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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 of anxious stoic

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

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Speaker 1: philosophy with lyrics and quotes from some of the greatest

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Speaker 1: who ever grace a microphone. With that in mind, let's

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Speaker 1: get things started with your daily shot of inspiration. All right, So,

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Speaker 1: today's stoic principle that we're gonna be basing the show

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Speaker 1: off of is all but the idea of living in

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Speaker 1: agreement with nature. Right. And this is described as behaving

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Speaker 1: rationally right like a human being, and acting with some

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Speaker 1: sort of rational mindset before reacting to a certain situation. Right.

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Speaker 1: And this is the idea of of doing that instead

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Speaker 1: of acting randomly or out of passion right like an

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Speaker 1: animal essentially right. So, in other words, we should always

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Speaker 1: be applying our natural ability of of reason, because that's

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Speaker 1: what sets us apart as human beings from any other

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Speaker 1: animal on this earth. Right. So I wanted to kind

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Speaker 1: of give a little preface of what exactly this all

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Speaker 1: means before we got into it. So now, with with

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Speaker 1: that in mind and understanding kind of this stoic principle.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to pull a quote from from a song.

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Speaker 1: It actually had been getting a lot of attention because

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Speaker 1: it featured a jay Z verse that and many were

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Speaker 1: arguing was his greatest verse of all time. Now that

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Speaker 1: is a conversation for a different time, but is the

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Speaker 1: DJ Khaled song God Did And I wanted to pull

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Speaker 1: a few bars that jay Z said that I thought

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Speaker 1: resonated with this idea on this topic. Right. So in

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Speaker 1: that song, Jay says, quote, all this pain from the

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Speaker 1: outside inspired all this growth within, so new planes getting

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Speaker 1: broken in highest elevation of the self, and some of

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Speaker 1: that I'm taking kind of out of context. I think

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Speaker 1: it fits into what we're talking about. But I think

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Speaker 1: that this idea could possibly fall under the principle of

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Speaker 1: focusing on what we can control, right. That's something that

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Speaker 1: I often talk about on the show. But I want

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Speaker 1: to come at this from a different perspective. I've been

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Speaker 1: rereading Mark Manson's book The Subtle Art of Not Giving

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Speaker 1: a Funk, right, and in that he talks about how

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Speaker 1: the nature of life is to create problems right there,

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Speaker 1: there's no escape in your life is essentially one problem

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Speaker 1: after the other, and ironically having problems leads us to happiness,

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Speaker 1: right because it it gives us purpose in the form

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Speaker 1: of having, you know, something to solve, an issue to resolve.

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Speaker 1: Right now, Jay mentions pain from the outside, right, meaning

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Speaker 1: issues or hardships that he's not in control of. Right,

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Speaker 1: but he recognizes that that pain has actually inspired his

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Speaker 1: growth and elevation of self. Right. And to me, this

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Speaker 1: is an acknowledgment of going with the flow, right and

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Speaker 1: not allowing this pain to slow you down, but to

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Speaker 1: instead embrace it. Right. And as a result, his embrace

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Speaker 1: and acceptance of this pain has led to inevitable growth

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Speaker 1: for himself. Right. And let's kind of talk about how

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Speaker 1: this relates to a stoke quote, right, And this is

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Speaker 1: from Epictetus, and he says, quote, he was a man

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Speaker 1: of such kind that when he was struck by any difficulty,

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Speaker 1: he could write in praise of it, If fever was

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Speaker 1: his lot, in praise of fever, If disrepute in praise

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Speaker 1: of disrepute, if exile in praise of exile. And I

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Speaker 1: know that there's some some words that we don't commonly

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Speaker 1: hear anymore, but essentially, you know, he's saying that this

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Speaker 1: man that he's describing was embracing anything that came his

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Speaker 1: way right, good, bad, or ugly. He embraced it and

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Speaker 1: celebrated it right. And I think that our reaction to

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Speaker 1: unexpected difficulties are oftentimes worse than the difficulty itself. Right,

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Speaker 1: Like unexpected difficulties they only slow us down, or or

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Speaker 1: even worse, only stop us because we we allow them to.

