Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You’re Not Stuck - You’re Just Addicted to the Familiar

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

We often think we’re stuck because the path forward feels too big, too overwhelming, too far out of reach. But what if the problem isn’t the mountain... it’s how we’re trying to climb it? In this episode, we break down the illusion of being stuck and explore how creating small, intentional milestones can turn the impossible into progress. You don’t need to conquer it all at once, you just need to start. One step, one win, one breakthrough at a time.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

When you look at the mountain, it's easy to be overwhelmed by its size, to let fear and doubt paralyze you. But what if I told you the summit is never reached in one heroic leap? It's conquered one quiet step at a time. One subtle movement into the abyss after another. It's not about the impossible. It's about seeing the impossible. as what it truly is, shrinking it down, making it small enough to manage.

So let's talk about taking the mask off of impossible and revealing what it is, those manageable pieces. And I've learned this truth, you know, not in some grand lecture hall or because of years of school or the pages of a book, but in the echo of my own breath, doing, creating, building out in the world, right? Growing a business, putting my body through difficult tests, putting my mind through the battlefield that is self-discipline

and essentially commitment to the promises I make to myself. And that's what I want to echo today, how, one, we are capable of way more than we can possibly imagine. So let's just get that out of the way. We're all operating at a fraction of what we could be doing. And two, it's never about the obstacle ahead, the size of what waits before us. It's how we assess and internalize and break down those obstacles. It is doable.

Again, your mind just has to perceive it as so. No one leaps a marathon as much as we wish we could when we're tired and worn down and hurting. But we can't. But what we can do is utilize what's around us in a way that helps us win. We can rig the game in our favor. And so here's a quick example that I wanted to share. I like to put myself in these circumstances because it's truly an exercise in taking these giant things and turning them into very real practical roadmaps.

A few days ago, I did an afternoon bleacher workout in an empty stadium in Phoenix, Arizona. Very simple, right? Sprint up the bleachers and then you walk down, recovering. As soon as you get to the bottom, you turn around, you sprint up again. And the goal was to do 30 of these, right? 30 sprints up, 30 walks back down. And like so many things, it's a cake walk until it isn't, right? I remember hitting sprint 12 or 13, you start going, oh man, I better recover.

recruit the mind to start painting this picture as something fun and beautiful and exciting because the body wants to revolt. You get that sort of mini panic that's like, bro, I don't know how long you can sustain this. It's just reaction, it's real. And at the start, standing there, looking up at endless rows, the towering steps, the mind, you can't help but watch it, observe it, question, how can I possibly do this? 30 sprints up? That's a lot in this heat.

That's a tall order. And on top of that, the hardest part is no one's around. I technically don't need to be there. Why not leave? Or why not do 20 instead of 30? What's keeping me committed to such a quote unquote foolish pursuit? That when I start engaging in suffering is always the talk that goes on in my head, the negative self-talk.

whispering again, you're not at gunpoint here, buddy. Walk away. But I think that's the secret of any great feat, right? Whether it's something as trivial as running up steps or, you know, something as grandiose as starting a business, pursuing a degree, starting a family, you know, raising kids, whatever it is. It's never accomplished all at once. It's never one single push, one massive effort. It's the ability to break it down, to divide it, to transform the colossal into manageable pieces. If you understand this, you possess a skill set

that makes everything else in life doable. You're holding a key capable of opening any door. And on those stadium steps, I leaned heavily back into the games I used to play with numbers while running so many times in my past. I didn't think about 30 sprints. I thought about the first one.

I'd trick my mind into seeing less, into shrinking the impossible, one sprint, one effort. Then I'd reach the top, I'd smile because, well, the next one was the same, just one more. Turn and go. Turn and go. Seven seconds. One becomes two. Two becomes ten. The numbers grow, but the method remains.

At 13, you know, we're not even thinking about 30. That's crazy. Think about getting to 15. That's only two away. two away, two sprints away, and then guess what? I'll be halfway. What a celebration. How amazing. What an honor. You're about to hit 15. Focus on that. We're only five away from that. It's all you think about. It's all that occupies your mind. Anyone can do five more. Five. Five. And guys, I want to be clear.

