Chapter 1: What does it mean to build yourself when no one is watching?
There's a quote that states, whatever you are, be a good one. The pride you take in your work and the quality you're looking to obtain throughout, well, it's just as important as the direction you are heading. And I spent some time thinking about this.
It was recently on an 11-hour flight home from Japan where, you know, I got to see a lot, I learned a lot, a few things I want to share over the course of the next couple weeks. But there was one that stood out to me above all, right? One that I felt I needed to inject into my personal life. And so let's start there. It's the apparent pride that the Japanese take in their culture.
Now, admittedly anecdotal, right, based on a relatively quick experience, I was only there for about a week, but also it was the thing that was most evident, right, that jumped out at me. It felt sacred. from the way they talked about being Japanese, at least those few short conversations I was able to have, to the cleanliness of the cities and buildings.
I mean, the subway in Tokyo was so clean that it felt like a simulation. To every car that drove by being washed and waxed, and I mean every car. I saw no trash on the street. There were no homeless people out, which, given that I was in the busiest part of Tokyo, seems to be quite the feat. The bottom line is these folks across the board take tremendous pride in themselves and their communities.
Now, I can't speak, nor am I going to attempt to speak to the socioeconomic impact of that type of standard. But I can tell you that in many ways, from a personal standpoint, there was something powerful about it. I can tell you that my first instinct was again to inject that mentality into as much of my own world as I can.
That taking pride in your surroundings and your outward appearance makes you feel better inside. That when your world is messy and cluttered, so is your mind. That when you don't invest in your environment, it probably diminishes your likelihood of succeeding in it. There's power in pride, in caring and taking responsibility for that which is yours.
I said something similar in an episode last week talking about identifying your North Star and acting the part. And someone commented under the video, agreed, how you do one thing is how you do everything. And I really like that. I think it sums it up beautifully. Now, I'm not ignorant enough to think that Japan is perfect, because I spent a week there and the subways were clean.
I'm sure underneath the hood, it has flaws, like every society does, like every individual does. But pride in oneself and surroundings doesn't appear to be one of those flaws. I think it's a source of strength, and, uh... Seeing this came at a time when I needed it most. Perhaps I may have even subconsciously been looking for it.
And over the years, I've realized this in different areas of my life, without knowing in many cases that I was longing for consistency, pride, not just in a few habits, but in the greater overall picture. Getting into shape, I think, is the easiest example to demonstrate. Because it's not just a habit change, it's a lifestyle change, right?
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Chapter 2: How does Japanese culture exemplify pride and discipline?
Whatever you are, be a good one. Not in one area or in one aspect of who you are, but in totality. Set a standard, right? Don't allow yourself to fall below it. You will feel better, freer, healthier. If the car is dirty, the office space is probably cluttered too, which means so is the desktop. which means so is the mind in its way of navigating and processing information.
Nothing is completely siloed off. Or on the other hand, if one thing is immaculate, odds are everything is. So that little trip was a beautiful reminder to raise the bar in all aspects of my life. The standard can't just apply to my work or my art. Everything is intertwined.
Greatness is holding on to the standard you set, the value system you deem meaningful, and accepting absolutely nothing less. 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 AGNS, 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, YWW20. You can use that on the website, agns.lifestyle.
We're right under this video on YouTube. All the stuff is there in the shop. Again, code YWW20 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 showings. Appreciate your time. Always grateful, never satisfied. On to the next. There's a quote attributed to H. Jackson Brown Jr.
He says, nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. I tend to agree with this. I also think it's interesting that these missed opportunities are also the most difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. So if you think about our common understanding of progress or growth, it's a sacrifice. It's doing X brings us Y. Doing the work gets the result.
It's a simple formula, and you can show your proof. You can work backwards. I started working out one hour a day six months ago. This is what I look like now. The cost was one hour a day. The result, well, this is what I look like now. But what's the inverse of that thinking? What's the cost of not doing the work or starting the journey or taking the steps? See, we don't think about that.
We don't think about the opportunity cost. Our instinct is not to question the actions we don't take. I was listening to an old lecture from Jim Rohn, who I love because he's such a practical thinker. He's got ideas you can literally plug right into your life. And he had an amazing point.
He was talking about a conversation with an old friend in which he asks his friend, who apparently watches a lot of TV. He says, hey, what does that TV cost? His friend says, well, I think it's like five hundred dollars. Jim says, no, I don't think so. His friend says, yeah, I bought it, $500. He says, no, I think it's costing you about 40K a year. Why?
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Chapter 3: What is the connection between pride in surroundings and personal success?
As the great Keith Urban says, the best days of my life were all that wasted time. You know, we should explore and enjoy and love and laugh and experience life. But that awareness makes us more intentional with those pursuits. With our work time and our play time, it forces us in a way to prioritize, to ask ourselves what we want.
