Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - It's Not Personal, Be More Confident - Best Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

"The only thing we can control is our attitude. It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens." — Viktor Frankl Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, I discuss a powerful insight gained while running on the Hollywood Beach boardwalk: the struggles we carry are often hidden, both from ourselves and others. I've learned to detach from the idea that everyone else has it figured out and to approach life with more compassion. The challenges we face aren't personal; it's about how we choose to see and value them. Join me as I explore how this shift in perspective can lighten the load and bring more peace to your journey.

Before we begin, I want to thank the sponsor of today's episode, Pro Compression. Coined the best compression socks you'll ever wear, they're a big part of my running, my lifting, as well as my recovery. For those unfamiliar with compression socks and the value that they bring to your fitness journey, you know, they're known for a few things. One, alleviating swelling and soreness after a workout, boosting blood flow, energy, and also enhancing performance and recovery. So being as into fitness as I am,

become a big part of my routine, and I'm happy to pass that along to you guys. I've teamed up with them. They're currently offering 40% off their entire website. If you use the code EP40, the website is pro-compression.com. And again, the code is EP40. I remember running one day.

This was years ago now. I lived a little bit further south. It was jogging down the high. 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 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 it. 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? Oh, 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 eight 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 very much of very. 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.

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. You know, one of the hardest things to do is to walk away from a situation that's just okay. That's fine. It's doable, livable. There's an idea that the enemy of great isn't its inverse? The enemy of great is not average or insignificant or I don't know throw in any similar word. No, the enemy of great is good. Why? Because it's incredibly easy to rationalize good. It's incredibly easy to sit back and tell yourself, hey, things aren't currently broken. So why touch them? Leave it alone. It's why it's a dangerous place to be.

Comfort doesn't, on its own, initiate action or evolution. There has to be some sort of stressor to ignite the flame. And I'll get a response, you know, every now and then, truly in good faith, asking, well, what's wrong with average? Why can't I just be? Not everyone can be LeBron James or Adele or Denzel Washington. Eddie, this convo sends people down a pass. half of false hope.

Well, hear me out, because I'm certainly not saying everyone can be LeBron James, but they can most definitely be LeBron James in their own world, and instead are settling for some sort of bench roll.

I'm not saying if you're not a movie star making $20 million a film you've lost, I'm merely pointing out that perhaps you haven't even found the courage to star in your own movie, the one that is your life. And I can't speak for every human being on the planet here,

but I most certainly can speak for myself. The easiest thing for me, the temptation I always find myself grappling with, is the temptation to stay where I am. To accept things as they are, pass change off as something that's just a little bit out of my control. That's what my lizard brain all. always seems to want.

It's really nice to not have to feel the burden of knowing I can change things around me. That prospect of creating my own friction, my own chaos, so that I can, in a sense, tame it and elevate myself. That can be overwhelming. That's stressful. But you know what it is at the end of the day? It's thrilling. It's meaningful. And it may have taken me years to understand.

But I'd trade a safe life for a safe life. for a meaningful one any day. It was my coming to understand that statistically, we should not be here. The odds are so small that you're alive listening to this, that the word improbability

doesn't do it justice. It's a miracle in every sense of the word, and so what do we do about that? How do you explain a feeling? How do you explain the cost of not going, of fewer sunrises, less laughter, untapped creativity, unwalked paths, journeys never started, you can't. Which is why you have to go.

Good is not detrimental because it's insufficient. It's detrimental because it gives you just enough to make stepping out into the world feel illogical. It's a warm blanket, keeping you comfortable enough to forfeit that feeling you truly crave. And I hope it's clear my take in this is not that we aren't enough. It's that we have to be reminded

that our biological compass points towards survival. And survival is a game of stagnation. Our souls, on the other hand, they need to run. To seek out the moment. magnificence of life. And the more times we can be tapped on the shoulder and reminded of this, the better. See, I don't dream of new horizons because I'm ungrateful. I've learned to chase them down because I'm so grateful that I refuse to forfeit the gift.

To leave my curiosity packaged and confined, I want to bask in life's abundance before my time here is up. And that's just it. That's the whole point. The friction between the knowing and the doing. Making that happen, physically bringing yourself there. It's not an easy thing. Certainly not as easy as putting your feet up and rationalizing the status quo.

