Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Remember Who You Were Before the World Changed You

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

This episode is brought to you by David.Buy 4 cartons of David Protein bars, get 1 free with code Eddie at https://davidprotein.com/eddie🧠 Join the free community: https://www.agns.lifestyle/pages/raise-your-standard📖 Get my Free Ebook While the World Sleeps https://eddiepinero.com/ebook🧢 AGNS Code "YWW20" for 20% off http://www.agns.lifestyleRemember who you were before the world told you who to be. In this motivational message, Eddie Pinero explores the journey of overcoming self-doubt and reclaiming your true identity.We often lose ourselves in the pressure to prove our worth, falling into cycles of anxiety and insecurity. Through a powerful conversation with his five-year-old self, Eddie shares how a simple shift in perspective can lead to your greatest breakthrough.If you’ve been struggling with confidence or feeling lost, this video is a reminder that you don't need to become someone new; you just need to remember who you've been all along.📱 Follow Along:Support the Podcast on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/your_world_within/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@your_world_within📝 Comment below with what's been holding you back as of late. Would love to help you 🙏🙏🙏#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

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Oh, man. Shop back to school at IKEA. Not only to self-love and love of others go hand in hand, but ultimately they are indistinguishable. M. Scott Peck. I want to start this episode with the visualization of sorts. It'll make sense in a minute, so bear with me, and if you can, close your eyes. Take a deep breath and imagine yourself five years old. happily playing, running, creating, laughing,

go to that moment in time and walk over to him or her. And so they see you approaching, they stop playing, and look directly at you. And as they're looking up into your eyes in that moment, you have a chance to ask that five-year-old self, that five-year-old version of yourself, the question. What would you ask? I don't want you to hold that question and, you know, kind of think about it throughout the course of this episode.

I have a friend who's been raving about this as a meditative and visualization exercise. I want to say since I've known him, and I finally dove in over the last few weeks. And I, you know, I can confidently say it's life-changing. And I get that that's a huge claim, especially for something. you know, a little out there. So I want to provide some context. We recently did, I'll call it a three-day retreat type of experience, just for lack of a better word. But the goal was to face some of those things that get in our way,

to identify that pain or that challenge and begin the process of overcoming it. Now our minds are complex. Healing is complex. So the goal wasn't, you know, to make this some magic pill that makes you as good as new on day three, but rather an opportunity to truly notice. You know, awareness or the ability to notice what's in our way is the beginning of every meaningful journey. And so I'll be vulnerable here and share probably the biggest thing that emerged for me. If you've been listening for a while, you've probably heard me talk about it over the years.

But one of the things that I've been working through is that little voice of doubt and insecurity. And where it really makes itself known is, you know, walking into rooms with accomplished people, sitting at the table with folks I admire or appreciate their work or whatever it is. It usually happens in like a work setting, this feeling where I'm kind of on edge. And there's this little whisper of, dude, you don't belong here. You know, and over the years, what's interesting is I've grown for sure. I've learned to kind of laugh that off, smile, shake hands and chat like it doesn't exist at all. And to an extent that's worked, you know, but it hasn't completely dissolved.

And so facing it over the first few days of that retreat was eye-opening. Again, I always knew it was there, but I never made a point to single it out and face it. You know, this insecurity that I picked up somewhere along the way, and I just sat with it. I allowed it for this period of time to have teeth. I feel like I looked it in the eyes, and it scared me. You know, as though there were parts of myself that I truly despised, elements of my reflection, that I don't know a better way to put it. Like I hate it. I loat about myself.

And it was overwhelming. Maybe because, you know, essentially I've been repressing it for so long. And so I'm going to fast forward through a lot. But the last day, you know, was this five-year-old self-meditative exercise. And, you know, you put on calm music. You find a nice, quiet environment.

You lay down, you close your eyes. And, you know, take what you. you've learned over the course of the retreat to your five-year-old self just to see what he would think. And so I did. I closed my eyes. And it took a minute to, I don't know, maybe it's feel comfortable or get the process going or whatever.

