Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - GET TO WORK | Motivational Speech Compilation

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill Newsletter: www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter YouTube: www.youtube.com/yourworldwithin  Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  Embark on a journey of transformation with Eddie Pinero in this powerful podcast compilation. With timeless wisdom, Eddie shares invaluable lessons on life, success, mindset, and motivation. Get ready to break free from the rut and step into your best life as Eddie guides you towards personal growth and fulfillment. Tune in for inspiration, motivation, and actionable advice to unleash your full potential.

Today, 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,

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 the 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 have to be willing to look in the mirror and diagnose a situation. 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. 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 realities 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're

and how you stack up. It's going to be in vain. I remember the CEO of the company that I work 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. 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 point. If you can juggle those two things, you'll 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 results.

Dream big. Steps small. See you tomorrow. 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'll 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 plans 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, it's 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. It's 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 in 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. 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 awaiting its marching orders and all you have to decide as you stand today is where that ship will sail. Reality is the existence of two entities. Those who create change and those who merely react to it.

And so I've wondered what separates the one from the many. What differentiates a fleeting moment from a chapter and a history book. See, I think we all come to a point where we look up and we see no top to the wall we seek to climb. We look down and see the water rising at our feet with every breath. We look to our left and see those who are where we want to be tomorrow. And we look to our right and see the trail of decisions we love to take back from yesterday.

This is where most create their limiting narrative, where most succumbed to the world around them, but most is not all. And every soul eventually comes to find that it was shaped not by sunny days or easy roads, but by walking to the edge of the only world it's ever known and daring to risk the normalcy to which it's accustomed. Because our appearance in the light is the manifestation of what? what we do in the shadows when we're alone fighting the little battles. Greatness isn't just a different level of results. It's a whole new set of rules. And the monumental task in front of you is the culmination of a battle that's already been

fought thousands and thousands of times. It's been won or lost over and over again. Every time you decide to stand apart. instead of follow the crowd, decide to flourish instead of just survive, decide to lead instead of follow, build instead of conform. When you endure,

it's because you've decided that you are different, not in that moment, but every single day leading up to that point. This is not a reinvention, it's living out who you already chose to be. So the wall is high, you will climb because it's what you do. So the water rises, you will swim because it's who you are.

So the people to your left have succeeded, there is always room at the top and you will claim yours. So you failed in the past, good, because falling then means you endure now and so you will. There's a quote attributed Heraclitus on the realities of soldiers in battle. He says, look, out of every 100 men, 10 should not. even be there. 80 are just targets. Nine are the real fighters and we are lucky to have them for they make the battle but the one. One is a warrior and he will bring the others. There's a saying that some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. I've always found

this interesting, this idea how the same subject, same situation or occurrence can be interpreted so differently. It can plant the seeds for such different outcomes. Like Yashimi and Koga mentioned in their book, The Courage to be disliked, well water is 60 degrees, and it's always 60 degrees. In the summer and the winter, but depending on what time of year, right, the makeup of the outside world, that 60 degrees feels different. The water didn't change its circumstances did, and our thoughts are no different. It's not the world that writes the story. We do. And every second moment day is merely an interpretation.

Does time tick by? Or is it driven into a state of flow? Is it transformed into something more? Was losing an indicator that, hey, maybe you're not good enough? Or is it your motivation to be better than you've ever been? Is your day an allegiance? to the present, or an invitation to chase down tomorrow. See, the world doesn't get to tell the tale.

The world is paper, it's ink, its ideas. The world is everything you need to decide how your story's going to go. How does he see the world? How does she define reality? That's the question. Because you don't need to change the world. You need to change the way you see it. And you don't need to change who you are.

You need to change the imaginary shackles you've placed around your ankles that are limiting the heights you could reach. In fact, the world, as far as I'm concerned, is an accumulation of thoughts, ideas. It's 8 billion individualized movie screens attempting to interact to coexist together. And when you look at it like that, it's not that your mindset plays a role or it's kind of important. No, it's that it narrates the play. It's the glue that ties everything together. What you see is what you get. And this isn't a one and done thing.

