Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - DO IT FOR YOURSELF | Powerful Motivational Speeches | Start Your Day Right

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

"There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally" - Anonymous

The difficulty we face in life is not personal. If you remember this, you disarm every adversary obstacle, every complication you'll ever face. So, quick story. Recently, I was renewing a lease for my apartment. Something that usually is pretty simple, right? Only this time, things were not simple. confusion, chaos, misunderstanding, after misunderstanding. I received emails and letters saying, you know, you need to provide these documents in order to renew.

You need to have X, Y, Z information submitted to his ASAP. And I'm sitting here thinking, guys, you have all this info. I've lived here a year. Same guy, let's put two and two together. And after a while, I started to get truly annoyed. eventually to the point of taking it personally. So I stopped what I was doing and go down to the front office thinking I'm going to go scorched earth here.

I really wanted to emphasize how absurd and ridiculous all this was. I opened the door. It just kind of stop in my tracks. First thing I see is a crowded room filled with tenants asking for things, making requests, looking for info. And the people that worked there were so patient, and kind running around doing their absolute best to make everyone happy and get everything done. And almost immediately I realized, Eddie, you made this about you.

This is not in any way about you. Basically, I created this fallacy that because things weren't working the way I wanted them to, then there must have been some universal resistance, right? There's an idea I heard a while back that very rarely steers me wrong, it's that two things can simultaneously be true at once. So in this case, is there opportunity for these guys to tighten up a bit, bring more clarity to their operations and best practices?

Yeah, certainly true. But on the other hand, was building this up as a them versus me match in my head dumb and counterproductive? Yes, also true. The world will always provide advice, That's not news to anyone. It's just what the world does. That adversity will take a thousand different shapes and appear an infinite number of ways. But here's the deal. Life is neutral. Things just happen. They aren't good or bad. They just exist in the ether. We as storytellers decide to put a charge into things. We decide whether it's happening to us or for us. We are choose. And that's the takeaway here. There's power in remembering not to take things personally in any

aspect of life. Because when we do, we actually lose our grip on reality. We become emotional and not rational. And this is visible everywhere. Take rejection, for example, something we all deal with. It's not personal. The person on the other end is thinking about themselves. They're locked in on their own incentives. They're not thinking about you and however you feel about this, it's just the truth. So assess the situation, sure, maybe find some areas where you can improve and carry on. Being mistreated, again, not about you. As the saying goes, hurt people, hurt people. Same goes for criticism and hate online. It's something that a lot of people truly fear. It will almost always be true that people who are more accomplished than you or further along in their career trajectory won't waste time bringing you down in the comments section.

No, it's people saying things hoping that their comments will get approval and attention so they can feel validated. Their actions are being carried out for, ready for this, themselves. and to misdiagnose or take it as a shot to the heart, well, that's creating a battle scenario that doesn't need to exist. It's not them versus you, it's them versus them. You're just in the crossfire. Now, does this perspective or point to not take things personally mean that we abdicate personal responsibility?

Does it mean we say, well, it's not me, it's the world, so not my problem? No, of course not. This perspective gives you the power to do the right things and the necessary things because you understand that the problems you face are not a giant indictment of you as a person. Getting angry creates a scenario where you reallocate your energy from doing what's best for you to instead being mad at him or her or this group or that circumstance or the world in general. You know, bad things happen.

And by the way, they happen to everyone. Everyone gets rejected at some point. Everyone gets let down by people close to them at some point. Everyone loses their way at some point. Everyone has their expectations fall short. Everyone has pushback. It's not just you. It's the world doing what the world does.

And there's 8 billion of us running around operating in our best, interest, trying to navigate a big, crazy world that's often incredibly difficult to understand. So with this perspective, right, going forward, you know, my lesson from a few weeks ago, what would I have done differently during all that chaos with the apartment? A handful of things. First of all, remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, it's trivial. It's just not that important. Two, understand incentives.

