Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - POSITIVE MORNING MOTIVATION - Wake Up Early, Start Your Day Right! - 1 Hour

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

“Every morning, I wake up saying, 'I’m still alive, a miracle.' And so I keep on pushing.” - Jim Carrey

If you remain calm in the midst of great chaos, it's the surest guarantee that it will eventually subside. Julie Andrews. One of the most powerful things about intentionally immersing yourself in difficult situations is that it prepares you for the inevitable adversity that will come your way when it's unexpected, unplanned. the obstacles life places before all of us. That's why I so often draw a line from physical fitness and athletics to the real world. Doing difficult training, for me, particularly endurance training or interval training. It creates a level of exhaustion I tend not to encounter anywhere else, right? It's a phenomenal practice at separating out what must be done in the moment

from how we feel. It uncouples those two things. It's taming chaos in a controlled environment that improves our ability to handle stress out in the world. And what keeps pulling me in is when you're in it, going from set to set 45 minutes straight with no rest,

there are these particular moments where your heart rate's elevated, your body is fatigued, you're pushing your physical limit, and under a different set of circumstances, you'd stop. Maybe you'd take a breather, because that's what makes sense to do. But this is what's powerful, right?

In those moments, you learn to float above all of that. It's excess. It's noise. It doesn't matter, right? You're separating anything that isn't the question, what's next? You don't have to perform any miracles or break any records. No, only find a way to calmly engage in one exercise after the next. One step after another.

Your job is to not stop. And again, this is a microcosm of what we deal with out in the world, when the world is chaotic and stressful. When our minds are worried about what's in front of us because we aren't sure how much longer we can sustain what's happening in the present moment. That's when we get worked up in frantic, sometimes erratic in our decision making. But this reminds you you can be stronger than your environment, your circumstances. You can say no to the chaos that's attempting to pull you in.

As Viktor Frankl has spoken, you may not have control over your circumstances. answer. But you always have control over your added. What does this mean? Well, it is the incentive, the green light to step forward. You don't need to think about how you wish you felt. You don't need to think about how you might feel 10 minutes from now. No, the goal is breathe and consider simply what must be done. This idea It translates beautifully when something goes wrong at work. When a relationship becomes fractured, when you feel slighted by life,

the temptation is to let it all consume. But if you're able to breathe in, to compose yourself and focus only on what needs to happen next, there is nothing that can hold you back. When you don't relinquish your control to outside circumstances, you have everything you need to effectively navigate through them. Nothing matters. Nothing but your ability to carry out the task at hand.

To conquer that adversity that is emotion in the midst of difficulty. Simplicity, as the saying goes, is the ultimate sophistication. And it doesn't get simpler than this. Breathe, execute. and you will find your way home. Sitting in my office, dimly lit, head in my hands, disappointed.

Mostly in myself, for letting the opportunity escape, because I had it. I could have held on. Instead, I watched it slip away, and in frustration, leaned back in my chair, looked up, noticed a little rectangle of light, subtly bouncing around on the wall. It had made its way from a small gap in the curtains,

completely breaking the uniformity of darkness. Its presence, signaling just how much exists outside our periphery. during those tough moments. Reminding me how much our darkest days only remain so long as we refuse to let light in and how periods of longing are unavoidable. But whether we lay down because of them

or stack and stand upon them is up to us. Now I don't know why what we need is hardest to create. We need is hardest to grasp during our times of greatest vulnerability. But I do know that we are capable of standing up, of lighting a match amidst the shadows of life. I do know we are strong enough to take the curveballs and the complexity and not just exist with them, but transform them into our stepping stones.

So often the endings we didn't think think we want it, become the beginning we didn't know we needed. It's not about being perfect. It's about getting up when your soul feels heavy and your body is weak, making your way to the window, opening the curtains, and letting the light in. And the key to maintaining perspective to never relinquishing your control or composing,

control or composure is to understand that there is value in the seemingly valueless, that when we most want to hang our heads and retreat to a place of sorrow, we must hold on to the fact that somewhere underneath it all is the reason you will not only move on, but emerge victorious. Rise from the ashes of despair stronger than you ever were. When light turns out the light and shakes your world at the foundation, it isn't to check your progress, but to remind you that you can be the light. You can withstand the rumbling underneath you. That we will never completely mitigate adversity. But we were given perhaps the greatest gift of all.

