Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - TRANSFORM YOUR MINDSET: The Power of Change | Best Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change" - Albert Einstein. This episode is about finding the courage to create change in your life. Everything around you was created by someone, who at some point believed in themselves enough to bring something new into the world. We are all capable of seeing beyond what currently exists. Perhaps now it's time to begin building that reality.... Join my newsletter: eddiepinero.com/newsletter

Brne Brown has said, courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. It's one of my favorite ideas, because to me it's symbolic of a building process. Taking what would otherwise be blank space, nothingness, and stepping into it. Believing yourself enough to say, there's a void here and I can fill it. I'm strong enough to show myself to the world, my ideas to the world, my work to the world. I have, in Brune's words, the courage to be seen. Seven years ago, in 2016, I wrote about my first experience with this epiphany in a video called, fittingly, courage. I talk about my light bulb moment where I'm walking down the street and realize everything around me.

All of it was built by people with enough self-belief to think I can add value to the world. I can, in one form or another, take a blank space and create within those parameters something beautiful, something meaningful. I, not him or her, I can be the reason things change for the better. That's a hard notion to grasp. Because it's overwhelming to put faith or stock into ideas. You're just writing yourself IOU notes. And it's particularly difficult when things take time or don't go the way you want them to.

Immediately, you start to feel crazy. And you know for a fact those around you can't see it or understand. How could they? This is a you thing, right? It exists in your head and your head only. But that building to your left, that song you're listening to, the book you're reading, that car you're driving, these things exist because those who brought them to life survived

the storm. They believed and hung in long enough, pushed beyond the self-doubt. They escaped that maze that chews up and spits out so many. And a few weeks ago, I was in Vegas for a podcast and doing some marketing for a new venture. It's with a friend in business. We're on the balcony looking out over Vegas. And we're both inspired in that moment because we're reminded how big the world is and how everything below us is a product of courage. Opportunity captured and acted upon by those who believed in themselves to do it. And Tyler's pointing down to different things. Those offices were built by someone.

Every light, built by someone. Every car going down the road, built by someone. emphasizing just that beautiful reality. It's all possible, but you have to initiate it. And it's incredible how things come full circle. Seven years ago, the scary thing was putting my voice out there. You know, fast forward a little bit, same game, just different stakes. It's like it will always be true.

If you want to increase your impact, do not feel forget two things. One, it's possible for you, and two, it takes courage. Sure, self-belief alone, it won't get you through the finish line. But without it, there is no race to begin with. There is no starting point. Only dreams, only wishing, only hoping. Courage says everything around me was brought to life by people with the strength to convert

nothing into something. And those people, they are not gods. They are no different or better or greater than you or I. They see blank space and ask why not me? Why couldn't I leave a mark or make a change? And that's just it. You can be the one. Not some other guy, not your neighbor, not the folks on social media.

You. But you have to believe it and be willing to. to trudge through the storm. You have to be willing, as difficult as it might seem at first, to be seen. To step out of the darkness and into the light, you have that courage within you. So remind yourself that, one, it's there,

and two, it's who you are. And I promise you, the world will change around you. Deciding who you'd like to be most often starts with leaving the parts of you you no longer want to carry around. So reminisce. Think back, examine. Because you didn't just arrive at today. This moment is the result of thousands upon thousands of steps and conversations and decisions.

our lives are sculpted like ocean, shores, one wave, one gust of wind at a time. And sure, there were certainly events that expedited the process. But the point is, holistically, landscapes take time to materialize, as did this one. But you're not confined to this moment. In fact, you in and of itself is an idea. You is a story that incorporates the things you used to do, places you used to go, people you used to know. You is not right now. You is how you summarize the path that created right now.

