Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - The Voice in Your Head Is Lying to You

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

There’s a voice in your head that sounds like truth, but it’s fear in disguise. In this cinematic self-confrontation, Eddie Pinero sits face to face with his inner dialogue, exposing the lies we tell ourselves to stay comfortable, small, and hidden. This isn’t just about motivation, it’s about reclaiming your power by challenging the stories that no longer serve you. The life you want isn’t waiting on luck, it’s waiting on you to silence the doubt and step forward.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact

They say the question is half full or half empty. But what if the real question is, what are you willing to pour into it? Every setback, every quiet morning, every passing doubt, all chances to choose what fills you. Today isn't about what's missing. It's about what's possible. The cup is here. The choice is and always will. be yours. You see this cup, it's more than water. I think it's a metaphor for everything I'm

trying to build. Half full, half empty, both are true, but neither really defines what's possible. They're prompts. Or maybe it's just a cup. A moment that doesn't really mean anything. Are you sure you're not just looking for signs in the quiet? Trying to convince yourself that there's more here than there really is? Maybe. But isn't that the point? To find value where others see routine, to see the half-empty cup and ask, what can I pour into it next? Take business. A lot of us can relate. That client who walked away last month, I could call it a loss. In fact, most probably would. But I could also see it as a chance to refine my vision, to depersonalize it. and create something so good they can't ignore it next time.

It's not the easiest thing, but there's so much value there. Yeah, well, maybe it's just proof that you're falling behind, that the world is moving faster than your ideas can keep up. How do you know this is refining and not just stalling or wasting time or procrastinating? How do you know you're not pouring into something with no bottom? Well, I don't know, and you never call. could. But I've seen what happens when you don't try. When you cling to what worked yesterday instead of asking what could work tomorrow. The new day, the dawn, the opportunity, I'd rather

risk another half-empty cup than never taste what's possible. Just like with relationships. There's love, the relationship that ended. Sure, I could see it as proof of failure of not being enough. That would be easy to do and in fact most would. Or I could see it as a lesson in becoming more, a clearing for something new, someone new who meets me where I am now. Or maybe you're just rewriting the story to soothe the sting. Band-Aids on bullet wounds. Maybe love isn't waiting for you around the next corner. Maybe you're carrying the same old patterns forward.

There's no difference between now and yes, Who you were and who you are? Is it really a lesson or is it the same heartbreak wearing a different name? A new mask. Well, even if it is, isn't that life? Patterns broken not by hiding from them but by meeting them head on? The cup only stays empty if I stop believing it can be filled again. Then it's just a numbers game.

You have to keep your head up. your head up. Same thing with the social life and friendships, the drifting away of some I honestly thought would be around forever. I think back and sometimes it hurts. I get this feeling in my stomach of just sadness. It used to feel like failure. But now, I think maybe it's a sign. To go deeper. To align with people who lift me up. just as I lift up them. It's clearing out the minutia to find alignment with the people in my world. Yeah, well maybe you're just different, too different.

Maybe it's not them drifting, maybe it's you, not getting it. Incapable of meaningful relationships. Maybe connection was never meant to last. No, not for you. Or maybe it's meant to evolve. Like the cup, emptied so it can be filled again, new conversations, new laughter, new stories I haven't even imagined yet. Just like in my fitness world with my body, the miles I run in silence, the weights I lift when no one's around, the sweat that speaks louder than words. Some days it feels like a battle I'm losing.

But every push, every lift, every breath is a quiet promise that I'm still here and I'm still. fighting. There's no time to view the empty space or the negative. Yeah, but aren't you tired? Doesn't it feel like a losing race? The reflection in the mirror, it never seems to match the effort you give. It always lags, doesn't it? Be honest. It's not about the mirror. It's about the ritual. It's about refusing to give in. The empty cup is not weakness. It's a chance to pour one more time, one more rep, one more sunrise don't you get that that's what matters the vessel the cup it screams opportunity you always have an answer you always find some silver lining but isn't that just a way to avoid the truth you're running you're rationalizing you're coping isn't it that maybe

just maybe some cups were never meant to be filled sure it's possible it's possible But again, let's go to the theme here. I'd rather try again and again than let dust settle in the bottom. I'd rather live for the upside, for the chance, however small that this next poor right now, this next move changes everything. You are always one decision away from a totally different life. And what if you're wrong? What if this upside you're chasing never comes?

