Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - WHEN LIFE GETS HARD | Life Changing Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Frustration comes when we focus on the wrong things. The power to change your life is already around you—it just gets buried under distractions. Strip away the extra, refocus on what truly matters, and you’ll see… you have everything you need to move mountains.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

One year, after a quadruple bypass, he was sitting right next to me, lacing up his shoes, getting ready to run an ultramarathon in the South Florida Sun. Didn't tell a soul, by the way, that he had a stent put in less than two weeks ago. No, not Tom. It was funny echoes of him a few years back saying, Eddie, you're not a doctor. So what do I get out of complaining about my pain to you rang through my head? There was sun, humidity, recovering body, and all. 68 years of life's trials and tribulations under his belt, all of it there with us at the starting line as we took off.

When all was sudden done, he completed 50 miles, which is a feat that, I don't know, I ventured against 99% of health. men in their 20s couldn't just pick up and do tomorrow. It was impressive. But amidst the run, I forget how many miles in, this moment really stood out to me. We were standing on this walkway that kind of diverged from the overpass, leaning against a rail, and just watching the water pushed through the bridge underneath us and empty out into the Atlantic.

He needed a breather because his reconfigured heart was throwing a quick temper tantrum. You know, I made a joke about how... It wasn't quite lunacy, but he was flirting with it. And he goes, you want to hear a good story?

Me, of course, yes. I'm a story guy. And he said, okay. And he was off. He starts this story about a... married man. And this man is living in a hut with his wife in a little village. And the man's in-laws lived in a hut, one village over.

One day he woke up to the news that his in-laws' hut had totally burned down. So what would happen next? You guessed it. The in-laws packed up what remained of their belongings and headed over to live with the man and his wife. So now he had the in-laws living with him in his hut. How bad could it be? Well, a few weeks go by and he realized it can be that bad.

He just couldn't stand, you know, the living situation, constant nagging, judging, lack of personal space, all the things, right? He says, I need help. So he goes to a village elder. We'll call her the sage. He goes to the sage. He says, look, you're incredibly wise. I need some help. My in-laws moved in and it's hell.

My life is terrible. I can't stand this. Please help me. And the sage thinks for a second, says, okay. Let me ask you something. Do you have any chickens? He says, chickens. Yeah, I have chickens.

Why? The sage says, well, go get them and bring them into your hut. Let the chickens live with you as well. The man, somewhat confused, he thanks to Sage. He goes home, brings all his chickens. chickens into his hut. Then another week goes by, as you'd expect, things are just absolutely chaos. Chicken's running around, feathers everywhere, things are dirty, a nightmare.

So he goes back to the sage, and he says, look, I don't know what the idea was here or what the intent was, but somehow my life is worse. Can you please help me make it better? And the sage says, I think I can. Do you have any pigs? He says, yeah, pigs? Sage says, perfect. Invite the pigs into the hut to live with you.

Again, he looks at her confused. Invite the pigs to live with me into the hut, too? Yes, she says. So he leaves, brings all the pigs in. After about a week, he looks around and just a dystopian situation. Disaster. And he's furious. He goes back to the stage. He says, look, you have made my life somehow way worse. Do you know how disgusting pigs are? This place is just out of a horror movie. The sage says, I see. He says, you see, are you going to help me or not? Please give me some guidance to make my life better. So the sage sits there, silence for a few seconds.

Finalist, she says, okay, listen to me careful. If you want to make your life better, Here's what you do. Go home and remove the chickens and pigs from your hut. You're welcome. It's a message about perspective. It's gratitude for the things that in the moment we might not see or appreciate. I'll never forget the quote, a healthy person wants a million things.

A sick person wants only one. It emphasizes how much we take for granted. We don't appreciate the day-to-day or our normalcy, our reality, until it's pulled from us. We have to be reminded, hey, there's a lot to be thankful for here. And I inject this because this is, you know, this is personal experience. It's anecdotal. But it was really a big deal for me. Like, I used to think of gratitude as woo-woo, right?

