Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - How To REINVENT YOURSELF in 2024 | Powerful Motivational Speeches Compilation

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

"You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over." - Sir Richard Branson

Let's talk about the most important thing one can do while navigating the trials and tribulations of life. The thing that, as far as I can tell, supersedes all others, the great equalizer of human beings. One's ability to get back up. You simply cannot defeat someone who, despite the inevitable office, obstacles life presents rises to their feet again and again. You can't take someone down who molds the adversity they face into armor they wear. No, those people are gods of their own worlds. They are immune to the shackles that hold most back.

See, the world is unpredictable. It's challenging. Often it takes everything we have, right? even the most planful and most prepared, or at some point taken down, even the most skilled will, at some point, find themselves outmatched. There are no perfect roads,

and there are no flawless performances. No one wins all the time, which implies necessarily the ones who create meaning in the world are the ones who shape it from that chaos that surrounds them. who when brought to their knees, refused to roll over and look at the world from their back, but instead rise with a more thoughtful, aware, focused, de-personalized approach. Life is not happening to you, it's happening for you.

It's not giving you problems, it's giving you building blocks. The differentiator is some people build walls around themselves, and some build staircases to the moon. But ultimately we are all building something. You might ask, you know, really? Rising when you fall, that's the most important thing? More so than courage, strength, intelligence, confident. More than faith, contentment, success, growth, joy, more than love.

And my thought is, 100% because you don't get any of those things without the ability to rise in the face of their opposite. Being those things means fighting for those things and fighting for those things means a commitment to stand, to reach for them. Even when the world says no, even when the road is long. If you learn to rise when you're going to rise when you're going to rise, you're fearful, when you're tired, when you're lost, confused or angry, if you promise yourself getting back up is not up for debate, that there will be no negotiation, that it's what you do and who you are, you simultaneously hold the world in the palm of your hand.

See, most focus on avoiding the ground. And because of this, they find themselves disheartened when life is... Well, life. We've all been there, right? Sometimes you cannot avoid falling. Sometimes the ground comes to you. Sometimes you get no say. And the ones who find meaning in the pain,

who brush themselves off and carry on into the night, well, they're the ones with the power to change themselves in the world. Someone once told me that no one further along than you will ever try and bring you down. That it's the people who see you pursuing your dream and are reminded that they've given up on theirs that usually make the most noise. And, you know, knowing this essentially invalidates all criticism. Who cares? It's the metaphorical dog nipping at your ankles.

One, it's to be expected and two, often best ignored. The question is, are you able to separate it out as just part of the process? Can you ignore all that stuff that's sort of hovering around you as you walk your path? Or do you let it in? Do you personalize it? Do you make it bigger than it is? Imagine a world where you protected dearly the things you let into your mind. You understood that things don't happen.

to you, they merely happen. And you get to choose what they'll mean. Imagine if you lived with enough conviction to do what excited you, what felt right, knowing that, sure, some folks might have something to say, but that's just a tiny variable in the great play of life. It's rain on a summer day. You pick up the umbrella and you carry on. It's hard to describe.

But we never really understand how little these social variables will mean until some time has gone by. I often think about being younger in caring so much, right, as a kid about being quote-unquote cool or uncool. I didn't say where or do certain things because, you know, fitting in was so important. I cared what my friends or classmates might think. We all did, right? And looking back now, it's like, what would I tell that version of me? It's pretty easy and pretty clear now, actually, is years of past. I'd say, do what feels right.

What we often feel to realize is that that very same concept applies to the present day. The things that feel big now probably aren't, right? There are little details masquerading as life or death decisions. just like they were when I had to have, you know, that Power Ranger backpack or my life would be over. It's fear of judgment. But I learn again and again what really matters, you know, was I good to the people around me. Did I do what mattered to me? And did I do it with conviction?

I think it can be that simple. Hold tightly the meaningful things and don't let the other noise infiltrate your peace. In early 2020, I decided I'd go to North Carolina for a little bit. And I wasn't exactly sure how long, but I knew that I needed to go. It felt right. I had a friend up there, some work I wanted to do up there. And so basically, I got rid of so many things I owned that what was left fit into my little two-door Cadillac. That's not a lot of things.

You know, spent some time up there, enjoyed it, got a lot done. when it was time to go back to Florida, you know, I'm planning my trip and I realized, oh my God, I have a U-Haul full of things. Having a little place to stay, right, eating basic things, some cheap furniture, some technology. Not because it was intentional, but because it was unintentional, right? Because when you don't pay attention, our natural inclination

is to pick unnecessary things up. I think our personal lives are similar. We collect things without protecting the core that matters most, allowing life to ultimately become so cluttered that we can't differentiate. How can you tell what's important when you have a U-Haul full of things? What's important when you let too much into your life? You end up with shelf space for the opinions of those who wouldn't even come by and visit if you were in the hospital. The words of people who don't have your best interest at heart.

The fears of what could go wrong. The ego not allowing vulnerability. These things have no teeth when life is simple. Protecting your world is one of the most powerful things you can do. Being the gatekeeper for your mind is strength. Criticism, haters, skeptics. It's not that these things don't exist. It's that they will fall around you like rain as you move on to better things.

You don't stop because of them, just like you don't go. them just like you don't go because of them. You simply exist with and move alongside them. You understand why they're there, but you don't give them the luxury of infiltrating your inner peace. You do not let them in. Your world within is precious. And as you navigate the external world, we have to choose wisely what gets permitted. Recently, I was thinking about something a friend of mine named Tom told me a few years back. He owns a company in Oklahoma City and was telling me about how someone he'd hired

essentially stole from him. And the first question that came to my mind as he was telling the story was, okay, what are you going to do about it? And I asked him the question, and he was kind of quiet for a second and then asked in his southern accent, Eddie, if a snake bites you, are you going to chase it into the woods to get your revenge?

Or are you going to get the medical attention required to save yourself? Basically, are you going to focus on the past? Or on what to do from here forward? Basically, he cut ties with the person but had moved on. Was already thinking about next steps that were best for him, his family, and his business. And I can tell you, since hearing that, it's become an incredibly valuable idea in my life. Especially as you realize that there will never be a shortage of problems. You do what you can to avoid them.

You try to steer clear when possible, but adversity will always be a factor. It's about knowing that and stepping into it regardless. It's just something that's always intertwined in our development. And I find value in asking myself, is this action I'm about to take conducive to my growth and my happiness or am I just chasing snakes? Does this just feel good in the short term because I'm angry or I've been wronged or something along those lines?

Especially since most harm inflicted on others derived from incompetence, not malice, and I truly believe that. I think very frequently we attribute sinister motives to others when 99% of the time it's sheer stupidity. It's imperfect humans trying to navigate an often complex world. We make mistakes. Now, I'm not suggesting you don't stand up for yourself when you've been wronged or slighted. Of course you should. But the magic is in not personalizing the situation.

by possessing the emotional IQ to understand, hey look, it's not about me, but whether I can salvage this situation from here. And that depends solely on how I choose to look at. Emerson wrote, people do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. And what a powerful point.

The flexibility and the leeway available to us when it comes to making sense of the world speaks to not how the world is, but how the onlooker thinks and interprets. De-personalizing the situation is one of the greatest superpowers at our disposal. When you're angry and accusatory, you will, as Tom put it, end up chasing snakes. You'll end up breaking things that will need to be rebuilt and uttering words you'll wish you'd never spoken. But the five seconds required to pause, to collect yourself, and realize that you're in control is everything. The ability to see the person, the situation or the world, not as an adversary stacked against you, but as an inevitable challenge that must be managed.

So how will you choose to manage it? How will you choose to arrange the... And by the way, I'm fully aware the constant. dame for my speeches and podcasts and videos is the act of pointing not out at the world but in at ourselves my responsibility my fault my problem to deal with i understand just how heavy that is how hard that can be especially when deflecting blame often feels like it would just be a tremendous weight off of our shoulders when revenge feels like the easy in doing intuitive move. But again, it's short-term relief to truly grow, to find the calm and happiness

and meaning we long for. It's the internal relationship with ourselves that matters most. It's the ability to say, I may not have created this, or even, you know, I may have made the mistakes that brought this to life, but I can't fix it until I look at both the situation and my own reflection and proclaim it's mine now. Let the past be the past. Now it's me and the present. And as far as I'm concerned, the present and opportunity,

they are always one in the same, so long as we choose to see it that way. It's not what you look at, it's what you see over and over and over again. and over again. Is it happening to you or for you? Is it a problem or an opportunity, a setback, or a chance to reset?

I want to bring to light a story, one that I've told before. But it's so perfectly representative of the conversation. Jim Rohn talking about two brothers and an abusive household. Alcoholic father, terrible childhoods. You know, they grow up in, Both of the sons have families of their own. One is the exact same as his father. He's abusive and he's angry.

And the other one is a great father. He's kind, he's loving, he's supportive. And when asked why, the abusive brother replies, look at my childhood, right? How could you blame me for this? The other brother, when asked, responds, look at my childhood, right? How could I let myself treat my family the same way?

And in a way, one spent his life chasing snakes, bitter, resentful. The other one asked, well, that was terrible, but what can I do to right the wrong? One personalized it. The other used it as a lever or stepping stone. And this is, of course, a simplification, but I believe every struggle we face in our lives at its core contains some element of this choice. From the little things to the big things, where do I go from here? It's mine now and I can choose whether to make it better or worse.

Chase the snake into the woods or march forward to find the value and write the ship. Remember that when it's hardest, when you least want to. Remember that the present contains every single thing you need to begin a journey to recovery, to growth, to contentment and meaning. You, on your end, though, need to be willing to slow down the moment. Need to be willing to collect yourself and give yourself permission to take that necessary and appropriate step. I recently came across a simple yet powerful idea.

It's that when you become accustomed to you become accustomed to you. to doing the hard things, life becomes easy. When you become accustomed to only doing the easy things, life becomes hard. It's a trade-off of sorts. Little example that I think epitomizes this idea. I recently just started cold plunging in the morning. So right now, I'm doing about six minutes in 38-degree water. And I'm thinking that my body will acclimate to it over time,

that it will get a little bit easier as I move forward into this. But right now it's pretty uncomfortable. But you do what you can. You breathe deep and ultimately you get through it. And as I was in there today, I thought of three ideas that I think are worth sharing. So they all have to do with sitting in the cold plunge, which is where I was when I thought of them,

and then I'll sort of pull them up, expand them out to everyday life, which I obviously love to do and I think is impactful. Here are the three ideas. The first one is don't give your brain room to negotiate. When you have your mind made up, when you're set on a target, you go. First thing I was told when getting in the cold plunge

is don't stop, don't feel the water, don't get in slowly, don't give your rational brain an opportunity to do any convincing or negotiating. Go get in, right, before you. your body realizes how cold it is and can talk itself out of it. Because by the time you realize what's going on, you're submerged. You've already begun.

And as we know, beginning is often the hardest part. Number two is you can do anything if you make the discomfort work for you. You don't work for the discomfort. So it's about positioning yourself to focus on the right things. which this exercise reinforces. You count the time, you play mental games, you make each of the six minutes its own thought experiment, whatever you need to do to get through it.

And, you know, this video right now, this episode, the idea for it happened between minutes three and four. You know, that's just value that was squeezed out of the process. I started calling this 60 seconds between minute three and minute four, the bridge. In my mind, I hype it up as the most important minute. That way the last two feel like a celebration and not the most difficult. And sure, it's silly, it's ridiculous, but that's exactly the point. Right, it's what works for me.

It's the name of the game. It's positioning the little pieces around yourself so that you are able to do difficult things in that environment. And third, the takeaway, right? I feel amazing afterwards, which I was hesitant to call anything but a placebo for about a week or two, but definitely the inflammation in my body's noticeably lower, that soreness in my forearm and elbow, which occurs after most workouts is better. But not only that, everything else throughout the day in comparison is more comfortable. It's that simple.

