Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You Feel Stuck Because You’re Holding On

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Sometimes we hold on, not because it helps, but because we’re afraid of what happens when we let go. Whether it’s old habits, outdated identities, or versions of ourselves that no longer fit… the weight we carry can quietly hold us back.In this cinematic journey, we explore the idea that growth requires space.That letting go isn’t weakness, it’s wisdom. And that freedom begins not with adding more, but with finally releasing what’s been holding you in place.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

One of the most important things to understand. A cause for so much of our pain and discomfort comes down to this simple notion. Growth is very rarely about getting that magical thing you need, and instead is about eliminating the things that you don't. It's about less. If you imagine yourself as a backpacker, hiking, climbing mountains, It's instead of filling it with rocks That don't support where you're going

Don't help you with the ascent Emptying that bag, removing it And taking with you only the essentials There's a story about a woman Who loved her garden More than anything And she'd rise with the sun She'd kneel in the soil, care for the plants

Like they were family, right? It was like that important to her. Watering, trimming, whispering encouragement, like the earth itself was listening. And over time, her garden became her masterpiece. But as the seasons passed, became something else too.

Something heavier. The vines grew wild. The weeds wrapped around the root, some plants that once bloomed, now stood still and lifeless, confined. But she didn't remove them. She couldn't. Because she felt like they were a part of her.

They reminded her of what she used to be. She held on out of habit, out of comfort, out of memory, out of fear of what removing them might mean. And, you know, we all have this story that we tell ourselves, sometimes closely aligned with reality, sometimes very far from it. But in this case, she would tell herself, it was loyalty. She would leave the excess and the mess and the chaos because of loyalty.

In reality, it was fear in disguise. Nothing more, nothing less. And one afternoon, her neighbor looked over the fence, said gently, Hey, you have a beautiful space. I see how hard you work on it. I see how much you love it. And, you know, please excuse me for saying this, but it seems like it's gotten a little crowded, a little out of hand. Nothing new can grow in that soil that's already spoken for.

And the woman got mad at first hearing that kind of, you know, it hit personally. But after a few seconds, she calmed down and something seemed to click. Thank you, she responded. I'll keep that in mind. And that night as she walked through her garden, she did so with new eyes. Like, she finally saw what had taken over, the overgrowth and the clutter, the lifeless things still clinging to space that once belonged to beauty. And so she began the painful, sacred process of letting go. Not in anger, not in resentment, but in reverence.

She finally arrived at that place because it served her. And now it was time to create room for something new. The same way that, you know, we all go into our closet to get dressed in the morning. Right, you open it, sometimes you immediately feel overwhelmed. Clothes stacked from 10 years ago. Jeans that don't fit anymore. Jackets you haven't worn but paid too much for so you keep them around. And every time you try and find something to wear, you mutter, I have nothing to wear.

Right? We've all been there. But the truth is, it's not that you have nothing. It's that you have too much of it no longer fits. It's the same idea as the garden. And eventually, you know, there comes this moment, a breaking point where you say, I'm cleaning this out. Right? This is out of hand. You take everything off the hangers. You sort of piece by piece go through it all and ask, does this represent who I am?

now. Does this fit now? Do I still want to carry this version of myself into the future? Not literally, but that's the idea. That's what we're asking. And what happens? You make space. Your closet breathes again, and you walk away lighter. Not because you lost anything, but because you released what no longer belongs. And whether it's a garden or a closet, the principle is the same. Letting go is an act of self-respect. And yet, it's oddly something we resist. We think growth is about acquiring. Of course we do.

More friends, more commitments, more achievements. But true growth is often about subtraction. Removing noise and clutter, letting go of identities and habits and stories that once served us. But now, whole. us back. Now they are the weeds in the garden. Now they are the old unused jackets taking up space in the closet. The question is not, is it good or bad? The question is, is it aligned with who I'm becoming? And they're very different things. There's a certain courage in letting go. I can, you know,

speak from personal experience I've come toe to toe with that demon over and over and over again. It's not easy. There's a quiet strength in choosing space in trusting that what you clear out will one day be filled with something better. You have to put trust into the universe and yourself to navigate it. That space, that silence, that empty soil or open hangar,

it's not a loss, it's an invitation. So here's my ask. What are you holding on to that no longer fits? What emotional weeds are choking out the light in your life? What memories are you watering long after the lesson's been learned? Because maybe, just maybe, it's time to weed that garden. To open the closet doors of your mind and say this no longer serves me, and not just say it, but act on it.

