Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Focus On YOURSELF And Watch What Happens | Powerful Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

"Courage isn't having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don't have the strength." – Napoleon Bonaparte Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  Welcome to a series of inspirational speeches focusing on overcoming adversity, setting targets, and achieving greatness. Let's explore practical tools for success and inspiration to believe in your own greatness, one step at a time. Get ready to be empowered to seize opportunities and make your dreams a reality. Subscribe now and embark on a journey of growth!

Just one more day. The power is in just one more day. Don't need to have the whole book written. Stories told or city built. It's not about one universal solution to all your problems. It's about continuing forward until the breakthrough. It's about knowing that when it feels most hopeless, to go on, that's precisely when it's most important to do so.

The world is not asking of you everything, just something. So give it something. Keep yourself in the game. Keep your head up and your eyes open. Keep your feet moving. even if you don't know where they may be leading you. You need not a billion answers, but one breakthrough.

One breakthrough. See, we all fall. We all lose our footing. Life can be tough. And being that this is par for the course, the contract we signed before we breathe our first breath of air, It's a fool's errand to exhaust energy on the occurrence, to be angry at the situation, to feel bad about yourself for wandering there. No, it's about recognizing where you are and then finding it within yourself to step away.

One foot closer to the breakthrough to recapturing what matters. When things become too big, we simply shut down. Complexities crippling. But truth be told, the path is not complex. Our manufactured interpretation is what's complex. So simplified. Step forward one more time, a little bit closer to the breakthrough,

a little bit nearer to the light. at the end of that tunnel. Remember, there is no all-encompassing formula. What there is is the strength that emerges from one's willingness two-inch forward. When all seems dark, when temporarily you've forgotten

what that sense of excitement feels like. When the thrill of progress seems foreign, shut off the mind. This isn't the time to weigh pros versus cons or this versus that. Move into the haze, trusting that what you need will reveal itself. Because as long as you don't stop, it most certainly will. You'll find yourself again.

Your path again, things will make sense again. but that right is earned now. When we're tired, worn, in our solitude, beaten down, we might not be able to see it in the moment, but that's when the beautiful things are made. So trust that you are the designer you've been looking for all along. 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 separating one's side. 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 live up 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 able to be able to.

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 subconsciously?

deemed every day 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 to. Peter Drucker has said that what gets measured gets improved. And this insight's been incredibly valuable to me over the years. I want to explain why. Until you measure something, you're operating in somewhat of a black box. You're essentially guessing aiming at targets you can't see, which ultimately means you're leaving life up to chance.

But once you begin to gauge your progress in a specified area, you now have information to work with. You have an increased sense of awareness and the ability to focus, which, as I've said before, and believe wholeheartedly, what you focus on becomes your reality. So here's a quick example, but I think adequately paints a picture here of what I'm talking about.

Way back when I first started my business, I was chatting with a friend about wanting to grow my YouTube subscribers. Add value to as many people as I possibly could with my work. Back then, it was all YouTube. That was the crux of my business. And so the first question he asked, he goes, just out of curiosity,

how many subscribers join the channel daily. And I realized in that moment, you know, I don't know. I knew the total amount. Like, I kept tabs on that, but not the sort of daily fluctuation. How much grew on Monday versus Friday, you know, that type of thing. And this guy, he had a tracker. He's very big on that. Basically, a sheet with the most important things that he's trying to change in his life.

And every day when he would wake up, he'd record a quick measurement. in each of those categories. My first thought was, you know, that's a little over the top. It's a little extra. But hey, one of my favorite mantras is that you are your own experiment and I was happy to try something new

that could have a positive impact. And so I did. I started recording daily, the net subscribers that join the Your World Within Community. And what I found was incredible. They say it's the simple things that make the greatest difference in our lives and this would certainly be no exception

First and foremost, just seeing that number every day kept growth at the forefront of my mind. It kept me aware and excited and thinking through that lens, as if I were on a journey or mission to outperform the me of yesterday. Right? If on some random day you grow 30% more than you usually do, it's only normal to see that and ask, well, why can't this happen every day? Why can't this be my reality? And next, and probably more obvious, it armed me with the tools to tactically improve my performance. Those daily metrics helped me find critical answers, arrive at important conclusions. You know, what days of the week and weeks of the year have the greatest impact? What trends lead to increased viewership?

