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170. Creation > Consumption · 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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  Hello team. Happy new year.
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  Wow, what a freaking exciting time to be alive.
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  I don't know if you're reading anything about this new year,
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  2026, but it's apparently the year of the Horse.
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  Last year was all about the year of the snake.
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  It was about shedding skins, shedding what we didn't need
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  what what didn't serve you. And that could have been
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  friendships or old habits or jobs or different relationships.
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  It could have been bad habits or blind spots, different ways of
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  being that you didn't really want to take with you into this
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  new year. Whatever it was that didn't feel
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  aligned. It was a about dropping those
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  things that were misaligned. But this year, this year is the
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  year of the horse. It's all about building.
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  It's a year of strength, a year of momentum, of opportunity and
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  alignment. This year is about moving
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  forward with a purpose. And when I think about what that
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  means to me, what momentum and moving forward with a purpose
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  means to me, I think about this idea I need to create more than
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  I consume this year. And I've been thinking about
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  this a lot because as I do, I always think about what's coming
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  up for me in the in the new year, what didn't work as well
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  for me last year. Just sort of do a little audit,
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  zoom out, see the big picture. And I know you've heard this
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  before, creation over consumption.
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  It's this idea that we need to get into action more than being
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  complacent or sitting passively. And that doesn't mean that there
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  aren't times when we do need to sit and take in information.
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  That's not what I'm saying. It doesn't mean that we don't
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  learn and consume knowledge. There's always a time and a
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  place for that. But I'm very much feeling the
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  energy that I want to make sure that I'm creating things for my
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  life this year and being in the spirit of momentum and forward
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  action. And that means that I need to be
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  really conscious of when I'm in consumption mode and when I'm in
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  creation mode. I often think about when I was
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  in grad school and there were a lot of students that I was in
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  school with who were kind of perpetual life students, meaning
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  this was like their third or fourth graduate program.
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  They were students for life. They really weren't going out
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  and using the degrees that they got.
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  They would just go get another one or they'd enroll in another
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  program. And it really didn't make a lot
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  of sense to me at the time. I didn't understand exactly what
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  that was. But as I've had more years under
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  my belt, I've seen this happen in people.
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  They are perpetual learners. They're perpetual students, but
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  they don't really act on the knowledge they gain.
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  They never really do anything with the program that they've
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  gone through or the certification that they've
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  gotten or the graduate degree that they've worked so hard for.
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  Perpetual life students. And I think about that in terms
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  of consumption, they are in perpetual consumption rather
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  than creation, getting out there in the world and using their
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  gifts and doing something. And so if I think about this
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  idea of consumption mode versus creation mode and really wanting
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  to be in creation, I want to think about all the different
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  areas of my life and do an audit there and think about, OK, where
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  am I investing more energy into consuming information and maybe
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  being passive about it rather than being in action and being
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  in forward momentum. And I can think of a couple of
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  specific examples for myself. I know that for this year with
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  this idea, it means that I need to put my phone down more.
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  It means that I need to be consuming less information on
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  social media, in news, in online magazines or articles, even if
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  it is for the purpose of learning.
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  I need to do less of that because realistically it's very
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  fast and furious information intake and at some point for me
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  it's diminishing returns, meaning there's only so much
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  information I can take in effectively that I can consume
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  effectively and use and integrate before it's just
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  overload and I'm I can't really do it anything with it.
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  I mean, how many times have you been scrolling and saved like 6
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  posts that you that you want to come back to you later?
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  Maybe it's just me, but I do that all the time and I'm never
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  going to be able to go back to all those posts and integrate
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  all that information. Even if I have great intention
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  into incorporating that into my businesses, I'm not going to be
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  able to do it. So that's one place I want to be
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  really conscious of creating more than I consume.
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  One of the things I'm going to do to counteract that is to read
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  more instead of be on my phone just consuming information.
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  And yes, I know reading is still a type of consumption.
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  I understand that. But I've noticed something when
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  I'm reading, I have a different type of creativity in my head.
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  It's a different type of integration of information.
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  I'm sitting with this one singular idea for a longer
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  period of time and I notice I can use it, then I can utilize
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  it better, and it almost always leads to an act of creation.
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  Something that I create, whether it's a podcast or I use it in a
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  coaching session, or I'm finding myself talking about it in
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  conversation, or maybe I create a piece of content around it, or
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  I infuse it into a workshop that I'm doing.
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  I've noticed that this type of consumption actually leads to
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  creativity in another realm. I also want to make sure that
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  I'm creating connections and investing in my relationships
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  more than I'm consuming. Meaning I don't want to be
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  watching other people living their lives.
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  I want to be out in the world living mine.
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  And this could look like intentionally scheduling
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  connection with people. It could be a coffee date or a
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  dinner or connecting with my wife or planning for weekends
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  away with friends or trying to be spontaneous in connection and
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  meeting up with people, whatever that might look like.
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  I want to make sure that I'm present and I'm in creation mode
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  in terms of connection rather than just consuming it, which
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  would look like less movies or less watching people live on
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  social media. Same thing goes for my health.
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  I want to make sure that I'm staying vigilant with my health
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  habits and make sure that I'm creating great health rather
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  than just consuming information about it.
