Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - YOU OWE IT TO YOU IN 2025 - Best Motivational Speeches for Success

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

How often do we hold ourselves back by leaving the back door open? By keeping an escape route in sight just in case things get tough? True progress isn’t made by hedging bets—it’s made by going all in. When we remove the option to quit, when we commit fully, everything changes.In this episode, we dive into the power of burning the ships—eliminating the safety nets that keep us from reaching our highest potential. Just like survival instincts kick in when life is on the line, our dreams demand that same level of urgency. When you give yourself no choice but to succeed, you’d be amazed at what you can accomplish.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

There's an old business fable about commitment. First time I heard it was years ago. I was watching a video of Dartmouth's rowing coach. He was telling a story to inspire his team. And basically in this story, there's a father, there's a son, they're sitting down at breakfast. And the son says, dad, I'm learning about commitment versus contribution in school. I'm trying to grasp it, but I can't quite understand the difference.

Father thinks about it for a minute. He says, look down at your plate. What do you see? Boy says ham and eggs. Father says, well, that chicken made a contribution to your breakfast. That pig made a commitment. He then goes on to tell his team to row like pigs. And that simple metaphor created a foundation for everything that's come through my life since then.

Right? In anything we do, there's the option to go all in or to walk the line, to hedge your bets. And people so often leave or quit when something becomes difficult because there's another door they've left open, right? There's an easier way, an escape route. But let me ask you this. Do you think if it was a life or death situation, right? Say you needed water to survive. Would you give up after looking for three hours and coming up empty-handed?

Of course not. You'd keep looking because life depended on it, right? There's no other options available. There's this old saying that if you're... want to take the island, burn the ships, commit. And it's not until you do this that things truly begin to change, that progress is made at the highest level. You simply cannot tiptoe to success. You can't sneak up behind it. You have to own it. Right. Go after what you want like the world is on fire. Like your universe revolves around making this happen. I have never.

In my 28 years of existence, seeing a lion walk up to a gazelle and hope that it falls over. Right? And attacks it with everything that it has. Speed, strength, tenacity. That's what brings home the prize. If you and your goals aren't won, if they are not the same, that's a pretty good indicator that you are fighting the wrong fight. You should live and breathe your dreams. Inhale and exhale them.

They should live at the forefront of your mind, where every thought that comes through your head should be in the context of that dream. That basic question, how bad do you want it? Well, if you're not willing to fully commit to dive into something, then that gives you a pretty good answer right out of the gate. You can talk about hours spent, routines, habits, but if you aren't passionate about what you want, if you don't immerse yourself

in it, none of that really matters. Live how you need to live. Do what you need to do. Be who you need to be to make your dreams real. Fully commit to excellence. Because until you do that, you will be left with only a vision and a false sense of reality. Winners don't have time for that. Okay, set your mind to your target and crush it. That is the only option. There's a story about some frogs. And, you know, these frogs as they're sort of making their way through the woods, the ground breaks underneath them and two of them fall into this little pit.

Way, way, way down. They tumble and eventually they hit the bottom. They're looking up and they're realizing how far they've fallen, right? moving around, panicking, essentially coming to grips with the situation that they're now in. They start frantically jumping, trying to climb the walls. And as they're jumping, the frogs on top are looking down. And they're basically yelling, look, we're sorry this happened to you. But this is a lost cause.

There's no way out for you guys. There's no need to jump around. This is a futile situation. But they continue to jump and they're jump, not willing to come to terms with that possibility, not yet. And again, the frogs up top, they yell down, you know, there's no way. It's over, you're going to die down there, guys. You need to ultimately face that.

And one of the two frogs in the pit does concede to the situation. He hears the voices and, you know, he stops jumping and makes his way further down the pit and he dies. But the second one, the second one keeps jumping, and jumping and adjusting his approach. Trying different things. Ultimately, he does get out. He climbs over the ledge, and when he gets to the top, he's confronted by the others. And they come up to him, they ask him, hey, didn't you hear us yelling down that the situation was impossible? Didn't you hear us say there was no way out?

And as it turns out, he didn't hear. Because this frog was deaf, right? And so we couldn't hear a single word, and this ultimately saved his life. Not because it helped them do the miraculous or the impossible, but because it blocked out the outside voices, attempting to tell him what possible is. Look, there will always be doubters, skeptics, and cynics. As Aristotle said, there is one way to avoid criticism.

