Welcome to Your World Within Daily. I'm Eddie Pinero. In this episode, we're going to talk about Emerson's belief that to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. There's nothing more powerful than bringing your own gift to the world.

Taking your own skill sets, your own strengths, the things that at your core you know

set you apart and using them as the metaphorical wave to take you through life. So let's simplify

this, right? Remember two things. There is nothing more freeing or liberating than being who you are

and your environment is always trying to tell you who that should be. Cultural definitions of success,

social media, creating standards that are just unobtainable.

Self-defeating narratives are everywhere because there are pictures of what greatness is, what happiness is, what success is, and they don't align with who we are.

Freedom comes when you accept yourself. When you don't dwell on your

weaknesses, you realize that everyone has weaknesses, and that's fine. Why spend your time

building those up when you can do the alternative, when you can double down on your strengths, your passions.

Imagine if Bill Gates double down, triple down on basketball because he looked around and that's what everyone was doing.

Or music because he wanted to fit in or be cool, or you can fill the blank with anything.

The point is he was unique and he owned it.

And without that, we wouldn't have what we have.

He had a competency.

He had a love and he rode that out.

And everyone has that in some capacity.

And the reason I'm talking about it is because, you know, our tendency

always is to look out for answers. It's to see what the world wants us to do. That stuff

comes internally and then you project it out. You make the world understand.

The world doesn't make you understand. It's an incredibly important distinction.

I say it all the time, you are the author of your own story. I'll find that narrative and express it.

...