Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Master These Skills And Become More Powerful In Life | Best motivational Speeches | Wake Up Positive

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

"Even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility" - Terry Pratchett

The first step towards creating the life you want is taking responsibility for the life you have. What does this mean? Well, it's easy to accept the good things. The things you're proud of. It's easy to move forward under the banner of victory. But what about the things that may not be under your control? The things that happened unjustly. Or what about the things you did in your past that you're not proud of?

See, if you're going to own the good, you have to own the bad, too. Because you can't change anything. You can't alter the reality on the ground until you own it. You can't make something better that you have not acknowledged and claimed to be yours. See, our inclination when we feel like we've been wronged by life, is to shake our fists at the sky, innately aware of the cosmic injustice that has occurred. And I get it, we want to point out that injustice,

label it as an adversary, maybe even an excuse. It feels good in the short term. But ultimately, it's depriving you of your strength, the ultimate advantage, which is substituting the word fault for, responsibility. When you're fixated on the word fault, the emphasis is placed on finding the blame. It's replaying yesterday's movie. The responsibility, on the other hand, says regardless of how or why this came to fruition, it's mine to fix. Maybe it was brought forth by your doing, maybe it wasn't,

but you'll learn and adjust in the present. That attitude will place you in position to succeed in ways most couldn't even dream of. When others project out, it leaves you to find the solution. Where others assert blame, it pushes you to begin the process of building again. See, there's nothing so detrimental as one who, feeling slighted by life, doesn't start where they are to make the most of what they have. Feeling so angry and disparaged by the path that brought them to the present moment that they forget it's not the same path that will lead them forward from here. This moment is yours. And there's a lot packed into that statement.

It means looking in the mirror, accepting the face staring back at you, letting go of what you cannot control, forgiving yourself and the world around you for what may or may not have happened yesterday. Look, you're here now. With all the opportunity in the world, everything in front of you, the question is will you take it? Will you leave fault behind so that you can accept responsibility for the greatest gift one can be given?

The chance to begin again. There's a saying that just because you spent a long time making a mistake doesn't mean you need to continue making. making it. There's an incredible advantage in life for those who can separate past and future. Who can recognize sunk costs and walk away, walk away from the past, move on to new things. But here's the challenge, right? Like so many things our instinct is to preserve. It's, yeah, but I've invested so many years. I've spent X amount of dollars and maybe I don't like where I'm at, but look how long it's taken me to get here. Well, here's the reality, that time is gone. That money is not coming

back no matter what you do or what direction you take from here on out. There's no reason to think you have to maintain the same trajectory or hold on to a specific identity or pattern of behavior yesterday isn't the focal point here. The goal is simpler. What matters now and how will you get there now. You've grown, you've evolved, you've changed, and your targets have shifted, so why shouldn't you? The idea of sunk cost is so important because it's essentially realizing that you're not indebted to the resources you've spent or exhausted. There's no need to be a slave to previous decisions that you've made. No, just chalk it up as an integral step in your learning process, an aspect of growth, and move forward to what matters, to what you care about.

If that seems obvious, I challenge you to think about the decisions you've made over the last year, and I guarantee you, you've let factors affect your decision-making that are irrelevant to your goals. Because we feel this camaraderie with yesterday, like there's a debt to be paid, but, man, life is too short to run in place. If it's not pushing you forward, drop it. If it's not what you need, forget it. In other words, don't be one of those people that wakes up

and makes the same mistake every single day because you've spent a long time making it. See, reality only exists in your head, and that's why it's beautiful. You can unlock the cell door and walk out. Don't lose sight of the greatest gift you have. The new beginning that lives in every second where you can take a turn you've never taken before. Remove the mask and play a role you've never played.

