Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - STOP OVERTHINKING AND TAKE ACTION | Powerful Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

What can you start today? Starting doesn’t mean perfection—it means taking the first step, even if it’s messy. Progress comes from movement, not precision. Each action provides clarity: keep going or pivot. Stagnation comes from staying still, but solutions come from stepping forward, one decision at a time. Life’s road may twist and turn, but every wrong turn or detour teaches you something essential Your dreams aren’t as far away as they seem. They’re built through small, consistent actions. A Greek proverb says beginning is half the battle. Trust yourself, take the leap, and let momentum carry you forward. Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

Simple truth. You don't need to get it right the first time. You don't. You don't even need to be close. You just can't do nothing. You need to convince your feet to start moving. You need to generate momentum for some type of outcome. Because what that data, what that outcome will tell you is yes,

keep doing more of that thing or no. reel it in and try something different. But either way, progress is reliant upon that information. Going equals solutions. Staying equals hoping, wishing lost opportunity. Every journey is a long winding road. It's comprised of wrong turns and dead ends. There will be maintenance required issues to be resolved and narratives to be resolved,

and narratives to be rewritten. None of which, by the way, is beyond you. So long as you take these things as they arrive one by one, you open up your world to allow them in. And you might look at where you want to be and think that's a lot, right? That's a world away. No.

It's a few tiny decisions away repeated daily. There's a Greek proverb that suggests beginning is half the battle. Why? Well, because convincing yourself you're capable is not easy. Trusting yourself completely hurts. But it's not until we come around and greenlight the process. It's not until we give ourselves permission that life begins. How beautiful is the fact that we don't have to have all the answers. Not even close. we just need enough courage to step out into the storm, to brave the wind and the rain.

I frequently allude to this transformation, right? The first time I spoke in front of an audience was terrified, the first few times, actually. Then after showing up, getting reps in, and reflecting, I realized, okay, I've earned a bit of confidence here. I continue to go, to speak, more reps, more reps. Okay, now we're, well, I guess now we're getting comfortable with this. I'm not up all night the night before, rehearsing, pacing in hotel rooms.

A little more trust in my ability. I continue, more reps, more reps, more reps. Okay, now, now I kind of enjoy this. I've broken through. More reps, more reps, more reps. Now there's enough comfortability where I can look at what's in front of me and start asking, well, now, how do I refine this? this to stand out. How do I make this so valuable that it becomes the 1% of the 1% of the 1%?

I've worked hard for my baseline. I feel good. Now, how do I chisel away the little elements of mediocrity sprinkled in there? How do I pull them out one piece at a time? It is a testament to going, to allowing yourself to experience life and data points and ups. and downs all that help you refine the process. They are the journey. Can you do all that overnight? No, absolutely not, but you can always meet yourself where you are and win that battle.

You can always become a little bit stronger, setting the stage for the next level and the next and the next. In fact, when you're in it, it feels so intuitive that you don't even realize what you're doing. One battle at a time, you're just step. on the stone in front of you. Think about it, you don't defeat a storm. You simply navigate through each gust of wind

and every drop of rain. You pick apart and outlast the pieces that make up the storm, and you are capable of that. You're made for that. Again, when you give yourself permission to enter the arena that is adversity, that is the unknown, success is oddly intuitive.

oddly intuitive. It just kind of appears in front of you one obstacle at a time. Or one opportunity at a time, depending on how you're looking at it. The problem is that too many of us stay on the sidelines. I think you know this, right? And when you wrap your mind around the fact that stagnation is the only adversary, you become free.

You unlock unlock what you could be and always should have been. I mean, how brilliant the mind. That incomprehensible network behind your eyes. Capable of both putting a man into orbit and navigating the depths of the vast oceans that surround us. It is in and of itself a miracle. But what if I was audacious enough to suggest

temporarily taking that miracle, that masterpiece, that network behind your eyes, and shutting it off. For a moment, hitting pause on the defense mechanisms actively painting what-ifs and worst-case scenarios, begging you to play small and seemingly always prioritizing safety over meaning. What if I made the case that the best thing you could possibly do is start now and ask questions later, begin the journey, start the ride, immerse yourself in the river's current. Ensure you don't know where you'll end up. But it won't be where you currently stand.

