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Hey, It's James. This is are you listening,

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and I'm just gonna talk freely for a

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minute about.

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Life. I mean, isn't that what we think

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about all the time, whether it might be

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something specific, it might be something that, you

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know, was on our mind or might be

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a problem,

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but ultimately, we're we're talking about life. I

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mean, if we're thinking about how the tires

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need to be replacing the car

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or if we're talking about how we need

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to the yard or we need to go

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see the eye doctor or we're having trouble

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with their marriage or 1 of our kids

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is not well, the or whatever it is.

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It's it's it's about life. It's life. So

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life is

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what's always on our mind. Even if it's

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something like, man, I need to go to

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the game I wanna go play this or

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I wanna go do something fun. I wanna

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go to a movie. That is life. So

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we're living life every single day, and a

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lot of times, we're not as we're not...

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Living life as much as we're thinking about

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life and we're pondering

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things. And in that pondering, we find ourselves

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extremely disco

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in some is some some sense. For example,

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many of us are just thinking about the

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past.

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We're sitting in our feelings. We're sitting in

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our thoughts and it's very natural. It's very

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normal. It's something that happens very organically, and

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we don't even realize that we're doing it,

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but we... We find ourselves in this lull,

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and then the next thing we know we're

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just rum and we're contemplating. And we're having

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conversations. If you're like me, I have conversations

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if my head about. Well, if I said

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this or if they'd said that or

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whatever,

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or I think about how I feel

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and then I become more of a victim

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even if I was, and there's nothing... I'm

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not diminishing that idea, I'm just saying that

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when I... Stay there in my mind, I'm

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living in a world that is no longer

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real because I'm living in a real experience,

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or a wondered experience about the way I

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wish something had gone or

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trying to establish a grounded or an explanation

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of wyatt went the way it went.

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And then the other side of that is

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that we sit around with the contemplation about

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what tomorrow is gonna bring what's the future

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gonna be like? And I've lived a majority

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of my life.

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I lived over 4 and a half to

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over 4 and a half decades.

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With this mindset? You know,

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where where's tomorrow gonna be? Do I have

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things ready for tomorrow Do I have things

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ready for 5 years from now? And where

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I'm gonna be when I'm 30? I'm not

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gonna be when I'm 40. Where I'm gonna

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be when I'm 50. And now that that

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has come,

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I'm not gonna do that to 60. I'm

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not gonna sit here.

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And and and look to tomorrow. You know

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what does that look like? Well, we worry

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about things. It's called anxiety. We worry about

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things and we wonder, you know, is is

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it gonna be any better? Can I get

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this now fixed?

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Well, if I didn't do yesterday. Correct? How

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am I ever gonna get to where you

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see. So we end up skipping over

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where we actually are, which is right now,

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I'm recording at my desk in my house

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looking at a camera talking to you

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this is where I am right now. So

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I don't need to be worrying about

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what just came out of my mouth. I

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don't need to be worrying about what I'm

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going to say in just a moment.

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And whether or not this is gonna record

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correctly or what it sounds like or did

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I0I didn't do anything with my hair today.

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So I'm gonna look like a bum instead

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of a professional

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we we do this to ourselves

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because we're not mindful of the fact that

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we're not living in the moment. And how

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how

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how else does that happen. I mean, we've

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got we've got cell phones and and digital

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things. I mean, you're watching me on a

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phone most likely or at least you know,

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probably, some digital device.

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Course, you have to be. I mean, this

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is not playing out into the ether. It's

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not it's not being broadcasting into the clouds.

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Thank God. But you know, we're we're... We

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we live in this place. We live in

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this place and when we discover it to

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get to my point.

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We try to fix it. Like, I gotta

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fix it. I gotta stop worried about the

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past. I gotta stop worried about the future.

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I've gotta stop thinking about what happened gotta

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start living in the present. So then we

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become obsessed

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unconsciously about mindfulness and and and present and

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and trying to establish routines and disciplines that

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actually don't work

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because we're trying to fix something. We're trying

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to repair something.

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Well, I can't repair

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4 decades of of

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rum illumination. I can't repair

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4 decades of having conversations in my head,

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trying to establish a clear path from the

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past to the future,

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because that clear path is right the second.

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That clear path is today. So there are

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a lot of things that I've learned. I've

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learned that if I establish a very

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strong list of core values, things of... That

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would say, what I think is valuable and

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what I believe and who I am in

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those values, my identity becomes very strong

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and that everything in my life flows

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from those values.

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So I don't fix my life,

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I recreate it. I don't fix my thinking.

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I recreate it.

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It becomes new.

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You know, the Bible talks about these things

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it says behold, the old is gone the

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new as come,

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that when we think about gospel,

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regeneration, the spiritual side of

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salvation, the the the awareness, the repentance. That's

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a change of disposition, the transformation of the

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mind,

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which majority of the new testament talks about

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things. The way we think and know and

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understand.

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It's not as much about doing as it

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is understanding which produces the doing. So

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We see this

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explanation continually, and it's not just in the

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Christian faith it's in many different disciplines of

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philosophy, and and mystic system and and and

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and everything else, even though, you know, there's

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a con... There's

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intersectionality there

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The point I'm making is every human being

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when they take just a few moments to

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think comes to the conclusion.

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That we've gotta change the way we think,

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Not fix it.

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And so in doing that, it's got to

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become new It's got to become a a

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place a person a mind that lives truly

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based on these values based on the foundation

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based on,

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what is now old and gone. So for

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years, I disciplined myself to

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be better to think better to posture better

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to have more discipline. Those aren't bad things.

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But I did so in a way of

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trying to transform

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something into something else

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rather than that old thing just being put

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away and the new thing becoming.

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Not not make sense to you.

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But then some of you might be saying.

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That's right. That's exactly right. So, yeah, that's

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it.

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You've gotta to become new. You've got to

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realize that it's not about mastering life.

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It's about discovering life.

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You're not gonna get it all right. You're

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knock gonna know at all. You're not going

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to us... You're not gonna have perfection.

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A friend of mine said let's past week,

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he said something about perfection.

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He said that the way he frames it

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is that he strive for perfection, but the

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wisdom and the knowledge knowing that it's una

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unsustainable.

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So therefore, he's not trying to

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run a fool Errand.

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He's

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realizing that just a little bit better.

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And that's a very

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subjective

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idea. But just a little bit better

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or a little bit more drive a little

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bit more focus,

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and the way I answer that from me

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is a little bit more discovery.

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I learn,

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I think.

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Listen,

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I share.

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I teach.

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And then I listen,

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and I discover.

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The question then is are you discovering

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life?

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Are you learning? Are you learning to take

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the pains of yesterday?

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The worries of tomorrow.

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And ask yourself, Who am I? What do

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I need?

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What do I want?

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Am I heading in that direction today?

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If you value joy,

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then do everything

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right now

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that establishes joy.

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If you value

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authenticity.

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Than do everything right now

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that establishes authenticity.

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And when the things that are in your

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life that get in the way of those

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things.

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Just take them away.

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Don't try to recreate them.

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Dummy don't try to don't try to massage

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them and make them work,

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That won't recreate you, that will tie you

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down.

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Just

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take them away.

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Take them away.

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And that's a lot easier said than done.

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So that's why I'm here. Me and a

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lot of other people like me.

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Here to help you. Here to help you

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walk.

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Here to help you listen

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because that's really where discovery starts.

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So are you listening?