Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - FOCUS ON YOU IN 2023 | Powerful Motivational Speeches | 1 Hour Morning Motivation

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

"Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on." -Eckhart Tolle

Hey there, it's Ryan Sechrest for Safeway. Now through February 25th, stock up on your favorite self-care items and save up to $3 shop in store or online for items like Old Spice Deodorant, always ultra-thin pads, Gillette Fusion Razors and Refills, Old Spice Total Body Spray, Tampax Pearl, and Gillette Mach 3 Razors and Refills and Save Up to $3. You won't want to miss out on these deals. Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit Safeway.com for more detail.

on new tech. Upgrade the whole team at Lenovo.com. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. Win the tech search for business PCs at Lenovo.com. We have so much to let go of. To dismiss.

ideas, narratives. They're not ours. Not in our best interest anyway. Yet we carry them around. Carry them around like we're perpetually tied to the lies they espouse, the fiction they propagate. We have to let go. Before we add a single thing, before we adopt another way,

it all has to go. I don't remember where I've seen it, but I know I have. Maybe cartoons when I was younger, but I'm imagining that character that is taking off their jacket or shirt, and there's always another one underneath it. And they're like confused, frantically pulling off shirts

and more and more keep emerging. They had no idea how many layers they were carrying around with them. And funny enough, 20 years later, I'd be thinking that we are no different. There are so many layers and so many of them should be gone, should be left, should be confined to the dustbin of history. Those boundaries in your life. Who set them? Who said this is as far as you can go?

Who put that little fence around your world and ask that you stay obediently confined to its borders? Who said that what you have is all there is? Who said upside is too dangerous? Who said life is about predictability and routine, so stop asking questions? No one. No one said those things. So, hey, there's a start. Empty your pockets of the boundaries that are making life heavy.

What about yesterday? Might as well take off that backpack. Tip it upside down and pour out. the yesterday. You made mistakes yesterday. Ah, but that's not today. You didn't like certain aspects of who you were yesterday. But that's not today either.

Your friends, maybe family, maybe others in your life knew you to be someone. Someone you don't think you are or someone you wish you weren't. Well, more breaking news, that was yesterday. Did you even realize you're still carrying around who you were yesterday on your back? Your next step has a lot to do with now and very little to do with yesterday. So embrace and wave goodbye to those calendar pages you've already turned. That's the best move for everyone. Oh, and those concessions you make, you didn't think I'd forget those.

You can't forget those. Unshackle them from your ankle. Those things you say, eh, you're not ideal, but it's easier to live a lesser life with you in it than it is to go through the trouble of pushing you away. Perhaps the people that darken your light, the actions that you know are not you,

the time exhausted living for someone else, gone, gone, and gone, it has to go. And look, we all know life is tricky. It's hard to walk away from things so ingrained into our daily lives for so long. But let's play a game. Let's pretend it was. Pretend life was that simple. Things I need to leave behind.

A, B, and C. Well, that's definitely simple. Perhaps not easy, but simple. And now, through this simplified lens, you have a target to aim for. Something to chip away at. You have your body. block of marble. Now comes the process of chiseling a little bit at a time. And that's the goal. Because to not carry these things ends up meaning everything. Space no longer occupied by the

wrong things creates space for the right things. Knocking down what doesn't belong creates a platform to build what does. So onward, we must go, not falling into the trap of pointing at externality, blaming the world for our confinement. But instead understanding that we have been, perhaps without even realizing it, taking our confinement with us, in our pockets, on our back, trailing behind our every step, a subtle resistance. And when it goes, we can finally grow. We can become more.

So what can you do now to live a life that's more meaningful, that's more true to yourself? Well, you can start by doing less of what weighs you down. Montesquieu once wrote that we received three educations. One from our parents, one from our schoolmasters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first. to teach us. That thing called life, right? And the more I think about this, the more I get it.

