Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life

I can't be perfect, but I can be brave enough to begin. I won't always know the way, but I can take the next step anyway. I won't be for everyone, but I can love myself enough that it doesn't shake me. Not every chapter will end the way I anticipate it, but I can carry the lesson forward stronger than before. I'll lose people that I love, but I can honor them by living a life they'd be proud of. I will stumble, I'll fall, I will break, but I can rebuild with stronger hands and a wiser heart. I'll be misunderstood, but I can speak my truth anyway. There'll be chapters I'd rather not read aloud, but they're still mine and I own every word. There will be dreams that drift away, but new ones will rise with the dawn. Not every road will lead to glory, but every step shapes who I become. Not every plan will unfold perfectly, but each detour will reveal exactly what I need. Because the night will feel long, but I can be the spark that brings morning. Sometimes doubt will scream, but I can whisper back I'm still here. I can't promise forever, but I can give this moment all I have. I cannot control the winds, but I can adjust my sails and carry on. Because life was never about perfection. It's about present. It's about meaning. It's about dancing even when the song isn't clear. So I will love loudly. Fall gracefully. I will rise boldly and choose again and again and again to live fully. And when it's all said and done, when the curtain falls and the lights dim, let them say that I lived with heart. That I didn't run from the storm, that I stood up and attacked its center, that I became the thunder. This is an ode to life. Not because it's easy, not because every step made sense, but because it's mine, because I chose to keep going when I could have turned back. Because I learned to find meaning even in the cracks and the chaos. Because I dared to show up imperfect, uncertain, but unbreakable. This life with its twists, its turns, its storms and its stars is mine. Every scar, every triumph, every whisper of hope has culminated into this single moment, this beautiful life. And I won't let it slip away. What's up guys, Eddie here. And before we jump into the next chapter, just a quick note. So as many of you know, every single video that I've ever put on this channel has been created with the intent of building momentum in your life. If you want something physical to anchor that momentum, we've created the brand A-G-N-S, or always grateful, never satisfied for that exact reason. Athletic apparel that embodies the very ideas and concepts I talk about every day. Because you're watching on YouTube or Spotify, we've created a code for this exclusive community. Y-W-W-20. You can use that on the website, A-G-N-S.Live-style. Well right under this video on YouTube, all the stuff is there in the shop. Again, code Y-W-W-20 gets you 20% off the entire store. It's a great way to support the channel and also elevate your journey. Let it be a reminder to keep showing up. To shake your time, always grateful, never satisfied. On to the next. [Music] So quote, it should be to the link in, he says, "Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." The other day I was listening to Dan Carlin's podcast called Hardcore History, which site note is an incredible podcast, guys a brilliant storyteller. And as I was listening, there's a specific idea that I wanted to dive into, an idea that I believe if we make an effort to understand and fully commit to, is capable of changing our lives. But first, some quick context, right? So Dan starts off this episode called King of Kings, talking about the Battle of Thermopyla, in the year 480 BC, in Ancient Greece. It's that famous story that a lot of us know where King Lee and I just leads that small army, which includes 300 Spartans against this massive Persian military force that's invading. And the quick version is essentially Xerxes, who's the king of the Persian Empire, and in charge of that massive army, tells the much smaller Spartan force that if they lay down their weapons, if they submit to him and let the Persian past, no harm will be inflicted upon them. They'll be free to go, go about their lives. And here's the famous line, in response to the Persian command to lay down their weapons, the Spartans respond, "Malon Lebe," which means, "Come and take them." It's a Spartan's way of saying, "Look, the only way we're laying these weapons down, is if you rip them from our cold dead hands." Right? With everything on the line, the odds stacked against them. The ground beneath them basically shaking from the march of a far superior fighting force, moving directly towards their location, they would not let go of their principles. They were fighting for something bigger than them. And I couldn't stop thinking about this idea long after I hit pause on the episode. I guess I was awestruck by the power of living life with that type of conviction. Because I know in my soul that's in North Star I should be gravitating towards. We all should. The strength to be unrelenting with regard to that which we care about. The aforementioned