Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - STOP PLAYING SMALL | Best Motivational Speeches | Start Your Day Right

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

We’ve all heard the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and while that’s often true, what if it’s also a powerful tool? What if, instead of stealing from us, it could inspire us to see the world differently, to push beyond self-imposed limitations? I often turn to the lives of history’s great leaders—our country’s founding fathers and early presidents. Their courage, conviction, and willingness to embrace challenges were on a scale that feels almost unimaginable today. It forces me to ask tough questions: What separated their reality from mine? Was it circumstance, belief, or something more? This is about exploring that “delta”—the gap between their magnitude and our modern lives. Not to diminish ourselves but to reflect, recalibrate, and grow. What if comparison wasn’t about feeling less than but about discovering how much more we’re capable of? What questions does their legacy inspire in you? Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

Comparison is the thief of joy. We've all heard it before, and it's true. Sometimes. It seems like there's always a sometimes, or an asterisk, or a gray area. Comparison can be an incredible tool in simply reminding you that you're playing small, maybe way too small. So from time to time, I'll use comparison to help me paint that picture. to create that outlook.

Quick example. So on the shelves behind me and on my audible library on my phone, there's a ton of books and biographies about the founding fathers and other notable American presidents. Why? Well, because they lived lives of such courage.

They lived with such conviction. They just lived differently than we live today. and it forces me to ask the tough questions. It's like, well, why? What makes up for that difference in magnitude? I mean, was it simply the times? Were they a product of their moment in history? Were they more determined?

Did they have more self-belief? Right? Where is this delta that I'm seeing when I look at their reality versus mine? You read Hamilton's biography, who's not a president, but you get the point. You know, in my toughest battles seem to contain the same level of intensity and weight as his decision just want to fly. Right?

So I'm going to run through three bullets that sort of frame my thinking. It's going to seem like I'm unnecessarily beating myself up here, but the point comes full circle. So bear with me. One, Washington. Everyone knows, right? Let an army initially, practically destined for defeat. His execution and death was almost assured. Then I'm like, okay, I led myself to the gym today.

Adams crosses the Atlantic four times, for his country. At the time, that just brought unfathomable risk, and he does it with a smile. Me, I'm procrastinating about making a phone call. Jefferson, drafting a declaration that claimed independent, from the strongest, most powerful empire on earth. Me, I get butterflies before going live on Instagram. We are not the same. Why?

Well, I guess first and foremost, let's make sure we're asking the right questions. Who says you or I don't have the potential to be a Washington, and Adams or a Jefferson? It's not productive to downplay our own battles, right? However small, After all, that's how empires are built, a stacking of small wind. No one just arrives in a position of influence.

And these folks surely had their own battles. That's all subjective anyway. But the comparison here is sacred to me because there is a common theme amongst all of them. And it's not hidden. You don't have to read between the lines to see it. It's self-belief, right? All of these people were in an environment

where change was warranted, and all of them believed they themselves could be, be levers to help shift that status quo. It's like for no reason, the buck stopped with them. And you see that from childhood on. It suggests that if you believe you can be great, and I do, and by the way, so should you, then understand that it's not possessing of courage that is the issue. The issue is that you're merely holding what amounts to a bucket of it.

When the true depth of your courage reaches miles and miles down beneath the surface, there is so much more, so much that it's incomprehensible. The problem, Eddie, is you can't hit targets you don't aim for. If you don't stretch, there will be no growth. If you aim for a moderately sized mountain top, that's where you'll land. You'll get a view, sure, better than the ground you stand on now, but nowhere near the view available to you had you merely thought bigger. Thought of yourself as that lever that could implement change.

If your giant victory is making a phone call you were dreading, well, then that's the type of courage that will define you. I think in a perfect world, these aren't destinations, they are pit stops. They are tolls that we must pay along the way. You're capable of wave. bigger. Life begins when you know that. And see, I don't associate this idea as coming from a place of lack. I just think this game of life is beautiful because the journey is endless. This is a choose-your-own-ending story. And sometimes what I need is to look around and realize I'm simply

not thinking big enough. The great men and women of history that paved the way for us. They didn't stay connected to these micro problems. They moved beyond them on their way to more. They dealt with life and death. They dealt with seemingly instrumental odds simply in the name of their beliefs and ideals. Easy wasn't a choice, not for them. It's why their faces comprise the bookshelf behind me. Now does everyone want or need that type of personal assent? Growth in the face of adversity? That's for you to look in the mirror and decide. But you're here, so I'm going to assume you do, and if you do, it's critical to know that, one, that type of result demands more of you, and two, you have more.