And that new you contains wisdom. It contains that accrued data to improve upon. It contains the 2.0. And so the key now and forever is not to expect. all the answers before you step foot out the door. It's not to be sure everything will fall into place. It's simply to have the courage to move into the great unknown

without any reassurances. It's you, your belief in yourself, and variables unknown. You don't have to get it right the first time. You just can't do. Nothing. Remember what's yours to control and what's not what must be let go. Remember that nothing is so futile as attempting to move the immovable or change the unchangeable. Remember that your greatest strength is focusing your time, talents and efforts, exhausting

your energy on that which you can control. And sometimes this distinction hurts. But to fail to see it is to shackle oneself to delusion. Right? You can complain about the weather all day, but to complain about it, to focus on it, to be stuck in it is not going to change it. Your time would be better suited looking at how to adjust yourself to it.

And that's what life repeatedly tells us. There's plenty we aren't happy about, plenty we wish we could change. But to stay there in that space is to forfeit your greatness, your strength. Why? Because there is so much you can control, so much you can do. You can always position yourself to succeed. But that calls for first separating what's yours and what's not. There are people I wish were different. There are situations I prayed were alterable.

There are outcomes that are given without my asking. That's just life. And a losing mentality is to fight that, to feel anger or resentment at the people that let you down. Why couldn't they be how I want them to be? It's to dwell on the situation that occurred despite your wishes. Why couldn't it have just happened my way? It's to refuse to acknowledge the outcomes that have already materialized.

Why couldn't it just have evolved differently? All that, as hard as it is to see, is embracing a mentality of victimhood. It's walking down a path that has no desirable destination in store for you. When you accept the unchangeable, you then become the architect. of your reality. Sure, people, places, and outcomes weren't always the best, but now you ask,

how can I navigate around it, or better yet, use it to my advantage. It is, to use the famous metaphor, not shaking your fist at the wind, but building sails for your boat, creating a path to take you somewhere new. So let the energy, the time, and emotion that's wasted on the immovable dissolve. The question worth asking is where do you most want to be and how can you get there?

And while those details outside the scope of your control can feel like a bottomless gap in your way, I promise that what's around you is enough to build a bridge over it. There's enough there for you to find your way. So long as we learn to separate the gap from the bridge, the details from the solutions, when all you see is why you can't go or how it can't be solved or how impossible something is. It's not that you are looking at an unfortunate truth, it's that you are looking at the wrong supporting evidence. When we stop seeing the details and outside circumstances, as the deciders of fate, we win.

When we place our eyes upon the controllable, when we step into what is ours to move and shape and transform, we finally see that the journey to something bigger is not only possible, it is inevitable. You can salvage the day. You can salvage the week. The month, the year, the years. All is not lost.

It's never lost. The trap is looking back and using what happened to define what will happen. Using what's behind you to map what's in front of you. What brought this to mind? Well, personal note, this has happened before today was not a good one. At least not until now. Not from a productivity standpoint. I just got back from Europe, a little jet lagged.

I've never had more to do, but simultaneously done so little with my time. Which is frustrating. But I'm going to the gym in an hour, and that leaves me 60 minutes to salvage what could easily have been looked back upon as a lost day. See, something that I think is beautiful about life is that you can get countless things wrong. You're afforded substantial room for error. And it's often, you know, you only need to get one thing right. Like take dating, right?

Countless wrong relationships. You only need one to work out. Right, entrepreneurship, ton of mistakes. Lots of swings and misses. That's built into the process. but the one win can change everything. Or these stories, these ideas I share on social media, right? A lot of them totally miss.

