Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - GET UP AND CONQUER THE DAY - Powerful Morning Motivational Speech

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

"If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, Eddie Pinero delves into the power of reaching out and supporting others in our increasingly digital world. He shares the isolation and solitude that often come with building a brand or business and how crucial the support of a few close people can be. Eddie emphasizes the importance of telling our loved ones that we care about them, recognizing that everyone is fighting their own battles. He highlights that a small act of kindness can make a profound impact on someone’s life. Life is challenging, but there will come a time when we look back and see how far we've come. You are not alone. #Support #Kindness #YouAreNotAlone #EddiePinero #LifeStruggles #PositiveImpact #ReachingOut

This episode's going to be a little different, perhaps a little heavier than usual. I want to talk about the power of reaching out. How simply being there for someone can make an unfathomable difference. Right? We tend to think of, you know, a monumental impact requiring monumental action. And sometimes that's simply not the case. Sometimes it's just showing up and letting someone know that, Hey, I'm in your corner.

And I've been thinking a lot about this, right? This came to mind because over the past couple weeks, I've had two people I went to high school with Passaway, right? Young men in their mid-30s, gone. And by the way, there are two of many people from my high school that have either OD'd and died or taken their lives. It's an epidemic. And I'm sure it is across the point.

board, right? But being that I am one and hear about it often, I know that particularly young men are feeling isolated. They're feeling lost. They're feeling depressed. Pandemic exacerbated this quite a bit. It's a problem. And it's a complicated problem. You can point to a lot of things. The way we connect now doesn't actually make us feel connected. We can't trick our brains into thinking that followers online are the same as friends, grilling steaks with a in the backyard. It's different. But it's not only isolation, right? I think there's a crisis of meaning, of purpose, of feeling a part of something. There's a societal void. I don't think there's any question about that. In my little corner of the universe here, I talk frequently about the

process of growing a business, of building a brand. A lot of you are in the midst of the same thing. And so I delve into the highs and the lows, the ups, the downs. I have convos about it, live. And I can tell you, right, nothing was as challenging as the loneliness of trudging through that, right? The middle. Not rejection, not failure, not being humbled by life, not being broke. No. It was the feeling of solitude.

right almost haunting and you can make the argument part of that self-induced right it was focused social life took a back seat but regardless it was very real and what was worth gold with the texts from family saying hey i watched her video great work or it was my friend zach you know out of the blue saying hey this will be worth it you're on to something don't you dare stop and call me on a Tuesday just to get me excited about my own company. Right. And like, when you're deep in the battle, that's not a little thing. That's not like a smile and appreciate it thing.

That's everything. That validated my reason to get up when things were difficult. One message. And let's be real, right? My process was not catastrophic. You know, I had it pretty good. That was a pretty fortunate situation. My brain goes to imagine the people really fighting, right?

Really going through something. Battling with their demons. And I'm reminded, you know, as I watch all these people from previous chapters of my life decide the pain of being here is too much. that we can help. No, we're not magic. And no, there's no singular cure to a complex issue, but I'll tell you what, we all have the power

by taking 30 seconds to shoot over a message that says, I love you, or I see how hard you're working, or keep pushing because your effort matters, to give someone hope. That stuff is life-changing. And not only that costs us nothing, but can mean everything on the other end. Some of the email responses I get from my newsletter just reminds me. It's like, you don't know what people are fighting.

You don't know what demons they're living with when you walk by them on the street, right? And if we can be the ones to be a bit more compassionate, the ones where hope and reassurance is derived and then distributed out to the world, think about how incredible that is. How amazing it would be to simply be a part of that. And for those of you going through it now, thinking, yeah, I would love to. I will spread that message, but my own glass feels empty right now.

I'm having a hard time getting through in my own world. I want you to know two things. One, you're not alone. A lot of us are going through it with you. in our own arenas, fighting our own battles. So don't think this is a burden placed solely on you. Life is hard. That's the challenge, but it's also the beauty.

Which leads me to number two, there will be, I promise you, a point where you look back on the storm of right now and smile because you made it out. You're different now. better equipped now, stronger now. That's not a possibility, it's an inevitability. Churchill is famously quoted saying, if you're going through hell, keep going.

