Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE - Best Motivational Video Speeches Compilation

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Dreams and aspirations are the fuel that propels us forward, but what are we doing to bring them to life? As Thoreau beautifully put it in Walden, “If you’ve built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” Dreaming big is vital, but those dreams must be paired with daily action—steps that transform imagination into reality. It’s about maintaining the delicate balance between vision and execution: keeping your eyes on the mountaintop while your hands lay the bricks of the path that will get you there. Every day offers an opportunity to lay another stone, build another step, and reinforce that foundation beneath your dreams. Are you working on yours? What’s one action you can take today to make your castle in the sky a tangible reality?  Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

So you have goals and aspirations. Beautiful. You have hopes and dreams. Incredible. But what are you doing? Because there's this equilibrium we have to create and maintain as we navigate our day-to-day lives. And no one addresses this.

In my mind, better than Thoreau in Walden, when he states, if you've built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That's where they should be. Now put foundations under them. He addresses the very nature of creation, of dreaming, right? He says, you know, there's an element of idealism, an aspiration, but you have to marry that with pragmatism.

with pragmatism. Keep your head focused on the mountain top. Dream. Aspire. Imagine what life could be. But don't spend your day in thought. Build the foundations.

Put the foundations under that castle in the air by doing, by stepping, by every day, creating one more stair in the staircase that will bring that new reality into existence. Over the years, I've talked a lot about Stephen Pressfield's book, The War of Art. Really, the impact it's had on me, I think for good reason. Personally, I tend to gravitate away from structure.

In fact, unless I'm being deliberate and cognizant of how I'm planning my day, things can get messy pretty quickly. So I have to really be intentional about that. And there were times in 2014, 2015, 2016, where, you know, I had visions of building something big and meaningful and making an impact on the world. And I'd sit down to build it, whether it's write a speech,

create a video or episode. In that particular day, I would feel like, You know, I just don't feel inspired. I wish I did. But, hey, can't force creativity. I'd close my laptop, I'd get up, and I'd move on. And it wasn't until I read Pressfield's book that I understood,

that's what every writer, speaker, creator, builder deals with. It's on us to say, no, I'm setting this timer for 90 minutes. I'm going to show up. I'm going to pour my thoughts out, pour my heart and soul into this project. And if something comes from it, amazing. If it doesn't, that's okay. But over a long period of time,

that's how consistency is established. That's the only way to create that necessary compounding that actually supports my goals and big picture and long-term vision. That dedicated effort is, an example of putting foundations under the castle in the air. I don't think we do this intentionally, but there's often a misalignment between what we say we want and how we spend our time, right, how we live our lives. And just being honest, it's challenging to see these inconsistencies in ourselves. They sort of hide within our day-to-day lives. Which is why

that simple alignment exercise of asking, what What do I want and is what I'm doing bringing that to life so critical? That's why Thoreau's question so deeply resonates. I'm saying this now and I'll say it forever, the greatest changes in our lives will never be a product of some huge, complex, complicated series of moves. It won't be 4D chess, calculus, secret codes and strategies. It's like no, critical change starts with some simple adjustments. Usually right at your feet, right?

It's getting up earlier. It's cutting something out. Adding a new activity for 20 minutes a day. These are the things that are life changing. Doing the correct things simply and consistently. The old head in the clouds and feet on the ground adage. Dream like your life depends on. Think as big as you can.

Have your eyes fixated on mountaintops. Just make sure that your feet are simultaneously moving, that one step at a time you are going that way. Sometimes building those foundations requires more deliberate action added to the day to day. Sometimes it means cutting away the action. the outliers and excesses of our day to day. It means fully immersing yourself in what remains.

In Elon Musk's most recent biography by Isaacson, a particular idea stood out to me. Elon is a man who is literally seeking to invest in and create a world above the cloud. He said something, and I'm paraphrasing, like, Like, we need to free ourselves from the in-case mindset. We have so much excess just in case we need it. And what happens is this dilutes one's capability

and impacts the mission or goal. In fact, he said, if you're not removing so much that you essentially go, oops, and end up putting 10% of what you took out back in, then you're not taking out enough. It creates clarity. It allows you to best structurally support your vision, the mission to build above the clouds

beyond what you currently know, what currently exists. This is the same superpower of being deliberate that Thoreau champions that he advocates for, Just in a different context. It is the greatest dichotomy in human existence. Maintaining a vision while building the vision. Having a dream while supporting that dream, knowing what the masterpiece will look like is not enough. Similarly, recklessly throwing brushstrokes against a canvas is not enough.