I understand the simplicity and seemingly trivial nature of this. I'm emphasizing it because I don't want you to dismiss it thinking, oh, this is just semantics, or, oh, this is just how you talk to yourself. It's everything. It's giving yourself permission to win. It's unpacking the grandiose into the manageable. And that's why it's been so effective for me. I've learned to count in fives, to count in tens, to create milestones and markers along the way. Each one is small victory, a reason to keep going, which in and of itself is power.

Right? It's like you create this little validation, you build it into your process so that you're going to bed feeling like a winner. Because you are. It's not, oh, I don't have the, you know, the mountaintop eight miles away. It's another L for me. No, I took three steps today. I pointed out what they would be, I planned them, and I hit them. That's winning.

Each one is a reminder that the summit is not some distant place. It's right here in this moment, in this step. And see, in life, especially when we're going through our most difficult times, it's incredibly easy to get lost in the enormity of it all. The weight of the journey in totality can be paralyzing. That's true in the stadium, but it's just as true in life. We look at our dreams, our ambitions, the vast landscape of what we want to build, and we think, I'm not enough. It's too big, it's too much, I am one person in a very vast world.

But let me tell you this. It's never too big when you expose it for what it is. It's never too much when you find the pieces that comprise it. Everything can be broken into small manageable parts. Everything. After all, that's what they are made of. The tiny building blocks are what come together to create the enormity people see from afar. But you, you're not fooled.

You know you're not climbing the mountain in one step. It's a bunch of micro steps, one then another and then another. In fact, it's not even really a mountain when you're on it. It's an assortment of little rocks. And I think about the times I've faced obstacles in my life. Projects that seem too big or overwhelming, relationships that felt too complicated to fix, dreams that felt too fragile to pursue.

The lesson of the bleachers, right? The lesson of one sprint at a time carried me through all of it. Building this media company, every single creation, every video, every story thinking this could be the one. This will connect with people. This will change the trajectory of what I'm doing here. It allowed me to stay focused. One release at a time.

One message at a time. Forget the larger-than-life aspirations. You can only focus on now. Life is the same as that stadium. The outcome is not guaranteed by our intentions alone. it's shaped by our approach, by our willingness to find a path that makes the outcome actually plausible.

Not about erasing pain, but about making pain a companion. About turning the discomfort into an ally, part of the process, turning the task into a series of sprints instead of a single marathon. Never forget, anyone can do one sprint. The fun part is 30 is just one.

30 times. Anyone can say, do a wall sit for 15 seconds. Well, two minutes is just 15 seconds, eight times. Eddie, this is just semantics. Time is time is time. No, it's not. It's how your brain processes and manages what's in front of it. That's what determines whether you win or lose.

Again, a lot of people I know have quit things out of frustration with how far away the finish line is. What they failed to realize is they shouldn't even be looking at the finish line. They should be creating benchmarks, hitting those little victories, sort of celebrating. Because when the time comes and they look back, they'll see a trail of success so pronounced that it'll be mind-blowing. That's how you win. Whether you're climbing stadium steps or building a dream from scratch, you win by shrinking the problem. By making it so small, your mind can't find a reason to quit.

or be intimidated. Take a breath. Look up at that towering set of steps in your life and then begin one step at a time. You're not responsible for anything else besides that step. And as you know, anyone can take one step. So by refusing to sit in awe of the challenge before us, by pulling out its pieces and stacking them

so that they become, our foundation, well, that's how we win. That's how we defeat the impossible. By refusing to let it stay impossible. Stop apologizing. Stop apologizing for who you are, what you believe and how you see the world. Stop apologizing for your failures.

They lift you up. They push you to be more. Stop apologizing for being different, unusual or unique. There's just saying that if you are lucky enough to be different, don't ever change, embrace that. Hold it. Stop apologizing for taking a path less traveled for breaking away from the pack. It's not an insufficiency. It doesn't mean you couldn't go their way.