Do nothing. say nothing and be nothing. But the beauty is that these voices have one thing in common, and that's their irrelevance. Because there's one voice that matters in the writing of your story, and that voice belongs to you. Never forget how much control you have. Never forget who holds the pen.

Things are real when you make them real. Things stop when you stop. Things change when you change them. So here's the following, not orders or expectations, but that spark that guides you to what feels right, to what means the most. Here's to an everlasting self-belief. That will lift you out of any hole, carry you over any mountain, and most importantly turn blank pages into a story that is truly your... It's no secret. that the best things in life come with the biggest price tag.

The victories, the transformation, the things that ultimately define your journey, they're made of something different. And in fact, if you look at the etymology of the word extraordinary, it means outside the normal course of events. It means it requires of you something bigger. Robert Frost has a beautiful quote that the best way out is always through. The only way to redefine reality is to stop running in place and look the now square in the eyes. And when I think about my story, my growth, the greatest adversary I've faced hasn't been instances of misfortune or setbacks.

Sure, they occur, but we find ways around those. my greatest adversary has been to concede to what I believed was normal, to hope or expect that somehow things would change on their own, that the world would ultimately rearrange itself for me. But this way of thinking needs to be changed because where there is no accountability, the power is in the situation. But when you find the courage to face every problem in your life head on, you suddenly find yourself where you need to be in control. Life is about breaking things down and rebuilding.

It's remembering the meaning of the word extraordinary, and therefore stepping into the dark, the unknown, the organized chaos, not going around the discomfort, but storming the castle because it's here the greatness lives. It's by paying a price in strength, and courage that reality will ultimately bend to your will.

While life might tempt us, while pride might beg us, the best way out is always. There's a quote that states, life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. Which means that your reaction is drastically more important than the circumstance. And that's critical. to know. It's critical to understand that nothing. No one in life has more power over your own

situation than you. And there's an old story that hits on this point exactly. There's a father and a daughter. And basically the daughter's complaining. She's complaining about life, how difficult things are. She's just know how she's going to make it in whatever it is she's doing. I mean, the bottom line is she's tired of the day to day, right? And her father gets this idea. He says, come with me into the kitchen. And he gets three pots of water, puts them on the stove, and turns the burner's own. As soon as they start boiling, he drops a potato in the first one, an egg in the second one,

and some coffee beans in the third one. And after some time goes by and they boil a little bit, he pulls them out. He puts the potato in a bowl. He puts the egg in a bowl, and he takes a ladle, and he puts some of the coffee in a cup. He says, what do you see? She says, well, I see a potato. I see eggs, and I see coffee. He says, yeah, but look closer.

There's more there. And she goes, and she touches the potato, and it's now soft. And he hands her the bowl with the boiled egg, and she takes the shell off and breaks it open. She sees that it's hard inside. Then finally, he asked her to take a sip of the coffee. and she smells it, she takes a sip, and the smile comes to her face. She says, so what does all this mean?

What are you trying to say? And he says, well, the potato, when I dropped it in the water, it was rigid, it was tough, it was uncompromising, but in the boiling water, it became soft, weak. Then you have the egg that was basically the opposite. This delicate layer, protecting a liquid center, and the boiling water, boiling water made it hard.

And then there was the coffee. That wasn't just changed by the situation. It created something new. It took the same adversity and used it as a lever to bring something beautiful into existence. He then looks at his daughter and says, look, when things become challenging, when things become difficult, which one are you? What's your approach? See, maybe the question is not about how challenging the situation is, right? Maybe we've been asking the wrong question.

Maybe it's how do you transform yourself and by default, the world around you? How do you take your strengths, your values, your loves, your joys, your happiness, and let that lead you into something bigger? When life gets hard And it does What do you become? I always remind myself You know we are not defined by life at peak state

As much as I wish that were the case Right we're not shaped by the easy days Or the times that we floated by Because those times are great They're enjoyable but they're not what make or break us It's the times that challenge us and ask us to be what we have not yet become. That's the good stuff. And this is another one of those simple but not easy type things,

because on paper it makes sense. It's understood. But it's an outlook that manifests over time. It's slowly stacked piece by piece and brick by brick, realizing that every situation provides you with tools. to make something out of an apparent nothing. And then it waits, right? Because fate is in your hands.

