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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 your daily dose of timeless stoke philosophy

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Speaker 1: remix for the.

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Speaker 2: Hip hop generation.

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Speaker 1: We are combining ancient philosophy with lyrics or quotes from

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Speaker 1: some of the greatest to ever grace a microphone. Now,

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

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Speaker 1: daily shot of inspiration. Now today we're refocusing all around

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Speaker 1: the Stoic practice that is entitled premeditationo malorum, right, which

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Speaker 1: translates to pre meditation of evils or even in more

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Speaker 1: layman's terms, the idea of looking ahead. And this was

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Speaker 1: inspired by a blog on the Daily Stoic dot com.

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Speaker 1: But first of almost let's start with the lyric that

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Speaker 1: kind of came to my mind as I was reading

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Speaker 1: through that article and inspired by this conversation of just

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Speaker 1: looking ahead and kind of almost planning for the worst

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Speaker 1: so that you're ready for whatever gets thrown your way, right,

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Speaker 1: and a lyric that kind of came to my mind.

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Speaker 1: When we think about this.

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Speaker 2: Idea of visualization, right, because there's.

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Speaker 1: Good visualization that you know, you sort of anticipating what

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Speaker 1: you want to happen, there's also you visualizing it going

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Speaker 1: awry and planning for that. But I think in general,

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Speaker 1: we're all visualizing all the time, whether we realize it

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Speaker 1: or not. Right, And in this record, meet mail, dreams

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Speaker 1: and nightmares, which we've all heard before. At this point

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Speaker 1: in a club is usually like the high point of

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Speaker 1: the night. This this line right here, I think kind

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Speaker 1: of I want to talk about it as a practical

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Speaker 1: sense of visualization that I'm sure all of us have

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Speaker 1: done at some point. Right, he says, I used to

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Speaker 1: pray for times like this, to rhyme like this, and

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Speaker 1: I promise I'm going somewhere with this connecting to this

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Speaker 1: idea of of looking ahead.

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Speaker 2: But I think a lot of times.

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Speaker 1: We get caught up in sort of the wackiness of

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Speaker 1: like when people talk about the law of attraction and

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Speaker 1: just visualize it and it's going to come, and that

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Speaker 1: brand new Bentley is going to show up your driveway

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Speaker 1: for no reason whatsoever. You just have to think about

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Speaker 1: it really hard. And this idea of visualization, it's preparing

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Speaker 1: you for your future.

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Speaker 2: Like it just.

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Speaker 1: Sounds crazy when you talk about it in practical terms, right,

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Speaker 1: But people have been praying for a long time, right,

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Speaker 1: People have normalized the idea of praying. I'm sure many

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Speaker 1: of us have prayed at some point in time, ask God,

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Speaker 1: asked the universe whatever it is, for something, right.

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Speaker 2: And that was normal.

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Speaker 1: And prayer is just another form of visualization, right. And

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Speaker 1: that's what makes prayer so powerful, because it's you getting

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Speaker 1: very specific on what you want.

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Speaker 2: It's you picturing what you want.

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Speaker 1: You want to picture that situation, right, And that's what

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Speaker 1: Meek is talking about here. And obviously in this case,

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Speaker 1: he is visualizing the positive that he wanted to happen, right,

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Speaker 1: the positive outcome to happen. But we also forget that

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Speaker 1: it's important to think about all that could go wrong

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Speaker 1: on the flip side of visualization. And that's sort of

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Speaker 1: what we're getting in too, with the grandiose idea of

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Speaker 1: today's show. And that leads to a quote from one

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Speaker 1: of the stoics, Senego, where he says, rehearse them in

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Speaker 1: your mind.

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Speaker 2: Exile, torture, war, shipwreck, all the.

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Speaker 1: Terms of our human lot should be before your eyes.

