Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - UNLOCK The POWER Of Your MIND | Best Motivational Speeches | Start Your Day Right

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

"To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders." - Lao Tzu

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some of the most important things in their life, in places where they weren't supposed to find them. Which is interesting to me. One, because that seems to happen a lot. And two, because it's like, who creates the parameters around what we're supposed to do? Who sets the rules to begin with? I'm continuously blown away by our tendency to create imaginary walls

and then live within them. To build steel bars around ourselves that separate the now from future opportunity. In one of the first videos I ever made, I talked about this nagging feeling of discomfort that occurred right after I left the corporate world and started my own business. And at that point, to call it a business

was giving myself a lot of credit. I was basically just starting to make videos and put them out on social media. But I would run, in the middle of the day. Right, that was my thing. Right through Boston, along the Charles River, I loved running. But I couldn't help feeling this guilt like I wasn't supposed to. Like I was doing the wrong thing, doing what I was taught not to do. My whole life, I learned that you go to school or work during the day. That's the right thing. In a decade removed, I've grown and I've learned.

I know how crazy it sounds now. But it took me a long time to even enjoy it and not feel like some devian who was leaving everything he'd worked for up to that point to go and fail spectacularly. The supposed to followed me around like a shadow. Constantly trying to pull me back in. Freedom to me is separating oneself

from this exact sentiment. It's doing what's always. best for you, exploring your own worldview, blazing as the saying goes, your own trail, because you'll find very few supposed to's there. I think this is a microcosm of a greater truth. The most important things we do in life, our pivotal moments, our epiphanies are found where we weren't supposed to find them. Because what we're supposed to do is very rarely methodically thought out. It's simply the norm.

It's marching orders. It's what the crowd is doing. It's what will help us blend in. And it's interesting, as I've pushed further and further into life, I've come to believe that rarely is what's best all one thing or all another. It's working to find a balance that supports your ideal life trajectory. That balance will lean substantially more one way or another, depending on who you are and what's important to you.

And so, I'm not suggesting one always needs to be different, or if something is common, it's wrong. No, thousands of years of evolution and societal stressors have in many ways narrowed down for us what's effective and efficient. It's helped us survive. And to dismiss this outright is obviously counterproductive, but it does explain why any break from these norms physically hurts. we associate them with survival. And here lies the divide between surviving, which we are supposed to do, and excelling, which is to embark upon a different game altogether. Survival is mitigating risk.

Excelling is hunting down the opportunity. Survival is blending in. Excelling is asking, What about me is unique and how can I dive into that fully? Survival is not having to innovate on any large scale because the instructions are clear and laid out for you. Excelling is asking, Now that I know the rules,

how can I bend and maybe even break them so that I can improve my life and the lives of those around me. And I'll continue with the same example, because I know a lot of folks find themselves in a similar situation now. I wasn't supposed to deviate from my previous life trajectory, my education, my career track, my 401k, but I did. And I found something I otherwise would never have, an ability to work on what I enjoy and share that with others. I wasn't supposed to leave home, the Northeast. the most important people in my life live up there. But I've found comfort, peace, and new beginnings down here

that I never would have experienced. I wasn't supposed to do many of the things I'm doing today. It was a genuine curiosity and a willingness to chase down what's meaningful, and the beautiful thing is anyone can do that. Every single one of us can detach and depart from the supposed to be. in our lives. And hey, maybe some of them should be there. Maybe some are adding value and stability that you need and maybe even cherish.

But I can promise some of them aren't. And it's worth a look. It's worth thinking about those things. Where can we be a little braver, a little more courageous? Where can we venture outside the scope of what we've subcontinent? deemed everyday life. I love the notion that there's always more in you. You just need to give yourself permission to pursue it.

It only makes sense that no journey begins until we give it the green light. The world is yours once you give yourself permission to pursue it. So what are you conceding? What have you accepted as fact that upon further review you might find to be fiction? There's a world of infinite opportunity waiting for you. Just past your acceptance of the way things are. Just beyond all those supposed to. How much did you care?

What do you mean? I didn't understand the question at first. In that room, how much did you care what they thought of you? Like, if zero is not at all, and 10 is you cared a lot, how much did you care? Hmm. Eight, I said, probably around an 8 out of 10. And that is the problem. Because if you care, you are not free.