These folks aren't trying to make things hard for me. They're trying to do their jobs well so they can live their best lives, which brought their attention to other things. It happens. And three, when you're calm, you can actually solve the problems at hand. When you don't stack your problems up to look like adversaries working against you, when you instead see them as merely a challenge or puzzle to be solved, life starts to look a lot different. It just feels different to walk around as though life is on your side. As though hardship is nothing more than the water necessary for the seed to grow.

As though all those challenges you face are opportunities being presented to you. Because I'm not sure you can simultaneously fight and solve. I think one of our most important decisions is to select one. You can make the rejection, an opponent, the criticism, a rival, you can make the disorder your nemesis, or you can realize that all of it falls squarely into the box that is life. Pieces to be taken out one by one so that you can construct the ideal. Life comes down to the advantages that exist all around us, the choices we make, to live freely with the wind at our backs, or confined by the

walls we build around ourselves. And sure, your current obstacles might be because of decisions you've made, maybe even decisions you wish you could take back. But the current moment right now in this second is neutral. It does not hold a grudge or have an agenda now, right now, is simply right now in the same way that two plus two is four. Four is not good or bad. It doesn't want you to win or lose, it's just four. Same goes for the crossroads before you. And that puts the onus entirely on you to decide what you will make it all mean. Will you slow things down to find clarity? Will you open your eyes to see the value? Because look, there will always be a delta between reality

and the stories we tell ourselves about reality. That's just how human beings work. It's how we've managed to survive for millennia. So understand that and gift yourself the narratives that bring you closer to the place you want to be. The road before you will be challenging, not because its pushback is personal, but because amidst the resistance, you'll find the components you need to live your very best life. yourself first. Before we can influence, before we can ever persuade or change anything externally, we have to first lead ourselves. And that means delivering on the promises we make to ourselves.

It means showing up when we tell ourselves we're going to show up. It means putting ourselves in an environment conducive to growth. There's an old metaphor from Wayne Dyer about an orange where he essentially says that it doesn't matter what you do to an orange. It doesn't matter how hard you squeeze it or how many you have or how you manipulate it. Grapefruit juice will never come out of an orange. Only orange juice can be emitted and similarly we can never give or contribute what we We do not have inside ourselves.

We can't expect our lives to look like anything other than a culmination of the tiny action, steps and decisions we make on a daily basis. The external world is a product of the internal world. And the internal world is not realized until we learn to rule over ourselves and our lives with conviction. You can break this down in many different ways. Jacco Willink says discipline equals freedom. John Maxwell talks about a leadership lid

where success levels can never exceed leadership capability, and sure it applies to teams, but it also applies to self-leadership. Are you searching for and committing to the little hinges in your life that, as W. Clement Stone says, swing big doors that make the difference? Are you taking responsibility for your shortcomings like leaders do? Are you learning to trust yourself?

Are you seeing past the trap of perfection and committing to progress? Are you taking the little things seriously? Because at the end of the day, all things are comprised of little things and only little things. The bottom line is that we master nothing until we master ourselves. Trust ourselves. The bottom line is that we win when we lead ourselves to hold ourselves. accountable for the little things that matter even when it hurt or retired Even though no one's going to come up and reprimand us for falling short

There are often no visible consequences when we let ourselves down So let's manufacture that urgency If you promised yourself you'd get up when that alarm clock goes off It becomes no longer optional If you promised yourself you'd go down the road that scares you you, it becomes no longer one road of many, it is now the only road. Even though it may be scary or intimidating, it's the darkness that must be confronted. You are more powerful than you know, you are more capable than you understand,

but you must lead yourself to your potential. Those little things matter. And so while the temptation is to brush them off is insignificant, while the rest of the world ebbs and flows through life like jellyfish with the tide, your superpower will be to sea, harness, and multiply those little decisions like they are gold. Your strength is that when it's easier to run, you'll be the one that instead stands up and leads you. yourself to greatness. Don't you dare reach for your pocket, I told myself. In fact, take that phone

