Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - If You Feel Alone: LISTEN TO THIS | Best Motivational Speeches Compilation

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

"The hardest walk you can make is the walk you make alone...but that is the walk that makes you the strongest."

I spent some time in Roanoke, Virginia, one of the most beautiful places I've ever lived. It's this little valley surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. And across the street from where I lived was a park. You could look over in the evening and you would see hundreds of fireflies flying around. I always thought it was such a cool thing, you know, bringing back to when I was young, when I was a kid, and it was such a thrill in running around trying to chase those things. to chase those things. And seeing this day in and day out let me to think, you know, 24, 25 years later about all the things that have changed in my life. Back then, life was pretty straightforward.

You know, as a child, you place your value on what feels right in the present. You're not thinking about two years down the road or wondering what others are going to think. Your creativity and your sense of exploration are running on all cylinders. Then something happens. We begin to understand the way of things. We see what's valued in society. We see what's expected. We see how success is defined.

And so begins our ascent up the ladder. And rung by rung, we climb. Looking above us, below us, to see where others are, see how fast they've moved in relation to us. And eventually this coincides with how we see ourselves. And as you know, how you see yourself is the best indicator of what you will become. Which is why when so many people aren't happy with their day to day, that's a huge red flag. That's breathing, that's not living.

Folks have been climbing this ladder their entire lives and never stopped to ask if it's where they were meant to be. Maybe the top of the community ladder isn't what you want. you want, but you never thought you only acted. And if you don't think, if you don't ask yourself the question, you will climb and you will climb and you will climb until you burn out. I try and spend a few minutes every day thinking about this. It's the most important thing I can spend time on. It's my life.

It's more important than green paper. It means more than the opinions of others. It's the backbone of everything. Everything around me and the meaning I give it stems from how I identify myself who I am. Which brings me back to those fireflies, to running around on a hot summer evening, not having a care in the world. There is something intrinsically perfect about those moments. is about peak experiences, joy, excitement, so that you never lose that spark, because

it's all that separates us from every other being on the planet. If we don't have that, what separates us from ants moving dirt? Monotonous action based on instinct, there's just no thrill in that. Why not create a life that allows you to feel that excitement every day? Don't act because you're supposed to. Act because you so desperately want to that there's no other option. Because you couldn't live without the adventure. You couldn't pass on the experience.

Here's a secret. If you become fixated on a life that means nothing to you, at some point you will probably get to the top. And from there, you will have a beautiful view of everything. you missed out on. So maybe there is something to the whole chasing firefly routine. Maybe a four-year-old running after a glowing bug with a jar deserves more credit than he's given. Our lives require failure. Like our lungs require oxygen. And when I find the world around me lacking in the resources that I need, it's because in so many ways I have

forgotten to breathe. To step out my walls of comfort and breathe in lessons waiting to be taught by the greatest of teachers' life. Life, the unpredictable and often unremarkable miracle. The book that reveals itself through experience that tells tales only in hindsight, our The world is a book in which we choose our own ending, and so we must fail, because failing means living and we were meant to live. We must fail because every failure is the mark of a poet, an artist, or an author bringing this story one step closer to its resolution. continually walking up to a blank wall and making a mark, a single trivial mark, a mark that's misunderstood at best, but lightly scoffed at, ridiculed.

But each mark gives meaning to the one before it. These marks, they become chapters, become narrative shifts, become stories. Every failure you throw against this wall becomes part of a mural. It's an element of beauty before the work can even be deemed beautiful. Yet we continually misunderstand. When you hang your head in disappointment,

when you see only the smudge of paint you through against that wall, you are oblivious to the fact that you're making something meaningful. So here is my challenge to you. I dare you in the midst of the Mona Lisa you are creating to see it before it's done. I dare you to be strong enough to fail not just once, but over and over and over again. I dare you to keep your eyes focused, locked in, on what's in front of you. When everyone you know hides their failure,

When they scream of every little wind for all the world to hear, I dare you to understand what they do not, to cherish your failures. To maintain trust in the unseen. And when all you want is to get there, I dare you to see your greatness before you arrive. I dare you to look in the mirror and see the hero inside you right now. I dare you to do that.

