Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - POSITIVE MORNING MOTIVATION | Best Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Win the morning, win the day... Leander Studio: The Today Is Yours Collection - https://leanderstudio.com/pages/today-is-yours I start this morning's motivational episode off with a discussion on the role of instinct and passion in making major life decisions, referencing Jeff Bezos's philosophy that the best decisions are not made through analysis alone. While data is crucial for navigating the path once chosen, it's the heart that should guide us to that path. I share my own experiences, such as my move to Arizona and embarking on new ventures, as examples of choices led by a deep-seated feeling rather than a calculable rationale. I stress the significance of taking leaps of faith, driven by what truly matters to us and igniting our curiosity, acknowledging that the journey and its lessons are far more valuable than what data alone can reveal. I advocate for trusting ourselves to author our life's story in alignment with our true selves.  

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on new tech. Upgrade the whole team at Lenovo.com. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon powered by Intel Core Ultra processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. When the tech search for business PCs at Lenovo.com. What goes into your decision making, particularly the big decisions, the important ones? I heard a quote, that moved me from Jeff Bezos. It was a video on Twitter and he said, my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, and guts,

but not analysis. He continues, when you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so, but it turns out that in life your most important decisions are always made with instinct, intuition, and taste. And that connected to the, some dots for me. Because I think the big decisions, the life-altering decisions, where we are pointing this ship, should be made via intuition. Data can't tell you which direction is most important

to you. And even if it could, if your heart's not in it, if it's not aligned with who you are and where you feel you need to be, wouldn't really matter anyway. The most important decisions we make, even right out of the gate, there's this feeling of it's aligned or it isn't. We know right away, we feel it right away. Someone once said to me,

if you can't decide if something's good or not, flip a coin, because you'll know while that coin is in the air, what side you want it to land on. And we do, we know. And so after, deciding after letting intuition guide us then and only then, in my humble opinion of course, do we calculate the how? That's the analysis part. Once we've committed and our hearts are aligned,

yeah, you use the data all around you, the evidence collected along the way to map an efficient path. I think people tend to put the heart in the brain against each other as though their rivals, I know I certainly have, but I think they need to coexist together. Think about it. If you select your North Star based on analysis, you'll probably lack the drive to get there. And conversely, once decided, if you map the course based solely on heart or feel, you'll be operating blind, limiting your ability to make accurate adjustments based on real-life circumstances. You need both. I'm making some pretty substantial changes here in my life. I'm moving again, this time to Arizona, starting up some new ventures, placing myself in a few situations that weren't

even on the radar six months ago. I can't explain my rationale using mathematical models. And I just know deep in my soul that it's where I need to be. It feels right. It's calling me. The same way 10 years ago, writing speeches in a small Boston apartment for no revenue at the time couldn't be explained. Can't show your work on a decision like that, right? It's just something that feels good. And, you know, once you jump in, then yeah, you start relying on the brain, the analysis to grow and improve and evolve. But I do believe if we made the big decisions based only on the things we could prove or the things we could prove,

or the things we are sure of, the biggest and most important leaps would never have been made. Risks wouldn't be taken. I mean, you don't take risks because you run the numbers and the odds work. You take risks because life is when you break it down, remove the nuance and details about the journey. It's about the ride. And so you jump.

You commit to a path. And maybe you realize it's not the path for you. Let's say things don't work out. Well, now you are gifted that wisdom. Understanding. You previously never had. And you can take that all with you under the next venture. How do you put a price on that?

How do you quantify lessons of that magnitude? What data tells you how important that courage was? We all know the answer. Now, of course, again, data has. has a story to tell and numbers don't lie, but they also never tell the whole story. They can't paint the picture in its entirety. Which is why I'd scream from the mountaintops. If it means something to you, it's worth exploration.

If it matters, try. If it lights up your curiosity, give it attention. Maybe it doesn't work the way you thought or hoped, but it will lead you to the next thing. And then the next, and the next, it will provide the type of value that simply can't be quantified or even understood in the moment. The story of your life must be written by you. It must align with the person looking back at you in the mirror. That's the litmus test. That's the benchmark.

