Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - GO AFTER IT - Powerful Motivational Speech

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, we dive into the battle between immediate desires and long-term needs. Are we willing to endure the now for a beautiful forever? We discuss delayed gratification and the concept of resistance, as described by Steven Pressfield in The War of Art. Learn how to control resistance, laugh in its face, and show up despite the inner voices telling you not to. The hardest part is beginning—so sit down, start, and conquer your resistance. #Motivation #Resistance #DelayedGratification #Success

As long as I've been alive, there's existed a battle between what I want in the moment and what I need. And it transforms, it takes different shapes, but its impact is always felt. And so the question remains in spite of the option to concede the temporary way out. Are we willing to endure the now for a beautiful forever? Commit to that delayed gratification? Hold off just a little longer, do a little more. See, every time I hold the line, every time I refuse to give in,

the victory tends to be just a little sweeter. So what is this force keeping us from greatness, this invisible, unquantifiable adversary? Telling us to stop, to submit, to just accept things as they are. Well, as Stephen Pressfield states in his book, The War of Art, this is resistance. The ego in disguise, it's the desire to stay the same,

pushing us away from the very action necessary to obtain what we truly want, not in the moment, but in our souls. Our true reason for being, after all progress is happiness. So we follow this train of thought. The next logical question must be, well, can we control this enemy? This resistance?

As it turns out, not only is the answer yes, but one's ability to do just that makes all the difference. We can harness that demon that lobby so hard for the status quo. We can learn to laugh every time it throws a fit when we attempt to change ourselves, our situation, our environment. It can be told no. In fact, Pressfield states that people who live free lives have learned to master. themselves. People that can't master themselves will find someone else to rule over them. Whether it be excuses, critics, or other outside constraints. See, the key, the answer couldn't be simpler. It's not easy, but it's simple. Show up. And as a writer, I really resonated with

this, this line. The hardest part isn't writing. It's sitting down to write. It's sitting down to write. It's arriving. And now life can flow through you. You're able to be that messenger that carries the divine so that it can be shared with the world distributed to the masses. But you must first say no to that voice proclaiming that it's not important. That it doesn't matter. You must tear down the idea that you're not good enough. up and sit in that metaphorical seat, whatever it is for you.

Begin speaking, writing, painting, analyzing, constructing, devising, but you must sit down and begin. That is the essence of the war of art. The war that is you versus you, that resistance, claiming that your next move is too little to matter. But the same is the best. But you have to see beyond what's in front of you. It's why the author is so adamant about not giving in saying if you cave in today,

you're twice as likely to cave in tomorrow. It's like talking to a telemarketer. You cave, you give an inch, and it's over. See those little decisions, the ones we're so inclined to overlook, the ones we say, and we'll come back tomorrow, they're insignificant. That's essentially making a hole right through the center of a damn eventually the entire thing is coming down but the good news those same little decisions are within your grasp you can own them master them and ultimately master yourself start by simply

showing up when you don't want to because this is war and this war the one fought every day is what will ultimately hand you the keys to the kingdom it's been almost two years since I first read it, and still the main idea from the book, The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi deeply resonates with me. The idea that being happy is essentially dependent upon the courage to be disliked. And at first, it might not seem like the two, you know, whatever be related. Happiness and being disliked. An odd pair. Maybe even seemingly counterintuitive. Until you realize that happiness

comes from such a personal, authentic place that allowing the expectations of others to chart your course means that you'd probably never arrive there. You have to do what's best for you. And doing what's best for you is going to create a divide somewhere.

Why? Because everything creates a divide. Everything is subjective. I knew I wanted to dive into this topic, but wasn't sure the best way to do it. So the other morning, I was trying to think of an objective truth, something that no one could disagree with. Sitting on my balcony and pointed up towards this guy.

Thought, let's start there. Simple as it gets. Hard to refute that, right? I am pointing up. And I remembered we're floating on a globe, a giant sphere. There is no up. Up is perspective. Everything is perspective.