They resonate with me and sometimes me alone. But if one resonates with others, one gains traction, there's a lot of impact to be had there. And so I wanted to share this because it's a slightly different angle to what I've talked about before. Of course, this has elements of yeah, you don't feel like it, well, do it anyway. David Gockens would have an aneurism

hearing that I even contemplated not writing today. But here's the thing. It's very easy to group a period of time together and call it a loss. Eh, it didn't happen today, it might tomorrow, right? It's easy to look back on what you were and use it to build walls around yourself to say it's what you are now,

when in reality there is still value. you to be squeezed out. Just because what existed before now was antithetical to everything you wanted it to be, well, that doesn't mean there's no wind buried in there. It doesn't mean between 445 and 545 here today, I can't share something that's important to me that might help other people identify and dive into something that's important to them, right? All is not lost if time remains. To message that, sure, it might be psychologically easier to walk away from

the day because the first half wasn't good, but that's not the move. There contains somewhere in there the seed that will grow, or at least begin the process of growing what you need. Jim Quick, he recently said some days all you have is 40%. And on those days, giving 40% is 100%. Maybe seeing that subconsciously saved my day to day. I don't know, but it's very easy to check out when the past was not what you wanted it to be, instead of thinking, yeah, but one right move right now changes everything, changes the momentum, alters the personal identity.

You're always one move, one decision away from reigniting momentum. A quote-unquote bad day can be completely mitigated with one incredible decision or action. So let's pull this up a level. Where does it bring us? It brings us to those moments were sitting in bed, wishing things were a little different, went a little differently, or looking in the mirror disappointed in the day, and instead of letting it define the story in

totality, remembering that there's something there, maybe just one thing, one action, one decision, one move you can take to salvage what remains, there's some value you can find that will reposition your outlook on what has occurred. There is no loss here. Only the win that hasn't happened yet. The sunrise is not the best part. I want to explain something I've tried to articulate over the years. but at least in my mind

have never quite captured how I feel or what I mean because I think it's important now a tad trivial or could be seen that way in fact that picture one of those memes where the top says nobody

and the bottom would say Eddie screaming about the sunrise for 10 years whereas a buddy of mine recently said you know a bird flies over my right shoulder and I want to go home and write a novel about it. But, you know, truth be told, there's beauty in the mundane. And I think when looked at correctly, some of our greatest lessons about ourselves, about the world, and about how those two things often aren't as different as we might be

inclined to think, shine through. So we're going at this again one more time. The beginning, 4 a.m., couldn't sleep last night. So I got up, I got dressed, went to the Dunkin' Donuts, drive through around the corner, I was sitting there right as it opened at 5.30. Got my French vanilla coffee and headed to the beach to see night turn today. And here's an interesting thing. If you were to search sunrise, Pompano Beach, on that particular day,

it would have told you 6.28 a.m. I got to the beach around 540, and this will become more and more relevant as I sort of progress here. But when I arrived, it was dark. It was not a soul outside, except for a man with a dog, who for some reason warned me that he had a dog, and another man twirling around a glow stick. Listen, Florida's the best place I've ever lived by far, but it keeps you on your toes, man. So I walked by them and found a spot by the water. I sat down and it was truly theatrical.

It's almost hard to find the words for the South Florida sky in the morning as night turns today. And as I'm sitting there looking out over the Atlantic, you can see right where the ocean and sky touch these little patches of teal and orange and pink that start to slowly break up. the darkness. Almost like someone's dipping their brush in paint and just flicking it at a canvas. Random assortments of colors. And it's very interesting because it happens subtly and somehow all at the same time. Piece by piece, these little neon strips start making their way over the horizon. I just sat back with my coffee and I watched the world around me come to life. birds start flying over the water. The sand rake, if that's what it's called,

started driving around, preparing the beach for everyone that would come visit that day. You start to hear voices and laughter, infiltrate the beach around you. And here's my thing. Here is that thought that I truly feel is important but have a hard time with the why.