These two things don't stand on their own. So what if you, today, were able to effectively marry the two? What if you believed in yourself enough to create a vision and every single day chip away until you're staring directly at it? What if you got to know yourself at a deeper level, truly understanding what mattered to you? What you wanted to build most, you looked in the mirror, believed it, and then committed you. and committed to its creation. Step by step, brick by brick, moment by moment. If you have built castles in the air,

your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. I was talking to my friend on the phone this morning, and he's been on a very long journey. A lot of highs, a lot of lows. But now he's doing incredibly well. He's heavily invested in real estate.

He's a very successful business. I mean, you talk about a turnaround. He's it. And he says, Eddie, you know what the best part of all this is? When I get up in the morning, I think, yes. I don't think, oh, man, I wish I could sleep just a few more minutes.

I don't wish for a little longer in bed, I think, yes. And I found that moving. If that's not peak living, I don't know what is the second your eyes open to be excited about what's to come, right? And so I asked him, Tom, you know, what's the biggest mental change you made in your life that brought that about? And he said, essentially, this is a term used a lot by Dan Sullivan, He says, I learned to always be the buyer. Now, I'm just starting reading Sullivan's books, so I'm not too familiar with the idea. I said, Tom, can you explain, kind of expand upon that a little bit?

Paraphrasing, he said, he started to look at life like he was worthy of it. Like he was the decision maker. Right? And I don't know if you've been there, I certainly have, where it's like, man, I hope this person accepts me. I hope they hire me. I hope I can be included. Now, that's an existence of constantly selling yourself. But when you make that mental shift of instead saying,

I have value to add to this person, I am the buyer here, you empower yourself, right? A buyer cannot get rejected. Instead of walking around hoping the world accepts you, it's having confidence in yourself and your ability. As my eighth grade teacher, Mr. Bettencourt, used to say when we were kids, the worst thing you can do is hold your hands up to the sky and hope something of value falls into them.

The worst thing you can do is take the power out of your hands and outsource it to fate. Because the truth is, you do have value to add. There is change you can. going to make in the world. There's a beautiful mark on humanity to be created by you. And there must come a time where you see that as a valuable resource. You're on a mission.

And it's not about other people saying yes or no to you. It's do you want to allow these people to come along with you on your mission? Not selling yourself, but buying the pieces that will comprise your greatness. subtle shift, but also a powerful one. And the reality is, people respect it, right? That's the crazy thing. When you find the courage to dig deep and unlock that confidence in yourself, you get more of it from others.

And this is from experience, right? I've never been the loudest guy in the room, not an attention seeker. It's easier for me to listen. Right? But I find that when you live with conviction, the world around you conform. grounds you conforms.

Respect finds you. People will never believe in someone who doesn't believe in him or herself. This is kind of an interesting note. The good friend of mine has helped do some booking on podcasts and events, right? And part of that's trying to get speakers and personalities to participate. You have to explain to them the value. And this is what I found amazing. He says a formal, well-thought-out letter stating the ins and outs, how grateful the host would be, how beneficial the experience would be, gets ignored 99 times out of 100.

But a simple, hey, X is happening, going to be incredible. Give me a shout. We'll see how we can get you involved. Gets responded to way more often. Why? Because you're not selling, you're buying, right? People want to be around those who live with conviction, who have value to add. So make that clear, right, instead of writing up those four paragraph emails asking the world for answers, for assistance.

You weren't put here to wait for permission. To tiptoe through life and not make any mistakes. You weren't put here to impress others or be accepted by those around you. You're here to live life on your terms. To make magic. To enjoy the passing moments with the ones you love, spent how you choose to live. to spend them. Never forget how much you mean and how valuable you are. Never forget that you have every right to wake up and say yes. I get to get out of bed to him. I get to chase my dream and bring

along with me the people and things that are worthy of the pursuit. That's not arrogance, that's confidence, that's not existing, that's living. In a world of of conformity of please take what I have to offer, in a world of concession, in a world of I don't want to but okay, you have to get to the yes. You have to become the buyer, not only in each specific exchange, but the buyer of a destiny that belongs to you. Swiss Explorer Bertrand Picard said, very often human beings are living on a autopilot reacting automatically with what happens. What interests me about the life of an explorer is you are in the unknown, you are out of your habits. That's exactly what interests me. That contrast

between the unknown in our habits, being on so-called autopilot. Because a life without examination and reflection is going to be a life void of some pretty incredible things. Obviously, yeah, life requires balance. There's a time for routine and a time for exploration, a time for consistency, and a time for adventure. But overall, I think we very often forget how big the world and how small the piece of it in which we've given ourselves permission to exist. Admittedly in the past, you know, I've fallen victim to the doing without the thinking, but some of my greatest breakthroughs were realizing that, understanding that I had the ability to change.

