Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - HOW TO OVERCOME DOUBT AND TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE - Best Motivational Speeches for Success

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

"How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. You’ve never heard of a tree growing half as high as it could. No. Trees don’t grow half. Trees send their roots down as far as they can, they stretch their limbs up as high as they can, they give it everything they’ve got." - Jim Rohn Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, Eddie Pinero dives into the unique human tendency to limit our potential. Unlike other life forms that strive to reach their maximum, we often fall short of what we're capable of. Through personal anecdotes and powerful metaphors, Eddie challenges us to explore the gap between what we do and what we can achieve. Tune in to discover what it takes to live up to your potential and be inspired to reach for excellence.

A tree grows, not because it wants to, but because it was created to. It's a story about potential. Right. And about a decade ago, right when I started writing, speaking, creating content online, I came across that message, and it was transformative for me. The idea that human beings are the only life form that will do less than they possibly. The full quote, by no surprise, Jim Rohn, he says, every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings.

How tall will a tree grow as tall as it possibly can? Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. So why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what you can do? you can do. Beautifully said, right? Imagine every night of your life going to bed knowing that there was more inside of you. Imagine running a race, knowing there were other levels that you could have reached for, but didn't. Imagine looking back on a life of infinite possibility and knowing you created finite parameters. Now, I'm not saying you have to live.

every waking moment obsessed with always being better than you currently are. Right? I'm merely asking you a question. Aren't you curious? Don't you want to know what that ceiling is, that space for which excellence has been reserved? I often think every time I hop on a rowing machine at the gym that, you know, it highlights the gap in black and white between what I'm doing and what I'm capable of. Love-hate relationship with that machine. It brings me back to my college days, the days I first learned to truly push myself.

I get on it now for one-minute sprints as part of a sort of a workout program I'm doing. And I just think there's no evading that concrete number the screen gives me exactly how many meters I went in 60 seconds. Right there, right in front of me. And then I ask, imagine if the stakes were higher.

Imagine if this wasn't just, to work out. Imagine if someone said on sprint number four, Eddie, if this is not your fastest sprint of the day, you lose X. Or Y is going to happen to you. Whatever those variables may be. Eddie, if this isn't your fastest sprint, insert worst fear. What's going to happen? I'm going to break that record. I just am. My body is going to find a way. And that's what's interesting. That's the point. Okay. What this metaphor is not an indicator that you need to go around scaring yourself into personal bests. But what it is is a reminder that there's always more right there, right in front of you if you want it. It's a pointing out that we all live somewhere under what

our best could be. And knowing that is such a powerful tool. It's powerful because there's no screen showing you the meters you traveled when it comes to where you are with your work or your health or your relationships. There are indicators, sure. But so much goes unmeasured. How much did you do today? Did you feel good about your output? How good?

Because there's always another level. And maybe the solution is more. Maybe the solution is an audit of time spent. Maybe it's adjusting your compass altogether, but there exists a best in you that is untapped. Always. And the question remains, aren't you curious? Aren't you curious what that next level looks like? That should make you feel good.

Because your current circumstance is as permanent as today's weather. What you don't like can be changed. What isn't aligned can be adjusted. If it's not good enough, you can make it so. One of my favorite ideas, life is a game of adjustment. The question's how far are you willing to push, to grow, keyword willing. Some people decide to stop at point A. Others stop at point B, others point C.

And that's for them to decide. That's a decision, a personal decision they've made. But the million dollar piece of knowledge is that in all cases, that landing spot was a decision. It was not fate. It was not handed out by a stranger on the street. You choose how hard to pull and you decide which levers are worth pulling. See, we are the only living beings capable of underperforming. And that's amazing.

Take that, run with that, because it also means we are the only living creatures capable of rationally looking around, assessing the situation, and saying, I don't like this reality, I'm going to rebuild my own. The world is yours. You just have to decide which world you are willing to accept. Which world are you willing to fight for? Which world are you going to call your own? I'm going to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's podcast episode, Pro Compression.

