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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 timeless stoic

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Speaker 1: philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. And 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's stoke principle that we're gonna be

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Speaker 1: focusing on is the idea of diminishing your ego, right.

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Speaker 1: And I found a really man just incredible quote but

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Speaker 1: also an incredible person from the hip hop world to

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Speaker 1: kind of reference this idea, and it's the late Great

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Speaker 1: d MX. And the line that I pulled was from

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Speaker 1: the song you could be blind, right and excess quote,

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Speaker 1: don't listen to the buzz, don't get caught up in

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Speaker 1: the hype. You'll lose everything that you worked for trying

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Speaker 1: to take a man's stripes. And he's saying so many

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Speaker 1: different things in this one, but particularly when it comes

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Speaker 1: to this idea of diminishing your ego and not allowing

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Speaker 1: your ego to rule your life. Right, he's kind of

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Speaker 1: bouncing off of the saying you shouldn't place too much

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Speaker 1: value on the negative or positive feedback that you get

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Speaker 1: in this world, right, because both can be dangerous just

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Speaker 1: just kind of see them for what they are. And

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Speaker 1: the reason behind this is, you know, believing too much

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Speaker 1: of the positive feedback, right and and placing too much

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Speaker 1: emphasis on it can lead to complacency or or even worse,

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Speaker 1: burning relationships because you feel like you deserve something that

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Speaker 1: someone else has, right and good or bad. Any attention

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Speaker 1: that you are getting right, any validation, it's merely just

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Speaker 1: in opinion, right, and we we can't allow ourselves to

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Speaker 1: view them as anything more. Right. I mean, I'll throw

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Speaker 1: another quote in there from one of the greats. Biggie said,

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Speaker 1: you know, don't get high on your own supply, right,

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Speaker 1: And obviously he's he's referencing the drug game in that song,

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Speaker 1: but I think it's similar to what we're talking about

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Speaker 1: when you apply it to the idea of don't believe

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Speaker 1: the hype, right, don't get too high on yourself and

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Speaker 1: think that you have it all figured out, right, And

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Speaker 1: like X says, you know, that can essentially lead to

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Speaker 1: you destroying all that you've worked for if you're not careful. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's kind of bring the stoic quote here to kind

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Speaker 1: of bring this concept full circle, right, And and this

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Speaker 1: quote is from Marcus Aurelius. Allegedly, some people claim he

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Speaker 1: didn't actually say this quote, didn't say in this way

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, but I thought it was really profound

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Speaker 1: for the conversation that we're having now. Marcus allegedly says, quote,

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Speaker 1: everything we hear is in opinion, not a fact. Everything

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Speaker 1: we see is a perspective, not the truth. And again,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with getting validation or for people admiring

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Speaker 1: what you do, but just understand it is merely someone's opinion, right.

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Speaker 1: It is not a fact of your greatness or a

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Speaker 1: fact of you no longer having to learn anything. Right, Like,

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Speaker 1: you can't get caught up in the noise, right, It

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Speaker 1: only distracts you from doing what you're actually here to do,

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Speaker 1: from producing the great work that you have inside of you. Right.

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Speaker 1: It gives you a false sense of comfort, and if

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Speaker 1: you're not careful, your ego will blind you and it

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Speaker 1: will eventually lead to someone else passing you, or you

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Speaker 1: sort of self destructing and thinking that you are owed

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Speaker 1: something that you are not. Now, I want to talk

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Speaker 1: about how this affects me and how I relate to

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Speaker 1: this quote. And there's a million one different stories I

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Speaker 1: can talk about, examples I can talk about. But one

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Speaker 1: that really has a personal connection to me that moved

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Speaker 1: me when I was kind of contemplating this concept was

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Speaker 1: this business partner that I had, you know, when I

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Speaker 1: first was coming up, and beyond just a business partner,

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Speaker 1: was somebody that I considered to be one of my

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Speaker 1: closest friends. Together, we were, you know, really ambitious, and

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Speaker 1: we we had started independent record label, and we're putting

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Speaker 1: on parties, and we were making clothing and and you know,

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Speaker 1: had this kind of lifestyle brand going on, right, And

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Speaker 1: the one thing about my partner was that he always

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Speaker 1: celebrated the feedback that someone would give him. And I

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Speaker 1: think there's nothing wrong with celebrating your little winds along

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Speaker 1: the way, right, appreciating them. It gives you the motivation

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Speaker 1: to continue. But I think when you place too much

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Speaker 1: emphasis on them, when you place too much admiration and

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Speaker 1: too much need and too much love on on those

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Speaker 1: little victories or those little moments where somebody validates what

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Speaker 1: you're doing, I believe that it weakens your your spirit

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Speaker 1: and your discipline a bit. Right. You know, he would

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Speaker 1: love to talk about, you know, how someone came up

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Speaker 1: to him and and without him, you know, Oh, you're

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Speaker 1: killing it right now. You guys are doing crazy stuff

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Speaker 1: right now. I see you guys on on Instagram doing

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Speaker 1: crazy stuff. And I think eventually that began to sort

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Speaker 1: of poison the well for him a bit, right, He

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Speaker 1: began to get too caught up in that, and I

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Speaker 1: watched as his discipline and work ethic began to slip. Right.