Comparison isn't always about inadequacy. Sometimes it holds that mirror to your face. Sometimes it reminds you what mankind can produce with courage introduced into the formula. You just need to be reminded that you're looking at the jar right now from inside the jar. Expans your thinking. See there's more. Roger Bannister, probably with my favorite example, first one to break the four-minute mile. Prior to that, it was not possible. Humans didn't do it, couldn't do it, wasn't reality. Everyone, quote-unquote, knew that.

Then Bannister does his thing. Breaks it. Suddenly, whoa, it's possible. Now it's real. tangible, runners around the world adjusting their targets. They demand it of themselves. Rapid fire, globally, runner after runner, starts breaking that mark. Why? Well, people didn't get more talented overnight. They always had it in them. They just finally allowed themselves to be as good as they were capable of being. And that thing you're fighting that you're dealing with,

It's not nothing. In fact, the battle you're navigating is everything, and I commend you for pushing through it. But take this idea and let it be a part of the arsenal you own and possess as you navigate life's storms. The challenge of today is ultimately small compared to what the best of you is capable of overcoming. What's now the ceiling will be the floor tomorrow.

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, they were not gods. They were principled men driven by a purpose bigger than themselves. The scope of their belief in what's possible was monumental. And so, to maintain proportionality, they too grew to be momentous. To fill the shoes of self-created expectation, sometimes the best thing you can remind yourself is how big the world is, How much you can shape and bend your reality. How powerful you are.

You're not a quiet observer, but a builder of this world. Then, risking execution makes more sense. Smiling at the prospect of death at sea becomes reasonable. Giving the metaphorical middle finger to the king of the most powerful empire on earth becomes a little easier to understand. It's like, I get it now. The world is malleable.

And they knew with courage it could be shaped in their image. Insert you. Different theater, different time, different characters, different objectives altogether. But same premise. A malleable world and an opportunity to shape it. So here is to finding the courage to shape your life. Never to dismiss or belittle your own small winds, for all big things are comprised of only small things,

but rather to remember where you are now is not the final destination. It's one step on your own personal staircase that ascends to the heavens, where you stop is a decision entirely yours. See, something beautiful happens when you set the standard so high that it hovers above the clouds,

the obstacles along the way become far less intimidating, less significant. The story doesn't end down here, so there must be a way. And when we tell ourselves, there must be a way, we simultaneously increase the odds of finding one.

Right now is not the final boss, the coveted mountain top. Right now is a small win that will help shape you into your evolved self. Right now is a mere challenge, an obstacle, a slight inconvenience, a story to tell, a data point

as you etch into the ether, your reality. As you dream larger than life and grow into those shoes, you could have played small, but then you woke up. You saw beyond the manufactured finish line that was turning mole hills into mountains

and realized if you want it, This world is yours, and I say, let it be so. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. That's a quote from the queen in Lewis Carroll's book, Through the Looking Glass. I listen to that, and I wonder, how is it? Or how does it make you feel that the difference between possible and impossible, And impossible is your willingness to step into chaos. Impossible is just a compounding of smaller possibles.

Impossible is a refusal to say no. Impossible is moving forward through those checkpoints in life where most people look around and simply say, I don't want to pay the metaphorical price. I don't want to give what's required here. I really enjoy history. Lately, I've been revisiting a lot of various battles from recent all the way to way back, from Alexander the Great's Conquest of Tyre to George Washington and the American colonists against the British,

even the famous Battle of Thermopylae with the 300 Spartans that we all know about. You know, all of these have in their own unique ways. They defied the odds. And what strikes me is, you know, if you look at any of these scenarios on paper, they all appear to be suicide missions. It's crazy. You know, the 300 at Thermopyla, obviously being close to that, and I'll touch on that in a second, but all very special in their own unique way. All took an apparent impossible task and did something pretty remarkable with it. See, when you immerse yourself into something, you've been something seemingly impossible,

