Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - MORNING MOTIVATION | Start Your Day Right | Powerful Inspirational Speeches

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

"You belong here." A simple phrase from a yoga class that hit me hard. Yoga has been a space for healing, but also for embracing being the beginner, the outsider. Those words reminded me how often we question our place—whether in a new environment, chasing a dream, or stepping into the unknown.After a decade of building something from the ground up, I still catch myself looking up to those I admire instead of standing beside them. But growth means realizing you’re not just an observer—you’re a part of it. So wherever you are on your journey, remember: You belong here.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

You belong here. This was something that was said to the class during yoga the other day. As I've said before, yoga is something I'm really turning to as both a mental and physical approach to a lot of the injuries and imbalances I've been dealing with for a very long time. And part of that, you know, starting something new was obviously not knowing what you're doing. It's a willingness to play the fool to be this student, It's signing up to be, you know, at times the worst in the room. And so I hear the instructor say this line,

you belong here, and then kind of repeat it again for emphasis. It hit me hard, you know. And I'll never know if this was prompted by me flailing around in the back, trying to do crow pose, or she just felt like, you know, it needed to be expressed in the moment. I'm not sure, but what I do know is that it was exactly what I needed to hear. And in fact, it's what I've needed to hear throughout many stages of my life,

which is why I think it hits so hard. Now, I want to unpack it for a second. When I moved to Massachusetts, after spending the vast majority of my childhood in the Los Angeles area, I used to joke around with my friends back in L.A. I'm like, this is so different that it feels like a culture shock, right?

It seems so little of the world. Why do these guys not where Dickies are spiked their hair? Everyone has cargo shorts and new balances. What's happening here, right? You know, but all jokes aside, when you're a freshman in high school, that's a big deal. The differences were many. And it took a while, you know, but I acclimated. I made friends.

I did the thing. But persistently, in the back of my head, I felt like an outsider, making my home somewhere that wasn't really mine. Like, I didn't really belong there. Then came college. I went to a small private school where most of the students I knew came from prep schools. And I had somewhat of a more rigorous academic background than I did. And I decided to be a political science major, basically living in my professor's offices during their hours

when they would spend extra time helping me write, showing me how to organize my thoughts and put together analytical papers. It was a long and stressful learning curve. And just like before, I figured it out, did fine academically. But again, never really felt like I belonged there. There were some of the same sentiments with, you know, walking on to the rowing team where many of the recruits had been doing it all their lives. Same thing in the corporate world.

Felt a little out of place. It was a feeling that never prevented me from starting. You know, I'd dive in. I'd figure it out. But there was always this lingering fish out of water field. that I couldn't shake. I'm kind of a tangent, but this is, you know, one of the funniest moments for me looking back.

In my early 20s, I was at an interview at some insurance company in Boston, and the guy interviewing me is sitting on one end of a desk, I'm at the other. He's holding a physical copy of my resume and cover letter, not saying a word, just kind of scanning them up and down. Then he slowly kind of drops them on the desk and goes, so Eddie, tell me more,

about, and pauses. Looks back down at my cover letter, back up at me, back down at my cover letter. Then he traces the first line of the cover letter, quoting it as his finger moves across the paper. He goes, tell me more about how, quote, your lifelong dream is to become a data analyst. And I was like, oh my God, this guy sees right through me, Eddie,

what are you doing, man? Like, this ain't it, you know? And I crack myself up every time. my mind goes back there. It's the epitome of square peg round hole, and I would consistently find myself in that position. But, you know, I digress. The point is, me feeling like I'm on the outside looking in has been somewhat of a theme, even in the areas of my life where I was finding success. Like, I couldn't totally be there. Like, find the things that are important to me and commit to them fully. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't still.

exist today. I've worked like a madman for 10 years to build this company and this brand and certainly I've seen some progress. In this industry, I've gotten to surround myself with some incredible people and every time I walk into a room

with folks that I've looked up to for years, I'm grateful, which is good, but sometimes too grateful. Which is my entire point, right? At some point, you have to transform from looking up to into being one of

to give yourself permission to belong. And yes, you need to do the work, and yes, confidence is earned. But if you don't give yourself permission to do a thing, not kind of or sort of, but to fully with all your heart and soul be that thing, I think you'll all. always be leaving part of yourself on the shelf. It feels like, to me, a lingering defense mechanism. You can't be great if you're not all in. And part of growth has been reflecting and asking, hey, you say you're all in, but are you? Are you immersed? And that's what I want. I think to some extent that's what we all want, to not just do it, but be it. In a million years, I don't think my yoga teacher would expect it. A word's prompted a 10-minute rams.

starting with my childhood on the West Coast, but man, did that comment create a lightbulb moment for me? It's set this stage for such a beautiful epiphany. It's like you've been doing the thing for 10 years. You've grown in so many areas, but have you given yourself permission to become what you're seeking? Not kind of, but pour yourself into it. It's who you are, the environment, the people, the variables,

the ups, and the... downs, all of it is who you are. Just imagine what that freedom would allow. Go be the thing. More, more, more, fully all you have to give. So yoga class this morning showed up. Now, even though I suck, even though I'm learning, decided, hey, little symbolism here. No more hiding in the back of the room. Step into those neon. green lights, move towards the front, you no longer do things, even the little things, to simply scrape by or exist. Do it to be it. If you're going to do anything, do it to be it. You belong here. Help me realize what being it really is. That maybe I'd let my definition slip. Maybe my understanding

wasn't wide or all-encompassing enough. And yeah, there's a line we need to walk, no question, we must be on the path to acquiring competency in something before we can make it our own. But the beauty of podcasts and audible and books, all our media outlets, it's that other people's growth and understanding can fast-track our own. Learn from this experience.

Life is too short to always feel. like you are on the outside looking in, it just is. If you earned a chair at the table, be at the table. If you were let into the room, work the room. If you're spending time and energy doing something, be that thing. Don't deprive yourself of that precious alignment because it's such a beautiful thing when we allow ourselves to feel it and obtain it. But like so many things, it starts with you giving you permission.

It starts with a simple understanding. You may be new, you may be struggling, unsure, you might have a hell of a mountain to climb, a journey to travel, you might have extra work to do, you might have to add some things and cut away others, you might have to ask yourself the tough questions and accept the difficult answers.

But you do, My friend belong here. The other day, I was sitting in Miami traffic, looking out the window, and it dawned on me. How interesting that human beings haven't solved for this. Like, this is a major annoyance in a lot of people's lives. Now, we put human beings on a rocket ship. We've navigated them beyond the Earth's atmosphere. We've landed them on the moon, but still are unable to effectively get around between 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays.

It's just kind of interesting to realize. Now, there are very practical reasons for this, sure. Not to mention people studying and invested in the problem. And I think most noteworthy, I'm not even saying one is more valuable than another. this is merely a thought experiment. We get the results where we place our attention. We valued going to the moon. Because of this, humans walked on the literal moon.

And we're so used to this having happened that its shock value isn't quite there, right? But for a species who 100 years ago was traveling by a horse and buggy, it's pretty impressive. Now, I just think it's a cool reminder that where we place our focus is where we'll get our positive results. We can change everything if we place a spotlight on it. That begs the question, where are you placing your spotlight? As John Maxwell said, nobody ever went up a hill on accident.

There was intentionality, which gave life to focus and action, planning, growth. We only evolve or we shine that spotlight Or as I've said in previous episodes or videos, What You Water grows. I've certainly spent my fair share of time, angry, annoyed by things that I've, by no coincidence, given zero effort to fixing. And when you do nothing to solve a problem,

all you can cling to is the ability to complain about it. If you're not putting energy and resources there, you most likely won't win. Some of the best advice I got from a friend, years back was to highlight the things that matter to you and measure them because this allows you to be aware, to be intentional with your action. It's deciding which handful of things are going to be your quote unquote moon landing and then watching over them like they are precious. Let's say a goal of yours is to increase your net worth. If you're looking at your bank account every

day, you're much more likely to make better monetary decisions than someone who keeps their finances in the dark because they hate thinking about it. There are deliberate actions that must take place to bring about that change. When I look at, say, YouTube, I tend to know a substantial amount about my metrics, because I really care about the channel and its growth and its impact. I watch it and I monitor it. Things dip. I need to know why. If they took a sudden upswing and they're great, I need to know why. If success on a platform is my metaphorical moon landing, I'm locked into every up and down. I have to understand what's going on so I can make the necessary adjustments to grow.