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Speaker 1: And that's just the truth. Now for me, you know, obviously,

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Speaker 1: like anybody else, I've gone through so many different experiences

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Speaker 1: in my life where I've been met with difficult moments

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Speaker 1: or moments that were threatening to slow down the progression

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Speaker 1: that I had been working for and and had been attaining. Right,

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Speaker 1: So for me, I relate to this on many levels.

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Speaker 1: I think one moment that I can really think of,

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Speaker 1: and this was kind of right before the pandemic. I

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Speaker 1: had a videographer and photographer and graphic designer that I

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Speaker 1: had been working with exclusively, right, and we had been

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Speaker 1: just like hammering out content for almost two years, right

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Speaker 1: and throughout hammering all that out, like my my social

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Speaker 1: media grew right, the opportunities that I was getting grouped.

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Speaker 1: We were seeing real growth in all aspects of my

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Speaker 1: career from having this really talented per on board to

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Speaker 1: help me create content and to bring my my ideas

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Speaker 1: to life right. And eventually, you know, we had a

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Speaker 1: bit of a falling out where we had a disagreement

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Speaker 1: on how our arrangement should continue, and I was faced

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Speaker 1: to have to part ways with that person who had

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Speaker 1: had such a huge part of my branding, you know,

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Speaker 1: and especially in a day and age like this where

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Speaker 1: your content is king on social media and all these

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Speaker 1: different things. And unfortunately me and this person didn't agree

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Speaker 1: and we had a bit of a falling out at

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Speaker 1: that time. You know, we've since I have a great relationship,

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Speaker 1: but you know, I had to take a step back

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Speaker 1: from this momentum that I had created with this person

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Speaker 1: and embrace my new reality. You know, I wasn't able

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Speaker 1: to afford to go and hire somebody to do this

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Speaker 1: same level of work for me that I was getting,

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Speaker 1: and I had to embrace the new reality where I

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Speaker 1: would have to then learn to do these things myself, right.

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Speaker 1: And I know that this kind of sounds like first

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Speaker 1: world problems and and it is to a degree, But

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Speaker 1: anybody who's creative, if you're an entrepreneur, if you are

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Speaker 1: trying to you know, make a business for your self.

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Speaker 1: You know, you understand the importance of these different factors.

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Speaker 1: And also if you're hustling, you understand how busy you

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Speaker 1: already are. But with all that in mind, I understood

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Speaker 1: that if I wanted to continue to progress in my

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Speaker 1: career and to keep the momentum going, I would have

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Speaker 1: to take the reins on something that I had never

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Speaker 1: really done before. Right, So I took, you know, a

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Speaker 1: few weeks back from posting consistent content. I I downloaded

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Speaker 1: and bought some software, and I forced myself to to

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Speaker 1: learn how to use it, to become proficient in it,

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Speaker 1: to be able to get out of it what I needed.

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Speaker 1: I went and invested in a video camera, you know,

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Speaker 1: and I learned how to use them. And now you

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Speaker 1: fast forward to today, and I am so grateful that

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Speaker 1: that falling out happened, you know, obviously not on a

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Speaker 1: personal side, but on a business side. I was able

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Speaker 1: to learn skills that now are a huge reason why

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Speaker 1: I'm able to work for myself and even form a

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Speaker 1: new business around it, you know, doing podcast recording and

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Speaker 1: having a photography and video studio. Right. So, had it

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Speaker 1: not been for this event that at the time was

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Speaker 1: a uncomfortable setback and and forced me to have to

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Speaker 1: work even harder than I already was. Had it not

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Speaker 1: been for that and the skills that I learned through

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Speaker 1: this setback, I probably wouldn't be in the position that

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Speaker 1: I'm in today and wouldn't have the independence that I

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Speaker 1: have right now, where I can create an idea in

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Speaker 1: my head and bring it to life all by myself

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Speaker 1: for the most part. Right and that freedom is something

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Speaker 1: that I live for, and I wouldn't have had the

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Speaker 1: ability to live in that existence and have that happiness

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Speaker 1: had it not have been for this difficult moment and

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Speaker 1: this setback that I had during a really critical point

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Speaker 1: in my career. Now we've heard from a man jay Z.

