Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You Don’t Need Motivation — You Need to Stop Running from Yourself

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

It’s not motivation you need, but the courage to stop running from yourself. Trusting the process, even when doubt creeps in, is part of the journey. Sometimes, growth feels like carrying the weight of the world, but that’s proof you’re still in the game. Failure isn’t about falling short. It’s about sitting across from yourself and wondering if the best is behind you. Let the descent be earned and collapse at the finish line, not walk away from the race.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

I saw a rabbit again today. Wow, a rabbit. Groundbreaking. Okay, you laugh, but it means something to me. Every time I'm on the verge of doubt, I swear one shows up. It's quiet, simple. But in that moment, I know. I know I'm on the right path.

The right path? Dude, you've been wandering for years. Call it what it is, lost. The rabbit didn't save you. It won't save you. It can't save you. This is not working. Maybe you forgot what it means to trust something before it makes sense.

To build without applause. To keep going when the map is gone, but the compass still points forward. Trust something. Yeah, that was easier when the numbers were rising. when people cared, when you mattered. Now you're a shadow, chasing old echoes, clinging to memories like they're momentum. You think it's about being seen?

It's never been about the stage. It's about the message. And that message still burns in me. H hotter than it ever has. Then why does it feel like you're dying with it? Why are your ideas heavy? Why does every step forward feel like pulling the entire world behind you? Because that's what it means to grow.

You carry what others can't see. You feel what they're not ready to understand. That weight you talk about, it's proof you're still in the game. Or maybe it's proof you're just too stubborn to quit. Maybe you've confused belief with delusion. Maybe this isn't growth, maybe this isn't growth, maybe you're just too stubborn to quit. Maybe you're just too stubborn to quit. Maybe it's resistance to life, to reality, to change.

No. It's resistance to settling, to giving up the one thing I was put on this planet to do. You know what failure is? It's not falling short. It's sitting across from yourself and lying. Yeah, well, what if we already passed the best parts? What if this is the decline? then let it be earned.

Let the descent be fought for. Let me collapse at the finish line, not walk away from the race. But aren't you tired? Of course I am. But tired does not mean done. Tired means I'm alive. It means I'm doing something that matters.

Even if it breaks you? Especially if it breaks me. Because on the other side of broken, is rebuilt. The phoenix rising from the ashes. On the other side of doubt is conviction. And on the other side of fear, well, is a rabbit.

You really think that means something. I know it does. Because I choose to let it mean something. And isn't that what belief is, choosing meaning when the world gives you none? Then what now? We're here. Two children.

shares, a setting sun, no audience, no applause, just silence and shadows. That's all you have. Then we sit. And we speak and we remember that this is the fight. The moment between quitting and continuing, and I'm choosing to continue. Because belief doesn't wait for permission. It doesn't wait for certainty. It sees a random rabbit in the desert.

and says, I am right where I need to be. Yeah? And if you're wrong, then I'll be wrong, honestly. With every step forward, with every word spoken, with every chapter written in the dark. Because the only thing worse than failing is never believing enough to try. It's letting go with the world at your fingertips,

a blank canvas and a brush in your hand. You see just a wrong. rabbit. I see a reminder that the infinite is waiting. What's up, gang? Welcome to the show. I'm Eddie Panero. Before I go on, quick note, if you're interested in more short stories like this, little inspirational tidbits, I'm putting them out in my weekly newsletter, totally free. You can join thousands of others by signing up Eddie pinero.com slash newsletter. I hope I'll see you there. So this last segment touched on a pretty personal but simple idea. You know, those symbols out there, for me, it is a rabbit.

The telltale sign that, hey, you're on the right path. There may not be validation yet. You know, the road may be long, but you're right where you need to be. That concept can easily be a positive or a negative. Like everything, it's what you make it. It's the meaning you prescribe to it. For me, obviously, it's a good sign. It could just as easily be a, that's ridiculous.