It's how people show up at 615 and make their way to the sand to watch the sun come up. Obviously, understandable. It is an incredible sight. To see that giant ball of fire emerge in the distance seemingly make its way up into the sky. I get it. I just can't help but feel like in some way. you know, it's similar to fast-forwarding a movie to the point where the villain's already been defeated,

where the problems already been solved. It's like, it's the post-game interview after the Super Bowl. The magic in my eyes is the before. Before the sun rises, it's watching something so dark, so empty, so hopeless, replaced by a masterpiece that takes your breath away. It's seeing out in the distance the light that was coming. It was always on its way.

Make itself known to you for the very first time. And as that extravagant march from nothing to something takes place above and all around you, suddenly you can see your hand in front of your face. It's like you blinked. and night became day. That type of transformation, that journey from one extreme to the other, it's so incredible, so emotional,

it screams hope. It makes it that much harder for me to say, I can't, I can't change, I can't let go, I can't build. It's like, look, you just watched the black of night become day. It's a reminder that things are always dark until they're not. We can never see until we can.

It's just make-believe until it's real. It's a process of holding on. Sometimes it's just holding on until that paint begins to color in the world around you. So it's not that the others are wrong. Again, I totally get it. I get the appeal of putting the beach chair down at 615, snapping some pictures at the same,

and its magnificence. I get it. It's real. It's tangible. It's the shiny object. Theoretically, it's what we should be looking at. But let's not forget that magic in its infancy. Because for everything that is, for every sun that rises,

its origin was once darkness. It's beginning so convoluted and so bleak that it's only logical one. the only logical one would look around and fail to see reality stretching beyond those desolate confines. The world seems to like pointing out the shiny things and the obvious spectacles. But if you ask me, the power precedes that sunrising. The power is navigating through nothing, knowing that things will not only be different, but that a light show is soon to emerge. That the line between possible and impossible

between heaven and hell is showing up. It's settling in and hanging on as the darkness fades and gives way to mourning. It certainly reminds me to hold on. It reminds me that amidst every storm, I'm living moments that when zoomed out, comprise the masterpiece. It reminds me to hold on, to find color, to see the beauty, to appreciate the journey because the sunrise is not the best part. If you have the ability

to love, love yourself first. Charles Bukowski. So last week I was in Utah, And while I was there, I did some guided breath work, which had never done before. And honestly, it was a little skeptical at first. But I try and keep an open mind and gave it a shot. I'm happy I did. It ended up potentially being one of the most important things I've ever done. And I want to share why, because this breakthrough or aha moment, if you will, was exactly what I needed when I needed to hear it.

So this episode's going to be a little different than usual, but I feel compelled to pass it along. So to set the scene, I arrived with a friend of mine to the instructor, Jen's location. She gave us an overview, kind of explaining what the next hour is going to look like, and handed me a notebook to write down my goal for this session. And the notebook becomes pretty important as the story goes on. But I opened it, and I wrote what I'd like to use this session to reflect. on. It happened to be the walls that I have a tendency to build around myself. That day, that felt like the most pertinent obstacle in my life. I saw it as an opportunity to push back against that

reality that human beings love to create normal and then latch onto it. And that's not ideal, because when we do that, we stop looking for places to grow. We stop pushing. We stop seeking to live life to the fullest. In other words, we settle. And so I wrote that down. I closed a notebook, laid back on this incredible fuzzy blanket, and the music got turned on. We began the breathing pattern, in, in, out, in, out. Jen started guiding us, verbally taking us back to a conversation with our younger selves, the journey had begun. And this is the part where things get really interesting because my thoughts really did feel like

some strange mix of dreaming and hallucinating, just from breathwork. But at some point, she referenced the need to let go and said the words, you know, we weren't meant to suffer or hold on to suffering. And that really cut deep because I know there are so many places

where I've rationalized continuous suffering in my life. I'd speculate that in some way we all do. When the hard thing or the uncomfortable thing, you know, when they stop being stepping stones and instead just become the way things are. becomes a concession. Hey, this doesn't feel good, but it's my life.

