Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - WHEN YOU WANT TO GIVE UP | Best Motivational Speeches | Start Your Day Right

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

"When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place" - Paulo Coelho

You can allow yourself to be distracted. Or, as Robin Sharma suggests, you can do incredible things, but you can't do both. You can stay where the safety and security is. Or you can risk what you have in pursuit of your dreams. But you can't do both. You can remain the character depicted in yesterday's story. Or you can take those lessons, experiences, and craft a new story. But you cannot do both.

Life is a game of trade-offs. Where any decision to go in one direction is a simultaneous decision to not go in another. A commitment to X is necessarily a rejection of Y, at least in that moment. making this question all the more important, what is your North Star? I ask, because everything you do is bringing you closer to or holding you back from capturing it. One of my lifelines over the years has been clinging to the quote or idea that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, consistently trying to arrive there. Why?

Why? Because when things get complex in my life, I don't know what I'm choosing. Clutter means I've lost sight of what's necessary versus what's trivial. I become unclear on those critical trade-offs I'm making. And we've all experienced this, right? The simplest questions are always the hardest to arrive at. We can talk in circles about the details. But how often are we honest with ourselves about the why? I remember job interviews in college going on and on about the books I read, the papers

that written, current events. But then falling flat on my face when asked, so who's Eddie Panero? A dude doing an interview? Like, what do you want for me? My brain had never gone there. Or even less formal. I'll never forget a friend of mine a few years back, asked me what my perfect day was, just casually as we're driving.

I said, I don't know, Tom. I've never really thought about that. He goes, then how are you ever supposed to have a perfect day if you don't know? And how simple? Simple and simultaneously incredible. Who wants a life without perfect days, right? Like, what is all this for? The world is infinite.

And you can be ruled by its variability and its complexity. You can run around adhering to all its rules, hoping you're doing the right thing, whatever that is. Or you can identify, carve out. and rule over your own little piece of it, your own kingdom. You can choose you. If you take the time to uncover who you are, what lights you up. And then, as Emerson advocates, hits your wagon to that star. The best investment of our time is to truly understand and decide what we should be saying yes to.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And be as patient as possible working for that answer. Because as far as I can tell, that information is the key that unlock. infinite possibility. It's knowledge that opens the door to life on your terms. There's an old quote that stays 80% of life is showing up. Now, showing up means many different things to many different people, but the idea is not complicated. You can't do anything of significance unless you have first and foremost arrived. Which brings me to today. See, I had a list of concepts I've been excited to talk about things that I've either read or have been recent epiphanies in my life, and I can't wait to share those with you. But this morning,

oh, let me tell you about this morning. Finding the energy to do anything, felt like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. I woke up with a headache, exhausted because I didn't sleep at all the night before. And you know that feeling. Like when you didn't sleep at all the night before, you're oddly constantly reminding yourself the next day that you didn't sleep. And everything just felt off. And really, as I'm speaking now, things still kind of do. And so I got up and I sort of played with the idea of taking today off altogether. Maybe I'm due for one anyway. I thought about resting. The little devil with the pitchfork on my shoulder, continuously reminded me how great sleep would feel.

And I was sitting there, you know, kind of weighing my options. Took some ipuprofen, started the coffee, sat down on the couch, just kind of looking at the wall, what to do, what to do. But realistically, I knew. And I want to explain why. Over the years, I've taught myself through repetition that's sitting down and writing and recording, unless I plan intentionally to do otherwise,

is it non-negotiable. It's helped me see that the goal, in any meaningful pursuit, should be getting to the point where despite the circumstances, you show up. Stephen Presfield, whose voice often echoes in my mind when I come face to face with these situations.

He wrote, Art is war. between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior. Artist, being anyone bringing something to the world that does not yet exist. And he goes on to describe the battle with the mind

over sitting down in that chair and writing when we know we must write but don't want to. When a tired or distracted mind begins looking for off-ramps, as mine clearly started doing this morning. These seemingly trivial moments, when any rational soul could argue for the validity of postponing their date with Microsoft Word, will they come to matter more than ever?

