Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - FOCUS ON YOURSELF, NOT OTHERS | Powerful Motivational Speeches 2023

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

“Your life is controlled by what you focus on” – Tony Robbins

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 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. Right? The supposed to followed me around like a shadow. Constantly trying to pull me back in. Freedom to me. is separating oneself from this exact sentiment. It's doing what's best for you,

exploring your own worldview, blazing as the saying goes, your own trail, because you'll find very few supposed tos there. I think this is a microcosm of a greater truth. The most important things we do in life, our pivotal moments, our epiphanies are found where we weren't supposed to find them. Because what we're supposed to do is very rarely methodically thought out.

It's simply the norm. It's marching orders. It's what the crowd is doing. It's what will help us blend in. And it's interesting, as I've pushed further and further into life, I've come to believe that rarely is what's best all one thing or all another. It's working to find a balance that supports your ideal life trajectory. That balance will lean substantially more one way or another,

depending on who you are and what's important to you. And so, I'm not suggesting one always needs to be different, or if something is common, it's wrong. No, thousands of years of evolution and societal stressors have in many ways narrowed down for us what's effective and efficient. It's helped us survive. And to dismiss this outright is obviously counterproductive, but it does explain why any break from these norms

physically hurts. We associate them with survival. And here lies the divide between surviving, which we are supposed to do, and excelling, which is to embark upon a different game altogether. Survival is mitigating risk. Excelling is hunting down the opportunity. Survival is blending in. Excelling is asking, what about me is unique and how can I dive into that fully? Survival is not having to innovate on any large scale because the instructions are clear and laid out for you. Excelling is asking, now that I know the rules, how can I bend and maybe even break them so that I can improve my life and the lives of those around me. And I'll continue with the same example, because I know a lot of folks find themselves in a similar situation now.

I wasn't supposed to deviate from my previous life trajectory. My education, my career track, my 401k, but I did. And I found something I otherwise would never have, an ability to work on what I enjoy and share that with others. I wasn't supposed to leave home, the Northeast. the most important people in my life 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. 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 everyday life. I love the notion that there's always more in you. You just need to give yourself permission to pursue it. It only makes sense that no journey begins until we give it the green light. The world is yours once you give yourself permission to pursue it.

So what are you conceding? What have you accepted as fact that upon further review you might find to be fiction? There's a world of infinite opportunity waiting for you. Just past your acceptance of the way things are. Just beyond all those supposed to. There's a quote attributed to Lincoln. He says, Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

The other day I was listening to Dan Carlin's podcast called Hardcore History, which side note is an incredible podcast. Guys, a brilliant storyteller. And as I was listening, there's a specific idea that I wanted to dive into, an idea that I believe if we make an effort to understand and fully commit to, is capable of changing our lives. But first, some quick context. So Dan starts off this episode called King of Kings, talking about the Battle of Thermopylae in the year 480 BC in ancient Greece. It's that famous story that a lot of us know where King Leonidas leads that small army, which includes 300 Spartans against this massive Persian military force that's invading. And the quick version is essentially Xerxes, who's the king of the Persian Empire. and in charge of that massive army,

tells the much smaller Spartan force that if they lay down their weapons, if they submit to him and let the Persians pass, no harm will be inflicted upon them. They'll be free to go, go about their lives. And here's the famous line. In response to the Persian command

to lay down their weapons, the Spartans respond, Milan Le Bay, which means come and take them. It's a Spartan's way of saying, look, the only way we're laying these weapons down is if you rip them from our cold dead hands. Right, with everything on the line, the odds stacked against them, the ground beneath them, basically shaking from the march of a far superior fighting force, moving directly towards their location, they would not let go.

of their principles. They were fighting for something bigger than them. And I couldn't stop thinking about this idea long after I hit pause on the episode. I guess I was awestruck by the power of living life with that

type of conviction. Because I know in my soul that's a North Star I should be gravitating towards. We all should. The strength to be unrelenting with regard to that which we care about.

The aforementioned quote from Lincoln about finding the right place for our feet and then holding steady. With everything you have, all that you are holding firm. I just couldn't get that out of my head. And then it came to me that that invading force represents so much in our personal lives.