What's the difference between one and two? Some might say it's one. But technically, there's infinity between one and two. You can have infinite decimals. 1.999 goes on forever, right? Point being there's subjectivity when we drill down into even the seemingly obvious truth. Now, the value here,

not to go running around, you know, arguing with everyone that there's infinity between one and two. No, there are certain aspects of society that we must adhere to, otherwise we couldn't function together. Right? But it's simply to show that you following the path you believe is right for you cannot be rightfully assessed by someone else. It's to place trust in your internal personal judgment. And when people don't understand your infinity, that doesn't mean it's wrong. And by the way, I don't have blinders on to the fact that it's hard to do. In many ways, it goes right up against our lizard brain biological wiring. We're fitting and equates to survival, and ostracization becomes a death sentence.

But we are, fortunately, beyond that. It's in our interest now, and in fact, I think the courage to be disliked is a critical. lifelong journey. I'm better at this than I was 10 years ago, no question, but do I still have a ways to go, absolutely. There are still things I'm working on every day to let go of. I remember reading in Jefferson's biography about how it was so hard for him to be demonized in the press all the time that it almost dissuaded him from jumping back into politics before his presidential run. And being attacked is a hard thing. But ultimately, he let his business. beliefs and personal values drive him, his ambition in a lot of ways, and came to see the scrutiny

as a cost, decided it was worth the price. Or like I use this all the time, take one of the biggest pop stars of our day, say Justin Bieber. You look at what people are saying about him in the comments of his video. A lot of it's wonderful, some of it's great, sure, but some of it's awful. And that's just the price of anyone putting themselves out there. And again, you think of an inverse scenario. Imagine if he didn't. Imagine if he limited himself or didn't dive fully into what he does because he knew some folks out there would have some bad things to say.

Now, we are, for the most part, neither famous politicians nor pop stars. But our worlds contain the same elements at different scale. There are things we're all scared to do or say because of how it will be received. There are parts of ourselves that we repress because we don't know what the feedback will be. We're all scared to fail in some capacity because of how it will look or what others will say about it, which is why being disliked is courageous. as Aristotle has said, the only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, to say nothing and be nothing. The opposite of being fully, truly yourself is becoming the manifestation of that quote.

It's never pushing yourself, never seeing what you're capable of, never exploring or executing on your dreams, your ambitions. Now this is speculation, but if I were a gambling man, I'd place everything I own on the idea that when we're old, looking back on our lives, we'll spend less time thinking about who criticized us or disagreed with us than how we spent our days and who we shared them with. Did we live in a way that made us happy that was meaningful? Because on a sphere, everyone believes they are pointing up.

But in actuality, none of us are. We're all merely navigating the subjective universe behind our eyes. So why not truly explore? Why not capture the magic out there before the hourglass runs out of sand? It's hard. Sometimes it hurts. It takes all we have. It requires courage. But I think we'll all come to find that the decision to live,

fully in our authenticity, regardless of whether others agreed, disagreed, or were indifferent, was the best decision that we ever made. You don't have to be perfect. You have to persevere. And they are wildly different. One is a limiting belief that because things are not... exactly how you'd like them to be you've lost. And the other says, look, things will never be exactly

how you'd like them to be. So buckle up and make art of the chaos. There's something to the notion that the last one standing gets the prize. Why? Well, because when life presented obstacles, he became a capable navigator. When life became convoluted,

she learned to break complex things down into manageable things. When life indicated that his work wasn't enough, he learned not to take it personally, but rather to evolve. The rest of them though, the rest of them went home, disappointed that they didn't meet some standard of perfection. Look, you don't have to be perfect. But you do have to be in motion. You do have to be going.

It's amazing what we find when our feet are moving. It's incredible what we think of when presented with new stimuli, as if the castle doors have been opened, inviting in the little pieces of life that will be made into new stories and transformed into new possibilities. Imperfect brilliance. So how does one win?

