Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You Are One Decision Away From a Different Life || SUCCESS MOTIVATION || Best Inspirational Speeches

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

One decision can change the direction of your entire life. Not someday. Not when things feel easier. The moment you decide everything begins to shift.This motivational compilation brings together some of Eddie’s most powerful inspirational speeches to remind you that transformation doesn’t begin with motivation, it begins with a choice.This success motivational video will help you:• Change your mindset• Build self-discipline• Regain focus• Overcome fear and self-doubt• Create momentum toward the life you wantWatch this when you feel stuck, lost, unmotivated, or unsure of your next step.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact

Overthinking will ruin your peace faster than failure ever could. Why? Well, because failure ends. It teaches and then it passes. But overthinking, well, overthinking traps you in a loop that never moves. A mental cage where you replay and reanalyze and relive moments that are already gone. It's deception. You think you're solving problems, but really you're just feeding them. You think you're finding answers, but you're just postponing life.

Because overthinking does not protect you, it paralyzes you. It tells you that if you just think long enough, if you just plan more, if you just rationalize a little longer, you'll feel ready. But the truth is, you'll never feel ready. You'll only feel free once you start moving. There is a storm that lives in all of us. Not outside, not in the world, but in the space between thoughts. A storm we're all familiar with, the one that whispers, what if I fail, what if I'm not ready, what if it all falls apart? And we let it walk in and speak. We listen.

We think and we replay, we reanalyze, we try to predict a future that was never meant to be predicted. Overthinking is our way of reaching for control of an uncontrollable world. That's just the reality. Our attempt to rewrite outcomes before we've even taken the first lap, first step. But the more we think, the less we live. And I know that sounds counterintuitive. How can someone say that? The more we try to prepare, the less we become.

It's because the power is in mobility. See, life doesn't reward those who need all the answers. It rewards those who move without them, because there's a kind of magic that exists when in motion. There's a clarity that only shows up once wheels are turning, once your feet hit the ground. Every time you've grown, every time you've changed, or found something real,

it wasn't because you knew it would work, it was because you went anyway. There was a probability of failure, and you stepped into that dark. darkness, that abyss. We think we need to plan the whole staircase before we climb. But staircases are built in real time. Life only reveals them step by step.

And that's not punishment, that's grace. That's the universe's way of saying, you don't need to see it all. Just trust that it'll materialize. As long as you're committed, fate will take you by the hand. You don't overcome overthinking, by finding every answer. You overcome it by realizing you were never supposed to.

You learn to dance with uncertainty, to find stillness in motion, to build faith in the spaces where logic can't reach. Because the truth is, you can't think your way to peace. You can only act your way there. Every great story, I talked a little bit about this on the last episode, it begins with a step into the unknown. and every hero, every creator or leader,

they all face this moment where they had to stop thinking and start becoming. As it's been said, jump and grow wings on the way down. And maybe that's where you are right now. Maybe you've been circling the same idea or same conversation, you know, waiting for that moment when everything feels certain again. But certainty is a moment that never comes. Maybe it was never supposed to.

Maybe life isn't about perfect timing. It's about perfect trust. The mind is such a beautiful tool. But it can be a dangerous master. It can paint the most vivid dreams, and it can build the darkest prisons. Sometimes those bars aren't steel, they are thought. The rational brain suggests that by dissecting everything,

we're being smart. We think by playing out every single scenario, we're staying safe. But what we are really doing is hiding behind noise. The mind is so incredible at convincing us that thinking is doing. Chaos upstairs means we must be doing something, right? The rumination is progress. The preparation is movement. But in truth, none of that moves you forward.

It just exhausts you in place. running a marathon on a treadmill. Like, yeah, you feel tired, but you're standing in the same spot. I think the weight of the mind is subtle. It doesn't drop all at once, it drips. A constant trickle of what-ifs. Ultimately, breaks the damn open, becomes a flood of hesitation. And before long, you're no longer living, you're maintaining.

You're managing anxiety instead of chasing meaning. Right, but here's the paradox. the more you demand certainty, the less you get. Because again, like I alluded to, life just, it wasn't meant to be controlled. It was meant to be experienced. You can never pull the levers on all variables. Adaptability and adjustment is built into the game. So when those thoughts start racing, when you feel that tightening in your chest, that looping in your mind,

pause and breathe and remember you are not your thoughts you can't provide with a demand of you you are merely the awareness behind all that noise i heard this once on a meditation app and i never forgot it and said your thoughts are clouds passing through your sky but they are not the sky itself and they are certainly not you right and every time you attach to the those clouds, you forget that the sky was infinite all along. We forget that motion breaks the spell, that simplicity is a weapon, that doing one small thing, writing one line, making one call, taking one step, oh my God, that movement can silence one thousand doubts. Why? Well, because overthinking it loves stagnation. It feeds on it. But action starves it. Action reminds you who's in control.

As much as I wish it did, the universe doesn't hand out maps, it hands out compasses. And those compasses, they don't point to guarantees, they give you a general direction. But that's the beauty. You don't need to know how it all ends. You just need to know which way feels like freedom. I always say let the heart be the compass, let the mind figure out the details, the technicalities. the logistics. So when your thoughts urge you to wait until perfection,

when they tell you you're not ready, look back, smile, and say neither is the world. And yet it keeps spinning somehow. Because life doesn't reward the ones who got it right the first time. It rewards the ones who dare to start. So let go. Not because you stopped caring, but because you started trusting.