The power to decide what will be. become of it. I was running over the weekend, middle of the day, right under that smoldering South Florida sun. I was doing about a 3.7 mile stretch, which is one of six or seven legs I was doing for the ultra marathon that day, against the clock, fighting the heat, you know, starting to really suffer, which is the perfect environment for the thoughts that we don't want to let it. It's where we engineer compromise, create excuses. And I've been running So as I got more and more tired, you know, my mind inevitably started

looking for a way out, rationalizing, slowing down. I think everyone's been there, right? In one way or another, and after wrestling with this for about a mile, came to a realization. I'm doing too much. Not physically, but mentally. Building cognitive enemies, creating complexity.

See, when you're doing, uncomfortable when you're in pain, things become incredibly convoluted. They seem chaotic. Lack of clarity, at least for me, it creates anxiety. But that light ball moment was, you know, during that leg running to Key West at 12 p.m. with miles to go and questions unanswered and that there's nothing complex about the situation, no mystery to resolve or riddle to figure out. In fact, on paper, this is one of the easiest things I have ever done. Why? Well, because all I have to do is not stop. That's it. Do nothing.

Keep this pace, one foot in front of the other. That's my only task. No rabbits out of hats. I don't need to create the unthinkable. No, there in that moment, all I had to do was not stop. And that meant really that the heat didn't matter, that the distance didn't matter, that the world didn't matter. Those are details far too complex for me right now. In that moment, they're way above my pay grade. I'd boiled the objective down into the simplest of tasks.

Embarking upon the easiest thing I'd ever done, simply moving forward. And I started thinking about the things that accomplished in my life that I'm proud of, being knocked down, getting back up, fighting for what I believed in, creating, searching for answers. And now here, I'm really going to entertain the thought that I can't simply move forward. I'm gonna be upset that this pace doesn't feel like lying in a bed of feathers. No, I like simple. I love simple. Simple equals clarity, equals progress, equals happiness.

Who cares what's around the corner? Because knowing that won't mitigate the next 10 steps I have to take. And eventually that's exactly what I did. I started counting my steps in groups of 10 because that was really all that mattered. And like all things, you know, before you know what, you look up and the storm has passed. And I got to the end where my teammates waited with water and cold towels and I got there without abandoning my one mission. Not by an act of heroism, but by thousands of little acts that will remain unseen forever,

that will disappear into the universe. I simply carried on a mission that I hold dear. My favorite quote, an old coach of mine used to always remind us, sometimes success is simply hanging on when others are letting go, that's it, that's all, that's everything. because we're so inclined to overlook that simple truth because we think big results require monumental action. And when you're exhausted,

when the miles ahead feel like a huge task, we dig deep for huge solutions. But the answers are not huge. They're minuscule. They're little things that make big things. And when I think back to my youth, my childhood, the times I'd given up or been discouraged, it was always because I didn't,

immediately cross the finish line or hit the home run right away. I didn't get the immediate answer, but I can look back now and just think, if I realized that a walk or a single every day takes you to the moon, that it's not about the miraculous, it's about simply carrying on, which becomes the miraculous. We can't let ourselves be lured in by the guise of immediate triumph or false expectations. No, let's remember that anyone, anyone,

can simply move forward. Anyone can take one more step, and that's all that's required of you. That's all you can do. Breathe, compose yourself. Take that very next step, because if you can do that, the big picture things, they materialize.

You start crossing finish lines. Balls start leaving the park. Little victories accumulate and evolve. Life changes. Do not miss what matters. Don't overlook the simplest of things, because that's what ultimately carries us home. The miracle isn't that I've finished.

The miracle is that I had the courage to start. John Bingham. We all share a commonality. The runner on the starting blocks. The one at work, the one studying, the one trying to create the best life possible for their family. See, we are all at a beginning. Looking up at an idea.

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

Not because the world treats you differently, but because you see the world differently. By knowing you are bigger than the sum of its parts, you have defanged this wolf, you have put yourself in position to do that which makes the world tremble, that which causes even the most confident to doubt, you have put yourself in position to begin. See, there is a time to look at the top of the mountain. breaking through the clouds powerful and majestic. And then there is a time to look at your feet. And right now is the latter.