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Speaker 1: I love this because this is a practice that I

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Speaker 1: recently developed, but I think, without sort of knowing it,

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Speaker 1: this is just as important of a tool as the

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Speaker 1: positive sort of visualization is right. And again, we've heard

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Speaker 1: a lot of the manifestation stuff and that's sort of

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Speaker 1: always what gets focused on. But what's also important is

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Speaker 1: being able to react in the best way possible when

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Speaker 1: things don't go according to plan.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: This is what the blog post I'm referencing from Daily

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Speaker 1: Stoe was talking about, and this is Ryan Holliday's website,

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Speaker 1: and it talks about how before Ryan Holliday gets on

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Speaker 1: stage for a big speech, he runs through everything that

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Speaker 1: could go wrong, any trouble with the microphone, the clicker

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Speaker 1: not advancing, the slide, the audience not reacting as anticipated.

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Speaker 2: He is able to see.

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Speaker 1: Potential problems before they arise and come up with solutions

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Speaker 1: before anything actually happens, and leading into kind of how

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Speaker 1: I've applied this to my life.

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Speaker 2: I went away.

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Speaker 1: I've talked about this before, I think on the show,

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Speaker 1: but I went away to like a personal growth retreat

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Speaker 1: called the Hoffmann Process, And one of the tools they

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Speaker 1: teach you is called pre cycling, where you visualize like

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Speaker 1: a big moment. Right, So if I'm going to be

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Speaker 1: in a big meeting, I'm going to be doing a talk,

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Speaker 1: I have a big event, I'm djaying a really big gig,

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Speaker 1: whatever it might be. And what I do is I

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Speaker 1: visualize the worst case scenario. All my fears that I

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Speaker 1: have that are making me really nervous, I visualize them,

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Speaker 1: take a deep breath in and exhale all of those

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Speaker 1: negative emotions, and then I visualize all the positive things.

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Speaker 1: What would happen if the event went as well as

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Speaker 1: humanly possible. I visualize that and allow those feelings to

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Speaker 1: come over me.

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Speaker 2: Right, It's this.

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Speaker 1: Idea of getting yourself to a relaxed place so that

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Speaker 1: when things do not go according to plan, because there's

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Speaker 1: always going to be something nothing goes exactly according to plan,

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Speaker 1: you don't freak out in that moment. You can calmly

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Speaker 1: address it. You can commonly take care of it and

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Speaker 1: not allow it to completely derail you. Now we've been

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Speaker 1: obviously talking about this practice of in Layman's terms, looking ahead,

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Speaker 1: so meek Mill visualizing the positive, Seneca talking about the

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Speaker 1: visualization of all that could go wrong, and even me

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Speaker 1: kind of this idea of pre cycling being such a

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Speaker 1: big part of my life. Now, let's talk about how

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Speaker 1: you can make it your.

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Speaker 2: Mantra for today. But first it's take a quick break

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Speaker 2: and then we'll be right back, all right.

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Speaker 1: So day we're talking all about the stoke practice of

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Speaker 1: premeditatio malorum, or the premeditation of evils. Really, we're just

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Speaker 1: talking about visualization and how important it is to not

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Speaker 1: only visualize the positive things that you want to happen,

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Speaker 1: but also being able to be aware of all that

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Speaker 1: could go wrong so you can be best prepared to

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Speaker 1: embrace it and move past it when it inevidly happens.

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Speaker 1: And we've heard Male visualizing the good that he wants

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Speaker 1: in his life, for his career, for being an artist.

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Speaker 1: We've heard Seneca visualizing literally the worst case scenario of

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Speaker 1: things that could happen for him. I've talked about how

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Speaker 1: I use both of these visualizations before every big event

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Speaker 1: or gig that I have. Now let's talk about how

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Speaker 1: you can make it your mantra for today, and literally

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Speaker 1: it's applying the same thing that I've applied to my life,

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Speaker 1: this idea of pre cycling. And it doesn't just have

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Speaker 1: to be like you're about to go and give a

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Speaker 1: public speech or you're about to go in a big meeting.

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Speaker 1: I use this practice all the time, even if I'm

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Speaker 1: going into like a big family party, and there's people

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Speaker 1: there that I know I have different opinions from, and

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Speaker 1: I don't want to get into an argument with them.

