Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - WIN IN SILENCE | Powerful Motivational Speeches | Listen When You Wake Up

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

"It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones who win in the lifelong race." - Robert W. Service

When I was younger, I want to say maybe third grade, I remember reading this poem by Shell Silverstein called Where the Sidewalk Ends. This place where the cement stops and the grass begins. An inflection point of sorts. And I obviously don't remember what we talked about back then, but I certainly remember the book. And a few weeks ago, I happened to be at the airport. I was walking through, and I saw a bookstore,

and a shell Silverstein book propped up in the front. And I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had that title stuck in my head, right, playing on loop where the sidewalk ends. Some things just hit you, like that title sounds perfect to me, this larger than life, transitionary place. It feels like some sort of graduation. But graduation from what, to what? That's the question.

Is it simply checking off the current box before moving on to the next one? Is it the end of a paved, calculated path? And the beginning of something a little less defined, a little more free? Is it the place where you step away from what's expected of you and instead do what you are called to do, what you know when your soul is right? I guess depending on who you are and what you need, it could be any and all of those things. But as I sat 36,000 feet in the air, it kind of dawned on me.

Not necessarily what Shel Silverstein wanted the takeaway to be. Fair, right? I mean, it's a famous poem. There's a lot of analysis and writing on this. But I'm more interested in the question, what do I need personally? Now, with everything going on in my life, what would I, I want that place to be where the sidewalk ends. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized it's not a transition.

I don't think where the sidewalk ends is where you step out from one place and arrive in another. But I think what's more applicable in this moment is a perspective shift, almost a lifestyle invitation to straddle that line. Where you have one foot on the cement, right? the stable ground, holding onto that structure we need to maintain healthy lives, to build, to take who we are and effectively share it with the world. And one foot on the grass. Unpaved. No parameters.

Where a childlike curiosity runs rampant and reminds us that life is no standardized test. Right? Like if the cement represents the frame, the capsule, that rocket going to the moon, The grass represents the precious cargo it will be taking into orbit, that substance that must be found. And I think the reason my mind goes here is because in my life I've swayed too far in both directions. You know, I've spent entirely too much time on the sidewalk where I've limited myself, my beliefs in my trajectory. I've abandoned what I wanted to do because I was terrified to stray from what I was afraid from what I was on the sidewalks, supposed to do. I've let routine kill creativity. I've let plans suffocate freedom and exploration. But I've also spent too much time entirely in the grass, beyond the structure, dreaming but

aiming for no target, free but not grounded. Perhaps at times having worked so hard to tear down the parameters and the structure in my life that I found myself with no foundation to build upon. And I think the deal is sometimes we need more sidewalk than grass, and sometimes we need more grass than sidewalk. There are times in our lives that call for exploration, and there are times in our lives where we put our heads down and build. But the critical thing is we remember that beautiful balance between the structure that's ultimately imperative

and the freedom to step beyond. it so that we can pull in more life. That when things feel too stiff or constrained, maybe you lean more towards the edge of that unkempt, undefined world. And when you crave structure, when you've been wandering too long, when you want to build something with the pieces of life you've been casually collecting along the way, you lean in towards that foundation, towards that which is both known and dependable,

and maybe that's where we leave it. As you navigate each segment of your life, it's knowing that you have your hand on the dial. The dial that will allow you to be your best at that particular moment in time, something no one knows but you. So think of that spot. What are you going through now

and how can you best position yourself to handle it? This awareness is a power, it's a strength. It's not merely passing through that place where the sidewalk ends. But I think it's an opportunity to embody it. To adapt and carry on as each new chapter begins. Someday the things that you currently don't understand will make sense. Someday the big things you're dealing with won't seem so big anymore. Someday the doubts you have about yourself will be revealed as false.

