Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Why You MUST Start NOW - Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." - Zig Ziglar In this motivational episode, we dive into Eddie Pinero's compelling insights on the critical value of starting and the pitfalls of procrastination. Through a curated collection of his speeches, we're reminded of the immense power that lies in taking the first step toward our goals. Eddie's persuasive narrative urges us to move beyond hesitation, emphasizing that the journey to achievement begins with the decision to act. This episode serves as a powerful call to action, inspiring listeners to embrace the moment, discard delays, and seize the opportunities that await. Join us as we explore Eddie Pinero's transformative advice, offering the push needed to transition from dreaming to doing, and highlighting the untapped potential that comes alive when we choose to start. Newsletter: yourworldwithin.com/newsletter YouTube: youtube.com/yourworldwithin

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They used to separate building up and tearing down as if they were two totally different ideas, rather than one perpetual loop. The energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Simply transfers from one thing to another. We are renting everything in this world, grabbing little pieces of life as we run through it. And what we leave behind in the rear view

has the potential to tug at our heartstrings as we see it collapse into the horizon, sure. But it also has to. Yesterday was, in its own way, the beginning, a nurturing parent, preparing you for the world of today, pushing you out the front door and maybe you don't feel ready, we never do.

But things have to go in order for more to arrive, the tearing down is the building up. I have a significant relationship with this idea, letting go. I think because it's personally been one of my greatest adversaries. You know, and the words that escape our lips pull back the curtain on who we are. Humans are just projectors with eyes.

As my words escape, the hope is something beautiful will be let in. As I'm sitting here, writing, I'm thinking about how exciting the prospect of scaling this message, growing this brand, helping more people, adding more value, while simultaneously dancing around the terror of relinquishing some level of creative control with my work. You can't of course grow and still do things how you did them in a one-bedroom apartment in 2014.

This isn't new. They've been grappling with it in different contexts for years. It's so personal to me, but the reality is there's no grace space here. This situation is clear as glass. You have to let go in order to acquire. You have to tear down those barriers in order to make room for more. This is and always has been a me conversation. I'll look at myself in the mirror conversation.

Eddie, what are you willing to let go of because there are ropes that must be cut. See, these conversations hurt, but they are the transfer mechanism to all that is beautiful. Being self-aware hurts. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that it hurts less than operating in a state of consistent delusion. So I offer this question to you. What was the last conversation you had with yourself? When was your last is what I want and what I'm doing aligned conversation. When was your last? Am I holding on to too much conversation? Your last, if I want parts of me to be reborn, am I willing to let the unnecessary things die conversation? Life is a cycle. And we forget that. As we get comfortable, as we become accustomed to routine,

It's easy to forget. Are we shedding the old or hiding within it? And Gary Keller is one thing. He mentions how a domino can knock over another domino 50% larger. So if you were to start with a two-inch domino and keep increasing the one next to it by 50%. The 23rd domino in the progression would be able to knock over the Eiffel Tower. The 31st would be as tall as Everest. The 57th domino would be able to bridge the gap between the Earth and the moon. See, but it must be understood that it's the 50% growth from domino to domino that makes the difference. If each domino stays the same size, you don't get any remarkable transformation.

And in many ways, that's what we do. the moon but we stay that two-inch domino that's my example of holding on to perhaps too many aspects of the creative process that holding on prevents the 50% jump for you the journey before you will be a different one with different characteristics but the rules the same the old dominoes must fall in order to create something new that energy must be passed on and it is capable of transferring this is the important part to something much bigger than itself.

That's why we allow the old to fall. It's not that it's valueless. It's that its value was in setting up the brilliance that now awaits. You can't be afraid to tear down the old, right? We have to seek out that fearlessness that exists within us. It's crippling our growth, diminishing our capacity to live life to the fullest.