This person holds me down, but it's how things are. I don't like doing this every day. It eats at me, but hey, life, am I right? That's learned helplessness. It hides in the corners and the nooks and crannies of life, subtle enough that we don't give it much thought. And I imagined very vividly climbing down a ladder, placed on the edge of this dark canyon that went straight down.

Down, down, down. Everything. My entire landscape was black and white. There was zero color, except for the rays of light barely visible at the bottom. All the way down as I descended into the canyon. The colors that get a little stronger, a little brighter, as if every step put a little more vibrance into my life. Each move down made things a little clear, the latter becoming quicker and quicker,

eventually turning into a slide that brought me down to the base of the canyon, where upon landing and standing up, everything was illuminated. fields of sunflower waterfalls birds chirping the sun shining and it was there in that moment

I realized my intention for the class that when I wrote down in that little notebook well it missed the mark not in the sense of being incorrect or wrong necessarily but it simply wasn't

enough see at the root of it all or at the bottom of that Canyon existed life with the courage to love yourself. Not just accept yourself, not just be okay with your existence, but love yourself. With all your faults and your struggle, with all your mistakes and your history, became clear to me how much changes when you love with all your heart, staring back at you in the mirror. The opinions of others,

they do not guide your decision-making. How could they? How could others know you better than you? In fact, those opinions are part of the black-and-white landscape to be left behind at the top of the mountain. The consistent suffering you've become accustomed to, the learned helplessness you endure, that's not acceptable to someone who truly loves him or herself.

Loving yourself means pushing away that which is not you. It's finding that ladder down to the beautiful world of authenticity and truth, the magic of being aligned with what really matters. And what's funny is, I can talk about breaking down barriers. They should be broken down. I can talk about stepping into fear because it should be confronted.

I can talk about finding a way out when we're stuck in a way up when we're down. I can talk about all of that every day of my life. But none of it matters. if you don't learn to fully love the reflection in the mirror more, more than you ever thought you could. Think about the gift you could give to that younger version of yourself. Think about what you could give to those close to you, your family, your friends.

Think about what you could do for the world if you left those black and white concessions behind you and lived a life true to yourself. yourself. It is of course not always easy, but I learned that day that it is the North Star. It's what we build upon. So before we ask how to shape the world around us, maybe we should be asking how do we embrace the one within us? Maybe we should learn to love ourselves so deeply that Those walls don't need to be broken down. Because in time, we'll learn not to build them up in the first place.

We'll learn that in a world of black and white, it is acceptance and trust and confidence and love that gives it color. How do you visualize the road you're on? With its twists and turns, Smooth terrain, rough terrain, straightaways, hills, what is it all mean? Do you find it odd that it gets more challenging as you get closer to your destination? Right? The further along you get the more tension life puts between you and the finish line. Almost like the universe is adamant about weeding out those who think they can skate by.

What is the difference between saying you want it and wrong? really wanting it. Perhaps it's a willingness to fight through a storm just for the opportunity to find calm and serenity in its center. This morning, as the sun was coming up, I went for a run. A nice five-mile run down the coast, and the way I planned it out was simple, right? 2.5 or halfway up in soft sand, and then I'd stop, and I'd turn around, and I'd run 2.5 back, but I'd run 2.5 back. on the harder surface, right? Easier to handle, almost like a reward for pushing myself on the way up.

And things were going perfectly. I made the 2.5 mile run up. And when it came to stop and turn around, I realized what should have been obvious from the beginning was high tide, which means I didn't get that hard surface to run back on instead. Not only was it softer than the way up, but I was running on a slope.

And that just threw my mind for a loop, right? I'm embarrassed to admit, I was, actually angry about it. You know, I pushed myself hard going up and wanted that breather. Almost felt like life pushed the finish line back 2.5 miles. And trust me, as I'm writing this, seems ridiculous to talk about. But in the moment, just irrationally annoyed. That was the carrot that had been chasing the whole time. So I begrudgingly, you know, moved forward, kind of trying to figure out what to do, and ultimately just continued forward, and the emotion subsided, and as usually happens, you pull yourself out of the weeds a little bit, the big picture tells a different story.

