Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Stop Worrying About What You Can’t Control (Do This Instead)

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

You’re thinking about things you can’t control. The past. The future. What people think. What might happen. And it’s draining you.📖 Get my Free Ebook While the World Sleeps https://eddiepinero.com/ebook🧠 Join 2,000+ fellow viewers on a Free 7-Day Reset https://www.agns.lifestyle/?source=meta🧢 AGNS Code "YWW20" for 20% off http://www.agns.lifestyleIn this motivational speech compilation, Eddie Pinero breaks down one of the most important mindset shifts for anyone feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or stuck. Stop giving your energy to what can’t be changed. Start focusing on what you can control right now.Because most people aren’t stuck because of their situation; they're stuck because of where their attention is going.The past creates regret. The future creates anxiety. And neither can be changed. Only this moment can.If it can’t be changed, let it go. If it can, act now. That’s where your power is.📱 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

So much of life comes down to control, understanding what we cannot control, while simultaneously capitalizing and making the most of the things that we can. A constant awareness that's critical to our evolution. Epictetus wrote, We must be at once cautious and courageous. Courageous in what does not depend upon.

on choice and cautious in what does. And this idea has been shared many, many times in many ways over the centuries. Another of which a lot of folks have heard is the serenity prayer, right? God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. But regardless of how it's said and who it's said to, the point is the same. There are things we cannot control that we must find a way to stop exerting ourselves,

stop exhausting our energy on. They are, as the saying goes, what they are. These obstacles are immovable. And rather than continue to push and push and push with all our strength and energy, our time is best suited, learning to effectively navigate them. And then there exists those things that are in our control. I believe it was the power of now by Eckhart Tolle. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, if something cannot be changed, stop thinking about it, right?

future represents anxiety. It's worrying about things that haven't happened yet. The past is essentially depression. It's worrying about things that already happened. We can't do anything about the past or the future. All we have is now. And if it can be changed, then act now and bringing about a desired result. Take that first step. Create some semblance of momentum, no matter how small, but to worry about what is behind you or in front of you is actually insanity. I remember loving the simplicity and pointedness of that message. Accept it, eliminate it, or adjust yourself to it. Sometimes it helps when I think about things in metaphors, and I tend to do it often. This morning, I was drinking coconut water, right? Evolved.

things and I was thinking, man, it'd be nice. You know those little pieces of coconut that float around in there? It's like, it'd be great if they were not in there, right? So I had this idea, just grab a strainer, pour it through the strainer into the glass. I'm leaning over the counter watching the pieces of coconut collect in the strainer and I'm just thinking sort of zoning out. Like imagine if those were my problems, just being separated out of my life just like that, how nice it would be, captured in a little net, and then, you know, discarded, thrown away. But, you know, it didn't take me long to realize a couple things. One, such an idea would never happen. Life will always have some obstacle to place before us. That's what light does. After all,

the word is predicated upon the avoidance of death. It's a struggle and a necessary one. Which leads me to the Realization number two, we want hardship. You know, purpose and meaning, they're derived from our willingness to overcome adversity and transform because of it. A life without struggle is a car without wheels. And sure, you might avoid the fender benders, but you're not leaving the garage. So that's a thumbs down. So I thought, okay, well, what if I slightly adjust that thinking? What if it's a subset of problems that I can remove?

That's when it kind of hit me, the opportunity at hand, right? Not the so-called problems, but my thoughts about them. There are the real difference maker here, the negative storytelling that can be removed, pushed through the strain. Again, not novel or groundbreaking. Like I said, a few minutes ago, this idea has been around for thousands of years, but sometimes things land perfectly. right moment, right time.

And I knew what I needed to do was remove the worries and concerns pertaining to the events that I could not change. Yet I exhaust my energy dancing around and around with my thoughts about them. You cannot change the future. You can change right now, which ultimately becomes the future.

And there's a difference. I had to, you know, pull that back in. See, I think most of our problems are derived from anger or emotional attachment to the immovable, the unchangeable. One of my favorite sayings is you can't change the direction of the wind, but you can always adjust your sails. And see, when you remove the self-tormenting you have going on about your past, things you wish you did or didn't do, when you remove the concern that the future won't be exactly what you wanted to be, which tends to be where I lean of the two, you're left with one thing. The present, right?

Clarity. You have officially empowered yourself because the things you allocate your energy to can be changed, can be made better or adjusted. And that's really what it's all about. You can't change the fact that someone you loved or cared about let you down. But when you dwell on it, you're now giving up the present as well. You're preventing yourself from doing what is required of you now to make your life better. You can't control the fact that your company is reducing its size and your department is being eliminated. Can't control the fact that 8% get accepted to whatever you're applying to. Can't control the fact that you will be criticized for doing the unpopular thing,

the thing that you believe to be right. And I say these things not to be a downer. I actually don't think there's anything sad about this. To the contrary. Now that you've accepted these truths, accepted this as reality, now you can move toward what's best for you. No more dwelling on the unchangeable. No more fighting unwinnable wars.