You're not concerned with the big things. No, not right now. Your job is to move forward into this haze. To not see but adapt. To not know but trust. Things will materialize and you know that. But at the same time, you can't control the future. Your battle is right now, and it's with the space immediately in front of you.

It's with the thoughts attempting to deceive you. It's with the things the outside world will tell you, but forward motion is the antidote to all of that. And so forward you must go. The beginning is always the hardest because our thoughts are a mightier foe than life's obstacles. Thoughts take on lives of their own. They become monsters, demons, dead ends, obstacles. On the other hand, just ask that we adjust.

There is no obstacle that can't be addressed by stepping into it. And so while the temptation is to sit thinking, speculating about how challenging the road ahead, this is where you think less and move more. Harness the world as it comes, because the truth is nothing is as big as it appears to be. Life is incredibly solvable. Every problem has a solution. Every bad chapter ends. Every setback is a chance to be more than you've ever been. But how would you know that if you bowed down to the mountains in your head? How would you know that if you never began? So let today be the dotted line you sign with your future self. A promise to be aware that the mountains

peers over you, but to not be distracted by its shadow, to take the climb one rock, one step, one second at a time. Let it be an acknowledgement that nothing light throws at you can't be broken down and conquered so long as you don't get in your own way. Gone are the days of being held captive behind steel bars of self-doubt and fear. That road ahead is not the problem. It never was. Refusing to give yourself permission to travel down, it was the problem. So without constraints, meet life head on. Let the trials and tribulations emerge because they will,

but know that you will rise to meet them. Let the unknown highlight all that you don't know. You can't see. Fine. The one thing you are sure of is that you will. is that you will, one by one, transform the unseen into strength. And when those thoughts emerge, telling you that you've gone too far, that you're in over your head that this isn't meant for you, know them, not as truth, but as the only obstacle that can derail and distract.

You don't have time for make-believe monsters. No, not today. So onward you go to map the unknown, to tame the untamed to live your life the way it was meant to be lived. I'm going to share something that over the years I've come to know to be true. And that's that generally the answers that we look for tend to fall between the extremes. So for example, you have two people. One person is adamant that option A is right.

It's a no-brainer. That'll take you to the promised land. But on the other side, the other person saying, no, it's option B, and it's not even close. Option B is the way to go. And, well, generally speaking, the answer we're looking for falls somewhere right in the middle. That's where the winning formula lives. Not always, but most of the time. The other stuff, the detail, the A's, B's and C's, the stuff that gets the flash that we spend most of our time talking about,

it's unnecessary noise and nuance. To win is to trust your instinct. It's being comfortable with your authenticity as the foundation. And then once you have that, you can choose to sprinkle the other stuff on top as flavoring. But I want to talk about this idea because I've fallen into the trap, and I think others do too, of looking for answers in the wrong places. Of trying so hard to replicate success to meet other people's guidelines. We're so busy asking what's up?

other people want to hear, that we're not asking ourselves, hey, what do I want to say? And in the process, we lose what's most valuable. We end up rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Imagine if Malcolm Gladwell only wrote about what was trending on Twitter, or what was popular. It's like, no, he writes about what he's interested in. That's why he's so fun to read, his curiosity and passion always comes through. Or if J.K. Rowling spent her time researching, what works, what sells books, what do I need to buy, what's been done before me, before she created Harry Potter? We probably wouldn't have it. Her brilliant imagination wouldn't have been shared with the world because, let's be real,

wizards and boarding school weren't exactly on everyone's radar. There was no roadmap to that. Or I think of Jordan Peterson's lectures. Imagine if he crafted his message around YouTube or or Instagram algorithms. We lose all its power and meaning. He's authentic. He's raw. He's real. That's why we watch him. But the reality is, every day, we're told in Taylor-Made,

strategically located advertisements that, hey, John Smith achieved success, happiness, and fame with this product or this service. And without that, you can't get what you want. Or we turn on our phones. We go on social media, and it's hearts and likes and double taps, and we're not saying what we want to say. We're reverse engineering how to get that validation.