and go put it in another room. Shut your internet off, set your devices to do not disturb and think. Please think. You are losing yourself to distraction. Or as Cal Newport puts it, you know, we're in a world that demands more thought, more deep work than ever before, while we all simultaneously become more and more incapable of that focus. And to me, it feels like more than a chuckle at our outrageous screen time or a self-deprecating joke about how reliant we are on our phones, the dopamine hit. you know, I think it's antithetical overall to what we need, to where we find our purpose,

which is a dichotomy that's frustratingly true with so many things, that balance for me to have a digital business that means so much to me that I'm so proud of, but also tiptoeing around that same digital world like it's a hungry lion capable of devouring me. That's a real feeling. It's water that's foundational for life, but in too large a quantity will kill. It's the sun that, while integral and responsible for this planet as we know it, also has no problem ending, you know, anything that's too openly exposed to its rays, to its heat. There's always a sweet spot between too much and not enough. right that happy medium that intersection is why we're all here because when i don't take time to deeply think

when i lose the big picture i remain in a cycle of routine and sometimes that's great right morning routine is great i don't really have to think about it i'm programmed things like driving a car as do he explains in the power of habit your foot stepping on the gas it's involuntary and thank god for that But one must be able to step outside that loop and ask the big picture questions. We have to make time to at least roughly chart the course. And it'll change. Life will present its obstacles, but we'll have at least parsed out what matters and what doesn't.

When life is all habit and reflex, when you've lost the ability to examine the same, because one minute alone with your thoughts is agonizing, well, you won't be able to see past the surface of who you are and what you're capable of. I want to be clear here, this is not me complaining about perhaps the most prosperous society ever to exist. This is me saying, you know, there are some dangers

that we way too easily overlook. That when you outsource your thinking, you outsource your feelings. outsource your future. And it's not hard to fall into that trap. I just referenced the book Deep Work a few minutes ago. I think it's one of the most important books someone can read in this day and age, you know, Cal Newport talking about separating ourselves from distraction. I remember the day I first listened to that book, I was sick, so I wasn't on my usual

run, I was walking, and because of that, I felt this urge to, as the book, was playing to reach into my pocket and check for notifications. And it really was eye-opening. It's like, we are scared to completely immerse ourselves in solitude. But solitude is where we uncover so much. Silence is where we hear what our souls have to say. It's where we understand who we are. My favorite Joseph Campbell quote, The Cave You Fear, holds the treasure you see. And man, I hate to say it, but I think being alone, even for a short period of time, is that monster lurking in the cave. You know, the one we're scared to confront, even though it's what we need. Solitude is the demon we are consistently masking in a constant influx of media and small talk and DMs and emails.

You know, that stuff has its value, but it's not real. in the sense that I find it disconnected from purpose. So here's something that I've been doing, and I would suggest that you give it a try. It's been certainly helpful in my life, and start small, even if it's 15 minutes, but take a walk by yourself. No phone, and it's challenging at first because, you know, you want to be consuming something, even if it's, you know, educational, valuable, still, right? No phone. Solitude. Think about life.

Think about who you are. Think about what you've always wanted and where your current reality aligns. Think about how much you have and how lucky you are. Think about any or all of these things. But think. Let your mind go where amidst the push and pull of life, you don't often let it wander. For example, some thoughts from my walk today,

some of it random sporadic noise, some of it more valuable than others, but all of it valuable, because the process in its entirety is valuable. You know, I spend some time thinking about the week ahead, the things I'm excited about and how to prepare for them, and realize one of them I didn't want to do. I then had that debate with myself,

well, do I not want to do it because it doesn't align with my goals or because it makes me uncomfortable. Came to the conclusion that I think it's the latter, so it's staying in my schedule, but I'll reassess. I thought about Florida. I consistently think about how lucky I am to be down here after living in so many cold places. It's just such a beautiful environment, and you know, one that I don't take for granted. I thought about a statement I just heard from a professional athlete. after his surgery talking about how hard it was on him,

