Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - This Is Why You Still Hate Your Life at 35

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

In this episode, Eddie Pinero challenges you to embrace reinvention over stagnation. He explores the fear of starting over, the weight of clinging to past accomplishments, and the quiet suffering of never risking at all. With poetic, personal reflections, Eddie reminds you that real fulfillment is found in the messiness of growth, in the falls, the breaks, and the rebuilds. If you’ve ever felt stuck in the life you’ve created, this episode will urge you to let go of what’s comfortable, take the chance, and make the choice to live courageously.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

I hope you find the courage to make mistakes, to fall on your face, to break things and put them back together. I hope you find the strength to move forward without knowing. A feat that is simultaneously one of the most challenging things to do in life, but also one of the most rewarding. It's perhaps my greatest adversary. reinvention, knowing that, yeah, your time has run its course, understanding that it's time to break and build again, but being so deeply terrified to let go. What if things don't work out?

What if I lose? What if I'm worse off than I was right now because of my ambition, my self-belief, my hope for tomorrow better than 10? What if it all goes down in flames? Someone once said to me that one of our biggest misunderstandings or misconceptions is that what we've done in the past holds all our value. We can't walk away from what we've made. It's who we are.

The mind says it's tied to our identity when, you know, truth be told. What we've done in the past is meaningless. It's symbolic. It's a mirage. It's not tied to potential or upside or what's next. Your value is not in what you've made. It's in your ability to build again. What truly shines is the warrior you've been cultivating day by day. Lesson by lesson by lesson, the one who stares back at you when you look in the mirror. In fact, you eventually come to learn that what you've built, believe it or not, is an ankle weight, a false sense of security keeping you from living life. Because life is meant to be messy. Oh, it's meant to be explored. We're not made of glass. Because unlike,

glass, we are supposed to fall apart. Unlike glass, our greatness is not transparent. It's a culmination of courageous decisions and educated risk. It's the result of knowing that things might not work out. But those odds are better than definitely won't work out. Which, by the way, is what happens if you stay where you are. If you want to stand there and defend the status quo, If you want to lay down and die on the hill of mediocrity, do it. No one's stopping you, but you'll have to be okay knowing you took your winning lottery ticket, placed it in a drawer on your desk, and you never cashed it in. That's the thing about potential.

It can mean everything and it can mean nothing. There's an old idea that people will always choose. The devil they know over the one they don't. Because the devil they know, aside from being familiar, is private. It's a silent pain. The devil you know is, I could have, but I didn't. The devil you don't know, on the other hand, it's a totally different ballgame. That can be a public extravagant.

That could be a ship sinking in broad daylight. If you try and you fail, you may fail spectacularly. And by the way, to the pure joy of onlookers and your critics, what a special little hell that would be. But what if that special little hell was the door you had to walk through? And look, in so many ways, I'm a pragmatist. I'm not suggesting you give yourself a little pep talk in the mirror and then go solo climb El Capitan.

But what if you understood the game? What if it clicked? And you realize that protecting the past meant a fraction of what it means to find the courage to fail. Daily, micro-failures, small lessons. What if you started to build? an immunity to hitting the ground. What if you realize that people are going to say good things and bad things about you?

And they'll do both whether you try or not, whether you extend yourself or not, whether you shoot or not. And there's pain. Oh, there's pain whether you go or stay. So you might as well feel the pain of progress. There's risk associated with being here and leaving for them. but leaving has an exponentially greater upside, and so why not go? Why not find within you the courage to fail,

to depersonalized, scraped knees, and a bruised ego? Because reinvention requires leaving the good in pursuit of the great, and you, you are worthy of greatness. You are worthy of more. Yeah, for you. But lift your head up. Because it's also for those who mean the most to you. It's for the souls you will inspire along the way.

And I know how daunting the task feels. Not only the unknown circumstance waiting outside, but the possibility of losing what you have now. I swear to you I resonate with that more deeply than you could imagine. But it's time. Right now it's time to go. It's time to take some ls so that you can use them as stepping stones. And man, I hope you find the courage to make mistakes.

