Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Will you do what it takes? Powerful Motivational Speech

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra." – Jimmy Johnson Sometimes, the gap between where you are and where you want to be is bridged by a little bit of crazy. In this episode, I dive into a story about pushing limits, embracing challenges, and how a little extra effort can lead to extraordinary outcomes. We'll explore the power of going the extra mile, knowing when to step up or step back, and what it takes to elevate your life to the next level. Tune in to discover how to turn bold moves into lasting success. Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

Sometimes the difference between what you have now and what you want most is just a little bit of crazy. And so let me explain. I was having an awesome conversation with a friend of mine named Nico. And he was kind of reminiscing a little bit. So he lives here in Arizona. And before, you know, he was running his businesses and doing this sort of content creation and all that stuff, he was in a transition phase driving Uber. And he said there was a situation where the company threw out,

I believe it was like a 24-hour window. And I'm going to butcher this. I don't remember the exact metric. But let's just say it was whoever drove the most in that 24-hour window won a cash prize. and obviously that enticed him, right? So the clock starts and he begins. And he's driving people around, let's say day,

turns to evening, turns to night, turns to late night, and Nico makes a decision. He says, you know what? I think I'm going to go through the night. I don't want to, but I think I could win. this and just like that he does go through the night and the morning all the next day completes a full 24-hour stretch and this is gonna be no shocker he wins he

wins the cash prize and you know he'll make a joke now that probably wasn't the safest or you know whatever the reality is he did it and he won and in In that simplicity, to me, lies a simple truth, a power, a strength. It's the reminder that when you give a little more, you get a little more. Sometimes you have to sprinkle in crazy to normalcy in the mundane to get a result that you truly want. And it's very easy to forget this, right? at least for me, when he told me this story, I thought, like, one, of course, you won the prize.

And two, where in my life should I be metaphorically driving through the night? And I asked that question because life is seasonal, right? It's more of a wave than it is a straight line. You know, I can think back to times in my life where it was go, go, go, right? You attack. If you listen to a speech from 2014 that I did, it's very focused on mitigating excuses, digging deeper, finding a way, figuring it out, emitting, you know, moving beyond any type of victim mentality. It's just trudging through mud.

And there's a time and a space for that. You know, I think it's incredibly important. And then there are times where I'm, you know, in a season where I'm writing about, hey, look around you. enjoy it, appreciate it. And I think a life of contentment requires both. But depending on what you're doing, the pendulum is going to be one way or the other. And hearing that inspired me because I'm like,

you know, I'm in a season where I want to press the pedal to the floor a little bit here. So where? Where can I do that? And I started thinking, you know, about a particular example. And by the way, those of you who listen more than other, to this podcast or this YouTube channel, which fun fact,

about 75 to 80% of the viewers on every video are new. They have no idea who I am. They've never been here before, never heard my voice. So often I speak as though I'm talking to, you know, a moving parade and not a standing audience. So if you've heard this example before, hopefully the difference in context will add some value. But, you know, we're talking about Nico's metaphorical writing,

through the night, being a little bit crazy, finding your edge or your advantage. You know, a lightball moment for me was in college. As a rower, D1 sport, I'd never done it before, and we were doing a 2K test. It was one of my first 2K tests. And the rowing machine is a tough machine. I mean, it beats you up, like a lot of cardio machines, but this is, has a special place in my heart. I'll put it that way. And I just remember being on the machine and suffering through it. And just feeling all types of sorry for myself. It's like, poor me. You know, I have, I have buddies in the dorm, you know, drinking beers, having fun, and I'm up here, you know. It's like, I thought the suffering in itself was the accomplishment. Like, look at how proud I should be of this. And I'll

never forget my coach walking by and simply being like, yeah, but look at the screen. You're not going fast enough. That's not good enough. Figure it out. And so I'd pull harder for a little bit and, you know, being new to the sport, no stamina, right? It would just sort of drop back down to what I was doing and he'd come back and he'd be like, look, you need to figure this out because you're hurting. You're suffering.