Because you're strong enough and what awaits will be worth every second of the journey. I wish we could see that in the middle, understand that in the thick of it, but we can't. That's not how it works. That's why we need to remind others, and it's why I'm reminding you. Life is a beautiful thing, but beauty can't exist without its inverse. We all endure chaos so that we can appreciate the calm. We all endure valleys of despair so that we can experience the rush of climbing out.

It's a duality that's not always fun, but appreciating that is liberating. So keep going. Keep trusting. Keep pushing through. Hope is the greatest gift one can give. So give it to those around you and let it evolve into strength in your own world. It matters. More than you know it matters. It's easy to look back and think about all the things you could have done differently, especially since as we get older, we get wiser. Time provides this beautiful gift of clarity. And ultimately, we realized things like maybe a lot of our hesitation was unwarranted. Maybe a lot of our decisions or indecision was fear-based. And knowing that, it's easy to look over your shoulder

and feel like you could have lived a different life or taken a different path. At the very least, wish you'd done things differently. But the reality is, everything you've done has, in fact, taken you here. To this moment, and when you dwell on the past, the should-haves and the could-haves,

you completely diminish the power of right now, The current moment, you completely underestimate the knowledge and the wisdom you've been collecting for years whose single job is to assist you in your next move. It's a compounding of experience. The good, the bad, and the ugly has landed you right here, right now, and how beautiful right here is. The infinite blank page. the forever fresh start. And that's not to say the past doesn't matter. It's to suggest that your prior discomfort,

your mistakes and lessons have equipped you to deviate from the routines and the cyclical nature of your past. The past is a gateway to now, not a life sentence. And there's a difference. You say last year or last month or last week is valueless because you did X when you should have done Y. I say to that. Doing the wrong thing has positioned you to now do the right thing. Potential energy, right?

Like a spring being pulled back tighter and tighter and tighter awaiting its opportunity to propel forward. You don't get that without those could-haves and should-haves. They're integral to the process. The reason you'll be different moving forward. You can say, I wish I'd taken more chances. I wish I was bolder. I wish I followed my heart. Two pieces of news for you.

One that's fantastic. It seems as though you're now aware of those times you fell short. and can therefore mitigate them moving forward, and two, you're not dead yet. We have to stop looking at yesterday like it's anything but a ladder to greater competence. The gymnasium for your decision-making. Anyone can cherry-pick the past. But the practical me asks, what does beating yourself up about what's gone do for you?

What does it add to your life? Except for enabling and legitimizing the same identity you're looking to evolve and move on from. See, we don't limit ourselves because of right now. It's always because of yesterday. Look what happened. Look what I lost. Look how things turned out. And it's like, take the data and trudge forward.

You now have the tools to move right into that darkness of night. And in five years you'll look back and sure you'll wish you did things differently. And same five years after that. But that's why life is a journey and not a standardized test. We are picking up the pieces as we go, painting the masterpiece one brushstroke at a time. And even though you might wish yesterday's brushstroke was a different color, A little darker, different shade, it's just as valid as all the others in contributing to the mural in its totality. So sure, be your greatest critic.

But be your greatest ally as well. And that calls for being bold enough to let go of what's gone. Extract the value from yesterday and use it to build now. something, anything, that's up to you, but hear the message. It's up to you now. Not who you were yesterday or what you did, not how people saw you or how you used to live your life. You have an opportunity now to go wherever your heart desires. Stronger and wiser at this point in time than you've ever been in your life.

So rather than dwell on what's gone, how about asking how you can take those pieces of yourself and build? What does it mean to be a little better every single day? James Clearers noted that if each day you improve by only 1%, you'll be a full 37 times better in a year. That's an almost unfathomable number. Unbelievable transformation. Imagine being 37 times better at what it is you're looking to improve on. 37 times more efficient or skilled. All because of a 1% per day commitment.

Almost sounds too good to be true. Here's the catch, though. 1% doesn't seem like much. Which is good, one might think. You know, that should make it easier. Well, sort of. The easier and more seemingly trivial something is to accomplish, the easier it is to dismiss it as well.