Let that sense of excitement pull you to new things. Let go of what you can't change and pursue what you can. Forget the time spent. Think of now. Where can you invest now? Your surroundings didn't magically arrive. You chose them and you can just as easily take that wheel and leave Simple formula. What is best for you and how do you get there? Not where you feel obligated to be or expected to be or pressure to be Where do you need to be? Everything else is noise Everything else is a rope keeping your ship on shore and you are not confined to that

harbor or yesterday's destination. You're built to chase the horizon, follow your curiosity into the sunset. You don't make decisions based on yesterday's story. You sculpt it with tomorrow's possibility. Find a way. Because first and foremost, there always is one. Find a way because you are more than strong enough. Because anything other than a solution or some semblance of progress means you gave in, called it quits, threw in the towel, and giving in is not who you are. Find a way because that discomfort today will it becomes our life. our greatest source of pride tomorrow.

The simple decision to carry on or stick it out now is so much more than it appears to be when under duress. Sure, it's easy to turn around, but everything, everything relies on your moving forward into that darkness. Find a way. Because while we may think we want safety and need predictability, our souls want adventure. Life's meaning is comprised of the mountains climbed and dragons slayed, so step out and slay your dragons. Find a way. Because an evolved self has to be earned. Keeping promises to yourself is no small.

Ordeal putting your head on the pillow at night knowing you followed through on who you decided you would be That's power it creates a trajectory towards infinite possibility. It points you at the stars Find a way because you must reinforce the fact that the world is clay to be molded not a checklist checklist. It's a game, not a chore, a gift, not an obligation. When you find a way, you become the ruler of your own kingdom. Look, there exists a way, a path. That's not the question. The question is one of effort. Is there a willingness to move beyond the parameters imposed upon you by others, by the past, by the thoughts that bounce around in your head. Is there a willingness to endure duress in the short term? Is there a willingness to fall down now, to look dumb, to not

always be perfectly packaged or assembled? Are you willing to endure that in exchange for the infinite? I remember hearing the mantra, there is always a way to get to your finish line. It's not can I. It's not is it possible. No, it's how. How do I get there? The dots exist. You have to be the one to connect them. You have to build bridges over the oceans of unknowns, the valleys comprised of the unforeseen. Oh, there is a way. Remember that. Remember that it's not the destination that's in question, but one's willingness to knock and knock and knock until the right door opens. Remember that you have everything you need, that you are armed with all that is required.

You were made to connect those very dots before you. You just have to decide what's more important to you. That feeling of reaching the top of the mountain or the feeling of its shade at the bottom. What will you give to be more than you've ever been? Do more than you've ever done. There is always away. Are you willing to find it?

Fall down. But only a few choose to get back up. A few. depersonalize failure, a few understand that falling is the cost of greatness. Your reality is not what happens to you. Your reality is how you internalize what happens to you. Or obstacles stop signs, or are they checkpoints along the way to something greater? Checkpoints that make you stronger, build you up, become your armor, that is ultimately the difference. What we misinterpret in life is the meaning behind that difficulty, that pain, that suffering.

No one gets a pain-free life. No one gets a free ride. Suffering is inevitable. As Nietzsche says, to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. And what's changed my life, and I don't mean here and there, I mean truly transformed the course and trajectory of what's possible, is simply redefining that which is difficult. I grew up watching the Kobe's and the Brady's of the world. I remember thinking, how do these guys get better when things get difficult? I mean, as a kid, I could feel the pressure watching from the couch, but they somehow elevate themselves when the odds are still. act against them. Same exact situation that causes most to doubt, to run, to lose their self-belief.

What they see that eludes most is that in every pressing moment, there's opportunity. Every loss has something to gain. In every failure, there is victory. Everyone has the same rulebook. It's just that some people only see what is right in front of them. Others learn. to read between the lines and create outcomes that have not yet arrived. When things are hard or challenging or uncertain, it's not that you should keep going. It's that you must keep going. Everything good, everything rewarding, worth having is on the other side of that struggle. Everything meaningful is built from the days you felt like there was no possible way to make.

move on but did anyway. That is the core of greatness, carrying forward when it would have been easier not to. When you feel the hurt, the emotional turmoil, and I get it, we all do, but beyond that feeling, what are you willing to see? Beyond the ashes, what are you willing to build? What are you willing to do with those pieces? Because it can be nothing or it can be everything. It all depends on how you choose to step back and look at the world. Your perspective becomes the roadmap for your reality. So understand that feeling down or loss is normal, but staying down is a choice.