I get it. The rowers at Georgetown are suffering. right the rowers you're going to race at Wisconsin and Harvard and Penn and all these schools that are way bigger and theoretically way better recruit internationally like they're hurting too

but they're going faster so showing up and hurting is not enough being the guy who's not down at the dorm drinking is not enough you need to find your edge you need to find your crazy You need to sprinkle in something that'll set three boats, essentially, full of walk-ons apart from these people and other schools that have been rowing all their lives.

Right. And that was the moment where I'm like, I get it. Showing up is not enough. You need to be different. You have to find a way to be better and set yourself apart. And I took that with me into life. I always talk about college. You know, people ask me a lot.

Do you value college for some people, right? For me, it was valuable. I learned to write well, but also because of crew, because of that mindset. And so fast forward 14 years, right? From that day, I am speaking of my friend Evan Carmichael's mastermind, he asked me to talk a little bit about YouTube. And so I go in, the presentation prepared on titles and thumbnails

and the first one minute of the video and how important it is. And what I learned is, no one cares. No one cares. They wanted to know how the hell I kept doing what I was doing from year one to seven

without seeing substantial validation, without making any type of meaningful money, without a huge, wide-ranging audience. What kept me, going. And I'd never thought about it like that until, you know, that experience. And I look back now and I'm like, yeah, years one through seven, the door was shut. Like for me, it was like, I'm either going to help millions of people doing this, make a substantial amount of money, create an impactful brand, or I'm going to be poor doing this and fail doing this, but I'm going to do this, period.

And I look back now, I'm like, that is my edge. That is my driving through the night. That is my NICO advantage. It's my find a way to row faster, to be better mindset. Because I don't think many people would do that. In fact, I know most wouldn't. And it took seven years to get that sort of exponential growth curve. And so I say all of this to ask,

Q. One, what season of life are you in? Where are you right now? Are you thinking about what matters and where you want to press the pedal? Are there levers you want to pull? And two, when it comes to those things, where can you be just a little bit crazy? Where can you find an edge? Where can you be outside the box? Where can you do something different for you in your life, right, a variation from how you've always done it, and also a variation from how your competition would do it, or outside of quote unquote normalcy in the real world. You know, sometimes life is complex, sometimes it's nuanced, and sometimes it's insanely simple.

Those races you're running, those things that are meaningful to you, when you give more, and not always just effort, effort, effort, but intelligent effort, you get more. And I think it begs the question, what's important and how can I be tenacious there? How can I squeeze more out of it? I'm incredibly grateful for that conversation because it just, it made me think. I have a really cool opportunity on this YouTube channel and podcast to be part of what I think is the best community in the world. The messages I get from you guys is insane. It's incredible and it's just a heartwarming thing. It's a satisfying thing. And perhaps that needs to be doubled down on my end, right? Maybe there's room for more, for more long form, for more creativity. Maybe without realizing it,

things have gotten a little routine because that happens, that's life. And so you need these moments to step back and go, okay, well, how can I regroup and re-approach? How can I be better? A little crazy. So I hope you got something from this episode. And I want to remind you to find your crazy.

I'm going to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's podcast episode, Pro Compression. coined the best compression socks you'll ever wear, they're a big part of my running, my lifting, as well as my recovery. For those unfamiliar with compression socks and the value that they bring to your fitness journey, you know, they're known for a few things. One, alleviating swelling and soreness after a workout, boosting blood flow, energy, and also enhancing performance and recovery. So being as into fitness as I am, become a big part of my body.

routine, and I'm happy to pass that along to you guys. They're currently offering 40% off their entire website if you use the code E.P.40. The website is pro-compression.com. And again, that's code EP40. I was in the car recently with my sister, Ali, her girlfriend Alex, and her girlfriend's dad, Jeremy. We were on our way to dinner in Naples, Florida, simultaneously driving and kind of looking through different places to eat. And no one really knew the area well, right? So we get to the point where we're pretty sure we have a spot we want to go picked out. When Alex suddenly looks up her phone and says to her dad,

you know, looks like the place we're going tonight is a little fancy. And so for context, right, they're both from London. Their accents make this one million times better. And he hears her, he looks back over at her and says, well, we just. deserve fancy, don't we, darling? And I'm like, oh my God, you guys are a real-life movie and don't even know it. I thought it was just such a beautiful thing. Moments like that are everything.

