Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - LONE WOLF - Motivational Speech For Those Who Walk Alone

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

"Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk but no flowers grow." Vincent Van Gogh. Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook�� YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube  In this episode, Eddie Pinero challenges the conventional notion of normality and breaks free from traditional thinking. He emphasizes the importance of adopting a mindset aligned with top achievers and playing by a different set of rules to achieve extraordinary results. Join us as Eddie delves into the concept that our level of effort directly correlates with our results in life. Tune in for insights and motivation to unlock your full potential.  

Normality is a paved road. It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow. Vincent Van Gogh. What is normality? Well, according to the dictionary, normal is the usual average or typical state or condition. Common. Normal is also a decision. There's a quote by Robin Sharma, and I've looked to this for years.

It states, if you want what the 5% have, you need to be willing to do what only the 5% are willing to do. What they obtain is not, definitionally speaking, normal. It's uncommon. And what they do to arrive at that outcome is also uncommon. They play by a different set of rules, and in doing so end up with an entirely different outcome than most. To put it simply, we arrive at normal when our effort level is normal. You put in normal hours or give average effort at work. Most likely your results, career progress, compensation will be normal.

You pay moderate attention to your fitness, your health. Well, your level of physical fitness will be normal. You dedicate typical levels of effort to your relationships. relationships will be normal, not terrible, but not remarkable. I'm sure you get the idea here, the pattern. Generally, over time, what we get starts to reflect what we gave. And here's where the self-assessment comes in, the awareness. You have to ask yourself in pursuit of something greater,

whether your actions are aligning with your goals and objectives. There's nothing so futile is telling yourself you're going to achieve miraculous larger-than-life outcomes and then putting in average typical normal effort. If normal goes in, normal comes out. And as I was thinking about this recently, you know, as it pertains to my life, I had a little epiphany. So fitness is a big area of focus for me. I run or do some type of strength training six days a week. As far as I can tell, that level of effort is beyond normal.

I go above and beyond in that area of my life. But even though I'm aligned on my mission to be the 5% there, I realized there was a gap. I realized my diet was very normal. Completely unextorinary. It's just easy to convince yourself to eat whatever you want after a really long run, right? Why not pizza?

After all, it's the normal thing to do. But I had to remind myself that what I wanted in that area of my life holistically is not normal. Therefore, the inputs cannot be normal. It was time to start standing up to those things that are very easy to say yes to, to rationalize. And that's the idea here. I pick my 5% categories where I truly want to excel and make sure there's nothing normal about their development. You want top tier results, you have to give top tier effort. Make the sacrifices, map out the path.

I've come to see this differently over the years. It's not an indictment against you as a person for choosing normal. But know that it is indicative of a choice. And the output eventually comes to align with the input. All the actions or lack thereof stack up to resemble something. It's up to you to decide what that is. And so the next question, perhaps somewhat of an obvious one, is when it comes to the things that matter most to you,

Why stay confined to normal? It's the above and beyond. The peak experiences, the times we overcame, fought and won, took the risk and came out on top. That's when we are at our best. That's when we get the most from life. So is normal the end of the world? No.

It's just that, Abnormal is the beginning of one. The will to do anything comes from within yourself. You define your goals, you map out the journey. In my mind, comparing yourself to your competitors or anyone else should never contribute to how you define yourself. What it should be used as is a tool to drive improvement, to push yourself to make the most of every little opportunity,

that comes your way. I heard a quote from Mark Cuban, and he said to work like someone is working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you. And I was giving this some thought. Obviously, it's a powerful message. And I started to apply it to my own situation. And the first thing that came to mind was running.

It's something I do every day. A lot of the most important decisions I've made and ideas I've come up with have occurred while running. So I started to think about when I'm at my best, right, when I'm working out and truly pushing myself. Obviously, I set goals, right? I look to stretch my limits, my boundaries, and I can do that on my own.