There are no problems. There are stepping stones, the very situations that make you who you are. The little decisions that over time equip you to step up when it matters most, when the pressure's on, the odds are against you, the rest of the world says no. No matter how hard it gets, there is an answer. Rise above the emotion, the chaos, the present moment, and see the big picture. not only will you survive, you will be better because of this, because you kept moving forward when it wasn't easy.

No matter how hard life got, you never lost sight of the opportunity. And that made all the difference. Sometime last winter I got an email from someone asking if I'd help them with a keynote speech they were delivering. Never met this person before, his name was Rod, seemed like an awesome day. seemed like an awesome dude, said absolutely. So we arranged a date, he flew into South Florida, and we met to chat about the project.

Now, a lot of time has passed since then, and the reason I'm bringing it up now is really twofold. The first, and probably the most important, is that I walked out of that meeting a different person than when I walked in. And I want to share my lesson learned because I know there are people out there that will help, that will help in a similar situation, maybe without even knowing it.

The second is it's a perfect example of those emergent properties that seem to evolve out of life after days, months, years of compounded hard work that I talked about in last work's video. So back to the story, we're sitting there and he's telling me a little bit about himself. He started multiple multi-million dollar companies, produced major motion pictures. Incredible dude done incredible stuff. He sort of makes his way to this speech, which is why he was there, talks a little bit about his vision, what he's written, where he could use my help,

and eventually asked Eddie, what's it going to cost me? And I didn't care, right? I just wanted to learn from the guy. I mean, he's done some amazing stuff. and just being around interesting, motivated people, the more friends you have like that that inspire you to push the bar, the better. And I remember, I just sort of threw out a number,

a low number, and he looked at me, and I'll never forget it. He goes, Eddie, come on, man, be a fucking salesman. And he pulled out a check, wrote it for like five times more than I usually charged for something like that. And goes from now on, you're never worth less than this number. And I drove away a completely different person

than when I pulled it. I mean, Rod essentially shined a spotlight on the fact that I was capping myself, that I was creating walls around my potential, but not just economically, in a lot of different areas of life. It reminded me that we set our own value. We decide our worth,

and it's very easy to unlawful. undersell ourselves. The value you depict, the value you portray, well, that becomes your reality. And I'd been sort of in the weeds, in the micro level. You know, I've always felt like I could take on X, Y, Z, like throw it at me. I'll figure it out.

I'll make it happen. But how easy do we forget looking in the mirror that we have to define the person looking back? We have to believe ourselves to be better, more, bigger. That's not a subconscious thing. You have to make time for that. I'm not just a writer, producer, filmmaker, no. I'm one of the best writer, producers, filmmakers.

That is how you have to look at the world. Things aren't bigger because we don't up the ante. We're not richer, bigger, faster, more accomplished because we still see ourselves a certain way. And guess what, that doesn't change until your perspective does. And I wanted to share that because That didn't happen every day. Right, people don't just come along, tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, you're worth more than you're acting like you are.

You know, I'm incredibly fortunate to have that experience and maybe you're at that point where you need that little reminder. How are you defining your worth? How do you see yourself? Because once you begin to look at yourself as one of the best, the world conforms, and it's a pretty amazing thing. You start doing better work, you radiate confidence, you realize that there's a stupid, amount of money out there and the reason you don't have more of it is because of yourself and your perspective you grow faster you surround yourself with more people like you and all of that comes from believing it so ask yourself that

question in what areas of your life are you capping yourself off now the second piece is around putting yourself in a situation where these little realizations emerge in the book ego is the enemy Ryan Holliday says confidence is earned. Day in and day out, moving forward even when things suck, moving through the lows. And as time progresses, this plays hand in hand with that self-confidence that I was just talking about. Because suddenly you have the experience, you have the talent, you have the track record to back it up. And as time compounds, you're left with incredible results. In last week's video, I talk about human consciousness. It's an emergent property. There's no part of

the brain that specifically controls human consciousness, or at least is undiscovered at this point, all we know is that when all those pieces up there come together, consciousness somehow emerges. It's an incredible thing, provides opportunity, changes the way we see the world, sets us apart from every other living organism. Can't break it down, but it exists. And I believe that life is very similar. Working hard every day, taking those tiny steps, not giving up, driving towards some invisible destination, all those little things come together and put you in position. They open the door for opportunities that will emerge down the road. They set up the people that will come into your life, the things, the opportunities that await.