To fall on your face, to break things and build them again. I hope you find the strength to move forward without knowing. A feat that is simultaneously one of the most difficult things to do in life. life and most rewarding. Because in a life that is finite, one comprised of setting suns and ticking clocks, I promise you, you have much more to gain than lose. I'm going to make everything around me beautiful.

That will be my life, Elsie DeWold. Changing for the better is not about the cruxed. creation of miracles. It's about choosing to see the ones that already exist. Life is hard, but coincidentally, hard things tend to be the gatekeepers to the important one. We are let in when we bring ourselves finally to shake hands with and embrace the very things we once saw as the problem.

Whereas Ryan Holliday has famously put it. it, the obstacle tends to be the way. How funny, how counterintuitive, how upside down life can see. But I think that's it. Sometimes it's not even that we're looking at the wrong things. So we're looking at the right things the wrong way. Avoiding the call to step further into the world and deeper into ourselves. Terrified of scraping. our knees on the climb, we burden ourselves with a much more painful choice of staying at the bottom of the mountain and looking up. But the scars we've collected and will continue to collect on the way up, they do not make you less than.

No, they are what make you beautiful. You see yourself and those scars is imperfect. someone who has lived, who has taken risks, fallen, and bounced back. I see character and wisdom and elegance and boldness. In an imperfect world, those quote-unquote flaws and scars may, funny enough, just be the closest thing to perfection we'll ever experience. It's from our courage to step out, our willingness to crack that we flourish. Living necessarily includes a deterioration over time. But a deterioration of the external,

because the internal, the soul, it stays young. It's underneath that forever crumbling world around us that we find the divine. It is because of our scars, not to spite them that we grow our wings. They aren't to be feared but coveted. You are more because of the mistakes you made, the challenges you face, the adjustments you had to see through.

And I believe our value increases with each tear and break. Resembling the Japanese art of Kinsugi, where a pot that breaks and is put back together with golden lacquer holds more value than the original unblemished piece. See, Wolf says, I'm going to make everything around me beautiful. And I think this simply calls for an optical adjustment, a shift in relations between things and how you perceive those things. things. Me, I don't want the whitest, cleanest, newest shoes. As far as I'm concerned, there's

very little beauty to preserve there. I want shoes with worn souls from the miles and miles they carried me. Holes from the distance I had to walk to find the people who add joy to my life. Cracks from running in the rain while the rest of the world stayed inside. I want my imperfections to show that I lived while I was here. So from now on, let's stop conflating perfect and beautiful. Perfect is no skin in the game. Perfect is standing forever in the doorway looking out. Perfect is dreaming and wishing and hoping, but never leaving.

Because leaving is where our vision brushes up against a reality we may see as too big. No, we want not perfect but beautiful. We want scars and flaws and lessons and loss. Because from those things as difficult as they may be, we're born. were born again. Imperfection is life and life is beautiful. So here's to more scuffed shoes and scrape knees to walking an imperfect yet beautiful road ahead. She had a picture framed on the table that said make today amazing.

there to remind her just how much of life is a choice, how much we get to decide. It symbolizes that on our worst days, life hands us lessons, and on our best days, the highs of existence. During our low points, currency, and during our high points, the chance to cash it all in. Yeah, make today amazing. Because today's are few and far between. Todays are not an inconvenience nor an obligation. Today's are what it's all about. Today is the big show. The answers we look for, the destinations we long for. Today is a place of dreams of dream. dreams, that is, if you choose to leave room in your world for dream. Today is the beginning of wherever next is for you.

A chance to see the new and normalize it, to stretch, to reach further out and pull impossible a little closer into your orbit. You can do that. And while one often can't control what they are given, they can control what becomes of what they are given. Like architects and designers engineering what will be in what the malleable world around them will become, when one raises their standards, life seems to accommodate.

Because believing it means acting the part, means making the changes, means the changes, means the external world makes room, means your identity is reinforced, and so the cycle goes, by making today amazing, you are making yourself more. Decisions are the beginning of all things.

See, very rarely is the tool in and of itself the differentiator. It's the vision that pulls us through. And if you take something arbitrary, say a hammer, there's no way to, based upon its existence, determine what it will mean or what will become of it. A hammer can be an agent of chaos. It can smash and shatter and destroy. It can be the thing used to tear down. Or it can be what built.