No, it's time to go put yourself in position to conquer whatever mountain is next. By straining out the things that cannot be changed, you are left only with what can. You can't change your company's personnel reduction, but you can find something else, something better out there. You can set the stage for a new journey. You can't increase the acceptance rate, but you can increase your value. Go above and beyond. Put yourself in position to succeed. And if you don't, they're lost.

Continue learning, continue growing, continue moving forward. You can't stop the world's criticism. But you can learn to toughen up emotionally, learn to trust your intuition and decision-making, surround yourself with people you trust who lift you up. See, when you stop wasting time and energy on the wrong things, you get the right things. Like Greg McKeown says in essentialism, it's now but we can acquire. But often what we cut away, removing the things that weigh us down, that we're dragging along with us everywhere we go, they don't need to be there. I say to myself often that I have everything I need.

It's there. Some of it's materialized. Some of it exists as a seed that I need to identify in water and nurture, but it's all right here. Which means the problem will never be that I'm incapable. It will never be that I'm not good enough. No, when I'm in the wrong, it's because I've forgotten to see it. I've either become consumed with the wrong things or lost faith in myself to do the right thing.

And knowing this has been a gift. It's been tremendous. It's helped me even during the darkest moments to reacquire what matters most. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes days, even weeks or longer, but I get there. Eventually I arrive and so can you. You have the ability to parse out why you feel the way you do.

To categorize the thoughts in your head. Can I change it? No, okay, gone. And with all that's left begins the journey, the good stuff. The adversity and the problems that will make you who you are. And don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying it will be easy. But I'm saying it will be worth it.

And that's critical to understand. Your world is there to maneuver and adjust to reshape. But its transformation depends on a laser-like focus on that which is malleable. That's saying, do what you can, where you are with what you have. It will lead you to exactly where you need to be. Even if you don't trust the road before you, trust yourself to walk down it. Many of life's failures are people who didn't realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison. A quote I go to when I've lost my why, when my frustration over the lack of a particular result overshadows everything. I don't think we realize how transformative these moments are. When confronted by them, we're presented two options. Give up or emerge better than we were. It's not intuitive. It's not normal to think, I know this is hard, but hey, I'm one adjustment away from getting it right.

One move away from uncovering momentum. That's why in such moments, I rely on others to remind. me and it's why I remind you now to reiterate how small a push is required to simply get things moving to remind you that you do want this it does mean something to you and you know what these are the moments you'll look back on with the tear in your eye a smile on your face And you'll be grateful you push through these moments, the darkest of nights, the lowest of lows. When we're lost, we're stuck, unsure, they are the ones that matter. So shake it off.

See, the difference, the reason so many people turn around is because they don't know the secret I'm about to tell you. The very same secret those before have passed on to me. You don't need to do anything but not stop. And if that seems too obvious or cliche, let me explain to you that it's in going that we're forced to find solutions. We're forced to become more. It's incredibly hard to stop an object in motion. But the question is, can you move forward when you don't have the answers, when you're tired? When what you've been looking for is nowhere to be found, can you imagine at that moment what the other side will be like?

Looking back on your journey, knowing that where others stopped, you hung on, where the cost was too much for so many, you laid it all on the line, these are the decisions you have to make now. So don't listen to that voice rationalizing, begging you to take it down a notch or return to the normalcy of yesterday. Let this message resonate. Hear me. Embrace the fact that you are always one move away from recapturing momentum from finding yourself again. It's there. Everything you need is there. Have the patience to find it.

The patience to do what you do best. Find a way. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest. exclusive, the price is right fortune pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGEMGEMP operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans. And they're here with me on Spotify.

Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip. They stay for hours. They don't move on. They manifest. They're not a demographic group. They're fans. Spotify advertising. You're among fans. If these walls could talk, they would remind you of the things. that you sometimes forget. Yeah, those elusive things you tend to walk right by. It's not that you've chosen to ignore them, it's that, well, people are complex. And we have a tendency to skip over some important things as we remain fixated on our problems,

our perceived inadequacies, that finicky negativity bias. The one that states, if you went to a restaurant 100 times, had 99 incredible experiences, but something went wrong on the 100th, well, that restaurant would forever be known to you as the place where things go wrong. We are wired not to see the good, but to identify and avoid the bad. And if these walls could talk, they would unveil to you the brilliance that exists slightly out of frame. They would suggest you look over your shoulder and take a peek at how far you've come because, my friend, you've come a long, long way.