That's what's scary. Protecting that which no longer serves us is what's dangerous. So let yesterday fade into the rear view. It may hurt, it may tug at those heartstrings, that when you look back years from now, it will be the reason, the very reason, you'll have embarked upon the adventure of a lifetime. It's what you destroyed that will have opened the door for everything.

brought forth the manifestation of the beautiful life you ultimately came to build. The ability to find calm amidst chaos is a superpower, finding clarity in focus. Not when the environment is perfect, not when the stars are aligned. When your mind wants to wander and your emotions are high, when the conditions are high, when the conditions are not perfect, and your brain starts to rationalize, maybe picking things back up some other time. Can you carve out serenity for yourself? Just enough to do what needs to be done,

because sometimes that is what makes all the difference. I remember way back now, 2017, getting out of a relationship, relocating, starting over in many ways, just kind of wrecked. And for a period, couldn't immerse myself in my work like I used to. The rest of life felt like it was on such shaky ground that it's like, you know, when everything's shaking, how do I find this ability to talk about it? To turn it all into something meaningful. It just felt impossible. But I was working through it, and one morning I was out on my patio listening to this meditation app.

It was a guided meditation. And I'll never forget the voice saying, think of your thoughts as clouds floating overhead. You're sitting and looking up at them, just watching them go by. Which means a few things. One, it removes you from your thoughts. That shattering in your head is not you, and you can, in fact, step away from it and observe it. And two, it kind of diminishes the good thought versus bad thought label. They're all just thoughts.

And they only mean something if you take them on, if you choose to embody them. And now this alone is a practice or skill that people work on their whole lives, right? This concept is just the beginning, but I felt that in many ways it was a light bulb moment. It opened a door for me. There was a very practical usage here. Because the easy days are rarely a problem. But life is messy. The easy days are.

are great, but you can't rely on them, right? Life is ups and downs. It's the days that things are turbulent, or the other corners of my life are presenting issues, right? Whether it's people or health problems or frustration or angered something that's occurred, just human things. To be able to sit down, open my laptop, and envision it all as little clouds floating overhead is freeing.

It's like disassociating yourself from the baggage. Yeah, you might be in a storm, but you're capable of creating an eye wall, manufacturing serenity for yourself. It's saying, no, the externalities do not get to dictate how, when, and where I allocate my attention. It's not about running or hiding. This is about understanding that life does not create perfect moments. The timing will never be just right. And therefore, we must manufacture our starting points.

We must create the very arenas in which we will perform. And one of my favorite examples of this was an eye-opening experience for me being sick on the day I planned to run a half marathon, been practicing, working out for months, right? Woke up with this scratchy throat and a cough, and everything sort of devolved into chaos. I spent the morning constantly reminding myself that I was operating on an empty tank, that I was going to be less than 100%. It wasn't until I stopped talking to myself and just started running that I saw through the story I was telling. I separated my reality from my thoughts and created a space I could thrive in.

I remember about halfway through looking at my time and realizing, wow, like not only I'm, Am I okay? This is great. I feel good. I'm going to make something incredible out of this. Conditions weren't ideal, but that's just it. Sometimes life asks us to make something of ourselves and the world around us with less than ideal circumstances. When things aren't perfect, can you separate your thoughts from the task at hand? Can you find focus when you're surrounded by noise? And you create clarity amidst the clutter. It's important to understand that life consists of highs and lows. That is the plane of reality we exist on, and so the question becomes,

during the lows, can we carve out that environment to succeed? When we want to stop, to turn back, when we want to make excuses, Can we separate the thoughts from what must be done, the emotion from the action? The ability to find calm amidst chaos is a superpower. We just need to remember to look. We need to remember that the negative emotions, the ideas and the stories are not us.

They are clouds floating overhead. Step back, observe them, let them go by and understand that now it's time to do what needs to be done. Now it's time to tap into that potential and that strength that's always been there. It's always existed. It just needs permission, not from the external world, but from you now. Tired of the winter cold? Don't worry, spring break season is right around the corner.

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recognition that we prove ourselves, but prove ourselves to whom. This is the same Seneca who famously stated that we suffer more in imagination than we do in reality, that he is most powerful who has power over himself. And that's one of the beautiful things about stoicism. It makes us ask a very simple but often overlooked question, who's really the adversary here?

Who's the opposition we're dealing with as we fight our battles? What is it that must be transformed? Is it the outside world? Or the way our eyes view the outside world? What's really holding us back? The circumstances? Or our own personal thoughts about the circumstances. And I think this is where we misunderstand the challenges before us.