Life is relative. Running a mile is hard, but not compared to running six miles. The work I've scheduled is challenging, but not the same kind of challenging as being submerged in 38 degree water. It creates perspective. It's as though I've built a foundation to do the hard things with less trepidation and far more enthusiasm, which is a beautiful thing. So let's take these three thoughts and bring them a bit outside of the cold plunge. Why do we not want to give our brains room to negotiate. Why jump right into the metaphorical ice water? Because when we go, we give ourselves something to react to. We create change. The worst thing we can do is very often nothing, but that doesn't keep our brains from screaming, stop. It's too dangerous. It's too

uncertain. It's too cold or hot or different or challenging. The simple act of moving forward with conviction is so powerful. Teach your brain that losing isn't whatever exists outside the door. Losing is doing nothing. Losing isn't the discomfort of the cold water. It's getting your hand in the cold plunge so slowly that you talk yourself out of it. Pick your North Star and go there.

Next, on making the discomfort work for you, this is a perspective shift. It occurs when you start seeing what's uncomfortable, not as a stop sign, but as a challenge, as the good stuff, the water that grows the plant. It's not supposed to be easy. That's the point. No puzzle is easy, right? Again, the question is, how do you arrange the pieces so that they become manageable?

Your innovation and your imagination are required. Make this, you know, we'll call the discomfort an opportunity. Make this opportunity work for you. When the instinct is to stop or quit or run, ask how you can take that feeling and make something with it. Find your value between those minutes three and four. Alter the rules to your game so that you come out on top. I've found this to make a big difference in life's outcomes. You don't work for the discomfort.

It works for you. Lastly, remember why. That little exercise every day is six minutes, at least right. now. Six hard minutes that makes the rest of my day easier. Six minutes that unlocks a tremendous advantage. The little hinge that swings the big door. We do the hard things because they make the rest of life easier. It makes me feel physically better, mentally stronger and accomplished, and let's face it, people follow through on who they believe themselves to be. Someone who's willing to do. Someone who's willing to do the difficult thing is very hard to beat in other aspects of life. The moments of enduring

short-term discomfort, they're not trivial or unnecessary, they set us up for those big picture victories. They become defining in the long run. So with that said, is this an endorsement of cold plunges? It could be, if that's your thing. But it could be any exercise or action you deliberately immerse yourself into for the purpose of growth. Anything that reminds you enduring the discomfort of today opens up the possibility of a new world entirely tomorrow. It's an easier life brought you by a willingness to do what is not easy.

This morning I went down the street to go to this class. It's basically 45 minutes of body circuits in a heated room, which I love. I love mixing that in with the running that I do. And basically the thing kicks off. And somewhere in, you know, maybe the last third of the class, we were doing some weighted squats. And right at that point where, you know, you're in the thick of things, your legs start to burn, heart rate's elevated,

and you can start to, you know, really feel the temperature of the room. The instructor said something that I thought was absolutely incredible. She goes, and I'm paraphrasing, the discomfort that you feel right now is a privilege. It's a privilege to suffer through this. It's a privilege to be here working on yourself when most people are at home. It's a privilege to be in a position to move through the resistance you feel right now. And that message moved me. And how can you even think about discomfort after that perspective had been laid out?

How can you see a few minutes of fatigue as anything other than the small price of improvement? It's funny how the same things we consider to be torture or punishment, if they're externally required of us, they become empowering when we know that we deliberately chose them. You know, in this feeling, it was definitely self-induced. It was chosen, right? I decided to be there in class that day. It was what I needed.

To become just a little bit better, to obtain just a little bit more. And what a privilege. I've learned over the years to manage pain. You have to. You have to immerse yourself in an often less than ideal short term so that you can bring about results of greater magnitude. I've always accepted this.

I've always known it to be true. I believe, you know, in my own world, I've sacrificed accordingly. But I don't recall the last time I was overtly thankful for the obstacles in my way. I don't remember the last time I saw my struggle not as a necessary burden, but a gift. There's something not thrown at me but presented to me. Think for a second about the finitude of life, the one in the one in the one in the way. The one in 400 trillion odds of being born, a number that I came across somewhere that I certainly can't validate,

but I don't think you need to to get the point, right? The odds of being here are incredibly slim. Yet somehow we won. We all received winning lottery tickets. Here we are. On a strange planet with options to choose from, Paths to decide between and a giant ticking clock. And given these circumstances, aren't we doing a disservice to ourselves to not at least see what we're capable of?

What we can do, build, create, and become? I certainly think so. And what is the cost of that evolution? It's discomfort. It's forging our future by walking. through fire. It means intentional hardship. And to not see that as the gateway to life's infinite opportunity is missing the mark. Why shouldn't you feel lucky about yourself transforming in real time? Why shouldn't you feel proud of paying a steeper price for a

better view? Why shouldn't you be delighted to unpack the mystery and the adventure contained in life. This isn't something you have to do on your way to point B. This is something you get to do on your journey to become whoever you choose to become. So when the pressures of life press down upon us, test us, perhaps solely acknowledging its utility is insufficient.

Maybe it's more. Maybe it's something that should be celebrated, adored. Today was a reminder to be thankful for the body that can endure the turbulence. Thankful for the mind that can manage and overcome the chaos. Thankful for the opportunity to be here to begin with and the freedom to choose the difficult thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to live in.

such a way that as I place my head on the pillow each and every night, I'm grateful for the privilege. Dear Keeper of Dreams, I've written before, but 10 years ago you looked different, way different. In 2013, it was impossible to miss you. You stood out like a sore thumb, everywhere I looked, there you were. Your goal was to intimidate. Your power wasn't crying out worst-case scenarios and pointing me to that fear that always seemed to be buried just beneath the surface.

You sure were something. In a little bit of times past, Keeper of Dreams, it's safe to say you're still there, perhaps as strong as ever, but you're certainly not the same. Is I've evolved, so of you. A little more subtle, a little more camouflaged, a little more strategic. See back then when things were chaotic, when the wheels were coming off the wagon, all you

had to do was scream. All you had to do was wave your hands in the air and tell me the things I wanted were way too dangerous. That getting them would hurt way more than the status quo. to do was tell me I'd be better off looking out the window for the rest of my life wondering what could have been. Because at least I'd be safe. Suffering by that window is far easier than suffering out in the big, bad world. That was your pitch. And for a while it worked. But ultimately, the pain of staying was too much. The curiosity too great I had to know. I had to see

if I could build a world that meant something to. Keeper of Dreams, you failed in holding me down. You lost, at least back then. But as we grow, as the game progresses and the rules change, Keeper of Dreams, so have your tactics. You've improved. You don't attempt to blatantly scare me anymore. Your objective isn't to instill fear out in the open

or make me tremble at the thought of an unknown tomorrow. Your objective is to distract me with the now. It's to make it so that I don't think about tomorrow at all. You want me to be so consumed with what I have now that I get lost in it, to relish in the certainty I've created. You hope I stay comfortable. Because keeper of dreams, nothing is so dangerous comfort and you know that. You know it would be both reasonable and easy to focus on maintaining

and not growing, to preserve, and not to expand. Each chapter in the Book of Life has its seasons, and now it appears we're in a different kind of winter. It's not as cold, it's not as dark as 2013. I could theoretically now sit by a fire and wait this thing. out in how happy you'd be to hear that Keeper of Dreams. The thought of me numb and content, you want nothing more than to be that governing body that assigns trivial and meaningless tasks that keep me preoccupied in the now while everything good sails away. But Keeper of Dreams, you'll fail. You'll fail again and again. You will continuously come up short. As Will Durant wrote, empires are stoic in their assent and Epicurean in their demise.

People are no different. I won't be tempted by the luxuries of an easier existence when times are good, just like I won't be held down by the discomfort when they are not. Urgency will be manufactured. Greatness will be pulled from the earth, resilience shaped from the chaos that surrounds me. Know that I will always be moving forward. Despite your every wish and your every effort, not because I'm ungrateful for the now,

but because for this life I am beyond grateful, so indebted that I want to capture all its magnificence and leave it better than I found him. As a friend of mine recently said, I want that dash on my tombstone to represent courage. A dream realized. Keeper of dreams in aiming to keep me down, you propelled me forward.

You weren't my undoing, but my incentive to grow. And by the way, that will be how this story ends. Higher and higher until all that's left is your your ashes and your attempt that you tried, that you really did, but you didn't keep any dreams, you helped give them life. And what a twist in the story. Keeper of dreams? Thank you.

I simply couldn't have done it without you. There has to come a time when it's now or never. Well, you look at your reflection and realize the cost of weight. is far more expensive than the cost of stepping out into the vast unknown. In every journey, that's when life effectively starts. But here's why this is so tricky. What's caught me off guard so many times in my life, it's the many shapes that wading takes.

See, waiting is not always sitting there and doing nothing, not at all. Sometimes waiting is just the bare minimum. It's moving forward so slightly and so slowly that you can essentially trick yourself into thinking that you're progressing. Into thinking you're making it happen. When if you really stopped and looked, if you were honest with yourself, if you really took a second to review, to analyze, you'd see that you're leaving almost everything on the table. You're not creating progress.

You're dancing with the idea of progress. Sometimes waiting can mean just going fast enough to not have to look at the fear you're hiding behind. That's reality, right? I think it's a very normal thing, but I also think life is too short for normalcy. I think we can do better than normal. And I believe with all my heart and soul that the world has for us the spectacular, sitting

there on the top shelf, waiting for those who can acquire the self-belief and the awareness to reach out and grab it. And how crazy a thought to realize that we could have been sitting next to the very thing we've needed for days, months, years, but never taught ourselves to extend our hands and reach. When I look back the most important moments in my life, we're not tangible acquisition. And see the flashy things that try and capture our attention, right, the money, the condos, even social media growth, business growth, whatever it is you're working towards. Those things are wonderful.

They are benchmarks that hopefully align with your North Star, but they are not the difference makers. Not at all, right? They were the byproduct of what really mattered. They weren't the moments that moved the needle. My greatest moments were mental shifts, cognitive transformations. That's why I do this for a living. I see how much can change when we step back and look at life.

just a little differently. It was my realizing that I was demanding too little of myself. That the world won't seek greatness in me until I see it in me. That shift that pushed me to demand more of myself. Seek bigger challenges. Value my work to a greater extent.

Charge more for my services. And that mental shift is what made some of those externalities possible. It's realizing that if you want it, more is on the table. That yesterday doesn't define you. That it's never too late to begin again. That everything you need you have, right? These are the ideas that truly change lives. They make the difference. And if we don't become aware of these things, we leave them in the rear view. We walk right by them. In other words, the most important moments of my life were when

someone or something shook me and effectively said, hey, look around you. If this is what you want, fine, enjoy. Right. But for your information, there is more out there. And if you step up just a little, if you do just a little more, if you pivot and come at this thing a little bit differently, you will further that reach. You'll create another ripple effect that will transform your life.

But we must stop and look around. A good friend of mine, and this is just the other day, right? We're having lunch. We're talking about marketing, and we always joke that marketing is just a part of the business that I don't particularly enjoy, right? Necessary, but not my favorite. And we're going through kind of different strategies, ideas. And he presents one.

And I say something like, eh, you know, I don't need to do that. It seems a little over the top. And unfiltered, he goes, man, you're hurting your reach. Like, what good is that metaphorical restaurant that's not on anyone's radar? You're going to be the best pizza shop that no one knows about. And it just kind of hit me, right? It's like, man, I needed to see that differently. Maybe there's room to be a little more aggressive.