Different story means different perspective, and that's what I came across, right? This idea or this question, well, why do we expect life to be flat ground? Why was that my assumption to begin with? the easy to navigate path. Why is that the standard? And the more I thought about it, right? The more I wondered if that's the very reason why we underperform. It's the little spark that ultimately lights this wildfire of regret. Because when convenience is the standard,

everything else becomes unfair. Everything else is a burden. When the road should be flat, What are we to make of the hills in our path? Thinking life should be easy, it provides oxygen to a victim mentality. And sometimes it takes these little experiences for me to refocus on these subtle realities. The flat ground is not the standard. It is earned.

It's a gift. It should be cherished and appreciated because guess what? Life wasn't easy. It isn't easy and it never will be. But I believe the differentiator is knowing that. Right? So I kept running on the slope, feet sinking into the sand. I got my teeth kicked in just a little bit longer and life didn't end. In fact, I think the mental aspect was tougher than the physical.

We're only talking five miles here. But when the standard changes, so does the performance. It's about just moving forward. And like poetry, what the day? about three quarters of a mile left, right? The beach widened. It leveled out. The ground became harder.

Each step became easier. And yeah, I was running. But in my head, it felt like I was lying on a bed of feathers. Because when you prepare to base life's demons, when you're ready for battle, when you anticipate, you'll have to give everything. Any adversary that falls short of that feels like wind behind your back. If we can endure anything, the question is whether or not we put ourselves in position to. Mistakes, they don't define us.

Heartbreak, it doesn't kill us. And criticism, it doesn't shape us. But I'll tell you what. The fear that they do stops a lot of people from becoming who they're capable. of becoming, panicking at the slightest sign of discomfort, moving away from anything but the convenient when in reality inconveniences are the path. As Ryan Holliday famously put it, the obstacle is the way. See, satisfaction, it doesn't even exist without a will to overcome.

What meaning does a finish line have without miles of so hard? Doubt and questions and fear and dragons being slayed while you prove to yourself over and over again that you know what? I am more. And I can be more. And the crazy thing is that there's not even a stopping point here. This rocket will propel as high into the ether as you choose to take it. And look, it's not about running on sliding. or sinking a few inches into the sand.

It's not about being rejected, losing or castigated by seven billion self-interested souls. No. It's about not being scared to take the bridge that connects current to future. Complacency to recreation, the known to the seemingly impossible. You're made of so much more than you give yourself, You are so much stronger than you think you are.

So for yourself and for the world, capture that. Own it and redefine what it means, not to simply exist, but to your core with every ounce of your being, your soul, every fiber in your body to truly live. and simplification. Not because you can't handle the complex, but because too much noise drowns out the meaning. It gets in the way of the things that actually make the difference.

Our blessing and curse is the finitude of our time. So by default, that makes the word, know a gatekeeper to the contentment we feel in our lives. What are you keeping out? you saving space for? Clarity is not a luxury but a necessity. And when one has limited capacity, they must both cherish and protect it. So why does this matter? It matters because when you simplify things, the path is never as intimidating. The problem is never unsolvable. The opportunity is never too far away. It matters because we dress the solution.

up in irrelevant detail and then call them the problem. We don't see things as what they are. We see them as stories. We tell ourselves. We see too much. And it just so happens that the biggest leaps forward one can take in life or the result of not secret formulas or hidden answers, but in freeing ourselves of that excess,

saying no to the wrong things so that we can say yes to the right things. Underneath the stacks and accumulation of nothing is something. There's something too, the notion that the road to recovery is always a single decision away. That it's already there. But you just haven't been able to acknowledge, to choose it. When life becomes convoluted, there's this tendency to think, I am the problem, I am broken, I am incapable of, X or Y or Z. And it's like no, you've just let so much in that what was once obvious is now

buried. You're looking at the giant ocean before you forgetting that a very tiny boat can traverse it. Basics. Let's ask the question, where is it I most want to go and what would one step in that direction look like? Sometimes we have to go. knowing that mile 10 will have its monsters, and mile 50 will have its setback. But to not take step one in anticipation of those future problems, of something way down the road is letting that excess in.