And I can certainly think of, you know, times in my life, that's one of the reasons I love these stories. I can reflect where each one of those pots of boiling water was relevant. I can think of times I was too headstrong, like the metaphorical potato. I thought success would be easy. I thought projects would be simple to execute. I spent months doing things

that just weren't good, because I didn't ask what is the world need. I asked myself, what do I want to give the world? And there has to be a marriage there, right? And it was a quick reminder that the world owes me nothing. I was humbled or softened as the story goes. I've been the egg, I've been timid, I've been uncertain, thin-skinned,

worrying about what people would say or the content I was creating, worried about perception. How would things look? if I failed. And very quickly, I learned that when life is a game of comparison or one-upmanship, when you do things for reasons and people other than yourself,

can't win. You overcompensate. You do things for the wrong reasons, and you lose yourself, you become hardened. And then there's the good stuff, right? Getting to the coffee, not bowing down to the circumstances, but shaping them. not letting life dictate how the story goes or the fate of your character.

And what's interesting is I'm pretty sure that being that metaphorical egg and the potato, they lay the foundation to become the coffee, the life lessons, the falling down, the picking my ego up off the floor, learning to trust myself, not be led by the opinions and expectations of others, You essentially learn that you can take the world around you and change it, that it is malleable, it is flexible. You have that power. You have that ability. It's up to you to believe it.

And that's critical because no one comes along and cosigns that understanding for you. It's an internal process. You start to learn that things aren't there to provide instruction. They're there to propel you. But can you see the unknown is the opportunity, the obstacle is the way, and the loss is the armor that you pick up during the journey? And so, you know, all of these words essentially come to one point. And that point is you have so much more control over your life than you think you do. As I've said before, you are stronger than you think you are.

You are more resilient than you can even imagine. And when life tests you, and again, it will, remember that the challenges are not happening to you, but for you. The world isn't taking away what you have, it's giving you what you need. So long as you're willing to adapt with it, to grow, expand out, because you not only have the ability to change yourself,

but the world as well. For a second, imagine that feeling in your stomach. The nerves, the discomfort, maybe even the doubt as you walk up to do that one thing that scares you, that stretches you just a little bit further than you're ready for. And as you move towards that sort of dark, unknown, in the mysterious discomfort, what's on your mind? Are you starting to rationalize?

Maybe you're asking yourself, hey, why did I do this to begin with? It seemed like a good idea at one point. It seemed bold and adventurous. But now it seems like the wheels have hit the road and the narrative is shifting in real time. So try and recreate that feeling for a second. looking fear in the eyes capture what it means physically

mentally for me it was public speaking half a decade ago standing backstage palms sweating little voice in my head saying hey ed cubicle doesn't seem so bad right now does it genius maybe you know for you in this scenario it's that big test that feels like the weight of the world

is on your shoulders everything's on the line Maybe it's something like starting a conversation with a complete stranger, interview for a job you want, starting line of a race, having the courage to speak your mind online. Maybe it's doing something your family doesn't quite get, or your friends won't understand, cutting ties with what's comfortable, a decision to be what you've always wanted to be. There's a million possibilities.

There's a lot of fear that we dance with on a day-to-day basis. But in that moment, as your feet start moving in the very direction that will bring your ideas closer to your reality, and you're hit with that same feeling, that wall that tells us something isn't quite right. That's what I want to discuss. Because it's hard to be met with this feeling and still move confidently in the same direction. There's cognitive dissonance there. How can something feel wrong and be right? Should there be disconnect?

You know, it's funny, I really enjoy reading quotes. And particularly, Lewis Carroll has resonated with me over the years. You know, things he said in his works, they're witty, they're funny, but they're powerful. And one in particular stood out to me. It's why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. I just loved the concept, the idea of immersing yourself, you know, in the impossible, in the difficult, the thing that's not right in front of you, that's sort of creating it as you go.

So I got through the looking glass and adventures of Alice in Wonderland. It was an interesting read. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for everyone, but there was certainly one thing that popped out of me, that I found incredibly valuable. And it was in Alice's journey holistically, right? So just she goes into this rabbit hole, and the world is basically upside down.