My daily average subscriber count is X. I wonder what it would take to bring it to Y. And so basically, instead of just showing up every day with my fingers crossed and hoping I'd hit it out of the park, I had a more informed approach. It's like taking a blindfold off. And all of this prompted by writing one little number down in the morning. The more I did this, the more it became obvious that it should be implemented in other aspects of my life. if this is important to me, if I say with conviction, this scenario I want to improve,

how can I afford to not know the extent of its growth? And now I do track the handful of things I'm most invested in growing because those will be most impacted by my giving them attention. There's a saying that what you water grows. Well, your focus and your attention is what will water the seed, what will give it life. If you're looking to lose weight but you never look at the scale, you're hurting yourself. You might say, well, I don't want to be all about the numbers.

It's a lifestyle change, and I certainly agree the point is not to track every single step you make. It's to realize how often we operate blindly. It's to show you that with 100% certainty, your increased awareness and attention dedicated to any pursuit will make you more effective in bringing about your desired. result. Knowing your daily progress keeps you in the game. It keeps you excited and also arms you with the tools to make the necessary changes. See, we are brilliant creatures capable of incredible things, but it's critical that we position ourselves so that we can

win the game. It's critical that we not only look but see. To be simplified, to condense life down to only what's important and to monitor those things that are important to you will give you a tremendous advantage. And again, this is basic stuff. But we skip the basic stuff. Because we think the big changes come from complexity. They don't. They come from choosing a target and working to get closer and closer to its bullseye. Like Greg McCune says in Essentialism, growth often has nothing to do with the acquisition of more. Sometimes it's about eliminating the things we don't need

and focusing on that which we do. Now I'm suggesting we take it one step further and measure our growth as we take those months, meaningful things into the great unknown. Life can be challenging. That's no secret. So why not arm ourselves with every advantage available to us? Why not keep yourself excited and invested and knowledgeable?

Often we look around at what we don't have and think, man, I could never have what they have. I could never do what he or she does. The reality is they identified what matters and brought it to life one small step at a time. And guess what, you can do the same. It's not a miracle you need, it's awareness. So here's to keeping your eyes open, to not only looking but seeing, and in doing so getting results from the opportunity we otherwise would walk right by.

I read something this morning that said at some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it. It seems to me that many of life's last times elude us. We aren't aware of the pages turning or chapters ending. The phases of life essentially blend into each other, one fading into the next. In fact, we don't even realize the extent to which things have changed until we peer back over our shoulders.

See, life is happening to us now. While we plan, hope, and pray for better days, 99.99% of life consist of the time that exists between the so-called pivotal life events. The average, the ordinary, the things that we pay no mind. So what's the relevance?

Why does this matter? Well, because the sun, coming up in the morning is life. Pouring your coffee is life. Small talk with your loved ones is life. The art you're creating, music you're listening to, the workouts at the gym, they are life. And not in a so you better be grateful or else kind of way,

but in a, if you don't understand this, contentment will be incredibly hard to care. incredibly hard to capture kind of way. I have a lot of favorite quotes, but this one tops them all. Character Andy Bernard from the office, he says in an episode, I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them. I can't get over how that statement proves itself to be true repeatedly. Over and over again, how it's not until we peer over our shoulders,

that we realized how lucky we were, how much fun we had, how much the time meant. I recently went to a wedding for one of my best friends from childhood. And funny enough, we only lived in the same state for four years, from fourth grade to eighth grade, before I moved across the country to Massachusetts. And I thought, as I flew to the wedding, you know what, I should post a picture of us as kids together, you know, say congrats. And I quickly realized on the plane ride that I don't think we have any, right? It's essentially only memories.