Here's a story that in a unique way emphasizes this. The other day I was on the plane, and it was watching some variation of animal planet, specifically talking about animal migration, and a species of penguin came up, and these penguins hatched somewhere near New York, When they're strong enough, the first thing they do is swim offshore thousands and thousands of kilometers to Antarctica for food.

Here's what's interesting though. The narrator states, funny enough, they have everything they need right where they are. Before they even start the journey, they have all the food they need. But still, mysteriously they embark upon this trip. longest single journey made by any penguin. And I'm paraphrasing here, but the narrator says it's quite possibly entirely pointless. And it's thought that maybe their ancestors started making that trip two million years ago when the only food that existed was in Antarctica.

So they had to go there. He jokes, it's a tough routine to break. And the reason I found this interesting, the reason There's a correlation in my mind between that journey and human beings is because of the tendency to go into default mode and do things that aren't conducive to what's best. But penguins, they don't have the ability to assess and change. Humans, on the other hand, we get to reflect.

We get to examine the paths we take or don't. take. For us, in the current year, autopilot most often doesn't mean we're taking a thousand kilometers trips away. You know, it usually means we're staying contained and stagnant. Our autopilot, our instinct is to play safety above everything else, to live in fear of the same lions that pursued us thousands of years ago, thinking they're still around every corner, right? When purpose is what we actually need, what we actually create. But when we do not think we are driven by fear, whether we realize it or not, we completely push away the unknown and accept the status quo.

That's our default. That's our metaphorical trip to Antarctica. It's part of who we are. It's how our species survived. So it's nothing to be ashamed of, but to see that, acknowledge that, and then seek to change that in ourselves so that we can live in a way that's conducive to what's meaningful, that is a superpower. That's how you go from existing in the world to living in the world.

What am I doing for the sake of doing? And how can I lock into the things that truly matter? Because that default setting, it won't take us to the promised land, right? So it's up to us. Do we adjust the path so that we get the most out of this short-lived time on Earth? Do we look beyond the routine of our day-to-day and make the changes, build the models, push the boundaries that create a new set of standards? It's amazing how, just by examining how we spend our time,

we unveil so much about ourselves and what we want. We give ourselves a chance to step off the merry ground and carve out something of value. So I ask, how are you spending your time? What does your day-to-day consist of? Do these things align with what matters? Or is this routine designed perhaps subconsciously to keep the world out and the now secure? Are the people in your life and the places you go, the things you do intentional? So they bring value or are they that dreaded autopilot?

Again, the enemy isn't necessarily what routine brings. We need it to some extent. The enemy is what too much. much routine keeps out. It's not letting yourself grow into the person you could become. That version of yourself that requires breaking the chains of predictability and safety. To Pickard's point, we don't think we will act automatically. But the path to something greater does not automatically reveal itself.

It materializes over time with intentionality, with thought. It emerges from the comparison of where you are. and where you'd ultimately like to be. This world is comprised of unlimited possibility. Just as you're comprised of infinite potential. But for these two truths to intersect, you have to look around, you have to create and walk down your own path.

This morning I went down the street to go to this class. It's basically 45 minutes of body circuits in a heated room, which I love. I love mixing that in with the running that I do. And basically the thing kicks off. And somewhere in, you know, maybe the last third of the class, we were doing some weighted squats. And right at that point where, you know,

you're in the thick of things, your legs start to burn, heart rates elevated, you can start to, you know, really feel the temperature of the room. The instructor said something that I thought was absolutely incredible. She goes, and I'm paraphrasing, the discomfort that you feel right now is a privilege. It's a privilege to suffer through this. It's a privilege to be here working on yourself when most people are at home.