Simplicity is the goal, simplicity. Ask yourself, can you start? Beginning grants you one of the greatest weapons to possess, an ability to a ability to adjust, the ability to adapt, the ability to utilize the now. And this is not to dismiss the pain and difficulty associated with our most challenging times, it's to remind you that during those times you feel lost or closed in, you don't need to reinvent the world to your left and right.

It's not bigger than you. So much of the time it's about composing yourself enough to reach out for the light switch that will illuminate the path just enough for you to look up and walk right out the front door. Somewhere along the way, we all come face to face with the gatekeeper. Watcher of the road ahead. protector of the path before us, he is your defining moment. The reason you either go home or push forward.

He's where your story ends or begins. And see, I've met him before many times this gatekeeper, guardian of all that's worth possessing, acquiring and conquering. I've witnessed the pain he inflicts, the doubt he manufactures, the obstacles he creates. And what's interesting about the things in life worth having is that they're never easy to obtain. The universe has this way of making sure you really want those things you say you want. because a lot of people talk and they wish and they project. But what they fail to see is that it's not until the wheels hit the road that the truth materializes.

There is a cost for everything. You don't get day without night or courage without fear or bliss without pain. The road to every kingdom travels through a world. hostile territory and the harder you pull that arrow back, the more power it contains as it leaps forward. Resistance in life, it's not a detriment, it is a simple triage process in which only those willing to endure the cost of excellence are able to access its bounties. You can have all the world if you give all of yourself. The question is, when the gatekeeper approaches

and it's decision time, what's your move? We are a product of the pain we endure, the sacrifices we make, the struggles we overcome. Let's not complicate that, which is simple. It's not the universe, but your mind that needs convincing. Because once that floodgate opens, water is walkable, walls or climbable. Once you empower yourself, the status quo is left powerless with no option but to watch you bend life to your will.

It's not during the easy time, but the midst of your journey, the heart of your race, when you most want to pack your bags and call it a day, that that gatekeeper stands before, for you, hand extended, whispering that you want it, but maybe not that bad. And it's in that exact moment that you dig deep, look him in the eyes and show that there was never a doubt. Only belief. And no matter what awaits, you'll endure, you'll break through. Because gatekeeper or not, that's who you are. Sometimes it's what we don't say.

that echoes the loudest. What we don't do that has the greatest consequences, where we don't go, that ultimately gets us lost. I remember as a teenager, applying to college, I was working on the admissions essay. I was brainstorming with my grandmother, talking over possible topics and approaches.

And she read me this quote that's sometimes attributed to Mark. Mark Twain, but that's beside the point. The quote states, 20 years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sales, explore, dream, discover. I thought this was the perfect bridge to the next chapter of my life.

latest horizon, the newest adventure. I thought it was incredible and it was. It was exactly what I needed and so on to that next adventure I went. And here's the thing. As life unfolded this equation somehow transformed from exploration and dreaming and discovery into the question, well, what am I supposed to do? Somehow without my pain. paying attention, life turned into a checklist. A question I couldn't get wrong. A test I needed to make sure I didn't fail. It's amazing how quickly we forget the infinite breadth of life.

Because we're focusing on the dotted line before us, the one we're supposed to walk. Sometimes we're so fixated on what the expectation is that we don't ask ourselves, where these expectations are coming from. Who is so significant and wise that they know what's best for you to a greater extent than you do? See how that's an important question. And also one you can lose in your periphery as you follow that dotted line before you. When you have a destination in mind, hopes, dreams, ambitions, well, that's an adventure. When someone else, has a destination in mind for you, whether this authority is imaginary or not,

that's obedience. And sometimes the greatest disservice we can do to ourselves is to not stop and think, to not stop and ask ourselves where we're going and why. Do you remember when you were a child and you got into trouble, right? Sometimes you get sent to your room. And for me, this was agony. When it was punishment, I wanted to be anywhere but confined within those walls.