quote from Lincoln about finding the right place for our feet and then holding the step with everything you have, all that you are holding for. I just couldn't get that out of my head. But then it came to me that that invading force represents so much in our personal lives. So many things. One example, being the difficult or adverse circumstances are trying times. When you're most likely to concede that perhaps you're no bigger than that world around you. Maybe life is a movie and I'm merely the audience. My job is to clap, laugh, gasp or cry. My cog in a wheel, a line in a script, powerless. In which case you should be reminded of Victor Frankel's famous observation that everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose ones attitude and any given set of circumstances to choose one's own way. In other words, the outside world may change. It may evolve, but it will never have power over how you choose to internalize and view what's happening. That's innately yours. So when the circumstances feel like they demand more than you can give, when they suggest you leave your interpretation of life behind, the correct response is, as the Spartans defiantly said, "Come and take it." That army could represent a pushback against your values, the pillars of your individual foundation that you feel amidst all the pressure tempted to let go of. But they're all easier to retreat than stand toe-to-toe with others. It's easier to abandon than it is to defend, at least in the short term. But as Victor Hugo writes, "You have enemies? Good." That means you've stood up for something sometime in your life. The enemies obviously not being the point, the believer in the conservation of enemy approach to life. Allies just pragmatically get you a lot further, but here's the reality. Anyone who stands for something will undoubtedly create, divide, they'll be criticized and condemned. And when one feels the pressure of that criticism, they must understand that it does not invalidate who they are, or their worldview. That is yours. You are the only one who can give up or relinquish that control. So as this Spartans said, "Come and take it." And then lastly, my thoughts went to little things that make us who we are. Those tiny pieces of ourselves that we little by little, one by one over time give away. The concessions that fade into the background as we evolve to fit in so that we don't stand out. His Emerson beautifully put it, "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." And so that attacking army just might be the universe attempting to mold you to it, perhaps not all at once, but more like that frog placed in water and put on the stove. But the heat increasing so slowly over time that he doesn't realize the heat will soon overtake him. Externalities do not dictate. They are objects in need of meaning and you are the architect here. If it means something to you, it's worth holding on to during the difficult times and the easy times. When it's popular and when it's not, there is value within you specific to you, a value that must be nurtured in order to expand. Others can't and won't see that. The world around you may even with all its complexities seek to suppress it, but that flame is there. It's there and it's yours. And to anyone or anything looking to extinguish its light, come and take it. After all, what is life if not one lived on your own terms? The goal is not to simply exist, but to define the plane on which you live all. To devise your own prune. Be yourself is that world looks to make you something else. So here's to digging deep. To finding within yourself the courage to stand up to the great armies of chaos, conflict, adversity and their perpetual conquest. To remember how strong you are. How much control you have as you navigate the unknowns and redefine the right now. Don't let your strength be the thing you give away. Don't let your heart be what gets left behind. Don't let your thoughts become illusions of what could have been if only you'd held on. And look, I'm not saying it's easy. In fact, I know that the meaningful road will necessarily be the one that requires the most of us. That makes us question who we are and where we're going. It will ask that when our minds race without in our knees shake with fear, we find a way to stand regardless. To walk to our demons, look them square in the eye and proclaim that whatever it takes, we are willing to give. That we will fight until there's nothing left, go until we can go no further and hold with conviction all that matters most. So the next time light demands that you fall back or bow down, the next time chaos emerges in the distance and asks only that you lay down your arm. There's to being strong enough, certain enough courageous enough to say one thing and one thing only come and take them. Sometimes, life is exactly what we want it to be. Things feel like they're happening. Momentum seems to open every door. Nobody waits around each corner with open arms. Those times are great. But this, no, this is not one of those times. Not at all. What I want to do is explore the moments of in between. The instances of solitude and quiet, the