It's a privilege to be in a position to move through the resistance you feel right now. And that message moved me. And how can you even think about discomfort? after that perspective had been laid out. How can you see a few minutes of fatigue as anything other than the small price of improvement? It's funny how the same things we consider to be torture or punishment, if they're externally required of us,

they become empowering when we know that we deliberately chose them. You know, in this feeling, it was definitely self-induced. It was chosen, right? I decided to be there in class. there in class that day was what I needed to become just a little bit better to obtain just a little bit more and what a privilege I've learned over the years to manage pain you have to you have to immerse yourself in in an often less than ideal short term so that you can bring about results of greater magnitude I've

always accepted this I've always known it to be true I believe you know in my own I've sacrificed accordingly. But I don't recall the last time I was overtly thankful for the obstacles in my way. I don't remember the last time I saw my struggle not as a necessary burden, but a gift. There's something not thrown at me but presented to me. Think for a second about the finitude of life. The one in 400 trillion odds of being born, a number that I came across somewhere that I certainly can't validate,

but I don't think you need to to get the point, right? The odds of being here are incredibly slim. Yet somehow we won. We all received winning lottery tickets. Here we are. On a strange planet with options to choose from, Paths to decide between and a giant ticking clock. And given these circumstances, aren't we doing a disservice to ourselves

to not at least see what we're capable of? What we can do, build, create, and become? I certainly think so. And what is the cost of that evolution? It's discomfort. It's forging our future by walking. through fire. It means intentional hardship. And to not see that as the gateway to life's infinite opportunity is missing the mark. Why shouldn't you feel lucky about yourself

transforming in real time? Why shouldn't you feel proud of paying a steeper price for a better view? Why shouldn't you be delighted to unpack the mystery and the adventure contained in life. This isn't something you have to do on your way to point B. This is something you get to do on your journey to become whoever you choose to become. So when the pressures of life press down upon us, test us,

perhaps solely acknowledging its utility is insufficient. Maybe it's more. Maybe it's something. that should be celebrated, adored. Today was a reminder to be thankful for the body that can endure the turbulence. Thankful for the mind that can manage and overcome the chaos. Thankful for the opportunity to be here to begin with and the freedom to choose the difficult thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to live in. such a way that as I place my head on the pillow each and every night, I'm grateful for the privilege. We have a desire to define that which is often undefinable. When it comes to life and its highly coveted outcomes, assessing the things that we want, we use probability to solidify things that are entirely fluid. For example, you often hear about the odds of becoming a professional football player, the odds of becoming a CEO of going to Harvard, making six or seven figures.

Numbers that often paint a picture of why you can't. When you hear only one in however many millions of people accomplish something, the intent is to show you that you're more likely to fall into the millions bucket than the one bucket, to show just how rare or difficult or out of the ordinary achieving that thing would be. Almost like they're being compared to a lottery, a random number generator, luck, a pursuit in which you have zero control. Think of a huge glass jar, right? One red marble, three million green marbles, and it's like you close your eyes and you better pull out that red one, otherwise you won't become the Oscar winning actor that you dream of being. And the problem with looking at life that way is that it overshadows the most important element of success.

understanding just how much control you have. The one in however many hundreds or thousands or millions wasn't born that red marble in a jar full of three million green ones. No, he or she just did things differently, live differently. They didn't relinquish control. They took control, and that's the difference. That's what matters. The lottery is sitting back and hoping your numbers pull.

In real life, you create your own probability every day, every minute that goes towards working towards a goal, that means you get closer. Why would you take a snapshot of the present moment in time and use that to define the likelihood that you'll live out your dreams someday down the road? It doesn't tell you anything. It's the steps along the way that make your vision a reality. Using the same metaphor, every step, every decision to push forward, every time you dig deep and find a reality, every time you dig deep and find a reality, a little advantage, you're replacing one of those green marbles with the red one. Maybe you can't quantify that numerically. Maybe you can't see the progress, but it's there.

In fact, numbers should never scare you because they're an indicator that the vast majority of people aren't prepared to go all the way, aren't willing to do what it takes, and that you, by simply not stopping, by thinking that you can, by giving more than the person next to you have a tremendous advantage over the rest of the world. When you hear only a small number of people make it or graduate or get accepted or win, your thought process shouldn't be, oh no, it should be perfect. This is my opportunity. Of course the number of elite people in any arena is going to be small.

Think of what it takes to get there. Think of the sacrifice needed to make it happen, the costs that must be paid. The only odds that warrant attention are the odds that you will continue forward and you should know that they are 100%. Because when you trust yourself to find a way, when you focus on how to make it happen, you have an advantage. The world around you, they focus on why things can't happen. They see what can go wrong.