You stopped chasing what you can't control and started moving towards what you can. You stopped begging the storm to end and instead learned how to dance in the rain. Or for those who have been listening for a while, run in the rain. You stopped asking life to be predictable and started asking yourself to be present. You stopped searching for the perfect moment and realized that this one right now was enough. You stopped waiting for permission and remembered you always had the keys. And somewhere in that quiet surrender, the noise will fade, the fear will soften, peace will return. Not as an answer, but as a feeling.

Because that's the beauty of letting go. The moment you stop trying to control everything, you finally make room for everything. The right people, the right moments, the right miracles. They all begin where overthinking ends. So go. Not to figure your life out, but to live it. Not to know the ending, but to write it. Line by line, heart by heart, step by step.

And when the doubt comes back, because it will, remember this truth. You were never meant to know you were meant to be. What's up, guys, Eddie here. we jump into the next chapter, just a quick note. So as many of you know, every single video that I've ever put on this channel has been created with the intent of building momentum in your life. If you want something physical to anchor that momentum, we've created the brand AGNS, or always grateful, never satisfied for that exact reason. Athletic apparel that embodies

the very ideas and concepts I talk about every day. Because you're watching on YouTube or Spotify, We've created a code for this exclusive community, YWW20. You can use that on the website, agns.lifestyle. We're right under this video on YouTube. All this stuff is there in the shop. Again, code YWW20 gets you 20% off the entire store. It's a great way to support the channel and also elevate your journey. Let it be a reminder to keep showing up.

Appreciate your time. Always grateful. Never satisfied. On to the next. There's a voice that follows us through life. Sometimes loud, sometimes barely a whisper, but always there. Telling us to stay small, to play safe, to know your place. For a while, we listen.

We listen because to stand tall is to risk being seen. To take a swing is to risk missing. to dream is to risk heartbreak. And so we do the logical thing we shrink. Tuck away our ambitions, lower our eyes, learn to merely survive. But hidden underneath the noise of the world, buried beneath layers of doubt and fear, sleeps a giant. A force so immense.

It could change everything. It is a giant waiting for you to room. When I was young, I believed the world was mine. And get this, I didn't have a resume. I didn't have experience. What I had was a heart full of fire and a mind that saw zero limitation. I'd stand in front of the mirror

and imagine a future NBA player. Or rock star, movie producer, climbing mountains, sailing oceans. But by default, subtly, life whispered, come on now, be realistic. Tone it down, stay in line. And piece by piece, I traded wonder for compliance. I traded dreams for routines. I traded what my heart wanted for society's instruction manual. I thought perhaps that fire was gone as I made my way into the world, but that giant, that giant doesn't die.

It sleeps. See, the giant inside you is not made of what you do. It's made of who you are. It's the book you've never written, but oh, you still dream about. The business you imagine when no one's around. It's the conversations you rehearse in your mind, but don't say out loud. The mountains you stare at in awe, wondering, that giant is the real you. unshackled by fear.

It's that song you've never sung. But still your soul knows every. There's a myth we tell ourselves that our greatest days are behind us. That our magic is somehow lost. But the truth, the truth is that it's all still there. Waiting.

Because the giant inside you does not leave. It doesn't retire. Certainly doesn't forget. It waits. Patiently. Quietly. Until one day we hear its call. For me, it came on a day just like any other day.

Nothing spectacular. It's never anything spectacular. It's not something spectacular. cinematic or profound, just a small moment. A reflection. A realization that I was living half alive. Playing it safe while life, my life was slipping by. And in that quiet heartbreak, something shifted.

And I need you to understand. I need this to sink in. It was not a battle cry. It was a whisper. Hey, maybe there's more here. And sometimes that's all you need. The first crack in the wall, the first light through darkness, the first step towards waking the giant inside you.

When the giant stirs, the world changes. You start moving differently, speaking differently, choosing differently. You no longer ask for permission. You no longer seek validation. You no longer apologize for wanting more. It is your right. You realize you were never meant to live small. You were never meant to fit in.

No, you were here to build. And dream and climb and dance and shout your truth into the heavens with the voice so loud that the very mountains echo it back. You were made to live. live because the truth is you're not broken and as hard as this feels you are not lost you are not late you are simply asleep but that giant is stirring and if you put your hand over your chest you can feel it the world needs you awake so today I ask

you what would happen if you answered the call what would happen if you trusted the fire inside you, even when the world told you not to. What would happen if you stopped shrinking and started standing? Because the world does not need another shadow. It needs you. It needs you alive and awake and unapologetically yourself. When fear says stay small, awaken that giant. When doubt says, be quiet.

Let your giant speak when life says, hey, know your place. Let your giant break the walls down. There is a giant within you. And it's time to wake up. The world is waiting. You are always one decision away from a totally different life. It's one of my favorite idea. is what I lean on most when moving through some of the most difficult chapters of life.

And I think it points to something very important. It points to our tendency to forget how much control we have over our own realities. And not just the small things, but the big thing. The things that truly challenge us and push us, the things that often feel just beyond reach, larger than life. This idea reminds me that that's not the case. I'm going to give you a few quick examples for context. They're very basic.

You've heard them before. The first is my health. What changed everything was the decision to start associating with people who knew my and we're willing to help. Not rocket science. But at the time, I would have said it absolutely is. Right? I started to piece by piece realize that everything was solvable.