I've been working my whole life to obtain that word in its truest sense. Freedom. And I made progress. the world around us is tough to change, but most things worth changing are tough. I've uprooted and walked away from people that brought me down. Plenty of times. I've walked away from places that just weren't me.

I've committed to carving out a path that I deem meaningful in my life. See, but you can always turn your back and walk away from people, from places, from situations. Here's a little caveat no one seems to tell you about, though. You have to take yourself with you. There's no destination to which you can arrive without your thoughts.

There's no place you can show up without your narratives or your view of the world. And the more I navigate this floating rock we're on. The more I'm convinced that weather is determined by the onlooker, not the atmosphere. Some people simply choose to see sun. Some people choose rain. Our forecasts are internal. I've referenced this book often because it's one of the few cheat codes,

not to any subset of reality, but to life in general, that allows us to reverse engineer true contentment. It's called the top five. regrets of the dying by Brani Ware, where she speaks with mostly older people during their final days, asks them what they would do differently if they could do it all over again. Regret number one, and we can actually stop right there, is I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the one others expected of me. Meaning, the number one thing people wish they did differently was careless.

They wished they'd lived in their authenticity, put more weight on their goals and their dreams than those of strangers that pass like ships in the night. Every time we repress who we are, our future selves shed a tear. And I know that's not pretty or uplifting to think about, right? A future you looking down and wishing you'd sought,

that freedom in its truest form, the freedom to live fully. But look, sometimes carving meaning out of life just isn't pretty. Sometimes what's necessary is not pretty. See, everything's relative. And perhaps understanding that it's not others who are the judge. But it's instead that older version of you sitting on the bedside, reflecting back on this one roller coaster ride. Maybe that's who we're living for. That's the well from which our courage should be drawn. We are guests passing through a miracle with minds that falsely and irresponsibly

whisper we have all the time in the world, trying to convince us that the trip lasts forever. But it doesn't. Your life is a raindrop in the thunderstorm. It will be old. It will be as fast as it arrived and how you choose to live it will be everything. See, there will always in some capacity exist that voice asking you to dial it down. There will, from time to time, be sweaty palms and shaking knees. You know, those human things. But when you find yourself standing on the edge of that door, looking out at a world that you know calls your name,

let your voice be louder than all of it. louder than all of it. Let the beating of your heart be stronger than your fear. And if you can't do it for you, then please do it for that version of you years from now, looking out the window smiling about how you almost said no. You almost boxed yourself in, you almost let what matters pass you by. But instead you captured life like a child chasing down a firefly that in a world of constraint, you allowed yourself to be free.

There's a connectedness that I want to call our attention to, a connecting of dots. Let's reverse engineer this simple idea, okay? Life's trajectory is most inclined to change in our biggest moments. It's the opportunities that come around once in a blue moon, when it's all on the line, the moments where we have to operate under tension. How do you perform when the lights are the brightest, when the outcome weighs heavy? We only get a few truly revolutionizing opportunities in life, and we must be our best in those moments. Okay, but how?

That's the million-dollar question. And as far as I'm concerned, the answer is in the mundane, the boring things. The answer is in repetition of the tiny steps that stack up again and again and again. See, a lot of people can picture the big opportunities, right? A lot of people dream of having the ball in their hands down by one with three seconds left on the clock. But they're not at their gym. They're not chipping away at their physique or their health.

They're not studying the ins and outs of the game. Now that stuff's boring. Just give me the ball with the game on the line. I'll figure it out, right? Except that's not how the world works. My friends, as the saying goes, confidence is earned. I want to tell you about a wall in my studio, a blank wall. And as I've moved over the years, it's changed.

It's changed shape, but it's always been there. And it's heard me speaking directly to it for thousands of hours at this point. It's seen me stand up, put a rug in the center of the room, and talk to it like it was an audience at Gillette's Stadium again and again and again. Not because it was fun. No, it was tedious and, to be honest, sometimes annoying. But look, if we're reverse engineering those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, what I always knew was that I'd be ready because that one opportunity isn't really about that one opportunity.

It's about all you've stacked up along the way, all you've built. It's enabling the mind when you walk on stage and the lights go on to think, oh, this isn't special. This is just muscle memory. I've already paid the price. I've already won, I've already suffered, lost, learned, and grown. This is just where I collect my prize. And so my friends, I ask of you, what is your equivalent of my blank wall?

