Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - YOU vs YOU | Best Motivational Speeches to Start Your Day right

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

In this powerful compilation episode, Eddie explores the timeless battle we all face—the one between who we are and who we’re capable of becoming. Kicking off with the classic parable of the two wolves, we’re reminded that the mindset we nurture determines the direction of our lives. Through a series of uplifting and thought-provoking speeches, Eddie dives deep into the idea that our greatest competition is ourselves—and the key to victory lies in what we choose to focus on. Even in life’s most difficult moments, there is value, growth, and perspective waiting to be uncovered. This episode is a call to feed the right wolf, to embrace the power of choice, and to remember that mindset is everything.

Every day there is a specific decision you have to make. It's the first and it's the most important decision because from it you effectively roadmap your destiny. What I'm referring to is the choice to either have a positive outlook or to allow negativity and doubt to chart your course. It's a dilemma that truly is that simple. Every morning you choose how you want to view the obstacles ahead of you. And what you get out of life will be very different depending on your decision.

There's an old Cherokee legend that touches on this conflict. And in the story, there's an older man. He's talking to his grandson about life. He explains that inside all people, there is this fight going on. The struggle consists of two wolves. One manifests itself through negative energy. He's anger, envy, sorrow, inferiority, all that is evil. The other is joy, compassion, faith, truth, all that is good.

So he finishes explaining this. The boy sits there, he thinks about it for a minute. Ask his grandfather, well, which one wins? The grandfather replies, whichever one you feed. What we sometimes forget is that we are the soul makers of our own destiny. There are always going to be external factors. Whatever they may be, negative people, tough circumstances. maybe a lack of resources.

They'll be there. But they cannot dictate your happiness or your success unless you let them. Yeah, they may cause you to alter your approach. You might have to make adjustments. That's good. That's how we develop. That's how we improve. But no one and nothing writes your story but you. Your attitude, your emotions, they directly coincide with how you see the world.

So anytime you feel discouraged, negative, envious, anything that's not positive, just stop. Don't waste your time with thoughts that aren't bringing you closer to your goal. There's just no value in it. Tony Robbins says this beautifully. He says you have to be the guardian of your own mind. Allow in only what will help you. Because God knows the world will crush you if you let it. So take the wheel.

What you need to do tomorrow when you wake up is look at yourself hard in the mirror. Make a conscious decision to feed the good wolf. You'll be amazed at how far it will take you. Show them who you are. As Emerson said, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. It is nothing short of courage to walk into that dark cave that is your potential. To become a pioneer of uncharted worlds in search of who you might. It is courage to leave what will be accepted for an idea that will certainly be misunderstood.

At least initially, it means you're playing by new rules. using new metrics not the rubric that's already been handed out know anything but that and that is the fundamental difference between those who create and those who react those who fight to discover who they are and those who hide behind the mask of acceptance it's courage see anyone can criticize anyone can condemn or tear down But who's willing to run the gauntlet? Who's willing to subject themselves to that hell? Who wants something better so bad that they trade comfort and the reassurance of now

for a life to ultimately be proud of? To be excited when the sun comes through the window and they jump out of bed in the morning. There are most definitely complexities in life, and we do our best to understand them, to navigate through them. But that question, that particular question in my mind will always be simple. Do you have the courage to show them who you are to make that decision? Not reflect back their wishes and their reality like a mirror, but create your own. harness it carry it up the mountain like a torch through the night

see what I've come to understand is that knowing simply is not enough understanding is not enough replicating is not enough what these things lack is you and if I had to best represent this understanding

it would be like this right if you take a musician a technically sound musician she can play. A student of music. Well, he can understand and recite. An expert in the craft. Well, she can teach.

But it's only someone who injects their authentic self into these abilities that can touch the hearts of people around them. Change their lives. Fill minds with wonder and awe. Because when you take a step back and really see what's going on. The songs that are sung,

well, they're not sung because they are the most technical or most advanced because they followed the rules. No, we sing them because they meant something when we heard them. Their authors had the courage to move a step

beyond understanding and into the vulnerability that is self-discovery. That is creation. It is a micro-reland. It is a micro-reliable. of life. And in a world where comfort is not only pushed upon us, but it's the essence of what makes us human, saying no, well, it feels like running uphill. When you blend in, you can't be questioned. When you blend in, you rarely lose. When you blend in, there is no risk, but when you blend in, there is no you.

