Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Letter to 2024 | New Years Motivation for 2025

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Goodbye, 2024. Hello, 2025. As we close this chapter, let's toast to the lessons, the growth, and the moments that shaped us. The new year is a blank page, a canvas waiting for bold strokes and big dreams. What will you create in 2025? Let’s make it count! Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

Thank you all for being here with me tonight. It's certainly an honor to be standing up here on stage. I think I'd like to start with a toast to none other than my friend and mentor, 2024. Where are you? 2024. There you are. In the back. Stand up.

Well, let me tell you all about 2024. It's been a wild one. 2024 is rolling his eyes back there. You and I, we've seen some things. Ah, but where to begin? I suppose it makes sense to start with the winters. For a year that's only 365 days long, we sure had a few, right? A lot of closing away and reinventing.

Been certainly something that's occurred in the past, but I think the magnitude and scale here is significant. We're both disciples, 2024 and I, of Greg McKeown's essentialism, and have been for about seven years now. And so I try and make that my North Star, strength through simplicity and clarity. And man, that's just, it's not always as easy as it sounds. In fact, it's often torturous. So, for example, I closed the door on two businesses last year. Not because they weren't successful or didn't have potential,

but because they did not in any capacity light me up, because they weren't the art and creation that makes me feel alive. And while letting go of those things certainly generates some relief, there's also this feeling of what have I done? Right, it's like I hope you know what you're doing, dude. But 2024, you were essential time and time again and reminding me that the barren wasteland

I often found myself navigating was in fact essential. It's just the necessary wandering before one finds their footing again. The cold and the ice and the gray of winter always seems to make its way through. You just have to embrace it. Those cold moments

in outcomes, sometimes in people, sometimes in people that were in your inner circle, the heartbreak, the exhaustion, disappointment and ideas that didn't pan out, all of that stuff, right? You think while you're in it, these moments can only be, how do you put it, detrimental to what you want most, but it turns out they're just the price tag attached to what you want most.

And I think winter whispers to us that growth begins not always in motion, but sometimes in stillness. that even when it seems crazy, dreams are planted beneath the frozen soil. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it's why the desert called to us 2024, it can seem so vast and vacant and empty. In fact, some people out there don't understand it at all.

It's like the desert. But let me tell you, the way the sun rises over those mountains, the warm air on your face at night, the clearest skies I've ever seen, that blanket of stars overhead, it will change your life if you let it. It certainly changed ours.

And then there was spring, the epiphanies, right? The good stuff. After all, we don't endure those winters just because, no, they are taking us somewhere. The little seeds that were previously planted start to sprout. Less things. It means more focus on the right things, which means the right things become bigger things. If what you water grows, oh, have we carefully cultivated this good thing? Garden in 2024.

Thank you for helping me protect that. And it's like you look around at what exists. Fewer people, but good people, inspiring people. People who don't take away but add to the beauty in life. You look around at a world where you're not trying to emulate some other style or approach to success, but are so all in on yours that you're, you double and triple down. Even when it's weird or out there or untested.

You see hope and excitement and opportunity intertwined in everything around you. Even things that really have no business being appointed opportunities. But like you've pointed out to me before, over and over again, 2024, you can literally feel the momentum, that pulsating hope and potential energy behind the right things means so much more than any amount of velocity pointed in the wrong direction, right? We had substantially less and somehow substantially more. We had nothing and somehow everything at the same time. The seeds of hope sprung eternal. This is what you live for.

And we made that, 2024, which brought us right to summer. Which I know. I know you continuously reminded me it didn't matter, but I'm human, 24. Come on, that V word validation. and we got some. We spoke all over the world, met some of our heroes, we grew our brand,

partnered with some amazing companies, got better at our craft along the way, oh, and had fun doing it. I changed my body, my life outlook, my routine. I gave myself permission at a larger scale to detach from results

and push creative boundaries. In fact, I spend sometimes half of my day, every day, working on a project that may upon its release absolutely bum. But it feels right, and so it is. What I've learned is you can control how much of yourself you give to the world. That's yours. But you cannot control how that's received by the world.

