Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - KILL THAT WEAK VERSION OF YOURSELF | Motivational Speeches by Eddie Pinero | Wake Up Positive

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

I hope this episode finds you in a place where you're ready to let go of what no longer serves you—and step boldly into what could be. Reinvention has always been one of my greatest challenges�� and also one of the most rewarding pursuits. It’s not easy to leave behind what we’ve built or who we’ve been, but sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is start again.Remember, your value isn't in what you've already made—it's in your ability to build again. Life is short, made up of ticking clocks and setting suns. But as long as you're here, breathing, you have more to gain than lose. Keep moving forward, even if you don’t know exactly where you’ll land.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

I hope you find the courage to make mistakes, to fall on your face, to break things and put them back together. I hope you find the strength to move forward without knowing. A feat that is simultaneously one of the most challenging things to do in life, but also one of the most rewarding. It's perhaps my greatest adversary. reinvention, knowing that, yeah, your time has run its course, understanding that it's time to break and build again. But being so deeply terrified to let go, what if things don't work out?

What if I lose? What if I'm worse off than I was right now because of my ambition, my self-belief, my hope for tomorrow better than today? What if it all goes down in flames? Someone once said to me that one of our biggest misunderstandings or misconceptions is that what we've done in the past holds all our value. We can't walk away from what we've made. It's who we are.

The mind says it's tied to our identity when, you know, truth be told. What we've done in the past is meaningless. It's symbolic. It's a mirage. It's not tied to potential or upside or what's next. Your value is not in what you've made. It's in your ability to build again. What truly shines is the warrior you've been cultivating day by day. Lesson by lesson by lesson, the one who stares back at you when you look in the mirror. In fact, you eventually come to learn that what you've built, believe it or not, is an ankle weight, a false sense of security keeping you from living life. Because life is meant to be messy. Oh, it's meant to be explored. We're not made of glass. Because unlike,

glass, we are supposed to fall apart. Unlike glass, our greatness is not transparent. It's a culmination of courageous decisions and educated risk. It's the result of knowing that things might not work out. But those odds are better than definitely won't work out. Which, by the way, is what happens if you stay where you are. If you want to stand there and defend the status quo, if you're want to lay down and die on the hill of mediocrity, do it. No one's stopping you, but you'll have to be okay knowing you took your winning lottery ticket, placed it in a drawer on your desk, and you never cashed it in. That's the thing about potential. It can mean everything and it can mean nothing. There's an old idea that people will always choose the devil they

know over the one they don't. Because the devil they know, aside from being familiar, is private. It's a silent pain. The devil you know is, I could have, but I didn't. The devil you don't know, on the other hand, it's a totally different ballgame. That can be a public extravaganza. That could be a ship sinking in broad daylight. If you try and you fail, you may fail spectacularly.

And by the way, to the pure joy of onlookers and your critics, what a special little hell that would be. But what if that special little hell was the door you had to walk through? And look, in so many ways, I'm a pragmatist. I'm not suggesting you give yourself a little pep talk in the mirror and then go solo climb El Capitan. But what if you understood the game? What if it clicked?

And you realize that protecting the past meant a fraction of what it means to find the courage to fail. Daily micro-failures, small lessons. What if you started to build? an immunity to hitting the ground. What if you realize that people are going to say good things and bad things about you? And they'll do both whether you try or not, whether you extend yourself or not, whether you shoot or not.

And there's pain. Oh, there's pain whether you go or stay. So you might as well feel the pain of progress. There's risk associated with being here and leaving for them. but leaving has an exponentially greater upside, and so why not go? Why not find within you the courage to fail, to depersonalized, scrape knees, and a bruised ego?

Because reinvention requires leaving the good in pursuit of the great and you. You are worthy of greatness. You are worthy of more. Yeah, for you. but lift your head up because it's also for those who mean the most to you it's for the souls you will inspire along the way

and I know how daunting the task feels not only the unknown circumstance waiting outside but the possibility of losing what you have now I swear to you I resonate with that more deeply than you could imagine but it's time Right now it's time to go. It's time to take some ls so that you can use them as stepping stones. And man, I hope you find the courage to make mistakes.