Where are you creating those reps? How are you building yourself up? So that when those fleeting opportunities do arrive, you don't get worked up. You don't ask anything of yourself that you're not equipped for. give, you simply smile and think, I've earned this. This is who I am. And now the world will finally see. You belong here.

This was something that was said to the class during yoga the other day. As I've said before, yoga is something I'm really turning to is both a mental and physical approach to a lot of the injuries and imbalances I've been dealing with for a very long time. And part of that, you know, starting something new was obviously not knowing what you're doing. It's a willingness to play the fool to be this student. It's signing up to be, you know, at times the worst in the room. And so I hear the instructor say this line, you belong here, and then kind of repeat it again for emphasis. It hit me hard, you know, and I'll never know if this was prompted by me flailing around in the back,

trying to do crow pose, or she just felt like, you know, it needed to be expressed in the moment. I'm not sure, but what I do know is that it was exactly what I needed to hear. And in fact, it's what I've needed to hear throughout many stages of my life, which is why I think it hits so hard. Now I want to unpack it for a second. When I moved to Massachusetts, after spending the vast majority of my childhood in the Los Angeles area, I used to joke around with my friends back in L.A. I'm like, this is so different that it feels like a culture shock, right?

It seems so little of the world. Why do these guys not where dickies are spiked their hair? Everyone has cargo shorts and new balances. What's happening here, right? You know, but all jokes aside, when you're a freshman in high school, that's a big, The differences were many. And it took a while, you know, but I acclimated. I made friends.

I did the thing. But persistently, in the back of my head, I felt like an outsider, making my home somewhere that wasn't really mine. Like, I didn't really belong there. Then came college. I went to a small private school where most of the students I knew came from prep schools, and I had somewhat of a more rigorous academic background than I did. And I decided to be a political science major,

basically living in my professor's offices during their hours when they would spend extra time helping me write, showing me how to organize my thoughts and put together analytical papers. It was a long and stressful learning curve. And just like before, I figured it out, did fine academically. But again, never really felt like I belonged there. There were some of the same sentiments with, you know, walking on to the rowing team where many of the recruits had been doing it all their lives.

Same thing in the corporate world. It felt a little out of place. It was a feeling that never prevented me from starting. You know, I'd dive in, I'd figure it out. But there was always this lingering fish out of water feeling that I couldn't shake. I'm kind of a tangent, but this is, you know, one of the funniest moments for me looking back. In my early 20s, I was at an interview. at some insurance company in Boston.

The guy interviewing me is sitting on one end of a desk, I'm at the other. He's holding a physical copy of my resume and cover letter, not saying a word, just kind of scanning them up and down. Then he slowly kind of drops them on the desk and goes, So Eddie, tell me more about... And pauses. Looks back down at my cover letter, back up at me, back down at my cover letter.

then he traces the first line of the cover letter, quoting it as his finger moves across the paper. He goes, tell me more about how, quote, your lifelong dream is to become a data analyst. And I was like, oh my God, this guy sees right through me, Eddie, what are you doing, man? Like, this ain't it, you know? And I crack myself up every time my mind goes back there. It's the epitome of square peg round hole, and I would consistently find myself in that position. Right, but, you know, I digress. The point is, me feeling like I'm on the outside looking in

has been somewhat of a theme. Even in the areas of my life where I was finding success. Like, I couldn't totally be there. Like, find the things that are important to me and commit to them fully. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't still exist today. Right? I've worked like a madman for 10 years to build this company and this brand. And certainly I've seen some problems.

progress. In this industry, I've gotten to surround myself with some incredible people. And every time I walk into a room with folks that I've looked up to for years, I'm grateful, which is good, but sometimes too grateful, which is my entire point, right? At some point you have to transform from looking up to into being one of to give your permission to belong. And yes, you need to do the work, and yes, confidence is earned. But if you don't give yourself permission to do a thing, not kind of or sort of, but to fully with all your heart and soul be that thing, I think you'll always be leaving part of

yourself on the shelf. It feels like, to me, a lingering defense mechanism. You can't be great if you're not all in. And part of growth has been reflecting and asking, hey, you say you're all in, but are you? Are you immersed? And that's what I want. I think to some extent that's what we all want, to not just do it, but be it.