A lot of ways you can't plan for them, but you're building a platform that enables success. Those little pieces come together and create something bigger than the sum of their parts, something that wasn't their original. You can't succeed with only the vision. You can't succeed by blindly taking action. These two things work together and open doors. So believe that you're great, that you're worthy of nothing but the best. Have the framework, have the plan, and then go out every day and build it.

Rainer shine little by little, build it. And you'll be amazed at the amount of power and control you have over your own destiny. Vision and execution are a beautiful combination, and will take you to see you to see. take you to some amazing places. Every next level of your life will demand a different version of you. Why? Because life is about reaching outside of your comfort zone, acclimating until you are comfortable and then repeating the process.

Every time you leave the familiar you are granted a new set of armor. As Jim Rohn said, if you want to have more, you have to become more. For things to change, you have to change. For things to get better, you have to become better. If you improve, everything will improve for you. And every time we expand ourselves, we are forced to change in some way, evolve. So many of us fall into the trap of waiting for the perfect moment to jump. There is no perfect moment.

How could there be? There's no perfect time to step out into a world you're not prepared for. That's life. We jump and we grow wings on the way down. We step into the chaos and acclimate. By walking into the dark, we are forced to become the light. This makes staying where you are the most dangerous thing you can do.

Let's use our imagination for a second. Let's say you reach for the next thing. You stretch yourself. Move towards something you really want and you fall short. Okay? Time to breathe. Reassess, step back for a second, and re-approach a little better this time, a little wiser this time.

As long as one remains engaged in this cycle, growth is inevitable. But now, let's say you never step in. Let's pretend the idea of moving into the unknown is too much, and you'd rather stay with the familiar, pain-free, you think to yourself. But you would, in fact, be wrong. See that discomfort, one step up. It would force you to evolve to see yourself as someone who steps into hostile territory and survives. And maybe it's not pretty. Maybe it's not perfect, but you attack and you survive.

And sure, the difference between where you are now and only one step up isn't much. But what about that second step or evolution? Because you'd miss out on that too. And the third and the fourth and the compounding that would completely redefine who you are. From your self-identity to your skill set, from the mental to the physical, you put the whole chain reaction on hold because why? You didn't want to take one step. You didn't want to be uncomfortable in the short term But discomfort is not a punishment. It is a ticket to everything you could ever imagine So when the crowd runs out, I challenge you to run in And when the world goes left, I dare you to go right.

Not because the masses are evil, but because human beings are wired to take the path of least resistance. But you, no, not you. You're here to rise above the mental constraints that hold so many down. Because there is always another level. When you feel good, there is another level. And when you don't, there is another level. And see, our world has been defined, not by the best or the brightest, but the ones willing to throw themselves into foreign arenas and compete. To see adversity as the answer, not the problem.

You want to change your world, then change yourself. You want to change yourself, then go where you are scared to go. Where your heart beats and your hands sweat. Turn and face the direction you know you should have been facing. This is about you. This is about what you can become by simply saying yes when most would say no. Today is yours. Not because it was given to you, but because you looked through the haze and you decided it's so.

Nothing in life is as important as you 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 Connman 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 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 the answer they gave about their overall 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,

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. 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 hands? 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 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 you know 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 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, provide. 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 light. 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. If you're not being graded on the outcome here, you're giving yourself permission to experience that jolt you get when you open in 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 write the ship. You're at the wheel playing the game of life as it was meant to be played on 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 played.

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 Why is it that the average person seeks out the advice of what feels like a million people before consulting himself? Knocking looking hoping is he looking for answer? or looking for permission to be who he already knows he is. Is he looking for insight or just validation that his reflection is in fact okay? See, I think we all deep down know who we are, know what drives us. And even if we don't know exactly what the destination looks like our hearts know the direction

best suited to begin the person. So how is it so easy to forget? Why do we get our antennas crossed? See, when life becomes about meeting requirements and fulfilling obligations, checking off boxes, and checking in on time, we forget the basics. We forget to live for ourselves, as if our job is to play a part, not direct the movie.