That doesn't make any sense. I can detach from that. But isn't that what bringing something into reality is? It doesn't exist yet. It's not there. So you can say, hey, I'm bringing this to life. I am the messenger. I am the architect.

or, hey, it's not there. So forget about it. It's not real. It's not possible. Life and reality will always reflect what you choose to make it. Which brings to the next segment here, a similar concept. You know, a really kind of a brilliant story with a friend of mine who dealt with that same push-pull, right? Something seemingly bad happened to him.

And, you know, that quote unquote black shirt from the last segment, the negative voice, could have easily whispered in his ear, hey, this is it. It's over. You wasted your money. You wasted your time. You don't have a chance here. But instead, he chose to see that as a symbol or sign. His rabbit was the idea that, no, I'm going to make something beautiful out of this.

And he did. It greenlit, you know, perhaps. the most important trajectory of his life. Sometimes all that's required is you to give yourself permission to go. So I'm going to tell you a story about my light bulb moment here with this concept. Because it's a good one. And yeah, helps paint that picture. So a handful of years ago, I was sitting at a bar with a friend of mine.

At the time, he was a business partner. still a very good friend. We'd been working all day. I think we were watching a game or something like that. And we're talking about, you know, when he started his first business. He's an older guy, about 20, 25 years older than me. Very accomplished, done some amazing things. And made some money along the way.

And so I always, you know, when I can like to pick his brain and hear about the process. And he said, do you want to hear about the first big investment? I made with my company. And I, of course, said, absolutely. I'd love to hear that. He says, okay, so long story short, you know, just kind of starting out, one foot in the water.

You know, I know it's the right thing to do, but these things take time. There's a little bit of friction. And I've been watching this guy online who is, you know, in a similar space, very just good on camera. Seems like he has it all together. You know,

creates very good content, has a team. It was all the things I wanted. And so I inquired and, you know, email, checked out his website. And I found out that he had this job shadowing program where you go, you fly to his place and you'd kind of just follow him for a day. You see his routines, how he runs his business, who's in his world, how he manages his employees, all this stuff. and he says, Eddie, there was a catch, though.

It was incredibly expensive. And at the time, you know, I didn't have the money. So it was a very, very big decision. And when I say expensive, you know, I won't tell you the number. But it makes me like twitch. It's a lot of dough. And the thing about this guy is that when his heart is set on something, he goes. So this is right on brand for him.

He somehow scraped together the money. However he could, cleaned out his accounts, paid, took a flight across the country, showed up at this guy's place, and did the job shadowing. Saw how he ran things, interacted with him, got to chat, ask questions, and I'm like, well, how did it go? And he said, well, let me tell you, underwhelming is perhaps an understatement. It was just when I say not what I expected,

you know, unremarkable. The guy was disorganized, didn't have the grasp on things that he appeared to on camera when he's scripted and things were, you know, laid out in front of him. And just kind of fumbling around through life. And I couldn't believe my eyes. You know, I'm sitting there after having. spent all that money and flown across the country in disbelief. And so I listened for a little bit.

And when he explains that, I said, man, I am so sorry. Like that's, you know, that brings a tear to my eye. That tugs at my heartstrings. No one wants to hear that. And he said, Eddie, sorry. There's no reason to be sorry. Let me explain something to you. He's like, that money, talking about, you know, when he started.

money. I'd ever be an older guy in my life. In my life. 25 years older than me. Because I learned, quote, if that clown could do it, so could I.

And, uh, man, that just, that just hits. So funny to me how it wasn't information he needed at that point in time. It wasn't some secret script or idea or, you know, you get the point. There's no underlying strategy

that would have changed his life. What he needed was self-belief and a green light to go. And I can take that concept and inject it into so many phases of my life and I know you on the other end of this camera can as well. So much of the time, I think we're looking for the wrong things. I think it's that simple.

we're looking for John Smith's strategy and approach and we want to emulate how other people are doing it. We want these hidden details. We want the answer that's been, you know, hiding in the weeds. It's going to change everything. What we really need is pure, absolute confidence in our own ability to get things done,

to know that we can do it. Because the universe doesn't tell you that. As much as I wish that were the case. There's never a path that just miraculously opens up like Moses in the Red Sea. It's just not how the world works. Life is messy. It's disorganized. There's doubt around every corner.