But you can change because you will always mean what you can. decide it does. So reminisce, think back, examine, and feel the warmth of the good times, bask in the moments that lit up your soul. But don't be afraid to pull back the curtain on those things that, well, maybe you aren't too proud of, the things that no longer defined you, perhaps never defined you to begin with. Because see, before we cut ties with those stories and send them out to see, we must do the hard work of recognizing what they are. Before we can identify the life to be lived, we have to be able to see the one that will live no more. And so it's okay to walk down that road. Those things are no longer you. They are ideas, old ideas, bad ideas,

and so they will be relegated to the sands of time. They played their part as everything does, and now it's time. So reminisce. Think back, examine, grab what you love, and let it become your guiding light. Take hold of the meaningful and pour it into the new you,

the one you're making now, the one that matters now. you'll need it. Because the old you, it'll try to reemerge. It'll present itself in the shape of old faces with old expectations. Old places connected to old habits, old stories that just don't want to end. But these characters, they played their part. And thank God they did, because now they're recognizable.

Now you know to cut ties. You know, I wish it weren't so. I think we all do, but sometimes life requires that we touch that burning hot stove in order to understand that it's hot. It's easy to dismiss these occurrences as a bad thing or wasted time. But I think they're a beautiful thing. Recognizing and mitigating our mistake leaves us with a new foundation to build on a blank canvas. It makes you not a prisoner to yesterday's work, it makes you an artist again, a designer, a creator. So reminisce.

Think back and examine, but not to hold on. Reminous to let go. To say the goodbyes that will make space for the hellos. To free yourself of excess that will make space for the necessities. You've spent a long time designing you. Some of it ideal, but all of it, valuable in its own unique way. The reality is that now, in this current moment, not all of it needs to come with you. So reminisce, think back, examine, so that before you move ahead,

you know exactly what needs to be left behind. Freedom lies in being bold. Robert Frost. Something caught my eye on Twitter, not too long ago, was a headline referencing the boldness of wolves in the wild. So I clicked it to delve a little deeper, took me to an article by Emma Maris. And here's the summary at like a 10,000-foot view.

Okay, basically there's a parasite called T. Gondi, that infects animals and then causes those infected animals to act bold, perhaps even reckless in some situations. And the article states why and goes into some great detail, but for now I'm going to jump right to a specific point, because there's a part where the article mentions how two wildlife ecologists, Meyer and Cassidy, studied wolves at Yellowstone for 27 years. and upon studying them they find something very interesting

after taking blood samples from 229 wolves they found that wolves infected with that T-Gondii parasite that again makes them act bolder were 11 times more likely than uninfected wolves to leave their birth family and start a new pack the infected wolves were also 46 times more likely to become pack leaders, which Marist states are often the only wolves that breed. And so this appears to portray a direct link from boldness to increased social status

and possibly even reproduction rates. With that boldness comes risk, sure, but with risk comes reward upside. Now obviously, the day-to-day actions of wolves at Yellowstone is not an important. apples to apples comparison with human beings functioning in society. But personally, I can't help but feel the value contained in the case study. In fact, it was my thinking about it while falling asleep that prompted me to find the article again and share it. For the simple reason that I know there are places in my life that I can be bolder.

I know there are places in my life where I can dial up. that risk factor in exchange for results that supersede what I have now. You don't get more without giving more. And I know there are places I can give more. In fact, I'm pretty confident there are places every single one of us can give more. See here's the thing. Being bold means drastically different things to different people. And it's in this truth that the magic is found.

For one person might be completely different from someone else. It might be more travel. For another, it might be taking on a project at work. For another, it might be leaving a detrimental situation. For someone else, you know, going through a low point or deeply challenging time, it might be simply getting out of bed. We are all operating on different planes at any given time. My bold today won't be my bold next week.

That's just the way life works. but here's what I do know. We can all find within ourselves that courage to be bold in whatever arena we are in. And every once in a while someone will say to me, yeah, but Eddie, can't you just be happy where you are? Why does it always have to be the next thing, or bigger, or better, or more? To which my response is, look, of course we should be grateful for what we have. Of course, we should appreciate the gifts and the beauty that surrounds us,

day in, day out, because it's there and it's infinite. But, and you knew there was a but. Human beings are purpose driven. Our happiness is often derived from our progress. Our journey is the destination. And we often find when we look around that we have given pieces of ourselves away, sometimes without thinking about it.

