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117. Wired to Work Hard · Impact Ready

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  Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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  your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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  Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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  energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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  make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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  Hey everyone, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you for listening. It is almost the end of June and
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  we are almost up against 4th of July.
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  I can't believe it. I don't know where time goes,
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  but this is an exciting time. I love this season and I'm
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  excited to be with you today. In this episode, I want to talk
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  about something we've already talked about before and it's
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  this idea of bringing ease into our life, bringing a little bit
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  more ease. Asking the question, what if
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  this was easy? But I want to look at it through
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  the lens of a common thought pattern that so many people
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  have. And it's this idea that things
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  are hard in life. As I've been talking more and
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  more to clients about this idea of ease, it seems to be hitting,
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  it's landing in the conversations that I'm having.
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  People are relating to this. They're also sharing how they're
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  incorporating it into their life.
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  And so I wanted to have another conversation about it, but
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  looking at what inspired it, which is this idea that so many
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  people walk around saying how hard things are.
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  And this is something that I can relate to.
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  I think maybe many of you can relate to this because we live
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  in a society where hard work is deeply valued and the hustle and
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  the grind is celebrated. Being resilient, being gritty,
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  working really hard is a win. That's considered an
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  achievement. And I totally bought into that.
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  I've bought into that my whole life.
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  My whole life, I've worked hard. Even when I was a little kid, I
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  remember I didn't go out and help my mom in the yard for like
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  30 minutes. I helped her for four hours.
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  Dave, my brother and I, we didn't build Legos for just a
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  little while. I worked so hard for hours
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  building whatever it is that we are building.
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  I've always worked really hard and basketball, getting up for
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  6:00 AM practices when I was 1/6 and 1/7 grader.
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  I mean, that's ridiculous. Just throughout middle school
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  and high school and college, like I never got a beat.
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  I worked so hard all the time, and I think it's part of who I
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  am. I think there's some saboteur
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  behavior there. I could admit.
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  There's a place where the hard work can get unhealthy.
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  There's a spectrum always, and it's easy to slide too far down
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  the spectrum and get to into that saboteur place where it's
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  not healthy and it's rooted in fear.
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  But we can also acknowledge that hard work serves people well.
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  It's served me very well and there's a lot of things that
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  I've been able to do and achieve as a result of the hard work
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  that I've put in. However, I'm 43 years old now
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  and I've done a lot of the hard work.
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  Right now I'm looking at how do I work smarter and not harder?
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  How do I discover a better way where I can feel a little bit
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  more fun and joy and play and not just work, work, work?
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  Because it's really easy to slip into that habit.
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  And I don't know about you, but I know a lot of people who feel
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  the same way. It's really easy to slide into
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  the work zone and not be prioritizing the other parts of
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  life where there's ease and peace and play and joy.
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  If you guys have been listening to the podcast, you know that my
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  coach gave me a challenge a couple of months ago, a
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  challenge of ease. She said, I want you to think
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  about bringing and inviting more ease into your life and asking
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  yourself the question, what if this was easy?
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  And I've been working on this for the past three months.
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  Some days I'm doing it really well.
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  I feel like I'm crushing the challenge.
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  I am really good at asking myself the question, what if
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  this was easy? That feels accessible to me and
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  it allows me to shift my energy pretty quickly.
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  You know what? I find most times that when I do
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  ask myself these questions and invite more ease into my life,
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  things actually feel easier. It really does work.
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  It seems that things work out better, faster, simpler than I
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  thought they would. And so I've been practicing this
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  a lot. I'm also starting to understand
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  when we try to practice being in ease, we also have to practice
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  being in alignment. So alignment to me means that I
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  am listening to my intuition, that I am trusting myself, that
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  I am not leading with fear, which means I have to be looking
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  at the fears that I have coming up, that I have to be
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  acknowledging the feelings that I have coming up for myself
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  right now. So that's been a really good
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  practice. But I'm also not going to lie to
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  you, there are some days where I'm just not as good at inviting
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  the ease in. There are definitely nights
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  where I'm laying in bed and I think I could have done a lot
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  better with the ease today. I was just forcing a lot of
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  stuff to happen in my day today. And I know the difference
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  between ease and forcing things. You can feel it in your body.
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  Forcing means I'm pushing myself.
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  I'm overthinking things, I'm ruminating.
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  It feels sluggish, it feels hard, and I'm starting to get
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  better and better at recognizing that.
