Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - DO NOT STOP | Best Motivational Speeches | Wake Up Positive

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

"You only fail when you stop trying" - unknown

When you're at your lowest point, you are, often without realizing it, positioning yourself to arrive at your highest point. Potential energy accumulating to propel you through an atmosphere of new beginnings. See, I believe our adversity is life asking that we submerge and dive deep, sometimes very deep. just to remember how badly we need that oxygen above. So that when we again come up for air and we will, we notice the warmth of the sun on our face and the calming sound of the waves crashing on the beach. You don't make the most of what's around you

until you recognize that what's around you is the opportunity. And so life reminds us, a taxing reminder. Right? It rarely gives without first taking away. It rarely opens new doors without closing old ones. And that, to put it, simply, can hurt. They don't teach you in school that growth is painful. But as it turns out, a life without growth isn't much of a life

at all. And so we must dive deep. We're given no other choice. Without night, there is no day. Without suffering, there is no beauty. Without those depths below, there is no surface above. Our submergence is our transformation. The cocoon that separates who we were from who we will be. But unlike the butterfly, it doesn't just evolve once. Our journey requires that we are continuously growing a new pair of wings. Life is chaos. Life is unpredictable. Life is hard, but you were built to not only endure in its arena,

you were put here to excel, to learn the rules and then expand upon the rules. Sometimes break the rules. You were put here to take the difficulty. and provide meaning to it. Piece by piece as if it were the construction of a rocket to the moon. Little pieces of at one point frustration and confusion and chaos combined, reused and transformed into exactly what you need them to be.

Emergent properties. You just have to be willing to see beyond the now and assemble. to come up for air and soak in all that awaits at the surface like you've never done. The other day, I was texting with a friend of mine. Out of nowhere, she goes, what's wrong? And I'm thinking nothing, right? I haven't said anything. You know, what do you mean?

She's adamant, right? She goes, something feels off. I thought about it and realized, yeah, she's pointing out something I've known for a little bit here. Something is off. I'm hiding from myself. I feel a little burnt out, a little tired. Certain areas of my life have become unevenly distributed. In fact, I was flirting with that thing. I've always feared doing most. Simply going through the motions.

That scared me. I don't want this. Right? I've come too far to feel like this. I'm better than this. How do I fix it? How do I solve it now? it now, figure it out now. But eventually came to realize the now part just might be the whole problem. Fix the now like it's a headache and me shaking my fist at the sky will be ibuprofen. No, battling imperfection is a fool's errand. It's setting yourself up for disaster. We are humans, not gods. We are perfectly imperfect. And when something is off, don't fight, listen, don't retract, expand.

Here is the opportunity. I'm under the surface, diving down into the depths of my own soul. Hear what it has to say. So that when I come up for air and I will, the sun will warm. my face like it never has. The crashing waves will offer a symphony to my ears that I've never heard. And I'll see that the world I'm taking in is more a reflection of me than of it. As that saying goes, you don't see the world as it is. You see the world as you are. And how lucky to have taken a step back, a trip below the surface, to really realize again that I am the painter, not the critic. My world had become black and white,

not because we live in a black and white world, but because sometimes we forget to put the color in. Sometimes we don't give ourselves permission to expand beyond the parameters we've created for ourselves. So with the breath and the oxygen, oxygen will come a new appreciation, a liberating gratitude. There's nothing so sweet as remembering that both the castles in the air and the chains at our feet are imaginary.

And hey, you get to choose which one to believe in. See, what time has taught me is that there is strength in our vulnerability. in the times we fall or lose ourselves. And I know the inclination is to panic, perhaps assess too quickly, to not hear but talk, to not listen but attempt to solve, which leads to the application of band-aids on bullet wounds.

When we are low, when we are lost, it's our chance to better understand ourselves. It's the metaphorical equipment room where we stock up prior to our next ascent. And if I could emphasize one thing, it would be that our perceived understanding of life, it oscillates. Sometimes we feel like we get it. We do.

And sometimes we feel like we're sprinting with our eyes closed. It's a riddle we will never fully come to solve. But I do know one thing. We can't change the unpredictability of the world, But by observing, by listening, by getting back up, we can change ourselves. By recognizing our strength, we can utilize the downtimes as they are the education we've been longing for. Remember, the world does not and will not ask perfection of you. So don't ask perfection of it.