I want to delve into this power of perspective to explain that we are the gatekeepers between ourselves and our ideal lives. And very often we do a good job of ensuring that gate stays closed. We sabotage our own goals. own dreams, our own happiness, while simultaneously pointing the finger at a million externalities. See, when we look at the difficulties of life, and there's no doubt that life can be a very difficult thing, it's easy to look at the world as this binary playing field, me versus the world. And in fact, we often visualize the world as the enemy pushing back against us.

as if its motives were counter to ours. So many of these narratives, these stories, they actually say nothing about the outside world. I mean, we look deeper. It becomes apparent that they actually say a whole lot more about us. It's the one viewing that gets to decipher what the circumstance means. And so all narratives are reflections of the observers. Jim Rohn used to tell a story about two brothers who had an alcoholic father.

He'd come home drunk, he'd abuse his sons. They had a terrible childhood. And as they each grew up and had families of their own, their paths kind of diverged. One became abusive, and the other was kind and loving and caring. And when confronted the now abusive brother stated, well, look, how can you? and you blame me. Don't you see how I was raised? But the kind, loving, and caring brother stated, of course I'm like this. I could never put my family through what I went through as a child. Same circumstances, different lenses, interpretations, which means different real-world

result. And the idea here is to emphasize how one of the most important abilities a human being possesses is the ability to interpret the world around him. I think of us as subjects navigating a world of objects, as though the things around us don't have meaning until we place meaning upon them. That's what humans do. Create narratives out of objects. And that often overlooked, seemingly insignificant ability places a lot of power in our hands. Very rarely is it what we see, it's what we think, and what we do about what we see. You ever hang out with people that just tend to be happy, upbeat, positive energy? I have a very good friend like that where his first inclination is always to find the positive.

In moments where I've sort of trained myself to pause, take a second, sift through the emotion, uncover the value in a tough situation, refocus, and take a strategic step forward, I look over at him and he's already arrived there. He's been there for three minutes, right? Eliminated the negativity, it's his first instinct. He's the metaphorical kid hopping around in puddles, whistling at the top of his lungs, while everyone else is hiding out from the rain. or at least trying to find the courage to run out onto the street with.

Then there are people who seem to always find the negative. It doesn't really matter what this situation is. Happiness is fleeting, only to reveal the negativity that never seems to go away, right? The kind of person that if they won the lottery, their first thought might be, oh no, but what if I lose it all? Both examples are people projecting themselves onto the world around them. The same way that smoke covers and consumes an endanglement.

entire room. It's not the room that's the culprit. Here's another example from Jim Rohn, since we're on a Jim Rohn kick. He's making a similar point, and this is all from a collection of speeches. He has on Audible, comparing humans to oranges, which is probably not a comparison you've made recently, but he said, there's consistency to an orange and that it can be filled with one thing. When you squeeze an orange, orange juice is coming out. Period. It will never be apple juice or grape food juice.

It will only emit what it has inside, which is orange juice. And while here's the connection, when life pressures us, challenges us, or metaphorically squeezes us, we only emit the emotions that are contained and available, that are alive, and well within us. If there is no jealousy contained in our thinking, we're not going to project jealousy out into the world. If there is no hatred within us, we will not project hatred onto others.

Why is that powerful? It's powerful. Because, again, it's one of the most important things you can do. Certainly one of the most important things I've learned to do is take that finger pointing blame at the outside world. slowly turn it around and point it back at myself. And ask, what thoughts, what emotions, what ideas am I letting live inside my head that's altering the narrative, the story I'm telling about myself and the world that I live in? And while one might think, well, that's uncomfortable, that's unfair, a little extreme,

why should I point at myself? It's not my fault. I would challenge you, at least for the sake of the next few minutes, to see such a change as empowering, as your advantage. As the bridge from where you are to where you want to be, see, if you always have feelings of, let's say, jealousy around a particular person, that feeling in your stomach like, oh, they have it all, they're ahead. They live how I want to live. They're this and that, and I kind of hate them for it. You're naively giving the external world the power. You're saying I feel the way I do because of that out there, some cosmic injustice.

You are powerless because you're neglecting your personal agency as a factor. But when you turn that finger around and say, I only feel this way because I'm allowing myself to, then you can ask the question. So many never think to ask. Why? Why do I feel this way? Which lights a path to how can I fix it? See, the key to a better life is realizing you don't have to be in the passenger seat pointing at and blaming the driver, complaining about the road being taken.

No, you can get into the driver's seat. You can take the wheel. You can take control. Inherit responsibility. and there's more at stake, there's greater vulnerability. But the upside is unfathomable. And I find myself thinking all the time, man, people are blaming the wrong things. They're shifting blame to the wrong adversaries.