So trust yourself and your intuition to write it. There's something incredible about the prospect of starting over. Not because you're unhappy with who you are. Or because each step that brought you here wasn't perfect in its own unique way. But because somewhere deep down, we can feel the infinite. We know that when it comes to what's possible, we are a flicker of light in a galaxy of stars, Waiting to take shape, find our way, to shine out across the very elements from which we came.

See, beginning again simply means a new chapter. It means the next adventure. It's places you've never gone, people you've never met. It's stories untold and dreams still dancing around in your head. There's an old Dr. Seuss quote, I remember as a kid. He said, sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

And turning the page on that chapter is, if nothing else, a temporary reminder that we are in the very moments we'll look back on and smile. It shines a spotlight on the people that mean the most and reassures us that the small stuff just might be. After all, life doesn't dwell on the heartbreak or the times we fell, but the times we got back up,

the times we looked with confidence at the road ahead and smiled at the horizon. As each fleeting moment is discovered, For the very So here's to breathing in that ocean breathe Laughing until your stomach hurts Here's to dreaming like there are no rules and living like there's no tomorrow To creating your masterpiece one word one note one brush stroke at a time

To dancing when the music isn't playing and sharing your song when it is. Here's to seeing the beauty when most walk right by it. Being light in darkness and a voice in silence. Here's to living life on your terms. Paving your own path and writing your own story. The one where the hero doesn't stop until the princess is saved and the castle is taken.

The one where reality is a reflection of a magic. Because if you do these things, when you look back years from now, you'll have a lot to say. But I promise you, I wish, won't be one of them. Not because of what you were given, but because of what you... Hey, Eddie here. Before we get back to the episode, I want to take a second and share something with you that I'm super excited about. You know those moments where you're looking for that sign to kickstart your day? or as I often refer to it, a perspective shift.

Well, I've been working on bringing that spark into our daily grind. I've teamed up with the folks over at Leander who makes sleek minimalist workstation products for your desk, and together we've created that today is yours collection. It's a collection of beautiful, leather-made, again, minimalist products like mouse pads, desk mats, pen holders, coasters. But to me, the coolest part is that they're all great. with that mantra that's super close to my heart,

today is yours. Every time I sit down in the morning to start my day or start a writing session, I feel super inspired by that reminder, and I hope you will too. Again, it's the Today Is Yours collection. I'll leave the link in the show notes, and now back to the episode.

Before you can ever get to where you're going, you have to decide to begin. You have to acknowledge that what you're chasing means more to you than what you are leaving behind. And then begins the greatest adventure you will ever experience. Knowing that you have turned someday into right now. That the road beneath you is waving you on, the wind at your back, It pushes you forward. There are no guarantees in life.

But that just might be what makes it so incredible. You'll only go as far as you allow your imagination to take you. Whether it's the end of your driveway or where the sun and the ocean intersect. 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 is 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 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 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, you know, 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 my same. 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 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. Is 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? 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 to ride. 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 do 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, that brings you one step closer to the world you see when you close your eyes. Ready to prioritize yourself in the new year? Your skin is a great place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master esthetician, is more than just a skincare company.

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Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit Safeway.com for more detail. doors. It's a quote by W. Clement Stone essentially means that the small things we do open the door to the big things in life. Mountains are made of single rocks. Oceans are single waves.

Symphonies are individual notes. Conversations are individual words. Progress is nothing more than the ability to break big things down into small things. things. That's it. And those manageable pieces day in and day out, they become the roadmap to accomplish whatever it is you set out to accomplish. And I love the metaphor of a door, right? The simplicity. It's just a door. But without that little hinge, it doesn't function the same. It'd be impossible to open and close. It would be far less useful, all because of this little hinge. This trivial little thing. It's an afterthought. It's a small detail hidden behind the main

attraction, which is one of life's greatest truths. You know, we see and we celebrate the obvious things, the big things, the mountaintops. We do so to the extent that we forget the extraordinary is just a product of the tiny, uncool, unsexy, unremarkable actions and decisions. We forget what swings the door open. So why is this valuable? Well, when you personally can identify and control the little things in your life, it becomes greatly apparent that nothing is truly out of reach.

All options are open. And it's not because of destiny or magic or the fact that anyone deserves anything. No, it's simply realizing that every great accomplishment occurs one step at a time, And that's all. Anyone can take a single step. Anyone can write a single word.

