Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Turn Chaos Into Opportunity: Rise Above Life's Challenges | Morning Motivation

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

  When chaos strikes, will you let it break you, or will you let it become the foundation for your comeback? Life’s greatest opportunities often come disguised as insurmountable problems. Those moments of uncertainty, where the walls seem to close in, aren’t signs of failure but invitations to rise above, to redefine your story, and to uncover the strength within you. In this episode, Eddie shares the transformative power of shifting perspective. The storms we face are not judgments of our worth or past decisions—they are the tests that shape us, refine us, and prepare us for what’s next. You are not your past; you are the courage you summon and the choices you make in the eye of the storm. What will you build with the chaos handed to you? Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

It was an opportunity the entire time. It was just disguised as a problem. Let me unpack this for you because this shift in thinking changes everything. So I want you to imagine the particular chapters or seasons of life where what's in front of you feels so big that it's insurmountable. It's constant chaos, fight or flight mode. It's the walls closing in around you, right? In those moments historically, you know, I would feel disappointment and shame and just sadness, right, for letting that happen.

It's like, how could I not have been better? How could I not have had the foresight? How am I the guy in this spot? This isn't good, therefore I'm not good. You reap what you sow. But what I've come to learn is that not only is that thinking obviously counterproductive, it's false. because it's in those very moments where it feels like the walls are caving in

that we are handed the greatest opportunity of all. We are not past decisions. We're not prior circumstances. We are defined by what we do amidst the chaos. We are defined by our ability to get back up and rise again. Because those moments, yeah, the very moments that feel like you're suffocating,

they are when life begins. But go beyond the semantics here, because I'm not speaking metaphorically. I'm not trying to be cute with words. Truly, when we feel lost and overwhelmed and stuck and scared, when we feel the odds are stacked against us, when every door seems locked, that's when the universe presses the play button and the movie starts. And yeah, no one avoids these moments, right?

There's a difficulty, a suffering attached to living. That's the human predicament. But some of us, a few of us, accept the invitation to turn those moments and that suffering into something beautiful. A select few take the ticket and step into a world of their making. It's crazy how context changes our perspective, right? It's like, you really thought life was getting up and meditating and going into your little cold plunge when things are good?

When the toughest decision you had to make that day was whether or not to get Starbucks? Brother, that's not life. That's cruise control. Life. Well, life is what you do when you're broken. When you're down 25 at halftime. Life is feeling lost, but continuing forward.

It's how you bounce back when you lose a loved one, when the sales numbers are plummeting, when you don't know how you're going to keep the doors open. When you're looking around and for the life of you, you can't figure out how you're going to hold it together. How are you going to come out of this victorious? Life is when reality grabs you by the collar and shakes you. What do you do with that?

That's life. It's learning, no, never take it personally, but take it for the opportunity that it is. And I'm not saying it's an easy initiative, but it also happens to be the only good option. Some people use mountains to get stronger. Others set up camp at the mountains base and forever look up at the top, imagining. What do you do in those moments? When it's sink or swim, what are you able to pull out of your? What do you forge with that fire?

Sure, let the good times be good. Let the easy times be easy. Enjoy them. They are a nice reprieve from the necessary ups and downs, but don't trick yourself into thinking easy is the expectation. The opportunity will come from the times that once masqueraded as hopelessness. The purpose will come from the pain, the confidence from walking forward,

one step ahead of that doubt that always seems to linger. And now keep in mind, there is no delusion here. I'm not proposing that one smile and pretend it's 72 and sunny, while the wind gusts and the rain pours down. I'm merely asking you to see that the game-changing moments are conceived during the downpour. The darkness, as the saying goes, is the opportunity for you to be the light. And sure, along the way, feel all the feelings.

Be human. But if you marry that to the notion that you can channel those feelings and the circumstance and past decisions, all of it, into exactly what you need, you become stronger than you ever thought you could be. Living is not existing in the absence of pain. living is becoming greater than you ever imagined amidst the pain, using hell as a lever to reach the heavens, to grab the stars. They were always yours.

Just impossible to see what the lights on. So utilize the discomfort to build. But the doubt, anxiety, pain to work, you'll step out of the smoke stronger and more capable, where most stop and point at the problem, you'll have chiseled away at it like marble until all that remains is both beautiful and meaningful.

Where most journeys end, yours begins. And that's why the world will be yours. It was not given, it was chosen, one quote-unquote problem at a time. Imagine, you're standing on the edge of a cliff and you're looking out at this giant, abyss. And you know that what you want is on the other side.

