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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: greatest who ever grace a microphone. Now, with that in mind,

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Speaker 1: let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration

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Speaker 1: and today, Man, New Year's Day, a brand new year.

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Speaker 1: I absolutely love this time of year because it just

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Speaker 1: gives you like a fresh star. It feels like a

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Speaker 1: fresh star at least, right, and there's no better way

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Speaker 1: to kind of start things off than talking about all

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Speaker 1: that you are in control of and allowing that to

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Speaker 1: be your focus. Right, So today talking all about the

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Speaker 1: stoic idea of focusing on what you can control. And

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Speaker 1: particularly Man, this is a one of my favorite artists,

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Speaker 1: Nas but just such an inspirational record in the song

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Speaker 1: I Can and I'll pulled a quote that I think

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Speaker 1: is just an amazing way for us to start our

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Speaker 1: new year, to maybe change our mindset a bit so

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Speaker 1: that we can begin getting all that we're hoping for

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Speaker 1: in the upcoming year in our life as a whole. Right,

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Speaker 1: so in the record I can. He says, if the

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Speaker 1: truth is told, the youth can grow, then learn to

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Speaker 1: survive until they gain control. Nobody says you have to

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Speaker 1: be Gangsta's hose. Read more, learn more, change the globe. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: he's talking about the youth, right the kids in this

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Speaker 1: world today. Those may be born into circumstances that are

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Speaker 1: not ideal. But I love the overall general message that

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Speaker 1: nas is speaking about in this song, right this line,

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Speaker 1: right here, these bars that I just read to you.

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Speaker 1: He's talking about the idea that your current circumstance doesn't

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Speaker 1: have to determine your future. And I think that is

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Speaker 1: so incredibly powerful to just have a reminder of that,

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Speaker 1: right especially he's talking about the beginning. If the truth

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Speaker 1: is told, the youth can grow. If they're given the

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Speaker 1: right information, they can grow. They can read more or

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Speaker 1: learn more, and then change the globe. All of those

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Speaker 1: things are within your control. The change that you seek

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Speaker 1: as a result of putting forth that effort is within

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Speaker 1: your control. And this leads to a perfect quote from

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Speaker 1: one of the Stokes Epictetus, where he says circumstances don't

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Speaker 1: make the man, they only reveal him to himself, And

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Speaker 1: the reality is, you can't control the family that you

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Speaker 1: were born into. None of us can. We can't control

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Speaker 1: the city that we were grown up in, the certain

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Speaker 1: physical elements we may have been born with, right, all

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Speaker 1: those things that are just sort of handed down to

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Speaker 1: us when we're into this world are beyond our control.

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Speaker 1: But what we can control are the effects that we

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Speaker 1: allow them to have on our life. Do we allow

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Speaker 1: them to be the thing that determines whether or not

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Speaker 1: we are successful in this world? Do we allow them

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Speaker 1: to be the things that determine whether or not we're

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Speaker 1: happy in this life? Those are all choices that we

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Speaker 1: can make. And honestly, I'm not going to sit here

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Speaker 1: and pretend like I grew up in the toughest of environments.

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Speaker 1: Wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I have

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Speaker 1: trauma just like anybody else. But I also had a

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Speaker 1: certain level of privilege, right, I had a roof over

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Speaker 1: my head, I had families you know who, for the

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Speaker 1: most part, had stable jobs and income. So there's a

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Speaker 1: privilege within that. But I relate to this whole idea

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Speaker 1: on such a deep level because I'm not supposed to

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Speaker 1: be here talking to you right now. Whoever would be

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Speaker 1: sort of seeing the kid version of me, seeing my

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Speaker 1: family background, the way that their minds worked, would have

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Speaker 1: never ever been able to predict that I would have

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Speaker 1: a career a doing something that I love, but B

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Speaker 1: being my own boss, doing something creative, using my voice,

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Speaker 1: working in media in such a large scale way. Nobody

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Speaker 1: could have ever written that for me. Right. My parents

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Speaker 1: are not people who worked in a creative field. They

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Speaker 1: were not incredibly supportive of me going into this field,

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Speaker 1: going down this path of trying to make my dreams

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Speaker 1: come true. Right. They had their doubts. They didn't think

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Speaker 1: it was possible. They had never seen it done before.

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Speaker 1: I had nobody in my immediate circle to lend me

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Speaker 1: guidance or mentorship. I had no connections to anyone in

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Speaker 1: media whatsoever. Everybody that I met in in media that

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Speaker 1: helped the lending hand that has helped me get to

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Speaker 1: where I am today. That relationship came as a result

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Speaker 1: of me just continuously throwing myself into the fire, essentially right.