The most important rules are the unwritten rules. The most significant boundaries are the ones we learn to ignore. The greatest tests don't concern what we know, but our ability to move forward when we don't. It's the real world that shows us we only get meaning through sacrifice and discomfort, that shows us the homes we lived in and the classrooms we learned in

were meant to block out the uncertainty and unpredictability of life. They were meant to draw a line directly from effort to result and cause to effect, but the line that the real world draws, well, it isn't so straight, at least not all the time. And it's this third education,

that shows us how powerful we truly are. Sometimes I think back to the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, that first year, the writing, the recording, the producing, the editing, the beginnings of a pursuit that I believe to be so important. Looking around and just seeing no result, like none, and thinking, how could this be? You know, I worked so hard, suffered so much,

I put all of me into this. only to realize I had no clue what all of me meant. And what I thought constituted life was really just the tip of an iceberg that extended so far underwater that it would take a lifetime to uncover. The real world upon introduction always starts by showing you how much you don't know. And I look back and I don't really think about the financial concerns, although they were very real.

I don't remember much of the everyday worry and anxiety bouncing around in my head, although it was definitely there. I remember learning one of the greatest lessons I've ever learned that life is hard, but it's supposed to be. And it's not standing in front of you, hands on hips, saying you can't have this. It's extending its hand out, saying, my friend, if you want to be. want this, it's yours. But understand what that means. Understand that you'll spend a good portion of your time unsure about your path. That you'll exhaust energy that will a lot of the time go unappreciated. That the easy road is fine, but it caps you way before your best. And if you want to take this on, this road before you, you have to pay a higher price. They can have predictability,

and peace of mind and comfort, but this path it takes you to purpose and meaning and an evolved self. And you may think you understand what it means to be proud now, but wait until you touch these things. Wait until you look at your reflection knowing that the person staring back at you could have said no time and time again, but didn't. Just wait, my friend, until you feel what that is like your parents and grandparents can't tell you no book can't explain it for you it's the curriculum of life the real-world education where the tuition is temporary discomfort and graduation isn't one but a million little evolutions it is this stage that's calling your name the one you're ready

for whether you know or not. What is the complex, but an accumulation of that which is simple? What are big things, if not just a multitude, of little things? There's comfort in the understanding that all we have in life, all there is, is simplicity, easy to understand pieces. It's just that sometimes we stack them so high that they start to take a new show. shape. But like Greg McKeown references in his book Essentialism, the power isn't always in acquiring

answers. You already have them. They're in front of you. The power is in cutting away the things that don't need to be there. Removing all that stands between you and your ideal existence. And I think that's one of life's great misunderstandings. We don't need to find more. We need to remove the excess until we're face to face with what matters. And to adopt this principle, it's nothing short of liberating. Chaos, confusion, disorder, they don't imply that you lack the right things. They suggest you haven't stripped life of the wrong things.

You have not simplified. A thousand miles is intimidating when you look at it holistically. It's a long journey. But it's just a collection of steps and well, shouldn't we find solace in the fact that anyone can take one step? It's not a game of complexity. It's a game of understanding what's in front of you. And what's in front of you is always manageable.

So much of our stress stems from forgetting what that journey is made of. it's a change in career, mastery of an art, some kind of personal transformation, the result we want. When looking at it from the starting line, it's too complex to understand too many pieces stacked up. So let's break it down. Let's find the foundation. What's really there? What are the one, two, three things we need to do? What is that golden question? What matters? If you lose sight, of that, then you will stumble through life. I've learned this. I've lived it. The time I take to myself every day is invaluable to me because I ask myself those two questions. What matter and what are the simple steps I need to take? What can I remove? I was talking about this

during an interview this week, my personal growth. And one of the most important aspects has been the understanding and the zeroing in on what's important. I used to take so much pride in composing the background music to these speeches, end-to-end. I used to love to be able to say, I did it all. That was so I thought the great differentiator. But ultimately, I learned to take a step back and ask, what matters here? What do you care about? It's the storytelling that I love.

It's the impact. And let's be real. No one cares who wrote the background music. It's holistically, how does the piece make you feel? And this understanding allowed me to cut away. License the music. Save two days a week, acquire clarity. And realize my goal is not to be Mozart.

My journey is to be one of the great communicators, storytellers of our time. And if a day goes by where I'm not taking a little step towards that, it's the wrong move. Small example in the grand scheme of things. but right on point. It's the power in understanding what matters that makes a difference that allows you to grow, evolve. And I'm confident that this not only applies to long-term pursuits, but also our challenging times, the dark moments, the periods of uncertainty and discontent. Same concept.

Where do you want to be? And how do you get there? What's the simple thing you can do to close that gap? Because you are never helpless. You can always do something. And my friends, those little somethings ultimately evolve into everything. And when we put our phone away, step beyond the noise, spend time with ourselves, we can see how much of life is running in place.