The real villain here is not the driver or the road or the weather. The real villain is the voice in your head pleading with you not to take. the wheel, pleading with you to ride shotgun and complain as the world passes you by. And of course it makes sense to qualify that, with the inevitability that there are some things placed upon us that are just bigger than us, that we can't control. And you can make a list however long you want to, natural disasters, decisions and actions of others, health problems. We don't often get to choose the landscape.

So as the Stoics would say, understand that. Understand what you can't control and what you can. Because the beauty is that you can control how you navigate that landscape, and that is power. That is what makes the difference. See the two brothers, I mentioned a few moments earlier, same landscape. Different navigational tactics. view of what it all meant. One took the wheel and one did not. So that's Seneca quote. That states, no man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted

to prove himself. Well, it's perfectly clear as far as I'm concerned. The question is not whether or not to face adversity. I think we all understand that. What would I What I hope we take from today is a better understanding of what the true adversity is. A better understanding of the fact that in front of us there is always an answer, a key to every lock. Some people just don't think to look. They're so busy peering around every corner for external enemies and scapegoats that they don't give themselves permission to succeed. Maybe unfortunate, but it's true. You can hit the bull's eye over and over again.

But if it's the wrong target, it won't do much for you. You might as well have missed by 50 feet. And I think that is what we overlook. You can't always fix the outside world. You can't change the unchangeable, but you can always change yourself. You can always fix you. As Tolstoy said, everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks. of changing himself.

You're capable of being both your greatest adversary and ally. So choose wisely. Because the world around you will do nothing more than respond accordingly to your decision. I found a quote the other day. It said, time heals nothing unless you move along with it. And I thought, well, that makes perfect sense. You can't pursue. a new reality, a new world, unless you can detach and depart from the current one.

But that's in theory. And my question was, is it the destination or the path that holds us back? Because in my experience, the greatest struggle in life, it isn't what to do, it's knowing how to do it. How do we get there? We know we need to get back up. But how? How do we initiate a spark and create momentum and take that world of black and white and add color? Because those times of gray, when life seems to lose its purpose, we find ourselves simply existing and not living.

That's when we need answers. And I guess this quote, it jumped out at me because it prompted us. an equally important question, which is now what? And I started thinking a few years back, 2017, probably the most difficult year of my life. It was void of any of that beautiful nuance, the uplifting moments that we like to remember when we look back. For me, it was essentially an ended relationship,

was relocating away from family and friends, was having a few dollars in my bank account, I own in a trailer and starting over. And what I'll never forget about that experience, you know, in totality, was that I saw it colorless, bland, dark. Essentially, the road ahead had lost that glimmer that it once had. See, I used to get so much joy in telling stories. But life had kicked me around so hard that I, at least for the moment,

I forgot the point. Like what was my reason? And I knew, like I said, what I had to do, but I couldn't wrap my arms around the how. How do you get the train moving again? And then I got this email, right? And I'm going to paint a picture for you. New apartment, trash, there's stuff everywhere, suitcases open, I hadn't shaved in two weeks, I'm exhausted, couldn't sleep, sitting there frustrated with my laptop. And the email is basically someone looking to create a documentary asking if they could stay with me for three days. and create a film about always maintaining discipline and living a productive life. And I just erupted into laughter, right?

I don't think Seinfeld could have written something more ironic. It was just, it made no sense. But it caused me to reflect, right? I obviously declined the video. Just wouldn't have felt right or accurate in that moment. But I started to think, how was there such a gap between the old me and who I was sitting on that bed. Is this the new me? And if it's not, why have I allowed this imposter to stay so long? I've always said a life change is one decision away. A light switch away. Just reach out and find it.

And when you're going through times like this, it's funny. Life has a way of doing its best to conceal the beauty. It's like it becomes this black in white painting and it stays that way. It stays that way. It stays that way. until you put color into it, one brush stroke at a time. Because life is intimidating when you see everything you're not, when the blank canvas feels like emptiness and not opportunity. But life doesn't require of you the whole picture. Masterpieces, they aren't made overnight. They're not instantaneous, they are a product of trust, of faith.

Not in the canvas or the brush, but in the artist, through his eyes, he's capable of transforming his experience into art, his misfortune into meaning. Victor Frankl uses the metaphor of a movie, each day being its own scene, where often they don't even come together until the very last act.