To fall on your face, to break things and build them again. I hope you find the strength to move forward without knowing. A feat that is simultaneously one of the most difficult things to do in life. life and most rewarding. Because in a life that is finite, one comprised of setting suns and ticking clocks, I promise you. You have much more to gain than lose. So I wake up, my feet hit the ground,

I get out of bed, walk into the bathroom, turn on the sink. I look up, you stare at the reflection in the mirror. It's time to rise, the voice says. I stop, I think about it for a second. The reflection continues to speak, so I listen. It says, Eddie, life has placed some obstacles before you, some valleys. Some of it was your doing. Some of it's just life.

But all of it is yours now. We get in life what we have. allow. And pain, the internal turmoil, that's a sign that you may just be letting the wrong things live alongside you. The wrong thoughts, actions, ideas, stories, people, and places. That reflection, he continued to share. So I listened. Eddie, here are some reminders. Take note. Time is the most valuable currency you have, period, bar none. Be more methodical about how you use it. This is not new, but rather a recalibration.

That little thing in your pocket, that phone, that portal, yes, the same one you use to share, conduct business, get your thoughts out into the world, the same one that's changed your life. it's also crushing you. If you don't reel in your time on that little device, the consumption, the mindless scrolling, the time that you do have, you'll be fighting for mere adequacy. Shut it off, go reread Cal Newport's deep work. Reread Relentless by Tim Grover.

Remind yourself what greatness truly requires, the concentration, the focus, the effort. Go. Remind yourself. Number two, there are seasons of life. There are times to sprint and there are times to pace yourself. Times to explore and times to plant a stake in the ground. Times to tear down and times to build up.

Don't define yourself by the season you are in. You just walked away from a lot. You in many ways are restarting. You, as the saying goes, step back to leap forward. And now you're here. So remember, you are not the struggles of the past month or two months. You are where you go from here. You are your very next step.

You are all of the opportunity before you. Number three, ambitious people tend to look forward. Often, they live in that gap. between where they are and where they want to be. Sometimes they only see the road ahead, and this can be good because it's a motivator, contributes to one's growth and mastery of a craft, that competition in the soul,

that mastery of self that pushes one forward. But it can, if left unchecked, be just as dangerous as it is valuable. Look over your shoulder. Remind yourself how far you've come. Compare yourself to that. Compare yourself to eight years ago and how bad you wanted to be where you are now.

See what happens when that's the focal point. Number four, when you're frustrated about an outcome or how far you have to go, remember, you're never as far away as you think. It's about reworking the minor details. No wheels need to be reinvented. here. Breathe. Collect yourself.

Ask yourself which dots need to be connecting. Because you're closer than you think to recapturing momentum. You're always an arm's reach away from that light switch that will illuminate the path you need. Just reach out and find it.

Number five, simplicity. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. Stop making the simple things complex. You'll find yourself pulling your hair out about problems that are tangential at best to what really matters. The right things are simple. A happy, healthy, effective life is minimalist. Protect it.

Preserve it. Keep the complexity out. Remove the clutter in your environment. Clutter in your thoughts. Revert back to what's simple because there everything of value will emerge. And number six, it can. can be right, but wrong for you. That means, in your case, it's wrong in totality.

Look, there will always be available off-ramps. There will always be he did this and it worked. She did that and it worked. Stay true to you in your world, your North Star. Even the people trying to help you, right? They can only advise on what they know, their experience. Their experience is not yours. This is the evolution of insanity.

It calls for one to be crazy until they are quote unquote experts, to be lost until they are found. And if you avoid pointing to other people for the answers and find the courage to carve out your own path, eventually people will point to you for the answers. And number seven, as a friend of mine once said, walk into every room like God sent you. You are there for a reason.