I really don't need anyone or anything. But when I truly excel is when I feel those footsteps behind me. When I know that if I don't speed up, someone will run by and leave me behind as they go on for a faster time. And this thought drives me insane. Look, I know it's just a run around the Charles River, right? I'm downtown Boston, I'm not at the Olympics.

I get why it would seem a little crazy. But to me, it's the same thing as a race, starting a business, excelling at work. It's instilling the mentality that I will do whatever it takes to stay ahead. regardless of how it's perceived. Just like I do everything in my power to be that same way in all aspects of life, there are always footsteps behind me. That's how I push to stay at the top of my game.

If you're not obsessed with getting better at doing more than everyone else, you will be left behind. The sound of footsteps is a reminder that you haven't even scratched the surface of what you can do. That you can completely transform how you think of winning. And that's how you will get what you want.

Listen, every morning when you wake up, you need to know that there are footsteps behind you. That a million people want what you want. They're waking up every day intent on doing what you do and are willing to put in the work. The best do that and then, some right they step up they're willing to go further be crazy put everything out there for their goals it doesn't matter how ridiculous it looks success is doing what it takes and I know

that's vague I know there isn't you know an answer written out in 10 steps but you will find your way you will stumble you'll fall but if you truly have that tenacity to outrun to work everyone else the only thing left to do is win surprise yourself surprise everyone around you they will be there I promise only a step behind the miracle isn't that I finished the miracle is that I had the courage to start John Bingham we all share a commonality the runner on the starting block the one at work, the one studying, the one trying to create the best life possible for their family. See, we are all at a beginning looking up at an idea. Nothing given, nothing to

adjust or react to no just an idea. And ideas when we are at the bottom looking up, they're deceptive in nature, their size, their weight, their breadth. They like to present themselves as much more than they actually are. And so to turn ideas into things one needs see themselves, not as some descendant of Mount Olympus tasked with lifting that 2,000-ton boulder before them, but as one armed with an understanding, the awareness that the 2,000-ton Boulder before them can be broken down piece by piece that it is nothing more than a facade. And while it may stop most in their tracks, you are simply not most. Not because the world treats you differently, but because you see the world differently.

By knowing you are bigger than the sum of its parts, you have defanged this wolf, you have put yourself in position to do that which makes the world tremble, that which causes even the most confident to doubt. You have put yourself in position to begin. See, there is a time to look at the top of the mountain, breaking through the clouds, powerful and majestic, and then there is a time to look at your feet. And right now is the ladder. You're not concerned with the big things. No, not right now. Your job is to move forward into this haze, to not see but adapt, to not know but trust. Things will materialize, and you know that, but at the same time, you can't control the future. Your battle is right now, and it's with the

space immediately in front of you. It's with the thoughts attempting to deceive you. It's with the things the outside world will tell you, but forward motion is the antidote to all of that. And so forward you must go. The beginning is always the hardest because our thoughts are a mightier foe than life's obstacles. Thoughts take on lives of their own. They become monsters, demons, dead ends, obstacles. On the other hand, just ask that we adjust. There is no obstacle that can't be addressed by stepping into it. And so while the temptation is to sit thinking, speculating about how challenging the road ahead, this is where you think less and move more. Harness the world as it comes because the truth is nothing is as big as it appears to be. Life is incredibly

solvable. Every problem has a solution. Every bad chapter ends. Every setback is a chance to be more than you've ever been, but how would you know that if you bowed down to the mountains in your head? How would you know that if you never began? So let today be the dotted line you sign with your future self. A promise to be aware that the mountaintop peers over you, but to not be distracted by its shadow. To take the climb one rock, one step, one step, one side. second at a time. Let it be an acknowledgement that nothing light throws at you can't be broken down and conquered so long as you don't get in your own way. Gone are the days of being held captive behind steel bars of self-doubt and fear. That road ahead is not the problem. It never was.

