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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I am Dramas And this is the Street

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Speaker 1: Stoic Podcast, bringing to your daily dose of timeless Stoke philosophy,

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Speaker 1: a remix for the hip hop generation. We are combining

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Speaker 1: ancient stoke philosophy with lyrics and quotes from some of

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Speaker 1: the greatest to ever grace a microphone. 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 we are going to be focusing

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Speaker 1: around the stoic idea of gratitude, right, And I kind

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Speaker 1: of wanted to tackle gratitude not from the perspective of

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Speaker 1: the things that you've gotten, right, not being just grateful

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Speaker 1: for all that you've achieved or the way that things

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Speaker 1: have worked out for you, but having gratitude even in

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Speaker 1: the moments where things aren't going as planned. Right. And

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Speaker 1: a song that kind of came up to me immediately

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Speaker 1: is the record Waves by Russ And I'm going to

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Speaker 1: kind of cut and chop a little bit of of

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Speaker 1: some of the hook, but in it he says, because

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Speaker 1: it's just waves, got to just float, float and have faith.

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Speaker 1: It's just waves. And I love this this idea of

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Speaker 1: kind of looking at life like the ocean. Right, there's

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Speaker 1: waves coming and going. Sometimes it's still, sometimes it's choppy.

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Speaker 1: It's all just constantly in flow, constantly going right. And

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Speaker 1: I think it speaks to the idea that you can't

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Speaker 1: try and force things to just fit some plan right.

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Speaker 1: You have to find peace in the not knowing right.

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Speaker 1: And that's what he's talking about, where you have to

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Speaker 1: have faith right and understand that it's just waves. If

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Speaker 1: a bed you know, time period is happening, or or

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Speaker 1: one that is not necessarily as you hoped, it would

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Speaker 1: be having the faith to know that this is just

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Speaker 1: a temporary wave that is happening, and eventually things will

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Speaker 1: come full circle, they will become calm once again, you know.

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Speaker 1: And this leads to a stoic quote from Epictetis where

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Speaker 1: he says, don't seek for everything to happen as you

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Speaker 1: wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as

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Speaker 1: it actually will. Then your life will flow well. So

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Speaker 1: he's talking about not obsessing with a particular outcome that

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Speaker 1: you've created in your mind. And that doesn't mean you

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Speaker 1: can't have goals. That doesn't mean that you can't have

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Speaker 1: a vision for your life, but it's about not obsessing

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Speaker 1: over that and not thinking that if you don't get

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Speaker 1: it exactly as planned, then your life is going to

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Speaker 1: be miserable. Right. It's having a plan, it's laying out

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Speaker 1: there some sort of idea of what you want your

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Speaker 1: life to look at, but then just living and having

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Speaker 1: faith that even if things don't look exactly as you

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Speaker 1: thought they would, your life is going to flow as

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Speaker 1: it's supposed to. In fact, it's probably gonna end up

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Speaker 1: even better than you could have expected. Right, And that's

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Speaker 1: legitimately been the story of my life. I was not

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Speaker 1: thinking I would be somebody hosting a podcast on stoicism.

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Speaker 1: I never had that on my Bengo card, Right. That

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Speaker 1: was not the life that I was planning on at all.

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Speaker 1: But in retrospect, knowing what I know now, knowing myself

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Speaker 1: and where I am at this point in life, this

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Speaker 1: is exactly where I would want to be. Like, things

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Speaker 1: have worked out far better than I would have expected.

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Speaker 1: If I would have gotten the things that I was

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Speaker 1: striving for, I wouldn't have been as happy as I

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Speaker 1: am now. You know. Even recently, I just had a

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Speaker 1: project kind of finally come to fruition, right, And it's

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Speaker 1: something I've been working on for almost three years, and

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Speaker 1: I can't get into, you know, exact details because we're

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Speaker 1: still finalizing some things and it's not time to announce

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Speaker 1: it yet. But it's something that I was obsessed with

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Speaker 1: that first year. Year one, I was like nervous, I

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Speaker 1: was anxious. I was like, let's just get this done.

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Speaker 1: I was putting so much weight on it, and it

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Speaker 1: was making me miserable. And never did I expect it

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Speaker 1: to take three years. But once I decided to let

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Speaker 1: go of trying to force it to happen when I

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Speaker 1: wanted it to, I found so much peace in this situation,

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Speaker 1: and to the point that now knowing that it's finally happening,

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Speaker 1: not knowing how it's all going to pan out, and

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Speaker 1: the way that it's panning out is actually only going

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Speaker 1: to help its potential success. Right that if it would

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Speaker 1: have happened under my timeline, we may not have found

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Speaker 1: the success on it that we were hoping for, Right,

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Speaker 1: So I had that faith that everything is working out

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Speaker 1: according to the bigger plan. Right, Like I think at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, if we look back on

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Speaker 1: our lives and even if you can do this right now,

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Speaker 1: you know, obviously hopefully none of us are close to

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Speaker 1: our last days. But even looking back on it now,

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Speaker 1: everything has kind of played out almost like a movie.