You were built to endure, to overcome and to recreate yourself. Losing your wings will never be the problem. It's forgetting that they must be regrown. That is the problem. So step out. Rise to the surface of your world and breathe. Take in the surroundings that will become your resurrection story if you left them. It's been an important thing.

I wrote a piece a couple years ago called the evolution of instance. sanity, I have it backwards there. And the idea is, there's this girl, right? And so she has this idea. And it's out there. It's a little weird. And everyone says, you know, it's weird. And so she believes in it so much that she cuts off everything in her life.

And she just hones in on that one thing. And people say, you're crazy. And she works nights and nights and nights. And people are like, you're insane. Cuts off everything else. It is her world. People said, you've lost it. And then something happens, right?

Months, years down the road, she succeeds. And she succeeds like no one has ever succeeded. And then you have those very same people asking, how'd you do that? I want to do that. We want to be like, can you show us? Ultimately then it's, hey, look at her. Successful at the top of the mountain. Must be great.

She's lucky. And she says, lucky. No, you don't know what I've. given to get here, that way of thinking is insane. And I like to think of that as like a 180 with regard to, you know, that progression. Everything, everything new, everything of significance starts out weird, abnormal, crazy. Henry Ford says, look, if I asked the world what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. You know, the idea of automobiles being not just a luxury item, not just something for the rich that was out there. But he believed in it.

He went with it. Again, changed the world. I love the scene from hatching Twitter, where you have the four founders sitting around this table, right? And the app has a multimillion dollar valuation and millions of users. And they're sitting there like, what do we have? Like, is this a news platform?

Is this for communication? Is it an electronic journal? What is it? And I just think, like, imagine, imagine. imagine if they stopped because they didn't know what the future would be like, but they weren't willing to sort of suffer through and carve out their unique place in the world. Right now you have world leaders using it to communicate. You have revolution starting from the platform.

I mean, in 2019, Twitter is, it will be an important part of history. And so I always think back to that. And the last example I'll provide is Dilbert. where you have Scott Adams and this guy who has some business background but he's not Jeff Bezos and he's kind of funny but he's not the best comedian in the world

and he's a decent artist but he's not Picasso but you take these things right you're bold enough to take these little pieces of what you love and create your own category and he's changed the course of history, what we consume, right? Everyone's going to know Dilbert 50 years from now, 100 years from now. So that's lesson number three.

Be unique. Don't be afraid to wander, to make your own category because that's where the best stuff comes from. Nothing in life will ever be bigger or smaller than your thoughts about it. You are your person. of the world as it unfolds before you.

Your mind will either be your single greatest ally or the very reason that you fail. This is a battle between you and yourself. And I want to make something clear. No one, nothing will ever dictate your success except you. Those who judge or criticize, they're not a reason to change your approach or backpedal. They are a benchmark.

They are a sign to carry on. See, you'll never achieve until you can depersonalize criticism. Until you understand that negativity, that the opinions of others are not a reflection of you or your work. They are simply part of a beautiful. process. Look, in life, there are certain undeniable truths. I can promise you that tomorrow the sun will rise. I can promise you that two and two will give you four, and I can promise you that anything worthwhile in life will have its doubters, its haters, and its cynics. You will have people who want to pull you down before you begin the climb. But they are not.

the problem, nor the tragedy. Their existence is guaranteed. Oh, they'll be there. The tragedy is letting them misdirect your journey, giving them control of a battle that is not theirs to take. You aren't doing this for the ones trying to tear you down or the ones helping to lift you up. You're doing it because it's right for you, because deep down in your soul, you know there's no other reason. There's no other option. You know what your values are, where your heart is? When they say no, smile. When they talk, carry on. If you have not made the world around you uneasy or uncomfortable, if you've generated no reaction, you have not moved. So don't run from the dissenting voices. Let them be. Their words highlight their own shortcomings.