Letting go doesn't mean the past didn't matter. The past was everything. It was your lessons. It was your path. But there's a saying, what got you here won't get you there. Choosing less means you're no longer choosing to live in yesterday. You're not betraying who you were. You're making peace with who you've been so that you can become who you're meant to be.

When that woman cleared her garden, when you clean out your closet, what you're doing is reclaiming space for clarity and creativity, for purpose. And in that space, I promise you something beautiful blossoms. So here's the clearing the weeds. Here's to letting go but no longer fit. To, yes, honoring that past, but building a future that breathes. Because this is not about gardens or closets. It's about you.

And the life that's waiting for you to make space for it. 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 uh 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've been working all day I think we were watching a game or something like that and uh 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 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, emailed, 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 we ran things, interacted with them, 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 was the best money I'd ever spent in my life.

Because I learned, quote, if that class. 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, 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. When 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, the, there's never a path that just miraculous. 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. Everything is built on. You know, and when he said, you know, 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, you know, 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. This is a story about doing that thing in your soul that you know you're called to do. There's a quote by Carl Jung, he says, You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it. The first time I heard that, I paused.

Not because it was poetic, but because just like when anything meaningful hits you, it feels personal. Like it was written for me, describing chapters of my life that I hadn't quite close. Here's a little pretext about the way I once looked at the world. I used to think life could be outmaneuvered, that if I planned enough or calculated enough, if I stayed sharp enough, I could avoid the chaos. I could dodge pain. You know, if I planned just right, I'd be able to skip all the hard parts. I used to think discipline and direction meant full control.

But in so many contexts, they'd just bring about delay. Because what I feared never seemed to vanish when I ran from it. It would simply wait. It would follow. And eventually, it would reintroduce itself. not necessarily as a punishment, but as a mirror of sorts calling for a reflection. And here's the thing, but we don't get to negotiate with the path. We either walk it or get dragged through it because it always finds us.

That's what destiny does. Now, don't mistake that for powerlessness. This doesn't imply that you don't have a say. In fact, you have more control than you can even imagine. The question is not whether the road exists. It does. The choice is in how you choose to meet it. You can lean in with open eyes and steady feet,

or you can resist, delay, deny, until life and its relentless wisdom brings you back around. One path is painful. The other, still hard, but build you. One is friction. The other is fire, transforming you into something more. Destiny doesn't punish you. It just refuses to let you stay small.

There's a story within a story here. When I was in the corporate world, I talk about the value that I got from that time in my life, I was fresh out of college, full of ambition. I was obsessed with the next title. I thought that success was about rising fast, about being seen, the role, the status, you know, the corner office.

And there was at the time a VP, that I worked under. And she used to tell me, Eddie, I see you being exceptional in learning and development. You have a gift for, you know, helping people understand, see value, helping them grow. And I just, at the time, I just did not want to hear it. You know, I was so reluctant to agree, dismissed it.

Not because I didn't respect her. She was a superstar of a human being, but because I had tunnel vision. You know, learning and development, like that sounded soft. It sounded slow. I wanted to manage, to lead, right? To move widgets and metrics and, you know, oversee a region of the country. Who cares about personal growth? You know, fate got the last laugh there.

You know, I ran, at least to the extent that I could, eventually left the industry. And wouldn't you know it? Years later, building my own brand, leading a team of amazing people who, you know, we all have the same mission of helping people grow and, you know, make the most of their lives. It's not kind of what she suggested. My skill set and value ad was, it's exactly that. And I knew it. Because it felt good. when I did it. I enjoyed it. But the ego said,

no, you need to be managing the Northwest Division, you know, whatever it was, managing operations. It's not where I was meant to be, meant to help people grow

and teach, and build, and inspire. I didn't choose that path back then, but it chose me, and maybe it chose me before birth, right?

Eventually, I found the courage to circle back to it. Just like Jung said, I met my destiny on the road I took to avoid it. That resistance, that detour, well, as you can imagine,

it wasn't just my story, it's everyone's story. There's a pattern in every great myth, every story of transformation. It's called the hero's journey. Joseph Campbell mapped it out. And the hero begins, in a very ordinary world, safe, predictable, familiar.