There's no exact formula. And the only piece that will carry you through it all is complete certainty that you can weather the storm, that you can handle it. That's the foundation that everything is built on.

And when he said, if this guy can do it, so can I. Sometimes that's all it is. Those people out there, they're no better than you. They're not innately talented. They believed in themselves and they greenlit the journey, fully committed.

And through trial and error and iteration, here they are. And the same thing is true with you. So think about that in your own world. Is there any area where you need to look around and just give yourself permission to begin? To trust that you can be the one. You can be the one to make the change,

to create something new to adjust and alter reality. You can do that. Again, that self-belief doesn't arrive in the mail. It starts looking directly at yourself in the mirror and giving yourself permission. All right, I'm digging deep here. This is one of my favorite speeches, maybe my favorite ever written.

And I've been doing this for a long time now. About 11 years. I don't think anything, encapsulates the emotional roller coaster that is growth better than this. Right. Just feeling the weight of the world like you're running in place. Right. And the idea here, as you'll see very shortly, is look, it's easy to be your biggest critic.

Everyone is. Everyone's hard on themselves. You know, that negative chatter, it's always there if you want it. But I need you to be there for you, right? Can you show up for yourself when it matters most? When you're tired and things feel like absolute hell, will you be there for you? This next video is called Make You Proud.

I woke up last night and I remembered my debt to you. Being that I stand by the promises that I make, I jumped out of bed. And I walked over to my desk, I turned on a light, and I began writing. At a minimum to explain myself, but at best case scenario, to provide some reassurance. That every storm ends, that nothing is forever, and that someday, without question, I'll make you proud. See, things haven't been the easiest lately, and it's funny. Sometimes things seem so intuitive.

Sometimes they make so much sense. And then sometimes it feels like you open up a novel right in the middle and it's in a language you can't read. Life feels more complex than it really is, and I feel smaller than I really am, but don't be concerned. I've fought my way through worse. I promise you you'll be satisfied with the result. And yeah, you might have noticed that sometimes I face the obstacle of juggling two sets of standards. You know, two definitions of success. Mine in the world. What I love and what matters to me versus what will increase my status, my standing in society.

And honestly, it pulls me in two different directions sometimes. Makes me think back to years past and that discomfort of experience, you know, standing on an empty foundation. But believing someday something meaningful would stand there. realizing that when you put your head down and when you block out the noise you can finally hear the most powerful voice of all your own that's why you take L's in the short term to acquire meaning in the long term

I've found that courage before and I'll find it again any second now don't you worry sure you might have seen that every once in a while I forget about life's abundance I mean I just do I know it's true But it feels sometimes like the world pushes me to forget. You know, I start comparing myself to other people, and I start thinking about what I could lose,

what people might say, about what could go wrong. And it's like, sure, I know I'm the gatekeeper to my own mind. I understand that. In fact, I cherish the idea. But I guess sometimes doubt catches that gatekeeper napping and slips through. I always catch him eventually, though. I've had doubts before and really all I did was keep moving by them. Kind of like that time I went snorkeling in Key Largo, you had to make your way through this jellyfish field to see an underwater statue.

My first thought was this is crazy. But then you move in and you realize they just exist. They don't have control or an agenda. And if you find the courage, they become meaningless. You can float right by them. So don't worry, I'll swim through and you'll see me on the other end. And I will catch that view. Not for Facebook or for Instagram.