periods of tension that exist between heartbeats. Because in those silent deserts, we don't just endure. We discover something truly profound. Me, I've spent plenty of time wandering through the deserts of life. I could even make the argument, both literally and metaphorically, that it's where I find myself now. With the great unknown pleads with you to trust it, whispering confirmation that it will lead you to answers, so long as you lock your eyes on the horizon and keep your feet moving. But just like the sand acts as a blanket covering everything below the rocks, the plants, the cacti, you are leaving only the shape of who you once were. An outline, a reference point, trading the certainty of what's known for the danger, the uncertainty, the risk of a world undiscovered. See out here amidst the deserts of life, through the mirage of safety, you discover that the thing you need most, well it's never complicated. This reminder is both profound and simple. It pulls you in and demands that you remember. That you remember you have everything you need to emerge from this chaos. Should you choose to push through? You will be better for it. Over and over and over again the deserts of life make me into the man I am supposed to be. Not because they reveal the world to me, but because they reveal me to myself. They remind me of the world within the internal strength, the resolve. Perhaps not to know, but certainly to move forward. when I don't. It is through the deserts of life that you find your oasis. It is the very nothing you wander through now that becomes everything. And so maybe, just maybe this is the reminder you need. Maybe life feels desolate. Maybe there aren't any answers. Maybe the missing validation invokes fear and the pressure to return to worlds you left behind grows stronger. Well, let this be life telling you that these aren't skippable moments. That you will amidst this very trudging through the dunes of nothingness, find yourself again. A deeper, more meaningful, powerful version of yourself. This desert points a mirror back at you for a reason. The adversity is not here to break you. It's here to remind you how strong you've always been. It's here to show you that not only will you endure, but the deserts of life will shape you into the person you were always meant to be. The pain of hesitation often hurts worse than the very fall we're afraid of. And when you learn this, you can be proactive in mitigating that pain, the self-induced torture that is waiting. The agony of knowing something more is required of you, but refusing to act because that little purgatory is a special kind of hell. Check this out, quick metaphor. We'll call it the man on the high dive. So this man wanted to jump off the high diving board at the community pool. So he walks up and he begins slowly ascending the ladder. His hands, you know, sweating against each metal wrong as he makes his way up and below only a few minutes before the entire thing is he manageable. Fun, even. But now as he makes his way to the top and stands on the edge, looking down at the water below, this simple activity now feels impossible. Everything's different. The air is much thinner up there. His heartbeat thuds in his ears, right? He wraps his toes over the rough surface of the board, gripping it like the ledge of the side of a mountain. And he's telling himself, okay, it's time like go, just jump. But his body's refusing. He turns, glances back down the ladder. He's got that sort of chirping in his ear. Hey, you know, you could just climb back down. People do that all the time. No big deal. And then, you know, something relatively unexpected happens. A boy, let's say no more than 10 starts making his way up the ladder. He gets to the top, kind of peeks his head over the board. And, you know, bright eyed, obviously unbothered by the height. And he asks the man, hey, are you gonna jump? And the man, you know, pretty embarrassed at this point says, well, I don't know yet. In the kid's shrugged and incomplete innocence, right? Just speaking his mind goes, that used to happen to me. The longer I'd wait up there, the harder it would get. The man laughed, you know, but he knew it wasn't funny. It was true. Bothered him. In some way, another realization crept in, right? This is not about the jump, but about the weight of standing there because just like the innocent child suggested the longer he waited the worse it felt, and that feeling already had him in crisis territory. It's not just the fear but the frustration, the doubt, the slow-nigh, discomfort of knowing he climbed all the way up there. Would he really just darn back? He looked down at all the eyes, the pool staring up at him. What a situation. Right now, the guy's in a place of limbo, right? It's like, do you step into the courage to something you've never done? Or do you back out entirely? And, you know, retreat back to the only world you've ever known, taking some perhaps regret and what ifs along with you? Because that is the thing, right? Fear doesn't just stop you from jumping. It changed you to perhaps the worst place of all, the in-between. Not quite safe, no, but certainly