The way it's used, it's like, okay, go around saying you're grateful, that's nice. I didn't understand the tool that it was and that it shines a mirror on all those things that we don't see. The things we get to do, the people in our lives, the communities we live in, our ability to go out and, you know, work out if we want to. Entertain ourselves if we want to, right? Like you fill in the blank. All of these things we just take for granted. But they matter. And what Tom was saying that day on that bridge overlooking the water

was that putting himself through that manufactured hell made everything else feel like bliss in comparison. You know, mile 30 and 40 and 50, especially after heart surgeries, right, was the metaphorical chicken and pig. It was inviting chaos and discomfort into his life so that when he reached the finish line,

he could remove all that pain and look at his world with a new lens, a new appreciation for baseline. You know, when I look at the wrong things, when I focus on the wrong stuff, which I do from time to time, fall out of alignment completely, right? I feel frustrated and I feel small.

I get overwhelmed. And when the dust settles, it's obvious to me that it's because I'm no longer seeing the power in what's around me. When you take away the extra, right, and you focus on the things that matter that are meaningful to you, there exists enough to move mouths.

The tools exist to change your life. It's just that sometimes they get buried under the wrong things, things you don't need. And that could be an infinite list as well. We put ourselves into chaos intentionally so that when we remove the chaos, we are reminded how strong we are. We get how small and manageable the obstacles that we often allow to consume us. Create that perspective for yourself.

Push your limits. See how far you can go. Let life know that. that nothing is too much for you to manage. Nothing is bigger than you. Remind yourself how much of a blessing it is to wake up in the morning and take in the day. Feel the sun on your face.

The challenges are a gift, the obstacles are beautiful, the uncertainty is magic. So make sure you can see that. Help yourself understand it, visualize it, appreciate it. For no other reason than the practicality of the exercise, you don't want to let life slip by and realize you didn't treat time like the precious commodity that it is. It may be that our greatest gift in life is that we're always one decision away from transformation. We're always one decision away from a new path with new experiences, new beliefs, new identity, one decision away from a totally different life. It's almost incomprehensible.

That all the days leading up to now, everything we knew ourselves to be can be discarded and left with one swing of an axe gone. What is more miraculous than that? We live at the intersection of two imaginary worlds, the past and the future. Past is gone and essentially meaningless. Yet as the provider of our identity, it still rules over us. Our sense of who we are comes from our collection of past memories. That imaginary world of yesterday, like the elephant tied to the chair with a rope. It hasn't realized it's strong enough to break free.

it doesn't know that what confines him is not the rope, but acceptance of a lie. And that's what the past, that's what identity is, a lie. We are not yesterday, we are right now. And from the trivial things to the significant things we get wrapped up in that lie, we overlook the gift of control we have over our future. What does it mean to say,

I'm not a mourning person? That in your past you hadn't conditioned, yourself to wake up early? Okay. What does it mean to say, oh, I let people walk all over me? That in your past you didn't stand up for yourself? What does it mean to say I'm awkward or shy or I struggle with writing or running or public speaking? So maybe you did. But what does that have to do with right now? What does that have to do with realizing the control you have over your life? Because simply realizing you can disconnect from these narratives that they are not you is the superpower. Realizing that calling yourself a bad student because you fail the test, it's like never taking off your raincoat because it rained yesterday.

It's like, no, the sun is out. Adapt. Then once you realize right now is the beginning of the rest of your life, you can start making little changes. Identify not who you were, but who you'd love. Love to be and move towards it. Read the power of habit and atomic habit so that you can understand change isn't crazy or big or scary. It's moving little things in your life around so that they work for you, not against you. Start waking up and thinking about not what has happened but what can happen, not what can go wrong, but what can go right. You are always one decision away from a totally different life because you're always one decision away from change.

from walking away from the narratives that you have accepted and so remember that but remember it not just when things are fine remember it when you're struggling when you feel restless or uneasy unsure uninspired sad angry not content with the reflection in the mirror

when you feel that negativity you're not looking at what can be you're looking at what you have been And there's no room at the table for that distraction. Not when you can reach out and start building something new. Not when you can put on a new pair of shoes and walk down a different path. You are always one decision away from a totally different life. And that decision should be first and foremost to choose future over past.