It means you have the courage to be yourself in a world trying to make you someone else. Stop apologizing for words that don't align with someone else's ideology or worldview. Your job isn't to appease or conform. It's to grab hold of what lights a fire in you and use it to brighten the world around you. Stop apologizing for your dreams. It's okay to not be content where you are. It's okay to want to grow, to become more. The roots planting them to the ground, they are not yours.

And why waste the opportunity beyond the horizon of your current existence? See, having the courage of your convictions is like unlocking your mind. Realizing that, yeah, you have the key and you've had it all along. No one else gets to set your parameters. They don't get to tell you what's right or what to believe. The people around you are not moral arbiters. They're not protectors of truth. Remember that.

Remember that no one knows better than you what's best for you. That's why there's power and intuition in following your beliefs, your strengths, in doing what makes you happy, relentlessly pursuing what makes you feel alive. The thing about dreams, ideas, potential, they're always meaningless until they're not. See, everything is crazy until it exists. So protect it. Don't bow down to pressures of now simply because you have not yet built tomorrow. You will.

you will some messages they are incredibly simple and this my friends is one of those you have everything you need to become who you want to be right now as you listen to this in real time you don't need approval or permission or acceptance you don't need to belong or be told it's normal you simply need to start to know that you will pick yourself up when you fall and keep going Not apologize, but continue placing one foot in front of the other. Not look externally for a will to carry on that only exists within you. See, the second you begin rewriting the rules, changing the game,

you put yourself in position to emerge victorious. Why is it that when we look back on our lives, it's never the easy days or the simplicity? It's not the calm that changes our reality or makes us who we are. Don't get me wrong, calm and simplicity. They're wonderful, but they're not transformative. And why would they be? Why would we change or seek to obtain more without a reason or incentive?

It's times of struggle, of turbulence. It's when life was hard that we had to rethink who we are. reshape the way we look at the world. Because without chaos, you don't get calm. Without the storm, you don't get those crazy neon colors and golden rays it leaves as it passes by. In order to triumph in any capacity or any area of life, there's always a sacrifice that must be made. The adversity is the fire that forges the iron. There's a saying hard times create strong.

men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men and weak men create hard times. It's a cycle. And this is generally used in a sociopolitical sense and I think in a lot of ways it applies today but where I've really found it useful, where I've found value in it is at the personal level. Because what I've noticed is that growth also appears to have a cyclical nature. And when we're in a rough situation or overcoming an obstacle, we have to push, we fight, we grow. Sometimes without even realizing it, we achieve a result and by default this transformation that in one way or another makes us something new. But then it becomes easy to level out, right? And that's the challenge. It creates this period of stagnation. It's like we made the jump and it becomes real easy to stay

there and that's why I have found value in when life is not providing resistance to manufacture some because that's the only way to grow. Progress is happiness. Victor Frankl and man search for meaning he says purpose is to find from struggle.

If things are too calm or simple or quiet life begins to lack meaning and that's never a spot we want to be. Life is about the pursuit of something. You just have to figure out what that blank will be. You get to decide. which mountain to climb. There's a story about a butterfly

making its way out of a cocoon. It makes a little hole. It starts attempting to push its way out. Someone walks by, they see it struggling and open the cocoon up to help the butterfly out, right? Thinking that they did this great deed,

but in doing so, that butterfly has now lost its ability to use its wings to fly. Why? Because the strength that was necessary to fly, would have been forged when he fought his way out. The butterfly was deprived of the very thing it needed to become something more, and that's the point.

It's easy to get lost in the now and seek to eliminate everything that doesn't make the moment more comfortable, to remove that which doesn't make things easier. But whether we're talking about collectively or the complacency in our individual lives, we have to remember that avoiding discomfort isn't the answer. When your biggest problem is Amazon taking five days to deliver or that your feelings are hurt by someone's comments or opinions on social media, you've lost track of yourself. You may be living in a world lacking the resistance necessary for growth.