For those with brands or those in the marketing space, I mean, you know it's always about trying to understand this mysterious algorithm where your posts will be buried. What we're being asked to do overall every day is manipulate ourselves to meet the demands of the platform or of the external criteria. I'm not saying it's morally wrong. There's no atrocity being committed.

Part of life is adapting. But what I am suggesting is there's a danger that we're not aware of. Amidst all this chaos and confusion and manipulation, we tend to lose ourselves. And when we lose ourselves, it doesn't happen all at once. It's gradual. It happens little by little, one concession at a time. We don't snap our fingers and disappear.

We slowly slip away, not by what we do, by what we don't do, in order to fit in. Do you know how everything in our solar system orbits or on the sun. Well, what if you thought of that sun is who you are, right? When you're with your friends or family, when you're writing, saying, thinking what matters to you, without social media, without brands and marketing and societal pressure, just simply who you are. That should always be the nucleus of your world. Your north star. That should be the measuring stick to whether you're on the right track, not the externalities that ask you to change your key so that it fits their lock? What have you re-engineered the way we look at things? What if we built a world

where people expand upon who they are and what they care about, where we have the courage to say no to the latest trend or item or advice, because it's just not who you are? What if you were that confident? And then if we think some of those externalities will help us, then sure, sprinkle them on top. But they rotate around you. You don't think. You don't rotate around them, that's the difference. To be content, you have to be the center of your own universe. Living by your guidelines. So instead of looking around and trying to decide your strengths, you know, based on what will be accepted or promoted or what's been done before, do yourself a favor. Take a deep breath, step back and just simplify. You know what matters. And that's enough.

You don't need the world to tell you that. So while the masses fight over solution A or solution B, maybe you'll understand that both of those solutions solve the wrong problem. And while the masses argue, you know, which car goes zero to 60, the fastest scream about the features debate, which brand is the most reputable. Hey, you'll at least know why you're driving, which is more than most of the world can say.

You'll know where your car is headed before you upgrade that sunroof and those top of the line speakers. You have to see it before they do. You have to believe it before they will. You have to be the architect of your plans and your goals because no one will build them for you. And that's just it. In a world where victimhood is becoming currency and blame

is becoming the norm, we have a choice. Create a temporary fleeting escape or create a life that matters. You know how much easier it is

to project out at the world? To never have to look in the mirror and address the things you could be doing better. You know how much easier it is to hate him or her or them over there? To make up stories and scenarios about how much different life would be if it wasn't for A, B and C holding you back? I mean, short term, it's like winning the lottery, right? You don't have to take any accountability.

You don't have to have tough conversations with you. yourself. You don't have to reflect on the painful memories or decisions. No, you can put your feet up. Sit back, point at the world, and say, look what they made me do. If only. But here's what's not being said. Every time you point your finger away from your own chest, every time you project blame, you're letting yourself down. Why? Because we only grow when we take accountability. Yeah, accountability can be painful, uncomfortable. But in that discomfort, exists the only bridge to a better tomorrow. That's it. You go to the gym, you put your muscles through stress. You break them down so that they

can be built back up stronger. Personal responsibility cannot be the muscle we refuse to build. There's too much at stake. It can't be the thing you avoid. Why? Because it's what injects meaning into our lives. I'll never forget in the eighth grade. And I bet every single person in that class still to this day remembers. My teacher, Mr. Betancourt, walking up to the front of the classroom. He had his hands in a bowl shape and was holding it up to the ceiling, explaining to us that you can't go through life asking the world to give you its scraps. That if you sit and you wait and you hope and you blame, you will lose. That's the recipe for bitterness and resentment. Think of it like a fork in the road. Where our two options are vast.

different. You go left at the fork and you enter a world of escapism refusing to confront your problems. Finding reasons you can't do that which you know you need to do. Hating others, those

who have built, grown, or created themselves. Or, you go right at the fork. You learn to do the hard thing, to humble yourself. To take control of your life and your world When things aren't the way you want them to be, you look around and you immediately ask,

things outside of my control may have brought me here, but what can I do to fix it? Those of you have been listening to me for a while, you probably know my favorite articulation of this idea. It was explained by Will Smith. Basically, he said, look, you can't control where you start, and how true that is. Life's not fair. Some people are born into more resources and opportunity. Some people find themselves in social situations that aren't ideal, and that list can go on and on and on, right?