Trust that. Believe that. But man, start painting. painting. In the very next morning, like everyone before it, I woke up to a yellow beam of light, making its way through a crack in the blinds, painting the wall of an otherwise dimly lit room. But this time I saw it. This time I didn't close the blinds. I opened my eyes and sometimes that alone is the little hinge that swings a big door, a door that I walked through.

And I saw the green of the palm trees, the beauty, the simplicity, and thought, how lucky am I to be where I am when I am? I saw a blue sky, a miracle in its own right that's not confined to story or narrative, and well, maybe I'm not either. The white of the sidewalk leading me to wherever I choose to go next. The red of my running shoes hitting the pavement, the gold of the sun bouncing off the buildings, the black of a cup of warm coffee as I soak in the day, and the teal chandelier that hangs over the horizon as the same sun that started it all retreats after a hard day's work. See, you have everything you need, and life is not always perfect, but it is always. what you make it.

How things are, it's not how they should be your need to be, but how you've allowed them to be. And most importantly, black and white does not describe reality so much as it describes what's not there. What's missing from reality, and my hope is to never conform to that sketch or outline that masquerades as truth. but to see beyond it,

to find the strength, the courage, the self-belief to pick up the brush and live life in color. Ready to prioritize yourself in the new year? Your skin is a great place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master esthetician, is more than just a skincare company.

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For me, it's an easy one. It's that life is not as serious as we make it out to be. It's the most important thing I've learned. And perhaps the simplicity of that message might make people a little uneasy or take them by surprise, right? How exactly is it helpful? Well, I'll explain. Waking up every day is not an obligation or requirement. It's not another test or make or break audition to impress those around you.

It's a gift. It's a challenge. It's something to be explored. If the odds of being alive, living, breathing, or one in 400 trillion, you've won. You have, as you sit or stand right now, already done the miraculous. So why not cash in? Why not live, push boundaries? To live scared. To play safe or do nothing with your life is like winning the law. and keeping that bag full of cash under your bed for the rest of your life because you're scared of what could happen to it. It defeats the purpose entirely.

And I'm not exaggerating. This mentality has changed my life. If I lose, who cares? If people laugh, who cares? But I have to swallow my pride and be broke for a few years, who cares? If I'm the unsure one, the one who doesn't know what the immediate future looks like? Fine, who cares? I'll take the upside. I'll take the fun, the hard work, and the adventure.

I talk about this all the time. I'll never forget. Walking into this bar with my friends six years ago now, I just left my job. And I remember I'm talking to this girl at the bar, story time here, and she asks me what I do for a living, because of course she does.

And I tell her I just left my job. I got this really cool idea for a YouTube channel. I think it's going to be incredible, and I'll never forget how fast that comes. Convo shut down, right? Blink and she'd walked away. And I thought, you know what, this is perfect. I'm going to remember this probably for the rest of my life. Why? Because it's a symbol. It's a sign that the immediate is what stops us from the best things down the road. Leaving my job as hard as that maybe one or two year stretch was, was the best thing I've ever done.

I am living exponentially better than I was before I had the courage to make that move. See, if life is about not screwing up, then yes. I'm still in that cubicle getting yelled at for including too much color in my PowerPoint presentations. But that's not what life is. Life is opportunity. Not hiding so that you don't lose. No, it's about making something where you are with what you have. And my friends, there is so much out there.

There is a win on the other side of every door you walk through, even when it's hard to see. Right now is a perfect time to be talking about this. A little crazy coronavirus has people being quarantined, everyone freaking out. Guys, take a step back and find the opportunity. I just read the other day, Shakespeare wrote King Lair when he was being quarantined because of the plague. There is always a win. Use the time, find solutions. Maybe you've always wanted to start a business.

Wait, take a small step, create the business page on Facebook, do something small, get the ball rolling. See, when life is a game, you're finding ways to win. Why do all these entrepreneurs talk about the hardship they've encountered before they found success? Because they knew that losses wouldn't define them, but in life, just like in a game, you win and you lose. But what happens is, through repetition, you get better and better, and the winds start accumulating, becoming more substantial and consistent. See, most decisions, and let's say worst case scenario, you take the leap and things implode. Let's just be dramatic for a second. Everything goes wrong.