I hated being sent to my room. And then finally, the door would open. My parents would say, Eddie, you can come out now. I'd go outside, play basketball for a little bit. And then oftentimes I'd find myself right back in my room. Happy, you know, playing with my toys, whatever I was doing, not a care in the world. And it's like, what changed? Nothing but the context.

Same me, same room, same toys, same whatever I was doing. It was, however, no longer a punishment. And I think this realization is worth exploring. We may not realize, we may not even be able to articulate it, but I think we long for control over our lives. We long to walk our own path. And in this situation, the path led me, right back to where I was.

Sometimes, though, the path leads us in the opposite direction, far away to distant world. The end destination is not as important as the fact that we chose it. That we asked ourselves why, and that we believe in the answer and immerse ourselves in its execution. So when Mark Twain talks about the things

that we don't do, holding more weight in our hearts, It's because those things we tend to skip over are often the very things that breathe life into our souls. We'll go to school to get good grades, to get a 9 to 5, to get a promotion, to get a mortgage on a home. But the audacity to open that photography studio. The nerve to think you could rent a van and travel the country. The delusion to think you could start that routine that will get you. you in the physical shape you've always dreamed of. See, we're lucky and fortunate to have the things that we have.

The quality of life we lead now far exceeds those that came before us. Life is convenient, incredibly convenient. But what is convenience if it comes at the expense of purpose, of meaning in life because that's what steers the ship? A crisis of meaning ultimately mitigates everything else. There is no exploration without meaning. And without exploration, tomorrow becomes a repetition of today. Not an evolution.

And what's incredible, truly incredible, is that our purpose can be rediscovered, our paths redefined. How by having a long conversation with, you guessed it yourself? By putting the phone in another room, by disconnecting the Wi-Fi and spending time with you, something along the lines of dear self. What matters to me in this world? Where am I going right now? Is where I'm going right now aligned with what matters to me in this world?

And sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no great, but what we have now is a foundation to work off of. An awareness that should be celebrated, that you created. It's so easy to walk through life and never have that conversation. It's so easy to sleepwalk to the tune of someone else's song, the beat of other people's drums. But when you open your eyes, you see the correlation between your thoughts and your actions,

your actions and your reality. You realize that when you wake up that tendency tendency to ask yourself what you have to do today, to reflect on your problems. Those questions you assumed were normal, that you never gave much thought to. Well now you'll see you can dismantle that notion. Now you'll see that if you can ask yourself what you have to do, you can just as easily ask yourself what you want to do, what you get to do, what life is inviting you to do. If you can reflect on your problems, you are just as capable of reflecting on the opportunity at your fingertips.

If you can spend time dwelling on whether you're walking the obligatory dotted line that's been laid out in front of you, you're just as capable of redrawing that line and allowing it to pull you into a new dimension. Listen again, 20 years from now, you will be more disappointed. by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sales.

Explore, dream, discover. Explore, but for you. Wander down those paths that have for so long piqued your curiosity. Try things you once felt like other people were entitled to, but you'd never given yourself permission. Be that for yourself because no one will come up to you and randomly give you that green light. Dream because without building your castles in the air, as Thoreau calls them, you live your entire life on the ground. You'll never hit targets that you don't create.

And sure, there'll be a time that only you see the destination. Great, that's life, but with each step forward as it becomes more real for you, will make sense to others as well. Trust each step like it is in and of itself a miracle. And you'll find in time that that's exactly what each step was. And lastly, discover. Discover who you are, what you're capable of becoming. As Emerson said, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. To forge your own path, build your own life, stay true to your own heart is courage. So sail away, because you have the ability, because you are strong enough, and because the story you're

about to write doesn't continue on until you turn the page on today's chapter.