Reminders to immerse ourselves in the moment, in what matters with the people that matter. This, of course, wasn't about the restaurant, but how evident it was that he was grateful to be there. I remember seeing a quote that said, if you can't find joy in a cup of coffee, you certainly won't find it in a yacht. So how's that for perspective? You know, it's the little things that hold the value, the ones that become the big things.

And while our eyes are fixated on mountaintops, life is about the climb. Or as it's put in another anecdote, we live not for the destination, but for the journey. And see, this is a very timely topic for me. I woke up today, having hit the milestone, 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, which has honestly been a goal of mine since I started doing this in 2014. I woke up so excited, so happy, so grateful for every single view, for every person that

stumbled upon my message and saw somewhere in my journey a little piece of their own. But as today's gone on, it's been interesting. I found myself more and more unsure how I feel. Because on one hand, it is representative of that exact thing. The journey, the ride. I feel like the luckiest human alive with friends and family that have truly carried me through the valleys of life. And if anything, milestones like these honor them and the light they bring to the world.

But on the other hand, a part of me couldn't help thinking, oh, okay, I guess one million is next. And trust me, I wish that wasn't true, but it is. I remember reading in the Almanac of Naval Ravakant, a passage where he said, essentially that the excitement of acquisition isn't in the thing we're acquiring, it's in the anticipation of it, the buildup. I believe you used the example of a Ferrari, implying that Waiting for it was the fun.

That's the rush. Getting it is just kind of, okay, now I have a Ferrari. And that's what makes these benchmarks we create so interesting. They're everything and nothing simultaneously. Reminders that finish lines aren't of value for their own sake. They're valuable because they remind you of the race you ran, the highs you cherished, and the lows you fought through. Life ebbs and it flows, and I'm continuously fascinated by its duality.

By the overlap we need to live in, how two things can be true at once and so often are. I can sit here today and tell you, I think in a lot of ways, societally we've gotten a little soft, too soft, that we often fail to understand that the road to what we want runs through the very landscape that will push us. to be more than we've ever been. That we have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Or that the beauty of being human is that we can make sacrifices now for that which we desire in the future. All this, as far as I'm concerned, is absolutely unequivocally true.

But there's also the existential question. Yeah, but for what? If you're not living, cherishing the little things, finding the miraculous in something as small as a cup of coffee, then when, when, darling, will you let yourself deserve fancy?

Now, I'm not going to claim I have all the answers. I do not. But if my time on this planet is a test case, well, here's what had shown me when life is all about the destination, the 500K milestones, the money, the growth, the status, the world becomes hollow,

and man does it hollow out fast? Things mean less. And while sure, they're often a valuable direction to point the compass, they are not life. And on the contrary, when it's all play in no direction, all wandering and no learning, all chaos and no building, that subsequent meaninglessness emerges again. It's in balancing the do.

Life is incredible, but only to those who make a point to see it as so. And God, is that easy not to do? It blows my mind how easy it is to miss the things that are most important. That's what this day has taught me. The finish lines and 500,000 milestones, though few and far between, are a celebration. But they do not point to themselves. They point to the little things. They point to the people.

They point to the times you were walking through hell and kept walking. They point to the sunrises, sunsets, and times you sat back and thought, wow, am I lucky? After all, there's a reason the view from the top points right back down to the world below. Shines a spotlight on the very ascent you just indeed. as if highlighting what really matters, what life is really about. And so today, by default, a new ship has left the port towards a new horizon. Compass aimed at, let's say, one million. Why not?