Perhaps we've become stagnant, with areas of ourselves that can be elevated, that are destined to evolve. I love looking back at those courageous moments in my life. They mean everything to me. You know, I like to say it's the small things repeated day in and day out that make us who we are. The vast majority of the time, I believe that to be true. But those pivotal moments, those opportunities that our consistency creates for us, Well, boldness in those instances changes everything.

Walking onto a stage when you've never spoken before, when your body is physically rebelling and you don't want to walk on a stage is everything. Calling U-Haul, packing up and leaving a situation that's no longer in your best interest is painful, it's instantaneous, but is ultimately everything. Making an investment that you believe in. deciding to hire someone with incredible vision and talent, being vulnerable enough to share your thoughts with the world, these things are risky, they are bold,

but in your world, they are everything. And so the obvious connection here is our desire to lead in a world seemingly void of adequate leadership. It's setting an example. It's not settling for the ground floor when the sky is the limit. Yes, on all counts. But it's also leading. leading yourself.

At times we forget just how important that is that you need to lead yourself to something meaningful. Significant change does not come along without your initiating it. No doors open if you don't knock. The world will only give you what you ask of it. And I'm here to remind you that asking more of the world, yes, it's hard, it's uncomfortable,

it requires you to do. to be more today than you were yesterday, but you are capable of that. You are bold enough to be that. Robert Frost says freedom lies in being bold. I believe that's because in your courage lives the infinite. Upside so powerful that one simply cannot grasp it while standing still. So go. Find those areas of life, your life, where you know you're holding back, where you know when your soul you have more to give,

and breathe life into them. Knowing that sure, in being bold, missing the mark is a possibility. But in never leaving, it's a certainty. If you never go, you will never arrive. So find the courage to ask more of yourself. because more there is. Sometimes it's not about the odds. It's not about things being perfectly aligned for you.

Sometimes it's about making something out of nothing. It's about simply finding a way. Or as the saying goes, using what you have where you are. I want to share something with you that I've found pretty valuable. So the World Cup is on. And I really enjoy watching soccer or football, depending on where you're from and what you call it. And caught a handful of games over the Thanksgiving holiday. And one of those games was Argentina against Saudi Arabia.

And for those who maybe don't watch or follow international soccer, Argentina is a powerhouse, right? Ranked third in the world coming into the tournament. Their team has some of the best players in the world. they're just incredible to watch. The Saudis, on the other hand, not so much, right? They're certainly not known for their soccer. So it's kind of a David and Goliath-esque story.

So what's the significance here? Well, let me share some stats. Argentina possessed the ball 69% of the time. Saudi Arabia, only 31%, as expected. Argentina took 15 shots. Saudi Arabia, only three. Again, as expected. Argentina dominated with possession and had more attempts.

Saudi Arabia, however, won the game two to one. Shocker, right? Outmatched, outclassed, out everything, except outscored. Which happens to be the only thing that matters in a soccer game, obviously. They had far fewer opportunities, But what they did do is capitalize on them, made the most of them. Now those two teams that could play a hundred times, it wouldn't be outrageous to predict Argentina winning 95 of those matches.

But this is my point. That 5% can be carved out, can be willed into existence. What it comes down to is what you do with what you have. you make of those few and far between opportunities that arise. Because here's the deal, there will be times when we feel simply outmatched by life. As though the universe is out shooting us, in control, bending and shaping us to its will. And maybe at that particular point in time, that's exactly what's happening. To use the previous metaphor, maybe at that moment we are not the

Argentina, we are relegated to a lesser equipped adversary. My message to you is that there is enough there to hold off the Goliath pressing and pushing. My message to you is that there is enough to be outshot but not outscored. That when we must dig deep, we are capable of unearthing a strength, a will, an ability to rise. I'm not talking about making it through unscathed. No, I'm talking about making it through period, when it seems as though we couldn't, when we had to crawl through hell to reinvent ourselves

or rewrite the story. There's power in knowing that despite the seeming struggle and despair, that a way exists. In fact, a friend of mine often says to me, there is always a way to arrive at your ideal outcome. You just have to figure out how to connect the dots. In other words, that outcome you're looking for, it already exists. The question is, how do you get from point A to B, to C, to ultimately your destination?

