Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - NO ONE IS GOING TO DO IT FOR YOU | Best Motivational Speeches | Wake Up Positive

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

"It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you" - Anonymous

It's impossible to know how the story ends. I don't think we're expected to, nor do we need to. But we do need to be willing to light up the 10 feet in front of us. We need to be willing to illuminate the now. It's how little nothings transition into those very meaningful somethings. One illuminated piece of the puzzle at a time. They say that complexity is the enemy of progress. Things seem too big, too far away.

When all the world appears dark, we pause. We become crippled by how much we don't know. We hide in the shadows of life's unknown. But I have, and hopefully will, until my final days, hold on to the idea that we have within us enough light, just enough light, to brighten up the path before us, directly in front of us. It's always been just enough to get through anything. When the world is dark, you can't see the hand in front of your face.

It will always be true that you possess the ability to cut through that darkness. to highlight the next stepping stone. There's just enough light to collect the data and information sufficient to make one more logical decision. One more. To take one shaky and uncertain step, it's amazing what they become over time. See, I've spent some time in that metaphorical darkness.

I've also been in the light. I've believed, I've had all the answers and been brutally, humbled by life. There have also been times where I bet on myself when the odds were small and emerged victorious, whether up, down, high or low, the saving grace was remembering that if I turned the light on, the headlamp initiating from my eyes and projecting out into the world, it would always provide enough for me to do perhaps the most important thing I'm capable of doing, moving forward. There's no skipping in life,

no jumping races to arrive at any particular finish line. But there is always enough to carry on. This realization has been interesting to me. Our struggle when it emerges, it's usually not derived from an inability to do the right thing. It's not like we're missing something. No, our struggle comes from thinking we need more than we do.

It's frustration that our goals are so big and so far away and so out of reach. We lose sight of what we can control, blinded by a standard that no human can live up to. Stop beating yourself up for not being a god. No mere mortal ever leapt a mountain. Everything is not the goal. One thing is the goal,

and you are capable. of one thing. Everyone is capable of one thing, one little action to initiate momentum and push you further into that unknown. But where? You might wonder, I need to know where, to which I say, breathe. Because the wares make themselves known when you're in motion. As you move forward, the wrong destinations prompt you to learn and then self-correct. And the wrong. And the right ones inspire you to push further in their direction. Both valuable, right? The only way to lose is not go. The only way to lose is to say, because I don't have it all figured out, I'll remain right here. Like a toddler refusing to put a puzzle together because he can't see the completed

mural in each individual piece. The whole point is to put it together. The fun is to put it together, the growth and the value isn't putting it together. And I get it. We want to know, right? Humans want to know. That's why evolving is hard. We have to be okay with not knowing. And that's what life is about, formulating your hypothesis and then letting the data derive from your progress alter your approach. That data is not gifted to you while you stand stagnant. So the question is, will you sign that dotted line? The one that says, when you can't see the mountaintop, what you will be left with is solely trust in yourself that you can bring it about.

It's easy to say yes when the sky is blue and the birds are singing. But amidst the storms, when your mind begins to whisper that perhaps it will never end, When it begins to ask you if there was ever even a point, after all, look around, there's nothing but gray, is when you have to remember the rules of the game. That's when you have to remind yourself it's not about knowing, it's about trusting, about creating puzzle pieces, not finishing murals. Anyone can create just one puzzle piece. And then just one more, and just one more. Because yes, it's difficult, as is life, but you'll remember why as you move into the storm and watch all those little pieces connect around you.

If these walls could talk, they would remind you of the things that you sometimes forget. Yeah, those elusive things you tend to walk right by. It's not that you've chosen to ignore them. It's that while people are complex. And we have a tendency to skip over some important things as we remain fixated on our problems, our perceived inadequacies, that finicky negativity bias.