Well, he scoffs at the idea of perfection and stumbles instead into meaning. It's token, not all who wander are lost. Life is an experiment. In my friends, experiments cannot be perfect. So who wins the game of life? Perhaps it's the one who can find out what not to do the fastest.

See, to persevere is to stand, to move forward, to see your current ignorance as currency that will be used to acquire knowledge. As the saying goes, sometimes life is merely about hanging on when others would be letting go. No, not living in a flawless world. No, performing. No miracles, but fighting, scrapping, holding on, being willing to fail spectacularly and get back up. Those are the occurrences, the stories worth remembering. So why is life a courage game?

It's a courage game because getting what you've never had means doing what you've never done. and doing what you've never done, well, cue the circus music. It isn't always beautiful, at least not until we're able to look back. And when that time comes and you smile and reflect on the journey the change you've created, I guarantee it won't be because you minimized the bumps and the bruises along the way. It won't be because you were afraid to scrape your knees. It will be because in a world of no, you said yes. In a world where people are afraid to feel flawed,

to appear ignorant or unsure, you stepped into the chaos and made something out of it. Door number one, perfection. The door of no mistakes, of minimal criticism, but minimal growth. Door number two, the door of personal criticism, The door of perseverance, the door of humility, vulnerability, yeah, chaos, but also upside. And so the question remains, which one will you walk through? Which step is going to mark the beginning of the rest of your life?

Sometimes what you don't do is more powerful than what you do. Sometimes the answer is not the home run or some lifetime achievement award. No, sometimes the answer is simply hanging on. Realizing that the yes is, they're important. But they're nothing compared to the noes. No, to the faint whispering that you can. No to the feelings of inadequacy and no to the reflection. staring back at you that just feels ordinary.

As that feeling, it's wrong. And what this means, as I was once told, is that success is not always the spectacular. Sometimes it is simply hanging on when others would let go. When the world would hear that same faint whisper and bow down because, oh, we all All hear it. Life is not a movie. There is no fixed ending. And where there are unknowns, there is fear.

That's not rocket science. Unknowns equal fear. But if I may, let me explain something. Because where there is fear, there is also something else. And that something is opportunity. Like a curtain that must be pulled back, an ocean that must be crossed or a toll. that must be paid while you dance to melodies of songs unwritten and are led by the characters in stories untold.

This is not a game of the miraculous. This is a game of self-belief. A game of not personalizing the people that are going to let you down. The days that will bring you to your knees, it's not feeling inadequate when you swing and miss because you will. And I hope you do. I hope you do because each swing makes you stronger and each loss makes it easier, easier to say no to that ship that wants to bring you right back to the port you left from, how

comfortable, how safe, how secure it would be. But just like fear and opportunity are one in the same, so are safety and regret. A concession, a wolf and sheep's clothing. They are a lot of things, but they are not you. So forget about the grandiose. The magic is not in the moon. It's in the staircase that takes you there. Each step, each battle, each time you fall, smile to yourself, and carry on.

Because the difference between average and exceptional is the ability to make a single decision. The decision to hold on. To stand firm when the people around you turn back, to believe in your foundation when the walls close in. It's running a race with eyes fixated on each step. Not on the finish line. No, the finish line doesn't do anything but just

It reminds you of the road to be traveled. Your job is not to make a finish line appear. It is to say yes to the step in front of you and know to everything else. Anyone can take one step. Anyone can progress one foot. Races, journeys, life is simply a culmination of those steps. A culmination of little

decisions to not let go. So when your arms shake in the voice in your head screams, when your thoughts beg you to stop and your mind starts to rationalize the possibility of surrender, remember that big things are broken into little things. Minutes are merely seconds, mountains are merely rocks, and success is simply hanging on when others would be letting go. When our backs are against the wall, we're forced to become more. When the clock is ticking, we are tasked with finding answers that hide among us. It's in the darkness, we find light, and while lost, we find ourselves. The paradox of the world. life is that from our pain comes our purpose, our evolution, and our greatness.