And I'm not suggesting you missed the mark or you lost the battle. I'm suggesting that every once in a while, we need to be reminded that the journey has not even begun. That down the road, you'll see those people around you. They weren't so much concerned about you as they were themselves. That everyone is scared, everyone is unsure, no one knows or has the answer. But man, to see that, to feel that and move forward anyway, to know that you're worthy of a tomorrow greater than today, that is a courage rarely understood.

And Emerson gives us, with that message, everything we need, the wisdom to know there's more and most importantly, the courage to show yourself and the world who you are. Imagine you're sitting down, having something to eat, thinking, relaxing, reading, whatever you're doing. Someone walks up to the table across from you, pulls out the chair, sits down, kind of leans back, puts one leg over the other, casually tells you, you probably don't have what it takes to do anything significant in your life. What would you say?

Be outrageous, right? That's a ridiculous scenario. Well, let's say that the next day you get up and go to walk, run, work out, and he shows up again. He starts running next to you, casually reminding you that the odds of you changing, doing anything for the better or slim to none, that this is kind of a waste of time for you. You brush it off, you go to work, and guess who? He passes by your desk, leaves a little note saying, you know, that your bosses, your higher-ups, they're cut from a different cloth.

They just see things in a way you can't. you'd probably tell that person to take a long walk off a short pier, right? Or at the very least, you'd understand how absolutely insane the situation is. People can't just walk up and talk to you like that. But now imagine that same person is you, living rent-free in your head. And here's the catch. You invited him in. You allowed the negativity and the doubt to live there.

See, every time I think about that self-talk, I can't help but wonder in a world of obstacles to navigate and challenges to tackle. Why is it acceptable for your biggest obstacle to be you? Why should you allow or be okay with that? And I'm not saying everything's perfect all the time. Every thought's pure bliss. But I am posing this question. If you don't believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to?

If you're not your biggest ally, if you don't respect the person staring back at you in the mirror, how do you expect the world to? Why is our inclination to tense up and refute the negativity from others, but sit back and accept the same nonsense in our own heads? If those words don't support what you're trying to build, I don't care who they're from, where they come from, why they're there, they don't deserve your time. And it's a simple awareness that they are not truth. but merely your fears and your insecurities trying to stop you from becoming who you might be. My biggest leaps in life, they didn't come from physical milestones or benchmarks. They came from mental shifts, convincing myself, believing myself, trusting in myself. When the road is untravelled, when the story is untold, the positive and the negative are both make-believe.

They are both fairy tales, their options, their theories, and guess what? You get to choose which option, which one will be yours. My favorite quote is, you are always stronger than you think you are. Not so much because it reiterates how high the bar is, but because it reminds me how low we often set it for ourselves when we're not paying attention. How loud that negative voice can be. You know, when I was unemployed, I was writing, I was running out of money, my life changed because I stopped seeing myself as some lost, jobless mess,

and I started seeing myself as one of the greats with a hell of a road to travel. See, people always follow through on who they believe themselves to be. I refuse to hear that you might fail and the not good enough, and I buckled up for the road ahead, and when you believe you can change, and know that the road to your goals will be rocky, it will be uncomfortable, but worth it. You are taking that hostile voice and making him or her a spectator, not a decider of fate.

And yeah, you will lose, you can't win all the time, and you will feel stuck, but life's not always smooth sailing. And sure, you'll be mad at yourself, but not every decision is a home run. But these situations are the byproduct of a journey, and here is my point. Self-belief is being able to differentiate your situation and pointless negative talk about the situation. It's about remembering that you are the gatekeeper of your own mind. When you believe in you, it places your faith, your strength, and your determination in the driver's seat. It makes everything else trivial, meaningless. It makes it an option that you are simply not going to choose.

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 contemplate 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.

Perhaps one 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 in all my speeches, right? It must mean something to me. It's got me here, but is 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 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 to 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 be a cool idea. I just had to be a little bit. I just had to do it. I just 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 is 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, 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. about the forks and 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, that 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.

Right? 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. meaningful. And even the triviality of a hike wants to remind 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. Now, 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 pallet. 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 brush strokes, and life. Well, life is nothing and everything, which as the morning breeze reminds me, is a decision that is entirely my own. What is the complex, but an accumulation of that, which is a simple. What are big things, if not just a multitude of little things? There's comfort in the understanding that all we have in life, all there is, is simplicity, easy to understand pieces.

It's just that sometimes we stack them so high that they start to take a new shape. But like Greg McKeown references in his book Essentialism, the power is in all the always in acquiring answers. You already have them. They're in front of you. The power is in cutting away the things that don't need to be removing all that stands between you and your ideal existence. And I think that's one of life's great misunderstandings.