It can connect. It can alter and redefine. so that something, when all is said and done, is brought into an existence that never was. It was never the tool. It was how the eyes viewed the tool. It was the vision that designated the roles that made today amazing.

And the reason we all need this reminder, as far as I can tell, is because the difficult things just so happened to be, the meaningful things because we are fighting not against some little rule or idea we picked up along the way we are fighting against our DNA against thousands and thousands of years of evolution because the fear that kept our ancestors alert and alive now in a totally new world keeps us contained and our talents minimized the approval of the others that kept us safe and secure as we once traveled the landscape in small groups,

hunting and gathering, while now it keeps us needlessly looking over our shoulders and craving acceptance. The unknowns that kept us out of the dark cave with the predator living in its shadows now keeps us confined, looking out at life's potential through self-made windows. We need to be reminded to make today amazing Because those things are quite the adversaries Because our default is to just let the ship sail Our default is to simply survive After all, that is the standard and the rule by which living things abide

Make it another day But I believe you are more than a living thing that God-like ability to not just exist in a world, but create new ones is a miracle, both a blessing and a responsibility, to drive towards a more fulfilled you, a happier you, a healthier you, a more complete you. But one must first become aware

that around them exist the pieces required to build something never before seen. the vehicle to those far-off places that were once only dreams, thought, illusion. I've always believed that if it means something to you, it's not stupid. It warrants exploration. For even if the thought doesn't end up being all it was cracked up to be, even if it's not the destination, but only a stop along the way, it still pushes you to the next thing and the next.

thing and the next thing, it still moves you forward in this beautiful game of life. So decide. Decide to make today amazing. Choose to make it better. Let the obstacles lift you up and the momentum carry you towards something meaningful. When others stop and find reasons to doubt themselves. How about you find this small wind buried, tucked away underneath it all? The little key that may do nothing more than get you through that next door.

After all, sometimes that's what life's about. Picking up your head when it's most difficult and finding the next door to walk through. And the magic is knowing you can always do that. Because there always exists both the doorway and the key, but we must be willing to find it. That's the obvious thing about those doors. The right ones will open. But they require we find the strength to approach them.

They require that we seek out amazing. And so with this in mind, what is the next chapter like for you? Are you currently enduring one of life's winters? Are you navigating those inevitable valleys of despair in which the value is in finding that single ray of light amidst the storm? looking within yourself for the courage to take one more step forward and another and another are you seeking out that spark that will reignite the fire in you because it's there so long as you choose to make today amazing maybe you've climbed yourself out maybe you're looking for

whatever is next the new evolution seeking to follow your heart and continue the beautiful progression that is light. Let the external world support that vision. Choose to see the detail not as trivial but as the answers. The tools that will lift you up and support what you are building, it's there. She had a picture framed on the table that said make today amazing. Place there to remind her how much of life is a choice. Because in a world of option, what a gift to choose the journey of a lifetime.

What a ride that awaits so long as you decide to step in. Let's write out of the gate draw a line. The most important line one can draw a line of demarcation separating who you were and who you are. A line between the past and the present. And this line marks your return. No, not to the days of old, but to step one. Your chance to begin again, to rise above,

to transcend yesterday's character and transform today's potential. See, what we often fail to realize is that there are ideas deeply ingrained in our minds that rule over us, a sort of of subconscious authority. It says yesterday you fell short, so today you are someone who falls short. It says your objective was not reached in the past. So how about a new, maybe easier one?

It draws a nice little box, packs you on the head, and says, how about we make a nice, cozy home for ourselves in here? And what this subconscious authority. fears most is that you wake up, that you become aware, that you return. Not to the past, but to the power tucked away under all the stories you somewhere along the way decided were real. The second you accept that yesterday is only as relevant as you decided to be, you unchained yourself. You become unshackled. So, return to that place of curiosity where you're not obligated to perform but gifted with the journey before you.