to do that. I dare you to take your struggle and see amidst the pain your purpose, your purpose that will lift you up when you've fallen and will carry you forward when you're lost. I dare you to see light when there appears only darkness, and when none presents itself, I dare you to light the spark, to be the answer you need. I dare you to stand up to the human tendency to embrace security over adventure and predictability over growth. I dare you to walk into the darkness of night knowing that today's unknown becomes tomorrow's foundation. And when it hurts, like truly hurts when you look around and can't remember why you began or what's pulling you forward,

I dare you to close your eyes and imagine looking back and thanking yourself for taking this path. Every low is a courageous step towards transformation and if you've forgotten that, I hope this reminds you why it all matters. I hope you remember why this mark the one you're making right now

is part of the masterpiece you've been longing. It's taking you exactly where you need to be. That to find ourselves requires we must first lose ourselves is I believe life's greatest paradox. Leaving that carousel of comfort, the predictability of what we know, the certainty of who we believe ourselves to be. For a promise with no real guarantee of being kept, well, it's nothing short of irrational. Are the odds in our favor, perhaps not. But by stepping off, by placing our bets on a different track

with a different prize at a different time, we have increased those odds from zero to, well, I guess we decide. And see, the world teaches us that it's advantageous to spin. A spinning carousel is predictable. It can't be cheated. There's very little room for loss,

or humiliation or setbacks, or even life to get in the way. You know where you start, and you know where you end, and that's just the thing. This spinning world is so easy that people don't want to leave. In fact, it's not until you walk away from the crowd

that you even face the unknown. And that's precise. precisely why it's so hard to walk alone. It's hard, it's challenging because of the now. Not because the now can't be measured or understood, no, we get it. But because there's this little whisper in the back of our heads that the now might go on and on and on forever, that that check will never be cashed, the summit never reached. No, just footsteps down a perpetually long winding.

road and that's, you know, when maybe, just maybe we miss that carousel. We miss the safety and security. And that's what sometimes makes it such a stressful thing to walk alone. We think about all of ourselves, our mind, our heart we've left behind along the way. Truths, we now have to face things. They never taught us on that carousel. We had to learn that we were wrong about who'd be by our side through it all. We could no longer hide behind the notion that when things got tough, someday everyone,

everything would be there would be the same. We learned to swim by jumping into the deep end, seeing in real time that people only believe it already exists. What's put in front of them. That ideas are empty. That a dream is a language only spoken by its creation. And if you want it to mean anything, you must dedicate your life to translating it. We learn how much is backwards, how much of life is reactive.

That success is being one of the few who don't react, but build a world to react to. And in the thick of it all to internalize the process because talking, while talking does nothing, plans are just potential energy confined to your pocket. You have to be okay growing that seed by yourself. Like a runner making her way past a crowd, right? The crowd sees calm, sees peace, sees the finesse of an athlete gliding over the pavement. They have no idea the war being fought behind her eyes. The silencing of constant whispers to slow down to do less, the repression of pain

that consumes her to such an extent it can't even really be pinpointed. It just kind of floats over her body. They'll never know that. And what we learn is that they don't need to. It's a truth. And see, it's also what makes it quite lonely to walk alone. Walking alone, well, it's a lot of things. But it's never boring.

It's never dull. If you can hang in there long enough without even noticing the headwind you've been fighting, it becomes a tailwind. And where we may have felt alone, the idea pops into our heads that maybe that's not quite right. If anything, the wind at our back is now momentum. It's a partner along the way. That carousel, yeah, it's still spinning, but somewhere else. some far off place beyond our field of vision. And no, things don't ever become easy, we wouldn't want that.

But difficulty is interpreted differently now. Not a burden, but a cost, and one we'd gladly continue to pay. And that space that once felt so empty, so desolate, so helpless. Well, now it's made up of people who see, see what you see. Who hopped off their own carousels and wandered through the desert, they too navigated through the impossible and the never been done.

