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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I am Dramos and this is the Street

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Speaker 1: Stoic podcast, bring you your daily dose of timeless Stow

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Speaker 1: philosophy remix 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 we are going to be focusing

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Speaker 1: around the stoic idea of taking action from the lens

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Speaker 1: of thinking about the choices that you make right and

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Speaker 1: trying to be your best friend rather than your own

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Speaker 1: worst enemy. Right And I pull a quote from Jay

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Speaker 1: Z It kind of speaks to this whole concept that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about, right, the idea that all of us

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Speaker 1: are capable of being our own worst enemy or our

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Speaker 1: own best friend. Right now, Jay says, you don't need

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Speaker 1: some external demon to take control of you to turn

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Speaker 1: into a raging, money obsessed sociopath. You only need to

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Speaker 1: let loose the demons you already have in side of you.

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Speaker 1: And I think this is an important sort of discussion

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Speaker 1: to have when it comes to the idea of taking

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Speaker 1: action and when we talked about ourselves and holding ourselves

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Speaker 1: accountable at the end of the day, right because I

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Speaker 1: think it's easy to blame external circumstances the outside world

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Speaker 1: you know those around us. It's easy to blame them

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Speaker 1: for why we aren't where we want to be, or

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Speaker 1: the decisions that we make, or the situations that we

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Speaker 1: find ourselves in. Right, But I think we do a

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Speaker 1: disservice to ourselves and the amount of power that we

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Speaker 1: actually have over our own lives when we don't hold

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Speaker 1: the mirror up to ourselves, when we don't hold ourselves

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Speaker 1: responsible for the action that we've decided to take. And

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Speaker 1: we're all capable of taking good actions, we're all capable

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Speaker 1: of taking bad actions, right. That's what Jay is talking

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Speaker 1: about here. He's talking about the idea that we all

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Speaker 1: have those negative aspects of ourselves hitden deep beneath the surface, right,

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Speaker 1: that are capable of coming out at any moment based

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Speaker 1: upon the decisions that we do or don't make. And

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Speaker 1: having that awareness and taking that responsibility I think allows

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Speaker 1: you to be far more present and conscious of the

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Speaker 1: choices that you're making on a regular basis. Now, this

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Speaker 1: leads to a quote from one of the stoics, Epictetus,

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Speaker 1: where he says every habit and capability is confirmed and

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Speaker 1: grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, running by running. Therefore,

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Speaker 1: if you want to do something, make a habit of it.

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Speaker 1: If you don't want to do that, don't but make

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Speaker 1: a habit of something else instead. And I think this

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Speaker 1: sort of speaks to the idea of we become whatever

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Speaker 1: we do right. Our makeup, who we are, our lives

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Speaker 1: are the result of the decisions that we make or

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Speaker 1: don't make. And he's talking about this, he's sort of

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Speaker 1: speaking in a literal sense of you know, walking by walking,

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Speaker 1: you want to be somebody who walks, you walk right,

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, now you are a

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Speaker 1: person who walks. Or you want to be the type

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Speaker 1: of person who exercises, you just start exercising, and now

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Speaker 1: you are the type of person who exercises right. And

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Speaker 1: even in sort of a more simple sense, you know,

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Speaker 1: I've personally been trying to be far more disciplined in

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Speaker 1: my life, you know, and give myself as much opportunity

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Speaker 1: to create greatness as possible. Right, So for me, I

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Speaker 1: relate to this, you know, on a deep level recently

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Speaker 1: in my life where I've never really been a morning person.

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Speaker 1: When I was working in morning radio, I hated the hours,

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Speaker 1: I hated having to get up at that time, and

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Speaker 1: that really was the only time in my life that

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Speaker 1: I ever was getting up early was because I had

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Speaker 1: to write. Where now I'm self employed, now I can

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Speaker 1: make my own hours. But I've made a conscious effort

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Speaker 1: to become a morning person, to love it, to accept that,

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Speaker 1: to see the greatness in it like that is allowed

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Speaker 1: to me to become far more productive, and It's created

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Speaker 1: a far healthier mindset where I'm able to really feel

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Speaker 1: like I'm taking advantage of the day. Right. So for me,

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Speaker 1: I set an alarm for six am every morning, right,

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Speaker 1: And it's gotten easier and easier, you know, as time

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Speaker 1: has gone on. But there still is this internal struggle

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Speaker 1: that happens. Right. It's kind of the duality that jay

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Speaker 1: Z's sort of talking about, you know that we all

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Speaker 1: have inside of us. Right, There's a part of me

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Speaker 1: that here's the alarm and is like, all right, time

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Speaker 1: to get our day started. There's another part of me

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Speaker 1: that wants to make excuses. Oh we didn't sleep that

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Speaker 1: well last night. Let's snooze for an hour. Oh well

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Speaker 1: it's cold, let's relax for a little bit. Oh well,

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Speaker 1: we don't have to get up early today. We don't

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Speaker 1: have that much on our schedule. We can sleep in

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Speaker 1: a little bit, right, but I have to be making

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Speaker 1: decisions and taking actions based upon the person that I

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Speaker 1: want to be. Right. So I want to be a

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Speaker 1: morning person and in order for me to be that person,

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Speaker 1: my actions have to back that up. Right. And now

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Speaker 1: I've made it this routine. I've made it this challenge

