Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You Can ONLY Improve What You Focus On...So Choose Wisely | Morning Motivational Speeches

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

In this episode, Eddie revisits the parable of the two wolves and reframes it for real life. It’s not about “good vs. evil,” it’s about attention, meaning, and what you choose to nurture. Through personal stories from Covid, failed ventures, and the creation of AGNS, Eddie shows how the wolf you feed becomes the path you walk.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#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

The parts of you you choose to nurture are the parts that will grow the strongest. Your thoughts, habits, focus determines which wolf inside you wins the battle. Let's go back in time to one of the most powerful stories I've ever come across. The Tale of Two Wolves. It's one of the first stories I've ever told on this podcast. At the time, only a YouTube channel. And in a few sentences, I want to quickly revisit it. You'll understand why in a second.

There's an old parable about a grandfather and his grandson. They're sitting around a campfire, the grandfather's telling his grandson a tale of two wolves. One wolf is good, and he's joy, kindness, strength, love. The other's evil, envy, betrayal, hate. And they battle nonstop, every day, in fact. And the grandson looks at his grandfather, mid-story. He says, well, grandpa, which one wins?

To which the grandfather replies, whichever one you feed. And when I first heard this story, the tale of two wolves, I thought it was about good versus evil. It's a very simple dichotomy, right, an easy thing to comprehend. No overthinking required. But old man, Panero over here, 38 years under my belt, you know, I look at this a little bit differently than I did a decade ago. mainly because I've come to realize that life is just a bit more complex than that, a bit more nuanced.

10, 11 years later, it's less about morality and virtue attached to a particular wolf and more about understanding your personal power, understanding it's less about morality and more about attention because the truth is what you give your energy to grows teeth. Is aggression, for example, always bad? Definitely not. Is skepticism always bad? Certainly not. Is vulnerability always good?

Absolutely not. There's too much gray space in the world to speak in absolutes. But what I've found, and why I still believe this is such a powerful parable, is because it emphasizes that what you water grows. What you give your attention to responds. What you give your energy to will evolve. And when a situation occurs, there's almost always the opportunity to see the negative, to play victim, to feel sorry for yourself.

That's sort of the natural inclination. It's like to dwell on what's missing. And that's not necessarily evil, as much as it's just not conducive to an ideal outcome. It reminds me that when life gets difficult, it will simultaneously become more difficult to feed the wolf that's best for us in the long term. The wolf containing rationality. The wolf that understands one step forward can change everything. Life's not ending.

Things aren't over. But that's the very wolf that requires nourishment. That is the wolf we want to equip with teeth. I want to give some real life examples. I'll start with some obvious ones and everyone here will remember, right? COVID, that chapter of life and how our governments, for the most part, essentially shut the world down, right? People were losing jobs, economies were crashing.

It's insane to look back on. I mean, that immediately put an end to a huge part of my business, right? Like so many people, the keynotes I was doing regularly, the time I was helping a handful of clients write speeches and make videos, almost all of them had to drop me for budget reasons. And I remember at that time that feeling, right? I was feeding the wolf who constantly whispered of despair, my defeat. I felt like I was suffocating, right?

There was genuine fear for a while. Because that was the voice I entertained, the fire I pumped oxygen into. Until I had this realization that, look, someone's going to win from this. And it can't just be Zoom and pharmaceutical companies, right, who are taking home the W. Why not me? If clients are gone, if speaking is a no-go, find another way to win.

Make your YouTube channel double down as a podcast, post more regularly, create longer content. Expand your online footprint. If the stage is no longer an option, blow up the digital realm. Right? And the COVID situation became my springboard because eventually I fed that wolf. And again, please understand this is not some type of world. weird flex. This is just saying there was a clear fork in the road there. Years later, I've always had this dream of starting an apparel company. And in roughly 2023, I started one called Levels.

I don't know if you remember that. And it was an incredible lesson, you know, but the wheels fell off the wagon. Really, I look back now, it wasn't the right message. Didn't completely align with my business partners on the North Star, found myself working parts of the business that, I'll be honest, I had no business being involved in, not because I couldn't, but because I couldn't well. I'd moved out of my lane in the thing that I'm truly great at. So I decided to give the company to my partner and just walk away,

needed to reassess things. And you bet there was a wolf in my ear saying that that was a terrible decision, that I screwed up, that I should have kept fighting, until it felt aligned. That I could have figured out sourcing and materials and logistics and all that stuff, that I was a failure for walking away.