Not yours. Sure, it will be difficult. Yes, it's an adjustment, but at some point you'll see that the climb was dependent on it. That attempting to satisfy the world around you only leaves you empty, because at the end of the day, you can hide from criticism or anticipate it and keep moving right towards your dreams. Build your castle. There is no need to keep the doubters or the naysayers out. They are no threat to your empire.

One of life's challenges is that its greatest gifts are often disguised. They rattle the current moment, shake up our perceptions, redirect the path. We were so confidently marching down. By the way, they never tell us, hey, this is for your own good, right? You'll come out stronger. You'll be better prepared to take life head on. If we didn't provide you with this shakeup, you'd ultimately live your life as a fraction of what you're capable of.

No, that message is omitted in the moment. We're left to think that our world is ending. And I've always believed that the most challenging part of our down times, right? when we go through that suffering, the struggle, when we go through hell, it's not the situation itself, it's our thinking that this is forever. Our inability to see past the darkness, and remember that all of this is temporary.

It's a process. A series of ups and downs, peaks and valleys, and guess what, without the valleys, there are no peaks, there are no mountaintops. Sometimes that's hard to grasp. And how can pain and suffering be the seeds to our joy? How can exposure to uncertainty become the confidence that things will work out? How can loss manifest into the acquisition of the best things that life has to offer?

How? Well, because the very experiences we're inclined to avoid are the ones that define us. Like a sculptor creating an image from stone, carving away as we progress through life. life, I've learned that it's a price worth paying. I'm willing to spend hours, months, even years working alone on something I believe in. I'm willing to be vulnerable, have people I don't know, and even some I do criticize my vision. I'm willing to give up the comfort of security of the present moment. Even heartbreak, relationships, there are risks that we take. And when they don't work out or they fall apart, it's a discomfort that ultimately makes

stronger and better equipped for the next one. All of these things hurt. But they bring the upside that isn't a reality when you avoid pain. See, I get that emotionally you're beaten down. I understand you feel lost. I get how hard things can be, but they're not reasons to give up hope.

The reminders of how good things can be when you reach down deep and look beyond the present moment. Maybe you can't see it. now, but this will lift you up. Our thoughts about the situation during these times, they are always worse than the situation itself. Find solace in that.

In the fact that there's always a solution, that nothing is forever, that you will come out of this thing better than before you walked into it. Life is a game of mental chess, maneuvering around the forevers, the cants, the failures. They don't mean anything until you decide to grant them power over you. What if I went as far as to say the greatest gift you've ever been given is that you're standing, breathing, taking in this very moment with infinite possibility ahead of you, and whether you choose to see it or not, it's there. It's waiting.

Why not lift your head up even slightly and take in what lies beyond the immediate? It'll never cease to amaze me how nothing has done. more in my life in pushing me forward than the very things I once called setbacks. What you've lost, it will propel you. What's gone is reacquirable. What you seek is waiting. What feels hopeless has solutions. What seems too big to conquer can be broken down into pieces.

We have choices here. Do we focus on what we don't have in the missteps or bask in the endless opportunity waiting outside the front door? Both exist, both grapple for our attention. It's up to you to adjust your sales. To dance with hope when you might have been overcome with despair. My friend's life is good and all that it requires is you to agree to accept it. To not run from what hurts or live a life that's risk-averse but to step out, experience it fully and know that you can and will adjust to whatever comes your way

Because every day you are stronger, smarter, and better equipped to rise beyond yesterday's fictitious limits. If air is making its way into your lungs, if your heart is pumping blood through your veins, if your eyes are taking in the beauty around you, you have every reason to hope. Because what waits ahead is far greater than anything you've left. to this moment wasn't an easy one. There were times where you thought you knew, but simply didn't. There were plans made that drastically differed from the one's fate had prepared. There were days that made you question yourself, your beliefs, that made you ask, what

is my purpose? to live is to have felt these things, asked these questions, to have seen firsthand the discrepancy between what we draw up and how life unfold. And I think about this discrepancy often. The swings and misses, they hurt. You know, that quick shiver you feel down your spine when thinking about the wrong turns made, the tugging at your heartstrings when reflect back on things said, or perhaps worse, left unsaid. It's easy to get lost in that feedback loop, letting the past dictate the present,

letting yesterday define it. But here's what I've come to see as the truth. To experience the things that make life beautiful, we have to be vulnerable in a way we otherwise wouldn't, open ourselves up to an unknown, that, you know, we could have skipped altogether if we really wanted to. All that pain, all that hurt the past provided could very easily be the reason you shut down, the reason you play small.