And when you break down the greats, that's what they say, right? Kobe talks about breaking his day into consistent, measurable sessions at the gym. Swartzenegger talks about building his body one rep at a time. Will Smith talks about the methodical practice, the preparation he takes, one line at a time. These are hinges. They happen to open the door to NBA records. They open the door to becoming the world's strongest man. They open the door to Hollywood success.

And let's take it even deeper. Personally, I can identify smaller things off the top of my head that have a 10x multiplier on my day. For me, there's a direct correlation between waking up early and being successful, a successful, productive, happy day because I jump out of bed, I feel good, and it carries through. It's a very simple equation. When I get up early, my day's better.

Small thing, huge impact. Or having good, healthy food in my fridge makes me feel good. It means I don't rush out to get food somewhere at the last minute. I can plan and I eat well and I feel better. Being around productive, high energy, positive people makes me perform well, period.

Causes me to level up. When I remove the negativity, when I surround myself with success, I grow. When I do the opposite, I rationalize mediocrity. It's that simple. You know, these simple things have exponential impact on my journey. They are, you could say, the smallest of hinges, and they played and continued to play a role in opening some of the largest doors I've walked through.

The challenge is that, you know, it's easy to brush them off as insignificant or trivial because they are so small. You know, that's always been the obstacle, illuminating and quantifying their value. But when you do, when that light bulb sort of goes off, it's a remarkable transition. right the differentiator for me between waking up at 5.30 and 8, it's not two and a half hours. That's not the value. The value is the momentum. It's getting my first win before the world wakes up and embodying that success. At the end of the day, it's mediocrity versus growth. That's just how I am. That's how I feel. That is my tiny hinge. That is my advantage. No, obviously, those are going to vary, right? Not everyone needs to wake up early.

But I would advocate finding what makes you tick, finding that little hinge, paying attention, seeking out simple steps that have tremendous impact. Whether it's consistency, who you spend your time with, the courage to take a single step, try something new, these are seeds that often become the difference. You don't get substantial results without mastering the pieces that create the foundation. And when you remember what actually makes that door open, you put yourself in a position to walk through it. When the water rises, it sink or swim.

We pick up certain truths as we make our way through life, realizations, little awakenings, patterns that allow us to map the things around us so that we can navigate this crazy place. And here's one such realization for my own journey. When you pursue your best, you live your best life. Your best is a North Star to guide you a bar, line, or benchmark that's always moving, a reminder that you can always do more and be more.

A reminder that life tomorrow can always be different than life today. To pursue your best, in my opinion, is synonymous with capturing all that is good in this one. capitalizing on potential is to utilize those resources in need of an architect. That pen in need of a poet, a brush in need of a painter, story in need of a writer or populace in need of a leader. It's a pursuit that not only supplements our existence here on Earth. No, I believe it is in and of itself why we are here on Earth. But like every ideal pragmatism seems to get in the way.

Meaning, well, life is more difficult in execution than it looks on paper. We can't be our quote unquote best every day. We sometimes fall short of that mark. Our outcomes don't always align with our expectations. The perpetual journey to one's best is neither straight nor without discomfort. It's more like the navigating of a new world without a map or company. a world that we're by default ill-equipped to take on when we begin. And I believe that 99% of success is reliant upon the willingness to move into that great unknown

and allowing adversity to shape us. But that remaining 1% is a little bit different. That 1% is when we see what we've never seen, do what we've never done. It's uncovering our best in those moments we feel are worst, climbing the highest when we're at our lowest. When the water rises, it's finding a way to swim. See, the majority of life calls for tiny adjustments. It's observing and learning and moving on. But rarely do we talk about the darkest moments when we feel as though we are up to our neck in the trials and tribulations of life.

When the world doesn't relay messages of hope or prosperity, no, the only incoming message is despair. You're essentially David looking up at Goliath. Perhaps a Goliath of your making. Perhaps not that a Goliath, nonetheless. So why here? Why are these dark moments different than the 99%? Why is this stage provided at the very time when the limelight feels further out of reach than it ever has? Because this, this moment is when you prove to yourself who you are.

