Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero
Don't Compare Yourself To Anyone | Life Changing Speeches
Fri, 28 Feb 2025
The stories we tell ourselves shape the lives we live. If you’ve ever felt stuck in who you’ve been, remember—you're the author, not just the character. Your past may have built you, but it doesn’t have to confine you. You can rewrite your narrative at any moment.George Eliot once said, "It’s never too late to be who you might have been." You are not bound by old habits, past mistakes, or outdated beliefs. The pen is in your hands. So, what story do you want to tell next?More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterInstagram - @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
Chapter 1: What does George Eliot's quote teach us?
George Eliot wrote, it's never too late to be who you might have been. See, you are a storyteller, a creator of narratives. And what you see when you look in the mirror are stories. Stories about your past. I am the type of person who does X, right? X being an accumulation of history, of things you've done, you used to do. And in theory, you know, there's truth to that.
Chapter 2: How can we rewrite our narratives?
We are what we repeatedly do. But here's where it becomes a problem. When you confine yourself to that narrative, when you become stuck there, when you are unable to become something new because you're telling yourself, that's not who I am. Just because that was the narrative doesn't mean it always has to be. You can always pick up the pen and start writing a new chapter.
I put on a green shirt last year, last month, every day last week. Therefore, I am someone who wears green shirts. Therefore, tomorrow, I must put on a green shirt. It's who I am. Seems a tad ridiculous, right? Until you change the example a little bit. You know, I was called out recently for saying, I am a runner trying to put on weight.
Building muscle in the past has been a challenge for me, right? Because I am a runner. And I was. I was running 7 to 10 miles a day. Well, now, in the present, the story's changed. I've essentially stopped running, at least distance running. I'm focusing on the gym. And in a group setting with my trainer there, I recently said, it's been challenging for me to put on weight as a runner.
He looks up and he says, ah, limiting belief. You're still identifying yourself as what you were. And he's dead on. 100% right. That's an old story. I ran long distance for years. Had a quote-unquote distance-running body type for years. So what, therefore I'll continue to have a distance-running body composition, right? It's the exact same thing as the hypothetical green shirt.
Just because you were that doesn't mean you have to be that. Just because that's what you did doesn't mean it's how you must identify. No, it's time to flip the script. And when you start unpacking this idea, you know, it gets crazy quickly. Like you realize how many areas in our lives we create these limiting beliefs, how much we adhere to or shackle ourselves, tie ourselves to old narratives.
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Chapter 3: What limiting beliefs hold us back?
They're everywhere, right? I make $80,000 a year. I'm looking for a new job that pays about $80,000 a year. It's like, why 80? It's just as arbitrary as 25, which is just as arbitrary as 175. Like, why can't you aspire to be more? Why don't you feel deserving of more? And I'm not talking about snapping your fingers, right? There's no magic involved in this. It's very practical.
It's when you decide something is what you deserve or something is what you're going to be, my friends, that's what you will get. You know, you have to decide you are worthy. You have to improve your worth. You have to see yourself as something different before the world will ever adhere to that or give you something new. You know what one of our greatest superpowers is?
The reminder that we can change, that we don't have to concede or accept anything. If it isn't adding value in some way, it can be changed, transformed, mitigated. I think the issue is that sometimes we just forget that we are the ones telling the story. I was reminiscing recently about 2013, 2014, commuting to work from Boston to Worcester with a friend of mine.
And he didn't particularly love the job. And so on the commute, we would joke around every day. And I put joking in quotes because we were truly hoping for it. It's like wishing we'd get a flat tire or something would derail the commute. And, you know, as time goes on, hindsight's 20-20, you look back and you realize just how, like, weak and pathetic that is.
Chapter 4: How can we change our self-perception?
Like, hoping for external circumstances to guide you where you most want to go because, you know, I won't speak for him, but me personally, I couldn't manufacture the courage to change, right? Not for a long time, at least. Because here's the deal. No one was forcing me at gunpoint to be there. I didn't have to do anything.