Again, one example of many. and not every time is the idea or opportunity the right one or necessary one, right? But at least you stopped, at least you thought about it, at least you contrasted where you are with the potential upside of doing something differently. That is where we leave opportunity on the table. You know, we most often, myself included, paint regret as this, the result of this blatant walking away. from something. A deliberate declaration, sort of a, oh, no, I'm not doing that, no way. And sure, sometimes that's the case. Sometimes we're cognizant of our fear and declined to move

forward, but I wonder how often our neglect or refusal is softer, more subtle. I wonder how much of our regret comes from simply not stopping and looking around, not letting in alternative points of view that challenge us and force us to level up. How much of our regret comes from simply not understanding how short life is and how quickly time passes us by. And if we don't create some abrupt change in our day to day, if we don't manufacture some momentum in our lives, even when it feels least ideal to do so, the ship we needed to be on will sail away without us.

So think back to your hardest days. Even the ones that took you out, that brought you to your knees, and realized that you survived every single one of them. You have, for years, been acquiring the armor, piece by piece, to move into something bigger. You've been learning. You've been evolving.

but today what about sitting down with yourself and having the discussion you don't want to have but need to have? What about asking if it's time to leap where you once step? To run where you once walked? What about taking a good look around and asking why you're living in ways that don't serve you? Why you're conceding so much of what matters? Again, the evolution you want and need is there. It's always there, and that's the key takeaway here.

It will always exist. But the question is, will your commitment to stop, to think, and to reach for it be there? Years from now, looking back, I think we'll find that our willingness to ask those questions mattered more than we could have ever imagined. That silence often implies the lack of adversity needed to evolve. Because the reality you want, it doesn't come to you. You must go to it. And that means re-approaching today's normalcy and comfort, seeing those things for what they are,

a continuation of the status quo. Nothing changes until you change. So take a look around, examine those pillars holding up your world, you. Not once, but over and over again. And if one, many, or all of them must be knocked down, then so be it. The point here is that you can build. The point here is that life happens on your terms, whether you realize it or not, that doing nothing is accepting what things are. It's a head nod and a thumbs up to reality as is. So again, ask yourself what you want out of life. And if you are missing that mark, tear down what must be torn down.

It might be hard now. It might hurt now. It might be uncomfortable now. But when you're eventually standing upon an existence that aligns with who you are and what you want, you'll see how necessary it all was. how it was there the whole time and thank God you found it within yourself to reach out and take it

there's a really cool clip of Steve Jobs in 1997 he's on stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference back a little over a decade after originally being fired by Apple he's taking questions from the audience and this particular guy stands up and grabs the mic and asks a vicious question. He basically tears into jobs. I'm implying that he doesn't know what he's talking about, questioning the value that he brings to the company.

It's just super aggressive. And I think one of the reasons it stuck with me all these years is because upon hearing it, you know, my instinct, as an observer was to be insulted for Steve Jobs. The guy just got lit up. And you'd think he'd fire back, defend himself and his accolades, of which there were obviously plenty to draw from,

but that's not what he does at all. He instead does two things in particular that have, over time, added tremendous value to my worldview. The first thing, as I was kind of alluding to there, is he didn't at all get angry or defensive, which may seem like an easy thing to do, but again, observing it, like you can feel the tension there.

It's like Jobs saw the criticism as merely procedural. That's it, right? There's something to be expected as one builds. He completely depersonalized the attack as it was being fired his way. His exact quote was, you know, you can please some of the people, some of the time. But one of the hardest things when you're trying to affect change

is that people like this gentleman are right in some areas. And I'll explain what he means when he says the guy's right in a minute or two here. But that response totally reduced the tension by 90%. Right? Understanding that there are going to be people who have things to say, a virtual question, your ability and your effectiveness. And if you're looking from a 10,000 foot view, that's to be expected. And this is a part that was shocking to me, warranted. He says the criticism is warranted.

Growth is messy and sloppy and a work in progress. And so criticism will, from time to time, hit the nail right on the head. And you as a designer and creator have to know that you'll both make mistakes and be called out for them. That's the way it goes. That's the contract one signs with the world in order to bring to life those things that are not yet visible. It's scary. It's intimidating, right? At least at first. Again, my reaction was to get defensive. But I think what made Steve great, as he smiled and jokingly said, here we go, made question, was the reassurance that, look, I signed up for this. So in actuality it's a good thing. It's not an attack. It is growth.

And I try and keep that in my back pocket as I do my thing, right? It's sharing your thoughts, it's a vulnerable thing. And if you are going to fall apart or crumble, anytime someone's not totally in love with where you are at the moment or what you're creating or your last piece of work, you're in for a, you know, a rude awakening. It's going to be a long journey. So that depersonalization is everything and incredibly valuable. And the second part brought a ton of value to me as a creator as well, just in a different way. And this is the part that I alluded to earlier when Steve said that his critic was in some way correct. You know, when he was being hounded about his knowledge gap in some specific technology, right?

I'm not really sure what the technology was. But Jobs basically explain that you're right. I'm not an expert there, but it's not about the specific technology or the minutia. It's about giving your consumers, your audience, the world what it wants. It's about having a big picture, a vision. And that's what made Jobs so special. He didn't need to be involved at such a level of granularity. The vision changed.

It revolutionized technology because it was reverse engineered and brought to life. Here's this exact quote. Jobs said one of the things I've always found is you've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it.

And I've made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room and I got the scar tissue to prove it and I know that it's the case. End quote. That was an incredible thing for me to hear. If anything, because so often we get caught up in the weeds, right, we let the details drive the decisions, whether it's technology or anything else. I often think of that, you know, in my world. Don't worry about what's in place right now.

Worry about where you need to be and then backfill to make it happen. And sure, you know, some people might not get it. And sure, it will certainly mean you'll have to delve into everything. areas you don't quite understand as you seek to support that vision or bring it to life. But that's the price that must be paid because vision is king. And so, taking those two concepts I just talk about if you were to combine them, you'd walk away with the understanding that, one, growth is sloppy, criticism is inevitable. And two, don't forget that adding value to the world should light your path.

not the little details that peak your interest along the way right not everyone is going to get it as you build and that's okay the way i see it everyone is building something and as they build you know will surely come face to face with some sort of resistance and while it's not always easy there's value in finding the strength to smile to yourself and understand that resistance is merely part of growth it's a necessary component of your evolution as you add value to the world, as you seek to leave yourself and the world around you better than it was yesterday. Aristotle has a quote that states, to avoid criticisms, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. What a waste that would be of the potential and greatness contained within you to let it slip away for fear of what might be said.

As Jobs explained, you can please some of the people some of the time, but it's not about that. The benchmark is not being perfect and never making anyone angry. No, it's seeking to bring to life that which does not yet exist. Trusting yourself and your vision. It's not taking personal that which is merely part of the process. Because when the storm arrives, that will ultimately carry you through to the most incredible, incredible things you'll have ever done in your life. Deciding who you'd like to be most often starts with leaving the parts of you

you no longer want to carry around. So reminisce. Think back, examine. Because you didn't just arrive at today. This moment is the result of thousands upon thousands of steps and conversations. conversations and decisions. Our lives are sculpted like ocean shores, one wave, one gust of wind at a time.

And sure, there were certainly events that expedited the process. But the point is, holistically, landscapes take time to materialize, as did this one. But you're not confined to this moment. In fact, you in and of itself is an idea. You is a story that incorporates the things you used to do,

places you used to go, people you used to know. You is not right now. You is how you summarize the path that created right now. But you can change because you will always mean what you decide it does. So reminisce, think back, examine, and feel the warmth of the good times, bask in the moments that lit up your soul. But don't be afraid to pull back the curtain on those things that, well, maybe you aren't too proud of, the things that no longer defines you, perhaps never defined you to begin with.

Because, see, before we cut ties with those stories and send them out to see, we must do the hard work of recognizing what they are. Before we can identify the life to be lived, we have to be able to see the one that will live no more. And so it's okay to walk down that road. Those things are no longer you. They are ideas, old ideas, bad ideas, and so they will be relegated to the sands of time.

They played their part as everything does And now it's time So reminisce Think back, examine Grab what you love and let it become your guiding light Take hold of the meaningful And pour it into the new you The one you're making now

The one that matters now You'll need it Because the old you it'll try to reemerge. It'll present itself in the shape of old faces with old expectations. Old places connected to old habits, old stories that just don't want to end. But these characters, they played their part.

And thank God they did, because now they're recognizable. Now you know to cut ties. You know, I wish it weren't so. I think we all do, but sometimes life requires that we touch that burning hot stove in order to understand that it's hot. It's easy to dismiss these occurrences as a bad thing or wasted time,

but I think they're a beautiful thing. Recognizing and mitigating our mistake leaves us with a new foundation to build on a blank canvas. It makes you not a prisoner to yesterday's work, it makes you an artist again, a designer, a creator. So reminisce. Think back and examine.

But not to hold on. Reminous to let go. To say the goodbyes that will make space for the hellos. To free yourself of excess that will make space for the necessities. You've spent a long time designing you. Some of it ideal, but all of it valuable in its own unique way. The reality is that now, in this current moment, not all of it needs to come with you. So reminisce, think back, examine, so that before you move ahead, you know exactly what needs to be left behind.

I remember running one day. This was years ago now. I lived a little bit further south. I was jogging down the Hollywood Beach boardwalk. And that particular day happened to be a struggle. I think I just underestimated the heat and felt beat up on my way back. But as I was passing all these people

who were walking on the boardwalk, some going to the beach, some were going to get food, everyone was kind of doing their thing. I just remember thinking how funny it was that in that, you know, that one second glance that happens between two people as they pass one another, that no one I was passing knew how awful I felt. And they'd never know. It felt odd to me that so much hurt could be hidden in plain sight.

Not that in a million years I'd want them to know or they needed to know, but it's the idea that this bridge between their world and mine would never be crossed, that my little hell was the secret the Hollywood boardwalk would keep forever. In a way, it's kind of crazy to think about. How someone can be going through their own struggle, and it's never apparent to passers by. Think about that. The vast majority of chaos on planet Earth, it goes unseen. Everyone's just kind of carrying around their own invisible burdens. That Hollywood boardwalk probably keeps more secrets than I can comprehend. And you know, I've talked about this before, how over time, one of my biggest mental shifts was detaching from this notion that everyone has it all figured out and I'm the one stumbling through.

Everyone else jumps out of bed, you know, excited, screaming, let's go world, let's do this, right? Well, I dealt with my unease and my concerns. And that's just wrong, right? Yeah, there's certainly variability in everyone's problems. We're not all the same. But everyone, everyone is climbing their own mountain. Everyone has their own cross to bear. I remember a quote from Victor Frankel, he said,

To draw an analogy, a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus, suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore, the size of human suffering is absolutely relative. eye-opening message, relative and felt by all. See, there's two things I take from this. First, and probably the most obvious, I think it calls for us to be more compassionate to others,

at least as much as we can. I've fallen short here plenty of times we all do, but it reminds us that it should be a North Star. And two, there's a pragmatic element here. Signifying that very rarely is what goes on around us about us. Very rarely is it personal. You know, because often our first instinct is to assign intentionality to things that happen around us. How could this happen to me?

How could they do this to me? And in truth, it's just not about you. Again, the deepest, most complex aspects of human beings are invisible to everyone but the person they're happening to. Everyone is, to some extent, running down their own boardwalk on a hot summer day. So going back to that example, let's make up a scenario. Let's say I clumsily bumped into someone, ran too close to them. They could think, jerk, they could think get in your lane, they could think pay attention, have some respect, I'm walking here.

But would that situation be the product of my disrespect? Or would it be the fact that I'm exhausted, that I'm hot, that I'm dehydrated and only counting steps in my head, buildings could have been collapsing around me and I would have had no idea. I'm focused on making it through. See, there's value. in understanding this. So much value.

The world is not working against you. It's comprised of 8 billion souls with different movies playing in their heads. And you can get more from it when you understand that. You can be more valuable when you understand that. You can give yourself more grace when you understand that.