You have something to offer, something to give, something precious. The world won't know that until you know that, until you live and breathe that, until you operate with conviction. Give yourself the respect you hope to be granted by other people. The reflection pauses one more time looks at me through the mirror and says, it's time to rise. Life has given you some obstacles.

It's placed some valleys before you. Some of those were dictated by life. Some of them are your fault, but they are all, all of it. Every single piece yours now. We get in life what we allow. And pain, the internal turmoil, that's a sign that you may just be allowing the wrong things to exist alongside you. The wrong thoughts, actions, ideas, stories, people, and places. So Eddie, I hope those reminders provided some clarity.

I hope they reminded you who you are and that you already have what you need. It's time to rise. So go. Be loved or be. but never simply tolerated. In life, you can live to chase opportunity, or you can live to avoid failure. And there are two very different things.

Rather than pursue, we often avoid, we avoid failure, we avoid criticism, we don't want to ruffle feathers or disrupt. No, we choose to simply exist. Never condemned, but never extraordinary. extraordinary, just tolerated. And it's an interesting dilemma because the best things exist on the extremes, life's fringes.

That's where you find your accolades, your accomplishments, that's what we celebrate, it's where you need to be. And you get there not by worrying about what everyone around you thinks, but by taking your strength, your strength, your unique self holding on and pressing the pedal to the floor going all in. And yeah, that means suddenly, my friend, you are exposed.

You are vulnerable. You are now out there. It means those who don't have the courage to chase their dreams, they will find you threatening and they will let you know. But it also means that the shackles are up. The door is open. The light is green. and you can build from the ground up, you can build the life you want.

The finish line has now become more visible than the prospect of falling along the way and you've granted yourself permission to run through it. Sure, some will love you for these accomplishments, some will hate you for these accomplishments, but let me reiterate the word accomplishment. Because when you live to be invisible, It's a term that rarely presents itself, I promise.

Life, it rewards the bold. Those who are bold in their beliefs, bold in their actions, their dreams, and their pursuits. They are not for anyone but you. And years later, when you look in the mirror, you'll know that you gave every single thing you had to a life that meant something to you. Loved, yes.

Hated, sure. But merely tolerated, no. So the other day, I had a moment. It was walking out of Walgreens, just grabbed some stuff, was moving through the parking lot. And I paused for a brief second and just looked at my car. Now, a little bit of a preface here, so that you know I'm coming from the right.

place, right? I think those of you have been listening to me for a while. You know, I really don't delve into like money or material things, not because I think they're bad, right? Or because I don't like them. Money is great. It makes life a lot easier. But more so because they're not really what lights me up, right? And in fact, I think they're a byproduct of the important things, right? Like if you do the important things right, then the money usually follows. And so I like to spend my time talking about the quote unquote important things. But for the first time, I spent a little bit of money on my car. I'd been investing everything back into the business for about 10 years now.

And the convo with myself, it went like this. Eddie, you're in your mid-30s. When are you going to live a little bit? Right. It's like, what are you saving for? And so I did. And back to the moment, I'm standing there in that Walgreens parking lot, looking at the car, and something dawned on me. And I think this is where the magic is. Ten years ago, I was worried about rent.

I had very little, other than a laptop and an old dynamic microphone that I would take with me into bars you know, when I was playing my set with my acoustic guitar. And it's like, think about what you flipped that mic into. Because that little mic was your starting point. And here's, you know, where I think the value is. You can take that little mic and see it as a piece of equipment, an amplifier of your voice, something used to record, a tool, right? Or you can see it as a portal to the universe,

as something that can transform your reality as you currently know it. That mic was flipped into a recorded speech. My recorded speeches were flipped into a YouTube channel and a brand. the YouTube channel evolved into speaking opportunities. The speaking opportunities evolved into creating a supporting staff, placing incredible people around me. Those people, that team, has helped me create scale and reach hundreds of thousands of people every day and on and on and on.