And even some of the things that weren't totally solvable, like an elbow issue, for example, it could be made better to the point where I could work around it. It didn't have to prohibit me from living my best life. It wasn't the giant problem I made it out to be in my mind. The list continues on, my work, every day hating what I was doing. Until one day, I thought, well, no, that's enough, right? The pain of the unknown is better than this silent, slow, withering away.

That's pain. And did I know what I was doing? No. Did it bring about a new type of discomfort altogether that I hadn't ever experienced? Yes. But it put me for the first time in my life on a trajectory to figure. your things out. Last example, the wrong romantic relationships, the wrong business partnerships, the wrong people in your circle. You only need to decide once no more. You only need to decide once,

hey, I'm out. I deserve better. Then you begin a process of healing and self-recreation. See, we don't act very often because we don't know what the solution is. And on its face, that's practical. Right? That makes sense. But it's just, it's not a reason to keep yourself in a prison of discontent. I think for two reasons. One, the misalignment you're feeling, that feeling in your stomach that things are not right,

is in and of itself a reason to go, to change, to adjust? And two, you don't start with the answers. You pick up answers along the way. You look in the mirror, you say, okay, I'm ready for more. You step out the front door and then you collect results. It is not the other way around. And I think that's the problem. You know, people conflate that thing they need with a complete solution.

When in reality, the thing you need most very often isn't a complete solution, but it is a bridge from where you are now to a process of recreating yourself. In fact, one of my favorite anecdotes is by John Maxwell, the grocery store at night. Right? You walk out of the grocery store, you have your bags, it's dark, it's pitch, black. It's unsettling. But you make your way to the car. Put your bags in the trunk, you get in,

turn the headlights on. And what do those lights give you? They give you just enough to pull out of the parking space. Can't see anything behind you or what's going on around you, but the lights give you enough to pull out of the space. And then they give you just enough to get to the edge of the parking lot.

And then they give you just enough to turn on to the street. And then just enough to make a right turn at the stop. sign and onto the main road and on and on and on until you arrive at your house. And so the question worth all the money in the world is, did you have all the answers at the beginning? Was the whole path lit up for you before you got in the car? Absolutely not. But what you had was enough to begin the process of getting from where you were to where you needed to be. And so you made the decision to get in the car and turn the lights on.

Now, using that exact same metaphor, think about how crazy, counterproductive, just nonsensical it is to stay in that parking lot in the dark with your groceries. Because there's no light illuminating every step, because you can't, where you stand, see the entire path. No, the decision,

to get in the car is the one decision that separates you from a totally different life. It's what begins the process of the snowball becoming an avalanche. It's the small thing that ultimately becomes monumental. See, life is peaks and its valleys, its seasons, its highs, and its lows. But I'll tell you, many of you are standing in the dark right now, keys in your pocket, an arm's length away, hesitant to get in and turn it on because, well, who knows what will happen when you pull out of the parking lot? But here's another way to ask the question. Who cares? Give yourself some credit. Trust yourself to figure things out, right? Losing is not starting

into adventure and getting lost. That's life. You'll make adjustments and figure it out. Losing is staying where you are in the dark because you're afraid, because you don't have all the answers, because you don't know everything, because you're not a God that can predict the future and understand and see what's lurking around every corner. Winners didn't start with more answers. They started with the courage to step into the dark in pursuit of those answers. They trusted themselves to day by day attack the puzzle and the mystery that is life. You have what you need and you have it now.

Let the fact that things are misaligned, that your soul is telling you things are not right, that more is out there, that you can be better, let that be your green light. And your decision to go, again, may not air drop you at a finish line or a mountain top. But it will be enough to start that process. It will be enough to empower you, to remind you that you are one decision away from starting the journey that will change your life. Be loved or be hated, but never simply tolerated.

In life, you can live to chase up. opportunity where you can live to avoid failure. And there are two very different things. Rather than pursue, we often avoid, we avoid failure, we avoid criticism, we don't want to ruffle feathers or disrupt. No, we choose to simply exist. Never condemned, but never extraordinary, just tolerated. And it's an interesting dilemma, because the best things

exist on the extremes, life's fringes. That's where you find your accolades, your accomplishments. That's what we celebrate. It's where you need to be. And you get there not by worrying about what everyone around you thinks, but by taking your strength, your unique self holding on and pressing the pedal to the floor going all in. And yeah, that means suddenly, my friend, You are exposed. You are vulnerable.

You are now out there. It means those who don't have the courage to chase their dreams, they will find you threatening and they will let you know. But it also means that the shackles, the door is open. The light is green and you can build from the ground up. You can build the life you want. The finish line has now become more visible than the prospect of falling along the way. and you've granted yourself permission to run through it.

Sure, some will love you for these accomplishments, some will hate you for these accomplishments, but let me reiterate the word accomplishment. Because when you live to be invisible, it's a term that rarely presents itself, I promise. Life, it rewards the bold. Those who are bold in their beliefs, bold in their actions, their dreams, and their pursuits.

They are not for anyone but you. And years later, when you look in the mirror, you'll know that you gave every single thing you had to a life that meant something to you. Loved, yes. Hated, sure, but merely tolerated, no. This is your reminder that it's not permanent. Whatever it is you're going through, whatever

as you're fighting, feeling, or up against, it's not permanent. It will subside in what you'll be left with is the calm and the peace and the power that was there the entire time just underneath the surface that never truly left. See, we tend to do something.

And this something, is the root of a lot of our struggle and pain. This something is particularly in the moment thinking that what we're going through now will last forever. It's the misconception that it's not a temporary battle, but a life sentence. We're incapable of looking beyond the immediate.