Refusing to give yourself permission to travel down it was the problem. So without constraints, meet life head on. Let the trials and tribulations emerge because they will, but know that you will rise to meet them. Let the unknown highlight all that you don't know. You can't see. Fine. The one thing you are sure of is that you will, one by one, transform the unseen into strength.

And when those thoughts emerge, telling you that you've gone too far, that you're in over your head, that this isn't meant for you, know them, not as truth, but as the only obstacle that can derail and distract. You don't have time for make-believe monsters. No, not today. So onward you go. To map the unknown, to tame the untamed, to live your. life the way it was meant to be lived. Every run tells a tale. All those streets, sidewalks, and paths, paint a picture.

Each footstep enshrines forever a moment in time that comes together to comprise the now. For my time in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, It was asking, why not? Why not find out if I could be a little faster than yesterday? My first dance with the clock. Waking up early, running up Snake Pond Road, sun shining in my face, inhaling that crisp morning air.

It was running along the canal, where the distance was precisely precisely mapped out in paint on the ground below. Tattooing a path that seemed to go for as long as I wanted to push forward. It taught me that we could do amazing things when we decided to. That we have more in us than we could ever imagine. In a sense, Cape Cod was my eyes opening up to the idea that what life gives us is directly correlated to what we

ask of ourselves. So ask for a lot. In Boston it was exploration. It was pushing myself harder and further, but also stretching my worldview wider, a time for transformation. It was beginning to see the mundane, the commonplace for the wolves in sheep's clothing that they are. I began exploring city street, like I simultaneously began exploring life's possibility. I saw how taking new routes often came with two distinct components. One, an unsettling, nervous feeling in my stomach, and two, an eventual gratitude for finding the courage to go there. The world will never tell you to go where you have not yet gone. It will never assigns to you a map and hand you keys, a plane, or a bus ticket.

That desire must be cultivated internally. Boston was me realizing the unknown wasn't a border keeping me in. It was a hand extended. In Roanoke, Virginia, it was in a sense a rebirth. Moving away post-college. Everything was new, was foreign, but everything was exciting. I had to learn who I was in new surroundings with new people. My Nike running shoes took me through woods,

downside streets, into the heart of downtown. I ran and I ran and I ran. Because with all that change, it was one of the few constants in my life. It brought me to the realization that with so many moving pieces, so many things shuffling in and out, There are parts of me that are non-negotiable. That in life it's okay and even necessary to change,

but one should never lose themselves in that process. They call Roanoke the Star City of the South, for the giant glowing star that lights up on the mountain overlooking the city. Perhaps a reminder to never lose that North Star star in our own lives. In South Florida, it was about connecting the dots. I'd been relentlessly doing. Now it was seeing. Seeing myself as that person, as someone ready for more, worthy of a spot at the table capable of creating monumental change. Those soft sand runs reinforce the notion that I get stronger when the world moves under my feet.

Those hundreds of thousands of footsteps under the hot sun reiterated that I'm willing to do what is often deemed unnecessary or even over the top. And lastly, living in the luxury of no winter reminded me to appreciate the sun, the perks, the advantages, and the victories we collect along the way, but to never take them for granted, to be ready. Because life's winters don't always wait until after fall to show up at your doorstep.

See, every step we take is a lesson. Every street, sidewalk, and path is part of a story. And sometimes we don't understand until we look back at the chapters. We don't get it until we have the luxury of hindsight. I didn't know that I look back on Snake Pond Road as sin. sacred ground as a launch pad to everything that would come next. No, in the moment it was nothing more than a temporary escape from a world that felt bigger than me. I didn't know I'd see the city of Boston as the place that taught me to question the normalcy

of everyday life. To show me that one could be moving awfully fast and still going nowhere at all. Though in the moment, it was merely a decision to dip my toe in the water, to entertain the curiosity and sense of adventure that always seemed a few feet ahead. I had no idea Roanoke, Virginia would be where I learned that, as Emerson said, to be yourself in a world constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. That there are non-negotiables. And shining down above all the noise and intricacies of everyday life exists the path and

the resources to become who you were meant to be. No, in the moment I was simply stepping off my branch and landing somewhere new. I didn't know South Florida would be my consistent reminder to level up, to hold tightly that intersection of love and value, to find gratitude for what I have and main faith in bringing about what has not yet materialized. No, at the time I was taking my life, my business, and my running shoes to warmer weather. You may not see it now, but your path, the one that led you to today, is the right path. You are exactly where you need to be for the beginning of your next adventure.