People cannot see your pain and you can't see theirs. But it is a shackle being removed to take life's events less personally, less seriously even. As you create something beautiful in your own world, understand that there are no true adversaries. I remember reading in the Four Agreements a while back, and this is kind of a sloppy paraphrasing,

but people don't do things because of you. They do things because of themselves. And so as you run your race, as you make your way into the world. Understand that everything around you is assigned value by you. And those passers by aren't for or against you. They are in the midst of various personal journeys

trying to run their own races. As are you. Look, the sun is hot. That humidity can be suffocating. The path laid out before you is long. These are tough obstacles that you have to overcome, that we all have to overcome. And in time you will. But don't create additional adversaries that do not exist.

Don't imprison yourself with stories that don't hold up. It's not all about you. And understanding that, as it turns out, can be what makes all the difference. The difference. I woke up this morning to the songbird, singing her sweet melodies like only she knows how. Perched above the street, looking down at the people, the cars, but somehow indifferent to all that beloved. Like her heart was fully immersed in her song. So I got out of bed, open the curtains, and let the early morning sun make its way into my room. I reveled. in the moment.

It was both simple and perfect two things that often go hand in hand. And as I made my way to the kitchen for that cup of coffee, I had a thought. That little songbird out there, she'll never understand

how beautiful she is. She'll never know that she made my morning just a little brighter, or that she helped lift my spirits after a less than I deal yesterday. No, she's just doing her. And in return, making a mark on a world that needs what she has to give. So what? Well, maybe there's something we can learn from the songbird as we go about making our way in the world. As far as I'm concerned, there have been two great challenges

in my life, finding my song. And then, I'm concerned, there have been two great challenges in my life. And then, and finding the courage to sing it. Or perhaps put another way, discovering who you are and then holding on tight in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else, as Emerson said, is the greatest accomplishment. It will always be a challenge

to bring our thoughts to life because, well, people tend to only see what's placed right in front of them. It's just not realistic to place tomorrow at someone's feet, but here's the magic. I don't think that songbird cares about being realistic. See, over time, we've done quite the dance, reality and I. Like a tug of war on where to lean and where to pull.

What's worth my time, what's not, when to stay, and when to go. It's a gray area that I've had to work through, and I know others have as well, trying something new, taking a risk, sharing their art with the world, going down a path with the high probability of failure. You know, when maybe we think we've found our song and we're singing and we're singing, but no one seems to hear her. That's when the status quo has never looked so tempting, so ideal.

When settling for the easy path has never seemed so appealing. No, never as appealing is when our songs seem to get lost in the ether. We know how hard it is to give a piece of ourselves to the world, and it seems odd not to get something back. But, you know, I think this is when you must sing with all your heart and soul. Just like that songbird, indifferent to life below the branches of its tree. Well, so should you be. to the factors existing outside the realm of what's best for you. It's not easy to uncover what makes you feel alive,

and when you find that, live it. Own it, sing it at the top of your lungs, because it may seem like it's falling on deaf ears. But you just might be someone else's somberd, oblivious, like my feathered friend outside, to the beauty you are creating by just being you. by sharing what means the most to you with the world that, whether you realize it or not,

needs to hear your soul. So Songbird, sing. Yeah, for you, but also for the world. What if those less than ideal things in our lives? Right? So our limitations, our constraints. The aspects of life we consider to be, you know,

a bad hand. What if they weren't just things we need to learn to accept or little tragedies we have to live with? What if they were ultimately the aspects of our lives that create the best of us? The elements of our world that push us to our greatness. And this came to mind earlier. I was listening to a book called How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson. And he explores this point. He talks about Socrates and ancient Athens and how he lived in abject poverty, how, according to the standards of ancient Athens, was not an attractive person by any means, just seemed to have a lot working against him. And the question that's posed is whether these exact circumstances ultimately created the man that became one of the most important

thinkers in history. He implies that his reality and his surroundings shaped his worldview, so it only makes sense for one to conclude that all of it contributed to the life he lived. If Socrates was born wealthy and attractive and all these things, could he have become the man that he became? Probably not. And the reason I love this is because, to put it simply, it reframes those less than ideal circumstances in our lives. Whether it is a personal trait we have no control over or an occurrence we deal with, it's understanding that a lack of ability in one area

helps guide us to that spot where we can thrive. A disappointment we encounter helps us regroup and make our way to the thing that is ultimately best. the less than ideal, the things that at surface levels seem bad or problematic, they're always working for us to push us towards our contentment and our growth to our greatness. I can say on my end, it was the turbulence I experienced in my life that created that sense of curiosity for me. It was a lack of understanding that pushed me to write about life, explore the hardships we face

and the resilience of the human spirit through it all. It's a pretty famous stoic idea that states we can't often control what happens but we can always control how we respond to what happens. And there lies the power and the understanding that when one door closes as the saying goes, you are pushed closer to the one that will open for you. You have to decide whether you will find

it within yourself to open it or will you focus on the lack the gap what's not there what you don't have what went wrong see all those things the things that most people use is their reason to stop or quit or not go they can be the reason you lose or they can be the very reason you win you find a way but that means moving forward trusting there is good to be had, understanding that everything that goes creates space for what truly needs to be there. I understand it's common, right? But it's not just a cliche that adversity creates us, that difficult times shape us. Why? Because we are transformed by the bad and the difficult

and that which in the moment does not seem ideal. Because they force us to move further into what we were meant to do and who we were meant to be. Just like Socrates was created from his adverse situation, his brilliance derived from his circumstance. Your greatness will be derived from yours. So remember that next time you feel as though you've been slighted by life or something's been taken away from you. While it may feel negative and I get it from time to time,

does, it ultimately becomes the wind at your back, bringing you where you most need. So I'm going to share a life lesson with you, something that over the years has been a true game changer. Ready? It's simple. It's very simple. Like most things, it's easy to understand. It's easy to comprehend.

It's the implementation. That's the challenge, right? But it's the idea that progress is not always a visible step forward. Growth is not always a measurable inch or mile to feel good about it, to celebrate. It's not always a tangible victory or pat on the back to smile about it. Sometimes it's sidestepping. Sometimes it's stepping backwards, reminding ourselves to look up and gain perspective. Because we are always inclined to look at the immediate.

That's what feels good. And this lesson says, no, there's a big picture to keep in mind. reels us in. The big picture is what gives us purpose. It drives our happiness. That thing we want on the top of the hill. The North Star, the X on the map, that's what's sustainable. And I say it's been a game changer for me because, you know, one of my biggest adversaries over the years has been that voice in my head, almost pleading with me to indulge in the thing that will bring that immediate result. It's money now, growth now, validation now. There's comfort there. Our minds want that satisfaction. That's why you see all those guys standing next to whiteboard saying they have the

formula to make you rich tomorrow. We want tomorrow. We believe in some capacity that that can be real tomorrow. But that's what tends to lead us astray. And so I've spent a lot of time reflecting over the years on how to incentivize those steps that aren't immediately impactful. There's not the flashy metal you're going to get right now, but I know that if I do it, it's going to bring me to my long-term goal. How do I incentivize that? Because, like I said, the natural inclination is to dismiss it. I'm walking laterally across the mountain so that ultimately I can find the most applicable path and ascend.

And that's a scary thing. You know, building long term gives you very little to immediately slap on a resume, to brag or rant about at holiday parties. There's nothing flashy to impress with, but it's believing in a long-term game, doing what most people can't trade in. that certainty that you could have had for an extraordinary later.

It's never a loss to do what has to be done so that you can position yourself for the future. Sometimes you have to wade through the muck, work quietly in the dark, so that you can build something that you feel will have an impact. It's not a loss to step backwards to tweak the things you're not happy with. It's not a loss to explore or question or reinvent. It's true those actions in and of themselves aren't going to put money immediately in your pockets. But if you find the discipline to see the big picture, you realize that long term those things bring happiness, contentment, excitement, which guess what? Leads to accomplishment and progress

and the financial stability that you're looking for. Chasing flashy things, chasing the immediate moment, yeah, it'd get you a quick rush, a nice blast of dopamine, but it's empty. Ultimately, it's unfulfilling because nothing worth having is good. quick. That's life. But it's often the illusion that guides us. You'll never see how many auditions the 33-year-old actor went through before he was cast in a major film. You don't see that. You don't see the countless hours and shows and midnight gigs in front of three people that the rock star endured. You just don't. It's not celebrating. We celebrate what we see. And what I've learned is that the most important things, they're just not visible to the naked eye. And it's funny.

It's like people, they're ashamed or embarrassed by the fact that they're climbing to the top of their own hill to something truly significant to them. Because the person next to them is bragging about blindly leaping three steps. And that's great. Progress is great. But unless it's taking you to where you want to be most, is it a win? I have many friends that have left six-figure or hire jobs to podcast or create or start their own businesses. And people's first reaction is always like, wow, look what you have. Look what you're walking away from.

We see scarcity. We are naturally inclined to see life through a lens of scarcity. You need to remember that. That's what we do. We establish and protect our well-being. That's why I've worked so hard to transform my thinking over the years. To look out and think, who cares what I had? Look what's out there.

There are no limitations to what can be yours. If you're not on top of the world, make it happen. And I understand. People are complex. Situations, they're not easy. They're intricate. Everyone's different. Everything is different, but there's a principle that's consistent. And it's that you can always improve your situation. That will never be false.

To some degree you can improve your situation. There's always opportunity. It's just what you see. A friend of mine sent me a text yesterday saying the past and the future, they're just imagination. All you have is now. Everything other than split second is the story you're deciding to tell yourself. That's it. Think about that. We're operating off what we decide is really. or imaginary, possible or impossible. We're living in a world that is our own. There's no them or they or crowd, just individual people, all telling themselves some variation of a story.

And so taking this back to the point, caving into that pressure, accommodating to the now so that we feel important, so that our self-worth sees that temporary spike, it neglects the opportunity. It makes us feel like we're stepping forward, that we're progressing, but in reality, are we? That voice, that pressure to conform to what will impress Richard next door, it will always lead to, it will always be to our detriment.

And it takes truly what I believe is the most pure, important aspect of life and sticks it in the closet so that we can feel like we're on par with everyone else. And I'll never forget starting out. And I bring this up a lot because it was one of those moments where I knew I recognized that a huge shift was happening in my life. went out with some friends from college, right? And one's working for a senator, one's a Goldman, one's a lawyer, and I'm thinking, well, you know, geez, I just quit my job. But I have this really cool idea for a YouTube channel. And I just, you know, I don't think any girls are going to be swooning over that.

And I struggled, right? At the time, it was difficult for me. And I look back and I'm just thankful every day that at the time I was able to locate somewhere in my soul the courage to stick that out, to believe that if I executed on this dream, I could have an impact. Because like I mentioned above, it was painful in the moment. But when you think big picture, bigger things happen. I'm doing things now that I never, ever would have been able to do

if I didn't have that desire to do the unconventional thing. If I stopped at sort of the discomfort, or if I stopped when I felt like I was losing this imaginary race to those people around me, I wouldn't have the creative flexibility that I have now. I wouldn't be able to do what I do now. I wouldn't have the people in my life that I have now. You have to earn that every single day.

And it makes me wonder how many people stopped when they could have taken their own path, brought their own unique vision into existence if they didn't retreat when they felt like they were a lone wolf, when it felt like they were losing a race that didn't exist, when they felt like their neighbors were getting ahead, or their classmates or their friends were doing the conventional thing, so they had to.

They were too scared to step backwards, and I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you that step backwards, that ability to temporarily find yourself, to create yourself, that will mean everything. That will open doors for you that would never have existed. You never would have come across them because you would have been too scared to look for them. You have to make opportunities. Simple metaphor.

Gumball machine. Gumball does not come out if you don't put the quarter in and turn it. It's a price that has to be paid. Except in reality, the price is a lot higher than a quarter because we're conditioned to want to fit in. We're terrified to look like we don't know what we're doing. Every significant thing around you stemmed from someone pushing into that unknown. It came from someone risking everything. It's not easy when your family doesn't know what you're doing,

your friends don't know what you're doing, or you don't know what you're doing. But if you want to have an impact, that is the road you have to take. That's the cost you need, the price that you need to pay. It'll be a hard year or two years or three years, but you won't regret it. So hopefully this can be a reminder to you. When I talk about lateral steps, that's the sentiment I'm trying to recreate. I think that's the great thing because it means the people who create, who build something meaningful, they've earned it.