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They're currently offering 30% off their entire website. If you use the code EP30, their website is pro-compression.com. And again, code EP30. If there's time, then there's time to turn things around. If there is a tomorrow, then there is hope. hope today. The only have-to-bees in life are the ones we prop up and adhere to. And how interesting that oftentimes we don't even realize we're the ones holding them up. There's a simple question that I like to ask as the sun comes up in the coffee bruise. Am I living today like it's an obligation

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

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

You can only go so long looking out the window before you wonder just what it'd be like to be behind the wheel. When we put our actions up against the question, why, it astounds me how many things are done because it's what we've always done. We act like we're expected to act, think like we're expected to think, see you who we're expected to see, but expected by whom? Some of my greatest breakthroughs in life emerged after being asked why by people I look up to or respect. Why have you accepted that? That's your income? Okay, great, but why? That's how you spend your day? I see how calm.

And when one is tasked with looking at their own life through a magnifying glass, some hidden truths always emerge. It shines a spotlight in the corner of the room, illuminating those shadows where one can, if they look hard enough, make out the wolf in sheep's clothing that is the phrase, because that's how I've always done it. We get in life what we accept.

We are what we allow ourselves to be, and if we don't ask ourselves which mountain is worth climbing, which ocean is worth crossing, we simply float with the tide. We're at the mercy of the winds. We forfeit the mastery over our own lives that await if we're willing to take that wheel and navigate. So here are a few things to take with you.

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

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

If there's time, then there's time to turn things around. If there is a tomorrow, then there is hope. While the world slept, I stayed awake. I guess I couldn't bear to close my eyes and drift off into a dream, knowing that as soon as they opened, it would end. I sat up, I put my goals and aspirations into the backpack next to my bed, threw it over my shoulder, and I left. Destination, unknown.

But I was armed with the belief that opportunities exist, wherever you bring them to life. So while the world slept, I stayed awake. There comes a point when dreaming takes the form of an adversary. I didn't want to wake up and see the discrepancy between fantasy and reality. I didn't want to be associated with wishing or hoping or crossed fingers. See, the beauty of life is that it always provides that necessary. necessary pieces to put your puzzle together so long as your eyes remain open.

So while the world slept, I stayed awake. As the mind lays dormant, so does opportunity. As the ideal life remains imaginary, so does the action needed to build it. The best way to find answers is simply to look for them. a folded up map hidden away in your desk. It suggests a million possibilities. Proposes an endless journey, but until you grab it, open your door and step outside,

it will never truly take you there. I wanted to feel the wind on my face, the sand on my feet, and even the most adventurous souls in the world don't have time to see everything. To experience it all, time is the most precious of commodity. commodities. So while the world slept, I stayed awake. It's not in opening your eyes. It's in what you allow your eyes to see. It's easy to live while being asleep, to completely disregard or walk right by the advantages, the opportunities, the pieces that we can reach out and use to shape

our lives. Look, it's not about being right or wrong. It's about trading what you kind of want for what you really want. It's about walking down your street and viewing every single thing in front of you as perfection as the stars aligning as the perfect ingredients to create whatever you choose. Leave nothing for sleep. Let your dreams envy your reality. And while the rest of the world sleeps, I dare you to stay awake. I dare you to get everything you've ever wanted. When I was a kid, I saw everything upside down. I remember spending all my time in the now, right?

I hadn't yet learned to contemplate worst case scenarios. And when I was a kid, I was pretty much detached from reality. from reality. I'd have my Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers battling on the bedroom floor. I hadn't learned that playing with action figures doesn't get you a job. When I was a kid,

I wanted to be the next Steven Spielberg or play in Blink 1282, or maybe be the President of the United States. What excited me, I gravitated toward. I hadn't yet learned that the statistical likelihood of accomplishing something like that was 0.001%. When I was a kid, I was so captivated by imagination

that I wouldn't even want to go to bed, right? The excitement and the mere possibility of the world around me kept me awake. I hadn't learned to settle down or go with the flow. When I was a kid, I did what felt right. I was led by curiosity, by a sense of exploration. I hadn't yet learned to wait the opinions of others or the pressure of conformity.