Someday you'll see that the things you worry about didn't matter at all. Someday you'll see that the road before you wasn't something you had to walk flawlessly, but rather something you had to trust and believe in. Someday you'll look in the mirror, mirror and see that you had it in you the entire time, that there was nothing you needed or should have been hoping for. Yeah, someday, someday that will all be true. But what about some days from the past? I remember years ago thinking someday I would venture out into the world. Someday I'd speak my mind. Someday I would start my own business.

I would surround myself with people who believed in what I believe. Someday I'd make a little more money, have a little more time to do what I love. Someday I'd have all that. And as I look around, I realize it looks a lot like someday. But guess what? As we grow, so do our some days. It's a chase that never end. There's always something more.

There's always something bigger and better. And the problem is not the ambition. The problem is forgetting that in so many ways, you've dreamt of being where you stand right now. You have arrived. You're not the same person that 10 years ago was throwing some days out into the universe. No, you have grown.

You have learned. You have evolved. Why does this matter? It matters. Because without acknowledging how far you've come, you cannot acquire the strength needed to go where you must go. When you don't feel good enough, It's often because you haven't looked over your shoulder and opened your eyes.

The evidence is right there. It's hiding in plain sight. There's proof that you've been there. That you faced demons and conquered them, endured your battles and overcame. You did that. And at one point not that long ago, you couldn't say that you had. You weren't yet that person, but things are different. Now, what you

have today was once only that hopeful someday. It was a fleeting thought. It had no merit and no value, yet you brought it to life. Look what you've done. Understand how far you've come, how you ran when you could, you walked when it was possible, you crawled when you had to, and continued on to arrive at a someday that is right now. You, my friend, are a maker of things unseen, an architect of tomorrow's and some days, so don't you dare, don't you ever entertain the delusion that this gift suddenly stops now. Suddenly the burden is too much. The mountain is too tall. No, what you do is overcome.

That is who you are. You've done it for you. You've done it for the ones you love. And in some cases, the ones who didn't even understand, but you kept going. Marching through the fires of hell to turn some days into right now. And I get that the road before you is uncertain. There's no way to know exactly how life will unfold. But that's besides the point.

A bird can't predict every gust of wind it's going to encounter. It spreads its wings, takes off, and adapts because it can, because it always has, because that's what it does. I'm not advocating that you should have all the answers. No, I'm suggesting that you trust yourself to find them. To move forward into the haze that surrounds you, to make sense of the sense of the sense of the seemingly illogical, bring about reality from the make-believe, someday you will have what you're aiming for.

But here's to never letting a today go by without realizing that you are always living out a someday from your past, you are always arriving and leaving simultaneously. The accomplished end the student, crossing a finish line and on the starting block. with another race around the corner, another chance to stretch your legs and reach for the heavens. If you ever forget that, I ask that you find it within yourself to look over your shoulder, to remember what you once asked for, and to appreciate the journey that you have undertaken. You did that. Now onward you go, you have more some days. to bring to life. It's time. The world will not stop spinning. The clock won't stop ticking,

days won't stop slipping by. It's time. Things won't suddenly get easier. The difficulty does not remove itself. The path does not narrow. That perfect moment, it doesn't exist. A flawless beginning is fiction. The stars will never align for you. It's time. Not tomorrow. Not someday down the road, but this very second. See, you don't need all the answers.

You don't need to know or be sure or be armed with guarantees. Your job. your only requirement is to begin. It's time to trade fear for opportunity. Someday for right now, it's time. To stop thinking small, stop seeing what you want as a reach, to stop looking at success as a stranger, it's time. To sit down and convince yourself that what you want can be accomplished.

when it's as real as the space in front of you, when it's as probable as the completion of a single step, it will happen because it has to. It's time. At some point, you have to see that you're not simply playing conservatively. You're not being a perfectionist. It's not about being okay with where you are,

No, if we're going to get anywhere, let's be truthful. Let's call it what it is. These things, these ideas, these excuses are a derivative of fear. The problem with possibility is that it's incredibly hard to quantify. Technically, if you've never had it, you've never lost it. And that is how we rationalize staying where we are. That's why we compartmentalize the things we want most as dreams. But for a second, let's be bigger.