Your next step over the last one, choose your next step over the last one. ideal world and start building. Not too long ago, I shared a few thoughts related to stoicism with one of the most important messages in my eyes being you can't always help how you feel. There are biological elements, there are emotions that we as humans simply cannot escape. But what we have control over is how we act, right? What we do amidst the feelings of sadness or anger or despair. Well, as it happens, fate brought me face to face with that lesson once again. And one of the most interesting aspects of life is that the lessons often have to be re-learned.

Right? As the context around us changes, we are forced to draw from that well to take what we knew and transform it and level up. And so, quick story. Two weeks ago, ish, my Facebook account was hacked, which happens to a lot of people. It's not uncommon. And to be honest, I'd never really thought much about it. But I'm sitting there and I start getting these emails coming in, right? Telling me my phone number's changed. My email address has changed. My username's changed. All this stuff is changing. I'm like, what's going on? And before I could do anything, I go to look and realize I'm locked out of the account, right? Then I go from my personal page to my business page, where I share thoughts like these, these episodes, videos, writings. And basically, you know, stuff I've been working on for years and realize I'm locked out of there as well. So whoever has the account is now operating it and for whatever reason posting like spammy images and videos or applying to people pretending to be me.

and there's just nothing I could do, right? I'm just locked out watching this happen. And when I say I felt angry, it's probably an understatement. I was surprised at how furious I was. It was a rage that I wouldn't have anticipated in a million years. I could not help it.

And, you know, maybe it was vulnerability, right? That feeling of helplessness that some stranger had access to, you know, around 100. thousand people that trust me. They had no idea what was happening, right? Or maybe it was anger at whoever it was doing this. Anger at Facebook for being non-responsive.

Maybe a fear that, look, you can work so hard for so long and have something taken away incredibly quickly. Whatever it was, I was distraught for like three hours. And eventually I calmed down a little bit. And I remember just sitting there being so disappointed in my reaction. I hated that I felt the way I did because leaders, and that's what I consider myself, that's what I aim to be in the world, they have to be more composed than I was, period. I thought about that story about the ship at sea that was trapped amidst the storm

or everyone was terrified, the ship's going to sink, people were pale, you know, just frantic, screaming, except for the professor who, although he felt the same fear and was overcome by the same biological characteristics, he was not crying out, indicating that, you know, emotions often can't be avoided, but the response is what carries the weight. And I just think it was a, a great,

great lesson for me because for a quick period of time, I definitely, using the same metaphor, cried out. Right? And if that intrusion on my work and privacy was a ship amidst the storm, it's okay that I felt the way I did, but now

we have to work on the reaction. And by the way, I've gotten plenty of opportunity to, right? The account's still hacked. There's still weird posts going out under my name, but I manage it way differently. There's a calmness that I've managed to acquire and maintain. We're done complaining about problems here.

We're looking for solutions amidst what we can control and letting go of what we cannot. Look, I know it's a cliche that our most important lessons come from our moments of duress. But this is exactly what I believe that phrase refers to, right? You need to be hardened by the adversity to change yourself. You need to be able to look at the moment. the bear and go, ooh, I didn't like that. I'm not doing that again, right? And it took an embarrassing three hours of me being furious and acting irrationally. Okay, fine. But that's a small price to pay for the lesson that I acquired. So I think for someone listening to this, my hope is twofold.

One, don't forget that the initial reaction is often sewn into your DNA. It's okay to feel what you feel when things don't go your way. But also, as you sort through the chaos, know that you have the ability to not only tame it, but make something from it, right? Truly. So that next time something similar arises, you have a blueprint.

You'll be a step ahead. You'll find that perspective. Probably realizing, as I have, that it's just not the end of the world anyway. When you're able to eventually step outside your emotions, operate from a point of clarity, a reshuffling of priorities always seems to take place. Look, the storms will come.