We don't need to find more. We need to remove that excess until we're face to face with what matters. And to adopt this principle, it's nothing short of liberating. Chaos, confusion, disorder. They don't imply that you lack the right things. They suggest you haven't stripped life of the wrong things. You have not simplified. A thousand miles is intimidating when you look at it holistically.

It's a long journey. But it's just a collection of steps, and well, shouldn't we find solace in the fact? that anyone can take one step. It's not a game of complexity. It's a game of understanding what's in front of you. And what's in front of you is always manageable. So much of our stress stems from forgetting what that journey is made of.

Whether it's a change in career, mastery of an art, some kind of personal transformation, the result we want. When looking at it from the starting line, It's too complex to understand too many pieces stacked up. So let's break it down. Let's find the foundation. What's really there?

What are the one, two, three things we need to do? What is that golden question? What matters? If you lose sight of that, then you will stumble through life. I've learned this. I've lived it. The time I take to myself every day is invaluable to me, because I ask myself those two questions,

what matter and what are the simple steps I need to take? What can I remove? I was talking about this during an interview this week, my personal growth. And one of the most important aspects has been the understanding and zeroing in on what's important. I used to take so much pride in composing the background music to these speeches, end to end.

I used to love to be able to say, I did it all. That was so I thought the great differentiator. But ultimately, I learned to take a step back and ask what matters here. What do you care about? It's the storytelling that I love. It's the impact. And let's be real. No one cares who wrote the background music. It's holistically, how does the piece make you feel? And this understanding allowed me to cut away. License the music. Save two days a week, acquire clarity.

and realize my goal is not to be Mozart. My journey is to be one of the great communicators, storytellers of our time, and if a day goes by where I'm not taking a little step towards that, it's the wrong move. Small example in the grand scheme of things, but right on point. It's the power in understanding what matters

that makes a difference that allows you to grow, evolve. And I'm confident that this not only applies to long-term pursuits, but also our challenging times, the dark moments, the periods of uncertainty, and discontent. Same concept. Where do you want to be? And how do you get there? What's the simple thing you can do to close that gap?

Because you are never helpless. You can always do something. And my friends, those little somethings ultimately evolve into everything. And when we put our phone away, step beyond the noise, spend time with ourselves, we can see how much of life is running in place. Stacking and stacking pieces that aren't even part of the masterpiece we're trying to assemble. If you want answers, start with the understanding that they're buried under mountains of things you don't need. So cut away. Cut away the people and places and things that convolut your story.

Cut away the exhaustion of time that provides no value in return. Cut away the thoughts that make life more complex than your journey from where you are to where you'd like to be. As you stand right now, you have everything you need, and there's nothing greater than that, nothing more powerful. than that understanding. So why not step outside the complexity that you've manufactured that you're living in

into a world of clarity, simplicity, and capture what matters. Your existence is derived from how you choose to look at the world around you. Your outlook is either creating you or destroying you. And we have to be cognizant of the reasons, the explanations, the stories we tell ourselves. We have to be aware of how we rationalize everyday occurrences. We have to ask, am I seeking out

solutions to the right problems? What's the root cause? What's the actual reason? And we all find ourselves in ruts from time to time right. We all have low points. For me, when I'm struggling, it's usually creatively. Drawing a blank or writer's block or whatever the case is. And it's funny, my mind always goes right to the external excuses. Instinctually, I start to think, well, maybe I don't have the right technology, maybe I'm not in the right place. Maybe the right circumstances aren't occurring. But when I force myself to step back, right, and dig deeper and really ask myself, what's the reason?

which is sometimes an uncomfortable thing to ask, I always come to the same conclusion. It's not the camera in my hands or the recording software or the mic. It's simply the temporary disappearance of self-belief. Temporarily, I forget that I can make magic, that I can change the world with what I have right now. And so can you. That is the actual reason.

But I have to peel back the surface. Because the truth is, if you don't have a good story to tell a $10,000 camera is not going to help you. You got to learn what captivates, what inspires, learn how to articulate your thoughts and ideas, learn how to bring what's in your mind to life. See, people want to put band-aids on bullet wounds, and that's not going to fix a thing. An interesting thing people come to me with. You know, they're building brands, creating social platforms, building businesses online, which is great because it means exposure, but it also means you're susceptible to negativity. and criticism and haters. And how particularly initially, it's emotionally taxing, seeing that stuff, right?

