Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - How To Be Your Most Creative Self - BEST MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH FOR GREATNESS

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

"Creativity is intelligence having fun." – Albert Einstein In this episode, Eddie Pinero explores the importance of creativity and being in a state of play. Fear and worry can stifle our ability to take risks and build something meaningful, but true creativity requires stepping outside of your comfort zone and embracing a little recklessness. Eddie challenges us to reflect on whether we’re stuck in "default mode," where courage fades, and encourages us to rediscover the power of living boldly. Are you ready to break free, take risks, and start creating again? Tune in for inspiration on embracing creativity and stepping into your full potential. Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

The other day, a good friend of mine sent me a message that was exactly what I needed to hear, exactly when I needed to hear it. And more or less, it's a paraphrasing of a quote that says, if you're going to be creative, you have to be in a state of play. And you can't be in a state of play if you're fearful, if you're worried about messing up or making mistakes. Here's something interesting I've observed. In order to build something, you have to be creative.

In a way, intentionally reckless. You have to take risks and put yourself out there. And then hopefully after some time living this way, the milestones begin to accumulate. And this is the shift I've noticed in myself. The more you accomplish, or the closer you get to that goal, the more your brain wants to transition from creative to protector, from being bold to conserving.

We want to hold on to what we've brought to life more than we want to innovate. It's protect the castle on the hill that was, ironically, born of your creativity to begin with. And I know this isn't the way I want to live. But nevertheless, it's true. It's an example of me finding myself fighting with my biological wiring. Hey, courage got you here. It waters the seed of growth. It brought forth transformation.

Abandoning it is a spiritual death wish. Yet, if I let myself run on default mode, and I know a lot of us are the same, courage just so happens to be the very first thing to go. And so the question reverts back to, if you really want more of the excitement, more of the growth, the beauty in conquering life's obstacles,

the meaning in diving headfirst into chaos so that it can be tamed and channeled. How do we place ourselves back into that state of it? play, that perpetual state of play. Back before I started my own business, I was working in the corporate world, creating onboarding curriculums for new hires in the insurance industry. I would explain to kids out of college the basic ins and outs of the industry and why it

was relevant. And one of the key ideas was risk mitigation. That's what insurance is, right? diversification of risk. I even think about it now. When I see my cell phone close to the edge of a countertop, my brain goes, no, no, no. And I go to pick it up, place it to the center of the table or in my pocket,

where the likelihood of a $1,500 device falling and exploding on the kitchen floor is greatly reduced. And that's a good thing. Time and place, for sure. But in our personal lives, it also happens that the beauty, the fun, the excitement, and the growth takes place on the counter's edge. It is dancing through life's fringes that we find ourselves. There's some truth to the idea that, hey, we might fall from the countertop and crash onto the floor and, you know what, fine. Be at peace with that possibility.

It's not a call for recklessness, but a reminder that a life fully lived is inherently more risky than one where you are safe. See, life is a game of trade-offs. Innovation comes from play. Play is not safe because there is a largely increased likelihood of mistakes. There's freedom. There's exploration. It's removing the guardrails and immersing yourself into life.

And if you feel stuck or that life has become mundane, perhaps it's because risk mitigation is taken the wheel and play has found itself in the backseat. Maybe it's that simple. Maybe it's time to step outside and live again. To remember that play brings with it its mistakes, sure. But contrary to what our lizard brains want us to think, I think most mistakes are reversible.

And using that same little metaphor, one's phone falling onto the floor and shattering doesn't mean a person can never make a call, send a text, or use social media again. It's a temporary inconvenience in the grand scheme of things until they normalize. I think we want to live in a manner that makes possible the upside.

not one that hides us away and reduces the potential downside. Again, the quote, if you're going to be creative, you have to be in a state of play, and you can't be in a state of play if you're being careful, if you're trying not to make mistakes. So take some time and think. Ask the questions that if you don't ask yourself, will very likely go unanswered forever.

forever. What does play mean to you? What does it look like? And is it time for you to step back into that feeling? You being here alive today comes with odds said to be one in 400 trillion. Essentially impossible. If you want to look around for miracles, look no further than the mirror. And so don't lock yourself away until that ride expires. Don't spend your time protecting mediocrity. Step outside and cash in that check. Invite the play, the uncertainty, the mistakes, and the growth. Because as far as I know, there is no situation where one regrets inviting into their soul more of life.