Let's start from the premise that what life can provide or become is limitless. It is truly infinite. And when you sit on an idea or you refuse to begin, you are in fact losing. Every single thing around you, everything. At one point, it began. At one point, someone summoned the courage to reach out and take what's in front of them. Maybe you do the same. Maybe you take that step.

Maybe the first few times go terribly wrong. Maybe it's terrifying. Maybe you find out who has your back, who your real friends are, and maybe those truths scare you. But guess what? Guess what those steps turn into? Confidence, amplified purpose, and most importantly, more steps. You get to see right in front of you as your demons diminish, evaporate.

The higher you climb, the better, the view, the longer the road, the greater the experience. I would rather fall. A thousand times and continuously get back up stronger than be someone who looks at the world through a window like it's some fairy tale. Because at the end of the day, sure, they have no scratches, scrapes, or bruises, but I have no limits. And I'd make that trade any day. It is time to stop. separating what you want from what you have and take that step forward. It's time to go get it. No one is stopping you. Nothing is stopping you. And in fact if you choose to be you are

unstoppable. So take a look in the mirror, lace up your shoes, open the door, and begin. It's time. Being beings don't see we interpret. We don't take in what happens. We take in the implication of what happens. Everything in our world is story. It's similar to the idea of two ideologically different news organizations, right, reporting on the same event. Neither will be completely factual.

They'll both uphold their individual narratives. They're not black and white. They're interpreting gray space. And our individual lives are no different. We are our own broadcasting channels. Using data to support our individual narratives. See, we know what the story's going to say before the story occurs

because we will make it so. We'll make life fit our beliefs. That's what it means to be human. And so here's where the value lives in the context of this. message when we find ourselves in a consistent state of despair or frustration or anxiety. It's a fool's errand to look for solutions in the external world. Because everything we find, everything we come across will support our current beliefs,

our current story. That's what we'll keep playing in our heads and it's why money can't bring fulfillment and another person can't take you from incomplete to content. It's why status will never equate to happiness. Those acquisitions are like putting premium fuel in a car with a broken engine. It's just not the answer that we hoped it would be. To change your world, you must change your story. Whatever it is that needs to be changed. The location, the objective, the characters, maybe the journey altogether, but it's the neural network. behind your eyes that must change, not the detail it takes in. And so if you feel stuck or feel like where you want to be seems unrealistic,

you have to know right now that the very fact you think that way is the problem. So ask yourself, not your girlfriend or your boss or your neighbor, but ask yourself what a turnaround looks like. Do you know? Or have you acclimated to being unhappy? Have you even asked yourself what happiness looks like? Or is your personal broadcasting channel so hell-bent on ensuring your life outlook stays the way it is

that it's not even paying attention to the data it takes in? See, I believe wholeheartedly that the first step in any facet of transformation is remembering that you have control, that things in your life that bring, bring you down or hold you back can be changed. In fact, the very things working against you can work for you. But you have to be aware.

You have to think about it. Now, I'm not a believer in magic, right? I don't think you sit back, say, I don't want to be unhappy ever again, snap your fingers, and smile until the end of eternity. But I do believe that once we're aware of our manufactured shackles and our self-imposed limitation, we can start chipping away, doing the one, two or three small things every day, tiny swings at the tree until it falls.

If it's, I'm not happy with my work life, well, what does a better situation look like? What bridges that gap? I'll wake up 20 minutes earlier on weekdays and master Microsoft Excel. I'll send one message on LinkedIn asking an expert about the field I want to move into. I'll read 20 pages a day in a book related to business.

You think those things are small? See what they look like compounded, in a year. Not only that, this is the most important part. You are taking the power back. You're taking control. And that's what feels good. That's where we get our identity. You get a little disappointed at how you've let your physique slip when you look in the mirror. Don't be sad about it every day. Again, ask yourself what the inverse looks like and start doing small things. one sports drink and add one green smoothie. Double your water intake.

