The War Against Yourself: Master Your Mind

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The mountain doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

There's something humbling about standing at the base of a mountain.

You look up, and there it is.

Seemingly indifferent, standing there quiet, immovable.

It's not impressed with your plans.

Not swayed by your doubts or concerns.

And certainly not worried about yesterday.

Which brings me to the lesson.

The mountain doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

Mountain Humphries.

The tallest mountain in Arizona.

It wasn't the endgame.

It was a symbol.

One step in a larger promise or commitment I made to myself.

To build a stronger, sharper, more durable version of me.

Not just physically, but in how I think, how I lead, how I endure.

And while I knew I could climb this mountain, I was wrestling with the bigger picture.

The same way that a mile or two into a half marathon,

your mind starts wondering about what waits around the corner and your ability to overcome.

Can I really become that person?

The one who does the hard thing, and here's the catch not once or twice, but every single day.

This is not a small change.

This is a death and rebirth, a recreation.

Becoming someone who chooses discomfort over ease and growth over validation.

Because becoming that person means letting go of the person I used to be.

And as we all know, that is no easy task.

The past is what we know.

It's familiar, it's comfortable, even when it's heavy.

That whole, I'll choose the devil I know over the devil I don't idea.

But the trail, I didn't care.

It just stared back at me with one demand.

The mountain doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

And so we did what we set out to do and started climbing.

Not to prove I could summit, but to remind myself who I am evolving into.

See every rock, every gust of wind, every burn in my legs, it all has a purpose.

Not to punish, but to reveal.

Just trip away the unnecessary to leave me raw and focused and present up there.

There are no shortcuts, no elevators or escalators, no helicopter dropping you at the top.

There is no pretending.

It's just you and your breath.

And the question, will you carry on?

Because the mountain doesn't ask for your past, it asks for your next step.

And as we continued on to the ascent and the air got thinner and our legs got heavier,

the irony became clear.

The higher I climbed, the lighter I felt.

Because every step forward wasn't just movement, it was release of who I thought I had to be.

Of who I was pretending to be.

Of all the baggage I never needed in the first place, I wasn't chasing a view.

I was shedding an identity creating a new self like a chisel to stone.

And when I reached the top, I was kind of surprised by how I felt.

Not so much victorious.

I felt honest.

Like for the first time in a long time, I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

And not because the world says so.

But quite simply because I'd earned it.

Because I'd adjusted the compass locked in on a new north star and pursued it.

There was no audience.

There was no celebration.

Just wind and space and silence.

But in that silence, I heard it again.

The mountain doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

And so I stood there thinking about life off the mountain.

The challenges I still had to face, the moments coming where I'd want to quit.

Where I knew I'd feel small.

Where I'd be tempted to shrink back into the old version of me.

Just tap the alarm, just have the beer.

That version.

But now I had something I didn't have before.

No trophy, no metal, a memory of what happens when you don't listen to the doubt.

When you don't argue with the fear.

When you just take the next step.

So maybe this isn't really about mountains.

Maybe it's about life.

About evolution.

Because if you're waiting for permission to grow.

You'll never get it.

It doesn't come in the mail.

No one delivers you that green light.

If you're clinging to your past for security, you'll never move.

But if you let go.

If you trust the process, if you take the next step.

You'll become someone the old you could never have imagined.

And that's the point.

The mountain doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

And so does life.

You might not be climbing a mountain today, but you're facing one.

We all are.

For some, it's the courage to leave a job that no longer fits.

For others, it's rebuilding after heartbreak.

Perhaps it's forgiving yourself.

Starting again quietly without applause.

It's the steps no one sees.

That's the thing.

Most of life's defining moments aren't loud.

They don't come with music and lighting and cinematic build-up.

They're silent.

They're subtle.

They're incredibly easy to avoid.

But they're there every day.

Maybe your trail is waking up early to chase a goal.

Maybe it's walking into a gym for the first time in years.

Maybe it's a difficult conversation or finally putting your name behind something you believe in.

Whatever it is, it will ask you the same thing that mountain asked me.

The world doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

Are you willing?

And here's the catch.

Your past will fight like hell to stay relevant.

It will remind you of every failure.

It will whisper, you've never followed through before.

Why now?

It will say, you're not the kind of person who does this.

You know that.

The longer you entertain that voice, the longer you delay becoming the person you're meant to be.

Growth isn't about waiting until you feel different.

It's about acting different.

Until one day you look back and realize you grew into those shoes.

So what's your next step?

Not your next ten years.

Not your perfectly curated plan.

Just your next step.

You don't need to climb the whole mountain today.

You just need to move.

Because motion silences fear action builds confidence in the path whatever yours looks like

will reveal who you're becoming.

Take the step.

Even if your legs shake.

Even if your heart's pounding.

Even if no one else understands why.

In fact, especially then.

Because life doesn't ask for your past.

It asks for your next step.

There are moments in life that feel like endings.