It's why I listen to voices that inspire me. Read stories that teach me. I talk to people who lift me up. Going is harder than staying. But meaning. resides in the going. So no, it's not about being LeBron James. It's about getting off the bench and at least shooting a shot. Whatever a shot means to you, wherever you are. Because if you don't, you'll never experience the thrill of having made one, of having felt that success. It's not

about what you're doing, it's about what you're leaving on the table. Is average terrible? I don't know. Is a Ferrari never taken out of its garage terrible? Not really, it's still a Ferrari, but it won't experience the very thing that Ferrari was designed to experience. Again, how do you quantify that? You can't. Not until you go.

So here's the stepping out of whatever the present definition of normalcy is in your world. Maybe not frantically changing the world around you, but certainly questioning the good, questioning yourself, questioning the rogeron. Has the routine overshadowed the reason you put the routine into place? Has the way things are come to outweigh the way you'd like them to be? Has good become a distraction Misdirecting you away from both life's brilliance And your own?

One of the more powerful realizations I've had, both in business and life overall, is that what we do to win today And what we do to position ourselves to win tomorrow, They're often very different things. And we've probably all experienced this in some capacity, we get sucked into the cycle of doing, becoming so task-oriented that we don't make time to step back and ask, which direction do I want this ship to go?

Because sure, we have to keep it afloat, and we have to keep it afloat now. But also, we have to navigate. The ship's role isn't solely to float, right? It's a transportation mechanism, a vehicle. Where are we going? And so the question becomes how do we balance the two? I came across an awesome book by Lee Benson called Your Most Important Number. And I'm about halfway through, but already finding a ton of value that I'll be sharing in the future,

primarily around positioning your business for success. And one of the first things the book discusses is the difference between what Lee calls eating and dreaming. Eating being the things we need to do now to take care of matters that are in. essential for today, the things that need to get done. So using the same metaphor, actions to keep that boat afloat. And then there's the dreaming, which is essentially doing things now that help position the organization for success in the future down the road. It's asking what can I do today that will ensure we are winning tomorrow. So boat metaphor, it's planning for storms that may arise later in the journey. It's analyzing the best destinations and

charting the course. And here's what really struck me. Lee suggests, based on his consulting, that ideally leaders should be, I believe the number was 80% dreaming and 20% eating. So yeah, doing what has to be done today, obviously, but largely focused on positioning the organization and themselves for success in the days to come. And what he's found is that very often out in the world, that ratio's flipped. People are so consumed by the day-to-day that the future takes a back seat to the nuance and the quote-unquote putting out fires of the present moment. We're spending 80% of our time eating. Now like most things this is not one-size-fits-all. Say frontline manager at a factory's not going to be 80% dreaming and 20% eating. Their task requirements are different. But the point remains

it's imperative that we in some capacity utilize our resources now to look ahead. I don't know if I've ever told this story, but I always joke around with my brother about it. When we were kids in Southern California, we'd have these basically battles on the beach, right? Where we'd go down to the hard sand right in front of the water. And we'd each build these little walls slash fort type things, maybe 20 feet apart from each other. This is like emulating World War I type stuff. And then we'd make cannonballs out of sand and just throw the sand at each other. So in a way, this is a perfect metaphor because we would always be juggling on one hand,

building the fort that would protect us from the other person. So dreaming. And then on the other hand, I mean, those things hurt, right? We'd have to in real time be dodging incoming sand simultaneously to building that. wall, right? So the eating. And he's a bit younger than me, so admittedly this wasn't really fair. But regardless, you know, he would get so consumed with throwing sand that his wall would be really cheaply made. At the beginning, I'd be trying to make this really solid base foundation. He would just be pelting me with this stuff and it was brutal. But as time went on, I build that

wall higher and higher. Eventually it would be lights out for him. He'd have not nothing to hide behind. The young buck was doing, let's say, less, way less than 80% dreaming. And so I'm no longer building castles in the sand. But as the rose said, now I'm looking to build them in the air, seeking to bring things into life

that are merely ideas and concepts in my head. And naturally, this prompted me to ask, well, what's my ratio now? Because it sure feels like I'm doing a lot of eating. It sure feels like I spend a lot of time every day, you know, dodging Mikey Peas, incoming sand cannon balls, right? Things are going to be different tomorrow than they are today. And to truly win, we need to be asking ourselves, how do we build that bridge from the

present to the future? How do we lay out stepping stones that will allow an evolution in what we're doing? And I'm thinking, if my day's 95% consumed with eating type tax, then I need to figure things out here, right? Is it automate? Is it eliminate? Is it delegate? It's something because the ship needs to be more effectively captained. And I love these epiphanies. Just a change in mindset that can completely redirect one's entire trajectory.