You think you've dug deep in the past? You think you've given your all back then? No, you have no idea what you're capable of. The world provides a stage in our darkest. moments so that you can pull back the curtains and illuminate your strength. It floods your world with adversity so that you can trust yourself to navigate the waters. And if you can find a way here, when the walls are closing, clock is ticking and water is rising, what can't you do? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Those moments show us what we can be.

And that is why the 1% is everything. Why is it that rock bottom becomes a bridge to so many new tomorrows? Or the losses we dread most become the change we need most. The answer is simple. Because in those moments we find within ourselves the keys to transformation. See, you didn't know that you can leap that far. And you didn't know because you've never been pushed so close to the edge

running at so fast a speed. But in those moments you learn that you can take flight. You learn you have the power to stand again. So while the vast majority of life is saying yes, when most would say no, it's how we choose to act while immersed in our lives, lowest loaves that provides the framework and the opportunity. I believe that the tears indicative of despair streaming down your face look a lot like the tears that

emerged during our happiest moments. They are the same. One just precedes the other. See despair gives you a chance to look at life differently, look at yourself differently, to look in the mirror and understand that the reflection looks at you. looking back is capable of leading a revolution in your soul. And I get how hard that is. How detached from reality it might seem, but isn't that what tomorrow is? A detachment from the reality,

the parameters, and the rules of today? It's not until that seed is buried beneath the earth, that it plants roots, that it takes aim at the sky, and when you are stuck beneath the chaos of life, you have to know that this is where you too transform. So forget yesterday's shoreline. This is where you build tomorrow's destination.

Don't fixate on what is gone when you can dream of all that is to come. And don't dwell on who you were when you can celebrate all you will be. When the water rises, swim. There's a quote attributed to Seneca that states no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself. Meaning it's in pursuing the difficult thing that we obtain meaning, recognition that we prove ourselves, but prove ourselves

to whom. This is the same Seneca who famously stated that we suffer. more in imagination than we do in reality, that he is most powerful who has power over himself. And that's one of the beautiful things about stoicism. It makes us ask a very simple but often overlooked question, who's really the adversary here? Who's the opposition we're dealing with as we fight our battles? What is it that must be transformed? Is it the outside world? or the way our eyes view the outside world. What's really holding us back? The circumstances?

Or our own personal thoughts about the circumstances? And I think this is where we misunderstand the challenges before us. I want to delve into this power of perspective to explain that we are the gatekeepers between ourselves in our ideal lives. And very often we do a good job of ensuring that gate stays closed. We sabotage our own goals, our own dreams, our own happiness, while simultaneously pointing the finger at a million externalities.

See, when we look at the difficulties of life, and there's no doubt that life can be a very difficult thing, it's easy to look at the world as this binary playing field. me versus the world. And in fact, we often visualize the world as the enemy pushing back against us, as if its motives were counter to ours. So many of these narratives, these stories, they actually say nothing about the outside world. And when we look deeper, it becomes apparent that they actually say a whole lot more about us.

It's the one viewing that gets to decipher what the circumstance means. And so all narratives are reflections of the observers. Jim Rohn used to tell a story about two brothers who had an alcoholic father. He'd come home drunk, he'd abuse his sons. They had a terrible childhood. And as they each grew up and had families of their own, their paths, they'd have. kind of diverged, right? One became abusive, and the other was kind and loving and caring. And when confronted, the now abusive brother stated, well, look, how can you blame me? Don't you

see how I was raised? But the kind, loving, and caring brother stated, of course I'm like this. I could never put my family through what I went through as a child. Same circumstances, different lenses, interpretations, which means different real world result. And the idea here is to emphasize how one of the most important abilities a human being possesses is the ability to interpret the world around him. I think of us as subjects navigating a world of objects, as though the things around us don't have meaning until we place meaning upon them. That's what humans do.

