Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - FOCUS ON YOUR DREAM | Powerful Motivational Speeches 2025

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Life’s toughest moments aren’t meant to break you—they’re meant to reveal you. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, when the weight seems unbearable, that’s when you have the greatest opportunity to rise. Strength isn’t built in comfort; it’s forged in adversity.You are capable of more than you can imagine, especially when life hits the hardest. In those moments of doubt and fear, you have the power to step forward instead of retreating, to prove to yourself that you are stronger, braver, and greater than you’ve ever been.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

If you remember nothing else, remember this. You have the ability to be stronger than you can even imagine. And this is an enormous and you have the ability to do that when life is at its worst, when things are hitting the hardest. When you most want to cower and retreat into yourself, that's when you have the opportunity and the ability to, to shock yourself, to be greater than you've ever been. There are certain things I do in my life to reinforce this point.

That's how important I think it is. Why? Well, not to sound tough. Not for Instagram. In fact, most of the time I don't share it or post it or any of that stuff. I do it for me because it's an axe that has to be sharpened, reinforced. You know, it's been some time since I've gone on a run. Like I've said recently, for those of you following along on YouTube and the podcast,

you know, I've taken you along on my fitness journey. I've been more focused on picking heavy things up and putting them down, right? The gym, gaining some weight, putting on some muscle. And it's been effective. But the other day, like, I just need it. I need to run. I need to do it for me. So I put on the old running shoes and did about seven miles.

And look, I knew I'd be rusty. I knew I'd be slower than I was, you know, a year ago, obviously, but that's not the point. The only point here was negative splits, right? It was to be faster every mile than the one before it. So right out of the gate, very slow, relaxing, nine-ish-minute miles, then high-8s, then low-eight, then high-sevents, then low-sevents, and ended in the sixes. And it's an exercise that solely reinforces, hey, when you get tired, when things become more difficult, when emotionally, you know, you become fatigued, that doesn't mean you slow down or you give in. In fact, you can wire your brain to say, okay, this is exhausting, so I need to be better. And that's all it was, reigniting that flame, turning that switch on, because.

The same thing, running that seven-and-change-mile loop is true in life. When we're most tempted to sort of retreat back into ourselves is when we must be bigger, and we can be bigger. Let's further drill this home. From the running thing, let's move to a different metaphor. Imagine with me a bridge. And this old wooden bridge is connecting two mountains, right? moving right through a little town nestled in between them.

And for years, that bridge had carried travelers and business folks and families across the deep valley below. It was sturdy, reliable. But the reality is it had never truly been tested. That is, until one year a storm came. And the wind howled through the valley, and the river below became turbulent and rough, and the rain beat down like war drums. All the people below, they looked up and they feared that bridge wouldn't last, that it wouldn't make it. They watched from their homes expecting any second to see it buckle, to snap under the pressure.

But something remarkable happened. The weight of the storm did not break the bridge. Instead, what it did was reveal the bridge's strength. The wood groaned, but it held firm. And the ropes stretched, but they did not snap. It stood, not because it had never faced hardship before, but because it had been built for this exact moment. And when the storm finally passed,

and those people from the town below looked up at it, they didn't see a bridge anymore. They saw an entity that had truly proven itself, that had endured. And that's what we are. It's who we are and it's what we're capable of, right? The challenge that we don't know we can endure until we've weathered the storm. We don't understand our ability to maintain until we've held strong against the winds, until we've allowed ourselves to rise when it feels like the world's pulling us down.

The storm doesn't make us weak. It reveals how strong we've been. And so understand this when times are great. You know, yeah, why not? Put yourself through the manufactured stress, duress and discomfort I mentioned above, you know, when things are smooth sailing. Absolutely.

But if you're in it, and I mean truly in the thick of things, right, moving through the storm, the darkness of night surrounding you, I want you to remember how much of you lives beneath the surface, waiting to be shown, to be let out, to be freed. Remember that the greatest, parts of you need your permission to shine and emerge, but that when they do, nothing. And I mean, nothing life throws your way is too much to endure.