but that he would rise from the ashes and he would have the best year of his life. And, you know, my mind went to one of the most important rules of leadership that it's not about you or your rise or fall, right? To lead is to make it about the team, about the overall goal and how grateful I was to come across that video, to see that and really dissect it. You know, sometimes the best ways,

we learn is by seeing what not to do, right? And I'll take that with me. I'll take that understanding with me on my own journey. Last thing I remember, I thought about some of the books I've been consuming. I've taken in an insane amount of books over the years, but I practically stopped reading physical books, right? And now I consume mostly on audible or other audiobook methods made me wonder whether the value is equivalent, how much that varies from person to person, maybe something to research later, right? That's all I remember as I sit here now,

but the point is, you know, this is stuff that if I don't immerse myself in solitude and break through the barrier of boredom, I don't get to. You know, and maybe you go through a week where you don't find much, but as the saying goes, right, one idea, one common,

One epiphany can truly change the dynamic of your life. It could change everything. There are answers just beyond the realm of distraction we operate in. Some of them pertain to trivialities like the audiobooks in the cold front. Some of them pertain to your goals and your development, who you are, where you're going, and how you'll get there. As Newport says, to simply wait and be bored has become a novel experience in modern life.

And while his emphasis and focus is primarily on work in creating an environment to be productive, I want to suggest that it's not only our work that needs saving, but ourselves. We can't lose touch with what matters most. We can't become so shallow in our thoughts and our actions that the beauty remains buried away. There is something in you that's untapped, unfinished, raw talent or desire. There are pieces of you that need to be assembled. And if left alone, will wither away, unremarkably, quietly, and probably without your noticing. So my ask is that you think of this as more than me cheering on long walks.

It's not about the walks, right? It's about time alone with yourself in what. that opens up for you. It's about recognizing the spaces we need to carve out from the outside world. So that when we re-enter the outside world, we know who we are. We understand where we're headed.

We don't go where the wind blows. We are able, as the saying goes, to adjust our sails to get to our destination. All you need is more time with. You. You weren't put here to live in the shadows of life. To exist beyond the sun's grasp, to stay on the outside, looking in. No, you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life.

It's important to remember the difference between now and forever, the distinction between today and tomorrow. because from time to time they look deceptively similar, especially when we inevitably find ourselves in the darkest of times. When despite our best efforts, our world is reduced to shadows, void of hope. When tomorrow and today have merged into one endless entity, it always seems to be in these times that we forget that right now is just a, moment, not an assigned permanent, but a bridge to something great. As Victor Frankl says, if there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. We all suffer, we all hurt, we all go

through periods of time where we can't see or hear or feel anything beyond the darkness we find ourselves in, but it's there. Darkness cannot be defined without light. It's, it's a in the definition. Darkness is a partial or total absence of light. They need each other, darkness and light. The one thing that can bring darkness to its knees is out there, everywhere, all around it. And if there was ever a reason to be hopeful, enthusiastic, if there's ever a reason to believe, it's that a new life is always a light switch away. It's that darkness is as temporary as the day. And the antidote requires only that you believe it to be true. Only that you find the resolve to reach one foot out, to remind yourself of the sun's warmth and the infinite beauty

of a world beyond this temporary darkness. Because you, you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life, but to reemerge like a rocket. through the Earth's stratosphere to swing from star to star like life is a playground and you make the rules. And I think when we look back we'll be nothing but grateful for those times of darkness. They, in a sense, prepared us for the road ahead by giving us what we need most. Perspective. Life lessons. A roadmap to follow because you don't appreciate the light.

The sun, the clearer blue skies, the wind on your face, the sound of the waves, the chirping of the birds. No, you don't see the beauty in any of that until even if for a moment it is taken away. You don't learn about life's abundance until you come face to face with scarcity. You don't learn to give until you've had your world taken away. You don't learn to love until you've experienced heartbreak. You don't learn courage until you've been overcome by fear. You don't learn to grow until you've been truly stuck. You don't learn to believe until you've looked in the mirror and doubt peers back.