Because greatness is a byproduct of intentionality. If you become accustomed to breaking promises to yourself, if you leave that door cracked for exceptions here and there, it will ultimately be kicked open. And that's why I inject little reminders like that into my life to keep that mental muscle working. For example, there can never be dishes left in my sink when I go to bed. Why? Because if I skip it once,

there will always exist reasons to skip again. It's a very easy thing to not care about. Because here is the reality. Progress is a lifestyle. Growth is a lifestyle. At least if we're talking about any meaningful type of evolution. I just finished reading, It Takes What It Takes by Trevor Mawad.

One of those three to five hour listens on Audible, depending on how fast it's playing, really packs a punch. And I'm going to be diving into a few of his concepts a little more in the coming weeks. But one thing he discusses that I found incredibly valuable is the, illusion of choice and what the illusion of choice highlights is that there are a set of

behaviors that must be carried out to be effective the idea of alternate roots is an illusion there are no choices when it comes to what's necessary we know what must be done to win now knowing that is one thing knowing that and having to propel yourself to action when you feel like garbage is something different entirely. But that's why it's so valuable to get to that place where you can take the emotion out, remove the internal deliberation, and automate the things you know are going to help push you to be that better version of yourself. In other words, you show up for you, period, and that is a non-negotiable.

That's the level we all need to get to. And I'm thinking about this drawing parallels to a lot of different aspects of my day, right, the interval training I have this afternoon. When you're exhausted, 40 minutes in and are switching from squats to mountain climbers or whatever it is, right? Instructor makes the announcement. I don't think about anything. I don't give myself a chance to try and rationalize any weakness. I know. If this is important to me, keep that door shut.

No thinking, just doing next. Simply doing what you always do, what you've signed up for, cannot be self-perceived as some monumental sacrifice. No, it's just what you do. It's neutral. Sometimes you feel like it. Sometimes you don't. But you do what you do.

And that puts you on track to accomplish some incredible things. And so remembering this, ultimately pushed me through that studio door this morning and place me down right in front of my mic. Sure, I had to adjust some things. Definitely picked some, you know, mellower music. There's going to be no crescendos today, or my head will explode. But this is not torture. In fact, I'm really happy with the way the episode's turning out. I would have missed out on something that I think is going to be pretty valuable in a variety of ways. But what I'm telling myself is that this is not a victory. It's

certainly not defeat. It's just what I do. And so the question worth asking yourself, when facing the adversity life presents, then whatever arena you were in, is are you willing to show up for you? Can you turn that internal deliberation switch off when it comes to the necessities before you? Minimize that rationalizing that I battled with this morning. We don't need or want that. There should be no thinking, no crack doors, no metaphorical dishes in the sink. If you decide something is important and you sign that dotted line when it's time to execute, you act. And then you move directly onto the next.

The goal is to not even negotiate with weakness. Now that's not to say Pressfield's affirmation. And war of art won't rage on as you journey to the new horizons you've set out for. But just like anything, it's an understanding that will help you focus. We'll help you say no to the distractions and the minutia and continue writing your story, constructing your reality line by line and piece by piece. There's vulnerability that comes with risk. I'm not sure we can get the full extent of it from a book or a video.

Rather, we only understand it once we experience it firsthand. Where you step further out into the world, a short distance beyond what was once the status quo, whatever that looked like for you. And suddenly you become susceptible to criticism and rejection. You feel things you've never felt, see things you've never seen. Sometimes it feels like you're taking off your armor and marching directly into battle. And it makes sense in the beginning. But there is always, always a point during the heart of the storm where we look around and ask why.

It's like a hangover, right, where there's this internal tension, frustration. knowing that the whole thing was self-induced. You could be comfortable right now. Comfort was always an option. But you chose differently. And as you push through, something becomes evident. It takes time, but all things of value do. You realize that life is now offering you things previously unavailable.

As though your ticket now permits you to relocate from the bleachers to court side. court side. The lock has come off the door. And immediately, you see why there was a cost associated with leveling up. After all, what is value, if not scarce? If this were easy, what would it mean? If it were always accessible, where would the significance exist? If everyone could snap their fingers and arrive here, what would be special about it? What's remarkable? What's It's remarkable is that it is reserved for the few willing to make the trip. And oh, the things we learn about ourselves along the way.