Maybe it's time to ask what matters. And I remember when I lived in Boston, I'd walk around listening to podcast downtown, and I'll never forget here in Ryan Holiday differentiating between passion and purpose. He called passion temporary, a dopamine hit. It's the excitement before the project begins, the beginning of a journey, the honeymoon fate.

But passion alone falls short. And it falls short because anything worthwhile is hard. It tests us. It repeatedly presents us with those metaphorical cocoon. We have to fight them. We have to earn our stripes, grow our wings, and if we stop at passion, there's no reason to battle on. To take the punches, knowing that they will create for us a tomorrow full of infinite possibility, and that's where we need purpose. That's why it matters.

We need something bigger to march towards. a destination that's meaningful. To remind us that those challenging times, they're not a burden. There is no poor me here. They're the fire that sharpens us. That whispers to us, not only the importance of carrying on, but the power contained within ourselves to do so. This world, it is not stacked against.

It's never the problem or the obstacle. No, it's the opportunity laid out at your feet. And it's in those very times when we're uncomfortable, when we're unsure, when we don't know where to draw our strength. That we need to remember it comes within. It's an idea that is brought to life through courage, through courage, through understanding, through the trials and tribulations of life that didn't intimidate or hold you back, knowing that life has given you everything you need to blaze your

trail. So don't be afraid to let it take you somewhere new. You ever wonder how much of you has materialized? Like if what F. Scott Fitzgerald says is true and our lives are defined by opportunity, even though, the ones we miss, then how much remains in the ether? And I don't think it's about playing a game of what if. You know, that would be endless. It would be self-defeating. No one's perfect. I don't even really think it's about making a right turn instead of a left. Because as long as you're moving and moving with conviction, life ultimately brings you where you need to be. But more, my concern is the steps never brought to pay my ideas on the hatch my opportunities I either knowingly or

unknowingly left on the shelf because it didn't seem real enough like a Broadway play between my ears that as a spectator I knew would end after all that's what stories do how much of ourselves have we cast aside as simply the things we don't say out loud At first, it's infinite. We've yet to be taught to limit because limits aren't things, their ideas, and ideas must be adopted. That's why they say some of life's best things were done by people too ignorant to know they were impossible,

too naive of the notion that they couldn't say them out loud. Then it's comparison, they have what I want. But it was meant for them and not me. How delusional to think I could have it. How crazy to think that life has yet to be written. And I am an author. My date is with normalcy in the box where I keep those things we don't say out loud.

And then we look around and we see highlight reels. We see awards and vacations and smiles. But we don't stop to think, maybe they're just like me. Maybe there are people who struggle and question themselves and doubt the road ahead. No, it must be the past diverged. They took happiness and I took those things

we don't say out loud. And then there's everyday life when things don't go as planned. When the world presents curveballs and you haven't learned to hit off speed so you feel small and you feel inadequate and ill-equipped. And you could reach,

out, but that's not cool, that's not right. That's something that you don't say out loud, but we keep it in, like all in, and eventually it becomes the if only's and I wish I had, it's the quiet envy gazing longingly towards those who just cared less, who realized maybe life's not as serious as we make it out to be, who turn thoughts to things, not by burying, but by embodying them. And maybe that's the trick to unlock the gate, keeping your perceived reality from the possibility of a new one. The one you could create, If only you promoted your fleeting thoughts to forward progress. See, dreams can fail to come to fruition in two places in your head and outside of it.