not free either. And sometimes that place, that limbo between who you are and who you could be hurts more than the fall ever could. He started realizing this with increasing intensity. The mental discomfort had gotten to the point where, you know, the fall is preferable, right? So he took a breath and before his brain could talk him out of it, before fear could take hold, he stepped off the edge and for a moment there was nothing, right? Just stillness, weightlessness. And then, impact. The water of the pool swallowed him whole, cool, refreshing, washing away every ounce of doubt, right? He broke the surface, gasping for air. And then he felt it. Joy, relief, pride. That feeling when you do what you've most needed to do. Because the truth had always been waiting for him at the bottom, right? The pain of hesitation had been far worse than the fall, which seems to be the way of things. This is not exclusive to our friend on the diving board. I'd venture to guess we all have those little diving boards in our lives. Some greater and far more consequential than others. You know, they come and they go as we navigate life, but they're there consistently. And I could only speak to my own experience, right? The biggest obstacles I face, they rarely are, quote unquote, mistakes. Usually, they're a product of moving too slow, waiting too long, thinking too small. I was having dinner with a friend of mine a few weeks ago, kind of joking about this particular area that I'm stuck in, right? Hamstrung a wheel vibes and he goes, "Nah man, you're not stuck. You're scared." And my first thought is, what? Right? It's defense mode. It's like, "No, I'm not actually." My brain goes into like, you know, how I identify myself or how I see myself. I might think about all the torture I put myself through over the years. Are you kidding me? All the growth, intentional suffering, just for the sake of becoming the person that I knew I could be. Just for the thrill of climbing the ladder, you're gonna tell me I'm scared. And then I thought about it, right? Well, that may be true. And you can't negate, you know, battles fought in the past. That was one mountain top. But that one mountain top had just become life, right? And you can stay there and you can call that home or you can continue evolving, seeking out new mountain tops. Sometimes we don't even realize we've been stagnant, right? Especially if it's one of life's blind spots. Which, funny enough, was precisely what was creating that anxiety, it was craving growth, you know, standing on that diving board and in life requires less contemplation up there and more jumping into pools. I just needed hear that. And I truly cherish things like this. These little wake-up calls, these moments that shake up your worldview. They direct you to a better version of yourself. So what I advocate that you consider is whether there is any of that internal conflict happening right now. In your life that you can bring awareness to, whether you've been standing up there looking down at the jump for just a little too long now. Perhaps life is waving you forward, pushing you on. You've been ignoring that call, thinking about what to go wrong, gazing down below and feeling like, "Oh, the bottom is light years away. Because. Because the solution, my friends, will almost never be further contemplation. Right? It's in-momential. Mobility. Action. Allowing life to take you by the hand and educate you. Free yourself from that in-between. Because the impact of your feet hitting the water might shock you, sure, it might be startling. Might even leave you a little red, right? Who knows? But the freedom from knowing you can, from knowing that the heights weren't enough to stop you, that you got the experience, the adrenaline, the rush, the excitement as you made your way through the air. That's what life is about. So remember, wherever you stand, whatever jump currently awaits, any impact into the pool that calls you will be less severe than the pain or even suffering of hesitation, the purgatory of being indecisive. Because after all, no decision is still a decision and perhaps the most painful decision, the most costly of decisions. Jump knowing that you're leaping, not just away from stagnation, not just away from that discomfort or that pain, but further into life. Infinite means no balance. Which is, you know, kind of an abstract comment, "Forever is difficult to grasp." But I want to explain to you why in my life it's prevalent in something I truly need right now, in terms of a deeper understanding. And I'd be willing to bet that in some capacity, a better relationship with the word forever or infinite would benefit your life as well. Let's drop into a very specific mental state. See if it rings a bell, you know, that feeling of depletion, that feeling of being stuck or feeling lost, just total helplessness, you know, whether it's over a long period of time or sort of temporary helplessness. Whatever the context is, this feeling is a product of a scarcity narrative playing in your head. Finitude. Amidst a forest of abundance, it's like staring at a tree from one inch away. And all you see is