Instead of only looking at progress like this vending machine where you put an X and Y comes out. Well, we can ask ourselves, what happens if I don't put an X? What happens if I keep it in my pocket? What won't come out? What could have existed that now won't? See, just because you don't see something slipping away, that doesn't mean that it isn't.
And the immediate, the world in front of you, unfortunately, won't remind you of that. That's a bell you have to ring yourself. You have to peel back the, what am I doing, and unveil the, what could I be doing? What could I be creating? What could reality look like? Maybe you think about it, and you find that you're right where you want to be. And that's great.
Maybe you realize you've accepted a tolerable existence at the expense of an ideal existence. In which case, I also have great news. You can change that, and you can change it now. We have to understand that you don't only have what's in front of you. You also possess a reality unseen and undiscovered. So don't let the former cover up or diminish the latter.
Don't lose the possibility of tomorrow with the distractions of today. Don't forget the cost of inaction with regard to those things that truly matter. Someone once told me that no one further along than you will ever try and bring you down. That it's the people who see you pursuing your dream that are reminded that they've given up on theirs that usually make the most noise.
And, you know, knowing this essentially invalidates all criticism. Who cares, right? It's the metaphorical dog nipping at your ankles. One, it's to be expected, and two, often best ignored. The question is, are you able to separate it out as just part of the process? Can you ignore all that stuff that's sort of hovering around you as you walk your path? Or do you let it in? Do you personalize it?
Do you make it bigger than it is? Imagine a world... where you protected dearly the things you let into your mind. You understood that things don't happen to you, they merely happen, and you get to choose what they'll mean. Imagine if you lived with enough conviction to do what excited you, what felt right,
knowing that, sure, some folks might have something to say, but that's just a tiny variable in the great play of life. It's rain on a summer day. You pick up the umbrella and you carry on. It's hard to describe, but We never really understand how little these social variables will mean until some time has gone by.
I often think about being younger and caring so much as a kid about being quote-unquote cool or uncool. I didn't say, wear, or do certain things because fitting in was so important. I cared what my friends or classmates might think. We all did, right? And looking back now, it's like, what would I tell that version of me? It's pretty easy and pretty clear now, actually, as years have passed.
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Chapter 4: How can lifestyle changes impact your journey to fitness?
Ed, you surviving the heat? And I thought to myself, you know what? It's time to prove a little something to someone. That someone not being anyone who texted. That someone being me. I think it's time for a little reminder to myself about who I am and what I'm about.
So fun fact, my training, which I've kind of been very open about and taking you guys along for the ride there, it's moved from strength to a little bit more mobility in the next month. And because of that, I'm integrating kind of a longer run back into the equation once a week. I thought, you know what? Today is going to be the day. At 2 p.m., I am going to run eight miles today.
just to prove a point, right? Now, I'm not trying to break any land speed record here. Like, slow and steady wins the race. I'm going to get the miles done, period. Also probably worth noting, because it can be dangerous, right, that I was rational in the approach. You know, sunblock, white hat, camelback full of water. You know, I had... electrolyte tablets, a phone.
I wasn't running in the mountains somewhere secluded. I was running right through downtown Scottsdale. So, you know, pretty rational in the approach. And so off I went. And immediately, my soul was set on fire. This is the same kind of experiment, if you will, that I've run... A million times in my life. I love this stuff.
From Boston to Miami and everywhere in between, you know, these long distance runs where I could sort of decompress, you know, dabble in the suffering and just remind myself who I am and what I'm capable of. As followers of this channel and podcast know, that means a lot to me.
I had transformed thousands of miles of my feet hitting the pavement into a sense of confident and faith that I could do hard things. Because see, sometimes I forget that I can. And I forget because hard things don't always reveal themselves as just that, right, as hard things. No, sometimes hard things are sneaky.
Sometimes hard things just feels like being lost or not smart enough or failing, squandering the gift you've been given or opportunity at hand. Sometimes hard things feels like the world's moved on without you. Sometimes hard things feel lonely and God can they feel lonely. Sometimes, hard things feel empty. They can feel broken. They can feel like betrayal. You name it, right?
But here's what they all have in common, whatever shape they take. They are all manageable. All of them. They simply require a reassurance that this isn't the end yet. or some impossible task, but that you must hold your head high and move right through them. I always remind myself of this. During the storm, you can only see the storm. You can only see the gray, the clouds.
You can only hear the rain and the thunder. So it benefits one to remind him or herself that this is a game of enduring, knowing you're strong enough because at the end of all that, the sky clears, the rain stops, and you get your sunshine, your finale. And so on that particular day, eight miles in 113 degrees, it was a gentle reminder, an arm around my shoulder saying,
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