Because in a way, I owe it to myself and I owe it to you. I didn't make these promises to run when things got challenging. I made them because they meant something. And yeah, from the outside in, things are not. Perfect. I get that. I understand. But if you just hang tight, if you just remember that I've been there before, I've climbed out. I've come back. In fact, the deeper the valley and the darker the night, the clearer the answer always becomes when I emerge. And it may be a journey, but however long it takes, I've gotten there. And I have to admit, yeah, it feels funny writing a letter to myself, but I need you now more than ever.

You've always been my toughest critic, and I appreciate that, but now I need you to be my biggest fan. To remind me that life can be confusing and seemingly contradictory, uncertain, and even chaotic. But that doesn't mean I'm not right where I need to be, right where we need to be. And if you'll just believe in me, if you'll hop along for this ride, you'll see that as sure as I'm sitting here writing to you now, I will make you crap. So moving right along, this next segment touches on something just as critical. The decision to begin. Understanding that, yeah, I don't have all the answers. I don't know.

There's a lot of questions that need to be resolved. but what you do have is a foot and you can step forward. If you had to begin, what would you do? Well, I don't have to begin. Yeah, but if you did, what would you do? That's your starting point. And it's amazing what that turns into, what that evolves into. So this next segment, it's time to begin.

So here's a pretend conversation. Follow along. I don't know what to do. Okay. But if you did know what to do, what would that look like? I don't know. That's an impossible question. It's not an impossible question.

If you did know what to do and you had to do something right now, what would that look like? I guess I'd start planning and making the necessary calls and buy it. or collecting the things I think I need to start. Beautiful. There's your starting point. See, here's the deal. No one, and I mean no one, quote unquote, knows everything. Because very rarely are there objectively correct answers.

In fact, I would even simplify it further. Life's not comprised of people who know and people who don't know. life is comprised of people who act and people who don't act. People who wait and people who move into the unknown before they're ready and create answers. So let's take this further with a little anecdote. Pretend there's a home builder and you're looking at him and you are asking, where's the family going to sleep? where are they going to eat?

Where are the memories going to be made? When there's important conversations to be had, where are they going to be had? Where's the Christmas tree going to go? What's going to matter most? How is this house going to become a home? To which point, the home builder would say, wait a minute. You're putting the cart before the horse. I don't know that.

I don't know any of those things. And I couldn't possibly know any of those things. But I can tell you this. Here's a plot of land. Here are some bricks. And one brick at a time, I'll bring this home to life. And little by little, it will look more and more like a home. And someday a family will be in the home.

And someday those memories will be made just as they should, just as it feels right. But the entire process begins. One brick. at a time. I think we often forget that we don't need to build homes, right? We need to just metaphorically lay those bricks. The effort ultimately becomes the home. We don't run marathons, for example. We run one step at a time. The exhausted energy ultimately accumulates and pushes us beyond that finish line. Similarly, we don't read books. We read sentences, which are a collection of words comprised of letters. We do that, which is a

is manageable. We do that which is right in front of us. And with consistency, it evolves into the meaningful. And so this seemingly trivial question, yeah, but what if you did know, what if you did have the answer? To me, it's everything, because it reminds us that if we have enough to just start manufacturing momentum, then we have everything we need. Because life is created by doing. Knowledge is found by doing. Wisdom is acquired by doing. We have to go.

And history shows us over and over again that this is the case. You take some ideas out of thin air, right? It's Edison with the light bulb, iteration after iteration after iteration. It's Lincoln. The pain and suffering, you know, coming from failed political campaigns. campaign after failed political campaign, just knowing something was there, but not how it would work out or how those dots would connect. It's jobs and was, you know, in a garage, building a Mac, having no idea what it would evolve into. One of my favorite books, hatching Twitter, talks about the founders in a room when it was a radio app.

What's this going to do? They all have different ideas, different beliefs, different thoughts, but they just kept going. The power is in doing. It really is a miracle to go before you're ready. It's the only way. And again, I use these folks as examples not because they themselves are extraordinary, although certainly impressive people, but I use them to show the magnitude of what that action and self-trust became. We look around and see these things that have been embedded into our everyday lives, right?