Do a 10 minute daily workout on YouTube. Like the pieces are out there. And to find yourself again is to realize that they're out there. Realize that you're playing a movie on loop in your head that isn't right. It's just not you. And well, what movie do you want to be playing in an ideal world? scroll through the library, find it, click play, and start doing the small things that make it real.

There's so much power in progress. I've seen this unfold in different areas of my life, but particularly as a writer, as a speaker, it's like you identify who you want to be, you start making tiny steps, and after a while, you're surrounded by the change that you've created. How can you not believe something that you're starting to live? It has to become your identity because it is you.

It's around you. You breathe it. So look around and realize the malleability of your situation. And if what you find is not you, good. Here is your opportunity to tear down the old and construct the new. You can do that. Because you have control. Because it's within your grasp.

So start the new movie, the new story, make yourself the hero, and set out to find yourself again. I saw an interview by one of my favorite authors today, Stephen Pressfield, where he highlighted what I believe to be a critical and often overlooked point. He says a lot of people think life is short, but life is actually long. And he goes on to explain that he didn't even get his first book published until well into his adult life, making the point that people at 24, 34, 54, 54, 64, they think they've won or lost. And they've got a lot of game left to play. And this message, it does a few things. I think first and most obviously it creates a kind of calm.

Like, okay, I can take some of the pressure off myself. Life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, I'm not doing so bad. Sometimes we lose that perspective. We forget that the best things in life evolve over time. Often not an avalanche, but the chipping away of a stone until the statue reveals itself. As frustrating as it may be, clarity is often an evolution. And the second thing is, it plays a role in defining what success means. If games are won in the second half, as they frequently are,

then we learn not to define ourselves by the outcome of the first quarter. But more importantly, to put ourselves in position to win in the fourth. The score at halftime is not defining. It's a treasure trove of lessons and information and data that can be tapped into to get the result that we ultimately want. And I often think of running in South Florida where, you know, I joke that I don't sit at the beach, but if you run during the day, you know, you kind of get the best of both worlds. A little bit of sunshine, you get your workout in. But the obvious disadvantage, especially in the summer, is that the heat is taxing on the body. It's more challenging to run under that sun.

And what I find is that when I push my pace right out of the gate, right from the start, push my physical boundaries, the second half of the run is a nightmare. Always. I'm dragging, you know, speed isn't even a factor. I'm pleading with myself to simply not stop because I haven't positioned myself well. But on the other hand, when I'm disciplined,

And when from the start I ease into something comfortable and progressively increase my speed, my body somehow responds exponentially better. I get the most out of myself that way. That's why I've said in the past, I'm proudest of my results when the last few miles are the fastest miles. It means I had the discipline in the foresight to make that happen. And ultimately, the big picture is affected in a positive way. And I know the same can be said for other aspects of life. I know the same can be said for the moments of temptation

when my ego pleads with me to do what someone else is doing or things aren't evolving as quickly as I want. So my pride says, just walk away from it all. Why? Because the current moment doesn't look how I wanted it to. So the mind says panic. It says change things. It says you're losing or not good enough. It says you better pick up the moment. pace right now because you're losing this current moment. But no, the question isn't, is right now the goal?

The question is, is right now moving me forward consistently? So that when the time comes to sprint, so that when I'm ready to go faster than I've ever gone, be more than I've ever been, I've positioned myself to do just that. When things were challenging, I kept. moving forward. When the world around me seemed to be moving at a faster pace, I ran my own race, I stayed consistent, I remembered what mattered to me. That's the question. And by the way, this doesn't mean ignoring today's results. It means asking yourself whether today's results are meaningful in the big picture. Using Stephen Pressfield's example, if you don't get published or your work is rejected again and again and again, you have not lost.