They harp on the fact that it's not easy. Remaining fixated on why you can, on finding a way means you most likely will. The terms difficult or demanding or even unlikely, they have nothing to do with you crossing that finish line. If you are 100% convinced you are going to do just that. Words like difficult, they just imply that there's going to be plenty of opportunities to quit and turn around along the way, a temptation that must and will be ignored. They mean that you will be tested, that you will have to ask yourself potentially numerous

times if this means something to you, if it's truly worth it. And if the answer is yes, then the numbers, the probability, the odds, they are not an adversary, they are an ally. The other day, I was sitting in Miami traffic, looking out the window, and it dawned on me. How interesting that human beings haven't solved for this. Like, this is a major annoyance in a lot of people's lives. Now, we put human beings on a rocket ship. We've navigated them beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

We've landed them on the moon, but still are unable to effectively get around between 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays. It's just kind of interesting to realize. Now, there are very practical reasons for this, sure. Not to mention people studying and invested in the problem. and I think most noteworthy, I'm not even saying one is more valuable than another, this is merely a thought experiment. We get the results where we place our attention.

We valued going to the moon. Because of this, humans walked on the literal moon. And we're so used to this having happened that its shock value isn't quite there, right? But for a species who a hundred years ago is traveling by horse and buggy, it's pretty impressive. I just think it's a cool reminder that where we place our focus is where we'll get our positive results.

We can change everything if we place a spotlight on it. That begs the question, where are you placing your spotlight? As John Maxwell said, nobody ever went up a hill on axis. There was intentionality, which gave life to focus and action, planning, growth. We only evolve or we shine that spotlight, or as I've said in previous episodes or videos, what you water grows. I've certainly spent my fair share of time, angry, annoyed by things that I've, by no coincidence, given zero effort to fixing. And when you do nothing to solve a problem, all you can cling to is the ability to complain about it.

complain about it. If you're not putting energy and resources there, you most likely won't win. Some of the best advice I got from a friend a few years back was to highlight the things that matter to you and measure them, because this allows you to be aware, to be intentional with your action. It's deciding which handful of things are going to be your quote-unquote moon landing, and then watching over them like they are precious. Let's say a goal of yours is to increase your net worth. If you're looking at your bank account every day, you're much more likely to make better monetary decisions than someone who keeps their finances in the dark because they hate thinking about it. There are deliberate actions that must take place to bring about that change.

When I look at, say, YouTube, I tend to know a substantial amount about my metrics, because I really care about the channel and its growth and its impact. I watch it and I monitor it. Things dip, I need to know why. If they took a sudden upswing and they're great, I need to know why. If success on a platform is my metaphorical moon landing, I'm locked into every up and down. I have to understand what's going on so I can make the necessary adjustments to grow. And then when the growth happens after time has elapsed, I can think, in my own little world, that was space travel. I was driving that metaphorical horse and buggy not all that long ago.

But I stayed locked in. And this may seem simple, and it is. But for what it's worth, my biggest breakthroughs always tend to be. I've exhausted a lot of energy, and in some cases even paid a decent amount of money, so learn the simple things. Nothing is that complicated. We just think it is. Which is why we do nothing and then complain about the delta between the real and the ideal.

But I'm here to tell you that if you decide on a few things that matter to you and then measure their progress, allocate the energy to moving along with them, where you'll be in months or years from now will astound you. It will be breathtaking. But you have to be willing to peel back the curtain and immerse yourself in it. prove to yourself that sure it might feel big and complex. But once you give something that time and attention, it becomes clear pretty quickly how simple it all is.

What's one thing you can do every day in each meaningful category in your life that will get you closer to where you want to be? If you watch over that process and you adjust along the way, the amount of opportunity available, the amount of change you'll create, is unbelievable. And someday to others, on the outside looking in, your progress will seem out of this world larger than life.

It will appear a moon landing. But you'll know it wasn't the miraculous. It was just a simple decision to give it time and attention. You watered it, and so it grew. Recently, I was thinking about something a friend of mine named Tom told me a few years back. He owns a company in Oklahoma City and was telling me about how someone he'd hired essentially stole from him. And the first question that came to my mind as he was telling the story was, okay, what are you going to do about it? And I asked him the question and he was kind of quiet for a second and then asked in his

Southern accent, Eddie, if a snake bites you, are you going to chase it into the woods to get your revenge? Or are you going to get the medical attention required to save yourself? Basically, are you going to focus on the past or on what to do from here forward? Basically, he cut ties with the person but had moved on. was already thinking about next steps that were best for him, his family, and his business, and I can tell you, since hearing that, it's become an incredibly valuable idea in my life. Especially as you realize that there will never be a shortage of problems. You do what you can to avoid them.