Loss, loss, loss, loss. The reality is 99% of your decisions, they're reversible. If you don't get the intended result, you can backpedal and adjust. You know what's irreversible, though? Inaction. You know what you can't improve upon? Steps you've never taken. You can't be propelled by dreams that are hanging out in your head.

Living scared is looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, I hope nothing goes wrong today. Living fully is looking in the mirror and saying, I'm going to make something significant today. I'm going to take risks. I'm going to find solutions. I'm going to propel myself forward. So that, as I make my way onto this rocket ship, would be my message. Stop playing to avoid losing and start playing to win. Life is not serious.

It's not a standardized test. It's a blank page waiting for a story. And stories are written by the bold, the risk takers, the ones who stop wishing and go out and make things happen. Wrong actions can be corrected, improved upon, but life through a lens of scarcity is a sealed fate. So how about living like this is the only life you have? Like each day is a metaphorical, and see that you can't take with you to your grave. It must be spent.

It must be cherished and utilized fully. So here's to not only dreaming, but finding the courage to delve headfirst into a journey so great that no stone is left unturned. No day is without the magic of your creation. Because if life is serious, it is a serious opportunity. to live fully and nothing less.

How do you visualize the road you're on? With its twists and turns, smooth terrain, rough terrain, straightaways, hills, what is it all mean? Do you find it odd that it gets more challenging as you get closer to your destination? Right? The further along you get, the more tension life puts between you and the finish line. Almost like the universe is adamant about weeding out those who think they can skate by.

What is the difference between saying you want it and really wanting it? Perhaps it's a willingness to fight through a storm just for the opportunity to find calm and serenity in its center. This morning, as the sun was coming up, I went for a run. A nice five mile run down the coast, and the way I plans it out was simple. Right? 2.5 or halfway up in soft sand, and then I'd stop, and I'd turn around, and I'd run 2.5 back, but on the harder surface, right? Easier to handle, almost like a reward for pushing myself on the way up.

And things were going perfectly. I made the 2.5 mile run up, and when it came to stop and turn around, I realized what should have been obvious from the beginning. beginning was high tide, which means I didn't get that hard surface to run back on instead. Not only was it softer than the way up, but I was running on a slope. And that just threw my mind for a loop, right? I'm embarrassed to admit I was actually angry about it. You know, I pushed myself hard going up and wanted that breather.

Almost felt like life pushed the finish line back 2.5 miles. And then trust me, as I'm writing this, it seems ridiculous to talk about. But in the moment, just irrationally annoyed. That was the carrot that had been chasing the whole time. So I begrudgingly, you know, move forward, kind of trying to figure out what to do. And ultimately just continued forward. And, you know, the emotion subsided. And as usually happens, you pull yourself out of the weeds a little bit.

The big picture tells a different story. Different story means different perspective. and that's what I came across, right? This idea or this question, well, why do we expect life to be flat ground? Why was that my assumption to begin with? The easy to navigate path. Why is that the standard? And the more I thought about it, right?

The more I wondered if that's the very reason why we underperform. It's the little spark that ultimately lights this wild. fire of regret. Because when convenience is the standard, everything else becomes unfair. Everything else is a burden. When the road should be flat, what are we to make of the hills in our path? Thinking life should be easy, it provides oxygen to a victim mentality. And sometimes it takes these little experiences for me to refocus on these subtle realities. The flat ground is not the standard. earned. It's a gift. It should be cherished and appreciated because guess what? Life wasn't easy. It isn't easy and it never will be. But I believe the differentiator is knowing that.

So I kept running on the slope, feet sinking into the sand. I got my teeth kicked in just a little bit longer and life didn't end. In fact, I think the mental aspect was tougher than the physical. We're only talking five miles here. But when the standings, changes, so does the performance. It's about just moving forward. And like poetry, with about three-quarters of a mile left, the beach widened. It leveled out, the ground became harder.

Each step became easier, and yeah, I was running. But in my head, it felt like I was lying on a bed of feathers. Because when you prepare to face life's demons, when you're ready for battle, when you anticipate, you'll have to give everything. Any adversary that falls short of that feels like wind behind your back. We can endure anything. The question is whether or not we put ourselves in position to. Mistakes,

they don't define us. Heartbreak, it doesn't kill us. And criticism, it doesn't shape us. But I'll tell you what. The fear that they do stops a lot of people from becoming who they're capable of becoming. Panicking at the slightest sign of discomfort, moving away from anything but the convenient, when in reality, inconveniences are the path. As Dryden Holiday famously put it, the obstacle is the way. See, satisfaction, it doesn't even exist. without a will to overcome.