When I was a kid, I saw everything upside down. And when I was a kid, I was right. And perhaps there is no message more important than that. To move forward without leaving the best of you behind. Not to grow away from what matters most, but to grow into it. See, every so often I take a step back and I look at the world around me, pushing, pulling me to be something I'm not, and I think back to my younger self. A life without walls or barriers, a life in pursuit of happiness.

And I'm always amazed at how fast an exceptional existence becomes a checklist. Look, life changes. Responsibilities change. parameters shift, but it will never be wrong to ask yourself what matters. Are you waking up for you or for something or someone else? So stop, look in the mirror and decide which way is up and which way is down. Because the journey awaits. It may be that our greatest gift in life is that we're always one decision away.

from transformation. We're always one decision away from a new path with new experiences, new beliefs, new identity, one decision away from a totally different life. It's almost incomprehensible. That all the days leading up to now, everything we knew ourselves to be can be discarded and left with one swing of an axe gone. What is more miraculous than that? We live at the intersection of two imaginers. world, right? The past and the future. Past is gone and essentially meaningless. Yet as the provider of our identity, it still rules over us. Our sense of who we are comes from our collection of past memories. That imaginary world of yesterday, like the elephant tied to the chair with a rope. It hasn't realized it's strong enough to break free. It doesn't know that what confines him is not the rope, but acceptance of a lie. And that's what the past, that's what identity is, a lie. We are not yesterday, we are right now. And from the trivial things to the significant things we get wrapped up in that lie. We overlook the gift of control we have over our future. What does it mean to say, I'm not a mourning person? That in your past, you hadn't conditioned yourself to wake up early? Okay.

What does it mean to say, oh, I let people walk all over me? That in your past you didn't stand up for yourself? What does it mean to say I'm awkward or shy or I struggle with writing or running or public speaking? So maybe you did. But what does that have to do with right now? What does that have to do with realizing the control you have over your life?

Because simply realizing you can disconnect from these narratives that they are not you is the superpower. Realizing that calling yourself a bad student because you failed a test, it's like never taking off your raincoat because it rained yesterday. It's like, no, the sun is out, adapt. And once you realize right now is the beginning of the rest of your life, you can start making little changes.

Identify not who you were, but who you'd love to be and move towards it. Read the power of habit and atomic habit so that you can understand changes. isn't crazy or big or scary. It's moving little things in your life around so that they work for you, not against you. Start waking up and thinking about not what has happened, but what can happen, not what can go wrong, but what can go right.

You are always one decision away from a totally different life because you're always one decision away from change, from walking away from the narratives that you have accepted. And so remember that. But remember it not just when things are fine. Remember it when you're struggling, when you feel restless or uneasy, unsure, uninspired, sad, angry, not content with the reflection in the mirror. When you feel that negativity, you're not looking at what can be, you're looking at what you have been. And there's no

room at the table for that distraction. Not when you can reach out and start building something new. Not when you can put on a new pair of shoes and walk down a different path, you are always one decision away from a totally different life. And that decision should be first and foremost to choose future over past. Your next step over the last one, choose your ideal world and start building. I was listening to Alan Watts the other day. And he was referencing a Zen parable, and he asked this question I thought was pretty cool. He goes, when a flag is flapping in the wind, what's moving? The flag or the wind?

The answer, neither. It's the mind that moves. It's how our minds interpret our experiences that create our realities. And the reason this reminder is so important to me, The reason I don't believe we could ever hear it enough is because keeping that understanding front and center in our lives tells us how powerful we are. Sure, we often can't control the situation. We all know that.

But we can always control what this situation means. Every event is open to interpretation. And that's what's so incredible. You know, yeah, sometimes it takes a while to get to the value. especially when our minds want to default to the negative or what's missing or what's lost. But if you're willing to look underneath every occurrence is exactly what you need. And so take for example something we can all relate to, right, losing something that truly mattered, that we found meaningful, whether it was a person, a job, an activity, a physical

impairment, right? When asked, what does this change mean? the mind goes loss. It defaults to, I had it, I loved it, and now it's gone. But underneath that, there's a chance to take the pieces of what remains and go down a new path, to find something just as or even more beautiful. The same loss can mark the beginning of an adventure.