Stacking and stacking pieces that aren't even part of the masterpiece. we're trying to assemble. If you want answers, start with the understanding that they're buried under mountains of things you don't need. So cut away. Cut away the people and places

and things that convolut your story. Cut away the exhaustion of time that provides no value in return. Cut away the thoughts that make life more complex. and your journey from where you are to where you'd like to be. As you stand right now, you have everything you need, and there's nothing greater than that,

nothing more powerful than that understanding. So why not step outside the complexity that you've manufactured that you're living in into a world of clarity, simplicity, and capture what matters. What can you be the best in the world at? Life is a complex place. Complexity sometimes means confusion. It means we forget the big picture.

What's our purpose? What are we chasing? What are we bringing to the world? What can you be the best in the world at? It's a little question I try and ask myself every day, because I know if I stay close to it, my decision will have far greater impact. There will be more meaning in life.

See, it pushes away the things that are appealing in the short term, but really don't take us anywhere in the long term. Because one of the coolest aspects of human nature is our ability to illuminate what matters and will mitigate what doesn't. Helps us focus on what's important. We need to go to the grocery store while we step out the front door,

paying attention to nothing, task at hand, not the objects to our left or right. We don't know what colors the cars are where that passes by or the plants we walked by. We don't think about the blood pumping through our bodies, making it all possible as we walk to the car. We don't even see the car as its metallic components as it really is. We see it as our portal to a place that has the food. See, we are blind. But at the same time, have this beautiful gift of vision. We see the path right to what's most important. So let's let's let us. leverage that. And what I think we need to remember is to identify in our own lives what that

means with regard to our purpose and the context of what we are becoming. See, every day I hear people talk about followers on social media, right? How do I get attention? How do we get noticed? How do I market myself from my brand to the world? How do I stand out? And every time I hear that I always have this little internal reaction like a voice saying that's just so wrong and so backwards. You stand out by adding value to the world, by being good at what you do. It's that simple. And so look at it like this. We'll take a specific example. To worry about the marketing and the attention and the followers first is like worrying about the transportation of something you don't have yet or that's incomplete. It's like spending all your time worrying about the logistics of a cargo

van and having no idea what that van is going to transport. Isn't the product the most important thing? And that's the question I ask myself when I'm caught up in something flashy or maybe out of line with my big picture. To make sure I'm on track in this crazy world, if social media disappeared tomorrow, are you good enough at what you do, that you could take that product or service or skill set to another platform and start again? And if you're not, fine. But are you working towards it? Those are the parameters that we should all live between. Everything else tends to work itself out.

Steve Martin's quoted as saying, Be so good they can't ignore you. And that's what I find so exciting, the opportunity, the chance to build something sustainable. That's why this is a long-term play. And in a world where so much emphasis is put on perception, what's the reality? What's the story? The pictures are great on the surface,

but what's the value that resides below that? Underneath, what are you working tirelessly day and night to be exceptional at? What are you leading to build yourself up as a force to be reckoned with? As a powerful, valuable individual. See, my world, a lot of what I do is immersed in social media, which is why it's so important that I remember the perspective that I step out. Social media is not the product. I'm thinking much bigger than that,

and I hope you are too, whether it's academics or sports or art. What is your thing? What's going to be your arena? Where are you unstoppable? where you add so much value that the world has to stop. We're sure you can capture it on social media, but you can talk about it face to face with clients and family and friends and strangers on the sidewalk.

You can write about it, teach about it, where it's so much a part of you that the phrase competent doesn't even do it justice. That's where greatness lives. Not in screaming for attention or creating a facade, those things don't stand the test of time, I'm talking about being truly remarkable. And we all have that ability.