What is the complex, but an accumulation of that which is simple? What are big things, if not just a multitude of little things? There's comfort in the understanding that all we have in life, all there is, is simplicity, easy to understand pieces. It's just that sometimes we stack them so high that they start to take a new shape. But like Greg McKeown references, in his book Essentialism, the power isn't always in acquiring answers. You already have them. They're in front of you.

The power is in cutting away the things that don't need, removing all that stands between you and your ideal existence. And I think that's one of life's great misunderstandings. We don't need to find more. we need to remove the excess until we're face to face with what matters. And to adopt this principle, it's nothing short of liberating. Chaos, confusion, disorder, they don't imply that you lack the right things. They suggest you haven't stripped life of the wrong things.

You have not simplified. A thousand miles is intimidating when you look at it holistically. It's a long journey. But it's just a collection of steps, and well, shouldn't we find solace in the fact that anyone can take one step? It's not a game of complexity. It's a game of understanding what's in front of you. And what's in front of you is always manageable. So much of our stress stems from forgetting what that journey is made of.

Whether it's a change in career, mastery of an art, some kind of personal transformation, the result we want. When looking at it from the starting line, it's too complex to understand too many pieces stacked up. So let's break it down. Let's find the foundation. What's really there? What are the one, two, three things we need to do? What is that golden question? What matters? If you lose sight of that, then you will stumble through life. I've learned this. I've lived it.

The time I take to myself every day is invaluable to me because I ask myself those two questions. What matter and what are the simple steps I need to take? What can I remove? I was talking about this during an interview this week. My personal growth. And one of the most important aspects has been the understanding

and the zeroing in on what's important. I used to take so much pride in composing the background music to these speeches. End to end. I used to love to be able to say I did it all. That was so I thought the great differentiator. But ultimately I learned to take a step back and ask what matters here. What do you care about? It's the storytelling that I love.

It's the impact. And let's be real. No one cares who wrote the background music. It's holistically. How does the piece make you feel? Right? And this understanding allowed me to cut away. License the music. Save two days a week, acquire clarity, and realize my goal is not to be Mozart. My journey is to be one of the great communicators, storytellers of our time.

And if a day goes by where I'm not taking a little step towards that, it's the wrong move. Small example in the grand scheme of things. But right on point. It's the power in understanding what matters that makes a difference that allows you to grow, evolve. And I'm confident that this not only applies to long-term pursuits, but also our challenging times, the dark moments, the periods of uncertainty and discontent. Same concept. Where do you want to be? And how do you get there? What's the simple thing you can do to close that gap?

Because you are never helpless. You can always do something. And my friends, those little somethings ultimately evolve into everything. And when we put our phone away, step beyond the noise, spend time with ourselves, we can see how much of life is running in place. Stacking and stacking pieces that aren't even part of the masterpiece. we're trying to assemble. If you want answers, start with the understanding

that they're buried under mountains of things you don't need. So cut away. Cut away the people and places and things that convolut your story. Cut away the exhaustion of time that provides no value in return. Cut away the thoughts that make life

more complex than your journey from where you are to where you'd like to be. As you stand right now, you have everything you need and there's nothing greater than that, nothing more powerful than that understanding. So why not step outside the complexity that you've manufactured that you're living in into a world of clarity, simplicity.

and capture what matters. Yesterday I drove out a little bit into North Carolina, parked the car, found a path, and went on a long hike to take in some scenery, think about life holistically, kind of contemplate where I'd go from here and why it matters, which is always funny to think about, right? The idea of having to carve out time amidst our frantic and often chaotic journey to get somewhere,

to well define where some somewhere is. But I think about that a lot. Our days consist of so much running around that I can easily forget what even my calculated decisions add up to. Why? It's a simple enough question. Perhaps when I could ask more.

Why? What's with this whole get comfortable with discomfort thing? Why do I place so much emphasis on the quote unquote path less traveled? Which is a term that, you know, one of my buddies was recently given me a hard time I'm about using in all my speeches, right? It must mean something to me. It's got me here, but is here better than over there? After all, it's not out of the realm of possibility

that I'm the one who's missing the mark. And it's okay to examine that possibility. In fact, that's why I'm here. And I bounced this around in my head as I made my way up the trail and noticed as I looked around, everything just felt perfect. Have you ever had one of those? moments where it just seems surreal. The morning was incredible. I loved the sound of the earth.