What meaning does a finish line have without miles of self-doubt and questions and fear and dragons being slayed while you prove to yourself over and over again that you know what? I am more.

And I can be more. And the crazy thing is that there's not even a stopping point here. This rocket will propel as high into the ether as you choose to take it. And look, it's not about running on slight inclines or sinking a few inches into the sand.

It's not about being rejected, losing or castigated by seven billion self-interested souls. No. It's about not being scared to take the bridge that connects current to future. Complacency to recreation. known to the seemingly impossible. You're made of so much more than you give yourself credit for.

You are so much stronger than you think you are. So for yourself and for the world, capture that. Own it and redefine what it means, not to simply exist, but to your core with every ounce of it. your being, your soul, every fiber in your body to truly live. So I'm going to share a life lesson with you, something that over the years has been a true game changer. Ready?

It's simple. It's very simple. Like most things, it's easy to understand. It's easy to comprehend. It's the implementation. That's the challenge, right? But it's the idea that progress is not always a visible step forward. Growth is not always a measurable.

or mile, you know, to feel good about it, to celebrate. It's not always a tangible victory or pat on the back. It's a smile about it. Sometimes it's sidestepping. Sometimes it's stepping backwards, reminding ourselves to look up and gain perspective. Because we are always inclined to look at the immediate. That's what feels good. And this lesson says, no, there's a big picture to keep in mind.

It reels us in. The big picture is what gives us perfect. It drives our happiness. That thing we want on the top of the hill. The North Star, the X on the map, that's what's sustainable. And I say it's been a game changer for me because, you know, one of my biggest adversaries over the years has been that voice in my head. Almost pleading with me to indulge in the thing that will bring that immediate result.

It's money now, growth now, validation. Now, there's comfort there. Our minds want that satisfaction. That's why you see all those guys standing next. to whiteboards saying they have the formula to make you rich tomorrow. We want tomorrow. We believe in some capacity that that can be real tomorrow. But that's what tends to lead us astray. And so I've spent a lot of time reflecting over the years on how to incentivize those steps that aren't immediately impactful. There's not the flashy metal you're going to get right now,

but I know that if I do it, it's going to bring me to my long-term goal. How do I incentivize that? because like I said, the natural inclination is to dismiss it. I'm walking laterally across the mountain so that ultimately I can find the most applicable path and ascend. And that's a scary thing. You know, building long term gives you very little to immediately slap on a resume, to brag or rant about at holiday parties.

There's nothing flashy to impress with, but it's believing in a long-term game, doing what most people can't, trading that certainty that you could have had for an extraordinary later. It's never a loss to do what has to be done so that you can position yourself for the future. Sometimes you have to wade through the muck, work quietly in the dark, so that you can build something that you feel will have an impact. It's not a loss to step backwards to tweak the things you're not happy with.

It's not a loss to explore or question or reinvent. It's true those actions in and of themselves aren't going to put money immediately in your pockets. But if you find the discipline to see the big picture, you realize that long term those things bring happiness, contentment, excitement, which guess what? Leads to accomplishment and progress and the financial stability that you're looking for. Chasing flashy things, chasing the immediate moment, yeah, it'd get you a quick rush, a nice blast of dopamine, but it's empty. Ultimately, it's unfulfilling because nothing worth having is quick. That's life. But it's often the illusion that guides us. You'll never see how many auditions

the 33-year-old actor went through before he was cast in a major film. You don't see that. You don't see the countless hours and shows and midnight gigs in front of three people that the rock star endured. You just don't. It's not celebrating. We celebrate what we see. And what I've learned is that the most important things, they're just not visible to the naked eye. And it's funny. It's like people they're ashamed or embarrassed by the fact that they're climbing to the top of their own hill to something truly significant to them because the person next to them is bragging about blindly leaping three steps. And that's great.

Progress is great, but unless it's taking you to where you want to be most, is it a win? I have many friends that have left six-figure or hire jobs to podcast or create or start their own businesses. And people's first reaction is always like, wow, look what you have. Look what you're walking away from. We see scarcity.

We are naturally inclined to see life through a lens of scarcity. You need to remember that. That's what we do. We establish and protect our well-being. That's why I've worked so hard to transform my thinking over the years. To look out and think, who cares what I had? Look what's out there. There are no limitations to what can be yours.