We're all capable of mastery in some area, moving towards something that matters. We just have to make the choice to own it, to see the world and all its opportunity for what it is. To begin. And what better a time than now? Ready to prioritize yourself in the new year? Your skin is a great time.

place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master esthetician, is more than just a skincare company. With four skin-conscious categories, skincare, beauty, body care, and fragrance, Dime offers simple, spa-worthy products that will help you enter 2025 with confidence. Whether you're revitalizing your regimen with nourishing products or building one from scratch, Dime makes it easy. The work system, our all-in-one best-selling routine, includes a cleanser of your choice, toner, serums, and moisturizers. Taking the guesswork. out of skin care for your healthiest, happiest skin yet. Dime's commitment to clean ingredients and sustainable packaging ensures every product is as

gentle on your skin as it is on the planet. With thousands of glowing five-star reviews and a loyal community, the results speak for themselves. Revive your skin and give yourself the routine refresh you deserve by visiting dime beauty CO.com. That's dime beauty co.com. Your best skin awaits. Hey there, it's Ryan Sechrest for Safeway. Now through February 25th, stock up on your favorite self-care items and save up to $3. Shop in store or online for items like Old Spice Deodorant, always ultra-thin pads, Gillette Fusion Razors and Refills,

Old Spice Total Body Spray, Tampax Pearl, and Gillette Mock3 Razors and Refills and Save Up to $3. You won't want to miss out on these deals. Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit Safeway.com for more detail. You're right where you need to be.

Sure, you have your doubts. Perhaps you feel tired, alone, fearful. Maybe you're trying to make sense of a world that feels too complex. Or all you see and here are reasons to turn back, to find shelter, to run, don't. Regardless of how hard it seems, don't. You are right where you need to be. Turning thoughts to things, making life from dreams, what makes change so interesting. So powerful yet deceptive is that it comes to us in small doses.

Not a tidal wave of transformation, but a slow, steady, rising tide of progress. No one feels the tug of erosion, yet it chips away. And so do you. We're moving piece by piece behold you. The world you're moving away from, and piece by peace, you unveil the promise of your becoming. You may not see the whole picture. You may not understand the whole story, but right now, in real time,

it's being told. And you are right where you need. We just weren't equipped to understand what that looks like. It's never been what you see that makes you uneasy. It's what's missing. That's what hurts. The solutions you wanted. The changes you expected.

The finish lines you envisioned. It's the wondering, how long must I wait? Did I make a wrong turn? joke on me, but it's this line of questioning that causes so many to stop. Unaware of how close they were, ignorant to the foundation they were standing on. What you need is not a miracle. It's to simply carry on. To keep laying those bricks because not a one is wasted.

And sometimes you don't realize you're on the 80th floor until you look down. That climb can be frustrating, exhausting. It isn't always glamorous, but it's necessary. And strength comes from understanding that truth. You are right where you need to be. The world, it can't take what you refuse to give it, and self-belief is non-negotiable. It's off the table your most prized possession. So hold it tight because it'll be needed

when the journey feels long and the road impossible. You'll know that you can always take one step forward and that is the essence of life, of growth, of progress. Think about the steps, the lessons, the self-discovery that led you to this intersection of now and forever. This beginning of whatever you decide comes next. You are right where you need to be because you are armed with the decisions that brought you to today and the courage to let them carry you into tomorrow.

You could be anywhere, but you're here. And as you strap up and settle in, you'll see that right here is everything. As you open your eyes, your feet hit the ground, you step out of bed, maybe as you sit and reflect with your coffee at the kitchen table. I want you to do me a favor. This is something that brings me substantial peace of mind, and I'm thinking it could be of value to you as well. I want you to take those things that you consistently think about, right?

The ones that have been bothering you or troubling you consistently come up in your mind, the ones that you thought about yesterday and the day before and the day before. You know, the so-called problems. Not-so-positive, stories about why you can't. And instead, think about each one's corresponding ideal, what the perfect situation would look like if you could turn each quote-unquote problem around. The perfect story, the most exciting narrative.

And then ask, what can you do today? to move one step closer to the place you want to be. How can you make those ideals real? And the reason this is valuable is because it reminds us that we are not powerless. Quite the opposite. It shows you how new and exciting and untapped your future is. This is your opportunity to remind yourself

that you are not yesterday. You are not your past, you are not your mistakes. Not any of those things, even though our minds often trick us into believing it so. It's kind of like running around the same block over and over again. You become so accustomed to it that you forget you can take a right out of your street and go anywhere you want to go, see anything you want to see. Every morning is a fresh start. An opportunity to connect new dots.