Seeing people criticize your creativity. And they come to resent the comments. They come to resent that interaction. But again, I always go to what is the reason? And I ask because if you don't go deep, if you don't find the root cause, you don't fix a problem. The problem is not the 53-year-old. in his mother's basement, trashing your work or your ability.

He has nothing to do with this. The problem, when you're really honest, is confidence. It's the ability to understand that a life of no risk or criticism is a life of very little reward. And with that realization, the solution changes. It's not what can I do to avoid the criticism. It's how can I stay true to myself and have that be enough,

where I can rise above chatter, where I can be indifferent to naysayers because, look, expectations don't matter. What matters is your happiness. What matters is your progress. So fix that. You know, we spend a lot of time adjusting our sales, worried about catching the right breeze, getting the logistics right,

when there's a hole in the center of the boat that's taking in water. Let's find out where that is. Let's fix that. Figure out what the actual area of improvement is. What's the actual area of improvement is? What's the actual reason for not being where you want to be? And sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's humbling.

But guess what? It creates the long-term solution. Last year was one of the most challenging of my life. Spread very thin, trying to do a lot, right? Speeches, give keynotes, capture video, create music, make marketing content to the point where I just felt lost for a while. And an easy escape, right? The way I rationalized it was, well, you feel like this just because you're just because

you're doing too much, right? It's a great thing. You're ambitious. No, that's a mask. When I became vulnerable, when I asked myself the difficult question, when I humbled myself, dug deeper, realize that maybe, maybe you're not doing the right thing. Maybe you're doing more of what you already know because recreating yourself is absolutely terrifying. Because you need to take that next step and subconsciously you don't want to. You're scared to. Now I know what to address, right? Reasons help shape answers. It's not more and more and more of what's been done,

but it's reshaping your life, not once or twice or three times, but constantly. That creates bigger targets. That changes things. You know, always dive deeper than the surface level because usually your problems are not the world around you, the world's around you, it's not what you don't have, it's not externalities holding you

back, it's a refusal to look yourself in the mirror and ask difficult questions. You are not a victim. You are equipped with every single thing you need, you just need to zero in on your actual inhibitors and eliminate them, one by one. I've always said success is three steps. It's recognizing there's better out there, recognizing you're worthy of pursuing it and and taking the leap. So what's keeping you from leaping?

What's keeping you grounded? It's not money, it's not tech, it's not where you started, it's your mindset. So change how you see the world around you. There's a saying that will always be true. It will be true on your best days and your worst. It will be true after victory and it will be true after defeat.

It will be true when you have momentum It'll be true when you're down on your luck, doing everything in your power to create momentum. That saying is, your future begins now. Hey, on the surface, might not seem like much. Sure, my future starts now. I know that. Everyone knows that. Well, if that's true, if everyone does, in fact, know that, why do we spend so much time stuck?

reliving our past unable to break free? Why do we remain terrified to change? Why do we feel such a connection to who we were, how others saw us? Why must we remain loyal to the character we've been

playing in our mental autobiographies? See, here's the thing about the past and the future. One is fixed, can't be changed, and the other, well, it's waiting for you to tell it what it is. One is expired time. One is plans to be determined.

And it's interesting how we continue to conflate the time. Epicetus has said that the more things we value outside of our control, the less control we have. Well, I'm going to be the messenger here relaying the precious truth that yesterday is in fact out of our control. What can be controlled is where we go from here. The next step. Meaning today is not your failures. It's where you take those lessons. It's not your mistakes.

But it's what the stronger you can now endure because of them. It's not the dreams you let slip away, but where your pursuit might take you now. And yeah, yesterday certainly contributes to your outlook, as all information does. Its value considered, its impact assessed. It guides you, but it's not you. And that difference is astronomical.

There's a question about the role the past plays in our lives. That has to mean something, right? Your past is in many ways your story. It's why you think the way you do. It's contributed to your understanding of the world. It will always be a part of you, and I believe that. But I also believe the past is a story. And just like reading one chapter in a book

simply sets the stage for the next one without controlling its direction, so does every day that has led you up to now. Life gives us the tools to experience, to grow, learn, and then shed that which does not coincide with what's important. Your failures are not you. But they are precious

and that they push you towards what you'd like to be. See, you can experience something and not be that thing. As Kirkagard says, if you label me, you negate me. If you proclaim me to be X, you're essentially stealing from me the infinite possibility that is the future. Yesterday has nothing to do with what I can become.