that single fragment of tree bark. You don't see much, it looks pretty bleak. But then you take a step back and you go, "Okay," right, you see the shape of the tree, go I get it. Take another step back, maybe two or three feet back. And you start seeing how these trees come together. You step back even further, you go, "Okay, I get it." All these trees comprise the forest. Maybe you continue to step back. You turn around, you see a totally different view, the landscape, the skyline, you see birds flying overhead. All that stuff that was always there, you just couldn't see it. Not from your vantage point, not that close to the tree, which is going to be for us metaphorical for a problem or obstacle that we are immersed in or trying to overcome. There's an idea that there's no situation that cannot be rectified, right, or put in the positive, every situation can be resolved. There's no hole you can't climb out of. There is always more, there is always a solution. In this little tidbit, you know, it might not mean much when you're feeling good. You have momentum, you know, the stars feel like they're aligned for you, but I'll tell you, it can be your saving grace when you are trudging through the valleys of life, the inevitable, difficult periods. For me, it's been everything, right? It's reminding me that there is a way. I just need to find it. It reminds me that I'm capable of solving and conquering even life's greatest tasks. I just need to move into the night with conviction. I need to remember how close I am to that tree, right, and create some sort of separation there. Because look, sometimes life is complex. You know, sometimes it's nuanced in detailed. And then sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes it is very simple. And one example of that is that there is always a way, and you are always capable of finding that way, of arriving that solution. Understand that and you'll see how abundant this dance through life really is. Life is personally, you know, sometimes the fear I experience, even about trivial things, just navigating life, it can hit heart. But I think it's a visceral reaction, like involuntary. It just, it happens. You know, podcast number is dipping. Business deal falls through. Maybe a riff with a family member or friend, right? My brain walks right up to that metaphorical tree, stands there and says, "Hey, there's nothing you can do. This is it. This is the end. You are stuck. You are lost. You are defeated. You are hopeless. You are all these things and none of them are good." But what makes human being special is by understanding there is more, we empower ourselves to create more. We empower ourselves to step five feet back, to see the forest, the view of the valley below. Don't settle in the finite, dive into the infinity that surrounds you. You know, I think sometimes, you know, we become so pulled in to a specific problem or situation that it never even dawns on us to think, "Okay, you know, this is life. It happens." But you don't have to stay where you start. You are not confined to where you are. Because if it's not pushing you forward, it can be altered, mitigated, transformed. It's not an if question. Your ascent is a how question. And one of my favorite ideas, it states that, you know, many of life's greatest accomplishes are punishments. We're carried out by folks too ignorant to understand the odds. When you feel stuck, it's not because you are. It's because your human brain is in default mode. And it's like no problem. Override. There's a way to turn every single predicament into a strength. As Jim Rohn has famously stated, "It's not the mountaintop that holds the value. It's who you become along the way to the mountaintop." And that climb consists of a multitude of these seemingly dead ends. But in recognizing their inability to hold you back, you yourself grow. You arm yourself with that knowledge. And to sum up, you know, the entire message here in its entirety, it's that in a world of infinite possibility, there is a way. Right? I challenge you to find it. The same challenge I look in the mirror and present to myself when I feel stuck or helpless or hopeless. I challenge you to look at your reality in a different light. Until the light bulb goes off. And I'm like, "Oh, this wasn't assigned to me. I'm choosing this. I'm creating this." And as the architect of my own world, I can recreate the story in its entirety. You know, people just don't go around in life telling us that. It's not normal to hear, "Hey, buddy, you have more control than you think you do." "Hey, you're accepting some things that you don't need to accept." Hey, step back, five more feet and build again from a different angle, right? Just like all the money in the world doesn't do much good, stacked up in a warehouse that's never touched or utilized. You know, all the opportunity doesn't matter if you can't see it. If you're blinded by the tree, the downside, the limitation. None of that. One of that means anything. If your vantage point is one of confinement, infinity is always there. So step back, turn around and walk directly into it. Use the resources to build reality not as