And that's what I tell myself every day. Earn that dream. Earn that change. Take that road less travel. What you're doing right now is not insignificant simply because it's not immediately bearing free. I think if you listen to this back from the top, you'll notice the constant theme, immediate, now, present.

These things are delusioned. As far as results are concerned, the word immediately is a con artist. Action should be immediate, but results. No, they are right. gradual. They require persistence. Stick with it. Remind yourself to look up because that's what you're after. It's a pursuit. You're building a foundation. You're creating the things that permanently alter the artistic and political and social landscapes. That's remarkable. It's the road few have the patience to walk. Remind yourself why you're skipping the small stuff, brushing off the little wins and

losses. Why building something substantial in silence is more powerful than gloating and screaming at the top of your lungs after every visible step. Look up. Reminds yourself that you are going to change the world and you can see it. There's a quote attributed to Seneca that states no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself. Meaning, it's in pursuing the difficult thing that we obtain meaning. Recognition, that we prove ourselves. But prove ourselves to whom? This is the same Seneca who famously stated that we suffer more in imagination than we do in reality.

That he is most powerful who has power over himself. And that's one of the beautiful things about Stoicism. It makes us ask a very simple, but often overlooked question, who's really the adversary here? Who's the opposition we're dealing with as we fight our battles? What is it that must be transformed? Is it the outside world? Or the way our eyes view the outside world?

What's really holding us back? The circumstances? Or our own personal thoughts about the circumstances? circumstances. And I think this is where we misunderstand the challenges before us. I want to delve into this power of perspective to explain that we are the gatekeepers between ourselves and our ideal lives. And very often we do a good job of ensuring that gate stays closed. We sabotage our own goals, our own dreams, our own happiness, while simultaneously pointing the finger at a million externalities.

See, when we look at the difficulties of life, and there's no doubt that life can be a very difficult thing, it's easy to look at the world as this binary playing field, me versus the world. And in fact, we often visualize the world as the enemy pushing back against us, as if its motives were counter to ours. But so many of these narratives, these stories, they actually say nothing about the outside world. And when we look deeper, it becomes apparent that they actually say a whole lot more about us.

It's the one viewing that gets to decipher what the circumstance means. And so all narratives are reflections of the observers. Jim Rohn used to tell a story about two brothers who had an alcoholic father. He'd come home drunk, he'd abuse his sons. They had a terrible childhood. And as they each grew up and had families of their own, their paths kind of diverged. One became abusive, and the other was kind and loving and caring. And when confronted, the now abusive brother stated, well,

Look, how can you blame me? Don't you see how I was raised? But the kind, loving and caring brother, stated, of course I'm like this. I could never put my family through what I went through as a child. Same circumstances. Different lenses, interpretations, which means different real world result. And the idea here is to emphasize how one of the most important abilities, a human being possesses

is the ability to interpret the world around him. I think of us as subjects navigating a world of objects. As though the things around us don't have meaning until we place meaning upon them. That's what humans do. Create narratives out of objects.

And that often overlooked seemingly insignificant ability places a lot of power in our hands. Very rarely is it what we see. It's what we think and what we do about what we see. You ever hang out with people that just tend to be happy, upbeat, positive energy? I have a very good friend like that where his first inclination is always to find the positive. in moments where I've sort of trained myself to pause, take a second, sift through the emotion,

uncover the value in a tough situation, refocus, and take a strategic step forward. I look over at him and he's already arrived there. He's been there for three minutes, right? Eliminated the negativity. It's his first instinct. He's the metaphorical kid hopping around in puddles, whistling at the top of his lungs,

while everyone else is hiding out from the rain. or at least trying to find the courage to run out onto the street with. Then there are people who seem to always find the negative. It doesn't really matter what this situation is. Happiness is fleeting, only to reveal the negativity that never seems to go away, right? The kind of person that if they won the lottery, their first thought might be, oh no, but what if I lose it all?

Both examples are people projecting themselves onto the world around them. The same way that smoke covers and consumes and understands, It's not the room that's the culprit. Here's another example from Jim Rohn, since we're on a Jim Rohn kick. He's making a similar point, and this is all from a collection of speeches. He has on Audible, comparing humans to oranges, which is probably not a comparison you've made recently, but he said, there's consistency to an orange, and that it can be filled with one thing. When you squeeze an orange, orange juice is coming out.

Period. It will never be apple juice or grape food juice. It will only emit what it has inside, which is orange juice. And while here's the connection. When life pressures us, challenges us, or metaphorically squeezes us, we only emit the emotions that are contained and available, that are alive and well within us. If there is no jealousy contained in our thinking,

we're not going to project jealousy out into the world. If there is no hatred within us, we will not project hatred onto others. Why is that powerful? It's powerful. Because, again, it's one of the most important things you can do. Certainly one of the most important things I've learned to do is take that finger pointing blame at the outside world, slowly turn it around and point it back at myself,

and ask, what thoughts, what emotions, what ideas am I letting live inside my head that's altering the narrative, the story I'm telling about myself and the world that I live in? And while one might think, well, that's uncomfortable, that's unfair, a little extreme, why should I point at myself?

It's not my fault. I would challenge you, at least for the sake of the next few minutes, to see such a change as empowering, as your advantage, as the bridge from where you are to where you want to be. See, if you always have feelings of, let's say, jealousy around a particular person, that feeling in your stomach like, oh, they have it all, they're ahead. They live how I want to live. They're this and that, and I kind of hate them for it. naively giving the external world the power. You're saying I feel the way I do because of that

out there, some cosmic injustice. You are powerless because you're neglecting your personal agency as a factor. But when you turn that finger around and say, I only feel this way because I'm allowing myself to, then you can ask the question. So many never think to ask. Why? Why do I feel this way? Which lights a path to how can I fix it? See, the key to a better life is realizing you don't have to be in the passenger seat pointing at and blaming the driver, complaining about the road being taken.

No, you can get into the driver's seat. You can take the wheel. You can take control. Inherit responsibility. there's more at stake, there's greater vulnerability. But the upside is unfathomable. And I find myself thinking all the time, man, people are blaming the wrong things. They're shifting blame to the wrong adversaries.

The real villain here is not the driver or the road or the weather. The real villain is the voice in your head pleading with you not to take the wheel. pleading with you to ride shotgun and complain as the world passes you by. And of course it makes sense to qualify that, with the inevitability that there are some things placed upon us that are just bigger than us, that we can't control. And you can make a list however long you want to, natural disasters, decisions and actions of others, health problems.

We don't often get to choose the landscape. So as the Stoics would say, understand that. Understand what you can't control and what you can. Because the beauty is that you can control how you navigate that landscape, and that is power. That is what makes the difference. See, the two brothers, I mentioned a few moments earlier, same landscape. Different navigational tactics.

Different view of what it all meant. one took the wheel and one did not. So that's Seneca quote. That states, no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself. Well, it's perfectly clear, as far as I'm concerned, the question is not whether or not to face adversity.

I think we all understand that. What I hope we take from today, is a better understanding of what the true adversity is. A better understanding of the fact that in front of us there is always an answer, a key to every lock. Some people just don't think to look. They're so busy peering around every corner for external enemies and scapegoats that they don't give themselves permission to succeed.

Maybe unfortunate, but it's true. You can hit the bull's eye over and over again. But if it's the wrong target, it won't do much for you. You might as well have missed by 50 feet. And I think that is what we overlook. You can't always fix the outside world. You can't change the unchangeable, but you can always change yourself. You can always fix you.

As Tolstoy said, everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. You're capable of being both your greatest adversary and ally. So choose wisely. Because the world around you will do nothing more than respond accordingly to your decision. I'll never forget listening to Jim Rohn. I was taking a walk in the middle of the day. I needed to get out, decompress, rethink, realign. And this message came through.

my headphones. He said, we must all suffer from one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. And I needed that. I needed that because sometimes we forget why. In the midst of the day-to-day, the trials and tribulations of life, we forget why we endure. And there's a strange dichotomy that exists because, you know, you can't measure discomfort that hasn't arrived yet. You can't identify regret that hasn't materialized. Yet in a way, you have to. You have to somehow make that tangible. You have to know that sacrifices of today deliver you from the anguish of I wish, or if only, or maybe I could have. I've heard it said that humans' ability to delay gratification is what makes us so unique, incredible even.

But that doesn't mean it comes easy. So as I walked, I became reacquainted. with the trust that I had in myself, in the future, in the steps I was taking. It wasn't that I'd reached some grand finale, but that I gave myself permission to stop constantly expecting one. Worrying when things didn't go as planned, feeling disgusted with myself when I fell short. This is, after all, part of a process. And if one stays the course, builds a foundation of discipline to guide them towards what they believe in, things will evolve. We feel uncertain because new things don't have a precedent, at least not a personal one.

And that feeling of, I wish I knew or had some predictability, it's real, it's common. But if minimizing regret is what means the most, then it also means that we must have the discipline to walk steadfast into the unpredictability of tomorrow. A long-term sustained discipline. And one of my favorite interviews, Brani Ware, who wrote the top five regrets of the dying, was talking about surrender and how she mentioned in her book. letting go. And I asked her, can you explain that? What's the angle? Because the way I look at life, there's always something you can do. You can always improve your situation somehow. And she basically said,

it's not about what you can control, what you can do. It's about putting yourself in position to live the life you want to live and then letting go of that which you cannot control. It's about not worrying over external forces as you walk your path, because all you can do in life is walk your path. And that became the marker. Or the question, am I walking my path?

Right? Now look at it like this. First, a vision, gives you direction, purpose, keeps you excited, injects meaning into life. Second, discipline keeps you moving, becomes the tiny steps that transport you through your pursuit of meaning. And third, trust in the process. That you are here to give everything you have to give, and then the rest, as Brunney says, must be surrendered. But the reason I bring this up is because all of it fits together like a puzzle, like three pillars of a parthenon. Now when people reach out to me all the time, they're upset

that they're not as disciplined as they'd like to be. And they're listening to the speeches, they're watching the videos, they're absorbing the content, trying to improve. But nothing seems to get the engine going. And I'm wondering, what is your North Star? What are you aiming for? Because as far as I'm concerned, it's impossible to be disciplined if you don't have a reason. You know, when Jim Rohn states that the pain is in ounces now, well, there's an implicit compared to what being asked, right? Compared to that top of the mountain that you'd presumably miss out on. So if the mountaintop's not defined, you're on a fool's errand. It's why I had so much trouble with my old career, for example.

It's hard to be disciplined. There's no buy-in on the purpose. Using my previous metaphor, it's little steps, sure, but towards what? If you don't know, it's only practical then to look around and ask yourself, why am I taking them? Why not go drink with my friends? Why not stream this series on Netflix until 4 a.m.? Why not skip the workout?

You can listen to people on YouTube, scream at you to do more and be more and try harder all day, but without that piece, it will not get you very far. A vision, the discipline to pursue it, and a trust in the process. And you could say the same with someone who might have a clear vision, a dream, a perfect idea of what they want, but never take action, right? The discipline never materializes.

Makes the endeavor just as meaningless. Things don't change until you take that big picture, that vision, and you break it down into little things you can do every day. That's it. And isn't that amazing? The greatest, most influential people from the friends and family that inspire us

to the greatest athletes and athletes and entertainers, to our greatest thinkers, creators, world leaders. All they do is a handful of things consistently every day in the direction of something that is meaningful to them. A process that has been talked about since the beginning of time. The compound effect, as Darren Hardy calls it. That breakthrough was huge for me. The realization that I don't need to leap any mountain.