Again, back to the point, it may never come, but I'll know I didn't die waiting. I didn't let doubt chain me to an empty cup forever, because even if it's empty now, it's still here. And that means possibility. Possibility. I used to believe in that, too, before the setbacks, before the half-finished dreams, before I forgot how to see the cup as anything. Let empty. Then let's remember together. Let's see the emptiness not as an end, but as the start of something new.

Because the truth is, and I need you to remember this, most mistakes can be reversed. Most wrong turns can be remedied, turned around. And even if we don't get it right the first time, we can always pour again, try again. can always rise again. There are two kinds of crossroads. First, the external. The crossroads at life beyond your control places before you. The abrupt changes, the sudden twists, the tragedies,

even the occurrences we don't quite understand and so chalk them up as fate. And then there are the internal. The crossroads that you manufacture, the ones that are self-create, self-induced. The, you know what, I've had enough of this crossroads. The I deserve better crossroads. There's more out there, and today I'm going to find it, crossroads. And I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. In fact, I think sometimes when we wait too long to manufacture our own crossroads,

Life steps in gives us a little nudge. The universe pushes us towards that change like a wind at our back. It doesn't quite make things black and white. Doesn't always put a catastrophe in front of us. Sometimes it's the mere whispering that, hey, you're accepting more pain, more friction than you should be. It reminds us to take accountability, to take control of life, something that we seemingly forget more often than we should.

And one of my favorite stories is Jim Rohn's famous epiphany or light bulb moment. The point where, you know, you basically realize is enough's enough, right? I'm creating a crossroads here and going down the road that I've known for a long time I should have walked down. And it all starts with a knock at his door. It's a Girl Scout, like trying to sell him cookies. He walks up, opens the door, and just desperately, with all of his being, wishes he could buy cookies from this Girl Scout, but he can't because he's broke. He doesn't have the money to buy a box.

So to save face, he tells her, you know, I'm sorry, but another Girl Scout was just here. You know, you just missed her, and I bought a box of cookies from her. And she smiles, says thanks, walks away. He closes the door. and upon closing it says, never again. Never again will I have to turn a Girl Scout away because I cannot afford the cookies. Never again will I be in this place of lack.

Never again, right? That's the beginning of a transformation. He points to that moment as the day that changed his life. He built a crossroads and changed direction. in real time. Now, is this an oversimplification? Sure. Massive transformations are complex.

No doubt. They require a reworking of many things. But they all start with a decision. A decision to manufacture that change in your life, to take the road you are not currently taking, to walk down a new path. These decisions can hurt. They force you to become something you've never been,

to do things you've never done. That's no cakewalk. But it's a different kind of hurt. It's the short-term discomfort pushing against friction. It's the building of muscle, which is way different than the psychological hurt of knowing that you're out of alignment. Knowing deep down there's more in you

and that it's fading away with each passing day. That's hurt. And we all know, some capacity that life doesn't always create circumstances that move us. Life waits for us to move ourselves. It waits for the I've had enough moment. It waits for us to see the present, not as all there is, but rather a doorway to the next thing. There are two kinds of crossroads. And I'm a believer that a meaningful existence means not waiting for the external to push you, but allowing the internal to drive you. It's the classic

stands or the stage. Where do you want to be? You can sit and watch, clap when you're happy, boo when you're mad, but ultimately not be in control. Or you can choose to perform. To be on stage, to narrate, to choose your ending, elevate your character,

become the hero of your story. And I say this as someone who, at points, has simply waited to long. Looking around, praying for the gust of wind that would propel me to the place that I needed to be. Essentially, you know, not understanding that life was waiting for me to greenlight my own journey. Life is about the turns we take at the crossroads before us. And so never underestimate your ability to create that intersection most truly. And never underestimate your courage. to take the turn that you know in your soul needs to be taken.