And I'm here now to remind you it's temporary. It's all temporary. The question is not, will the storm pass? The question is, even though it hurts, can you, will you pick your head up and move through it? And I know in the storm it's hard to see anything other than those gray skies, the thunder, the lightning, the black. I'm not asking you to blink and see some imaginary sunny day. I'm asking you to keep walking even though you feel like you can't. I know it hurts. I know it seems crazy.

But I'm asking you to keep one foot in front of the other until once again you find yourself. Someone once told me success is often a matter of merely hanging on when most would be letting go. And that stuck with me. I think of it often because when I'm, in pain, there comes with it an anxiety, almost a pressure, to find solutions, to remove the problem. What if it doesn't go away? What if this chaos is now just life? But that quote reminds me that I don't

have to pull a rabbit out of a hat or run into any miracles. I simply have to hold on. I have to believe in myself enough, trust in the process, enough to not back down or hide or cower. But continually, like those buffalo are said to do, move right into the heart of the storm. And know that when all is said and done, only one of us will remain and it won't be the storm. See, what you probably don't hear enough is the world needs you

because of sure, who you are now, but who you'll be on the other side. And so the question is, will you commit to pushing through? What you probably don't hear enough is people need you. Absolutely because of who you are in this moment, but also because you're the type of person who overcomes the storm and finds a way through. My question remains the same. Will you find the courage to meet those? on the other side.

There's one true thing about all storms. They come and they go. And we often can't control when, why, where, or how long they exist. Well, it's just sometimes life pulls the strings. But we can be sure that if we hold on and just keep going, remember our worth,

There's a world that awaits. One maybe you can't see now. One that might not even make sense now, but a new world entirely. I once heard a speaker from a stage. Ask the audience if they want a $20 bill. Of course, everyone raises their hand. He crumples it up, says, now who wants it?

Everyone's hands still raised. He then proceeds, what if I do this, drops it on the ground, stomps on it. Picks it up, shows the crowd. $20 bills and a ball all dirty. Anyone still want it? All hands remained up. So he doesn't matter what he did to the money.

Value stayed the same. It's worth $20. Many times in our lives, he goes on to say, we do bad things or in bad situations, bad circumstances. We feel like we have no worth. But like that $20 bill, we never lose that value. That value exists when you are in pain. That calm exists underneath the turbulence.

That sun lives beyond the clouds. It's never gone or diminished because of one's current state. When all you see is what's not there, it's not because you're alone or that you've somehow diminished in value. It's because you're pushing through. your story just as I'm pushing through mine. It's because you're seeing a crumpled up $20 bill and not its worth, not the true impact that exists and that awaits.

So whatever you do, keep pushing. Keep going. Keep looking for the other side. Whether you can see it now or not, it is waiting for you. And hopefully, innately, you understand that. Not because life as you hoped or wanted was returned to you, but because just like your worth, it was there the whole time. A letter to the lost.

Look around you. See how none of this makes sense. See how there are more questions. Then answers. See how every step feels more and more isolated and detached from intentionality, void of any meaningful trajectory. We'll take that. Push it aside for a second and listen.

Because underneath, just underneath, there exists perhaps the most valuable undertaking of your life. That's right, the deserts of life, the valleys of despair, those chapters of wandering, they are what make you, what define you. The little trick life plays, though, is that you can't see that value until you're removed from it. Just like a fish has no idea it's in water. Water is the only existence the fish has ever known. You are moving through the most important value. precious season of your life, disguised as, you guessed it, the least important and least

valuable season of your life. I was recently at a lunch with some folks in the Phoenix area. A friend of mine said something that since the words left his mouth, I haven't been able to stop thinking about. He was a few seats down and in the middle of a story, but I could overhear it, right? And right in the middle of his story, he says, you know, I had the opportunity to have my assets frozen by my ex and live off of $200 a month. My instinct upon hearing that was to laugh, right? I was like, there we go.

A little bit of that New England sarcasm down here in the desert. And I smile and I look over, and he's not smiling. In fact, I was the only person at the table smiling. And the light bulb goes off and it's like, oh, my guy is serious. And he was. He goes on about being grateful for the reset and how he's looking forward to getting out there and building again. The dude's incredibly good at what he does so I can only imagine.

But you can see how that would be jarring to hear. It's just so different than the norm, especially just in casual discourse. and what a perspective. How beautiful, right? The things we can take from our low point. The gold we can extract from our struggle. The value is there, that's objectively true. The challenge is the choice we're given,

whether or not we see it, choose to see it, whether the adversity wrecks you or transforms you. Whether it becomes something meaningful or whether it kind of subtly slips away unnoticed. One of the things that I'm asked, probably more than any other, when I'm on podcasts, I'm just kind of chopping it up, is Eddie, what advice or what do you have for someone

who's going through the thick of it? Usually in the context of, you know, the toughest years of building this company. It's like, well, what about other people going through that? They feel stuck or lost or forgotten by life. What's something that could elevate them? And, you know, my response is always the same. It's good. Because some people don't get the luxury of being lost.

Some people are never pushed to change. Life doesn't take them to their knees. And you might think, well, that's a good thing. But it's not, because the lack of adversity removes the very incentive required for evolution. Our time lost is time spent in recreation. One of my favorite examples of this is author J.K. Rowling. You know, when she was at her lowest point, you know, broke, I assume, just scared and, you know, definitely amidst the chaos of life.