Human beings are all different, so there will always be discrepancy. But, and this is Will Smith's point, where you go from here will always be your responsibility. What happens next is all you. you choose whether to complain, shake your fist at the sky and blame the world around you, or pick the pieces up and move forward. And like I said a minute ago, don't be fooled by the temptation to latch on to that fleeting moment of relief, of running from accountability.

The only way to win in the long run is to face your demons. It's that whole saying when you're riding shotgun, you can dispute the route all you want, but ultimately it's the driver who's in control. When will you take the wheel in your own life? Ensure the stakes become higher. Now it's on you. Now you can get lost. Now you're responsible for the maintenance.

Now if you don't end up at the right place, or I don't know, you're late to a destination. It's your fault. But now you can also be the one overseeing the journey. Now it's yours and that's power. And as our world becomes more and more one of escapism, it's becoming more prevalent, easier to avoid or not fix something but tweet about it. How easy it is to not confront our problems,

but rather open Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and mindlessly. scroll, how easy it is to leave that message on red and go about our lives because that's easier than saying what needs to be said. Strength is being the one amidst all this escapism and avoidance to confront what must be confronted. Whether it's an interaction with someone else or that hard conversation with yourself, a personal change that must take place. Life is such a gift.

It's such an opportunity, but we have to move through it with our eyes open. We have to see things that matter and gravitate towards truths that will shape us. Like Mr. B said, over 20 years ago now, we can't ever fall into the mentality of holding our hands up to the sky and asking life to give us anything. We can't only point it ourselves when things go the way we want. them to go. No, let's be about accountability, empowerment, understanding that if I don't like what's around me, the transformation starts now and it starts with me.

That wasn't perfect, I never will be, but I can learn, I can evolve, and most importantly, I have everything I need to make that happen. It's all awareness. The victimhood idea. is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and I know that may seem harsh, maybe even lacking empathy. But dropping that narrative

was truly the best thing I've done in my life, and I know countless others who would say the same. You can't be both a perpetual victim and be in control. No, life is tough. It knocks us down, and at times it brings us to our knees, but this is a reminder that you cannot stay there. It's a reminder that those who contributed to the situation are now minor detail and background noise.

It's a reminder that the path forward is about you. It's about you pushing all that aside and asking yourself what's required to move in the direction that I most want to go. Because you are that powerful. You are strong enough to make that move. And there will be a point where you look around you and the, circumstances of change, the people are different, the environment is different, you're different. And you'll smile at yourself knowing it's not because of what the world provided. It's not because of what anyone gave you. It's not because of what people out there did or didn't

do. No, it's because when you were at your lowest, when life was presenting curveball after curveball, when you looked around it maybe even thought to yourself, there's no way forward here. You found a way to get up and create something new. It's not about what happens to you. No one escapes adversity. No one lives free of discomfort or misfortune or struggle. No, it will always be about what you do.

with what happens to you. In other words, it's not the event, it's the response. Not the obstacle, but the ability to navigate around it. Not the wave, but the ability to ride its momentum to something greater. It is not what happens to you. It is what you do about what happens to you. The famous Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius said you have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength.

And I think this realization comes down to the fact that there is always a way, buried underneath it all, something powerful to leverage. But getting to the value calls for a real thing. calls for a rewiring. A change in the questions that we ask. Not how could this happen to me. But how can I be better tomorrow than I am now because of what happened to me?

Not can I still be that person or accomplish what I set out to. I am that person. Now how will I adjust my path so that I get there? We're operating within a world of value, limitless opportunity. The difficulty simply pushes us to that value faster, expedites the process. It forces us to open our eyes and see that the world works for us. So you take, for example, the fear of starting something new.

That fear, it doesn't have to be an end point or a red light indicator. Fear doesn't mean you're not qualified or prepared or equipped. It simply lets you know that you have finally acquired the courage to step out of the safety of the only world you knew and into the turbulence of growth. On to the path of something better. and where it's easy to move away from that feeling, to turn your back on the chaos and retreat to something simpler, maybe something more predictable or contained.