In the book Unbroken, Hillenbrandt tells a story of Louis Zamperini, a runner who went to fight in the Second World War, his plane is shot down. And almost the entirety of the book navigates the horrors he endures. First being rescued in the Pacific, then tortured in Japanese POW camps, where he sees many around him die and even comes within inches of losing his own life on a handful of occasions. And when he's finally rescued at the end of the war, and I'll never forget this, he's asked about what he went through, and he says he'd rather die than go through it all again. And I'll tell you why that's so meaningful.

meaningful to me. Because it shows you what human beings can endure when we take things one day at a time, an almost unfathomable amount of pain and suffering and sacrifice. We are so strong and so powerful when we, as Louis did, take the battle day by day. And sure, looking at the horizon, it's an ocean to traverse. but broken down merely droplets of water, certainly manageable. Now, of course, we are not POWs, and I'm certainly not equating our adversity to his, but the reality is we are in our own context, in our own ways, fighting our own battles.

We're all navigating personal obstacles. And it's critical to know that, one, you are capable, and two, the others, side is worth it. We forget because it's easy to forget, because we are wired to avoid discomfort, because no one wakes up and intuitively thinks, man, I'd love to do the hard thing today. But what we learn is to love deeply is to take off the armor and allow the heart to be vulnerable. To seek out the adventure is to embrace the possibility of losing one's way. To dream of a place amongst the stars is to risk falling short and being reminded of our imperfections, our mortality. One might understand this and think only of the adversity of what can go wrong, perhaps create lines in the sand that they refuse to cross, and

And sure, they play conservatively, their hearts won't be broken, their maps won't be necessary, their pride won't be crushed. But for what? What kind of existence is one where you never play the game because there was a possibility of defeat? We can all endure what is required to live fully, every single one of us. Yet so many will never leave the harbor because we struggled to see the world. journey as a collection of manageable pieces.

You deserve more and you're capable of getting more. Don't deprive yourself of it. One thousand heart breaks is worth finding that someone who lights you up. In one thousand miles in the wrong direction is worth uncovering that place you were meant to be. One thousand swings and misses is worth finding your place amongst the stars. vulnerability is not a burden, it's a staircase to the moon. Why not make today the beginning of your ascent?

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something current. So make life propel you into Chapter 2. Let the door slam and lock behind you throw away the key. With the boats burned and turning back off the table, we have to make it work. We have to figure it out. Well, how, we might ask, with only these pieces, with only this circumstance with only these resources. Well, it's funny how when walking away is no longer a possibility, so many other possibilities are born. When we're stuck between the wall and our demons, we roll up our sleeves and do that which we have been,

let's face it, running from. We fight. We become proactive. We take initiative. If it was always there, we just never had to. So if you can't do it on your own, make life make you. Because the bottom line is there are new horizons that await your arrival. They are always there.

But they require you to make the trip. To look out over the vastness of what's before you and convince yourself that what's ahead can become your own. your new normal. And oh, how I wish we weren't biologically preconditioned to preserve, to stay safe, to stay the same. How I wish we weren't constantly being pulled to stay right where we are. Our minds, they love it here.

With the rest of the world, the change, the hope, the progress, all on the other side of that window, all outside, all foreign to us. You don't need any of that. It'll tell you. Or maybe, after you conjure up a little courage, it might compromise. It might say, fine, it's worth a try. Put one foot out the door, but don't forget, you can always come back to me. You can always retreat.

It's warm here, safe here, it's predictable here. The mind wants you to know that when things get tough, mediocrity, and comfort are always right behind you. ready to embrace you with open arms. And it's for this reason that those boats must be burned, that the door must be locked, and that chapter must be closed. The journey before you, it's going to be difficult. There's no question about that.

Anything of value brings difficulty. And when faced with the adversity, the only way to defeat it is to know there is only one way, one option available to you. And that one option is forward. It's through. There is no backwards or compromise. There is no safety. Not if you want from life, that which is extraordinary. Not if you want the things we covet dream of, whether they're interpersonal, financial, career-oriented health-related. Maybe you just just knowing your soul that right now ain't it.