I love thinking back to about 2014, making my way around Boston, having just quit my job, essentially purposeless, clinging to a YouTube channel and a podcast idea that I would name your world within. And why? Why do I think back? Why does this mean everything to me? Well, because at the time, I knew nothing. I understood nothing. Nothing about speaking or media, audio, video, nothing about running a business. But more importantly, I knew very little about life and what's truly required to progress in a world with infinite moving parts.

I didn't know that my lack of understanding is what may be able to progress. made everything feel overwhelming and complex and that it was up to me to simplify. I didn't know the extent to which I'd have to befriend failure. And that was the most eye-opening realization. Because when you gravitate towards a risk-free existence and you box yourself in as I had for so long, of course you don't get the upside, but you also don't fail as dramatically either. was a simple game of cause and effect. Do work, get result, not much room for more than that.

And so stepping outside that box in the way that I did, change some rules. I learned some things. First, you can spend time on something. You can exhaust energy on something and get nothing in the short term for your efforts. And I mean nothing. unless you count getting your pride stomped on. Unless you count your friends disappearing when you need them most, unless you count self-doubt in a constant worry about not amounting to anything.

I mean, these are very raw, very real human emotions. They tend to arise when we start something new, but in them is also the power. This is where the light bulb turns on and the path emerges. It's where I learn that we only get what we want when we endure or what we don't. And what a foreign concept when you think about it, right? It's like, Eddie, take this mic. Go stand in front of this audience and pour your heart out.

Your knees are shaking, chest is pounding, but dude, trust me, it'll be good for you. And funny enough, it was. It was because the first. fear in my stomach became the indicator that something new, something exciting, something more was around the corner. Like Pavlov's dog hearing that bell, any time the fear kicked in, I could feel myself getting closer to something meaningful, to a higher version of myself. The pain is an invite, the sheer terror.

And let's face it, that's what it feels like sometimes. It's an upgrade. Disguised is the monster that you think you should be running from. When it is, as I recently mentioned, the adversary you should befriend. We have to change our relationship with discomfort because our initial understanding, the one that comes stock in our minds, is never sufficient to build anything of significance. Its default setting is to preserve the now, not expand it. And so just like those stock speakers that came in my 1999, Ford F-150 when I was in my early 20s,

let's rip it out. Let's customize. Let's upgrade the quality of the sound we hear and the things we say to ourselves. What an advantage it is to know that the hard things are what make us level up. To find that awareness. What a blessing that when life's difficulty startles and scatters the masses, you could be the one that remains. Standing tall, seeking out the advantage amidst the commotion,

every little act of courage becomes more and more meaningful, powerful, but we must lose ourselves to find ourselves. We must embrace our fears if we are to become courageous. We must fail in order to succeed, ensure sometimes the price seems steep. But I promise not going costs more, wishing costs more, if only's cost more. So maybe for you it isn't a YouTube channel or a speaking career. Maybe it's something totally different. But it is something.

And should you bring yourself to pursue that which your heart pulls you to pursue, you'll have those moments of defeat, where you're mad at yourself for leaving the comfort and safety of your previous world. You'll have times where you have no idea what to do, Where you feel alone or stuck or unsure? The difference will be whether you see this as the invite you've been waiting for or the reason to turn around and settle for less. That's the question.

How do you internalize all that emotion that will feel like it is consuming you? I couldn't believe how strong that temptation was to go back, nagging at me every day, just come off the edge, just be comfortable again. But as my old coach would say in college, when we're doing wall sits or something physically taxing, 15 seconds. You can do anything for 15 seconds. And isn't life just a culmination of 15 second windows? It's compartmentalizing the process. It's turning the difficult into the the advantageous. You have the ability to not think like everyone else. You have it within you to rewire your previous conceptions of the world, to see darkness not as your reason to hide

from conjured up monsters, but as your invitation to become the light. Remember that the best way to be more is to have the courage to put your back against the wall. And you won't want to in the moment. There will never be a perfect time, but committing to that vulnerability will release from within you the power, the strength, the greatness that has been for so long tucked away. By moving into the chaos, you are simultaneously creating the calm you always dreamed of. You're realizing the possibility that just needed the door left ajar. to make its way into your world. One of the most important lessons I've learned