Under my feet as I took each step, the chirping of the birds in the early morning, the sun making its way through the trees. And I thought, it's amazing that you can live 20 minutes from this feeling and just never experience it. I guess proof that a decision did not go, to do nothing, is still very much a decision. And in this case, would have been the less desirable I'm glad I went. My phone was in my backpack, and for the first time in a while I didn't even think about it. My mind was stimulated. My senses were taking in something new, something different, something not my studio or laptop or social media analytics pages.

In fact, all that stuff felt kind of trivial now that I was removed from it. And I wondered, why don't I do this more? I thought popped into my head earlier that morning. I thought, hey, that's a cool idea. I just had to get through that initial pushback, the hesitancy of, well, what's the point? What's the desired outcome of a hike? After all, this little jaunt is just going to distract you from your work and your progress. But at that moment, I think you have to just shut out reason for a second.

You have to remind yourself that there's value, period. Otherwise, we open the door for rationalizing, we talk ourselves out of some of life's beautiful secrets, sometimes you have to just go. And as I made my way down this trail further and further, I started to feel better. I felt reassured. Like I had something that I otherwise wouldn't have had, something that's my own.

And maybe that is it. Maybe that alone is the reason for everything. To collect those incredible things, large and small, that we might not have had. After all, isn't life just an accumulation of memories, of experiences that are spread out like a choose-your-ending children's book. And with so much control over the outcome, I think that matter deserves my attention

in order to acquire the good stuff. Whether it's in a different location or context or time in my life, I still learn again and again that to get that, we have to leave some things behind. And that's the essence of life. You usually get out what you put in. And I think about that a lot. I think about the forks in the road I've come across,

those same ones, the life-altering decisions. I guess it's only human. Walking away from that promising career that I spent my whole life building towards. Every once in a while, sure, I miss the security. Leaving this city and the people that made my life what it was, it still haunts me from time to time, trading permanence and structure

for the freedom to condense my life's work into a laptop and take it anywhere in the world. Empowerment can be lonely, right? And I guess I can't help that in the midst of those situations, the easy decision always feels like the wrong one. I've just been pulled by the upside. I gravitate towards this grandiose version of what life could be on the mark that I hope to make.

And to me, the scariest thing has always been not having the courage to see more, to explore. The phrase, what if has always been my adversary, the monster in the closet, and it's a costly one to slay. But life is both suffering and infinite beauty. And it's like you have to choose where you're going to endure pain and why that matters so that you can climb the mountain that means everything to you,

that makes life worth it. In other words, meaningful discomfort now or painful regret later. And I strongly believe that, that life is about pursuing something meaningful. And even the triviality of a hike wants to remind me of this truth. I could be at home playing guitar, watching Netflix, relaxing. I mean, that would have been easier. But there's only one way to catch that sunrise over the trees.

And that way is not Netflix. All those beautiful views, they require an output of energy to reach them. They come with fear of something going wrong and in doubt that perhaps the turn you made wasn't the best one and that's okay. But I believe that happiness to be truly fulfilled requires trade-offs. And with each step, it becomes easier and easier to understand. For the gym rat, it's the discipline and the belief, knowing that muscles break down so that they can be built up. For the relationship to flourish, it's overcoming. disagreements, accommodating the needs of that person that you love, so that they can be the

last thing you see before you fall asleep. For the free spirit, it's walking away from what you know in pursuit of something that excites and invigorates, even if you're not entirely sure what it means. It's about enduring one so that you can collect the other. Now, what you choose to endure and what you choose to collect is up to you, but that's what makes life such a beautiful ride. A roller coaster taking you through lows to reach highs into darkness to see how life changing the light is when it pushes its way through. Little decisions that become the collage that explodes off the paper when you step back and look.

That's what you get back when you make a point to see more. That's why my love affair with the trivial and the mundane lights my path. It's not just a little thing. It's a microcosm of my everything. It's my saying yes to the opportunity that we work so hard to ignore in an effort to avoid inconvenience. But a life worth living is not always convenient. You could even argue at times it should be inconvenient. Because the higher the climb, the more we give of ourselves, the more precious the world looks from the top down.