But it's essential to remember that that is the North Star that guides the journey. It is not everything. I challenge you to point your compass accordingly to whatever it is in your world that matters, that excites you, that lifts you up. And when you arrive, let it be not the goal in and of itself, but a celebration of the joy. The happiness contained along the way, the fact that you did look around and smile, did cherish those sunsets, sips of coffee, that you treated yourself to fancy,

and that you paused every now and then, to say to yourself, thank you. 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, But when your mind wants to wander and your emotions 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. 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, right, but life is messy. The easy days 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'd plan 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. I remember about halfway through looking at my time and realizing, wow, like not only 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? from the task at hand. Can you find focus when you're surrounded by noise? Can 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 back, 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. Les Brown has said, you don't get what you want in life. You get who you are. If you put the man together, the world responds. the world responds. You build yourself up, evolve, life around you will transform. Someone once asked me on a podcast episode about imposter syndrome,

why I think it's actually a very positive thing. My thinking is, imposter syndrome is a sign that you're in an arena somewhat foreign to you. You're trying something new, playing the student. Anytime you do that, of course you're going to feel out of place. You have to. You don't grow without putting yourself in an environment in which growth is possible. We have to shake up the old in order to create the new, and it's that process, to Les Brown's point, that makes us who we are.

It creates our reality. Jim Rohn has said something similar in the world. that it's not what we have, it's what we become. Having something is one thing, sure. But building yourself up to be someone who can repeatedly go out and get that thing over and over and over again, well, that's something different altogether. Are you willing to be that vulnerable to start on the ground floor and work your way up? Because here's the deal.

There have been many times where I knew I had to be more than I've ever been in order to obtain something I've never had. And if I aim to live life to the fullest, and I do, realizations like this will only continue. Everyone knows it's painful when there's a delta that exists between what you want and what you're currently capable of having or acquiring. That's a tough realization. And what epiphanies like that tend to do is leave you with a few options, right? You can run away or get better. You can surrender and find something lesser or become worthy of that thing you want. Talk about a difficult conversation with yourself.

Acknowledging that you're currently not where you need to be. The ego does not like that. It's uncomfortable. It's why so many people raise the white flag and run. It can be much easier to shake your fist at the world around you than it is to delve into the one within you. Joseph Campbell has said the hero's journey is inside you, throw off the veils and open the mystery of yourself.

Close your eyes and imagine a world where you aren't scared to go after what you want. To grow along with your dreams, your goals, aspirations, where you walk. directly into that space your curiosity is begging you to explore, where you condition yourself to depersonalize the criticism and failure and instead focus on the becoming. That's not some crazy proposition. You're not being asked to go perform some miracle. It's simply about giving yourself permission to evolve into what you can become, allowing water to nourish the seed that is your soul.

When you look around you and feel the very human thought that is, I wish something about this was different, I challenge you to be courageous enough to point in and ask, how can I make it so? How can I level up and become the type of person that has X, that gives Y, that experiences Z? you are capable of filling that gap. Again, not a negotiation with the world, but an agreement with yourself. To accept more discomfort in your life in exchange for the upside that comes with it. There's something to the saying, don't wish it were different, wish you were better.

Because again, it places power and control in your hands to evolve and make it reality. It's crazy to me. how easy it is and because of that how many people complain about something their entire lives without owning the change becoming the person who lives differently sees differently feels differently it's all there you get in life who you are and how incredible that who you are never ends it's limitless if you're willing to push To grow and change, it is your ticket to the ride of a lifetime. One of my favorite anecdotes or mantras is work hard in silence. Let success be your noise.

That idea in my mind is perfection. Let your growth, your evolution, and yes, ultimately your accolades do this speaking for you. This always hit home for me for two reasons. because things of value come with a hefty price tag. We know this. Excellence requires sacrifice. It is in many ways both a daunting and worthwhile pursuit. And two, well, because we often conflate flailing around with progress.