Create narratives out of objects. And that often overlooked, seemingly insignificant ability, places a lot of power in our hands. Very rarely is it what we see, it's what we think and what we do about what we see. You ever hang out with people that just tend to be happy? upbeat, positive energy. I have a very good friend like that where his first inclination is always to find the positive. In moments where I've sort of trained myself to pause, take a second, sift through the

emotion, uncover the value in a tough situation, refocus and take a strategic step forward, I look over at him and he's already arrived there, right? He's been there for three minutes, right? Eliminated the negativity. it's his first instinct. He's the metaphorical kid hopping around in puddles, whistling at the top of his lungs, while everyone else is hiding out from the rain,

or at least trying to find the courage to run out onto the street with. Then there are people who seem to always find the negative. It doesn't really matter what this situation is. Happiness is fleeting, only to reveal the negativity that never seems to go away, right? The kind of person that if they won the lottery, their first thought might be, oh no, but what if I lose it all?

Both examples are people projecting themselves onto the world around them. The same way that smoke covers and consumes an entire room. It's not the room that's the culprit. Here's another example from Jim Rohn, since we're on a Jim Rone kick. He's making a similar point, and this is all from a collection of speeches. He has on Audible, comparing humans to oranges, which is probably, not a comparison you've made recently, but he said there's consistency to an orange and that it can be filled with one thing.

When you squeeze an orange, orange juice is coming out, period. It will never be apple juice or grape food juice. It will only emit what it has inside, which is orange juice. And while here's the connection, when life pressures us. challenges us, or metaphorically squeezes us, we only emit the emotions that are contained and available, that are alive and well within us. If there is no jealousy contained in our thinking,

we're not going to project jealousy out into the world. If there is no hatred within us, we will not project hatred onto others. Why is that powerful? It's powerful. because again it's one of the most important things you can do certainly one of the most important things I've learned to do is take that finger pointing blame at the outside world slowly turn it around and point it back at myself

and ask what thoughts what emotions what ideas am I letting live inside my head that's altering the narrative the story I'm telling about myself in the world that I live in. And while one might think, well, that's uncomfortable, that's unfair, a little extreme, why should I point at myself?

It's not my fault. I would challenge you, at least for the sake of the next few minutes, to see such a change as empowering, as your advantage, as the bridge from where you are to where you want to be. See, if you always have feelings of,

let's say, jealousy around a particular person, That feeling in your stomach like, oh, they have it all. They're ahead. They live how I want to live. They're this and that, and I kind of hate them for it. You're naively giving the external world the power. You're saying, I feel the way I do because of that out there. Some cosmic injustice.

You are powerless because you're neglecting your personal agency as a factor. But when you turn that finger around and say, I only feel this way because I'm a allowing myself to, then you can ask the question. So many never think to ask. Why? Why do I feel this way? Which lights a path to how can I fix it? See, the key to a better life is realizing

you don't have to be in the passenger seat pointing at and blaming the driver, complaining about the road being taken, no, you can get into the driver's seat. You can take the wheel, you can take control, inherit responsibility. And there's more at stake, there's greater vulnerability. But the upside is unfathomable. And I find myself thinking all the time, man, people are blaming the wrong things. They're shifting blame to the wrong adversaries.

The real villain here is not the driver or the road or the weather. The real villain is the voice in your head pleading with you not to take the wheel. Pleading with you to ride shotgun and complain as the world passes you by. And of course it makes sense to qualify that. With the inevitability that there are some things placed upon us that are just bigger than us, that we can't control. And you can make a list however long you want to. Natural disasters, decisions, and actions of others, health problems.

We don't often get to choose the landscape. So as the Stoics would say, understand that. Understand what you can't control and what you can. Because the beauty is that you can control how you navigate that landscape, and that is power. That is what makes the difference. See the two brothers, I mentioned a few moments earlier, same landscape. Different navigational tactics, different view of what it all meant. One took the wheel and one did not.

So that's Seneca quote. That states, no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself. Well, it's perfectly clear as far as I'm concerned. The question is not whether or not to face adversity. I think we all understand that. What I hope we take from today is a better understanding of what the true adversity is.

A better understanding of the fact that in front of us there is always an answer, a key to every lock. Some people just don't think to look. They're so busy peering around every corner for external enemies, and scapegoats that they don't give themselves permission to succeed. Maybe unfortunate, but it's true.

You can hit the bullseye over and over again. But if it's the wrong target, it won't do much for you. You might as well have missed by 50 feet. And I think that is what we overlook. You can't always fix the outside world. You can't change the unchangeable, but you can always change yourself. You can always fix you. You can always fix you.