And so taking it a step further, never mind being labeled by someone else. How could you label yourself and see it as anything but self-sabot? See, you're never defined by your past, but always learning from it. It's not who you are. It's the cheat codes for what you can be. Without that winding road of misfortune and mistakes,

the incredible expansion we long for doesn't materialize. Imagine if everyone who ever felt down in life felt like a loser who temporarily lost hope. Imagine if they looked in the mirror and said, okay, this is who I am now. There would be no triumph in the world because anything meaningful requires the resiliency to map our way from the hell that was our darkest moments to what will become our proudest moments. Destiny, destiny means that you separate the finite from the infinite. What you used to call yourself has prepared you to move towards the horizon. But what you used to call yourself is also as irrelevant now as those seconds that you watch tick away. Seconds that maybe you're not proud of.

Seconds that perhaps taught you about the world. Seconds that gave you a glimpse of what's possible. Unveiled the happiest of times. All of it. In its own unique way, it brought value. But none of it is your future. Why? Because back to that beautiful, all-powerful sentence, your future begins now.

Your destiny is awaiting its marching orders and all you have to decide as you stand today is where that ship will sail. A lot can change with the words, it's okay. My moon is not the same as their moon, and that's, well, it's okay. Same playing field, just different rules. Same sky, different constellations, same clouds, different shapes. We need not permission to follow that star that lights up our world, just a willingness, a comfortability, just a curiosity. to be. Because where the right path provides clues, the wrong one gives instructions.

And over time, the difference between the two accumulates. It becomes substantial. Your journey should give you just enough. The moon's radiance should highlight the hand in front of your face, reveal that potential next step. It should expose the options right in front of you, and that is enough. And sure, sometimes it feels like it would be nice to know to walk an easier path, one that's not your own, have everything lit up, no questions, no mystery, and while there's comfort in taking this path, it's not yours. It's not your journey.

It's not your moon. It's not your light, and it won't reveal your answers. So feel free to leave, to walk away because it's okay. It's okay to not have the answers. It's okay to follow a gut feeling. It's okay to leave the old in pursuit of the new. It's okay to want more, and it's okay to not know where more is. It's okay.

I often think if a courageous few are the reason that I'm not writing these words out with a quill pen by candlelight, then think about what my own small acts of courage could become. Why not believe, start, try, put myself out there? Why change or concede or surrender to a set of standards that aren't mine put in place by people who warn me? Their moon is not the same as my moon, their path is not my path. And if I'm choosing between seeing a world that I've settled for

in its totality. Or seeing one that actually means something as it slowly pieced together, I'm taking the ladder every time. Well, how do you know it will work out? The brain asks, the heart you don't. And I think that's exactly how you know you're in the right place. It's when you have all the answers, the certainty, and the reassurance in the world that, well, something may be missing.

Not missing from the external, but missing from within as you move through the external. It's the classic square peg in a round hole. In the very reason we should carry on is because it's better to be a square peg in search of a home than to be whatever it is that would keep us safe, quiet, and securely contained within a square box. It's not that my way is right and your way is wrong, it's that for me to live I must find my way and you, yours. Because a life lived according to someone else's rules is a house built on sand. It may be stunning, extravagant, it may not warn a second look from someone passing by, but it only takes time to reveal the inherent flaw.

It doesn't matter what you build if it's on top of a bad foundation. It will ultimately come down. Time will take it down. So be weary of where you decide to plant your stake in the ground. Be thoughtful about where your feet take you and the concessions you allow in your life. We often think permission is what separates the present from the ideal. What I've learned is that time keeps coming, permission does not. To live fully is a self-appointment. There is no letter that comes in the

mail explaining this. Although sometimes I catch myself waiting for its arrival. Where the crowd goes, my instinct begs me to follow, where the comfort lives. My predisposition is to knock on the door. I'm human. But I know that to resist what comfort offers is the battle of a lifetime. Their moon is not mine. Their solutions will not fix my problems. I have a puzzle to put together, a masterpiece to assemble as do you. So embrace your world. Follow your rules. Howl at your moon. Because if you do it right, It will be different. It will be yours.

And that's not just okay. It's what makes life worth living. As our lives evolve, as our experiences accumulate, the way we look at life changes. That's part of getting older and seeing the world. So long as you allow your ideas and perceptions to be malleable, as long as you're looking to grow, to grow, you most definitely will.

And for me, one area that is truly transformed is my relationship with luck. What it means, how it's relevant, and most importantly, what do I do about it? I created a little book of anecdotes last year. One section was called The Luck Manufacturer. And it says commitment, her hammer, resiliency, her nail. she manufactured luck every single day. Before most awoke and long after they were asleep, she tirelessly sketched and built and created until at last she was done.