It was as simple as the story I told myself was every day over and over again, this is what you're supposed to do. It doesn't matter if you like it or not. It doesn't matter if it lights you up. It doesn't matter if this is the best use of your skill set. This is what you do. That was the narrative playing in my head. And therefore, it's what I did.
Changing that thought pattern was one of the most challenging things I've ever done, but it's unequivocally true. That at any point, I could have looked around and said, this isn't me. I'm going to start building a life that is. Eventually, I got there. It just took time. It's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about trying to give others that nudge.
to empower people to make change in their lives, as opposed to looking around and hoping outside circumstances push you to where you need to be. It all comes back to that idea that we have way more control than we think we do. We just have to be aware of the lines we draw around ourselves. There are so many places where it's like, oh, we can't step over there. Why? I just never have.
This is what I do. This is what I've done in the past, so this is what the future must look like. It's all story. Everything is story, and any story can be changed or rewritten. No chapter must be a continuation of the rules from the prior chapter. See, as George Eliot states, it's never too late to be who you might have been, to walk away from the narratives in your brain that confine you.
When you know something's out of alignment, that's something we feel in our bones, by the way. We know deep down that that's the truth. We just need to understand that what's happening now is not a life sentence. We're not confined to reality as it is. Again, your superpower is the ability to reinvent yourself. Just as acquisition is valuable and necessary, so is the ability to walk away.
And on top of that, the ability to walk away usually precedes one's ability to let the important things in. You're only stuck if you believe you are. You're only free if you believe you are. Therefore, what you believe is not some supplemental thing sprinkled on top of reality as it exists. What you believe determines what reality means to begin with.
Somewhere along the way, we all come face to face with the gatekeeper. Watcher of the road ahead. Protector of the path before us. He is your defining moment. The reason you either go home or push forward. He's where your story ends or begins. And see, I've met him before many times, this gatekeeper. guardian of all that's worth possessing, acquiring, and conquering.
I've witnessed the pain he inflicts, the doubt he manufactures, the obstacles he creates. And what's interesting about the things in life worth having is that they're never easy to obtain. The universe has this way of making sure you really want those things you say you want. Because a lot of people talk and they wish and they project.
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Chapter 5: What does it mean to show up in life?
But what certainly cannot be fixed or changed or adjusted are roads never walked, adventures never begun. And with a scarcity mindset, you spend your entire life in your corner protecting the little fragments of life you've collected along the way. That's it.
But if you can flip that, if you can find a way to see the abundance, the value, the infinite opportunity, you realize it's not in those little fragments you've collected, but the understanding that you can always collect more and not only that, build something beautiful with them. Not only acquire more, but use them to create a new reality. Bend and shape the word normal like it's clay.
Like the world around you is not giving orders but taking them. You hold the value, not what you've made. You. We've all heard give a boy a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for life. I'm going to give it my all, make it my priority to remember every step along the way that it's in my ability to fish that value exists.
If I'm not able to catch anything on a particular day, life moves on and so do I. If what I've caught goes bad or expires, life moves on and so do I. It's in the action. It's in the doing. That's not only why you can take the risk and shoot for the moon. It's why you must.
So imagine years from now, way down the road, you're older, sitting on your front porch, kind of fists propped up under your chin, you're staring out and thinking about your life. You're thinking about the decisions you made, the things you did and didn't do. What would you be thinking? What would you change? Would there be regrets?
There's a lot of research around this topic and one of the most important books written on it by Bronnie Ware talks about the regrets of the dying. And one of them is wishing I had the courage to live a life true to myself. So you're sitting there, you're looking out and you're imagining what if you acted differently? What if you tried?
What if you started and you go back to that moment where you were looking fate in the eye and you had to make that decision, right? That singular decision. It showed its face repeatedly, but the decision more or less remained the same. It was vulnerability or safety. Choose one. Vulnerability or safety. Safety. That innate desire to not disrupt or challenge the way things are.
Even when you know in your core there's more out there. See, safety is the wolf in sheep's clothing. Watching life happen through a window is incredibly safe. But it means you're forfeiting the essence of life in exchange for a front row seat to watch others live it. It means you don't capture that adrenaline that drives us. You don't take part in the emotion that excites us.