What if you viewed the fear as the price that we all have to pay to pull the curtain back on the best things life has to offer? Changing the question from, will I be afraid, to instead, this is important. This is meaningful. Therefore, it's inevitable that I will experience fear, but what will I do about it? How will I conduct myself amidst the fear? Will I continue forward? Those are the questions that contain the value, right? I can't keep the water from rising or the walls from caving in.

No, that's an inevitability where I'm going. The worthwhile road always has its adversity. But will I use that water to learn to swim? The walls to climb, to adapt and scale, what will I make of this? That's the question that becomes the difference. And sure, you could stay away. You could choose not to take the path that presents the danger and the turbulence. You could attempt to contain the world around.

by simply refusing to experience it. But then of course you become presented with the question, why intentionally refuse to cash in a winning lottery ticket? Why diminish your gift in such a way? If it's not what you look at, it's what you see. Why see the world as an adversary? Why see yourself as less than you are? The saying goes, when you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them.

You'll never exceed the person you've decided yourself to be. And yes, the world can feel intimidating. It's unknown. You in many ways can't control the characteristics that make life what it is, but you can always control you. Just like you can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails. You can't control the tides, but you can predict and plan and execute accordingly. You control you, and that is where the power is. And of course there's going to be times where that's hard to see.

When it's not your first instinct to find the value. Take, for an example, a change, a loss, the end of a relationship, the point where people tend to feel their lowest. It hurts to have to have. have something and lose it. To have what you were once so sure about challenged, what you once believed in called into question. But this doesn't have to be a referendum on you as a human being.

Right? Sure, you made your mistakes. But you have the opportunity to dwell on them or to acknowledge them and ask the question, I know what I know now, how can I be better than I've ever been in my life? life. How can I position myself to get more of the good and less of the bad, same idea, different context? When those walls feel like they're crumbling down, you have to know there is more on the

other side. Just beyond what the eye can see. And this isn't just an idea I play around with my head. I make a concentrated effort to think this every time something goes wrong. When my first reaction is emotional. My first emotion is anger or frustration. It's like take a breath, compose yourself, and start looking for the value. Because here's the truth, the world is not going to end today. There's going to be a time down the road when I look over my shoulder and right now is a distant memory. What will I have done with it? And it's the times that might have broken you that contain the greatest transformation. I like to say the greatest tragedies or the hardest times made me who I am today. The losses taught me that I had everything I needed. The failures

showed me what I'm capable of enduring. The times I was let down taught me to depersonalize the shortcomings of others but to simultaneously hedge against them. The times I was lost showed me We only discover or meet our potential when we leave the little day-to-day realities that we create. Why? Because we are in control. Not of the external, but the internal. And that ends up being a bridge to a reality that means something. So when you find yourself at the base of a mountain looking up, understand that there are two ways to perceive the climb.

You can see it as the gravity pushing down on you as Earth standing in your way, or as an opportunity to ascend to a version of yourself that previously not only didn't exist but wasn't available. This is your opportunity. The same opportunity that the vast majority of the world would disregard or misinterpret, that most would feel fear of and be dissuaded. by. Most would live in the stories about who they aren't and what they aren't capable of, but not you. You didn't place that mountain before you, but you sure can't extract the value from it. All you have to do is decide that you're capable and that the meaning and the value and the freedom of tomorrow means more than the discomfort of today. If you allow that, for yourself, you will become truly unstoppable.

Not because the path simplified or got easier, but because the traveler trusted himself to walk down it. You don't have to know everything. In fact, you don't even need to know most things. But you do have to know that progress often calls for us to move forward without knowing. It asks that we're willing to learn along the way, to pick up the pieces as we walk by them. And that's a vulnerability that is sometimes tough to face. Right?