That the very thing you're called to do, the journey of a lifetime that means the most to you that you know you should be on. But instead of making one giant leap, you hedge. You grab a handrail or a rope. You sort of tiptoll along. the outside, bracing yourself for the possibility of a fall. Look, in a perfect world, we'll say,

when we know that we should be somewhere when something's calling us, we would always take the leap. And the times that I've done that in my life, I don't regret it at all. In fact, I attribute taking massive action to a lot of the growth that have had. in my life, but I think it also benefits us to be practical. We can't always do that. We're not always ready to do that. Sometimes you have to earn confidence one little step at a time. And so what I want to do is tell a story about that very courage, about using what you have where you are to start taking action now, even if you're not ready to leap without reservation. It's a reminder that beginnings are rarely graceful, but they're necessary.

And years from now, when you look back, you might laugh at the ways you softened your first steps, that you hedged. But you'll also realize that starting, even imperfectly, even with true, training wheels was everything. And so I want to share a quick story about my friend Clayton. I was recently on his podcast. And we were talking about this, right? Particularly with him, he shares a lot on social media. It's a big part of his brand, his business, what he does.

And he also happens to enjoy dancing, right? And by the way, I'm not throwing him under the bus here. He'd be happy that I shared this. So he's saying, I love this. It's a big part of what I do, but it's outside the scope of what people know me for. And really struggled to share it for fear of being criticized or laugh at or, you know, you can fill in the blank there. And he says, so one day I did. I filmed the video and I'm sitting there for 40 minutes looking at it, terrified, thinking, how can I soften the blow here, right?

And he goes, I know what I'll do. Instead of just posting the video, I'll post it, but I'll write this really long essay underneath it in the description about vulnerability and the difficulty in life and some of these things so that people will see that and comment on that and send some positivity there to counteract the negative comments that I'll get about, you know, dancing and being made fun of and all these things. you can just see like the circus going on in his brain, right? The loops he's jumping through to rationalize this in his mind. And he says, I'm so embarrassed that I did that. I can't believe that. Right now I dance and I just post it. Who cares?

And not only that, people like it. And I'm listening to this and I'm like, but that's exactly it. Right? We look back at our beginnings, and we often laugh to ourselves. Oh, back then, I was so naive. I was so scared. I tiptoed in. I crawled before I walked, before I ran.

Like, it's a sense of shame. You know the phrase, meet people where they are? Well, how about meeting that older version of you where you were? Because back then, it wasn't a silly hedge. Back then, it was courage. It was everything you had. And yeah, maybe you had to make some small concessions in order to get the train on the tracks.

You had to go the roundabout way. In a perfect world, would you have just dove in? Would you have just shared yourself with the world and said, whoever doesn't like this, oh, well, it's not for you? Yeah. But we live in an imperfect world where the most powerful thing is not a direct line to a goal or objective,

it's starting when you're terrified to begin. Perhaps when that heartbeat in your chest is reminding you that being scared and feeling alive aren't all that different. It beats the same way. The question is, what do you do with it, right, in that moment? And see, by starting, even with the training wheels or holding the edge of that cliff and tiptoeing around, you're able to breathe life into something that matters.

You're able to give yourself an opportunity to say years later, wow, I remember how slow I moved back then, I remember how I tiptoed back then, I remember how much I cared about people's criticism back then, but now, now I don't. Now I get it. That is the entirety of the point. You may not have been able to pick the fruit, but you planted the seed that would become the tree that would bear the fruit.

And in the real world, that means a lot. Sometimes it's not about how you start or where you begin. It merely matters that you do. That you do start, that you do begin. I'll never forget a quote that Jim Quick shared. It said, when all you have is 40%, 40% is 100%. And I've spoken about that in a few different kinds. context in the past, I think it applies here beautifully because time passes. And Clayton, for example,

could say, man, I was operating at 40% back then. No, my friend, you were operating at 100% back then because that at the time was the obstacle in front of you. Simply starting was the ocean you had to cross and you did. And what's interesting to think about is you right now, are that person you're future self someday we'll look back on and smile at. Oh man, I remember. I remember that version of me. I remember being scared, slow. I remember not knowing. I remember feeling stuck and lost and insecure, but guess what? I found the courage somewhere to set sail. Ill-equipped, ill-prepared, and in that moment at that time, that was my Everest. So my friends, here we are. And I pose this question, what will you give life to?

What is it in your soul you want to share, to explore, to give to the world, but you're sitting back thinking, I can't, because I don't have all the answers. This is too big or too much. Now it was a good time to remind yourself that it can be ugly. It can and it should be something you laugh at down the road. you should smile at this novice version of yourself beginning a journey completely foreign to you. But the key word is beginning. Give yourself the gift of an imperfect launch into the ether. Let your world expand to places you've never been and things you've never seen.

Give yourself that gift. In all its imperfection, because going through the imperfection is the perfection. Give yourself the gift of someday laying back, closing your eyes, imagining the starting line and saying, thank God I did whatever I had to do in order to put one foot in front of the other. That little footstep, that hedge, that tiptoeing, around the canyon. It was a leap. It was traversing the ocean.