It's not a matter of whether it's possible. It's a matter of arranging the pieces at your disposal. to create that bridge. And the reason I love this World Cup metaphor is because that all-or-nothing mindset in the past has been an adversary for me. Those who've been listening to me for a while have heard me talk about it.

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

when the odds are in favor of the resistance sometimes you have to step up when life is out shooting you 16 shots to 3 sometimes you have to be better than you thought you could ever be it's easy to maintain momentum when you're healthy right

but maintaining momentum when you're not at your best that's something different altogether coming out on top when you're the underdog, digging deep and finding a way to win, when the easy thing to do would be to submit to life. That's special. And guess what? It's always there. It's always available. Admiral McRaven in one of my favorite speeches ever written, he says if you want to change the world, you must learn to be your very best in your darkest

moments. It's beautifully said, it makes perfect, sense it seems reasonable until we are knee-deep in those moments. It's easy to forget when we feel intimidated by a task that seems bigger than us. It's easy to forget looking up at an obstacle or situation that seems to be statistically favored by life. It's easy to forget when walking away feels like the more pragmatic option. But that's why, regardless of the hill to climb, you must remember. When you are outmatched or seemingly outclassed amidst the battles of life, there is a way to come out on top.

Emerge victorious, your job is to find it. And the opportunities may be few and far between, but what will you do with them when they present themselves? How will you make the most of the resources that you do have? Because sure life is largely determined by the small stuff, the predictable things, what we do day in and day out, but the pivotal moments, the times that shape our existence, they come down to finding a way when there appears to be nothing to cling to.

You are down but never out, lost but never gone, as long as there is a heart beating in your chest. As long as there is blood pumping through your veins, there is a way. I challenge you to find it. You can allow yourself to be distracted, or, as Robin Sharma suggests, you can do incredible things. But you can't do both. You can stay where the safety and security is, or you can risk what you have in pursuit of your dreams, but you can't do both. You can remain the character depicted in yesterday's story, or you can take those lessons,

experiences, and craft a new story. But you cannot do both. Life is a game of trade-offs. Where any decision to go in one direction is a simultaneous decision to not go in another. A commitment to X is necessarily a rejection of Y, at least in that moment. Making this question all the more important,

what is your North Star? I ask, because everything you do is bringing you close to you close or two are holding you back from capturing it. One of my lifelines over the years has been clinging to the quote or idea that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, consistently trying to arrive there. Why? Because when things get complex in my life, I don't know what I'm choosing.

Clutter means I've lost sight of what's necessary versus what's trivial. I become unclear on those critical. trade-offs I'm making. And we've all experienced this, right? The simplest questions are always the hardest to arrive at. We can talk in circles about the details, but how often are we honest with ourselves about the why? I remember job interviews in college going on and on about the books I read, the papers that written, current events, but then falling flat on my face when asked, so who's Eddie Panero? A dude doing an interview? Like, what do you want for me? My brain had never gone there. Or even less formal, I'll never forget a friend of mine a few years back,

asked me what my perfect day was, just casually as we're driving. I said, I don't know, Tom, I've never really thought about that. He goes, then how are you ever supposed to have a perfect day if you don't know? And how simple? Simple and simultaneously incredible. Who wants a life without perfect days, right? Like, what is all this for? The world is infinite. and you can be ruled by its variability and its complexity. You can run around adhering to all its rules, hoping you're doing the right thing, whatever that is, or you can identify, carve out, and rule over your own little piece of it,

your own kingdom. You can choose you. If you take the time to uncover who you are, what lights you up. And then, as Emerson advocates, hits you. your wagon to that star. The best investment of our time is to truly understand and decide what we should be saying yes to.

Because if we don't know what matters, then nothing does. Here's a famous dialogue from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Alice, would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the cat. Well, I don't much care where, said Alice. Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the cat. Well, so long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an explanation.