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Speaker 1: where each week, by Friday, I'm like, man, I'm going

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Speaker 1: five for five on waking up early. And that's what

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Speaker 1: Jay is talking about, that's what Epictetus, one of the stokes,

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Speaker 1: talking about. And that's how I've been able to, really,

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Speaker 1: I think, get to a great sort of discipline place

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Speaker 1: in my life where I'm starting off the day on

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Speaker 1: a positive note in a way that I can be

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Speaker 1: proud of that. It doesn't matter if I don't get

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Speaker 1: anything else done the rest of the day. I can

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Speaker 1: still hang my hat at the end of the day

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Speaker 1: knowing that I completed this task that I've set out

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Speaker 1: for myself. Now, with that said, you've heard from Jay,

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Speaker 1: You've heard from Epictetus, you've heard from myself. Now let's

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Speaker 1: talk about how you can make it your montra for today.

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

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Speaker 1: right back. All right, So we are talking all about

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Speaker 1: these stole idea of taking action today and you've heard

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Speaker 1: from jay Z right talking about the internal parts of ourselves. Right,

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Speaker 1: there's the demons that live inside of us, and our

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Speaker 1: actions either give in or push them back. Right 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, this idea of taking action, right, And I

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Speaker 1: think you know, as I said, it's kind of like

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Speaker 1: the old notion where we have an angel and a

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Speaker 1: demon on either shoulder and they're both whispering into either ear.

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Speaker 1: And you know, based upon the action that we decide

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Speaker 1: to take, that's going to dictate the course of our

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Speaker 1: day and possibly the course of our lives. Right. So

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Speaker 1: it's what part of yourself are you listening to? Who

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Speaker 1: do you want to be? For yourself? You have to

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Speaker 1: choose the type of person that you want to be,

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Speaker 1: and then you have to follow it up with actions

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Speaker 1: that align with that person. Right. So, if you want

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Speaker 1: to be a disciplined person, you have to actually commit

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Speaker 1: acts of discipline. Right. I brought up waking up early.

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Speaker 1: That is an act of discipline that regardless of how

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Speaker 1: tired I am, how much I want to stay in bed.

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Speaker 1: As much as I can tell myself, I don't need

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Speaker 1: to wake up early. If I want to be a

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Speaker 1: morning person, if I want to be a person of

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Speaker 1: discipline that sticks to his word and sticks to his routines,

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Speaker 1: then I need to get my ass out of bed

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Speaker 1: every morning, doesn't matter how hard it is, you know,

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Speaker 1: wake up with that first alarm. That's the goal I've

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Speaker 1: set for myself. That's the type of person I want

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Speaker 1: to be, and my actions have to follow that every

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Speaker 1: single day, right. And I think that's what we're talking

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Speaker 1: about today, you know, is understanding that all of us

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Speaker 1: have it inside of us that we can either be

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Speaker 1: our own best friend our own worst enemy. It all

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Speaker 1: just matters on the actions that we decide to take

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis. And to kind of recap all

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Speaker 1: that we're talking about today, I think jay Z is

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Speaker 1: talking about a bit of accountability, right. He's talking about

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Speaker 1: the idea that it's easy to sort of say that

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Speaker 1: this external thing, right, this person brought out the worst

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Speaker 1: to me this job, or I did this bad thing

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Speaker 1: because of this other thing, right, But at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, all that happens in our life is

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Speaker 1: the result of the actions that we take the person

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Speaker 1: that we just side to be, because as as Jay

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Speaker 1: puts it here, you know, we all have demons inside

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Speaker 1: of us, and we can't blame the outside world for

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Speaker 1: bringing those demons out of us because there was a

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Speaker 1: choice there, right, there was an action that had to

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Speaker 1: be followed up. So we have to own that responsibility

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Speaker 1: and understand again that we're capable of being our own

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Speaker 1: worst enemy if we aren't careful with the actions that

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Speaker 1: we do or don't take. And EPICTETI is talking about

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Speaker 1: how you build a habit, right, how do you become

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Speaker 1: the person that you want to be. You want to

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Speaker 1: become a fit person, you want to become a wealthy person,

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Speaker 1: You want to become a disciplined person. Right, if you

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Speaker 1: want to do something, make a habit of it. If

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Speaker 1: you don't want to do that, don't. For me, I

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Speaker 1: wanted to be somebody who is far more disciplined with

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Speaker 1: his time, far more productive. Right. That was getting creative

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Speaker 1: things done, was getting self care stuff done before I

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Speaker 1: gave myself to the outside world. And the only way

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Speaker 1: of doing that was becoming a morning person who got

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Speaker 1: up extra early before the average person before he had to.

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Speaker 1: So that he could accomplish all of those goals before

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Speaker 1: the day demanded more of him. Right, I wanted control

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Speaker 1: over my day. Therefore it requires me being disciplined and

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Speaker 1: taking the actions necessary getting up at six am in

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Speaker 1: order to have that control that I'm looking for. But again,

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Speaker 1: it is deciding who you want to be, deciding who

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Speaker 1: you don't want to be, and then taking the necessary

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Speaker 1: actions that back up that vision that you have for

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Speaker 1: yourself and your life. Now, with that said, thank you

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

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Speaker 1: your best to apply these concepts that we discussed and

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Speaker 1: see everyday life, and I'll catch you next time. The

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Speaker 1: Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Iheart's Micathura podcast network.