But here's the thing. You. You must keep lacing up your shoes. Keep getting up in the morning and chasing those sunrises. Keep dreaming, growing. Keep your eyes, ears, and heart open. Because the world has so much to give you. But you have to allow your feet to carry you there. You have to give yourself permission to take it all in.

The normalcy of right now. Down the road will end up being anything but normal. These steps are the steps that make you who you are. So own them. Believe in them and most importantly, keep taking them. In a way, the world is a mirror that reflects how you feel. And if life is consistently mirroring back images that aren't ideal, perhaps it's time to chip away, not at the world.

not at the world, but at yourself. It's time to work. And sometimes, that's roll up your sleeves and be better work. Let's get up a little bit earlier work. It's at the gym or study or give more work. But sometimes it's acknowledging that if in this chapter of your life you find everything around you intimidating or too distant or out of reach, It's not because the world is too big, but rather you've let your own image get too small.

It's the identity that needs the maintenance. We do things because we see ourselves as doers of those things. Soccer players play soccer. Writers write. Painters paint. No one who's ever identified or introduced himself as a runner has ever broken a world deadlift record. Runners do runner things.

Bodybuilders do bodybuilder things. People who view themselves as small do small things and people who see themselves as capable or strong, daring, adventurous, larger than life. Well, you get the point. We're out there over-analyzing all these details, trying to decipher code without realizing that we've already won or lost. You gave yourself permission to run 50 yards

and then became Sherlock Holmes trying to figure out why the world wouldn't let you reach Yard 51. We go as far as we allow ourselves to go. We do as much as we allow ourselves to do. We become who we allow ourselves to be. I'm not saying the other variables don't matter. Of course they do. I'm saying over time those variables become blocks

for us to build ourselves up or build walls around ourselves that keep us down. In one place. If the world feels bland, give yourself permission to seek out the beauty. Be someone who finds joy in life. If the world feels lonely, give yourself permission to connect with others. Be someone who brings people together. If the world feels chaotic and confusing, give yourself permission to break it down.

Be someone who turns big things into small, manageable things. If the world feels sad and disheartening, give yourself permission to break it down. permission to uncover what makes you smile. Be someone who in the darkness of night can find that light switch. Because for every reason to be sad, there's one to be happy. For every reason to be weak, there's one to be strong, so on and so forth. Of course, it's not the easiest to remember when we look out and don't like what we see. But knowing that the solution is internal, knowing that you decide who you are, where you're going, and where you stop, as much as humanly possible, it puts fate in your hands,

which is right where it should be. There's power and simplification. Not because you can't handle the complex, but because too much noise drowns out the meaning. It gets in the way of the things that actually make the difference. Our blessing incurs is the finitude of our time. So by default, that makes the word, no, a gatekeeper to the contentment we feel in our lives. What are you keeping out?

What are you saving space for? Clarity is not a luxury, but a necessity. When one has limited capacity, they must both cherish and protect it. So why does this matter? It matters because when you simplify things, the path is never as intimidating. The problem is never unsolvable. The opportunity is never too far away. It matters because we dress the solutions up in irrelevant detail and then call them the problem.