In a million years, I don't think my yoga teacher would expect it. A word's prompted a 10-minute rant, starting with my childhood on the West Coast, but man, did that comment create a lightbulb moment for me. It set this stage for such a. a beautiful epiphany. It's like you've been doing the thing for 10 years. You've grown in so many areas, but have you given yourself permission to become what you're seeking? Not kind of, but pour yourself into it. It's who you are, the environment, the people, the variables, the ups

and the downs, all of it is who you are. Just imagine what that freedom would allow. Go be the thing. more, more, fully all you have to give. So yoga class this morning showed up. Even though I suck, even though I'm learning, decided, hey, little symbolism here. No more hiding in the back of the room. Step into those neon green lights. Move towards the front.

You no longer do things, even the little things, to simply scrape by or exist. Do it to be it. If you're going to do anything, do it to be it. You belong here. Help me realize what being it really is. That maybe I'd let my definition slip. Maybe my understanding wasn't wide or all-encompassing enough.

And yeah, there's a line we need to walk, no question, we must be on the path to acquiring competency in something before we can make it our own. But the beauty of podcasts and audible and books, all our media outlets, it's that other people's growth and understanding can fast track our own. Learn from this experience. Life is too short to always feel like you are on the outside looking in. It just is. If you earned a chair at the table, be at the table.

If you were let into the room, work the room. If you're spending time and energy doing something, be that thing. Don't deprive yourself of that precious alignment because it's such a beautiful thing when we allow ourselves to feel it and obtain it. But like so many things, it starts with you giving you permission. It starts with a simple understanding. You may be new, you may be struggling.

Unsure. You might have a hell of a mountain to climb, a journey to travel. You might have extra work to do. You might have to add some things and cut away others. You might have to ask yourself the tough questions and accept the difficult answers. But you do, my friend, belong. ready to prioritize yourself in the new year your skin is a great place to start dime beauty founded by a master aesthetician is more than just a skin care company with four skin conscious categories skin care

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Spray, Tampax Pearl, and Gillette Mach 3 Razors and Refills and Save Up to $3. You won't want to miss out on these deals. Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit It's safeway.com for more detail. Today is not an obligation. Today is a gift. Why is it important that this distinction comes through loud and clear? Because the same action can differ wildly depending on what brought it about.

Was it an order or a choice? Were we told or did we arrive there ourselves? And we know this innately from a challenge. child being told to go to his or her room for punishment, that place where they'd gladly be if it wasn't being mandated by angry parents. When we're instructed, being told to, mandated, when we're doing something because we have to, we process this differently than a choice or a conclusion we came to on our own. We think about it differently when it's something we get to do. When I talk about transatlantic.

transformative perspective shifts. This was one for me, going from what's expected of me. How do I not mess this up? What would make me look like the person I'm supposed to look like? To instead understanding that, listen, today is a gift and I'll never get it back. A series of opportunities and decisions. A choose your own ending story waiting for me every day as the sun comes up in my eyes open. To me, the difference is more than semantics.

The difference is between feeling free and going into autopilot so that I mitigate mistakes and blend in. That's not freedom. That's becoming a prisoner of your own making. You can walk the same road and see it differently every time. You can take in the same event and come away with very different interpretations of it. All depending on the role you chose to give yourself as you walked down the path or peered in at the event. Were you the hero in the story or an extra? Someone who capitalizes on all to be gained or someone who hides from the fear that they might misstep.

Obligations are about minimizing risk and doing what is merely required. An opportunity, on the other hand, asks, what more could you do with what you have? How could you take what you love and multiply it? How could you capture your inspiration and delve further into it? The one living out of obligation will always find the problems and the negative. But the one who knows they have in their midst the greatest winning lottery ticket of all time well, they'd be foolish not to cash it in. And so, look, you might be going through some problems, as we all do.

You might have your challenges and your struggles. They're unavoidable. But these are part of a greater narrative. They're what will build you up and push you forward as you move deeper into the miracle that is your life. And that's the difference. The first step in being able to capture the opportunity is understanding that you are living in one. Life is not obligatory. It is a giant get-to.