And so because you found this courage, ultimately, a door opened to the infinite. People always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. If there's no other way to put it, that simple idea has drastically changed my life. It doesn't matter what season of life I'm in or what path I'm walking down. How I view myself at that time

is always directly proportional to the outcome. And when you think about it, it's not magic. You can unpack it in a very practical, pragmatic way. How you see yourself determines how you act and how you act shapes your reality. runners don't break weightlifting records and bodybuilders don't break running records

these characters identify themselves a certain way and so every day breathe life into that identity they follow through on who they believe they are so quick personal anecdote I've started calling myself the best speechwriter on planet Earth you could hear that and think, well, how audacious, how pretentious. Really, dude? You've never written speeches for presidents or world leaders.

The reach of your words pale in comparison to even some current podcasters and YouTubers, public speakers. But here's the deal. If you don't believe yourself worthy of something, if you don't pick out the shoes that are, let's say, a few sizes too big, You'll have nothing to grow into. See, there's power in saying you're the best because, again, we tend to hit the targets that we aim for.

I don't have time for this crossed my fingers and we'll see stuff. And this is, in my mind, incredibly relevant to you and your pursuits, whatever they are. Because when we're not yet there, we tend to be timid in our approach, right? It's like, who am I to do X? Why should I think I'm good enough to do Y or Z?

Stop and own it. That's perhaps the most important thing I've learned over the last 10 years of life. And I'm not talking about feigning competency. I'm talking about simply owning the pursuit and acknowledging that you will be where you most need to be if you trust yourself. If you show up like you are that person,

are worthy, one of my favorite sayings. Walk into every room like God sent you, and why shouldn't you? Way back, maybe 2014, I heard Tony Robbins say, if you believe yourself a smoker, you'll never quit smoking, period. To be clear, I'm paraphrasing, I don't ever want to misquote someone, but think about the idea, right? It's like, I'm a smoker, but man, I'm hoping this patch will work out. No. If you believe in your mind that you're a smoker, guess what you'll do the second things become challenging?

Revert back to your old ways. That is, after all, who you are, right? Or another relatable one, that phrase we've all heard it, I'm not a morning person. I don't wake up early. I don't do mornings. Sure, there are some biological preconditions, right, for those who perform best in the a.m. versus the PM. But let's be real. If your life depended on it, are you telling me you couldn't wake up early? If everything was on the line, would 5.30 or 6 be an impossible task?

Of course not. It's just that when that alarm goes off and you view it as a reach or a stretch or an I hope so or out of character, forget about it. Your brain's going to remind you you don't do well in the morning anyway.

You'll roll over and the rest will be history. See, the point is it matters how you see yourself. I get asked about college quite a bit, funny enough, from young people, sometimes even parents looking for an opinion on it. Is it a necessity? And the answer is, of course, it depends. But I can speak personally.

And I'm grateful for two things. I learned to analyze slash write. And I learned as a D1 athlete to become the type of person who finds a way. That may seem obvious. But the way it was dropped in front of me was revolutionary. My epiphany was freshman year on that rowing machine doing 2,000 meters sprints, hurting, and the coach being like, you don't understand. You don't get it.

It doesn't matter that you're in pain, right? Because the Georgetown guy right now at a gym 500 miles away is suffering too. but his little screen says he's going faster. So that means you find a way or you lose. And it was like, my world opened up. You don't stop when it hurts. You stop when you figure it out. Regardless of what happens on race day,

you show up the next day. You find a way to make that screen say you're pulling faster than you were the day before. Be the type of person who continues to show up. up and evolve. That's not what you do. That's who you are. That's why transformation with health generally doesn't occur until you make an overall lifestyle change. Because you're not just a guy or gal going to the gym. No, you are a healthy person living a healthy life. Of course you're going to the gym and eating well and surrounding yourself with other healthy people. That's what healthy people do.

That is your identity. Remember, people will always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. And so in a world with infinite upside, be someone who finds a way. Always. When something must be done, pick up your head,

roll up your sleeves, and attack it. Why? Well, to put it simply, your future self will think. You. There's a powerful anecdote about adversity that deals with cows in Buffalo. And what's the difference? Picture the cows outgrazing in a field. A storm is approaching. They hear it. They see the gray clouds moving in. The cows will attempt to do is run away from the storm. Now, obviously, cows cannot outrun a storm. It inevitably catches up to them. And because they're trying to run away,

and everything's moving in the same direction. The cows end up being in the storm longer than they would have if they simply stayed put. The buffalo, on the other hand, approach it differently. They hear the storm, they see those clouds coming, and what they will do is run directly into it. They'll attack it. And sure, they get the chaos in the wind,

and they find themselves in the storm center with the turbulence. but also because of this initiative, it's gone sooner. It passes them sooner. Leaving a very relevant and important message for life. You never win running away from what must be done. You can't escape the turbulence. It has to be approached and attacked.

