Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Why Your Hardest Days Matter More Than You Think

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

This episode is brought to you by Huel.Success isn’t just about discipline, it’s about removing friction. Huel helps me simplify nutrition so I can focus my energy on the things that matter most.Get 15% OFF your first order of $50 or more at huel.com/eddie with code EDDIE. New customers only.🧠 Join the free community: https://www.agns.lifestyle/pages/raise-your-standard📖 Get my Free Ebook While the World Sleeps https://eddiepinero.com/ebook🧢 AGNS Code "YWW20" for 20% off http://www.agns.lifestyleMost people think struggle is a sign they're on the wrong path. It isn't.Your hardest days aren't proof you're failing; they're proof you're in the arena. Every meaningful life comes with setbacks, rejection, disappointment, and moments that make you question everything. The difference isn't who avoids those moments, it's who keeps showing up after them.In this motivational speech, Eddie Pinero explores why pain and glory always walk side by side. Drawing inspiration from a UFC fighter's response after a devastating loss, this video reminds us that failure isn't the opposite of success, it's part of the process.If you've been feeling discouraged, if life hasn't gone according to plan or if you're wondering whether it's worth continuing, this message is for you.Your hardest days may be shaping the strongest version of who you're becoming.📱 Follow Along:Support the Podcast on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/your_world_within/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@your_world_within📝 Comment below with what's been holding you back as of late. Would love to help you 🙏🙏🙏#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

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Glory and pain walk side by side. Last weekend, there was a pretty big UFC fight. Now, when it comes to the UFC, I'll just get this out of the way. I'm as bandwagon as it gets. I know very little, like three or four fighters. But my buddies were super hyped about it. They got me sucked into it. And it was a blast to watch.

I want to share something about the fight, or post-fight, I should say. but you don't need to know anything about the sport at all for this to connect. So hang with me for a second. There was a fighter on the card named Ilya Tuporia, heavily the favorite, and ended up losing. I shocked a lot of people. At least my buddies seemed to be very surprised. And, you know, it's one day later, and I want to read you the statement he shared following the fight after the loss. It starts Justin, which is the name of the fighter who beat him.

Congratulations. You said you'd leave your mark on my face and you did. You took this sight from my right eye in the first round, and by the end of the second from my left, too. No excuses. I had one of the best camps of my life. I came in sharp, prepared, and ready. Last night was your night.

That's the nature of this game. Glory and pain walk side by side. I'll heal, all rest, and I'll return stronger, wiser, and far more dangerous. And trust me, this story between us is far from over. We will have our rematch. Now I'm sharing this, because I believe this should be the ethos we all live by. And I want to dive into it. First and foremost, he was beaten by a supposed, quote unquote, lesser.

opponent. He doesn't shake his fist at the sky and scream. Doesn't make excuses, doesn't pretend he had a hidden injury or wasn't feeling well or was disadvantaged somehow before the fight. No, he says, today you were better than me. You were the better man. And every day we show up and step into the arena, we all know, right, there's a chance that our adversaries will get the best of us. This possibility is what scares a large amount of people into hiding into a life lived not on the stage or on the court or in the octagon, but in the stands, clapping, cheering, booing, instead of stepping in. Ilya went to war knowing what was at stake.

His opponent got the better of him, and instead of deflecting or the inverse, feeling down on himself and his own abilities, He simply acknowledged that every day cannot be your day and vowed to show up again, better prepared, better equipped, ready to redeem himself. He says, and this is everything, quote, that's the nature of this game, glory and pain walk side by side. In the Octagon, it's very easy to understand this.

It's literal, physical, combat. The winner and the loser endure blows to the head in the body, physical duress, exhaustion. Not to mention the training and discipline leading up to the fight. It's very easy to turn on the TV and visualize that, to connect those dots. The game of life, however, while the exact same is slightly more subtle. See, when things happen to us in life, it's not our first instinct to close our eyes, breathe, and say, hey, sometimes life throws haymakers. It's not personal.

It's part of the game. No, we get worked up. We deem it unfair. Project out. It's kind of poking fun at myself. Last week I got a ticket from California for a car that apparently went through a toll with a similar license plate

and just kind of set me over the edge, right? It was like a straw that broke the camel's bow. back thing. Long day. But, I mean, it's such a small thing. I can fix that with a phone call. It's nothing. Imagine the bigger things that collapse in front of us or, you know, diverged from our expectations. The loss, the heartbreak, the letdowns, the pain. Sometimes a day that should be easy gets the best of us, right? And we have to decide, you know, what it means and how we're going to process it. We're in the octagon of life trying to win the day, preparing the best we can, showing up, and sometimes it's just not our day. And I'm going to etch that quote into my brain.