And you can point that compass, any direction you. choose. You are shackled to nothing, bound by no one. And admittedly, that can be hard to hear. I remember the first time I had that realization that most of my limits were self-imposed, that I was complaining about the work I did, the places I spent my time and who I was spending it with. It bothered me from the second I opened my eyes in the morning until I closed them at night until I realized that I had more control than I could even imagine. And that detaching from the past, yeah, it would hurt, it would be scary, sure, I would lose some things. But what a world to gain. What a story ahead. For some reason, things seem so messy and complex that we overlook our

ability to simplify and change them. If it doesn't bring value to your life, you have the power to fix it. And maybe not overnight, but human beings are resourceful, resilient. If you have an outcome in mind and you believe in it, a step in that direction every day will come to mean everything. It's defining. So no, this is not just an ordinary morning. This is a is the beginning. This is where you are blessed with the opportunity to move away from the old and towards the ideal. As our lives evolve, as our experiences accumulate, the way we look at life changes. That's part of getting older and seeing the world and so long as you allow your ideas and perceptions to be malleable, as long as your

looking to grow, you most definitely will. And for me, one area that is truly transformed is my relationship with luck. What it means, how it's relevant, most importantly, what do I do about it? I created a little book of anecdotes last year. One section was called the luck manufacturer. And it says commitment, her hammer, resiliency, her nail, she manufactured luck every single. single day. Before most awoke and long after they were asleep, she tirelessly sketched and built and created until at last she was done. Taking a step back, she stared in awe of the luck she constructed and knew it would change her life. And the takeaway of this passage is luck is made, not given. And as I was making my way through these little chapters in the book

again, I stopped and thought, well, wait. You know, it's an important idea. One I believe in. It's not wrong, but also it's kind of half the story. There's a lot missing there. What I had done was essentially paint something black and white when there's a ton of gray area. No sane person completely discounts the role of luck in our lives. It plays a role, a very significant role. The question, again, is why does this matter? Well, because maybe we don't make luck like a carpenter in his shop, but catch it like a fisherman at sea. Because standing on the deck of the boat,

he can't control the fish that swim into the net, but he most certainly is responsible for finding a location with good odds, for being consistent in his attempts, for mastering the craft and improving the skills. You can't control external factors, the weather, the storms, the tide, the location of the fish on that particular day, but you can control you. And that is your power. And I think the progress I've made is understanding the danger with looking at luck is something that is entirely self-made and thinking that if you're not, if you're not going to be able, in thinking that if you do X, you will be rewarded. Why?

Because that's how it works. I put in the work. There's going to be an outcome. I take the boat out. I'll be having fish for dinner. But that's tricky, right? Thinking something is owed to you in any capacity, it breeds resentment.

Because for whatever reason, when it's not provided, life suddenly seems unfair. It creates a scarcity mindset. And to truly progress is to endure that balancing act of what we can control in one hand and what we can't in the other. That, quote, you can't control the wind. But you were given the power to adjust your sails accordingly. And for those who hang in there and adapt long enough, well, it seems as though luck tends to find them at some point. And this occurrence seems to unveil itself in a million different ways.

Example after example everywhere you look, right? Yesterday I was reading John Adams' biography. Those of you who like history will enjoy this, kind of making my way through the American president. And just started, John Adams being one of the greatest minds behind America's founding. And, you know, what's obvious, as I'm sure you'll all remember from history class, is the extent to which the French helped bring America to victory.

I mean, without the French, most historians say that the war doesn't end the way it did. And you'll see my point here in a second, I promise. This won't be American History 101, but the idea is it's very easy to take this info in, to be an observer from the outside looking in and say, you know, the Americans were lucky. They were lucky to have French support, to have been supplied much-needed resources. as they were lucky that the French fleet arrived from the West Indies to Yorktown, Virginia, just in time to block the British in and ensure there's surrender. I'd say there's certainly some luck there.

But isn't that half the story? How about the courage it took the founding fathers with everything to lose, with death assured if they failed, to stand up to a king? Or colonists with no military experience to go toe to toe with the most powerful military in the world? to adapt and utilize the minimal resources they had, to think enough of their pursuit to travel to France, to request support, to scrap together a win in Saratoga to be considered just legitimate enough

to obtain some international recognition. So the idea is yes, yes, yes, they were lucky. But without those things, the action and persistence and self-belief and the tenacity with which they moved into that great unknown, there is no luck to be had. It's true then. It's true now.