in a way it's the perfect metaphor for taking on life's problems, not waiting them out or even worse running away, but going at it with everything you have. Because only then is the issue resolved. Things, as much as I wish it weren't true, generally just don't go away. And if you want to empower yourself, if you want to capture meaning

in an often perceived to be meaningless world, own this situation. When others would run away, let's run in. When others rely on hope, let's be the ones who seek out solutions. I remember years ago now, Joko Willink answering a question on procrastination, and he said something along the lines of, when you train your brain to attack the outstanding,

in your life, you win. When you know you have to, but don't want to, that's when you must. Not even because it's more virtuous, but because it's practical. Because it turns the reason most people falter into the reason you will win. That storm, those clouds, that chaos,

believe it or not, is all working for you. It's an opportunity to rise up and collect your win. Find your strength, empower yourself. It's moving directly against the crowd. It's swimming upstream, making a statement. If confidence is earned, then my friends, it is earned when the skies are dark. It's earned when the sun is gone.

It's earned when every impulse says run, hide, save it for later. If you can stand up then, in those moments, you move beyond being a victim of the storm or even a survivor of the storm. No, you become greater than the storm. You become truly unstoppable. Not because you did anything far-fetched or out of this world, but because when most ran out, you ran in. You picked up your head. You rolled up your sleeves and took it head on.

And that's the courage that your future self will thank you for. That's the decision that means everything. The whole thing was backwards. The cart was before the horse. Now, sometimes that's obvious. You don't need to wait until you're strong to go to the gym. The gym is what builds the strength. It's a very easy progression to understand.

And we understand it. Some of the time, hear me out. He seemed to think that if he seemed to think that if he only found the right person, he himself would finally be complete. Completely unaware that if he just instead made himself whole, if he worked on himself, the right people would come into his orbit.

That is, after all, how it goes. That may be all in all, my biggest qualm with, quote-unquote, networking. The best networking you can do is be a kid. capable human being with value to add. Then, get this. Instead of having to scour the surface of the earth for like-minded people, they show up in your inbox. It is all in all a storyline we have backwards.

The right people can't complete you. A complete you brings in the right people. Hmm. She seemed to think that money, money had to be made, that success was critical because that success would bring approval and status and power. It would be what slays the demons. And then once successful, she could finally live free.

She could be at peace, not bending to the whims and the demands of others. That's why the money was so important. That's why the success was imperative. not knowing that, whoops, it's one's ability to live freely now before the money comes without the success and accolades, that the door to all that other stuff is opened. Curiosity, passion, and freedom has prompted more greatness than anything else. And there are some things we can afford to postpone. The freedom to be you and do what's meaningful in the present moment is not one of those things. It's another storyline we have backwards.

Don't exist in a cage of your own making so that someday you can live free. Live free now and instead capture the meaning in life. He wanted to be one of the greats. And so as if a blueprint were placed in his hand, He recreated. He copied. He emulated those who have walked the path before him.

He tirelessly chiseled away at his current self to represent someone else, those who had done it. Someone standing on a mountaintop looking down seems good on the surface. But what he didn't know is that those who came before him in general. their own authenticity into their pursuit. They weren't recreating the same portrait as someone else. Maybe in some cases they were picking up the same tools, the same brush. But they were etching the world as it was experienced through their own eyes.

Again, maybe students of the technique and the history, certainly respectful of what previously existed, but understanding that their job, was to receive the torch and carry it somewhere new. Another storyline that we have backwards. We think extracting ourselves gets us closer to the formula, but my friend, you are the formula. There's a common theme here,

and I can tell you wholeheartedly from experience, this isn't some magical thing I pulled out for you. thing I pulled out from under a rock. This is lived experience. This is learned experience. This is me putting my own hand on the stove and going, wow, I have to be careful of that.

Your world within is the chisel that defines the external world. It's fun to look back at our predictions. You know, I've certainly done my fair share of swinging and missing, like a weatherman, a political analyst, a sports commentator, fill in the blank. We make

educated guesses. And then we see how kindly life is to our hypotheses. And the version of me from 10 years ago, mid-20s, walking along the Cape Cod Canal one morning and deciding that your world within would be the North Star, well, that was one that I hit out of the park. It's been a guiding light. Handing me the wisdom that when you take accountability for everything in your life,

you then become powerful enough to change your life. Your world starts internally and is projected out always. You make yourself more capable and boom, suddenly you are surrounded by those called to your energy. When you focus not on the money or the externalities, but on doing what you love and following your curiosity, you soon end up where few have gone, resulting in, you guessed it, an abundance of those very externalities. When you seek not to be those who inspire you, but instead to water and protect your own strengths,

to marry the known path with your new authentic path, you create space in a very crowded room. Trust yourself in that. Trust that if you plant the seed and water it and look after it, it will at some point bear fruit. Understand that no one has all the answers because life is not black and white. You are the only one with your vision, your skill set, your values. That means something. Earn that confidence in your own life.