Any move to something better will present to you its obstacles. And my advice, if it's what you really want, is to have decided before you started that there is no other way. There's no negotiating with yourself. Because if you allow that door to be cracked, life will kick it open. So point the compass north and dismiss any notion that what's comfortable is more important than what's meaningful. When you're cold, nothing is more appealing than that warmth,

but warmth is deception, a short-term ploy for you to forget what really matters. An illusion. See, cold subsides, but victory is forever. Knowing that you pushed forward when most wouldn't is forever. transforming potential into strength when your knees shook is forever. So burn the boat. For no other reason that there is no way forward so long as there remains a way back.

Make life make you win. And where most would look around and see evidence of defeat, you'll find again and again in the same quote unquote evident the tools to build ladders to new beginnings and bridges to new worlds, there's a saying that I love, that most of life's successful people were too ignorant of the odds to know their accomplishments were considered at one point impossible. And I love it because it highlights that there was never a fallback option, a concern for the statistics. There was no worry or exhausted energy on what if rather it was constant building and adjusting finding

ways over through and around the walls that inevitably stand before us there was no way home so they pushed forward into their greatness and so can you whatever shape form or color greatness looks like in your eyes whatever mountain mountaintop appeals to you if you want it. If you're willing to decide before you go that you will one day stand amongst the cloud peering out at that world you deemed wasn't against you but for you, anything is possible. If someone were to tell you life is easy, they'd be incorrect.

If they were to tell you there's a specified path to contentment, to contentment, they'd be misinformed. If they were to tell you there's a book of answers to every question you'll come across, it'd be misled. The point is not that life is easy, predictable, or defined. The point is that despite the fact that it's none of those things, you're capable of making something from it. That from a seemingly endless barrage of unknown,

Exists the pieces to build something truly extraordinary. I came across a quote a few years ago from Abraham Maslow and a concept that was in Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death. And the idea is we are simultaneously gods and worms. Every once in a while you come across an idea that changes the way you see things, that's definitely one of them, right? of them, right? A duality that is perpetually under tension. God's and worms. We're animals, we're flesh and bone eroding by the day. We're given a temporary stay on a giant rock

rotating around the sun, while simultaneously equipped with the power to not only be aware of that finitude, but to transcend it, to dream, to see things of that are not yet there. Our minds are miraculous. We are both gods and worms. So what do we do about this? How about use the fact that we're going to die, the fact that in many ways we don't have control,

the fact that life is messy and unpredictable and often a maze of complete chaos, to rather than shrink because of it, take off the guardrails and reach for the heavens. To put things into existence that do not yet exist, why not go all in? After all, the thing about living is the saying goes, is that no one makes it out alive.

No one hops on the roller coaster to constantly look at their watch to dwell on its temporary nature. No, it's to enjoy the ride. And what is our time here? But a few short rides around the sun. So when it feels like life is too big, when the day overwhelms or disintegrates into chaos,

don't fixate on the rocky nature of the world around you, but on your ability to take it all and make it mean something. Cherish the idea that although everything around you is dictated by natural laws and constraints, your mind is bound by nothing. And where you seek answers, you will find them, where you pursue more, you will unlock it. Our finitude, our challenges are essential to our existence. They remind us that we have nothing to lose, that the song will end, so why not dance? like it's your last time. Because sure, in time we will be dirt for worms.

But that's exactly why, as long as we're here, we'll live to, in our own unique way, bridge the gap between the ground we walk on and the heavens above. One of the more powerful realizations I've had, both in business and life overall, is that what we do to win today and what we do to position ourselves to win tomorrow, they're often very different things. And we've probably all experienced this in some capacity.

We get sucked into the cycle of doing, becoming so task-oriented that we don't make time to step back and ask, Which direction do I want this ship to go? Because sure, we have to keep it afloat, and we have to keep it afloat now. But also, we have to navigate. The ship's role isn't solely to float, right? It's a transportation mechanism, a vehicle. Where are we going? And so the question becomes, how do we balance the two?