And she's sitting down at a cafe scratching, you know, notes into a notebook with her baby next to her, accepting payments from, you know, the government trying to make ends meet. And that becomes her foundation for a work of art that would change human history in many ways. And it's like those moments in time could easily be an unraveling. I could easily see a situation where that's her excuse to call it quits or hide or, you know, become a victim of sorts. But instead it empowers greatness. There's something to that idea of the phoenix rising from the ashes.

It's a phrase heard all the time. It's pretty common, but it's not just mythology. To me, it's the perfect metaphor. Some things must be destroyed before they can be reborn. Like that mythological bird that bursts into flames before rising again. Those moments of despair push us to rethink and reimagine and redefine. and redefine. Those moments,

living off your metaphorical $200 a month, help us both understand what truly matters and simultaneously appreciate the abundance that we were otherwise so accustomed to, that perhaps we took for granted, we thought nothing of.

These chapters of life will be the most important. And I say this, you know, not as, reassurance for the sake of reassurance. This is not, you know, the trio on the Titanic playing their instruments, you know, as the ship sank. I'm saying this to remind you how much value surrounds you and to perhaps incentivize you to keep going. Sometimes we need to be reminded that every storm ends.

And on the other side, we step out not the same as we stepped in. Believe in your becoming. And it doesn't make sense now. That's the crux of all this. That's what I want to emphasize. It does not make sense now. But that's okay. It will.

In fact, I'll refer you to the ever-relevant Steve Jobs quote. He says, you cannot connect the digital. dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something. Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. And these chapters of not knowing, the wandering, they are nothing more than a connection of dots in real time. It's the magic coming to life before your very eyes, where the pain becomes the opportunity,

not only to escape it, but to transcend it. Like the phoenix, to chase down worlds anew, that are longing to be discovered that are in this very moment, not only waiting, but waiting. They call it failure when your body gives out. When you hit the ground, shaking, breathless. But what they don't see is that moment is sacred.

It's where effort becomes art, where pain becomes proof. You collapsed, not because you're weak, but because you had the courage to go there. You touched the edge of yourself, and through that struggle, earned the right to rise anew. Last week, I got the opportunity to train with Eric. And although now I call Eric a friend, at the time I knew of him merely as the trainer or engine behind some of the names in fitness and personal development that I looked up to the most. The man silently behind the scenes pushes others to find more in themselves. One of my favorite examples being he is the spotter and trainer in the infamous David Gagins video

when David's yelling, who's going to carry the boats? I refer to these people as Hamiltonian, is there somewhat behind the scenes, right? but pulling strings and shaping reality as it appears on stage. No one wins alone. And Eric is that support for so many. Your win is his win. Your breakthrough is his breakthrough. And so when I was asked to train with him, you know, it was an obvious no-brainer.

Let's see how hard we can stretch things. Let's push some boundaries today. I show up. He introduces himself, explains a bit about the problem, process and says, Eddie, we're about to go on a journey. I want you to imagine you're in a race car. Pick a color. Okay, I say, certainly intrigued. We'll go black and teal. Great. Now, Eddie, I want you to picture someone you love writing shotgun with you. Can you do that?

Sure. I close my eyes for a second. Got it. Okay, perfect. So Eddie, when you are at your lowest point, when you're really fighting, I want you to imagine that person's face, and I want you to do it for them. Because we don't just grow and evolve for ourselves. We push and we stretch for those we love the most. Those counting on us, those depending on us. Got it. And note that I'm paraphrasing, of course. But he ends the intro with what we're going to do today is earn our failure.

And this little piece right here is what I saw is absolutely transformative. We're going to earn our failure. He continues, Eddie, I've worked with some of the biggest names on earth, the fittest people on earth. All of them have failed. All of them. And that right there is the magic, the beauty. When we fail, we change. We become that much closer to the divine.

When we earn our failure, we give ourselves permission to grow. When we fail, life begins. So today, this morning, how about we earn our failure? Let's go. So we stretch, jump right into the workout, beginning with what I'm guessing is 15 to 20 minutes of squats, jump squats, lunges, all lower body stuff. And, you know, I think to myself immediately, this is my strength, right? I'm confident.

Going back to the four years of rowing in college that has become, to this day, sort of a foundation for my physical ability. Metabolic conditioning, no problem, right? At least that was the story in my head. But we lock in, start the intervals, and sure enough, while the confidence was great, I quickly realized that none of that mattered. After about six minutes, my entire body was screaming. Quads were spasming in in active rebellion.

Probably been about 10 years since I've gone that long without a single momentary pause, without a break. And he's screaming the entire time, Eddie, let yourself fail. You've got this. Fail. In my mind, there was this defense mechanism without even realizing it. When my body was at the brink of failure,

do these little bounces or pulses at the bottom of a hold to mitigate tension, or I would adjust slightly enough that the pain and the weight could be redistributed. I come from the school of, it doesn't matter how you get there, just figure out a damn way. And, you know, there's certainly a time and a place for that. But the vulnerability, the nakedness of staying locked into something until you physically collapse and fall. That was tough.

My mind desperately wanted to prevent failure every time it felt itself getting close. Every time it could feel the pulsing resistance getting stronger and stronger. If it weren't for Eric's reoccurring screams, let yourself fail, Eddie. I would have probably buried the notion as I attempted to adjust my way through the hell,

I was experiencing. Let yourself fail. Earn that failure. Gift yourself that failure. Again and again and again. Moved on to 20 minutes or so, of course. Straight abs, no breaks, no rest. And anyone who's done something like this probably knows that,

sure, your abs obviously get worked. But kind of an unknown thing is that after minutes of flutter kicks and bicycles and leg raises, so on and so far, forth, your legs get heavy. And again, my brain said, no, not on my watch, right? Without even realizing it, I would attempt to flutter kick holding up my legs with my hands, right, refusing to let them hit the ground. That is until I heard the words, let them fall, Eddie.