And if you're pushing and growing and trying to take risks, those storms will be numerous. The question isn't will you feel them, the question is, can you get a little better each time at not crying out? Can you improve the reaction? Can you regain composure and stay locked in on what truly matters? It's easy to look back and think about all the things you could have done differently.

Especially since as we get older, we get wiser. Right? Time provides this beautiful gift of clarity. And ultimately, we realize things like, Maybe a lot of our hesitation was unwarranted. Maybe a lot of our decisions or indecision was fear-based. And knowing that, it's easy to look over your shoulder and feel like you could have lived a different life or taken a different path.

At the very least wish you'd done things differently. But the reality is, everything you've done has in fact taken you here. here to this moment. And when you dwell on the past, the should haves and the could haves, you completely diminish the power of right now. The current moment. You completely underestimate

the knowledge and the wisdom you've been collecting for years whose single job is to assist you in your next move. It's a compounding of experience. The good, the bad, and the ugly has landed you right here right now and how beautiful right here is. The infinite blank page. The forever fresh start.

And that's not to say the past doesn't matter. It's to suggest that your prior discomfort, your mistakes and lessons have equipped you to deviate from the past. the routines and the cyclical nature of your past. The past is a gateway to now, not a life sentence. And there's a difference. You say last year or last month or last week is valueless because you did X when you should have done Y. I say to that, doing the wrong thing has positioned you to now do the right thing.

Potential energy. Like a spring being pulled back tighter and tighter and tighter awaiting its opportunity to propel forward. You don't get that without those could-haves and should-haves. They're integral to the process. The reason you'll be different moving forward. You can say, I wish I'd taken more chances. I wish I was bolder.

I wish I followed my heart. Two pieces of news for you. One, that's fantastic. It seems as though you're now aware of those times you fell short and can therefore mitigate them moving forward. And two, you're not dead yet. We have to stop looking at yesterday like it's anything but a ladder to greater competence.

The gymnasium for your decision making. Anyone can cherry pick the past. But the practical me asks, what does beating yourself up about what's gone do for you? What does it add to your life? Except for enabling and legitimizing the same identity you're looking to evolve and move on from. See, we don't limit ourselves because of right now.

It's always because of yesterday. Look what happened. Look what I lost. Look how things turned out. And it's like, take the data and trudge forward. You now have the tools to move right into that darkness of night. And in five years, you'll look back and sure, you'll wish you did things differently. And same five years after that.

But that's why life is a journey and not a standardized test. We are picking up the pieces as we go, painting the masterpiece one brushstroke at a time. And even though you might wish yesterday's brushstroke was a different color, a little darker, different shade, it's just as valid as all the others in contributing to the mural in its totality. So sure, be your greatest critic. But be your greatest ally as well. And that calls for being bold enough to let go of what's gone. Extract the value from yesterday and use it to build now.

Something, anything, that's up to you, but hear the message. It's up to you now. Not who you were yesterday or what you did. Not how people saw you or how you used to live your life. You have an opportunity now to go wherever your heart desires. Stronger and wiser at this point in time than you've ever been in your life. So rather than dwell on what's gone, how about asking how you can take those pieces of yourself and build...

You can salvage the day. You can salvage the week, the month, the year, the years. All is not lost. It's never lost. The trap is looking back and using what happened to define what will happen. Using what's behind you to map what's in front of you. What brought this to mind?

Well, personal note, this has happened before today was not a good one. At least not until now. not from a productivity standpoint. I just got back from Europe, a little jet lagged. I've never had more to do, but simultaneously done so little with my time, which is frustrating. But I'm going to the gym in an hour,

and that leaves me 60 minutes to salvage what could easily have been looked back upon as a lost day. See, something that's a lot of. that I think is beautiful about life is that you can get countless things wrong. You're afforded substantial room for error. And it's often, you know,

you only need to get one thing right. Like take dating, right? Countless wrong relationships. You only need one to work out. Right? Entrepreneurship. Ton of mistakes. Lots of swings and misses. That's built into the process.