And from that continued evolution, right, that continued, leveling up, comes the car that I'm staring at in that parking lot, a reminder of where I started. I can draw a direct line from that cheap dynamic mic that you'd have to hit against the table to get to work, to turn on to that moment in the parking lot. Growth is seeing value where you are and trading up. It's looking around you, and seeing not what is, but what all that can become. See, I've used this metaphor before, but I think it applies perfectly here, right? Fantasy baseball, I'm going to nerd out on you.

After college, my friends and I played for a few years to keep in touch. And believe it or not, I learned a ton from it. So in a nutshell, this is how you win. You see the value where you are. Value that hopefully your opponents do not see. You find that value. You highlight it. And ultimately, you trade up.

Every player is an opportunity. A little dynamic microphone. The question is, can you turn each one into your dream car? So, quick example, player on your team is wildly overperforming. This person hit eight home runs. in two weeks, but you know, you know, this guy isn't a home run guy. He has a nine-year track record of not really hitting home runs. So sure, there's a chance that he's suddenly improved.

Possible, but more than likely it's an outlier, right? So you seize the opportunity. You shop the guy to everyone around you while his values high. You try and trade him. See if you can get three players for him that are currently underperforming, right? squeeze the value from the moment. Take what surrounds you and trade up. And I won't go too far down the road on that example,

because I know how niche it is, but I want the concept to be clear. There's always an opportunity around you to identify value and transform it into the next stair of the staircase. It's always there. What you need is always around you. We just don't recognize it.

We forget to look. I heard Gary V. say years ago, or posed the question years ago, what is the ROI of a basketball? Gary said, well, for me, it's not very much, right? I'm a pretty short guy. I'm not a basketball player. What's the ROI or the value of a basketball to LeBron James? Literally billions of dollars.

But what's the value or ROI of a piano to LeBron. Not much. What is it to Alicia Keys? Again, a lot. Right? And so in our own world, it's looking around and identifying what those things are and attacking them, capitalizing on them, right? The mic, the basketball, or the piano. Maybe in your world, it's Microsoft Word. It's a paintbrush. It's the gym. Right. Could be an infinite number of things. But can you see it as not just minor detail in the great play of your life, but as your ticket to a reality you dream of. Microsoft Word becomes where you tell your stories,

which becomes your vehicle to connect with an audience, which becomes your incentive to write a book, which brings you to a speaking tour on and on. Like you get the idea. It's trading up from the little fragments of value that surround you. Because if you can recognize them and give them the respect they deserve, you'll see transformation happen. That little Mike and the courage to pick it up drove me home from Walgreens that day.

It's the reason I'll be speaking in multiple countries over the next few weeks. It's the reason I get to share stories and pour into others with the hope that they do the same in their world. Look around you. There is value. But the question remains the same, right? Are you willing to, one, identify it and two, capitalize on it. because a future you, walking out of Walgreens in a few years, will be grateful that you did.

So today I want to share a topic with you that I think is pretty cool. It's fun for me to reflect back and think about information or perspective that could have changed my life at a particular point in time, made it potentially easier to navigate. And so what I want to share with you today, is 10 things that I wish I knew in high school. 10 things that I learned along the way that being, you know, decades removed now would have made life easier, simpler,

and just put me at ease, right? So much of, you know, growth is learning, hey, right? Everything's fine. We figure things out as we go. So I'm going to dive right into it. Here are 10 things that I wish I knew in high school. The first one is no one has all the answers. And that's a big thing to learn to uncover, right?

Because there's so much uncertainty. There's so much unknown when you're younger that it's almost like we want to assume that these people over here have all the answers or these people we look up to or follow or surround ourselves with. Like they have it all figured out. No one has it all figured. life is a game of adjustment it's learning as you go right we're all perpetual students and that

should make you feel better because it's not like there is some great depth you're lacking you're just playing the game of life and each chapter is going to have its lessons and teach you valuable things no one has all the answers you pick them up as you go but I like to think of a advice as a buffet where it's like people can offer their suggestions or you can even from afar watch and observe doesn't mean it will directly apply to what you do or what you want right now take the pieces that you think are valuable and give them a try charlie munger says you are your own experiment explore right give yourself the grace of one understanding no one has it all figured out and you won't either, right?