We've all been there that, and maybe not today, maybe tomorrow. No big deal. We don't lose anything. And that's what we must learn to wrestle with. Jim Rohn puts it this way. He says being successful is easy. The issue is that being unsuccessful is easy too. Saying yes to the little things you know you need to do is easy.

But so is saying no. Putting your phone away to work on something of substance, yeah, that's pretty easy. But watching just one more TikTok or Instagram or YouTube video, that's easy too. Putting your shoes on, going for a walk or run, heading to the gym. Hey, procedurally, pretty easy. Not that complex, but talking yourself into just going tomorrow instead.

Also a rationalization that's pretty easy. And that's essentially the question. Which easy are you going to go with? How do you put yourself in position to select the right easy? Well, like so many things, It starts with the worldview and flows out to the tangible actions we take in support of that worldview. First things first. We have to know that the biggest advantage available is seeing the small things as so much more than small things. It's refusing to fall victim to the disappointment and burnout associated with hoping for one huge,

huge jump, a miracle solution, the answer that will change everything. That's deceiving. Winning looks small and consistent. Progress is boring. It's mundane. It looks like deciding on what matters and then making a pact with yourself every day to keep your own promises. When most would fall off or push things to tomorrow, it's seeing your commitment as everything. Knowing that the people who manufacture significance in their lives, they treat what others would call silly and trivial as life and death. They make the details into the whole storyline. So yeah, it might be easy for someone else to walk away. But when you have given yourself no other option but to succeed, the little steps to make it happen require zero thought or internal

deliberation. The person who gets into shape over the course of six months, they're not going to be the one who found a secret diet, bought a piece of equipment on Amazon. They didn't do the necessary thing here and there when they had their fleeting moments of inspiration. No, they made better, consistent decisions. No to the soda, yes to the water, no to the alarm, yes to the run, no to the Netflix and yes to the gym. Both options were. easy in the moments in which they arose but each time only one option mattered and that's what it's about tying the prolonged gratification to something that means the world to you where each step is not just a step but one step closer to the moon so no it's certainly not that a can of coke or dessert or the day off will kill you. But flip the narrative. It's that when you do stay true to your mission and the promises

you make to yourself, you get something so much more back. It's not, oh, what will I lose by skipping this 1%? No, in a world where excellence compounds, it's look what I am becoming. And this decision is an investment too good to pass up. And every decision to move forward, to embrace the things that align with your true North, is a nod to that future self. The Rose said that most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in. Probably an astute observation, as most death is potential.

put to rest. Most stories were stories about what could have been. Perhaps simply because it's easier on the ego to talk about what life could have looked like if you cared enough to shape it than to have actually put skin in the game and fallen short. But there lies the misconception. To step into life's chaos with the hopes of taming it is why we're here. And yeah, obviously it hurts to fail. It hurts to be vulnerable, to put yourself out there, especially when it seems as though all eyes are on you. But that hurt is a fraction of the hurt the road describes. Falling hurts, but it hurts less than wishing you had the courage to fall. Ridicule, it hurts. But it hurts less than being the one on the sidelines, pointing the finger

and simultaneously longing for the courage to take action in their own life. What keeps us from going? What keeps us from building? We know life is short. We know regret is the ultimate pain. We know how much opportunity is out there. So why? Why would we not go? Why would we designate dreaming to sleep?

In his famous man in the arena speech, Teddy Roosevelt said this, It is not the critic who count. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly,

who errs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error or shortcoming. But who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.

So that his place shall never be with those cold, and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. No one who is content in their own life will go out of their way to bring you now. There was never a critic deeply immersed in their own journey who took the time to mock or scoff at the man in the arena. I think our fear is pointed in the wrong direction.