Step into the arena. Unleashed the parts of you that have been tucked away for fear of standing out or messing up. The whole thing was backward. We placed more emphasis on the path than the person walking it. More focused on the water than on the seed. A determined mind can navigate any terrain. That energy should be exhausted.

putting yourself in the game and committing to a growth process. You are the power. You are the strength. You are the secret weapon. But be honest with yourself. Are you allowing you to thrive? Or are you waiting for the right people, money, and circumstances to pick you up and somehow carry you away? I think life is waiting, not for them, but for you to realize it.

to own it, and then most importantly, to do something about it. So maybe the whole thing was backwards. Until now, until this very moment, until you realize the wake doesn't drive the boat, it merely requires a courageous captain. Self-trust. Are you willing to take the wheel? Do you ever wonder how many times you gave up right? before you were about to succeed.

It's an impossible question because you can't possibly know the answer. There was an anecdote that was said to me once that was many of life's greatest accomplishments were achieved by people too ignorant of the odds to know that they were quote unquote impossible. I just love the concept. And when you sit with it, it's a riveting thought. Like, how many times did you stop just short of what maybe wouldn't have brought you to the peak of the mountain but would have created that momentum or, you know,

been a slingshot for that trajectory? There's kind of a funny story with one of my good friends. He's quite a bit older than me, but back in the day in Florida, we were business partners on a few things, still great friends with him. And, you know, there was some overlap in our circle, obviously. And, you know, down the street, there was a, like, a yoga slash interval training studio. And we went to that a few times.

And he met this girl there who, you know, her and a few other people sort of became our, our circle. Like we'd have coffee every once in a while together, all of us. And, you know, he was all about this girl. And I checked with him, by the way. It's okay that I'm telling this story. But, you know, he would ask her out or allude to like, you know, grabbing a drink or dinner. And it was like she just kind of wasn't hearing it, wasn't feeling it, which is just, you know, that's life in the big city, right? Sometimes it, sometimes you should. shoot your shot and it works, sometimes it doesn't. And, you know, he would, he was persistent.

You know, not in a bad way. I know you can easily conflate this to be something bad. It was in a charming way, right? And I remember being in the car with him, and he was talking about her, you know, asking her to go on a trip or something like that that he was going on. And I said, hey, dude, at what? point, are you going to throw the towel on this? Like at what point has your ego taken enough of a beating? At what point is your pride, you know, taken so much that you just walk away? And

it's one of these moments, I'll never forget, you know, Eddie, she only needs to say yes once. I laughed and I said, okay, dude. And a few years later, they're engaged and probably the happiest couple, you know, I've ever seen. They're always together. They're just always laughing. They're just, they have this beautiful thing. And, you know, it's the same question. Like, how many times do we stop just short?

Like, maybe the time he asked when her plans fell through and it was her favorite restaurant or whatever it was, right? And again, I want to be very careful with this because, like, you know, it can be conflated or blown out of proportion. He's a very respectful human being. But it's just, it is, for me, a perfect metaphor of, like, just stopping way before you've gotten what you've wanted in other areas of life. You know, it's like, I remember John Paul DeGioria talking about, hopefully I didn't butcher's name, but way back, it was one of the first speeches they ever wrote.

You know, when a door closes in your face, it could be the very next door. And so you have to depersonalize failure and keep knocking. And I think I'll speak for myself, like one of the things that you're sort of sheltered from in a lot of, or I was, in my old world, where, you know, things were very structured and predictable. when you're sort of out on your own in the wilderness, building something, starting your own business, you know, knocking on doors, reaching out, creating things, seeing what works, you learn that failure is part of the process,

that rejection is just, it is an important character in the story. And if you let it define you, it will. Right? The thing about progress in a particular endeavor, is that life doesn't stop. You choose. Right? So I can tell you some projects I've worked on that, man, they just,

I thought they would be game-changing. I thought they would be life-altering. I thought they would bring value to millions of people. And look, sometimes they just swing and miss. And it's very easy to look around and go, maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe I'm not what I thought I was. Right? The mind will write stories for you if you let it.