But the one win can change everything. Or these stories, these ideas I share on social media, right? A lot of them totally miss. They resonate with me and sometimes me alone. But if one resonates with others, one gains traction, there's a lot of impact to be had there. And so I wanted to share this because it's a slightly different angle to what I've talked about before. Of course, this has elements of, yeah, you don't feel like it. We'll do it anyway. David Gockens would have an aneurysm hearing that I even contemplated not writing today. But here's the thing.

It's very easy to group a period of time together and call it a loss. Eh, it didn't happen today, it might tomorrow, right? It's easy to look back on what you were and use it to build walls around yourself to say it's what you are now, when in reality there is still value to be squeezed out. Just because what existed before now was antithetical to everything you wanted it to be, well, that doesn't mean there's no win buried in there. It doesn't mean between 445 and 545 here today, I can't share something that's important to me that might help other people identify and dive into something that's important to them, right?

All is not lost if time remains. It's a message that, sure, it might be psychologically easier to walk away from the day because the first half wasn't good, but that's a message that, not the move. There contains somewhere in there the seed that will grow, or at least begin the the process of growing what you need. Jim Quick, he recently said some days all you have is 40%. And on those days, giving 40% is 100%. Maybe seeing that subconsciously saved my day to day. I don't know, but it's very easy to check out when the past was not what you wanted it to be. Instead of thinking, yeah, but one right move right now changes everything, changes the momentum,

alters the personal identity. You're always one move, one decision away from reigniting momentum. A quote-unquote bad day can be completely mitigated with one incredible decision or action. So let's pull this up a level. Where does it bring us? It brings us to those moments we're sitting in bed, wishing things were a little different, went a little different. or looking in the mirror disappointed in the day. And instead of letting it define the story in totality,

remembering that there's something there. Maybe just one thing. One action, one decision, one move you can take to salvage what remains, there's some value you can find that will reposition your outlook on what has occurred. There is no loss here.

Only the win that hasn't happened yet. Standing on that ledge, staring out at what we know we need to do, at the moment we least want to do it, well, that's where the future is shaped. When procrastination feels like the answer, or avoidance the optimal choice,

where does one draw their strength? They say routine is a powerful tool in this fight. And I believe that when something becomes habit or part of the process instilled in the day-to-day, there's just simply less room for negotiation. We show up with our eyes on the prize. But here's the thing, we are human. There's simply going to be days

when the world pushes back. Life is a game of complexity. It's unpredictable. You want to talk about the good days, fine. It's easy to show up when we're feeling good. And thankfully, those days outnumber the others, right? Creating the bulk of our consistency, 10,000 hours. But not all of them.

Life is about momentum. Myself, after coming off, a pretty terrible weekend for a variety of reasons. I found myself on that ledge again. When the alternative route made itself known, where it felt mighty tempting to call it off, take a break where my worldview had come into question, I had to ask myself, who are you?

Really? It's easy to rationalize walking away in these moments. In his book, The War of Art, Stephen Presfield says, our job in life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it. Well, who would have known how much goes into that process of becoming? How committed we have to be to the road before us, and not only when it's sunny, but when the skies are dark and gray.

And how if we allow ourselves in those difficult moments to say, sometimes it's okay to wave the white flag, it's okay to walk away, then you leave the door cracked to make that same decision at any other point in time. Right? Quitting, conceding can very easily become a habit. And a habit we want to avoid at all cost. Right. I have this little rule that no matter what, I can never leave dishes in the sink overnight.

Never. I treat this arbitrary little promise to myself, like it's life or death, which, again, random, but hear me out. It's half practical, half symbolic. I know that if I say, okay, just this once, I've effectively removed the barrier separating order from chaos. If it's okay just this once, then it's okay 1,000 times.

And a messy sink becomes a messy kitchen, becomes a messy house, becomes a cluttered mind. Extreme, maybe. But critical, right? Here is where the symbolism comes in. I understand how fragile that divide. How when I'm tired or have a headache or I'm busy, it's still priority. because I want to hammer my subconscious with the understanding that I show up when it's inconvenient. That very moment when, you know, I could easily trick myself into thinking it's small or dumb or arbitrary.