without the prospect of turning around in your head, there's a shift in your mind. You know you have to find a way forward because forward is the only way, and so you do. You look at the landscape differently. You look at the resources accessible to you differently. Funny enough, there always seems to be something to solve the problem, some dot that can be connected, some loophole, some advantage, some tactic that can move you, maybe not directly to the finish line, but just far enough to adapt and survive. Some path to triumph that, you know, when looked at as a whole, gets lost amidst the daunting nature of the task. It's like leaping a mountain is impossible, but climbing one rock at a time is very doable. And it's that, right, again and again and again, that gives you just enough life to cross the abyss.

So back to those examples, right? You take Alexander the Great. It was the courage and ingenuity to literally construct a causeway from land out into the water to the tiny island city state of Tyre simultaneously using his navy to cut off supply lines and breaching the wall that surrounded the city.

On paper, that's an impossible, just unthinkable feat For Washington, it was surviving winter, a superior army. It was finding a way to manufacture some key battles that were enough to convince the French to come in and support the cause. One day at a time. Again, the greatest military force on earth at the time. A seemingly impossible, insurmountable obstacle. At Thermopylae was using the landscape and superior skill to their advantage, holding their ground,

and making a substantial dent in the Persian army, again, one of the most powerful armies on Earth at the time, you know, all the way until it was the last of the 300 men, completely turning the numbers game upside down. Impossible is looking at the size and scope of a task, not the little, actions required to bring it to life. And that's generally a rule. When you operate under the premise or the notion that there is a solution, you find one. And I can give you the example of YouTube, as I usually do, because it's obviously near and dear to my heart and something that's changed my life.

A platform of this size and scale 10 years ago is unthinkable, impossible, laughable. My brain didn't even go there. It's impossible for someone who left their day job running out of money in a small apartment in Boston to create that. But when the door is not cracked, when it's shut firmly behind you, there's no escape plan, when it's, I am going forward and that is the only direction I'm going, everything around you becomes an instrument in the symphony that will be your goal. growth. You find a way. It's like, why do people talk about rock bottom being what turned them around? Because in that moment, they had to start using what was around them to win. There was no off-ramp. They had to see the utility in what existed around them. The hours I used to waste became more precious. Every dollar, how can I start?

stretch it into something that matters. Boston is a major city. I started asking, who can I connect with and learn from? Even Microsoft Word went from being something I, you know, had to reluctantly open once in a while for an office job to this portal where I could share my thoughts with the world. We don't see life as it is. We see life as we are.

And when you're only focused on one goal, you know, you become this vehicle through which magic happens. When I was a kid, like way back, right, 90s computers first became sort of household items. I used to play this Star Wars game. It's just a demo. And I love this metaphor because I, you know, was on level one, wandering around, frustrated, trying to find this door that would bring me to level two. and I could not find it.

And I looked and I looked and I looked and I would spend hours and hours and I didn't know about cheat codes or how to research any of that stuff. It's just exploring. And this is anticlimactic, but eventually there was a day where I found it, this camouflage door in the back.

And I went through it and it brought me to level two. And the reason I'm telling you this because I believe that door exists for all endeavors. It's always there. Sometimes buried underneath layers of trial and error, sometimes behind miles and miles of road, sometimes hidden in plain sight.

And so we need to remember, Impossible does not mean cannot be done. Impossible just asks, how long are you willing to look? How long are you willing to scratch, claw, and fight for that result you're looking for. The pursuit does not end until you do. Which not only completely debunks impossible,

it shows you just how powerful you are. All things are possible. If, if you are willing to bring them to life. When our backs are against the wall, we're forced to become more. When the clock is ticking, we are tasked with finding answers that hide among us. It's in the darkness, we find light, and while lost, we find ourselves. The paradox of life is that from our pain comes our purpose, our evolution, and our greatness.

I love thinking back to about 2014, making my way around Boston, having just a way around Boston, having just just quit my job, essentially purposeless, clinging to a YouTube channel and a podcast idea that I would name your world within. And why? Why do I think back? Why does this mean everything to me? Well, because at the time, I knew nothing.