The challenging times, the things we sacrifice and leave behind, they're not so much a part of the picture as the pain. on your palette. That in breaking down, you can now recreate using your own ideals, metrics, and guidelines, a world that you now have the ability to transform. That's why life to me is nothing more than color, decisions, nothing more than paint, steps, nothing more than brush strokes and life. Well, life is nothing and everything. Which as the morning breeze reminds me,

is a decision that is entirely my own. My own. A lot can change with the words, it's okay. My moon is not the same as their moon, and that's, well, it's okay. Same playing field, just different rule. Same sky, different constellations, same clouds, different shapes. We need not permission to follow that star that lights up our world, just a willingness, a comfortability, just a curiosity because where the right path provides clues, the wrong one gives instructions. And over time, the difference between the two accumulates, it becomes substantial. Your journey should give you just enough. The moon's radiant, should highlight the hand in front of your face, reveal that potential next step.

it should expose the options right in front of you and that is enough. And sure, sometimes it feels like it would be nice to know, to walk an easier path, one that's not your own, have everything lit up, no questions, no mystery, and while there's comfort in taking this path, it's not yours. It's not your journey, it's not your moon, it's not your light and it won't reveal your answers. So feel free to leave, to walk away because it's okay. It's okay to not have the answers. It's okay to follow a gut feeling. It's okay to leave the old in pursuit of the new.

It's okay to want more, and it's okay to not know where more is. It's okay. I often think if a courageous few are the reason that I'm not writing these words out with a quill pen by candlelight, then think about what my own small acts of courage could become. Why not believe, start, try, put myself out there? Why change or concede or surrender to a set of standards that aren't mine put in place by people who aren't me?

Their moon is not the same as my moon, their path is not my path. And if I'm choosing between seeing a world that I've settled for or in its totality. Or seeing one that actually means something as it's slowly pieced together, I'm taking the ladder every time. Well, how do you know it will work out? The brain asks, the heart you don't. And I think that's exactly how you know you're in the right place.

It's when you have all the answers, the certainty, and the reassurance in the world that, well, something may be missing. Not missing from the external, but missing from within as you move through the external. It's the classic square peg in a round hole. In the very reason we should carry on is because it's better to be a square peg in search of a home than to be whatever it is that would keep us safe, quiet, and securely contained within a square box. It's not that my way is right and your way is wrong, it's that for me to live I must find my way and you, yours. Because a life lived according to someone else's rules is a house built on sand.

It may be stunning, extravagant, it may not warn a second look from someone passing by, but it only takes time to reveal the inherent flaw. flaw. It doesn't matter what you build if it's on top of a bad foundation. It will ultimately come down. Time will take it down. So be weary of where you decide to plant your stake in the ground. Be thoughtful about where your feet take you and the concessions you allow in your life. We often think permission is what separates the present from the ideal. What I've learned is that time keeps coming, permission does not. To live fully is a self-appointment. There is no letter that comes in the mail explaining this.

Although sometimes I catch myself waiting for its arrival. Where the crowd goes, my instinct begs me to follow. Where the comfort lives, my predisposition is to knock on the door, I'm human. I know that to resist what comfort offers is the battle of a lifetime. Their moon is not mine. Their solutions will not fix my problems. I have a puzzle to put together, a masterpiece to assemble as to you. So embrace your world.

Follow your rules. Howl at your moon. Because if you do it right, it will be different. It will be yours. And that's not just okay. It's what makes life worth living. There's a saying that will always be true. It will be true on your best days and your worst.

It will be true after victory and it will be true after defeat. It will be true when you have momentum and it'll be true when you're down on your luck. doing everything in your power to create momentum. That saying is, your future begins now. Hey, on the surface, might not seem like much. Sure, my future starts now. I know that. Everyone knows that.

Well, if that's true, if everyone does, in fact, know that, why do we spend so much time stuck, reliving our past, unable to break free? Why do we remain terrified to change? Why do we feel such a connection to who we were, how others saw us? Why must we remain loyal to the character we've been playing in our mental autobiographies? See, here's the thing about the past and the future. One is fixed, can't be changed, and the other, well, it's waiting for you to tell it what it is.