And that could certainly be hard. It was hard for me to look back at my life and distinguish between what I've simply accepted and life's objective truth. I'd taken orders and been obedient for so long. I'd been listening to that subconscious authority for so many years that I had to in a way relearn what creativity meant for me. I had to learn not to feel guilty, going on a jog in the middle of the day when the rest of the world was working. I had to learn that my instinct

wasn't to explore, but to stop short. I wasn't pushing limits or peering around corners. I wasn't testing the waters or seeking out the hidden opportunities. Life hides away. No, I was on autopilot. And life, it had called for my return, It's funny how when you reject your potential long enough,

the universe seems to tap you on the shoulder. It makes it more and more apparent every day that something greater is within an arm's reach, backs you into a corner until you have to address the dissonance between who you are and who you've allowed yourself to be. Those orders you've been taking don't align with your best self. And so one must not only create, but in a sense return to their greatness.

To accept what they've been running from, you are what you choose to be. And let's face it, it's very easy to choose to be less than we can be. There's a saying that your reality is not destined to be. It is rather what you've chosen to accept. You only get in your life what you allow. And the entirety of this message is about one thing. That light bulb moment, the epiphany, the instant of empowerment, that this world can only give you what you ask for.

And to not ask, to sit back and observe makes you a spectator, sitting up in the nosebleeds, watching the activity evolve on the court below. It relinquishes control to powers beyond you, and that's existing. It's not living. So ask. Ask life for the things that lift you up and elevate your existence. The reason a book metaphor works so perfectly in my mind is because when one opens to a blank sheet, they can write about anything. There's no limitation to what can be placed on that paper. And sure, our proclivity may be to continue on the legacy of last novels cast and characters,

but it's by no means required. With that pen in your hand, you can craft a new world entirely new places, new things, new relationships and ideas New obstacles to face and defeat A blank page can be and mean anything and so every sunrise Every door you walk through presents in the same sense a blank page Realize that there's no obligation to perpetuate the past or continue on in the same way you arrived no this day is yours. Take hold of that self you've hit away. Find the courage to unshackle yourself from how you were once seen by your friends or your teammates or your co-workers level up and

understand that you don't owe the world any type of explanation. Remember, you're not here to conform, to obey, to live a life of obedience. No, you're here to poke, to prod, to explore, to follow the nagging curiosity to embark upon the adventure that is life. When you understand that you are not your past, when you see that the person you were has no control over the person you are in this moment, you are free. So with eyes wide, a beating heart, a head held high, step into that word. Because if you live with conviction, with absolute certainty that life may not always be easy or intuitive, but it's there for you. When you see not yesterday's constraints, but tomorrow's hope, all roads lead to an evolved existence.

It's not about perfect and it never was. It's about understanding that the past has given you everything you need to bring you to the world. away from its grasp. It has provided the lessons it has knocked you back, pushed you down and tested your resolve all for this moment. This second, the chance to return to the greatness that has been tucked away for too long. Again, no miracles, no rabbits out of hats,

just you allowing your greatness to emerge from this step forward because you can, because you have that. because you have that ability, because it's who you are. So go show the world, but most importantly, show yourself. You will be amazed at what's possible for you. If you simply allow it to materialize, if you amidst the darkness of days past,

let yourself light up the night. In a way, our eyes are liars. Not in what they portray, but in the implication of their portrayals. Our eyes highlight to us one thing. What surrounds us now. We receive a snapshot of the current moment. And what took me years to understand is that possibility and hope live far away. beyond what surrounds us right now. And it's that pursuit of possibility that saved my life,

immersing myself in the unseen. Perhaps we were given the now, not to subserviently accept it, but to transform it. I believe in our own way, we're all architects. Here's what I've found to be tricky though as I've spent time thinking about this what I believe and I've come to recognize is that two things can be true at once first all will technically ever have is the present as Eckhart totally explains depression is essentially being lost in the past anxiety is being fixated on the future and that a healthy life is learning to cherish the now but second is the power and control of being able to point the now at something far beyond what our eyes convey.

It's the magic of knowing that we spend our days navigating a world of limitation and restraint. And it's not that we wake up and think, you know, I'm going to restrict myself today. I'm going to not live up to my full potential. No, it's that we go on autopilot. We observe this slideshow, our eyes play for us day in and day out, and exist within those parameters. That seems perfectly reasonable.