I just need to ascend one tiny rock at a time, and that is not a superhuman ability. That is a single decision. So here the question isn't, can you be more disciplined? Of course you can. The question is, which few things are most meaningful to you? Which will you be focusing on every day so that they expand and inject that. value into you in the world. And then, lastly, there is trust, sometimes the most difficult, seeing the unseen, maintaining

confidence in that which is unknown. An incredibly challenging expectation in an instantaneous world, a world where things are immediate, feedback is immediate. Messages are sent across the planet instantaneously. spontaneously, goods and services arrive within hours. We have forgotten patience because it is disintegrating before our very eyes. We are a society of now, but the best things in life, they take time. They require that we hold up our end of the bargain and that we trust life will fall into place.

belief in a process that will come to mean more than anything that arrives in 30 seconds ever could. A vision, the discipline to pursue it, and a trust in the process. So perhaps you're overdue for your midday walk, your little excursion into the soul, to ask yourself, what is it you are moving towards? Why are you doing what you're doing? Does it mean something? And if not, perhaps some adjustment is in order. Perhaps you've lost sight of that North Star that lights up our lives and illuminates the way.

Take solace in the fact that life is not as serious as we make it out to be. We don't live in a world of right and wrong, good and bad, yes and no, but a continuum. an opportunity to seek out and find the beautiful ups and the meaningful downs to set our sights on the horizons that matter. See, when the little things feel too complex or burdensome, it's because the big things are misaligned. And that is a powerful idea to grasp. It's never that life is too difficult. It's that we have closed our eyes. So don't be fooled by those selling you reality as some problem,

some obligation that must be dealt with. No, today is the greatest gift of your lifetime. And the same will be true every day moving forward. And to echo Jim Rohn, absolutely it is a gift. gift comprised of sacrifice, discomfort along the way. But that's a small price to pay for entry to the show. For the ability to embrace the mystery and embark upon the adventure when you're pointed to the right north star, while the road, it feels less treacherous on your feet, the hills

less strenuous on your legs. we often deem to be a lack of preparedness, ability, strength, well, might just be a lack of alignment. So adjust. Because this world flexible and limitless invites you to do just that. It invites you to explore until you've uncovered your vision. To pursue it like nothing else matters. To sidestep the obstacles, invert the setbacks, and lastly to find hope when there appears to be none. To set your sails, walk your path, run your race and surrender to that which is beyond your control.

And you'll find that with a vision, with discipline, with trust in the process, there is no situation or circumstance out. the scope of what's possible for you. I saw an interview by one of my favorite authors today, Stephen Presfield, where he highlighted what I believe to be a critical and often overlooked point. He says a lot of people think life is short, but life is actually long. And he goes on to explain that he didn't even get

his first book published until well into his adult life, making the point that people at least that people at 24, 34, 54, 64, 64, they think they've won or lost. And they've got a lot of game left to play. And this message, it does a few things. I think first and most obviously it creates a kind of calm. Like, okay, I can take some of the pressure off myself. Life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, I'm not doing so bad.

Sometimes we lose that perspective. We forget that the best things in life evolve over time. Often not an avalanche, but the chipping away of a stone until the statue reveals itself. As frustrating as it may be, clarity is often an evolution. And the second thing is, it plays a role in defining what success means. If games are won in the second half, as they frequently are, Then we learn not to define ourselves by the outcome of the first quarter. But more importantly, to put ourselves in position to win in the fourth.

The score at halftime is not defining. It's a treasure trove of lessons and information and data that can be tapped into to get the result that we ultimately want. And I often think of running in South Florida where, you know, I joke that I don't sit at beach but if you run during the day you know you kind of get the best to both worlds a little bit of sunshine you get your workout in but the obvious disadvantage especially in the summer is that the heat is taxing on the body it's more challenging to run under that sun and what i find is that when i push my pace right out of the gate right from the start push my physical boundaries

the second half of the run is a nightmare always i'm I'm dragging, you know, speed isn't even a factor. I'm pleading with myself to simply not stop, because I haven't positioned myself well. But on the other hand, when I'm disciplined, and when from the start I ease into something comfortable and progressively increase my speed, my body somehow responds exponentially better,

I get the most out of myself that way. That's why I've said in the past, I'm proudest of my results when the last, few miles are the fastest miles. It means I have the discipline in the foresight to make that happen. And ultimately, the big picture is affected in a positive way. And I know the same can be said for other aspects of life. I know the same can be said for the moments of temptation when my ego pleads with me to do what someone else is doing, or things aren't evolving as quickly as I want, so my pride says, just walk away from it all.

Why? Because the current moment doesn't look how I wanted it to. So the mind says panic. It says change things. It says you're losing or not good enough. It says you better pick up the pace right now because you're losing this current moment. But no, the question isn't, is right now the goal? The question is, is right now moving me forward consistently? so that when the time comes to sprint, so that when I'm ready to go faster than I've ever gone, be more than I've ever been,

I've positioned myself to do just that. When things were challenging, I kept moving forward. When the world around me seemed to be moving at a faster pace, I ran my own race, I stayed consistent, I remembered what mattered to me. That's the question. And by the way, this doesn't mean ignoring today's results. It means asking yourself whether today's results are meaningful in the big picture.

Using Stephen Pressfield's example, if you don't get published or your work is rejected again and again and again, you have not lost. It's the beginning. It's the first quarter. But what info can you gain from this? What tweaks can you make to your work so that it's in some way more captivating? How can you sell it a little better? What can you do to connect with people who will believe in you and help push you forward? Remember, you only lose when you decide to stop. Why?

Because as long as you're willing to adjust and keep going, there are no stopping points. People don't realize limitations are self-imposed. Losing or quitting just means you stood up and said, I'm going to stop learning and evolving with regard to this pursuit. I no longer want to adapt and move on. No outside circumstances can impose that upon you. It's truly an internal decision. I remember Jim Rowan saying success is easy.

Doing the thing that's best for you in the long run is easy. Doing the right things every day is easy. And people would say, well, that doesn't make sense. Why isn't everyone successful? Well, because doing the wrong thing is easy too. It's easy to think right now is the end all be all. To forget the big picture, that life is a journey, that you are equipped with everything you need. And when you don't see success to your left or right when your ideal world hasn't been created, to panic.

To seek drastic change, instead of remembering one step in front of the other, gets you to your finish line. Instead of remembering the second half is where you make your move, is where you make your push. Not every swing is a home run. Not every swing needs to be a home run. It's about on-base percentage. It's about setting yourself up for success. Step by step, day by day, allowing yourself to evolve. Because if you hang in there long enough, if you say yes and trust yourself long enough,

You will get your Super Bowl. You will get your midday run when the sun is at its fullest. You're exhausted. You're tired and you don't want to keep going. But because you invested in the big picture, because you played the long game, you'll be one of the few who understands, who has created the weapon, the answer, the key that will open the door. Very few people get to open and walk through.

The best things in life take time. And time requires patience. Patience can be painful. It can cause suffering, chaos. But from that chaos comes order. From that suffering comes meaning everything we needed and wanted is on the other side of that evolution. See that your short-term losses are not crippling you.

They are creating. Can life change? in a day. Well, what if we made today a day of action, of being decisive, of promising ourselves that our goal or objective is to make a single move, however small. What if today action is king? And we live by the notion that whether the result of our courage is good or bad, whether Whether it's the result we hoped for, the one that we didn't, at least now we have something to work off of. And that means we've moved beyond where we started.

What if today we live by the notion that a vision can change our lives? But a vision without that small step is powerless. And today we take that small step. It's easy to forget how good progress feels, how incredible it is to know that we're moving towards something meaningful in our lives, something that we chose that we're building. We had the courage to break life down so that piece by piece we could build it back up. We are our happiest when we are progressing. We're designed to map out the unknown, unexplored territory to make it our own.

We're not just flesh and bone, but travelers with godlike capability of seeing that which is not yet there. And with an idea and courage, there's nothing we can't do. And that's why when we stop seeing infinite opportunity, when we stop seeing infinite opportunity, When we pretend that settling is okay, that the status quo is enough, we know deep down in our souls that something's missing. We need the next door to unlock. So today, let's find just one door that we can open. It reminds yourself of the shock wave that goes through your system when inspiration guides an idea and progress, turns that idea into reality because momentum connects every aspect of life.

Not hitting the snooze button can mean seeing the sunrise, which can mean you read three pages in a book you wouldn't have read, which could mean your day improves, which could mean you make a call that you've been meaning to make, which could mean a dozen wheels start turning, not because you did everything, but because you did one. Today can be the day that changes your life. And you don't even need the miraculous to make that happen.

You just need to push back against the normalcy of your everyday. Create little microcosms of chaos that you can tame, you can understand, make your own, and then stack on top of each other. Today, treat that little voice of uneasiness or nervousness. in your stomach as assurance that the path before you is the right one. Remember that almost all decisions are reversible, but that a decision at least puts you somewhere, right or wrong. It moves you along and shows you more of life, the things, the people, the places you've never seen before. And the only bad decision is no decision. Some people. Some people.

Folks never moved towards meaning, towards the things that they want in, well, their entire lifetime. Because they didn't realize it wasn't an earthquake they needed to shake the old world at its foundation. They needed to make one decision. One decision that might be wrong, but at the very least would reassure them that wrong decisions aren't fatal. A decision allows you to remap a new reality and take another step and another and another. You can change your life today by picking your arena and simply stepping

into it. You don't need to be the best or the greatest or the most innovative. No, that's for another day. Today, if you want to change your life, open the door. and step in. You'll be amazed at what transpires. Don't you dare reach for your pocket, I told myself. In fact, take that phone and go put it in another room. Shut your internet off, set your devices to do not disturb and think. Please, think.

You are losing your... ourselves to distraction. Or as Cal Newport puts it, you know, we're in a world that demands more thought, more deep work than ever before, while we all simultaneously become more and more incapable of that focus. And to me, it feels like more more than a chuckle at our outrageous screen time or a self-deprecating joke about how reliant we are. on our phones that the dopamine hit, you know, I think it's antithetical overall to what we need, to where we find our purpose, which is a dichotomy that's frustratingly true with so many things. Like that balance for me to have a digital business that means so much to me that I'm so proud of,

but also tiptoeing around that same digital world like it's a hungry lion capable of devouring me. That's a real feeling. It's water that's foundational for life, but in too large a quantity, will kill. It's the sun that, while integral and responsible for this planet as we know it, also has no problem ending, you know, anything that's too openly exposed to its rays, to its heat. There's always a sweet spot between too much and not enough. right that happy medium that intersection is why we're all here because when i don't take time to deeply think when i lose the big picture i remain in a cycle of routine and sometimes that's great

morning routine is great i don't really have to think about it i'm programmed things like driving a car as do he explains in the power of habit your foot stepping on the gas it's involuntary and thank god for that But one must be able to step outside that loop and ask the big picture questions. We have to make time to at least roughly chart the course. And it'll change. Life will present its obstacles, but we'll have at least parsed out what matters and what doesn't. When life is all habit and reflex,

when you've lost the ability to examine the same, to examine the self because one minute alone with your thoughts is agonizing, well, you won't be able to see past the surface of who you are and what you're capable of. I want to be clear here, this is not me complaining about perhaps the most prosperous society ever to exist. This is me saying, you know, there are some dangers that we way too easily overlook. that when you outsource your thinking, you outsource your future. And it's not hard to fall into that trap.

I just referenced the book Deep Work a few minutes ago. I think it's one of the most important books someone can read in this day and age, you know, Cal Newport talking about separating ourselves from distraction. I remember the day I first listened to that book, I was sick, so I wasn't on my usual run. I was walking and, And because of that, I felt this urge to, as the book was playing, to reach into my pocket and check for notifications.