And when you realize that, you are truly... The other day, I was sitting in Miami traffic, looking out the window, and it dawned on me. How interesting that human beings haven't solved for this. Like, this is a major annoyance in a lot of people's lives. Now, we put human beings on a rocket ship. We've navigated them beyond the Earth's atmosphere. We've landed them on the moon, but still are unable to effectively get around between 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays.

kind of interesting to realize. Now, there are very practical reasons for this, sure. Not to mention people studying and invested in the problem. And I think most noteworthy, I'm not even saying one is more valuable than another. This is merely a thought experiment. We get the results where we place our attention. We valued going to the moon. Because of this, humans walked on the literal moon.

moon. And we're so used to this having happened that its shock value isn't quite there, right? But for a species who a hundred years ago was traveling by horse and buggy, it's pretty impressive. And I just think it's a cool reminder that where we place our focus is where we'll get our positive results. We can change everything if we place a spotlight on it. That begs the Where are you placing your spotlight? As John Maxwell said, nobody ever went up a hill on accident. There was intentionality, which gave life to focus and action, planning, growth. We only evolve or we shine that spotlight, or as I've said in previous episodes or videos,

what you water grows. I've certainly spent my fair share of time, angry, annoyed by things that have, by no coincidence, given to the same. coincidence given zero effort to fixing. And when you do nothing to solve a problem, all you can cling to is the ability to complain about it. If you're not putting energy and resources there, you most likely won't win. Some of the best advice I got from a friend a few years back was to highlight the things that matter to you and measure them because this allows you to be aware, to be intentional with your action. It's deciding which handful of things are going to be your quote-unquote moon.

landing and then watching over them like they are precious. Let's say a goal of yours to increase your net worth. If you're looking at your bank account every day, you're much more likely to make better monetary decisions than someone who keeps their finances in the dark because they hate thinking about it. There are deliberate actions that must take place to bring about that change.

When I look at, say, YouTube, I tend to know a substantial amount about my men Because I really care about the channel and its growth and its impact. I watch it and I monitor it. Things dip. I need to know why. If they took a sudden upswing and they're great, I need to know why. If success on a platform is my metaphorical moon landing, I'm locked into every up and down. I have to understand what's going on so I can make the necessary adjustments to grow.

And then when the growth happens after time has elapsed, I can think, in my own little world, that was space travel. I was driving that metaphorical horse and buggy not all that long ago. But I stayed locked in. And this may seem simple, and it is. But for what it's worth, my biggest breakthroughs always tend to be. I've exhausted a lot of energy, and in some cases, even paid a decent amount of money to learn the simple things. Nothing is that complicated.

We just think it is, which is why we do nothing and then complain about the delta between the real and the ideal. But I'm here to tell you that if you decide on a few things that matter to you and then measure their progress, allocate the energy to moving along with them, where you'll be in months or years from now will astound you. It will be breathtaking. But you have to be willing to peel back the curtain and immerse yourself in it. Prove to yourself that, sure, it might feel big and complex. But once you give something that time and attention, it becomes clear pretty quickly how simple it all is.

What's one thing you can do every day in each meaningful category in your life that will get you closer to where you want to be? If you watch over that process and you adjust along the way, the amount of opportunity available, the amount of change you'll create is unbelievable. And someday to others on the outside looking in, your progress will seem out of this world larger than life. It will appear a moon landing. But you'll know it wasn't the miraculous. It was just a simple decision to give it time and attention.

You watered it, and so it grew. When I was younger, I want to say maybe third grade, I remember reading this poem by Shell Silverstein called Where the Sidewalk ends. This place where the cement stops and the grass begins, an inflection point of sorts. And I obviously don't remember what we talked about back then, but I certainly remember the book. And a few weeks ago I happened to be at the airport. I was walking through and I saw a bookstore and a Shell Silverstein book propped up in the front. And I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had that title stuck in my head, playing on loop, where the sidewalk ends.

Some things just hit you, like that title sounds perfect to me, this larger-than-life, transitionary place. It feels like some sort of graphic. But graduation from what to what? That's the question. Is it simply checking off the current box before moving on to the next one? Is it the end of a paved, calculated path and the beginning of something a little less defined, a little more free?