The one that states, if you went to a restaurant 100 times, had 99 incredible experiences, but something went wrong on the 100, Well, that restaurant would forever be known to you as the place where things go wrong. We are wired not to see the good, but to identify and avoid the bad. And if these walls could talk, they would unveil to you the brilliance that exists slightly out of frame. They would suggest you look over your shoulder and take a peek at how far you've come.

because my friend you've come a long, long way. It's funny how slow progress moves. It's interesting how our lowest moments force us outside of ourselves. Push us to step into those shoes we didn't know we're sitting in the closet, unworn, waiting for the day we'd take on that new role. waiting on you to see that who you were yesterday is not correlated to who you can be today. And if these walls could talk, they'd fill you in on a very important statistic. They'd tell you that you've stood face to face with some of the biggest curveballs life can throw.

You took on struggle and hardship that rocked you to your core, and as you stand here now, your success rate. through all that comes in at, well, 100%. You are literally undefeated in your ability to move through adversity, and every time you did, whether you knew it or not, you walked into that closet and put on a new pair of shoes. You became something new. Sometimes progress is so slow that it feels like pain

and it looks like stagnation, but it is anything. But, and if these walls could talk, they would remind you of that truth. They would beg you to see what you've become, who you are. If these walls could talk, they would remind you of life's ever-changing, transformative nature. All the times they witnessed you upset about people and things coming and going, as you tried to hold on to that which perhaps no longer served you, wishing you could make permanent those things that were just meant to be transitory, shooting stars across the sky of your life,

but something doesn't need to be forever to be meaningful. And thank God because nothing is forever. And as we make our way into that vast unknown, we have a choice. We can live in the shadow of a particular moment in time. or we can cherish the value that those moments offered to us. They gave you just enough to take a new step forward, and sometimes a new step in that direction that's calling you is the difference between nothing and everything.

So if these walls could talk, they would tell you to keep your head up and be thankful for those shooting stars in your life, for they made you who you are. and the path forward would be impossible without them. If these walls could talk, they would ask you about those times you came home, sat down in your room, and wondered how you could ever be enough. They'd call attention to that seemingly non-stop battle with imposter syndrome. They'd ask when you will feel like you've learned, seen, or traveled enough

to gain some semblance of authority in your life. your own life. They'd wonder when you'll give yourself permission to be that. You've come so far, endured so much, you're not the same person you were a year ago. Now, if you could just stretch a little further, if you could just extend a little higher, if you could see all the new shoes you've warn and the shooting stars you've collected along the way, you would know that you are designed to overcome. External pressures, obligations, criticism, none of it matters. This is between you and yourself. And if these walls could talk, they would ask you when you'll see what they see. The brilliance, the magnitude of your potential, when will you be you?

Marcus Aurelius wrote, remember how long you've been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you and you didn't use them, there is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don't use it to free yourself, it will be gone and never return. See, today is precious because it is the only, only one you get. Each second unique in its own way, a measurement of opportunity represented

by a single tick from the watch you're wearing. And if these walls could talk, they would tell you that they've seen people come and go, that you aren't the first and you most definitely won't be the last. And every single soul that stepped inside wish they'd found that courage a little sooner, wish they'd looked back a little earlier, wish they'd found the inspiration amidst the chaos and turbulence of their day-to-day lives. And if these walls could talk, they'd hope that maybe this would be it for you, the next step in your evolution. And what's most incredible is that you get there not by becoming something you've not yet become. Now in this moment, it's about noticing who you already are. Instead of the one mistake or reason to shrink

into yourself, how about shining a light on those 99 reasons to expand? When it hurts, know that it's hurt worse and you've persevered. When you experience loss, know that it's not about what's gone, but what you now have and will keep with you forever. And most importantly, know that you can always step into a new pair of shoes. You can always reinvent, recreate. You are never defined by something that happened in the past. The wake of the boat does not drive the boat. And so with this in mind, chart your course to new horizons. Understand that the map you need has nothing to do with externalities, but rather the solutions that already exist within you.