And then when the growth happens after time has elapsed, I can think, in my own little world, that was space travel. I was driving that metaphorical horse and buggy not all that long ago. but I stayed locked in. And this may seem simple, and it is. But for what it's worth, my biggest breakthroughs always tend to be. I've exhausted a lot of energy, and in some cases even paid, you know, a decent amount of money, so learn the simple thing. Nothing is that complicated.

We just think it is. Which is why we do nothing and then complain about the delta between the real and the idea. But I'm here to tell you that if you decide on a few things that matter to you and then measure their progress, allocate the energy to moving along with them, where you'll be in months or years from now will astound you. It will be breathtaking. But you have to be willing to peel back the curtain and immerse yourself in it. Prove to yourself that, sure, it might feel big and complex. But once you give something that time and attention, it becomes clear pretty clear.

quickly how simple it all is. What's one thing you can do every day in each meaningful category in your life that will get you closer to where you want to be? If you watch over that process and you adjust along the way, the amount of opportunity available, the amount of change you'll create is unbelievable. And someday to others on the outside looking in, your progress will seem out of this world larger than life. It will appear a moon landing. But you'll know it wasn't the miraculous. It was just a simple decision to give it time and attention. You watered it, and so it grew. Sometimes success is merely hanging on when others would let go. Not doing anything spectacular. or out of the ordinary, not leaping a mile or jumping over a mountain, but simply carrying on.

Thomas Edison has a famous quote that's really stuck with me over the years. He says, many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Right? how close they were to the finish line when they turned their back and said it wasn't worth it. It's really an interesting thing to grasp. Success is seeing what others can't. It's believing when others don't.

It's taking the abstract, those visions, those pictures in your head, the make-believe, in finding the courage to make them love. real. Bring them to life. It's this constantly evolving process and it grows a little bit every single day. Sometimes we feel that progress. We feel the momentum. We do something big and it's exciting. And sometimes the progress feels small. And then there are times when we get knocked down and we don't see it at all. We feel like because we weren't validated that we lost, that we failed. that it wasn't enough.

We forget that's part of the process, that progress is a journey. And it goes when you go, and it stops when you stop. Just like that famous Dalai Lama quote, right? The only way to fail is to quit, period. No one ever stops because they can't. They stop because they decide to.

They stop because they see that huge mountain, and they think that's a big mountain. impossible. They forget it's only made of little rocks. They stop because they get so disheartened by the distance of the finish line that they forget it only takes a collection of little steps to get there. You don't have to leap the entire distance. You know, I've been there. This is me speaking from experience. It took me years to figure it out. And even now, life is rapidly evolving. I've poured my heart into things that let's be honest, no one cared about. I've invested in opportunities that fell apart right in front of me,

and each time it felt like the end of the world. I've been lost, I've been unsure. Gotten up after things didn't go as planned, and it felt like a loser. I had to look myself in the mirror and pick myself back up off the floor. But there's one thing that I kept doing, that I never thought twice about. and that's continuing on whether life lifted me up or it beat me down my plan for tomorrow was always the

same get up and try again keep going and as i sat down this morning with my pen and a piece of paper i thought what's the one thing i would want to be told if i started out again what's the one thing that people need to hear most and it's to simply simply Simply keep going. Keep taking... Because one day the world will start to make sense. And you'll look around and you will be thankful for one thing. That when most would have stopped, you didn't.

When the world said no, you said yes. There is nothing so powerful as a soul that refuses to back down. See, persistence is not an important thing or an essential thing. It's everything. So live as to see. Not what can be lost, but what will be gained. Find that light in darkness, even if it's a flicker, even if it's a spark. See, every loss makes you a little tougher, and every instant of sadness uncover uncover

Uncovered something beautiful. Every moment of fear teaches you to be a little braver. Every broken heart opens the door to a new connection. Instead of doubting yourself, feeling inadequate in life's darkest moments, know that you need what you are going through. You are uncovering the little victories

hidden in plain view. So when the world feels like too much, and your patience is thin, be stronger than that voice in your head, begging you to think small. Stand on every experience, the good and the bad, let it elevate you to a beautiful tomorrow.

Instead, become one of them. Why is this perhaps one of the most important mantras you'll ever hear? Well, to put it simply, to envy is to build walls. It's to create divides between you and them, between where you are and where you most want to be. We're not in the business of creating divides. We're in the business of building roads.

It's about understanding that you're perceiving, not a tale of two different worlds, you're perceiving the beginning of one journey, your journey, the dedication and time, commitment required to start today to step into something new. There's a Chinese proverb that states, the best time to have planted a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time is today. And my friend, you don't have 20 years ago, but you have the now. And the now is everything. Oh, but how much time I've wasted, you might think. Nope. That's wrong. for two reasons. One, first, you're ready to go now for a reason.

You're not the same person you were a year ago or two years ago or three years ago. If it took until today for that journey to start, then so be it. Here you are. You can't compare your timeline to the timelines of others. There's too many variables in life. It'd be impossible to crack or understand. Just go now. Make use of the clarity and inspiration.

You just green lit, perhaps the most important thing you'll ever do. Don't you dare sit and wait. Second, if you think days past were lived in vain, that they were wasted or filler, I ask that you think again. Because the lessons that will be derived from those experiences, some of you don't even understand yet, will become so valuable in this next chapter that it's mind-blowing.

There are no wrong terms. Those detours were the way, the only way, as you'll see in due time. But too much time has passed. I'm too old. I'm to insert X. Now, stop separating yourself from what you want and move towards what you want. Stop categorizing that or them or that North Star as anything other than possible and step into its orbit. See, being that we are all...

storytellers. We are all sculptors. We are all artists in our own way. It's worth understanding that those artists who came before you, well the sunset never cared how old they were. It didn't ask how many years they'd spent thinking about their dreams instead of chasing them. It never asked, hey, why didn't you start sooner or begin sooner or step out the front door sooner? No, it just was. It was bold and vibrant, daring them to join. And in that moment, staring at the colors,

streaking across the sky, they realized something. The sky wasn't asking for perfection. It wasn't asking for years of experience or dedication. It just wanted them to pick up a brush and create, to do, to begin, to step into a world they could rightfully make their own. And so they did.

And I'm sure their first strokes were messy, hesitant. You bet they were self-conscious and doubtful. You bet imposter syndrome knocked at that door. But they were there in the moment, realizing that there is no too late. The sunset taught them that life isn't about the time we've lost. It's about the beauty that we can create starting now. Always now. And by the way, our minds will always try and fight now.

They'll try and rationalize their way out of now, villainize now, come up with a million different reasons. Now is impractical or counterproductive. While its adversary, tomorrow, on the other hand, always seems to sit glowing on its pedestal. Tomorrow is always so safe and inviting. Easier to accept than now, far easier. But tomorrow is fools gold.

And you understand this when you realize you've been tricked by tomorrow your whole life. Tomorrow is a fraud. It's a con man. It's a wolf and sheep's clothing. Now is what solves all your concerns. It seems to be the answer to almost every predicament we face, every fork in the road. It's like go, act. It's okay that it took until now.

Perhaps you'll come to understand it's even ideal that it took until now. But it's time to start treating now like it's precious, like it really matters because it does. If it's meaningful, step into it, move towards it, allow yourself to become it. Everyone has a different story, a different journey or road that's taking them to today. Fine. But know that the wake of the day. boat does not drive the boat. Where you've been is not attached to where you can go. This is your reminder that you can become that version of yourself you most want to be.