Oh, you're sure to do that, said the cat. If only you walk long enough. Beautiful passage. If you don't care where you go, any road will take you there. And see, it's not wrong to not know. It doesn't make you bad or mean life is a waste of time. It just means you're taking a large portion of control, which is one of your superpowers and tossing it up into the ether.

It means you are bowing to hope. And I know that no one here wants to live every day merely clinging to hope. This is not a we'll see how it goes, channel or podcast. This is about the little changes that take life from a six out of ten to a nine or a ten out of ten. It's about using what's around us to maximize the miracle we are living and breathing every day. Again, life is complex. So for you to take the time and simplify to remove what's unnecessary, what an advantage. Yeah, I could do this or that.

I could go here or there. But guess what? I've spent the time thinking, asking myself the tough questions, and now I can be more deliberate in choosing my path so that I arrive at a correct destination, a destination that belongs to me, that means something to me, that lights me up and excites me. That's living.

And of course, this isn't a one-time light-bulb moment, a permanent move. No, as we grow, we change, what we want shifts. Hey, sometimes the current path even reveals itself to be the wrong path. It's happened to me plenty. But when you're consistently in tune with what matters to you, who you are, you can make the adjustment. You can be deliberate.

No more shooting targets in the dark because life is too short. Our days numbered, are arrows finite. Live life like each day. means something because each day is transporting you to your something let's use the pieces around us to build our own skylines etch our own stories into the sands of time if a decision to do one thing is a simultaneous decision to not do something else make sure to have that North Star in scope so that you don't amidst that chaos of life unknowingly turn your back

on it. Ask yourself who you are and be as patient as possible working for that answer. Because as far as I can tell, that information is the key that unlocks infinite possibility. It's knowledge that opens the door to life on your terms. The difficulty we face in life is not personal. If you remember this, you disarm every adversary obstacle, every complication you'll ever face. So, quick story. Recently, I was renewing a lease for my apartment. Something that usually is pretty simple, right?

Only this time, things were not simple. Confusion, chaos, misunderstanding, after misunderstanding. I received emails and letters saying, you need to provide these documents in order to renew. You need to have X, Y, Z information submitted to as a sap. I'm sitting here thinking, guys, you have all this info. I've lived here a year. Same guy. Let's put two and two together.

And after a while, I started to get truly annoyed, eventually to the point of taking it personally. So I stopped what I was doing and go down to the front office. thinking I'm going to go scorched earth here. I really wanted to emphasize how absurd and ridiculous all this was. I opened the door and just kind of stop in my tracks. First thing I see is a crowded room filled with tenants asking for things, making requests, looking for info. And the people that work there were so patient and kind,

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

There's an idea I heard a while back that very rarely steers me wrong, it's that two things can simultaneously be true at once. So in this case, is there opportunity for these guys to tighten up a bit, bring more clarity to their operations and best practices? Yeah, certainly true. But on the other hand,

was building this up as a them versus me match in my head dumb and counterproductive? Yes, also true. The world will always provide adversity, right? That's not news to anyone, it's just what the world does. that adversity will take a thousand different shapes and appear an infinite number of ways but here's the deal life is neutral things just happen they aren't good or bad they just exist in the ether we as storytellers decide to put a charge into things we decide whether it's happening to us or for us we choose and that's the takeaway here

There's power in remembering not to take things personally in any aspect of life. Because when we do, we actually lose our grip on reality. We become emotional and not rational. And this is visible everywhere. Take rejection, for example, something we all deal with. It's not personal. The person on the other end is thinking about themselves. They're locked in on their own incentives.

