Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - DON'T DIE AVERAGE | 38 Minute Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Don’t Die AverageIn this episode, Eddie explores the idea that five seconds of courage can change your life. He shares how fear disguises itself as patience, and how action, not perfection, creates clarity and confidence. From hitting upload on his first video to trusting momentum over hesitation, this is a reminder that life doesn’t reward waiting, it rewards heart. All it takes is five seconds of courage to stop hiding and start living.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

There's a quote from Richard Branson that's stuck with me. He essentially says, if someone offers you an amazing opportunity, but you don't know how to do it, say yes, and then figure it out later. This little piece of wisdom is a key that unlocks so much opportunity in life. I mean, it sounds simple, right? Almost too simple. But it contains the DNA of progress and growth and achievement. Because nothing meaningful in life comes

guarantees. Life doesn't hand you certainty. It hands you windows. And when those windows open, hesitation is the enemy. And let's use space travel as an example here. Let's go all the way back to 62. John F. Kennedy standing in front of that crowd at Rice University saying, we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Here's the thing. When he said that, the United States had no rocket that could make the trip, no spacecraft, no suit, no navigation system.

The roadmap did not exist, but the declaration came first. The yes came first. It had to. And then the entire decade was spent figuring it out. That one leap of faith sparked innovation that not only took humanity to the moon, but changed the world forever. It's easy to forget that truth. You don't need to know how, right, before you start.

You don't need to, you know, know the entire path or have it laid out before you. Same industry, a couple decades later, take Elon Musk and SpaceX. To me, it's even more remarkable. Musk wasn't a rocket scientist when he decided to build rockets. He literally taught himself aerospace engineering in textbooks. First three launches failed. Of course, everyone told him to quit. Critics said it was impossible.

But he'd already said yes, he'd committed. And because of that yes, he kept adjusting, kept learning, kept adapting until the fourth launch worked. And by the way, saved the company. That's the Branson, quote, inaction. You say yes and you figure it out. And lately, in my own little world, I've been seeing this principle play out. I'm going to go back to athletics. Again, I go to this drawing board a lot, just because there are a lot of metaphors you can make, a lot of parallels you can make.

To me, none are as clear, concise, and really depict that one-to-one ratio the same way that fitness does, running does, lifting does. That struggle to me is life, so I pull from it often. My trainer started giving me on top of the regular workouts these fun but ridiculous weekend challenges. He makes this video, sends it to me. You know, sometimes playfully, like super intense, like, here's your mission, you know, and it gamifies it a little bit. But the workouts are hard, right? They push me way out of my comfort zone. Whether it's an hour-long kettlebell carry, 15-minute wall sit, extended treading water, putting on a rock and climbing my 12-floor stairs for an hour, 200 burpees in 25 minutes.

You get the idea. Stuff that it's not climbing Everest, but you hear it and you go, ooh, that doesn't sound fun. Maybe on the surface even sounds a little absurd. And you want to stop and think, can I even do this? But that's the beauty of it. It conditions me to say yes first, and once I commit, there's no more debate, right?

The question is no longer if, it's how. And that transition is everything from a starting point. There's no if, this is happening, how is it going to happen? And when you do that, my God, you empower yourself. Right? Sometimes it's brutal, right? The burpees are a great example. I underestimated those.

And I paid the price, right? Got it done just with probably more suffering than, you know, if I respected the process and came out slowly and methodically, as opposed to just thinking I could blast through them. You live and you learn. But again, I got through. that might grow hell. And that's the pattern of life itself.

We spend so much time waiting for certainty, waiting until we feel perfectly ready, forgetting that readiness is a myth. If you wait until you have every detail mapped out, you'll never move. The opportunities that change your life rarely come with instruction manuals. They show up wrapped in uncertainty,

in discomfort, in risk. Your job is not to have all the answers. It's to step forward anyway. And what these challenges remind me of is this. I am stronger than I think. Not because I know everything. But because I trust myself to figure it out as I go. You know, you don't discover strength by watching from the sidelines.

You discovered in the fire. You discovered in the chaos. The willingness to step into something you don't fully understand. But you know you'll adapt. Kennedy certainly didn't know how to get to the moon, but he declared it anyway. He put it into the universe. Musk didn't know how to build rockets,

but he started anyway. He committed. Branson was right. Opportunities don't wait for your permission. They don't wait for you to feel ready. So when the next door opens, and it will, don't hesitate. Don't overthink or wait for certainty.

Understand the power in saying yes, stepping in and figuring it out later because that's how change is made. That's how we grow. And that's how we uncover the strength we've had all. Life is about duality. It's about being grateful for the road behind you, but also excited and hungry for what's ahead.