It's not easy. It will feel at times like the world is pushing back. But this is where purpose is cultivated. The right journey is everything. And its cost of admission was is and always will be your very next step. Reality comes down to what we do with what we have. This is an idea I brushed shoulders with again right over there this morning, staring out the window. My mind sort of wandered into this place of, I wish I had a few more pieces.

I wish I had a few more things in my arsenal. before moving on to this next chapter, right? And I think we've all been there, more tools in the toolbox, maybe more advice or guidance from people that I look up to, maybe more research. You can go down that rabbit hole forever. Before sort of remembering that life always gives us some of it, but never all of it.

and some of it is always enough. Let's call this the law of broken crayons. Go back, go way back, grade school. You're sitting on the floor at the table with the other kids, blank piece of paper in front of you. You reach into that box of crayons. Grab your color, and you go. The crayons cracked, probably broke.

it in half, somehow always had other colors intentionally drawn onto the wrapping. But like, who cares? Right? I don't ever remember thinking, if only this box was pristine, you know, if a new box is opened right in front of me, that would be amazing so I could create with the flawless, untarnished instrument. It's like, no, it wasn't even on the radar. We used what we had and what we had.

It was always enough because we made it enough. So flash through time, boom, back to the window this morning. I'm longing for, metaphorically, a fresh box of writing instruments, unopened and in perfect shape. The stuff I'm carrying around is cracked and drawn on and feels no longer pristine. But that's not what life provides us when it calls us to grow. when we're ready to step into something bigger. Now, life gives the cracked ones. Maybe you have to grip the little piece that remains tightly with your thumb and your index,

as though you're threading a needle, but it's usable. Maybe the color you need is missing, but there's a shade close enough to make do. I think you get what I mean. It's a lesson we need more than any other, because it's not that every once in a watch, while we don't get that fresh box of crayons, it's that life rarely ever provides it. Life simply says here are the fragments, the pieces, the blueprint.

They will work, but that's not up to the instrument. It's up to the artists who hold them. And personally, I've been blown away by how many times I've seen the same set of circumstances produce wildly different outcomes, depending on who happened to be the artist, depending on who was holding the instruments.

Back in the day, when I was criticized, I would struggle. Someone would say, for example, you're not good at basketball. That comment would make me think less about myself as an athlete, how I played ball. It would plant this tiny seed of doubt that I would have to navigate my way out of. And then I remember learning about some of the toughest, minds, right? Notoriously strong mentalities, the Jordans and the Kobies, you tell them they suck.

That doesn't create doubt. That ignites that, well, I'll show you mentality. They shined in those moments. Same instruments. Just different interpretation by the artists. And you realize the world has nothing to do with this. Criticism has nothing to do with this. It's the relationship I have with me. And if I trust myself, if I believe in my growth and my commitment to excellence, the other stuff, it's just detail. And it will always be detailed. Starting a new business, right? No one has ever had what they needed out of the gate, ever. I think it was Alex Hermose who said, you know, starting your own business is like running a marathon out of shape and getting yourself into shape along the way.

I thought that was spot on. It's the only way to do it and is the opportunity perfect? No. Is your body acclimated? No. But life provided those metaphorical running shoes, a road and a journey, and it turns out that's enough. So what I'm asking of you is that you keep this realization as close to you as you possibly can.

It's that you remember having everything is wildly different. than having enough. One is an illusion and one is your superpower. And maybe you're looking around at a world that feels cracked and flawed. Maybe it feels like it's missing pieces, requiring that you make tradeoffs and improvise. That's not the world working against you. That's life placing a map in front of you.

Like Jim Rohn has said, it's not where you're going. It's who you become along the way. The truth will always be, if you will always be, wanted, the pieces to take that necessary first step are there. Some people wait for perfection. Sure, that perfect box of crayons, a life without curveballs, twists, or turns. Great. But as it turns out, they find themselves waiting a very long time. So why not step into the world now? Armed with two things. First, what you have now. And second, the understanding that what you have now is enough.

It will multiply, it will evolve with time, exponential growth is bound to occur down the road, but first pull up the shades and let light in. Give life a chance to enter the equation. Let's not forget those basic unspoken truths, those things that at one point, way back in the day, were intuitive. open the box of crayons, turn on the camera, make the call, write the book, try the workout,

apply for the position, share your thoughts. Is the moment perfect? No. And maybe even a hell no. But is the moment enough? That's the question you should be asking, and the answer is yes. always. Today is not an obligation. Today is a gift. Why is it important that this distinction comes through loud and clear? Because the same action can differ wildly, depending on what

brought it about. Was it an order or a choice? Were we told or did we arrive there ourselves? And we know this innately from a child being told to go to a child. his or her room for punishment, that place where they'd gladly be if it wasn't being mandated by angry parents. When we're instructed, being told to, mandated, when we're doing something because we have to, we process this differently than a choice or a conclusion we came to on our own. We think about it differently when it's something we get to do. When I talk about transformative perspective shifts. This was one for me, going from what's expected of me. How do I not mess this up? What would make me look like the person I'm supposed to look like? To instead understanding that,

listen, today is a gift and I'll never get it back, a series of opportunities and decisions, a choose-your-own-ending story waiting for me every day as the sun comes up in my eyes open. To me, the difference is more than semantics. The difference is between feeling free and going into autopilot so that I mitigate mistakes and blend in. That's not freedom. That's becoming a prisoner of your own making. You can walk the same road and see it differently every time. You can take in the same event and come away with very different interpretations of it.

All depending on the role you chose to give yourself as you walked down the path or peered in at the event. Were you the hero in the story or an extra? Someone who capitalizes on all to be gained or someone who hides from the fear that they might misstep. Obligations are about minimizing risk and doing what is merely required. An opportunity, on the other hand, asks, what more could you do with what you have? How could you take what you love and multiply it? How could you capture your inspiration and delve further into it? The one living out of obligation will always find the problems and the negative.

But the one who knows they have in their midst the greatest winning lottery ticket of all time, well, they'd be foolish not to cash it in. And so look, you might be going through some problems, as we all do. You might have your challenges and your struggles. They're unavoidable. But these are part of a greater narrative. They're what will build you up and push you forward as you move deeper into the miracle that is your life.

And that's the difference. The first step in being able to capture the opportunity is understanding that you are living in one. Life is not obligatory. It is a giant get-to. And when you realize that, you are truly, you can allow yourself to be distracted. Or, as Robin Sharma suggests, you can do incredible things. but you can't do both. You can stay where the safety and security is,

or you can risk what you have in pursuit of your dreams, but you can't do both. You can remain the character depicted in yesterday's story, or you can take those lessons, experiences, and craft a new story. But you cannot. do both. Life is a game of trade-offs. Where any decision to go in one direction is a simultaneous decision to not go in another.

A commitment to X is necessarily a rejection of Y, at least in that moment. Making this question all the more important, what is your North Star? I ask, because everything you do is bringing you closer to or whole, holding you back from capturing it. One of my lifelines over the years has been clinging to the quote or idea that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, consistently trying to arrive there. Why? Because when things get complex in my life, I don't know what I'm choosing.

Clutter means I've lost sight of what's necessary versus what's trivial. I become unclear on those critical tradeoffs I'm making. And we've all experienced this, right? The simplest questions are always the hardest to arrive at. We can talk in circles about the details, but how often are we honest with ourselves about the why? I remember job interviews in college going on and on about the books I read, the papers that written, current events, but then falling flat on my face when asked, so who's Eddie Pinero?

A dude doing an interview? Like, what do you want for me? My brain had never gone there. or even less formal. I'll never forget a friend of mine a few years back, asked me what my perfect day was, just casually as we're driving. I said, I don't know, Tom, I've never really thought about that.