It's the stories that we still to this day laugh about, those events that shaped our childhoods, the things kids go through that change the way we look at the world. And all that happens so fast. I think it remains so precious because we were so fully immersed in it. It was such a simple time, pivotal, and gone in a snap. I had no idea it would mean anything 20 years later, but that's life. It seems to go by in an instant. Which is why I think we need to find that sweet spot.

Respect for the duality between sometimes sacrificing the present for a better future, an ability that makes humans remarkable creatures. And also enjoying and realizing how practical. How beautiful the now. Whether the current season is ideal, a struggle, or in between. To feel something at all in its own unique way is a miracle. And if we look, we'll find that there is good here. There's growth here.

There are moments that you'll look back on and smile at knowing that they shaped you and played a role in who you are becoming. So the point is, as we make our way through life, its highs and lows. Perhaps look around and make an effort to see the beauty in the journey. Understand that nothing is forever. The people you talk to, places you go, the things you do, they will all dissipate. And while sure the now may not be perfect, and in some cases even a stepping stone along the way to a better, wiser, stronger you, The idea shouldn't be too long for the enjoyable part, but to realize you are in it.

To know that some of these things we take for granted will be missed when they're gone. Let's not fall into the trap of letting life go by while we waited for it to begin. Let's, as Andy Bernard stated, remember that the good old days are right now. and embrace today as the truly incredible gift, opportunity, and finite ride that it is. So imagine you're sitting down, having something to eat, thinking, relaxing, reading, whatever you're doing.

Someone walks up to the table across from you, pulls out the chair, sits down, kind of leans back, puts one leg over the other, casually tells you, you know, you probably don't have what it takes, to do anything significant in your life. What would you say? It would be outrageous, right? That's a ridiculous scenario.

Well, let's say that the next day, you get up, you go to walk, run, work out, and he shows up again. Starts running next to you, casually reminding you that the odds of you changing, doing anything for the better or slim to none, that this is kind of a waste of time for you. You brush it off, you go to work, and guess who?

He passes by your desk, leaves a little note saying, you know, that your bosses, your higher-ups, they're cut from a different cloth. They just see things in a way you can't. You'd probably tell that person to take a long walk off a short pier, right? Or at the very least, you'd understand how absolutely insane the situation is. People can't just walk up and talk to you like that. But now imagine that same person is you, living rent-free in your head. And here's the catch. you invited him in.

You allowed the negativity and the doubt to live there. See, every time I think about that self-talk, I can't help but wonder in a world of obstacles to navigate and challenges to tackle, why is it acceptable for your biggest obstacle to be you? Why should you allow or be okay with that? And I'm not saying everything's perfect all the time. Every thought's pure bliss, but I am posing this question.

If you don't believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to? If you're not your biggest ally, if you don't respect the person staring back at you in the mirror, how do you expect the world to? Why is our inclination to tense up and refute the negativity from others, but sit back and accept the same nonsense in our own heads? If those words don't support what you're trying to build, I don't care who they're from, where they come from, why they're there, they don't deserve your time. And it's a simple awareness that they are not truth, but merely your fears and your insecurities

trying to stop you from becoming who you might be. My biggest leaps in life, they didn't come from physical milestones or benchmarks. They came from mental shifts, convincing myself, believing my life. myself, trusting in myself. When the road is untravelled, when the story is untold, the positive and the negative are both make believe. They are both fairy tales, their options, their theories, and guess what? You get to choose which option, which one will be yours. My favorite quote is, you are always stronger than you think you are. Not so much because it reiterates how high the bar is, but because it reminds me how low we often set it for ourselves when we're not paying attention.