It's the beginning, it's the first quarter. But what info can you gain from this? What tweaks can you make to your work so that it's in some way more captivating? How can you sell it a little better? What can you do to connect with people who will believe in you and help push you forward? Remember, you only lose when you decide to stop. Why? Because as long as you're willing to a little, As long as you're willing to adjust and keep going, there are no stopping points.

People don't realize limitations are self-imposed. Losing or quitting just means you stood up and said, I'm going to stop learning and evolving with regard to this pursuit. I no longer want to adapt and move on. No outside circumstances can impose that upon you. It's truly an internal decision. I remember Jim Rohn saying, Success is easy.

Doing the thing that's best for you in the long run is easy. Doing the right things every day is easy. And people would say, well, that doesn't make sense. Why isn't everyone successful? Well, because doing the wrong thing is easy too. It's easy to think right now is the end all be all. To forget the big picture, that life is a journey, that you are equipped with everything you need.

when you don't see success to your left or right when your ideal world hasn't been created to panic. To seek drastic change, instead of remembering one step in front of the other, gets you to your finish line. Instead of remembering the second half is where you make your move, is where you make your push.

Not every swing is a home run. Not every swing needs to be a home run. It's about on-base percentage. It's about setting yourself up for success, step by step, day by day, allowing yourself to evolve. Because if you hang in there long enough, if you say yes and trust yourself long enough, you will get your Super Bowl, you will get your midday run when the sun is at its fullest, you're exhausted, you're tired, and you don't want to keep going.

But because you invested in the big picture, because you played the long game, you'll be be one of the few who understands, who has created the weapon, the answer, the key that will open the door, very few people get to open and walk through. The best things in life take time, and time requires patience. Patience can be painful. It can cause suffering, chaos. But from that chaos comes order. that suffering comes meaning everything we needed and wanted is on the other side of that evolution.

See that your short-term losses are not crippling you. They are creating. There are a handful of recorded lectures online by Jim Rohn, who has definitely become one of my favorite thinkers over the years. And I found this little nugget the other day that I wanted to share. He says, there are four emotions that will change your life. Disgust, decision, desire, and resolve. And I want to talk about the first one because I found the story to be incredibly powerful and also relatable, right,

in various aspects of life over the years. So he frames it by talking about a Girl Scout walking up to his front door to try and sell him some Girl Scout cookies when he's 25 years old. And he's broke, doesn't have any money at the time, and tells her what I assume to be a white lie as to why he can't buy the cookies at that particular time.

Right, so he tells her that he can't, she walks away. He says after he closes the door and goes back inside, he felt something that completely changed his life. Disgust. an overwhelming feeling that he simply didn't want to live like that anymore. He didn't want to lie. He didn't want to be broke. And I'm quoting him.

He says, the day you can say I've had it may not be the day it ends, but the day it begins. And that feeling, which of course on the surface seems like a terrible thing, right? No one wants to feel disgust with their circumstance. But it's ultimately one of the most powerful indicators life can present to us. There has always been, and I assume will continue to be, that point in many different facets of my life, where I say enough is enough.

I just never thought to categorize it and label it like he did, but that's what it is. You know, getting to a point where you look around and realize you've conceded too much. You've strayed too far beyond what matters to you. You've left too much on the table. That feeling, again, well, uncomfortable, is often what becomes the first step towards that which is truly meaningful,

a better version of yourself. A realization, by the way, that's not some denunciation of who you are, right? It's not saying I'm not good enough or I'm inadequate. I would describe it as the exact opposite. It's thinking enough of yourself to acknowledge that you're better than this. It's saying, yeah, there's a reality where I stay the same, where I don't change, where I allow this to just be my life. But that's not the reality I'm going to choose,

because I respect myself too much to continue living with that, dissonance between my actions and who I know I truly am. And I think at a deep level, we all understand this. So many times in life, funny enough, we don't change until we have to. Until our backs are completely against the wall. It took me years in my previous professional life to say enough is enough. But ultimately got to that point. I've been there in relationships, been there with my creative work, been there with my

finances. And what's especially interesting is that as you grow, evolve, and your goals change, what you expect of yourself changes, grows along with you, you'll find yourself at that place again and again and again. And that's good. Listen to it. Right, that's your intuition telling you you're ready for more that something else awaits, that the status quo is no longer sufficient. And there lies the opportunity, to recognize and associate that feeling of disgust, as Rohn calls it, with a need to change or an opportunity to change before things blow up or become more difficult than they need to be. Everything in your life has been allowed by you to some extent. That's an important thing to understand.