And it really was eye-opening. It's like, we are scared to completely immerse ourselves in solitude. But solitude is where we uncover so much. Silence is where we hear what our souls have to say. It's where we understand who we are. My favorite Joseph Campbell quote, The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek, and man, I hate to say it,

but I think being alone, even for a short period of time, is that monster lurking in the cave? You know, the one we're scared to confront, even though it's what we need. Solitude is the demon we are consistently masking in a constant influx of media and small talk, and DMs, and emails. You know, that stuff has its value,

but it's not real in the sense that I find it disconnected from purpose. So here's something that I've been doing, and I would suggest that you give it a try. It's been certainly helpful in my life and start small, even if it's 15 minutes, but take a walk by yourself. No phone. And it's challenging at first because, you know, you want to be consuming something. even if it's, you know, educational, valuable, still, right? No phone. Solitude.

Think about life. Think about who you are. Think about what you've always wanted and where your current reality aligns. Think about how much you have and how lucky you are. Think about any or all of these things. But think. Let your mind go where amidst the push and pull of life,

you don't often let it wander. For example, some thoughts from my walk today, some of it random sporadic noise, some of it more valuable than others, but all of it valuable because the process in its entirety is valuable. You know, I spend some time thinking about the week ahead, the things I'm excited about and how to prepare for them, and realize one of them I didn't want to do.

I then had that debate with myself, well, do I not want to do it because it doesn't align with my goals or because it makes me uncomfortable. Came to the conclusion that I think it's the latter, so it's staying in my schedule, but I'll reassess. I thought about Florida. I consistently think about how lucky I am to be down here after living in so many cold places. It's just such a beautiful environment, and you know, one that I don't take for granted. I thought about a statement I just heard from a professional athlete.

after his surgery talking about how hard it was on him, but that he would rise from the ashes and he would have the best year of his life. And, you know, my mind went to one of the most important rules of leadership that it's not about you or your rise or fall, right? To lead is to make it about the team, about the overall goal and how grateful I was to come across that video, to see that and really dissect it. You know, sometimes the best ways,

we learn is by seeing what not to do, right? And I'll take that with me. I'll take that understanding with me on my own journey. Last thing I remember, I thought about some of the books I've been consuming. I've taken in an insane amount of books over the years, but I practically stopped reading physical books, right? And now I consume mostly on audible or other audiobook methods made me wonder whether the value is equivalent, how much that varies from person to person, maybe something to research later, right? That's all I remember as I sit here now,

but the point is, you know, this is stuff that if I don't immerse myself in solitude and break through the barrier of boredom, I don't get to. You know, and maybe you go through a week where you don't find much, but as the saying goes, right, one idea, one comment,

One, Epiphany, can truly change the dynamic of your life. It could change everything. There are answers just beyond the realm of distraction we operate in. Some of them pertain to trivialities, like the audiobooks in the cold front. Some of them pertain to your goals and your development, who you are, where you're going, and how you'll get there. As Newport says, to simply wait and be bored has become a novel experience in modern life. And while his emphasis and focus is primarily on work

in creating an environment to be productive, I want to suggest that it's not only our work that needs saving, but ourselves. We can't lose touch with what matters most. We can't become so shallow in our thoughts and our actions that the beauty remains buried away. There is something in you that's untapped, unfinished, raw talent or desire, there are pieces of you that need to be assembled. And if left alone,

will wither away, unremarkably, quietly, and probably without your noticing. So my ask is that you think of this as more than me cheering on long walks. It's not about the walks, right? It's about time alone with yourself and what that opens up for you. It's about recognizing the spaces we need to carve out from the outside world so that when we re-enter the outside world, we know who we are. We understand where we're headed. We don't go where the wind blows. We are able, as the saying goes, to adjust our sails to get to our destination. All you need. is more time with you. There's a saying that what you water is ultimately what grows. That where you place your attention ends up guiding your feelings, your perception, your actions, and your life.

Focus becomes identity. And change comes from bringing awareness to what we're focusing on. I remember when this light ball went off for me. Like so many epiphanies, You know, it happened during a difficult, kind of a trying time. It wasn't where I wanted to be. And I remember sitting down and asking myself, you know, dude, are you on your own team here? Are you helping yourself? Using the metaphor, the question was, am I watering the weeds in my life or the flowers? And by the weeds, I mean, am I allocating energy to thoughts that are detrimental to what I want?

Am I keeping myself in places I don't want to be? relationships that are counterproductive? Am I thinking about what can go wrong instead of all that can go right? Or am I watering the flowers, the positive, highlighting the possibility, the things I'm appreciative for, the seeds, the potential that can grow a mile high? See, I've always known the value in choosing to see the possibility. But the million dollar question is, how do you remain aware? Because that's the thing about weeds, they're sneaky, they'll take control of your life without letting you know they're doing it. So I'm thinking this through and it dawns on me. This is not complex. This is simple. It's one identifying where you want to be and two, analyzing

your actions based on those priorities, right? That's it. And so for every pillar of my life, health, relationships, career, finances, I made two dots. One for where I am and one for where I want to be. Everything in the middle is life, the ups, the downs, the joys, the sorrow. Everything in between is the path, the line. And it's simple. You start on point A, knowing that you can always get to point B. That what you want exists. It's there.

It's available. And your attention, all of your energy should be allocated to the thoughts that reinforce that truth. That's your path. That's what you believe. That's what's important. And it's going to happen. Anything beyond or outside that line, anything that tells you you're not good enough, anything that accepts not achieving that priority, suggests it won't work out.

That is where the weeds live. That is wasted space. Why exhaust that energy? To think, you know, I'm not good enough to get this promotion. How does that help you get to your point being? It doesn't. eliminate that thought, right? Point B always exists. Just that notion pushes a lot of things to the side. You have to be good enough. You just need improvement. Maybe it's enhanced skills. Maybe it's

more effort. Maybe it's changed approach. But tackling these things will water the flowers. It moves you along the path and progress is happiness. For me, health is a big thing. I run all the time, but I'd like to be more fit. I'd like to eat healthier. There's room for improvement. I know it's possible because that is my point B. I know that saying I don't have time or I don't have the right body type or genes or trying to convince myself that fast food just this once will be okay. No, all of that stuff is watering weeds. It exists outside my path.

My time should be spent realizing how incredible the human body is, taking care of it, pushing it, being proud of it, taking accountability for it. That's me. I only get one of these things, even if it's just a little, at a time, that's the beauty, simply existing on a path and revolving around your ideals, your vision, your priorities brings about joy. Negativity, it truly is a learned thing. It's manufactured. All there are in life are circumstances, circumstances that are neither positive nor negative, just pieces, and you decide what to do with them. Do you focus on the negative? You can,

but that won't put you in a position to change your circumstances or bring about happiness. When you decide to see the opportunity, you free yourself from the shackles of fate because destiny never put you in the situation you did. But guess what? You can take yourself out of it. A field of sunflowers grew one root, one stem, one pedal at a time. The same field that was at one point nothing more than dirt and weeds. It was always possible and so was your ideal life. You just need to water the things that matter.

There's an idea coined by Aristotle that suggests knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. I want to talk a little bit about why I believe that to be true. I went on a trip to the West Coast a few weeks ago, and obviously there's a time difference there. When I came back, it was a little jet lagged. It threw me off my routine a little bit, and for the first few days back in Florida I slept in, which makes perfect sense, right? my body was still on West Coast time. But then three days went by and four and five and then a week.

And I kept setting the alarm and I kept sleeping through it. And this drove me crazy, right? I love my mornings. And, you know, I can go into that some other time. But the bottom line is I kept, even knowing it's in my best interest to get up, I stayed in bed. Okay, so one week went by, going to bed, planning out my perfect day, setting the alarm only to sleep in.

It had evolved from a reasonable transition to a clear display of personal weakness. You know, mapping out what was best and then failing to do it because, you know, I was comfortable under those covers. Q. Einstein's famous definition of insanity, right, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. See, my perfect day on paper continued to be obliterate. by the very elementary and foundational challenges of reality. And if you think this is small, I just want to remind you that the little things ultimately become the big things, right?

In other words, no one conducts themselves one way for the small and seemingly trivial aspects of life, and then, you know, suddenly levels up and becomes highly disciplined, you know, an organized force of nature when it really matters. No, you are who you are. We're defined by our habits, and it filters into all aspects of life.

That's why Admiral McRaven talks about making your bed. You don't do the small things right. You can't do the big things right. And to me, this was a red flag. I wanted to fix this. Perhaps needed to fix this. And I spent some time thinking about it. And as I was running, listening to an audiobook, it hit me.

I made what I think is one of the most important connections I've made in a long time. And to explain this idea, I'm going to briefly kind of take us up a level and explore one of the greatest checks on human nature in the history of mankind. And then I'll bring us right back down to the practical, the alarm clocks, work out routines and daily planners. Sometimes the philosophical opens a door for the practical day-to-day problems we have in life, which is why I love connecting those dots. It helped me see things with clarity. And so this began with a quote from James Madison and Federalist 51. He says if men were angels, there would be no need for government.

And what he's doing there is he's making a case for a constitutional system or technology that attempts to stop the greatest threat to government ever to exist, which is human nature. He's advocating for a framework that will save us from ourselves. See, it's not that human beings aren't capable of incredible things, beautiful things, magnificent things because they are. But it's because they are also prone to do terrible things. We're prone to act irrationally.

To seek and hold on to power, to break off, into factions and groups. And success of the whole over a long period of time requires more than anything else that we're able to, and this is the point, recognize and repress those inevitable negatives. It's not be delusional and aim for the perfection of men because humans aren't perfect.

Humans will never be perfect. And so to wrap this metaphor up, that's why the U.S. governmental system today is modeled all over the world in places like Canada and India and Brazil. It's because it is brilliantly one of gridlock and conflicting interests. It's why the legislature is cut in two. It's why there's three branches of government all checking each other, a system of federalism,

all because of the nature of man. See, sometimes what you prevent is just as or more important than what you create. Perfect? No. But the expectation of perfection it destroys more than it builds. This idea of utopia or the perfection of human beings doesn't have a great track record throughout history. It dismisses human nature. So Eddie, what does this have to do with sleeping in in the morning? What does this have to do with making tomorrow's perfect plan before you go to bed every night and then seeing it fall to pieces when the pillow feels you know amazing at 6 a.m. Well I'm going to hijack Madison's idea here. It's similar in the sense that you haven't allowed the best of you to take hold and flourish because you haven't addressed the worst of you that keeps trying to make its way into the picture. If you're aware enough to understand yourself and the things you do that get in the way of your happiness,

you are on your way because you stop trying to jam a square. peg of perfection into the round hole of reality and you start operating practically. Looking to mitigate the things that you're doing that are constantly holding you down. Build checks and balances into your own life. I am no angel. And neither are you. So let's put ourselves in the best position we can to succeed and overcome the realities of life. I mean, this very idea is why books like atomic habits and the power of habit have sold

millions of copies because they help us navigate around the mental traps, constantly seeking to pull us into old routines. The best way to not eat junk food, according to Charles Duhigg, don't have any in your cabinet. The best way to watch less TV, according to James Clear, hide the remote in a different room when you're working. Best way to stick to that workout routine, put your running shoes by the door, right? Make it easier on yourself to say yes. to defeat the demons that hold us back.

Again, if we were angels in our own lives, we'd see that remote, we'd smile, we'd ignore it. We'd look at the Instagram app and we'd say, nope, not now, Instagram, I have a business to build, but we are not. Angels, and winning requires building systems into our own lives that allow us to win. So how did I defeat that monster that kept me in bed in the morning by making it so hard to say no that it was comical?

by checking my temptation so that failing was actually more difficult than succeeding. I made my bedroom immaculate, went to bed early, laid out my clothes, put my alarm clock on the other side of the room with a glass of water next to it, an old album I made in 2014 to remind me how far I've come and in the purpose of the journey I'm on. If I was going to fail the next day, it would be because I saw that I'm going to be because I saw, said no over and over again to everything that's important to me. If I failed that morning, it would mean my priorities need adjusting, not my sleep schedule. And so the next day, I did get up. And as W. Clement Stone said, it was a little hinge that swung a big door. So I believe life is about momentum. Feeling good about yourself, giving yourself the best shot possible to evolve,

to grow, to chase down the meaning in life. And absolutely, we want to be better. We want our eyes fixated on the stars and our compass pointing towards the horizon. But we have to first unshackle ourselves from the delusion that we play by a different set of rules than the ones that govern the universe. Winning means understanding yourself and life

so that you can be someone who rigs the game. game in your favor. That's why I love Aristotle's quote. Understanding yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Until you've truly captured what you want and how you're preventing yourself from getting it, you simply can't operate at a high level. And so I'll end with the reiteration that you are no angel. And no, you never will be perfect. But recognizing and forging your trail around that fact, positioning the best of you to outdual the worst of you, will take you a lot further than staying where you are and waiting for wings. Sometimes the most important things we do in our lives are the product of sheer will.