He's incentivized by the things that most people in his world are incentivized by. His limitations are certainly worldly. Then comes the call to adventure, a challenge, a whisper, a truth that you can't ignore. But what happens next? Well, almost every time the hero refuses the call. For those Star Wars fans out there, you know, Luke Skywalker, he didn't want to leave home. Right, as a farmer on Tatouin. He wasn't ready to face the evil empire.

He doubted himself. He resisted. He wanted more of what he knew. And the story of Jonah is similar. Someone mentioned this to me the other day. I don't know how many times Luke Skywalker and the story of Jonah are used in the same example. but first for everything. You know, God asks him to go to Nineveh, to speak, to change hearts.

He says, no, he gets in a ship, and he goes in the other direction. But fate didn't take kindly to shortcuts. A storm came. You know, the ship shook, and Jonah, amidst all this, was thrown overboard. He was swallowed whole by a great fish, you know, alone in darkness, nowhere left to run. And that's where he met his truth. That's where he surrendered to his life's purpose, his mission. That's where the journey for him truly began.

See, destiny does not ask us if we're ready and simply arise. And when we resist, we often find ourselves in the belly of our own fear. Until we realize the only way out as Robert Frost suggests is through. Jonah eventually got it. Luke Skywalker eventually got it and eventually so do we because the refusal doesn't stop the story it merely delays

a transformation your transformation and the stoics you know they knew this as well they spoke on it wrote about it all the time Marcus Aurelius wrote the impediment to action advances action what stands in the way

becomes the way. Seneca said fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant. More or less, for the sake of our conversation, meaning you can run, you can hide behind logic, busyness, perfectionism.

But destiny is not looking for your comfort. It's waiting for your commitment to step into that purpose, into that person. You've known your whole life. has been there waiting to be unveiled to the world. I look back now and laugh at how hard I tried to outpace my own purpose. But I needed to learn that avoidance, it doesn't keep you safe.

It keeps you small. It keeps you playing in someone else's game, a spectator in someone else's arena. Instead of thriving and becoming a superstar in your own, adding more value to the world in those around you than you can imagine, Your destiny, it's a lot of things, but it's never small. So I ask you, what have you been avoiding? What's the path that quietly calls your name?

The one that feels right, but maybe demands of you a little more right now than you're willing to give, one that you say maybe later to every time the thought arises? Because it's waiting. because it's waiting. And maybe it's not supposed to be easy. Maybe you're never going to feel ready. Maybe that discomfort is the signal, not a stop sign, but a sign to go.

And embracing that is how you win. It's how you find peace. Not by dodging the road, but trusting it. Because when you finally step into that discomfort, when you answer the call you've been avoiding, you don't just find your destiny. You become it. One year.

After a quadruple bypass, he was sitting right next to me, lacing up his shoes, getting ready to run, an ultramarathon in the South Florida Sun. Didn't tell a soul, by the way, that he had a stent put in less than two weeks ago.

No, not Tom. It was funny echoes of him a few years back saying, Eddie, you're not a doctor. So what do I get out of complaining about my pain to you? Rang through my head. There was sun, humidity, recovering body, and all. 68 years of life's trials and tribulations under his belt,

all of it there with us at the starting line as we took off. When all was sudden done, he completed 50 miles, which is a feat that, I don't know, I'd venture to guess 99%. of healthy men in their 20s, couldn't just pick up and do tomorrow. He was impressive. But amidst the run, I forget how many miles in,

this moment really stood out to me. We were standing on this walkway that kind of diverged from the overpass, leaning against a rail, and just watching the water pushed through the bridge underneath us and empty out into the Atlantic. He needed a breather

because his reconfigured heart was throwing a quick temper tantrum. You know, I made a joke about how... It wasn't quite lunacy, but he was flirting with it. And he goes, you want to hear a good story? Me, of course, yes.