But it's like, no, this is just a door that was shut in your face. Go knock on the next one. And the funny thing is, the thing that takes off or the thing that is perceived well, that does add value oftentimes isn't even much different from the thing that was rejected. It's a slight pivot. It's a slight alteration. Right. And so I say all of this to put in your brain.

that so many of the things we want in life, we stop short. And I like to think of almost. I like to think of, you know, the best-selling book that was almost written, right? Imagine Jake Haraling picks up the pen and goes, ah, nah, maybe later. When Michael Jordan famously, you know, cut from his varsity basketball team, people don't talk about the fact that he was a killer on the JV squad for a while, but still, he looks around and he goes, and maybe basketball is not my jam.

There is that version of success for you in something that you will either say yes or say no to. You can't let outside circumstances dictate that in your world. You don't want to be a victim of almost, because some of the most important, most powerful things you will ever do live on the other side of almost. They live behind mountains of almost. If you're looking around and you're going, hey, this isn't for me, this isn't what I thought, I've tried, I've dabbled. I'm not really feeling it.

That's different. But the world does not get to dictate your story. You do. And this is obviously not in the same narrative as dating. This is like life, right? It's like the world cannot tell you when to stop or what's enough. You decide that. You take in the information, in the pieces.

You take all these variables and you decide. Don't forget how much power you have there. Don't forget how fragile our egos are and how we're always tempted to stop when things become difficult. You only need one yes in many situations. The question is not whether that yes is out there. The question is, are you willing to keep stepping towards it until it? If you leave the door cracked, when things get difficult, you will most definitely kick it open.

If you have a plan B, when things get too challenging or complex, you'll most definitely abandon Plan A. to truly succeed is to cut off the lifelines. It's to commit to the road filled with adversity and struggle and hardship, but that leads to that which is meaningful. Over the weekend, I was invited to join my friend Evan Carmichael at his mastermind to talk a little bit about YouTube and my experience with it, my progression over the years. And it was a blast, incredible group, some amazing conversation. And I want to share a moment in particular that stuck out to me.

I was talking about essentially the journey from zero subscribers to where I am now, some tips and flexion points along the way. And, you know, I pulled up behind me this chart that shows basically seven years of minimal growth, right? Starting in 2014, going all the way up to 2021. where suddenly you see that flat-line spike, right? The channel sort of leaps to the next stratosphere, 4x, then 5x, then 10x, then 20x. After years of consistency, you see this sort of exponential curve.

And my point is, you know, I didn't change my craft at all. I was speaking and sharing stories the same way that I always had, right? The way that I'd love to do it. What changed was the packaging. It was the titling. the thumbnail images and the branding, stuff that because I enjoyed and was immersed so deeply in the creative process that I kind of ignored, right? All that stuff was an afterthought, which is funny when you think about it, right, to work so hard on something and then to sort of

mail in or not pay attention to the marketing component that opens the door to what you're offering. So that would flip the switch. And, you know, I was thinking the group would want to dive fully into it. Okay, Eddie, what were those thumbnail adjustments? What was the titling? What was the branding that you did? But to my surprise, people were far more interested in, Eddie, how the hell did you not quit during seven years of minimal growth? How did you do that?

Were you tempted to quit? Did it cross your mind? And so I've been thinking more and more about the question. And I think there are a variety of reasons. didn't really give an in-depth answer at the mastermind. So I'm going to share now and see if I can unpack this a little bit. First and foremost, I genuinely love what I do. I saw those seven years every day getting up to dive into this

as a chance to do something truly meaningful. I felt in my own personal world like I was doing something that mattered. And to me, that's foundational. You know, my metric wasn't necessarily YouTube numbers. I mean, I was aware, don't get me wrong, but I would just be excited when I finished a speech if I felt it was powerful. You know, my game was trying to move myself to tears

playing back something I created. If it was powerful to me, that would be a W. Maybe it won't get millions of views, but I know this is good, right? It's like the Oprah metaphor I've used before. When Oprah walks into a bakery and declares it amazing, suddenly everyone, you know, hears Oprah and wants the cakes and the donuts

or whatever's in the bakery. That doesn't mean the bakery suddenly got amazing overnight. It just means it was discovered. The baker knew he or she was making good stuff. They've been following that course all along, and so that same idea pulled me through. Second, as I said in the intro,

I didn't leave the door cracked at all. I knew this is what I was going to do. This is the arena. I was going to continuously attempt to improve in, and I was either going to be poor doing this or successful doing this, but I was going to do it. And so that saved a lot of internal deliberation when something I created, quote unquote, failed,

or the result was underwhelming. There's nothing for me to discuss. I'd have bad days, absolutely. There were days where I felt so down on myself that, you know, I couldn't get out of bed, right? Few and far between, but it happened. felt like I was letting my family down at times. I felt like I was a disappointment,

felt like I was losing some imaginary race, all part of the process. But here's what I always did. I recovered and kept going. I regained perspective. I got on the phone with people that mattered to me. I recalibrated and I continued on, right? You take your L's.