I encourage you to do the same. That is the nature of the game. Glory and pain walk side by side. If you want the glory, the growth, the joy, the peak moments, there will be pain. There will be suffering necessarily. That's the contract that you sign. We go to the gym to break our muscles down so that they can heal and grow back stronger. We run to push our bodies, tax our lung capacity so that we can become slightly more efficient next time. We put out first drafts and rough iterations with our businesses and social media accounts and careers so that we can find the imperfections and work on them and improve. and grow.

So many of us get it wrong, backwards even. Pain is not the thing we avoid. Pain is the price to get into the show. Pain is what a life well-lived costs. Pain is the seed

that ultimately becomes glory. Some days will be victorious. They will be fully and entirely yours. Celebrate them. Work so that the space between them becomes less and less. But on the days that the adversary wins, the villain gets away, or the carefully thought out plan dissipates like sand through your fingers.

Let's commit to a path of not taking it personally or projecting out, but instead to tipping your cap and saying, you may have gotten me today. But you just wait. Just wait for my return because I won't be the same. In fact, this is the last time you'll witness this version of me. Pain and glory walk side by side. And I will forever dance with the former

in order to create a life worthy of the latter. What if the real enemy isn't who or what you think it is? What if it's not the things that are quote unquote? What if it's not misfortune or disaster? Obstacles, you know, getting in the way of what you think you want most? What if it's none of that? What if the real enemy is good? What?

You might be thinking, good? Well, let's dive into the context. because in a nuanced world where so much lives in the gray space, the details mean a lot. See, I'm a reflective guy. I enjoy thinking about these things, and I think that a happy life, not even a quote-unquote successful one.

I'm not talking about finances or followers or sales or any of that stuff. I'm talking about overall contentment, feeling good. When I look back on my life, contentment was more often derailed by good than anything else. See, those blatantly unaligned things, the sharp pain, the oh hell knows, they're easy to avoid. They shine so bright that we can't help but turn away. The good things, though, they are the wolves in sheep's clothing. They hide.

It's hard to say no to good things. after all, they're not pain-inducing. No, certainly not. At least in the moment, they are, however, a decision, a decision to take the good train instead of waiting for the great, the excellent,

the incredible trains to arrive at the station. Good is saying, yeah, I don't see anything terribly wrong with this. And from a distance, it checks out. And see, with that philosophy, what you're left with under these circumstances is a good life. Time spent doing good things, surrounded by good people, making good progress.

And, hey, maybe good is enough for you. I'm not here to tell you what happiness should look like in your world. But I am here to say that life will give you what you ask of it. And if peak living is on the agenda, good simply cannot be. At least not consistently, at least not at scale. I'm asking that you imagine a world where you spend your time doing things that you deem to be great that tap into your heart, your soul, your curiosity. They don't merely check a box.

Their value isn't the no-news-is-good-news mantra. Their value is that they create a pathway to your soul and invite you to step into a beautiful, currently un-evolved version of yourself. What if you surrounded yourself with great people? Not people who are nice enough. Not people whose value is a mere lack of confrontation or constant tension. Now that should be a baseline. What if you surrounded yourself with people who lifted you up?

Who made you better? Who reminded you of life's finitude? Your short window to make an impact in your ability right now to do just that. Imagine what that would feel like. And if merely hearing these things seems preposterous and far-fetched, that means this message has safely arrived to your doorstep in the land of good you currently occupy. I've heard people say for years give up good and go for the great.

I would hear that, I'd say, absolutely, I'd clap like a baby seal, nod my head like a golden retriever watching TV, then I'd step out into the real world and see how very hard that is to do. Why? Because good is comfortable. And most importantly, good is not bad. The brain can be very easily tricked into thinking that's enough. How terrifying the prospect of giving up no news

in exchange for bad news. Shivers run down my spine. But, and you knew this, question was coming, will you give up no news for great news? What if there was a little boat tied to your harbor? And that boat symbolized avoiding failure, mitigating risk. It's living not for greatness, but to avoid mistakes. I think there are a few things that would be more freeing than walking up to that little boat, cutting the bowline and letting it float away into the distance.

Why? Because the life of chasing down opportunity, of living for the upside, well, it ignites the flame in you that's been waiting to burn, those parts of you, the ones you've been dying to explore, and some you're probably not even aware of yet, they are ready to be set ablaze. Now, is this something always front,

center on my mind, is it something I always remember? Of course not. Which is what makes this point all the more important. I speak on this because every time I'm brought back to that point, my life is better. I need the reminder, the thought experiment. The blatant misalignment in my life is easy for me to spot. But the good? The good is sneaky. In fact, if it weren't for a friend of mine, a great friend of mine, recently reminding me that it's hard to step away from the good. But good is not what my soul wants. It probably would have taken me longer to look around.