Will there be turbulence and chaos around you? Absolutely, you can bet on that. But the calm and resilience within you conquers all. Always remember that. You are stronger than you think you are. You now and always. When you lose your job and have no idea what you're going to do next, yes, you are stronger than you think you are.

You know, when you're forever person, quote unquote, ends up not being so forever, you're stronger than you think you are. When your world's tipped upside down, you're stronger than you think you are. When health issues arise. And was once, you know, very simple, now becomes complex and chaotic and exhausting. You are stronger than you think you are. strong enough to endure, strong enough to make it through. Again, the storm does not exist to break you.

It exists to remind you how strong you've always. If you remain calm in the midst of great chaos, it's the surest guarantee that it will eventually subside. Julie Andrews. One of the most powerful things about intentionally immersed, yourself in difficult situations, is that it prepares you for the inevitable adversity that will come your way when it's unexpected, unplanned.

The obstacles life places before all of us. That's why I so often draw a line from physical fitness and athletics to the real world, doing difficult training, For me, particularly endurance training or interval training, it creates a level of exhaustion. I tend not to encounter anywhere else, right? It's a phenomenal practice at separating out what must be done in the moment from how we feel.

It uncouples those two things. It's taming chaos in a controlled environment that improves our ability to handle stress out in the world. And what keeps pulling me in, is when you're in it, going from set to set, 45 minutes straight with no rest, there are these particular moments where your heart rate's elevated, your body is fatigued,

you're pushing your physical limits, and under a different set of circumstances, you'd stop. Maybe you'd take a breather, because that's what makes sense to do. But this is what's powerful, right? In those moments, you learn to float above all of that. It's excess.

It's noise. It doesn't matter, right? You're separating anything that isn't the question, what's next? You don't have to perform any miracles or break any records. No, only find a way to calmly engage in one exercise after the next. one step after another. Your job is to not stop. And again, this is a microcosm of what we deal with out in the world,

when the world is chaotic and stressful. When our minds are worried about what's in front of us because we aren't sure how much longer we can sustain what's happening in the present moment. That's when we get worked up in frantic, sometimes erratic in our decision making. But this reminds you you can be stronger than your environment, your circumstances. You can say no to the chaos that's attempting to pull you in.

As Viktor Frankl has spoken, you may not have control over your circumstance, but you always have control over your attitude. What does this mean? Well, it is the incentive, the green light to step forward. You don't need to think about how you wish you felt. You don't need to think about how you might feel 10 minutes from now. No, the goal is breathe and consider simply what must be done. This idea, it translates beautifully when something goes wrong at work.

When a relationship becomes fractured, when you feel slighted by life, the temptation is to let it all consume. But if you're able to breathe in, to compose yourself, and focus only on what needs to happen next, there is nothing that can hold you back. When you don't relinquish your control to outside circumstances, you have everything you need to effectively navigate through them. Nothing matters.

Nothing but your ability to carry out the task at hand to conquer that adversity that is emotion in the midst of difficulty. Right? Simplicity, as the saying goes, is the ultimate sophistication. And it doesn't get simpler than this. Breathe, execute, and you will find your way home. So imagine with me that it's a fall morning years from now. Right? The sun is shining through your windows. you'd get out of bed just like it's any other day, except this particular day would be different. It would be your last day on earth. You'd walk outside and begin reflecting on life from day one to where you are now.

And in that moment, my question to you is, what would you value most looking back? I've always been intrigued by this question. Even though it's a tough one, I like it because it's a simple reminder. of what's important. It brings much-needed perspective. So what would that moment look like, your last day, when you get to look back on everything you've done, right,

the legacy you've made. You most likely won't focus on how tough the climbs were. You probably won't remember the battles and the struggles. What you'll remember are the moments of victory, the times when you were able to do something significant to contribute to the world, to help and be near those who mean the most to you. What we learn as we get older, as we progress through life, is that failures dissolve.