So many things. One example, being the difficult or adverse circumstances, our trying times, when you're most likely to concede that perhaps you're no bigger than that world around you. Maybe life is a movie and I'm merely the audience. My job is to clap, laugh, gasp, or cry. Am I cog in a wheel, a line in a script? Powerless. In which case, you should be reminded of Victor Frankel's famous observation, that everything can be taken from a man but one thing,

the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. In other words, the outside world may change. It may evolve, but it will never have that. power over how you choose to internalize and view what's happening. That's innately yours. So when the circumstances feel like they demand more than you can give, when they suggest you leave your interpretation of life behind, the correct response is, as the Spartans

defiantly said, come and take it. That army could represent a pushback against your values. your values, the pillars of your individual foundation that you feel amidst all the pressure tempted to let go off. After all, it's easier to retreat than stand toe to toe to with others. It's easier to abandon than it is to defend, at least in the short term. But as Victor Hugo writes, you have enemies good. That means you've stood up for something, something, sometime in your life. The enemy's obviously not being the point.

I'm a believer in the conservation of enemy approach to life. Allies just pragmatically get you a lot further, but here's the reality. Anyone who stands for something will undoubtedly create divide. They'll be criticized and condemned. And when one feels the pressure of that criticism, they must understand that it does not invalidate who they are or their worldview. That is yours. You are the only one who can give up or relinquish that control. So as the Spartans said, come and take it. And then lastly, my thoughts went to little things that make us who we are. Those tiny pieces of ourselves

that we little by little, one by one over time give away, the concessions, that fade into the background as we evolve to fit in so that we don't stand out. As Emerson beautifully put it, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. And so that attacking army just might be the universe attempting to mold you to it, perhaps not all at once, but more like that frog placed in water and put on the stove.

But the heat increasing so slowly over time that he doesn't realize the heat will soon overtake him. Externalities do not dictate. They are objects in need of meaning and you are the architect here. If it means something to you, it's worth holding on to during the difficult times and the easy time. When it's popular and when it's not, There is value within you specific to you, a value that must be nurtured in order to expand. Others can't and won't see that. The world around you may even with all its complexities seek to suppress it.

But that flame is there, it's there and it's yours. And to anyone or anything looking to extinguish its light, come and take it. After all, what is a life if not one lived on your own terms? The goal is not to simply exist, but to define the plane on which you'll evolve, to devise your own parameters. Be yourself as that world looks to make you something else. So here's to digging deep, to finding within yourself the courage, to stand up to the great armies of chaos, conflict, adversity,

and their perpetual conquest. To remember how strong you are, how much control you have as you navigate the unknowns and redefine the right nows. Don't let your strength be the thing you give away. Don't let your heart be what gets left behind. Don't let your thoughts. become illusions of what could have been if only you'd held on.

And look, I'm not saying it's easy. In fact, I know that the meaningful road will necessarily be the one that requires the most of us. That makes us question who we are and where we're going. It will ask that when our minds race with doubt and our knees shake with fear, we find a way to stand regardless. to walk to our demons, look them square in the eye and proclaim that whatever it takes we are willing to give. That we will fight until there's nothing left.

Go until we can go no further and hold with conviction all that matters most. So the next time light demands that you fall back or bow down, the next time chaos emerges in the distance and asks only, that you lay down your arm, here's to being strong enough, certain enough, courageous enough to say one thing and one thing only, come and take them.

Even if there were a magic box, with the answer to every single question imaginable inside, you'd still have to know what questions to ask it in order to take anything worthwhile away. The output is only going to be as valuable as the input. But why won't the world just give me what I want? Why can't I have something new? Why won't life grant me a fresh start?

Well, the question worth reflecting upon is what are you doing to prompt the change? What are your inputs? The jukebox only plays this. song you select. What are you selecting? And I say this, well, I say this because my expectations are sometimes inclined to diverge from the actions that I take. There can be a gap between what I want and what I'm actually spending my time doing, a gap that without the necessary time and attention widens. But what we want to do is close that gap. We want to take the ideal on one side and the real on the other and squeeze them as close together as possible.

That requires, though, that you recognize and take control of your input. A friend of mine in the medical field and I were talking about weight loss not too long ago, and something he said that stuck with me. He says, yeah, weight loss can be complex. There's certainly variability, but there's a simple underlying truth to all of it. If you burn more calories than you take in through eating, your body will lose weight. It's inevitable. You're creating a deficit. Simple, your input controls your output.

We can move to personal finance, something everyone can relate to. If you spend less than you make, you'll have money left over to save. Again, personal finance also has its nuance. There are certainly plenty of variables. But this piece will always be true. If you want to increase your savings, you can either make more or spend less. Your decisions here, your inputs here, will dictate your output. And so I think it's worth calling our attention to those things we're doing day in and day out.

And I'm talking about the most basic of things. Are they contributing to what you want most or not? That's why I reference my whiteboard list so often, right? Incredibly simple, which I think is what we need. One column on the left is your goals, you know, the things that you want. The other column on the right is what you're doing to bring about what you want. What are your actions? And if you make that list and notice that your day's wildly deep.