And it's funny, I was having a conversation earlier today with a friend about scaling and impact and growth. Another person I love to throw ideas back and forth to, and he asked me, well, Eddie, what are some of the ones? ways your world within could make money. And I was like, oh, it's easy, right? And so I laid it all out in great detail, the ins and outs. And he says, that's awesome. But that's not the question I asked you. You answered a different question. You answered, how is the business making money now? I asked, how can it make money in the future? Boom, another epiphany, one of those

instances where you catch yourself thinking small. And this isn't a knock on the work I'm doing now or the systems in place now. They're great now, but again, now isn't forever. If you have plans to add more value and create more impact, build more things, that has to be baked into your time and resource allocation. We all have to eat because we don't want to starve, but we also have to dream. Because if we're unable to look ahead, we simply will not be equipped to handle the turbulence of tomorrow. There's a duality to this game. And I think the ratio with which we're juggling the two deserves consistent attention and examination. Now, yeah, life is seasonal.

There are times where keeping that ship afloat takes everything we have. But it's understanding that that is a season and not the way things are. Dreaming allows us to start moving in the right direction, even if it's one small step at a time. Building today piece by piece, something we can stand on tomorrow, a staircase, to the version 2.0 and 3.0 and 4.0. The future depends on what we do today, and so we must create space for that seed to grow. We must chart the course and captain the ship to the next. horizon. I once heard a metaphor that our existence is like standing behind a curtain with tears or holes and reality becomes which holes we decide to look through when we're peering out at

the world on the other side. What do we want to see? And this message, well, it's for whoever out there feels like giving up or folding their hand. Whoever's been waiting for things to change, but only sees the clock moving forward. This is a reminder that the very thing you need is on the other side of that curtain. And you don't need to change who you are. We just need to position yourself to see it. Because it's there and you're ready.

When life hurts, we might have every reason to be in pain, to feel lost or confused, but I always find it to be a beautiful reminder that we also, We also have every reason to seek out from that pain, something we've never been before. Why is it that our greatest accomplishments come when our backs are to the wall? Our greatest acquisitions after losing something dear to us?

Why is it that we find ourselves in our way only after being lost? I've never heard someone say, thank God I never changed or left or tried something new. No, it's thank God the adversity forced upon me, the courage to evolve into something more. Pain is to our potential what water is to a seed. It's the beginning of everything unshackling, opening the gate, and making us realize we were sitting on the answers. That adversity doesn't stop you, it makes you stronger. that the down times lift you up, that when you lose yourself,

you find a part of you that can now become the bridge to your future. See, I understand that things are difficult and challenging. I understand they're not easy, and I'm not asking you to pretend it's not happening or ignore it or close your eyes. I'm asking you to find amidst all of this, that one thing, one thing that will get you to do,

tomorrow. I'm asking you to find the courage to say, yes, this hurts. Yes, I'm stretched thinner than I've ever been, but I'm still going to find a way. I'm still going to make it happen. Because at the end of the day, you won't remember what hurt or what stood in your way, but you'll remember what you did about it. You'll remember how you arranged those pieces. How when your instincts said run, you stopped and built something you'll never. Never forget. I was sitting in my office, dimly lit, head in my hands, disappointed. Mostly in myself for letting the opportunity escape, because I had it.

I could have held on. Instead, I watched it slip away, and in frustration, leaned back in my chair, looked up, Notice a little rectangle of light subtly bouncing around on the wall. It had made its way from a small gap in the curtains, completely breaking the uniformity of darkness. Its presence, signaling just how much exists outside our periphery during those tough moments. reminding me how much our darkest days only remain so long as we refuse to let light in and how periods of longing are unavoidable

but whether we lay down because of them or stack and stand upon them is up to us now I don't know why what we need is hardest to grasp during our times of greatest vulnerability. But I do know that we are capable of standing up, of lighting a match amidst the shadows of life. I do know we are strong enough to take the curveballs and the complexity

and not just exist with them, but transform them into our stepping stones. So often the endings we didn't think we wanted, become the beginning we didn't know we needed. It's not about being perfect. It's about getting up when your soul feels heavy and your body is weak. Making your way to the window, opening the curtains, and letting the light in.