It means you don't meet the people who would change your life and you don't see the places that would take what you know of reality and transform it. No, equating safety with contentment is the product of outdated thinking, an outdated operating system. It's indicative of a way of looking at the world that used to be life or death, but now in 2020, in modern day society, it's regret.
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Chapter 6: How do we confront our fears?
It's your DNA. It's watching that ball roll down the hill that you created. Pushed by momentum you brought to life. You'll do what you came here to do. Because you made that decision. Every step along the way. Every single day leading up to now. One of my favorite quotes is sometimes success is simply hanging on when others would be letting go.
The reason is that it reminds me how frequently the advantage is in not stopping. It's in consistency. It's in showing up. When I run, particularly long distances, almost like clockwork, I can break it down to feeling good at the beginning, usually a little rough stretch in the middle, and then somewhere in the second half, I catch a second wind or a second blast of energy.
The question just becomes, when? Will you hang in long enough to capture it? Because you don't know when it might be. where it will show up. You don't know when you'll find that nice rhythm again that makes the sport so enjoyable to me. And when I say, you know, you can pull an infinite amount of life lessons from running, this is one of them.
A depiction of trusting that the road ahead has everything you need to cross your finish line. Even when the short-term chaos is all you can see and feel. Even when it's hard to look up and imagine. Because it's easier said than done when you're tired and worn down to continue on, when you're in the trenches. There's an uncertainty to the road ahead, but each footstep is a shot on target.
Each step forward is saying, I'm worn down, but I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere. And life can present an almost eerily similar narrative. Whether personally you're at a low point, whether you've been working and working and working and haven't seen the result you're looking for, whether you're uncomfortable and starting to wonder whether this reward is really worth the high price tag.
You need to remember that second wind, that second blast of energy, just enough momentum to ease your worry and recalibrate your journey. It's there. It's waiting. But you know the rules of life. It won't come to you. You must go to it. Through the storm, into the night, beyond the comforts of home. Most sadly don't arrive. Not because they couldn't, but because they ultimately let go.
They look too far down the road at the distance to be traveled and forgot that their only job was to hold on. Through the doubt, the pain, the worry. No miracle. Just a willingness to fight each battle as it presented itself. To let time stack up. To let the distance over your shoulder accumulate. See, the thing about stopping is that you never know when that much-needed second wind will arrive.
There's a saying that many of life's failures had no clue how close they were to success when they gave up. when they turned around. Now I'm not suggesting the road will be perfect, or that it won't come with its adversity, mistakes, and lessons. But what we always have control over is the ability to push forward until we finally come face to face with that which we so desperately needed.
it's there. I could say it a million times and it wouldn't be enough. The pieces exist. Will you hang in long enough to collect them? When the road is intimidating, will you hold on? When you run into those moments of self-doubt, will you hold on? When you feel small, navigating the ups and downs of life, will you hold on? Because if the answer is yes,
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Chapter 7: Why is personal agency our superpower?
He's the metaphorical kid hopping around in puddles, whistling at the top of his lungs while everyone else is hiding out from the rain or at least trying to find the courage to run out onto the street with him. Then there are people who seem to always find the negative. It doesn't really matter what the situation is. Happiness is fleeting.
only to reveal the negativity that never seems to go away, right? The kind of person that if they won the lottery, their first thought might be, oh no, but what if I lose it all? Both examples are people projecting themselves onto the world around them. The same way that smoke covers and consumes an entire room. It's not the room that's the culprit.
Here's another example from Jim Rohn, since we're on a Jim Rohn kick. He's making a similar point, and this is all from a collection of speeches he has on Audible, comparing humans to oranges, which is probably not a comparison you've made recently, but he said, there's consistency to an orange, and that it can be filled with one thing. When you squeeze an orange, orange juice is coming out.
Period. It will never be apple juice or grapefruit juice. It will only emit what it has inside, which is orange juice. And while here's the connection, when life pressures us, challenges us, or metaphorically squeezes us, we only emit the emotions that are contained and available, that are alive and well within us.