But what if they're simply the next version of you?

A question that brings me right to the present moment?

It's funny how something so small can undo something so sacred.

This time it's something as arbitrary as back spasms.

It's sharp pain when I breathe in.

It kind of moves different places in my upper left back to my lat shoulder.

And at first it was, you know, kind of an afterthought.

It was like, okay, you know, it'll heal.

I'll be fine in a few days after all.

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You know you need fiber for a healthy gut.

But do you actually know how to get it?

Quakers have been serving up fiber since 1877,

with over 100 great tasting good source of fiber options to choose from.

Whether you like old-fashioned oats, instant oatmeal, granola, or oatmeal squares.

Quaker makes it delicious.

Mmm, so good.

Get your fiber with Quaker.

Shop Quaker's good source of fiber products at a store near you.

Part of getting older and lifting is working around these things.

You're never 100% perfect.

We're spent almost three weeks now.

Instead of healing, it's getting worse, right?

It hurts to sleep, hurts to breathe.

Even thinking about a pup feels like betrayal.

And here's the part worth examining.

I didn't think it would hit this hard.

But, you know, here I am.

Canceling workouts with friends.

Texting, hey, sorry man, got a skips today.

That murf workout, I was so pumped to do.

That ritual of strength and struggle.

You know, shared with people, I respect.

Gone, postponed.

Forgotten by everyone except me.

And this isn't just me whining, by the way.

Like I'm getting to the point here, I feel less anchored.

Because for me, movement isn't just fitness.

It's clarity, it's identity.

It's the thread that really weaves.

The rest of my life together.

And without it, apparently, that thread has started to unravel.

My wake times shifted a little bit.

I don't have to get up early to hit the fastened cardio.

Right, so morning structure softens.

And you get the idea that domino effect kind of stop tracking meals.

Skipping the cold plunge a few times turns into a few more.

Opening Instagram instead of the notebook.

And you know, the part of me that would roar forward

with focus and fire.

Well, he's just a little quieter now.

And I think that's the moment where the wolves come.

You know, not suddenly, at least not in this case, not dramatically.

But gradually, until they're everywhere.

Until you look around and go, whoa.

You know, one sits on my shoulder whispering, you're losing it.

Another paces in front of me.

Momentum's gone, you'll never get it back.

One hides behind false logic, right?

Maybe this is just who you are now.

Maybe it's easier to accept that.

And the cruelest one of all, he just watches, says nothing.

Because he knows that I know.

The context here is, for the first time in a long time,

I'd finally felt healthy, like I'd mitigated and sort of removed myself

from a lot of these things I've dealt with over the years.

And that's what's been interesting to watch, right?

That subtle erosion of self-belief.

That part of me that's always said, dude, you've been here before.

You'll get through this.

Sometimes, when you're just down and out, it feels hard to hear.

But here's the inflection point.

And I love to share these inflection points.

This morning, I sat alone on my balcony

and I asked the question that matters most.

You don't like the person you're becoming, the trajectory, you know,

you've taken in a very short period of time.

It's like, do I let this moment consume me?

Or do I become something new?

Do I let it be a new evolution?

Because this is no different than any other challenge in life.

You know, it feels big and personal and complex

because, well, it's what's right in front of me now.

But in reality, you know, it's just another obstacle.

You know, pain has a way of asking you who you really are.

Not when everything's working.

Not when you're strong, but when you're broken.

When the routines fall apart.

When your identity starts to slip through your fingers.

And the wolves, you know, they are not the enemy.

They're the test.

In a way, they are the invitation.

A hand extended.

So this morning, I gifted myself the decision.

Not to sprint, obviously, not to lift, can't do that.

But to face that circle of wolves with grace.

To stop hoping they go away.

And to meet their gaze and answer them.

Yes, I'm in some mental duress, right?

Poor me. Life goes on.

Yes, I'm losing momentum.

Yes, in a way, holding off regression.

But I'm still here, blood in my veins air in my lungs.

And gonna rebuild from the inside out.

Again, it's not like I just found out I'll never walk again, right?

Perspective here.

Because the wolf isn't some fantasy of me at my peak.

It's who's already inside, who I become when everything stripped away.

And when normalcy and routine and comfort are taken,

who do you become?

So if you feel them too, those doubts, those whispers,

if your momentum has been slowed,

if your identity feels like it's dissolving,

this is your moment.

Not to run or hide.

But to rise.

To not lay down.

Shake your fist at the world and become the sheep.

But to meet the wolves where they are.

Life isn't about staying strong when it's easy.

It's about becoming stronger when every part of you wants to disappear.

When you're frustrated and annoyed.

And all you see is off ramps.

Your North Star is covered up by clouds.

That's when it matters.

When the wolves circle.

You become one.

It was an opportunity the entire time.

It was just disguised as a problem.

Let me unpack this for you because this shift in thinking changes everything.

So I want you to imagine the particular chapters or seasons of life.