It shouldn't be concentrated on or focused on the opinions of those who have not yet themselves walked through those doors. No, the fear should be letting life go by without ourselves walking through. The fear should be contributing to Thoreau's statistic of quiet desperation. The one most men face. But you are not most men or most women. not because you were given some special power or status,

but because you decided. You can choose not to be like most people. Basic math, taking into account the number of people in the stands versus the number of people on the stage or court or in the arena, well, it tells a tale of courage. Anyone can sit in the stands. Anyone can. Anyone can from the nosebleeds decide whether to clap or point or boo or cheer.

But who suits up and enters the game? Who looks at the finitude of life and says, this is my reason to start building, to put it all on the line? Because if I fail, it will mean I was one of the few who looked around and said, this isn't bigger than I am. This world is not predefined. It's being built in real time by those willing to walk through the doors

and step into the arena. Not the critics, but the doers. And look, everyone has a thing. I don't know what that thing is for you, but you do. You probably think about it all the time. Dream about it every day. You probably know

it's where your heart is pulling you. Do not let your life become a statistic. Don't you dare go to that graveyard having been someone who held on tighter to excuses than to what mattered most in your life. So go. Step into the arena and if they point, let them point. If they criticize, let them criticize. your concern isn't with those wishing they had the courage to step through those doors themselves. It's not about them, it's about you.

It's about understanding the beauty and the opportunity and the freedom contained in life for those who find the courage to reach out and take it. If there's time, then there's time. to turn things around. If there is a tomorrow, then there is hope today. The only half-to-bees in life are the ones we prop up and adhere to. And how interesting that oftentimes we don't even realize we're the ones holding them up. There's a simple question that I like to ask as the sun comes up in the coffee brews. Am I living today? like it's an obligation or something more.

Is it an automatic continuation of the past or a methodical move towards a future that lights me up? And these aren't small distinctions, right? I've lived both ways. I've felt what it's like to feel both. I remember going to work and joking around that a flat tire would be a real treat. That's not accountability.

That's not control. That's essentially living life as a jellyfish floating along with the tide. And while the lack of required output, innovation, and planning may have felt like a win in the moment, or a burden lifted off my shoulders at the time, deprived me of that which resides in the soul of every human being alive. Purpose, personal agency. See, you can only go so far, so long being the spectator of your own journey. You can only go so long looking out the window before you wonder just what it'd be like to be behind the wheel.

When we put our actions up against the question, why, it astounds me how many things are done because it's what we've always done. done. We act like we're expected to act, think like we're expected to think, see you who we're expected to see, but expected by whom? Some of my greatest breakthroughs in life emerged after being asked why by people I look up to or respect. Why have you accepted that? That's your income? Okay, great, but why? That's how you spend your day? I see.

How come? And when one is tasked with looking at their own life through a magnifying glass, some hidden truths always emerge. It shines a spotlight in the corner of the room, illuminating those shadows where one can, if they look hard enough, make out the wolf in the room,

out the wolf in sheep's clothing that is the phrase because that's how I've always done it. We get in life what we accept. We are what we allow ourselves to be and if we don't ask ourselves which mountain is worth climbing, which ocean is worth crossing, we simply float with the tide. We're at the mercy of the winds. We forfeit the mastery over our own lives that await if we're willing to take that wheel and navigate. So here are a few things to take with you.

First is you are bound by nothing. The parameters you exist between are of your making. You can get in that car and drive. You can walk away and begin something new. You can entertain that vision that's been conveniently tucked. away in the back of your mind. Understand that to not go is fine, but it's a decision. And perhaps a decision you'll wish you made differently.

And second, difficult today liberate you tomorrow. It's easier to observe. It's easier to say how you wish things were. After all, stepping out into the fast-paced chaotic world is tough. It's scary, it's unpredictable, but it's where you find yourself and the path that's calling your name. It's beyond the pins and needles emerging as one jumps into the cold water that they're able to find that evolution.

If there's time, then there's time to turn things around. If there is a tomorrow, then there is hope. It was an ordinary run on my ordinary loop. On an ordinary day, right in the middle of an ordinary week. I rounded the last corner that I'd encounter before finally returning back to the street that I lived on. Beautiful sunny afternoon, I remember the sun bouncing off my skin, the sweat dripping down my face. I was looking ahead, but not really at anything, more so lost in my thoughts. Then out of nowhere, this little butterfly kind of swooped in.

appeared right beside me. And it seemed, as it floated through the air, to link its pace with mine, effortlessly gliding. I looked over at it, and back at the ground. Over at it again, back at the ground.