is that I already have what I need most. Now, as I unpack this, think of it not in a fluffy, sort of, your magical, just the way you are context. And instead, let's look at it through a truly practical lens. Okay, life is about, connecting dots. And I personally believe there's a way to make almost anything happen. You just need to figure out what dots have to be connected to get there. And even if this message

isn't true 100% of the time, me believing in it, believing it so has pushed me to find ways to succeed when I otherwise would have walked away. To me, it's a 100% value ad. So let's Let's say you're currently going through a rut in life. Just not feeling good about yourself how things are. We've all been there in some capacity. You might think about your ideal life and think, well, I have none of that. I have none of those things. I'm not any of those things.

That's just a different world altogether. And when you look at it in one giant leap like that, you're correct. you're correct but again your job is not to wake up tomorrow and be perfect open your eyes and be a god or goddess jump out of bed with the phd and have your life all figured out right now there's none of that your job and this is the the point here is to simply connect dots from one little thing to the next so again you're stuck let's say theoretically the the road to something better starts with energy. Having to feel good, otherwise doing anything is difficult.

Feeling good, feeling energetic is a baseline. So draw a dot at waking up at a reasonable time, right? Breathing in the morning air, letting the sun hit your face as it comes up in the morning. Boom, dot connected. You did that. You're a little bit better. Next, make a dot at groceries. What are you taking in?

How are you fueling yourself? Make a few changes that will have you feeling good about how you are taking care of your body. Boom, you just connected another dot. Next, dot at gym three days a week. You get the point, right? These little changes, you're starting to feel like a different person. And you can see how this upward spiral works.

None of those three things was a monumental transition. there were small manageable tasks. And everything of substance is a little change like this. Sometimes that's just hard to see. When you're frustrated, when you're looking at what you don't have, when you're comparing yourself to others, when all you see is the delta or the gap between where you are and where you want to be,

all that is poison. But true change is about connecting little dots, making little roadmatch. being consistent but patient, expecting more of yourself, but also giving yourself love and grace as you make the journey. And it's from this vantage point that you truly do already have everything you need.

It doesn't matter the goal, objective, or pursuit. You have exactly what you need to win. Why? Because you have everything you need to connect that next. always if only we would stop wasting time looking out wishing and chasing things we think will solve our problems when in reality we walk around with the solution every single day you know Jim Rhone used to say it's not where you're going it's who you become along the way and I think this is because as we seek to evolve and grow

We learn to create and connect those dots. We trust ourselves that, look, we don't need one giant leap. We need to step. We need little consistent action, and we're more capable of that than we could ever imagine. And I'll get personal for a second. A goal of mine, I want to be one of the most impactful thinkers in orders of our generation. That invigorates me. It also is a lot, right?

Even saying it feels like a lot. As the words come out of my mouth, it feels pretentious, right? Who am I to categorize myself with the best of the best? The nerve, right? But I believe it, and I believe it wholeheartedly, to the point that I've bet my life on it. Why? Because I don't need to wake up tomorrow

and write like Ralph Waldo Emerson, or speak like MLK. I don't need to think like Nietzsche or inspire like church, No, not tomorrow. I just need to keep creating those little dots that will bring me closer and closer. I need to find ways to connect them in real time, one day at a time, one dot at a time, and I will do that. And the best part, so can you. I'm not special.

No, not in this regard. What am I? I'm a decade into connecting dots. A decade into understanding that I have everything I need to take one step and another and another. And my friend, you are capable of the same. So understand that strange dichotomy of thinking big and small simultaneously. You have to dream big. Otherwise, what's the point?