It's an everyday thing. Because there's always going to be occurrences in our lives that challenge us to threaten our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of. There will always be the temptation to make the opportunity into the problem and the hero into the villain. But why forfeit?

that control. I remember hearing that if you find time to be grateful, both in the morning and at night, it changes your life. Not because the world transforms, but because it reinforces the perspective you need. We are lucky to be here. We're lucky to have challenges that push us forward. Lucky to have ups and downs that bring us closer to the people in our lives. We're lucky that chaos and discomfort open a door for transformation on the other side. And look, I get life isn't perfect. And not everything can be great all the time. But I do believe that if we can bring ourselves to stop, to breathe, to even focus briefly, we can find value in any situation. What's in front of you, it exists, right? It's the well water.

You can't go back in time or remake the obstacle at your feet, but you can always decide how to make that work for you. And that's a superpower. And I use that. I use it with my shirt. short-term ideas or videos or projects underperform. I use it when people let me down. I use it when in the moment I'm either under or overwhelmed. The question, where is the win? In this spot, this situation where most would hang their heads and let the outside world rewrite the story, how can I find a way to hold mine high and maintain my own accountability?

Extreme differences in life outcomes are so often prompt. by such subtle realization, subtle decisions. Their reason to stop could be your reason to not only carry on, but thrive. And the best news is you don't need approval or authorization. You don't need the stars to align or doors to open up. You just need to give yourself permission to see the sun amidst the clouds, the hope amidst the doubt. You have to remind yourself that there is always something to cling to,

Always a second chance. There is always a win. All you have to do is to see it. When you find the courage, you walk out your front door and realize darkness is not a permanent state, but the absence of light. And you have within your soul fire sufficient to set the world ablaze. You don't make it.

What you need, you are what you need. A piece of the infinite, descendant of stars, proof of the impossible. When you find the courage, you alter the very story being etched into the sands of time. An undertaking that makes one's knees shake and hands tremble, a decision that costs the ability to avoid this comfort. When you find the courage, living is at the expense of that. which must now die and to turn the door handle in front of you means closing the one from which you came courage is deciding that watching life through a window is no longer sufficient that what you have is not a product of the way things should be

but how you've allowed them to unfold see a choice is not a thing a choice is an action a deliberate decision to see life differently, to see your circumstances differently, to see your outcomes differently, to see your trials and tribulations differently. What you don't know is a gift, willing to reveal itself and lift you up should you find the courage. This world has seen empires rise and fall. It's brought in the new, cleansed itself of the old, and chapter by chapter, the present becomes the past. culminating into the laws by which we operate. All of them stand upon a foundation of courage,

conscious decisions for more, to change things, to be better, do better, to advance the rate in which better is obtained. In a world of noise, clutter, if you remember one thing, remember this, you have nothing to lose. How could you, when we operate in an arena that simply waits for us,

to inject meaning into it. Just like the chapter before you, your last page will ultimately turn. But what do you want those words to say? What stories do you want told? How much meaning do you want to pour into the words that will forever emanate off the lips of those that come after you? Because the day you're experiencing, the thoughts dancing around in your head, the air pouring through your lungs, they are zero obliance.

and 100% opportunity, a thing of beauty. That is why we must find the courage to step out. To see what we can pull from the universe. It's not greedy or selfish or irresponsible. It's why you were put on this planet. To make the most of your ride, to create magic. So leave the excuses. Stop thinking through a lens of scarcity and find the courage to

redraw reality's parameters. Push them further and further back until nothing is out of the realm of possibility, until you've realized the control you've had from day one as you watch life through a window and wonder what it could bring you. Find the courage to answer that question and never look back. Why chase down the difficult things? It's certainly not. Being productive for the sake of being productive. It's not for the flex or the trophies. It's because meaning in life is directly tied to conquering the unconquerable. Harnessing the outside world.

It's about seeing what we can become when we put ourselves in position to grow. The adventure of a lifetime that awaits anyone who chooses to accept. That's why. But it's not a one-and-done affair. That's the thing. Life has a way of filtering out the timid and the unsure to identify those that really want it.