So take a second and peer back over your shoulder. Look at that you in the past, standing at the bank of a river, hoping, praying for help, a lift, for some technology to get you across, knowing as you stand here now that you have traversed ocean, oceans. Look, the context changes, and yes, it will always change, but your ability to endure, it does only one thing, it multiplies. You have everything you need because you couldn't have gotten to this point without accumulating the knowledge and expertise to take one step forward and miracles. They are merely the culmination of

of those courageous steps. And yes, when we are stuck, when we're at that coastline looking out at foreign horizons, I get that the answers seem big, sometimes even bigger than we are. I get that the mind wanders right to the potential disasters, to the what-ifs and the worst case. But if these walls could talk,

they would let you know that you've come this far, endured and accomplished all this, not because you've left mountains or jumped ocean, but because when you were at your worst, you found it within yourself to carry on the exponential compounding of what has made you great and what will continue to make you great. Look at these walls could talk, they'd show you how the difficulties of years past have become stepping stones. So commonplace, so easily solvable that they no longer even warrant your attention. That by moving forward you have faced your obstacles, taken the value from them and made them obsolete. If these walls could talk, they'd remind you that you are not only ready, but made for everything that awaits.

There has to come a time when it's now or never. Well, you look at your reflection and realize that the cost of waiting is far more expensive than the cost of stepping out into the vast unknown. In every journey, that's when life effectively starts. But here's why this is so tricky. What's caught me off guard so many times in my life, it's the many shapes that waiting takes. See, waiting is not always sitting there. in doing nothing, not at all.

Sometimes waiting is just the bare minimum. It's moving forward so slightly and so slowly that you can essentially trick yourself into thinking that you're progressing, into thinking you're making it happen, when if you really stopped and looked, if you were honest with yourself, if you really took a second to review,

to analyze, you'd see that you're leaving almost everything on the table. You're not creating progress, you're dancing with the idea of progress. Sometimes waiting can mean just going fast enough to not have to look at the fear you're hiding behind. That's reality, right? I think it's a very normal thing, but I also think life is too short for normal safety. I think we can do better than normal. And I believe with all my heart and soul that the world has for us the spectacular.

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

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

That shift that pushed me to demand more of myself, seek bigger challenges, value my work to a greater extent, charge more for my services. And that mental shift is what made some of those externalities possible. It's realizing that if you want it, more is on the table,

that yesterday doesn't define you, that it's never too, late to begin again, that everything you need you have, right? These are the ideas that truly change lives. They make the difference. And if we don't become aware of these things, we leave them in the rear view. We walk right by them. In other words, the most important moments of my life were when someone or something shook me and effectively said, hey, look around you. If this is what you want, fine, enjoy. Right?

But for your information, there is more out there. And if you step up just a little, if you do just a little more, if you pivot and come at this thing a little bit differently, you will further that reach. You'll create another ripple effect that will transform your life. but we must stop and look around. A good friend of mine, and this is just the other day, right?

We're having lunch. We're talking about marketing, and we always joke that marketing is just a part of the business that I don't particularly enjoy, right? Necessary, but not my favorite. And we're going through kind of different strategies, ideas, and he presents one, and I say something like, eh, you know, I don't need to do that. It seems a little over the top.

And unfiltered, he goes, man, you're hurting your reach. Like, what good is that metaphorical restaurant that's not on anyone's radar? You're going to be the best pizza shop that no one knows about. And it just kind of hit me, right? It's like, man, I needed to see that differently. Maybe there's room to be a little more aggressive. Again, one example of many. And not every time is the idea or opportunity the right one or necessary one.

Right? But at least you stopped. At least you thought about it. At least you contrasted where you are with the potential upside of doing something differently. That is where we leave opportunity on the table. You know, we most often, myself included, paint regret as this, the result of this blatant walking away from something. A deliberate declaration, sort of a, oh, no, I'm not doing that, no way. And sure, sometimes that's the case. Sometimes we're cognizant of our fear and decline to move forward, but I wonder how often our neglect or refusal is softer, more subtle. I wonder how much of our regret comes from simply not stopping and looking around, not letting in alternative points of view that challenge us and force us to level up. How much of our regret comes from simply not understanding how short life is and how quickly time passes us by. And if we don't create some abrupt change in our day to day, if we don't manufacture some momentum in our lives, even when it feels least ideal to do so,

The ship we needed to be on will sail away without us. So think back to your hardest days. Even the ones that took you out, that brought you to your knees, and realized that you survived every single one of them. You have, for years, been acquiring the armor, piece by piece, to move into something bigger.