One is expired time, one is planned to be determined. And it's interesting how we continue to conflate the two. Epicetus has said that the more things we value outside of our control, the less control we have. Well, I'm going to be the messenger here relaying the precious truth that yesterday is in fact out of our control. What can be controlled is where we go from here. the next step. Meaning today is not your failures. It's where you take those lessons.

It's not your mistakes. But it's what the stronger you can now endure because of them. It's not the dreams you let slip away, but where your pursuit might take you now. And yeah, yesterday certainly contributes to your outlook, as all information does. It's value considered. It's impact assessed.

It guides you, but it's not you. And that difference is astronomical. There's a question about the role the past plays in our lives. That has to mean something, right? Your past is in many ways your story. It's why you think the way you do. It's contributed to your understanding of the world. It will always be a part of you, and I believe that.

But I also believe the past is a story. And just like reading one chapter in a book simply sets the stage for the next one without controlling its direction so does every day that has led you up to now life gives us the tools to experience to grow, learn, and then shed that which does not coincide

with what's important. Your failures are not you. But they are precious and that they push you towards what you'd like to be. See, you can, experience something and not be that thing. As Kirkagard says, if you label me, you negate me. If you proclaim me to be X,

you're essentially stealing from me the infinite possibility that is the future. Yesterday has nothing to do with what I can become. And so taking it a step further, never mind being labeled by someone else, how could you label yourself and see it as a step further? It's anything but self-sabotage. See, you're never defined by your past, but always learning from it. It's not who you are. It's the cheat codes for what you can be.

Without that winding road of misfortune and mistakes, the incredible expansion we long for doesn't materialize. Imagine if everyone who ever felt down in life felt like a loser who temporarily lost hope. Imagine if they looked in the mirror and said, okay, this is who I am now. There would be no triumph in the world because anything meaningful requires the resiliency to map our way from the hell that was our darkest moments to what will become our proudest moments. Destiny, destiny, destiny means that you separate the finite from the infinite. What you used to call yourself has prepared you to move towards the horizon.

But what you used to call yourself is also as irrelevant now as those seconds that you watch tick away. Seconds that maybe you're not proud of. Seconds that perhaps taught you about the world. Seconds that gave you a glimpse of what's possible. Unveiled the happiest of times. All of it. In its own unique way, it brought value. But none of it is your future.

Why? Because back to that beautiful, all-powerful sentence, your future begins now. Your destiny is awaiting its marching orders, and all you have to decide as you stand today is where that ship will sail. So imagine you're sitting down, having something to eat, thinking, relaxing, reading, whatever you're doing. And someone walks up to the table across from you, pulls out the chair, sits down, kind of leans back, puts one leg over the other, casually tells you, you know, you probably don't have what it takes to do anything significant in your life. What would you say? It would be outrageous, right?

That's a ridiculous scenario. Well, let's say that the next day you get up, you go to walk, run, work out, and he shows up again. Starts running next to you. casually reminding you that the odds of you changing, doing anything for the better or slim to none, that this is kind of a waste of time for you. You brush it off, you go to work and guess who?

He passes by your desk, leaves a little note saying, you know, that your bosses, your higher-ups, they're cut from a different cloth. They just see things in a way you can't. You'd probably tell that person to take a long walk off a short pier, right? Or at the very least, you'd understand how absolutely insane the situation is. People can't just walk up and talk to you like that. But now imagine that same person as you, living rent-free in your head.

And here's the catch. You invited him in. You allowed the negativity and the doubt to live there. See, every time I think about that self-talk, I can't help but wonder in a world of obstacles to navigate and challenges to tackle. Why is it acceptable for your biggest obstacle? to be you? Why should you allow or be okay with that? And I'm not saying everything's perfect all the time, every thought's pure bliss, but I am posing this question. If you don't believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to? If you're not your biggest ally, if you don't respect the

person staring back at you in the mirror, how do you expect the world to? Why is our inclination to tense up and refute the negative? from others, but sit back and accept the same nonsense in our own heads. If those words don't support what you're trying to build, I don't care who they're from, where they come from, why they're there, they don't deserve your time. And it's a simple awareness that they are not truth, but merely your fears and your insecurities trying to stop you from becoming who you might be. My biggest leaps in life, they didn't come from physical,

milestones or benchmarks. They came from mental shifts, convincing myself, believing myself, trusting in myself. When the road is untravelled, when the story is untold, the positive and the negative are both make-believe. They are both fairy tales, their options, their theories, and guess what? You get to choose which option, which one will be yours. My favorite quote is you are always stronger than you think you are. Not so much because it reiterates how high the bar is, but because it reminds me how low we often set it for ourselves when we're not paying attention.