That hell you walked through could be your justification for never stepping out into the chaos of life again. That would, at first glance, appear to make sense. seem ideal even. But that pain could also be the reason you look around you and say, after all that, after experiencing everything life through with me, I'm still here. And as I stand here now, I'm looking out at an array of possibility that is infinite. I'm equipped with an understanding and a worldview that was once foreign to me. I'm armed with the perspective that has changed my life for the better.

By stepping out into the often dangerous, brutal, unforgiving world, I have elevated myself. And that has made all the difference. And while it may feel intuitive to run from, a reiteration of yesterday's pain. It's wisdom that urges us to instead use that pain as a multiplier. The key to something more. Something miraculous. Not to cower because we once endured it, but to stand tall because we overcame it.

And that's what we often miss. We can think back to the adversity, sure, but we're often unable to see how that adversity shaped us. Our own strength, it's never going to scream out at us. It's never going to let us know it's there. We have to take the time to acknowledge its presence. We have to peer over our shoulders to see how far we've traveled. We'll always have obstacles before us. that if we don't stop and assess,

we won't see that the obstacles have gotten bigger. Not because life's gotten harder, but because our own evolution has permitted us to step into bigger arenas. It has equipped us to take on larger adversaries. A simple willingness to be vulnerable has become the flame that lit up your soul. soul. So the question is, will you step out? Will you see that vulnerability not as a crack in the

foundation or a chink in the armor, but as strength? To love, it requires accepting a susceptibility to being hurt. To play the game requires an acceptance that you just might come up short. To bet on yourself means understanding that you might fall right on your face. To want more than you have now means acknowledging that you might be humbled along the way. This is what it means to live, giving a piece of yourself in order to acquire that which means the most. The torturous, often counterintuitive willingness. to step out into the darkness of night when your heart races and your mind moves a million miles a minute,

that's vulnerable. That is power, and it's an investment in a tomorrow that otherwise would not have been available to you. You are not your past. You are the wisdom derived from its lessons. The courage removed from its trials. And the hurt, that hurt that was perhaps at one point the only thing you felt, it's not your reason to shrink into yourself.

It's your reason to step back out. To say to the universe, I have the strength to again dance with the unknown. To risk the short-term discomforts that life often hands out like candy in exchange for the chance. years from now to look at your reflection and say, I got back up. I did the hard thing. I followed my heart. I wandered into that darkness to obtain the wondrous reality that is for a time concealed. I did that.

So love again. Grow again. Try again. Build again. Believe again, see again, feel again, step out into the world again, this is who you are underneath the fear and insecurity underneath all those reasons to not go. There lives the beginning of the miracle that is life. and it won't be easy. The timing will never feel perfect,

but the question will always exist. It will always exist within an arm's reach of where you stand. Can you be that vulnerable? Can you be that courageous? And not just when things are going well, but amidst the turmoil, the chaos, the self-doubt, When your memory only wants to play highlight reels of where things went wrong, where you swung and missed, will you choose to see those moments not as the chains that confine you, but as the strength that elevate you?

Will you be vulnerable enough to give away some of you in order to expand and transform all of you? What exactly are you afraid of? What's holding you back? As the giant rock you inhabit spins to the universe, a speck in a galaxy of stars, it's easy to look out and see the vastness of the world around you and forget entirely about the strength that you possess. Forget entirely that the mind's capacity is as infinite

as those same stars that surround you. I don't think it's that we definitively choose to sell ourselves short. I think we simply lose sight of the fact that we have a say in the matter to begin with. Our fears keep us wishing. Our insecurities keep us hoping. We stay standing still when we should be moving forward. But truth be told, our pain comes from not doing, but wishing that we did.

