Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE QUITTING | Powerful Motivational Speech

Episode Date: August 21, 2021

"It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela

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Here's an idea that's changed my life, right? As has been attributed to Nelson Mandela, the saying goes, everything is impossible until it's done. Right. We view impossibility as this abstract, scary concept implying that something cannot happen, that it's not reality, it's outside the scope of what we are capable of doing. or creating and we feel that. We feel that when we're in the middle of life's trials and tribulations and we feel that push-pull.

You know, we feel that when we're working on something and we feel unvalidated. We feel like everything's in vain. Like we're putting in time and energy. Where's life rewarding us? Where is that? You know, the top of the mountain, the metal. Where's the applause? I cannot find it.

When we feel that, the solution seems impossible. Nothing short of impossible. And what I want to do is kind of debunk that idea and show you how that abstract notion of something that just seems too big. It just seems insurmountable how you can take that and break it down into very doable, manageable, daily tasks that change.

Your life and your relationship with the word. You know, there's, I want to give you two examples of books that I've read, and I've talked about them a little bit on the channel before, but I don't think in this context of how human beings have done impossible, quote unquote, impossible things and not even realized it until they stepped outside. until they crossed some finish line, some abstract marker, look back and went, oh my God. And the rest of the world went, oh, my God. That's not realistic.

You know, and what's incredible is as the impossible was being done, the steps to get there were so small and so commonplace that the people carrying out the impossible acts didn't even understand, didn't know. They were just putting one foot in front of the other. And so both stories are related to war. And I feel like when you take sort of the darkest elements of mankind, stuff that's inconceivable to a lot of us, and you see how people were able to get through those situations, it puts things into perspective.

right we're not dodging bullets here in our own world and in that idea you know it helps ground us right so the first is laura hillenbrand's book unbroken and uh louis zamparini is the main character in that book it's one of my favorite books and he's a a track star that ultimately goes to fight in the war and his plane is shot down He goes to a Japanese internment camp and just indoors hell. Mental and physical torture. He's beaten. He's starved. He's isolated.

Just goes through a mental hell from camp to camp to camp day by day. Sometimes thinking he would die, really not knowing, malnourished, watching people around him die, get beaten. Like, it's an environment that it would be hard for us to comprehend. And one part really struck me in this story. It's when at the end of the war, the prisoners are set free, and he's talking to someone about the trip and looks back and says, I'd rather die than do that again. Like, I couldn't do that again.

it's quote unquote impossible and I don't think he used that word but that's the implication right there's just no way and it's like as even as the reader as you look back you're like there's that is not something a human being can endure it just seems like too much when you look at holistically but what the prisoners did

was take it one day at a time one awful horrific grueling unfathomable day at a time for years. And then when the point finally came, you know, they looked back and realized that what they had done was unbelievable, one day at a time. And it was just, it was heart wrenching. It was so powerful to have him look back on his own journey and say, that's impot. Like, I could never do that again. I would rather die than do that again. That's how hard it was.

That's how just traumatic it was, yet here he was standing tall. Another example is in the book, Lone Survivor. Marcus Latrell is a Navy SEAL, and he's in Afghanistan with three other Navy SEALs who are killed in action, And there's a point where he is by himself bit through his tongue. He had a broken back. He was mangled. And he crawls seven miles through the mountains in Afghanistan while being shot at and taking enemy fire. And the portrayal of just slowly moving your body forward inch by inch.

to safety. Again, is something that's unfathomable. That's impossible. That's not something that we can comprehend. I don't even think it's something he can comprehend. And I'm certainly not going to speak for a Navy seal, but the idea is it's just unfathomable. But one step at a time, one movement at a time, you can create a different reality. So when you take these examples and you pull them back down to earth, you know, Victor Frankel has a, he talks about in his book how suffering is like a gas that will fill any room, right? It's like everyone's suffering consumes them to some extent. And so you may not be at war, but we are all fighting our own battles.

And when we are in the midst of the difficult times, it's easy to not think about getting to tomorrow, but think about surviving the whole war, metaphorical war, right? Not just crawling one foot, but looking at the seven-mile marker and thinking it's outrageous. So much of life is convincing yourself to move forward one step. And it's just, it's such a trivial thing to discuss. It's, it's not sexy. It's not on its face heroic or exciting. It's the mundane compounded over time.

And we need to remember it most when it's hardest to understand. And I talk about it all the time. That Nietzsche quote, those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. It is very difficult to stay fixated on a result that is not there. It's one of the most challenging things about changing your life in the world around you. Dreaming is putting things on earth that are not yet on earth. That takes mental fortitude because each step you take, you have to remind yourself that it's for something, that it means something.