If there's someone in your life that's making it hell, you to an extent, are responsible for that, right? No one gets your time without your permission. If you're doing things that don't move, motivate, or inspire you, well, the reality is you're choosing those actions. Now, the circumstances may be specific to you. They may be difficult, and I understand that, but are you asking yourself how you can begin moving away from it?

How you can put walls between yourself and the things that drag you down? Because the bottom line is, it's very easy to become accustomed to things that are a drain on our lives. The old frog in the boiling water. You throw a frog in a pot of hot water or jump right out. But you put it in a pot of cool water, and you slowly but incrementally increase the temperature until it's boiling, the frog won't realize it's burning alive.

I think in the same way we learn to live with that situational disgust. The things we're unhappy with just become the baseline or normal. It becomes regular. And what I love about this Girl Scout cookie story is that light bulb moment where it's like, no, I don't have to accept this. I can take back control. I dictate how I'm going to live, and I know this isn't it. Now, you don't need to have all the answers right away.

In fact, you most certainly won't have them. But every journey as the saying goes begins with the first step. That's precisely why the moment is so powerful. You don't start moving to that new place until you realize that you want to start moving away from where you are. Rhone talks about disgust being a powerful motivator. That's why. It's the initial leverage you need to create that momentum. to see the gap between where you want to be and where you are.

And this is ultimately a call to that realization. Do an audit on yourself and your contentment, the places you find lacking. They're calling for your attention. And it's normal. It's okay. It's part of life. But it's also your opportunity to begin making that change. I like very simple, very straightforward.

notes to help me parse through this. Simple list, two columns. On the left, everything that brings me some level of anxiety or that is a drain on my piece. And on the column on the right, directly across from it, simply what I plan to do about each item. Nothing major, but a tangible, manageable step. Because as Jim Rohn says, you begin to utilize that feeling of disgust or discontent to act. You turn that message into something beautiful, an adventure, some variation of growth. That's where the good stuff is. By the way, it also changes our relationship with those emotions when they emerge. It's no longer, poor me, I'm stuck, my life is hard, and the list goes on and on.

No, it's, oh, this doesn't feel good, how can I use it to connect me to something that does? Let's listen to that. I don't like the feeling of making excuses as to why I can't buy the cookies. I don't like the feeling of not having the financial resources. Obviously, can't fix it overnight, but let's make a plan. Let's allow the wheels to hit the road, right? Which, hey, who knows? Might be more than I've ever done.

This is the magic beginning, he alludes to. The confidence being earned, the purpose, the meaning, and ultimately being that we only get results. will replace our attention, the outcome we've been looking for. So when you find yourself at that point, when you experience a repetition of disappointment or frustration with your circumstance, let that be the gift it's trying to be. Let it be the reason you will soon wake up a different person, moving towards that which aligns with who you are.

Came across a quote recently that said the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. I thought this demonstrated or captured a realization that's pretty hard to articulate. And that is just how tempting it is to rationalize stopping or discontinuing your journey when life gets tough. How much sense it always makes to want to call it quits when things get uncomfortable. It's like it's not just that doing something. something valuable is hard. It's that it's hard and every three feet there's an invitation to not have to do it anymore. There's an endless supply of exit signs and escape routes.

Therefore accomplishing a goal is simultaneously saying yes to the challenging things while also saying no to the comfortable things. It's fighting off two demons at once. The good news, though, is that you were made to do just that. You just have to change the way you internalize the process. You have to change what you see along the way. I talk a lot about perfection as the enemy. And that's something I wholeheartedly believe to be true.