The effort never guarantees success, but the lack of it guarantees failure. You can't ensure that those fishing nets will be full after your expedition. But keeping the ship in the harbor ensures those nets will be empty. I guess that's why that period of American history is so moving to me. It's people who gave everything for an outcome that was anything but guaranteed. planting a seed and hoping that years later others could eat the fruit. It's a pretty cool part.

He's writing a letter to his wife and he says, I must study politics and war. That our sons may have the liberty to study math and philosophy. Our sons ought to study math and philosophy and geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study people, study painting, poetry, music, architecture, etc., etc. Is any of that guaranteed? Absolutely not,

but nothing is. It's why progress and courage are so inseparable. Because there will be times in our lives when we fall short, when the pursuit feels in vain, when the odds are small. And yes, you have the option to look at the road in front of you and see all that you don't have, how ill-equipped, how ill-prepared, how not ready for what's to come. But you also have the option to start moving, creating, believing, preparing your net, building yourself up. Because when luck presents itself, you'll be as ready as you can possibly be. And if you swing and miss, not personalize the result, but adjust the pieces and be ready for the next time. So no, going back to that luck manufacturer, we don't create luck, but we do have the power

and the ability to create ourselves. And if that's a pursuit you're willing to commit to, to immerse yourself in, you will have, in essence, established a relationship with chance, not making luck, but receiving it. because you anticipated its arrival long before it materialized and worked to make yourself its most appealing suitor. Ready to prioritize yourself in the new year? Your skin is a great place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master esthetician,

is more than just a skincare company. With four skin-conscious categories, skin care, beauty, body care, and fragrance, Dime offers simple, spa-worthy products that will help you enter 2025 with confidence. Whether you're revitalizing your regimen with nourishing products or building one from scratch, Dime makes it easy. The work system, our all-in-one best-selling routine, includes a cleanser of your choice, toner, serums, and moisturizers, taking the guesswork out of skin care for your healthiest, happiest skin yet.

Dime's commitment to clean ingredients and sustainable packaging ensures every product is as gentle on your skin as it is on the planet. With thousands of glowing five-star reviews and a loyal community, the results speak for themselves. Revive your skin and give yourself the routine refresh you deserve by visiting dimebeautyco.com. That's dime beauty co.com. Your best skin awaits. Hey there, it's Ryan Sechrest for Safeway. Now through February 25th, stock up on your favorite self-care items and save up to $3. Shop in store or online for items like old spice deodorant. Always ultra-thin pads, Gillette fusion razors, and refills.

Old Spice, Total Body Spray, Tampax Pearl, and Gillette Mach 3 Razors and Refills and Save Up to $3.00. You won't want to miss out on these deals. Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit Safeway.com for more detail. The other day, I went to check out an open mic. And basically people sign up to share their short stories, their poetry, stuff like that. And I'm sitting there soaking it all in, enjoying each one as they went up on. stage and eventually this girl makes her way up. The first thing she does is she tells the room,

hey, I've never done this before, but I've always wanted to, so here I am. She takes out her phone, begins reading some of her poems. And pretty quickly, two things stuck out to me. One is she was brilliant. It's just so incredibly talented that I'm thinking, man, if she keeps doing this, She's going to find herself in some crazy places. She's really going to make an impact. That was the first thing. And the second, as I sat there and watched, was that I noticed that her hands were visibly shaking.

I was pretty close to this stage. And I could see this happening to the point where she had to place one on top of the other, right, to keep the hand that was holding her phone from bouncing around while she read. That's how visibly nervous she was. And immediately my mind went down this road. reflecting back on the moments I've had just like that, because, man, I've been there, where you're both determined and terrified at the same time, but somehow the desire to try outweighs the fear just enough for you to find yourself

in that exact situation. Just enough that you step into a foreign world, still wondering whether you made the right move, You know, every step of the way from the car, the building, onto this stage, until you hit the point where, okay, well, now you can't turn back. Now you're here. You can't leave. And the thing is, and this is what was so beautiful to me, she was never forced to do this at gunpoint. No one made her step into that chaos. It was self-created. She could have stayed home. She could have closed her journey. She could have closed her journal or the notes app on her phone and that would have been the end of that. But no, not today.