Right, they fade away. They provide us with the wisdom that we so desperately need, and then they disappear into the universe. It's the other piece that needs our attention. That quote we've heard a million times about regretting the things that we don't do more than the things we do. and how fear constantly gets in the way of our potential. So imagine, right, as you continue this walk outside,

that you think about your dreams, the things that fear kept you from becoming, because on your last day alive in the face of death, you'll probably realize that the worst possible scenario wasn't as scary as you thought. Study after study shows that the biggest regret of people with limited, time left is living according to the expectations of others, not having lived a life that

was true to themselves. We're fortunate enough to have that wisdom now. Why would we not act on it? Don't let yourself be the person who looks back and dreams about what if. Do you dreaming in the present? We're all writing our stories. Make yours a thriller. Make it a bestseller. Live now. Let that fear fade away because in a universe where your existence essentially equates to a drop of rain in a thunderstorm, what the hell is there to be afraid of? Be the type of person who finishes this walk outside with a smile, content with the journey, all the turns, the adventures, the small failures that shaped who you are, the successes that lifted you up. As the old saying goes, everyone dies, but few truly live. We're going to talk about keeping your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground. Simultaneously managing the big picture and the small stuff.

Non-stop belief that things will work, that there's an answer, that you're ultimately going to get there, and that you won't quit until you do. while also being brutally honest with the facts on the floor, the reality around you. A lot of times I think there's a tendency to conflate positivity with a detachment from reality. But they're very different things. You need them both for success to unfold. You need the big picture and you need the minutia. the steps, the little things that add up over time.

In the book, Good to Great, Jim Collins calls this the Stockdale principle. Or Admiral Stockdale, I think at the time Commander Stockdale was shot down during Vietnam. He was prisoner of war for over seven years in Vietnam, and it was just obviously a brutal experience. and you know one of the things that helped him survive was being painfully pragmatic while also knowing in his soul right with every ounce of his being that he would ultimately get out that the men he cared about and helped so much would ultimately get out and so when Jim Collins is interviewing him, you know, he says, Admiral Stockdale, what differentiated the ones that made it and the ones that didn't? And the answer is incredibly surprising. He says optimism

because the people that were overly optimistic said, we'll get out by Christmas. And Christmas comes and they don't get out. And then they say, okay, we'll find we'll be out. We'll see our families by Easter. And Easter comes and they're still there. Okay, maybe next Christmas. Next Christmas comes, nothing changes. He says those are the people that died of a broken heart. There was too big of a gap between the reality, the components needed to progress the way they wanted to progress and the way they were thinking.

You know, you have to be willing to look in the mirror and diagnose a situation. You know, that's applicable to business. It's applicable to your personal life. Dream big, step small. Believe, but act. be cognizant of the world around you, the reality that you're living in. You can't change something that you don't understand intrinsically.

You can't progress if you haven't analyzed something. And this is not about your capabilities. This is never a call to doubt yourself. It's to be strategic. This is just saying that you need to understand the reality so that you can improve upon them. If you want to be the next Michael Jordan, that's a huge ask.

That's a lot. It's possible. You can do it. And you need to believe with every ounce of you that if that's what you want to do, it's a pursuit worth taking. But you also need to know what it means to be Michael Jordan. You got to understand the commitment.

How he sacrificed relationships. He sacrificed, you know, his friends, his love life. He got up every single morning. All he did was basketball. How he took thousands of shots a day. How his mentality and his aggressive behavior, right, his mindset, the way he looked at life, and approached life on and off the court.

It required that he was so intense and so obsessed with winning that some people couldn't handle it. It meant that everything stopped except being the best. That's a big ask. A lot of people can't do that, don't want to do that. But that's what it takes.