It's funny how slow progress moves. It's interesting how our lowest moments force us outside. side of ourselves. Push us to step into those shoes we didn't know we're sitting in the closet, unworn, waiting for the day we'd take on that new role, waiting on you to see that who you were yesterday is not correlated to who you can be today. And if these walls could talk, they'd fill you in on a very important statistic. They'd tell you that it. You've stood face to face with some of the biggest curve balls life can throw. You took on struggle and hardship that rocked you to your core and as you stand here now, your success

rate through all that comes in at well 100%. You are literally undefeated in your ability to move through adversity. And every time you did, whether you knew it or not, you walked into that closet and put on a new pair of shoes. You became something new. Sometimes progress is so slow

that it feels like pain and it looks like stagnation, but it is anything but. And if these walls could talk, they would remind you of that truth. They would beg you to see what you've become who you are. If these walls could talk,

they would remind you of life's ever-changing, transformative nature. All the times they witnessed you upset about people and things coming and going, as you tried to hold on to that which perhaps no longer served you, wishing you could make permanent, those things that were just meant to be transitory,

shooting stones, across the sky of your life. But something doesn't need to be forever to be meaningful. And thank God because nothing is forever. And as we make our way into that vast unknown, we have a choice we can live in the shadow of a particular moment in time, or we can cherish the value that those moments offered to us.

They gave you just enough to take a new step for, new step forward and sometimes a new step in that direction that's calling you is the difference between nothing and everything. So if these walls could talk, they would tell you to keep your head up and be thankful for those shooting stars in your life for they made you who you are. And the path forward would be impossible without them. If these walls could talk, they would ask you about those times you came home, sat sat down in your room and wondered how you could ever be enough.

They'd call attention to that seemingly non-stop battle with imposter syndrome. They'd ask when you will feel like you've learned, seen, or traveled enough to gain some semblance of authority in your own life. They'd wonder when you'll give yourself permission to be that. come so far, endured so much, you're not the same person you were a year ago. Now if you could just stretch a little further, if you could just extend a little higher, if you could see all the new shoes you've worn and the shooting stars you've collected along the way, you would know that you are designed to overcome.

pressures, obligations, criticism, none of it matters. This is between you and yourself. And if these walls could talk, they would ask you when you'll see what they see. The brilliant, the magnitude of your potential. When will you be you? Marcus Aurelius wrote, remember how long you've been putting this off. How many extensions the gods gave you and you didn't use them, there is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don't use it to free yourself, it will be gone and never return. See, today is precious because it is the only one you get. Each second unique in its own way, a measurement of opportunity represented by a single tick from the watch you're wearing and if these walls could talk they would tell you that they've seen people come and go

that you aren't the first and you most definitely won't be the last and every single soul that stepped inside wish they'd found that courage a little sooner wish they'd looked back a little earlier wish they found the inspiration amidst the chaos and turbulence of their day-to-day lives and if these walls could talk, they'd hope that maybe this would be it for you, the next step in your evolution. And what's most incredible is that you get there not by becoming something you've not yet become. Now, in this moment, it's about noticing who you already are. Instead of the one mistake or reason to shrink into yourself, how about shining a light on those 99 reasons to expand.

When it hurts, know that it's hurt worse and you've persevered. When you experience loss, know that it's not about what's gone, but what you now have and will keep with you forever. And most importantly, know that you can always step into a new pair of shoes. You can always reinvent, recreate. You are never defined by something that happened in the past. The wake of the boat does not drive the boat, and so with this in mind, chart your course to new horizons. Understand that the map you need has nothing to do with externalities, but rather the solutions that already exist within you.

So take a second and peer back over your shoulder. Look at that you in the past standing at the bank of a river. hoping, praying for help, a lift, for some technology to get you across, knowing as you stand here now that you have traversed oceans. Look, the context changes, and yes, it will always change, but your ability to endure, it does only one thing, it multiplies. You have everything you need because you couldn't have gotten to this point Without accumulating the knowledge and expertise to take one step forward and miracles,

they are merely the culmination of those courageous steps. And yes, when we are stuck, when we're at that coastline looking out at foreign horizons, I get that the answers seem big, sometimes even bigger than we are. I get that the mind wanders right to the potential disasters, to the what-ifs and the worst case. But if these walls could talk, they would let you know that you've come this far, endured and accomplished all this. Not because you've left mountains or jumped oceans. But because when you were at your worst, you found it within yourself to carry on

the exponential compounding of what has made you great and what will continue to make you great. Look, if these walls could talk, they'd show you how the difficulties of years past have become stepping stone. So commonplace, so easily solvable that they no longer even warrant your attention, that by moving forward you have faced your obstacles, taken the value from them and made them obsolete. If these walls could talk, they'd remind you that you are not only ready, but made for everything that awaits. That morning, as I looked out the window, I could feel my increased heart rate, a sense of both excitement and anxiety that you can only really understand if you've lived it. I was worried about what people might think, what I might lose, what life might have in store for me,

because that was all I knew to focus on. I'd programmed myself to do one thing, worry. And when your one thing is worrying, it's inevitable that you see life through a lens of scarcity. Your setting is on maintain, meaning you protect the little you have as opposed to seeking more. You play defense to keep the world out as opposed to the offense required to bring the world in so that it may be reshaped. That morning, cold, wet, gray, I was numb. But deep down, completely oblivious to me, there was a little fire too small to recognize. A spark of courage in its infancy.