You dream big because it forces you to ask big questions. It pushes you to arrange and rearrange until you have evolved. But when we get caught up in the end result, we forget how to get there. You don't transport to greatness in your endeavor. No, you follow that roadmap, that roadmap of consistent steps. You connect the small, immediately achievable. They are the formula to outcomes that exceed expectations and bend reality. So what do you need to ultimately arrive where you most want to be?

Not a miracle. You need a simple understanding. You need to acknowledge that right now, in this moment, you have everything required to build and connect the next dot. And that will always be enough. What if those less than ideal things in our lives? Right. So our limitations, our constraints. The aspects of life we consider to be, you know, a bad hand.

What if they weren't just things we need to learn to accept or little tragedies we have to live with? What if they were ultimately the aspects of our lives that create the best of us? The elements of our world that push us to our greatness. And this came to mind earlier. I was listening to a book called How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson. And he explores this point.

He talks about Socrates and ancient Athens and how he lived in abject poverty. How, according to the standards of ancient Athens, was not an attractive person by any means. It just seemed to have a lot working against him. And the question that's posed is whether these exact circumstances ultimately created the man that became one of the most important thinkers in history. He implies that his reality and his surroundings shaped his worldview, so it only makes sense for one to conclude that all of it contributed to the life he lived. If Socrates was born wealthy and attractive and all these things, could he have become the man? that he became? Probably not. And the reason I love this is because, to put it simply, it reframes those less than ideal circumstances in our lives. Whether it is a personal

trait we have no control over or an occurrence we deal with. It's understanding that a lack of ability in one area helps guide us to that spot where we can thrive. A dissonance disappointment we encounter helps us regroup and make our way to the thing that is ultimately best. The less than ideal, the things that at surface levels seem bad or problematic, they're always working for us to push us towards our contentment and our growth to our greatness. I can say on my end, it was the turbulence I experienced in my life that created that sense of curiosity. for me. It was a lack of understanding that pushed me to write about life. Explore the hardships we face and the resilience of the human spirit through it all. It's a pretty famous stoic idea that states we can't often control what happens, but we can always control how we

respond to what happens. And there lies the power and the understanding that when one door closes as the saying goes, you are pushed closer. to the one that will open for you. You have to decide whether you will find it within yourself to open it. Or will you focus on the lack, the gap, what's not there, what you don't have, what went wrong. See, all those things, the things that most people use is their reason to stop or quit or not go. They can be the reason you lose, or they can be the very reason you win. you find a way. But that means moving forward trusting there is good to be had, understanding that

everything that goes creates space for what truly needs to be there. I understand it's common, right, but it's not just a cliche that adversity creates us, the difficult times shape us. Why? Because we are transformed by the bad and the difficult and that which in the moment does not seem ideal. Because they force us to move further into what we were meant to do and who we were meant to be. Just like Socrates was created from his adverse situation, his brilliance derived from his circumstance. Your greatness will be derived from yours. So remember that next time you feel as though you've been slighted by life, or something's

been taken away from you. While it may feel negative and I get it from time to time it does, it ultimately becomes the wind at your back, bringing you where you most need. There's a connectedness that I want to call our attention to, a connecting of dots. Let's reverse engineer this simple idea. Okay, life's trajectory is most inclined to change in our biggest moments. It's the opportunities that come around once in a blue moon, when it's all on the line, the moments where we have to operate under tension.

How do you perform when the lights are the brightest, when the outcome weighs heavy? We only get a few truly revolutionizing opportunities in life, and we must be our best in those moments. Okay, but how? That's the million dollar question. As far as I'm concerned, the answer is in the mundane, the boring things. The answer is in repetition of the tiny steps that stack up again and again and again.

See, a lot of people can picture the big opportunities, right? A lot of people dream of having the ball in their hands down by one with three seconds left on the clock. But they're not at their gym. They're not chipping away at their physique or their health. They're not studying the ins and outs of the game. Now that stuff's boring. Just give me the ball with the game on the line. I'll figure it out, right?