Is it the place where you step away from what's expected of you and instead do what you are called to do, what you know when your soul is right. I guess depending on who you are and what you need, it could be any and all of those things. But as I sat 36,000 feet in the air, it kind of dawned on me. You know, not necessarily what Shell Silverstein wanted to take away to be.

Fair, right? I mean, it's a famous poem. There's a lot of analysis in writing on this. But I'm more interested in the question, what do I need personally. Now, with everything going on in my life, what would I want that place to be, where the sidewalk ends?

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized it's not a transition. I don't think where the sidewalk ends is where you step out from one place and arrive in another. But I think what's more applicable in this moment is a perspective shift, almost a lifestyle invitation,

to straddle that line where you have one foot on the cement, right, the stable ground, holding onto that structure we need to maintain healthy lives, to build, to take who we are and effectively share it with the world.

And one foot on the grass. Unpaved, no parameters. Where our childlike curiosity runs rampant and reminds us that life is no standardized test. Like if the cement represents the frame, the capsule, that rocket going to the moon, the grass represents the precious cargo. It will be taking into orbit, that substance that must be found. And I think the reason my mind goes here is because in my life I've swayed too far in both directions.

You know, I've spent entirely too much time on the sidewalk where I've limited myself, my beliefs in my trajectory. I've abandoned what I wanted to do because I was terrified to stray from what I was supposed to do. I've let routine kill creativity. I've let plans suffocate freedom and exploration. But I've also spent too much time entirely in the grass, beyond the structure, dreaming but aiming for no target,

free but not grounded. Perhaps at times having worked so hard to tear down the parameters and the structure in my life that I found myself with no foundation to build upon. Right? And I think the deal is sometimes we need more sidewalk than grass and sometimes we need more grass than sidewalk. There are times in our lives that call for exploration and there are times in our lives where we put our heads down and build. But the critical thing is we remember that beautiful balance between the structure that's ultimately imperative and the freedom to step beyond it so that we can pull in more life. That when things feel too stiff or constrained,

maybe you lean more towards the edge of that unkempt, undefined world. And when you crave structure, when you've been wandering too long, when you want to build a little, when you want to build, something with the pieces of life you've been casually collecting along the way, you lean in towards that foundation, towards that which is both known and dependable, and maybe that's where we leave it. As you navigate each segment of your life, it's knowing that you have your hand on the dial. The dial that will allow you to be your best at that particular moment in time, something no one knows but you. So think of that spot.

What are you going through now and how can you best position yourself to handle it? This awareness is a power, it's a strength. It's not merely passing through that place where the sidewalk ends. But I think it's an opportunity to embody it. To adapt and carry on as each new chapter. begins. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. That's from George Patton, General in the United States Army, integral to the Allies victory in World War II. So why? What makes this statement so powerful? Well, it rings true because we have to move beyond

the idea that we can manufacture greatness with one swing of the bat, one stroke of the pen, that if we wait for the right moment, perfection will come. The light will turn green. The stars will align and the path will emerge. I feel like I could scream this from every mountaintop, and it wouldn't be enough. Life is not a perfection game. Life is an adjustment game. And I'll speak anecdotally here.

In my experience, looking over my shoulder, reflecting those times that I'd clung to perfection, rationalizing my immobility by saying, hey, you're not ready, this isn't good enough. I'd only have to dig a few layers down to see that my not moving wasn't out of some loyalty to excellence. No, I was standing still because of fear, a fear of fear of. of going, of starting, a fear of the unknown, perfection is the biggest con there is. It's a scam. It says, wait here, your perfect moment will arrive. Hang tight, the right time is coming.

No, there are no perfect beginnings. There's merely the courage to move into something new or the regret that will ultimately come from wishing that you did. And sure, a part of it's almost counterintuitive. It's like, why isn't it beneficial to wait? Why would you want to take the leap before you're ready? Here's how I see it. One of the most important distinctions to understand

is that between the thinker and the doer. The thinker who ponderes, who reflects, who studies and studies and studies thinking he or she can create for him or herself a perfect jump-off point, thinking they can obtain for themselves all the necessary information all the answers before they begin the journey.