How loud that negative voice can be. You know, when I was unemployed, I was writing, I was running out of money, my life changed because I stopped seeing myself as some lost, jobless mess, and I started seeing myself as one of the greats with a hell of a road to travel. See, people always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. I refuse to hear that you might fail and the not good enough and I buckled up for the road ahead. And when you believe you can change and know that the road to your goals will be rocky, it will be uncomfortable, but worth it, you are taking that hostile voice and making him or her a spectator, not a decider of fate.

And yeah, you will lose, you can't win all the time, and you will feel stuck, but life's not always smooth sailing. And sure, you'll be mad at yourself, but not every decision. is a home run. But these situations are the byproduct of a journey, and here is my point. Self-belief is being able to differentiate your situation and pointless negative talk about the situation. It's about remembering that you are the gatekeeper of your own mind. When you believe in you, it places your faith, your strength, and your determination in

the driver's seat. It makes everything else trivial, meaningless. It makes it an option that you are simply not going to choose. If you want to feel more connected to humanity and a little less alone, listen to Beautiful Anonymous. Each week, I take a phone call from one random anonymous human being. There's over 400 episodes in our back catalog. You get to feel connected to all these different people all over the world. Recent episodes include one where a lady survived a murder attempt by her own son.

But then the week before that, we just talked about Star Trek. Anything. It's unpredictable. It's raw. It's real. Get Beautiful Anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts. We spend a lot of time asking ourselves, what if things don't work out? What if I fall, fail, or miss the mark? What if I have to head home empty-handed? Diminished pride, defeated. But what if we've simply been asking the wrong question? Imagine flipping the script. What if everything worked out better than you could have ever imagined? What if you learn in going that you have barely scratched the surface of your potential? That you've been accepting too little, leaving too much on the table? What if you learn that you are

powerful beyond all recognition? Not because someone told you so, no, but because the very steps being taken prove the point. What if the things that held you down can be dismantled? The thoughts that held you back can be demolished. Why is it? We don't ask more of those questions. Generally, you get what you look for. What you ask of life is what you shall receive, or so the saying goes.

So my thought here is perhaps we need to ask for more. of the world but of ourselves. There's an ocean of opportunity before us, enough of this pointing out in wishing for more while we wade in water that is waste deep. First steps will always be believing that more exists, that the world might not be able to see it. It might not exist to your left or right, but it exists in your head, and that is enough. That is where all great accomplishments start.

the necessary beginning. And to disregard a perceived outcome because it's only in your mind, it hasn't materialized yet. It's like disregarding a seed because it's not yet a tree. The two are forever intertwined. They need each other. Simple formula. See greatness and move towards that greatness. Nothing else is relevant.

And sure, you'll have your struggle from time to time. No question. But that's not failure. That's what happens along the path to better things. That adversity is simply the price that must be paid for dreaming, for taking the ideal and bringing it to life. And at the end of the day, that price is a bargain. So ask yourself, what if things do work out? In fact, what if they work out better than I ever imagine? What if the current norms can be transformed, reality altered? What if this is just the beginning of the best life has to offer?

You change the questions, you change the outcome, and today feels like the perfect day for change. This moment is a collage of your past. The steps that brought you here, the things that shaped you, it's a story comprised of what you choose to remember. And so I ask which memories get your attention. Or do you choose to shine that potentially life-changing spotlight? What are you looking back on? Do you remember those times you felt lost?

Those times life was turned upside down when you went into panic mode, when you were perfectly mapped out reality was shaken at its foundation. Yet you got up and found steady ground. Do you remember that? Do you remember when the things you thought were forever turned out to be as fleeting as a setting sun? When you realized a life well lived would mean figuring out the vast majority of it on your relying on your courage and your strength. Yet you pushed into the dark of night and

lit a path, didn't you? Do you remember that? Do you remember the hard hits? The blatant losses, the gut-punching defeats when you looked in the mirror and thought, this reflection, it's just not who it needs to be. This burden is too much to carry. Yet you got yourself together, you found faith in your reflection. And you not only carried that burden, but you made something of it, didn't you? Do you remember that? What do you choose to remember? And I'm not talking imagine or create or bring to life.