Is it ideal at first, no, but it's usually not the way. the ideal that prompts our most important change. It's life's turbulence that pushes us to seek out something new. And I love taking this little trip down memory lane, right? Because, you know, it's the business ventures that fell apart that caused me to look in the mirror and choose to be more. It's the projects that just didn't end up being that good, right, that allowed me to see this journey as a creative one. Or, hey, some projects, hit, some don't, but it's not personal, it's a ride, and what an opportunity. And it's the breakups I went through.

And while, sure, if you were definitely brutal, they gifted me with an opportunity to personally level up, to dial in my understanding of what really matters to me. I can think of physical setbacks, monetary obstacles, all these things that hurt in the moment. Now, I'm not sure I could have controlled the initial. emotional emotive response, right? The human reaction. But learning to ask, well, how can I get better from this? That's a different question.

How can one month from now be amazing because of this situation, regardless of how it feels in the moment? It's not the flag or the wind that moves. It's my mind. So how will I choose to paint the landscape around me? around me? How will I choose to give meaning to the things that will ultimately comprise my reality? That's power. Now, I've always felt it easy to conflate, like finding value in our lives with being happy all the time. But again, we're emotional creatures, and life can be challenging for all

of us. I don't think it's possible to be happy all the time. That's not the goal. The true victory is in finding gratitude along the way, in pausing and asking, How can I take this seemingly unfavorable result and find a way to win from it? Because guess what? The sad truth is most people don't do that. Most people walk right by that stuff. Most people chalk up the L's as L's and leave the good stuff behind. If you know there's a win in everything, and you ask that your mind look for it,

the reality you create will be one much different than someone under going the exact same circumstances with their eyes closed. Remember, it's the mind that moves. It's you who writes the script, who controls the narrative. And that's not a burden. That's a gift. It's what makes you more powerful than you could ever imagine. Why is it that the average person seeks out the advice of what feels like a million people

before consulting himself? himself. Knocking, looking, hoping, is he looking for answer or looking for permission to be who he already knows he is? Is he looking for insight or just validation that his reflection is in fact okay? See I think we all deep down know who we are, know what drives us. And even if we don't know exactly what the destination looks like our hearts know the direction best suited to begin the pursuit.

So how is it so easy to forget? Why do we get our antennas crossed? See, when life becomes about meeting requirements and fulfilling obligations, checking off boxes and checking in on time, we forget the basics. We forget to live for ourselves, as if our job is to play a part not direct the movie. And playing a part is living up to expectations, directing the movie. Well, that's creating your own expectations. This world, your world, it belongs to you.

It's a world with both unimaginable happiness, bliss, moments of ecstasy, and the occasional suffering, chaos that we have to navigate through. But I think all of it comes down to whether you trust yourself to live it for yourself. To remove the shackles, take the training wheels off, stop asking permission, and do what you've always known was the right thing. That part never changed. It just had to wait amidst all you're looking for external direction, for you to pause and find the internal courage. Freedom is not a life without chaos. It's trusting yourself to determine which dragons you will slay.

It's not a life without battles. But fighting those battles that result in your liberation, dismissing the oppressors that build fences in your mind and chains around your soul. I've thought a lot about the idea of a life well lived, what it means, how it feels, and it seems to me, it's about intentionality. Where are you going?

It's not that you can escape suffering or eliminate fear. It's not that you'll avoid getting lost along the way, but it's the why. Why we endure these things makes all the difference? Is it for a better tomorrow or simply to get through today? And it's amazing. Accidentally stumbling upon that which scares you and intentionally facing that which scares you are so different

that their occurrences trigger completely different neural networks in the brain. See, overcoming fear is ingrained in us. We want to grow. We want to evolve. We need more. The question is whether you will step out. out of the line that someone else made for you and live a life that is your own. And if it's crazy, great.