He goes, then how are you ever supposed to have a perfect day if you don't know? And how simple? Simple and simultaneously incredible. Who wants a life without perfect days, right? Like, what is all this for? the world is infinite and you can be ruled by its variability and its complexity you can run around adhering to all its rules hoping you're doing the right thing whatever that is or you can identify carve out and rule over your own little piece of it your own kingdom you can choose you if you take

the time to uncover who you are what lights you up and then as Emerson advocates, hits your wagon to that star. The best investment of our time is to truly understand and decide what we should be saying yes to. Because if we don't know what matters, then nothing does. Here's the famous dialogue from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Alice, would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the cat. Well, I don't much much. care where, said Alice. Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the cat. Well, so long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an explanation. Oh, you're sure to do that, said the cat. If only you

walk long enough. Beautiful passage. If you don't care where you go, any road will take you And see, it's not wrong to not know. It doesn't make you bad or mean life is a waste of time. It just means you're taking a large portion of control, which is one of your superpowers and tossing it up into the ether. It means you are bowing to hope. And I know that no one here wants to live every day merely clinging to hope. This is not a we'll see how it goes, channel or podcast, right? This is about the little changes that take life from a six out of ten to a nine or a ten out of ten. It's about using what's around us to maximize the miracle we are living and breathing every day. Again, life is complex.

So for you to take the time and simplify to remove what's unnecessary, what an advantage. Yeah, I could do this or that. I could go here or there. But guess what? I've spent the time thinking, asking myself the tough questions, and now I can be more deliberate in choosing my path so that I arrive

at a correct destination. A destination that belongs to me, that means something to me, that lights me up and excites me. That's living. And of course, this isn't a one-time lightbulb moment, a permanent move. No, as we grow, we change.

What we want shifts. Hey, sometimes the current path even reveals itself to be the wrong path. It's happened to me plenty. But when you're consistently in tune with what matters to you, who you are, you can make the adjustments. You can be deliberate. No more shooting targets in the dark because life is too short. Our days numbered, our arrows finite.

Live life like each day means something. Because each day is transporting you to your something. Let's use the pieces around us to build our own skylines, etch our own stories into the sands of time. If a decision to do one thing is a simultaneous decision to not do something else, make sure to have that North Star in scope so that you don't amidst that chaos. of life, unknowingly turn your back on it. Ask yourself who you are. And be as patient as possible working for that answer. Because as far as I can tell, that information is the key that unlocks

infinite possibility. It's knowledge that opens the door to life on your terms. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. That's from George Patton, General in the United States Army, integral to the Allies victory in World War II. So why? What makes this statement so powerful? Well, it rings true

because we have to move beyond the idea that we can manufacture greatness with one swing of the bat, one stroke of the bat, pen. That if we wait for the right moment, perfection will come. The light will turn green. The stars will align and the path will emerge. I feel like I could scream this from every mountain top and it wouldn't be enough. Life is not a perfection game. Life is an adjustment game. And I'll speak anecdotally here. In my experience, looking over my shoulder, reflecting, you know, those times that I'd clung

to perfection, rationalizing my immobility by saying, hey, you're not ready, this isn't good enough. I'd only have to dig a few layers down to see that my not moving wasn't out of some loyalty to excellence. No, I was standing still because of fear, a fear of going, of starting, a fear of the unknown. Perfection is the biggest con there is. It's a scam. It says, wait here, your perfect moment will arrive. Hang tight. The right time is coming. No, there are no perfect beginnings. There's merely the courage to move into something new or the regret that will ultimately come from wishing that you did. And sure, a part of it's almost counterintuitive. It's like, why isn't it beneficial to wait?

Why would you want to take the leap before you're ready? Here's how I see it. One of the most important distinctions to understand is that between the thinker and the doer. The thinker who ponderes, who reflects, who studies and studies and studies thinking he or she can create for him or herself a perfect jump-off point,

thinking they can obtain for themselves all the necessary information, all the answers before they begin the journey. The truth is, greatness is forged through repetition via wheels on the road, and yes, you are terrible at first, completely unsure at first. You get lost at first. But this becomes the knowledge that shapes the journey.

When you go before you're ready, two important things happen. First, after falling down and feeling embarrassed and insecure, you get back up, you look around and you go, wow, okay, I'm still here. That sucked, sure, but it wasn't as bad as my brain told me it would be. Next, you learn from the exchange. You can start doubling down on what works and eliminating what doesn't. And eventually, as you take this confidence and wisdom onto the next step, repeatedly, the curve becomes exponential. In doing, you begin stacking bricks, creating a foundation.

Those experiences that humbled you become what you lean on. They're what turn into the experience, the knowledge, the credibility. And see, thinking you can skip all that ugly stuff by waiting on the ledge for perfection to arrive in your hands, that will be your undoing. That's just as crazy a sailboat waiting for the wind to stop. It's like, no, you need that friction, that resistance, to reach your destination. And no, we cannot control everything. Yes, there are powers beyond us.

But if you go now, you learn to use and navigate them. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is permission to go. It's looking a year ahead and dreaming of the moment. We pause and say, wow, what a year. The twists and turns, the lessons, the highs, the lows, the peak moments all brought me here. And how different here is from back there. How far I've come.

Knowing, by the way, that life was never asking me for perfection, but rather a willingness to start, to dive in, to adapt along the way. I know a lot of people with businesses that exist in their minds, but not in reality. A lot of people in shape when they close their eyes, but not when they look in the mirror. A lot of people living their best lives when talking about the future, but not when they pull up to work on a Monday morning. We shorten the gap between our ideal existence and the present moment by going, by stepping now. Even when we can't imagine how the process will unfold. Because let me tell you, life will bend and twist in ways you can't even fathom. It'll take you places that ignite your soul, show you things you never dreamt of seeing.

But you have to put yourself in position to receive that from life. The world wants to help people who help themselves. So give yourself the gift of progress, of momentum. If a dream is only worth the action one is willing to take to bring it to life, let that action start now. Move beyond the illusion of perfection and towards the opportunity to take the imperfect every single day and transform it into greatness. Every time your mind says you're not ready, let that be your invitation to step forward.

See, life may not be a race, but that doesn't mean time will politely wait for you. We must say goodbye to perfection as we evolve, as we grow. I can guarantee you it won't be missed. Time waits for no one. Look, the earth will continue to spin, the sun to set, clocks to tick, There are no perfect moments, only moments, waiting to be interpreted by those passing through them. And as a raindrop in this thunderstorm, an actor in this play, the only rational question in my mind is if time will not wait, why should I? If time will continue at steady march, why let it leave me behind?

I'm in my mid-30s, and here's what I've already seen. I've already seen songs I grew up with, referred to as classic rock. I've seen some of my childhood sports heroes struggle to throw a first pitch before a baseball game. I've seen a substantial portion of my social interaction become digitized. I've seen once forever people in my life fade away and become memories. I've audibly laughed at the ridiculousness of things that at one point I was sure were important. I've redefined the meaning of the word home in my life more times than I can count. In fact, the way I see the world and the way I see myself operating, and it continues to change.

As the saying goes, the only constant in our lives is that things change, evolve. Why does this matter so much to me? Well, because when I look back, the single thing that would consistently keep me from truly pushing that pedal to the floor to truly capturing all life has to offer was a fear, a very specific fear, the fear of losing what I had at that moment. I was scared to death of loss, as we all tend to be to varying extent. In fact, we're biologically wired to respect the fear of loss to a greater extent than prospect of acquisition. There's humor in all this, though, a deeply rooted irony.

It emerges when we discover that we lose everything. It all goes. The song that's playing ends for each and every one of us. And is this a sad thing? No. No more than the credits to your favorite movie rolling after the final scene. It was the show, the experience that meant the world. It's a beautiful thing if you let it manifest in all its beauty. If you move along with it, immerse yourself in its brilliance. My point is that the only way to lose is to wait. It's to not realize that you're starring in your own cinematic masterpiece,

and those credits will at some point roll. It's to sit in a chair on the side of the gym while the rest of the room dances. Life is finite. And the power is not in a flawless existence. It's an understanding to our core that there is nothing to lose. That the window is small, that we should carry out the human equivalent of a fireworks show. We should be obnoxiously bold. absurdly courageous.

