Transcript

167. Bold Moves · 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 Safer, 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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Hello, hello team. Happy almost Christmas.
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It is Monday, the Monday before Christmas.
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Hoping that you can enjoy some of this time and you have some
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time off for yourself. In this episode today I want to
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talk about something that is an idea, a concept that people put
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a lot of energy into, especially at the beginning of a new year.
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This episode is going to be about facing fear and making
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bold moves in your life. You know, most people don't lack
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talent. They don't lack resources
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necessarily, and it's certainly that they don't lack desire.
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It's more that they lack the courage to make one bold move in
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their life. This is something that I find
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personally true, especially after talking to hundreds and
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hundreds of people about their life stories, about their
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personal experiences. It's so often that they had a
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lot of the resources and tools that they needed, but they
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didn't feel like they had the courage to make a bold move,
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whatever that bold move is. There is a quote by Rumi.
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It says don't move the way fear makes you move, move the way
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love makes you move. I think about that quote a lot.
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And in coaching sessions, I will often speak with clients about
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the difference between moving from a place of fear versus
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moving from a place of love or desire or intention.
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There's a big difference energetically, and we know it.
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We know it intuitively. Am I moving from fear or am I
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moving from a place of intention or desire?
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We know the difference. Recently, I made a really big
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decision. This was actually a few months
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ago that I made this decision, but it's something that's been
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building for some time. I decided that I was going to
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leave my clinical practice at the acupuncture clinic that I've
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been practicing at for 15 years. I have an incredible business
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partner. I've been working in Portland
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for this entire time. I have amazing patients.
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Some of my patients I've worked with for, oh God, the total 15
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years they've been seeing me from the beginning.
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I did some math. I think I've done over 60,000
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patient treatments in the course of those actual 16 years of
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practice and that's a lot of time with people.
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That's a lot of time with patients.
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But I made the decision to leave my clinical practice so that I
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could put more time and energy into my other two businesses. 1
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is this coaching speaking consulting business that is
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bringing you this podcast is the true passion of my work right
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now is working with people in a coaching capacity and executive
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coaching and then also working in my other coaching business
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which is Next Level Nutrition. Working with clients to help
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them learn how to eat for their bodies, heal their metabolism,
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lose excess weight, get their energy back.
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Two very synchronistic ideas of serving people in this capacity
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of coaching and there were a lot of reasons for it why I made
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this decision. You know, for a long time I've
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just been feeling this burning sense of purpose that has been
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building over the last 7 to 8 years.
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It's been building and calling to me for a long time.
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Sometimes I couldn't really put my finger on it, but lately,
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especially after the last year in my life, everything sort of
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crystallized and became a lot more clear.
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In the book called The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen
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Cope, he talks about this idea of Dharma, and Dharma is sort of
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the the work that we are meant to do in our lifetime.
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He talks about how it can shift and you might start with
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something that feels like your life's work and at some point
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you're shown another area of life that becomes your Dharma.
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It's like you use up that Dharma and then you're given something
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else. Acupuncture in Chinese medicine
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has been a huge part of my life for almost 2 decades.
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There's so much of who I am and how I see the world that was
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impacted by the theory of Chinese medicine, by the Daota
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Ching, by the idea that nature is healing and that healing is
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within us. And so it all feels a little
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bittersweet to leave something that you love, that you still
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really care about and commit to something fully step into
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something in a much bolder way. The other reason I'm doing this
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is because I'm telling you in this podcast, in coaching
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sessions, you know, out in the world, hey, you got to get out
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there and make bold moves and, you know, really take ownership
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of your life and be purposeful and consistent.
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And I just thought to myself, I have to walk the talk.
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If I'm saying this out in the world, I need to really embody
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that in my own life. Someone said to me at some point
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recently, I really admire your fearlessness.
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And I was so quick to correct them because I don't want there
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to be any mistake here. There is definitely fear in this
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place. There is fear with the unknown.
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I've just committed to myself, especially in the last 12
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months, to move despite the fear.
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You've heard me talk about that move despite the fear.
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And again, if I'm going to talk about all this stuff, I very
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much have to walk that talk. And so I've been saying to
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myself, it is time for you to make bold moves.
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This is the year 2026 is the year for making bold moves move
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despite the fear. Now let's reframe what bold
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means because I think this can be misconstrued a little bit and
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there's some connotation around the word bold that might throw
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people off a little bit. First of all, bold doesn't mean
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reckless. It doesn't mean super loud or
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dramatic. It doesn't mean impulsive.