That balance is where growth lives. It's why we created AGMS, always grateful, never satisfied. More than just an apparel company, it's a reminder that there's always another hill to climb. And if you go to agns. Lifestyle and you sign up for the email list, you'll get daily inspiration right to your inbox. Latest updates on all the new merch drops,

as well as a 20% off discount code. Hope to see you there. What are you willing to endure? 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, seeing what isn't there, what's needed, and then making it happen. And while the setting certainly changed, 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 business.

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 noise around them, 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 completely covered in Lillipas. So then what day is it half covered? That's the question. A lot of people 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 1 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, the payout becomes exponential, and that's what success is. That's what it means to pursue anything of significance.

It's 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 Clears metaphor in 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. 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. 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 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. Sometimes when you don't know where you're going, the best thing to do, is go there. A wise man once stated that an object at rest stays at rest. And while his rationale is a little different than mine, I'm going to borrow from his premise.

Right? Because when you move, even if you don't know where you're going, you put yourself on a collision course with something. You put into existence an entity to react to. Some call it destiny. Others call it fate. I call it simply initiative.

Because if your journey is hypothetical, you have nothing to celebrate nor correct. A sailboat can adjust its sails once it leaves the harbor, right? It can learn from and manipulate its surroundings. Make sure it arrives at a destination, right? It learns and adapts along the way. But from the harbor it speculates. It expounds upon a path that might be straighter, might be faster, might be more thought

out and tied together than the crazy sailors who took off for the horizon, but in actuality, it goes nowhere. In the real world, it is stagnant, and I could be wrong, but I'd make the argument 10 out of 10 times that the real world is where we want our results. And my proof? Well, a journey that started with insurance and evolved into music, in songwriting, in audio production, then video production, then creative writing, then a sweet spot that kind of combined everything. A spot that didn't make its way to my inbox with an exact address. A spot that required a lot of failure and lessons learned and disappointment, but man, more than that, so much fun.

My proof is sitting down right now in real time, letting my fingers create a bridge from nothing to something of value. By the way, after sitting here staring at a blank screen for hours, it's just starting. Could I be wrong? Could I screw up? Could I wildly miss the mark? Yes. In fact, it happens more than I'd like to admit. But here's the beauty, even if I am wrong. I now have something to work with. Something has been brought into existence. And well, that means I'm officially further along than I once was. And I've heard over and over again that there is no perfect moment, that you have to just go. And the idea, I mean, it makes sense.

It's impossible not to understand, but it's one of those things that until you feel it doesn't mean anything. How can you miss something you've never experienced? Well, to put it in a way that help me understand, you aren't going because what do you have to lose? You're going because everything is to be gained. The answers that you pick up along the way, like a little coins you pick up in Super Mario, right? You have to start collecting pieces of a puzzle

that you can then arrange. I truly believe that one of the most important, ideas we need to hold on to moving forward as personal agency, self-belief. And I say that because I feel like I'm watching it slip. There are cases where we literally don't know or understand that it's within our own ability and control to change our lives. No person or group or letter in the mail is going to come along and green light your idea. In fact, you might not even really know what your idea means or how it will look.

And that's not only okay. It's amazing. It's the marble that you get to chisel away at to create something. See, life is not the perfect execution of a plan. Life is the courage to make your way into a world that no one really understands or knows anything about. I'm not talking physics or biology or quantum mechanics. I'm talking about the real life that is emergent from those areas of study.

Right? There is no perfect formula for happiness. But it will always be true that immobility or standing still is antithetical to progress. And there is plenty of data that supports the idea. Progress equals happiness. We want to move towards something. So that's what this is about. Here's to not being scared of what we don't know.

Because somewhere in the realm of what we don't know exists what we need most. So yeah, stop waiting for the perfect moment. And yes, begin. But not because it's an ultimatum. Do it because the things that make life fun and intriguing and exciting. And ultimately worthwhile,

They live on the other side. What you look for in life tends to be what you find. What you believe is usually what you see, which means your existence hinges on where you build your walls. And part of the reason stories, music, movies, they move us is because we're allowed, even if it's for a short period of time to change our parameters. on these things, to let the mind navigate through a world without any limitation.

When you think about it, we never fast forward through a movie so that we can quickly check off the box and complete it. Right, we never rush through to move on to the sequel. No, we want to experience it. We want to be overwhelmed by emotion, captivated by excitement lost in the mystery, and then when it's over, we retract, we return to reality.

The walls come back up and the rules are reinstated. And from a 10,000-foot view, you can't help but look at that and wonder if there's more there. Why do we have to retreat to this microcosm of our ideal world, where we're not rushed, we can enjoy the moment? Why does it take a dark room and objects depicted on a small screen for us to feel like it's acceptable to step outside of this everyday script? And the question isn't who's enforcing these rules? The answer is always us, it's internal, but the question is why?