And to think you're going to be Michael Jordan without understanding one, the commitment that's required and how you stack up it's going to be in vain i remember the CEO of the the company that i worked for at out of college he used to say look you have to be able to be honest and say when your baby's ugly right look at what you have and be able to draw a line from where you want to be so you can fix it so that's the that's the point if you can juggle those two things you will be unstoppable. Unstoppable. If you can be the one to trust yourself enough to know that there is a big picture, you will pursue it relentlessly and you will get there.

If you can take that and you can marry it to the little things, right, to the awareness, to promising yourself that you will continue to analyze, assess and do what needs to happen on the ground that you will be realistic, you will be pragmatic. When things fail, you won't sugarcoat it. You'll dive in. You'll look at why it failed. So that you can pick up those pieces and build something stronger and continue to build and continue to build.

Stack and stand on what you've made. Those are the people that change the world. Those are the people that get things done, that get resists. You can only. Dream big, steps small. See you tomorrow. You can only exist within the walls you've placed around yourself. So, question.

Where have you placed them? Think of the concept, you can only hit targets that you aim for and expand it out. Because my point here is you can only exist in the plane that you have deemed to be real for you, that you have decided is reality. And if we think about that just on a common sense basis,

it's pretty apparent, right? People don't do things that stretch beyond their perceived identity. If I don't think I'm capable of accumulating wealth, for example, I'm simply not going to do the things or take the necessary steps required to accumulate wealth. Why would I? If I don't think I can help or add value to others, I'm not going to do things in an attempt to help or add value to others.

Using that example, that stuff would exist on the other side of those walls I've placed around myself. That's why deciding what those targets are is so important. Deciding what's real matters. Because if you set the scope too small, if your reality is void of all possibility and a matter, imagination. Even if you win, you've conceded too much. The premise you've been basing your entire existence and your decisions on is so limited that you can win there and still lose overall, still leave everything on the table. And there's, you know, a ton of examples of this. You know, I commonly hear people refer to it with their work. I'm not crazy about what I'm doing,

but how do I fix it? How do I learn to like this job? How do I exceed expectations in my role? How do I get a promotion so that I can bring in more income? All valid questions, certainly valuable questions, if it's where you should be. And I can tell you, I remember asking those same questions to myself, and the conclusion I finally came to was,

no, what you need exists on the other side of those walls. In this part of your life, it's critical that you move beyond those parameters. That's not what lights a fire in everyone, but it's what lit a fire in me. I was asking the wrong questions, right? It was go over there and start your own business, start your own journey, start sharing the things you want to share. So what Alex Hermosso refers to is playing a different game altogether. And it's kind of a weird concept to grasp, you know, that you can win the game you're playing and still end up losing. You know, because you never thought to look for more.

You never ventured to peer out over what was directly in front of you. This is a matter of self-reflection at its finest. Because you'd never see those walls unless you really took the time to think about it, to be alone with yourself and ask those questions. It's the fun what-ifs. what if I stopped doing those things I don't like and started doing what I love? What if I didn't accept this as what I have to do? And instead took a different path altogether.

What if I was capable of playing a different game? And what we find is that we're capable of some pretty incredible transformations. We're capable of taking what matters out of a less than an ideal environment and recreating it somewhere that is ideal, that is conducive to our success in our growth, and our evolution, and our contentment. Instead of conceding so much and asking so few questions, why accept those limitations?

So again, I ask, where have you built your walls and why? And what if you push them back? Like lines in the sand meant to be redrawn? See, perhaps the income coming in is a direct result of you feeling like, hey, that's just what I make. Perhaps your fitness level is the result of you thinking, that's just how I am. Perhaps your friends and the people you surround yourself with are result of you saying, it's just who I know.

But there comes a point when new targets must be set and new lines drawn. at least if any type of evolution's going to work. You don't have to perpetually navigate the revenue streams, fitness levels, and friend groups you have now. You can play a different game. Again, it's not always asking, how do I live within these walls, exist within these circumstances? Sometimes the question is, how do I step into a new arena? entirely. I've been listening to Charlie Munger quite a bit recently.