We should go, live, try, experiment, explore, build, create. And yeah, sometimes you'll fail. And sometimes you'll fail spectacularly. But sometimes you'll triumph. And along the way, the mistakes, they become wisdom. They become courage. both of which are integral to any meaningful

grand finale and as I make my way around the sun for the 36th time the priority is to remember that these rides are not forever they are precious and that I have the strength

to live accordingly fearlessly courageously my hope is that you find it within yourself to do the same. To pull back the curtains and see now that failure was never the adversary, no, not even close. The adversary is an unwillingness to make the most of your moments. The adversary is freezing amidst the constant hammering away of ticking clocks.

adversary is the prospect of removing failure's mask years down the road, only to stare directly into the eyes of regret. These outcomes constitute your greatest adversary. So for the sake of all that is meaningful, go push into the questions and the risk and the curiosity that makes life worth living. After all, it is not about failure. It's about time. I wouldn't make excuses for you.

I wouldn't look you in the eye and tell you everything is great when in actuality the wheels are falling off the wagon. No, I'd point to the insufficiencies and remind you that you're capable of chipping away at them. I think that pragmatism can save someone's life. But guess what? Being human is knowing there are things you don't know. Realizing that growth is picking up little understandings along the way

and bringing them with you into the future. Allowing them into the evolution that is you. And part of my personal evolution was coming face to face with the fact that looking forward isn't all of it. It's part of it. Yeah, we need to be better, of course. Yeah, we can always squeeze more value out of the time allotted to us. 100%.

This forward progression, as far as I'm concerned, is intertwined in human fulfillment. But we are, in this moment, the manifestation of the obstacles we've already overcome. We are the times we wanted to stop and didn't. We are the losses we bounce back from and the adversity. we forged into opportunity. We're the endings that we melted down into beautiful beginnings. We are the mistakes, the obstacles, the little encounters with hell that didn't define us, but instead changed us.

And that matters. So quick story time. For about five years after I graduated college, some of my friends and I had this fantasy baseball league we'd use to stay in touch, right? And I think even they would begrudgingly admit that I was oddly good at it. I won like three or four out of the five years or something like that. And you know what my strategy was? It was simple.

I picked players based on who they were over the course of their career, not based on how they performed last year, which is a trap people seem to fall into. right so a guy that hits 30 home runs six years in a row and then last year suddenly only hits seven it's not out of the question to think he'll hit 30 again revert back to the mean to his average his track record that to me is more meaningful than some recent struggle and i took that bet every time now as you can imagine the point i'm making here has nothing to do with baseball it has everything to do with life in general. So much of the time, we completely focus on the current insufficiencies. The bad things happening now, the misfortunes in our lives. We're striking out,

and our brain goes into panic mode. It says gap, gap, gap, how do we fill it? And again, yes, that's important. Our plan for resurgence is necessary, but we can't forget who we are and what we've done, we can't overlook our track record. As the saying goes, you've survived 100% of the bad days. You've lived through countless struggles. You've climbed out of many catastrophes, at least I have. And it seems as though it's when we need that reassurance most that we are most inclined to forget. It's when we, more than any other time, need to prove to ourselves that we are unconquerable, that we question our ability to persevere. I'd never say to you the road ahead will be easy.

I'm not saying it won't suck at times. I'm not saying it won't take all of you. I'm merely saying that you are equipped to emerge victorious, to handle not some of it, but all of it. I'm saying that the person in the mirror is stronger than you can even imagine. But understand, you're not operating on blind faith here. You're not hoping for some miracle. You're operating on your own record of success.

What you do is find a way. What you do is win. You don't believe me, look over your shoulder. Take a trip down memory lane. glance back at all the mountains you've already climbed. And life, it won't be smooth sailing all the time. You'll have your slumps and your adversity, no question. But they're not you.

They are what you were made to navigate. Everything has brought you to this point. And it's great to focus on this point, but don't lose the everything. Sometimes it's not about who you will be someday. Sometimes it's about what you've already become. It's about who you are now. I think a substantial amount of life comes down to self-trust, to believing in yourself.

Right, but here's the thing. It's not blind belief. It's not talking. It's not toxic positivity where you close your eyes, cross your fingers, shut the world off, and just assume things will work out because you're entitled to a great result. No, what I'm referring to is an active and deliberate trusting of yourself to learn, to make the necessary adjustments and to keep moving forward.

When we have faith in our ability to step forward and improve simultaneously, there is no defeat. When you know you won't stop until you land where you want to land, then limitations become a choice. Success in any capacity is a you thing, not an outside thing. And this popped into my head a few days ago during, of all things, a game of axe throwing. So, quick story from last weekend, a friend of mine and I, after a day of working on the podcast, went down to Fort Lauderdale, to this axe-throwing place, which is random, but it's a great time, simple concept.

There's this giant target, and you take turns throwing little axes at the target, basically darts, right? If you think along those lines, and there were eight of us in the group. They divide you into two teams of four, and you play various games until the end. At the end, there's this final session where it's every person for themselves.

It's like a free-for-all. Each person gets three rounds to throw axes at the target, and whoever has the best score wins. So think of the target just in a traditional way, right? The bull's eye or the little point in the middle is worth five. Then the next smallest circle outside of that is four. then three, then two, and then the biggest circle along the edge is worth one. So whatever you hit with the axe, that's the points you get, except they put these two little blue dots on the top third of the circle.

And they say if you can hit one of these blue dots, you get ten points. So high risk, but certainly high reward. And my friend and I is super competitive, right? He looks at me, starts telling me how he's already got this in the bag, and I'm like, All right, we'll see. And it's been arguable, but I probably had been the more consistent of both of us up to that point in the night. Nothing fancy, just straight away aiming at the middle, aiming for those bullseyes and fours. Not even attempting to go for those hard-to-reach blue dots.

No need straight up the middle. And here's why this is important. We step out to take our first shots of the finale here. my friend goes first, immediately hits one of those little blue dots. Boom, already, I'm down 10 points. So what do I do? I completely leave my strategy. And I start thinking, no one behind, I can't let this happen.

I spent my next nine shots, and the only nine shots I had, right, trying to hit those blue dots and missing every time, just get killed, right? He won handedly. And then I realized when the scores were really, read out at the end, that if I just ignored everything my buddy had done and stayed true to my game, aimed for the center of the board, average 3.5 or 4 points of throw, I would have won, and by a substantial margin. But I let the outside world impact my strategy.

I started chasing those long-shot blue dots when I knew they were a distraction. Now, I'm sure the last thing you expected to hear today was the recap of an axe throwing contest. But if you bear with me, there's value here, right? So let's step beyond the axe throwing. Let's take it up a level. Let's talk about when you know what's best for you. You know where you want to be and what's working, but you're pulled out of your lane because of what someone else says or does.

You hear him or her over there accomplish something great. You look in the mirror and go, man, I haven't accomplished anything like that. Maybe I need to change what I'm doing, my approach. Maybe I'm wrong. See, and the beauty of that little game was that it reminded me that there will always be outside circumstances trying to redirect my course. But we have to trust in ourselves that we are doing what's best. We have to know our own game and our own strengths.

Now, don't conflate this with a stubbornness. It's not about never adjusting. No, we need to adjust. But adjust when it's best for you. Not simply because other people are taking a different approach. It's hard to stay consistent with the world pushing other options consistently. People finding success in various ways, taking other paths, talking about their incredible strategies and how great X, Y, and Z is.

But it's all noise. You have to trust you. And again, not blind faith, but an understanding of who you are and a willingness to continue to grow with every step forward. There has to be some element of understanding that, sure, things will get challenging, life will push back. But that doesn't mean you are wrong or in over your head. It's a compounding of little actions and trust in yourself.

If you can do that, the world remains yours. It's day by day, or in my example, throw by throw, knowing your bull's eye and aiming steady up the middle. We all know how hard it is to see results before they exist. The mind tries to find every example out there depicting why you're, wrong. Why the finish line is too far away, life is constantly creating off-rams saying, hey, if you don't want it that bad or you're unsure of yourself, here's a way out, come with me. It's constantly sowing seeds of doubt, which is why we must dig deep for that strength.