And the key to maintaining perspective to never relinquishing your control or composure is to understand that there is value in the seemingly valueless, that when we most want to hang our heads and retreat to a place of sorrow, we must hold on to the fact that somewhere underneath it all is the reason you will not only move on, but emerge victorious. Rise from the ashes of despair stronger than you ever were. When light turns out the light and shakes your world at the foundation, it isn't to check your progress, but to remind you that you can be the light. You can withstand the rumbling underneath you.

That we will never completely mitigate adversity. But we were given perhaps the greatest gift of all. The power to decide. what will become of it. It's been almost two years since I first read it, and still the main idea from the book, The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi deeply resonates with me.

The idea that being happy is essentially dependent upon the courage to be disliked. And at first, it might not seem like the two, you know, whatever be related. Happiness and being disliked. An odd pair. maybe even seemingly counterintuitive. Until you realize that happiness comes from such a personal, authentic place

that allowing the expectations of others to chart your course means that you'd probably never arrive there. You have to do what's best for you. And doing what's best for you is going to create a divide somewhere. Why? Because everything creates a divide. Everything is subjective. I knew I wanted to dive into this topic,

but wasn't sure the best way to do it. So the other morning, I was trying to think of like an objective truth, something that no one could disagree with. It was sitting on my balcony and pointed up towards this sky. Thought, let's start there. Simple as it gets. Hard to refute that, right? I am pointing up.

And I remembered we're floating on a globe, a giant sphere. There is no up. Up is perspective. Everything is perspective. What's the difference between one and two? Some might say it's one. But technically, there's infinity between one and two. You can have infinite decimals.

1.999.9 goes on forever, right? Point being there's subjectivity when we drill down into even the seemingly obvious truth. Now, the value here, not to go running around, you know, arguing with everyone that there's infinity between one and two. No, there are certain aspects of society that we must adhere to, otherwise we couldn't function together. Right. But it's simply to show that you following the path you believe is right for you cannot be rightfully assessed by someone else. It's to place trust in your internal personal judgment.

And when people don't understand your infinity, that doesn't mean it's wrong. And by the way, I don't have blinders on to the fact that it's hard to do. In many ways, it goes right up against our lizard brain biological wiring. We're fitting and equates to survival, and ostracization becomes a death sentence. But we are, fortunately, beyond that. It's in our interest now, and in fact, I think the courage to be disliked is a critical. lifelong journey. I'm better at this than I was 10 years ago, no question, but do I still have a ways to go, absolutely. There are still things I'm working on every day to let go of. I remember

reading in Jefferson's biography about how it was so hard for him to be demonized in the press all the time that it almost dissuaded him from jumping back into politics before his presidential run. And being attacked is a hard thing. But ultimately, he led his beliefs and personal values drive him, his ambition in a lot of ways, and came to see the scrutiny as a cost, decided it was worth the price. Or like I use this all the time, take one of the biggest pop stars of our day, say Justin Bieber. You look at what people are saying about him in the comments of his video. A lot of it's wonderful, some of it's great, sure, but some of it's awful. And that's just the price of anyone putting themselves out there.

And again, you think of an inverse scenario. Imagine if he didn't. Imagine if he limited himself or didn't dive fully into what he does because he knew some folks out there would have some bad things to say. Now, we are, for the most part, neither famous politicians nor pop stars. But our worlds contain the same elements at different scale. There are things we're all scared to do or say because of how it will be received. There are parts of ourselves that we repress because we don't know what the feedback will be.

We're all scared to fail in some capacity because of how it will look or what others will say about it, which is why being disliked is courageous. As Aristotle has said, the only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, to say nothing and be nothing. The opposite of being fully, truly yourself is becoming the manifestation of that quote. It's never pushing yourself, never seeing what you're capable of, never exploring or executing on your dreams, your ambitions.

