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Speaker 1: What Up? I Am Dramas and this is the Street

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Speaker 1: Stoic Podcast, bringing you your daily dose a timeless stoic

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Speaker 1: philosophy remixed for the hip hop generation. Now, with that

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Speaker 1: in mind, let's get things started with your daily shot

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Speaker 1: of inspiration now today with me focusing around the stoic

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Speaker 1: idea of taking action right. And and the song that

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Speaker 1: I pulled for this idea for this topic is the

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Speaker 1: Nicki Minaj and Drake classic Moment for Life right. And

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Speaker 1: this is from the Drake Verse, and he says, quote,

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Speaker 1: I'm really trying to make it more than what it

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Speaker 1: is because every buddy dies, but not everybody lives. And

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Speaker 1: I want to reiterate that last line. Everybody dies, but

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Speaker 1: not everybody lives, right. And the idea behind what he's

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Speaker 1: saying is that, sure, we're all here, right, we're all existing,

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Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean that we are actually spending our

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Speaker 1: time living right, Because truly living means taking action. Right.

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Speaker 1: The idea of doing something that you enjoy is in

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Speaker 1: itself an action, right. It's an action that you have

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Speaker 1: to take, a step that you have to take. So

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Speaker 1: our happiness requires action, not merely just existing. Right. And

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Speaker 1: and this you know goes to the Stoke quote from Epatitis,

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Speaker 1: and he says, quote, the amount of life we truly

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Speaker 1: live is small, for our existence on earth is not life,

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Speaker 1: but merely time. And it's crazy to me to think

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Speaker 1: that we have Drake hip hop artists a completely different

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Speaker 1: world than the Stokes, let alone existing hundreds of years

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Speaker 1: after is saying the same exact thing as as Epictetus here, right,

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Speaker 1: And and this this is the whole premise of this

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Speaker 1: podcast and why it's so powerful because it's it's pointing

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Speaker 1: out the correlation between these ancient ideas and values and

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Speaker 1: principles and showing you how timeless they are towards the

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Speaker 1: fulfillment of our lives as human beings. Right like Epictetus

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Speaker 1: is literally saying the same exact thing. Not many people

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Speaker 1: are are actually truly living there, merely just existing. Right.

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Speaker 1: And I wanted to pull another quote from from Epictetus

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Speaker 1: because I've been reading a lot of his his stuff lately.

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Speaker 1: And he also says, quote what stubborn denial of mortality

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Speaker 1: to delay dreams to after your fiftieth and sixtieth year,

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Speaker 1: and to plan on starting your life at a point

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Speaker 1: that not everyone even gets to, And This is the

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Speaker 1: real meat of today's conversation. Right because we live in

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Speaker 1: this society that has fooled us into thinking that we

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Speaker 1: have to wait until we are retired and up there

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Speaker 1: in age to truly start experiencing a life of freedom

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Speaker 1: and choice, right Like, Like, how ridiculous is that we

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Speaker 1: are taught that we have to spend the most energetic

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Speaker 1: years of our lives, the years of our lives that

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Speaker 1: we are arguably the healthiest, most alert, you know, the

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Speaker 1: most active. We're told to spend that time with our

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Speaker 1: head down because eventually, when we reach middle age, we

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Speaker 1: will then be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

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Speaker 1: What a crock of ship that is that we've been

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Speaker 1: zold in this life? Right Like, we put off our

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Speaker 1: own happiness because we're too busy essentially checking the boxes

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Speaker 1: in life that we're quote unquote supposed to write, like

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Speaker 1: the house that we're supposed to have, the car that

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Speaker 1: we're supposed to drive, and so on and so forth. Right,

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Speaker 1: And I know that for some people, you know, they're

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Speaker 1: gonna hear that and and point out the privilege that

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Speaker 1: I have to be making money doing something creative, doing

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Speaker 1: something that I love doing and of course it is

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Speaker 1: an incredible privilege, but I think it goes beyond that, right,

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Speaker 1: because you have to be okay with saying no to

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Speaker 1: the sort of materialistic life that we've been sold, you know,

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Speaker 1: throughout the course of our upbringing, right, And that is

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Speaker 1: the key. I think it's not necessarily about trying to

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Speaker 1: accumulate massive, massive wealth. I think it's more so about

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Speaker 1: cutting out the things that aren't essential. And once you

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Speaker 1: begin to do that, you recognize how much freedom you

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Speaker 1: have to spend time doing things that you actually enjoy.