You've been learning, you've been evolving, but today, what about sitting down with yourself and having the discussion you don't want to have but need to have? What about asking if it's time to leap where you once stepped, to run where you once walked? What about taking a good look around and asking why you're living in ways that don't serve you? Why you're conceding you? so much of what matters. Again, the evolution you want and need is there. It's always there, and that's the key takeaway here. It will always exist. But the question is, will your commitment to stop, to think, and to reach for it be there. Years from now, looking back, I think we'll find

that our willingness to ask those questions mattered more than we could have ever. imagined. That silence often implies the lack of adversity needed to evolve. Because the reality you want, it doesn't come to you, you must go to it. And that means re-approaching today's normalcy and comfort, seeing those things for what they are, a continuation of the status quo. Nothing changes until you change. So take a look around, examine those pillars holding up your worldview. Not once, but over and over again. And if one, many, or all of them must be knocked down, then so be it. The point here is that you can build. The point here is that life happens on your terms, whether you realize it or not, that doing nothing

is accepting what things are. It's a head nod and a thumbs up to reality as is. So again, and ask yourself what you want out of life. And if you are missing that mark, tear down what must be torn down. It might be hard now. It might hurt now. It might be uncomfortable now. But when you're eventually standing upon an existence that aligns with who you are and what you want, you'll see how necessary it all was.

How it was there the whole time. And thank God you found it within yourself to reach out and take it. That thing that gives you butterflies, that lights you up, that world you see when you close your eyes. Chase that with all of your soul. Chase it. It's easy to brush off life's potential. It's just outside the realm of possibility. To see the ideal as some form of window shopping that you can almost touch.

A fantasy to be explored when you sit back in your office chair or pass time in the doctor's office waiting room. But I think these aspirations mean more. more than that. Not distractions, but a North Star. Not a diversion, but the path. And by the way, I'm not naive about this pursuit and all that it entails the truth behind it, I'd never advocate that what's possible or meant to be is somehow easy. In fact, I'd argue the only way something is meant to be is if you're willing to commit to the difficulty in bringing it to life. Otherwise, it wasn't meant to be anything but a missed opportunity because it surely will be a difficult road. And here's what we come to learn. Everything of value is difficult.

You know, in an attempt to oversimplify, I often break life down into the easy thing. versus the difficult but meaningful thing, and in some ways, sure, that's true. But I can also honestly say it would have been more difficult for me to have stayed where I was, not moved at all, to not have pursued what I believed in.

It would have been more difficult thinking about that life I could have lived, the doors that could have opened, and that's just it. Life is about choosing. your difficult. The difficult you seek out intentionally, or the difficult you come and let take control, render you helpless. And I think when we find ourselves in routines, or we've built for ourselves a world we know we don't want to live in anymore, or we've outgrown, it's not that the current is real and the future is not, it's that we somewhere along the way,

decided to face the wrong opponent. Some adversaries make us strong. They force us to be more to grow. Other adversaries or opponents, they sit back and they let us defeat ourselves, and that's what we don't want. See, when the world knocks you down, you get to rise again.

Wiser. tougher, stronger. But when you keep yourself down, well, there's nothing to be gained from that. Those two opponents, they are not the same. I reference my speaking career because for me, it's where that transformation is most evident. It's where it all began.

My opponent was very much me. Avoiding opportunities, hiding from failure. I didn't give life a chance to knock me down. And so it didn't. How could it? I'd already placed myself in chains. And because of that, guess what, I stayed the same. I couldn't evolve.

My ideal future was an idea that would briefly entertain me from time to time and move right on. It wasn't until I found the courage. to switch my opponents. From myself to the world, I let life humble me. I gave talks where I was nervous and had cold feet, keynotes where my delivery was mediocre at best, where I barely got by. But with these battles came metaphorical riches, came that trust that had to be manufactured, that confidence that had to be earned when I got out of my own way. I was able to let the trials and tribulations of life create a new foundation for me to stand on, to redefine reality.

And the good news is that anyone can do that. Anyone can ask that question. Something external in my way right now that I need to figure out that I need to solve? Or am I in my own way? Am I not even giving myself a shot? Have I settled for right now as truth? When right now is just the less ideal difficult. When I was little playing action figures with my buddy up the street, we used to think it was cool to see around corners, to see through walls, to know what was coming before it arrived. For action figures, absolutely.