How loud that negative voice can be. You know, when I was unemployed, I was writing, I was running out of money, my life changed because I stopped seeing myself as some lost, jobless mess, and I started seeing myself as one of the greats with a hell of a road to travel. See, people always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. I refuse to hear that you might fail and the not good enough and I buckled up for the road ahead.

And when you believe you can change and know that the road to your goals will be rocky, it will be uncomfortable, but worth it. You are taking that hostile voice and making him or her a spectator, not a decider of fate. And yeah, you will lose, you can't win all the time and you will feel stuck, but life's not always smooth sailing and sure you'll be mad at yourself but not every decision is a home run. But these situations are the byproduct of a journey and here is my point. Self-belief is being able to differentiate your situation and pointless negative talk about the situation. It's about remembering that you are the gatekeeper of your own mind. When you believe in you, it places your faith, your strength and your strength and your

determination in the driver's seat. It makes everything else trivial, meaningless. It makes it an option that you are simply not going to choose. There is no finer a line than the one that separates failure and success. When you think about how a fraction of a second, an unforeseen variable, a slight miscalculation can ultimately mean the wrong result, the one you didn't want. That dreaded word failure. And when we see failure, we think, well, back to the drawing board. That wasn't it. We simply missed the mark. But what I'd love to point out is how so much of the time this isn't the case. We erroneously judge our approach based on one outcome. One swing of the axe. The tree doesn't fall, so we blame ourselves and doubt the process. And it's like,

I get it. No one wants to continuously jam a square peg into a round hole. It's the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about giving yourself a chance, not walking by the thing you need. And far too often, we tear it down to start over because we assume the approach is wrong when sometimes it's not the approach. Sometimes things don't work at first. Some things take a while. Sometimes it just reps. I started thinking about this a while ago.

Last year I saw this random statistic, kind of halfway through the NFL season that said, fourth down, on fourth and one, fourth and short, coaches decided to go for it 53% of the time. I think it was. That number might be slightly off,

but right around there. The idea is, that there's risk involved, which is what makes it a tough decision. And what I find interesting is that the decision to go for it on fourth and one ends up being one of two things. It's either creative, bold, and daring, or it's stupid. It's unnecessary and reckless. All depending on if they get that one yard.

And, hey, maybe they do. In which case, how great it was that they had confidence in their team. But maybe they don't. And then it's, hey, don't you understand your offense's limits, your team's limits? What are you doing? In both cases, the outcome determined whether the approach was the right one, regardless of how little differentiated the two. And I'm sitting here thinking, well, how does this apply to my life? How many times have I metaphorically gone for it on fourth and one, didn't succeed, whatever it was?

Let's say, you know, my first YouTube video since we're here. And, you know, well, I walked away at that point. Like, imagine saying, I put this video out, I didn't get the right outcome, so this isn't for me. As far as I can see, it's the same thing as a coach failing on fourth down and saying, you know what, I'm never going forward on fourth again. I mean, it's that irrational. Because as counterintuitive as it seems, you can't judge the value of a pursuit on one outcome. Sometimes you don't even need to change much, you just need to have the courage to show up again. And going back to YouTube, which I've talked about before, the same thing has applied.

It's like there are videos that I thought were great that are kind of buried on this channel, underperformed. And some I wasn't that excited about it did extremely well. I don't know why, but I do know that the approach was the exact same for both. No difference. They did, however, get different outcomes, different results. And I just think, like imagine if I assumed my approach was flawed. because they're the ones that didn't meet or exceed expectations, right? That's why there's so much power in repetition.