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  The way that I know is that I don't feel at peace in my body
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  or my mind. Especially when I'm laying in
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  bed at night and I'm kind of thinking about my day.
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  I can very easily tell, am I at peace in my body, in my mind
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  right now? It's a yes or no, very easy to
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  tell. And then I can also pick out
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  that I'm ruminating about certain things.
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  I'm feeling little smoke trails of my To Do List in my mind and
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  frankly, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.
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  That's when I know that I didn't do my ease challenge very well
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  that day. And I'm sharing this with you as
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  a reminder that this is all such a practice.
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  It's not enough to hear an idea one time.
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  It's about the practice. It's about tapping into it every
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  single day. It's about collecting data at
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  the end of the day and saying, did I do this well or did I not?
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  Frankly, I'm happy that I'm having some good days, even
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  despite the fact that I'm having a few off days as well.
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  I know that I'm going to get better at this as time goes on.
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  I know that this is going to be a daily practice for me and it's
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  probably one of my most important practices right now
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  because this is a very old pattern.
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  It's probably lifetime's old, who knows?
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  And so I will have some grace for myself as I work this
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  practice so I can make the shifts.
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  And I do feel like every time I tap into this ease, I can shift
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  my energy. It works.
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  And I could start to move away and let go of the story of I
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  have to work so hard and this new story of things can be easy
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  is actually going to serve me a little bit better.
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  At this point in my life, I always just visualize a little
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  thread to the old story being cut and feeling a little bit
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  more free. I think for me, the real work
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  right now is to hold the sentiment.
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  This is easy when I don't feel good or when I'm feeling off.
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  That is the true work and my God, it is very tough.
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  I'm having a lot of days right now where things feel
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  challenging and I'm faced with information that's coming in
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  that I wasn't expecting or I have resistance to.
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  So there are a lot of times when I am being forced to step up to
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  the plate here. That's the real work.
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  I think I'm actually, I'm trying to look at it as that.
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  I'm looking at it as this is the real work where there's going to
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  be the true payoff. Because I'm not just doing this
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  practice when everything is smooth sailing.
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  I'm doing it during a very challenging time of my life.
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  And that is going to pay off. Huge mental strength is the name
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  of the game right now. And there's no better way to
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  build that than to go out and put the reps in when you don't
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  necessarily feel your best. And the question that I'm asking
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  myself, especially in this next coming week, is what is feeling
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  like ease? What helps me get into a higher
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  frequency place? What helps me get out of the
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  story of you have to work so hard and you have to be afraid
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  of what's going to happen if you don't work hard and maybe shift
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  into ease a little bit more. What is helping me get there?
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  Connection. Definitely connection with
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  friends and family. Even just sending little
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  messages to people, that's feeling like ease.
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  Movement always feels like ease. It reminds me that my body and
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  my mind are strong and that is very helpful to create some ease
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  in my body and my life. Music is very always helpful.
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  Music is just elevating. It lifts me.
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  It gets raises my frequency. Being in my work is actually
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  very grounding and feels like ease in the way that it gives me
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  purpose. So working with my clients and
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  coaching and doing creating content and trainings for
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  people, that stuff feels fun and that creates some ease in my
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  life. Play is huge.
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  My wife and I are really working on trying to invite more fun and
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  play into our life so that we can make sure that we're
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  catching all the beautiful moments.
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  And that has been awesome. And then the last thing that I
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  think about is just savoring and basking in the moments of
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  feeling good. That helps me remember the ease
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  that is all around me and that I don't always have to subscribe
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  to that old story of you have to work so hard.
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  You everything is so hard. I don't want to be in that
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  anymore. I don't want to be in that
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  pattern. And I know that if you can
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  relate to this pattern, you probably don't want to be
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  sitting in that place for the rest of your life either.
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  So this is just a short, powerful reminder that the old
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  story of working so hard, it does serve you in so many ways.
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  It's served me in many, many ways.
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  But there is a balance and there is a way to invite more ease in
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  without losing your ground. And so let's all practice that.
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  I know I'm going to be deep in that practice the next couple
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  months, and I'm cheering you on as you work on it as well.
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  So thank you for listening to this episode.
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  I appreciate you and thank you for being ready to impact.
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  Thanks for listening to Impact Ready.
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  I hope today's episode inspired you to own your impact.
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  And recognize that you are powerful.
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  By elevating our energy and awareness, we can create
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  exponential change in this life. If you enjoyed today's insights,
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  share them with a friend and subscribe.
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  To the show for more, I truly appreciate you.
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  Thanks again for being here.