I understood nothing. Nothing about speaking or media, audio, video, nothing about running a business. But more importantly, I knew very little, about life and what's truly required to progress in a world with infinite moving parts. I didn't know that my lack of understanding is what made everything feel overwhelming and complex and that it was up to me to simplify. I didn't know the extent to which I'd have to befriend failure. And that was the most eye-opening realization. Because when you gravitate

towards a risk-free existence and you box yourself in as I had for so long. Of course, you don't get the upside, but you also don't fail as dramatically either. Life was a simple game of cause and effect. Do work, get result, not much room for more than that. And so stepping outside that box in the way that I did, change some rules. I learned some things. First, you can spend time on something, you can exhaust energy on something, and get nothing in the short term for your efforts.

And I mean nothing, unless you count getting your pride stomped on. Unless you count your friends disappearing when you need them most, unless you count self-doubt in a constant worry about not amounting to anything. These are very raw, very real human emotions. They tend to arise when we start something new, but in them is also the power. This is where the light bulb turns on and the path emerges. It's where I learn that we only get what we want when we endure or what we don't. And what a foreign concept when you think about it, right?

It's like, Eddie, take this mic. Go stand in front of this audience and pour your heart out. Your knees are shaking, chest is pounding, but dude, trust me, it'll be good for you. And funny enough, it was. It was because the fear in my stomach became the indicator that something new, something exciting, something more was around the corner. Like Pavlov's dog hearing that bell, any time the fear kicked in, I could feel myself of getting closer to something meaningful,

to a higher version of myself. The pain is an invite, the sheer terror. And let's face it, that's what it feels like sometimes. It's an upgrade. Disguised is the monster that you think you should be running from. When it is, as I recently mentioned, the adversary you should befriend. We have to change our relationship.

relationship with discomfort because our initial understanding, the one that comes stock in our minds, is never sufficient to build anything of significance. Its default setting is to preserve the now, not expanded. And so just like those stock speakers that came in my 1999, Ford F-150 when I was in my early 20s, let's rip it out. Let's customize. Let's upgrade the quality of the sound we hear and the things we say to ourselves. What an advantage it is to know that the hard things are what make us level up. To find that awareness. What a blessing that when life's difficulty startles and scatters the masses,

you could be the one that remains. standing tall, seeking out the advantage amidst the commotion, every little act of courage becomes more and more meaningful, powerful. But we must lose ourselves to find ourselves. We must embrace our fears if we are to become courageous. We must fail in order to succeed, ensure sometimes the price seems steep. But I promise not going costs more. Wishing costs more, if only's cost more.

So maybe for you it isn't a YouTube channel or a speaking career. Maybe it's something totally different. But it is something. And should you bring yourself to pursue that which your heart pulls you to pursue, you'll have those moments of defeat, where you're mad at your heart.

for leaving the comfort and safety of your previous world. You'll have times where you have no idea what to do, where you feel alone or stuck or unsure. The difference will be whether you see this as the invite you've been waiting for or the reason to turn around and settle for less. That's the question. How do you internalize all that emotion

that will feel like it is consuming you. I couldn't believe how strong that temptation was to go back, nagging at me every day, just come off the edge, just be comfortable again. But as my old coach would say in college, when we're doing wall sits or something physically taxing, 15 seconds. You can do anything for 15 seconds.

And isn't life just a culmination of 15 second windows. It's compartmentalizing the process. It's turning the difficult into the advantageous. You have the ability to not think like everyone else. You have it within you to rewire your previous conceptions of the world, to see darkness not as your reason to hide from conjured up monsters, but as your invitation to become the light.

Remember that the best way to be more is to have the courage to put your back against the wall. And you won't want to in the moment. There will never be a perfect time. But committing to that vulnerability will release from within you the power, the strength, the greatness that has been for so long tucked away. By moving into the chaos, you are simultaneously creating the calm you always dreamed of. of you're realizing the possibility that just needed the door left ajar to make its way into your world. Don't stay down in the ashes. Use the pieces to build new things. Don't dwell on what hurts. Use the lessons to chart a course to happier days.

Don't fixate on what's missing. There's an endless supply of what's not there. Instead, rejoice over and capitalize on what remains. Don't take misfortune personally. Remember that life is neutral. It's you who has to decide whether to shrink in its shadow or grow because of it. Don't compare yourself to people around you. you, we only see highlight reals.