They're not thinking about. you and however you feel about this it's just the truth so assess the situation sure maybe find some areas where you can improve and carry on being mistreated again not about you as the saying goes hurt people hurt people same goes for criticism and hate online it's something that a lot of people truly fear it will almost always be true that people who are more accomplished than you or further along in their career trajectory won't waste time bringing you down in the comments section no it's people saying things hoping that their comments will get

approval and attention so they can feel validated their actions are being carried out for ready for this themselves and to misdiagnose or take it as a shot to the heart well that's creating a battle scenario that doesn't need to exist. It's not them versus you, it's them versus them. You're just in the crossfire. Now, does this perspective or point to not take things personally mean that we abdicate personal responsibility? Does it mean we say, well, it's not me, it's the world, so not my problem? No, of course not. Right? This perspective gives you the power to do the right things and the necessary things because you understand that the problems you face

are not a giant indictment of you as a person. Getting angry creates a scenario where, you know, you reallocate your energy from doing what's best for you to instead being mad at him or her or this group or that circumstance or the world in general. You know, bad things happen. And by the way, they happen to everyone. Everyone gets rejected at some point.

Everyone gets let down by people close to them at some point. Everyone loses their way at some point. Everyone has their expectations fall short. Everyone has pushback. It's not just you. It's the world doing what the world does. And there's 8 billion of us running around operating in our best interest, trying to navigate a big, crazy world that's often

incredibly difficult to understand. So with this perspective, going forward, you know, my lesson from a few weeks ago, what would I have done differently during all that chaos with the apartment?

A handful of things. First of all, remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, it's trivial. It's just not that important. Two, understand incentives. These folks aren't trying to make things hard for me. They're trying to do their jobs well

so they can live their best lives. which brought their attention to other things it happens and three when you're calm you can actually solve the problems at hand when you don't stack your problems up to look like adversaries working against you when you instead see them as merely a challenge or puzzle to be solved life starts to look a lot different it just feels different to walk around as though life is on your side, as though hardship is nothing more than the water necessary for the seed to grow,

as though all those challenges you face are opportunities being presented to you. Because I'm not sure you can simultaneously fight and solve. I think one of our most important decisions is to select one. You can make the rejection, an opponent, the criticism, arrival, you can make the disorder your nemesis,

or you can realize that all of it falls squarely into the box that is like. Pieces to be taken out one by one so that you can construct the ideal. Life comes down to the advantages that exist all around us, the choices we make, to live freely with the wind at our backs or confined by the walls we build around ourselves. And sure, your current obstacles might be because of decisions you've made, maybe even decisions you wish you could take back. But the current moment right now in this second is neutral.

It does not hold a grudge or have an agenda. Now, right now is simply right now. In the same way that 2 plus 2 is 4. 4 is not good or bad. It doesn't want you to win or lose. It's just 4. Same goes for the crossroads before you. And that puts the onus entirely on you to decide what you will make it all mean.

Will you slow things down to find clarity? Will you open your eyes to see the value? Because look, there will always be a delta between reality and the stories we tell ourselves about reality. That's just how human beings work. It's how we've managed to survive for millennia. So understand that and gift yourself the narratives that bring you closer to the place you want to be. The road before you will be challenging, not because its pushback is personal, but because amidst the resistance, you'll find the components you need to live your very best life.

Why is this battle you versus you? with all the complexity, all the obstacles out there, why are you your greatest opponent? Well, to put it simply, because all those obstacles and all that complexity still can't tell you no. They can't say enough is enough. They can't look back at you and say, let's just settle for what we have now.

No, only you can do that. The world may create the landscape. It may construct the terrain and those obstacles. But you are the sole decider on where along the way you stop. You decide how far you want to go and how much you are willing to endure. When it comes to your advancement or limitation, you are in the drivers. I just picked up a copy of Will Smith's recent book. And one of the ideas that stood out to me was resilience.

And this part in the book, it's actually kind of uncomfortable to get through, but incredibly powerful. He's talking about his childhood and the polarity of his father's personality. A man who would do anything to provide for his family, he took pride in that and saw it as his primary responsibility. But simultaneously was their greatest source of pain. of pain. And he mentions his father, you know, hitting his mother from time to time. In one particular example, struck his mother in the face so hard that it knocked her on the floor. And as she stood back up, she said something along the lines of, you can hit me, but you can't hurt me. And that was the first time Will, understood as a child, the difference between what

the outside world inflicts upon us, then how we choose to reach. react to that occurrence. That understanding is power. That's why you are the author of your story. In this sense that every single thing dropped at your feet, every situation, every occurrence, they come with an implicit question attached, a question that you and only you are responsible for answering. The question is, what does this mean? And how you are you are responsible for answering? The question is, what does this mean? And how you respond to that question determines whether you go left or right at that metaphorical fork in the road. Does the occurrence detract from your ambitions or is it a multiplier? Does it confirm your doubts and insecurities or is it your reason to rise to the occasion?