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Speaker 1: But again, my circumstances would have said, this is not

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Speaker 1: a logical career path for you. But I refused to

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Speaker 1: allow my circumstances to dictate whether or not I got

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Speaker 1: to live out my dreams. I got to break generational

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Speaker 1: curses because I focused on what I was in control

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Speaker 1: of and refused to allow the mistakes of previous generations

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Speaker 1: to dictate how my life was going to go. Now,

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Speaker 1: with that said, we're talking all about the idea of

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Speaker 1: focusing on what you can control, and man a fitting

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Speaker 1: time to do so here in the new year, with

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Speaker 1: this fresh start. We've heard from the great Nas, we

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Speaker 1: have heard from one of the stoics, Epictetis. I've given

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Speaker 1: you a whole speech about where I come from. 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. But first's take a quick break and then

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Speaker 1: we'll be right back. Now today, as we usher in

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Speaker 1: a brand new year, kicking off twenty twenty four, a

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Speaker 1: fresh start for so many of us, we are talking

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Speaker 1: about the Stoic idea of focusing on what you can control.

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Speaker 1: And we have heard from Nas in just an incredibly

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Speaker 1: inspirational song. In general, I can We've heard from one

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Speaker 1: of the stokes Atpatitis. I've given you some insight into

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Speaker 1: my own journey. Now let's talk about how you can

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Speaker 1: make it your mantra for today, And I think it's

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Speaker 1: just about refusing to allow your story to be written

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Speaker 1: by someone or something other than yourself. I think it's

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Speaker 1: really that simple, because when you begin to make excuses

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Speaker 1: as to why you're not where you want to be,

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Speaker 1: you know, nobody wants to help me out. Nobody you

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Speaker 1: know likes real talent these days, right, nobody who does this?

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Speaker 1: Or I can't seem to do that, or every time

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Speaker 1: I try this happens. All of those excuses. Are you

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Speaker 1: relinquishing your power to something external. And I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: that it's easy, and I'm not saying that you're not

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Speaker 1: valid in some of your frustration, in some of your

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Speaker 1: anger towards the hand that life has dealt you. But

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Speaker 1: that doesn't change the fact that you and you alone

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Speaker 1: are the one who is in control of whether or

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Speaker 1: not these things determine the course of your life, and

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Speaker 1: you have to take accountability for that. You have to

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Speaker 1: take responsibility for that. Right, this is a fresh start

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Speaker 1: as we talk about the new year, this could be

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Speaker 1: your fresh start to say, no more excuses, no more

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Speaker 1: me relinquishing my power to someone else. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be the only one and only thing that writes my

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Speaker 1: story from here on out. And to recap all we've

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Speaker 1: been talking about today, nas speaking to the kids, but

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Speaker 1: really just a universal message, talking about the idea of

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Speaker 1: things like learning more, reading more give you the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to change the globe. Right again, that's an action you

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Speaker 1: can take regardless of your circumstance, regardless of where you're born.

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Speaker 1: You can challenge yourself to learn more, to read more,

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Speaker 1: to be better and give yourself an opportunity to create

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Speaker 1: the change that you're looking for. Right. Epictetis talking about

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Speaker 1: the idea that circumstances do not make the man, They

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Speaker 1: only reveal him to himself. Your circumstances, as difficult as

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Speaker 1: they might be, don't actually the life that you're going

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Speaker 1: to be living. All they do is reveal the type

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Speaker 1: of person that you are. Are you somebody who just

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Speaker 1: throws their hands up and says, whatever, I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: try anymore, because that's what a negative circumstance will reveal.

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Speaker 1: If you're that type of person, yeah, you're just gonna

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Speaker 1: keep living in a life of squander and not being

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Speaker 1: able to actually live out your dreams. But if instead

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Speaker 1: you become the type of person who when faced with

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Speaker 1: those challenges, when when living in those circumstances that aren't ideal,

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Speaker 1: instead of complaining about them, instead of making excuses for

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Speaker 1: why you're not where you want to be, you just

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Speaker 1: use them as fuel to get yourself to where you

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Speaker 1: want to go. And even for me, I watched as

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Speaker 1: my father worked a job that he absolutely hated and

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Speaker 1: it made him miserable half the time, right, And I

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Speaker 1: told myself, I will never end up living that type

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Speaker 1: of life, regardless of the fact that my parents don't

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Speaker 1: have money like that to give me this Christianity life

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Speaker 1: that I can just sort of fly by the seat

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Speaker 1: of my pants and be the struggling artist, regardless of

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Speaker 1: the fact that I didn't have any connections, I didn't

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Speaker 1: know how anything worked in the entertainment business, in media

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Speaker 1: as a whole. Regardless of all of that, I refused

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Speaker 1: to live a life that gave me anything less than

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Speaker 1: what I wanted and what I desired. And it hasn't

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Speaker 1: always been easy, it hasn't always worked out perfectly, but

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Speaker 1: I can tell you I am a hell of a

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Speaker 1: lot happier and beyond words, far more fulfilled than I

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Speaker 1: would have ever been if I would have just taken

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Speaker 1: the hand that life dealt me. And with that said,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for checking out the Street Stoke Podcast.

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

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Speaker 1: into your everyday life, and I'll catch you next time.

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Speaker 1: The Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Iheart's Michael

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Speaker 1: Dura Podcast Network