No, which truths are you letting in? How quickly we forget who we are. How fleeting the recollection of our strength. See, if you take a single step back and examine, you'll see a breathtaking sample size of the demons already defeated. The mountains already climbed, the dragons already slayed, and you stand here now, afraid and unsure, as if you haven't already fought through the depths of hell, as if you haven't already proven to yourself that you've been there, as if this moment is new to you. You have what you need. And that's not the law of attraction or conjecture or hopeful thinking. It's remembering what you know in your soul to be true.

You are made for this road laid out before you. How do you visualize the road you're on with its twists and turns, smooth terrain, rough, terrain, straightaways, hills, what is it all mean? Do you find it odd that it gets more challenging as you get closer to your destination? The further along you get, the more tension life puts between you and the finish line. Almost like the universe is adamant about weeding out those who think they can skate by. What is the difference between saying you want it and really wanting it? Perhaps it's a willingness to fight through a storm just for the opportunity to find calm and serenity in its center.

This morning, as the sun was coming up, I went for a run. A nice five-mile run down the coast, and the way I planned it out was simple. 2.5 or halfway up in soft sand, and then I'd stop, and I'd turn around, and I'd run 2.5 back, but on the harder surface. easier to handle, almost like a reward for pushing myself on the way up. And things were going perfectly. I made the 2.5 mile run up. And when it came to stop and turn around, I realized what should have been obvious from the beginning was high tide. Which means I didn't get that hard surface to run back on instead.

Not only was it softer than the way up, but I was running on a slope. And that just threw my mind for a loop, right? I'm embarrassed to admit I was actually angry about it. You know, I pushed myself hard going up and wanted that breather. Almost felt like life pushed the finish line back 2.5 miles. And then trust me, as I'm writing this, it seems ridiculous to talk about. But in the moment, just irrationally annoyed. That was the carrot that had been chasing the whole time.

So I begrudgingly, you know, moved forward, kind of trying to figure out what to do. And ultimately just continued forward. and you know the the emotion subsided and as usually happens you pull yourself out of the weeds a little bit the big picture tells a different story different story means different perspective and that's what I came across right this idea or this question well why do we expect life to be flat ground why was that my assumption to begin with the easy to navigate path why is that the standard And the more I thought about it, right, the more I wondered if that's the very reason why we underperform. It's the little spark that ultimately lights this wildfire of regret.

Because when convenience is the standard, everything else becomes unfair. Everything else is a burden. When the road should be flat, what are we to make of the hills in our path? Thinking life should be easy, it provides oxygen to a victim mentality. And sometimes it takes these little experiences for me to refocus on these subtle realities. The flat ground is not the standard. It is earned. It's a gift.

It should be cherished and appreciated because guess what? Life wasn't easy. It isn't easy and it never will be. But I believe the differentiator is knowing that. Right? So I kept running on the slope, feet sinking into the sand. I got my teeth kicked in just a little bit longer and life didn't end. In fact, I think the mental aspect was tougher than the physical. We're only talking five miles here.

But when the standard changes, so does the performance. It's about just moving forward. And like poetry, with about three quarters of a mile left, right? The beach widened. It leveled out, the ground became harder. Each step became easier, and yeah, I was running. But in my head, it felt like I was lying on a bed of feathers. Because when you prepare to face life's demons,

when you're ready for battle, when you anticipate you'll have to give everything. Any adversary that falls short of that feels like wind behind your back. We can endure anything. The question is whether or not we, put ourselves in position. Mistakes, they don't define us. Heartbreak, it doesn't kill us.