That good boat would still be bobbing on the water's surface in the harbor that is my mind. And I'm not naive. I understand the comfort is good, the lack of noise, the ease at first glance, Sure, it works. But I've come too far to find comfort in the eye of the storm. I owe it to myself to fight through its walls, its winds, its turbulence,

and find the skies that bring me contentment outside the storm's center. And I'm guessing that if you're listening, we're not all that different. And so if you're asking what's next, what must change, what must go, I hope you'll find the courage to free yourself of not only that which is detrimental, but that which is good. I hope you'll find it within you to make space for the greatness in you that will light up your world. One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is success comes from perfect days. It doesn't. It comes on that average Tuesday when you're busy and tired and unmotivated, but still find a way to move forward.

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Impossible is just a compounding of smaller possibles. Impossible is a refusal to say no. Impossible is moving forward through those checkpoints in life. Where most people look around and simply say, I don't want to pay the metaphorical price. I don't want to give what's required here. I really enjoy history. Lately, I've been revisiting a lot of various battles

from recent all the way to way back, from Alexander the Great's conquest of Tyre to George Washington and the American colonists against the British, even the famous Battle of Thermopylae with the 300 Spartans that we all know about. You know, all of these have in their own unique way defied the odds. And what strikes me is, you know, if you look at any of these scenarios on paper,

they all appear to be suicide missions. It's crazy. You know, the 300 at Thermopyla, obviously being close to that, and I'll touch on that in a second, but all very special in their own unique way. All took an apparent impossible task and did something pretty remarkable with it. See, when you immerse yourself into something, you've been something seemingly impossible, without the prospect of turning around in your head, there's a shift in your mind. You know you have to find a way forward because forward is the only way, and so you do.

You look at the landscape differently. You look at the resources accessible to you differently. Funny enough, you know, there always seems to be something to solve the problem, some dot that can be connected, some loophole, some advantage, some tactic that can move you, maybe not directly to the finish line, but just far enough to adapt and survive. Some path to triumph that, you know, when looked at as a whole, gets lost amidst the daunting nature of the task.

It's like leaping, mountain is impossible. But climbing one rock at a time is very doable. And it's that, right, again and again and again that gives you just enough life to cross the abyss. So back to those examples, right? You take Alexander the Great. It was the courage and ingenuity to literally construct a causeway from land out into the water to the tiny island city state of Tyre, simultaneously using his navy to cut off supply lines and breaching the wall that surrounded the city. On paper, that's an impossible, just unthinkable feat. For Washington, it was surviving winter, a superior army.

It was finding a way to manufacture some key battles that, you know, were enough to convince the French to come in and support the cause. One day at a time. Again, the greatest military force on earth at the time. A seemingly impossible, insurmountable obstacle. At Thermopylae was using the landscape and superior skill to their advantage, holding their ground and making a substantial dent in the Persian army, again, one of the most powerful armies on Earth at the time,

all the way until it was the last of the 300 men, completely turning the numbers game upside down. Impossible is looking at the size and scope of a task, not the little actions required to bring it to life. And that's generally a rule. When you operate under the premise or the notion that there is a solution, you find one. And I can give you the example of YouTube, as I usually do, because it's obviously near and dear to my heart and something that's changed my life. A platform of this size and scale 10 years ago is unthinkable, impossible, laughable.

My brain didn't even go there. It's impossible for someone who left their day job running out of money in a small apartment in Boston to create that, right? But when the door is not cracked, when it's shut firmly behind you, there's no escape plan, when it's, I am going forward, and that is the only direction I'm going, everything around you becomes an instrument in the symphony that will be your growth. you find a way it's like why do people talk about rock bottom being what turned them around because in that moment

they had to start using what was around them to win there was no off ramp they had to see the utility in what existed around them the hours I used to waste became more precious

every dollar how can I stretch it into something that matters. Boston is a major city. I started asking, who can I connect with and learn from? Even Microsoft Word went from being something I, you know, had to reluctantly open once and a while for an office job to this portal where I could share my thoughts with the world. We don't see life as it is. We see life as we are.

And when you're only focused on one goal, you know, you become. this vehicle through which magic happens. When I was a kid, like way back, right, 90s computers first became sort of household items. I used to play this Star Wars game. It's just a demo. And I love this metaphor because I, you know, was on level one, wandering around, frustrated, trying to find this door that would bring me to level two, and I could not find it.

And I looked and I looked and I looked and I would spend hours and hours. And, you know, I didn't know about cheat codes or how to research any of that stuff. It's just exploring. And this is anticlimactic, but eventually there was a day where I found it, this camouflage door in the back.