Life is a game of you versus you. If those around you win, good for them. And if they lose, will hey, wish them well on the next go-around. But none of it has any bearing on who you are and the race you're running. Are you going to show up for you? Are you going to be your biggest fan when it takes every single part of you to keep going? Don't let the loudest voices in the room dissuay you from what you know to be right. Don't let the blue dots hinder your direct line to the point. bull's eye, right? Block out that noise, block out the distractions and do what is required of you.

Win your race because that's the only finish line of value. Walk your path because that will bring you where you need to be. And when you question the pursuit, remember what you've overcome all the steps that brought you to right now and how, yeah, maybe they weren't flashier over the top, but they were consistent. They've given life to the present moment. What you do is succeed. What you do is overcome. Just don't lose your bullseye. Freedom lies in being bold. Robert Frost. Something caught my eye on Twitter, not too long. long ago, was a headline referencing the boldness of wolves in the wild. So I clicked it to delve a little deeper.

It took me to an article by Emma Maris. And here's the summary at like a 10,000-foot view. Okay, basically there's a parasite called T. Gondi that infects animals and then causes those infected animals to act bold, perhaps even reckless in some sense. situations. And the article states why and goes into some great detail, but for now I'm going to jump right to a specific point, because there's a part where the article mentions how two wildlife ecologists, Meyer and Cassidy, studied wolves at Yellowstone for 27 years. And upon studying them, they find something very interesting. After taking blood samples from 229 wolves, they found that

wolves infected with that T. Gondi parasite that again makes them act bolder, were 11 times more likely than uninfected wolves to leave their birth family and start a new pack. The infected wolves were also 46 times more likely to become pack leaders, which Maristates are often the only wolves that breed. And so this appears to portray a direct link from Bolton, to increased social status and possibly even reproduction rates. With that boldness comes risk, sure, but with risk comes reward upside. Now obviously, the day-to-day actions of wolves at Yellowstone is not an apples-to-apples comparison with human beings functioning in society.

But personally, I can't help but feel the value contained in the case study. In fact, it was my thinking about it while falling asleep that prompted me to find the article again and share it. For the simple reason that I know there are places in my life that I can be bolder. I know there are places in my life where I can dial up that risk factor in exchange for results that supersede what I have now.

You don't get more without giving more. And I know there are places I can give. more. In fact, I'm pretty confident there are places every single one of us can give more. See, here's the thing. Being bold means drastically different things to different people. And it's in this truth that the magic is found. Boldness for one person might be completely different from someone else. It might be more travel. For another, it might be taking on a project at work. For another, it might be leaving a detrimental situation. For someone, it might be leaving a detrimental situation for someone else, you know, going through a low point or deeply challenging time,

it might be simply getting out of bed. We are all operating on different planes at any given time. My bold today won't be my bold next week. That's just the way life works. But here's what I do know. We can all find within ourselves that courage to be bold in whatever arena we are in. And every once in a while someone will say to me, yeah, but Eddie, can't you just be happy where you are? Why does it always have to be the next thing or bigger or better or more? To which my response is, look, of course we should be grateful for what we have. Of course we should appreciate the gifts and the beauty that surrounds us day in, day out. Because it's there and it's infinite.

But, and you knew there was a but. human beings are purpose driven our happiness is often derived from our progress our journey is the destination and we often find when we look around that we have given pieces of ourselves away sometimes without thinking about it perhaps we become stagnant

with areas of ourselves that can be elevated that are destined to evolve I love looking back at those courageous moments in my life. They mean everything to me. You know, I like to say it's the small things repeated day in and day out that make us who we are. The vast majority of the time, I believe that to be true. But those pivotal moments, those opportunities that our consistency creates for us, well, boldness in those instances changes everything.

And walking onto a stage when you've never spoken before, when your body is physically rebelling and you don't want to walk on stage is everything. Calling U-Haul, packing up and leaving a situation that's no longer in your best interest is painful, it's instantaneous, but is ultimately everything. Making an investment that you believe in. Deciding to hire someone with incredible vision and talent, being vulnerable enough to share your thoughts with the world. These things are risky, they are bold, but in your world, they are everything.

And so the obvious connection here is our desire to lead in a world seemingly void of adequate leadership. It's setting an example. It's not settling for the ground floor when the sky is the limit. Yes, on all count. But it's also leading yourself. At times, we forget just how, important that is, that you need to lead yourself to something meaningful. Significant change does not come along without your initiating it.

No doors open if you don't knock. The world will only give you what you ask of it. And I'm here to remind you that asking more of the world, yes, it's hard, it's uncomfortable. It requires you to be more today than you were yesterday. But you are, capable of that, you are bold enough to be that. Robert Frost says freedom lies in being bold. I believe that's because in your courage lives the infinite. Upside so powerful that one simply cannot grasp it while standing still. So go. Go find those areas of life, your life, where you know you're holding back, where you know when your soul you have more to give, and breathe life into them. Knowing that sure, in being bold, missing the mark is a possibility. But in never leaving, it's a certainty.

If you never go, you will never arrive. So find the courage to ask more of yourself, because more there is. 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 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 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 difficulty. And this beautiful message rings true. Because from the difficulty is the advantage. 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 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. Peter Drucker has said that what gets measured gets improved. And this insight's been incredibly valuable to me over the years I want to explain why. Until you measure something, you're operating in somewhat of a black box. You're essentially guessing, aiming at targets you can't see, which ultimately means you're leaving life up to chance. But once you begin to gauge your progress in a specified area,

you now have information to work with. You have an increased sense of awareness and the ability to focus, which, as I've said before, and believe wholeheartedly, what you focus on becomes your reality. So here's a quick example that I think adequately paints a picture here of what I'm talking about. Way back when I first started my business, I was chatting with a friend about wanting to grow my YouTube subscribers.

Add value to as many people as I possibly could with my work. Back then, it was all YouTube. That was the crux of my business. And so the first question he asked, he goes, just out of curiosity, how many subscribers join the channel daily. And I realized in that moment, you know, I don't know. I knew the total amount. Like, I kept tabs on that, but not the sort of daily fluctuation.

How much grew on Monday versus Friday, you know, that type of thing. And this guy, he had a tracker. He's very big on that. Basically a sheet with the most important things that he's trying to change in his life. And every day when he would wake up, he'd record a quick measurement in each of those. categories. My first thought was, eh, you know, that's a little over the top. It's a little extra. But hey, one of my favorite mantras is that you are your own experiment, and I was happy to try something new that, you know, could have a positive impact. And so I did. I started recording

daily, the net subscribers that join the your world within community. And what I found was incredible. They say it's the simple things that make the greatest difference in our lives, and this would certainly be no exception, right? First and foremost, just seeing that number every day kept growth at the forefront of my mind. It kept me aware and excited and thinking through that lens, as if I were on a journey or mission to outperform the me of yesterday. If on some random day you grow 30% more than you usually do, it's only normal to see that and ask, well, why can't this happen every day? Why why can't this be my reality? And next, and probably more obvious,

it armed me with the tools to tactically improve my performance. Those daily metrics helped me find critical answers, arrive at important conclusions. You know, what days of the week and weeks of the year have the greatest impact? What trends lead to increased viewership? My daily average subscriber count is X. I wonder what it would take to bring it to Y. And so basically, instead of just showing up every day with my fingers crossed and hoping I'd hit it out of the park, I had a more informed approach.

It's like taking a blindfold off. And all of this prompted by writing one little number down in the morning. The more I did this, the more it became obvious that it should be implemented in other aspects of my life. If this is important to me, if I say with conviction, this, This scenario I want to improve, how can I afford to not know the extent of its growth? And now I do track the handful of things I'm most invested in growing because those will be most impacted by my giving them attention. There's a saying that what you water grows. Well, your focus and your attention is what will water the seed, what will give it life.