Let it be crazy. If it's unique, perfect. Stand out. And if it scares you, my God, if it scares you don't turn back, don't you dare, turn back. Give yourself the most important permission one can give, the permission to follow your intuition,

and your curiosity into tomorrow. Let the stakes be higher, but the rewards be meaningful. Let the chaos be your own to tame and to master. Every twist, every turn becomes not only a part of you, but a chapter in the story of your becoming. And as the seed you've held in your hand for so long finally meets the earth and grows so high that it connects you to the heavens, remember that this is your life.

It's your obligation to live it fully. I've come to accept the fact that I'm a loser. The more people say otherwise, the more I prove over and over again that it's just who I am. Stuck in my ways, an outsider, outcast, out of my mind, loser.

See, it started with my old. identity, who I used to be, I lost that. Then I lost those people that made me feel small, the ones holding me back. Bye. Would the street continue? You bet. Lost that need to please others. Hey, it turns out I know what's best for me better than they do.

Lost the things being done out of obligation and not purpose. Lost the wrong metrics I was using to measure success. Gone. Lost my way so that I might find something better. That was hard. Thought I might lose my mind, but I found it. Just lost my old way of thinking, and hey, that's a win. Lost yesterday.

Found tomorrow. Lost scarcity, but found abundance. I lost two, the people who were more talented, better skilled, the ones who outclassed me. Fine. Showed me what it took to win. I lost my heart. A few times, that sucked, but it looks like it still works, so we're good. I lost my purpose, follow the shiny objects instead of the things that matter, but sometimes seeing what doesn't shine puts a spotlight on what does.

Keeps me swinging from star to star, hey, I like it again. I lose my discipline from time to time, but hey, regret hurts more, so I force myself to find it. As I write this out, speak it into existence, I'm losing track of time. All is forgotten. But I think that's how it should be. I hope I lose more tomorrow. Yeah, I lose a lot. Thank God. Sometimes I wonder why. Why does this season of life feel like it's one undesirable outcome after another? What happened to the law of averages?

When is the wind? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? Why would I continue going in this direction? When it feels like that spot on the horizon I've been chasing has eluded me. Why? Why? Why are my results not aligning with my output? It's hard to wake up and do this. It takes all of me to give this much. Sometimes I wonder where is the delayed gratification everyone speaks of?

Where's the fruit of my labor, the arm on my shoulder that says this is why it was all worth it? Why hasn't the payoff shown itself? Why? And why does it seem like every curveball materializes at the worst possible time? Why won't my body cooperate now when I need it most? Why does my mind play with the worst case scenarios? Why does an already challenging path have to be more difficult than it is now? How many ways do I have to feel pain?

Why does discomfort follow me around? Why won't life let me shake this? Why? Well, maybe, just maybe, it's to show you how strong you are. What you can endure. Because deep down, in your soul, you know you are the 1%. Because if you can push through this, you can push through it. anything. And I don't know why life gives us its lessons when it does. Why the world seems to

stack it on when we're at our most vulnerable, when the ground beneath us is most unstable. But if you can find the courage to step back and see this for what it is, if you can hold on to the idea that this is happening for you, you'll come out of this. a different person. You don't need to perform a miracle when you're at your lowest. No, the courage, the power, the strength is in showing up. You need to continue forward. Let go of the week, the month, the year. Sometimes we are tasked with pushing through the moment, the hour, surviving the day. And sometimes there is nothing more courageous than that. No, nothing more powerful than seeing what it turns into down the road when we look over our shoulders

and are grateful we never stopped. So yes, this season might seem like a nonstop barrage of obstacles and misfortune. Why? Perhaps because it's life allowing you to plant your seed now so that when spring comes around you are provided something you've never had before. You arrive at that spot in the horizon you've been aiming at. And yes, the results might not feel like they're aligning with your output. Why?