Nothing is as it was before she jumped. Nothing really makes sense. And what you see is her progression as a character as she starts continually embracing the thing that feels abnormal, upside down and weird. But with each decision to move forward, she completely redefines this insane world that wasn't particularly warm and receptive to Alice to begin,

She stands up to a queen running around ordering executions. She navigates a world with new rules and guidelines. She transforms the boundaries that used to define reality. And what I think is valuable is that there really wasn't this boom transformative moment where everything changes. She just keeps subtly saying, yes, she keeps moving forward without knowing for sure how things will work out or unfold, as if she's supposed to. and she becomes so accustomed to suppressing that feeling of fear and uneasiness that it almost becomes comical.

She goes with it and becomes the author of a new story. She becomes untouchable in this world. And my point here, and for those of you not a fan of Alice in Wonderland, I appreciate you hanging on, but where these dots connect is that it's actually a pretty simple idea. Life unfolds in a way that is unimaginable when we shift our own. thinking from, oh no, here comes that feeling in my stomach again, my heart's pounding, my palms are sweating, so I've wandered too far. When you change that to here comes that feeling in my stomach, heart pounding, palms sweating, so here comes the beginning of something incredible,

life shifts. See, it's not running from that temporary feeling of fear and discomfort, but harnessing it. It's a weapon. It's a tool. Right. It fuels the rocket ship headed to the moon. It's the water that that seed of opportunity is dependent upon. And sure, it feels new and unsettling, and yes, uncomfortable, but so is, as we learn, everything good. And sure, you could turn back. You could avoid that manufactured conflict, confrontation altogether,

but, man, you have to be okay, never knowing what those peaks could have been. You have to be content imagining a life of adventure and not living it. And to me, that's a much steeper price. Because that feeling of fear in your stomach, it's temporary. It goes away. But the feeling of knowing you walked away when life held out its hand and offered you more, that doesn't go away. And see, I look at it like this.

Two things change every time you say yes. Every time you acknowledge the organized chaos and move forward anyway, you move both your internal and external worlds one step forward. Internal because life is your identity. And as has been said before, humans always follow through on who they believe they are. I've heard actors saying the most important decision they make is the shoes they put on. Because it lays the groundwork for how you feel. You just feel differently about yourself in clown shoes

than you would in basketball shoes than you wouldn't dress shoes shoes. You feel different about yourself in a suit than you wouldn't sweatpants. And this doesn't mean go reassess your wardrobe, but highlights how malleable identity is. Yeah, we follow through on who we believe we are, but the powerful thing is who we believe we are is created every single day. Every time we use fear to propel us forward. Your subconscious goes, okay, that's who I am.

am. Someone who does the uncomfortable thing. Someone who is okay with fear, that's me. Right? And that's the internal foundation that means everything. That's how identity is constructed. And if you stack that up with action every single day, you won't even be able to recognize yourself. That's the internal transformation. Then there's the external transformation. Every time you push through fear, you level up, not significantly. Right? You aren't immediately transformed. In fact, sometimes you don't even notice, but the truth is, after you say yes, after you take that step, you're fractionally further than a few minutes earlier. Your relative ceiling is now the floor and it's time to take another step. This is how you create distance

over time. So when you hear the word fear, let's rewire that reaction. Let's change how we think about it. Because it's not a monster in the closet. It's not a monster. It's not a word fear. It's not, Not some demons staring you in the face. No, it's a ticket to something more, something to be embraced and coveted. It's the next little step in your journey. And why when most of the world bows down to that feeling of discomfort or instability and stays the same,

you will have moved forward. Not in a single leap, but a step. A step that over time will become the reason that at some point, when you look over your shoulder, you'll find a life, a world, a reality that is unrecognizable in the context of where you began. It's why fear is not to be avoided or even tolerated, but sought out as the single variable that puts a pulse in your aspirations, gives hope to your dreams. The ideal life is not predicated on the avoidance of fear, but the ability to be able to.

to harness and capitalize on its power. So I wanna start with a story about cliff jumping with my friends, maybe four years ago now. We flew into Las Vegas, spent some time in Vegas and then we hit like national parks in Utah and then Arizona and went all the way up the coast. When we were in Lake Tahoe at the very end, there is this spot to cliff jump.

this really, really high peak. And, you know, it's notorious, and it was just like a scary thing. And I remember walking up, there were three of us. And two other people were there. It's like you have to hike up to it. It's kind of in the woods a little bit. One of my buddies walked up and, you know, we thought he was going to jump right off. And he stood there and he looked down.