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Speaker 1: Right now, this kind of leads us directly into how

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Speaker 1: I relate to this whole idea, but also I think

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Speaker 1: it's how I live my life, and it's a philosophy

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Speaker 1: that I live by and and that I've always sort

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Speaker 1: of adapted, you know, since I was younger. Now, Listen,

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Speaker 1: I've always had lofty goals, especially when I was a

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Speaker 1: bit younger, and I saw certain materialistic ideas as the goal,

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Speaker 1: you know, and and the meaning behind what it actually

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Speaker 1: as to quote unquote really live. Right, And while I

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Speaker 1: still have big goals, I've also gotten clear on what's

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Speaker 1: actually important to me and what truly makes me feel alive.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, I've always sort of been aware of

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Speaker 1: the idea of wanting to do something that I love,

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Speaker 1: but I also wanted to check those boxes simultaneously, so

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Speaker 1: I kind of clouded my journey a bit, you know.

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Speaker 1: But what I've begun to realize as I've gotten clarity

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Speaker 1: on on this idea of what it truly means to

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Speaker 1: live and what truly makes me happy, I've realized that

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Speaker 1: no amount of money in the world is worth me

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Speaker 1: sacrificing that feeling right, that feeling of truly being alive.

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Speaker 1: And this is is really apparent in sort of kind

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Speaker 1: of some of the turns that I've taken in in

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Speaker 1: my career right and and DJing probably being the most

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Speaker 1: prominent example of that. You know, At one point in time,

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Speaker 1: DJing was my main source of income. I was making

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Speaker 1: more money as a as a club DJ than I

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Speaker 1: was doing radio, you know, with the Breakfast Club or

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Speaker 1: with Z one hundred, So deejaying was it was something

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Speaker 1: I was doing, you know, three or four nights a week,

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Speaker 1: and I enjoyed doing it and it was very profitable

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Speaker 1: for me. But now at this point in my life,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to be out there til man three

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Speaker 1: or four in the morning, you know, three or four

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Speaker 1: nights a week, and and sleeping all day like that

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Speaker 1: sounds like an incredibly miserable life to me. And I've

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Speaker 1: had to really become you know, stern in that as

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Speaker 1: people have reached out to me and and are you know,

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Speaker 1: essentially throwing money at me to come play at a

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Speaker 1: certain venue and to come be a part of this

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Speaker 1: experience and you know, oh, this will be a great

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Speaker 1: look for you, and and all of the things that

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Speaker 1: old me was was simultaneously trying to accumulate while also

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Speaker 1: trying to find happiness, right, And what I recognized was

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Speaker 1: that if I gave up trying to live this lifestyle

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Speaker 1: of you know, being seen all the time, and more importantly,

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Speaker 1: gave up the lifestyle of wanting to check those those

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Speaker 1: societal boxes of of success, I didn't have to put

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Speaker 1: myself out there into situations that I no longer enjoy doing. Right.

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Speaker 1: I don't have to consistently burn myself out spending my

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Speaker 1: entire weekend djaying in the club just because it gives

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Speaker 1: me the financial freedom to go, you know, drive some

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Speaker 1: foreign car or something like that. Right. So, once I

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Speaker 1: began to get clear on that I was able to

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Speaker 1: cut that out of my life. And and don't get

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Speaker 1: me wrong, I appreciate all that dejaying has given me.