We don't see things as what they are. We see them as stories. We tell ourselves. We see too much. And it just so happens that the biggest leaps for, forward one can take in life or the result of not secret formulas or hidden answers, but in freeing ourselves of that excess, saying no to the wrong things so that we can say yes to the right things. Underneath the stacks and accumulation of nothing is something. There's something to the

notion that the road to recovery is always a single decision away, that it's already there. But you just haven't been able to acknowledge, to choose it. When life becomes convoluted, there's this tendency to think, I am the problem, I am broken, I am incapable of X or Y or Z. And it's like, no, you've just let so much in that what was once obvious is now buried. You're looking at the giant ocean before you, forgetting that a very little bit. tiny boat can traverse it. Basics. Let's ask the question, where is it I most want to go?

And what would one step in that direction look like? Sometimes we have to go knowing that mile 10 will have its monsters. And mile 50 will have its setback. But to not take step one in anticipation of those future problems, of something way down the road is letting that exit. and simplicity is the goal simplicity. Ask yourself, can you start? Beginning grants you one of the greatest weapons

to possess, an ability to adjust, the ability to adapt, the ability to utilize the now. And this is not to dismiss the pain and difficulty associated with our most challenging times, It's to remind you that during those times you feel lost or closed in, you don't need to reinvent the world to your left and right. It's not bigger than you. So much of the time, it's about composing yourself enough to reach out for the light switch

that will illuminate the path just enough for you to look up. and walk right out the front door. We are in some ways helpless to what occurs around us. There are things that are beyond our control. But the gift we possess, our power, if you will, is the ability to determine what we let in, how we internalize the externalities. We are responsible for being the gatekeepers of our minds, protectors of our worlds. There's a little saying that I aim to live by.

It's incredibly simple. Basically the idea is, if something is not a net positive on your life, start working to eliminate it. If there's a person that is draining, creating more negative than positive, then they don't deserve to be in your world. Letting them in. If there's some place you're going that doesn't align with what you value, start working to eliminate that destination from your day today. Stop letting it in.

If you find yourself constantly thinking about worst case scenarios, it's always, well, what if this goes wrong or that goes wrong? If you find yourself missing the opportunity and instead spotlighting the problem, start working to identify and isolate those thoughts so that they can be eliminated. Stop letting that stuff in. The great part about having so much control over our lives and our perspectives is that we get to choose what gets our time and attention. The tough part, though, and it is tough,

is that it means we also have to ask ourselves questions that perhaps we don't want to ask. We have to be honest with ourselves. like truly honest, and the reality is sometimes it hurts to do that. To ask, how am I contributing to this pain, this struggle? What am I letting in that needs to be kept outside the gate from now on? And what we often find is that the answers are there. The opportunity is there, sometimes even in plain view.

but our attention is often diverted from it and instead allocated to the things that don't even serve us or align with who we are. We've habitualized finding the problems and not the solutions. I can list examples of this over the course of my life all day, right? Epiphanies where I realized I needed to defend the thoughts that enter my mind and better cultivate a world. where I can succeed, where I can be happy. Money, for example, to switch from seeing it as a scarce resource, something that everyone's fighting over, how to outmaneuver the guy to the right of me,

how to get my hands on this elusive object. Nope, block that mentality at the gate and let in instead the idea that money is merely an exchange of value. How can I be more valuable to more people? Where value goes, wealth follows. Or as I've talked about before, the injuries I deal with so frequently, right? Keeping the poor me, or I can't deal with this, or whining, I'm willing to put in the work, why won't life let me succeed?

Keep all that outside the gate and let in, here is an opportunity to get better in other areas. I can't lift. Maybe I'll take a month or two to crush cardio, to eat better, to build mental acuity. find a way. Or maybe it's that person who made their way into my life that over time became a net negative that we've gotten to the point

where our coexistence takes away more than it adds. They no longer belong inside the gate in my world, right? Only let in people who do make your life better. And we have control over all of this. It's about accountability. It's about personally, understanding the authority you have over what comes in and what stays out.