And criticism, it doesn't shape us. But I'll tell you what. The fear that they do stops a lot of people from becoming who they're capable of becoming. Panicking at the slightest sign of discomfort, moving away from anything but the convenient, when in reality, inconveniences are the path. As Ryan Holiday famously put it,

the obstacle is the way. See, satisfaction, it doesn't even exist without a will to overcome. What meaning does a finish line have without miles of self-doubt and questions, and fear, and dragons, being slayed while you prove to yourself over and over again that you know what I am more and I can be more and the crazy thing is that there's not even a stopping point here

this rocket will propel as high into the ether as you choose to take it and look it's not about running on slight inclines or sinking a few inches into the sand it's not It's not about being rejected, losing or castigated by seven billion self-interested souls. No. It's about not being scared to take the bridge that connects current to future. Complacency to recreation, the known to the seemingly impossible. You're made of so much more than you give yourself credit for. You are so much stronger than you have you still.

than you think you are. So for yourself and for the world, capture that. Own it and redefine what it means not to simply exist, but to your core with every ounce of your being, your soul, every fiber in your body

to truly live. When the ground beneath us shakes, we crave. stability. When the heavens open up and rain pours down and we run for shelter. When life presents us with vagueness, with flashes of possibility, we long for mastery. It's more instinct than anything else. But could it be that that instinct that instinct that we run to like moths to a flame is leading us astray, that it It doesn't have our best interests at heart.

Could it be that we're so worried about protecting and maintaining an acceptable image for the world that we forget to build something internally that's worth protecting? What if that's shaking is what brings down the foundations that held us back? What if that rain washes away the limits of yesterday as we evolve into something more? And what if those flashes of possibility require of us not mastery, no, not yet, but a willingness to be the fool? And what if that willingness isn't an unfortunate dead end but a beginning? In one of his lectures at the University of Toronto, Jordan Peterson said, if you are not willing to be a fool, you can't be a master. in the cycle that is self-discovery, that is growth.

We have to at some point step into an arena that's foreign to us, that we don't yet understand. We have to be willing to operate with inadequate resources, trusting that they'll be picked up along the way. And that's a lot to take in. It's painful to know that others are going to have knowledge and skills and competencies that you won't. that you'll willingly inject yourself into the bottom of some hierarchy with nothing more than aspirations.

But that willingness is your vehicle. And what's clear is that everyone wants the moon, but very few people have the courage to start constructing that spaceship. Very few have the courage to be the student. That's why our inclination is to quit when we can't snap. our fingers and magically be on our way, when we can't leap past that wandering around the unknowns. The reality is we have to fight to scrap to obtain that sense of belonging in a particular competency.

And just talking about it brings me back. It's an obstacle that we all face. It's super real to me. I remember being featured on a podcast where the host literally asked me, why should I listen what you have to say? Right? Like, who are you?

Why are you roadmapping your journey? I remember fighting for relevance in an area in which, you know, at the time I knew almost nothing about. And I love how Peterson articulates this battle. He says at some point you'll want to make a change and you'll feel like an imposter. And guess what? You are. But you have to be. You'll ultimately feel worse if you don't do it.

That's imposter syndrome. Feeling like a stranger in your own body. And guess what, it's not wrong, it's just a beginning. I like explaining it like jumping into a cold pool. Feels uncomfortable at first. It feels out of place, but then things normalize. They become comfortable. And what's the other option?

To fear that minute of discomfort and never jump in? It's what we need to tell ourselves when we want something, but the climb seems too steep. Right? That climb is manageable. You'll acclimate. The adversary is pushing beyond that fear of starting anew, taking your limited understanding, bringing it to the base of that mountain, a new Goliath, and looking up with confidence. And the question is, can you be foolish enough to do that?

And once you've made that ceiling, your next floor, will you be foolish enough to do it again and again and again? and breaking through that fear, knowing that stumbling around for a period of time doesn't kill you. It's required. It's the inability to show weakness or appear vulnerable. That's what chips away at you for a lifetime. If you want more, immerse yourself in that cycle of mastery. Start at the bottom and ascend. And when you approach the top, separate yourself and find another ceiling to chase.