And for a second, I wondered what it would be like to be one of those flying machines, the ones built, for flight, navigating the sky with no restriction. What a feeling that must be. And as I looked over for a third time, it had slipped back into whatever types of things are important to a butterfly on a warm June day, but realized, as I carried forward, alone again,

that for a few seconds we were side by side, it in the air and me on the ground. I hung in there with the flying machines. That's right. The creatures with wings designed specifically for flight. I was for a time amongst them. So what truly separated us? See, my whole life, I have drawn lines. The lines that separate them from me.

From can and cannot, from possible and impossible. There have been times where I saw reality is pre-packaged. Basically as though you get what you get, factory, stock, out of the box. It took a long time to see what I wanted and instead of saying, hey, must be nice, or they have it made, to instead ask, how can I reverse engineer that outcome? What do I need to do now to get what is ultimately available? it's very available and it's very real. Just because you are not built like those flying machines doesn't mean you can't run alongside them. Join their ranks. Become one of them. The thing is,

instead of drawing walls and building parameters, you have to give yourself permission to adapt and evolve. I was thinking about this the other day, as one of my best friends was sharing some of the work he does, with his real estate portfolio. He was talking about some of the lessons learned on social media, and it was met with resentment, disdain. You have X, I don't. You make Y, I don't. You came from Z, I didn't.

And I read the comments, I just shook my head and thought, they don't know. They don't know he grew up on a farm in Michigan, spending a long time working for less than minimum wage. They don't know that he put himself through college. They don't know that he took out alone, having no clue what he was doing and learned how to renovate a home by himself. See, here's what he didn't do. He didn't point up and say, wow, look how free they are.

Must be nice. No, he asked, how do I run alongside them? I am not an observer. I am a flying machine. Because the truth is, we can do so much, become so much. Once we've erased the mental lines that we've drawn over the years. Once we give ourselves permission to join that little segment of reality, we've deemed to be ideal but have yet to walk towards.

Nothing happens to the ordinary moments, the ordinary days or weeks or months, until you realize ordinary is just a label you've been placing on the pathway to extraordinary. Everything you need is there, except your past willingness to walk through it. And today is a new day. You will take to the sky in your own life when you stop drawing lines around everything you want and compartmentalizing it is not for you. and instead run alongside the life you want as though it was already yours. Life is not a game of those who are and those who aren't.

It's a game comprised of those who will and those who won't. Those who see how they can and those who see how they can. You can wish, hope, and watch time fly by, or you can join the ranks of the flying machines that leave all that behind and take to the sky. I want to share a theme with you that continuously re-emerges in my life. And every time it does, I'm grateful. I'm a little bolder, a little wiser, a little more grounded.

The idea is simple. it's creating a low barrier to entry. Let me explain what I mean. The other day I was on a call with Ashley. It was a brilliant member of the team here, and we're talking about social media. And as we're talking, I'm going on and on about the end state, how I think things should in a perfect world be

with our platforms and the output. And it's important to note for this particular project, We're kind of on the ground floor. So in reality, I couldn't possibly know what the end state's going to be. There's a lot of epiphanies to be had. There's twists in terms that I couldn't possibly anticipate. I think it's great to have a North Star in a vision, obviously. But winning in the long run requires observation and reflection and adjustment and on and on.

So as I'm speaking, you know, she's listening, nodding her head, you know, agreeing with the vision. But after some thoughts as well, why don't we just start with what we have now, right? Keep the barrier of entry low so that there's less friction and we can start seeing how, you know, things evolve. And I thought that was just incredible, right? That's what I'd temporarily lost in the moment for sure.

