Transcript

157. Pursue It · 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, hope you're having a great start to the week.
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Happy Monday. This episode today of the Impact
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Ready podcast is going to be all about how we get in the habit of
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inaction and how it gets in the way of us creating the life we
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want and having the impact that we want to have.
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And remember, when I say impact, I mean not only the impact that
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we have on other people, but also the impact we have on
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ourselves because that is really something that we're thinking
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about often. The ability to have the health
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we want, the relationships we want, the crew we want,
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etcetera. So to be impact ready is really
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just the process of learning how to consistently show up and be
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intentional about the energy that we're putting into the
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world. And because a lot of people feel
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like they get stuck or stagnant in this area of creating the
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life that we want. I mean, think about your life
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right now. You're trying to create a lot of
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different things, aren't you? Wealth, health, relationships, a
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romantic interest, opportunity, travel, whatever it might be.
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You are often in the process of thinking about how do I create
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what I want, joy, peace, whatever it might be.
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But we have to look at what gets in the way of that.
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And one of the big things that gets in the way is that we stop
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pursuing things. We get into a habit of inaction,
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or we get into complacency or we get into fear or whatever it
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might be, but we stop pursuing things in our life.
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A couple of years ago, I gave a keynote speech at a financial
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summit for this organization. And before any type of speech or
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event, I always ask what the demographics of the group are,
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what who will be attending, what ages are they like, what are
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their hopes, what are they focused on, What are their
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worries. And the organizer came back to
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me and said, OK, we have a pretty mixed group, some
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retirees, some young people, some young families, couples
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starting out. It's going to be kind of a mixed
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bag. So as I do, I created a speech
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in line with the theme of the event and it was largely
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centered around purpose and ownership and and leaning into
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your impact. When I got to the event, I met
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with everybody there. I did the sound check, I met
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with the organizers and I started to see the attendees
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rolling in. And after about 15 minutes of
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observing the room, it hit me like a freaking lightning bolt
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that this was not a group of young hopefuls.
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These were not young couples or young families just starting
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out. This group of people attending
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this event was almost entirely made-up of retirees who are
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looking to protect their wealth and their assets and enjoy a
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very specific season of life retirement.
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And I started to panic a little bit because as I was reflecting
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on my speech, I realized that there's a lot of stuff that I
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was talking about that had to do with taking ownership of your
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situation and your circumstances and examining your outlook and
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digging into your purpose and really leaning into the things
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that light you up in your life. All those things that I love to
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talk about that would have been perfect for a very mixed
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audience. To top it off, there was this
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older woman who approached me. I think she was related to
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somebody who worked at the firm. And she sat down and she said,
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you're not one of those inspirational people, are you?
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She goes, I don't really need any motivation or jargon.
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Like I've lived my life. I'm just here to enjoy my
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grandchildren and relax. God damn it, that's exactly who
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I was. I was one of those inspirational
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people she was talking about. And now I was sweating because I
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had a 45 minute keynote ahead of me where I had to speak to a
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room full of people who had completely different objectives
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than who I was targeting in my speech.
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So half an hour later, as I took to the stage, I knew I was going
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to have to think fast about how to make this work for this
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group. I didn't have time to change any
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of my content. I didn't have time to make a lot
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of alterations. I knew I could slant it.
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I knew I could speak to the people in front of me, but I was
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going to have to really like be tuned in to how this group was
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responding to me. And what that meant was that for
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the next three main points of my speech, I did end up talking
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about addressing ownership. I did talk about purpose and
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doing the things that light you up.
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And I did talk about how it's not too late to lean into the
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things that fuel you and, and give yourself permission to feel
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joy and excitement and passion, even if you're not in the
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hustling, grinding stages of your career of your 30s or your
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40s, even though life might look a little bit different for you
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right now. The whole speech, I was tracking
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the room. I was watching people's faces
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and trying to get a gauge on the energy.
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But as I closed my speech, I still didn't really have a great
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idea of how it was all going to be received.
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See, what most people think is that purpose and passion is for
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the youth or for a certain demographic of people or a
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certain industry. You know, we have all these
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scripts and rules about who we think it should be available to,
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how stay at home moms should feel versus women in corporate
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versus young entrepreneurs versus someone in their 60s who
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has an incredible idea or a dream to build something versus,
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you know, male, female versus everything.
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Just endless, endless scripts and rules about what's available
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and to whom. And the more I work with people,
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the more conversations I have, the more I start to understand
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that being human is being human. And we have core desires.
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We want to feel aliveness. We want to feel like we're in
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pursuit of something meaningful. We really, truly want to feel
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like we're doing something that has a purpose and meaning and a
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significance. It doesn't matter how old we are
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or where we're from or what circumstances we're in or what
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age we are, we want to feel like we're creating something
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beautiful for our lives and that it means something.
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And there's no limit as to how we pursue that.
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There's no limit to when and where and what we can do with
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our lives, even though that's the messaging we often feel and
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receive in our lives as Oh my God, it's too late.