And he looked down for, I don't know how long. a while, you know, ultimately jumped. As far as I knew, I wasn't afraid of stuff like that, right? So I walk out and I look over the edge and I could not bring myself to jump. Physically, I couldn't do it. Rationally, I couldn't speak myself or talk myself into it. There was no more rationality going on. It was just I was frozen in fear and I just remember sitting there and looking down.

And, you know, people would come up. up and ask about it and they'd be like, you know, can I jump? And I'm like, go ahead. Right. Like, it almost got to the point where it was hurting my pride and I still couldn't jump. And, and I just stood there. And I stood there. And I stood there. You know, I forget how long it took. I don't really know and time was probably felt insane in that moment. But eventually I did. And it was incredible. right? It was a forever long drop in just the adrenaline and the excitement and you realize for a second that type of thing that's peak living and there's more of that out there in the world and all of a sudden you want to capture it and obtain it and you realize what you had been missing.

You know, and then my friend came up after me. He stood there for just as long too, right? It's just It's just, it's a very weird thing and it's hard to explain. There are so many situations that are this peak in our life, this cliff, that we know we need to jump from. We know the other side is better or we suspect, but we can't bring ourselves to do it. And this all came from a quote I found from John Green, one of my favorite authors. In his book, Paper Towns, it says, it is so hard to leave until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamn thing in the world.

And that's right on the money, right? Being on the edge of that cliff, it is terror, sheer terror. It is so hard to make that jump. And then you do when it's like life opens up. And it's the same thing with, in this case, right? it's so hard to leave until you do. It's terrifying to uproot, to change, to go somewhere you don't know. But once you do, life opens up.

It's incredible. The other side is beautiful. And it's waiting for you. All of this is coming to a single point, a rule that I used to guide my decision-making. And the rule is simple. If you are not content where you are, that is your reason to jump. Because on that cliff, rationality dissolves. The future is unknown and it's scary.

And how are you going to logically talk yourself into a scary unknown when you're at that point? You can't. It doesn't make sense. And I think that's why so many of us are scared to make that jump. And we ultimately turn back and we concede and go, okay, I'll just stick with what I have. This isn't great, but it is what it is. I can't bring myself to make that jump. We're all there at some point.

I've been there. I've been there with speaking big cliff for me when I first started. Ultimately jumped and put me on a trajectory that changed my life. Same thing with making videos. Same thing with my first client. Like all these things, they're terrifying. And in the moment, you can't logically speak through them, so you just have to go.

And it's like, well, how do you logically? You don't. You just go. Because if the present, here's the rule. The present is not making you content. Go. Jump. Right?

Never forget that the path, the future is comprised of a trillion paths. And you can bend them and shape them and remake them. And sometimes it won't work. Sometimes it'll, you know, blow up in your face. But again, you're still presenting with an opportunity to adjust and remake and bend and re-approach and continue forward. Right?

The only way to lose is to stay on that cliff for the rest of your life. And so if you needed some type of rationality, if you needed some type of reason, I'm hoping that maybe I can give that to you today. If you are not content where you are, jump. Because somewhere along the way, you'll figure it out. Every time I've jumped, it's changed my life for the better. Maybe not immediately, but ultimately. And as I say, that's what life's all about.