But at least outside, it has a chance. At least outside, you can take the common, normal, everyday background and make it the backdrop to your movie where you play a lead role. But it must be accepted and acknowledged, not thought of or even whispered, but screened, so that the detail, and the trivialities that exist now work for you. That's right, they are now yours. Not because you thought about it,

but because you reached out a hand and you took. You asked the world for something. And in life, it will always be true that you don't get what you do not ask for. So when you find yourself staring up a wall comprised of self-defeating narratives and manufactured limits, be ignorant, be irrational, be the world,

Be the reason your dreams have a chance. And when you look around and you see more and wonder why you don't have it, know that you can. You're allowed to. If you sacrifice, you will. But you must believe you are worthy of it. Not in the back of your head where you keep your locker combo in movie quotes, but in reality, where words bounce off lips. And when you feel like life is treating you unfairly like they're happier or have it better,

know that life is peaks and valleys, not just for you but for everyone. And how you internalize that and carry on makes the difference. And when you feel lost or stuck, you are not hopeless, but in progress. Being broken down so that you can be reconstructed, stronger, better. Victory is not in hiding those struggles, but accepting them as the difference, as the reason you created the miraculous. Not because you had dreams, but because you said them out loud.

There's a saying that some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. I've always found this interesting, this idea, how the same subject, same situation, or occurrence can be interpreted so differently, right? It can plant the seeds for such different outcomes. Like Yashimi and Koga mentioned in their book, The Courage to be disliked, well water is 60 degrees. And it's always 60 degrees.

In the summer and the winter, but depending on what time of year, right, the makeup of the outside world, that 60 degrees feels different. The water didn't change its circumstances did, and our thoughts are no different. It's not the world that writes the story. We do. And every second moment day, is merely an interpretation. Does time tick by? Or is it driven into a state of flow?

Is it transformed into something more? Was losing an indicator that, hey, maybe you're not good enough? Or is it your motivation to be better than you've ever been? Is your day an allegiance to the present or an invitation to chase down tomorrow? See, the world doesn't. doesn't get to tell the tale. The world is paper, it's ink, its ideas.

The world is everything you need to decide how your story's going to go. How does he see the world? How does she define reality? That's the question. Because you don't need to change the world. You need to change the way you see it. And you don't need to change who you are. You need to change the imaginary shackles you placed around your ankles.

that are limiting the heights you could reach. In fact, the world, as far as I'm concerned, is an accumulation of thoughts, ideas. It's 8 billion individualized movie screens, attempting to interact, to coexist together. And when you look at it like that, it's not that your mindset plays a role or it's kind of important. No, it's that it narrates the play.

It's the glue that ties everything together. What you see is what you get. And this isn't a one and done thing. It's an everyday thing. Because there's always going to be occurrences in our lives that challenge us to threaten our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of. There will always be the temptation to make the opportunity into the problem and the hero, into the villain. But why forfeit that control?

I remember hearing that if you find time to be grateful, both in the morning and at night it changes your life. Not because the world transforms, but because it reinforces the perspective you need. We are lucky to be here. We're lucky to have challenges that push us forward. Lucky to have ups and downs that bring us closer to the people in our lives. We're lucky that chaos and discomfort open a door for transformation on the other side.

And look, I get life isn't perfect. And not everything can be great all the time. But I do believe that if we can bring ourselves to stop, to breathe, to even focus briefly, we can find value in any situation. What's in front of you, it exists, right? It's the well water. You can't go back in time or remake the obstacle at your feet, but you can always decide how to make that work for you.

And that's a superpower. And I use that. I use it with my short-term ideas or videos or projects underperform. I use it when people let me down. I use it when in the moment I'm either under or overwhelmed. The question, where is the win? In this spot, this situation where most would hang their heads and let the outside world rewrite the story, how can I find a way to hold mine high and maintain my own accountability?

Extreme differences in life outcomes are so often prompted by such subtle realization, subtle decisions. subtle decisions. Their reason to stop could be your reason to not only carry on but thrive. And the best news is you don't need approval or authorization. You don't need the stars to align or doors to open up. You just need to give yourself permission to see the sun amidst the clouds, the hope amidst the doubt. You have to remind yourself that there is always something to cling to, Always a second chance. There is always a win. All you have to do is to see it.

So you're stepping onto a rocket ship, leaving planet Earth, and you have one message to give to the world before you take off. What is it? For me, it's an easy one. It's that life is not as serious as we make it out to be. It's the most important thing I've learned. And perhaps the simplicity of that message might make people a little uneasy or take them by surprise, right? How exactly is it helpful?