An opportunity to stretch, to evolve. That's a gift. That's an invite. not some sort of divine punishment. But the challenge is removing the layers until you arrive at the value. And it's hard. But you get there by saying yes. You get there by choosing to see the value.

And here's a quick example. My favorite thing about athletics, which was for me a ton of running. Now I throw more interval training in there, but the same concepts apply. It's a chance to remind myself that I don't negotiate with my weakness. I don't give myself an opportunity to rationalize with the voice that wants me to quit. That question, that fork in the road, I answered it. I charted its course before the workout started. Knowing this is going to be uncomfortable at times,

But it's where I need to go. There will be no more thinking from here on out. And so today's workout, for example, switching deadlifts, burpees to squats, to core. You don't think. You see the next requirement, the next task, and you simply say, yes, you don't need your mind for this. In fact, you go before your mind even knows where it's going. because that dotted line has already been signed. And that was the breakthrough for me.

When you separate what you have to do with the hurt associated with doing that thing, you free yourself. After all, what's there to hold you back if you can't talk yourself out of doing things? See, we tend to think our greatest adversity is the pain or the confusion or the unknown. But it's like, no, those are the byproducts of doing anything of significance.

The adversary is the voice that begs you to slow down because of those things. And if you can figure out in your own life how to create space between the two, how to separate the task and the discomfort often brought about by the task, there's nothing that will ever be able to slow you down. And look, I'm not saying that you walk around without ever utilizing the power of that brilliant mind you possess. The one's ability to think is everything. But what I am saying is there is a time to shut it off. There is a time in which to avoid overthinking we simplify.

Action, reaction. One more mile. Okay, end of story. One minute of jump squats next. Roger that. Period. It's taking the emotion out of the process, refusing to leave the door cracked for the inner dialogue that says, hey, maybe you don't do this, maybe you slow down. Are you sure you can handle what's next?

No, all of that is tuned out. It's assignment, go, next go, next go, next go. You know this is the right thing. You did your thinking before grabbing the sword, shield, and stepping into the arena. Now guess what? It's instinct. It's doing what has to be done. And what has to be done hurts.

And look, you didn't have to accept that. You didn't have to step in. You could have stayed home. But somewhere along the way, you looked in the mirror and said, the difficult path is the one with the value. And now here you are. Face to face with hungry lions, clashing swords with your adversaries. There's no turning back now.

Now is when you parse out pain from the objective. The pain is now part of the audience. It's not with you or in you. It's watching from above as you do what you came here to do. So yes, those swords clash, but the eyes. remain focused on what's ahead. And yes, those lions roar, but that's background noise.

When you simplify your world into objective and action, objective, action, objective action, there is time for nothing but forward progress. And sometimes that is all that is required of us in the face of adversity, in the face of pain, self-doubt,

in the face of discomfort, Can you break your world down into nothing but one single step forward? One more set, one more rep, one more session, one more attempt, just one more more. No rocket science, no negotiation, there's nothing to figure out here. It's walking the path before you. It's the discipline to carry on. It's one more swing of the axe. Audience or no audience.

Lions or no lions, you are bound to the universe at your feet. And that simplified concentration is why you will succeed. There's a really cool clip of Steve Jobs in 1997. He's on stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Back a little over a decade after originally being fired by Apple. He's taking questions from the audience. And this particular guy stands up and grabs the mic and asks a vicious question. He basically tears into jobs, implying that he doesn't know what he's talking about,

questioning the value that he brings to the company. It's just super aggressive. And I think one of the reasons it stuck with me all these years is because upon On hearing it, you know, my instinct as an observer was to be insulted for Steve Jobs. The guy just got lit up. And you'd think he'd fire back, defend himself and his accolades, of which there were obviously plenty to draw from, but that's not what he does at all. He instead does two things in particular that have, over time, added tremendous value to my worldview. The first thing, as I was kind of alluding to there, is he didn't at all get angry or defensive,