And yeah, like the coach on the side of the field, we're examining, we're adjusting, we're improving, but the point is, why be so quick to doubt ourselves and our ideas and our plans? Because I do think to walk away from something you believe in after one bad experience is like that coach saying no fourth downs are not for me. There's a saying attributed to Thomas Edison. He says many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. How maybe it was a slight tweak, maybe it was a minimal change in perspective, or maybe it was just showing up one more time, picking up the axe and taking one more hack at the tree.

And that's really it. The most important lessons we learn in life are simple. Simple to understand, but they elude us. And so let's remember them, making our way into the world, how fine that line is between success and failure. How sometimes they look like one another, how the very thing needed to win, overcome, succeed, likes to disguise itself as failure and suggest that you try something else. when in reality, you could be right there knocking at the door.

If it means something to you, it's not wrong. I'm talking about different roads, going to different places, different ways at different times, none more or less important than any of the others. It's an amazing thing that a perfect life can mean something so different to each and every one of us. You know, I get asked quite a bit about my decision. to do what I do, as far as what prompted the journey, the process of turning a page, beginning a new chapter,

and in essence leaving what didn't serve me to pursue what does. And what I realize is that a lot of these conversations are with people that have an outlook very similar to mine, right? We value a lot of the same things. But there's a distinction between what you see every day and what truly reflects reality. It is what's around you, the only thing, the only option? Is it the real deal or is it a part of the puzzle, right?

Like if you look at Twitter, for example, you have 20% of Americans supposedly used Twitter. And of the conversation on Twitter, 80% of it comes from 10% of the users, right? So it's a subset of a subset, but how easy is it to open the app and think that's a reflection of the world and how people think and what's going on? It's not. It's a very small fragment. And the reason I bring it up, the reason it's important is because we, we, We tend to look at what we see around us as the right way or the instruction manual. You know, I've talked a lot about the corporate world, like it was essentially a prison for me, right? And in many ways, it was because of the way I think, how I get fulfillment, right?

There was a predictability and a straightforwardness that just doesn't mesh with my personality, but that's me. And I had the realization the other day when I was on someone's podcast, and they asked me, well, how come some people don't get it? How come some people don't understand the entrepreneurial spirit or that sort of adrenaline that comes with the high highs and the low lows? And I spent some time thinking about the answer, and I think it boils down to something simple. It either pulls you that way or it doesn't, right? The thought process isn't the right way to live or the wrong way to live.

It's one of many ways to live. It depends on what you gravitate towards. You know, I like to reference one of my best friends, Chris, because we couldn't be more different, right? He has a nine to five. He loves the structure. He's immersed in it. And because of that, he's moved up the organization very quickly,

comes home, spends time watching TV with his beautiful kids, cooks with his wife, sends the group shots of the, you know, the smoked pork or whatever the hell he makes. He's in heaven. He loves his world. You know, but then he looks at, you know, my world. He sees the unpredictability of my life,

my choices, travel. moving around all the time, the financial oscillation, where it's like one month is great financially, the next, it's underwhelming, it's up and it's down, and he goes, how do you live like that? You know, and I could ask the same of him, where's the rush, where's the uncertainty? You know, it's two very distinct ways of looking at the world, and I think that's incredible. But I also think it's easy to miss. You know, like Twitter, you sort of think what's around you, what you see is the real deal, is the path, is where you should be.

and it's why a lot of people are concerned or question themselves. It's like there's this invisible metric, whatever side you fall on, there's a right way or a wrong way, and that's not true. There's your way. If it means something to you, it's right. And that's the standard, period. It's where you need to be, right?

Who is anyone else to set those standards? No one knows you. And I think the question is twofold. One, have you taken the time, your busy life to identify what that is. Whatever it may be, have you thought about it? I'll never forget a friend asked me once, you know, what my perfect day looked like.

He asked me to describe it in detail. And I looked at him like a deer in headlights. I'm like, I don't know. I've never thought about that, right? He could tell me when he got up from when he went to bed what his perfect day was. He goes, well, how could you ever have one? By accident?

Right? So do we take time to think about what matters? and number two, are you willing to drive towards whatever that is? Whether it's entrepreneurship or athletics, being a rock star in the corporate world, being a world-class painter, an amazing dad, some combination of some or none or all of these things, like, what are you aiming for?