Eviate from that list, there's a problem. Either you're wasting your time with meaningless action or you've selected the wrong goals. You can wildly change the results you get by tweaking the actions you make or inputs as I've called them here. Here's an example. This is an adversary.

I've been dancing around for a decade now. I have injury problems. Talk about it all the time. Left ankle, right knee, left elbow, right shoulder. I'm constantly working around these things. Until inevitably something happens and I have to take a step back and rest and rehab it, right? What did I do? I saw a physical therapist. Definitely a valuable input, but not enough.

I'm consistently working on my diet. Valuable input, but again, not enough. Hydration, right, gallon of water a day. Valuable input, but not enough. I decided not too long ago to take yoga seriously. Like be obnoxiously serious about it. I'm going almost every day. And I think I don't want to speak too soon,

but I think I'm seeing something that I haven't seen in a decade. I feel good and I'm able to do some weight training that previously I really couldn't. You know, the output here is finally starting to look like I want it to look. But here's the thing, right? It's been so frustrating over the years. get so angry with the situation that I forget that I have control over the outcome. It just seems like when you've exhausted so much time and energy, like it's beyond you.

And it's like, no, there are still your inputs creating your outputs and you can continue to change those things. Don't stop trying, testing. You know, and that's really it. And I mean, this is such a basic concept. It's so almost painfully simple. But as I like to say, you know, the wheels don't fall off the wagon when we get the minor details wrong. No, it's when we're getting the basic things wrong.

That's when we lose ourselves. That's when we fall off track. And that simple input and output idea is amazing to me. Because it waters all that seemingly complex stuff down into the simple. It puts the power in our hands to do something about it. Even when it's frustrating, even when we feel like we've exhausted all our options, no, there's always more. Why? Because you put something in, you get something out. If you don't like what's coming out, change what's going in.

You are your own experiment. You are responsible for closing that gap between the real and the ideal. If the people you're spending your time with, don't make you know. make you feel good or bring you down, adjust the input. If you aren't happy with your financial situation, adjust the inputs. If you aren't happy with your physique or overall health, adjust the input. If your business or platform or personal brand isn't evolving the way you'd like it to, stop blindly repeating what you're doing day in and day out and adjust the inputs.

The real world results will change right in front of your eyes. Not because anything was given to you, but because your persistence, your adaptability, and your commitment to growth demanded it. I'll never forget, listening to Jim Rhone, was taking a walk in the middle of the day. I needed to get out, decompress, rethink, realign. And this message came through my headphones. He said, we must all suffer from one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. And I needed that.

I needed that because sometimes we forget why. In the midst of the day-to-day, the trials and tribulations of life, we forget why. we endure. And there's a strange dichotomy that exists. Because you know, you can't measure discomfort that hasn't arrived yet. You can identify regret that hasn't materialized. Yet in a way, you have to. You have to somehow make that tangible. You have to know that sacrifices of today deliver you from the anguish of I wish or if only or maybe I could have I've heard it said that humans ability to delay gratification is what makes us so unique incredible even but that doesn't mean it comes easy so as I walked I became reacquainted with the trust that I had in

myself in the future and the steps I was taking. It wasn't that I'd reached some grand finale, but that I gave myself permission to stop constantly expecting one. Worrying when things didn't go as planned, feeling disgusted with myself when I fell short. This is, after all, part of a process. And if one stays the course, builds a foundation of discipline to to guide them towards what they believe in, things will evolve. We feel uncertain because new things don't have a precedent, at least not a personal one. And that feeling of, I wish I knew or had some predictability, it's real, it's common. But if minimizing regret is what means the most, then it also means that we must have the

discipline to walk steadfast into the unpredictability of tomorrow. A long-term sustained discipline. And one of my favorite interviews, Brony Ware, who wrote the top five regrets of the dying, was talking about surrender and how she mentioned in her book, Letting Go. And I asked her, can you explain that? What's the angle? because the way I look at life, there's always something you can do. You can always improve your situation somehow.

And she basically said, it's not about what you can control, what you can do. It's about putting yourself in position to live the life you want to live, and then letting go of that which you cannot control. It's about not worrying over everything. external forces as you walk your path because all you can do in life is walk your path. And that became the marker or the question, am I walking my path? Right? Now look at it like this. First, a vision gives you direction. Purpose keeps you excited, injects meaning into life. Second, discipline keeps you moving. Becomes the tiny steps.

that transport you through your pursuit of meaning. And third, trust in the process. That you are here to give everything you have to give, and then the rest, as Brunny says, must be surrendered. But the reason I bring this up is because all of it fits together like a puzzle, like three pillars of a Parthenon. And when people reach out to me all the time, they're upset that they're not as disciplined as they'd like to be.