If you're looking to lose weight but you never look at the scale, you're hurting yourself. You might say, well, I don't want to be all about the numbers. It's a lifestyle change. And I certainly agree the point is not to track every single step you make. Just to realize how often we operate blindly. It's to show you that with 100% certainty, your increased awareness and attention dedicated to any pursuit will make you more effective in bringing about your desired result.

Knowing your daily progress keeps you in the game. It keeps you excited. arms you with the tools to make the necessary changes. See, we are brilliant creatures capable of incredible things, but it's critical that we position ourselves so that we can win the game. It's critical that we not only look, but see. To be simplified, to condense life down to only what's important, and to monitor those things that are important to you

will give you a tremendous advantage. advantage. And again, this is basic stuff. But we skip the basic stuff. Because we think the big changes come from complexity. They don't. They come from choosing a target and working to get closer and closer to its bullseye. Like Greg McCune says in essentialism, growth often has nothing to do with the acquisition of more. Sometimes it's about eliminating the things we don't need and focusing on that which we do. Now I'm suggesting we take it one step further and measure our growth as we take those meaningful things into the great unknown. Life can be challenging. That's no secret.

So why not arm ourselves with every advantage available to us? Why not keep yourself excited and invested and knowledgeable? Often we look around at what we don't have and think, man, I could never have what they have. I could never do what he or she does. The reality is they identified what matters and brought it to life one small step at a time. And guess what?

You can do the same. It's not a miracle you need, it's awareness. So here's to keeping your eyes open, to not only looking but seeing, and in doing so getting results from the opportunity we otherwise would walk right by. That was at the Heat Celtics game with my brother a few days ago. And the Celtics at the moment are the best team in basketball,

which is fun being the word from Boston originally, and right now the team has a handful of really good players. But one of them, Jason Tatum, has essentially separated himself as one of the most dominant players in the game. He's a superstar. And as we watched him play from the stands, we were talking about a narrative that I don't hear mentioned a lot. And maybe it is in basketball circles, but I don't hear much out and about.

I think it's incredible. It's the fact that Boston's general manager at the time, Danny Aange, saw value in Tatum way before everybody else. Now, don't get me wrong, he was always elite. But the Celtics GM saw superstar potential in Tatum to a much greater extent than everyone else. In fact, in the 2017 draft, the Celtics had the first overall pick. And, you know, for those unfamiliar, it's usually pretty obvious how the first handful of picks are going to go, right? The players are all ranked before the draft, and the team with the first pick is going to select

the first best player, obviously. The team with the second pick is going to select the second best player. And while it was sort of known that Tatum was the agreed upon third best player in the draft, but the Celtics didn't want number one and two, even though the scouts and draft boards and, you know, the talking heads all around the country saw them as better. Right? So here's Danny Aange with that coveted number one overall pick, which in basketball is so valuable. And he's like, I don't care.

I want the guy who's projected number three. So he trades down. He gives Philly his number one pick, basically saying, hey, if the guy I want is going to go third anyway, might as well trade away the first pick and get a little extra value. and still get Tatum at number three, and that's exactly what they did, and here we are, watching him as one of the best players in the game. And by the way, the guy who went first overall is relatively underperformed, given where he was picked. The guy who went number two overall, same, has been up and down, constant injury issues.

And I look back at how that played out, and I just think, like, the pressure, the weight of having this coveted pick and being like, no, I don't want it, right? The guy that I want is number three, right? Being so confident that you see value where others don't. It's hard to do that with conviction. You know, and so I look at this and sure he made some mistakes, as all GMs do, you can't predict the future. It's a numbers game, right? But the ability to spot value, particularly in places others seem to disregard, is what I see as the difference between excellence and mediocrity. Life is always trying to give us the equivalent of a draft board, right, in some capacity. It's like here's what's normal.

Here's what's projected. Number one, two, and three options are the quote-unquote best options. For the most part, sure, it's a decent guideline, but it's not enough. It's not enough. I think we need to train ourselves to be asking, yeah, but where is the move that manifests into that game-changing difference? Where in my life is the move that pushes me over the top, the action that sets me apart? As staying on the basketball theme, one of the most inspiring things I'd ever heard was Kobe in an interview. Talking about the extra value he'd capitalized on throughout the day, being the difference in his career,

saying, look, if I get up two hours before everyone else and I get a workout in, not once in a while, but every day, that's the difference. Why? Well, in a week, it's nothing. In a month, it's not much. In six months, it creates a gap. In a year, that's quite the advantage. In five years, you're not even on the same level. In a decade, he is now untouchable to his competition. Yeah, it's just the morning. Everyone has the morning, but Kobe sought and recognized it as opportunity as his value. The consensus out there in the world is that the morning is when you ease into your day. It doesn't put what you're doing at 6 a.m. high on that metaphorical draft board. Who cares? Well, to Kobe, ah, perfect. There's the value that I can spot, that I can utilize,

that most people will not even think about. And in totality, I believe that to be the truth. You can do fine, simply anticipating and living in and around the value as identified by the majority, by following their blueprint. But to separate, to move from adequate to excellence, you need to find those places where you can squeeze more out of life. You need to dive deeper into what's around you than, ah, that's what's expected, or that's what everyone else is doing. That's what's perceived as valuable. Be your own GM, right? Question the way of things.

Not just out in the world, but in your home, in your day-to-day. Where are the moves that can take you from, I don't know, a six inefficiency to an eight? What ways can you be unconventional? Flip the script to unveil the value you've been walking by for months, years, maybe even your whole life without realizing. There are always pieces around us to be great. And not just get by or survive, but thrive. There are the necessary ingredients to our right and left, always to astound ourselves. We just have to arrange them in a way that allows us to maximize their value.

It's a constant moving of parts. Trying again and again, but not settling for a ranking system to life, as prescribed by the outside world. There's more if you're willing to find it. Stop protecting what you've built. Like what you've built is what holds the value. No, the value is in the builder. His or her knowledge and ability to build again

and again if they so desire. On an episode last week, I talked about a conversation recently had at a mastermind in Santa Monica. I want to pass along one more piece of wisdom from that day that I found to be incredibly valuable. This was just a random comment made by someone in the group. And so to kick off the scenario,

someone asks everyone in the room, hey, but what if things don't work out? And it was more specific. I forget exactly what it was, something along the lines of what if the monthly revenue decreases, or, you know, what if, you know, my target or my intended outcome doesn't evolve or unfold the way I wanted it to? What then? Is it worth taking the risk? And this person stands up and says, listen, we need to stop looking at our businesses like it is the only business.

Like it is something that needs to be protected, that if it falls down or if it's taken away, it's over, it's the end of us. we are entrepreneurs, which means the power and strength is in our ability to build again, not the thing that's built. Right? Theoretically, we should be able to do this over and over and over again. And what we do, and obviously I'm paraphrasing all of this, right, but what we do is we put cages around ourselves and our potential. You know, we shackle ourselves to the current moment instead of taking the necessary risks

because we're thinking, what if we lose it all? Well, fine. It's the ability to build again. And I love the idea. Because, man, it's relatable to me. I have three businesses I'm growing right now, and every single one of them, I find myself playing conservative at times,

not wanting to break the momentum or what's going. I've spent a decade building. And the most valuable thing I've acquired or produced is not the company. It's the ability to add value. That's what's been built. And even if the physical company disappeared overnight, no one can take what's been learned. I think it was in the book The Happiness Hypothesis, which was one of the first books I read almost a decade ago prior to starting my personal brand and really beginning my journey

And the idea was, like, you could take everything away from the top, I don't know, 2 to 5%, maybe it was all the way up to 10. And they would reacquire it in the next 10 years. Because it's not the stuff they had that made the difference. It was their ability to acquire it. Their understanding of the world, not looking at life through a scarcity mindset, but an abundance mindset, positioning themselves to build and grow. That's something that cannot be taken away.