The very few things in life are just because. Things exist in our day to day because we have somewhere along the line allowed them to be there. So take some time to see yourself as the gatekeeper of your world. Audit what you're letting in and what you're keeping out. To do so will set you up for a life on your. terms, a life that's not wasted or even merely endured, but one that's lived to the fullest. There's a saying that in order to become something new, you have to leave something behind. You have to detach in some capacity, remove yourself from the physical realm because the obstacles that we face are not physical.

99% of our problems are not physical, they're mental. And you know, as you sort of drive that metaphorical ship into the horizon, the biggest deterrent is never going to be the anchor, or the headwind or the bowline. No, it's going to be the storyline. It's going to be the narrative of the person navigating that ship. And it's interesting, because our first inclination when we feel stuck, it's always to point out, attribute our problems to the world

in this predetermined position within it. Maybe that's the issue. We take our power, we put it into the universe, cross our fingers, and hope things work out. But that will always be a losing proposition. It will always come crumbling down. Because it's not the world that keeps you from showing up. You're not physically incapable of taking that first step or growing or evolving, developing, becoming something new. No, that demon lives in your head. That's the mental Goliath we struggle with, right? Because there's cognitive dissonance between who we know ourselves to be and who we want ourselves to be.

That's the sea we have to cross, the terrain we have to navigate. It's not the physicality of taking the steps. Anyone can do that. It's believing that you are worthy of the journey. And you have to ask yourself, is it that you can't become something new? Or is it that you can't, won't, refuse to detach from who you used to be? You're still tucked away in that container,

that box you've been building for years and years. in years that you've placed yourself in because I can promise you. One of the most liberating things to understand is yesterday is not a life sentence. Yesterday's not forever. Yesterday's not defining. It's simply a stepping stone. And every morning when you open your eyes, sun comes through the window, illuminates life around you. That's never your cue to put on a fake smile, play this same role you've been playing day after day after day. No, it's an invitation to do anything you want to do, to begin again, to start fresh. It's an opportunity to detach from that character,

detach from the people and the things that don't push you towards what you want. Detach from the negative self-talk. And when all that's gone, everything is removed and it's only you and self-belief, a will to move forward, I promise you that pendulum shifts. Life becomes simple and how beautiful simplicity is. It's shining a spotlight on what matters. It's clarity. It's taking control. It's picking up the clay and molding what you want to mold. It's opening the door and deciding to walk through.

Everything else is variable. Everything else is noise. Everything else is detail and distraction. because what you want it's there and it's waiting for you to simply remove yourself from who you used to be to step into right now

and believe that you are worthy of everything else hope that bridge that connects the present to a more ideal world the idea that no obstacle is too big to over No situation too dire, to emerge victorious, and that you are never confined to how things are. FDR has said we have always held to hope.

The belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon. Why does this matter? Well, to put it simply, before one can leave this situation they are in, they have to believe there is another path worth taking. It's not always seeing, but trusting. It's a tale of two components. One, the belief that something better is out there, and two, the belief that you are strong enough to bridge that gap to create that world. So let's start with number one. There was a study done by Kurt Richter in the 1950s, and he used rats. And it was a study done It was kind of a gruesome experiment, but definitely worth talking about because the takeaway

is incredible. Right? And I kind of cherry-picked the relevant parts of the experiment. Basically, he wanted to delve into the role that hope plays in our lives. And what he would do is he would drop rats into a jar of water and observe. See how long they would swim before they drown. And for the most part, these rats would swim for a minute or two, and then ultimately give up right there was this innate feeling of hopelessness but then he made a change and and when

they were close to drowning he'd reach in he'd pick them up he'd hold them for a little while and then he'd placed them back in the water and the results between the two groups were night and day the the rats saw in the second group that it wasn't over and when they were placed back in the water they had a reason to continue swimming and they did some of them did for hours the only difference being that they had hope. They saw there was more. And I don't think that's too different from us. The situation may be different, but the rules generally apply, right? So much of conceding or giving up in life, accepting an existence that falls short of our ideals, it's when we don't believe in something more. We stop swimming. You don't give ourselves a chance.

right so instead of creating bridges to walk on we make walls that lock us in hope is knowing all pain all discomfort is temporary and the second component is belief in yourself belief in yourself to traverse that space between current and the ideal it's self-empowerment you can be the difference maker in your life and others And it's funny, the other day after reading about the Richter experiment, I was sitting at a friend's house with my laptop, kind of trying to figure out what to make of it, right?