You try to steer clear when possible, but adversity will always be a factor. It's about knowing that and stepping into it regardless. It's just something that's always intertwined in our development. And I find value in asking myself, is this action I'm about to take conducive to my growth and my happiness? Or am I just chasing snakes? Does this just feel good in the short term because I'm angry or I've been wrong or something along those lines? Especially since most harm inflicted on others derived from incompetence, not malice, and I truly believe that. I think very frequently we attribute sinister motives to others when 99% of the time it's sheer stupidity.

It's imperfect humans trying to navigate an often complex world. We make mistakes. Now, I'm not suggesting you don't stand up for yourself when you've been wronged. or slighted, of course you should. But the magic is in not personalizing the situation, possessing the emotional IQ to understand, hey look, it's not about me, but whether I can salvage this situation from here.

And that depends solely on how I choose to look at. Emerson wrote, people do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. And what a powerful point. The flexibility and the leeway available to us when it comes to making sense of the world speaks to not how the world is, but how the onlooker thinks and interprets. Deep personalizing this situation is one of the greatest superpowers

that are disposedly. When you're angry and accusatory, you will, as Tom put it, end up chasing snakes. you'll end up breaking things that will need to be rebuilt and uttering words you'll wish you'd never spoken. But the five seconds required to pause, to collect yourself and realize that you're in control is everything. The ability to see the person, the situation or the world, not as an adversary stacked against

you, but as an inevitable challenge that must be managed. So how will you choose to manage it? How will you choose to arrange? And by the way, I'm fully aware the constant theme for my speeches and podcasts and videos is the act of pointing not out at the world but in at ourselves. My responsibility, my fault, my problem to deal with. I understand just how heavy that is, how hard that can be. Especially when deflecting blame often feels like it would just be a tremendous weight off of our shoulders, when revenge feels like the easy, intuitive move.

But again, it's short-term relief to truly grow, to find the calm and happiness and meaning we long for. It's the internal relationship with ourselves that matters most. It's the ability to say, I may not have created this, or even, you know, I may have made the mistakes that brought this to life, but I can't fix it until I look at both the situation and my own reflection and proclaim it's mine now. Let the past be the past. Now it's me and the present. And as far as I'm concerned, the present. an opportunity, they are always one in the same so long as we choose to see it. It's not what you look at, it's what you see over and over and over again.

Is it happening to you or for you? Is it a problem or an opportunity, a setback, or a chance to reset? I want to bring to light a story, one that I've told before, but it's so perfectly right representative of the conversation. Jim Rohn talking about two brothers in an abusive household. Alcoholic father, terrible childhoods. They grow up and both of the sons have families of their own. One is the exact same as his father.

He's abusive and he's angry. And the other one is a great father. He's kind, he's loving, he's supportive. And when asked why, the abusive brother replies, Look at my childhood, right? How could you blame me for this? The other brother, when asked, responds, look at my childhood, right?

How could I let myself treat my family the same way? And in a way, one spent his life chasing snakes, bitter, resentful. The other one asked, well, that was terrible, but what can I do to right the wrong? One personalized it. The other used it as a lever or stepping stone. And this is of course a simplification, but I believe every struggle we face in our lives at its core contains some element of this choice. From the little things to the big things, where do I go from here?

It's mine now and I can choose whether to make it better or worse. Chase the snake into the woods or march forward to find the value and write the ship. Remember that when it's hardest, when you least want to. Remember that the present contains every single thing you need to begin a journey to recovery, to growth, to contentment and meaning. You, on your end though, need to be willing to slow down the moment. Need to be willing to collect yourself and give yourself permission. Give yourself permission to take that necessary and appropriate step.

Time waits for no one. Look, the earth will continue to spin, the sun to set, clocks to tick. There are no perfect moments, only moments, waiting to be interpreted by those passing through them. And as a raindrop in this thunderstorm, an actor in this play, The only rational question in my mind is if time will not wait, why should I? If time will continue its steady march, why let it leave me behind?

I'm in my mid-30s, and here's what I've already seen. I've already seen songs I grew up with, referred to as classic rock. I've seen some of my childhood sports heroes struggle to throw a first pitch before a baseball game. I've seen a substantial portion of my social interaction become digitized. I've seen once forever people in my life fade away and become memories. I've audibly laughed at the ridiculousness of things that at one point I was sure were important.