I came across an awesome book by Lee Benson called Your Most Important Number. And I'm about halfway through, but already finding a ton of value that I'll be sharing in the future, primarily around positioning your business for success. And one of the first things the book discusses is the difference between what Lee calls eating and dreaming. Eating being the things we need to do now to take care of matters that are essential for today, the things that need to get done. So using the same metaphor, actions to keep that boat afloat. And then there's the dreaming, which is essentially doing things now that help position

the organization for success in the future down the road. It's asking what can I do today that we'll ensure we are winning tomorrow. So boat metaphor, it's planning for storms that may arise later in the journey, it's analyzing the best destinations and charting the course. And here's what really struck me. Lee suggests, based on his consulting, that ideally leaders should be able to be able to be be, I believe the number was 80% dreaming and 20% eating. So yeah, doing what has to be done today, obviously, but largely focused on positioning

the organization and themselves for success in the days to come. And what he's found is that very often out in the world, that ratio is flipped. People are so consumed by the day to day that the future takes a back seat to the nuance and the quote-unquote putting out fires of the present moment. We're spending 80% of our time eating. Now, like most things, this is not one-size-fits-all. Say, front-line manager at a factory is not going to be 80% dreaming and 20% eating. Their task requirements are different.

But the point remains, it's imperative that we in some capacity utilize our resources now to look ahead. ahead. I don't know if I've ever told this story, but I always joke around with my brother about it. When we were kids in Southern California, we'd have these basically battles on the beach, right? Where we'd go down to the hard sand right in front of the water. And we'd each build these little wall slash fort type things, maybe 20 feet apart from each other. This is like emulating World War I type stuff. And then we'd make cannonballs out of sand and just throw the sand at each other. So in a way, this is a perfect metaphor,

because we would always be juggling, on one hand, building the fort that would protect us from the other person. So dreaming. And then on the other hand, I mean, those things hurt, right? We'd have to in real time be dodging incoming sand simultaneously to building that wall.

Right? So the eating. And he's a bit younger than me, so admittedly, this wasn't really fair. But regardless, you know, he would get so consumed with throwing sand that his wall would be really cheaply made. At the beginning, I'd be trying to make this really solid base foundation. He would just be pelting me with this stuff, and it was brutal. But his time went on, I'd build that wall higher and higher. Eventually it would be lights out for him.

He'd have nothing to hide behind. The young buck was doing, let's say, way less than 80% dreaming. And so I'm no longer building castles in the sand. But as the rose said, now I'm looking to build them in the air, seeking to bring things into life that are merely ideas and concepts in my head. And naturally, this prompted me to ask, well, what's my ratio now? Because it sure feels like I'm doing a lot of eating. It sure feels like I spend a lot of time every day, you know, dodging Mikey Peas, incoming sand cannon. and balls, right? Things are going to be different tomorrow than they are today. And to truly win,

we need to be asking ourselves, how do we build that bridge from the present to the future? How do we lay out stepping stones that will allow an evolution in what we're doing? And I'm thinking, if my day's 95% consumed with eating type tasks, then I need to figure things out here, right? Is it automate? Is it eliminate? Is it delegate? It's something because, the ship needs to be more effectively captained. And I love these epiphanies. Just a change in mindset that can completely redirect one's entire trajectory. And it's funny, I was having a conversation earlier today with a friend about scaling and impact and growth.

Another person I love to throw ideas back and forth to, and he asked me, well, Eddie, what are some of the ways your world within could make money? And I was like, oh, it's easy, right? And so I laid it all out in great detail, the ins and outs, and he says, that's awesome. But that's not the question I asked you. You answered a different question. You answered, how is the business making money now? I asked, how can it make money in the future? Boom, another epiphany, one of those instances where you catch yourself thinking small.

And this isn't a knock on the work I'm doing now, or the system's in place now, they're great now, but again, now isn't forever. If you have plans to add more value and create more impact, build more things, that has to be baked into your time and resource allocation. We all have to eat because we don't want to starve, but we also have to dream. Because if we're unable to look ahead, we simply will not be equipped to handle the turbulence of tomorrow, right? There's a duality to this game.

And I think the ratio with which we're juggling the two deserves consistent attention and examination. Now, yeah, life is seasonal. There are times where keeping that ship afloat takes everything we have, but it's understanding that that is a season and not the way things are. Dreaming allows us to start moving in the right direction, even if it's one small step at a time, Building today piece by piece, something we can stand on tomorrow, a staircase, to the version 2.0 and 3.0 and 4.0.