It is the beauty of summer. Collecting Ws from time to time is fun. It's very fun, but it's not as fun as doing it yours. way even if it takes a little longer, even if it requires you cross oceans and climb mountains, even when you can't see what the end looks like. Which brings us to fall, introspection, gratitude for you, 2024, and all that we've endured together. The highs reminded us what we are capable of and the lows showed us how strong we are.

They emphasize what we can endure, and I think more importantly, they showed us that the cycle continues, that living life on your terms will always require the ability to step back and look at life from afar. To identify what means the most and let go of the rest the same way those trees shed their leaves. However painful, and just think, 2024. Imagine if perfection was the goal. Imagine if we cared more about maintaining an outward appearance than doing what set our souls ablaze. We'd be doing things we didn't want to be doing for reasons that meant nothing to us. We transcended that situation. So cap tip to you, 2024, you should be proud for leading the way here,

for being such a diligent, hardworking, and reliable partner in crime. for reminding me that life is a gift, that the flame of passion and curiosity and hope must remain lit. Otherwise, what's the point? Each season brought a different element of truth, of life and growth. Every moment, no matter how fleeting, played a role in the symphony of our ascent to the heavens.

Life doesn't hand you meaning on a silver platter. It must be pursued. And as we turn the page on another year, I feel stronger and better equipped to seek out the best. More of what moves me, those peak moments that cause my heart to race. This trip around the sun was everything, because it reminded me 2024 that just like those stars strung out across that desert sky, our light shines brightest when we leave the city and carve out our own paths. It's in facing darkness head on that we finally free ourselves to write the most precious of tales. So thank you, 2024.

And before I head off stage here, there's one more quick thanks. I'd like to make the newest member of the team 2025. There you are. Stand up. I think you're going to fit right in here, 2025. What a ride that awaits. The hard thing brought me through hell, but also to that which exists on the other side.

The hard thing prompted me to question and doubt, but also provided the pieces I used to build my confidence little by little. It made me ask the tough questions, the ones maybe I didn't want to hear the answer to, but also gave me the power to transform those answers I didn't like. The hard thing meant forfeiting being the expert in my world, in exchange for the role of student in a foreign arena. It gave me new ladders to climb, new possibilities to reach for. It showed that true growth requires a willingness to be the beginner.

It took some people out of my arms, my circle, my work, and in some cases my life altogether, but always seemed to open the door to those souls better aligned, to those conducive to the journey and the process. Let's remember what the hard thing is. Beyond the pain, because we all know it does bring that, Beyond the challenges, because there are certainly many. Beyond all that exists the hope and the change and the promise. Robert Frost says the best way out is always through. Through because it's the chaos, the haze, the darkness of night that shapes us.

It's in being broken that we learn to rebuild our world with the pieces, and perhaps most importantly. We learn that such a rebuilding process is possible to begin with, that the now is not mandatory or permanent. The hard thing, as it turns out, is nothing more than a transaction. Turbulence for the view above the clouds, fear in the moment, for confidence in the confidence in the future. It's learning that although life sometimes appears to paint a picture of conformity and helplessness, there's always a path leading to the very place we need to go. It just asks we find the courage to walk it.

Churchill has said the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every time. difficult. And this beautiful message rings true. Because from the difficulty is the advantage. And sure, our first instinct is to see the problem. Our eyes tend to initially fix it on that which is unfortunate. But beyond that is where we get the most incredible things life provides, as if one is removing the shell or outer layer in order to get to the nutrients in the the center, the ingredients required for growth, the pieces necessary to experience life at its fullest. And so we must be reminded that those opportunities, they're not rare, they're not reserved for

everyone but you. They just tend to disguise themselves as the things we're most inclined to disregard or walk by. But if one finds the courage to move into them, through them, If one can see the difficulty not as a deterrent but as a bargain, they'll be given everything on the other side. Reality is not changed with the magic wand or the granting of a wish. It's from staring down the heart thing and moving directly into it one little step at a time. Nothing in life is as important as you think.