I've redefined the meaning of the word home in my life more times than I can count. In fact, the way I see the world and the way I see myself operating, and it continues to change. As the saying goes, the only constant in our lives is that things change, evolve. Why does this matter so much to me? Well, because when I look back, the single thing that would consistently keep me from truly pushing that pedal to the floor to truly capturing all life has to offer was of fear, a very specific. The fear, the fear of losing what I had at that moment. I was scared to death of loss, as we all tend to be to varying extent.

In fact, we're biologically wired to respect the fear of loss to a greater extent than the prospect of acquisition. There's humor in all this, though, a deeply rooted irony. It emerges when we discover that we lose everything. It all goes. The song that's playing ends for each and every one of us. And is this a sad thing? No. No more than the credits to your favorite movie rolling after the final scene. It was the show, the experience that meant the world.

It's a beautiful thing if you let it manifest in all its beauty. If you move along with it, immerse yourself in its beauty. brilliance. My point is that the only way to lose is to wait. It's to not realize that you're starring in your own cinematic masterpiece, and those credits will at some point roll. It's to sit in a chair on the side of the gym while the rest of the room dances. Life is finite, and the power is not in a flawless existence. It's an understanding to our core that there is nothing to lose, that the window is small, that we should carry out the human equivalent of a firework show. We should be obnoxiously bold, absurdly courageous. We should go, live, try, experiment,

explore, build, create. And yeah, sometimes you'll fail. And sometimes you'll fail spectacularly. But sometimes you'll triumph. And along the way, the mistakes, they become wisdom. They become courage. Both of which are integral to any meaningful grand finale. And as I make my way around the sun for the 36th time,

The priority is to remember that these rides are not forever. They are precious. And that I have the strength to live accordingly. Fearlessly, courageously, my hope is that you find it within yourself to do the same. To pull back the curtains and see now that failure was never the adversary. No, not even close. The adversary is an unwillingness to make the most of your moments. The adversary is freezing amidst the constant hammering away of ticking clocks.

The adversary is the prospect of removing failures mask years down the road, only to stare directly into the eyes of regret. These outcomes constitute your greatest adversary. So for the sake of all that is meaningful, go push into the questions and the risk and the curiosity that makes life worth living. After all, it is not about failure. It's about time.

The other day, I heard someone say that they've found some of the most important things in their life in places where they weren't supposed to find them. Which is interesting to me. One, because that seems to happen a lot. And two, because it's like who creates the parameters around what we're supposed to do? Who sets the rules to begin with? You know, I'm continuously blown away by our tendency to create imaginary walls and then live within them. To build steel bars around ourselves that separate the now from future opportunity.

In one of the first videos I ever made, I talked about this nagging feeling of discomfort that occurred right after I left the corporate world and started my own business. And at that point, to call it a business, I was giving myself a lot of credit. I was basically just starting to make videos and put them out on social media. But I would run in the middle of the day, right? That was my thing. Right through Boston along the Charles River, I loved running. But I couldn't help feeling this guilt like I wasn't supposed to.

Like I was doing the wrong thing, doing what I was taught not to do. My whole life, I learned that you go to school or work during the day. That's the right thing. In a decade removed, I've grown, and I've learned. I know how crazy it sounds now. But it took me a long time to even enjoy it and not feel like some devian who was leaving everything he'd worked for up to that point

to go and fail spectacularly. The supposed to followed me around like a shadow. Constantly trying to pull me back in. Freedom to me is separated. oneself from this exact sentiment. It's doing what's best for you, exploring your own worldview, blazing as the saying goes your own trail, because you'll find very few supposed tos there.

I think this is a microcosm of a greater truth. The most important things we do in life, our pivotal moments, our epiphanies are found where we weren't supposed to find them. Because what we're supposed to do, is very rarely methodically thought out. It's simply the norm. It's marching orders.

It's what the crowd is doing. It's what will help us blend in. And it's interesting, as I've pushed further and further into life, I've come to believe that rarely is what's best all one thing or all another. It's working to find a balance that supports your ideal life trajectory. That balance will lean substantially more one way or another, depending on who you are and what's important to you. And so, I'm not suggesting one always needs to be different, or if something is common, it's wrong.

No, thousands of years of evolution and societal stressors have in many ways narrowed down for us what's effective and efficient. It's helped us survive. And to dismiss this outright is obviously counterproductive, but it does explain why any break from these norms physically hurts. we associate them with survival. And here lies the divide between surviving, which we are supposed to do, and excelling, which is to embark upon a different game altogether. Survival is mitigating risk. Excelling is hunting down the opportunity.