Our eyes show us a wall and our brain says, okay, this is where we stop. The end. And what I want to highlight is that world just beyond what our eyes show. A world that pushes things a little bit. A world in which we ask, okay, but what if I gave a little more? Or why can't I be like those people in my life I look up to? Why shouldn't I change the circumstances that weigh on my mind? Why have I accepted these things that make me unhappy day in and day out?

Just because it's the image your eyes show you right now doesn't mean it's where you stop. But we have to learn to look. for more. When I was pretty young, like right about the time home PCs were gaining prominence, my parents got this gateway computer that came with a Star Wars game demo. And you kind of, you have this character, you wander around the spaceship, and, you know, I played it, and I played it, and I played it, and after a while, explored all there was to explore. Right, or so I thought. I assumed that maxed the thing out because it was a demo.

It wasn't the full game. So my assumption was that it wouldn't let me do too much until I went out and bought the real version. Then one day, my friend from up the street came over, and I'm showing him the game. And somewhere he notices a little button that opens up this door and comes to find out there was actually a lot of real estate left to explore,

a lot of game available. It led to a tunnel, that led somewhere else, that led somewhere else. And sure, I felt like a clown for not realizing that I was needlessly wandering in circles, but at the same time was excited about this new world. There's something about that concept, the secret door, the bookcase that can be moved to unveil a passageway to something greater,

to the value locked away and invisible to the untrained eye. One of the most important things for us to understand is how many of these doors exist in our lives, that if we choose to recognize and identify something, something more, something that excites us and invigorates us, we can usually draw a line to it. We can start little by little heading that way. Because within the current moment slideshow we see all around us, exist the little passageways, the side streets, the tunnels connecting to something more.

That of course those gates won't open up if you've not constructed a destination in your mind worth traveling to. Again, not because you're insufficient or inadequate or wrong, but because our default is to live life on demo mode. We have to manufacture more. Build a higher platform and then climb up to it using ropes and ladders that we already walk by every day without thinking twice.

Our world, our right now, is a toolbox waiting for us to construct a more meaningful, peaceful, happy tomorrow. And so again, I present the question, where are these hidden opportunities or gateways in your life? Where can you find the advantages dressed up as the mundane? Is it in a book? Is it a conversation? Is it applying to that thing you've been hesitant to pursue because you're scared of what might await? Is it understanding the power of ten?

10 minutes a day? And how starting small opens doors that we can't even comprehend. Is it a little boldness? Is it looking in the mirror and realizing you're still shackling yourself to who you were yesterday? Is it understanding that someone or something in your life isn't conducive to your well-being? Is it an hour in the morning to think, an hour at night to breathe? Is it changing a self-limiting relationship with time or money or resources? What walls can you knock down so that you might open up a world that's meant for you?

A world that's malleable and without limitation? Your eyes, they don't tell the story of how things can be or what they mean. They show you the infinite tools at your disposal to build, to create, to design, to never accept a now that wasn't chosen with intentionality. That where there exists pain, there also exists a door to lessen and transform that pain. Your journey, it never ends where you are, it ends where you choose to stop. It ends where you plant a stake in the ground and accept the world around you. So if no one has told you recently, let me remind you how powerful you are.

Let me reiterate what you are capable of. And that perhaps your reality requires of you some customization. Perhaps the courage to step outside the routine and the obligation. And as the architect you are, build something beautiful, meaningful, something incredible to stand on. To recognize the distinction between what is and what can be, the second one understands that they are walking by the very solutions they need, that to remain in a state of discontent is simply an indifference to the resources around them.

Remember this. What you see, your eyes don't provide an end state, but a path to the next chapter. A chisel to little by little evolve. As someone recently reminded me, Mark Twain's quote, logic will get you from point A to point B, but imagination will take you everywhere.

Why? Because so much exists beyond the parameters of everyday life. It's about mapping new paths with new points and new rules. Because some exist and some live. Some comply and some create. Some see what is around them. And some ask, what can I build with what is around me? So built.

Towers that touch the sky, bridges that connect the earth. Build like this is a game. And the only way to lose is to stop yourself from experiencing all it has to offer. Build like there's a world far beyond your front door. Because if you do, that's exactly where you'll find yourself.