And they're listening to the speeches, they're watching the videos, they're absorbing the content, trying to improve. But nothing seems to get the engine going. And I'm wondering, what is your North Star? What are you aiming for? Because as far as I'm concerned, it's impossible to be disciplined if you don't have a reason. You know, when Jim Rohn states that the pain is in ounces now, well, there's an implicit, compared to what, being asked, right? Compared to that top of the mountain that you'd presumably miss out on. So if the mountaintop's not defined, you're on a fool's errand. That's why I had so much trouble with my old career, for example.

It's hard to be disciplined. There's no buy-in on the purpose. Using my previous metaphor, it's little steps, sure, but towards what? If you don't know, it's only practical then to look around and ask yourself, why am I taking them? Why not go drink with my friends? Why not stream this series on Netflix until 4 a.m.? Why not skip the workout?

You can listen to people on YouTube, scream at you to do more and be more and try harder all day, but without that piece, it will not get you very far. A vision, the discipline to pursue it, and a trust in the process. And you could say the same with someone who might have a clear vision, a dream, a perfect idea of what they want. But never take action, right? The discipline never materializes. Makes the endeavor just as meaningless. Things don't change until you take that big picture, that vision, and you break it down

into little things you can do every day. That's it. And isn't that amazing? The greatest, most influential people, from the friends and family that inspire us, to the greatest athletes and entertainers, to our greatest thinkers, creators, world leaders, all they do is a handful of things consistently

every day in the direction of some something that is meaningful to them, a process that has been talked about since the beginning of time. The compound effect, as Darren Hardy calls it, that breakthrough was huge for me, the realization that I don't need to leap any mountain. I just need to ascend one tiny rock at a time, and that is not a superhuman ability. That is a single decision. So here the question isn't can you be more disciplined? Of course you can. The question is, which few things are most meaningful to you?

Which will you be focusing on every day so that they expand and inject value into you in the world? And then, lastly, there is trust. Sometimes the most difficult. Seeing the unseen. maintaining confidence in that which is unknown. An incredibly challenging expectation in an instantaneous world, a world where things are immediate. Feedback is immediate.

Messages are sent across the planet instantaneously. Goods and services arrive within hours. We have forgotten patience because it is disintegrating before our very eyes. We are a society. of now, but the best things in life they take time. They require that we hold up our end of the bargain and that we trust life will fall into place. Belief in a process that will come to mean more than anything

that arrives in 30 seconds ever could. A vision, the discipline to pursue it, and a trust in the process. So perhaps you're overdue for your midday walk, your little excursion into the soul, to ask yourself, what is it you are moving towards? Why are you doing what you're doing? Does it mean something? And if not, perhaps some adjustment is in order. Perhaps you've lost sight of that north star that lights up our lives and illuminates the way. Take solace in the first. Take solace in the that life is not as serious as we make it out to be. We don't live in a world of right and wrong,

good and bad, yes and no, but a continuum, an opportunity to seek out and find the beautiful ups and the meaningful downs to set our sights on the horizons that matter. See, when the little things feel too complex or burdensome, It's because the big things are misaligned and that is a powerful idea to grasp. It's never that life is too difficult. It's that we have closed our eyes. So don't be fooled by those selling you reality as some problem,

some obligation that must be dealt with. No, today is the greatest gift of your lifetime. And the same will be true every day moving forward. And to echo Jim Rohn, absolutely it is a gift comprised of sacrifice, discomfort along the way. But that's a small price to pay for entry to the show. For the ability to embrace the mystery and embark upon the adventure when you're pointed to the right north star,

Well, the road, it feels less treacherous on your feet. The hills less strenuous on your legs. What we often deem to be a lack of preparedness, ability, strength, well, might just be a lack of alignment. So adjust. Because this world, flexible and limitless, invites you to do just that. It invites you to explore until you've uncovered your vision. To pursue it like nothing else matters. To sidestep the obstacles, invert the setbacks,

and lastly to find hope when there appears to be none. To set your sails, walk your path, run your race and surrender to that which is beyond your control. And you'll find that with a vision, with discipline, with trust in the process, there is no situation or circumstance outside the scope of what's possible for you. That morning, as I looked out the window, I could feel my increased heart rate, a sense of both excitement and anxiety that you can only really. understand if you've lived it. I was worried about what people might think, what I might lose, what life might have in store for me, because that was all I knew to focus on.

