Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - YOU AGAINST YOU | Powerful Motivational Speeches Compilation

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

You are your greatest opponent...

So imagine you're sitting down, having something to eat, thinking, relaxing, reading, whatever you're doing. Someone walks up to the table across from you, pulls out the chair, sits down, kind of leans back, puts one leg over the other, casually tells you, you know, you probably don't have what it takes to do anything significant in your life. What would you say? It would be outrageous, right? That's a ridiculous scenario. Well, let's say that the next day you get up and you go to walk, run, work out, and he shows up again. Starts running next to you, casually reminding you that the odds of you changing, doing anything for the better or slim to none, that this is kind of a waste of time for you. You brush it off, you go to work, and guess who?

He passes by your desk, leaves a little note saying that your bosses, your higher-ups, they're cut from a different cloth. They just see things in a way you can't. You'd probably tell that person to take a long walk off a short pier, right? Or at the very least, you'd understand how absolutely insane the situation is. People can't just walk up and talk to you like that. But now imagine that same person as you, living rent-free in your head. And here's the catch. You invited him in.

You allowed the negativity and the doubt to live there. See, every time I think about that self-talk, I can't help but wonder in a world of obstacles to navigate and challenges to tackle. Why is it acceptable for your biggest obstacle to be you? Why should you allow or be okay with that? And I'm not saying everything's perfect all the time. Every thought's pure bliss. But I am posing this question.

If you don't believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to? to. If you're not your biggest ally, if you don't respect the person staring back at you in the mirror, how do you expect the world to? Why is our inclination to tense up and refute the negativity from others, but sit back and accept the same nonsense in our own heads? If those words don't support what you're trying to build, I don't care who they're from, where they come from, why they're there, they don't deserve your time. And it's a simple awareness that they are not true. but merely your fears and your insecurities trying to stop you from becoming who you might be.

My biggest leaps in life, they didn't come from physical milestones or benchmarks. They came from mental shifts, convincing myself, believing myself, trusting in myself. When the road is untravelled, when the story is untold, the positive and the negative are both make-believe.

They are both fairy tales, their options, their theories, and guess what? You get to choose which option, which one will be yours. My favorite quote is, you are always stronger than you think you are. Not so much because it reiterates how high the bar is, but because it reminds me how low we often set it for ourselves when we're not paying attention. How loud that negative voice can be. You know, when I was unemployed, I was writing, I was running out of money, my life changed because I stopped seeing myself as some lost, jobless mess,

and I started seeing myself as one of the greats with a hell of a road to travel. See, people always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. I refuse to hear that you might fail and the not good enough, and I buckled up for the road ahead, and when you believe you can change, and know that the road to your goals will be rocky, it will be uncomfortable, but worth it. You are taking that hostile voice and making him or her a spectator, not a decider of fate.

And yeah, you will lose, you can't win all the time, and you will feel stuck, but life's not always smooth sailing. And sure, you'll be mad at yourself, but not every decision is a home run. But these situations are the byproduct of a journey, and here is my point. Self-belief is being able to differentiate your situation and pointless negative talk about the situation. It's about remembering that you are the gatekeeper of your own mind. When you believe in you, it places your faith, your strength, and your determination in the driver's seat. It makes everything else trivial, meaningless. It makes it an option that you are simply not going to choose.

We all fall down, but only a few choose to get back up. A few depersonalized failure. A few understand that falling is the cost of greatness. Your reality is not what happens to you. Your reality is how you internalize what happens to you. Our obstacles stop, Or are they checkpoints along the way to something greater? Checkpoints that make you stronger, build you up,

become your armor, that is ultimately the difference. What we misinterpret in life is the meaning behind that difficulty, that pain, that suffering. No one gets a pain-free life. No one gets a free ride. Suffering is inevitable. As Nietzsche says, to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. And what's changed my life, and I don't mean here and there, I mean truly transformed the course and trajectory of what's possible, is simply redefining that which is difficult.

I grew up watching the Kobe's and the Brady's of the world. I remember thinking, how do these guys get better when things get difficult? I mean, as a kid, I could feel the pressure watching from the couch, but they somehow elevate themselves when the odds are stacked against them. Same exact situation that causes most to doubt, to run, to lose their self-belief. What they see that alludes most is that in every pressing moment, there's opportunity. Every loss has something to gain. In every failure, there is victory.

Everyone has the same rule book. It's just that some people only see what is right in front of them. Others learn to read between the lines and create outcomes that have not yet arrived. When things are hard or challenging or uncertain, it's not that you should keep going. It's that you must keep going. Everything good, everything rewarding, worth having is on the other side of that struggle. Everything meaningful is built from the days you felt like there was no possible way to move on,

but did anyway. That is the core of greatness, carrying forward when it would have been easier not to. When you feel the hurt, the emotional turmoil, and I get it, we all do, but beyond that feeling, what are you willing to see? Beyond the ashes, what are you willing to build? What are you willing to do with those pieces? Because it can be nothing or it can be everything. It all depends on how you choose to step back and look at the world.

Your perspective becomes the roadmap for your reality. So understand that feeling down or loss is normal, But staying down is a choice. There are no problems. There are stepping stones. The very situations that make you who you are. The little decisions that over time equip you to step up when it matters most. When the pressure's on, the odds are against you, the rest of the world says no.