We only see the best of our neighbors, but they have their demons, their problems, their struggles too. Instead, compare yourself to who you were yesterday. That's the only worthwhile benchmark. Don't exhaust time wishing you had someone else's gifts or natural abilities. Sure, they have theirs, but you have yours. yours too. Explore and go all in on your unique superpowers because that's exactly what they are should you choose to bring them to life. Don't let the gravity of the moment keep you down.

You might feel lost or defeated, but it's not always about feeling good. Sometimes it's whether or not we can move forward when we don't. So step into that unknown, knowing, sure, you might not be at your best, but that lives are often defined during our imperfect moments. Don't waste energy on hope. The future is a construct, an idea that you have no control over, and that will make you its slave if you allow it to. See the value of right now.

Right now, you have the power to change, adapt, evolve, to make things happen. Right now is all you'll ever have to control. Build, tear down, retreat, advance, follow or lead, everything is a choice. Life provides the components to go up or down, left, or right. It's a perpetual fork in the road. Endless opportunities. But you are the architect. You decide what they become.

The difficulty we face in life is not personal. If you remember this, you disarm every adversary obstacle, every complication you'll ever face. So, quick story. Recently, I was renewing a lease for my apartment. Something that usually is pretty simple, right? Only this time, things were not simple. confusion, chaos, misunderstanding, after misunderstanding. I received emails and letters saying, you know, you need to provide these documents in order to renew.

You need to have X, Y, Z information submitted to as a sap. I'm sitting here thinking, guys, you have all this info. I've lived here a year. Same guy. Let's put two and two together. And after a while, I started to get truly annoyed. eventually to the point of taking it personally. So I stopped what I was doing

and go down to the front office thinking I'm going to go scorched earth here. I really wanted to emphasize how absurd and ridiculous all this was. I opened the door. It just kind of stop in my tracks. First thing I see is a crowded room filled with tenants asking for things,

making requests, looking for info. And the people that work there were so patient and kind running around doing their absolute best to make everyone happy and get everything done. And almost immediately I realized, Eddie, you made this about you. This is not in any way about you. Basically, I created this fallacy that because things weren't working the way I wanted them to, then there must have been some universal resistance, right?

There's an idea I heard a while back that very rarely steers me wrong. It's that two things can simultaneously be true at once. So in this case, is there opportunity for these guys to tighten up a bit? Bring more clarity to their operations and best practices. Yeah, certainly true. But on the other hand, was building this up as a them versus me match in my head dumb and counterproductive. Yes, also true. The world will always provide adversity, right?

That's not news to anyone, it's just what the world does. That adversity will take a thousand different shapes and appear an infinite number of ways. But here's the deal. Life is neutral. Things just happen. They aren't good or bad. They just exist in the ether. We as storytellers decide to put a charge.

into things. We decide whether it's happening to us or for us. We choose. And that's a takeaway here. There's power in remembering not to take things personally in any aspect of life. Because when we do, we actually lose our grip on reality. We become emotional and not rational. And this is visible everywhere. Take rejection, for example, something we all deal with. It's not personal. The person on the other end is thinking about themselves. They're locked in on their own incentives. They're not thinking about you. And however you feel about this, it's just the truth.

So assess the situation. Sure, maybe find some areas where you can improve and carry on. Being mistreated. Again, not about you. As the saying goes, hurt people, hurt people. Same goes for criticism and hate online. online, right? Something that a lot of people truly fear. It will almost always be true that people who are more accomplished than you or further along in their career trajectory won't waste

time bringing you down in the comments section. No, it's people saying things hoping that their comments will get approval and attention so they can feel validated. Their actions are being carried out for, ready for this, themselves. And to misdiagnose or take it as a shot to the heart, well, that's creating a battle scenario that doesn't need to exist. It's not them versus you, it's them versus them. You're just in the crossfire. Now, does this perspective or point to not take things personally

mean that we abdicate personal responsibility? Does it mean we say, well, it's not me, it's the world, so not my problem? No, of course not. This perspective gives you the power to do the right things and the necessary things because you understand that the problems you face are not a giant indictment of you as a person. Getting angry creates a scenario where, you know, you reallocate your energy from doing what's best for you. To instead being mad at him or her or this group or that circumstance or the world in general. You know, bad things happen.