Taking a step back, she stared in awe of the luck she constructed and knew it would change her life. And the takeaway of this passage is luck is made, not given. And as I was making my way through these little chapters, the book again, I stopped and thought, well, wait. You know, it's an important idea. One I believe in. It's not wrong, but also it's kind of half the story. There's a lot missing there. What I had done was essentially paint something black and white when there's a ton of gray area. No sane person completely discounts the role of luck in our lives. It plays a role, a very significant role. The question, again, is why does this matter? Well, because maybe we don't make

luck like a carpenter in his shop, but catch it like a fisherman at sea. Because standing on the deck of the boat, he can't control the fish that swim into the net, but he most certainly is responsible for finding a location with good odds, for being consistent. in his attempts for mastering the craft and improving the skills. You can't control external factors, the weather, the storms, the tide, the location of the fish on that particular day, but you can control you. And that is your power. And I think the progress I've made is understanding the danger with looking at luck is something that is entirely self-made and thinking that if you do X, you will be rewarded. Why? Because that's how it works.

I put in the work. There's going to be an outcome. I take the boat out. I'll be having fish for dinner. But that's tricky, right? Thinking something is owed to in any capacity, it breeds resentment. Because for whatever reason, when it's not provided, life suddenly seems unfair. It creates a scarcity mindset.

And to truly progress is to endure that balancing action. of what we can control in one hand and what we can't in the other. That quote, you can't control the wind, but you were given the power to adjust your sails accordingly. And for those who hang in there and adapt long enough, well, it seems as though luck tends to find them at some point. And this occurrence seems to unveil itself in a million different ways, example after example everywhere you look. Yesterday I was reading John Adams' biography.

Those of you who like history will enjoy this, kind of making my way through the American president. And just started, John Adams being one of the greatest minds behind America's founding. And, you know, what's obvious, as I'm sure you'll all remember from history class, is the extent to which the French helped bring America to victory. I mean, without the French, most historians say that the war doesn't end the way it did. And you'll see my point here in a second, I promise. This won't be American History 101, but the idea is it's very easy to take this info in,

to be an observer from the outside looking in and say, you know, the Americans were lucky. They were lucky to have French support, to have been supplied much-needed resources. They were lucky that the French fleet arrived from the West Indies to Yorktown, Virginia, just in time. to block the British in and ensure their surrender,

I'd say there's certainly some luck there. But isn't that half the story? How about the courage it took the founding fathers with everything to lose, with death assured if they failed, to stand up to a king? Or colonists with no military experience to go toe to toe with the most powerful military in the world?

To adapt and utilize the minimal resources they had. To think enough of their pursuit to travel to France to request support, to scrap together a win in Saratoga to be considered just legitimate enough to obtain some international recognition. So the idea is yes, yes, yes, they were lucky. But without those things,

the action and persistence and self-belief and the tenacity with which they moved into that great unknown, there is no luck to be had. It's true then, it's true now. The effort never guarantees success, but the lack of it, guarantees failure. You can't ensure that those fishing nets will be full after your expedition, but keeping the ship in the harbor ensures those nets will be empty. I guess that's why that period of American history is so moving to me.

It's people who gave everything for an outcome that was anything but guaranteed, planting a seed and hoping that years later others could eat the fruit. It's a pretty cool part. He's writing a letter to his wife, and he says, I must study politics and war. That our sons may have the liberty to study math and philosophy. Our sons ought to study math and philosophy and geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, agriculture,

in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, etc. Is any of that guaranteed? Absolutely not, but nothing is. It's why progress and courage are so inseparable. Because there will be times in our lives when we fall short, when the pursuit feels in vain, when the odds are small. And yes, you have the option to look at the road in front of you

and see all that you don't have, how ill-equipped, how ill-prepared, how not ready for what's to come. But you also have the option to start moving, creating, believing, preparing your net, building yourself up. Because when luck presents itself, you'll be as ready as you can possibly be. And if you swing and miss, not personalize the result, but adjust the pieces and be ready for the next time. So no, going back to that luck manufacturer, we don't create luck. But we do have the power and the ability to create ourselves. And if that's a pursuit you're willing to commit to to immerse yourself in,

you will have, in essence, established a relationship with chance, not making luck, but receiving it. Because you anticipated its arrival long before it materialized and worked to make yourself its most appealing suitor. Thank you.