Today one yes would lead to another, would lead to another and another and despite the nerves, the sweaty palms and shaky hands, she would open a new chapter in the story of her life. Proved to herself that she's bolder than she thought she was just a few hours. ago, that there's upside when you confront those unknowns in life. And as I sat and watched, I was so incredibly moved, so proud, so impressed, partly because I know that to many of the people in that room, it might not have looked like much. You know, it's like, okay, great, round of applause for the new artist or poet, welcome. But I knew the gravity of the moment. I understood how big it truly was. regardless of what words came out of her mouth or how well they were assembled.

That night was not about the performance. No, it was about new beginnings. It was about outstretched wings, opening one's eyes to the learned helplessness and pinpointing the opportunity that was simply waiting for that first step to occur. And see, that's what I want to emphasize. That's what I believe every single one of us needs to understand, to fully get the biggest moves we make in life, well it's easy to

convince ourselves that they aren't necessary or worth it. The things that transform us hide themselves. A lot of the time they don't feel urgent, they aren't life or death decisions. They can be the stages we never step on. the people we never talk to, the chances we never take. Because, well, what happens if we simply stay right where we are? Say thank you, but no thank you to those fleeting opportunities. Nothing.

Nothing happens, more of the same, and realistically nothing is far less scary than all that other stuff. We don't fear nothingness. We don't intrinsically fear more of the same. No, we fear stepping onto the stage. We fear vulnerability. We fear messing up, looking stupid, being judged. And yeah, when you do nothing, you get to skip all that.

Avoid all that discomfort and that potential pain. But you also miss the feeling of victory. Of closing your eyes at night knowing how badly you wanted to just let that shift. sale, how terrified you were about what could go wrong, but you did it anyway. You get to feel you have earned the rush of stepping into a chaotic world. And even if temporarily, you tamed it, that's what life is about. Always remember that we have a natural proclivity to avoid pain, not to pursue the things that make us feel alive. Deep down in our DNA, there exist instructions, instructions to run away from the things that could hurt us, embarrass us.

Our minds will race, our bodies will kick and scream, our hands will shake, that's just the way it goes. And so we prove to ourselves that it's all conquerable, that reality can be relearned. It's a layer of resistance that has to be faced and then dismantled. Why was I so moved that night? Because I got to watch in real time someone dismantling that fear on their way to something incredible. It's courage. Stepping into the arena. Not for the people next to you or anyone else, but for you.

Because you know there's more. You know that where you are pales in comparison to where you can be. I'm definitely one to look back from time to time and reflect, and I'll tell you what, I'm incredibly thankful for the hard times that shaped me, the challenges that were forced upon me and made me who I am, but beyond that, and perhaps even more so, the times I stepped out on my own accord, terrified, and manufactured change. The times that the fear of staying the same,

eclipsed the fear of failure. The times I could have stayed home, woken up the next morning and lost nothing, but instead saw what there was to be gained and threw myself into that metaphorical fire so that confidence could be forged and new chapters could be written. Let's all remember how out of focus the present moment looks. Remember how inclined we are,

inclined we are to look at life through a lens of scarcity. We are trying to avoid, avoid, avoid. But if you can, even briefly find the strength to step back and ask, what is there to be gained? You see that not going is the real danger. And those stages that seem arbitrary, that seem like optional, stops along the way, while they're just as imperative as the air you breathe. They are not some things. They are everything. We all hit a point where we look back on the roads we traveled and see the culmination of footsteps that have come to constitute our lives.

And we want that moment to feel full. Like no stone was left unturned, like we put it all on the line. So will you step onto this stage of life? Stand your ground as the curtain opens, read your poems to a foreign audience. Will you share your voice even though it trembles? Because if you do, you're giving yourself permission to truly live, to feel. Look, we're not here for a long time. This is a very short ride.

So why not give as much of yourself to the world for as long. as long as you possibly can, why not step out knowing that the difference between nothing and everything is what you do with shaky hands. We sat around in a circle on a beautiful fall morning to build dream catchers. Something, to be honest, I never saw myself doing in a million lifetimes. The feathers and strings and beads and glories. stretched out on a blanket in the middle of the circle. As we built, we took what we needed piece by piece.

And it's safe to say, mine was far and away, the least, let's say, aesthetically pleasing of the group. Black and bright yellow string wrapped around the top, above which an assortment of random beads sort of dangled carelessly below. It wasn't the most beautiful dream catcher ever made, but it was mine. After a quick Google search, I learned that some Native Americans believe that the air at night is filled with dreams, both good and bad. And that the purpose of the dream catcher is to protect from the bad ones, the nightmares and the evil spirits.