There's so much certainty tied to them now because we see them every day, their life. And we often then assume wrongfully that these things were always definitive and clear, right? That they always belonged there, their fate was certain. Their existence signifies the opposite. It's like sheer will to lay one brick down after another, to adjust, pivot, and evolve until that magic was created, until reality looked a little different than it used to. And so, again, this little mental adjustment, right,

of I don't have the answer, I'm not sure to, okay, but if I did, what would it look like? If I had to do something, what would that be? that adjustment in mindset really is a gift because it pushes you through the door, right? There's an idea that almost all decisions are reversible. And when you think about it, very rarely do you do something that either one can't be changed if it's wrong or two, brings you to where you're supposed to be incrementally, right?

It's like going solves itself. It's not going that you can't fix. It's staying in and looking at life through the window that kills you. It's stagnation that you cannot change. But going, going, you can fix or adjust or pivot or evolve. Going plants the seed. And I'm not saying, you know, this from a place of like, guys, I've cracked the car. It's easy.

No. It's simple, but it's certainly not easy. In fact, I have to force myself to go. Through hesitation and internal resistance, you would not believe. But what helps me is knowing, hey, your feet need to be moving. Scared, unsure, lost, whatever, find a way. And the beautiful thing is through momentum, our issues entirely resolve themselves. When we're in motion, we are building, we are correcting, we are.

growing, immobility is the enemy, not falling down. So sure, maybe you don't know what to do, but if you did, ask yourself what that might look like. And we're going to finish with what feels like the next iteration of this narrative. It's the reminder, in my mind, the calming reminder that you can't traverse the, you can't you know, an ocean. You can't jump a mountain. And what prevents us from going

is that feeling like we have to. You don't. You don't even have to completely, you know, cut ties with the past or evolve overnight. Like something can be incremental. And in fact, most good things are. So remove the weight and remove the expectation of having to be perfect or hit a home run

and instead gift yourself the permission to just step up to the plate. That reframing is freeing. You can have a target aimed at the biggest mountain in the world, but that doesn't matter. What matters is are you showing up to the base and climbing that first rock? Imagine you're standing on the edge of a cliff and you're looking out at this giant abyss.

and you know that what you want is on the other side, that the very thing you're called to do, the journey of a lifetime that means the most to you that you know you should be on. But instead of making one giant leap, you hedge, you grab a handrail or a rope, you sort of tiptoll along the outside, bracing yourself for the possibility of a fall.

Look, in a perfect world, we'll say. When we know that we should be somewhere when something's calling us, we would always take the leap. And the times that I've done that in my life, I don't regret it at all. In fact, I attribute taking massive action to a lot of the growth that I've had in my life.

But I think it also benefits us to be practical. We can't always do that. We're not always ready to do that. Sometimes you have to earn confidence one little step at a time. And so what I want to do is tell a story about that very courage, about using what you have, where you are, to start taking action now, even if you're not ready to leap without reservation.

It's a reminder that beginnings are rarely graceful, but they're necessary. And years from now, when you look back, you might laugh at the ways you softened your first steps that you hedged. But you'll also realize that starting, even imperfectly, even with training wheels, was everything. And so I want to share a quick story,

about my friend Clayton. I was recently on his podcast. And we were talking about this, right? Particularly with him, he shares a lot on social media. It's a big part of his brand, his business, what he does. And he also happens to enjoy dancing, right? And by the way, I'm not throwing him under the bus here. He'd be happy that I shared this.