And by the way, they happen to everyone. Everyone gets rejected at some point. Everyone gets let down by people close to them at some point. Everyone loses their way at some point. Everyone has their expectations fall short. Everyone has pushback. It's not just you. it's the world doing what the world does.

And there's 8 billion of us running around operating in our best interest, trying to navigate a big, crazy world that's often incredibly difficult to understand. So with this perspective, going forward, you know, my lesson from a few weeks ago, what would I have done differently during all that chaos with the apartment?

A handful of things. First of all, remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, it's trivial. It's just not that important. Two, understand incentives. These folks aren't trying to make things hard for me. They're trying to do their jobs well so they can live their best lives, which brought their attention to other things. It happens. And three, when you're calm, you can actually solve the problems at hand. When you don't stack your problems up to look like adversaries working against you.

When you instead see them as merely a challenge or puzzle to be solved, life starts to look a lot different. It just feels different to walk around as though life is on your side, as though hardship is nothing more than the water necessary for the seed to grow, as though all those challenges you face are opportunities being presented to you. Because I'm not sure you can simultaneously fight and solve. I think one of our most important decisions is to select one. You can make the rejection an opponent, the criticism, a rival, you can make the disorder

your nemesis. Or you can realize that all of it falls squarely into the box that is like pieces to be taken out one by one so that you can construct the ideal. Life comes down to the advantages that exist all around us, the choices we make, to live freely with the wind at our backs or confined by the walls we build around ourselves. And sure, your current obstacles might be because of decisions you've made, maybe even decisions you wish you could take back. But the current moment right now in this second is neutral. It does not hold a grudge or have an agenda now, right now, is simply right now. In the same way that 2 plus 2 is 4.

4 is not good or bad. It doesn't want you to win or lose. It's just 4. Same goes for the crossroads before you. And that puts the onus entirely on you to decide what you will make it all mean. Will you slow things down to find clarity? will you open your eyes to see the value? Because look, there will always be a delta between reality

and the stories we tell ourselves about reality. That's just how human beings work. It's how we've managed to survive for millennia. So understand that and gift yourself the narratives that bring you closer to the place you want to be. The road before you will be challenging. Not because it's pushed back, personal but because amidst the resistance you'll find the components you need to live your very

best life the thing about time is that it comes and goes tomorrow will make today a distant memory and as quick as you were here you'll be gone what's in front of you is an opportunity to make right now something you'll never forget. You have the ability to write history to create a story that will live with you forever. Think back to all the days leading up to today. All the training, the hours of preparation, the pain you felt. They have brought you to this moment. They are the armor that you wear. Right now is about execution. It's about taking all those hours and turning them into the best version of yourself. Today is about being better than you ever

dream you could be. These are the moments you live for. Are the insecurities, the doubt, the disbelief? This day is yours. Look your opponents in the eye. They cannot give what you can. You have built this opportunity. Peace by God. You have created an unstoppable force and it's finally time to reveal that to the world. Let people doubt you. They'll see with time. Let the obstacles stand. You will run right through them.

Let everything in this universe tell you know you have already told yourself yes. The hardest thing in this world to stop is someone who knows that. they've won before the game has started. This is your everything, embracing. Make it so that you never forget today. You are the God of your world, and in your world, you write the script. There is no tired. You left that in the wait room years ago.

There is no one sure, pushing yourself to exhaustion every day to care of that there is only when when do you rise up there comes a point when you've just given too much your sacrifices too great to accept anything but the very best everything else is noise this is your day it will not disappear with time it will live on you have earned today No. Sometimes it's not about the odds. It's not about things being perfectly aligned for you. Sometimes it's about making something out of nothing. It's about simply finding a way. Or as the saying goes, using what you have where you are. I want to share something with you that I've found pretty valuable. So the World Cup is on, and I really enjoy watching soccer or football, depending on where you're from,

and what you call it. And caught a handful of games over the Thanksgiving holiday. And one of those games was Argentina against Saudi Arabia. And for those who maybe don't watch or follow international soccer, Argentina is a powerhouse, right? Ranked third in the world coming into the tournament. Their team has some of the best players in the world. They're just incredible to watch.