Of taking little nothings that surround us and making something out of them. In other words, the greatest opportunities, often the ones we need most, they simply aren't obvious. They're hidden. Hidden behind what looks like difficulty, what appears to be hopelessness. The reason I place so much value on a single step forward when we're overwhelmed or at a low point is because a single step means you're in the game. You're giving yourself a chance to find and obtain those little hidden away pieces that can't be found when we stand still and dwell on a situation. Mobility is empowerment.

And when we move forward only with what we have, we're continuously reminded that what we have is enough. We have the tools, the resources, and the ability. We just have to somehow remind ourselves that with those, tools, we are capable of building, of creating the incredible. So a quick story about what I believe is the best song ever written, certainly one of them. And it's a little bit older now, but in 1998, a band called The Goo Goo Goo Dolls released a song called Iris. And that song changed my life. It was the first album I bought, introduced me to music.

I listened to it probably thousands of times. And even 24 years later, it gives me chills listening to it. And so I wanted to find out a little more about the song. And I came across an interview from Johnny Resnick, who is the frontman and songwriter for the band. And in this interview, the interviewer is asking Johnny about the song. basic questions, how it came out, how he wrote it, and stuff like that. And there's a few points that I think are amazing.

I want to share them with you. First is the state he was in prior to writing the song. He just came out of a divorce, personal life sort of in shambles, coming off of a bad record deal, where the label from his previous album had done what record labels are notorious for and ended up keeping the vast majority of the revenue. He had writer's block, you know, just felt down, and it left his home to stay at a hotel in Los Angeles. Bottom line is it's not a dream scenario by any stretch of the imagination.

And then gets a call from his manager about potentially writing a song for the City of Angels soundtrack. And he says he went and sort of auditioned with what he had, which was two lines of a song and a guitar with two broken strings. It was evidently good enough. He gets a nod from the label and starts writing. And the verses, according to Johnny in the interview, they align perfectly with the movie, right?

It's an angel willing to give up anything, even his immortality to be human so he could be with this girl, right? And it's this deep dive into, you know, what it is to love someone so much, you give up everything for them. And then, and this is the icing on the cake for me, that's when it, like, I realized that I wanted to write about this. The interviewer says essentially, okay, Johnny, the verses align with the movie, but the chorus, this revolutionary, big, beautiful, powerful chorus, it seems to take a left turn. Like, can you explain that to us? What were you thinking? And he just kind of pauses blankly for a second.

And I'm thinking, no, don't you dare say what I know you're about to say? And sure enough, he does. He basically shrugs and goes, I don't know, the words just kind of worked. And, you know, I'm paraphrasing. That's not a direct quote, but that's the idea. You know, one of the deepest, most powerful, beautiful songs I've ever heard. is patchwork, right? Even the song title, he says, was named after a country singer on the cover of a magazine laying next to him, Iris. That's patchwork, it's pieces put together, right? And then, as I thought about it for a minute, it's like, of course it is.

How perfect, how absolutely perfect, the whole thing is an assembly and construction, a metaphor for the human spirit. conceived when its author was down and out, taking L after L, called to present an idea, didn't have some crazy budget or equipment to pitch this song, nope, move forward only with what he had in the moment. And that was enough.

Then this song, a beautiful depiction of, you know, the movie's theme combined with elements of real life, his personal situation, what he goes through, or maybe even components that mean nothing other than an ability to encapsulate a feeling or an emotion. Words that allowed him to put a bow on all these little pieces himself and get it out the door. And millions and millions of people listened to that song and were changed by it. Not because of what it meant to Johnny, but because it gave them a chance to take it and fit their own worlds and struggles into those same lines.

it became a vehicle to inspire others to push forward, to find things in themselves they didn't know were there. This has become one of my favorite metaphors for finding the hero buried deep within yourself. Changing your life, changing your world, changing the world around you, the lives of others, can truly be, and in fact often is the result of just moving forward with what you have.

right realizing that even when the mountain seems too tall to climb there is a way we just require that mental shift listen to this question right because i used to ask myself all the time is this possible can this be done well then that becomes the question that i focused on and everything that occurred around me became evidence that would either support or invalidate that possibility. The second I came up against an inevitable barrier, I'd think, ah, maybe this is telling me the answer is no. Right? Life will always be evidence for or against the questions that you choose to ask, which is why

it's so important that you're asking the right questions. Because the second, you change that question to, look, I know this can be done, but how will I do it, you start looking at life as a puzzle that must be solved. That same obstacle that was once interpreted as a stop sign is now merely an indicator that the path exists, just perhaps somewhere else. You've extended the pursuit, you've given yourself permission to keep looking, and it's because of these self-created expeditions that we find more in ourselves. You know, things won't always go perfectly, but when you look at those imperfections through the right lens, you see that this isn't about you. It's about that particular door being locked. All you have to do is believe in yourself

enough to move to the next one, to continue knocking until you find a door that opens, until you find that bridge to whatever comes next. And that's why I love that story about Iris, why I wanted to share today is crafted during times far from ideal with resources far from abundant with words far from perfect or related or self-explanatory but you end up on the other side with this masterpiece this song that certainly changed my life indefinitely impacted many others and it's like we have to realize when we're sitting on the edge of the bed you know maybe it's not divorce or writer's But whatever it is holding you back, that's not the end. It's your reason to keep going, to begin again.

You don't have to know how things will be, but you do have to know how they won't be. They won't be like this, because you won't let them stay this way. And maybe it's not two written lines in a broken guitar. Maybe it's moving forward when your strength is not at a 10 out of 10 out of 10. when you don't really have that spark, or you're longing for some resources, some finances, wondering where they'll come from, but pushing forward one little step at a time

until things start making sense, and maybe it's not a combining and restructuring of song lyrics, using your personal experiences to fill the gaps on the paper before you, but it's trusting that your own story will ultimately tell itself if you don't put the pen down, that the heroes will rise, the villains will fall, and the adventure will continue on.

After all, that's what life is. One giant adventure, testing us, pushing us and transforming us when we're at our lows, while reminding us during the good times, why we're lucky to have been gifted that same adversity we once looked at with contempt. Why we're lucky that when everything's made to be broken, as the lyrics suggest, we get to make something imperfectly beautiful with the pieces. There's a quote attributed to Lincoln.

He says, be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. The other day I was listening to Dan Carlin's podcast called Hardcore History, which side note is an incredible podcast. as a brilliant storyteller. And as I was listening, there's a specific idea that I wanted to dive into, an idea that I believe, if we make an effort to understand and fully commit to, is capable of changing our lives.

But first, some quick context, right? So Dan starts off this episode called King of Kings, talking about the Battle of Thermopylae in the year of 480 BC in ancient Greece. It's that famous story that a lot of us know, where King Leonidas leads that small army, which includes 300 Spartans against this massive Persian military force that's invading. And the quick version is, essentially Xerxes, who's the king of the Persian Empire, and in charge of that massive army, tells the much smaller Spartan force that if they lay down their weapons,

If they submit to him and let the Persians pass, no harm will be inflicted upon them. They'll be free to go, go about their lives. And here's the famous line. In response to the Persian command to lay down their weapons, the Spartans respond, Malon Le Bay, which means come and take them. It's a Spartan's way of saying, Look, the only way we're laying these weapons down is if you rip them from our cold dead hands.

Right? With everything on the line, the odds stacked against them, the ground beneath them, basically shaking from the march of a far superior fighting force, moving directly towards their location, they would not let go of their principles. They were fighting for something bigger than them. And I couldn't stop thinking about this idea long after I hit pause on the episode. I guess I was awestruck by the power of living life with that type of conviction. Because I know in my soul that's a North Star I should be gravitating towards. We all should. The strength to be unrelenting with regard to that which we care about. The aforementioned quote from Lincoln about finding the right place.

place for our feet and then holding steady. With everything you have, all that you are holding firm. I just couldn't get that out of my head. And then it came to me that that invading force represents so much in our personal lives. So many things. One example, being the difficult or adverse circumstances, our trying time. when you're most likely to concede that perhaps you're no bigger than that world around you. Maybe life is a movie and I'm merely the audience.

My job is to clap, laugh, gasp, or cry. Am I cog in a wheel, a line in a script? Powerless. In which case, you should be reminded of Victor Frankel's famous observation. that everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

In other words, the outside world may change. It may evolve, but it will never have power over how you choose to internalize and view what's happening. That's innately yours. So when the circumstances feel like they demand more than you can give,

when they suggest you leave your interpretation of life behind, the correct response is, as the Spartans defiantly said, come and take it. That army could represent a pushback against your values, the pillars of your individual foundation that you feel amidst all the pressure tempted to let go up. After all, it's easier to retreat than stand toe to toe to with others.

It's easier to abandon than it is to defend, at least in the short term. But as Victor Hugo writes, you have enemies, good. That means you've stood up for something sometime in your life. The enemies, obviously not being the point. I'm a believer in the conservation of, of enemy approach to life. Allies just pragmatically get you a lot further. But here's the reality.

Anyone who stands for something will undoubtedly create divide. They'll be criticized and condemned. And when one feels the pressure of that criticism, they must understand that it does not invalidate who they are or their worldview. That is yours. You are the only one who can give up or relinquish that control.

So as the Spartans said, come and take it. And then lastly, my thoughts went to little things that make us who we are. Those tiny pieces of ourselves that we little by little, one by one over time give away, the concessions that fade into the background

as we evolve to fit in so that we don't stand out. As Emerson beautiful, put it, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. And so that attacking army just might be the universe attempting to mold you to it, perhaps not all at once, but more like that frog placed in water and put on the stove, but the heat increasing so slowly over time that he doesn't realize the heat will soon overtake him.

Externalities do not dictate. They are objects in need of meaning and you are the architect here. If it means something to you, it's worth holding on to during the difficult times and the easy time. When it's popular and when it's not, there is value within you specific to you, a value that must be nurtured in order to expand. Others can't and won't see that. The world around you may even with all its complexities seek to suppress it. But that flame is there, it's there and it's yours. And to anyone or anything looking to extinguish its light, come and take it. After all, what is a life if not one lived on your own terms?

The goal is not to simply exist, but to define it? but to define the plane on which you'll evolve, to devise your own parameters, be yourself as that world looks to make you something else. So here's to digging deep, to finding within yourself the courage, to stand up to the great armies of chaos, conflict, adversity, and their perpetual conquest.

To remember how strong you are. how much control you have as you navigate the unknowns and redefine the right nows. Don't let your strength be the thing you give away. Don't let your heart be what gets left behind. Don't let your thoughts become illusions of what could have been if only you'd held on. And look, I'm not saying it's easy. In fact, I know that the meaningful road will necessarily be the one that requires the most of us.

That makes us question who we are and where we're going. It will ask that when our minds race with doubt and our knees shake with fear, we find a way to stand regardless. To walk to our demons, look them square in the eye and proclaim that whatever it takes we are willing to give.

That we will fight until there's nothing left. Go until we can go. no further and hold with conviction all that matters most. So the next time light demands that you fall back or bow down, the next time chaos emerges in the distance and asks only that you lay down your arm. Here's to being strong enough, certain enough, courageous enough to say one thing and one thing only come and take them.