Perhaps because when the compounding reaches that magical point, that point of statistical significance, and the desirable things happen then, as quickly as the difficult ones do now, it'll all make sense. You'll appreciate it, value it. and be equipped to handle it. And yeah, life might seem to be throwing you curveball after curveball. Why?

Perhaps because if you can trudge forward now when your body's tired while navigating the trials and tribulations of life, when you can bring greatness into existence under duress, just imagine what waits around the corner. Imagine how you'll perceive those seemingly impossible obstacles that slow everyone else down. There'll be nothing more than a cool breeze and a sunny day as you move towards your best self. Look, it's hard to understand when we are in it. It's hard to make sense of the dark and the chaos and the hurt, but find a way to remember.

No matter how hard it seems that this life is happening for you. is happening for you and not to you. This is the seed in the palm of your hand that will mean something that matters. So hold on. Hold on to see that seed begin to rise from the ground. Hold on to feel the warmth of the sun. Hold on through the storms of life.

They will be why when you look back years from now. you'll have gotten from life that which was once merely a dream. The message in this episode was inspired by some background music. The very music playing behind my words right now, actually. I have this thing for acoustic tracks. I just feel like they completely changed the dynamic of a story. But I digress. writing earlier, opened my notes, found a topic I wanted to discuss, spent about two hours on it.

But as I listened to this song and looked over my words, I just felt like what I'd written didn't do it justice. Do you know that feeling where maybe it's your work or any other aspect of life really, where you know what you have is good enough, like no question, good enough to get by maybe even better than average. But at the same time, you have this little voice in your head, almost guilt, because you know there is within you something better. Like, sure, this will get you through the gate, but you just know you're conceding something.

And it's that curiosity, that question, what could I have created and given to the world that just pulled me in a little deeper? I was recently in Cincinnati, one of my oldest friends, Mike. We met in fourth grade, and we've been in touch ever since. And we were having dinner talking about how we were always in trouble back in the day. And I mean, we were always in trouble as kids. Went to a little Catholic school in Southern California.

And the way they disciplined us back then was they had this system where if you were talking when you shouldn't be, you'd get a tea for talking. and that T basically counted as one strike. If you did something besides talking that was inappropriate, you'd get an I, which I presume is for inappropriate. An I's counted as two strikes. And we couldn't really remember what the system was completely, but I think we landed on, you know, if you got up to seven total strikes before the end of the week,

you'd get a note sent home to your parents. And we were going back and forth, kind of disagreeing on the effectiveness of that system. You know, the classic carrot versus stick argument, you know, Mike thinks it was a great system. And certainly there was a lot of value there. You know, it kept us in check to an extent. But I saw it differently in the sense that all it did at times

was rearrange incentives. You know, like if it's Friday afternoon and I'm sitting there, I only have one tea for the week. You bet the teacher turns around. I'm throwing that apple-shaped stress ball right at the back of Mike's head. You know, I've earned myself a little breathing room over the course of the week.

Why not do just enough to avoid that note going home to Mrs. P? And it just seems like looking back now that a reward-based system might have been more beneficial. Instead of tiptoeing around and manipulating the rules so that we could avoid those negative outcomes,

why not learn to aim to reach for more, right, for the positive. outcome. And here's why I'm going down this rabbit hole, because I know this seems trivial, but here's the honest truth. It took me into my mid-20s to unlearn this in even the most basic sense. Certainly not just because of my elementary school. It's how we're all raised, right, to avoid the negative. To do enough to avoid punishment or embarrassment. It's not about mountaintops. It's about dodging. the T's in the eyes, learning and manipulating this system to get what we need so that we have

just enough. You know, and as an adult, I'm not talking merely finances here. I'm talking relationships. I'm talking health. I'm talking all aspects of life, right? That little voice that we all have, we all know it, the one that said to me two hours ago, yeah, this speech is fine. You'll avoid missing your deadline. You'll feel like you got everything done on schedule today. You won't have to call your editor or postpone anything. But like, how good do you feel about it? Because you're capable of more.