it is, but as you want it to be. A world on your terms. You weren't put here to live in the shadows of life. To exist beyond the sun's grasp, to stay on the outside, looking in. No, you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life. It's important to remember the difference between now and forever, the distinction between today and tomorrow, because from time to time they look deceptively similar, especially when we inevitably find ourselves in the darkest of times. When despite our best efforts, our world is reduced to shadows, void of hope. When tomorrow and today have merged into one endless entity, it always seems to be in these times that we forget that right now is just a moment, not an assigned permanent. But a bridge to something great as Victor Frankl says, "If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering." We all suffer. We all hurt. We all go through periods of time where we can't see or hear or feel anything beyond the darkness we find ourselves in, but it's there. Darkness cannot be defined without light. It's in the definition darkness is a partial or total absence of light they need each other darkness and light. The one thing that can bring darkness to its knees is out there, everywhere, all around it. And if there was ever a reason to be hopeful, enthusiastic, there's ever a reason to believe. It's that a new life is always a light switch away. It's that darkness is as temporary as the day. And the antidote requires only that you believe it to be true. Only that you find the result to reach one foot out, to remind yourself of the sun's warmth and the infinite beauty of a world beyond this temporary darkness, because you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life. But to re-emerge like a rocket through the earth's stratosphere to swing from start to start like life is a playground and you make the rules. And I think when we look back will be nothing but grateful for those times of darkness. They, in a sense, prepared us for the road ahead by giving us what we need most. Perspective. Life lesses a road map to follow. 'Cause you don't appreciate the light, the sun, the clearer blue skies the wind on your face, the sound of the waves that's chirping of the birds. No, you don't see the beauty in any of that until even if for a moment it is taken away. You don't learn about life's abundance until you come face to face with scarcity. You don't learn to give until you've had your world taken away. You don't learn to love until you've experienced heartbreak. You don't learn courage until you've been overcome by fear you don't learn to grow until you've been truly stuck. You don't learn to believe until you've looked in the mirror and doubt here's back. You don't know who you are until you learn what you're not. See everyone finds themselves having wandered into the dark, sometimes of their own volition, sometimes of fate, but like leaves changing color in the fall, the earth on its journey around the sun, a wave emerging and falling back into that which it came, it is not an end but a beginning. Life's way of preparing us for what's to come, introducing us to the infinite possibility of tomorrow because you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life, but to emerge from them to light up the world. No, you weren't put here to live in the shadow. It was a place of life. Excellence comes down to what you do before the applause. What's more counterintuitive than putting something out into the world and hearing nothing? Silence only crickets as a response and then smiling to yourself as you depersonalize that underwhelming outcome and start planning your next masterpiece. Because I'll tell you, it's a special kind of hell or at least it feels that way. It may actually be closer to a purgatory of sort, a toll that must be paid, a fee that's required. Since childhood, we're taught to see action and outcome as this immediate cause and effect relationship. I don't know about you but very rarely did I hear congrats. You just watered the seed that will bear fruit in six years. No one says be patient. Greatness must compound and you just took a small step forward. Now it's more subtle than that. A longing, a commitment to evolution over time. Can't be purchased, must be earned and the road through the dark, murky forest to validation. Well it's a demanding one. It's a treacherous pursuit. Materializing over time and certainly not delivered in the mail. Oh those moments where we love the applause. Perhaps even crave it. Something, some reassurance. No. You're stacking W's in your mind. Your audience is one. Your support group is the reflection in the mirror. Did you take a step forward today or not? And if you did, make sure you also take a bow because that my friend is your victory. You know, people have plenty of theories for the hardest part of doing something meaningful, bringing something into existence that doesn't already exist. And I'm sure there are thousands of different right answers. But for me it is the loneliness. And not necessarily in the traditional sense. Like there were always great people around me. It's that unless you're in it, it's