When the ground beneath us shakes, we crave stability. When the heavens open up and rain pours down and we run for shelter. When life presents us with vagueness, with flashes of possibility, we long for mastery. It's more instinct than anything else. But could it be the way? But could it be that that instinct that we run to, like moths to a flame, is leading us astray, that it doesn't have our best interests at heart? Could it be that we're so worried about protecting and maintaining an acceptable image for the world

that we forget to build something internally that's worth protecting? What if that's shaking is what brings down the foundations that helps us. held us back? What if that rain washes away the limits of yesterday as we evolve into something more? And what if those flashes of possibility require of us not mastery, no, not yet, but a willingness to be the fool? And what if that willingness isn't an unfortunate dead end, but a beginning? In one of his lectures at the University of Toronto, Jordan Peterson said, if you are not willing to be a fool, you can't be a master. In the cycle that is self-discovery, that is growth,

we have to at some point step into an arena that's foreign to us, that we don't yet understand. We have to be willing to operate with inadequate resources, trusting that they'll be picked up along the way. And that's a lot to take in. It's painful to know that others are going to have knowledge and skills and competencies that you won't. That you'll willingly inject yourself into the bottom of some hierarchy

with nothing more than aspirations. That that willingness is your vehicle. And what's clear is that everyone wants the moon, but very few people have the courage to start constructing that spaceship. Very few have the courage to be the student. That's why our inclination is. to quit when we can't snap our fingers and magically be on our way, when we can't leap past

that wandering around the unknowns. The reality is we have to fight to scrap to obtain that sense of belonging in a particular competency. And just talking about it brings me back. It's an obstacle that we all face. It's super real to me. I remember being featured on a podcast where the host literally asked me, why should I listen to what you have to say? Right. Like who are you? Why are you road mapping your journey. I remember fighting for relevance in an area in which, you know, at the time I knew almost nothing about. And I love how Peterson articulates this battle.

He says at some point, you'll want to make a change and you'll feel like an imposter. And guess what? You are. But you have to be. You'll ultimately feel worse if you don't do it. That's imposter syndrome. feeling like a stranger in your own body. And guess what, it's not wrong, it's just a beginning.

I like explaining it like jumping into a cold pool. Feels uncomfortable at first. It feels out of place, but then things normalize. They become comfortable. And what's the other option? To fear that minute of discomfort and never jump in? It's what we need to tell ourselves when we want something, but the climb seems too steep.

That climb is manageable. You'll acclimate. The adversary's pushing beyond that fear of starting anew, taking your limited understanding, bringing it to the base of that mountain, a new Goliath, and looking up with confidence. And the question is, can you be foolish enough to do that? And once you've made that ceiling, your next floor, will you be foolish enough to do it again and again and again?

breaking through that fear, knowing that stumbling around for a period of time doesn't kill you, it's required. It's the inability to show weakness or appear vulnerable. That's what chips away at you for a lifetime. If you want more, immerse yourself in that cycle of mastery. Start at the bottom and ascend. And when you approach the top, separate yourself and find another ceiling to chase. Replant a seed.

play the role of the fool again. This is the formula for growth, for prosperity, for fulfillment. This is the pathway to anything of substance. You take your L's, you embrace your critics, you swallow your pride, and move towards a tomorrow that far exceeds today. As your reality changes, your perception changes, the company you keep changes, you'll start to see that what's around you is made by people who were willing to fail and fail often.

Our world is one devised by those who could put pride on hold. By those who were humble enough to crawl through the unknown long before they ran anything. Who knew that before they played for any title or championship, they must first play the fool? What goes into your decision making? particularly the big decisions, the important ones. I heard a quote that moved me from Jeff Bezos. It was a video on Twitter, and he said, my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition,

and guts, but not analysis. He continues, when you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so, but it turns out that in life your most important decisions, are always made with instinct, intuition, and taste. And that connected some dots for me. Because I think the big decisions, the life-altering decisions, where we are pointing this ship, should be made via intuition. Data can't tell you which direction is most important to you.