think it is while you are thinking about it. This was written by the author of Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman. And what he's referring to is a cognitive bias known as the focusing illusion. Pretty basic idea means that we elevate the importance of things that we think about while ignoring other aspects of our lives. By thinking about something, it suddenly matters more to us. And while it's easy to interpret this disconnect between our thoughts and reality is alarming, there's also an opportunity here to use this to our advantage, right, to further become the captain of your ship. I've heard my entire life, think positive thoughts. We all have. But there's value in understanding why that's true. Right? Otherwise, it just feels like a meaningless ritual. So Conneman talks about a study with

college students where they were asked about their overall level of happiness and then they were asked about their dating lives and the answers they gave there were really you know there was no correlation between the two answers but when the order of the questions were switched when the students were asked about their dating lives first and then their overall happiness the correlation between the two answers increased right the answer they gave gave about their overall happiness mirrored however they said their dating lives were at least to a much greater extent why well because dating became the variable or the framework that they used to measure their overall happiness even though perhaps they didn't know it right but by focusing on it it became

more relevant it bled into other aspects of life right you get what you focus on it's that simple And the truth is, as I mentioned earlier, nothing is as important as we think it is. Everything is magnified, kind of blown out of proportion in our minds. So the question is, why not use that as an advantage? Why not let that become our strength, realizing that if simply thinking about something can change the trajectory of how we view the world, it can be transformative. to simply minimize the bad thoughts and focus on good ones. Have you ever thought about how delicate the line we walk

between not caring enough and caring too much? For example, to feel like existence is pointless, right? Everything's bad, there's no reason to try. That makes it hard to get off the couch, right, lacking that purpose. But then on the entire other end of the spectrum, to feel like life is riding on every step, to feel like we're not allowed the flexibility or leeway to make mistakes, life matters too much.

That also severely limits how we live, just in a different way. And so I want to explore how do we find that middle ground? How do we find that picture in our head? that puts us right where we need to be. The idea that, of course, today is important. Life is a beautiful opportunity to extract meaning from the world around you,

to build something that matters. But... It's also no checklist. It's no standardized test. No, it's more of a game. We shouldn't be walking around with the weight of the world on our shoulders because that doesn't help anyone. doesn't help anyone.

Let's face it, life is just not all that serious. As a good friend of mine, Steve always says to me, you know, we are sacks of meat on a rock floating through an infinite, ever-expanding universe and nothing matters. I've heard him say that a million times, right? Let's go, let's do it, nothing matters, let's make it happen. And I'm 100% get it. It's a check against the idea that the world will collapse if we screw up. that if we drop the ball it's over kind of pointing to the fact that the only way to truly lose in life is to look back and realize we were too scared to live and so in that context absolutely I'm on the nothing matters bandwagon

but here's the deal about this video or podcast episode however you're consuming it in a perfect world it's a buffet not a menu it's an opportunity for you to think to reflect to pick and choose the pieces here that will help move you along. Because after all, you know, we're all walking different paths. So how could one person present a one-size-fits-all solution to anything? No, the goal is to understand the framework by which we operate. To understand that the thoughts we think have a monumental impact on how we live. And so if you find yourself on the uninspired side of the, of things, know that there's not a problem with you.

You just haven't found a path that lights you up. You are perhaps focusing on the wrong things, right? Not leaving space for the right ones. And if you find yourself constantly smothered by the weight of your own expectations, if every little step, decision, or movement matters too much, know that you are perhaps creating adversaries that don't exist. that you are right where you need to be, but you have to let yourself live, experience life.

One of the most beautiful Victor Franco quotes I've ever heard, he says, ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. There is so much power packed into this idea. It's like when you look around and see the outside, outside world backing you into a corner, dictating to you how things should be. Remember that you don't take orders from the external world. You create the external world when all you see is negative.