hard to understand. It's hard to relate. Right? It's hard to share with someone that you just worked a 16 hour day and you're more broke than you were before the sun came up. You still have no idea if this is going to work. And you look out the window, the world seems to be buzzing around you. And in your head things seem so much simpler out there, so much easier for everyone else. That whole delayed gratification thing, you know, it seems so logical on paper. It makes so much sense in psychology books. And I'm no psychologist. But I guess that, you know, based on the sheer pain it creates, we aren't necessarily wired for it at such extreme levels. How far can you crawl through the desert without finding your life saving resources without getting what you're looking for, navigating mirage after mirage after mirage? Well, it turns out you can crawl through the desert for a very long time. To one of my favorite mantras, When you think you're done, you're actually only at 40% capacity. We can endure so much. This is when life becomes not what is the gap between where I stand and my dream, but as Dan Sullivan has said, where is the gain? Look how far I've already come. Look what is within my control. Today, I have the power to take one small step forward. And I can promise you that's exactly what I'm going to do, and how beautiful it is watching those little steps accumulate over time. The imaginary is made real, not by a snap of the fingers, but it's derived from the sound of your foot making contact with the ground over and over again. 10,000 foot view is this hard. Yeah. Look at the distance to be traveled. But if the mindset is dialed, if the mentality is right, if we step up and focus only on what is within our control, is it hard? No. Because anyone can take life one day at a time. This is perhaps a reminder to think less and step more to lock into the target and go, to take your chisel to the marble and sculpt away. I'll never forget reading the book Unbroken. When the main author, an American captured by the Japanese in World War II, endures a hell unimaginable, move from POW camp to POW camp, tortured, take into inches of his life. But day by day, he finds a way. And when he's finally captured and he looks back at all of it in totality, he is astounded at what he's overcome. He says, "I don't even know if I can do that again, right? Because from the outside in it's insurmountable. It's a mountain too high to climb. But day by day, we are gods. When what's in front of you is the only monster, it can be slayed over and over and over again. We are manufacturers of the unseen. Architects of value. When you look at, value is directly correlated to how rare something is. Greatness, excellence, success in an endeavor, they are coveted and rare. Because for many, moving forward without that applause, it's too daunting a task. Performing for crickets is too taxing on the ego. And unknown with no guarantees, it induces anxiety like oxygen to a flame. So what? What's the play? What are you going to do? Can you clap loud enough for yourself to appease the whisper in your head? Can you be your own source of strength and validation? Can you show up for you? Because here's what I say. I say when silence is loud, let your vision be louder. When people doubt you, don't take it personally. Treat it with grace. See, you're just already at a party the rest of the world hasn't arrived at yet. You're not crazy, you're just early. Okay, and maybe a little crazy, but thank God, because the innovators, the makers, the doers, are all a little crazy, but they have to be. If one were merely pragmatic, they'd stop performing without that applause. That's the practical thing to do after all. But you, you're not here to be pragmatic, you're here to be great, and that's a different game altogether. Of course, they'll doubt you, that's the practical move. But remember this, pragmatism is never celebrated, ever. No, not like excellence, not like those with the courage to march to the beat of their own drum. To point their ship straight towards horizons of their making. And when you don't hear the applause, take a breath and make your own. The goal is not to take over the world in 24 hours. It's to set goals for yourself and hit those goals. It's to perform for that audience of one. If you can do that religiously. If you can show up for you, everything else falls into place. Everything else makes sense. So go out into the world and be crazy. Crazy enough to go where few before you have dared. Crazy enough to construct your own anxiety for the soul's sake of conquering it. Crazy enough to see castles in the air when the rest of the world sees only ghosts. Most perform for the audience. But I think it's time for you to be your own standing ovation. To watch as the roar and thunder of your own applause transcend space and time. It's not whether the crowd rises to their feet. It's whether you do now. The sands of time may have buried you. As they'll bury us all. But in my mind you live on. In my mind there you are. Smiling the way you used to. Lighting up the room the way you once did. You even laugh at my jokes when no one else does. Which I'm sure is not easy for even the memory of you to do. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Well because it was outstanding in his field obviously. See that's what we're working with here. Or maybe that is up here, Ellie. I'm not sure I was too young to remember. But I do remember piling in the car and going to the button store. That's what you'd tell us. Remember? Okay. We'd say just excited to be there. Then you'd pull up to four seasons ice cream and it would be like Christmas in July. You made a lot of people feel like Christmas in July. Maybe you were Christmas in July. I talk about you a lot. Maybe too much. Sometimes people say I remind them of you. And I always take that as a compliment because in my mind you were perfect. But I'm gotten older. And I know now that you couldn't have been perfect. You were human. It's so odd growing up and learning that even the people you look up to the most in life are flawed. It's weird learning that not even your parents, the king and queen of your world, have all the answers. Now we're all just trying to figure this damn thing out, aren't we? We think we're more sophisticated than cavemen dancing around the fire 40,000 years ago. But sometimes I wonder. Oh, I moved to Arizona. I lived down the street from Aunt Julie. It's fun to be able to see her. She tells me stories about you guys as kids, how you like to push the envelope. You'd always get into trouble. But it would always be this sort of calculated trouble. Like even when the wheels were falling off the wagon, you somehow stayed in control. I'm not sure that's the best way to describe it, but that's what I've got. She mentions how she always felt safe with you. And I think that's so cool. Like what's more beautiful than being the source of someone's safety? What's more meaningful than putting someone at ease? Sometimes I wonder what you'd say about where I am now, what I do for a living. I even wonder if you'd be disappointed that I never went into the military. That may be one of my true regrets. At least four years, you know, but I'm planning to help give back in other ways. It's not so much that I'm craving your approval, although subconsciously, has certainly possible. It feels more so I wonder how I'd measure up. I went to Mass Maritime Academy a few years back and spoke to the cadets in the field across from the statue of you and mom, dad, Nana, that everyone was there. I shared a few lessons you taught me when I was younger. I did the same thing to a room full of state police in Idaho. It always seems to connect. I think because it's just real. I don't feel they need to be anything or play a role or be a character. Just a mere messenger. That's all a distributor of value. There's something precious about that. Oh, a lot of people know me. the phrase, "You're always stronger than you think you are." Because of you, Gramps. I told the story in around 2015 in one of my videos and it really resonated with people. It's great perspective. I'll never forget you being sick and telling Nan and not to worry that the tumor was no big deal, that it was quote, "all in your head." Okay, maybe I do get the dad jokes from you, but that blows me away. Because another thing I've learned over the years is that life is hard, it can be so hard, but you, even in your toughest moments, you never made it about yourself, ever. In fact, you'd go out of your way with humor and compassion and love to make sure those around you didn't feel your pain. Long story short, I won't get into it now, but because decidedly, we sort of lost our way for a few years, we're relearning what basic things are, masculinity being one of them. It's everywhere, online, in public discourse. And every time it comes up, my mind goes right to how you made us feel. I think about you and dad putting family first. Not telling, but leading, always. Being a rock in our lives. Anyway, I won't take up too much of your time. I'm sure you're sailing the ocean blue up there. Actually, this wasn't even supposed to be a note to you. I was planning to write about little hinges, about how there are some small, frictionless things we can do in life that make a monumental difference. Perhaps even things we wouldn't anticipate being as powerful as they are. And this morning, I was having some coffee before the sun came up, you know, that little stretch of time between 430 and 630. How it's so beautiful anticipating the full day to come, it's so quiet. We started thinking that I should enjoy it, because that sun will ultimately set as your sun has. My story will be no different. But your sun, I remember it's warmth on my skin. I remember how it illuminated even the darkest of rooms. I remember its raised dancing overhead. The reminding us of your presence. Perhaps recalling that warmth is my little hinge, my engine, my why. And I'll do my best to pass it along, to help others feel it. I think most importantly to remind them that they have that same light within them. The entire world's within them, in fact. And so, Gramps, goodbye for now and happy sailing. I'm sure I'll see you again, where the ocean and the sky intersect. [Music]