And playing apart is living up to expectations, directing the movie, well, that's creating your own expectation. This world, your world, it belongs to you. It's a world with both unimaginable happiness, bliss, moments of ecstasy, and the occasional suffering. Chaos that we have to navigate through, but I think all of it comes down to whether you trust yourself to live it for yourself. To remove the shackles, take the training wheels off, stop asking permission. and do what you've always known was the right thing. That part never changed.

It just had to wait amidst all you're looking for external direction for you to pause and find the internal courage. Freedom is not a life without chaos. It's trusting yourself to determine which dragons you will slay. It's not a life without battles. But fighting those battles that result in your liberation, and dismissing the oppressors that build fences in your mind and chains around your soul.

I've thought a lot about the idea of a life well-lived, what it means, how it feels, and it seems to me it's about intentionality. Where are you going? It's not that you can escape suffering or eliminate fear. It's not that you'll avoid getting lost along the way, but it's the why. Why we endure these things makes all the difference.

Is it for a better tomorrow or simply to get through today? And it's amazing. Accidentally stumbling upon that which scares you and intentionally facing that which scares you are so different that their occurrence has triggered completely different neural networks in the brain. See, overcoming fear is ingrained in us. We want to grow.

We want to evolve. We need more. The question is whether you will step out of the line that someone else made for you and live a life that is your own. And if it's crazy, great. Let it be crazy. If it's unique, perfect.

Stand out. And if it scares you, my God, if it scares you don't turn back, don't you dare, turn back. Give yourself the most important permission one can give, the permission to follow your intuition and your curiosity into too much. into tomorrow.

Let the stakes be higher, but the rewards be meaningful. Let the chaos be your own to tame and to master. Every twist, every turn becomes not only a part of you, but a chapter in the story of your becoming. And as the seed you've held in your hand for so long finally meets the earth and grows so high that it connects you to the heavens, remember that this is your life. It's your obligation to live it fully.

The saying goes, sometimes success is simply hanging on when others would be letting go. And that's it, holding on. I've spent a lot of time focusing on what I need to do, worrying about what must happen in order to bridge the gap. But there comes a point where the difference comes down to what you won't do. What I refuse to do. Where the true victory will be not in saying yes but in saying no. Simply standing tall when the world demands I bow down. Success will be predicated upon where I build and defend my walls.

Refusing to be intimidated by the road ahead. I've actually come face to face with this adversary before. In fact, I meet him almost every day. And not on accident. I hunt him despite his strength. I pursue him, even though he has the potential to harm. I do this again and again. Now certainly sometimes amidst the turbulence, I lose myself.

Forget. Maybe ask myself, myself why? What a strange dotted line to sign, right? Why volunteer to fight this battle? The questions will bounce around in my head momentarily. But ultimately, I remember why. I sign up to face this demon because if I can beat him, I can beat anyone. In fact, if I can learn to consistently show up and prevail here, the rest of the world becomes a lot less intimidating. Little pawns on my chessboard, if I prevail here, I become the type of person who prevails, period.

There's power in that. You seek out the monster to destroy the monster. And in doing so, reminds yourself that destroying monsters is what you. you do. Life is full of them. In fact, we can't help but come into contact with them as we ascend to greater things. But those moments end up being much bigger than we may have initially expected. It's during these confrontations that we map out our understanding of the world. It's here we decide which rules govern our existence. See, when we seek out, confront and defend. And if we're defeat our monsters, two things happen.

We show ourselves, one, that we can, and two, that it's who we are. So you finish the dance with your demons, conquer them, reach your finish line, take off those running shoes decompress, and that's that. So you think. But life says, no, not so fast. It says just because you're not running or in self-initiated combat with the monsters of your choosing doesn't mean they go away. It doesn't mean life is going to be smooth sailing. No, sorry, this world is tough.