When all you feel are reasons to turn back, when the good in life is hiding away, Reach out and find the positive. The one thing that can pick you up and carry you forward. And look, I'm not advocating that we live in this state of delusion. I'm not saying close your eyes, cover your ears, and pretend everything's great. I'm saying every day, every situation provides at least one thing you need to be closer to where you want to be. And it just so happens that we're not always inclined.

to see that one thing, that solution. It just so happens that we need to become aware to remind ourselves. So this is your reminder to look for it. Your reminder to focus on the things that lift you up, that breathe life into you, not the things that keep you down. And so here's to finding that sweet spot,

Right? Walking the line between Victor Frankel's meaning starts with you. And my old pal Steve's mantra, nothing matters. So go live your life. This is not a race. You're not being graded on the outcome here. You're giving yourself permission to experience that jolt you get when you open your eyes as the sun comes up each morning, knowing that how you're about to spend your time will be a product. of the game you designed. A game in which, yes, you'll feel lost from time to time. You'll lose that North Star every so often. You'll question the journey you're on.

But guess what? When you take responsibility for the circumstance, you also empower yourself to right the ship. You're at the wheel playing the game of life as it was meant to be played on your own your own. your terms. If it does not serve you, let it go. If it doesn't help you move beyond it. As Connemann states, our thoughts grossly over-exaggerate that reality on the ground. So let that framework emphasize your passion, your strength and your dreams, not the inverse.

What we focus on we get. So believe in yourself with such conviction that those around you look on and wonder what gave you the right to see those things. What made you think it was okay to believe in that which you believe? You never got a permission slip in the mail. You never stumbled upon a permit that granted you access to the good things. in life. No, you just came to understand the game and how it's playing. You came to see that we have options, the option to find the bad and the option to find the good. The choice to see why you can't and the choice to see why you will. That's what will separate you from both your past self

and those looking on from afar. See, change is never a product of magic as people seem to think. No, most often, it's taking on the challenge of seeing what is not yet there. Stepping into the arena with possibility, with the upside. So today, see it. Focus on it, lock it in, and don't let go. With everything you have, all that's within you, don't let go. For everything tomorrow can be, for everything you have always been, don't let go. Hi, I'm Chris Getherd, and I'm very excited to tell you about beautiful anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random people on the phone. I tweet out a phone number, thousands of people try to call, you talk to one of them, they stay anonymous, I can't hang up, that's all the

rules. I never know what's going to happen. We get serious ones. I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison. I've talked to people who survived mass shootings. Crazy funny ones. I talk to a guy with a goose laugh, somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends. I never know what's going to happen. It's a great show. Subscribe today, Beautiful Anonymous. I was having dinner not too long ago with a friend of mine. I see him as somewhat of a mentor as well. He's a bit older. As a couple decades on me as an entrepreneur. And we were talking about personal development, different ways to invest in yourself, what has the most ROI. I kind of throw in ideas back and forth.

And I started talking about different coaches I've linked up with some of my observations on that. And he jumped right into this story, says Eddie, way back in the day, I paid a huge amount of money to spend the weekend with someone that I admired as an entrepreneur, as a business mind, with the intent to learn about him,

his systems, his approach to his business, and life, the whole thing. It was basically an investment into my journey. And he went on to say, I arrived for the weekend. Didn't take me long to feel completely underwhelmed, completely let down. Everything about the guy in his organization was sloppy, nothing seemed to be methodical, very little was extraordinary or groundbreaking. He said, I couldn't believe it, you know, especially after tens of thousands of dollars spent, right?

Spent a lot of money. Couldn't believe that someone, he looked up to it, so little to offer. And I'm sitting there just kind of like wide-eyed. Like, oh, man, and almost instinctively, I said, man, you must have been so angry. And he goes, in this cheerful voice, oh, I wasn't angry at all. This is a direct quote. He says, it was the best money I've ever spent in my life. I said, oh yeah, how?