Because the idea of hope I knew was powerful. And I wanted to share that story. I wanted to write something that would highlight its value, but it seemed kind of unfinished. Or simply part of an explanation. I'm sitting there thinking about it. And I hear this loud bang over and over again. And I get up and I run to the back of the house, right,

to make sure everything's fine, see what's going on. And my friend's standing there with goggles on, this grin on his face and a sledgehammer, and a huge hole in the wall in front of him. And I'm like, dude, what are you doing? You just knocked your wall down. He goes, yeah, I wanted to make another closet. His family's growing.

He needs more space, and he just took it upon himself to make that happen. And I just looked at him and walked back out. Start walking to the living room, and it hit me. This is a component of hope. Seeing what's not there and doing something about it. If the swimming experiment is step one, this has to be step two.

In real time. Step one, believing seeing something more. Step two, taking action to change it now. Buying into the fact that you have the power to change your own world. And it's funny because any house or room I've ever lived in, my thoughts always, you know, you look around and this is this. This is it, right? This is the situation. This is what's being given to me. How do I make the most of it? How do I play within these parameters? Not, okay, this is fine, but it could be better, you know, by smashing down the wall in the back over there, creating something new.

And, you know, obviously the message here isn't about home maintenance, right? This is about taking a sledgehammer to the places in your life in which you are not content. so that you can build in its place something that matters. You look around to your left, you're right, and you're unhappy. That's not the end of the story. That's the beginning of the story. That's where the wheels hit the road. In other words, it's looking at life with the lens, with the freedom of knowing things don't have to be what they are.

They don't have to stay the same until the universe changes them. No, they can be what you make them. And what life teaches us again and again is that walls can be stepped over. Knows can become yeses. Impossibles can become commonplace. But first, there must be hope. There must be an understanding that your world is a 10,000 foot view of all the little stories you tell yourself and the narratives you believe. See, every day when you wake up and take your first steps, breathe your first breaths,

know that nothing simply is. No, it is simply chosen and can be remade. That's what makes life such a beautiful thing. It's flexibility, it's promise to provide what has been relentlessly sought out. So remember, it's when you can't find your answer. When the odds look grim, when the rest of the world, tells you know that you most need hope. Hope, the power, the strength to look within yourself

and remember that one life can change and two, you can change it. Armed with this understanding, nothing is impossible. When others fail to see the answer, the light in themselves, in the situation, you become the reminder that light is internally is internally manufactured. We aren't given answers so that we may believe them.

We are given the opportunity to believe, and thus we create that ending we hope to pursue. And without this, life is nothing more than a permanent status quo. It's holding our hands to the sky and receiving what light chooses to provide. But that's not why you're here. It's not why you woke up today,

not to accept, but to create. find hope in the tragedy and the hardship and to find within yourself the strength to move forward with whatever you decide comes next. What is failure? Perhaps when the plan falls apart, maybe when the project results are underwhelming. No, not quite. When your heart breaks, Momentum stops when your world is shaken at its foundation. No, to put it simply, failure is not going. Failure is the plan, never falling apart because you were too scared to make one. Failure is never being underwhelmed by the results of that project

because you couldn't find the courage to start. Failure is no heartbreak, no setbacks, no challenge to your worldview, because you stood still. I see life's disappointing occurrences as a sort of transaction, some temporary discomfort in exchange for the very wisdom you were looking for placed in the palm of your hand. You endure the pain to get the answers. You accept chaos today in exchange for the map that enables you to navigate the terrain. How can something be a failure if it places you right where you need to be? How can something be a failure if it brings you closer to the life you dream?