Its ups and its downs and those who successfully navigate its turbulence must be capable of handling that. And so the question inevitably becomes. comes, are you? Are you capable of handling that? And there might be a world where you're unsure, but in this world, you've seen too much. You've earned your confidence. There was nothing trivial about all those steps you've taken,

all those footprints in the sand footsteps on the pavement, You weren't learning to win a race. You were learning to win at life. You were teaching yourself that context aside, things you don't love will from time to time be dropped in front of you. And when the inclination is to run or retreat, you won't be lured in by fears, false promises. Temporary discomforts, because the world has been dropped in front of you before and you've found your way through it. When life feels like it's collapsing in on you, the walls crumbling down. The instinct is to let all the destruction impact yourself work, to see it as an indictment or referendum on you as a person.

But no, you've felt the walls crumbling before. crumbling before and all you did was run harder. When it hurt, you wrote. When you were tired, you found more. Your suffering mile after mile was not an indication that you weren't enough. It was merely an invitation to be better. After all, that's how you defeated those monsters time and time again. So here's to all those monsters.

we will face in life, the ones we seek out and the ones we don't, the ones we plan for and the unexpected, they're all the same. They all have the same vulnerability, same kryptonite, your mind. And your exposure time and time again to the self-induced depths of hell has made you invincible. The world only stops people who are not even if you. people who know no better, who haven't seen themselves brush up against the demons who stand

guard protecting those coveted finish lines, but you have. And where many bow down and declare their discomfort a catastrophe, you smile to yourself and call it just another Tuesday. It's been said that humans always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. Well, you have made yourself in your mind a slayer of dragons, conqueror of worlds, and that's why those steps matter. That's why all this matters. So next time you go hunting for that overly ambitious adversary of yours, and you find yourself face to face with him,

tired, weak, maybe even temporarily unsure, remind yourself, why you're here. Remind yourself that each step forward is a proclamation to the world, that it's not about the here and now, it's about life. It's about defining who you are and ripping apart the world's limitations

one by one. If you move forward here, you move forward anywhere. If you stand tall now, you bow to no one. And when the time comes, life hands you its problems and its obstacles, you'll stack them up and stand upon them. And so it's into the darkness of night. The chaos of battle you go, because that is, was, and always will be who you are.

At the intersection of what is and what can be, our stories are written. It's where decisions are made and lives are ultimately defined. In which way you go when staring at this fork in the road can mean everything. Maybe you go left, take the easy path. minimal upside, minimal downside, proven and tangible. It gives immediate identity, but also brings with it some degree of regret, not because you won't like who you are, but because you'll never know what you could have been.

Maybe you can't live with that. Maybe you go right. Let's say you roll the dice, dream chaser, eyes fixated on the horizon, moving toward it, soon to realize that the world you live in will bring you to your knees faster than you can blink. That uncertainty hurts, that effort without immediate validation is pain, and that the road less traveled is less traveled because of the difficulty associated with it. And now you have a very important question to ask yourself. Do you have what it takes? Can you see the big picture when the sky appears,

to be falling down around you. When all it takes is to backpedal and be comfortable again, to take the other road to return to what you knew, can you still move forward? See, it's a funny thing when you're in pain. It becomes very easy to forget why you began. The pragmatic human brain sees discomfort as a problem, and it wants it gone immediately.

People don't give up because they're cowards. They don't quit because they don't have what it takes. They give up because they can no longer see the big picture. They forgot why they started. When all you see is directly in front of you, you lose the ability to see your finish line. When you're at a crossroad, you have to know this. If you take the hard road, you are betting on the future

at the expense of the present. Dreams are a sacrifice. They're not some fluffy concept invented to prop you up after a hard day. Sure, they're the top of the mountain, but they're also the bottom. They're the dirt, the rocks, the scratching, the clawing, they're what people don't see.

The chapters that are not read aloud, and when you're in it, when you are truly in it, uncertainty needs to be embraced like it's the wind to your sails. You signed that dotted line for a reason because you can see past the immediate, the now, because to get to the top, you start at the ground floor and you elevate past every single level that stands between you and your dream. Now will not intimidate or discourage because you are bigger than right now. now you are the pages unwritten and you did what so few people are willing to do you didn't look at the pen you picked it up now write

write a story for the ages