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Speaker 1: All the little little things that had to happen to

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Speaker 1: get you sitting where you're sitting right now. All of

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Speaker 1: that is incredible when you think about it, and it's

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Speaker 1: nothing that you or I would have ever been able

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Speaker 1: to predict or conceptualize. Right there's just some greater force

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Speaker 1: at work pulling the strings, putting all these little things

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Speaker 1: together to provide us with the life that we have now.

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Speaker 1: And when you look back on it, it just doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem real how it all fell into the place that

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Speaker 1: it is right now. Now, with that said, you have

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Speaker 1: heard my story, we have heard from Russ, we have

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Speaker 1: heard from one of the Stoics Epicteties. Now let's talk

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Speaker 1: about how you can make this your mantra for today.

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Speaker 1: But first it's take a quick break and then we'll

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Speaker 1: be spread back. All right, So today we're focusing around

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Speaker 1: the Stoic idea of gratitude, but from the perspective of

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Speaker 1: having gratitude even when things aren't working out according to

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Speaker 1: plan right, And I think you have to develop this

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Speaker 1: mindset of just always being grateful even if things aren't

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Speaker 1: exactly how you would have hoped, right, because it's the

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Speaker 1: only way to actually exist at peace and to maintain

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Speaker 1: a consistent level of happiness. Right. So, like, instead of

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Speaker 1: being upset with God or the universe or life, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is that you believe in because things haven't panned

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Speaker 1: out exactly as you would have planned, be grateful for

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Speaker 1: the fact that things are happening exactly the way that

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to. Right. Find peace in the fact that

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Speaker 1: everything is playing out as it is supposed to. Right,

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Speaker 1: even if we don't understand it right now, in this moment,

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Speaker 1: there are greater forces at work putting the pieces together,

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Speaker 1: getting us to where we need to be, even if

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Speaker 1: we are completely unaware of what that place is. Right

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Speaker 1: and again, even if you are going through it a

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Speaker 1: difficult time, be grateful for the fact that you've lived

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Speaker 1: another day to fight. Right. That is a blessing in itself.

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Speaker 1: At the very least, having another opportunity, another shot at

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Speaker 1: this thing called life is a blessing, and you should

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Speaker 1: have gratitude in that even in those tough moments. Right. So,

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Speaker 1: to recap all that we're talking about this idea of gratitude,

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Speaker 1: even in the tough moments. You know, we go to

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Speaker 1: that record from Russ Waves where he's talking about you

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Speaker 1: just gotta have faith, you just got to keep floating.

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Speaker 1: It's just waves, right, the idea that even when the

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Speaker 1: waters get tough, it doesn't last forever. Right, It's going

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Speaker 1: to pan out the way that it's supposed to. Things

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Speaker 1: will calm down, they will settle at some point. You

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Speaker 1: just have to keep that faith and maintain gratitude along

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Speaker 1: that journey. Right. And it's like what epictetia says. You know,

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Speaker 1: you don't seek for everything to happen as you wish

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Speaker 1: it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it

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Speaker 1: actually will. Then your life will flow. It's all about

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Speaker 1: living and flow. Right. Life is not about trying to

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Speaker 1: force things into existence. Again, goals are great, but it's

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Speaker 1: not about obsessing over things work out exactly as planned. Right.

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Speaker 1: The goal is simply just some sort of blueprint. It

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Speaker 1: is the light in the dark that gets you on

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Speaker 1: your journey. But the journey is inevitably going to throw

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Speaker 1: you a couple curve balls and lead you down somewhere

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Speaker 1: that maybe you didn't plan on. But again, it's where

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Speaker 1: you are supposed to be. And even for my story.

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Speaker 1: You know, so many things happened as far as obstacles

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Speaker 1: on this project that I've been working on for three years.

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Speaker 1: It was supposed to have, you know, come to a

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Speaker 1: close two years ago, and it didn't. And at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, I have adapted the mindset of

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Speaker 1: faith in knowing that things have worked out this way

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Speaker 1: for a reason. Right, I am in a particular place

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Speaker 1: where I am maybe going to be a more positive

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Speaker 1: contributor to this project than I could have been two

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Speaker 1: years ago. Right, maybe the industry is going to be

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Speaker 1: in a place that allows us to have more potential

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Speaker 1: for success. I don't know whatever it is, but I

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Speaker 1: do know that looking back on my life, everything has

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Speaker 1: played out according to a certain plan that has led

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Speaker 1: me to a life that I would have never dreamed

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Speaker 1: about but am eternally grateful for. So why would this

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Speaker 1: be any different. I have gratitude because I know, at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, life always provides me with

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Speaker 1: exactly what I need, even if I didn't know that's

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Speaker 1: what I needed. Now, with that, Sam, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for checking out the Street Stoke podcast. Do your

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

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Speaker 1: everyday life and I will catch you next time. The

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Speaker 1: Street Stoke podcast is a production of iheart's Micoltura podcast network.