Kind of, you know, going back down memory lane, listening to small lectures, small videos. The guy was brilliant, had a ton of quotes. And one of my favorite. I'm paraphrasing here. But the idea is that we shouldn't dwell so much on our, we'll call them, faults or weaknesses. But rather, we should be diving. fully into our strengths. And this is one of those things that on the surface probably makes sense right away,

but the reality is we don't always do it. We spend so much time stuck on the things we aren't good at or that we're not drawn to, that we forget to nurture the things that separate us and make us unique. I like to joke around about Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel used to haunt me. I hated it. I hated opening it.

I hated the formulas. Like, to me, the seventh letter of hell is someone with a sweater vest on asking me to find trends in an Excel spreadsheet. Right. And so going from school to a job as an analyst, obviously, you know, the circumstances didn't care whether I liked it or not. That was the vehicle through which we had to arrive at a lot of important outcomes. So the deal was figured out, you know, and I did. and I got better, but like the same way a blind person on a park bench would get better at identifying people walking by. They're just operating with less than ideal tools.

And that was one of many indicators. It was like, bro, you are in the wrong spot. Not spot in the building, but spot in life. And as I continued the process of navigating towards my strengths, I saw more and more the value of exactly what. Charlie Munger was referring to. The further I stepped outside my zone of genius, the less likely I was to have a positive impact in my own life and the lives of those around me.

And again, when you think about this or even talk through it, like you're explaining it to a fifth grader, it makes perfect sense. So an example, you're an athlete, it's your gift, you love it, you thrive on it. Okay, in this example, would you rather spend 90% of your time focusing on the athletics you love and becoming the 1% of the 1% uncommon amongst uncommon men or women, as Goggins would say? Or would you rather be that incredible athlete who instead of spending 90% of his time nurturing the gift felt bad about being terrible at chess? And so practice chess every day in an effort to go from terrible to me.

mediocre. It's like, who cares? You suck at chess. You don't need it. Let chess go. Unless you're getting personal enjoyment out of it, which is a different story altogether, but let it go. Focus on where your happiness and strengths intersect. That's where you'll get the most joy. That's where when the sun comes up in the morning, you jump out of bed, feeling invigorated, ready to take. on the day. Too many of us, using the same example, are athletes trying to become mediocre at chess. For what reason? I personally am a creator, a writer, a speaker. It's what I love and it's what I'm good at. So I should be doing creator, writer, speaker, things. And so the question I'm going to pose to you is what is that for you? What are those things in your world? And lastly, you know, because life is not all

black and white. There's one more caveat that I think needs to be addressed. There's something you don't love doing, but it's required to help you do more of the thing that you do love doing, then at least for a period of time, you have to suck it up and find balance. So a few examples, easy one for me. My company was a one-man show for a long time. A lot of you know that. I've talked about it. It wasn't just creating, writing, and speaking. It was learning how to use a It was learning how to edit audio, learning how to edit video. It was strategy. It was understanding social media platforms.

It was, believe it or not, going through YouTube's data, some of which exports to Excel. But I survived. And I still do. And here's what I've learned and where the spirit of Charlie Munger's message has been critical. I surround myself now with people who not only do things I don't. don't like or take care of my weaknesses, but they're amazing at it.

Our zones of genius are different. My weaknesses are their strengths. That's Team 101. And that understanding, it frees us all up to do what we're great at as much as possible. Ideally, 100% of the time. In fact, one of my biggest breakthroughs was talking to my now business manager about value ad. He's sort of analyzing the situation over here. And he goes, hey, the thing that you can do that no one else can

is be sharing your story in front of the camera. We can get an awesome group of people around you to analyze trends on YouTube, to create thumbnails, to answer email, to edit audio and video, to schedule things. In a perfect world, you're doing zero of that. Why? Because your zone.