But I realized how important that stop was. Because just like in other parts of life, understanding what you don't want is critical for both understanding and getting to what you do want. Eventually, I cut that negative feedback loop. I started feeding the wolf who was grateful for that experience and eventually started a new fitness and apparel company. AGNS, always grateful, never satisfied.

And that's name is not a coincidence. But check this out. First priority was the people. One of my partners has been with Adidas, fanatics, go rock, and the list goes on, right? The others coached and worked with some of the most talented endurance athletes in the world. And this allows me to focus on what I'm best. From my mistakes, I've been able to better create an environment for winning. You can turn the times you fall into a reason to walk away, to feel defeat, or they can

become a reason to show up again better equipped. That is the decision, that is the fork in the road before you. Good or bad has nothing to do with it. It's situational. context. It's what's going to get you over the hump because that right now requires your energy. What you choose to water now will grow. So as you navigate through life, remember the old adage, you know, life is 90% what happens to you and 10% what you do about it. It's how you react to what is placed before you. If you feed the wolf of doubt and insecurity, it's

gonna grow teeth, it will consume you. But if you learn, on the other hand, to depersonalize failure, if you feed the wolf that says, hey, life is messy and complex, but you're capable of amidst all of it, finding the pieces you need that is precisely what you'll find. The wolf you feed develops teeth, the things you water, they will grow. It's not that you can control the world, but you can and do, control what those things mean. So before you assign meaning to what's laid out before you, remember what you want most. Visualize the steps to get there and be very thoughtful about what value you place where.

It's a decision that will either consume you or propel you forward. What's up, guys, Eddie here. And before 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. Sometimes I wonder why. Why does this season of life feel like it's one undesirable outcome after another? What happened to the law of averages?

When is the wind? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? Why would I continue going in this direction? When it feels like that spot on the horizon I've been chasing has eluded me. Why? Why? results not aligning with my output. It's hard to wake up and do this. It takes all of me to give this much. Sometimes I wonder where is the delayed gratification everyone speaks of? Where's the fruit of my labor, the arm on my shoulder that says this is why it was all worth it?

Why hasn't the payoff shown itself? Why? And why does it seem like every curveball materializes at the worst possible time. Why won't my body cooperate now when I need it most? Why does my mind play with the worst case scenarios? Why does an already challenging path have to be more difficult than it is now? How many ways do I have to feel pain? Why does discomfort follow me around? Why won't life let me shake this?

Why? Just maybe. It's to show you how strong you are. What you can endure. Because deep down, in your soul, you know you are the 1%. Because if you can push through this, you can push through anything. And I don't know why life gives us its lessons when it does.

Why the world seems to stack it on when we're at our most vulnerable. When the ground beneath us is most unstable. But if you can find the courage to step back and see this for what it is, if you can hold on to the idea that this is happening for you, you'll come out of this a different person.

You don't need to perform miracle when you're at your lowest. No, the courage, the power, the strength is in showing up. You need to continue forward. Let go of the week, the month, the year. Sometimes we are tasked with pushing through the moment, the moment, the hour, surviving the day. And sometimes there is nothing more courageous than that, nothing more powerful than seeing what it turns into down the road. when we look over our shoulders and are grateful we never stopped. So yes, this season might seem like a non-stop barrage of obstacles and misfortune. Why? Perhaps because it's life allowing you to plant your seed now

so that when spring comes around you are provided something you've never had before. You arrive at that spot in the horizon you've been aiming at. And yes, the results might not feel like they're aligning with your output. Why? Perhaps because when the compounding reaches that magical point, that point of statistical significance, and the desirable things happen then, as quickly as the difficult ones do now, it'll all make sense. You'll appreciate it, value it, and be equipped to handle it. And yeah, life might seem to be throwing you curveball after curveball.

Why? Perhaps because if you can trudge forward now when your body's tired while navigating the trials and tribulations of life, when you can bring greatness into existence under duress, just imagine what waits around the corner. Imagine how you'll perceive those seeming. impossible obstacles that slow everyone else down. There'll be nothing more than a cool breeze and a sunny day as you move towards your best self. Look, it's hard to understand when we are in it. It's hard to make sense of the dark and the chaos and the hurt, but find a way to remember.

No matter how hard it seems that this life is happening for you and not to you. This is the seed in the palm of your hand that will mean something that matters. So hold on. Hold on to see that seed begin to rise from the ground. Hold on to feel the warmth of the sun. Hold on through the storms of life. They will be why when you look back years from now. you'll have gotten from life that which was once merely a dream.

I was at my lowest, running through the desert. When my friend and trainer noticed the look on my face, my pace slowed a little bit. And he said, Eddie, you said you wanted change. Well, this is where change happens, rise to the occasion. And that may not seem like much. But that moment embedded something very important into my brain. It connected those moments of suffering to the outcome I so desperately want. Because as we all know, when you're in it, it's easy to see the occurrence in a vacuum.

To disassociate the pain with the result, right? Sometimes you even forget why you're doing it. Why put yourself through something when, I don't know, the rest of the world is at home watching the game, or having a beer. And what he did, making that statement, was put what's important front and center. It's like, oh, Eddie, you can have all those things. All of them. But this is the cost, your call.

Now that suffering takes on somewhat of a different shape. But it hurts. Well, of course it does. That's why very few people have the thing you want. That's why it's rare. It's why it means something. You know, some things are so simple that we have to step up a level beyond the excuses and the minutiae and the detail to understand. Desired result, price tag for that result.

Simple. This came to mind as I was thinking about this. Have you ever tried to open a beer bottle or a glass bottle of Coke? and you use anything using a bottle opener, right? And you're like, man, this is putting up a fight. And someone laughs and tells you it's a twist off. That's what rationalizing discomfort is. It's like, well, I don't really have to.

Or maybe, you know, if I stop for a few minutes, or I don't even know if this is the right decision and, you know, all the stories and nonsense you tell yourself. And in reality, it's like, if you want the thing, this is what it costs. If you want what's inside the bottle, stop creating all these unnecessary mechanisms to open it and twist the damn thing off. He said the same thing a few days later during a legs workout, doing some squats and lunges. And again, right behind me, Eddie, you said you wanted change.

Here is the change. Let's go. Let's say you. I think there's beautiful simplicity there. Because if you don't want the change or the results, no problem. Leave, go upstairs, put your feet up, have a coffee, enjoy. But if you do, again, here is the price. Just like you're walking down the aisle at a grocery store.

Numbers on a can, this is what it costs. I think it's a beautiful reminder to take outside of fitness as well. Perhaps it's even why fitness is so important. because when you're physically tapped out but continuing on, you're doing it for a future return. You can see the unseeable. You are betting on the unknown. Same thing with a business that's taking forever,

or giving you issues or presenting obstacles. The brain goes, ah, maybe this isn't for me. I'm not good. I'll do something else. But wait. No. That hell you're going through, is the cost of building a successful business.

It doesn't mean you're in the wrong arena. It means you are closer than you think. As Eric said to me, this is where change happens. Do you want it or not? Do you want the business or not? Because this uncomfortable feeling, this unknown, this waking up with stress and tension, it's a lot for some people.

That's why so many walk away. What are you going to do? Maybe you're fighting a different battle, together, health, diet, substance abuse. And you fell back on your old ways, you're looking in the mirror, disappointed. How? How? Again. How did I do this? But in reality, we're not perfect beings.

You took a micro loss. You're not proud of it. Perfect. Now what? This is where the change happens. What are you going to turn that pain into? Why not let it be the start of the best chapter? of your life because it can be. The reality is, and this is no secret or surprise,

everyone falls. Everyone. But what I've learned is how you see the fall is everything. What you turn the fall into is defining. See, every outcome is a fork in the road. It can be a reason to crumble or a reason to evolve.

The world doesn't care. The world just gives you the pieces and invites you to make of them what you will. As was said while I was hiking up a mountain the other day, the mountain is indifferent. Doesn't care, has no agenda, it just exists. It merely is. It's up to you to navigate. It's up to you to change, to become the type of person who can make the ascent. So next time you find yourself in one of those spots,

You know what I mean. The world pressing down on your shoulders. Life feeling dark and heavy. Maybe impossible. I want you to ask if you want what's on the other side. Because if you do, that discomfort does not mean you're further from glory. It means you are knocking on glory's door. You're paying the premium.

You're putting yourself through a battle that most do not and will not fight. So you want change perfect. This is where change happens. Take a second and decide whether you're willing to rise up and seize it. Are you giving everything you have? And no, I don't mean more than normal or quote unquote a lot. I mean everything. I'm currently reading the founder of Lulu Lemon, Chip Wilson,

and Chip Wilson's autobiography. And there's kind of a cool little side story in the book where, you know, he talks about his days of being a swimmer. And one of the races he competed in was the 100-meter backstroke, which is four lengths of the pool. And Chip mentions that the general strategy at this time was to conserve energy, right? And then on the final lap, you turn it on, right?

You give everything you have, So you finish with that energy, you know, look good at the finish line, and hopefully it's enough to kind of push you past the competition. And before one of his swim meets, his dad calls him up with an idea. He says, Chip, why don't, instead of conserving, you pretend this is only a 25-meter race, one lap, and you just go all out like a bat out of hell. You save nothing, one sprint.

And just see how your body adapts for the rest. I think he even jokes, hey, if you start drowning, buddy, I'll jump in and save you. And Chip, who's an admittedly mediocre swimmer at the time, he listened to his dad. And the race starts, he goes out as hard as he possibly can for the first 25. When all is said and done, you fast forward to the end of that race, not only did he win, he'd broken the Canadian record by an insane amount. I think it was like seven or eight seconds. Not because the race changed.

Because his perspective changed. The way he approached the race changed. And you think of all that potential, right? All of that energy just being wasted. It was kept in reserve to be used at a time that never arrived. Right? I mean, literally, the race would end before he could empty that tank out. And even with that sprint, who knows how much more he had left.

could have been more in the tank. And it's like when he figured that out, how much he was leaving on the table, it was game over. I had a coach in college who would say a similar thing. He was the freshman coach of the rowing team. Great coach and probably one of the funniest people I've ever known. He'd remind us that the starting line, I'll give you the G-rated version, he'd say, gentlemen,

go out with everything you have. Remember, it's better to go out too hard and empty your tank. too early than it is to cross that finish line, not having emptied your tank at all. Both of these little anecdotes, right, they paint a picture of the magnitude of human potential. How our default setting is to conserve, to protect, to not go all in. We let so much go to waste. We allow fear to dictate output as it shines a spot.

on a time that never comes, right? Why would you give everything? It's whispering, hey, but what if you're tired in the final 90 seconds? Save some. Hey, don't give everything. Hold back. Just gives us wrong info. And I'm obviously not saying, you know, start an ultramarathon at a sub five minute pace.

I'm just pointing out the truth that we keep too much in. There's more in us that never gets shown, never gets exposure. The reality is, if we all move that dial just a little further, if we acted like every day was a 25-meter sprint and not a small part of a 200 or 100 or a piece of a marathon, where could we be? See, the body has an incredible ability to adjust and recover. In fact, that's one thing that makes human beings so special. We can adapt.

And I know I've recently, with my own workouts, as a 38-year-old man, I'm getting better results now than I've ever gotten before. In part of that's because I'm understanding that if I push myself past the brink, the world does not implode. I just recover. and in fact I recover well. When you ask yourself for more than you've ever given, your body, what feels like miraculously, it finds a way.

You drop yourself into the maze of discomfort, you will find your way out. It's just that we don't often green light that journey. See, this isn't a story about right and wrong, it's a story about more. and the option before you, the opportunity before you. What happens when you press that pedal all the way to the floor? Do you know? Have you ever? When was the last time?

I'm not asking for anything you can't give. I'm not. But I am asking that you try and find that line between possible and impossible, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how, hard it is to find. Those endpoints they let you right through. Those fears are revealed to be nothing more than little ropes around the elephant's leg. When one realizes it can pull, when one understands his or her strength, the ropes never stood a chance. They were merely an illusion. So go out of the gate like your life depends.

on it like you trust yourself down the line to find a way because that's exactly what you will do elevated heart rate sweat dripping down the forehead lungs on fire all of it becomes elements of your symphony your crescendo forget what the fear is saying Forget that your mind is warning you about four minutes or ten minutes or fifteen minutes down the road. Stop saving the best of you for a time that will never come. It's your time now. If, if you see past the mirage that is fear and decide that it is. Life has a way of piling on.

And I think we've all been there, right? When one task becomes five, one missed day becomes a month without momentum. One small doubt becomes a fog you just can't shake. We try to do it all. Chase everything at once. The money, the body, the peace, the purpose, the perfect plan. we'll read every book, listen to every podcast, follow every productivity hack.

And slowly, even without realizing it, we become overwhelmed by our own ambition. We create so much clutter that we lose ourselves in it. Too much input. Too many opinions. Too many voices in our heads telling us who to be and what to do and how to live. And it's in these moments.

The heavy ones that I go back to perhaps the most powerful tool in my arsenal. Surprise, surprise, running. The goal is not to impress anyone. It's been a while since I've run for speed anyway. I'm not running to prove anything to the outside world. I run to remember. To strip away everything that doesn't matter. to filter the noise and return to something real.

Because running is, amongst other things, simple. In fact, it is perfectly simple, and that's why it's powerful. No titles or notifications, no algorithm. Just the earth beneath your feet and the breath in your lungs. There's one thing to do and one thing only. You keep going until you reach a destination. of your choosing. You push forward one step, then another.

No, not because the world told you to, but because you decided to. There's something sacred about that. And when the world feels complicated, we need something honest. When we're spinning our wheels, we need something that gives us momentum back. Sometimes it's just about a clear finish line.

Something we can reach, something we can earn, something we can look back at and say, that was me. I didn't. And that's why I run. Because the simplicity is what makes it so rich, so meaningful. It removes the extra and leaves only truth. What direction are you going and how quickly do you want to get the truth? there. There's not much room for additional detail or narrative in such an equation. I recently came across a story that I think echoes this idea. So bear with me. A curious man once visited a Zen

master. This dude was searching relentlessly. He wanted peace in his life. He had the resume and the degrees and the accolades and all that stuff. He traveled and meditated and studied. He achieved. He explained all this proudly, hoping the master would offer that one missing component, that final answer to complete his puzzle. He wanted peace. And the master listened, and then quietly picked up a teapot and began to pour. He filled the man's cup, and he kept pouring. And he kept pouring until the tea spilled over the edge onto the table, then onto the floor.

And alarmed the man shouted, stop, this cup is full. to which the master smiled and said, Exactly. You are like this cup, full of ideas, full of expectations, full of noise. And until you empty your cup, there's no room for anything meaningful.

The space is being occupied by the wrong things. And that one hit me, because man, he is in so many ways. Me, he's all of us. And running for me, is an effective way to empty that cup. It's not just exercise. It is a form of clarity.

It's manufacturing truth. It's the thing that pulls me out of the chaos and drops me back into presence. Where I feel weightless, not because I'm moving fast, but because I'm finally letting go. Self-created finish line steps to get there. That's all.

Things hurt. Okay. You adjust and figure out how to keep stepping forward. You get tired, fatigued. Okay, figure out how to keep stepping forward. Sometimes you feel amazing. Perfect. Keep

stepping forward. That simplicity is the ultimate power. And maybe that's what we're missing when we feel stuck. Not more effort, not more tools, but less noise. Seek out that simplification, that clarity. You don't always

need to add. Sometimes the biggest addition is is what we take away. We need to subtract. Let go of the weight. Let go of the pressure. Let go of the need to have it all figured out. Put your shoes on, step outside, and start running. Let the miles strip everything back to the basics because clarity doesn't shout. It whispers. And the only way to hear it is to quiet everything else. So if you're in a season where the world feels too loud where your mind is spinning and the path feels uncertain. Don't force your way through it.

Empty the cup. Go find that quiet road. Let your feet hit the ground. Let your breath become your anchor and the simplicity pull you home. The world will be waiting when you return. But you will come back lighter. Sharper, stronger, and most importantly, you will come. Come back as you.