He says it was that day I learned that, hey, if this clown can do it, if this guy can pull it off, what in the world is stopping me? What's my excuse? Basically said that day has been directly correlated to the success he's had since. Wow. Right? To which I responded, hey, thank you for the theme to what will become this Monday's YouTube video, right? because the world needs to hear this message.

So many of us need this. There's a tendency to put other people, people we don't know, people we know nothing about, right, on a pedestal, and see ourselves as perpetual outsiders looking in. This notion that they have what I don't. When so often that thing they have is simply, even solely self-belief. I know so many competent people that second-guess themselves out of starting or growth or progress.

They see their inadequacies as substantially greater than their strengths. They don't go because they contemplate. They don't speak because they internalize. They don't create because they worry. And it's like if you don't, someone else will. And that someone else could very easily be less suited for the job. But they did the thing that you wouldn't. The thing, as it turns out, that matters most.

They trusted themselves to give it a shot. They understood that nothing starts until one looks in the mirror and believes in the pair of eyes staring back. And I look back and it just all makes perfect sense. I think of the frustration in my parents' faces when I was a kid and would say, I can't do that. It was the frustration of people who care deeply about me, watching me get in my own way. Yes, you can, Eddie, you are the one stopping you.

My grandfather's saying, everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time. No one is that special. And I think it's a critical reminder. It's not to say that success isn't warranted, that people who have done great things aren't qualified or talented or haven't earned it. No, not at all. The opposite, in fact. Time plus effort plus consistency tends to land people in pretty remarkable places.

But it's like no one takes that path or starts that journey unless they see themselves as worthy of it until they give themselves permission. It makes you wonder how many people are earth. simply too intimidated to lace up their shoes and walk out the front door. Don't even give it the thought. Hey, that's someone else's reality. I'm confined to this space right here.

Think back to the early days of any incredible transformation. I'm going to use a pretty cliche example, but I think it will do a great job of demonstrating my point. Think back to Michael Jordan playing JV basketball in high school. his sophomore year because he didn't make the varsity team. Okay? And at that point, if he was looking for evidence as to why he wasn't quite good enough, there it was.

He could have easily found it. Not skilled enough, not quick enough, lacks vision. Certainly, as this coach pointed out, not tall enough, right? What in the world gave him the right, despite his circumstances, to think he was good enough ultimately play at a high level. Who gave him permission to be that guy? He did. And it's just that.

We don't see or think about any of that now. We see the NBA legend, the greatest ever, forgetting that at one point he wasn't. And his life continuously consisted of crossroads where he had to bet on himself, times where instead of accepting outcomes that weren't ideal, he sacrificed. He said, I guess.

Do not accept that. He put in ours, which is a concept that we take for granted, right? People don't sacrifice unless they believe something will come from the blood, sweat, and tears. He believed that it would. You have to believe that it will as well. In fact, your life, if you started right now made a little dot or mark on the present moment, then you could live two simultaneous existence. at once.

One track where you saw yourself as something extraordinary and sought to live that out. And the other track where the same you saw greatness as some intimidating, larger than life, reality reserved for other people, the few. You viewed yourself as an outsider, average, incapable, undeserving. The difference between where those tracks would end up, would be worlds apart. Again, because humans follow through on who they believe themselves to be. We don't do things unless we believe they're possible. We don't sacrifice unless there's some sort of delayed gratification. We don't climb unless there exists a summit. What makes life

both beautiful and mysterious is that we have to arrive at those outcomes before they exist. As Babe Ruth famously said in that article in the 1940s, it's hard to beat a person who never gives up. And it's hard to beat them because they believe themselves worthy of what they are chasing. So when will you? When will you find yourself worthy of that next level? When will you find yourself worthy of the financial success, the physique, the significant other, growth in your business?