Let them hit the ground. Let yourself fail. And so I let go of control. I let them fall and fall they did, giving me about a three-second reprieve from the chaos before I gathered myself and entered the fight again. And again and again, I think I probably failed four or five times. But rising each time, collecting myself, reframing the experience and carrying on.

Segment by segment, exercise by exercise, we got through it. Finally, we stood up, sat against the padded wall in the gym, and talked about the session, talked about life. And I quickly realized perhaps the line separating the two was finer than I may have realized. We don't give ourselves permission to expand until we earn failure in our lives. Until we travel out to the brink of who we are and let ourselves hit the ground. until we carry so much weight that it ultimately levels us because every time we start again, not only are we a little bit stronger,

but we begin to realize that if that was the worst case, that if I swallowed my pride, let it all come crashing down and still I rose. Still I asked for more. Still I showed up. What can stop me? What out there is bigger than me?

What out there is so scary that it can halt my upward trajectory. The challenge is, and always will be, finding the strength to let yourself. To not hedge, to not look for off-ramps, to not hold yourself up, but for a time fully disassemble. Have you ever been driving and. remind it yourself to relax your muscles. Let your shoulders down, loosen up your back. You realize how tight you were, right? How you were holding yourself up. Deep inhale and with the exhale, you intentionally relax. Let it all sort of melt. That tension we didn't even realize was there until it crossed our mind. I think the same thing is true when it comes to the vulnerability of

failure. We often, without knowing it, want to shield or protect ourselves from it, right? The natural thing is to be safe. We are biologically designed for safety above all. But the thing is, in order to water the seed that is your infinite upside, you cannot be, quote unquote, safe. You can't stay in the middle insulated from the chaos and turbulence of the outer edge. We must walk. We must walk to the periphery of what we know, to the edge of who we are and allow ourselves to fail, to earn that chance to gain strength and composure, to break down our worldview and self-image so that it can be rebuilt. I promise you, it's there.

It's there for me, it's there for you. And it is the bridge connecting where you are now to where you can be. And so the question is not how do we move forward while avoiding failure. The question is how do we earn failure again and again? How do we reprogram our minds to see it as a beautiful necessity, a step forward? Falling while continuously standing tall and marching towards that horizon with trust and conviction, trust in the process and trust in ourselves. Because in a world where falling is scoffed at, right,

look down upon and considered a negative, only a few, a select few, a great few, see through it. Find the strength to accept it and embrace it. And I think that's the question we're playing with here. Will you be vulnerable enough to let your legs surrender to gravity and your body hit the floor. In a world where biologically we want comfort and societally we're inclined to merely tiptoe through life,

will you choose to earn failure? Thank you for the spirit. Thank you for the blood, the love, the strength, allowing us to connect, dive into the deeper connection with this. The pain of hesitation often hurts worse than the very fall we're afraid of. And when you learn this, you can be proactive in mitigating that pain, the self-induced torture that is waiting,

the agony of knowing something more is required of you, but refusing to act, because that little purgatory is a special kind of hell. Check this out. Quick metaphor. We'll call it the man on the high dive. So this man wanted to jump off the high diving board at the community pool. So he walks up and he begins slowly ascending the ladder. His hands, you know, sweating against each metal rung as he makes his way up. And below, only a few minutes before, the entire thing seemed manageable.

fun even but now as he makes his way to the top and stands on the edge looking down at the water below this simple activity now feels impossible everything's different

the air is much thinner up there his heartbeat thuds in his ears he wraps his toes over the rough surface of the board gripping it like the ledge of the side of a mountain.

And he's telling himself, okay, it's time. Like, go, just jump. But his body's refusing. He turns, glances back down the ladder. He's got that sort of chirping in his ear. Hey, you know, you could just climb back down. People do that all the time. No big deal.

And then, you know, something relatively unexpected happens. A boy, let's say no more than 10, starts making his way up the ladder. He gets to the top, kind of peeks his head over the board, and bright-eyed, obviously unbothered by the height. And he asked the man, hey, are you going to jump? And the man, you know, pretty embarrassed at this point, says, well, I don't know yet. And the kid shrugged and in complete innocence, right, just speaking his mind goes, that used to happen to me. The longer I'd wait up there, the harder it would get.

The man laughed, you know, but he knew it wasn't funny, it was true. Bothered him. And suddenly another realization crept in, right? This is not about the jump, but about the weight of standing there. Because just like the innocent child suggested, the longer he waited, the worse it felt. And that feeling already had him in crisis territory. It's not just the fear, but the frustration, the doubt, the slow, gnawing discomfort of knowing he'd climbed all the way up there. Would he really just darned back?

He looked down at all the eyes, the pool, staring up at him. What a situation? Right now, the guy's in a place of limbo, right? It's like, do you step into the courage, do something you've never done, or do you back out entirely? And, you know, retreat back to the only world you've ever. ever known taking some perhaps regret and what ifs along with you. Because that is the thing, right? Fear doesn't just stop you from jumping. It changed you to perhaps the worst place of all, the in-between. Not quite safe, no, but certainly not free either.