This is good. But somewhere behind that curtain, there is great. No, I'm not saying this episode is going to be, you know, third in history behind King's I of a Dream speech in the Gettysburg Address, but the message means something to me. It means everything to me. The ability to leave good in pursuit of great changed my life. And most of the time, not even in the larger-than-life sense, I'm talking about the little things.

I'm talking about the courage to walk away when I had to. To fight for more when I felt slighted. To get out of bed when I felt like my ego was crows. crushed. In a world where we're conditioned to find and settle for adequate, that little perspective shift lit a fire in my soul, which honestly, if anything, just makes life more fun, more exciting, more impactful. When you feel like you're generating meaning in your own life, it puts color into the mundane. And that's the message that I want to leave you with. When you hear that little whisper in your soul, that question, is this your best?

Is this who you want to be? Is it where you want to be? Why not entertain it? Dive into the curiosity. Walk through the door and see what lives on the other side. At worst case, the decisions reversible as most are, and you backtrack to the start and repeat the cycle. But at best, life opens up. And sometimes it's a hard conversation to have with yourself.

No question. Sometimes it hurts being that vulnerable with the person in the mirror. But your soundtrack deserves a story that matters to you. And you don't find meaning running from the T's and the eyes. You don't find contentment hiding in the shadows of life. You arrive where you're supposed to be by following that curate. straight into an evolved version of yourself. By listening when the voice asks,

Is this where you were meant? 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. And so 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 like an objective truth, something that no one could disagree with. It was sitting on my balcony and pointed out. up towards the sky. Thought, let's start there.

Simple as it gets. Hard to refute that, right? I am pointing up. And I remember, 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 is not to go running around, arguing with everyone that there's infinity between one and two.

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, right? we're fitting and equates to survival, an 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 to do.

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 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 we're. 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. Everything around you has a story. In fact, many stories. And more importantly, our lives are the culmination.

of these stories. See, we don't identify things through an objective lens. We see them in relation to our individual beliefs, our needs. Strangest it sounds, our lives are almost entirely fiction. They're arbitrary. When was the last time you got into your car and thought of it as nothing more than metal in part? Probably not recently.

Right? We see it as a gateway to where we need to be. Mobility, freedom. Just like our... isn't brush strokes or sonic vibration, it's an emotive escape. We give meaning to things, and those meanings vary. The world as it exists through our eyes is entirely subjective. You ever wonder how something can be a problem to one person and a solution to someone else? Or how deeply held political beliefs can be so contradictory?

How can a movie come out and half its critics say it's amazing, the other half say it's a subpar. Life is subjective. It's an infinite amount of tiny stories that come together to create our world, and everyone that you walk by has their own. And here's why that's worth discussing. Here's why it matters,

because we fall into the trap of using these make-believe guidelines. After all, that's what they are to define ourselves. We deem other people's subjective, as truth, the benchmarks for our own pursuits. Consensus is good, well then it must be good. They say it's bad, well then it must be bad.

From the perspective of a creator, one of my most important realizations was that feedback of something I've created or a lack thereof doesn't define the value of the work. I still think some of my best work is essentially undiscovered. Some of the things I've thrown together in ten minutes, 10 minutes have been seen by millions of people, and that doesn't change how I value the work with little recognition. That's just our emotions drawing false conclusions. Here's a different

example. Let's say there's a baker, right? And he's got a bakery in a neighborhood and does great work, right? His shop's been open for a decade. He's been in business. But one day Oprah walks in, takes a bite, loves it, recommends it. Suddenly his cake is everywhere. Suddenly, they're extraordinary. Same question, right? What changes about the cake? Nothing? What changes about the baker? Nothing? Excellence lived there the entire time. Did his work become more the second it got a powerful endorsement? No, it was simply recognized. And this understanding, the reason I'm bringing these examples up is because knowing that is crucial to whatever it is you're trying to build or become in your life. Because these narratives matter. The good, the bad, the ugly, they don't stop coming out. They don't stop peeking around the corner trying to influence your story and just because you're not where you want to be yet

Just because you haven't seen the external reward it does not mean you aren't brilliant It doesn't mean you're not on track towards excellence or you're changing the world Maybe you are that baker before Oprah skips on into the shop I don't be someone who confuses everyone else's story with reality. That makes it incredibly difficult to take control. A lot of people we call brilliant now, they weren't thought highly of along the way.