So he's saying, I love this. It's a big part of what I do, but it's outside the scope. of what people know me for and really struggled to share it for fear of being criticized or laughed at or you know you can fill in the blank there and he says so one day I did I filmed the video and I'm sitting there for 40 minutes looking at it terrified thinking how can I soften the the blow here right and he goes I know what I'll do instead of just posting the video I'll post it, but I'll write this really long essay underneath it in the description about vulnerability and the difficulty in life and some of these things so that people will see that and comment on

that and send some positivity there to counteract the negative comments that I'll get about, you know, dancing and being made fun of and all these things. You can just see like the circus going on in his brain, right? The loops he's jumping through to rationalize this in his mind. And he says, I'm so embarrassed that I did that. I can't believe that. Right now, I dance and I just post it. Who cares? And not only that, people like it.

And I'm listening to this. And I'm like, but that's exactly it. Right? We look back at our beginnings. And we often laugh to ourselves. Oh, back then, I was so naive. I was so scared. I tiptoed in.

I crawled before I walked, before I ran. Like, it's a sense of shame. You know the phrase, meet people where they are? Well, how about meeting that older version of you where you were? Because back then, it wasn't a silly hedge. Back then, it was courage.

It was everything you had. And, yeah, maybe you had to make some small concessions in order to get the train on the tracks. You had to go the roundabout way. In a perfect world, Would you have just dove in? Would you have just shared yourself with the world and said, whoever doesn't like this, oh, well, it's not for you?

Yeah. But we live in an imperfect world where the most powerful thing is not a direct line to a goal or objective. It's starting when you're terrified to begin. Perhaps when that heartbeat in your chest is reminding you that being scared and feeling alive aren't all that different. beats the same way, the question is, what do you do with it, right, in that moment? And see, by starting, even with the training wheels or holding the edge of that cliff and tiptoeing around, you're able to breathe life into something that matters. You're able to give yourself an opportunity to say years later, wow, I remember how slow I

move back then, I remember how I tiptoed back then, I remember how much I cared about people's criticism back then, but now, now I don't. Now I get it. That is the entirety of the point. You may not have been able to pick the fruit, but you planted the seed that would become the tree that would bear the fruit. And in the real world, that means a lot. Sometimes it's not about how you start or where you begin. It merely matters that you do, that you do start, that you do begin. ever forget a quote that Jim Quick shared. It said, when all you have is 40%, 40% is 100%. And I've spoken about that in a few different contexts in the past. I think it applies here beautifully because time passes. And Clayton, for example, could say, man, I was operating at 40%

back then. No, my friend, you were operating at 100% back then because that at the time was the obstacle in front of you. Simply starting was the ocean you had to cross, and you did. And what's interesting to think about is you right now, are that person your future self someday will look back on and smile at. Oh man, I remember. I remember that version of me. I remember being scared, slow. I remember not knowing. I remember feeling stuck and lost and insecure, but guess what? I found the courage somewhere to set sail. Ill-equipped, ill-prepared, and in that moment at that time, that was my Everest. So my friends, here we are. And I pose this question, what will you give life to? What is it in your soul you want to share, to explore, to give to the

world, but you're sitting back thinking, I can't, because I don't have all the answers. This is too big or too much. Now is a good time to remind yourself that it can be ugly. It can and it should be something you laugh at down the road. You should smile at this novice version of yourself beginning a journey completely foreign to. But the key word is beginning. Give yourself the gift. of an imperfect launch into the ether.

Let your world expand. To places you've never been and things you've never seen, give yourself that gift. In all its imperfection, because going through the imperfection is the perfection. Give yourself the gift of someday laying back closing your eyes, imagining the starting line and saying, thank God I did whatever I had to do in order to put one foot in front of the other. That little footstep, that hedge, that tiptoeing

around the canyon, it was elite. It was traversing the ocean. And so because you found this courage ultimately a door opened to the infant. What's up, guys? Hope you enjoyed this show. If you got value from it, make sure you like and subscribe. And I'd love to know in the comments. Maybe one, like, what is a symbol for you?

What's your rabbit? Your reminder that you know what? I am on the right track. I'm right where I need to be. And what's something you're chipping away at? What is that North Star? Let's talk about it, see if we can help each of, other add more value down below. Appreciate you hanging out. Until next time, take care.