In fact, some of my favorite books, whether it be Deep Work by Cal Newport, Relentless by Tim Grover, The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, Part of what captivates me with these is the emphasis on what we are willing to do in silence, behind the scenes. That's where true meaning and value materializes. It's also where it's most difficult to commit and continue forward because in silence, there is no audience clapping for you. There is no validation. When you're building and reading and improving, when you're at the gym or on those calls,

establishing that foundation, putting in the hours, it's easy to look around and have doubts. And our brains go, I did the work, where's the reward? I sacrifice, so where's the payout? It's not intuitive to understand that, hey, it's not visible yet. one of my favorite metaphors, the lily pad pond, in which there is a pond with lily pads doubling in size every day, and on day 30, the pond is completely covered with them.

So what day was the pond half covered? And if we're thinking quickly, we might be inclined to say, well, half of 30 is 15, so it was half covered on day 15. But that's wrong, because if they're doubling every day, that pond wasn't half covered until day 29, and only a quarter covered on day 28. Meaning every day before then the change was so small that perhaps it wasn't even visible to the naked eye. So small that to onlookers, the prospect of it one day being covered might have seemed far-fetched. But what was at work was the necessary change to set the stage?

To start what would ultimately become the exponential growth that is noticeable, impactful. Now, of course, lilypads are not human, but little thought experiment. Let's say they had been. I'd like to believe that talking about their growth, their plans, right, them screaming about how great they are and what they will someday be would not have helped them grow faster. In fact, it might have potentially even distracted the necessary evolution. The growth was not them versus the world, it was them versus them. And that's the idea, right?

It's okay to work on you, to make a deal, sign a contract with yourself that you are doing something now that only you understand. That won't be visible until a later date. Let success be your noise. Because there's often zero correlation between the loudest person and the one making the greatest impact. Let success be your noise because you can't fake competency. Let success be your noise because leaders don't need to proclaim they lead and winners don't need to prove they've won and virtuous people don't advertise their virtue. It's in the doing. That's where we pay the

price, the steep price. I've always said the last 10 years for me, the hardest part wasn't failing. It was not when things didn't go as planned. The hardest part was simply not knowing. It was the whisper that, hey, all this could be for not. That I'm wasting my time, that the whole idea is a car without wheels, and that's what hurt. But if I could go back in time, talk to my younger self, I would say, you know, all this, all of it, the ups, downs, highs, lows, it's making you who you need to be. And if something, doesn't work or go as you planned it originally, relax. You learn, you adjust, and you move forward. That's how the doubling of lily pads, right, using the same metaphor, occurs. You're

learning, you're growing, and that's a you thing. I talked a few weeks ago now about the difference between a fee and a fine, as discussed in the psychology of money by Morgan Howesel. The weight of not knowing it isn't a fine, it's not a penalty, it's the fee, it's the cost to get into the show, the ticket to something greater. But you have to walk through that door. Again, it's a decision, it's personal, it's a commitment, it's nothing that screaming and seeking attention brings. You have to trust yourself, believe in yourself, right? Your effort is doubling in size. It's compounding exponentially, and you don't need to connect. convince others, you need to say consistent and build yourself up until the world has to notice.

Trust the mission you're on. As long as you're, one, moving forward, and two, learning and adjusting, you are destined for something greater. By committing, you have stacked the deck. By believing in yourself, you have rigged the game. It's about hearing and believing that voice that says, there's more in store for those who take it. And you are capable of that. That's the decision that will ultimately ring so loud

it will echo through time. This has been on my mind recently. The things happening around us that go unnoticed. The work that's unseen. Let me explain. There's an idea that a fish has no idea it's in one. water as the water is all it's ever known. And I like to draw parallels to this frequently because I think it's representative of the human

condition in so many ways. It has to be. We necessarily block out an infinite number of things in order to focus on what we've decided matters most. In other words, our eyes are spotlights. And the beauty is that this allows us us to say yes to that which will push us in a given direction, disregarding everything else. The challenge is that sometimes what's disregarded has value. We can't see the progress we're making as we're building because to build we have to be focused on the very next brick on what's in front of us. Step by step, day by day we see what's next next.