It's a sink, who cares, right? That's the moment that I need to bleed into the rest of my life. And I think that's exactly it, right? The floodwaters are always looking to come in. And how many cracks until the room gives way? You know, when you've had a few rough days, when you've lost something important to you, when you're sad or disappointed about an outcome, what then? When life calls you to exceed expectations, what then?

Because the world around you will always give you evidence to support dialing it back, right? Selling yourself short if that's the case you're looking to make. But here's the deal. Should you choose the inverse, you are strong enough to be. be better than you've ever been in those challenging moments. You can show up when it hurts. You can reestablish your why and carry forward even after the turbulence of yesterday. Life will never be easy. It will never all make sense. And this understanding has helped me to roll up my sleeves and continue forward. When I'm disappointed with yesterday or

overwhelmed by the conditions or landscape of the moment when I question how much I have left. But I've found that when I look hard enough, there's always something to draw. And that's the message of note. That's what we must show ourselves. When you're on that ledge, this can be where you're at your best. This is where you get to uncover just how deep rooted your greatness is. This is where you set the standard and the pace for everything to come. What does it mean to be a little better every single day? James Clearers noted that if each day you improve by only 1%,

you'll be a full 37 times better in a year. That's an almost unfathomable number. Unbelievable transformation. Imagine being 37 times better at what it is you're looking to improve on. 37 times more efficient or skilled. All because of a 1% per day commitment. Almost sounds too good to be true. Here's the catch, though.

1% doesn't seem like much. Which is good, one might think. You know, that should make it easier. Well, sort of. The easier and more seemingly trivial something is to accomplish, the easier it is to dismiss it as well. We've all been there that, maybe not today, maybe tomorrow.

No big deal. We don't lose anything. And that's what we must learn to wrestle with. Jim Rohn puts it this way. He says being successful is easy. The issue is that being unsuccessful is easy too. Saying yes to the little things you know you need to do is easy. But so is saying no.

Putting your phone away to work on something of substance, yeah, that's pretty easy. But watching just one more TikTok or Instagram or YouTube video, that's easy too. Putting your shoes on, going for a walk or run, heading to the gym. Hey, procedurally, pretty easy. Not that complex, but talking yourself into just going tomorrow instead. Also a rationalization that's pretty easy. And that's essentially the question.

Which easy are you going to go with? How do you put yourself in position to select the wrong? right easy. Well, like so many things, it starts with the worldview and flows out to the tangible actions we take in support of that worldview. First things first. We have to know that the biggest advantage available is seeing the small things as so much more than small things. It's refusing to fall victim to the disappointment and burnout associated with hoping for one huge jump, a miracle solution, the answer that will change everything. That's deceiving.

Winning looks small and consistent. Progress is boring. It's mundane. It looks like deciding on what matters, and then making a pact with yourself every day to keep your own promises. When most would fall off or push things to tomorrow, it's seeing your commitment as everything. Knowing that the people who manufacture significance in their lives, they treat what others would call silly and trivial as life and death.

They make the details into the whole storyline. So yeah, it might be easy for someone else to walk away. But when you have given yourself no other option but to succeed, the little steps to make it happen requires zero thought or internal deliberation. The person who gets into shape over the course of six months, they're not going to be the one who found a secret diet, bought a piece of equipment on Amazon. They didn't do the necessary thing here and there when they had their fleeting moments of inspiration. No, they made better, consistent decisions. No to the soda, yes to the water, no to the alarm, yes to the run, no to the Netflix and yes to the gym. Both options were easy in the moments in which they arose.