In superhero movies, why not? But in the journey through life, you don't need to see around corners. In fact, it's counterproductive because it is the interaction with the unknown that matters. It's adjusting amidst life's uncertainty that comes to make you who you are, transforms you and your reality. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to lose is to remain behind that corner. Peering out every now and then,

hoping to get some kind of advantage or shortcut, willing to let life pass you by while you wait for the stars to align, thinking that that vision of an ideal life will stroll along the sidewalk, see you and reach out a hand, that weight will be a long one. Unproductive and difficult, more difficult than trusting yourself to face whatever lurks around that corner.

So remember that who you are is built. And every time you do something a little bit scary or unsettling, every time you wander a step or two outside of your comfort zone, the reward is not just the short-term triumph you feel as you leapfrog that obstacle, and carry on. No, you are investing in a new you, a new reality. You're investing in something changing before your very eyes, putting a little marble in a jar that is your potential,

and you can't see it. Not now. No one's going to announce it to you. You might not even realize or understand until you look back years down the road. But those little acts of courage, they matter more than you know, they're not trivial, and they are certainly not insignificant. When that movie plays in your head, and you think to yourself, I wish, or if only,

and the delta between that image and the reality on the ground disappoints you, gives you a little knot in your stomach or dissatisfaction that floats around in your thoughts, Remember that that feeling is transferable. That difficult can be exchanged for one that actually changes things. You can get off the merry-go-round and towards a new North Star. Difficult, yes, but we've seen the goal is not to avoid difficult. It's to pick the difficult that will transform your life. It's to find meaning in a world that if you,

not pay attention, will paint your landscape with routine and obligation. And today can certainly be a continuation of that script. A box that's checked, a calendar square with an X. Or it can be the beginning of something that gives you butterflies that lights you up. It brings you one step closer to the world you see when you close your eyes. It's impossible to know how the story ends. I don't think we're expected to, nor do we need to. But we do need to be willing to light up the 10 feet in front of us.

We need to be willing to illuminate the now. It's how little nothings transition into those very meaningful somethings. one illuminated piece of the puzzle at a time. They say that complexity is the enemy of progress. Things seem too big, too far away. When all the world appears dark, we pause. We become crippled by how much we don't know,

we hide in the shadows of life's unknown, but I have and hopefully will, until my final days hold on to the idea that we have within us enough light, just enough light, to brighten up the path before us, directly in front of us. It's always been just enough to get through anything. When the world is dark, you can't see the hand in front of your face, it will always be true that you possess the ability to cut through that darkness. To highlight the next stepping stone.

There's just enough light to collect the data and information sufficient to make one more logical decision. One more. To take one shaky and uncertain step, it's amazing what they become over time. See, I've spent some time in that metaphorical darkness. I've also been in the light. I've believed, I've had all the answers and been brutally humbled by life.

There have also been times where I bet on myself when the odds were small and emerged victorious, whether up, down, high or low, the saving grace was remembering that if I turned the light on the headlamp initiating from my eyes and projecting out into the world, it would always provide enough for me to do perhaps the most important thing I'm capable of doing, moving forward. There's no skipping in life, no jumping races to arrive at any particular finish line. But there is always enough to carry on. This realization has been interesting to me. Our struggle when it emerges is usually not derived from an inability to do the right thing.

It's not like we're missing something. No, our struggle comes from thinking we need more than we do. It's frustration that our goals are so big and so far away and so out of reach. We lose sight of what we can control, blinded by a standard that no human can live up to. Stop beating yourself up for not being a god. No mere mortal ever leapt a mountain. Everything is not the goal, one thing is the goal, and you are capable of one thing. Everyone is capable of one thing, one little action to initiate momentum and push you further

into that unknown. But where? You might wonder, I need to know where. To which I say, breathe. Because the wares make themselves known when you're in motion. As you move forward, the wrong destinations prompt you to learn and then self-correct. And the right ones inspire you to push further in their direction. Both valuable, right?