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Speaker 1: We've heard from Epictetus. I've talked to you how this

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Speaker 1: type of idea has personally affected my life and how

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Speaker 1: I've adapted it. Now, let's talk about how you can

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Speaker 1: make this your mantra for today. But first let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break and then we'll be back. All right,

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Speaker 1: So we have heard from arguably the greatest to ever

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Speaker 1: grace a microphone. We have heard from one of the stoics,

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Speaker 1: ef Petitious. I've talked to you about my own experience. Now,

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

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Speaker 1: for today. And I know I left off talking about

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Speaker 1: an experience that I had were I no longer had

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Speaker 1: the support that I needed to create content, and I

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Speaker 1: had to take a step back to to learn that. Right.

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Speaker 1: I think it's something you can apply to anything that's

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Speaker 1: happening in your life. You know. I know so many

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Speaker 1: people face all kinds of economic problems, be at the

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Speaker 1: pandemic or or recessions or whatever it may be. You know,

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Speaker 1: people lose their job, you know, and companies begin to downsize,

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Speaker 1: and maybe you're in that position right now and you're

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Speaker 1: sort of forced to to think about what now. But

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Speaker 1: what you decide to do next is what is critical. Right.

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Speaker 1: I think so many people would rather sort of run

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Speaker 1: away from their problems or dwell on them and feed

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Speaker 1: into the negativity that comes along with it, right, and

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Speaker 1: be angry at your boss, be angry at society. But

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Speaker 1: all of that stuff just slows you down from being

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Speaker 1: able to not only bounce back, but then to be

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Speaker 1: able to evolve as a human being. Right. And I

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Speaker 1: think one of the biggest things that has been bringing

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Speaker 1: me joy recently, is this shift in the way that

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Speaker 1: I view quote unquote problems. Right, I want to reiterate,

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Speaker 1: you know the importance of having problems, you know, good ones,

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Speaker 1: and I challenge you to reframe how you look at problems.

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Speaker 1: Right and listen, again, it's going to be different for everybody.

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Speaker 1: If it's your livelihood, your finances, you lost your job,

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Speaker 1: all of that is really difficult to overcome because of

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Speaker 1: the implications it may have for you and your family. Right.

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Speaker 1: But again, if you're able to flip how you're looking

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Speaker 1: at this problem, if you're looking at it from a

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Speaker 1: positive perspective, you now have the free time to explore

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Speaker 1: ideas that you've been putting off because of work. Right,

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Speaker 1: you have the idea to maybe give a new career

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Speaker 1: a shot, something that's been interesting to you, or an

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurial venture. Right. You have the free time the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to do so now if you no longer are working. Right,

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Speaker 1: And that's what I mean about flipping how you look

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Speaker 1: at problems. It doesn't mean that these problems are not there.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that something doesn't need to be solved,

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Speaker 1: but it means that you can give it a spin

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Speaker 1: that instead of holding you back and making you kind

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Speaker 1: of want to croll up in the fetal position instead

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Speaker 1: putting this spin on it motivates you and excites you

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Speaker 1: for what comes next. And that's what I'm talking about.

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Speaker 1: You know, you have to understand that on the other

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Speaker 1: side of of that problem, whatever it is, right, is relief,

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Speaker 1: it's joy, it's growth. Right, even if you you lost

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Speaker 1: your job, there's some relief and knowing I don't have

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Speaker 1: to wake up early in the morning tomorrow, right, I

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Speaker 1: don't have to go and sit in an office for

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Speaker 1: eight hours that I hate being at. Right, there's some

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Speaker 1: sort of relief in that, right. And I think when

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Speaker 1: you view difficulties and problems, you know, as a key

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Speaker 1: to your happiness, it takes away some of that initial

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Speaker 1: sting that they bring, right, and it allows you to

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Speaker 1: see the joy and happiness that await you on the

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Speaker 1: other side of conquering that problem. And that's how I

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Speaker 1: want you to kind of begin to reframe your your

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Speaker 1: mind and how you see the world. And it's challenge.

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Speaker 1: Just now, with that said, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: checking out The Street stow A podcast. Do your best

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

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Speaker 1: life and I'll catch you all next time. The Street

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Speaker 1: Stoke Podcast is a production of I Hearts Michael Bura

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Speaker 1: Podcast Network