Is it incomprehensible that the same excitement be inserted into your world? Is it out of the realm of possibility that the rush of adrenaline, the piece, experiences the laughter love twists in turns be inserted into reality it's like we choose to be chased through life by ticking clocks and measured by socially constructed checkpoints but we can move beyond that much beyond in those checkpoints they're just as imaginary as the talking raccoon you set aside three hours to watch last night so by the way, you could escape from a

manufactured reality. Right, there's a powerful authoritative line that separates our day to day from the imagination, and every second is about pushing that back. Never fast-forwarding

through life, but making it unlike anything else. Never applying the word mandatory to things that don't warrant the term. We need to think bigger. Working like a madman to build someone else's dream is not mandatory. Enjoying two-sevenths of your life is not mandatory.

Being confined to one road when there are infinite paths to travel is not mandatory. They're components of a bad movie. And my point is not to be ungrateful. It's not to be resentful. It's to remind you that things are the way they are because you've allowed them to be that way. Nothing in life is destined, predetermined, or meant to be. Everything is decided. Life is chosen.

Paths are taken. And sometimes a simple reminder that you have the flexibility to redefine the rules can make all the difference. You are entitled to happiness. Every day is a continuation of the extraordinary, not a break from it. And you have to see that. You have to believe that. You're not alive so that you can every so often escape. You're here to feel the imaginary, to challenge the make-belief.

Our view of the world without a concentrated effort, it seems to contract. And this is your reminder to disallow that, to stop living for the 5% or the 10% and flip that ratio on its head. Now is the time to rewrite your script, recraft your storyline. And if what you look for is what you get, then it's time to see what you've never seen before. Of all life's lessons, it's my relationship with what it means to suffer that's transformed my reality. Something that's learned, not unlike one's ability to read or write. an understanding that unlocks the door to fulfillment. Nietzsche says,

To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in the suffering. Dostoevsky says pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth. Helen Keller says, although the world is full of suffering, it's also full of the overcoming of it.

Our problem is not that we suffer. Our problem is that we don't know how to perceive it when it inevitably arrives. We're taught that it's synonymous with a giant street sign saying wrong way. We're taught that the perfect life is free of its grasp. It's why when suffering does arrive, we're so inclined to run from it. I reference my experience as a D1 Rower often, not because I stood out or even really because of my love for the sport. I reference it because it is the point in my life when I learned to suffer, when I learned what I could put my body through, my mind through, and see that like all things, discomfort simply ends.

And life is different on the other side. That's why I talk about waking up to go to the gym in the morning when it's still dark. in the middle of winter, the practices that made me throw up, having three exams, two papers, but thinking about a 2K test. Because part of me couldn't believe I was doing it, because up until that point in my life, I would have simply said no.

That's why I reference the three of us walk-ons that were their senior year out of this 60 plus that showed up freshman year. We built a relationship with suffering. You understand what opens up to you you when you agree to for a moment in time walk through those flames of hell. It's not a trick or a complex formula. It's just taking yourself to places most haven't learned to go.

Not because they can't, but because they haven't learned. When you know you can push yourself, far beyond what you thought possible. Not only survive, but come back renewed, re-energized, a different understanding of the the world, it's hard to see anything is too much or outside the realm of possibility. In my personal life, I can make difficult decisions. In my professional life, I can sit down and write when I don't want to, when I feel like I can't. I can take on projects and scare me.

That take me so far outside my comfort zone, my ceilings have no choice but to become floors. You elevate yourself with ECHS. Gustav Lanzone says, there is no art without commitment. suffering. That is not a demon to be avoided. It's truly the beginning of everything. Jocko, he says, discipline equals freedom. Well, what is discipline? If not one's ability to accept and harness suffering to teach yourself not to step back, but forward into it, into the chaos, into the disarray. That's where our lives are assembled. It's where we are made. And so my message

is where you would once say no, dare to say yes. Even if it's a footer. step, a moment, one toe in the water, teach yourself that the very discomfort you've been running away from, that most run away from, will be the reason your life transforms. Change isn't a miracle. It's a decision. Part of my morning routine every day is to listen to the commencement speech Admiral McRaven gave at the University of Texas, where he's talking about 10 lessons that he learned during his time as a Navy SEAL going through Bud's training.

And he positions them in a way that will really help anybody through life if they implement these concepts. It's an incredible speech. And my favorite lesson of the 10 is around what he calls the sugar cookie. And I want to delve into it a little deeper because it's such a perfect metaphor. It's so relatable. And so for a quick overview, basically during Bud's all the attendees. were called to line up for uniform inspection.