You win by going and then evolving. So many would be amazing pursuits. were never started because you know we make initiating them too complex. Same thing happened on another call that same day. I'm talking to Tyler, a business partner for another project coming around the corner. And you know, I'm sending them videos, talking about ideas for rollout, different avenues we could take, which again, it's great. It's better to have a large vision and trim it down than no vision at all,

but the convo is the same. You know, Ed, I love it. It's great. But what if we start with one thing though? One idea. Let's get the gears turning. That needed to be the theme for the day, and I appreciated it, right? So, a few thoughts.

One, surround yourself with sharp people like Ashley and Tyler that keep you grounded, but two, and perhaps the main point, stop creating friction for yourself when you're beginning new things. I've talked about this in different contexts. You know, and I've hammered it into my day-to-day in many ways, right? Like if I'm going on a run, you know, I have the running stuff by the door and ready to go with a glass of water the night before so that when I wake up, the process feels so easy that to not go would seem stupid. But life is complex, and so are we. It was a great reminder that your handle on something in one area of life doesn't mean you'll implement it.

doesn't mean you'll implement it across the board. And I was grateful for that reminder, is what I needed at that time, right? The reminder that winning is going. Winning is beginning. Because you're immersing yourself in the process and you're acclimating to it. You're seeing what works and what doesn't.

You're growing, as opposed to taking an extra three months to put into place parameters that will probably change anyway. One of my favorite mantras is simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. powerful, but sometimes elusive. But if you can keep it front and center, it adds immense value to your life. The most powerful thing you can do is have a general sense of direction and go now with what you have. Ashley and I will change our social media tactics many, many times in the future, because we're collecting data and we're moving forward.

Tyler and I will approach our venture in probably countless ways. Because we're not in love with a particular strategy, we're in love with the end goal. And perhaps you, in your world, are at a point where you're seeking to initiate something new. And you're playing with the pros and cons, you're listing ideas in your head. Categorizing details and nuance that, sure, it seems important right now in this moment, but will it forever? Right? My advice to you is to mitigate detail and instead,

place the value on finding the courage to begin now. Before you're ready, before you have all the answers, before you know how X, Y, and Z is going to unfold, mitigate the friction to such an extent that, you know, the pursuit feels like an ice hockey rink. You're sliding into whatever comes next. Never underestimate how powerful that is. And be reassured by the fact that in three months from now or a year from now, the journey won't look the same. You'll be better in execution and wiser in strategy because you simply created a low barrier to entry. You leveraged perhaps the most important ability you possess.

You began. There's a saying that just because you spent a long time making a mistake doesn't mean you need to continue making it. There's an incredible advantage in life for those who can separate past and future. Who can recognize sunk costs and walk away, walk away from the past, move on to new things. But here's the challenge, right? Like so many things our instinct is to preserve. It's, yeah, but I've invested so many years. I've spent X amount of dollars and maybe I don't like where I'm at, but look how long it's taken

me to get here. Well, here's the reality that time is gone. That money is not coming back, no matter what you do or what direction you take from here on out. There's no reason to think you have to maintain the same trajectory or hold on to a specific identity or pattern of behavior. Yesterday isn't the focal point here. The goal is simpler. What matters now and how will you get there now? You've grown, you've evolved, you've changed, and your targets have shifted, so why shouldn't you? The idea of sunk costs is so important because it's essentially realizing that you're not indebted to the resources you've spent or exhausted. There's no need to be a slave to previous decisions that you've made. No, just chalk it up as an integral step in your learning process, an aspect of growth, and move forward.

to what matters, to what you care about. If that seems obvious, I challenge you to think about the decisions you've made over the last year, and I guarantee you you've let factors affect your decision-making that are irrelevant to your goals. Because we feel this camaraderie with yesterday, like there's a debt to be paid, but man, life is too short to run in place. If it's not pushing you forward, drop it. If it's not what you need, forget it. In other words, don't be one of those people that wakes up and makes the same mistake every single day because you've spent a long time making it.

See, reality only exists in your head, and that's why it's beautiful. You can unlock the cell door and walk out. Don't lose sight of the greatest gift you have. The new beginning that lives in every second where you can take a turn you've never taken before. Remove the mask and play a role you've never played. Let that sense of excitement pull you to new things. Let go of what you can't change and pursue what you can. Forget the time spent.