You don't know who you are until you learn what you're not. See, everyone finds themselves having wandered into the dark. of their own volition, sometimes of fate. But like leaves changing color in the fall, the earth on its journey around the sun, a wave emerging and falling back into that which it came. It is not an end, but a beginning. Life's way of preparing us for what's to come,

introducing us to the infinite possibility of tomorrow because you weren't put here to live in the shape. shadows of life, but to emerge from them. To light up the world. No, you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life. There's often a vast distinction between what we think is holding us back and what is actually holding us back. And that may even be putting it lightly. Most of the time we're just plain misinformed. Most of the time, we're looking externally at irrelevant discrepancies between ourselves and someone else. We're looking at things that happened yesterday, possible outcomes that may happen tomorrow.

We're creating entire stories, crafting narratives, building hostile worlds that. that simply don't exist. When what we need is simple, to give ourselves permission, to let ourselves walk out that front door and towards what we long for. This came to light recently. I shared a simple 20-second message on TikTok where basically I highlighted John Green's quote

about the best things in life occurring after we find the courage to depart or leave where we are, right, to build again. And as I was looking at the response, it was both beautiful and eye-opening. Hundreds and hundreds of comments from people saying that the message helped them feel empowered to do what they've been putting off. And some called it fate. Some called it what they needed to hear at the exact moment. They needed to hear it. And as I'm going through, I keep thinking the same thing.

over and over every single one of these people, they already knew in their hearts what needed to come next. They knew what would make them feel alive. They knew where the compass was pointing, yet their default led them to the same place we've all been, waiting for external permission, waiting for life to give us a reason to say, okay. The light is now green. You can go. The time is right. Now, don't get me wrong, it means the world that a simple message can shift one's perspective that way.

I've been on the receiving end. I'm stock looking for some type of guidance we all have, but I think we'd all agree that if that guidance helps us get back on track, then the real question should be, how do we live so that we live? We can stay to the best of our ability on track. Find ourselves less prone to those occurrences, more confident in ourselves, in our dreams, in where we're going. For me, it's been understanding that in my life, I am the one that creates, signs, and sends the permission slips.

I say go. And when I remember that, I'm free to do what's best for me. simultaneously the architect and the pieces, the wind, and the sail. See, you don't need a reason to walk out of a relationship you're not happy in. You don't need a reason to leave a job that's not pushing you to be who you most want to become. You don't need a reason to change a habit or reinvent yourself or begin again. know all you need is the courage to green light what your heart already knows it wants. We think that the external world has the answers for us.

When in reality, we've had them the whole time. We just want something to point to say, see, I was right. But we don't need to be reactive. We can be proactive. You can be the one that lights the fire. When you follow your intuition, your heart, your sense of purpose, life conforms because it has to conform. When you become an immovable object, life around you moves.

It makes way and if it doesn't, then you go back to the drawing board, you adapt and adjust. And that's the beauty of life. That's how we build meaning, trusting ourselves to walk into it. into that resistance because the friction and the headwind is never what's holding us back. Are they uncomfortable? Yeah. At times, does it scare us? Sure. It's supposed to. But it's not what holds you back.

Waiting for someone or something to come along and greenlight your journey through life is what holds you back. And it's funny. I think we again and again overlook the simplest of truth. The hardest part is starting. It's convincing yourself that, one, it's possible, and two, you're worth it. Everything else you face from the second you walk out, that front door can be conquered. In fact, we ourselves grow along the way so that we can rise up and meet the demands of life. but it's unquestionably doable.

That thought as you look out the window, right? What if the worst case scenario happens? Can't. Because the worst case scenario is sitting in that seat your whole life, looking out the window, and imagining a world where you found the courage to be more, to explore,

to live life as it was meant to be lived. But let's say, let's say that what we fear does come to fruition. Then I ask, what are the odds? It's reversible, probably high. Let's say I want to start a podcast, and I finally work up the courage, and I get my mic, and I start my show, and no one listens. But I keep going, and I keep going, and nothing sticks.