And the instructors would walk by and check out their uniforms. They had to be perfect, right? As McRaven says, uniform press, belt buckle shiny, no smudges on the shoes. But the point of the exercise that a lot of people really didn't understand is that the uniforms were never going to be good enough. The inspectors or instructors would always find something wrong. And the punishment was to go run down into the water with your clothes on, get soaking wet, then roll around in the sand, and, you know, it sticks to you all day. That's why they call it the sugar cookie. and what he says is

you were never going to succeed the perfect uniform was impossible the instructors wouldn't allow it but the interesting thing is that some people simply couldn't handle that idea they didn't understand that no matter how well you prepare or perform

sometimes you're going to end up a sugar cookie that is life it's such a powerful concept is a life lesson that must be understood before someone can effectively make their way in the world. The idea that life simply isn't fair. And those who refuse to accept that are pulled

into this void of projecting out and looking to assign blame as opposed to continuing a march forward and reshaping the odds, right? A tough lesson to learn. It's tough to work and work and work and not get that immediate validation you hope for. It's tough that

Life drops obstacles before us that we weren't prepared for and don't feel equipped to take on. It's tough when people around you get rewarded or promoted or acknowledged for doing the same or less than you. And if you let it, it will eat you up. It will taint your view of the world. It can close the door to your own self-improvement and open it up for comparing, contrasting, projecting, blaming. Toxicity. You know, it really hit home for you. me when McRaven says, look, some people just couldn't understand that no matter what they did,

they were going to be a sugar cookie. They couldn't rise above the apparent unfairness. They didn't realize that they were being prepared for the reality of life. Not the gentle, predictable, fair world we often feel is owed to us. So the ones who made it out of the class, well, they took their hits, they dealt with their discomfort. They learned to expect more out of themselves. Right? There simply was no room for the victim mentality there. Those who wouldn't help themselves, they got weeded out, left behind. It really is the perfect metaphor for life. And as far as I'm concerned, the only way to ensure defeat

is to divert responsibility to the outside world. The only way to remain powerless is to feel bad for yourself, to feel angry that life isn't what it is in the movies. Again, hard to hear. In a perfect world, hard work's always rewarded. The correct actions always have positive consequences, but that's not always reflective of reality. As the saying goes, it's not your fault where you start, or when things you can't control present themselves and make your life challenging, you didn't choose that hand. Not your fault.

But guess what? Where you go from here is your responsibility. It is your responsibility to move beyond the cosmic injustice you can do nothing about and create a better situation, a better outcome, a better world. How many times in life do we find ourselves looking in the mirror? I was saying, hey, I did everything I was supposed to do. Why am I being punished? Why is this happening to me? Why did I take that L?

On paper, every box was checked. I've asked the question. We've all asked the question. And every time we do, we're placed at a crossroads of sorts. Do we go one way? Let it derail us. distort our worldview, do we let it alter how we perceive ourselves? Or do we go the other way? Do we acknowledge that life is a marriage of highs and lows? And to make something of it,

we shouldn't feel slighted by the challenges, but accept them. Let them make us better. I've learned this again and again. I learned this after I spent four months on a project in 2014 that essentially bombed. And it was the first time in my life that I felt that. It's like how. I put into this. How could I get nothing back? Well, it turns out I got the world back. I just didn't see it at the time. I learned one of the most powerful lessons to learn. The universe is indifferent to your agenda. All it does is present an obstacle course in front of you and allows you to navigate as you see fit. Will you focus on the negative? Will you have resentment towards life's injustices? Because a lot of people do. A lot of people can't get past it so they hide from the strength. struggle that would ultimately become their strength.

And see, I'd much rather work to be the type of person who finds the positive, who carries on, who doesn't take hardship personal because it's not a personal thing. In fact, let's remove the emotion from it altogether. Let's focus on getting through. As a good friend of mine says, if you're on a hiking trail and you get bitten by a snake, are you going to chase the snake into the woods so you can kill it and get your vengeance or are you going to go to the hospital and get the medical help you need? Are you going to focus on what's necessary for your betterment to move on, to grow?

Every time you accept responsibility for a situation, every time you point at yourself as the one who can make something good happen, you move forward. You stack the odds in your favor. You position yourself for something bigger and better, and it doesn't mean it will happen overnight, or even that you are entitled to an outcome. But those who remain empowered through life's trials and tribulations,

they usually find a way. Not because they deserved it, but because they simply did not stop. They did not waste time blaming the universe and instead created something of value. They got over being that metaphorical sugar cookie and started thinking about the big picture. They accepted it.

the defeats and they learned. They made a pact with the face looking back at them in the mirror that sometimes we don't get the ideal hand, but it will always be up to you how to play it. There is always a win, always a positive, and to remember that is to create a world of your making.