world lacking the resistance necessary for growth.

Maybe it's time to ask what matters. And I remember when I lived in Boston, I'd walk around listening to podcast downtown, and I'll never forget hearing Ryan Holiday differentiating between passion and purpose. He called passion temporary, a dopamine hit. It's the excitement before the project begins, the beginning of a journey, the honeymoon fate. But passion alone falls short. And it falls short because anything worthwhile is hard. It tests us.

It repeatedly presents us with those metaphorical cocoon. We have to fight. We have to earn our stripes, grow our wings, and if we stop at passion, there's no reason to battle on. To take the punches, knowing that they will create for us a tomorrow full of infinite possibility, and that's where we need purpose. That's why it matters. We need something bigger to march towards. a destination that's meaningful. To remind us that those challenging times,

they're not a burden. There is no poor me here. They're the fire that sharpens us. That whispers to us, not only the importance of carrying on, but the power contained within ourselves to do so. This world, it is not stacked against, It's never the problem or the obstacle.

No, it's the opportunity laid out at your feet. And it's in those very times when we're uncomfortable, when we're unsure, when we don't know where to draw our strength. That we need to remember it comes within. It's an idea that is brought to life through courage, Through courage, through understanding, through the trials and tribulations of life that didn't intimidate or hold you back, knowing that life has given you everything you need to blaze your trail. So don't be afraid to let it take you somewhere new.