I'm a story guy. And he said, okay. And he was off. He starts this story about a... married man. And this man is living in a hut with his wife in a little village. And the man's in-laws lived in a hut, one village over. One day he woke up to the news that his in-laws hut had totally burned down. So what would happen next? You guessed it. The in-laws packed up what remained of their belongings and headed over to live with the man and his wife. So now he had the

in-laws living with him in his hut. How bad could it be? Well, a few weeks go by and he realized it can be that bad. He just couldn't stand, you know, the living situation, constant nagging, judging, lack of personal space, all the things, right? He says, I need help. So he goes to a village elder. We'll call her the sage. He goes to the sage. He says, look, you're incredibly wise.

I need some help. My in-laws moved in. and it's hell. My life is terrible. I can't stand this. Please help me. And the sage thinks for a second, says, okay.

Let me ask you something. Do you have any chickens? He says, chickens. Yeah, I have chickens. Why? The sage says, well, go get them and bring them into your hut. Let the chickens live with you as well.

The man, somewhat confused, he thanks to Sage. He goes, okay, goes home, brings all his chickens into his hut. Then another week goes by, as you'd expect, things are just absolutely chaos. Chickens running around, feathers everywhere, things are dirty, a nightmare. So he goes back to the sage, and he says, look, I don't know what the idea was here or what the intent was, but somehow my life is worse.

Can you please help me make it better? And the sage says, I think I can. Do you have any pigs? He says, yeah, pigs? Sage is perfect. Invite the pigs into the hut to live with you. Again, he looks at her confused. Invite the pigs to live with me into the hut too?

Yes, she says. So he leaves, brings all the pigs in. After about a week, he looks around and just a dystopian situation. Disaster. And he's furious. And he goes back to the sage. He says, look. You have made my life somehow way worse.

Do you know how disgusting pigs are? This place is just out of a horror movie. The sage says, I see. He says, you see, are you going to help me or not? Right? Please give me some guidance to make my life better. So the sage sits there, silence for a few seconds. Finally, she says, okay, listen to me carefully.

If you want to make your life better, here's what you do. go home and remove the chickens and pigs from your hut. You're welcome. It's a message about perspective. It's gratitude for the things that in the moment we might not see or appreciate. I'll never forget the quote, a healthy person wants a million things. A sick person wants only one.

It emphasizes how much we take for granted. We don't appreciate the day-to-day or our normalcy, our reality, until it's pulled from us. We have to be reminded, hey, there's a lot to be thankful for here. And I inject this because this is, you know, this is personal experience. It's anecdotal. But it was really a big deal for me. Like, I used to think of gratitude as woo-woo, right? The way it's used, it's like, okay, go around saying you're grateful, that's nice.

I didn't understand the tool that it was and that it shines a mirror on all those things that we don't see. The things we get to do, the people in our lives, the communities we live in, our ability to go out and, you know, work out if we want to. Entertain ourselves if we want to, right? Like you fill in the blank. All of these things we just take for granted. But they matter. And what Tom was saying that day on that bridge overlooking the water was that putting himself through that manufactured hell

made everything else feel like bliss in comparison. You know, mile 30 and 40 and 50, especially after heart surgeries, right, was the metaphorical chicken and pig. It was inviting chaos and discomfort. into his life so that when he reached the finish line, he could remove all that pain and look at his world with a new lens, a new appreciation for baseline.

You know, when I look at the wrong things, when I focus on the wrong stuff, which I do from time to time, fall out of alignment completely, right? I feel frustrated and I feel small. I get overwhelmed. And when the dust settles, it's obvious to me that it's because I'm no longer seeing the power in what's around me.

When you take away the extra, right, and you focus on the things that matter that are meaningful to you, there exists enough to move mountains. The tools exist to change your life. It's just that sometimes they get buried under the wrong things, things you don't need. And that could be an infinite list as well. We put ourselves into chaos intentionally so that when we remove the chaos, we are reminded how strong we are.

We get how small and manageable the obstacles that we often allow to consume us. Create that perspective for yourself. Push your limits. See how far you can go. know that nothing is too much for you to manage. Nothing is bigger than you. Remind yourself how much of a blessing it is to wake up in the morning and take in the day. Feel the sun on your face.

The challenges are a gift. The obstacles are beautiful. The uncertainty is magic. So make sure you can see that. Help yourself understand it. Visualize it. For no other reason than the practicality of the exercise. You don't want to let life slip by and realize you didn't treat time

like the precious commodity that it is.