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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 to your daily dose of timeless stoic

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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're focusing all around the stoic

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Speaker 1: idea of moderation and a record that kind of came

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Speaker 1: to mind in the sort of direction I want to

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Speaker 1: go with this topic of moderation, right, or balance if

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Speaker 1: you will. It's from Eminem and it's the record Not Afraid,

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Speaker 1: And in it he says I'd shoot for the moon,

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Speaker 1: but I'm too busy gazing at the stars. And I

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Speaker 1: really love this idea, this sort of concept of not

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Speaker 1: taking it as far as you possibly could, right. And

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Speaker 1: I know this is sort of counterintuitive or counter I

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Speaker 1: don't want to say counterproductive, but it goes against all

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Speaker 1: that we're taught about the idea of reaching your potential

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Speaker 1: and all these different things, right, And I love this

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Speaker 1: idea of like, you know, we all talk about shoot

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Speaker 1: for the moon, right, like that's the highest thing that

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Speaker 1: you could possibly do in any situation. But I love

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Speaker 1: this idea of him sort of recognizing the value and

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Speaker 1: the beauty of gazing at the stars right and sort

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Speaker 1: of staying there rather than taking it all the way

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Speaker 1: to the moon. And I think it's a great analogy

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Speaker 1: sort of for being happy where you're at, or sort

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Speaker 1: of understanding that you could possibly take it further, but

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Speaker 1: it wouldn't necessarily bring you any more joy than the

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Speaker 1: present moment or where you've gotten right. And I think

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Speaker 1: that's the topic of conversation today around moderation. It leads

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Speaker 1: us to a quote from not necessarily one of the Stokes,

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Speaker 1: but we reference him on the show a bunch before

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Speaker 1: the author Ryan Holliday, who writes about stoicism all the time,

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Speaker 1: and this is from his blog The Daily Stoic, and

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Speaker 1: in it he says, calculated ambition is a virtue. It's

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Speaker 1: important to have goals, aspirations, a purpose that you're working towards.

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Speaker 1: But when taken too far, we cross into the realm

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Speaker 1: of instability. It's here we burn out, unable to reconnect

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Speaker 1: with the president and appreciate what we already have in

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Speaker 1: our lives. Instability is a flaw in equal proportion to

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Speaker 1: laziness without moderation in our ambitions, retaining personal sanity becomes

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Speaker 1: an impossible task. I love so much of what he's

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Speaker 1: sort of talking about here, right, the idea of almost

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Speaker 1: taking our aspirations too far and then then sort of

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Speaker 1: causing us to have instability, and that instability being just

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Speaker 1: as toxic as as laziness. I think a lot about

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Speaker 1: particular people in sports who are incredibly successful, somebody like

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Speaker 1: Tom Brady for the sake of example. And obviously we

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Speaker 1: don't know these people, we don't know their stories. But

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Speaker 1: on the surface, you have this guy who basically sacrificed

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Speaker 1: every single aspect of his life in order to become

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Speaker 1: a winner and to become arguably the greatest quarterback of

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Speaker 1: all time. And this is sort of what he based

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Speaker 1: his life around. Everything else sort of had to get

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Speaker 1: in where they fit in his family, his personal time, right,

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Speaker 1: his outside businesses. And we even saw this in his

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Speaker 1: last season before he officially officially retired. Right, This man

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Speaker 1: retired once as a Super Bowl champion, Right, he lived

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Speaker 1: out the dream. He went to another team, he proved

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Speaker 1: that it wasn't his coach who was responsible for all

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Speaker 1: of his success. Right. His first year with the Tampa

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Speaker 1: Bay Buccaneers, he won a Super Bowl and then retired,

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Speaker 1: should be able to ride off into the sunset, right,

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Speaker 1: But instead he's unable to move on from this identity

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Speaker 1: or this desire, this craving of winning even more, and

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Speaker 1: to the point that the man ends up going through

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Speaker 1: a divorce on his return to the NFL. He ends

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Speaker 1: up having this just horrendous season that while it doesn't

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Speaker 1: taint his legacy, I think it does showcase a major

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Speaker 1: flaw in the person Tom Brady. Right. And this leads

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Speaker 1: to a quote from Robert Green, another author who's incredible.

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Speaker 1: He says, don't go past the mark you aimed for

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Speaker 1: in victory, learn when to stop. And this is something

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Speaker 1: that I really wrestle with or I'm trying to get

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Speaker 1: a grip on right now in my life. I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to get clear on what exactly makes me happy and

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Speaker 1: not just setting a goal for the sake of setting

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Speaker 1: a goal, but prioritizing happiness over achievement. Right. And again,

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Speaker 1: this is a luxury. This is a place of privilege

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Speaker 1: that when you have become financially stable, you are in

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Speaker 1: a place in life where you feel like you are

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Speaker 1: pretty comfortable. You then can make this visions based upon

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Speaker 1: that comfort. But I think even if you're not there yet,

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Speaker 1: it's important to know where your line is and what

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Speaker 1: exactly makes you happy. Right. And I think about this

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Speaker 1: a lot because I think it's easy, especially if you

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Speaker 1: are somebody who's an overachiever, you're always sort of setting goals.

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Speaker 1: It's easy to just get caught up in the routine

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Speaker 1: of setting a goal, knocking it off, and then moving

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Speaker 1: on to the next one. Right. But I think again,

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Speaker 1: it's recognizing all that you're sacrificing on that journey. And

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Speaker 1: I think initially when you are starting out, when you're

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Speaker 1: building your life, there is going to be a level

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Speaker 1: of sacrifice that is inevitable. But as you become more stable,

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Speaker 1: more comfortable in your personal life, in who you are,

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Speaker 1: you have to really begin to ask that question, is

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Speaker 1: crossing over to the sort of next line, the next step,

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Speaker 1: the next goal, Is it worth the level of sacrifice

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Speaker 1: that I'm going to need to implement to get there. Now,

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Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about this idea. Today, I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about how you can relate it to your

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Speaker 1: own life, how you can make it your mantra for today.