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If I didn't achieve all these milestones by 25 or 35 or 45,
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then well, screw it. Like there's no use.
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But that's not how it is in reality.
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People don't stop burning and caring for the things in their
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life. There's no over the hill.
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Yes, there may be seasons to energy.
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There might be goals and desires that shift as we change and we
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gain wisdom in. Our perspective changes as a
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result of that wisdom, of course.
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But that doesn't mean that we stop caring about the quality of
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our connections and our existence here.
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I remember as I stepped away from the stage that night, I was
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bracing myself for whatever was going to happen.
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And what happened surprised the hell out of me, actually.
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I was surrounded by the attendees of the conference.
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A line formed to the side of the stage for people to come and
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talk to me. And one by one, men and women
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and couples came up and told me how much they felt like they
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needed to hear that message. They were saying things to me
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like I've given up on my own dreams because I thought I was
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too old or I thought it was too late.
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I've been putting my own needs aside for years.
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And I realized that I don't want to be second place to everyone
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else anymore. One couple came up and told me
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that they've been living separate lives and trying to
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find a way to reconnect. And tonight they just looked at
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each other across the table and they nodded.
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And they knew that this message was meant to encourage them to
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keep doing things together and finding their way back together.
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I mean, it was on and on. 45 minutes later, I was preparing
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to walk out the door when the same woman from before the
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speech came up to me and she goes, well, you got me, she
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said. I'll admit, I was pretty
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skeptical of you at the at the beginning, but I like what you
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said about finding something to fulfill your purpose.
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I just, I haven't known what that was for a really long time,
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but I'm really excited to figure out what it is.
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And I, I didn't say much. I just said I was so excited for
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her. And I walked out the door.
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I, I really couldn't believe it. I was smiling ear to ear as I
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walked to my car. The organizers were stoked.
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They were getting messages all evening about how the attendees
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were appreciative of a message that was different for an event
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like a financial summit. And so All in all, I think it
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was a success for them. But the thing that stuck out to
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me the most is that a message that I thought wasn't going to
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land opened the door to dozens of conversations and hopefully a
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lot got a lot of people thinking about it for days or or weeks to
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come. And this has happened to me a
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couple times more since that day, delivering speeches that I,
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I really wasn't sure we're going to land because the topic
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material isn't your typical strategic or technical subject
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matter. You know, I talk about purpose
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and energy and ownership and creating the life that you want,
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but what always stands out to me is that I always have
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conversations like that after every speech.
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And what's so clear is that even if we don't know the way
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forward, even if we can't see more than two steps in front of
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us on our path, just keep pursuing it.
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Keep going. I've been there, trust me.
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I've been in so many stages of my life where I can't even see
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anything in front of me. I feel like I'm in dense fog
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walking forward and I'm just praying that I'm moving in the
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right direction. But action beats anxiety every
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time. And while I'm someone who can
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historically get caught up in the details and stuck in the
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process of getting something going, the lesson that I've been
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learning more and more is to just pursue it.
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Just go take the action and keep poking at that passion that
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lives within you. When we can create more than we
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consume, we get this net positive on progress and where
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we want to go. And so my challenge to you this
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week is to pursue it. Whatever it is for you, keep
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going. Keep taking action.
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Keep getting frustrated and putting the hours into figuring
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out solutions to the little problems.
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Keep slogging through the tech stack or figuring out sales and
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marketing. Keep writing the book.
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Keep painting on the canvas. Keep working to believe in
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yourself. Keep working on that
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relationship. Just keep pursuing it.
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You know, the people who are successful are not the ones who
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are the smartest people or the most skilled people in the room.
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Always. They're the people who don't
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quit. They're the people that just
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keep freaking going. And that is my lesson right now
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in this season of my life is to keep going, keep pursuing the
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things that call to me. And, and I hope that you can
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hear that call too, is to think about what it what are you
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passionate about? What is calling you?
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What are your gifts? And even if you don't fully know
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what your gifts are, just start to think like, what do I love to
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do? What lights me up?
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And whatever that is, push on it, pursue it more, keep going.
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And I hope that this can inspire you.
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I'm going to keep going on my side of things, even when the
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path is a little bit foggy and I can't see more than a couple
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steps ahead. I hope that this episode can
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inspire you to keep going in your own life.
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I know that this is a a time where we're getting into holiday
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season and things can start to feel like they're slowing down a
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little bit, and that's OK. But I don't want you to forget
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that every day you have this opportunity to have an
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incredible impact on your family and your friends and the people
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in your lives. Like you make a difference.
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Your energy. It has an effect whenever you
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step into a room. So however you want to use that
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this season, just pay attention and pursue it.
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I'm really excited for you. I'm so glad you're here.
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Thank you for listening. And as always, thank you for
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being ready to impact. Thanks for listening to Impact.
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Ready, I hope. Today's episode inspired you to
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own your impact 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.