of genius is speaking and storytelling. And I got excited thinking about how far that concept could go. It's like, imagine? Imagine a world where I wake up and only do the things I love doing that fall within my zone of genius. That to me was groundbreaking. It's like Charlie's comment isn't just about going,

you know, from the minefield of Excel to creating my own business. No, it takes it further. It takes it further. It's shedding things until all that's left is the stuff that makes a difference. That's how you create greatness. And I'd advocate, you know, that's the mental shift we should all be making. Stop feeling like, you know, we owe it to someone or something to go from a zero to a two

in a certain category when we can change our lives in the world by going from an eight to ten in the things that mean the most to us. you have that ability, right? It's a cutting away process, understanding what moves the needle and going all in there. So if you're looking around and realizing, hey, I'm fighting every day to go from bad to proficient,

particularly in an area I don't care about, then odds are you're in the wrong arena. And I think the best advice is to seek out the right one. To find a place where that exhausted energy lights you up. It'll be life-changing, experiencing the power that I move in that direction. Imagine with me a world where you stopped segmenting out the difficulty in your life as other than, where you stopped seeing the turbulence as an obstacle to your journey.

Imagine with me life as a symphony, where everything works together to create the whole. where the high notes, the low notes, the pauses, the rest, the tempo changes, all contribute to the overall theme. None of it's unimportant or dismissable. How could it be? Without the low notes, the high notes don't mean anything. Without the rest, you don't get the satisfaction and the power of the moment that music reemerges. In fact, it was the contrast that created the magic to begin with. All of it is needed.

Even when you don't understand why. You don't know that this slow beginning, the brakes, the tempo changes, that it will all be the reason you are soon awed by the crescendo that awaits. And how could you? It's one flow. The journey points in one direction. You are in this for the ride. See, in our lives, the obstacles, the chaos, the confusion, they hurt.

They're unsettling. so the inclination is to dismiss them, to push them away. This isn't what I need. This is void of value. So get rid of it, we tell ourselves. When in reality, those things are integral components to your song. They are what culminate into your final piece. They're bringing you to that crescendo.

It doesn't mean you have to love the challenging times. Of course not. But it does mean we should understand that even though we can't see it unfolding before our very eyes, it's all playing a role. My hurt made me stronger. My struggle injected meaning into my life. It made this song richer, the sound sweeter. Today is what it is because yesterday was what it was. And I know when I'm face to face with something that my gut instinct deems to be detrimental,

that two things can in fact be true at once. That I need to work to write the ship, to repoint the compass, but also understand that the storm wasn't void of significance. The valley wasn't all for not. It's gifted me new oceans to cross, new mountains to climb, and new perspective as I peer out over the view. So as you move through the dark, as you navigate the chaos of night.

Know that the light you're chasing is only meaningful because of the depths you are emerging from. Life beyond these shadows is not where the world begins. It's a continuation of an already beautiful journey you're on. It's your symphony in totality. See, the time will come when you'll look back and you'll look back, and you'll be grateful for the so-called inconveniences that surround you now. Your heart needs the contrast that this adversity creates. Your soul depends on the hardship to understand the magnificence of life.

It's why now, when it hurts, you must keep going. You have to keep going. You have to let the notes material. to realize into the beautiful song it will become. The masterpiece it was meant to become. Remember the little things. The ones we all come to appreciate perhaps a little too late. That feeling of comfort, our little eyes first understood to be home.

Those little conversations we still think about, the ones that shaped us. little stretches of time we thought would last forever but to our surprise had a final moment written into the story oh those little things I remember going to a concert in high school was at the Orphium in Boston Massachusetts I went with two of my friends had an amazing time in well years and years have obviously passed and recently I asked myself what What is it I remember about that day? Why is it such a powerful moment for me? And interestingly enough, I don't remember any of the songs that were sung, or how well they were played.

I don't remember what I bought or what I wore or what teenage troubles I was going through at the time, no years later. I remember how it felt to stand there in the center of that theater. of the lights filling up the room, the bass drum resonating in my chest, aligning with my heartbeat, the people I was with. And the funny thing is, 17-year-old me had no clue. He was driving into the city for a night he'd remember forever, but not because of the music, no, because of a feeling. Because he would spend the time with the same people he would have hung out with anyway at home. And perhaps subconsciously I knew, perhaps we all do, but at the time, it all felt like details.