That's life. You give yourself time to cope when you're down, whatever, right? But you carry on. You give yourself a chance. I think part of this mentality comes from being on the rowing team or crew team in college. I wasn't the greatest by any stretch. But I learned to suffer. I learned that to win means you have to get your ass kick. That's just how it goes. And I'm sure that was valuable, you know, when the race course changed from 2,000 meters on the water to the creative slash entrepreneurial space. Suffering does not mean you win,

but a refusal to suffer ensures you will lose. Next, I focused on adding value, right? You can't skip that. There has to be an exchange of value. And I was getting messages from people saying, Eddie, your work, help me. Wasn't a substantial influx of people reaching out, but there's an idea that if you can help one person,

you can help one million people. It's not a can I do it question. It's a logistics question. It's a scaling question. Which means it's just a matter of time. Right? It was all just tying to the self-belief, understanding that there was a way to scale that value.

When you approach your mission, not with, is it possible, but how do I make it happen? Do you drastically increase your odds? And anything you do. Next, I believed, and this is perhaps the most important. You know, that I was always one decision away from a totally different life. One creation away from that change that I've been looking for. And, you know, when you believe this and failure occurs, the mind simply asks, okay, what's next?

Almost like, you know, imagine you're shooting three-pointers. There's a rack of basketballs next to you. You miss a shot. Okay, you're probably not going to break down, right? start weeping, convince yourself to take up soccer, know you're going to reach over, grab the next ball, and shoot again. The possibility of what's next trumps the previously missed shot because of the opportunity, because it's there, because it's tangible,

because you just have to pick it up and fire away again. And life provides, using the same metaphor, an endless rack of basketballs. It will allow you to shoot as many shots as you're willing to shoot. The next one could be the one that falls. And every rep increases that likelihood. Just like your next creation could be the one that changes everything. Lastly, there was a continued commitment to adjust. See, if you're not winning, if you're falling short,

yet you continue to do the same thing over and over and over again, you're not going to improve, right? It's continuously showing up, its commitment, its consistency, but there has to be a willingness to evolve. There has to be some type of learned advantage. So next time you show up, you're a little bit smarter, a little bit more intelligent. It's that commitment to try adjust, try adjust, try adjust,

that ultimately, you know, over time compounds into something bigger than the sum of its parts. They're just saying you can't stop someone who refuses to quit. I think that's right on the money. But it's important to note, I think implied in that quote, is that the person doesn't just keep trying to jam that square peg into the round hole. No, they're asking every day, what's one little thing I can do better? When I re-approach it next time, how can I be a little smarter?

That's the magic. So yeah, I totally get why that graph prompted so many questions. look back in totality it looks huge but really it was just a dude every day doing what he loved making little adjustments over time with no plan B that's all taking the setbacks in stride always thinking about the next creation and what's even more exciting to me is that this is not some remarkable skill set it's not some you know powerhouse ability I was born with anyone can commit to a process and even better news right if you utilize your resources seek help and guidance from those have been down the same road your exponential growth can occur you know

way faster than seven years just don't leave that door cracked nine things you do have control over that will make your life better this is i think one of the most important conversations to have simply because so much energy is placed on stuff that's beyond us, right, that we have no control over. Yet we ignore the strength within us, the things that will actually transform our lives and push us forward. You know, stoicism obviously places a lot of emphasis on differentiating between these two things. Like letting go of what's not ours and, you know, really cultivating and strengthening what is. and there's plenty of iterations. One of my favorites and one of the most common, most well known is the serenity prayer.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It's that idea that you have within you a superpower, but you have to stop looking outside, right, and pointing at the sky for stuff that's just not, Not yours, right? So let's dive right into it.

That's where the power is. Nine things you can control that will change your life. The first, and this is not going to be a surprise, mindset. Why? Because it doesn't matter if the sky's falling or the walls are crashing down. How you think is yours. It's your strength. And no one said it better in my mind than Victor Frankel,

where he says, everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of the human. freedoms, the ability to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. And when you understand the context, and this is a man who went through one of the grossest atrocities in human history, the concentration camps during World War II, and clung onto hope, left that situation saying, hey, no one can take your outlook from you. It doesn't matter how bad the world seems that is one of the most empowering things I've ever heard. And when I look back at my life, and I'm sure a lot of you watching can relate,

some of the darkest times ended up bringing me to the most beautiful places. You know, and going through them in those moments, the ability to pause and just say, hey, I know this sucks. I know it doesn't feel good. But there's value here. Not intuitive. It's not an intuitive thing to do, which, which is why I think it's more important. No matter what you're going through,

there's something there that's meaningful and even beautiful that will ultimately be transformative. Your attitude is yours. Nothing can take that away. Number two, you always have control over how you allocate your time. There's an idea that what you water grows, which presents a simple formula. Understanding what's important in your life,

and asking yourself, are you giving that the sufficient attention it deserves? I think an easy example that we all relate to is, you know, people talking about financial freedom, wanting to be wealthier, wanting more money in the bank, right? But when you have a conversation, well, okay, how much is coming in every day, how much is going out, what are your goals, what are you spending your money on? You know, all these somewhat basic questions, they don't know. It's like, well, you're not giving that the attention. You're not aware.