Replant a seed. play the role of the fool again. This is the formula for growth, for prosperity, for fulfillment. This is the pathway to anything of substance. You take your ls, you embrace your critics, you swallow your pride, and move towards a tomorrow that far exceeds today. As your reality changes, your perception changes, the company you keep changes, you'll start to see that what's around you is made

by people who were willing to fail and fail often. Our world is when devised by those who could put pride on hold. By those who were humble enough to crawl through the unknown long before they ran anything. Who knew that before they played for any title or championship, they must first play the fool? There's a saying that will always be true. It will be true on your best days and your worst. It will be true after victory and it will be true after defeat. It will be true when you have momentum and it will be true when you're down on your luck doing everything in your power to create momentum.

That saying is your future begins now. Hey, on the surface might not seem like much. Sure, my future starts now. I know that, everyone knows that. Well, if that's true, if everyone does in fact know that, why do we spend so much time stuck, reliving our past unable to break free? Why do we remain terrified to change?

Why do we feel such a connection to who we were, how others saw us? Why must we remain loyal to the character we've been playing in our mental autobiographies? See, here's the thing about the past. and the future. One is fixed, can't be changed, and the other, well, it's waiting for you to tell it what it is. One is expired time. One is planned to be determined. And it's interesting how we continue to conflate the two. Epicetus has said that the more things we value outside of our control, the less control we have. Well, I'm going to be the messenger here relaying the precious truth that yesterday is in fact out of our control. What can be controlled is where we go from

here, the next step. Meaning today is not your failures. It's where you take those lessons. It's not your mistakes, but it's what the stronger you can now endure because of them. It's not the dreams you let slip away, but where your pursuit might take you now. And yeah, yesterday certainly contributes to your outlook, as all information does. Its value considered, its impact assessed. It guides you, but it's not you. And that difference is astronomical. There's a question about the role the past plays in our lives.

It has to mean something, right? Your past is in many ways your story. why you think the way you do, it's contributed to your understanding of the world, it will always be a part of you, and I believe that. But I also believe the past is a story. And just like reading one chapter in a book simply sets the stage for the next one without controlling its direction, so does every day that has led you up to now. Life gives us the tools to experience, to grow, learn, and then shed that which does not coincide with what's important. Your failures are not you. But they are precious and that they

push you towards what you'd like to be. See, you can experience something and not be that thing. As Kirkagard says, if you label me, you negate me. If you proclaim me to be X, you're essentially stealing from me the infinite possibility that is the future. Yes, Yesterday has nothing to do with what I can become. And so taking it a step further, never mind being labeled by someone else, how could you label yourself and see it as anything but self-sabotage? See, you're never defined by your past, but always learning from it. It's not who you are.

It's the cheat codes for what you can be. Without that winding road of misfortune and mistakes, the incredible expansion we long for doesn't materialize. Imagine if everyone who ever felt down in life felt like a loser who temporarily lost hope. Imagine if they looked in the mirror and said, okay, this is who I am now. There would be no triumph in the world because anything meaningful requires the resiliency to map our way from the hell that was our darkest moments to what will become our proudest moments, Destiny. Destiny, destiny means that you separate the finite from the infinite. What you used to call yourself has prepared you to move towards the horizon.

But what you used to call yourself is also as irrelevant now as those seconds that you watch tick away. Seconds that maybe you're not proud of. seconds that perhaps taught you about the world, seconds that gave you a glimpse of what's possible, unveiled the happiest of times, all of it. In its own unique way, it brought value, but none of it is your future. Why?

Because back to that beautiful, all-powerful sentence, your future begins now. Your destiny is always Destiny is awaiting its marching orders and all you have to decide as you stand today is where that ship will sail. That to find ourselves requires we must first lose ourselves is, I believe, life's greatest paradox, leaving that carousel of comfort. The predictability of what we know, the certainty of who we believe ourselves to be. For a promise with no real guarantee of being kept, well, it's nothing short of irrational.