The time they were simply included in the story of buy one, get one, if you will. Oh, how they hide themselves those little things. In a way, it's not too different from the oxygen. We breathe in and breathe out, intertwined in everyday life, necessary to carry on, to grow up, to grow to evolve, yet only missed when it's gone. We don't think about the air we breathe unless of course we are submerged and without it. So why, why does this matter, why put this thought to paper? Well, because to use my previous concert hall metaphor, I've spent so much of my life thinking

about the stage presence, the accuracy of the notes, the visual appearances, the wrong things. It seemed intuitive, overwhelmingly obvious, but now they're just reminders. How easily we can walk on what matters to get our hands on what doesn't. Do we know what's important? Do we know what we hold dear? Do we think enough about those little things? Every time the caller ID says mom or dad or nana banana,

When my little brother and sister get new apartments, jobs, promotions start navigating this crazy world, every time I open my laptop and get to bleed my thoughts onto a blank page over a cup of coffee and a sunrise. Running around random towns across this country with my best friends, bringing ideas to life. See, the now tells you they are nice things, happy things, lovely things. But it doesn't let you in on the greatest secret of all. Those little things just might be everything. So see them while you're in them and hold on tight. I was taking a walk a few days ago.

It was listening to an audiobook called 10x is easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. And this is a book essentially about how exponential growth requires a reframing. a change to the way we think about ourselves and the journeys that we're on. And in it, Sullivan states, and I'm paraphrasing, the things that brought you to the current moment will keep you there. Powerful. In a lens through which I hadn't really looked at my personal growth or journey before,

I've always thought of progress as a stacking of repeatable habits over and over again. And while this may not be wrong, Sullivan and Hardy make a pretty effective argument that it's only part of the story. See, if you show up and you do the exact same thing every day, you'll get growth, no doubt. But it will be linear in nature. Exponential growth requires instances of self-recreation, of evolution as we make our way forward. continuous pushing aside of things we don't need to be doing and a simultaneous deep dive into the things that bring us the most return. They use the example of the famous Michelangelo,

who is known for his paintings, right? And then some time goes by and he produces a 17-foot statue of David. And then he pivots again, as he's commissioned by Pope Julius II, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. and then moves on to direct even larger project. And each example here is a 10x evolution. Certainly not a road that could have been mapped out from day one. How would he ever have known?

But it's a series of sometimes even lateral moves. Instances of following your intuition, your strength, doing what felt right, instances of breaking down and building back up the self. Same foundation of talent and skill, same general competency, but he continuously stacked new and enhanced versions of himself on top of one another.

Sometimes reminders hit you exactly when you need to hear them. Personally, I loved everything about this message. The idea that there should be more emphasis and courage, for that matter, on one's 10x trajectory, multiplying my strengths, on taking the value I bring to the world and putting it through some stressors,

seeing what comes out the other side. Because the danger in playing it's safe, which the second we stop being intentional about things is ultimately what we tend to do, it's that you don't experience that transformation. It was not safe, using the same metaphor for McElangelo, a painter, to create David. The safe thing would have been to keep doing the same thing every day. But you have to trust your skill, your heart, and your intuition.

There's immense value in all of us understanding that, and to some degree, emulating it. There's value in all of us finding our David. stepping into that, which is a little unclear, makes us a little nervous, but at the same time allows us to take the skills and talent, the parts of us that are most meaningful, and inject them into the world in a bigger way. Which would never have been possible had we stayed the same. The things that brought you to the current moment will keep you there. Well, here's defining your 20%. That which matters and using it as the template with which you paint. Not getting so stuck in the routine that you forget, the routine is a means, not an end.

You have the ability in your own unique way to change the world around you. The question is, do you have the courage to reach for it?