But each time only one option mattered. And that's what it's about, tying the prolonged gratification to something that means the world to you, where each step is not just a step, but one step closer to the moon. So no, it's certainly not that a can of Coke or dessert or the day off will kill you, but flip the narrative. It's that when you do stay true to your mission

and the promises you make to yourself, you get something so much more back. It's not, oh, what will I lose by skipping this 1% No, in a world where excellence compounds, it's look what I am becoming. And this decision is an investment too good to pass up. And every decision to move forward, to embrace the things that align with your true north, is a nod to that future self. I went on a run yesterday.

in my mind, as it often does, began to wander. Reflecting back on all the streets I've jogged down over the last 10 years, all over the country, up north in Canada, down in Mexico, across the Atlantic, as long as my body would allow me, I was running. You could say it's become over time something of a spiritual occurrence for me. So as I made my way, down A1. I asked myself, why? Why has it meant, and why does it continue to mean so much to me,

this sort of arbitrary activity or exercise? And not only that, particularly during the times where everything else in life feels so unsteady, when there's chaos and turbulence all around me. Well, this is the conclusion that I came to. It was the clarity. It was the simplicity, the continuous, to pull me in and keep me going.

See, when I was running, I always knew what I had to do. And there was calm in that. Reassurance. Perhaps most importantly, a purpose. Looking back, those days where it's 94 in Miami and August, the sun's coming down, you know, I'm suffering through the run. Over days where I'm running through storms, thunder, you know, cracking all around me, my heart racing,

because I know it's kind of dangerous. dangerous to be there, but what am I going to do? I have to keep going. Those days up in New England in the northeast, right, in the winter, that first mile where you step outside and the wind sort of cuts through you. You feel it in your bones. All that's uncomfortable. But problems, they seem manageable when you know where you're going. When you understand the rules of the game. And the rules of the game, time I laced up my shoes, they were simple. You start at one point and you don't stop until you arrive at the other specified point. It placed stability into an ever-evolving landscape. It reminded me during the most difficult times what it was like to be in full control. I'm going to say

something that may appear drastic here. I'm sure many of you know that saying simplicity is the ultimate sophistication attributed to everyone from Lincoln to Da Vinci. to your next door neighbor. Well, I believe that simplicity saved my life. And I think it did many times. It's been a very up and down journey, as they all are, right? And growth is injecting yourself into a world you don't understand. It has to be, definitionally.

It's being oversaturated with options. The road less traveled is paved in distraction. and when my purpose and my path felt like they were deteriorating before my very eyes, when my understanding of life felt like it was slipping away, which is a pain pretty different than stubbing your toe, right? It feels much bigger, it's much scarier. It was faith in my ability to slay the dragon and find the treasure that empowered me. It was the thing that reminded me when I break things.

down into little objectives, not only do you conquer them, but you identify as someone who conquers them, right? It's peeling back the layers of complexity that reminded me amidst the clutter and the noise. There's simplicity in what I was meant to do. The shiny objects need not divert my attention. We just need to take the time to identify our finish lines, and they can change what matters, sometimes does. But the moral of the story is you can't live life trying to hit targets in the dark. And it just makes sense. Issues with the project I'm working on, go for a run.

Feeling confused, frustrated, go for a run. Argument with the girlfriend, go for a run, run, run, run, right? And I'd come back with less in my head than I left with, which would, funny enough, ultimately be more than I left with, right? The space to think about what matters. The simplicity of starting points and ending points. nothing in life is that complicated, it's not. But we have a tendency amidst life's storms to stop running.

During the heat waves, we forget why we're there. We lose that simplicity. We lose our purpose and our meaning because we let the unimportant things become the big things. I think that's what running is. A reminder that, you know, when life is simple, we understand where we're going. Simplicity isn't convenience. is what keeps your heart beating in your eyes open. It is life.

It's waking up, knowing what matters to you so that you can push away the things that don't. It's that reassurance that, yeah, there's a world of infinity outside the window, but what makes you brilliant is that you can identify and latch on to a small few things. The world around us often says,

you know, we need to use the whole canvas. But I say there's nothing wrong with identifying your favorite. color and going from there. I say identifying your destination and moving towards it wholeheartedly with conviction is a superpower. And it doesn't mean we don't stop along the way. Doesn't mean nature won't push us off course from time to time. But for one who's taken the time to identify for themselves a finish line, they are never truly lost, even during the most trying of times because all that's required is a