And even if it could, if your heart's not in, If it's not aligned with who you are and where you feel you need to be, it wouldn't really matter anyway. The most important decisions we make, even right out of the gate, there's this feeling of it's aligned or it isn't. We know right away. We feel it right away. Someone once said to me, if you can't decide if something's good or not, throw the coin. Because you'll know while that coin is in the air, what side you want it to land on. And we do.

We know. And so after deciding, after letting intuition guide us then and only then, in my humble opinion, of course, do we calculate the how? That's the analysis part. Once we've committed and our hearts are aligned, yeah, you use the data all around you, the evidence collected along the way to map an efficient path. I think people tend to put the heart in the brain against each other as though they're rivals. I know I certainly have, but I think they need to coexist together. Think about it. If you select your North Star based on analysis, you'll probably lack the drive to get there.

And conversely, once decided, if you map the course based solely on heart or feel, you'll be operating blind, limiting your ability to make accurate adjustments based on real. life circumstances. You need both. I'm making some pretty substantial changes here in my life. I'm moving again, this time to Arizona, starting up some new ventures, placing myself in a few situations that weren't even on the radar six months ago. I can't explain my rationale using mathematical models. And I just know deep in my soul that it's where I need to be. It feels right. It's calling me. The same way 10 years ago, writing speech in my soul, that it's where I need to be. It feels right now. It's calling me. The same way 10 years ago, writing speeches in a small Boston apartment for no revenue at the time couldn't be explained.

Can't show your work on a decision like that, right? It's just something that feels good. And, you know, once you jump in, then yeah, you start relying on the brain, the analysis, to grow and improve and evolve. But I do believe if we made the big decisions based only on the things we could prove or the things we are sure of, the biggest and most important leaps would never have been made. Risks wouldn't be taken. I mean, you don't take risks because you run the numbers and the odds work. You take risks because life is when you break it down,

remove the nuance and details about the journey. It's about the ride. And so you jump. You commit to a path. And maybe you realize it's not the path for you. Let's say things don't work out. Well, now you are gifted that wisdom. Understanding.

You previously never had. And you can take that all with you onto the next venture. How do you put a price on that? How do you quantify lessons of that magnitude? What data tells you how important that courage was? We all know the answer. Now, of course, again, data has a story to tell, and numbers don't lie, but they also never tell the whole story.

They can't paint the picture in its entirety. Which is why I'd scream from the mountaintops. If it means something to you, it's worth exploration. If it matters, try. If it lights up your curiosity, give it attention. Maybe it doesn't work the way you thought or hoped. But it will lead you to the next thing. And then the next, and the next, it will provide the type of value that simply can't be quantified or even understood in the moment.

The story of your life must be written by you. It must align with the person looking back at you in the mirror. That's the litmus test. That's the benchmark. So trust yourself and your intuition to write it. I think a substantial amount of life comes down to self-trust, to believing in yourself. But here's the thing, it's not blind belief. It's not toxic positivity where you close your eyes, cross your finger,

shut the world off and just assume things will work out because you're entitled to a great result. No, what I'm referring to is an active and deliberate trusting of yourself to learn, to make the necessary adjustments, and to keep moving forward. When we have faith in our ability to step forward and improve simultaneously, there is no defeat. When you know you won't stop until you land where you want to land, then limitations become a choice. success in any capacity is a you thing, not an outside thing. And this popped into my head a few days ago during, of all things, a game of axe throwing. So, quick story from last weekend, a friend of mine and I, after a day of working on the podcast, went down to Fort Lauderdale to this axe throwing place, which is, it's random, but it's a great time, simple concept. There's this giant target and you take turns throwing little axes at the target, basically darts, right?

If you think along those lines. And there were eight of us in the group. They divide you into two teams of four and you play various games until the end. The end, there's this final session where it's every person for themselves. It's like a free-for-all. Each person gets three rounds to throw out. axes at the target and whoever has the best score wins. So think of the target just in a traditional way, right?