The only way to lose is not go. The only way to lose is to say, because I don't have it all figured out, I'll remain right here. Like a toddler refusing to put a puzzle together because he can't see the completed mural in each individual piece, the whole point is to put it together. The fun is to put it together, the growth and the value isn't putting it together. And I get it.

We want to know, right? Humans want to know. That's why evolving is hard. We have to be okay with not knowing. And that's what life is about, formulating your hypothesis and then letting the data derive from your progress alter your approach.

that data is not gifted to you while you stand stagnant. So the question is, will you sign that dotted line? The one that says, when you can't see the mountaintop, what you will be left with is solely trust in yourself that you can bring it about. It's easy to say yes, when the sky is blue and the birds are singing. But amidst the storms, When your mind begins to whisper that perhaps it will never end, when it begins to ask you if there was ever even a point,

after all, look around, there's nothing but gray. That is when you have to remember the rules of the game. That's when you have to remind yourself, it's not about knowing, it's about trusting, about creating puzzle pieces, not finishing murals. Anyone can create just a lot. one puzzle piece and then just one more and just one more. Because yes, it's difficult, as is life, but you'll remember why as you move into the storm and watch all those little pieces connect

around you. There are no wrong terms in life. What do I mean by this? Well, our problem, is often, not that a mistake was made, but rather we didn't see the value in that quote-unquote mistake. We stop, we lose faith, we question ourselves, even though we actually got what we needed. It was there. We just couldn't see it in the moment. And so the question is, why look for what you don't have?

Why always be searching for the Delta when every decision hands you something new, something powerful? Almost like we're walking on this path. And every time we do something, not necessarily the perfect thing or the thing we drew up, but something. As long as we do something, we get to put a brick down,

another step to walk on in the path before us. We get to expand in some way. We're wiser, stronger, capable of more. And where sometimes we think we need to wait for that perfect brick to take that perfect step. But if we can get beyond that, and focus our attention on just getting more bricks out in front of us. We allow the answers to materialize.

The question is, will you let them? You take this podcast, for example, just to be where I'm at right now, has been a roller coaster ride. It started out five days a week, wake up, write an episode, at 5 a.m. for 100 episodes, and then I tried the weekly interview, and then it was a few days a week, and then back to, you know, five days. And then I realized I didn't even need to create new content.

If I take the YouTube stuff and make that the podcast as well, I get 10 times the result with less work. That's like a content creator's dream. And I can focus on making that one thing amazing. And so it's easy to look at the whole process and say, man, those 5 a.m.s were a mistake. They were a waste. That decision to interview once a week was a waste. All that fluctuation was a waste. That's not true.

realize how much you learn, I don't get where I am today without scrambling at 5 a.m. to create content. It is not what it is now, right? Just like a year from now. I won't be where I am without the mistakes I make today. So the goal is not to be perfect. In fact, it can't be. It's to allow yourself to make those mistakes because they have the answers contained within them. And that's my point is that, you know, I've found the greatest outcomes are derived from not always trying to do the right thing, but rather promising yourself, you'll do something. When you expect to look like a fool, you can then relish in all the wisdom that comes with it. Those wrong turns, they'll always take you where you need to be if you don't abandon the journey. That's what it's about,

sticking with it, not abandoning why you're there. You know, there's a saying that it really stuck with me, and it's that you are your own experiment. Meaning life isn't about getting it right. Life is about trying and pushing and adjusting and eliminating the things that aren't quite you until you're able to refine the world around you. And I make that distinction because getting it right

implies that if the answer you're looking for or the answer you think you need, fall right into your lap then it's a loss or you've done yourself a disservice and it's like no the greatest things we create the greatest things we become they're all derived from embracing those wrong turns because they show us something new a new route a quicker way maybe a scenic path maybe you pick things up along the way that redefine the context of the whole journey maybe you even find in your detour a destination better than the one you were headed towards.