Hey, I hope you got something from this podcast. If you did, please subscribe, rate review. Helps me get it out to the world. And guys, I appreciate that. And I will catch you tomorrow. Empowerment is knowing that you have control of your life, that you create the expectations and you carry them out. Whether it be tomorrow, in a month, in a year, or even longer, it's knowing that the image

in your head is the standard. It's fact. Because when you leave the door open, when you leave the door to your ambitions cracked, even the smallest amount, the reality of you. of the present moment, they find their way in and they create dissonance. They want you to see, they want you to be intimidated by the gap between what you have and what you want. And truly, the greatest gift I've ever given myself is to start every pursuit knowing

that whatever I'm chasing, whatever it is I want to obtain it will be reality. It's possible. Period. That's my starting point. All I have to do is connect the dots. questions, just steps. So there's a certainty that I possess as I move on to the next level. And as a creator, whether I'm creating for my YouTube channels, collaborations, clients,

it doesn't really matter, there's a common theme. And it's that the world can't see the image you have in your head until you complete it, upload it, share it, email the final result. You know what the outcome will be in a way that just can't be expressed or articulated. It can only be shown upon completion. And you must be the one to show it, by the way. The reason that's so significant is because there's no difference between making a film or realizing a dream.

Either way, there's no rewards, there's no applause, there's no assurances until you're done, until you've crossed the finish line. Just like a client can only point to things they've seen as a reference point. Well, the people around you, they only know the present moment. They only know how things are. And so it's borderline crazy to put those opinions on a pedestal, right? To absorb that criticism, to adhere to those rules. They navigate around the now, the present, not the future, not where you're going.

Right? Who cares us? about the now? You'll just be looking back at it as you make your way on to your next goal. See, all this circles back to those dots that need to be connected. Because the places you're going, the things you're becoming, they require three things, the understanding that all problems have solutions, the certainty that you will find them, and the persistence to power through. That's all. That's the mentality that will put you in a position to do anything.

you want. It will empower you. It's not that the people around you are dumb or that the world wants you to fail. It's just that placing your fate in their hands is meaningless. To discount your dream based on how things are or the opinion of someone else is like a pilot worrying about airspace he's already flown through. Or asking the random dude in seat 22B to fly the plane, right? They are passengers on the journey, a journey that is worth the clear. that will be rewarding, that is waiting, but you have to be the one to see it, and you have to see it before the world does. You have to believe it before anyone else will. Because you'll build brick by brick on a foundation that the rest of the world would simply walk right by.

Why? Because right now, it's not a skyscraper with a beautiful architecture, 50 floors and an incredible view. Right now, it's an ordinary, plot. of land that no one would think twice about. So remember, yes, it's possible. Yes, there is a way. And when we focus on the vision and connecting the dot in front of you, the world opens up. Be your own biggest fan. Learn to cherish the sound of your own applause because that is always what must come first. Hope. that bridge that connects the present to a more ideal world. The idea that no obstacle is too big to overcome,

no situation too dire, to emerge victorious, and that you are never confined to how things are. FDR has said, we have always held to hope. The belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon. Why does this matter? Well, to put it simply, before one can leave this situation they are in, they have to believe there is another path worth taking.

It's not always seeing, but trusting. It's a tale of two components. One, the belief that something better is out there, and two, the belief that you are strong enough to bridge that gap to create that world. So let's start with number one. There was a study done by Kurt Richter in the 1950s and he used rats. And it was kind of a gruesome experiment, but definitely worth talking about because the takeaway is incredible. Right. And I kind of cherry-picked the relevant parts of the experiment. Basically, he wanted to delve into the role that hope plays in our lives. And what he would do is he would drop rats into a jar of water and observe.

See how long they would swim before they'd drown. And for the most part, these rats would swim for a minute or two and then ultimately give up. There was this innate feeling of hopelessness. But then he made a change, and when they were close to drowning, he'd reach in, he'd pick them up, he'd hold them for a little while. And then he'd placed them back in the water. And the results between the two groups were night and day. The rats saw in the second group that it wasn't over.

When they were placed back in the water, they had a reason to continue swimming, and they did. Some of them did for hours. The only difference being that they had hope. They saw there was more. And I don't think that's too different from us. The situation may be different, but the rules generally apply. So much of conceding or giving up in life, accepting an existence that falls short of. our ideals, it's when we don't believe in something more.

We stop swimming. You don't give ourselves a chance. So instead of creating bridges to walk on, we make walls that lock us in. Hope is knowing all pain, all discomfort is temporary. And the second component is belief in yourself. Belief in yourself to traverse that space between current and the ideal. It's self-empowerment. You can be the difference maker in your life and others.