When you desperately want applause, because look, it's human. You exert yourself, you exhaust enough energy. Any rational person is going to say, why the hell have the stars not aligned yet? I don't understand what I need to do. That's what's interesting. People don't talk about the fact that it makes more sense to quit than to carry on. Like to the rational brain, it makes sense that we would say no more. I want to deal with the world that I'm in.

Not one that isn't built yet. But it's why we celebrate. We celebrate those times that we move forward anyway. That we had the vision to see the unseen and do what so few people can do. That's what makes life beautiful. That's what makes human beings beautiful. You know, we see life through. stories. Well, the ones that can write and craft narratives that have not been heard or watched or

explored, that's magic. I talk about the evolution of insanity. I wrote about this years ago, and it continues to be one of the most important things I think that I've written. you know, this idea, if you take a woman who leaves her everyday life, right, for example, and she has this, this passion, this sense of purpose, and she wants to breathe life into it. So she leaves her ordinary world, and she starts building. And she becomes obsessed with this idea. And people around her, by the way, who know her as what she was and what she did, right?

They know her based on what they saw yesterday. They say, this is weird. But she's locked in, and she gets up, and she makes it her focus in life. And she continues forward and continues forward, and nothing happened. And people point to her. They say, look at her wasting her time. She had it all before. This is crazy.

And she continues and continues and builds and adjusts and throws her understandings and her knowledge and her experiences against the wall. And when they shatter, she picks them up and builds again and again and again. And people say she's delusional. She's insane. She has lost her mind. Hangs in. She dances without the music long enough to get there. to wherever there is she gets there.

And now the perception's different. Now it's exciting. Now she's not insane to the world around her. Now she's propped up on a pedestal. Now people want what she has. They want to understand how to build what she built. How can we make what she made? How can we do what she did?

They call her lucky. She says, no. For you to call me, me lucky is insane. What she did was build the impossible. With very ordinary, very mundane steps. Never losing faith and remembering, and this is the key concept, remembering that all those little trivial steps means something.

And when she steps outside, because we all get there, we will step outside and look back and reflect. We'll look back on the impossible. impossible that we built on the magic we created. The thing is, the thing we need to remember that magic is manufactured with very real, practical components of life. Simple decisions. It's like the human brain is so much more than the sum of its parts. You can take any element physically of the human brain and it doesn't seem that extreme. We can't even explain or understand it, but you put it together and we have something that transcends the biology and the physicality that we look at under a microscope.

It doesn't make sense. We haven't quite figured it out. All those little pieces become something meaningful. And my point is, we all have our own journey. We're all fighting our own battles. We all are going to get to a point because it's human and in a way it's required where we look around and we question ourselves and we question the process and we don't know if it's worth it. We forget why we started. We can't see the finish line because it's not there yet and we'll only see it if we continue to uphold that vision in our heads. that's when it's important to remember what impossible is and how it's made and every simple decision to step forward is crafting the impossible i had a call with someone today very successful individual right very skilled and respected in his field brilliant platform great communicator

just an all-around impressive human being He says, yeah, but I want to be one step further. I'm getting frustrated, right? I don't know, like, what can I do to get there? And it's like, I've been in that spot. In fact, I find myself there a lot. And I think it's incredible that you're looking out and asking what pivots can I make,

what adjustments can I make. But sometimes what you don't do is more important than what you do. In what you shouldn't do is lose sight of how much you've built. What you shouldn't do is forget that one step at a time creates miracles, that you are well on your way to where you want to be. And yes, ask that question. Ask how can I evolve?

Ask how can I level up. But never let impatience trump the big picture. Never at the expense of who you are and what you've made. Because sometimes life is about just moving forward. Sometimes it's about the trivial. Sometimes it's about the mundane. That's what hurts. That's what gets you.

Most people don't quit because of a traumatic experience. Most people don't quit because they took a monumental L. They quit because the little thing doesn't reveal its value. It's very hard amidst the chaos of day-to-day life to remember what you're building. To remember each little step is a brick that will come to evolve into the impossible. Dance before the music play.

Believe in the song, believe in the melody, believe in yourself because there will be a point where you get there. And there is a very abstract thing and it means many different things to many different people but there will be a point when you arrive. You'll exhale, look back on what you've done

and be thankful. So wherever you are, when you lose sight of your journey, think about that moment. Think about how that will feel looking back on what you've made. And all those times you could have stopped and didn't, all those times you wanted to say no, but you said yes, they mean something. I'm telling you they mean something, but that is not half as important as the fact that you know it means something. you just need to remind yourself of that fact. So here's to one step more in building the impossible.