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

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Speaker 1: be right back. All right, So today we're even talking

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Speaker 1: all about the idea of moderation. We've heard the words

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Speaker 1: of Eminem, You've heard from the authors Ryan Holliday and

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Speaker 1: Robert Green. I've talked about how this is something I'm

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Speaker 1: literally working through as we speak. Now, let's talk about

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

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Speaker 1: we could tackle this from a couple of different angles.

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Speaker 1: I actually saw a clip today, I think it was

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Speaker 1: on TikTok that The Daily Show had posted, and it

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Speaker 1: was an old clip from Trevor Noah interviewing Oprah. And

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Speaker 1: in that clip, Trevor Noah asks Oprah, how would you

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Speaker 1: sort of tackle the question of what does it take

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Speaker 1: to be successful? Right? If somebody asked you what does

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Speaker 1: it take to be successful? How do you become successful?

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Speaker 1: What would you tell them? What's the best advice you

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Speaker 1: would give them? And Oprah's response to that question was

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Speaker 1: to say, first to foremost, decide what you actually want.

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Speaker 1: And that sounds really simple and sort of trivial on

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Speaker 1: the surface, but it's actually something so many of us overlook.

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Speaker 1: I think we go down these paths. We set this

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Speaker 1: lofty goal, right, I want to be an artist, I

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Speaker 1: want to be, you know, doing music, let's say at

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Speaker 1: a high level. But what does that actually mean? What

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Speaker 1: does that look like in practice? What do you actually want?

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Speaker 1: Do you want to be on the road away from

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Speaker 1: your family three hundred days a year? Is that the

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

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Speaker 1: of level of success that you want? Right? What do

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Speaker 1: you actually want your life to look like? On a

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Speaker 1: deeper sense, Again, these our topics of privilege. There are

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Speaker 1: some people out there who are just surviving and still

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Speaker 1: trying to find their first sort of feeling of stability

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Speaker 1: in their life. But I think at any point, you know,

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Speaker 1: wherever you are in your life, it's important to really

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Speaker 1: have a clear vision of what you want your life

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Speaker 1: to look like. Right And again, I've talked behind wrestling

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Speaker 1: with this myself, and I think the answer that I've

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Speaker 1: really come up with at the end of the day

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Speaker 1: is I want freedom, the freedom to control how I

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Speaker 1: spend my time, who I spend my time with, who

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Speaker 1: I work with. Right, you know how I want to

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Speaker 1: devote my free time to helping others. Right, I want

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Speaker 1: to be in control of all that. I want to

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Speaker 1: have the freedom to choose how I live my life.

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Speaker 1: Each and every day. Right. And to do that, I

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Speaker 1: don't have to be the biggest podcaster in the world.

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Speaker 1: To do that, I don't have to be some A

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Speaker 1: list celebrity, right because again I recognize the level of

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Speaker 1: sacrifice that goes into being one of those things. Right. Again,

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Speaker 1: getting back to how you kind of apply this concept

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Speaker 1: of moderation into your own life, you have to ask

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Speaker 1: yourself what do you actually want? And once you have

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Speaker 1: an answer to that, every time you are presented with

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Speaker 1: a new opportunity or a new idea pops in your head,

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Speaker 1: you can hold them up side by side and say,

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Speaker 1: does this align with what I actually want? Does it

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Speaker 1: get me closer to that? Does it put me on

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Speaker 1: a path towards getting what I actually want? And if

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Speaker 1: the answer is no, doesn't matter how sweet the deal

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Speaker 1: seems at the time. You have to make that decision

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Speaker 1: and understand that a yes to that thing means that

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Speaker 1: you might be sacrificing what you actually want. So the

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Speaker 1: recap all we talked about today, you have Eminem right

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Speaker 1: talking about how he'd shoot for the moon, but he's

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Speaker 1: too busy gazing at the stars. Right. He's saying he

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Speaker 1: could strive to reach the moon, but he's recognized the

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Speaker 1: beauty amongst the stars, and he's actually happy just hanging

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Speaker 1: out there, just being there. Right, He's recognized what truly

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Speaker 1: is bringing him joy and understanding that even if he

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Speaker 1: stro you know, was striving for more, it doesn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: add value to his life. And Ryan Holliday kind of

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Speaker 1: piggybacking off of this whole idea that always going for more,

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Speaker 1: searching for more, chasing more creates instability, and instability can

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Speaker 1: be just as toxic to your life as laziness. I

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Speaker 1: think that's an incredible kind of takeaway to have. And

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Speaker 1: then even for me in my life, getting clear on

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Speaker 1: what I actually want. Freedom is the most important thing

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Speaker 1: to me at the end of the day, So I

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Speaker 1: need to make decisions with that in mind and not

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Speaker 1: get caught up or swept up in the winds of

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Speaker 1: whatever shiny thing is happening, whatever piece of validation I

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Speaker 1: can get in this life, or my own ego telling

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Speaker 1: me I'm capable of more. I need to recognize what

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Speaker 1: is actually important to my life, what contributes the most

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Speaker 1: happiness and value that over any sort of extra bells

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Speaker 1: and whistles at the end of the day. Now with

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Speaker 1: that said, try and apply all that we talked about

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Speaker 1: today into you everyday life. Thank you for checking out

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Speaker 1: the podcast, and we will catch you next time. The

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Speaker 1: Street Stove podcast is a production of Iheart's Micael Thura

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Speaker 1: podcast Network