If you're not on top of the world, make it happen. And I understand. People are complex. Situations, they're not easy. They're intricate. Everyone's different. Everything is different. But there's a principle that's consistent. And it's that you can always improve your situation.

That will never be false. To some degree, you can improve your situation. There's always opportunity. It's just what you see. A friend of mine sent me a text yesterday, saying the past and the future, they're just imagination. All you have is now. Everything other than split second is the story you're deciding to tell yourself.

That's it. Think about that. We're operating off what we decide is really. real or imaginary, possible or impossible. We're living in a world that is our own. There's no them or they or crowd, just individual people, all telling themselves some variation of a story. And so taking this back to the point,

caving into that pressure, accommodating to the now so that we feel important, so that our self-worth sees that temporary spike, it neglects the opportunity. It makes us feel like we're stepping forward that we're progressing, but in reality, are we? That voice, that pressure to confront, form to what will impress Richard next door, it will always lead to, it will always be to our

detriment. And it takes truly what I believe is the most pure, important aspect of life and sticks it in the closet so that we can feel like we're on par with everyone else. And I'll never forget starting out. And I bring this up a lot because it was one of those moments where I knew I recognized that a huge shift was happening in my life, went out with some friends from college. Right. And one's working for a senator, one's a Goldman, one's a lawyer, and I'm thinking, well, you know, geez, I just quit my job. But I have this really cool idea for a YouTube channel. And I just, you know, I don't think any girls are going to be swooning over that. And I struggled, right? At the time, it was difficult for me. And I'm, I look back and I'm just thankful every day that at the time I was

able to locate somewhere in my soul, the courage to stick that out, to believe that if I executed on this dream, I could have an impact. Because like I mentioned above, it was painful in the moment. But when you think big picture, bigger things happen, right? I'm doing things now that I never ever would have been able to do if I didn't have that desire to do the unconventional thing. If I stopped at sort of the discomfort or if I stopped when I felt like I was losing this imaginary race to those people around me, I wouldn't have the creative flexibility that I have now. I wouldn't be able to do what I do now. I wouldn't have the people in my life that I have now. You have to earn that every single day. And it makes me wonder how many people stopped when they could have

taken their own path, brought their own unique vision into existence if they didn't retreat when they felt like they were a lone wolf, when it felt like they were losing a race that didn't exist, when they felt like their neighbors were getting ahead, or their classmates or their friends were doing the conventional things, so they had to. They were too scared to step backwards. And I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you that step backwards, that ability to temporarily find yourself, to create yourself, that will mean everything. That will open doors for you that would never have existed. You never would have come across them because you would have been too scared to look for them. You have to make opportunities. Simple metaphor. Gumball machine. Gumball does not come out

if you don't put the quarter in and turn it. It's a price that has to be paid. Except in reality, the price is a lot higher than a quarter because we're conditioned to want to fit in. We're terrified to look like we don't know what we're doing. Every significant thing around you stemmed from someone pushing into that unknown. It came from someone risking everything. It's not easy when your family doesn't know what you're doing, your friends don't know what you're doing or you don't know what you're doing. But if you want to have an impact,

packed, that is the road you have to take. That's the cost you need, the price that you need to pay. It'll be a hard year or two years or three years, but you won't regret it. So hopefully this can be a reminder to you. When I talk about lateral steps, that's the sentiment I'm trying to recreate. I think that's the great thing because it means the people who create, who build something meaningful, they've earned it. And that's what I tell myself every day, earn that dream, earn that change, right? Take that road less travel. What you're doing right now is not insignificant,

simply because it's not immediately bearing free. I think if you listen to this back from the top, you'll notice the constant theme, immediate, now, present. These things are delusioned. As far as results are concerned, the word immediately is a con artist. Action should be immediate, but results. No, they are gradual.

They require. persistence, stick with it. Remind yourself to look up because that's what you're after. It's a pursuit. You're building a foundation. You're creating the things that permanently alter the artistic and political and social landscapes. That's remarkable. It's the road few have the patience to walk. Remind yourself why you're skipping the small stuff, brushing off the little winds and loss. Why building something substantial in silence is more powerful than gloating and screaming. screaming at the top of your lungs after every visible step. Look up.

Reminds yourself that you are going to change the world and you can see it.