Interesting, I thought, putting it away, expecting that to be that and life to move on. But a few days later on the flight home, I got up mid-flight to grab a charger out of my carry-on overhead. And in the same side pouch was, you guessed it, that little black and yellow dream catcher. One of the dangled strings had snapped. My sloppy craftsmanship already was causing the top to loosen up. But something compelled me to grab it along with my charger, and I sat back down. I had 8.5 hours to kill, put my chair back and closed my eyes. The previous week had been an important one.

A complete break from, you know, my typical day-to-day routine. And probably more important, some forced introspection. I like to think of the trip as briefly leaving the heart of a city. Which when you're in a city, you obviously know you're there, but you can't really grasp the magnitude and scope of the place. Not until you leave it and see it from the outside. The gorgeous skyline with the lights and buildings that extend into the clouds. A picture you only get from a distance.

That skyline from five miles away just doesn't feel like it could be the same place you live in. You navigate every day street by street with car horns and cafes and people talking, coming and going. It just kind of flips life upside down for you. Presents new perspectives and questions, and I felt like that's what I'd done. Stepped outside that metaphorical city. And I'd picked up a solid handful of new questions. There were plenty of firsts for me.

Met some incredible people, tried new things, went new places, explored new foods. All made me realize that, you know, my worldview had slowly, over time, as tends to happen when unchecked, collapsed in on itself. That there was so much more, so much hope and opportunity, so much left. To the extent that the flight back didn't feel like the end of a trip, it felt like the beginning of something new. Like I wasn't leaving these things. I was taking them with me.

But here's the deal. Beginning only matter if you're... make them matter. Things only change when you make them change. When I was in junior high, one of my teachers would sometimes joke that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Half serious, but the point is important. It's not what we intend to do. It's what we breathe life into. It's what we allow to take shape. Let's say that little dream catcher in my hand was a magical entity that sucked out of the sky all the bad dreams and nightmares and left me with only the good stuff. Let's say it was the gateway to all that was powerful,

meaningful, and important, because removing what I don't want is critical. But what I'm then left with is mere opportunity, not guarantee. Dreams are only potential and life is only what we make So growth must be a team effort between me and this little black and yellow defender of worlds, watchman of the night. A duo. And we agreed it reminds me of what truly matters and I show it that I'm not afraid to make something of what remains. Of those ideals granted passage to the space behind my eyes. I have to live up to my end of the bargain

And sure it will be messy at times Shaky, sloppy, ungraceful But that isn't a problem, it's par for the course Plus my lack of elegance Will get no sympathy from my unraveling black and yellow Ball of String and Disordered Bs The goal is not perfection It's organized chaos.

It's a commitment to the unknown to taking the pieces and building something with them even when we don't understand what it will become. And as the pilot's voice interrupted my sleep through the inner calm, letting us know to prepare for landing, I realized the magic of where I'd just been and how it would evolve into the road ahead. that when we know in our hearts life is pointing us a certain direction,

when we've separated the good dreams from the bad, we are halfway there. Now we must have the courage to realize what's possible. To be strong enough to stand up when we have something to say, to embrace what calls to us to explore where our paths may lead, to get up and dance, when the music plays, to stop holding back tears when they must fall, to smile when our hearts intend,

to leave the old stories and narratives behind, and to step beyond our egos and towards our authenticity. This is how we make sure that the dream catcher's work is not in vain, and it's how we make the most, of this gift we've been provided. And so we sat in a circle on a beautiful fall morning

to build dream catchers. Maybe not to collect the bad dreams, but to remind ourselves that it was okay, no, necessary, no, everything, to let ourselves make the good dream, reality. Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and nothing says love, like the warmth and comfort of a Miki Gator blanket.

Whether it's for your sweetheart, your best friend, or even yourself, Miki Kuthor has the perfect gift to make hearts melt. From luxurious textures to stylish designs, Miki Couture blankets are the ultimate way to show you care. Plus, now through Valentine's Day, enjoy exclusive savings on our limited edition, Valentine's collection. Visit any of our stores or shop online at www.miki-kator.com and give the gift of love, comfort, and warmth this Valentine's Day. Miki Kutour, blanketing the world in warmth and love.