which may seem like an easy thing to do, but again, observing it, like you can feel the tension there. It's like Jobs saw the criticism as merely procedural. That's it, right? There's something to be expected as one builds. He completely depersonalized the attack as it was being used. fired his way. His exact quote was, you know, you can please some of the people, some of the time. But one of the hardest things when you're trying to affect change is that people like this gentleman are right in some areas. And I'll explain what he means when he says the guy's right

in a minute or two here. But that response totally reduced the tension by 90%. understanding that there are going to be people who have things to say, some of which will question your ability and your effectiveness. And if you're looking from a 10,000-foot view, that's to be expected. And this is a part that was shocking to me, warranted. He says the criticism is warranted. Growth is messy and sloppy and a work in progress. And so criticism will, from time to time, hit the nail right on the head.

and you as a designer and creator have to know that you'll both make mistakes and be called out for them. That's the way it goes. That's the contract one signs with the world in order to bring to life those things that are not yet visible. It's scary. It's intimidating, right? At least at first. Again, my reaction was to get defensive. But I think what made Steve great,

as he smiled and jokingly said, here we go, mid-question, was the reassurance that, look, I signed up for this. So in actuality, it's a good thing. It's not an attack. It is growth. And I try and keep that in my back pocket as I do my thing, right? It says sharing your thoughts, it's a vulnerable thing. And if you are going to fall apart or crumble,

anytime someone's not totally in love with where you are at the moment, or what you're creating or your last piece of work, you're in for a, you know, a rude awakening. It's going to be a long journey. So that depersonalization is everything and incredibly valuable. And the second part brought a ton of value to me as a creator as well, just in a different way. And this is the part that I alluded to earlier

when Steve said that his critic was in some way correct. when he was being hounded about his knowledge gap in some specific technology, right? I'm not really sure what the technology was. But Jobs basically explained that you're right. I'm not an expert there, but it's not about the specific technology or the minutia. It's about giving your consumers, your audience, the world what it wants. It's about having a big picture, a vision. And that's what made Jobs so special.

He didn't need to be involved at such a level of granularity. The vision changed. It revolutionized technology. Because it was reverse engineered and brought to life. Here's this exact quote. Jobs said one of the things I've always found is you've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology.

You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it. And I've made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room, and I got the scar tissue to prove it, and I know that it's the case. End quote. That was an incredible thing for me to hear. If anything, because so often we get caught up in the weeds, right? We let the details drive the decisions, whether it's technology or anything else.

I often think of that, you know, in my world. Don't worry about what's in place right now. worry about where you need to be and then backfill to make it happen. And sure, you know, some people might not get it. And sure, it will certainly mean you'll have to delve into areas you don't quite understand as you seek to support that vision or bring it to life. But that's the price that must be paid because vision is king. And so, taking those two concepts I just talk about if you were to combine them,

you'd walk away with the understanding that one, growth is sloppy, criticism is inevitable. And two, don't forget that adding value to the world should light your path. Not the little details that peak your interest along the way, right? Not everyone is going to get it as you build, and that's okay. The way I see it, everyone is building something. And as they build, you know, will surely come face to face with some sort of resistance. And while it's not always easy, there's value in finding

the strength to smile to yourself and understand that resistance is merely part of growth. It's a necessary component of your evolution as you add value to the world, as you seek to leave yourself and the world around you better than it was yesterday. Aristotle has a quote that states, to avoid criticisms, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. What a waste that would be of the potential and greatness contained within you. to let it slip away for fear of what might be said. As Jobs explained, you can please some of the people, some of the time, but it's not about that. The benchmark is not being perfect and never making anyone angry.

No, it's seeking to bring to life that which does not yet exist, trusting yourself and your vision. It's not taking personal that which is merely part of the process. because when the storm arrives, that will ultimately carry you through to the most incredible things you'll have ever done in your life.