But eventually, I found my five-year-old self. And I imagined him running around through the woods. He had a rubber Peter Panknife because obviously he was fighting pirate. and was in this wooden city, like the one the lost boys had in hook, right? That was my childhood in a nutshell. And so I walked up to five-year-old Eddie. He heard the footsteps. He stopped.

He turned around and looked up at me. Hi, he said. Do you want to play? I'm fighting pirates. And I smiled and I said, well, as fun as that seems, buddy, I actually came to ask you a question. and he just looked kind of puzzled. Oh, okay. Five-year-old Eddie,

there are some parts of myself that I really don't like. And I don't know why or where they came from, but I feel it sometimes. What do you think that is? And he didn't say anything. You just stood there looking at me. As he looked up,

I could see his eyes swelling up with tears. Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's wrong? You hate me? He whispered. What? No, dude, I love you. I'm talking about myself. Grown up, Eddie.

I'm talking about me. You've responded, but I am you. And that's the part that gutted me, the confusion and pain in his voice. Like, it felt so real. You know, and I just remember laying on that floor, eyes closed,

imagining all the harsh criticism I've given myself over the years. all the pressure, the fighting words, the tough feedback. And then, you know, I think about that same barrage of negativity being directed to the five-year-old version of me. And it's like heartbreaking. And it'd be way kinder to a five-year-old child, obviously. That is me. And if I can't love that kid fully, then I can't love anyone.

Like, what am I doing here? You know, that's the essence of who I am. Adventurous, fun, curious. The world is not a set of rules to him. It's a canvas. It's everything good. That is who I am. And I would guess that if you took the time to do the same experiment, you'd see, that's you too.

Maybe you've lost sight of the simplicity and purity of that five-year-old self. Maybe a quick convo would unveil some things. I keep realizing, man, simplicity is a miracle. And I think pain is just an obfuscation of the symbol. Five-year-old me was simple. What do I quote-unquote hate? Not him. But the BS layered on top.

The narrative, the supposed tos, the masks. And I know this one's a little different. In fact, as I'm writing this, I imagine, you know, someone at the gym, ready to go for that PR on the bench, clicking on a quote-unquote inspirational episode and getting a meditative story about a five-year-old fighting pirates. But before you judge or deem this to be not for you, just give me this.

Just do this exercise at some point this week. Think about your life. Think about where you are, what feels good and what hurts, and just bring it to that younger version of yourself. Play this scenario out in your life. mind and see what you walk away with. It's not what we don't have that pains us. No, we have everything and then some. It's losing who we are in what matters under layers and layers and layers

of triviality. Losing the forest for the trees. It's thinking we've grown to become altogether different than who we were when we were running around as kids. Misunderstanding that we are the same, with some bills to pay in bigger shoe sizes. I can't solve the meaning of life here, and I won't attempt to. But I feel confident in saying that the closer we are to that five-year-old version of ourselves, as we make our way into the world, the better prepared will be to find the value, to propel humanity towards the extraordinary.

Not because we found some hidden key that no one else had access to. but because we loved ourselves enough to get the hell out of our own way. Most of life comes down to tradeoffs, right? If you want to get stronger, you give up comfort. If you want to create something meaningful, you give up convenience. But every once in a while, something comes along that doesn't ask you to make that tradeoff. And that's why I'm so excited to introduce today's sponsor, David. Their gold bars have 28 grams of protein, 150 calories, and zero grams of sugar,

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I definitely recommend giving David a try. Head on over to Davidprotein.com slash Eddie by four cartons, get a fifth one free. Again, that's Davidprotein.com slash Eddie. This is a story about doing that thing in your soul that you know you're called to do. There's a quote by Carl Jung, he says, you meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it. The first time I heard that, I paused. Not because it was poetic, but because just like when anything meaningful hits you, it feels personal, like it was written for me, describing chapters of my life that I hadn't quite close. Here's a little pretext, you know, about the way I once looked at the world.