And most importantly, I learn, look, I'm really not crazy about this idea. It wasn't what I thought it was. It's not me. Okay, perfect. Now you know. And sure, it took time to learn that lesson. But you have the rest of your life to get. continue the beautiful experiment to search for what lights you up.

But you found the courage to explore, to try, to begin, and you are now better because of it. That's your worst case scenario? Sounds a lot less scary to me than a life lived sitting there looking out the window. See, we can't let the fear of an unlikely worst case stop the possibility of that oh so coveted best case. Don't let the virtually 0% probability of losing everything overshadow the opportunity to gain everything. Let's never allow ourselves to get caught standing still waiting for the universe to give us the answer as though we're waiting for a letter in the mail.

No, give yourself permission to see the upside, to make your own decisions and most importantly to live your life. I'm going to make everything around me beautiful. That will be my life. Elsie DeWold. Changing for the better is not about the creation of miracles. It's about choosing to see the ones that already exist. Life is hard,

but coincidentally, hard things tend to be the gatekeeper. to the important one. We are let in when we bring ourselves finally to shake hands with and embrace the very things we once saw as the problem. As Ryan Holiday has famously put it,

the obstacle tends to be the way. How funny, how counterintuitive, how upside down life can see. But I I think that's it.

Sometimes it's not even that we're looking at the wrong things. So we're looking at the right things the wrong way. Avoiding the call to step further into the world and deeper into ourselves. Terrified of scraping our knees on the climb, we burden ourselves with the much more painful choice of staying at the bottom of the mountain and looking up. But the scars we've collected and will continue to collect on the way up, they do not make you less than.

No, they are what make you beautiful. You see yourself and those scars is imperfect. I see someone who has lived, who has taken risks, fallen, and bounced back. I see character and wisdom and elegance and boldness. In an imperfect world, those quote-unquote flaws and scars may, funny enough, just be the closest thing to perfection we'll ever experience. It's from our courage to step out, our willingness to crack that we flourish. Living necessarily includes a deterioration over time. But a deterioration of the external.

Because the internal, the soul, it stays young. It's underneath that forever crumbling world around us that we find the divine. It is because of our scars, not to spite them, that we grow our wings. They aren't to be feared but coveted. You are more because of the mistakes you made, the challenges you face. The adjustments you had to see. through and I believe our value increases with each tear and break, resembling the Japanese art of Kinsugi, where a pot that breaks and is put back together with golden lacquer holds

more value than the original unblemished piece. See, Wolf says, I'm going to make everything around me beautiful. And I think this simply calls for an optical adjustment, a shift in relations between things and how you perceive those things. Me, I don't want the whitest, cleanest, newest shoes. As far as I'm concerned, there's very little beauty to preserve there. I want shoes with worn souls from the miles and miles they carried me. me, holes from the distance I had to walk to find the people who add joy to my life.

Cracks from running in the rain while the rest of the world stayed inside. I want my imperfections to show that I lived while I was here. So from now on, let's stop conflating perfect and beautiful. Perfect is no skin in the game. Perfect is standing forever in the doorway looking out. Perfect is dreaming and wishing and hoping, but never leaving, because leaving is where our vision brushes up against a reality we may see as too big. No, we want not perfect but beautiful. We want scars and flaws and lessons and loss, because from those things as difficult as they may be, were born again.

Imperfection is life, and life is beautiful. So here's to more scuffed shoes and scrape knees, to walking an imperfect yet beautiful road. yet beautiful road ahead. Human beings don't see we interpret. We don't take in what happens. We take in the implication of what happens. Everything in our world is story.

It's similar to the idea of two ideologically different news organizations, right, reporting on the same event. Neither will be completely factual. They'll both uphold their individual narratives. They're not black and white, they're interpreting gray space, and our individual lives are no different. We are our own broadcasting channels. Using data to support our individual narratives. See, we know what the story's going to say before the story occurs because we will make it so.