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Speaker 1: I will precycle on my way to that family party,

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Speaker 1: where I will think of the worst case scenario of

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Speaker 1: this cousin pissing me off at something they said and

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Speaker 1: me having to clap back at them, and then I'll

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Speaker 1: think about the positive one where they say something I

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Speaker 1: don't react to it. We all move forward happily, you know,

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Speaker 1: enjoying ourselves at this family party.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: This is something I do on a consistent basis, where

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Speaker 1: I am just mentally preparing myself for every situation so

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Speaker 1: that the sort of emotion of the event when something

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Speaker 1: goes awry doesn't overcome me. That's sort of all that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about today is just giving yourself the tools

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Speaker 1: to be in the best place to react when something

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Speaker 1: happens in your life. Now, to recap all that we've

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Speaker 1: been talking about, you have meek mil being somebody who's

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Speaker 1: obviously displaying the idea of visualization, right, and I wanted

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Speaker 1: to introduce this for anybody who is just not there yet.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: You're not somebody who like meditates, You're not somebody who

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Speaker 1: sits there and just like allows yourself to daydream about

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Speaker 1: all that you want and to manage and all these

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Speaker 1: different things, breaking this sort of the barrier to entry

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Speaker 1: in that for a lot of people, the world of

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Speaker 1: self help and wellness and all these things, it just

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Speaker 1: seems weird. So putting it in the more practical sort

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Speaker 1: of form, when you're praying, that's literally what you're doing.

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Speaker 2: You're asking God for what you want.

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Speaker 1: You're visualizing what it is that you want and then

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Speaker 1: asking for it. Right, and you have to have a

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Speaker 1: picture of what you want in order to be praying

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Speaker 1: to God for And that's so incredibly powerful because it

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Speaker 1: gives you a bit of direction in your life. Right

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Speaker 1: when you can actually see what you want in your mind,

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Speaker 1: it allows you to make decisions that will help you

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Speaker 1: get there.

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Speaker 2: And on the flip side of it, right, more.

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Speaker 1: Specifically, the visualization of all that could go wrong, Right

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Speaker 1: when you have somebody like Seneca talking about preparing for exile, torture, war,

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Speaker 1: and shipwreck, mentally rehearsing that in his mind, essentially saying that, listen,

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Speaker 1: he hopes none of this happens. But life always throws

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Speaker 1: things our way. Things don't always go a course to plan,

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Speaker 1: and rather than having the rug pulled out from under him,

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Speaker 1: he would rather be as mentally prepared to make the

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Speaker 1: best decisions of its chaos as humanly possible. Right, And

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Speaker 1: that's all that we're doing when I talk about the

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Speaker 1: idea of pre cycling and rehearsing things in my mind,

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Speaker 1: I'm literally just trying to give myself the best chance

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Speaker 1: at making the most of every situation that I'm in visualization.

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Speaker 1: Just being an incredibly important tool for all of us.

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Speaker 1: And it's something that's been around for centuries at this point.

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Speaker 1: Be it in prayer, be it in the mindset of

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Speaker 1: the Stokes, whatever it might be, it's been around, and

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Speaker 1: I think it's something that we all can implement and

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Speaker 1: a tool we can kind of add to our tool

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Speaker 1: belts to help bring out the best of us even

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Speaker 1: when life throws some of it's worst at us. Right,

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Speaker 1: I think that's sort of the key towards growth and

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Speaker 1: wellness and all these things. It's not about being perfect,

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Speaker 1: it's about just having the tools to handle all the

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Speaker 1: nonsense that life is inevitably going to throw at us.

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

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Speaker 1: out the street Stoke Podcast.

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Speaker 2: Do your best to apply.

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Speaker 1: These concerts we discussed into your everyday life and I

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Speaker 1: will catch you next week. The Street Stoke Podcast is

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Speaker 1: a production of Iheart's Michael Podcast Network