But I generally talk about it in the context of perfection, keeping us from starting. I try and unveil perfection as this defense mechanism that it truly is. Oh, things aren't perfect, I'll wait. Things aren't exactly where I want them to be. Then I won't go. Emphasizing that it's in going that perfection is crafted, like a statue being chiseled from stone. You fall, you get back up and find that in doing so,

you end up with a little more clarity than you had when you start. You let the trials and tribulations of the journey refine the product. And so that's the beginning, right? That's finding the courage to start, removing the idea of perfect, when really it's just our fears masked. But what about when you've already started? What about when you're underway, when you're in the midst of those trials and tribulations?

Because we all know this. When you're in pain, your body wants one thing to remove yourself from the pain. When things are uncomfortable, your default is to seek out those aforementioned parking spaces. Reprieve from the grasp of the unknown. Things aren't perfect, then I'm done here. Things feel awkward or uncomfortable or unclear, then why bother? What I want to do right now is make the argument. that it's most important to continue forward when we're in these moments.

It's most critical to move forward when the road is unclear and those tempting parking spaces start revealing themselves. Things are not perfect, maybe even far from perfect. And this is right about the time when we forget why we started. I've run into this in my past, right, particularly with injuries. There was a period in my not too distant past when my ankle and shoulder were simultaneously messed up, right? So couldn't run, couldn't really do any upper body work.

My physical activity really took a dive. Right, so I'm a little discouraged. And sure enough, I found the eat whatever you want parking space. It's like, who cares? You're not working out. What's the point? Just focus on the business. Put a pause on all that stuff.

And then eating whatever I wanted became, well, what's the point of getting up at five when I could just get up at seven? I sleep two hours longer is how I rationalize it. It's not like I'm going to be running. And then there goes some very important alone time, thinking time, and you can see how easily the wheels sort of fall off the wagon. Not because you're a bad person or don't want the result, but because the second thing stopped being perfect or working the way I wanted them to. I found a parking space. There will be few stretches of time in life when everything's perfect. Things going exactly how you want them to.

It will simply be the exception, not the rule. And then the question becomes, can you put your head down and continue forward knowing that life will call for adaptation and adjustment? But that those tempting exit signs are not for you. They are weakness. They are for those who forget their strength and their courage. I mentioned a little while ago that growth is fighting two demons, saying yes to the mountain

ahead and no to the off-rams. But when you step back and look at things different, you change the dynamic, you put the odds in your favor. When the off ramps become reminders of your strength as you pass them one by one, indicators of your commitment to move forward. And when the mountain ahead becomes merely the way, not some giant sacrifice or monster,

but merely a path, things simplify in a way that empowers you on your mission. There is no perfect or imperfect. There is adjusting, when necessary and taking the next little step along the way. And using the previous example, it's like, I'm injured, okay, this will definitely be a time for adjustment. Maybe it's yoga, stretching, practicing being more patient, maybe greater emphasis on meditation, mental strength, whatever it is, but we don't stop.

We continue stepping forward. The next step will look a little different. look a little different, but that's all. If perfect is a standard one seeking to maintain, they'll always be pulling over. They'll always be backing off because very rarely do we have stretches of perfection. Life is an adjustment game, not a perfection game. Life asks, what can you do when your hands are tied behind your back? What can you do when you're tired? What can you do when you've just endured loss, when your pride hurts, your plans fail? And trust me, that's when you see all those off-ramps.

That's when something in the back of your mind says, Hey, all this goes away if you just throw in the towel. Just go seek perfection somewhere else. You'll find it there. But you can chase that rabbit down a million paths. There is no perfection waiting for you, and there is no flawless pursuit. Life comes down to what will you do now, where you are with what you have, can you find a way to win when it hurts? Look, we all need to understand that life is innately difficult.