See, at that moment, if someone asked me, can you even be scared and courageous at the same time? said those two words do not go together. We're talking night and day, fire and water black and white, but time's job is to reveal, and it has shown that there is no courage without fear. There is no fire, no matter how bright or powerful, that doesn't by default bring about those mysterious shapes dancing in the shadows.

If you want fire, great. But you must learn to dance with what hides in the periphery. You must learn to go where your impulse begs you not to. And so that morning, I went to dance with my demons. What if the one thing

holding you back in your life was you? And look, I know the world is a complex, multivariable, unfair, sometimes even cryptic place. I've never said anything to the contrary. But what humans do so well, sometimes for good and sometimes to our detriment, is see life through stories, ideas. Whether you know it or not, you are playing by a set of rules. Right now.

As you take this in, you have defined a set of parameters and deemed them acceptable. Decided they are what you deserve. You've allowed for yourself a certain level of growth, a certain amount of happiness, a certain amount of time to do what you love, a certain expectation around the role of work in your life, a certain window of income you've identified as reasonable overall, a certain feeling you get when you look in the mirror. And my objective is not to tell you that any of the above is good or bad.

It's to remind you that they are all stories. Our current state is not etched in stone. It's clumsily drawn on a dry erase board. Clumsily, because how could we know everything? We learn along the way in a dry raceboard, because there's never a moment in time in which you cannot begin again. Think about that.

Never. Good, bad, or in between, there is never a situation from which you can't emerge as something different, from which you can't choose to take a different path. Change the narrative around you, your relationships, your job, your goals. But like the elephant tied to the chair with the rope,

one must learn that it is not the chair holding them back, but their perception, their understanding of a supposed role in life. So as I drove away that morning, I wasn't leaving a physical place, but a mental constraint turning my back on a manufactured idea

about who I was and what life would allow not in a snap no not all at once but an adventure that would begin pulling back the curtains one by one on all that I'd walked right by see the first step to getting more is understanding you've been accepting

that is where new roads present themselves and it is that new road that I want for you that understanding that so much will be given to those with the courage to ask so as you stand now examine what you've been asking of life my hunch is that perhaps it's not enough perhaps there's more Perhaps a new chapter is waiting to begin, and right now is when that first page gets turned. Joseph Campbell says that the cave you fear holds the treasure you seek. Why? Because to face the dancing shadows is to gain power over them. It shows our mind that reality is far less scary than our perception.

of reality that no chain or lock or wall can be more debilitating than the mental constraints we create by ourselves in our heads. It shows that the man guarding the door can just as easily be the one who unlocks it. And so what better a time than now to turn that key? to step out and confront what was once nothing more than a vast emptiness. Jump into the cold water of opportunity that shocks us at first, creates pins and needles and discomfort, but ultimately provides a chance to acclimate to and navigate a foreign world. You, you just need to jump. and not a mountain but a foot.

Enough to start earning that confidence, creating that self-trust, believing in yourself, so drive away. To the understanding that there is always another level if you want it. To the belief that nothing is outside the realm of possibility, those boundaries can be redrawn.

To the idea that no one tells you who you are or what you're capable of, the world doesn't give orders, it reacts to who you decide to be. To the awareness that possible victories always outweigh in magnitude the possible defeat. To the realization that who you were yesterday is in no way related to who you can be tomorrow. All chapters end and you decide when that happens. Everything else belongs in the rear view. Success is knowing this. It's believing it, holding on when others would let go, be reassured by the incremental nature of what's ahead.

Zero miracles. Just the courage to begin. Just push the ball down the hill. Give life a chance to help you create momentum. No more thinking, worry. procrastinating, just go. It's incredible how fast things change when we grant ourselves that freedom,

when we see all of the world is open to us. But will you open your mind to that opportunity? I've said this before, and I'll say it again, nothing is sure in life. But you are guaranteed to lose if you don't go. It's to let falsehoods and debilitating stories You know, so stop letting these narratives tell you who you are

and create reality with your feet. Why? Because you can, because you were meant for more and because more starts now. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quiet. you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca.