Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You Don’t Have to Be Great Yet, Just Brave Enough to Begin (Motivational Speech for Success in Life)

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

This episode dives into the courage it takes to start, to be a beginner, to struggle, to not look perfect while you grow. We explore why it’s harder to show up at mile one than mile one-hundred, and why the person gasping for breath on their first run is often braver than the seasoned athlete gliding by.We talk about:The vulnerability of trying when you're not good yetWhy discomfort is proof you’re evolvingThe battle between ego and growthLetting go of image to embrace progressWhy starting imperfectly is more heroic than performing flawlesslyKey Idea: Greatness doesn’t begin with excellence...it begins with the courage to look like a beginner.Takeaway: Honor the struggle. Celebrate the messy start. Strength is built in the moments no one applauds.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

You're driving down the road and you see someone running. As your car approaches, it becomes pretty clear that this person is flying. Five and a half, six minute pace, comfortable, confident. They look fit. You can tell they've done this a million times. This is their wheelhouse. Awesome, you think. Good for them.

Drive up a few more blocks. And you see someone else running. But this person's a bit heavier, right? Clearly not in good shape, but they are running. In fact, a run-walk thing. Average speed per mile isn't really a thought or consideration here. You can see the pain in their face, the sweat running down their forehead as they navigate a world that is foreign to them. Both running situations are incredible, right? The first person worked their ass off to get there. You can see the commitment and the consistency, you can see the discipline, the pain tolerance, all of it. But the second, the second person does something to my soul. Because I know what that's like.

To step into a world you know nothing about. See, that second runner, they're not leaning on a foundation of discipline or consistency. There's no muscle memory or routine. It's pure courage. It's getting up in the face of fear and doing it anyway. That is everything good about life condensed into a single action. I recently heard someone say that they stopped going to the gym, you know, after trying it, because it was intimidating.

And I respected the honesty, right? Those stories we tell ourselves in our heads, they feel real, right? When we are new to a foreign world, they're not pretty. It's like, I look dumb. I'm clueling. People definitely think I suck, and the narratives go on and on and on. But as I've evolved, I've come to understand the power in those moments. They deserve to be celebrated.

They are everything. See, most people don't reach finish lines, and it's not because the journey is long. It's because the start is pain. Being self-conscious is pain. Being the slowest, weakest, newest, the one with the most to love. learn, the highest hill to climb, that is pain. How many people are willing to play that role? How many are willing to run, walk down a street while, quote-unquote, experienced runners fly by? How many people are willing to go to the gym and bench just the bar?

Which is less than plenty of folks even warm up with. But that is the spot where greatness begins. That spot isn't for the timid. It's for those. with the courage to change their lives. To step into the fire. When I see people who are clearly out of shape lacing up their shoes, I think you are the embodiment of courage. And sure, we can talk trophies and finish lines and all that in due time, but first, do the thing most never do.

Step into an arena and own it. Run your race against you and do it every day. And perhaps that's the course. question we should all be asking of ourselves more. What areas of life is that courage required? Where can I lace up my shoes? Pay the price to step into a life-changing trajectory when you're fearful and insecure, when your mind is whispering, yeah, but you're already good at a few things. Stick to those. No, where is it in your world that if you found the courage, excellence would unfold before you? Most of us know what that is.

is. We think about it. We dream about it. But rarely do we act about it. So here's to being the one willing to go before you're ready. To play the student. Here's to lacing up those shoes and stepping into the race that's been calling you for as long as you can remember. Life is about duality. It's about being grateful for the road behind you. but also excited and hungry for what's ahead. That balance is where growth lives. It's why we created AGMS, always grateful, never satisfied. More than just an apparel company,

it's a reminder that there's always another hill to climb. And if you go to AGNS.org lifestyle and you sign up for the email list, you'll get daily inspiration right to your inbox. latest updates on all the new merch drops as well as a 20% off discount code hope to see you there when it's all said and done what will your story say

a friend of mine Justin Prince once asked me what my dash represented said yeah dash if you think about someday down the road inevitably when we all die there will be

on our gravestone or tombstone the date we were born, a dash, and the date we died. Making that dash symbolic of everything, the little line that represents it all. And so when the sun is setting on your lifetime, and you've breathed your last breath, and you've enjoyed your last sip of coffee, and you've smiled for the last time,

and all that remains, are the people that you've touched in what you've built along the way, what will that dash represent? And I hope you'll join me in asking yourself that question, like truly thinking about it. No, not just when it's easy to. Not when things are firing on all cylinders. I'm wondering,

will you think about it on the days, You've hit that snooze button three times, and you're wondering to yourself, does any of this even matter? I'm wondering, will you think about it when you feel lost? Or feel that the hope in your life seems camouflaged? I'm wondering, will you think about it when you've let yourself down? Or feel like you've let those around you down? or maybe when others have let you down. There's a lot we can control.

But that dash, I need you to hold that. I need you to know that, as Victor Frankel alluded to in a slightly different context, that is the one thing that cannot be taken away. See, the dash, at least for me, it makes it crystal clear how short our time is. And I don't know why it's so effective. Why, of all things, it's the dash that can. The idea that your life, in terms of time, is a grain of sand on the beach.

It's a raindrop in a thunderstorm. It's a single flicker of light in an infinite galaxy of star. I think about that, and it's like, don't you get it? You're here and you shouldn't be. None of us should. Too many things had to be perfect. Too many things had to be just right. An impossible number of variables had to align.

And they did. They did in order to gift you that dash. And that doesn't mean we can't sit down and relax every once in a while. My point isn't, hey, never sleep in or that you shouldn't be human. I'm coming from a different place. I'm speaking as someone who seemingly always finds the difficulty or trouble or obstacle first. I'm wired to see what's wrong. You know, I've talked about it countless times over the years.

I'm wired to protect and preserve. And I have my moments of courage. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. But my God, if you knew how hard I had to fight to be. be courageous when I most needed to be, I think you'd be surprised. But what keeps me fighting, the more I come to understand is that simple line. I cannot let go of the dash. See, if we were here forever, then it's like, I get it. Go slow. It's safer that way. Less chance of falling down. Follow your curiosity later. It will always be there. And there will be at some point down the road

a better time. Why not wait for the better time? Forever we'll present one. But that's not how it works. And you start to think, oh, sure, that song is going to keep playing. And it might play forever, but me, I only get a few notes. And this march through time is endless. Yeah, but I only get a few steps. And so you start to ask yourself, why wouldn't you make sure? Like, you know, damn sure. Why wouldn't you be positive with everything you had that those notes echoed into eternity? And those footsteps took you to the places you most wanted to be. That dash, it symbolizes all that your life can become. So when you need it most, use it. Close your eyes and imagine the highlight real of your life and ask, did I spend that snapshot of time with the people that I loved most?

Did I laugh? Did I follow my curiosity? Did I do the things that lit me up? Did I chase down the meaningful, cut off the trivial, invite in the beautiful? In this snapshot, there is a world of possibility. It's your reason to push because the reality around you now, Doesn't have to be the one that exists when all is said and done, when the dash is carved into stone.

Today is not the end. Today is not permanent. Today is where you begin the journey of recreating what that line will represent. The times in my life where I've found myself at my lowest, you know what saved me? It's never been the acquisition of something new. it's never been money or resources or even people. It was hope.

It was belief that tomorrow can be different from today. And I can't control everything, but I can control that. I get to decide what that dash means, and that has always been enough to close one chapter and start a So if you're questioning the road, if you're asking yourself why, it's because you are blazing a trail that's currently unmapped. You're designing something that doesn't exist. So understand that not knowing isn't a bug, it's a feature. You're designing something that you'll be able to smile about when you look back down over your life.

And for those looking at the ceiling now, hitting the snooze button now, wondering why, and trust me, I've been there, it gets better. And it will get better because you will make it so. You didn't come this far to let it slip away. You weren't put here to mail it all in. There is outside your front door everything you need to live a life that excites you. Just decide to go get it. decide to craft something beautiful. It may look like just a line on a tombstone,

but it is so much more. It's symbolic of what you can have. The decision at your feet now, when life wasn't easy, when you were unsure, when finding meaning felt like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. The question is, did you remember your strength? Did you breathe one million lifetimes into a single, seemingly insignificant, arbitrary line? Sometimes we don't understand how much we appreciated or valued something until it's gone.

And until it's outside of our lives and there's a space where that thing used to be. And we think, man, I just want to return. to normalcy. I want to go back to how things were, to baseline. You know, and there's a million practical examples of that. Health is an easy one, physical fitness. You hurt your knee and you're a runner. Man, two weeks for this to heal? I just want to be able to do what I did yesterday. For me, I used to get crazy migraines, right? And I'd wake up some days and, like, wouldn't be able to open my eyes. And I'd just be in bed, like, okay, clear the schedule.

And I'd be thinking, I can't wait for normalcy to feel. how I felt yesterday. People coming and going. Man, I loved this person. I missed this person. Yesterday when they were here, I didn't think anything of it. That return to normalcy.

There's a saying that a healthy person wants a thousand things. A sick person wants only one. And I think it speaks to the world that exists just beyond our periphery. It's very hard to see the good because human beings are wired to focus on the negative. To avoid pain, to avoid suffering, to avoid loss, we're wired for safety. Negativity bias. That scenario, two people at dinner, 99 times.

It's the best dinner they've ever had. They go to the restaurant all the time. They rant and rave about it. But on the hundredth time, there's a cockroach on the plate. Now what? that dinner is forever tainted as the cockroach place. The negative thing outshines everything else. And in a way, that's how we are wired.

We don't wake up every day and go, man, I'm so lucky. Think about how much I have. Think about how good life is. Now, we don't appreciate or value things so much of the time until they are gone. And there's something that, you know, as I've learned over the last couple of years, is gravely missed. and that thing is perspective. How do I get perspective?

Gratitude. It forces you to appreciate how much you have in a way that, you know, in the cyclical, fast-paced nature of life, you just wouldn't. You would skip it. And so what do I mean when I say gratitude? Here's the beauty. Nothing crazy. Very simply put, carving out time.

To say what's on your mind, to say what you appreciate, to look around. Yeah, I'm grateful for that. You know, I'm excited about the things I have to do for work today. How lucky am I that I get to do what I love for work? Or that there's people that I know if I call them, they'll pick up on the other end. And I can have a conversation with them. You know, the people I get to work with, family, friend. Like, that's insane.

That's crazy. That's such a beautiful thing. you know living here shelter food things that we never think about particularly being in the western world there's not power outages every hour right but that's not the case for everyone like it's it's a blessing and you know it's it can come across as corny and cliche but what i've learned is it's not it's truly armor Because when you inevitably hit those challenges and those obstacles, they just seem smaller when you're grounded and understand how much you have

and how lucky you are and who's around you and how far you've come. Life is a perspective game. You know, and so you have to manufacture that perspective. It's not what exists. It's how you see what exists. And I'm going to give you an example. So let's say I had a partnership with the, social media company.

And I'm super excited about this partnership. So locked in. Love the brand. Love their story. And I want to take that and inject, you know, my creativity into it and create lots of awesome content and create a campaign. And you do all these things. And it's like, this is going to be amazing.

And then I find out, for whatever reason, not happen. Right? Parties can't agree. Whatever it is, done. So naturally, the rugs pulled out from under my feet, I'm going to feel disappointed, going to feel sad, going to feel loss, going to feel like, you know, I had it all figured out, and now I don't, that little cycle of thing. Now take that exact same scenario. But before I find out the news, I'm outside, my notebook's open, and I'm spending five minutes talking about or thinking about, how lucky I am, to be able to tell these stories, to be able to help people, to be able to connect

with an incredible community, to be able to call friends and family when I need to, to be part of a team, to live where I live, all these things, right? sigh, smile, close the notebook, walk inside, and then I find out, yeah, Eddie, that partnership's not happening. Okay. It seems way less monumental when it's put next to the thoughts that I just documented on that page. You know, I love what I do and I have the ability to do more of it. So who cares?

Learn and move on. That perspective is everything. It's so much of life I find. And it's why obviously I'm so fascinated with mindset is because our external reality is so often predicated by how we think, the stories we tell ourselves, how we position ourselves to walk through chaos and the unknown. Someone sent me, I think it was from Brad Lee, a little video of him speaking, and he says, you know, how many of you want a million dollars? Everybody, everyone wants a million dollars. Okay, what would you do for a million dollars? People would do a lot. They'd give up a lot.

A million dollars would be a real nice thing. Okay. What if I'd give you a million dollars, But tomorrow, you wouldn't wake up again. No one wants that. No one would take the money. Couldn't use it, right? Which, by default, means every morning when you open your eyes, it is worth more than a million dollars.

It's worth more than any sum of money. It's invaluable. Yet, we are not wired to think that way. We don't get out of bed in the morning and go, what a gift. We get out of bed and go, what a gift. go, what do I have to do today? What's on the agenda?

What's the plan? How long till I have to go to work? Right? And it's this reframing of life that positions us not only to be more content, but also to experience more of life. So I scream from the rooftops about practicing gratitude because that perspective shift, again, has been armor for me. It's given me so much momentum in clarity as I push through life.