In some cases, quite the opposite. And thankfully, they understood the subjectivity of their brilliance. That if you're confident in your voice and your message, if you sacrifice and dive into expertise in an area, the value rises to the surface. Society will adapt and conform to you simply because you didn't bow down to it. There's brilliance there.

It just needs to be believed in and refined. Even when others don't get it, even when it's abnormal, even when your passion receives no validation. See, brilliance manifests itself brick by brick. It's very easy for passersby to laugh at that unfinished frame of the house. But eventually it comes together and the layout is beautiful and the architecture is stunning and your defiance carves a little niche for itself somewhere in the depths of reality.

Then the light bulb goes off. Then it's understood. Maybe you were right all along. Your existence is derived from how you choose to look at the world around you. Your outlook is either creating you or destroying you. And we have to be cognizant of the reasons, the explanations, the stories we tell ourselves. We have to be aware of how we rationalize everyday occurrences. We have to ask, am I seeking out solutions to the right problems?

What's the root cause? What's the actual reason? And we all find ourselves in ruts from time to time right. We all have low points. For me, when I'm struggling, it's usually creatively. Drawing a blank or writer's block or whatever the case is. And it's funny, my mind always goes right to the external excuses. Instinctually, I start to think, well, maybe I don't have the right technology.

Maybe I'm not in the right place. Maybe the right circumstances aren't occurring. But when I force myself to step back, right, and dig deeper and really ask myself, what's the reason? Which is sometimes an uncomfortable thing to ask, you know, I always come to the same conclusion. It's not the camera in my hands or the recording software or the mic. It's simply the temporary disappearance of self-belief. Temporarily, I forget that I can make magic, that I can change the world with what I have right. now and so can you. That is the actual reason, but I have to peel back the surface.

Because the truth is if you don't have a good story to tell a $10,000 camera is not going to help you. You got to learn what captivates, what inspires, learn how to articulate your thoughts and ideas, learn how to bring what's in your mind to life. See, people want to put band-aids on bullet wounds, and that's not going to fix a thing. An interesting thing people come to me with. You know, they're building brands, creating social platforms, building businesses online, which is great because it means exposure, but it also means you're susceptible to negativity and criticism and haters. And how particularly initially it's emotionally taxing, seeing that stuff, right? Seeing people criticize your creativity and they come to resent the comments. They come to resent

that interaction. But again, I always go to what is the reason? And I ask, because if you don't go deep, if you don't find the root cause, you don't fix a problem. The problem is not the 53 year old in his mother's basement trashing your work or your ability. He has nothing to do with this. The problem, when you're really honest, is confidence. It's the ability to understand that a life of no risk or criticism is a life of very little reward. And with that realization, the solution changes. It's not what can I do to avoid the criticism.

It's how can I stay true to myself and have that be enough? Where I can rise above chatter, where I can be indifferent to naysayers, because look, expectations don't matter. What matters is your happiness. What matters is your progress. So fix that. You know, we spend a lot of time adjusting our sails, worried about catching the right breeze,

getting the logistics right, when there's a hole in the center of the boat that's taking in water. Let's find out where that is. Let's fix that. Figure out what the actual area of improvement is what's the actual reason for not being where you want to be. And sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's humbling, but guess what? It creates the long-term solution. Last year was one of the most challenging of my life.

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

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

It's not what you don't have. It's not externalities holding you back. It's a refusal to look yourself in the mirror and ask difficult questions. You are not a victim. You are equipped with every single thing you need. You just need to zero in on your actual inhibitors and eliminate them one by one. I've always said success is three steps. It's recognizing there's better out there, recognizing you're worthy of pursuing it and taking the leap.

So what's keeping you from leaping? What's keeping you grounded? It's not money, it's not tech, it's not where you started, it's your mindset. So change how you see the world around you.