The Saudis, on the other hand, not so much. They're certainly not known for their soccer. So it's kind of a David and Goliath-esque story. So what's the significance here? Well, let me share some stats. Argentina possessed the ball 69% of the time. Saudi Arabia, only 31%, as expected. Argentina took 15 shots.

Saudi Arabia, only three. Again, as expected. Argentina dominated with possession and had more attempts. Saudi Arabia, however, won the game two to one. Shocker, right? Outmatched, outclassed, out everything, except outscored. Which happens to be the only thing that matters in a soccer game, obviously. They had far fewer opportunities, but what they did do is capitalize on them, made the most of them. Now those two teams that could play a hundred times, it wouldn't be outrageous to predict

Argentina winning 95 of those matches. But this is my point. That 5% can be carved out, can be willed into existence. What it comes down to is what you do with what you have, what you make of those few and far between opportunities that arise. Because here's the deal, there will be times when we feel simply outmatched by life. As though the universe is outshooting us in control, bending and shaping us to its will. And maybe at that particular point in time, that's exactly what's happening.

To use the previous metaphor, maybe at that moment we are not the Argentina. We are relegated to a lesser equipped adversary. My message to you is that there is enough there to hold off the Goliath pressing and pushing. My message to you is that there is enough to be outshot but not outscored. That when we must dig deep, we are capable of unearthing a strength, a will, an ability to rise. I'm not talking about making it through unscathed. No, I'm talking about making it through period,

when it seems as though we couldn't, when we had to crawl through hell to reinvent ourselves or rewrite the story. There's power in knowing that despite the seeming struggle and despair, that a way exists. In fact, a friend of mine often says, to me, there is always a way to arrive at your ideal outcome. You just have to figure out how to connect the dots.

In other words, that outcome you're looking for, it already exists. The question is, how do you get from point A to B, to C, to ultimately your destination? It's not a matter of whether it's possible. It's a matter of arranging the pieces at your disposal to create that bridge. And the reason I love this World Cup metaphor is because that all or nothing mindset in the past has been an adversary for me. Those who've been listening to me for a while

have heard me talk about it. It's like things aren't perfect, fine, I'll wait until they are. And oh, I'm injured and can't work out, okay, then who cares what I do? I'll wait until things are back till I'm healthy, until they're how I want them to be. But no, to win, sometimes you have to find a way

when the odds are in favor of the resistance. Sometimes you have to step up when life is out shooting you 16 shots to three. Sometimes you have to be better than you thought you could ever be. It's easy to maintain momentum when you're healthy, right? But maintaining momentum when you're not at your best, that's something different altogether. Coming out on top when you're the underdog, digging deep and finding a way to win when the easy thing to do would be to submit to life. That's special.

And guess what? It's always there. It's always available. Admiral McGravin, in one of my favorite speeches ever written, he says, if you want to change the world, you must learn to be your very best in your darkest moments. It's beautifully said. It makes perfect sense it seems reasonable. until we are knee-deep in those moments. It's easy to forget when we feel intimidated by a task that seems bigger than us.

It's easy to forget looking up at an obstacle or situation that seems to be statistically favored by life. It's easy to forget when walking away feels like the more pragmatic option. But that's why, regardless of the hill to climb, you must remember. When you are outmatched or seemingly outclassed amidst the battles of life, there is a way to come out on top, emerge victorious. Your job is to find it. And the opportunities may be few and far between,

but what will you do with them when they present themselves? How will you make the most of the resources that you do have? Because sure life is largely determined by the small stuff, the predictable things, what we do day in and day out. But the pivotal moments, the times that shape our existence, they come down to finding a way when there appears to be nothing to cling to. You are down but never out, lost but never gone, as long as there is a heart beating in your chest. as long as there is blood pumping through your veins, there is a way. I challenge you to find it. When you're at your lowest point, you are, often without realizing it, positioning yourself to arrive at your highest point.