Now, this is speculation, but if I were a gambling man, I'd place everything I own on the idea that when we're old, looking back on our lives, we'll spend less time thinking about who criticized us or disagreed with us than how we spent our days and who we shared them with. Did we live in a way that made us happy that was meaningful? Because on a sphere, everyone believes they are pointing up.

But in actuality, none of us are. We're all merely navigating the subjective universe behind our eyes. So why not truly explore? Why not capture the magic out there before the hourglass runs out of sand? It's hard, sometimes it hurts, it takes all we have, it requires courage. But I think we'll all come to find

that the decision to live fully in our authenticity, regardless of whether others agreed, disagreed, or were indifferent, It was the best decision that we ever made. So you've made a decision. Congrats, you're 3% done. Now I'm paraphrasing, but that's an idea from author and entrepreneur Lee Benson. Belief and execution. The duo that will change your life.

First, believe. Why? Because nothing happens without belief. Nothing begins without an understanding and a trust that the future contains something of value. That the seeds of discomfort being planted will bear fruit. We simply don't walk through doors if we don't believe something of value exists on the other side. And then there's execution, the doing. Congrats, you gave yourself permission to begin.

That was a big sense. step, right? But now you have to deal with life, and life, my friends, is no picnic. It's in the doing that success is either obtained or not, that a new reality is birthed or not. In the book, your most important number, Lee Benson has said, so you've made a decision, congrats, your 3% done. Why? Because, well, now comes the implementation, the execution. Now the feet are on the ground and the wheels, the road, and we must transform the thoughts into things. Thinking can be so much more convenient than doing. Execution is trying things.

It's recognizing the attempts that didn't work. It's moving forward only to realize wrong path or wrong approach. Or maybe what's required of you is not yet something you're capable of producing, and so you must evolve. It's seeing setbacks as data point. It's understanding that to not know is okay because we collect our answers as we go. It's seeing the journey is an experiment, one in which we seek to understand ourselves and the world. There is so much contained in that 97%. to write your own ending storybook,

an infinite number of paths and outcomes, but ultimately only discoverable by you. And I think that's one of the most beautiful things about life. And once you give yourself permission to walk a certain path, once you believe in something greater than the world as it currently exists, you become an artist, painting something that was not there before. Using the highs as little benchmarks to remind you why you started to begin with when your landscape becomes gray.

It's using the lows as fuel that turns the ordinary into extraordinary that slingshots the old you to the new you, adding brightness and vibrance to the overall scene. You're encapsulating all of it as you move through that great unknown, as you push further and further into the abyss, you're playing the role of Maker. Not because you knew how it would all turn out, but because you didn't, and still you executed. Recently in an interview,

I heard Alex Hermose, a now accomplished entrepreneur in his own right, talking about some of his failings, consulting gyms in the fitness industry, the moment when things went south. And he lost it all. Now for a moment he thought he had. Money, assets, and perhaps even the pride, gone. But came to learn that money and those assets, they are lagging indicators.

They aren't the value that's obtained. The value is who you become. The value is learning how to be someone who can obtain those things in the first place. It's emerging from the old restriction and limitation, the old narratives, because that cannot be taken away. When we execute, we're making ourselves something we otherwise could never have become. And so Alex learned that what he lost was insignificant compared to what he gained, and why is this such a common theme? With industry leaders, folks speaking on their accomplishments,

I think the answer is simple, because you don't get there without the doing and the execution. And if to execute means to step forward without having all the answers, after all, we are only human, life will humble us. Excellence must be a game of trial and error. We can't escape those lost everything stories. Because choosing the right path every time, well, that only happens when you choose. no path at all. We have to act and be okay understanding that action brings with it mistakes and lessons and setbacks. You know, all those little annoying things that become greatness.

97% is left because the path before you is unwalked. But know that it contains everything, everything you need. So believe it. Decide because not. Nothing starts without that initial 3%. But nothing changes without the subsequent 97. That's where we are shaped. And when you come face to face with the inevitable adversity, know that life might take the material gains. It might demand a price you deem to be steep.

It might collect as a toll assets you've been accumulating along the way, but it can't take what you know or who you've become. And that is why you execute. To build the world around you, yes, but most importantly, to build yourself into someone who can thrive in such an environment. It's in doing that the man is built. And as was said in Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, Build the Man and the World Falls into place. they don't understand your vision. Of course it means nothing to them.