Maybe we don't look at life as failure versus success, but rather as being stagnant versus being in motion, immobile versus mobile. Maybe it's that simple. If you are moving, regardless of how fast you're giving yourself a chance to overcome, to collect wisdom and pick up armor. You're giving yourself a chance to be more tomorrow than you are today. And that means we stop accepting the notion that we are standing still for our benefit. Justifying that we're only stationary because we're waiting for the right moment. We're here because we need this to be perfect. No, there are a million different ways to get what you want out of life.

A million different paths to get you there, none of them require standing still. I already cringe at the amount of time I've wasted waiting for the right time. How I would sit on releasing this or starting that. Oh, it's because I'm a perfectionist, only to learn that perfectionism is really just fear in disguise. You can sit there and wait and refine. and refine and refine. But I'll tell you what, the one who moves,

who creates, shares, collects feedback, adjusts, and repeats will have achieved that level of quote unquote perfection before you feel prepared to acknowledge and share your prototype. It was simply by going that evolution took place. And it took me a long time to grasp this, to understand it. and a part of me didn't want to believe it. I found it inherently uncomfortable, but life rewards the bold.

It always has and always will. Calling for a sort of calculated recklessness. Great things are achieved by doers who can put their egos aside and let the world humble them on their way to the next attempt. In Ron Chernoe's biography on Washington, one of the common themes, which I believe made Washington one of the most influential people in the history of mankind was his ability to think, analyze, seek out the opinions of people around him, and then once decided

that was that. He was all in. The rubber had met the road. This was now the way. And I find power in that. As overthinking is so often our undoing, right, weighing out worst case scenarios, contingency plans, this versus that. When progress requires that we sure spend a little bit of time deciding which general direction we go, but most importantly that we start. And I think we've all been guilty of this. Over-analysing, over-planning, but just like a sailor can't predict the winds, we can't predict all life's variables. Again, it's deciding on a general direction and then trusting ourselves to navigate life's obstacles as they arise. It's finding trends and patterns along the way, in doing a

our best to utilize them as we move forward. There will be points where the road ahead seems overwhelming, the obstacles too abundant to make sense of, where the mind compels you to stay where you are and stare out in awe. It will suggest that what's behind you is safer, that the worlds you know contains fewer monsters than the worlds you don't. It might even convince you that whatever ambitions you are you can't. you had weren't really that important that you could easily live without them. And the longer you stand there, the longer you listen to that voice, the louder it gets.

You dismiss it with every step forward. Your momentum is a dagger through the heart of any doubt that once tried to occupy the precious real estate behind your eyes. You don't have to outthink it, outsmart it, you just have to move forward. And what you find is that the mountains you once peered up at weren't all that they seem. A culmination of little hills that can be climbed, manageable rocks that in actuality can be used to propel yourself up the mountainside. There was never a perfect path up. no magic transport to the summit.

You might even think to yourself, what a shame that so many are still on the sidelines waiting to devise their perfect approach, making plans and drawing maps. But that's not how any of this works. To win you go, to make progress, you move. Knowing full well that you'll find your dead ends, you'll spend time and exhaust energy, going down certain paths that don't ultimately lead you where you wanted to go. But what a gift the ability to reverse course and take the right at the fork instead of the erroneous left you previously took. Your errors are not permanent.

Your errors are correctable. Stagnation is what's permanent. Wishing is permanent. Someday is permanent. But right now, that's pure value. So next time you find yourself looking out, as we all do, remind yourself that there are many ways to transform your reality for the better. Many paths to the mountaintop.

But there is only one way to assure you never get there, and that is standing still. So trust yourself to figure life out as it comes. To take the pain and extract from it with, to find the strength beyond the uncertainty. Life is giving you everything that is required. Not some things or a few things, everything. All it asks of you is that you dismantle the delusion of perfection and begin.