We'll make life fit our beliefs. That's what means to be human. So here's where the value lives in the context of this message when we find ourselves in a consistent state of despair or frustration or anxiety. It's a fool's errand to look for solutions in the external world. Because everything we find, everything we come across will support our current beliefs, our current story. That's what we'll keep playing in our heads. And it's why money can't bring fulfillment and another person can't take your own. you from incomplete to content.

It's why status will never equate to happiness. Those acquisitions are like putting premium fuel in a car with a broken engine. It's just not the answer that we hoped it would be. To change your world, you must change your story. Whatever it is that needs to be changed. The location, the objective, the characters, maybe the journey altogether, but it's the neural network behind your eyes that must change, not the detail it takes in.

And so if you feel stuck or feel like where you want to be seems unrealistic, you have to know right now that the very fact you think that way is the problem. So ask yourself, not your girlfriend or your boss or your neighbor, but ask yourself what a turnaround looks like. Do you know? Or have you acclimated to being unhappy? Have you even asked yourself what happiness looks like?

Or is your personal broadcasting channel so hell-bent on ensuring your life outlook stays the way it is that it's not even paying attention to the data it takes in? See, I believe wholeheartedly that the first step in any facet of transformation is remembering that you have control, that things in your life that bring you down, or hold you back can be changed. In fact, the very things working against you can work for you, but you have to be aware. You have to think about it. Now, I'm not a believer in magic, right? I don't think you sit back, say, I don't want to be unhappy ever again,

snap your fingers and smile until the end of eternity. But I do believe that once we're aware of our manufactured shackles and our self-imposed limitation, we can start chipping away, doing the one, two, or three, things every day, tiny swings at the tree until it falls. Right? If it's, I'm not happy with my work life. Well, what does a better situation look like?

What bridges that gap? I'll wake up 20 minutes earlier on weekdays and master Microsoft Excel. I'll send one message on LinkedIn asking an expert about the field I want to move into. I'll read 20 pages a day in a book related to business. You think those things are small? See what they look like compounded in a year. Not only that. This is the most important part.

You are taking the power back. You're taking control. And that's what feels good. That's where we get our identity. You get a little disappointed at how you've let your physique slip when you look in the mirror. Don't be sad about it every day. Again, ask yourself what the inverse looks like and start doing small things. subtract one sports drink and add one green smoothie, double your water intake, do a 10-minute

daily workout on YouTube. The pieces are out there, and to find yourself again is to realize that they're out there, realize that you're playing a movie on loop in your head that isn't right. It's just not you. And well, what movie do you want to be playing in an ideal world? through the library, find it, click play, and start doing the small things that make it real. There's so much power in progress.

I've seen this unfold in different areas of my life, but particularly as a writer, as a speaker, it's like you identify who you want to be, you start making tiny steps, and after a while, you're surrounded by the change that you've created. How can you not believe something that you're starting to live? It has to become your identity because it is you. It's around you.

You breathe it. So look around and realize the malleability of your situation. And if what you find is not you, good. Here is your opportunity to tear down the old and construct the new. You can do that. Because you have control. Because it's within your grasp. So start the new movie, the new story.

Make yourself the hero. And set out to find yourself again. What's the difference between simple and easy? Well, simple is straightforward, uncomplicated. Easy, on the other hand, means achieved without great effort. The difference between those two words is subtle, but essential to understand. One deals with the complexity of an outcome. The other, your will and determination to achieve that outcome.

Becoming who you most want to be is simple. But becoming who you most want to be is not. easy. Just like walking is simple, yet hiking up a mountain is not easy. The procedure didn't change the context did. So let's talk about context. Let's talk about this cyclical nature of growth because it's not that most people can't. It's that most people won't. It's not that most people don't get how. It's that they don't have a strong enough why. The path is laid out before you, you just have to be willing to walk down it.