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It doesn't mean you throw caution in the wind.
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It doesn't mean that it's all unplanned or spontaneous.
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Bold equals intentional action that you take before you feel
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ready. It's intentional action that you
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take before you feel ready. Bold moves don't remove the
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fear. The fear can be there.
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It's just that we're going to move despite it.
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Often times, humans avoid bold moves, and there's a lot of
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reasons for this. First, we're often waiting for
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certainty. I can't even tell you how many
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times I have said to myself, oh, I'll just wait until it's the
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right time. I'll just wait until XYZ.
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I'll just wait until I have this dialed in.
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I'll just wait until this opportunity comes to light.
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I give myself so many reasons not to move, and it makes sense.
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It's scary to take risks like that, But sometimes we wait too
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long and waiting for certainty can be a trap.
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The other reason we hold off on making bold moves is because we
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value comfort. We love being comfortable, and
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it's uncomfortable to be in the unknown.
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That makes sense to us. We're also afraid of judgement.
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We're afraid of people thinking that we are crazy, that we're
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going to screw up, that we're failures.
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We're afraid of disappointing other people.
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We are afraid of what other people will think of us when we
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make these bold moves. So it makes sense, right?
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We avoid making these moves. And I've had all these thoughts.
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I'm sure that you've had a lot of these thoughts when you were
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thinking about a bold move in your own life.
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But what we know, because we talk about being impact ready
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all the time, is that comfort will preserve this current
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version of our self. Comfort preserves the current
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version of you. And we know that because comfort
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keeps us the same. It keeps us safe, but it also
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keeps us the same so often. And then the other idea is that
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bold moves can invite the next version of us.
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It can get us to our next level. It's like I think about when we
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used to play Mario Brothers back in the 90s.
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If you were a 90s kid and you played Nintendo, you know that
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Mario Brothers had you getting stuck on level 6 for like ages
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and ages. And you would just play and play
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and play for days until finally you had to make this one bold
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move where you jumped from one of those pipes over this big
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fire and there's all these obstacles and it was super crazy
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and it's dangerous and you often die.
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You died like 17 times in this level.
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You had to master this bold move to get you to the next level.
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But it's that bold move that invites the next version of you.
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It gets you to the next level, just like you got to that next
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level in Super Mario Brothers. One of the reasons I think this
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is an important conversation is because there is a hidden cost
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to playing it safe. When we don't take the risks
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that we really want to take, when we don't make the bold
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moves, when we have that desire, that intention that's burning
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inside of us and we don't do anything about it.
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That quiet cost is that it can suck our energy.
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It can drain us slowly over time.
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It can break down our self trust because we know that to act in
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integrity with what we want to be in alignment, we have to take
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these moves and we're not making them.
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There are these little inherent costs to staying reasonable.
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And one of the worst ones, in my opinion, is that if we wait too
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long, it can steal our aliveness.
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It can steal our aliveness and have us feeling like we're just
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not fully living. And remember, aliveness is
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something that humans deeply desire in their lives.
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I'm sure you've witnessed someone in your own life who
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knew that they wanted to make a move, whether it was changing a
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job or taking a risk or starting a business, maybe going for that
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person out there that they really cared about.
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Whatever the risk was, and I know that there are so many
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different ones in our lives. Whatever that risk was, they
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knew that they needed to take it and they didn't.
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I've seen that happen to people in my own life, friends.
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I've seen it happen in family members.
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And it's painful because you look at them and you just want
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the best for them and you know that they are capable of so
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much. Sometimes it's so crystal clear
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to the people on the outside. But I think at the end of the
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day, when it comes to making these bold moves, the real risk
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isn't failure because we can fail all the time.
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Failure is part of it. And yeah, you might fail and you
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could go back to doing something.
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There's so many different paths that come after failure.
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So that's not the real risk. The real risk is living out of
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alignment because that's where the pain happens.
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That's where it sucks our energy and it breaks our self trust and
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it seals our aliveness. Often think about what makes a
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bold move. What makes something bold and
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not just cavalier or throwing caution to the wind.
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What makes a bold move? And I think it has three real
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qualities here. First, I think a bold move will
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stretch your identity. It doesn't just stretch your
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behavior, it stretches your identity.
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It forces you to level up. It forces you to think of
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yourself differently and to act and behave differently.