It's no coincidence that the more we fail, the more we realize life is a game that expands as we push. The power of making mistakes isn't the mistake itself, it's that when we get back up and brush ourselves off, our cognitive mapping of the world changes. We see that we can step out a little further. Our very definition of what's possible expands, and I believe that's what courage is. The willingness to step into that chaos of life, knowing that each time you find the strength to push forward, you are restructuring your reality. The resources are there, the tools are there, the opportunity is there, how crazy is the fact that we just need to convince ourselves. that more is worth it.

That the difficulty of short-term vulnerability isn't an enemy. It's the very ticket required for admission to the show. And so I ask again, what are you afraid of? Falling? Because you will rise and you will rise stronger than you ever were. Is it criticism? Because one, people are so focused on their own endeavors that they look up way less than we think they do,

and two, other than the small group you surround yourself with, why would you care? Is it pride? Because building things of significance requires starting on the ground floor, and there's no shame but honor in breaking down to build up. And when I look at my life in terms of chapters, right? Childhood, high school, college,

20s, 30s, the things that were my biggest concerns during each chapter are now laughable. And maybe, just maybe, if I saw that, I could have lived a little freer, been a little bolder. What if we were to get ahead of that learning curve? What if we understood that life is beautiful and flexible and exciting? And what if we understood that now? Instead of looking at this chapter, 15 years down the road and chuckling to ourselves for not having the courage to have made the leap, taken the chance to have moved out into an unknown. We cannot physically see that which doesn't exist, which is why it's so important that we know we are the architects,

that the fear pulsing through our veins is indicating that we are building, that we are choosing to step into a world that will give more if we find the courage to ask. So as this giant rock you inhabit spins through the universe, a speck in a galaxy of star, perhaps each little light up there exists not to remind you how small you are, but to remind you that those same elements exist within you. To show you that the fire of a million suns sits in your soul, beats in your chest, waits for your signal now. So what are you afraid of? There's a quote attributed to H. Jackson Brown Jr.

He says, Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. I tend to agree with this. I also think it's interesting that these missed opportunities are also the most difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. So if you think about our common understanding of progress or growth, it's a sacrifice. It's doing X, brings us Y, doing the work.

doing the work gets the result. It's a simple formula, and you can show your proof. You can work backwards. I started working out one hour a day. Six months ago, this is what I look like now. The cost was one hour a day. The result, well, this is what I look like now. But what's the inverse of that thinking?

What's the cost of not doing the work or starting the journey or taking the steps? See, we don't think about that. We don't think about the opportunity. Our instinct is not to question the actions we don't take. I was listening to an old lecture from Jim Rohn, who I love because he's such a practical thinker. He's got ideas you can literally plug right into your life. And he had an amazing point.

He was talking about a conversation with an old friend in which he asks his friend, who apparently watches a lot of TV. He says, hey, what does that TV cost? his friend says well I think it's like $500 Jim says no I don't think so his friend says yeah I bought it $500 he says no I think it's costing you about 40k a year why well not because of what he paid for the item

but because of the opportunity cost what his time using that TV could be reallocated to that's what's so incredible about that point it's like just because you don't have something doesn't mean you aren't in fact losing out on it. Time is our most precious of commodities. Its utilization is the gateway to transformation.

It should be protected. And, you know, the intent of the message is not to walk around panicking about every second, you know, of every minute, but more being aware, holistically, how recklessly we use our time. I don't know if you've ever looked at the screen time usage on a cell phone before going to bed at night. It's terrifying. Some of it was necessary, but I mean, a lot of it wasn't. And what does that cost? What is two hours a day of not moving towards a dream or goal cost you?

What about when it accumulates and it becomes 14 hours a week? Or roughly 56 hours a month or times 12, 672 hours a year? I mean, these numbers start to get eye-opening. All the days. takes is a little awareness and we see how often we dispose of time like it's valueless. Everything we do is a cost because in doing it, we are making a decision to not be doing something else with that time. And again, I believe in balance. I want to emphasize that. I'm not suggesting that we walk around like robots clocking in, clocking out, checking

boxes so that we don't ever waste a minute, right? As the great Keith Urban says the best days of my life for all that wasted time, you know, we should explore and enjoy and love and laugh and experience life. But that awareness makes us more intentional with those pursuits. With our work time and our playtime, it forces us in a way to prioritize, to ask ourselves what we want. Instead of only looking at progress like this vending machine where you put an X and Y comes out, well, we can ask ourselves, what happens if I don't put an X?