If there is no jealousy contained in our thinking, we're not going to project jealousy out into the world. If there is no hatred within us, we will not project hatred onto others. Why is that powerful? It's powerful because, again, it's one of the most important things you can do. Certainly one of the most important things I've learned to do is take that finger pointing blame at the outside world
slowly turn it around and point it back at myself. And ask, what thoughts, what emotions, what ideas am I letting live inside my head that's altering the narrative, the story I'm telling about myself and the world that I live in? And while one might think, well, that's uncomfortable, that's unfair, a little extreme, why should I point at myself? It's not my fault.
I would challenge you, at least for the sake of the next few minutes, to see such a change as empowering, as your advantage, as the bridge from where you are to where you want to be. See, if you always have feelings of, let's say, jealousy around a particular person, that feeling in your stomach like, oh, they have it all. They're ahead. They live how I want to live.
They're this and that, and I kind of hate them for it. You're naively giving the external world the power. You're saying, I feel the way I do because of that out there. Some cosmic injustice. You are powerless because you're neglecting your personal agency as a factor. But when you turn that finger around and say, I only feel this way because I'm allowing myself to.
Then you can ask the question so many never think to ask. Why? Why do I feel this way? Which lights a path to how can I fix it? See, the key to a better life is realizing you don't have to be in the passenger seat forever. pointing at and blaming the driver, complaining about the road being taken. No, you can get into the driver's seat. You can take the wheel.
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Chapter 8: What lessons can we learn from adversity?
The question is not whether or not to face adversity. I think we all understand that. What I hope we take from today is a better understanding of what the true adversity is. A better understanding of the fact that in front of us there is always an answer, a key to every lock. Some people just don't think to look.
They're so busy peering around every corner for external enemies and scapegoats that they don't give themselves permission to succeed. Maybe unfortunate, but it's true. You can hit the bullseye over and over again. But if it's the wrong target, it won't do much for you. You might as well have missed by 50 feet. And I think that is what we overlook. You can't always fix the outside world.
You can't change the unchangeable. But you can always change yourself. You can always fix you. As Tolstoy said, everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. You're capable of being both your greatest adversary and ally, so choose wisely. Because the world around you will do nothing more than respond accordingly to your decisions.
Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change himself. This was written by Leo Tolstoy in reference to people's proclivity to point out at the world and project blame rather than to point in at themselves and ask, why? What can I do? How can I be better? Which When you think about it, it's basically a shark forfeiting its bite, right? Or a bird giving up its wings.
Our personal agency is, without a doubt, our superpower. Yet, from my vantage point, it sometimes feels like we're walking away from that superpower a tiny step at a time. Little by little, day by day, we're allowing greatness to fade while bringing about the death of the hero. And while that's a pretty big claim, what could I possibly mean by this?
It's funny, when people ask me what I'm most proud of, my mind pretty quickly goes to my work, the brand that I've dedicated the last almost decade to building. But I don't think that's right. I think it's a product of my answer, but it's not my answer. What I'm most proud of is chipping away at the monster that is the victim mentality.
You know, my default when things went wrong for so long was to feel bad for myself. It was easier to be the victim and sulk than it was to keep taking the hits. It's like a cheat code. When you can just bask in your sorrow and hate the world, you don't have to do anything. It's like a giant ibuprofen for the discomfort that is life. But it relieves the symptom, not the cause.
And to understand, to overcome this worldview is like being gifted with a new pair of eyes. And what I learned was that self-pity, it gets you nothing. It leaves you resentful, disappointed, envious, wandering down a path that is not your own. What I learned was that my story needed a hero. That's why as I grew, I spoke about the power and the beauty of doing the difficult thing.
Running in the rain, chasing the metaphorical fireflies, taking the last train home. See, until you immerse yourself Into that vast unknown, you stay in a cell of your own making. You build walls of limitation and you exist entirely within them. And as time has progressed, I look back, there are two things worth mentioning. One is that we find life's meaning in the difficult things.
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