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The second quality is that bold moves require ownership.
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They don't require permission, so to speak, and that's an
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important distinction. It's not permission that they
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require. It's ownership.
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Ownership of everything that is in your sphere, your
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circumstances currently as they are, the risks you're willing to
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take, what you're willing to sacrifice, how much energy you
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need to put into something. And this does not come from
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somebody else. It's not somebody else who's
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going to look at you and say, you know what, I give you
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permission to do this thing. I think you'll be fine with it.
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Go ahead. That's never going to happen,
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especially for the bold stuff that you care about.
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No, this requires a such a big level of ownership because it's
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you at the end of the day, who's living with yourself as you lay
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in bed and you're thinking, did I live in accordance to the way
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that I want to live? Did I show up in the way that I
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wanted to show up? And then finally, the last thing
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that I think about when I think about a bold move is that it has
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an element of momentum to it. And even though it feels scary
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or big or unknown, for some reason, it just feels like
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you've got momentum. There's motion to it.
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It's like there's an invisible string pulling you along.
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And that's often how I felt in my life, in multiple stages of
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my life, like something was pulling me along, even though I
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wasn't quite sure where I was going to end up or what the hell
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it was that was pulling me. Bold moves create momentum.
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Now, it's nice to be talking about this, but let's think
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about this practically because I know that not everyone can leave
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a job or transition careers in this very instant.
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So how do you know if it's a bold move worth making?
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How do you know if it's a bold move or just something on a whim
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that might burn the house down? I always think that if it's
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something that keeps tugging at you, that is very likely an idea
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that could be a bold move. It's this thing that's kind of
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present, like I was talking about that invisible string that
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maybe you don't even know that you want to do, but you keep
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finding yourself doing it. It's like that tugging that
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pulls you along. I often think that that in
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itself is something that requires a bold move, but here
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are three questions that you can ask yourself to sort of filter
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out the bold moves versus the burn your house down ideas.
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The first one is what decision keeps coming back?
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And this speaks for itself. What's the thing that keeps
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coming back into your mind that you can't necessarily shake?
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The second one is what am I protecting by not moving?
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And this was really helpful for me.
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I think for most people, what we're protecting is safety,
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security, or a sense of those things, and we're protecting
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ourselves because we don't want to take the risk of people
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seeing us as anything other than successful or doing great.
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It's very instinctual to want to protect ourselves in that way.
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And then lastly, third question, who do I become if I take the
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step? And this is awesome because when
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you start taking the guard rails off the brain and saying, who
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could I possibly become if I take this next move, so many
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things open up for you. And that's when you really get
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to decide. Is this where the dream lives,
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the intention and the love lives?
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Or is this a decision I would be making out of fear?
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And those three questions have helped me a lot when it comes to
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knowing how to make a bold move without burning it all down.
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I think one of the funny things that people think is that when
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they do something bold in their life, that it's going to be this
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big crazy moment. And what I find is it's not.
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It's actually very rarely dramatic.
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I thought my transition out of work at the clinic would feel
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really eventful, but it wasn't. It just felt like life.
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It felt like the right thing, and it felt peaceful.
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And I think that's how it should feel.
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These decisions, these moves, they're often quiet, they're
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often decisive, and they're often deeply personal because
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not everybody's going to understand your bold moves, your
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intentions, your desires. It's not their job to know your
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life and what makes a fulfilled life for you.
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And that's a good thing because you can really claim that and
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take ownership of that. Let those bold moves be deeply
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personal. So as we close, I just want to
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leave you with a little challenge before the holiday.
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What is 1 bold move that you've been postponing, not because you
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can't take it, but because you're scared to own it?
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I want you to know you're not alone.
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This is a very human condition, but it is something that we can
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look at and encourage each other around.
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Because I think if more people take bold moves in their life,
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the more impactful they get to be.
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Impact is built by people who are willing to move first.
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And I know there's some things that you want to race to.
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So I hope this episode feels helpful.
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I hope it encourages some thought and that it feels
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exciting for you to be thinking about your future in this way.
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I hope you have an incredible week and a happy holiday with
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your friends, your family, your loved ones.
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Thank you for being here and for listening.
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And as always, 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 and
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recognize that you are powerful. By elevating our energy and
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awareness, we can create exponential change in this life.
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If you enjoyed today's insights, share them with a friend and
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subscribe to the show for more. I truly appreciate you.
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Thanks again for being here.