And it's funny, the other day after reading about the Richter experiment, I was sitting at a friend's house with my laptop, kind of trying to figure out what to make of it, because the idea of hope I knew was powerful, and I wanted to share that story. I wanted to write something that would highlight its value, but it seemed kind of unfinished or simply part of an explanation.

I'm sitting there thinking about it, and I hear this loud, And I hear this loud bang over and over again. And I get up and I run to the back of the house, right, to make sure everything's fine, see what's going on. And my friend's standing there with goggles on, this grin on his face and a sledgehammer and a huge hole in the wall in front of him.

And I'm like, dude, what are you doing? You just knocked your wall down. He goes, yeah, I wanted to make another closet. His family's growing. He needs more space. And he just took it upon himself. to make that happen. I just looked at them and walked back out.

Start walking in the living room and it hit me. This is a component of hope. Seeing what's not there and doing something about it. If this swimming experiment is step one, this has to be step two in real time. Step one, believing seeing something more. Step two, taking action to change it now, buying into the fact that you have the power

to change your own world. And it's funny because any house or room I've ever lived in, my thoughts always, you know, you look around and this is this is it, right? This is the situation. This is what's being given to me. How do I make the most of it? How do I play within these parameters? Not, okay, this is fine, but it could be better, you know, by smashing down the wall in the back over there, creating something new. And, you know, obviously the message here isn't about home maintenance.

Right? This is about taking a sledgehammer to the places in your life in which, you know, and which, you know, but you are not content, so that you can build in its place something that matters. You look around to your left, you're right, and you're unhappy. That's not the end of the story.

That's the beginning of the story. That's where the wheels hit the road. In other words, it's looking at life with the lens, with the freedom of knowing things don't have to be what they are. They don't have to stay the same until the universe changes them. No, they can be what you make them.

And what life teaches us again and again is that walls can be stepped over. Knows can become yeses. Impossibles can become commonplace. But first, there must be hope. There must be an understanding that your world is a 10,000 foot view of all the little stories you tell yourself and the narratives you believe. See, every day when you wake up and take your first steps, breathe your first breaths, know that nothing simply is. No, it is simply chosen and can be remade. That's what makes life such a beautiful thing.

It's flexibility. It's promised to provide what has been relentlessly sought out. So remember, it's when you can't find your answer. When the odds look grim, when the rest of the world tells you know that you most need hope. Hope, the power, the strength to look within yourself and remember that one life can change and two, you can change it. Armed with this understanding, nothing is impossible. When others fail to see the answer, the light in themselves and the situation, you become, the reminder that light is internally manufactured.

We aren't given answers so that we may believe them. We are given the opportunity to believe, and thus we create that ending we hope to pursue. And without this, life is nothing more than a permanent status quo. It's holding our hands to the sky and receiving what light chooses to provide. But that's not why you're here. It's not why you woke up today, not to accept, but to create. create to find hope in the tragedy and the hardship and to find within yourself the strength to move forward with whatever you decide comes next.

Yesterday I drove out a little bit into North Carolina, parked the car, found a path, and went on a long hike to take in some scenery, think about life holistically, kind of contemplating. where I'd go from here and why it matters, which is always funny to think about, right? The idea of having to carve out time amidst our frantic and often chaotic journey to get somewhere to, well, define where somewhere is. But I think about that a lot.

Our days consist of so much running around that I can easily forget what even my calculated decisions add up to. Why? It's a simple enough question. and perhaps when I could ask more, why? What's with this whole get comfortable with discomfort thing? Why do I place so much emphasis on the quote-unquote path less traveled?

Which is a term that one of my buddies was recently given me a hard time about using it all my speeches, right? It must mean something to me. It's got me here. But it's here better than over there. After all, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I'm the one who's missing the mark. and it's okay to examine that possibility. In fact, that's why I'm here. And I bounced this around in my head as I made my way up the trail

and noticed as I looked around, everything just felt perfect. Have you ever had one of those moments where it just seems surreal? The morning was incredible. I loved the sound of the earth under my feet as I took each step, the chirping of the birds in the early morning, the sun making its way through the tree. trees and I thought it's amazing that you can live 20 minutes from this feeling and just never experience it. I guess proof that a decision did not go, to do nothing, is still very much a

decision. And in this case, would have been the less desirable one. I'm glad I went. My phone was in my backpack and for the first time in a while I didn't even think about it. My mind was stimulated. My senses were taking in something new, something different, something not my studio or laptop or social media analytics pages. In fact, all that stuff felt kind of trivial now that I was removed from it. And I wondered, why don't I do this more? I thought popped into my head earlier that morning.