Will you? Step one, realize there's more out there. It's not that what you're doing now isn't amazing. It's just that yesterday's act of courage is now today's status quo. What was the spectacular is now the mundane. What was once the ceiling you had to jump to touch is now. the floor you walk on, so at the very least, it prompts you to ask, well, what's next? Simple.

Not easy. Step 2. The Acquisition of Courage. Yesterday's courage was a fight. It took a lot out of you, and it's ultimately what got you here. But it dropped you at the curb, it waved goodbye and went on its merry way, and here you are. You can stay here. A lot of people do.

You can reminisce of the glory days, the old path, yesterday's triumphs. Or you can do that perpetually uncomfortable exercise of vulnerability. Stepping into tomorrow's unknown, reminding yourself that life's greatest rewards have a hefty price tag, and that price is discomfort. But I've already played this game, one might think.

No, what you did was learn the rules. Now it's time to apply them to a new setting, and around goes the merry-go-round. It might seem like a replication from the horizontal, but here's the secret. You can't see the vertical. You have yet to look down and see your ascent, see what you're becoming. Just by staying on, holding tight, just by believing in yourself enough to begin again, you are fanning those tiny flames of courage in your soul. that wait to be spread like a wildfire.

Simple, but not easy. Step three, mistakes. Now, of course, it's not the mistakes themselves, you fear. It's what you think those mistakes will mean. Ridicule, embarrassment, lack of direction, or identity, losing what you have, but here's the catch. When you realize the upside is greater than the downside, you liberate yourself.

When you realize there's more to gain than to lose, your potential for greatness is born. How does one act on this? Mistakes. By making mistakes, by injecting yourself into the turbulence of progress. Our biology has not yet learned that the uncomfortable thing is the right thing, and that's why you get resistance. That's why it hurts, and it's why few people will accomplish what you will. When it comes to your climb, every day is opposite day.

When they run out, you're running in. When they play safe, you play for the victory. To become who you might be, you must learn how to get there. Mistakes are your curriculum. Simple, but not easy. Step four, trust yourself. Okay, sure, no problem. Easy.

Well, yeah, it's easy when you're getting what you want. But evolution takes time, and there's nothing quite like giving and giving and giving and not getting. There's nothing quite like stepping up to the plate again and again and again and again and bringing no runners home. So how does one find the strength to continue walking up to the batters box? Well, growth is exponential, and those swings and misses matter. The infield singles matter. Everything matters. Because it's all chiseling your future self out of stone.

Nothing is dependent on the next at-bat, as much as all at-bats in the aggregate. That's why success is so often considered to be sheer will, dependent not on the home run, but on the discipline, the self-belief, to keep walking up to the plate. Repetition and adjustment. Repetition and adjustment. Repeat and refine, repeat, refine, those are the materials from which all things are made. Simple, but not easy.

And then we have the finale. The ending, step five. Celebrate and adjust. At some point, you'll be able to look over your shoulder and notice something that perhaps you hadn't before. Space. Space between where you are and where you started. It's not sudden, but gradual. And undoubtedly, with enough persistence, it will emerge.

These moments, they are precious. They are times to acknowledge what you've accomplished, the sacrifices you have made. They are life's way of reminding you what you are building and who you are becoming. It's a time of celebration. Every little win means something. Every small victory matters. So relish in it.

And then transform it. Normalize it. Recognize that that mountaintop is your foundation now. Your starting point has changed and so have you. Which means so have your expectations. With an increase in ability comes an upgrade to what's possible, what's expected. And look at that. We have arrived at a new step one.

Realize there is more. This is the process for capturing that which life has to offer. If you can fall in love with that, appreciate it, respect it, while simultaneously understanding its name. It's not scary. It's dependent entirely on your ability to push forward. If you can understand that, there is nothing you can't do. Nowhere you can't go. Simple, yes, easy, no. But you're not in this for easy. You're in it for the journey, the growth, the adventure.

You're in it because it's not easy. You'll see in time, as will the world, that this decision to endure was simply the best one you ever made.