But what often lives outside that field of vision is what we're becoming. The foundation we're building. That's why the journey can feel frustrating and feel helpless. A lot of the real value kind of floats overhead unnoticed. Now I have infinite examples here. I'll give you one of my favorites. Almost a decade ago, I wanted to make a little acoustic. album, singer-songwriter stuff, and I called it Painting the Mississippi, which, if you're ever

going to come up with a band name, make it something people can spell, just a side note. Okay, but I was locked in. My heart at the time pulled me in this direction, and I thought of nothing but writing songs. Recording, learning pro tools, how to edit and mix music. I thought about promotion, designing album covers, making videos. I'd never done anything like that in my life before. It was all new. And because of that, I'm sure it's no surprise that it was bad. Reality was about to confirm this.

I didn't know it yet, but it was coming, right? And I sent it everywhere, all over Boston. It got no traction. I remember just being baffled. My mind went to all those little steps. All the time, all the commitment. I would just sit there thinking, you know, What about all that effort?

My eyes were focused entirely like a spotlight on making this happen for months and months and months. And now, what do I have to show for? Nothing. Maybe even worse than nothing. Embarrassment. A bruised ego. Fear of what comes next. If I were a fish, that process was the stream I'd been living in.

Not only that, my understanding of life was effort. in validation having a one-to-one relationship. Long-term value was something I understood less than Mandarin. It just wasn't something I thought about. But here's what lived outside my field of vision, all that I was becoming. And listen, I know some of these things are said so often that they feel cliche. I get that, right, the classic, well, son, at least you learned. But this, quote unquote, loss was truly the foundation I would build the next decade on.

Here's what younger me learned. Sometimes you work and you work and you work and you work and the results are not there. See, reality is a free market. It'll let you know if you're adding value and if you're not. And what I saw is that sometimes you swing and miss and it's not personal. In fact, learning to depersonalize these outcomes is what separates the true winners and losers in life

because winning requires taking that data and info and going back to the drawing board. Losing is derived from looking at that result and saying, oh, I must suck then. I must not have what it takes. and it was the hardening that I needed. Impossible to see that in real time, right? That was life outside the stream I was swimming in.

But oh, how grateful I am for it. To ultimately learn that life does not give charity, no one deserves anything. You either evolve until you can get what's yours or you miss out on all of it. And see, what I'd love you to do, as you march forth into your next unknown, is understand that so long as you are humble enough to adapt and learn and grow,

there is value happening in real time. And I only remind you because it's very likely that right now in this moment, you can't see it. You can't see how what you're going through now will make you stronger. how the setbacks will ultimately make all the difference. You can't see how strong you are because all you're looking at is what's next and you have to. You're not thinking about what you've conquered or how far you've come. No, that somehow eludes us.

So don't let the disappointment of the no results now intimidate you. This is the good stuff, the meaningful stuff. If you're willing to learn as you go, I promise you, even when life seems to be at its darkest, you are ascending a staircase that will bring you where you need to be. As the saying goes, sometimes the quote unquote wrong choices bring us to the right places. Trust in the value you cannot yet see as you make your way through life. Trust that the dots will connect, that this will all make sense. You simply cannot be effective without some trust in the process.

The reason life is not a standardized test with true and false questions because it's figured out as we go. So don't deprive yourself of that beauty when the reward is delayed because my friend, the magic, is now. It's in the will to move forward and the courage to keep your head up. It's in what all this becomes. So believe in you. Trust in yourself.

Have the patience to walk that path and see it all materialize.