As though it sees us sign that dotted line and asks, is that so? Let me remove that comfort and predictability. See if then it still sounds good. Let me place the value on the other side of the pain. See if you're still enthusiastic about the pursuit. In fact, let me burn the map, dim the lights, add some obstacles along the way, see how giddy you are about all this now.

And see the difference between those who make change and those who dream about change. comes down to one simple thing. How do you view the obstacles? Are they a problem? Are they an anomaly? A red flag? Because if they are, you've lost before you've started. But the ones who see adversity as simply the expectation,

the water that grows the seed, the wheel that turns the car, the switch that lights up the room, well for them it's a little different. They have armed themselves with adaptability. See, life is not smooth sailing with aberrations in the form of rough waters. No, it is a non-stop influx of trials and tribulations. You can't be mentally prepared to evolve

if your expectation and your hope is always for calm. No, flip that on its head. The expectation is turbulence. Calm is a rare gift, and as it turns out, you were built to endure. So when the waters are rough and the many turn back, you, you push forward. Because this is not the world saying no. It's certainly not a referendum on you. It's the cost of admission.

a chance for you to prove yet again that where you place your focus to emerge victorious. If only the world could see, could understand that the challenge isn't the problem, it's the answer. If only everyone knew what you know, that the great tragedy isn't falling down, it's avoiding discomfort in order to preserve what mediocrity. Why do you want this? Because you know it's an option. It's there. You know that if you move forward when you're fearful, push harder when it hurts,

find something in yourself when there appears to be nothing left, the game of life becomes one of unending reward, beauty, and prosperity. For those few, it's simply knowing that you can have the world if you just give yourself permission

to take it everyone wants to be great everyone wants to be the best the top the 1% or as the saying goes everyone wants to be a beast until it's time to do what beasts do

see what life has revealed and continues to emphasize is that our most vital decisions they present themselves in the dark of night the chaos of the battle they show up amidst our discomfort we know these moments the ones that seek to stop us in our tracks

and turn us around they are what must be prepared for they are the gateway way to excellence. So let's look at the big picture for a minute, life in totality. Because consistently doing this simple, easy things, they're important. Consistency of that which is simple is the foundation. It's what we build the structure upon, but it is far from everything.

Moving right along, we have the difficult things that push us to be more, that show us who we are that hurt that test us the temporary storms they are the armor we come to wear they're what prepares us to endure the trials and tribulations of life like a muscle that must be grown and developed but the difficult things are far from everything because lastly we have our defining moments the moments that put it all together When the sky feels like it's falling, the body feels like it's failing, the mind feels like it's dwindling. Presenting the question, will you do the hard thing when you feel like you can't do the hard thing? It's doing what's difficult when the situation around you is screaming at the top of its lungs.

You've gone too far. You've separated from normalcy. You are wandering into something that can no longer be deemed predictable or safe. See, running is hard. But running when you're tired, when you didn't get a great sleep last night, you don't feel good. When you're busy, when your schedule's full, when you have things to do, when you're in the midst of your workout and your lungs are screaming for air, the cloud of pain. is hovering over you as you make your way forward for no other reason, then you told yourself you would.

That's not hard. That's transformative. Going to the gym is hard. But going to the gym when you don't want to, when you don't even feel like stepping into the car, when your mind is trying to rationalize a day off, when you're asking yourself what the point was to begin with. That's not hard. That's transformative.

Growing your business is hard. But growing your business when you've experienced a monumental letdown, when you went all in and were left empty-handed, when you were chewed up and spit back out, yet you showed up, kept your eyes locked in on that win, that's not hard. that is transformative. See, these monumental moments,

the ones that break so many of us that we've all come face to face with over the course of our lives, they're not about easy versus hard. They're about doing the hard thing when it seems as though you cannot do the hard thing. The world is saying no. Your body is saying no.

That chirping in your head is saying. saying no. Can you separate yourself from that hurt and that anger and that disappointment? Can you segment the negativity knowing that you will do what you can to remedy this situation? But that life's curveballs can't stop you from moving forward for the simple reason that you won't let them. When life gets hard, you have to be harder. The one who gets bolder. You have to learn. to surprise yourself. Here is what I believe to be the goal. It's a pinnacle. It's what I aspire to become when life puts me through hell to dig deep and find the emotional IQ, the awareness, to know that right now is the invitation I've been longing for, my chance to level up.