When will you let yourself be more or different or happy or whatever it is that seems just outside the scope of your reality? This world is built by people who understood what they wanted and granted themselves the freedom to pursue it. No superhuman strength required to place greater value on yourself. No record-breaking IQ necessary to live life on your terms just a choice. Truly a decision. And sure it will be strange and awkward at first. You'll feel like an imposter in your own body at times. After all, getting what you've never had means doing what

you've never done. But this is par for the course. This is life. And life cannot give you what you don't ask for. You can't arrive at a destination. You're not traveling. You can't be who you don't believe you're capable of becoming. So know that that aforementioned reflection in the mirror has a depth to it that must be explored. And that what separates immobility from infinity is the understanding that, hey, if it's possible, then it is most definitely possible for me. There has to come a time when it's now or never. Well, you look at your reflection and realize that the cost of waiting

is far more expensive than the cost of stepping out into the vast unknown. In every journey, that's when life effectively starts. But here's why this is so tricky. What's caught me off guard so many times in my life, It's the many shapes that wading takes. See, waiting is not always sitting there and doing nothing, not at all. Sometimes, waiting is just the bare minimum. It's moving forward so slightly and so slowly

that you can essentially trick yourself into thinking that you're progressing. Into thinking you're making it happen. When, if you really stopped and looked, If you were honest with yourself, if you really took a second to review, to analyze, you'd see that you're leaving almost everything on the table. You're not creating progress, you're dancing with the idea of progress. Sometimes waiting can mean just going fast enough to not have to look at the fear you're hiding behind. It's reality, right? I think it's a very normal thing, but I also think life is too short for normal sake. I think we can do better than normal. And I believe with all my heart and soul that the

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

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

It was my realizing that I was demanding too little of myself, that the world won't see greatness in me until I see it in me. That shift that pushed me to demand more of myself, seek bigger challenges, value my work to a greater extent, charge more for my services. And that mental shift is what made some of those externalities possible. It's realizing that if you want it, more is on the table. That yesterday doesn't define you.

That it's never too late to begin again. That everything you need you have, right? These are the ideas that truly change lives. They make the difference. And if we don't become aware of these things, we leave them in the rear view. We walk right by them. In other words, the other words,

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

that will transform your life. But we must stop and look around. A good friend of mine, and this is just the other day, right? We're having lunch. We're talking about marketing, and we always joke that marketing is just a part of the business

that I don't particularly enjoy, right? Necessary, but not my favorite. And we're going through kind of different strategies, ideas, and he presents one, and I say something like, eh, you know, I don't need to do that. It seems a little over the top. And unfiltered, he goes, man, you're hurting your reach. Like, what good is that metaphorical restaurant that's not on anyone's radar? You're going to be the best pizza shop that no one knows about.

And it just kind of hit me, right? It's like, man, I needed to see that differently. Maybe there's room to be a little more aggressive. Again, one example of many, and not every time is the idea or opportunity the right one or necessary one, right? But at least you stopped, at least you thought about it. At least you contrasted where you are with the potential upside of doing something differently. That is where we leave opportunity on the table. You know, we most often, myself included, paint regret as this, uh, the,

the result of this blatant walking away from something, a deliberate declaration, sort of a, oh, no, I'm not doing that, no way. And sure, sometimes that's the case. Sometimes we're cognizant of our fear and decline to move forward, but I wonder how often our neglect or refusal is softer, more subtle. I wonder how much of our regret comes from simply not stopping and looking around. not letting in alternative points of view that challenge us and force us to level up. How much of our regret comes from simply not understanding how short life is and how quickly time passes us by.

And if we don't create some abrupt change in our day to day, if we don't manufacture some momentum in our lives, even when it feels least ideal to do so, the ship we needed to be on will sail away without us. So think back to your hardest days. Even the ones that took you out, that brought you to your knees, and realized that you survived every single one of them. You have, for years, been acquiring the armor,

piece by piece, to move into something bigger. You've been learning, you've been evolving, but today what about sitting down with yourself and having the discussion you don't want to have but need to have? What about asking if it's time to leap where you once stepped? To run where you once walked? What about taking a good look around and asking why you're living in ways that don't serve you? why you're conceding so much of what matters. Again, the evolution you want and need is there.

