Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - How Running Changed My Life | Motivational Speech

Episode Date: April 27, 2021

Running shows us that if one is willing to endure through the struggle, there is always something better on the other side.

There's a quote by William James. He says, most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got, and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you. Now, that's one of these ideas that in practice is a lot different than to understand. It's like suffering is tough, but you need to suffer. Okay, check. Then you go out into the real world, and it feels like the walls are collapsing around you,

and it's very easy to retreat from that understanding, right? To do what instincts tell you to do, emotions tell you to do versus what's best for you in the long term, because it's tough to get past the emotive state and understand that there's more on the other side. I think that's a very important and substantial part of life. and one of the reasons running has been such an important part of my life, one of the reasons a lot of the people that watch this run,

is because there's a lot of difficulty associated with it that if you can hang in there long enough and you can get past that, there's a bliss and a joy that you couldn't have otherwise gotten. It's not obtainable without immersing yourself, you know, in the treacherous landscape first. That's the ticket, the cost of admission. And it would remind me daily. It would be sort of a parallel to everything else in my life, right? It's like just like in running, dot, dot, dot, dot, because it was like a microcosm of real life.

you know, it's a discomfort that last 30 minutes as opposed to the five years of getting a business off the ground. Right, but you can look to that because it's smaller and it's easier to comprehend and you go, yes, that's the map. And for me, it was running for other people, it was other things and it doesn't need to be running. But I think it's important to have that thing, right, that you can sort of look at and go, ah, that's the way the world works,

remember? So when I'm struggling, it doesn't mean it's over quite the contrary. It means I'm doing the right thing. It means I'm looking for, I'm subjecting myself to, you know, life's difficulty in pursuit of something meaningful. And so the other day, I had this epiphany, this realization, I had this reminder that I hadn't had in so long. And, you know, it's been months and months and months. I've been battling injuries with my right knee, my left ankle, and just really struggling. I went on a run

for the first time in a long time. And it didn't take long to just feel absolutely terrible, right? I did not feel, it wasn't a great feeling. Like, the second things got difficult. And you know, things sort of tense stopped, and I got cramps and things that hadn't been working in a long time. I was asking them to work, and my body was just screaming no. And the first thing that comes to mind is, dude, you've maxed out. Like, stop. Like, this is a bad idea. Red flag.

Over and over and over again. Stop sign. Wrong way. Don't go. But like I said, I'd already made the decision. I'm like, I put my shoes on. I'm out here. Whatever happens.

happens in life. You are your own experiment. Charlie Munger has said, let's see how this goes. Keep moving. And what I found, what I rediscovered was that second wind where, and everyone who runs understands this when you feel like absolute trash, but you push through it, particularly when you're running a long distance, you ultimately find this period of bliss down the road. Not just like pain free or like it's not just like you're ignoring it or repressing it. Like when you're running a long distance and you hang in there long enough, you find this stretch where you feel good. You feel light on your feet. You have energy. You just feel incredible. And, it doesn't come without enduring the difficult pieces.

It's one of the things I love about running long distance. It's like up, up, down, up, down, and you learn to cope. I mean, not every time, right? Sometimes you run, it feels amazing. Sometimes the entire thing feels difficult. But the idea of saying, hey, I'm going to go through this no matter what, and what you find on the other side, more often than not, is a feeling of contentment.

you find the best running that you can have. And you don't get that without the difficulty. And that to me, it was like, wow, I needed that. I needed to understand that again. I needed to see that, to feel that. Because when life gets difficult, you don't have that reminder. You don't have something to look to, to say, this is how it's supposed to be.

Our instinct says stop. Our instinct says when things don't go well, somewhere along the way, you screwed up. You made the wrong decision. We don't say, hey, this is par for the course. And so often it is. So often we have to say, look, you sign the dotted line. Now remember, it's not going to be an easy journey. There's going to be times where you want to stop.

And you can. or you can push through and obtain that second win. The good stuff, so much of life, hides behind discomfort. So remember that. It doesn't matter if you're running or you're an athlete. Or you're a teacher, or you're a parent, or you're a student, or you're an entrepreneur, you're in the corporate world, you're working for a nonprofit. Like, it doesn't matter.

context can be removed. The reality is we want things, we have goals, we have aspirations. Part of what makes life meaningful is moving towards the fulfillment of our potential, maximizing the opportunity at hand. And that will bring in obstacles. And we will have to ask ourselves the question, is it worth it? And I want you to understand when you, You are at that metaphorical fork in the road that it is.

And the best part lives behind that fork, lives behind the discomfort again and again and again and again. That won't change. Sometimes we need someone to remind us that. Because intuition, you know, doesn't say, all right, walk right into this chaos, walk right into the storm. No, we play defensive. We retreat. We want to take the safe road. Makes sense.

But in the big picture, it's counterproductive. We're hurting ourselves. Again, ticket of admission means you say yes when most people would say no. Most people would say no because no is the obvious thing. When it hurts, you stop. When you're tired, you stop. When you're confused or lost or unsure or scared, stop.

But stopping. means you're done, right? The only way to stop in life, the only way to lose in life is to decide that you're not going forward. The world can throw anything it wants at you. I'm personifying the universe here, but life can throw obstacles and setbacks and it can make things difficult, it can make things crazy. As long as you keep saying, okay, and stepping into it, you haven't lost. you can only lose when you decide you have you can only lose when you decide i'm not moving forward anymore it's a beautiful thing it's how powerful you are it's how powerful we all are we don't realize it we think outside context dictate what happens to us it's like in a way they paint the picture

decide if it's where you're going to be or not. You decide what to do with those pieces, what to build with those pieces or not build with those pieces. And remember that. That's why I needed that run so badly. I needed to remember that when things become difficult, if you push through them, you get that bliss. You get that sense of satisfaction. You get what you were looking for. You have to say yes. You have to be willing to make that decision. So to my runners, keep running. And to my artists, keep painting, keep making music, keep writing, right, to my entrepreneurs, keep building, keep growing, everybody, keep growing. The world cannot tell you what to do. It can give you pieces, it can give you context, you are the author of your story.

So here's to us having the courage to write the best next chapter we possibly can.