And success calls for a simplification that is adapting and stepping forward. That's all. Things are hard, you step. Things don't go as you planned, you adapt. and you step, but you are always moving towards that North Star. Whatever it is for you, it's deeming those parking spaces insignificant with regard to your life and your journey. Quitting is not brought about by the external world. No failure is a decision.

Failure is saying, you know what, this costs more effort than I'm willing to pay. Those parking spaces have become more tempting than the top of this mountain. Failure is a choice. And so for one to succeed, they must simply stay in motion. Choose adaptation over a self-imposed end. Yeah, enjoy those moments of perfection, the times the stars do align. But see them as the exception, not the rule. defined when things are great.

We are defined by our ability to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward when they're not. Our lives are shaped by the exits. We don't take the parking spaces. We don't even notice as we ascend the mountain that is life. Because anything other than the road ahead was never an option. You didn't succeed because things were perfect. You succeeded because you found a way to win when they weren't. We're not looking for mountaintops.

We may be unaware. We may forget. We may be misled. But in our hearts and souls, we know we are not looking for mountain tops. What we're seeking is different. What we're seeking is the space between the top of the world and its baseline, the ceiling and the floor. Sure, we may trick ourselves into thinking it's the top or the finale or the view.

But as has been said before, if the goal were truly the top, we wouldn't bother ourselves by climbing. We'd be dropped off at the top by helicopter. No, we aren't looking for mountaintops. What we want is undoubtedly the climb. We live for that climb. that immersion into life where we are alive, awake, that quest for purpose where humans are transformed and life adjusts to stop feeling like a standardized test and start feeling like a canvas

waiting on a masterpiece. Simple? Yes, easy. No. It's Nietzsche and Frankel's meaning through suffering. It's Peterson's choosing your sacrifice. Simon Sinek's finding your why. It's Gagons staying hard. Grover's becoming a cleaner. These aren't parts of the journey. They are the journey. Mountain tops are meaningful simply because they remind us that we could have said no and didn't. They allow us to remain conscious of our courage, what we overcame and who we became along the way. In the view, it allows us to hold on to that realization just a little longer before setting out for new mountains to climb.

But knowing the person embarking upon the next journey will be a little wiser, a little stronger, a little more polished. As Jim Rohn said, it's not success we're after. It's what the pursuit makes us along the way. That's why Eckert Tolley says the adrenaline-seeking pursuits such as a climb are so powerful because we're forced to be in that moment. To understand what living is, we can't be pulled down by the past or diverted by the future. We are immersed in what matters.

Transformation happening in real time. Because something can be made out of nothing. But mountain tops don't do that. Elevation through blood, sweat, and tears does that. Mountain tops are symbolic of what we become every time we pull ourselves a little higher. They stand for a million little yeses in a world of nose, just like the trophy, is nothing more than a celebration of trials and tribulations.

Hearing the crowd roar when you rose to the occasion, finding ways to win when the odds were stacked against you, becoming more, when it felt like there was nothing left. Don't let life trick you into thinking it was ever about the hardware or the trophy case. It's not. Any more than swimming on a beautiful day is about drying off. No, it's the middle. It's where we are forged from fire. where we map our destinies. It's the game of life. So remember when you do feel tired or weak

or lost or can't seem to find your reason to carry on. That you can't see it now because you are entrenched in the most meaningful of experiences. You are, in fact, at the heart of what you'll look back on and realize to find you, the center of transformation, of meaning. remember that idea that if mountaintops were the goal, we wouldn't climb, we would get dropped by helicopter. This journey, with all its ups and downs, is life at its fullest. It's why you're here. It's why you must keep going.

In a commencement speech, Ed Helms referenced his character from the office, Andrew Bernard. And his perhaps most defining quote, I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you've actually left them. Well, my friends, we are right now in the business of making good old days. Don't wait for any metaphorical mountain top. To look back and realize how precious, how powerful, how perfect the ascent truly was.