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  And I can be a bit of a health information junkie because I
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  love learning about health. I'm passionate about the topic,
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  so I can get really deep into research mode.
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  I can go into some wormholes about this stuff and just
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  consume so many books about it, but in this particular case, I
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  want to make sure that I'm very much in action, that I'm in
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  creation around this. It's easy to get stagnant in our
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  life if we're not in motion. And I know that sounds
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  simplistic. It sounds obvious, but so many
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  of us can't really figure that out.
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  We're not integrating that. It's easy to get stagnant if
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  we're not in motion. It's easy to sit back and say,
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  well, it's not like I'm not doing anything.
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  I'm sitting here and I'm learning.
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  I'm doing some R&D for this project or, you know, I'm not
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  prepared enough, so I need to take in more information so that
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  I feel prepared to do this thing.
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  But I think about this reality all the time.
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  You never learn to swim by reading books about swimming.
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  And at some point, you have to get in the damn water and just
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  splash around a little bit until you figure it out.
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  That's the place I want to be in this year.
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  Creation over consumption. And what's the impact of that?
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  Well, immediately, I can think of a couple of really powerful
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  things. First of all, I guarantee you
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  have some incredible gifts that you could be sharing with the
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  world that you are holding back on because you've been in
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  consumption mode more than creation mode.
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  And that's OK because, you know, last year was the year of the
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  snake. We were, we were all shedding
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  things. There are seasons to everything
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  and the seasonality of life allows us to have a natural
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  swing to the pendulum. We can acknowledge that you
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  can't always be in perpetual motion or action.
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  Sometimes you need to rest. We've talked about that.
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  Sometimes you need to slow down so you can take things in.
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  So I'm not saying that there's never a place for consumption.
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  We all need the yin to the young.
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  But if you did an honest audit of your life and you looked at
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  all the different buckets that you put energy into, I bet you
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  could discern pretty quickly how much energy you're putting into
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  creation and how much you're putting into consumption.
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  And it might be worth a look because that way you can decide
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  what is actually going to move the needle for me this year.
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  For example, do an audit of your screen time.
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  How many hours a day are you spending on your phone?
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  I've had some clients do this pretty recently, actually.
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  I try to do it periodically with people, but they've got a phone
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  audit and they have upwards of seven hours a day on their
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  phone. One of my clients had 11 hours a
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  day and it wasn't even that. They're in a role where they
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  need to be on their phone all the time.
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  Consumption, not creation. That was a huge wake up call to
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  them. You know, every single week that
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  we have our girls, I asked them to check in on their screen time
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  and we have an agreement to keep open communication about that
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  and have them keep it under a certain amount of time every
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  single day. And they don't always love that
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  we do that. But I want to make sure that
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  they are not in a zone of consuming information all day,
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  especially at their age, because it eats into their creativity.
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  It takes away from the things that light up their brain and
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  their hearts like connection and being passionate about things
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  and health and all this other stuff.
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  The second reason I think this is so important is because of
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  that very thing I just said. We have to make sure that you
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  are continuously lighting up your brain and your heart, and
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  there is nothing that does that like creativity.
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  There's nothing that lights us up like being in action,
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  especially when it's something we're passionate about.
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  Creating new things in your life is what keeps the aliveness up
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  team. It keeps us excited.
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  It what it's what creates fulfillment for us and we need
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  that. We cannot be overly consumptive
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  because it can put us in this place that feels stagnant.
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  It can lead to feelings of comparison.
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  It can have us hyper focused on lack or scarcity.
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  It can create feelings of angst or depression.
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  I know you've seen that in people.
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  I know you can see that in culture.
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  So this year, let's stop reading books about how to swim.
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  Let's get out there and jump in the pool team.
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  Let's do the damn thing and learn through doing, learn
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  through action. Let's create.
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  This year, let's do the thing that scares us.
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  The year the Horse is about momentum and movement and
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  purpose and strength. This is about things coming to
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  fruition. So let's rise up to meet it and
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  see what this year holds for us. Thank you for spending another
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  year with me listening to the Impact Ready podcast.
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  Truly thank you. And I'd love to stay in touch
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  with you. I'd love to be able to keep you
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  in the loop about exciting things that are happening in the
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  coaching world and to be able to deliver more inspiration to you
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  a couple times a month. And the way to do that is to
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  sign up for the Impact Effect newsletter that I send out.
• 11:48
  All you have to do is go to my website, stephsaffer.com.
• 11:51
  Head to the bottom of the page. It's sign up right there.
• 11:54
  Also, if you are a regular listener, go ahead and hit
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  follow on Spotify or Apple so that you can get that podcast
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  delivered right to your phone. I'd love if you could share some
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  of these episodes with people. That's one of the fastest ways
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  to spread impact. Overall, I'm just, I'm so
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  grateful you're here. Thank you for all the amazing
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  conversations that we've been able to have out in the world as
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  a result of these podcast episodes.
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  I'm so on fire to create awesome things with you this year.
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  So again, happy New Year, have an incredible week, team, and
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  thank you as always 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.
• 12:48
  Thanks again for being here.