See, you might be wondering what brought this concept to the forefront of my mind. And well, it was one of life's inevitable setbacks. And I had to look in the mirror and say, I'm not going to think about the technical issues. It just cost me thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of my time. No, I'm going to one learn, but put parameters in place so it never happens again. And two, find the opportunity. See, when we build back, we tend to build back stronger, clean slate, new lease on life.

Where can I be better than I was? Where can I pinpoint and capitalize on the value I once walked right by? When we adopt this mentality, we become unstoppable. Someone on the outside looking in might say it's over the top. And it is. But so are the things that I want. They might say it's not that simple. Correct. Running away from our problems is simple.

I'm not about that life. They might say it's impossible to do all the time, to think that way every day, and perhaps so. But if we bow our heads and retreat every time life isn't perfect, we'll never attempt anything. I'm not aiming for perfection. I'm aiming for progress. Those who aim for perfection tend to spend the entirety of their lives doing exactly that, planning, speculating.

Wanting more for yourself means receiving more rejection from the world. It means elongated valleys of despair. It means deeper treks through the heart of the vast unknown across distant lands and through turbulent waters. It means doing the hard thing when the circumstances are what

mere mortals call impossible. At some point we must transcend the versions of ourselves we once were. We must recategorize and redefine the adversity we face in life. Be the ones who find something where others see nothing. Find value in the seemingly valueless. Let us start from the premonition that there's always a solution. And if there is always a solution, there is always a way. to bring it to existence. Some will stop it easy. Fine, let them.

Some will stop it hard, great to each their own. But if one dares to push further, to trudge forth into the night, they will be tasked with doing the hard thing when the circumstances are devastating. They will be asked not just to sail the ship, but to sail it through the storm to not just build the tower, but to build as the skies open up, the wind blows and the ground shakes,

that will be the difference. That has always been the difference. So what will you do when the time arises? Who will you choose to become? I woke up last night and I remembered my debt. Being that I stand by the promises that I make, I jumped out of bed, and I walked over to my desk, I turned on a light, and I began writing. At a minimum to explain myself, but at best case scenario, to provide some reassurance.

That every storm ends, that nothing is forever, and that someday, without question, I'll make you proud. See, things haven't been the easiest lately, and it's funny. Sometimes things seem so intuitive. Sometimes they make so much sense. And then sometimes it feels like you open up a novel right in the middle and it's in a language you can't read. You know, life feels more complex than it really is, and I feel smaller than I really am,

but don't be concerned. I've fought my way through worse. I promise you you'll be satisfied with the result. And yeah, you might have noticed that notice that sometimes I face the obstacle of juggling two sets of standards. You know, two definitions of success, mine in the world. What I love and what matters to me versus what will increase my status, my standing in society. And honestly, it pulls me in two different directions sometimes. Makes me think back to years past and that discomfort of experience, you know, standing on an

empty foundation. But believing someday something meaningful would stand there. Realizing that when you put your head down and when you block out the noise, you can finally hear the most powerful voice of all your own. That's why you take L's in the short term to acquire meaning in the long term. I've found that courage before. And I'll find it again any second now. Don't you worry. Sure. You might have seen that every once in a while I forget about life's abundance. I mean, I just do.

I know it's true, but it feels sometimes like the world pushes me to forget. I start comparing myself to other people and I start thinking about what I could lose, what people might say about what could go wrong. It's like, sure, I know I'm the gatekeeper to my own mind. I understand that. In fact, I cherish the idea. But I guess sometimes doubt catches. that gatekeeper napping and slips through.

I always catch him eventually, though. I've had doubts before, and really all I did was to keep moving by them. Kind of like that time I went snorkeling in Key Largo, you had to make your way through this jellyfish field to see an underwater statue. My first thought was, this is crazy. But then you move in and you realize they just exist. They don't have control or an agenda. And if you find the courage, they become meaningless.