It's always there, and that's the key takeaway here. It will always exist. But the question is, will your commitment to stop, to think, and to reach for it be there? Years from now, looking back, I think we'll find that our willingness to ask those questions, mattered more than we could have ever imagined. That silence often implies the lack of adversity needed to evolve.

Because the reality you want, it doesn't come to you. You must go to it. And that means re-approaching today's normalcy and comfort, seeing those things for what they are, a continuation of the status quo. Nothing changes until you change. So take a look around examine those pillars holding up your worldview.

Not once, but over and over again. And if one, many, or all of them must be knocked down, then so be it. The point here is that you can build. The point here is that life happens on your terms, whether you realize it or not, that doing nothing is accepting what things are. It's a head nod and a thumbs up to reality as is. So again, ask yourself what you want out of life.

And if you are missing that mark, tear down what must be torn down. It might be hard now. It might hurt now. It might be uncomfortable now. But when you're eventually standing upon an existence that aligns with who you are and what you want, you'll see how necessary it all was, how it was there the whole time, and thank God you found it within yourself

to reach out and take it. Hold the vision, but trust the process. An idea that should act as our North Star, as we make our way through life, if it proposes believing in a goal, but at the same time understanding that its manifestation will be unpredictable. Challenging, it may not unfold the way we thought it would. To me, though, the most challenging aspect of personal growth,

of building the things that matter, creating realities we dream of, it's the mandatory dance we must do with time. the patience that's woven into the equation, it's the empty spaces that we tend to use for manufacturing doubt and disbelief when life is given us nothing to react to. It's like we create monsters in our heads. And it's really an incredible thing when you think about it, right? I look back on the past decade of my life in the hardest parts and some were excruciating. they were pain derived from what I knew I hadn't yet accomplished. It was a feeling like I wasn't moving fast enough.

Like the winners in life had that over there, and all I had was this over here. Completely nonsensical narrative, but one that certainly felt real. Discomfort from the delta or the gap between what I wanted and what I had, a feeling that would randomly dip in and out of my conscious mind, as I sort of chipped away at my goals day in and day out. And I started to wonder,

how can I better position myself to grow, to maintain that ambition, but also to do it with less anxiety, right? As I stated a few seconds ago, hold that vision, but perhaps improve my trust and relationship with the process. My ability to immerse myself in various pursuits without dwelling on the fact that I hadn't yet arrived. Because look, I know this game.

We all know this game. There's always going to be another finish line to cross. That's a great thing, but can also, when we're not looking at it correctly, be to our detriment. There are always higher numbers to achieve. Again, incredible opportunity. but with the wrong perspective, dangerous. If you can't find a way to appreciate the now while you climb, you will be forever lost.

There will always be a hole that's never filled. I think we need to be better about supporting ourselves along this journey. No one can be there for me like I can, and I think that's true for everyone. We need to be our greatest allies. So I brought this question up, as I tend to do, with a few of my friends, with different perspectives. They look at the world a little differently. And basically ask, you know, how can we get out of our own ways?

Is there a lane to both be tenacious in our pursuit of evolution to continue doing the things that excite and challenge us, while also being a little easier on ourselves, trusting that dance we do with time as the process unfold. And so I present this question to one of my friends sitting across me at the table and he thinks about it. He says, Eddie, well, that's what's got you where you are. That feeling like there's always more. It's the reason for the success you've had and the success you'll have in the future. It's what will push you. It's why you will succeed.