if I keep it in my pocket, what won't come out? What could have existed that now won't? See, just because you don't see something slipping away, that doesn't mean that it isn't. And the immediate, the world in front of you, unfortunately, won't remind you of that. That's a bell you have to ring yourself. You have to peel back the, what am I doing,

and unveil the, what could I be doing, what could I be creating, what could reality look like? Maybe you think about it, and you find that you're right where you want to be. And that's great. Maybe you realize you've accepted a tolerable existence at the expense of an ideal existence. In which case, I also have great news.

You can change that, and you can change it now. We have to understand that you don't only have what's in front of you. You also possess a reality unseen and undiscovered. So don't let the former cover up or diminish the ladder, don't lose the possibility of tomorrow with the distractions of today. Don't forget the cost of inaction with regard to those things that truly matter. What are you willing to endure? Because to become something more is not to react to the world, but to create a new one.

Yours. As my dad explained to me when I was in grade school, it's taking initiative, right? seeing what isn't there, what's needed, then making it happen. And while the setting certainly change, the situation is no longer about helping around the house so I could go to the concert with my friends. Right now, as we get older, our world seems to get bigger along with us. The stakes are higher. Now it's everything I see when I open the blinds and I look out that window. It's all there. And we can have as little or as much of that, as we want but what we receive will always be directly proportional to what

we're willing to endure to how long we push forward before results arrive how long we can carry on with the sole company of our beliefs it's about Bezos packaging and delivering his own books from a garage knowing it's not about today it's about tomorrow if he can just hang on If he can just endure, it's Tony Robbins with $20 in his bank account, knowing that has no reflection on him or what he's capable of, if he can just hang on, just keep pushing. It's not that they had the ability to bring their dreams to life.

A lot of people do. They had more. They had patience. They had the discipline, right? To remain calm and collected. That's nerve-wracking. That can be unsettling. They had the ability to be focused.

To remove all the knowledge. noise around the doubt that stops people before that desired payout is achieved. And one of my favorite ways to look at this concept of growth is a little anecdote about lily pads in a pond. And basically, it's posed as a question, right? So the lily pads in this pond double in size every day. And by day 30, the pond is combined. completely covered in Lilipads. So then what day is it half covered? That's the question.

A lot of people, you know, instinctually they say, oh okay, day 30, half of 30 is 15, so on day 15 it was half covered, but that's wrong. They're doubling every day, which means the pond wasn't half covered until day 29, and only a quarter covered on day 28.

And the reason that's important is because that means on day one, through 27. Those lily pads were growing, they were working, they were moving, yet they occupied less than a quarter of that pond. All that work for a result that was barely visible. And then at the very end, right, the payout becomes exponential, and that's what success is. That's what it means to pursue anything of significance, its days, months, years of unrecognized work, of marching forward, covering ground when no one knows or cares or believes except you. That visualization

is your sweet spot, but like we all know easier said than done, right? This is an incredibly challenging thing because we get impatient and our pride starts to hurt. We become tempted to jump to something different or easier. We don't hang on long enough to hit day 28 or 29 or 30. When things really, start to evolve. It's like James Clear's metaphor and atomic habits, right, where you have an ice cube sitting in a room and it's freezing and you start slowly shifting the temperature up. You don't see anything going on with the ice cube. Not until you hit that 32 degree mark. But there are things happening when it goes from 26 to 27 degrees and 27 to 28 and 28 to 29. Those little

molecules are moving and bouncing around but then boom suddenly it hits that mark and it changes rapidly right in front of you but that's why this single shift in perspective changes everything it's not about right now you're doing this for the exponential growth to come you're believing you're laying the groundwork until what I call the overnight success period when the world finally recognizes and goes who is this wow that was quick But they have no idea about, you know, day one through 27. They don't know about the effort and the mental gymnastics.

They don't know how many times you had to talk yourself out of quitting or out of rationalizing a day off. They just don't know the road you took to get there, and that's fine. In fact, that's the beauty of it all. You not only saw it first, but you brought something beautiful to life. By enduring turmoil, by navigating discomfort, by navigating discont. comfort and chaos, you would become the maker of a new universe. Your universe. Because you stood there because when others would have ran, turned back, you endured.

