Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - The Little Decisions That Change Your Life

Episode Date: September 20, 2020

"Even the greatest of accomplishments can be broken down into a culmination of simple, unremarkable decisions" - EP

Could it be that the answers to our most challenging questions are so small that they're brushed off as insignificant? That in pursuing that bulldozer we think is necessary to knock the door down, we refuse again and again the key that would simply open it. Why is our first instinct to think our next action needs to be as big or as glamorous as that an example? intended result. Again and again, my default has been to, you know, look for some brilliant monumental insight or some secret answer that would unroll, like a scroll containing a treasure map. But again and again, I learn and I relearn that what I need, what is required, is so reasonable. It's so accessible that it almost feels like the universe has a sense of

humor, right? It's sitting back and chuckling while we run around with keys in our pockets looking for a sledgehammer to break the door down. This is kind of a funny story. So last year, I had my first year old within live event and Evan Carmichael was one of the speakers and after the event we were talking about YouTube, right? He says, why don't you swing by? We'll look at your channel. We'll see if I can offer any suggestions or pointers and I, you You know, I gladly accepted the offer. And so I showed up later in the evening. He's got his laptop open.

He's running all these tests, right? There's graphs and there's charts and comparison tables. And my first question is, obviously, what are you doing? And he says, I'm testing my YouTube titles and thumbnails. And I'm thinking, interesting. Here's the guy who makes so much content. He's got 378 million views, right? Why are you exhausting time and energy on this?

So I asked him, Evan, does it really matter? I mean, if your thumbnail pictures orange or yellow, or if there's a face on the left or right side, or if it's capitalized or not, right? If it's good, people will show up and they'll watch it. Isn't that what matters? Well, it turns out I was wrong. In fact, I couldn't be more wrong.

And when you're talking about a channel with millions of impressions, making a small change in color could mean your videos are clicked 1% more, which means thousands, if not millions, more views, which means it's shared more, seen more, which means the channel grows. And that's not from him going back and recreating and reinventing the wheel. No, it's using the key he has in his pocket right now. And that's the reason I found this so incredible. Because until that moment, I'd always approach the platform with a sledgehammer, right, using our metaphor.

I had this idea that, you know, I truly found to be an epiphany and changed the way I think about things so I'd get really excited. I'd make a video about it. I'd release it out to the world and maybe it wouldn't do so well. You know, people wouldn't watch that particular video. It would just kind of sit there and my thought was always, all right, hey, it worked for me, must on a hit for everyone else, that's life. On to the next one. Never did I think for a second that, hey, you don't need to recreate the wheel. You're looking for a bulldozer when you need a key. Right? You need to slightly adjust the titling or make the thumbnail more appealing, right? And the idea is these little tweaks are sometimes all that's required.

You know, we think we got to reach out and find some answer or readjust every aspect of what we're doing. And it's like, no, it's a little thing and it's right in front of you and it's very manageable and it's very realistic. And believe me, especially for people that aren't content creators, and there's a lot of you listening to this right now. I get how trivial it seems. But isn't that the point? And sure enough, within the next few months, I changed some thumbnail pictures around in two videos that were just sitting there. I got hundreds of thousands of more views. And I, you know, as I tend to do, look at the bigger picture. Well, how many times in life are you trying to find this monumental answer?

And it's like, nope, tweak here, adjustment here, change the way you are measuring success. Then it changes your tactics. Think about productivity, right? I've been in the same boat. I want to be more productive. So how? Well, maybe if I get better at scheduling, I'll get scheduling tools, maybe some time management apps.

I know I'll do a daily checklist. That'll do it. That's what I need. But in reality, the commonality when I have productive days is they all consist of me waking up, not stressed, having time to think, reflect, plan, and moving on. And it flows into every other aspect in my day. It doesn't require me to buy some $1,000 productivity course. Big result often requires small, manageable action.

And again, the point here is that change can feel overwhelming because I think the default mechanism is to assume the next step needs to be as big as that desired result. It's like, oh, I want to climb that mountain, so I have to figure out a way to jump that high. No, that's not true. You have to take small steps many times. And we should be looking for consistency

or something within our grasp or looking for some small self-contained miracle. contained miracle. You know, everything feels bigger than it is. It's an interesting part about growing up. You realize everything's not as big and intimidating and shiny and sparkly as it appears to be. We have the tools right now in real time. In fact, they're very ordinary, very unimpressive, and that's with goals just like people. You know, I grew up seeing pictures of my grandfather, who was an Admiral in the Navy talking to American presidents and heads of state, and I'd ask him, you know, how was that? What was that like? And he'd always say, look, they put their pants

on one leg at a time just like I do, just like you do. I think in a lot of ways, you know, we need to take the glamour and the mystique away from the things we want and the people we aspire to be like, right? Big goals are an accumulation of little steps. And quote unquote, successful people are ordinary human beings who have the courage to take those steps. Not for attention or likes or follows, but because they cared and they respected the process enough to stick it out.

And so can I. and so can you, right? You have everything you need. Whether you're talking about creating on YouTube or putting yourself in position to conquer the day, learning or emulating those you admire, nothing is otherworldly for you. Sure, you'll have your strengths and your weaknesses

because we all do, but there's no magic you need to find or acquire, no bulldozer or sledgehammer needed to lessen the gap between real and ideal. Just the understanding that the key in your pocket, the one you already have, will get you through the door. It's not a commitment to perfection. It's a commitment to remind yourself that every time you're stuck or overwhelmed or lost,

that perhaps you're looking for miracles in the clouds when the solution is simple at your feet. It's not the mountain, it's one rock. It's not the forest. It's one tree. It's not the journey. It's one step. And as time goes by, you'll find yourself moving beyond that previous reality.

Beyond those looking for the home run or otherworldly answers. And beyond the narrative that you don't have what it takes because you do and you always did. You simply had to commit to walking that path.