Step into it and learn as you go. Number two, few opinions matter. Particularly in this online world, right? I'm lucky enough that this is going to sound crazy to say when I was in high school, we weren't very online. So now it's even easier for criticism and people to say things and, you know, criticize, throw opinions, all these things, right?

And they make the world feel. feel heavy, complicated. But the reality is none of that matters. I'm going to say something that is 100% true, and I don't know if it'll surprise you or not. There are zero opinions in high school that matter today, that I care about today. None.

But going through it, I didn't know that. Going through that, I really cared what people thought. I cared how people felt about me. I wanted to be cool and impress and the stuff we all do. None of that matters. You realize life is about you, your pursuit, and the people you love. Someone told me who wants this sort of scenario, right? And it's a little dark, but you'll see the point here.

It's, you know, a hospital bed scenario. Let's say, God forbid, you're sick. then you're in the hospital, who's going to visit you? I know in my situation, there's a select group of family and close friends. That's probably it. Right. And so outside of that, why would you care? Why would you give any energy to what anyone else thinks or says?

Life is simple. Keep it simple. Focus on what matters for you and your path. in the people that you care about. Number three, fear is an invitation. It's a big one. This one took me into my mid-20s to fully understand. The things that scare you,

push you to be better, right? I used to think when I was scared or my body physically, you know, rebelled against me doing something that, okay, then that's a no-go. We'll find something a little easier, a little bit more, you know, conducive to what feels right.

right in the moment. But the reality is, nothing of value comes without fear. Growth does not come without fear. Change is innately scary. And we all want to change, right? We all want to be that sort of best version of ourselves. We're always perpetually recreating ourselves. And so understanding, being able to flip that switch,

when you're scared to do something, it's not an alarm. It doesn't mean stop. A lot of the times it's a pat on the back. It's an invitation. I often cite my first YouTube video. It changed my life. If you think I wasn't terrified to be vulnerable on camera, you're crazy.

It's 100% worried about what people would think or how it would go. And you name it, right? Speaking in front of a large audience, hands were shaking. Knees were shaking. It was playing through different scenarios of even how to not do it. how internally terrified I was. But I did it. And it changed my life.

Put me on track for, you know, just a trajectory I couldn't have even imagined. And so you get the idea. Long story short, when it scares you, it's not a no. It's often a yes and an invitation to step into that better version of yourself. Number four, start now and adjust. One of the biggest myths we run into is perfection. We need to be perfect. We need to have it all figured out.

Perfect is just another variation of fear in disguise. If you wait for perfect, then I could point to a lot of people who do, you'll wait forever. And those people are still waiting forever. For everything to be right, everything to be aligned. I'm going to go when? I'm going to start if.

As soon as the moment's perfect, I'm going to, no, that doesn't exist. You start today. Now, in this moment, and you adjust and you evolve and you pick up the pieces along the way. Then, as time passes, you look over your shoulder and you go, wow, look how far I've come. I don't even recognize the person I am now. Don't wait for perfect. Go now.

Number five, this is a fun one. Life is a game. It's not that serious, right? It's just not. And this is important for me. If you're similar in sort of world outlook, I'm very very, you know, in sort of world outlook. tightly wound, right? I really want to do well and be better and improve and help as many people as I can. I'm constantly stressed and setting high, you know, expectations for myself.

I know so many people watching do the same. I know so many of my friends' family do the same. So many of my business partners do this same. It's such a breath of fresh air to realize, hey, do this because it ignites your soul. It's your purpose. It's your passion. But at the end of the day, being here is the gift. It's not that serious. There's no checklist or test or right or wrong. Live your life. I said this once like six years ago,

and I'm coming back to it because in a different context, I need the same message. You can close shop. You can go away for two years, live on an island, come back. Everything would be the same. You'd pick right back up where you were. It's just not that serious. So make sure you're spending time on the things that matter that light you up.