And I went through it, and it brought me to level two. And the reason I'm telling you this, because I believe that door exists for all endeavors. It's always there. Sometimes buried underneath layers of trial and error, sometimes behind miles and miles of road, sometimes hidden in plain sight. And so we need to remember,

Impossible does not mean cannot be done. Impossible just asks, how long are you willing to look? How long are you willing to scratch, claw, and fight for that result you're looking for. The pursuit does not end until you do. Which not only completely debunks impossible, it shows you just how powerful you are.

All things are possible. If, if you are willing to bring them to life. There's a row of sunflowers in my backyard. Right outside my parents' wins. My mother planted them because they were her favorite flower, and we saw them all the time. In a little house off Lemon Avenue in Southern California, with a basketball hoop in the front and fruit trees in the back. Granted, time has a way of altering our memories, and I'm sure to some extent my reminiscing has been dramatized. But I can't help when I look back at that period of time

to feel anything but good. Like pure happiness, simplicity. Coming back from the pool, laying out in the sun with my brother and sister, or, you know, creating forts out of lawn chairs while we launched peaches, plums, and lemons at each other like complete idiots. You know, having life-altering conversations.

critical discussions. Like who's the most important character in Star Wars? And, you know, that scene in Titanic. The side door of the garage I used to sneak in the slim, shady LP. I got caught. I don't know what it was. But all of that was right. And when I think of that row of sunflowers,

slowly swaying in the breeze beneath the California sun, my mind often wonders if that's gone forever. I don't want to entertain the thought, but I can't help but ask. My pragmatic brain doesn't even know what it is. Somehow my soul does, though. I probably post too frequently for most folks to listen to every episode. But if you've been following along,

you've heard me refer to, you know, the last few months as certainly challenging, mentally and physically. And this is not, you know, the world's smallest violin, poor me type moment. Everything's fine now and will be. But hey, you know, the thing about talking about where I am is that you'll get the good, the bad, and the ugly, right? So I'm going to see if I can sum up this background context in about 45 seconds here.

recently found myself doing too many unimportant things swaying from the writing, speaking, and video creation that I love so much I swung the pendulum all the way to the other end and walked away from a lot of projects. Tore down my studio, spent about a month building a new one with various sets, colors, designs, just got it functional about a week ago. Sat down, rolled up my sleeves, looked around, and felt deeply like I had absolutely nothing to say.

Just tired. Tired and a little lost. And I think it came to a head the other day. I cleared my schedule for two days to sit, to think, and to write. Which is a big deal for me now, right? Even with everything I cut away, I have clients and, you know, a production team to manage, a business to run, videos to make,

working with sponsors, all these things, right? but I knew I had to do it. And so I did, and two days later, I kid you not, I had nothing worthwhile written down. Some anecdotes, right? The kind of stuff you get when you search for inspirational quote on Google, but nothing that I felt moved the needle or was, you know, game-changing in any way.

And that's when things felt the heaviest they felt in a long time. It's like, okay, dude, you just took an axe to your entire life to go all in on these videos, you better execute. Or, well, or what? A voice asks me. You know what the difference is between my brain and the brain of a golden retriever sitting on the couch, looking out the window, thinking about nothing but food and that squirrel that he so desperately wants to chase?

The difference is, I think, in stories. And so do you. And that is a beautiful thing so long as you're telling the right ones. What a power that is. Life is a culmination of the stories you're telling. And when I've said this is therapy for me in the past, to sit here and share these thoughts, I'm not kidding. I start these videos with a question and sometimes find my answer before I'm even halfway through.

And the story I've been telling myself for the past few months is that, you know, life is hard. Life is chaos. So be better. Find a way to be better. Sometimes that is the cold heart truth. Sometimes it's what I need. But sometimes, that's not the answer. Sometimes I need to remember to plant sunflowers again.

Sometimes I need to remember that contentment and momentum and fulfillment is an outstretched hand away. You know, momentum doesn't have to be some crazy artistic breakthrough. Sometimes momentum can just be recapturing that feeling of laughing in your backyard on a beautiful day in Southern California. And maybe you've been there. Maybe you've felt lost or overwhelmed or stuck.

Maybe you've been in the minutia so deep, that you've forgotten what life is all about. Well, maybe this can be your reminder that you're not as far off as you think. That you just need to reach out to stretch into the darkness and create that little spark that will remind you how good things really are.

Hopefully I'll be old someday. You know, looking back on life, and I bet I'm... I won't remember the struggles or difficult times faced in this studio. But I will remember the sunflowers. I'll remember the times I closed my eyes and breathed life in. So whatever season of life you're navigating, don't forget, nothing is gone.

No beauty has been dissolved. It just waits for us to recreate it.