Every single dream, vision, or idea in your life starts with a simple understanding. That it's obtainable. that you can make it real. That's the beginning of everything. Self-belief is the gatekeeper that stands between current and future. See, if you think of reality as these city walls you're living in, it's not crazy to think that there are going to be people that only know that existence within the walls, right? That's what they see, that's what most believe.

It's how they live. It is only self-belief, a confidence in something greater outside those walls that opens the gate, that expands your reality. And if you don't believe anything good exists on the other side, why begin? If you don't think you're capable of getting there, why start? And this formula is simple, right? Let's not overthink it. We only move towards outcomes that we believe. to be possible.

And that's more important than ability, skill set, strength. I mean, you name it, believing in yourself trumps all that. Because the person with an inferior skill set, maybe an average natural talent, but they believe in something and they move towards it. They give everything for this idea. They know it to be true. It will always be the talented person that's unsure, that procrastinates, it as one foot in and one foot out.

And if you don't believe in yourself, you're building a city on sand because I'll tell you what, great things, they're great for a reason. They're in rare supply. They're limited, which means not everyone can have them. Which means those who do have them have to fight for them, have to deal with being uncomfortable,

have to give more, sacrifice more, pay a steeper price than the masses. And if you don't look in the mirror, stare yourself in the face and know you are one of those select few, what's going to happen when life kicks back in you? You'll fall. You'll resort back to what you know.

You'll flee the battle for safety, security, and comfort. But when you know your movie ends at the top of the mountain, when you know at the end of the day, you're going to cross a finish line or hold a trophy, your brain internalizes conflict differently, very differently. For someone with self-belief, obstacles don't make you wonder if you should keep going. Because you already know you have to keep going.

I mean, come on, you haven't arrived yet. There's still a road to travel. No, in this situation, obstacles simply prompt you to ask how. How can I get through this? And that's a small discrepancy that changes everything. Because at some point, you'll look to your right and you'll look to your left, and you'll find very few people get to the how question. They all stopped at if.

I wonder if I can do this. I wonder if I'm capable. Well, they'll never know. They'll never see that sunset beyond those metaphorical city walls. Because they never truly believed in themselves. They never opened that gate. Look, I went through 16 years of education without a teacher or professor telling me, Eddie,

99% of life is just believing in yourself to figure challenges out as they come. To figure life out as it comes. That's it. Only X% make it through law school. Only Y% succeed at this and that. That's what you hear. But no.

None of that. matters. It's simple, it's simple, it's simple. Most of the world quits when things get challenging. If you don't, if you have the courage to believe in trust in yourself, you'll succeed. Why? Because you won't stop until you find a way. That's the power of self-belief. It's not quantum physics. It's not complex. You know, at one point, I didn't think I could make a living outside of a cubicle or office building. Then I saw others do it. And for the first time in my life,

I believed it was possible. I changed my actions to support my beliefs. And here we are. At one point, I didn't think certain financial goals were reality. I didn't know about a free, flexible lifestyle. I wasn't aware of the type of relationships that would change my life. Why?

Because they existed outside those city walls. I didn't believe they were real. I didn't believe in myself to create them, to make them in my own life. But with the change in belief comes a change in reality. You will always follow through on who you believe you are. So let's go back to that mirror visualization. At some point today, look at your reflection and think about nothing but what I'm about to tell you. Everything you need, you have.

I promise you, you are. We're equipped to change your life, the lives of everyone around you, and the world in which you exist. So take that back. Feel it and never ask it again. From now on, the question is how. Your fate is not a coin flip, it's a puzzle. It's about arranging the pieces. And those two eyes looking back at you are more than capable of figuring that out.

Ask simply do you want it? And if yes, open that front door, take that first step and inject yourself into a journey that will be unlike anything you've ever experienced before. A journey where you have the answers, the aptitude, and now the self-belief. And when you find yourself in the lowest of lows or the darkest of nights, find solace in that fact that that will be more than enough to get you to do. dawn.