The future depends on what we do today, and so we must create space for that seed to grow. We must chart the course and captain the ship to the next horizon. You can become so fixated on winning or losing the game that you forget to ask yourself, am I playing the right one? Is this my game? Am I setting myself up to win in an arena of significance to me? Because look, there are infinite games out there.

And sometimes we find ourselves caught up in a race. We have no business running. meaning it doesn't really do anything for us. It's not where we want to be or should be. There's a saying by someone, and a few social media outlets actually restricted my post for suggesting it was Einstein. So it might not be Mr. Einstein.

But whoever said it, thank you, you're awesome. The saying goes, everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it's stupid. Now, there are a lot of us fish out there, attempting to climb trees as we speak, wondering why we're not where we want to be, perhaps seeing the results or lack thereof

as an indication that we're insufficient, inadequate in some way, when, hey, that's not the case at all. It's that we haven't taken the time to identify our own personal intersection, of what we love and what adds value to the world. We haven't manufactured those fireworks. That's something that has to be explored, found. J.R.R. Tolkien, not all who wander are lost, right?

And I think we innately fear this process of searching because it's unsettling to not know how things are going to play out. Trust me, I've been there, right? It's taxing to not have your packaged little elevator speech and a five-year vision when it seems like the whole world does. But to deprive yourself of this exploration is to potentially forfeit the very thing

that you come to live for. Most of the time purpose doesn't fall into one's lap. You have to have your eyes open. What's meaningful must be sought out. Now, I'm going to play a little devil's advocate here because our world is not black and white. It sort of lives in this gray space, right? Can you win at someone else's game? Sure. There are a lot of people, quote, unquote,

succeeding in areas that are not ideal, that they don't love, that they're not their best in, but how is success being defined? I've talked extensively about my journey and all those games I used to play, the targets I used to aim for. And I know a lot of people who've come to similar epiphanies, But when you don't realize, you can exit stage left and begin again, start something new, you simply continue this same song and dance. Right? It's not life that keeps us confined. It's ignorance that keeps us confined.

We simply have to be taught that there's more. And I understand to find an arena where you can thrive in a purely historical context, is a luxury. You are programmed to survive. You're not programmed to build an art studio because it's your passion, right? But there lies the battle. We are at a place in time

where we have collectively cultivated abundance. The phone you're using to consume this content, that little thing can be a portal that transports your thoughts, your creation, your business to the masses. You have at your fingertips access to billions of people. You have reach that humans only 30 years ago, all the way back to the beginning of mankind, can only dream of.

The means are there. In so many ways, it's about freeing yourself to pursue the opportunity that exists all around you, because we self-limit. Alan Watts asked the ever-important question, what would you do if money were no object? Now, in a practical world, why ask such a question? Simple, because removing those monetary constraints as you contemplate your answer allows you to truly analyze what endeavors are meaningful to you.

When something is meaningful, you want to do it. When you want to do it, you immerse yourself in those little intricacies, in those details that the average person simply doesn't pay attention to. making you so good at whatever that thing is that eventually, not only can you be the best at it, but you can monetize it and probably at a very high rate. It's not money holding you back. It's not time holding you back.

It's not the external world holding you back. It's what you have been conditioned to believe that's holding you back. You are a genius at something. You are king or queen of your end. Empire, Victor within your arena. But to realize these things, you have to, one, understand it's a possibility, and two, refuse to stay stagnant. We have to stop conceding so much while simultaneously accepting so little. Life will never provide what you do not ask for. So why? Why be scared to ask?

Life won't tell you you're a fish climbing a tree, you must tell you that. Life won't expand your horizons and adjust your trajectory. You must initiate that change. To find your genius, you must be willing to leave what's insufficient. To capture what's meaningful, you must be willing to leave what is meaning

Liss, let's agree to alter the question, do I have genius level talent? Because you do. And you live in a society that also rewards those who realize it. The question we need to be willing to ask is, are you willing to walk on shaky ground? to abandon, at least for a period of time, safety and the comfort of predictability, in order to find that genius. Are you willing to nurture the greatness

that already lives within you? Because it was never a matter of ability. It's a matter of what you're willing to discover. I recently heard someone say, it's not about doing your best, it's about doing what's required. Are they different? Very. Here's my take.