It's funny how at some point we always find each other. And I suppose now, having traded the carousels for the adventure, we can walk alone together. us against the world standing up in defiance of the odds chasing that glimmer of hope all in on a pursuit to find what most won't and see what most can't not because we were made different

but because we chase down the idea of different it gets a tough rap walking alone and in so many ways it's a fight. It takes all of you. But you don't come out the same person you were when you stepped in. The same person you'd still be today had you stayed on that carousel. So if you are still spinning, step off. And if you have, if you're still adjusting to the discomfort of reality, if you're making your way through the hell of uncertainty or question, Whether you have what it takes or have the strength to commit, I promise.

In fact, you're right where you need to be. So don't be distracted by those screaming of their successes or communicating, capturing every small win as they make their way around the carousel. It's the quiet ones who change themselves. The ones who take life one step at a time, one bad at a time who redefine reality. And I'm sure you can't see it now. No one can.

No one can see the sun amidst the storm, but you'll emerge. Stronger than you ever were. You will navigate towards the ideal and away from that life you once settled for. It's a long path, but it's worth it. So get up and let your real life And let your feet guide the...

Let's go walk alone. Sometimes when you don't know where you're going, the best thing to do is go there. A wise man once stated that an object at rest stays at rest. And while his rationale is a little different than mine, I'm going to borrow from his premise. Right? Because when you move,

Even if you don't know where you're going, you put yourself on a collision course with something. You put into existence an entity to react to. Some call it destiny. Others call it fate. I call it simply initiative. Because if your journey is hypothetical, you have nothing to celebrate nor correct. A sailboat can adjust its sails once it leaves the harbor, right? It can learn from and manipulate its surroundings, make sure it arrives at a destination, right?

It learns and adapts along the way. But from the harbor, it speculates. It expounds upon a path that might be straighter, might be faster, might be more thought out and tied together than the crazy sailors who took off for the horizon. But in actuality, it goes nowhere. In the real world, it is stagnant, and I could be wrong, but I'd make the argument 10 out of 10 times that the real world is where we want our results. And my proof? Well, a journey that started with insurance and evolved into music, in songwriting, in audio production, and video production, and creative writing, then a sweet spot that kind of combined everything. A spot that didn't make its way to my inbox with an exact address.

A spot that required a lot of failure and lessons learned and disappointment, but man, more than that, so much fun. My proof is sitting down right now in real time, letting my fingers create a bridge from nothing to something of value. By the way, after sitting here staring at a blank screen for hours, it's just starting. Could I be wrong? Could I screw up? Could I wildly miss the mark? Yes. In fact, it happens more than I'd like to admit.

But here's the beauty. Even if I am wrong, I now have something to work with. Something has been brought into existence. And well, that means I'm officially further along than I once was. And I've heard over and over again that there is no perfect moment, that you have to just go. And the idea, I mean,

makes sense. It's impossible not to understand, but it's one of those things that until you feel it doesn't mean anything. How can you miss something you've never experienced? Well, to put it in a way that help me understand, you aren't going because what do you have to lose? You're going because everything is to be gained. The answers that you pick up along the way, like a little coins you pick up in Super Mario, right? You have to start collecting pieces of a puzzle that you can then arrange. I truly believe that one of the most important ideas

we need to hold on to moving forward as personal agency, self-belief. And I say that because I feel like I'm watching it slip. There are cases where we literally don't know or understand that it's within our own ability and control to change our lives. No person or group or letter in the mail is going to come along and green light your idea. In fact, you might not even really know what your idea means or how it will look. And that's not only okay.

It's amazing. It's the marble that you get to chisel away at to create something. See, life is not the perfect execution of a plan. And life is the courage to make your way into a world that no one really understands or knows anything about. And I'm not talking physics or biology or quantum mechanics. I'm talking about the real life that is emergent from those areas of study. Right?

There is no perfect formula for happiness. But it will always be true that immobility or standing still is antithetical to progress. And there is plenty of data that supports the idea, progress equals happiness. We want to move towards something. So that's what this is about. Here's to not being scared of what we don't know. Because somewhere in the realm of what we don't know exists what we need most.

So yeah, stop waiting for the perfect moment. And yes, begin. But not because it's an ultimatum. Do it because the things that make life fun and intriguing and exciting and ultimately worthwhile They live on the other side of your front door