No matter how hard it gets, there is an answer. rise above the emotion, the chaos, the present moment, and see the big picture. Not only will you survive, you will be better because of this, because you kept moving forward when it wasn't easy. No matter how hard life got, you never lost sight of the opportunity. And that made all the difference. I can't pinpoint what's uncomfortable. Everything just sort of hurts, almost hovering over me as I attempt to move forward into the desert.

The problem seems to be some combination of the present and the future. Because sure, each step it tests my core, my knees, my ankles, my back, but worse than that, than the physical pain is the fear of what this discomfort will become. Because if I'm suffering now, imagine, imagine five, 10 or 20 miles from now. I can go 15 seconds. Anyone can go 15 seconds. But what if it becomes more than I can bear? See, nothing scarier than the road ahead.

It may just be what does me in. Tolerable now, but will it always be? Right, right foot, bruise, or maybe, maybe worse. I don't know, but lean left, adjust. Yeah, just like this, that alleviates the problem. At least for now, it alleviates the problem. I can move forward. I think it's the downhill.

The downhill puts pressure on the knee, shoots pain towards the shin, so we'll slow down. Slow here. We'll catch him on the uphill. That's where we'll make our move. Slow down, fast up. equals less pain equals manageable. That's progression.

This is 100% doable. Not rocket science. Rearranging of pieces. Pain in the stomach. Has anyone ever died from an upset stomach? Probably? Well, you probably not. You're not stuck.

You're just scared. See, running while feeling nauseous never put someone on the front page of the New York Times. What types of stories are you writing for yourself? No victim. Stop casting yourself as a victim. This is small. This is nothing.

This is trivial. Peace. Find a rhythm. You're overthinking again. This is not complex. There's nothing to be discovered here. This is the easiest thing in the world. One foot in front of the other again and again.

Guess how much thought that requires? You guessed it, bud. Zero. Your foot matters not. Your knees are of no relevance. Why are you creating monsters? Oh, the sun, it's the sun. You're hot.

Well, you can cry or get to... to the destination with a tan stop rationalizing. Go. Mile marker. When I don't create reasons to stop, it's like, well it's like they don't exist. Most accomplishments, most pursuits require a positive narrative and uplifting storyline. This seems different. This requires nothing, not a thing I have right now.

And well, it looks like we can always handle right now, can't we? The wind isn't resistance. It's cooling me off. and the sun is not a barrier, it's lighting a path. The discomfort is not an enemy, it's a passenger, and we're all going one way forward. Do not think about the road ahead. Count seconds, count steps, count breaths,

preoccupy the mind because the reality is at some point I will get where I'm going, that is fact. And the only way to lose is to manufacture future monsters and bow down to them before I arrive. I can always defeat the now. My feet write the story, they hold the pen, And once I arrive, only then will I enjoy the end. That wasn't so bad, wasn't.

Sometimes what you don't do is more powerful than what you do. Sometimes the answer is not the home run or some lifetime achievement award. No, sometimes the answer is simply hanging on. Realizing that the yes is they're important. But they're nothing compared to the noes. No, to the faint whispering that you came. No to the feelings of inadequacy. And no to the reflection staring back at you that just feels ordinary.

As that feeling, it's wrong. And what this means, as I was once told, is that success is not always the spectacular sometimes it is simply hanging on when others would let go. When the world would hear that same faint whisper and bow down because, oh, we all hear it. Life is not a movie. There is no fixed ending. And where there are unknowns, there is fear.

That's not rocket science. Unknown's equal fear. But if I may, let me explain something. Because we're the world. There is fear there is also something else. And that something is opportunity. Like a curtain that must be pulled back, an ocean that must be crossed or a toll that must be piqued while you dance to melodies of songs unwritten and are led by the characters in stories

untold. This is not a game of the miraculous. This is a game of self-belief. a game of not personalizing the people that are going to let you down. The days that will bring you to your knees, it's not feeling inadequate when you swing and miss because you will. And I hope you do. I hope you do because each swing makes you stronger and each loss makes it easier. Easier to say no to that ship that wants to bring you right back to the port you left from.

how comfortable, how safe, how secure it would be. But just like fear and opportunity are one in the same, so are safety and regret. A concession, a wolf and sheep's clothing, and they are a lot of things, but they are not you. So forget about the grandiose. The magic is not in the moon. It's in the staircase that,

takes you there. Each step, each battle, each time you fall, smile to yourself and carry on. Because the difference between average and exceptional is the ability to make a single decision, the decision to hold on. To stand firm when the people around you turn back, to believe in your foundation when the walls close in. It's running a race with eyes fixated on each step. Not on the finish line. No, the finish line doesn't do anything but distract. It reminds you of the road to be traveled. Your job is not to make a finish line appear. It is to say yes to the step in front of you and no to every Everything else. See anyone can take one step.

Anyone can progress one foot. Races, journeys, life is simply a culmination of those steps, a culmination of little decisions to not let go. So when your arms shake, in the voice in your head screams, when your thoughts beg you to stop, just stop and your mind starts to rationalize the possibility of surrender. Remember that big things are broken into little things. Minutes are merely seconds, mountains are merely rocks. And success is simply hanging on

when others would be letting go.