The bullseye or the little point in the middle is worth five. Then the next smallest circle outside of that is four. Then three, then two, and then the biggest circle along the edge is worth one. Right? So whatever you hit with the axe, that's the point you get. Except they put these two little blue dots. on the top third of the circle. And they say if you can hit one of these blue dots, you get 10 points.

So high risk, but certainly high reward. And my friend and I, super competitive, right? He looks at me, starts telling me how he's already got this in the bag. And I'm like, all right, we'll see. And it's been arguable, but I probably had been the more consistent of both of us up to that point in the night. Nothing fancy, just straight away aiming at the middle, aiming for those bull's eyes and fours.

Not even attempting to go for those, you know, hard-to-reach blue dots. No need straight up the middle. And here's why this is important. We step out to take our first shots of the finale here. My friend goes first, immediately hits one of those little blue dots. Boom, already, I'm down 10 points. So what do I do? I completely leave my strategy.

And I start thinking, no one behind. I can't let this happen. I spent my next nine shots, and the only nine shots I had, right, trying to hit those blue dots and missing every time, just get killed, right? He won handedly. And then I realized when the scores were read out at the end, that if I just ignored everything my buddy had done and stayed true to my game, aimed for the center of the board,

average 3.5 or 4 points of throw, I would have won, and by a substantial margin. But I let the outside world impact my strategy. I started chasing those long-shot blue dots when I knew they were a distraction. Now, I'm sure the last thing you expected to hear today was the recap of an axe-throwing contest, but if you bear with me, there's value here. So let's step beyond the axe throwing. Let's take it up a level. Let's talk about when you know what's best for you. You know where you want to be and what's working,

but you're pulled out of your lane because of what someone else says or does. You hear him or her over there accomplish something great. You look in the mirror and go, man, I haven't accomplished anything like that. Maybe I need to change what I'm doing. my approach, maybe I'm wrong. See, and the beauty of that little game was that it reminded me that there will always be outside circumstances trying to redirect my course.

But we have to trust in ourselves that we are doing what's best. We have to know our own game and our own strength. Now, don't conflate this with a stubbornness. It's not about never adjusting. No, we need to adjust. but adjust when it's best for you, not simply because other people are taking a different approach.

It's hard to stay consistent with the world pushing other options consistently, right? People finding success in various ways, taking other paths, talking about their incredible strategies and how great X, Y, and Z is. But it's all noise. You have to trust you. And again, not blind faith, but an understanding. understanding of who you are and a willingness to continue to grow with every step forward. There has to be some element of understanding that, sure, things will get challenging, life will push back.

But that doesn't mean you are wrong or in over your head. It's a compounding of little actions and trust in yourself. If you can do that, the world remains yours. It's day by day, or in my example, throw by throw, knowing your bull's eye and aiming steady up the middle. We all know how hard it is to see results before they exist. The mind tries to find every example out there depicting why you're wrong, why the finish line is too far away.

Life is constantly creating off-ramps, saying, hey, if you don't want it that bad or you're unsure of yourself, here's a way out. Come with me. It's constantly sowing seeds of doubt, which is why we must dig deep for that strength. Life is a game of you versus you. If those around you win, good for them. And if they lose, well, hey, wish them well, hey, wish them well on the next go-around. But none of it has any bearing on who you are and the race.

your running. Are you going to show up for you? Are you going to be your biggest fan when it takes every single part of you to keep going? Don't let the loudest voices in the room dissuay you from what you know to be right. Don't let the blue dots hinder your direct line to the bull's eye, right? Block out that noise, block out the distractions and do what is required. of you. Win your race because that's the only finish line of value. Walk your path because that will bring you where you need to be. And when you question the pursuit, remember what you've overcome all the steps that brought you to right now and how, yeah, maybe they weren't flashy or over the top, but they were consistent. They've given life to the present moment. What you do is to

What you do is overcome. Just don't lose your bullseye. 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 like 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, 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 is 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.

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. 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.

And 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 ibuprofen. 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 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 imaginary. 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-aids on bullet wounds.

When we are low, when we are lost, it's our chance to better understand. understand ourselves. It's the metaphorical equipment room where we stock up prior to our next ascent. 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 let them.