That's how the world works. People need to see results, not ideas. They need to see to believe. In fact, everything you dream of believe in, it needs to be carved into existence. And the important thing worth noting here is that it's not personal. It's not a reflection of you or your talent or your potential.

The differentiator in life will always be one's ability to turn ideas into things. You have that power within yourself. Literally to change the world as we know it, that's not a question. It's not even far-fetched. You're capable. But we need to spend less time feeling like we're owed something for that exhausted energy. The world is a tough. place it rewards value and sometimes it takes way longer than we like to see a

return on that investment as James clear mentions you put an ice cube in a room at zero degrees and you gradually turn up the temperature you won't see it even begin to transform until you hit the 32 degree mark that's not when the work began it's not indicative of everything but that's when the effects of the work become visible. And getting to that point, it's one of life's greatest challenges. It's hard to give everything for something you can't collect when you go to bed at night. It's hard to be that patient.

The only way to break through the noise to create something is to fully wholeheartedly believe in yourself. Believe in yourself to the extent that you can detach from the criticism. Detach. from the facade of perfect lives on social media and the expectations you're immersed in. This isn't a race between you and the world. It's a battle of will between you and the voice that says there is no 32 degree mark.

Removing that negativity, it's just as important as focusing on the positive. Dreams live at that intersection of belief and action. And I've always wondered what people think they're gaining by shouting about how important they are, the things they're doing, or their plans. That does nothing. You need to know what you're doing, and that's all. Words mean nothing, ideas or empty, respect is earned by adding actual value, by making a difference. So reallocate that energy into the gift you are giving to the people around you.

That is a feat best accomplished with your mouth closed. and your eyes open. Every day, every action unnoticed, effort unseen, it stacks up to create something that will truly change the world. You can become so fixated on winning or losing the game that you forget to ask yourself, am I playing the right one?

Is this my game? Am I setting myself up to win in an arena of significant against to me. Because look, there are infinite games out there. And sometimes we find ourselves caught up in a race. We have no business running. Meaning it doesn't really do anything for us. It's not where we want to be or should be.

There's a saying by someone and a few social media outlets actually restricted my post for suggesting it was Einstein. So it might not be Mr. Einstein, But whoever said it, thank you, you're awesome. The saying goes, everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it's stupid.

Now, there are a lot of us fish out there, attempting to climb trees as we speak, wondering why we're not where we want to be, perhaps seeing the results or lack thereof as an indication that we're insufficient, inadequate, some way. When, hey, that's not the case at all. It's that we haven't taken the time to identify our own personal intersection of what we love and what adds value to the world. We haven't manufactured those fireworks. That's something that has to be explored, found. J.R.R. Tolkien,

not all who wander are lost, right? And I think we innately fear this process of searching because Because it's unsettling to not know how things are going to play out. Trust me, I've been there, right? It's taxing to not have your packaged little elevator speech and a five-year vision when it seems like the whole world does. But to deprive yourself of this exploration is to potentially forfeit the very thing that you come to live for. Most of the time, purpose doesn't fall into one's lap. You have to have your eyes open. What's meaningful must be sought out.

Now, I'm going to play a little devil's advocate here because our world is not black and white. It sort of lives in this gray space, right? Can you win at someone else's game? Sure. There are a lot of people, quote unquote, succeeding in areas that are not ideal, that they don't love, that they're not their best in,

but how is success being defined? I've talked extensively about my journey and all those games I used to play, the targets I used to aim for. And I know a lot of people who've come to similar epiphanies. But when you don't realize you can exit stage left and begin again, start something new, you simply continue this same song and dance. Right? It's not life that keeps us confined. It's ignorance that keeps us confined.

We simply have to be taught that there's more. And I understand to find an arena where you can thrive in a purely historical context is a luxury. You are programmed to survive. You're not programmed to build an art studio because it's your passion, right? But there lies the battle. We are at a place in time

where we have collectively cultivated abundance. The phone you're using to consume this content, that little thing can be a portal that transports your thoughts, your creation, your business to the masses. You have at your fingertips access to billions of people. You have reach that humans only 30 years ago, all the way back to the beginning of mankind, can only dream of.