Think of now. Where can you invest now? Your surroundings didn't magically arise. you chose them and you can just as easily take that wheel and leave. Simple formula, what is best for you and how do you get there? Not where you feel obligated to be or expected to be or pressure to be. Where do you need to be? Everything else is noise. Everything else is a rope, keeping your ship on shore and you are not confined to that harbor or yesterday's destination. You're built to chase the horizon, follow your curiosity into the sunset.

You don't make decisions based on yesterday's story. You sculpt it with tomorrow's possibility. Understanding what you want sometimes requires learning in 1,000 different ways, what you don't. Uncovering who you are means first experiencing who you are not. Finding the right person or people in your life calls for initially letting the wrong ones in. Life seems to demonstrate that there's a price to pay in order to get where we need to be. Patience, exploration, they're expensive.

They exhaust energy, time, resources, but they are the only way. as though one needs to dig a hole in their heart before fully understanding how to best fill it in it's stepping back to leap forward I've always believed the nose teaches more than the yeses the chaos more than the calm we are tasked with taking our hurt and from it better understanding ourselves holding our losses and with them finding answers we once overlooked, embracing our fears and alongside them becoming courageous. That's why maintaining perspective is everything.

When we find that we've been slighted by life, we have to recognize that, yeah, maybe we didn't get the answer we wanted in the short term, but still picked up something beautiful, something necessary. We still learned what didn't work and saw where, not to go. Because every step taken in one direction is a simultaneous decision to not go another. To embrace one option is to neglect its inverse. Every loss is a data point. Every time we fall, our worldview is shaped. And that's not just helpful. It's imperative. It's a brush stroke, just as valuable as the ones derived from our successes, all culminating into one all-encompassing.

masterpiece. And I look back at the mistakes I made. The time spent learning where I shouldn't be, the days with people who didn't lift me up, and I'm incredibly thankful for them, they brought me clarity. Like marble being slowly chiseled away, piece by piece, they have left an understanding, a self-identity that takes shape one day at a time. So as we make our way through life, Let's not fail to see the value in these short-term misfortunes, for in many ways we are fortunate

to have them. Perhaps the value lags. Maybe you don't see why the mistakes saved your life while you were making them. But they are contributing to the building up of a greater you. They are mitigating the noise and lighting up the path. So hold your head up high. And not just for the sake of doing so. but because you had the courage to step out into a world that you knew would at times bring you to your knees.

Hold your head up high because every time you stood back up, you made a statement. You declared that you wouldn't let discomfort and obstacles deter you, but rather shape you. You were willing to learn where not to go in exchange for the privilege of taking your road. through the haze across the war-torn ground beyond the hills and toward a distant horizon, your horizon. Courage takes many shapes. Sometimes courage is slaying the dragon, and sometimes it's merely picking up the sword and seeing yourself worthy of swinging it.

Sometimes courage is running, sometimes it's walking, sometimes it's crawling. And as we navigate life seasons and oscillating chapters, as we transform, so does courage right alongside us. It's relative. And understanding that can not only change your life, it can save your life. I recently got in touch with an old buddy of mine from childhood hadn't talked to in years at this point

and he's been going through a rough time a series of unfortunate events and because of that falling into a bad place and he's just a top tier dude huge personality lights up every single room he walks into and pretty quickly as we're talking I could tell that it hurt him to walk me through, you know, where he was in what he was going through.

Almost as though there'd be some sort of judgment on my end. But see, here's the thing. No one is immune to succumbing from time to time to life's misfortune. That's just a reality. At any point in time, every single soul walking this planet is a few bad decisions away from, rock bottom, just like they are a few good decisions away from the clarity and positive transformation and growth they've been looking for. And knowing that that's a fine line to me, I mean, that's empowerment. Because it reminds us during the bad times we are, you know, a few decisions