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Speaker 1: It's still something I enjoy doing, but it's something that

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Speaker 1: I get to now choose to do because it's fun

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Speaker 1: for me. Right. I no longer I am looking at

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Speaker 1: it as a as a paycheck or something that I

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Speaker 1: need to do. But when I get that itch, when

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Speaker 1: I when I feel like, you know, being out there

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Speaker 1: and playing some music, I get to go ahead and

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Speaker 1: do it because it's something that brings me joy. But

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Speaker 1: other than that, no, and that's what I've begun to

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Speaker 1: to get clear upon, and I've taken actions by cutting

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Speaker 1: out unnecessary things in my life that would then require

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Speaker 1: me to be bringing in more money. Now you've heard

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Speaker 1: from Epictetus, you have heard from from Drake. I've given

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Speaker 1: you how this is been so true in my life.

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Speaker 1: Now let's talk about how you can make it your

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Speaker 1: mantra for today. All right, So you've heard the words

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Speaker 1: of Epictetus. You have heard the words of of Drake,

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Speaker 1: which are in it's such a scary but very obvious way,

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Speaker 1: incredibly similar and once again for two men who do

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Speaker 1: not exist in the same world, be at the same lifetime.

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Speaker 1: I think it shows you that the conversations that we're

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Speaker 1: having on the show are incredibly timeless. And I've also

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Speaker 1: talked about how this has been such a huge revelation

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Speaker 1: for me in my life. So now let's talk about

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Speaker 1: how you can make it your mantra for today. The

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Speaker 1: reality is this, right, you can, you know, go ahead

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Speaker 1: and make a ton of money doing some job that

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Speaker 1: you hate, but you're inevitably going to sort of be

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Speaker 1: miserable with how you're spending that much time doing things

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Speaker 1: that don't actually bring you joy. Or maybe you can

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Speaker 1: cut out certain expenses in your life, take a job

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Speaker 1: that pays you slightly less but actually brings you so

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Speaker 1: much joy and fulfillment, and now you're getting to live

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Speaker 1: a life of freedom and enjoyment. Right. I think the

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Speaker 1: the point of this whole conversation and the actions that

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Speaker 1: you have to take are getting clear on what's important

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Speaker 1: to you, right and and also having the conversation with

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Speaker 1: yourself and recognizing what you actually need. You know, how

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Speaker 1: much of of what you're telling yourself is based upon

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Speaker 1: this sort of like societal cool that we've all been

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Speaker 1: you know, served when we were younger, right like, we

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Speaker 1: need to have this gigantic house and this fancy car

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Speaker 1: in order to be deemed a success. Maybe it means

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Speaker 1: downgrading the size of the house or apartment that you

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Speaker 1: live in, and now you have extra money to have

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Speaker 1: freedom to go on more vacations, right Like, that's what

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about. It's about not waiting until you're fifty

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Speaker 1: year sixty years old, and god forbid, you don't even

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Speaker 1: end up getting there because it's not promised. Like you

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Speaker 1: don't want to weigh your life waiting for some moment

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Speaker 1: that may never come. And that's the idea of adapting

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Speaker 1: this idea taking action on what is actually important to

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Speaker 1: you and not what society is dictating, but what is

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Speaker 1: actually important to you and what actually gives you that

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Speaker 1: feeling of truly being alive, rather than just merely existing

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Speaker 1: and wasting the precious time that you have here on

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Speaker 1: this planet just because you're trying to impress some people

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Speaker 1: that really don't matter at the end of the day. Now,

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Speaker 1: with that said, thank you so much for checking out

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Speaker 1: Street Stoic podcast. Do yourself a favorite, and man, try

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Speaker 1: your best to apply these concepts that we've discussed into

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Speaker 1: your everyday life. With that said, I'll catch you all

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Speaker 1: next time. The Street Stoke Podcast is a production of

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Speaker 1: My Hearts Michael Doura Podcast Networks