Potential energy accumulating to propel you through an atmosphere of new beginnings. See, I believe our adversity is life asking that we submerge and dive deep, sometimes very deep, just to remember how badly we need that oxygen above. So that when we again come up for air and we will, we notice the warmth of the sun on our face and the calming sound of the waves. crashing on the beach. You don't make the most of what's around you until you recognize that what's around you is the opportunity. And so life reminds us. A taxing reminder.

Right? It rarely gives without first taking away. It rarely opens new doors without closing old ones. And that, to put it simply, can hurt. They don't teach you in school that growth is painful. But as it turns out, a life without growth isn't much of a life at all. And so we must dive deep. We're given no other choice.

Without night, there is no day. Without suffering, there is no beauty. Without those depths below, there is no surface above. Our submergence is our transformation. The cocoon that separates who we were from who we will be, but unlike the butterfly, it doesn't just evolve once. Our journey requires that we are continuously growing a new pair of wings. Life is chaos.

Life is unpredictable. Life is hard, but you were built to not only endure in its arena, you were put here to excel, to learn the rules and then expand upon the rules. Sometimes break the rules. You were put here to take the difficulty and provide meaning to it. Piece by piece,

as if it were the construction of a rocket to the moon. Little pieces of at one point frustration and confusion and chaos combined, reused, and transformed into exactly what you need them to be. Emergent properties. You just have to be willing to see beyond the now and assemble. To come up for air

and soak in all that awaits at the surface like you've never done before. The other day, I was texting with a friend of mine. Out of nowhere, she goes, what's wrong? And I'm thinking nothing, right? I haven't said anything. You know, what do you mean? She's adamant, right?

She goes, something feels off. I thought about it. I realized, yeah, she's pointing out something I've known for a little bit here. Something is off. I'm hiding from myself. I feel a little burnt out, a little tired. Certain areas of my life had become unevenly distributed. In fact, I was flirting with that thing.

I've always feared doing most. simply going through the motions. That scared me. I don't want this, right? I've come too far to feel like this. I'm better than this. How do I fix it? How do I solve it now?

Figure it out now. But eventually came to realize the now part just might be the whole problem. Fix the now like it's a headache and me shaking my fist at the sky will be ibuprofenes. No, battling imperfection is a fool's errand. It's setting yourself up for disaster.

We are humans, not gods. We are perfectly imperfect. And when something is off, don't fight, listen. Don't retract, expand. Here is the opportunity. I'm under the surface, diving down into the depths of my own soul, hear what it has to say, so that when I come up for air and I will, the sun will warm my face like it never has. The crashing waves will offer a symphony to my ears that I've never heard.

And I'll see that the world I'm taking in is more a reflection of me than of it. As that saying goes, you don't see the world as it is. You see the world as you are. And how lucky to have taken a step back, a trip below the surface, to realize again that I am the painter, not the critic. My world had become black and white, not because we live in a black and white world, but because sometimes Sometimes we forget to put the color in. Sometimes we don't give ourselves permission to expand beyond the parameters we've created for ourselves.

So with the breath and the oxygen will come a new appreciation, a liberating gratitude. There's nothing so sweet as remembering that both the castles in the air and the chains at our feet are imagined. And hey, you get to choose which one to believe in. See, what time has taught me is that there is strength in our vulnerability.

In the times we fall or lose ourselves. And I know the inclination is to panic, perhaps assess too quickly, to not hear but talk, to not listen but attempt to solve, which leads to the application of band-a-earnings, of band-aids on bullet wounds, when we are low, when we are lost, it's our chance to better understand ourselves. It's the metaphorical equipment room

where we stock up prior to our next descent. And if I could emphasize one thing, it would be that our perceived understanding of life, it oscillates. Sometimes we feel like we get it. We do. And sometimes we feel like we're sprinting with our eyes closed, it's a riddle we will never fully come to solve.

But I do know one thing. We can't change the unpredictability of the world, but by observing, by listening, by getting back up, we can change ourselves. By recognizing our strength, we can utilize the downtimes as they are the education we've been longing for. Remember the world does not and will not ask perfection of you, so don't ask perfection of it. You were built to endure, to overcome and to recreate yourself.

Losing your wings will never be the problem. It's forgetting that they must be regrown. That is the problem. So step out. Rise to the surface of your world and breathe. Take in the surroundings that will become your resurrection story if you left them.