Well, I'll explain. Waking up every day is not an obligation or requirement. It's not another test or make or break audition to impress those around you. It's a gift. It's a challenge. It's something to be explored. If the odds of being alive, living, breathing, or one in 400 trillion, you've won. You have as you sit or stand right now already done the miraculous.

So why not cash in? Why not live, push boundaries? To live scared. To play safe or do nothing with your life is like winning the lottery and keeping that bag full of cash under your bed for the rest of your life because you're scared of what could happen to it. It defeats the purpose entirely. And I'm not exaggerating. This mentality has changed my life. If I lose, who cares? If people laugh, who cares? But I have to swallow my pride and be broke for a few years. Who cares? If I'm the unsure one, the one who doesn't know what

the immediate future looks like? Fine. Who cares? I'll take the upside. I'll take the fun, the hard work, and the adventure. I talk about this all the time. I'll never forget. Walking into this bar with my friends six years ago now, I just left my job. I remember I'm talking to this girl at the bar, story time here, and she asks me what I do for a living, because of course she does. And I tell her I just left my job, I got this really cool idea for a YouTube channel. I think it's going to be incredible, and I'll never forget how fast that convo shut down. I blink and she walked away, and I thought, you know what, this is perfect. I'm going to remember this probably for the rest of my life.

for the rest of my life. Why? Because it's a symbol. It's a sign that the immediate is what stops us from the best things down the road. Leaving my job, as hard as that maybe one or two year stretch was, was the best thing I've ever done. I am living exponentially better than I was before I had the courage to make that move. See, if life is about not screwing up, then yes. I'm still in that cubicle getting yelled at for including too much color in my PowerPoint presentation. But that's not what life is. Life is opportunity. Not hiding so that you don't lose.

No, it's about making something where you are with what you have. And my friends, there is so much out there. There is a win on the other side of every door you walk through, even when it's hard to see. Right now, this is a perfect time to be talking about this. A little crazy coronavirus has people being quarantined. Everyone freaking out. Guys, take a step back. and find the opportunity.

I just read the other day, Shakespeare wrote King Lair when he was being quarantined because of the plague. There is always a win. Use the time, find solutions. Maybe you've always wanted to start a business. Wait, take a small step, create the business page on Facebook,

do something small, get the ball rolling. See, when life is a game, you're finding ways to win. Why do all these entrepreneurs talk about the hardship they've encountered before they found some, because they knew that losses wouldn't define them. But in life, just like in a game, you win and you lose.

But what happens is through repetition, you get better and better, and the winds start accumulating, becoming more substantial and consistent. See, most decisions, and let's say worst case scenario, you take the leap and things implode. Let's just be dramatic for a second. Everything goes wrong. Loss, loss, loss, loss. The reality is, 99% of your decisions, the reversible.

If you don't get the intended result, you can backpedal and adjust. You know what's irreversible, though? Inaction. You know what you can't improve upon? Steps you've never taken. You can't be propelled by dreams that are hanging out in your head. Living scared is looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, I hope nothing goes wrong today.

Living fully is looking in the mirror and saying, I'm going to make something significant today. I'm going to take risks. I'm going to find solutions. I'm going to propel myself forward. So that, as I make my way onto this rocket ship, would be my message. Stop playing to avoid losing and start playing to win. Life is not serious.

It's not a standardized test. It's a blank page waiting for a story. And stories are written by the bold, the risk takers. The ones who stop wishing and go out and make things happen, wrong actions can be corrected, improved upon, but life through a lens of scarcity is a sealed fate. So how about living like this is the only life you have? Like each day is a metaphorical currency that you can't take with you to your grave. It must be spent.

It must be cherished and utilized fully. So here's to not only dreaming, but finding the courage to delve headfirst into a journey so great that no stone is left unturned. No day is without the magic of your creation. Because if life is serious, it is a serious opportunity to live fully. And nothing less.