re-pointing of the compass. I will continue to run for as long as I can because the further one moves into that abyss. The Morlife says, look over here. A is important. No, B is what you need. You'll never succeed without me or him or them. This way, that way. Some in-between way is the right way. But no, all that is distraction. It makes you. you feel small very quickly and will make you feel unsure and ill-equipped just as fast. In my mind, the beauty in life is taking all that supposed complexity and finding within it what's required to paint our own masterpieces, to run our own races. Life is a run around the Charles. A run down the Hollywood boardwalk, a run to the Dania Beach Pier. It's not a

knowing where your heart needs to go and following it there. It's saying yes when required and know when required, but understanding you are the one who decides what required means. Beauty is simple. Contentment is simple. Meaning is simple. And we can always access those things. They're buried under the complexity we spend our day-to-day swimming in.

So, neighbor, here's to the ultimate sophistication. To getting more than you've ever. had in your life by building your own parameters out of less. Someday, the things that you currently don't understand will make sense. Someday, the big things you're dealing with won't seem so big anymore. Someday, the doubts you have about yourself will be revealed as false. Someday you'll see that the things you worry about didn't matter. at all. Someday you'll see that the road before you wasn't something you had to walk flawlessly,

but rather something you had to trust and believe in. Someday you'll look in the mirror and see that you had it in you the entire time, that there was nothing you needed or should have been hoping for. Yeah, someday. Someday that will all be true. But what about some days? from the past. I remember years ago thinking someday I would venture out into the world. Someday I'd speak my mind.

Someday I would start my own business. I would surround myself with people who believed in what I believe. Someday I'd make a little more money, have a little more time to do what I love. Someday I'd have all that. And as I look around, I realize It looks a lot like someday.

But guess what? As we grow, so do our some days. It's a chase that never ends. There's always something more. There's always something bigger and better. And the problem is not the ambition. The problem is forgetting that in so many ways, You've dreamt of being where you stand right now. You have arrived.

You're not the same person that 10 years ago was throwing some days out into the universe. No, you have grown. You have learned. You have evolved. Why does this matter? It matters. Because without acknowledging how far you've come, You cannot acquire the strength needed to go where you must go.

When you don't feel good enough, it's often because you haven't looked over your shoulder and opened your eyes. The evidence is right there. It's hiding in plain sight. There's proof that you've been there. That you've faced demons and conquered them. endured your battles and overcame. You did that.

And at one point not that long ago, you couldn't say that you had. You weren't yet that person, but things are different. Now, what you have today was once only that hopeful someday. It was a fleeting thought. It had no merit and no value,

yet you brought it to life. Look what you've done. Understand how far you've come, how you ran when you could, you walked when it was possible, you crawled when you had to, and continued on to arrive at a someday that is right now. You, my friend, are a maker of things unseen, an architect of tomorrow's and some days. So don't you dare. Don't you ever entertain the deluge. that this gift suddenly stops now. Suddenly the burden is too much.

The mountain is too tall. No, what you do is overcome. That is who you are. You've done it for you. You've done it for the ones you love. And in some cases, the ones who didn't even understand, but you kept going. Marching through the fires of hell to turn some

days into right now. And I get that the road before you is uncertain. There's no way to know exactly how life will unfold. But that's besides the point. A bird can't predict every gust of wind it's going to encounter. It spreads its wings, takes off, and adapts because it can, because it always has, because that's what it does. I'm not advocating that you should have all the answers. No, I'm suggesting that you trust yourself to find them. To move forward into the haze that surrounds you, to make sense of the seemingly illogical, bring about reality from the make-believe.

Someday you will have what you're aiming for. But here's to never letting a today go by without realizing that you are always living out a someday from your past, you are always arriving and leaving simultaneously. The accomplished and the student, crossing a finish line and on the starting block, with another race around the corner, another chance to stretch your legs and reach for the heavens. If you ever forget that, I ask that you find it within yourself to look over your shoulder, to remember what you once asked for.

and to appreciate the journey that you have undertaken. You did that. Now onward you go, you have more some days to bring to life.