You can float right by them. So don't worry, I'll swim through, and you'll see me on the other end. And I will catch that view, not for Facebook or for Instagram. Because in a way, I owe it to myself and I owe it to you. I didn't make these promises to run when things got challenging. because they meant something. And yeah, from the outside in, things are not perfect. I get that.

I understand. But if you just hang tight, if you just remember that I've been there before, I've climbed out, I've come back. In fact, the deeper the valley and the darker the night, the clearer the answer always becomes when I emerge. And it may be a journey, but however long it takes, I've gotten there. And I have to admit, yeah, it feels funny writing a letter to myself, but I need you now more than ever.

You've always been my toughest critic, and I appreciate that, but now I need you to be my biggest fan. To remind me that life can be confusing and seemingly contradictory, uncertain, and even chaotic. But that doesn't mean I'm not right where I need to be, right where we need to be. And if you'll just believe in me, if you'll hop along for this ride, you'll see that as sure as I'm sitting here writing to you now, I will make you proud. There's a quote attributed to H. Jackson Brown Jr. He says, nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. I tend to agree with this. I also think it's interesting that these missed opportunities are also the most difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. So if you think about our common understanding of progress or growth, it's a sacrifice.

It's doing X, brings us Y, doing the work, gets the result. It's a simple formula, and you can show your proof, you can work backwards. I started working out one hour a day. Six months ago, this is what I look like now. The cost was one hour a day. The result, well, this is what I look like now. But what's the inverse of that thinking? What's the cost of not doing the work or starting the journey or taking the steps?

See, we don't think about that. We don't think about the opportunity cost. Our instinct is not to question the actions we don't take. I was listening to an old lecture from Jim Rohn, who I love because he's such a practical. thinker. He's got ideas you can literally, you know, plug right into your life. And he had an amazing point. He was talking about a conversation with an old friend in which he asks his friend, who apparently watches a lot of TV. He says, hey, what does that TV cost? His friend says,

well, I think it's like $500. Jim says, no, I don't think so. His friend says, yeah, I bought it, $500. He says, no, I think it's costing you about $40k a year. Why? Well, not because of what paid for the item, but because of the opportunity cost. What his time using that TV could be reallocated to. That's what's so incredible about that point. It's like, just because you don't have something doesn't mean you aren't, in fact, losing out on it. Time is our most precious of commodities.

Its utilization is the gateway to transformation. It should be protected. And, you know, the intent of the message is not. not to walk around panicking about every second, you know, of every minute, but more being aware, holistically, how recklessly we use our time. I don't know if you've ever looked at the screen time usage on a cell phone before going to bed at night. It's terrifying. Some of it was necessary, but I mean, a lot of it wasn't.

And what does that cost? What is two hours a day of not moving towards a dream or goal? cost you. What about when it accumulates and it becomes 14 hours a week or roughly 56 hours a month or times 12, 672 hours a year? I mean, these numbers start to get eye opening. All it takes is a little awareness and we see how often we dispose of time like it's valueless. Everything we do is a cost because in doing it, we are making a decision to not be doing something else with that time. And again, I believe in balance. I want to emphasize that.

I'm not suggesting that we walk around like robots, clocking in, clocking out, checking boxes so that we don't ever waste a minute, right? As the great Keith Urban says, the best days of my life for all that wasted time, you know, we should explore and enjoy and love and laugh and experience life. but that awareness makes us more intentional with those pursuits with our work time and our playtime, it forces us in a way to prioritize, to ask ourselves what we want.

Instead of only looking at progress like this vending machine where you put an X and Y comes out, well, we can ask ourselves, what happens if I don't put an X? What happens if I keep it in my pocket? What won't come out? What could have existed that now won't? See, just because you don't see,

something slipping away that doesn't mean that it isn't. And the immediate, the world in front of you, unfortunately, won't remind you of that. That's a bell you have to ring yourself. You have to peel back the what am I doing and unveil the what could I be doing, what could I be creating, what could reality look like? Maybe you think about it and you find that you're right where you want to be, and that's great. Maybe you realize you've accepted a tolerable existence at the expense of an ideal, you existence. In which case I also have great news you can change that and you can

change it now. We have to understand that you don't only have what's in front of you. You also possess a reality unseen and undiscovered. So don't let the former cover up or diminish the ladder. Don't lose the possibility of tomorrow with the distractions of today. Don't forget the the cost of inaction with regard to those things that truly matter. 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 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 as 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, that 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 be, 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 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 our share. 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. Your existence is derived from how you choose to look at the world around you. Your outlook is either creating you or destroying you. And we have to be cognizant of the reasons, the explanations, the stories we tell ourselves. We have to be aware of how we rationalize everyday occurrences.