Are the odds in our favor, perhaps not? But by stepping off, by placing our bets on a different track with a different prize, at a different time, we have increased those odds from zero to. Well, I guess we decide. And see, the world teaches us that it's advantageous to spin. A spinning carousel is predictable. It can't be cheated. There's very little room for loss or humiliation or setbacks

or even life to get in the way. You know where you start and you know where you end. And that's just the thing. This spinning world is so easy that people don't want to leave. In fact, it's not until you walk away from the crowd that you even face the unknown. And that's precisely why it's so hard to walk alone. It's hard, it's challenging because of the now.

Not because the now can't be measured or understood, no, we get it. But because there's this little whisper in the back of our heads that the now might go on and on and on forever, that that check will never be cashed, the summit never reached. reached, no, just footsteps down a perpetually long, windy road. And that's, you know, when maybe, just maybe we miss that carousel. We miss the safety and security. And that's what sometimes makes it such a stressful thing to walk alone. We think about all of ourselves, our mind, our heart we've left behind along the way. Truths, we know. We know. We know. We know. We know. We know. We

now have to face things, they never taught us on that carousel. We had to learn that we were wrong about who'd be by our side through it all. We could no longer hide behind the notion that when things got tough, someday everyone, everything would be there would be the same. We learned to swim by jumping into the deep end, seeing in real time that people only believe it already exists. What's put in front of them. that ideas are empty, that a dream is a language only spoken by its creator.

And if you want it to mean anything, you must dedicate your life to translating it. We learn how much is backwards, how much of life is reactive, that success is being one of the few who don't react, but build a world to react to. And in the thick of it all to internalize the process, because talking while talking does nothing. Plans are just potential energy confined to your pocket. You have to be okay growing that seed by yourself. Like a runner making her way past a crowd, right? The crowd sees calm, sees peace, sees the finesse of an athlete gliding over the pavement. They have no idea the war being fought behind her eyes. The silencing of constant whispers to slow down

to do less, the repression of pain that consumes her to such an extent, it can't even really be pinpointed. It just kind of floats over her body. They'll never know that. And what we learn is that they don't need to. It's the truth. And see, it's also what makes it quite lonely to walk alone. Walking alone, well, it's a lot of things.

But it's never boring. It's never dull. And if you can hang in there long enough, without even noticing the headwind you've been fighting, it becomes a tailwind. And where we may have felt alone, the idea pops into our heads that maybe that's not quite right. If anything, the wind at our back is now momentum. It's a partner along the way. That carousel, yeah, it's still spinning, but somewhere else.

Some far off place beyond our field of vision. And no, things don't ever become easy, we wouldn't want that. But difficulty is interpreted differently now. Not a burden, but a cost. And one we'd gladly continue to pay. And that space that once felt so empty, so desolate, so helpless. Well now it's made up of people who see what you see, who hopped off their own carousels and wandered through the desert, they too navigated

through the impossible and the never been done. It's funny how at some point we always find each other. And I suppose now, having traded the carousels for the adventure, we can walk alone together. Us against the world, standing up in defiance of the aught, chasing that glimmer of hope, all in on a pursuit to find what most won't and see what most can't. Not because we were made different, but because we chase down the idea of different. It gets a tough rap walking alone. And in so many ways, it's a fight.

It takes all of you. But you don't come out the same person you were when you stepped in. The same person you'd still be today had you stayed on that carousel. So if you are still spinning, step off. And if you have, if you're still adjusting to the discomfort of reality. If you're making your way through the hell of uncertainty or questioning whether you have what it takes or have the strength to commit, I promise. In fact, you're right where you need to be. So don't be distracted by those screaming of their successes or communicating, capturing every small win as they make their way around the carousel.

It's the quiet ones who change themselves. who change themselves, the ones who take life one step at a time, one battle at a time, who redefine reality. And I'm sure you can't see it now. No one can. No one can see the sun amidst the storm, but you'll emerge. Stronger than you ever were. You will navigate towards the ideal and away from that life you once settled for. It's a long path, but it's worth it. So get up and let your feet guide the... Let's go walk alone.