It's a nakedness that we never really shake. The idea that in order to grow, we have to leave the now, ill-prepared for tomorrow, but knowing that we have everything we need to make the transition. The losses become lessons, the failures become data points, the mistakes become our clarity. And until we understand this, there really isn't an upward trajectory. We place too much value on the known, the things we understand, the cyclical nature of a day-to-day that is, as much as life can be, predictable, and determine. characteristics that are actually antithetical to growth. In fact, one could make an argument

that in this incredible day and age of information, our need and ability to know often comes at the expense of true transformation. I studied podcasts for so long before I started one that I could have created and improved upon my own, I don't know, 400 times over. I had to find out who uses what, when to upload, how long the episode should be,

and on and on. There are books and videos, there are classes and coaches. All of it wonderful, I'm sure, in its own way. But nothing so powerful as that university of experience, of life. the idea of the thinker and the doer. The thinker that absorbs and contemplates weighs one option versus another and another

exhausting time sufficient for the doer to fall on her face twice, pick up the pieces, make necessary changes, and be on her way. See, the information is out there. It exists and can be incredibly valuable, but simultaneously can contribute to us thinking our way into stagnation. A thing can only be what you make it.

Things provide the value you decide to extract from them. I like using the example of water because it's simple. Water is necessary to sustain life. Without it, one cannot go on. Too much of it, however, can sink a ship. or flood a building, too much is disastrous. And you can pretty much fill in the blank with anything else here to demonstrate that point. Life is a balance between not enough and too much, scarcity and excess.

My opinion is that now, with regard to information and technology, we exist on the too much side of the spectrum. I mean, I can't even remember the last time I was having a conversation about something I wasn't sure about without interrupting it to pull out my phone and Google the answer. Again, this has its positives. Knowledge is power, but to what extent? And I'm talking big picture here. This is about so much more than, you know, picking up a phone to Google information. This is about never feeling like we're equipped enough to step into something new. Because we can always be obtaining more.

And it's like, where do you draw that line? I now, because of the accessibility of information, find myself frequently staring like a deer in headlights. Because some minor detail hasn't been made clear to me. Because everything is not perfectly ironed out. My brain has become conditioned to know. Because knowing is now incredibly used. easy. But life is about generating a meaningful existence. Meaning is carved from unknowns.

It's not Googled or found on Wikipedia. A podcast or YouTube video can't give you meaning. It might help you prepare or point you in the right direction, but meaning is about self-discovery. It's about, yeah, taking those things you learn, but giving them life. You know, it's pulled out of world around you like diamonds from the earth necessarily calling for going when you don't know exactly what the destination looks like starting when you don't know what the end result will be we are consuming at the expense of living absorbing at the expense of feeling right there's the idea that a business book is not the same thing as creating a business being on social media is not the same thing as being social it's an aspect of those things served up without

the risk or the upside. That is not real life. And one of my favorite movies, Goodwill Hunting, Robin Williams' character, a therapist, is talking to Matt Damon's character. He plays this brilliant young man who has, you know, a photographic memory, he's read every book in the library, he's a genius. But even with all that, he doesn't quite have the courage to move out of his little world into something bigger, into the opportunity that's available for him, if only he'd find the strength to seek it out. And here's a segment of Robin Williams trying to explain that to Matt Damon.

He says, so if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me this skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about life's work, political aspirations, him and the Pope, sexual orientation, whole works, right. But I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seen that. If I asked you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus on your personal favorites.

You may have been late a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, and you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me. once into the breach, dear friends. But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath

looking to you for help. I look at you. I don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky, scared kid. And the quote goes on, but the idea is a powerful one. And one of the reasons I've rewatched that scene over and over, it's not that he's trying to belittle the character. He's trying to help him explore the depths of his own personality, his needs and desires, trying

to arm him with the understanding that he's strong enough to move beyond the walls he's built around himself, that all that knowledge he's obtained and acquired is meaningless unless he gives it life. Knowing isn't enough. And I want to qualify this again because it's important you meet me where I am. I'm not making a case for

ignorance or books, knowledge, understanding. That's critical. But it's the other piece that makes life worth living. You don't get the reward without the risk and the risk requires that one moves into the haze without

clear understanding of an outcome. It's moving into life without total certainty. And we are hardwired for that certainty. We're built to want to know. And now on top of that, we have the tools to take in infinite knowledge. I want this to be a reminder that we have to circumnavigate that idea to some extent. We have to trust ourselves to figure things out as we go. that waiting until we have everything figured out

simply leaves the door crack for regret to sneak in and make itself comfortable. There's an entire world out there waiting for you, not to have it all figured out, but to instead stumble upon the realization that you don't have to know. To move forward, you have to simply trust. That's when the world will transform before your eyes.