This is all a message that is hitting at the exact time I need to hear it. Be bold. No, that's not bold. That's maintenance. That's doing what you've always done. Plus, maybe a little extra here or there. Truly living is about uncapping yourself in totality. Really reaching.

because you know that it's not the entity that holds the value, it's the one or ones who brought it to life. It's crazy to me that even when you are aware of fear, when you understand our proclivity to play scared, right, you get it, it's something we need to look out for. Even then, do we still find in our own lives places where we're limiting ourselves? as if the fear just hides in the shadows, controlling the subconscious from a distance,

like a puppet master. Strength, growth, evolution is the ability to find that fear and dismantling. As was said to me a few years ago, most actions are reversible, meaning you can make a mistake and it can be reversed. It can almost always be fixed. Or at least re-approach from a more intelligent angle.

But what's sort of, certainly cannot be fixed or changed or adjusted. Our roads never walked. Adventures never begun. And with a scarcity mindset, you spend your entire life in your corner protecting the little fragments of life you've collected along the way. That's it.

But if you can flip that, if you can find a way to see the abundance, the value, the infinite opportunity, You realize it's not in those little fragments you've collected, but the understanding that you can always collect more, and not only that, build something beautiful with them, not only acquire more, but use them to create a new reality. Bend and shape the word normal like it's clay.

Like the world around you's not giving orders but taking them. You hold the value, not what you've made. You. We've all heard give a boy a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for life. I'm going to give it my all, make it my priority to remember every step along the way that it's in my ability to fish that value exists. If I'm not able to catch anything on a particular day, life moves on and so do I. If what I've caught goes bad or expires, life moves on and so do I. It's in the action. It's in the doing.

That's not only why you can take the risk and shoot for the moon. It's why you must. Nine things you do have control over that will make your life better. This is, I think, one of the most important conversations to have simply because so much energy is placed on stuff that's beyond us, right, that we have no control over. Yet we ignore the strength within us, the things that will actually transform our lives and push us forward.

You know, stoicism obviously places a lot of emphasis on differentiating between these two things. Like, letting go of what's not ours and, you know, really cultivating and strengthening what is. And there's plenty of iterations. One of my favorites and one of the most common, most well known is the serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. the courage to change the things that I can and the wisdom to know the difference. It's that idea that you have within you a superpower.

But you have to stop looking outside, right, and pointing at the sky for stuff that's just not yours, right? So let's dive right into it. That's where the power is. Nine things you can control that will change your life. The first, and this is not going to be a surprise, mindset. Why? Because it doesn't matter if the sky's falling or the walls are crashing down how you think is yours. It's your strength. And no one said it better in my mind than Victor

Frankel, where he says everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms, the ability to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. And when you understand the context, and this is a man. who went through one of the grossest atrocities in human history, the concentration camps during World War II, and clung onto hope, right, left that situation saying, hey, no one can take your outlook from you.

It doesn't matter how bad the world seems. That is one of the most empowering things I've ever heard. And when I look back at my life, and I'm sure a lot of you watching can relate, some of the darkest times ended up bringing me, to the most beautiful places. You know, and going through them in those moments, the ability to pause and just say,

hey, I know this sucks. I know it doesn't feel good. But there's value here. Not intuitive. It's an intuitive thing to do, which is why I think it's more important. No matter what you're going through, there's something there that's meaningful

and even beautiful that will ultimately be transformative. Your attitude is your. Nothing can take that away. Number two, you always have control over how you allocate your time. There's an idea that what you water grows, which presents a simple formula. Understanding what's important in your life and asking yourself, are you giving that the sufficient attention it deserves? I think an easy example that we all relate to is, you know, people talking about financial freedom, wanting to be wealthier, wanting more money in the bank. right but when you have a conversation well okay how much is coming in every day how much is going

out what are your goals what are you spending your money on what you know all these somewhat basic questions they don't know it's like well you're you're not giving that the attention you're not aware you're not monitoring or studying that i guarantee you if you took a spotlight to those things it would evolve in a way that changes your relationship with money and income in your bank account, right? So simple example, but you get the idea where you focus is where you'll see results. So ask yourself, are you focusing on the right things? How can you be, you know, more methodical about your time? Because again, that is always yours to control.

Number three is the morning. And the morning is something I always have control over. We all do. And it's one of the most transformative periods of time because it's where you create your momentum. Right. It carries into the rest of your day. When you go up and take care of yourself physically, right, for me, hopping in the cold plunge, sauna, coffee, journaling, planning up the rest of the day. It 10x is the momentum and excitement and just the feeling I get as I navigate, you know,

the day. And so for me, it's a no-brainer. W. Clement Stone, little hinges swing big doors. That, to me, is my little hinge. I can control that every single day. So it's something to think about. How are you starting your day? Are you just rolling into the chaos? Or are you being methodical? And, you know, there's not a one-size-fits-all, you know? You are your own experiment, but are you playing with that and looking at different ways to launch into a day that is, you know, more productive, healthier, happier. Number four is gratitude. Very simple, right. It's one of the most important perspective shifts you can make.

Because if you never think about what you have, what's in your life, who's in your life, how far you've come, you fall into this place of lack, right? You only see the gap. And there's more to life than that, right? When you understand how lucky you are and how beautiful it is to be here and experience this, it makes the bumps and bruises along the way seem way less significant. So it's not just like a fluffy, hey, be grateful. There's a very pragmatic reason for it. Perspective.

You know, life is innately hard. Okay. It arms you with the ability to handle that adversity because you know you're grounded and you have an incredible situation and you're in position to tackle whatever comes at you. Number five is your willingness to listen. You can always control how much you listen. This one might seem silly at first or not important at first. So you realize very few people are good listeners and so much growth in understanding comes from listening, observing, right? It seems like we're wired to want to talk to.

talk and share, and as my grandfather used to say, flap our gums, right? But if you can find the discipline to take life in and learn from it and hear what other people have to say, you're arming yourself with knowledge that you otherwise wouldn't have had. Number six is a commitment to education, constantly seeking knowledge in some capacity. Now, it doesn't have to be in the in the context of a third grader in a classroom, but what areas of your life are growing, right? There's a very simple idea that progress equals happiness. We are more content beings

when we feel like we're in pursuit of something meaningful, whatever that is in your life. So don't push that aside and think that you're done learning. You're never done learning. There's always growth. There's always some value you can take in that's bringing you closer to somewhere you, want to be, right? Life is a teacher, so don't forget to be a perpetual student. You can always

control that. Number seven, I know a lot of you will relate to this, your circle. You are the sum of what's the terminology, the five people you surround yourself with or the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Surround yourself with people who lift you up, who make you better, who are positive influences on your life, who push you to do more. who challenge you. Not folks that drain you and are negative and cripple your growth. You can always control who you're around. And that, as it turns out, makes such a tremendous difference on your life outlook,

how you look at yourself and how you look at the world. You can control your circle. Next, how you treat others. You can always control that. You know, are you compassionate? Are you empathetic? Again, do you listen? Do you seek to understand?

These things matter. And, you know, what goes around comes around. When you treat others well, not only do you feel better and pick up allies along the way, but that comes back to you. You know, so it's something to constantly think about, be cognizant of. How are you treating those around you? And lastly, you have control over the goals that you set. There's an idea that you cannot hit targets that aren't there.

Yet so many of us kind of stumble around through life, just hoping will end up somewhere that we're happy with. Most of the time, that's not how it works out. I heard Jim Rohn say this kind of tongue-in-cheek and it stuck with me. He's like there's never been a basketball team or a football team that took the court or the field that didn't have ever. a game plan. And that's for what, three hours? Yet, some people live their entire lives without a plan. When you think about it in that context, it just doesn't make sense. So when you set those

goals, when you're aware of the targets you've created, you're much more inclined to make everything in your life fit under that tent, to be more methodical and strategic, and ultimately be where you want to be. That's what it's all about, right? you have that control. You just have to remember. So what goals are you setting? So there you have it. Nine things you can control that will change your life.

I hope it gave you some much needed perspective. And I look forward to seeing you all thrive and flourish and whatever it is you're doing. See you next week.