Doing your best has an emotional component attached to it. It's subjective. What exactly is your best? Well, it's a story that you tell yourself. A narrative, opening the door to limitation. I've always found that when we put our backs against the wall and venture into scenarios where it's essential that we get something done, we somehow always find a way. When we leave no plan B for ourselves, we are required to make Plan A work.

And so we do. It's a testament to both the resilience and power contained in the human spirit, as well as the reality that we can astound ourselves when we're unwilling to take no for an answer. That it's not the resources that are the problem. It's usually our unwillingness to move forward into the dark, our hesitance to try, explore, test, build, and rebuild. Actions that are surprisingly unrelated to one's best and have everything to do with accepting nothing less than an identified outcome. One of the reasons I fell in love with the sport of running is because it reinforced this notion in my life. It became the template with which I could repeatedly

amaze myself. I talk a lot about earning confidence and oh how I earned it. Step by step, mile by mile day by day, in the sun in the rain, in the desert, in the woods, through city streets, all over the country and the world, I came to understand the relationship between the turbulence of now and the satisfaction of later. It was on those days that pushed beyond my usual level of comfort, when that cloud of pain and agony would hover over me. I couldn't even really point to where my body hurt. It just all seemed to come together into this one giant hell, and to learn that I could not only endure that,

but grow in those moments. To see myself rise above any preconceived notion or understanding of best in order to defeat my demons, conquer the day's objective, it changes the way you see yourself in the world. Now, could onlookers be tempted to create? call these self-created goals arbitrary, even unnecessary? Sure. And I get why they would, but I'd also completely disagree.

Those days were a master class in doing what is necessary. Realizing that when you shut your rational brain off and don't give your mind a chance to talk your body out of it, you can see just how powerful you are. You realize that story of your best is nothing more than a house built on sand. Life is not about that story you've told yourself. It's not about your personal records and peak performances. What you think you can do or how far you think you might be able to go.

It's about not stopping in the moments when it hurts. Doing what is required, a decision that compounds over time to create. what was once impossible. One of my favorite quotes is by Admiral William McRaven, an absolute hero of mine. Funny enough, he says if you want to change the world, you must be your very best in your darkest moments. And what a beautiful idea to rise when life presents its periods of turbulence. And sure it may be a matter of semantics, but in those moments of darkness, I think of your best, not in the

traditional sense. Not as a personal metric, but as a willingness to do what must be done, a removal of the spotlight from you altogether and instead pointed directly at the road ahead, at the task at hand. When you choose to make the journey, not about what you can and cannot do, but instead make it about what must be done, the universe, as Paulo Coelho has so elegantly stated, conspires to make it happen. I think back to my journey and at so many periods my best wasn't good enough. I was so lost and so overwhelmed that the only thing I could do was not stop moving. That was my superpower, simply trudged through the fear of things falling apart, the nagging pride and hurting ego. And what I learned was that life is no different than all those miles I'd put in running. How I

felt what my previous capabilities were, what I deemed my best to be. It was all noise. It was all irrelevant. What was required was that I moved forward through the chaos and to something better. And so I did. And in your world, so can you. The stories we tell ourselves are so powerful and in many ways valuable in our journey through life. But there's one narrative. that eliminates the necessity of so many others. You can get to the top at whatever mountain you are seeking to climb so long as you do not stop.

So long as you let go of the limitations tied to your quote unquote best and instead do what is required to get there. You'll see how adaptable and transformative that best really is, how it's a lagging indicator. It will take time, but you're careful.

capable of being patient. And it will have its moments of chaos, but you are capable of weathering those storms. It will present obstacles that leave you unclear, uncertain, sometimes unprepared, but you're capable of picking your head up and moving through that hate. What you know of yourself now

is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what you're capable of doing. And how far that goes will be determined not by putting a stake in the ground and calling it your personal best. But as Emerson has said, by hitching your wagon to a star and pulling yourself towards its light. A little bit.