Survival is blending in. Excelling is asking, What about me is unique and how can I dive into that fully? Survival is not having to innovate on any large scale because the instructions are clear and laid out for you. Excelling is asking, now that I know the rules, how can I bend and maybe even break them

so that I can improve my life and the lives of those around me. And I'll continue with the same example, because I know a lot of folks find themselves in a similar situation now. I wasn't supposed to deviate from my previous life trajectory. My education, my career track, my 401k, but I did. And I found something I otherwise would never have, an ability to work on what I enjoy and share that with others. I wasn't supposed to leave home, the Northeast. the most important people in my life lived there. But I've found comfort, peace, and new beginnings down here

that I never would have experienced. I wasn't supposed to do many of the things I'm doing today. It was a genuine curiosity and a willingness to chase down what's meaningful, and the beautiful thing is anyone can do that. Every single one of us can detach and depart from the supposed to be. in our lives. And hey, maybe some of them should be there. Maybe some are adding value and stability that you need and maybe even cherish.

But I can promise some of them aren't. And it's worth a look. It's worth thinking about those things. Where can we be a little braver, a little more courageous? Where can we venture outside the scope of what we've subcontinent? deemed everyday life. I love the notion that there's always more in you. You just need to give yourself permission to pursue it.

It only makes sense that no journey begins until we give it the green light. The world is yours once you give yourself permission to pursue it. So what are you conceding? What have you accepted as fact that upon further review you might find to be fiction? There's a world of infinite opportunity waiting for you. Just past your acceptance of the way things are. Just beyond all those supposed tos. I was in Arizona last week.

Got a chance to interview Joe Polish, best-selling author and founder of the Genius Network. As I was sort of making my way around the Genius Network office with my coffee that morning, I noticed in one of the meeting rooms there were some quotes hanging on the wall. One of them was Joe's that said, Be willing to destroy anything in your life that isn't excellent. That's certainly a big state. I started thinking about my little corner of the universe,

running through all the things that might not meet that standard of excellence in my life. A few certainly came to mind. It was freeing to think about. But could excellence really be a standard for everything? I mean, that's a high bar. And so I wrote it down, a little reminder to bring it up later during the interview. A few hours go by, mics are rolling, and I asked the question. So, be willing to destroy anything in your life that isn't excellent.

Beautiful quote. But how? And Joe smiled, kind of paused for a second. It says, willing. Right, the key word there is willing. And I'm paraphrasing. But his point was essentially, it's an acceptance of what is and a willingness to be rigorously honest with yourself.

Because look, there's not an athlete, entrepreneur, parent, or student who didn't have to at some point play broken. We all do. But to live like that, that's not a life well-lived. That's learned helplessness. And that quote on the wall is about taking a stand. It's the moment you say, I want a new standard for my life. I'm going to be more assertive, more caring, more aware. Excellence is not a requirement per se,

because human beings can't be excellent all the time. We are flawed, we are trying, we are growing. But what you can do is look around you and start moving towards that version of yourself. Start cutting away the metaphorical chains around your angles. In his book, What's in It for Them? Joe highlights British Olympic rower Ben Hunt Davis, who had one standard for the men in his boat,

one question that would be asked every time they were confronted with the decision. The question was, will this make the boat go faster? If no, then it's not for them. And this framework guided their journey. This contributed to their success, this clarity, this line of sight. It's an awareness we can all learn from. Understanding that we're not shackled to yesterday. We're not tied to the old stories, the old relationships, the old ways of living. No, our paths are not dictated by what was.

But rather, our willingness to be aware to ask the questions that position us towards our North Star. And as the conversation was winding down, Joe pointed to a quote from the movie Vanilla Sky. It states every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around. Change doesn't happen without the understanding that more is possible. That perhaps you'd been conceding too much while asking too little of yourself. Perhaps you've been surrounding yourself with inadequate resources. Maybe you've been building walls that without your knowing it became self-independable. reduced limitation.

And yeah, excellence in every single aspect of life is unobtainable. But what a beautiful standard. What a journey to embark upon. A horizon to chase down. And the point is not to recklessly destroy your current reality, but to build a bridge connecting what is to what can be. It's loving the reflection in the mirror enough to know, You are better.

You can be better. You will obtain better. You need not be perfect or flawless, but you must be willing. Willing to destroy anything in your life that is an excellent.