I thought, hey, that's a cool idea. I just had to get through that initial pushback. The hesitancy of, well, what's the point? What's the desired outcome of a hike? And after all, this little jaunt, you're just going to distract you from your work and your progress. But at that moment, I think you have to just shut out reason for a second. You have to remind yourself that there's value, period.

Otherwise, we open the door for rationalizing. We talk ourselves out of some of life's beautiful secrets. Sometimes you have to just go. And as I made my way down this trail further and further, I started to feel better. I felt reassured. Like I had something that I otherwise wouldn't have had, something that's my own.

And maybe that is it. Maybe that alone is the reason for everything. To collect those incredible things large and small that we might not have had. After all, isn't life just an accumulation of memories, of experiences that are spread out like a choose-your-ending children's book? And with so much control over the outcome, I think that matter deserves my attention. in order to acquire the good stuff,

whether it's in a different location or context or time in my life, I still learn again and again that to get that, we have to leave some things behind. And that's the essence of life. You usually get out what you put in. And I think about that a lot. I think about the forks in the road I've come across, those same ones, the life-altering decisions.

I guess it's only human. You know, walking away from that promising career that I spent my whole life building towards. Every once in a while, sure, I miss the security. Leaving this city and the people that made my life what it was, it still haunts me from time to time, trading permanence and structure, for the freedom to condense my life's work into a laptop and take it anywhere in the world, and empowerment can be lonely, right? And I guess I can't help that in the midst of those situations,

the easy decision always feels like the wrong one. I've just been pulled by the upside. I gravitate towards this grandiose version of what life could be on the mark that I hope to make. And to me, the scariest thing has always been not having the courage to see more, to explore. The phrase, what if has always been my adversary, the monster in the closet,

and it's a costly one to slay. But life is both suffering. and infinite beauty. And it's like you have to choose where you're going to endure pain and why that matters so that you can climb the mountain that means everything to you, that makes life worth it. In other words, meaningful discomfort now or painful regret later.

And I strongly believe that life is about pursuing something meaningful. And even the triviality of a hike wants to remind, mind me of this truth. I could be at home playing guitar, watching Netflix, relaxing. I mean, that would have been easier. But there's only one way

to catch that sunrise over the trees. And that way is not Netflix. All those beautiful views, they require an output of energy to reach them. They come with fear of something going wrong and in doubt that perhaps the turn you made wasn't the best one, and that's okay.

But I believe that, Happiness to be truly fulfilled requires trade-offs. And with each step, it becomes easier and easier to understand. For the gym rat, it's the discipline and the belief, knowing that muscles break down so that they can be built up. For the relationship to flourish, it's overcoming disagreement, accommodating the needs of that person that you love, so that they can be the last thing you see before you fall asleep.

For the free spirit, it's walking away from what you know in pursuit of something that excites and invigorates, even if you're not entirely sure what it means. It's about enduring one so that you can collect the other. What you choose to endure and what you choose to collect is up to you, but that's what makes life such a beautiful ride. A roller coaster taking you through lows to reach highs into darkness to see how life changing the light is when it pushes its way through. Little decisions that become the collage that explodes off the paper when you step back and look. That's what you get back when you make a point to see more. That's why my love affair with the trivial and the mundane lights my path. It's not just a little thing.

It's a microcosm of my everything. It's my saying yes to the opportunity that we work so hard to ignore in an effort to avoid inconvenience. But a life worth living is not always convenient. You could even argue at times, it should be inconvenient. Because the higher the climb, the more we give of ourselves, the more precious the world looks from the top down. And the challenging times, the things we sacrifice and leave behind,

they're not so much a part of the picture as the paint on your palate. That in breaking down, you can now recreate using your own ideals, metrics and guidelines, a world that you now have the ability to transform. That's why life to me is nothing more than color. Decisions, nothing more than paint, steps, nothing more than brushstrokes, and life. Well, life is nothing and everything. Which, as the morning breeze reminds me, is a decision that is entirely my own.