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Speaker 1: He was getting long lost in that positive feedback that

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Speaker 1: he was getting, right, and it was sort of confusing

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Speaker 1: him into thinking and acting as if, you know, he

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Speaker 1: had made it right. He valued the perceived success over

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Speaker 1: actual success, right, And he stopped clocking in the hours

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Speaker 1: that he was doing before, and stopped being somebody that

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Speaker 1: I could depend on because he was getting caught up

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Speaker 1: in maybe the little victories that we had of being

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Speaker 1: connected to getting into cool parties and being able to

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Speaker 1: maybe whatever it is, meet new people, women, you know,

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Speaker 1: access to cool events, interesting people, all of the above. Right,

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Speaker 1: he got caught up in that new access that we had,

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Speaker 1: those new connections that we were building, and he confused

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Speaker 1: that for success. Right. But at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: we weren't making money doing what we were doing, right,

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a viable career for us, yet we hadn't

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Speaker 1: created anything truly a substance that would stand the test

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Speaker 1: of time and provide us a real base moving forward.

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Speaker 1: Right we were still in our building phase. But he

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Speaker 1: again allowed himself to get caught up in the hype

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Speaker 1: and viewed that as a success and viewed himself as

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Speaker 1: somebody who was successful and stopped putting in the grunt

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Speaker 1: work that we needed to build, you know, our endeavor together,

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Speaker 1: and eventually I had to end that partnership. And doesn't

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Speaker 1: bring me any pleasure to to say he's not somebody

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Speaker 1: who doesn't work in a creative industry whatsoever. And if

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Speaker 1: I'm being completely honest, he was someone who was far

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Speaker 1: more talented than I am in the ideas and being

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Speaker 1: able to physically create things, you know, and musically gifted,

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Speaker 1: and and and all the above. You know, he was

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Speaker 1: more talented than me in so many different ways. But

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Speaker 1: I'm the one here doing the work that I love

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Speaker 1: and he's now doing something else that I'm sure you know,

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Speaker 1: he doesn't have the same passion for it. But again

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Speaker 1: it's because he got caught up. His ego took the

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Speaker 1: wheel and he stopped putting in the work, and I

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Speaker 1: think that's something that is so incredibly important for anybody

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Speaker 1: listening to keep in mind. And it's something that I

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Speaker 1: consistently try and remind myself each and every day, and

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Speaker 1: it's a memory that that I sort of bring up

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Speaker 1: to myself periodically to make sure that I'm, you know,

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Speaker 1: keeping myself in check and I'm not getting too comfortable

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Speaker 1: on on this journey. Now that mind, you've heard from

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Speaker 1: d m X, you've heard from Biggie, We've heard from

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Speaker 1: Marcus areally Is. I've given you one of my own

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Speaker 1: personal stories from from my life and how the idea

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Speaker 1: of diminishing your ego, you know, has has touched me.

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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. But first let's take a quick break

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Speaker 1: and then we'll be spread back. All right, So we've

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Speaker 1: talked about diminishing your ego, and we have heard perspectives

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Speaker 1: from d m X, from Biggie, from Marcus aureally Is,

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Speaker 1: from myself. Now I want to talk about, you know,

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Speaker 1: how you can actually make this your mantra for today, right,

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Speaker 1: How can you diminish your ego starting today? And I

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Speaker 1: think something that is has really helped me with this

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Speaker 1: is changing the way that I view feedback. Right. I

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Speaker 1: understand that there is value in both positive and negative feedback,

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Speaker 1: right I. I completely get it, and it's something that

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Speaker 1: I again value on either side, but I do not

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Speaker 1: choose to believe one over the other. The positive uh

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Speaker 1: you know noise, I don't allow it to become louder

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Speaker 1: than the negative noise in my head, right I. I

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Speaker 1: keep them both at a very kind of medium level,

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Speaker 1: and I understand again there's value in both, and neither

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Speaker 1: one of them deserve too much of my attention. Again,

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Speaker 1: they're both important, but neither one of them should completely

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Speaker 1: dictate how I move. Like, I try and remember that,

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Speaker 1: you know, no matter the hype or or how much

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Speaker 1: praise I'm getting at at a current moment, you know,

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Speaker 1: I am not above learning something or having to work

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Speaker 1: for what I want, you know, And I try and

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Speaker 1: again remind myself of that each and every day. I

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Speaker 1: appreciate all that I've I've accomplished, but there's always more

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Speaker 1: work to be done. And I think that's one sentence

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Speaker 1: that you should be keeping in the back of your

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Speaker 1: head at all times, you know, regardless of what's going

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Speaker 1: on in your life. Regardless of the achievement that you

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Speaker 1: have you know, been able to cross off of your

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Speaker 1: bucket list and listen, celebrate it. You deserve it, but

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Speaker 1: don't overdo it. Right, Remind yourself in those moments where

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Speaker 1: you're having a little win, where people are maybe fluffing

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Speaker 1: you up a little bit. There you're getting a lot

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Speaker 1: of pats on the back. You know, understand the value

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Speaker 1: in hearing that positive feedback. But just remember there is

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Speaker 1: always more work to be done and more lessons to

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Speaker 1: be learned. Now, with that said, thank you all so

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Speaker 1: much for checking out The Streets Stoic podcast. Do your

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Speaker 1: best to apply these concepts we discussed into your everyday life,

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Speaker 1: and I'll catch y'all next time. The Street Stoke podcast

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