And sometimes that place, that limbo between who you are and who you could be hurts more than the fall ever could. He started realizing this. with increasing intensity. The mental discomfort had gotten to the point where, you know, the fall is preferable, right? So he took a breath and before his brain could talk him out of it, before fear could take hold, he stepped off the edge. And for a moment there was nothing, right? Just stillness, weightlessness.

And then impact. The water of the pool swallowed him whole, cool, refreshing, washing away every ounce of doubt. Right, he broke the surface, gasping for air. And then he felt it. Joy, relief, pride. That feeling when you do what you've most needed to do. Because the truth had always been waiting for him at the bottom, right? The pain of hesitation had been far worse than the fall,

which seems to be the way of things. This is not exclusive to our friend on the diving pool. I'd venture to guess we all have those little diving boards in our lives. Some greater and far more consequential than others. They come and they go as we navigate life, but they're there consistently. And I can only speak to my own experience, right? The biggest obstacles I face, they rarely are, quote unquote, mistakes. Usually they're a product of moving too slow, waiting too long, thinking,

too small. I was having dinner with a friend of mine a few weeks ago, kind of joking about this particular area that I'm stuck in, right? Hamström and a wheel vibes. And he goes, nah, man, you're not stuck. You're scared. And my first thought is, what? Right? It's defense mode. It's like, no, I'm not, actually. My brain goes into, like, you know, how I identify myself or how I see myself. I'm like, think about all the torture I put myself through. Over the years, are you kidding me? All the growth, intentional suffering, just for the sake of becoming the person that I knew I could be.

Just for the thrill of climbing the ladder, you're going to tell me I'm scared? And then I thought about it, right? While that may be true, and you can't negate, you know, battles fought in the past, that was one mountain top. But that one mountain top had become life, right? And you can stay there, and you can call that home.

Or you can continue evolving, seeking out new mountaintops. Sometimes we don't even realize we've been stagnant, right? Especially if it's one of life's blind spots, which, funny enough, was precisely what was creating that anxiety. It was craving growth, you know, standing on that diving board. And life requires less contemplation up there and more jumping into pools. I just needed to hear that. And I truly cherish things like this, these little wake-up calls, these moments that shake up your worldview.

They direct you to a better version of yourself. So what I advocate that you consider is whether there is any of that internal conflict happening right now in your life that you can bring awareness to, whether you've been standing up there looking down at the jump for just a little too long now. Perhaps life is waving you forward, pushing you on. You've been ignoring that call, thinking about what to go wrong, gazing down below and feeling like, you know, the bottom is light years away. Because the solution, my friends, will almost never be further contemplation. It's in momentum.

Mobility. allowing life to take you by the hand and educate you. Free yourself from that in between. Because the impact of your feet hitting the water might shock you, sure, it might be startling. Might even leave you a little red, right? Who knows? But the freedom from knowing you can, from knowing that the heights weren't enough to stop you, that you got the experience, the adrenaline, the rush, the excitement as you made your way through the air,

That's what life is about. So remember, wherever you stand, whatever jump currently awaits, any impact into the pool that calls you will be less severe than the pain or even suffering of hesitation. The purgatory of being indecisive. Because after all, no decision is still a decision, and perhaps the most painful decision, the most costly of decisions.

Jump knowing that you're leaping not just away from stagnation, not just away from that discomfort or that pain, but further into life. The other day, a good friend of mine sent me a message that was exactly what I needed to hear, exactly when I needed to hear it. And more or less, it's a paraphrasing of a quote that says,

if you're going to be creative, you have to be in a state of play. And you can't be in a state of play if you're fearful, if you're worried about messing up or making mistakes. Here's something interesting I've observed. In order to build something, you have to be. creative. In a way, intentionally reckless. You have to take risks and put yourself out there. And then hopefully after some time living this way, the milestones begin to accumulate. But, and this is the shift I've noticed in myself, the more you accomplish or the closer you get

to that goal, the more your brain wants to transition from creative, to protect her, from being bold to conserving. We want to hold on to what we've brought to life more than we want to innovate. It's protect the castle on the hill that was, ironically, born of your creativity to begin with. And I know this isn't the way I want to live. But nevertheless, it's true. It's an example of me finding myself fighting with my biological wife. Hey, courage got you here.

It waters the seed of growth. It brought forth transformation. Abandoning it is a spiritual death wish. Yet, if I let myself run on default mode, and I know a lot of us are the same, courage just so happens to be the very first thing to go. And so the question reverts back to, if you really want more, of the excitement, more of the growth, the beauty in conquering life's obstacles, the meaning in diving headfirst into chaos so that it can be tamed and channeled. How do we place ourselves back

into that state of play? That perpetual state of play. Back before I started my own business, I was working in the corporate world, creating onboarding curriculum. for new hires in the insurance industry. I would explain to kids out of college the basic ins and outs of the industry and why it was relevant. And one of the key ideas was risk mitigation. That's what insurance is, right?

It's diversification of risk. I even think about it now. When I see my cell phone close to the edge of a countertop, my brain goes, no, no, no. And I go to pick it up, place it to the center of the tip. table or in my pocket where the likelihood of a $1,500 device falling and exploding on the kitchen floor is greatly reduced. And that's a good thing.

Time and place, for sure. But in our personal lives, it also happens that the beauty, the fun, the excitement, and the growth takes place on the counter's edge. It is dancing through life's fringes. that we find ourselves. There's some truth to the idea that, hey, we might fall from the countertop and crash onto the floor and, you know what, fine.