People that accomplish things are never satisfied. Jordan was never satisfied. He was never happy. And in that context, greatness and happiness are. not compatible. And, you know, I took it in. I certainly appreciated the perspective, right? In many ways, I think he's right. Sort of reminded me of the idea behind Tim Grover's book, Relentless, that it's an obsession that must take place. It doesn't leave room for much else, right? Incredibly valuable to understand, if anything, just to see, just to grasp what it means to achieve in a world

of obstacles. But truthfully, I wasn't in... entirely satisfied. How can we better visualize the process so that we're more powerful allies to ourselves? That's what I wanted to understand. And a short time later, I'm at the kitchen table, kind of going over some analytics for social media, YouTube channel podcast, stuff like that. And my father, who happened to fly in from Boston, he's at the kitchen table with me, we're having some coffee. And I made a comment about the trajectory of the numbers. You know, I forget that particular week, maybe it was higher or lower than expected. I don't really remember, but he made this comment about the patience that I've had with

the channel over the years, just an offhand remark. You know, he said, the numbers are like the SMP 500, right? The stock market. There are days when it drops. There are days when it rises, but over the long haul, it's steadily pointed up and it continues to point up. And I found that So interesting. You know, I harp on the small things a lot on this channel, the little breakthroughs that paved the way for larger transformation, ideas that change the way we look at things, which ultimately changed the way we act, which change the results we get. And this happened to be one of them.

You know, it hit me just right. What is perhaps the most important piece in the famous book, the intelligent investor? What is the idea that made Buffett a billionaire? It's that you invest in things you believe in and you remove the emotion. You hold the dips, right? When the stock market takes a hit and everyone's panicking and acting emotionally and selling, you don't sell. You buy more, right?

When the world emotionally rushes out, you rush in. And when the world emotionally rushes in, you step out. Well, in life, there will. be days when your metaphorical stock drops, at least you feel like it does. Those YouTube numbers, perhaps numbers in the old bank account, maybe fitness goals fall flat, maybe you're just not seeing a return on investment. But we are never defined by the events of the day, even the worst of days. They're merely a small part of a much larger pattern, and the truth is sometimes success is so small,

You can't see it. Of course you're going to be anxious if you think every day should be comprised solely of mountaintops and finish lines, if you're always looking, comparing, contrasting. But sometimes success is 0.0001% better. Sometimes success looks like the S&P 500 taking a hit, dropping for a day, a week, or a month. Sometimes growth doesn't look like what we want growth to look like. But just like intelligent investors, you are putting your money in the belief that at a certain point down the road, the value will be higher then than it is now. And this idea has been everything to me, particularly on the days when it feels like things are going backwards.

Over periods of time where I feel like I've been standing still where the voice in my head is presenting all kinds of scenarios that I could have been better or done more and maybe so. But these times are nothing more than data points. They are steps along the way. And knowing this, it essentially frees me from the delusion that growth is always visible, that I can always look around and see visible triumph. It allows me to march towards my goals and my dreams, having a renewed relationship with each step. You know, there's a saying that we need to keep our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground. Life is a continual juggling of extremes, and I think this gets it right.

Our strength is in the ability to take those steps, each one a message to the universe that we are stronger than we were yesterday. But what makes our journeys truly divine is that they aren't comprised of or built with those steps like a high. house of cards, where one wrong move or some delay will cause the whole thing to fall to come crashing down. No, what makes the journey divine is the infinite number of paths that can bring about its materialization. There are no wrong paths. Some arrive sooner. Some arrive later. Some mid-jurney causes to realize that the compass wasn't even pointed in the right destination, right? They change what it means to arrive. But the point is, every step is required, every step is a miracle,

but the power is not contained solely in one step. But rather, what we choose to make of all the steps combined, the dips, the lows, and the losses only have significance if we give them significance. Otherwise, there are just a few stops along the way to something beautiful. So why exhaust energy on data points that haven't arrived yet, on destinations in the future? Destinations that we trust ourselves to figure out anyway. Our emphasis should be on the present moment, on gratitude for the fact that we get to wake up and choose the pursuits that we've chosen.

In some days, those pursuits will feel like the miracles that they are. We'll see the finish lines, the mountaintops. will feel triumphant and some days those victories will be hidden in plain view but they are there nonetheless as we make our way into the great unknown that is life piecing each second each minute each hour together to become the path leading us where we need to be most