Where what's in front of you feels so big that it's insurmountable.

It's constant chaos, fight or flight mode.

It's the walls closing in around you.

In those moments, historically, I would feel disappointment and shame.

Sadness for letting that happen.

How could I not have been better?

How am I the guy in this spot?

This isn't good.

Therefore, I'm not good.

You reap what you sow.

But what I've come to learn is that not only is that thinking obviously counterproductive, it's false.

Because it's in those very moments where it feels like the walls are caving in.

That we are handed the greatest opportunity of all.

We are not past decisions.

We're not prior circumstances.

We are defined by what we do amidst the chaos.

We are defined by our ability to get back up and rise again.

Because those moments.

Yeah, the very moments that feel like you're suffocating.

They are when life begins.

But go beyond the semantics here, because I'm not speaking metaphorically.

I'm not trying to be cute with words.

Truly, when we feel lost and overwhelmed and stuck and scared.

When we feel the odds are stacked against us, when every door seems locked.

That's when the universe presses the play button and the movie starts.

And yeah, no one avoids these moments, right?

There's a difficulty, a suffering attached to living.

That's the human predicament.

But some of us.

A few of us.

Accept the invitation to turn those moments and that suffering into something beautiful.

A select few.

Take the ticket and step into a world of their making.

It's crazy how context changes our perspective, right?

It's like, you really thought.

Life was getting up and meditating and going into your little cold plunge when things are good.

When the toughest decision you had to make that day was whether or not to get Starbucks.

Brother, that's not life, that's cruise control.

Life.

Well, life is what you do when you're broken.

When you're down 25 at half time.

Life is feeling lost but continuing forward.

It's how you bounce back when you lose a loved one.

When the sales numbers are plummeting.

When you don't know how you're going to keep the doors open.

When you're looking around them for the life of you, you can't figure out how you're going to hold it together.

How are you going to come out of this victorious?

Life is when reality grabs you by the collar and shakes you.

What do you do with that?

That's life.

It's learning, no, never take it personally.

But take it for the opportunity that it is.

And I'm not saying it's an easy initiative, but it also happens to be the only good option.

Some people use mountains to get stronger.

Others set up camp at the mountains base and forever look up at the top, imagining.

What do you do in those moments when it's sink or swim?

What are you able to pull out of yourself?

What do you forge with that fire?

Sure, let the good times be good.

Let the easy times be easy.

Enjoy them. They are a nice reprieve from the necessary ups and downs.

But don't trick yourself into thinking easy as the expectation.

The opportunity will come from the times that once masqueraded as hopelessness.

The purpose will come from the pain, the confidence from walking forward.

One step ahead of that doubt that always seems to linger.

And now keep in mind, there is no delusion here.

I'm not proposing that one smile and pretend it's 72 and sunny while the wind gusts and the rain pours down.

I'm merely asking you to see that the game-changing moments are conceived during the downpour.

The darkness, as the saying goes, is the opportunity for you to be the light.

And sure, along the way, feel all the feelings.

Be human.

But if you marry that to the notion that you can channel those feelings and the circumstance and pass decisions all of it into exactly what you need,

you become stronger than you ever thought you could be.

Living is not existing in the absence of pain.

Living is becoming greater than you ever imagined amidst the pain, using hell as a lever to reach the heavens to grab the stars.

They were always yours.

Just impossible to see what the lights on.

So utilize the discomfort to build.

Put the doubt, anxiety, pain to work.

You'll step out of the smoke stronger and more capable, where most stop and point at the problem.

You'll have chiseled away at it like marble until all that remains is both beautiful and meaningful.

Where most journeys and yours begins.

And that's why the world will be yours.

It was not given, it was chosen.

One quote unquote problem.

At a time.

You are not for everyone.

And that's okay.

That's a simple truth we'll call it that I picked up over the years.

And it's had a pretty profound impact.

You are not for everyone.

And that's okay.

That's a simple truth we'll call it that I picked up over the years.

And it's had a pretty profound impact in not only how I look at the world, but how I view myself as I navigate the world.

It's particularly useful when you've lost faith in the path you're walking.

You've sort of forgotten your power.

And I want to share with you a pretty cool reminder of this very thing.

A couple days ago, having lunch with a friend, very charismatic guy for the sake of this little story.

We'll just call him friend.

And he's telling me about someone that he's now working with in his business.

We'll call that person John.

And my friend says to me, you know, Eddie, I am learning so much from John.

He's adding so much value to what I do.

I can't even describe it.

But he's loud.

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You know you need fiber for a healthy gut, but do you actually know how to get it?

Quakers have been serving up fiber since 1877, with over 100 great tasting good source of fiber options to choose from.

Whether you like old-fashioned oats, instant oatmeal, granola, or oatmeal squares, Quaker makes it delicious.

Mmm, so good.

Get your fiber with Quaker.

Shop Quaker's good source of fiber products at a store near you.