And I want to share that with you and, you know, offer or suggest that you do the same. And the beauty is it's so simple and it's so quick. And it doesn't need to be complex. You don't need anything fancy or any tools. You just need to close your eyes and think for two minutes. And that little internal dialogue, you know, will become pretty powerful as you make your way through. life. The whole thing was backwards. The cart was before the horse. Now, sometimes that's obvious. You don't need to wait until you're strong to go to the gym. The gym is what builds the strength.

It's a very easy progression to understand. And we understand it. Some of the time, hear me out. He seemed to think that if he only found the right person, he himself would finally be complete. Completely unaware that if he just instead made himself whole, if he worked on himself, the right people would come into his orbit. That is, after all, how it goes. That may be all in all my biggest qualm with, quote-unquote, networking.

The best networking you can do is be a capable human being with value to add. Then, get this. Instead of having to scour the surface of the earth for like-minded people, they show up in your inbox. It is all in all a storyline we have backwards. The right people can't complete you. A complete you brings in the right people. Hmm. She seemed to think that money had to be made, that success was critical because that success would bring approval and status and power. It would be what slays the demons. And then once successful, she could finally live free. She could be at peace, not bending to the whims and the demands of others.

that's why the money was so important that's why the success was imperative not knowing that whoops it's one's ability to live freely now before the money comes without the success and accolades that the door to all that other stuff is opened

curiosity passion and freedom has prompted more greatness than anything else and there are some things we can afford to postpone. The freedom to be you and do what's meaningful in the present moment is not one of those things. It's another storyline we have backwards.

Don't exist in a cage of your own making so that someday you can live free. Live free now and instead capture the meaning in life. He wanted to be one of the greats. And so as if a blueprint were placed in his hand, he recreated. He copied. He emulated those who have walked the path before him. He tirelessly chiseled away at his current self to represent someone else, those who had done it. Someone standing on a mountaintop looking down.

Seems good on the surface. But what he didn't know is that those who came before him injected their own authenticity into their pursuit. They weren't recreating the same portrait as someone else. Maybe in some cases they were picking up the same tools, the same brush. But they were etching the world as it was experienced through their own eyes. Again, maybe students of the technique and the history, certainly respectful of what previously existed,

but understanding that their job was to receive the torch and carry it somewhere new. Another storyline that we have backwards. We think extracting ourselves gets us closer to the formula, but my friend, you are the formula. There's a common theme here. And I can tell you wholeheartedly from experience, this isn't some magical thing I pulled out from under a rock.

This is lived experience. This is learned experience. This is me putting my own hand on the stove and going, wow, I have to be careful of that. Your world within is the chisel that defines the external world. It's fun to look back at our predictions. You know, I've certainly done my fair share of swinging. missing, like a weatherman, a political analyst, a sports commentator, fill in the blank, we make educated guesses.

And then we see how kindly life is to our hypotheses. And the version of me from 10 years ago, mid-20s, walking along the Cape Cod Canal one morning and deciding that your world within would be the North Star, well, that was one that I hit out of the park. It's been a guiding light. handing me the wisdom that when you take accountability for everything in your life, you then become powerful enough to change your life. Your world starts internally and is projected out always.

You make yourself more capable and boom. Suddenly you are surrounded by those called to your energy. When you focus not on the money or the externality, But on doing what you love and following your curiosity, you soon end up where few have gone, resulting in, you guessed it, an abundance of those very externalities. When you seek not to be those who inspire you, but instead to water and protect your own strengths,

to marry the known path with your new authentic path, you create space in a very crowded room. Trust yourself in that. Trust that if you plant the seed and water it and look after it, it will at some point bear fruit. Understand that no one has all the answers because life is not black and white. You are the only one with your vision, your skill set, your values. That means something.

Earn that confidence in your own life. Step into the arena. Unleash the parts of you that have been tucked away for fear of standing out or messing up. The whole thing was backward. We placed more emphasis on the path than the person walking it. More focused on the water than on the seed. A determined mind,

can navigate any terrain. That energy should be exhausted, putting yourself in the game and committing to a growth process. You are the power. You are the strength. You are the secret weapon. But be honest with yourself.

Are you allowing you to thrive? Or are you waiting for the right people, money, and circumstances to pick you up and somehow carry you away? I think life is waiting, not for them, but for you to realize it, to own it. And then, most importantly, to do something about it. So maybe the whole thing was backwards. Until now, until this very moment, until you realize the wake doesn't drive the boat,

it merely requires a courageous capital. Self-trust. Are you willing? to take the wheel.