We have to ask, am I seeking out solutions to the right problems? What's the root cause? What's the actual reason. And we all find ourselves in ruts from time to time right. We all have low points. For me, when I'm struggling, it's usually creatively, drawing a blank or writer's block or whatever the case is. And it's funny, my mind always goes right to the external excuses. Instinctually, I start to think, well, maybe I don't have the right technology. Maybe I'm not in the right place. Maybe the right circumstances aren't occurring. But when I force myself to step back, right and dig deeper and really ask myself what's the reason which is sometimes an uncomfortable thing to ask

you know I always come to the same conclusion it's not the camera in my hands or the recording software or the mic it's simply the temporary disappearance of self-belief temporarily I forget that I can make magic that I can change the world with what I have right now and so can you That is the actual reason, but I have to peel back the surface. Because the truth is, if you don't have a good story to tell a $10,000 camera is not going to help you. You gotta learn what captivates, what inspires, learn how to articulate your thoughts and ideas, learn how to bring what's in your mind to life. See, people want to put band-aids on bullet wounds, and that's not going to fix a thing.

An interesting thing people come to me with. You know, they're building brands, creating social platforms, building businesses, which is great because it means exposure, but it also means you're susceptible to negativity and criticism and haters. And how particularly initially, it's emotionally taxing seeing that stuff, right? Seeing people criticize your creativity

and they come to resent the comments. They come to resent that interaction. But again, I always go to what is the reason? And I ask because if you don't go deep, if you don't find the root cause, you don't fix a problem. The problem is not the 53 year old in his mother's basement trashing your work or your ability.

He has nothing to do with this. The problem, when you're really honest, is confidence. It's the ability to understand that a life of no risk or criticism is a life of very little reward. And with that realization, the solution changes. It's not what can I do to avoid the criticism. It's how can I stay true to myself and have that be enough? where I can rise above shatter, where I can be indifferent to naysayers, because look, expectations don't matter.

What matters is your happiness. What matters is your progress. So fix that. You know, we spend a lot of time adjusting our sails, worried about catching the right breeze, getting the logistics right, when there's a hole in the center of the boat that's taking in water. Let's find out where that is. Let's fix that. Figure out what the actual area of improvement is what's the actual reason for not being where you want to be. And sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's humbling, but guess what? It creates the long-term solution. Last year was one of the most challenging of my life.

Spread very thin, trying to do a lot, write speeches, give keynotes, capture video, create music, make marketing content to the point where I just felt lost for a while. And an easy escape, right? The way I rationalized it was, well, you feel like this just because you're doing too much, right? It's a great thing. You're ambitious. No, that's a mask. When I became vulnerable, when I asked myself the difficult question, when I humbled myself, dug deeper, realized that maybe you're not doing the right thing.

Maybe you're doing more of what you already know because recreating yourself is absolutely terrifying. because you need to take that next step and subconsciously you don't want to you're scared to now I know what to address right reasons help shape answers it's not more and more and more of what's been done but it's reshaping your life not once or twice or three times but constantly that creates bigger targets that changes things you know always always dive deeper than the surface level. Because usually your problems are not the world around you. It's not what you don't have. It's not externalities holding you back. It's a refusal to look yourself in the mirror and ask difficult questions.

You are not a victim. You are equipped with every single thing you need. You just need to zero in on your actual inhibitors and eliminate them one by one. I've always said success is three steps. recognizing there's better out there recognizing you're worthy of pursuing it and taking the leap so what's keeping you from leaping what's keeping you grounded it's not money it's not tech it's not where you started it's your mindset so change how you see the world around you