away from climbing out. And during those good times that we're not infallible, that nothing should be taken for granted. No one is above misfortune. You're not less than for walking through your personal hell, it's merely your turn to find courage within yourself and rise above it. Now that's exactly what he's doing, and this is ultimately my point. He's getting help. Hurt pride, hurt ego, angry at himself. He's rising above all of that to get help for the betterment of himself, his family, and his family's future. To me, it does not. It does not get more courageous than that. It's a courage I'm not even sure I fully can comprehend. And I get it, right? You're in the middle of the chaos. You know, you don't see it. We never see

clearly in the middle, you know, because it feels like he's digging himself out of a hole, so he doesn't see the magnitude of his decision. But given the season he's currently in, he is making himself the hero. And there will be a point a few years from now, and sure, Courage will look different because what life asks of him at that point will be different. But we have to understand the moment. What's more courageous than saying, I don't want this anymore, I'm going to fix it, and taking a step towards that. And that's what we need to understand. You know, I witnessed this firsthand, especially in the, you know, personal development world.

I love consuming personal development on YouTube and podcasts and books and every. And what I find is the message I need ebbs and flows depending on the season I'm in. Right? There are times, particularly in the first couple years of starting this business, where I'd need the Gary V's and Eric Thomas's of the world every day to say, dude, get off your ass and do more. Stop hiding behind your excuses. Be better. Right? And there are still days where I need exactly that.

In those moments, courage for me meant overcoming the desire to cling to short-term fulfillment. Courage was doing what I needed to do, not what I wanted to do. Then there are times where, you know, I'm fighting through something deeper, something personal. And courage looks a lot different. It's not go write two speeches and run 10 miles, go be better and do more. No, not that day. Those days, it's look in the mirror and remind yourself that, what you do matters and that you are worthy.

Courage is picking up the sword. It's when I dive into the philosophical. It's Eckhart Tolley explaining the power of being present. Jordan Peterson shedding light on what one's pursuit of meaning truly entails. Courage is recapturing my why, pushing through the fears and insecurities and feeling again like the person who can. And so the bottom line is, as I evolve, as I change, as life ebbs and flows, courage changes with me. And sometimes the smaller action in a particular situation is much more powerful,

much more meaningful than a big action taken when, you know, things are going well, and the stars are aligned in life is smooth. Perfect example. Something that almost always chokes me up, and I'm not exaggerating, seeing someone who's overweight and you can kind of tell they're struggling through jogging on the side of the road. Right? Because I know how insanely hard that is to begin a journey of that magnitude. To look at one's life and say, hey, I'm changing this situation. Right? To lace up your shoes and suffer through a run outside or even a walk outside.

Think about how powerful that statement, how much it took, how much fear and insecurity was pushed aside in the pursuit of something better. Now imagine what would be missed. Imagine what a loss. They didn't celebrate that victory. Their strength in stepping outside that day. Why?

Well, because their neighbor ran 10 miles. They only ran one. But that's the thing about courage. It doesn't look the same. same. Who cares what the neighbor did? You understand what just happened? His courage to push through a 10-mile run is astronomically different than your courage to shift your identity, to transform into someone who runs. Again, there will be a point in time when what courage means for you changes, but understand the now. Celebrate this.

in how remarkable your action in this moment. And I hope I'm able to communicate the variance there, right? Like sometimes courage is finding a way through, you know, the fire in your lungs and pain in your legs to get your split from six minutes a mile to five minutes and 45 seconds. And that's amazing. Sometimes courage is getting out of bed. It depends on where you are and what,

life is giving you. And I promise you it's not an excuse to do less. Everyone wants to grow in some capacity. I know I sure do. This isn't a cop out and I don't think anyone listening wants to be patted on the head and told, hey, you're wonderful just the way you are. Don't change. No, the meaning is in the evolution. What I'm saying is I've seen in others, some close to me, and I've certainly experienced in myself that misunderstanding what courage means in a given moment ends up hurting more than it helps. It creates and highlights a gap

where a gain should be. Courage has many shapes. It will transform around you all your life. So take the time to understand where you are. Take the time to explore what the next step look like and give yourself grace give yourself appreciation for taking the required steps courage is not measured by what you want to do three years from now it's not measured by what your neighbor's doing it's not measured by 40

steps down the road courage is finding it within yourself to do the most important thing in your life now