And so you cut ties with plan A. That's experimentation, that's growth, that's what you cannot be scared to do in life if you want to make an impact. And so I'll end with this life. It doesn't stop until you do. And that will always be the case. For pursuits big and small, far and wide,

the right thing isn't found but discovered by willing, undertaking many wrong things by not being so results oriented that we ironically enough ignore what brings the result life is a process and one in which the picture isn't always clear right away but if you hang in there long enough if you're willing to adapt and adjust and grow that picture ultimately will take shape remember there are no wrong turns in life only turn not taken. Dream away. His dreams remind us of hope. Hope that becomes courage. Courage that manifests itself in little steps forward. Steps that over time create a new world, a new world that

looks a lot different than the one you once knew. So dream away. Dream away. Dream away. Dream away because we have all been blessed with the ability to take nothings and make them some things. We've all been given the power to take blank spaces and make them landscapes, to see with our eyes worlds that aren't yet there. And what a shame it would be to repress that gift. To label it fiction, to keep it next to our books and our movies, how much a tragedy to allow us. it to be merely a temporary escape. Instead of the permanent beginning it was meant to be. So dream away.

Let it lead you because dreams, they'll either become the stories we tell or the regrets we hide away. A personal evolution or untapped potential. The reason we jump out of this, bed in the morning were the reason we keep our eyes closed, clinging to the last few seconds of joy before we confine ourselves, to the self-made prisons we built, the invisible walls that separate what we see from the possibility a short trip away. But look around you, one might say. This is reality, and this looks a lot different than the dreams that bounce around in my head. If dreaming was some magic formula, I'd be there already.

Well, magic isn't quite my claim. No, dreams are not magic. I think their composition is so simple, so practical, so obtainable, that magic it isn't needed here. In fact, thinking dreams require some larger-than-life magic might just be there. the problem. Dreams require a willingness to start and a single step forward. The rest, well, the rest we figure out along the way. Every little decision to carry on through the haze of that great unknown, that's where we discover life's possibility. And if that's magic, then my friend, we are all magicians. Okay, he might inquire.

further, but is any of it guaranteed? Hmm. Well, that's a highly complex question as we make our way through this highly complex world, but I will do this. I'll guarantee one thing and one thing only if you do not dream of better tomorrow's. Today will be eternal. Things will stay exactly as they are now. See, your dream is the North Star that guides. that guides the path. The target calling the arrows, it's the lighthouse that brings the ship home from sea.

Without a foundation to build upon, you'll have nothing to stand on. So instead of talking about guarantees, let's talk about lost opportunity cost. Let's talk about what happens if you don't go. If you don't explore, if you don't build, What will you miss? See, most people, they only understand what has already been created.

Let's not be most people. Why stay in the lines when there's nothing else to discover? Why black and white when color changes the dynamic entirely? The greatest enemy of possibility of potential is one's need. for certainty. It's the person who talks about something more, but knows something more will remain an afterthought. Because as beautiful as it sounds, it's not guaranteed. And because they cannot guarantee something better, they will guarantee the status quo. But I'm asking you to see the flaws in that line of thinking. I'm asking you to understand that our very biology cries out.

for safety, that we have to fight our urge to settle, our desire to take the monster we know over the one we don't, because it's the monsters we don't know that put meaning into life. It's the journey that elevates the destination, and while it might feel like what you want in the short term, that long term it sings a different tune to get where you need to go You have to move into the headwind that is the comfort of now. Find within yourself the courage to simply crack the door, to just let a little bit of light in and see how it forces its way into every corner of your soul. Once you feel that satisfaction of progress, you'll be consumed.

Hold in as though the only thing larger, than fear of failure is the rush of becoming who you were meant to be. I once heard something that changed the way I looked at the world, something simple, the idea that we don't climb the mountain for the view. We climb mountains because of who we become on the journey up. The view is merely representative of that journey. The dream isn't in and of itself. the goal, it's an invitation to immerse yourself in all that is beautiful, meaningful,

worthwhile, jaw-dropping, eye-opening, and powerful. It is what cracks that door and lets the light in. So dream away. Because that dream, it's no threat to your safety. It's what will ultimately save you. So dream away. Dream away so that you capture that sunrise you were given. Dream away so that you are pulled to that which makes life worth living. Dream away so that you never lose that child inside.

So that you don't leave the adventure on the table and keep your ideal existence on the shelf. Dream away so that you see the abundance that surrounds us. the hope within us and the future that calls us for yourself, the people in your life, and the ones who eventually will be dream away.