Except that's not how the world works. My friends, as the saying goes, confidence is earned. I want to tell you about a wall in my studio, a blank wall. And as I've moved over the years, it's changed color, it's changed shape, but it's always been there. And it's heard me speaking directly to it for thousands of hours at this point. It's seen me stand up, put a rug in the center of the room, and talk to it like it was an audience at Gillette Stadium again and again and again. Not because it was fun, no, it was tedious and, to be honest, sometimes annoying. But look, if we're reverse engineering those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities,

what I always knew was that I'd be ready, because that one opportunity isn't really about that one opportunity. It's about all you've stacked up along the way, all you've built. It's enabling the mind when you walk on stage and the lights go on to think, oh, this isn't special. This is just muscle memory. I've already paid the price. I've already won.

I've already suffered, lost, learned, and grown. This is just where I collect my prize. And so my friends, I ask of you, what is your equivalent of my blank wall? Where are you creating those reps? How are you building yourself up? So that when those fleeting opportunities do arrive, you don't get worked up. You don't ask anything of yourself that you're not equipped. to give, you simply smile and think, I've earned this.

This is who I am. And now the world will finally see. That was at the Heat Celtics game with my brother a few days ago. And the Celtics at the moment are the best team in basketball, which is fun being that we're from Boston originally. And right now the team has a handful of really good players. But one of them, Jason Tatum, has essentially separated himself as one of the most dominant players in the game. He's a superstar. And as we watched him play from the stands,

we were talking about a narrative that I don't hear mentioned a lot. And maybe it is in like basketball circles, but I don't hear much out and about. I think it's incredible. It's the fact that Boston's general manager at the time, Danny Aange, saw value in Tatum way before everybody else. Now, don't get me wrong, he was always elite. But the Celtics GM saw superstar potential in Tatum to a much greater extent than everyone else. In fact, in the 2017 draft, the Celtics had the first overall pick. And, you know, for those unfamiliar, it's usually pretty obvious. obvious how the first handful of picks are going to go.

The players are all ranked before the draft, and the team with the first pick is going to select the first best player, obviously. The team with the second pick is going to select the second best player. And while it was sort of known that Tatum was the agreed upon third best player in the draft, that the Celtics didn't want number one and two, even though the scouts and draft boards and, you know, the talking heads all around the country saw them as better, right? So here's Danny Aange with that coveted number one overall pick, which in basketball is so valuable. And he's like, I don't care.

I want the guy who's projected number three. So he trades down. He gives Philly his number one pick, basically saying, hey, if the guy I want is going to go third anyway, might as well trade away the first pick and get a little extra value. And still get Tatum at number three. And that's exactly what they did. And here we are. watching him as one of the best players in the game.

And by the way, the guy who went first overall is relatively underperformed, given where he was picked. The guy who went number two overall, same, has been up and down, constant injury issues. And I look back at how that played out, and I just think like the pressure, the weight of having this coveted pick and being like, no, I don't want it, right? The guy that I want is number three, right?

being so confident that you see value where others don't. It's hard to do that with conviction. You know, so I look at this and sure he made some mistakes, as all GMs do, you can't predict the future. It's a numbers game, right? But the ability to spot value, particularly in places others seem to disregard, is what I see as the difference between excellence and mediocrity. Life is always trying to give us the equivalent of a draft board, right?

in some capacity. Like, here's what's normal. Here's what's projected. Number one, two, and three options are the quote-unquote best options. For the most part, sure, it's a decent guideline, but it's not enough. It's not enough. I think we need to train ourselves to be asking, yeah, but where is the move that manifests into that game-changing difference?

Where in my life is the move that pushes me over the top, the action that sets me apart? Staying on the basketball theme, one of the most inspiring things I'd ever heard was Kobe in an interview. Talking about the extra value he'd capitalize on throughout the day, being the difference in his career, saying, look, if I get up two hours before everyone else and I get a workout in, not once in a while, but every day, that's the difference. Why? Well, in a week, it's nothing. In a month, it's not much. In six months, it creates a gap. In a year, that's quite the advantage. In five years, you're not even on the same level. In a decade, he is now untouchable to his competition. Yeah, it's just the morning. Everyone has the morning, but Kobe sought and recognized it as opportunity as his value. The consensus out there in the world is that the morning is when you ease into your day.