The means are there. In so many ways, it's about freeing yourself to, pursue the opportunity that exists all around you, because we self-limit. Alan Watts asked the ever-important question, what would you do if money were no object? Now, in a practical world, why ask such a question? Simple, because removing those monetary constraints

as you contemplate your answer, allows you to truly analyze what endeavors are meaningful to you. When something is meaningful, you want to do. do it. When you want to do it, you immerse yourself in those little intricacies, in those details that the average person simply doesn't pay attention to. Making you so good at whatever that thing is that eventually, not only can you be the best at it, but you can monetize it and probably at a very high rate. It's not money holding you back. It's not time holding you back. It's not the external world holding you back.

It's what you have been conditioned to believe that's holding you back. You are a genius at something. You are king or queen of your empire, victor within your arena. But to realize these things, you have to, one, understand it's a possibility, and two, refuse to stay stagnant. We have to stop conceding so much while simultaneously accepting so little. Life will never provide what you do not ask for. So why?

Why be scared to ask? Life won't tell you you're a fish climbing a tree. You must tell you that. Life won't expand your horizons and adjust your trajectory. You must initiate. initiate that change. To find your genius,

you must be willing to leave what's insufficient. To capture what's meaningful, you must be willing to leave what is meaningless. Let's agree to alter the question, do I have genius level talent? Because you do. And you live in a society that also rewards those who realize it.

The question we need to be willing to ask is are you willing to walk on shaky ground? To abandon, at least for a period of time, safety and the comfort of predictability in order to find that genius. Are you willing to nurture the greatness that already lives within you? lives within you. Because it was never a matter of ability. It's a matter of what you're willing

to discover. Every next level of your life will demand a different version of you. Why? Because life is about reaching outside of your comfort zone, acclimating until you are comfortable and then repeating the process. Every time you leave the familiar you are granted a new set of armor. As Jim Rohn said, if you want to have more, you have to become more. For things to change, you have to change. For things to get better, you have to become better. If you improve, everything will improve for you.

And every time we expand ourselves, we are forced to change in some way, evolve. So many of us fall into the trap of waiting for the perfect moment to jump. There is no perfect moment. How could there be? There's no perfect time to step out into a world you're not prepared for. But that's life. We jump and we grow wings on the way down. We step into the chaos and acclimate.

By walking into the dark, we are forced to become the light. This makes staying where you are the most dangerous thing you can do. Let's use our imagination for a second. Let's say you reach for the next thing. You stretch yourself. Move towards something you really want and you fall short. Okay? Time to breathe.

Reassess, step back for a second and re-approach. A little better this time, a little wiser this time. As long as one remains engaged in this cycle, growth is inevitable. But now, let's say you never step in. Let's pretend the idea of moving into the unknown is too much. much and you'd rather stay with the familiar pain-free you think to yourself but you would in fact be wrong see that discomfort one step up it would force you to evolve to see yourself as someone

who steps into hostile territory and survives and maybe it's not pretty maybe it's not perfect but you attack and you survive and sure the difference between where you are now and only one step up isn't much. But what about that second step or evolution? Because you'd miss out on that too. And the third and the fourth and the compounding that would completely redefine who you are. From yourself identity to your skill set, from the mental to the physical, you put the whole chain reaction on hold because why? You didn't want to take one step. You didn't want to be uncomfortable in the short term. But discomfort is not a punishment. It is a punishment. It is a ticket to everything you could ever imagine.

So when the crowd runs out, I challenge you to run in. And when the world goes left, I dare you to go right. Not because the masses are evil, but because human beings are wired to take the path of least resistance. But you, no, not you. You're here to rise above the mental constraints that holds so many. down because there is always another level. When you feel good, there is another level and when you don't, there is another level. And see, our world has been defined, not by the best or the brightest, but the ones willing

to throw themselves into foreign arenas and compete. To see adversity as the answer, not the problem. You want to change your world, then change yourself. You want to change yourself, then go where you are scared to go. where your heart beats and your hands sweats, turn and face the direction you know you should have been facing. This is about you. This is about what you can become by simply saying yes

when most would say no. Today is yours. Not because it was given to you, but because you looked through the haze and you decided it's so. Thank you.