You're not monitoring or studying that. I guarantee you, if you took a spotlight to those things, it would evolve in a way that changes your relationship with money and income in your bank account, right? So simple example, but you get the idea where you focus is where you'll see results. So ask yourself, are you focusing on the right things? How can you be, you know, more methodical about your time? Because, again, that is always yours to control. Number three is the morning.

And the morning is something I always have control over. We all do. And it's one of the most transformative periods of time because it's where you create your momentum. Right? It carries into the rest of your day. When you go up and take care of yourself physically, right? For me, hopping in the cold plunge, sauna, cough,

journaling, planning up the rest of the day, it 10x is the momentum and excitement and just the feeling I get as I navigate, you know, the day. And so for me, it's a no-brainer. W. Clement Stone, little hinges swing big doors. That, to me, is my little hinge. I can control that every single day. So it's something to think about.

How are you starting your day? Are you just rolling into the chaos? Or are you being methodical? And, you know, there's not a one-size-fits-all, you know. You are your own experiment, but are you playing with that and looking at different ways to launch into a day that is, you know, more productive, healthier, happier? Number four is gratitude.

Very simple, right? It's one of the most important perspective shifts you can make. Because if you never think about what you have, what's in your life, who's in your life, how far you've come, you fall into the same. place of lack, right? You only see the gap. And there's more to life than that, right? When you understand how lucky you are and, you know, how beautiful it is to be here and experience this, it makes the bumps and bruises along the way seem way less significant. Right? So it's not just like a fluffy, hey, be grateful. There's a very pragmatic reason for it. Perspective. You know, life is innately

hard, okay. It arms you with the ability to handle that adversity because you know you're grounded and you have an incredible situation and you're in position to tackle whatever comes at you. Number five is your willingness to listen. You can always control how much you listen. This one might seem silly at first or not important at first. So you realize very few people are good listeners. So much growth and understanding comes from listening, observing, right? It seems like we're wired to want to talk and share. And as my grandfather used to say, flap our gums, right?

But if you can find the discipline to take life in and learn from it and hear what other people have to say, you're arming yourself with knowledge that you otherwise wouldn't have had. Number six is a commitment to education. constantly seeking knowledge in some capacity. And it doesn't have to be in the context of a third grader in a classroom, but what areas of your life are growing, right? There's a very simple idea that progress equals happiness.

We are more content beings when we feel like we're in pursuit of something meaningful. Whatever that is in your life. So don't push that aside and think that you're done learning. You're never done learning. There's always growth. There's always some value you can take in that's bringing you closer to somewhere you want to be. Life is a teacher.

So don't forget to be a perpetual student. You can always control that. Number seven, I know a lot of you will relate to this, your circle. You are the sum of, what's the terminology, the five people you surround yourself with or the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Surround yourself with.

with people who lift you up, who make you better, who are positive influences on your life, who push you to do more, who challenge you. Not folks that drain you and are negative and cripple your growth. You can always control who you're around. And that, as it turns out, makes such a tremendous difference on your life outlook, how you look at yourself and how you look at the world. You can control your circle. Next, how you treat others. You can always control that. You know, are you compassionate? Are you empathetic? Again, do you listen? Do you seek to understand? These things matter. And, you know, what goes around comes around. When you treat others well, not only do you feel better and pick up allies along the way, but that comes back to you.

You know, so it's something to constantly think about and be cognizant of. How are you treating those around you? And lastly, you have control over the goals that you set. There's an idea that you cannot hit targets that aren't there. Yet so many of us kind of stumble around through life, just hoping will end up somewhere that we're happy with. Most of the time, that's not how it works out. I heard Jim Rohn say this kind of tongue and cheek in its,

stuck with me. He's like there's never been a basketball team or a football team that took the court or the field that didn't have a game plan. And that's for what, three hours? Yet some people live their entire lives without a plan. When you think about it in that context, it just doesn't make sense. So when you set those goals, when you're aware of the targets you've created, you're much more inclined to make everything in your life fit under that intent, to be more methodical and strategic, and ultimately be where you want to be. That's what it's all about, right? You have that control. You just have to remember. So what goals are you setting? So there you have it. Nine things you can control that will change your life. I hope it gave you some much needed

perspective, and I look forward to seeing you all thrive and flourish and whatever it is you're doing. See you next week.