You know, I used to think life could be outmaneuvered, that if I planned enough or calculated enough, if I stayed sharp enough, I could avoid the chaos, I could dodge pain. You know, if I planned just right, I'd be able to skip all the hard parts. I used to think discipline and direction meant full control. But in so many contexts, they spring about delay. Because what I feared never seemed to vanish when I ran from it, it would simply wait. It would follow.

And eventually it would reintroduce itself. Not necessarily as a punishment, but as a mirror of sorts, calling for a reflection. And here's the thing. We don't get to negotiate with the path. We either walk it or get to. dragged through it, because it always finds us. That's what destiny does. Now, don't mistake that for powerlessness.

This doesn't imply that you don't have a say. In fact, you have more control than you can even imagine. The question is not whether the road exists. It does. The choice is in how you choose to meet it. You can lean in with open eyes and steady feet, or you can resist, delay, deny, life and its relentless wisdom brings you back around.

One path is painful. The other, still hard, but build you. One is friction. The other is fire, transforming you into something more. Destiny doesn't punish you. It just refuses to let you stay small. There's a story within a story here. When I was in the corporate world, you know, I talk about the value that I got from that time

in my life. I was fresh out of college, full of ambition. I was obsessed with the next title. I thought that success was about rising fast, about being seen, the role, the status, you know, the corner office. And there was, at the time, a VP that I worked under, and she used to tell me, Eddie, I see you being exceptional in learning and development.

You have a gift for, you know, helping people understand, see value, helping them grow. And I just, at the time, I just did not want to hear it. You know, I was so reluctant to agree, dismissed it. Not because I didn't respect her. She was a superstar of a human being, but because I had tunnel vision. You know, learning and development, like that sounded soft. It sounded slow. I wanted to manage, to lead, right?

To move widgets and metrics and, you know, oversee a region of the country. Who cares about personal growth? Which, you know, fate got the last laugh there. You know, I ran, at least to the extent that I could, eventually left the industry. And wouldn't you know it, right? Years later, building my own brand, right? leading a team of amazing people who, you know,

we all have the same mission of helping people grow and, you know, make the most of their lives. It's not kind of what she suggested. My skill set and value ad was, it's exactly that. And I knew it because it felt good when I did it. I enjoyed it. But the ego said, no, you need to be managing the Northwest Division.

you know, whatever it was, managing operations. It's not where I was meant to be, right? It's meant to help people grow and teach and build and inspire. I didn't choose that path back then, but it chose me, and maybe it chose me before birth, right? Eventually, I found the courage to circle back to it. Just like Jung said, I met my destiny

on the road I took to avoid it. That resistance, that detour. Well, as you can imagine, it wasn't just my story. It's everyone's story. There's a pattern in every great myth, every story of transformation. It's called the hero's journey. Joseph Campbell mapped it out. And the hero begins in a very ordinary world, safe, predictable, familiar.

He's incentivized. by the things that most people in his world are incentivized by. His limitations are certainly worldly. Then comes the call to adventure, a challenge, a whisper, a truth that you can't ignore. But what happens next? Well, almost every time the hero refuses the call. For those Star Wars fans out there,

you know, Luke Skywalker, he didn't want to leave home. right as a farmer on tattooing he wasn't ready to face the evil empire he doubted himself he resisted he wanted more of what he knew and the story of Jonah is similar someone mentioned this to me the other day i don't know how many times luke skywalker and the story of jonah are used in the same example but first for everything you know god asks him to go to ninava to speak to change hearts he says no He gets in a ship and he goes in the other direction. But fate didn't take kindly to shortcuts. A storm came.

You know, the ship shook, and Jonah amidst all this, was thrown overboard. He was swallowed whole by a great fish, you know, alone in darkness, nowhere left to run. And that's where he met his truth. That's where he surrendered to his life's purpose, his mission. That's where the journey for him truly became. See, destiny does not ask us if we're ready and simply arise. And when we resist, we often find ourselves in the belly of our own fear. Until we realize the only way out as Robert Frost suggests is through.