But it's nice sometimes to get that reassurance that your path, regardless of how different or, quote-unquote, normal it is, if it's right for you, it's right. And that's something that no one can tell you. You know, so much of life is a conversation with yourself. It really is. You have to give yourself permission to live. And I've spoken about it.

You know, I've spent a lot of years at that intersection of what I thought was right because others were doing it and what truly made me happy, waiting for the light to turn green before realizing that that moment doesn't come. You need to be the one to change it. Life is a beautiful experiment, but it is an experiment, which means you need to get to work. You know, it's testing what you love, what you don't, where you want to be, where you have no interest in being, and embracing that, right? Discovering what you love, what's meaningful, and then trusting yourself to get there.

Pick your head up and open your eyes. I know how you feel. I know what it's like when all you can see is what's missing. I've been there before and most likely I'll be there again. And not here to tell you life is perfect or easy or pain free, but to remind you that life is happening all around you, forever changing its hope and its opportunity never more than a stone's throw away. And that although it can seem tempting or even reasonable to think that tomorrow will just be more of today, that now is forever, don't. You're merely moving through the seasons of life.

of life. The ups and downs that constitute our most prized possessions, our most beautiful memories. It's an invitation and nothing more. And what I hope you understand is that

it's right now. In life's winter, when everything feels well, dead, cold, black and white, that you have to see life in color. And look, we all know winters can be long, sometimes real long. But if you can find it in your heart to ride it out, you'll

understand that what's in front of you is a door left ajar separating this chapter and the next. It's no more a burden than a blessing. I've always found comfort in the idea that winter is officially a beginning with everything ahead of you, spring-loaded. And during this time, as snow falls and coats the world in white as the ordinary even for a moment in time becomes a surreal a reset button shaking every part of you like a snow globe on Christmas Eve winter has this beautiful way of putting its hand on your shoulder and reminding you that difficulty now means the best of life later and so when you find yourself in the winter

of life, remember they're impermanence, that while difficult, while trying, these times are starting blocks. And nothing of value comes to fruition without them. And then there's spring. When that believing is rewarded. The seeds begin to grow root and emerge from the ground

when for the first time progress evolves from a fairy tale to something tangible, something you can touch, it's reassurance beyond the voice in your head. A sign that you've emerged from the valley you once feared was forever. That the color you desperately longed for now appears on tree branches, flowers, its bluer skies, clearer views. And when you find yourself amidst the springs of life, let it reassure you that the real world Always catches up to the one behind your eyes if you simply carry on.

Let it remind you that pain becomes progress and that if given the chance, life finds a way. And then we get to summer the culmination of all that is good you have arrived. All the waiting, all the suffering, the belief, the hope, the patience, all made. manifesting into life at its best. Sand and saltwater regain their relevance. Days are longer, worries are less. This is the peak, the summit. It's why we dream.

And when you find yourself in the summers of life, don't miss a moment. Be grateful for every second. Breathe it in. Recognize its magnificence and its splendor. Accept its invitation to see the world. as you always knew it could be. But remember that summer, like everything else,

while it slips away with time, it's a call to simultaneously appreciate the now while refusing to live under the false pretense that winters can be mitigated, gone, forever, that life has no series of cycles. Endless summer is a state of mind. a state of mind that allows us to navigate through the trials and the tribulations. And the goal is to understand that no summer doesn't last forever.

But you can always find your way back here. There is always a place for you amidst the summers of life, even when it's hard to see. Even when it feels impossible, cold, dark, and lonely. You are always on your journey back here. Always. My proof, New England, in the fall, the reds, the oranges, the yellows, painting for us the most beautiful masterpiece imaginable,

as if to signal its infinite presence. And as the portrait falls leaf by leaf, piece by piece onto the ground, yeah, it will be covered up, but it will never be gone. It's the same hand on our shoulder explaining that your world will change. It always has. It always will. But you have everything you need. So whether you're in winter, spring, summer, or fall, and perhaps that's something only you would know.

I ask that you see it for what it is. Another trip around the sun. Another tour through those seasons of life. Find that fire. so that you can endure winter's cold. Nourish that seed of hope as it springs to life from the ground below you. Basque in the summer sun as it lights up the sky. Appreciate those leaves as they float around you like paper planes because all of it.

Each and every part is you. Your story, your triumphant journey through the seasons of life.