Be at peace with that possibility. It's not a call for recklessness, but a reminder that a life fully lived is inherently more risky than one where you are safe. See, life is a game of trade-offs, innovation comes from play. Play is not safe because there is a largely increased likelihood of mistakes. There's freedom.

There's exploration. It's removing the guardrails and immersing yourself into life. And if you feel stuck or that life has become mundane, perhaps it's because risk mitigation is taking the wheel and play has found itself in the backseat. Maybe it's that simple. Maybe it's time to step outside and live again. To remember that play brings with it its mistakes, sure. But contrary to what our lizard brains want us to think,

most mistakes are reversible. And using that same little metaphor, one's phone falling onto the floor and shattering doesn't mean a person can never make a call, send a text or use social media again, right? It's a temporary inconvenience in the grand scheme of things until they normalize. I think we want to live in a manner that makes possible the upside.

Not one that hides us away and reduces the potential downside. Again, the quote, if you're going to be creative, you have to be in a state of play, and you can't be in a state of play. being careful if you're trying not to make mistakes. So take some time and think. Ask the questions that if you don't ask yourself, it will very likely go unanswered forever. What does play mean to you? What does it look like? And is it time for you to step back into that feeling? You being here alive today comes with odds said to be one in 400 trillion, essentially impossible.

If you want to look around for miracles, look no further than the mirror. And so don't lock yourself away until that ride expires. Don't spend your time protecting mediocrity. Step outside and cash in that check. Invite the play, the uncertainty, the mistakes, and the growth. Because as far as I know, there is no situation where one regrets inviting into their soul more of life. The words I am are a spotlight used to highlight the parts of you that you want to illuminate. Those two words are a portal through which massive transformation.

I am strong, says the man in the mirror, as this newly crafted identity takes him by the hand and leads him to the gym to lift weights. I am talented, competent, relentless, says the woman over coffee, before walking into work and moving one step closer to that promoting, She's been working for.

One of my favorite ideas, people follow through on who they believe themselves to be. Always. But this power is a tool. And tools can be used for good or they can be used for bad. They can be used to build or they can be used to tear down. It's up to the person carrying out the task. The words I am, right, those beautiful life-altering words, they can also become a jail cell that surrounds the now and keeps it exactly as it is.

And you know what I mean. I can't. Sorry, I am not a morning person. I am unathletic. I am slow. I am not like those financially well-off people. They're different. I am simply not ready.

Well, used that way, right? Those words, they're a sealed fate. Because we only act in ways congruent with how we see ourselves. Again, who we believe ourselves to be. See, a lot of these things come to me, at least initially, in ways I like to describe as woo-woo, right? I'm a pretty practical person. So when someone says something like, you know, Eddie, law of attraction,

You know, put pictures all over your bedroom and, you know, it'll come true. What you see, what you look at will materialize. That scoff, right? Looking at boats, unfortunately, doesn't drop you onto the deck of one. But then, when I let my little ego chill out a bit, and I thought through the idea practically, it's like, well, maybe there's something to this. Maybe looking at those things simply remind you that they're possible. That boat, that mansion, the love of your life, that dream body, whatever it is.

It's not some far-fetched narrative written for someone else. No, that's obtainable. That's for you. Maybe I can have that too. And then maybe those results change the standard. They change the expectations I set for myself. And then, and this is the needle mover, because of that, I start acting in a way congruent with those standards. I bring it to life. Boots on the ground, doing the work, creating the change.

It wasn't magic. It was just a shift in narrative. I think we all understand at a deep level, people tend not to acquire things they don't believe are possible to acquire. That's why so much lack in our lives can be remedied by. a mindset change. You don't step out your front door if you don't believe there's anything worthwhile out there. Which brings me back to those precious words,

I, and they're precious, because they are a permission slip from you to you. To be that person you most want to be, to create the change you most need to see. Being in and around, you know, the personal development space for so long, I've kind of seen a tug of war with the idea, fake it until you make it.

A lot of people have different takes, different philosophies on it. Some people say, you know, do it, act like it. Why not? Other people say, don't lie to yourself. Go earn that confidence. To which I say, they're both the same thing.

The idea is not to deceive yourself. I'm going to paraphrase Tony Robbins again, here, the idea is not to close your eyes and say, there's no weeds in my garden, there's no weeds in my garden, open them and hope that the weeds are gone. It's about giving yourself a target to hit. It's about wearing the shoes so that every step you take in them becomes a little more real to you. Let's face it, right? You live with a healthier lifestyle if you say I'm a healthy person than if you were to walk around saying I'm an unhealthy slob, but I'm trying. You will act who you believe yourself to be.

It is that simple. So we rig the game in our favor. Be very methodical with the words you place after I am. They are precious. They are the gatekeepers. I am what? Yeah, but Eddie, I'm not in shape and I want to be. It doesn't make any sense to walk around saying I am in shape.

Okay. How about I am healthy? I am working every day to get stronger. I am the type of person who finds a way. I am driven. I am focused. If you believe yourself to be those things, you've built a foundation more than strong enough

to support the goal, to support you getting in shape. That's what this is about. Creating a foundation for you to evil. The relationship you have with yourself, it sets the precedent for everything in your life. So cherish it, to respect it, see the power contained in the words you utter about yourself. I am on the journey of a lifetime.

I am happy. I'm healthy. I'm talented. I'm kind. I am grateful. How about you?