The truth is, greatness is forged through repetition via wheels on the road, and yes, you are terrible at first, completely unsure at first. You get lost at first. But this becomes the knowledge that shapes the journey. When you go before you're ready, two important things happen. First, after falling down and feeling embarrassed and insecure, you get back up, you look around

and you go, wow, okay, I'm still here. That sucked, sure, but it wasn't as bad as my brain told me it would be. Next, you learn from the exchange. You can start doubling down on what works and eliminating what doesn't. And eventually, as you take this confidence and wisdom onto the next step, repeat the curve becomes exponential. In doing, you begin stacking bricks, creating a foundation.

Those experiences that humbled you become what you lean on. They're what turn into the experience, the knowledge, the credibility. And see, thinking you can skip all that ugly stuff by waiting on the ledge for perfection to arrive in your hands, that will be your undoing.

That's just as crazy as a safe. waiting for the wind to stop. It's like, no, you need that friction, that resistance, to reach your destination. And no, we cannot control everything. Yes, there are powers beyond us. But if you go now, you learn to use and navigate them. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is permission to go. It's looking a year ahead and dreaming of the moment.

We pause and say, wow, what a year. year, the twists and turns, the lessons, the highs, the lows, the peak moments all brought me here. And how different here is from back there. How far I've come. Knowing, by the way, that life was never asking me for perfection, but rather a willingness to start, to dive in, to adapt along the way. I know a lot of people with businesses that exists in their minds but not in reality. A lot of people in shape when they close their eyes, but not when they look in the mirror. A lot of people living their best lives when talking about the future, but not when they

pull up to work on a Monday morning. We shorten the gap between our ideal existence and the present moment by going, by stepping now. Even when we can't imagine how the process will unfold. Because let me tell you, life will bend and twist in ways you can't even fathom. It'll take you places that ignite your soul, show you things you never dreamt of seeing. But you have to put yourself in position to receive that from life. The world wants to help people who help themselves.

So give yourself the gift of progress, of momentum. If a dream is only worth the action one is willing to take to bring it to life, let that action start now. Move beyond the illusion of perfection and towards the opportunity to take the imperfect every single day and transform it into greatness. Every time your mind says you're not ready, let that be your invitation. to step forward. See, life may not be a race, but that doesn't mean time will politely wait for you. We must say goodbye to perfection.

As we evolve, as we grow. I can guarantee you it won't be missed. You're not here just to get by, to check a box. No, you're here for something different. Maybe it's your desire to chase down that sunrise while the rest of the world sleeps, to embrace the difficult, the inconvenient, in exchange for that little bit of glory you'll soon feel as you pour your morning coffee and start your day.

Or maybe it's your fascination with the fact that every time you ask yourself, If there's more, if you have anything left, the answer always seems to be yes. And maybe that's it. That what you're capable of in a world of finitude and constraint and limitation seems to be the only thing with absolutely no bounds. The human soul undergoes a sort of transformation, if you will, every time we look around at what currently is and decide it will soon be the gateway to something more.

And that's life's best kept secret. The word decide. The idea that we choose whether to accept things as they are or to change them. That we have within us the ability to push further than we've ever pushed. to find what was once only existent in our imaginations. And this will always be true. You get what you seek. What you're willing to endure.

And while some see this tradeoff as too much, as a cost far too expensive, others see it as the chance of a lifetime, the opportunity to give some of you, that you can grow and improve all of you. See, each footstep is far more than a point on the earth. It's a declaration, a commitment to give more than most would give so that you can feel what only a few will feel.

So remember that when things seem trivial, when it's easier to call it a day or turn it around, that the simple act of continuing forward puts you in the minority. It's positioning you to experience life as it should be lived. You're here to both cherish the now and cash it in. Let the value of your courage compound. Let your resilience remind you just how much control you have and how much is waiting for you. If only you say yes when it hurts, move forward when the path is unclear, believe when the possibility only exists in your head.

You're here because while it may be easier to watch life go by from the cheap seats, the risk, the sacrifice is worth being able to look back someday down the road and know that at least you have the courage to play the game. 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 know, 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, for info. And the people that worked 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. 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 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

operating in our best interest, trying to navigate a big, crazy world that's often incredibly difficult to understand. So with this perspective, right, 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, right?

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, a rival, you can make the disorder your nemesis. Or you can realize that all of it falls squarely into the box that is life. 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 and 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 two plus two is four. Four is not good or bad. It doesn't want you to win or lose. It's just four. 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.