His Tolstoy said, everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. You're capable of being both your greatest adversary and ally, so choose wisely. Because the world around you will do nothing more than respond accordingly to your decision. wants to change the world, but no one wants to change himself. This was written by Leo Tolstoy in reference to people's proclivity to point out at the world and project blame rather than to point in at themselves and ask, why? What can I do? How can I be better? Which, when you think about it is basically a shark forfeiting its bite, right? Or a bird giving up its wings. Our personal agency is without a doubt.

our superpower. Yet, from my vantage point, sometimes feels like we're walking away from that superpower, a tiny step at a time. Little by little, day by day, we're allowing greatness to fade while bringing about the death of the hero. And well, that's a pretty big claim. What could I possibly mean by this? It's funny, when people ask me what I'm most proud. of. My mind pretty quickly goes to my work, the brand that I've dedicated the last almost decade to building. But I don't think that's right. I think it's a product of my answer, but it's not my answer. What I'm most proud of is shipping away at the monster that is the victim mentality. You know, my default when things went wrong for so long was to feel bad for myself.

It was easier to be the victim and sulk than it was to keep taking the hits. It's like a cheat code. When you can just bask in your sorrow and hate the world, you don't have to do anything. It's like a giant ibuprofen for the discomfort that is life. But it relieves this symptom, not. the cause and to understand to overcome this worldview is like being gifted with a new pair of eyes and what I learned was that self-pity it gets you nothing it leaves you resentful disappointed envious wandering down a path that is not your own what I learned was that my story

needed a hero that's why as I grew I spoke about the power and the beauty of doing the difficult thing. Running in the rain, chasing the metaphorical fireflies, taking the last train home. See, until you immerse yourself into that vast unknown, you stay in a cell of your own making. You build walls of limitation and you exist entirely within them. And as time has progressed, I look back, there are two things worth mentioning. One is that we find life. We find life. We find, meaning in the difficult thing. And two, there is a fundamental misunderstanding, and even from time to time contempt

for what the difficult thing means, for those who speak of the difficult thing, as though hard truths are in some way inconsiderate. Like diverging from the comfort of one's feelings implies a lack of empathy. But that's wrong if you love someone, someone if you care about someone if you care about yourself you say what is true and what is true is that the shelter and the temporary comfort of victimhood is a high not worth the withdrawal not

worth the suffering it got me nowhere it will get you nowhere and that is a reality that will never cease to be true we live in a world that's been shaped entirely by those who found the to do the difficult thing. Everything around us is a product of the courageous decision to take the now and bend it. And that means taking hits. It means being criticized. It means by definition you are choosing to be uncommon. You're choosing to change things.

Yourself. And by default, the world around you. There's nothing wrong with being common. Quitting is relatable. is relatable. Falling short is relatable. Because we're all human and we've all been there. But these stock features of humanity, they are not worth celebrating. We don't put on pedestals the familiar.

No, we put on pedestals the times that we've reshaped the familiar. And a world of participation trophies is a world that has disincentivized that which makes life worth living. It cripples the very pursuit that ignites the soul a push towards the extraordinary, it's time we resurrect the hero. See through the facade of short-term comfort that leads to long-term emptiness. In a world where attention is currency, it's time we acknowledge the payment we receive when we play victim buys only despair.

Sure we're flawed. That will always be true, but we are capable of of manufacturing greatness, we're capable of capturing hearts and captivating minds. If you could only see within yourself that story unwritten, if you could feel the greatness that awaits, the roads to be traveled and mountains to be climbed, there would be no debate. There'd be no hesitation about that march

to the belly of the beast. If only to show that our demons exist solely where we allow them to, Resurrection the hero. Fight those battles that light you up. Blaze your trail through the valley of darkness. Take that path unknown to the common man, unseen to those who live within the confines of what is.

Resurrection that hero because you need you, because the world needs you. There's no time to be down. to be down or sad or dwell on the mistakes of yesterday. There's too much on the line to pretend that settling was the plan all along, or to point at the obstacles with disdain and hatred while life rotates around you. No, resurrect the hero. Resurrection your answer, resurrect the person you were meant to be.

It may not be simple or intuitive. It may cause you to give more than you. you knew you had, it may not be easy. But my friend, Easy never changed the world.