I'd programmed myself to do one thing, worry. And when your one thing is worrying, it's inevitable that you see life through a lens of scarcity. Your setting is on maintain, meaning you protect the little you have as opposed to seeking more. You play defense to keep the world out as opposed to the offense required to bring the world in so that it may be reshaped. That morning, cold, wet, gray, I was numb. But deep down, completely oblivious to me, there was a little fire too small to recognize. A spark of courage in its infancy.

See, at that moment, if someone asked me, can you even be scared and courageous at the same time? that those two words do not go together. Right? We're talking night and day, fire and water black and white. But time's job is to reveal, and it has shown that there is no courage without fear. There is no fire, no matter how bright or powerful, that doesn't by default bring about those mysterious shapes dancing in the world. the shadows. If you want fire, great. But you must learn to dance with what hides in the

periphery. You must learn to go where your impulse begs you not to. And so that morning, I went to dance with my demons. What if the one thing holding you back in your life was you? And look, I know the world is a complex, multivariable, unfair, sometimes even cryptic place. I've never said anything to the contrary. But what humans do so well, sometimes for good and sometimes to our detriment, is see life through stories. Ideas. And whether you know it or not, you are playing by a set of rules. Right now, as you take this in, you have defined a set of parameters and deemed them acceptable.

Decided they are what you deserve. You've allowed for yourself a certain level of growth. A certain amount of happiness, a certain amount of time to do what you love. A certain expectation around the role of work in your life. A certain window of income you've identified as reasonable overall. overall a certain feeling you get when you look in the mirror. And my objective is not to tell you that any of the above is good or bad. It's to remind you that they are all stories.

Our current state is not etched in stone. It's clumsily drawn on a dry erase board. Clumsily because how could we know everything? We learn along the way in a dry erase board. because there's never a moment in time in which you cannot begin again. Think about that. Never. Good, bad, or in between, there is never a situation from which you can't emerge as something different.

From which you can't choose to take a different path. Change the narrative around you, your relationships, your job, your goals. But like the elephant tied to the chair with the rope, one must learn that it is not the chair holding them back, but their perception, their understanding of a supposed role in life. So as I drove away that morning,

I wasn't leaving a physical place, but a mental constraint. turning my back on a manufactured idea about who I was and what life would allow. Not in a snap. No, not all at once, but an adventure that would begin pulling back the curtains one by one. On all that I'd walked right by. See, the first step to getting more is understanding you've been accepting less. That is where new roads present themselves, and it is that new road that I want for you. That understanding that so much will be given to those with the courage to ask.

So as you stand now, examine what you've been asking of life. My hunch is that perhaps it's not enough. Perhaps there's more. Perhaps a new chapter is waiting to begin, and right now is when that first page gets turned. Joseph Campbell says that the cave you fear holds the treasure you seek. Why? Because to face the dancing shadows is to gain power over them. It shows our mind that reality is far less scary than our perception.

of reality that no chain or lock or wall can be more debilitating than the mental constraints we create by ourselves in our heads. It shows that the man guarding the door can just as easily be the one who unlocks it. And so what better a time than now to turn that key? To step out and confront what was once nothing more. than a vast emptiness. Jump into the cold water of opportunity that shocks us at first, creates pins and needles and discomfort, but ultimately

provides a chance to acclimate to and navigate a foreign world. You, you just need to jump, and not a mountain but a foot, enough to start earning, start earning that confidence, creating, that self-trust, believing in yourself, so drive away. To the understanding that there is always another level if you want it. To the belief that nothing is outside the realm of possibility, those boundaries can be redrawn.

To the idea that no one tells you who you are or what you're capable of, the world doesn't give orders, it reacts to who you decide to be. To the awareness that possible victories always outweigh in magnitude to possible defeat. To the realization that who you were yesterday is in no way related to who you can be tomorrow, all chapters end, and you decide when that happens. Everything else belongs in the rear view. Success is knowing this. It's believing it, holding on when others would let go,

be reassured by the incremental nature of what's ahead. Zero miracles. Just the courage to begin. Just push the ball down the hill. Give life a chance to help you create momentum. No more thinking, worrying, procrastination. procrastinating, just go. It's incredible how fast things change when we grant ourselves that freedom,

when we see all of the world is open to us. But will you open your mind to that opportunity? I've said this before, and I'll say it again, nothing is sure in life, but you are guaranteed to lose if you don't go. It's to let falsehoods into bill, So, so, so stop letting these narratives tell you who you are

and create reality with your feet. Why? Because you can, because you were meant for more, and because more starts. 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 that 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, eh, 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 joined 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, right? 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 why. 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. Just 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

and 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 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.