Jonah eventually got it. Luke Skywalker eventually got it. And eventually, so do we. because the refusal doesn't stop the story. It merely delays a transformation, your transformation. And the Stoics, you know, they knew this as well, they spoke on it, wrote about it all the time. Marcus Aurelius wrote, The Impediment to Action advances Action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Seneca said fate leads the willing and drags along. the reluctant. More or less, for the sake of our conversation, meaning you can run, you can hide behind logic, busyness, perfectionism. But destiny is not looking for your comfort. It's waiting for your commitment.

To step into that purpose, into that person. You've known your whole life has been there waiting to be unveiled into the world. I look back now and laugh at how hard I tried to outpace my own purpose. But I needed to learn that avoidance, it doesn't keep you safe. It keeps you small. It keeps you playing in someone else's game, a spectator in someone else's arena.

Instead of thriving and becoming a superstar in your own, adding more value to the world in those around you than you can imagine. Your destiny, it's a lot of things. but it's never small. So I ask you, what have you been avoiding? What's the path that quietly calls your name? The one that feels right, but maybe demands of you a little more right now

than you're willing to give, one that you say maybe later to every time the thought arises, because it's waiting. And maybe it's not supposed to be easy. Maybe you're never going to feel ready. Maybe that discomfort is the signal, not a stop sign, but a sign to go. And embracing that is how you win. It's how you find peace.

Not by dodging the road, but trusting it. Because when you finally step into that discomfort, when you answer the call you've been avoiding, you don't just find your destiny. You become it. Sometimes life is exactly what we want. want it to be. Things feel like they're happening. Momentum seems to open every door. Opportunity waits around each corner with open arms. Those times are great. But this, no, this is not one of those times. Not at all. What I want to do is explore the moments of in

between, the instances of solitude and quiet, the periods of tension that exist between heartbeats, because in those silent deserts, we don't just endure. We discover something truly profound. Me? I've spent plenty of time wandering through the dead. deserts of life. I can even make the argument, both literally and metaphorically, that it's where I find myself now, where the great unknown pleads with you to trust it, whispering confirmation that it will lead you to answers, so long as you lock your eyes on the horizon and keep

your feet moving. But just like the sand acts as a blanket. covering everything below, the rocks, the plants, the cacti, you are leaving only the shape of who you once were. An outline, a reference point, trading the certainty of what's known for the danger, the uncertainty, the risk of a world undiscovered. See, out here amidst the deserts of life, through the mirage of safety.

You discover that the thing you need most, well, it's never complicated. This reminder is both profound and simple. It pulls you in and demands that you remember. That you remember you have everything you need to emerge from this chaos. And should you choose to push through, you will be better for.

for it. Over and over and over again, the deserts of life make me into the man I am supposed to be. Not because they reveal the world to me, but because they reveal me to myself. They remind me of the world within, the internal strength, the resolve, perhaps not to know, but certainly to move forward when I don't. It is through the deserts of life that you find your oasis. It is the very nothing you wander through now that becomes everything. And so maybe, just maybe, this is the reminder you need. Maybe life feels desolate.

Maybe there aren't any answers. Maybe the missing validation invokes fear, and the pressure to return to worlds you left behind grows stronger. Well, let this be life telling you that these aren't skippable moments. That you will, amidst this very trudging through the dunes of nothingness, find yourself again. A deeper, more mean. powerful version of yourself.

This desert points a mirror back at you for a reason. The adversity is not here to break you. It's here to remind you how strong you've always been. It's here to show you that not only will you endure, but the deserts of life will shape you into the person you were always meant. Real Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season. on lunchbox savers like Ziggy's sliced deli meat products for always 375 and get life brand pure Vita shampoo or conditioner for eight dollars each at real canadian superstore when you're

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