You're having conversations with the people you care about. You're doing things that are meaningful. You're finding ways to be inspired. It's a gift, not an obligation. Number six, less is more. I scream this book from the mountaintops. Greg McHughan, Essentialism. I used to think growth was acquiring.

What can I get? What can I add? What can I build? Sometimes. But most of the time, freedom is cutting away. It's us carrying around too much. And so when we can free ourselves of the things that are unnecessary, there's a level of just beauty in simplicity that is otherwise unobtainable.

It's the pursuit of less. Identify the things that matter most. and start cutting away those things that aren't that. Identify where you want to go and anything that's not taking you there, right? If it's not one of the most important things, the pillars in your life, feel good letting it go, letting that ship sail. It's been attributed to everybody, right? That quote, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

I don't know who really coined it, but it's everything. There's beauty and simplicity, power and simplicity. power and simplicity and freedom in simplicity. Number seven, we unknowingly limit ourselves all the time. It's instinct. We want to make things simple. We like stability. We like routine.

But here's what you have to remember. Your potential is limitless. It does not end. Your growth stops when you stop. When you put a stake in the ground and say, okay, I'm done. Otherwise, you will continue to grow and evolve. Right? So you have to remember that.

You limit yourself. It's funny to think about, you know, like running. I'm a big runner and I tie a lot of, you know, my life experience is too running. It's like if I run 10 miles and I'm running at a, let's say, a 750 pace, who says it couldn't have been a 749? Right? There's always that little space for more. And sometimes that doesn't matter.

Sometimes it does. There's always more to reach out and grab. So just know that you're always dancing with the infinite. There's always more available for you should you choose to pursue it. Number eight, depersonalizing is freedom. As someone recently put it to me, you know, when people say things to you, it's not about you. It's projection of them onto you. And we come across various degrees of this in life, right?

Whether it's people or just unfortunate things. It's like we take it personally. It's him against us or life against us or the situation against us. No, it's no one against you. Life just happens. And if you can smile and see it as just, you know, life occurring before your very eyes, providing you tools to build with always it's another form of freedom

it's an advantage that most people don't have because most people do take things personal in reality and truth it's not number nine not all who wander are lost there's going to be pressure as you move through life to feel like you have to know everything you have to have it all figured out there's going to be pressure

to feel like you need to know what you're going to do for work 20 years from now This is a derivative of a previous point I just made, right? Life is not that serious. The most important year of my life, you know what that was? I quit my job and I explored. I made videos with the camera. I wrote music.

I did some creative writing. I produced other artists. I just went out and I tried things. I played acoustic guitar around Boston and bars. You know, it's just amazing. And yeah, I learned what I loved. also learned what I didn't like. And that progression brought me to this incredible creative outlet where I can enjoy what I do, where I can love what I do and also help others. I couldn't have

planned that. I found that. And the reason I say that is because I invite you to do the same. I invite you to explore and try and find the magic in your life. It's there. But you have have to look for it. You have to seek it out. It won't knock on your door. At number 10, the finale here, growth is a lifestyle. And what do I mean by this? The big change in life, the biggest change, I should say, comes from immersing yourself in it, wearing the shoes, becoming the person you want to be before you are that. You know, I like to use health as an example. I used to think working out three days a week would make me fit. And, you know, going to the gym three days a week definitely is better than not going. But you know when my life

really changed, when I really felt fit and in shape is when I saw myself as a healthy person. That's not just going to the gym. That's sleeping right. That's eating right. That's being active, being out in the son, that's being around people who are healthy and share the same values. When you do that, you transform because it's not just something you do from 12 to 1 every day. It becomes a lifestyle. And I share this because maybe it's not health, maybe it's something else you're aiming for. Once you completely immerse yourself in that world, it is inevitable. It will become your reality. Growth is a lifestyle. It's not something you do from 12 to 1.

So whether you're in high school or, again, far beyond it, I hope there's something here for you that can help you gain some perspective or it's relatable. It pertains to what you're going through now. And, you know, you can use for some armor as you're navigating. Thanks for listening. Have an amazing day.