It doesn't put what you're doing at 6 a.m. high on that metaphorical draft board. Who cares? Well, to Kobe, ah, perfect. There's the value that I can spot, that I can utilize, that most people will not even think about. And in totality, I believe that to be the truth. You can do fine, simply anticipating and living in and around the value as identified by the majority, by following their blueprint.

But to separate, to move from adequate to excellence, you need to find those places where you can squeeze more out of life. You need to dive deeper into what's around you than, ah, that's what's expected, or that's what everyone else is doing. That's what's perceived as valuable. Be your own GM, right? Question the way of things. Not just out in the world, but in your home, in your day-to-day. Where are the moves that can take you from, I don't know, a six inefficiency to an eight? What ways can you be unconventional?

Flip the script to unveil the value you've been walking by for months, years, maybe even your whole life without realizing. There are always pieces around us to be great. And not just get by or survive, but thrive. There are the necessary ingredients to our right and left, always to astound ourselves. We just have to arrange them in a way that allows us to maximize their value. It's a constant moving of parts.

Trying again and again, but not settling for a ranking system to life, to life as prescribed by the outside world. There's more if you're willing to find it. There's an old idea that once you've started, you're halfway there. How does that make sense, one might wonder? Once you've started, you've only just begun. And that's true, technically.

But here's the thing. The journey, the ins and outs, ups and downs, trials and tribulations, they can all be dealt with. They knock us down from time to time, no doubt. But we learn, we adjust, and carry on as we move forward. Most success stories, they're crushed not because of that adversity along the way. but because they never begin. They never take shape or materialize.

We can't make them real in our heads. We can't convince ourselves that they'll ever be anything other than fiction. We think that's for someone else. We look around and assume that reality is different than my reality. And overcoming this mental constraint is always the most challenging step. And that's saying, the one I continuously find myself coming back to, human beings always follow through on who they believe themselves to be, continues to be true. If you don't believe you're worthy of something, its pursuit

is lost before it began. So while the mind tries to paint pictures of how scary that road is ahead, how it's too different or big or complex. Understand that should you move forward, you'll find all that complexity can be broken down one day, one situation, one little step at a time. The only real demon here is the possibility of inaction because you couldn't make yourself believe it. You couldn't see yourself at the top of that mountain. And so, the front door was never opened. Emerson says, hits your wagon to a star. A beautiful reminder that that star is proof your dreams are real.

And only as real as the conviction with which you move towards them. Green light, your own glory, your own contentment. Because contrary to what we might think, no one comes up and bestows that upon us. To live life fully is a decision. Decision, Latin root words, cut off. It's removing and abandoning your restraint in order to be more authentically you. In order that you'll give yourself permission to chase down that which makes you feel alive and soak up all that aligns with your heart and soul.

Once you start, you're halfway there. And oh, that first step, often perceived as the beginning, but in actuality, a point few ever give themselves the luxury of experiencing. Step one, believe it's possible. Step two, believe you're worthy. Step three, go. Everything else works itself out. You're capable of dancing through life's chaos, of managing the world's unknowns. So know that, understand that, but most importantly, be one of the few who gives themselves permission to experience that. And it starts... There's an old saying that the wake does not drive the boat. Where it's been has no impact or effect on where it can go.

See, the past is gone and therefore it has no grip or control over where you go next. That power rest with you and the decisions that you make. Humans tend to live up to the identity that they've created for themselves, but that identity is not yesterday. It's whatever you want it to be in the present, You are not your past. Mistakes and even successes of yesterday don't define you, right? You've taken the experience, you've learned your lesson, now it's time to move on.

And it is that simple. Every day is a blank slate for you to rewrite your life as you see fit. Your history is not a ball and chain around your ankle. it's an illusion. And seeing that will open the door to unlimited opportunity.