How to Create the Perfect Morning Routine to Start Your Day Right

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If you had to create the perfect morning routine.

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Where would you start?

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What would you include?

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That's what we're going to be talking about today right here on Unshakable

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Habits and it's coming up next.

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The right habits can help you have it all.

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More time, better health, improved relationships, and less stress.

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But most people lack the tools to stick with those habits

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long enough to see results.

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That is about to change.

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Welcome to Unshakable Habits with your host, Stephen Box.

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It's time to take your habits from unsustainable to unshakable.

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Welcome back to Unshakable Habits I am your host Stephen Box and

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this is episode number 80 and today we're talking about how do you create?

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The Perfect Morning Routine.

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And I started off this episode by asking the question, How would you

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create the perfect morning routine?

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Where would you start?

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What would you actually include in it?

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And I'm going to tell you guys, I think one of the biggest mistakes I see people

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make when it comes to creating a morning routine is they focus on the what.

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They get too granular, right?

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It's, okay, I'm going to add movement to my routine.

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What kind of movement should I add?

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Should I do strength training?

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Should I do cardio?

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If I do cardio, how much cardio should I do?

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Should I do sprints or should I do steady state cardio?

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If I do weight training, What body part should I work?

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Should I do full body?

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There's all these things that we get hung up on the specific details of.

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And there are definitely some things that I think need to be included, but we

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don't need to get super into the details.

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And I get why people feel like they do, because here's the reality.

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You look on all these sites, you Google this question, how do I

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create the perfect morning routine?

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What you're going to probably see is a lot of examples of

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what other people have done.

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You're going to see their morning routine.

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And, as I said on the episode number 78, why your morning routine is failing you,

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a big part of why that doesn't work is because We are trying to take someone

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else's life, someone else's goals, someone else's priorities and we're trying to put

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them into our life and that doesn't work.

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And so instead of trying to overly complicate this, what

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if we just simplify it, right?

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What if we just make this easy?

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What if we put it in alignment?

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Last week I bought a walking pad for my office, basically a little

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treadmill without any kind of handles or bars or anything on it.

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And I've been doing really great with walking on it every day, but

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one thing I've noticed is, as the day wears on, is I start to maybe

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wear down a little bit mentally.

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or when I'm trying to read something on my tablet, or look at something

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on the computer screen or whatever.

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And I'm not completely focused on what I'm doing I stumble a little bit.

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Now, not to the point where I'm about to fall or anything like that,

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but it's just a little stumble.

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Feel my weight shift a little bit to one side or the other, but what I've

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also noticed is, at the times where my arms and my legs are perfectly

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synchronized, when my core is nice and strong, when my neck is in alignment with

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the rest of my body, and I'm standing up nice and tall, and my shoulders are

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nice and relaxed, the walking feels easy, not only am I not stumbling,

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I feel like I could really walk forever, It is basically what it comes down to.

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I feel like I could just walk all day long if that's what I wanted to do,

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because it feels so easy in that moment.

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And sometimes that's literally seconds after I stumbled, right?

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I, that stumbled gets me to focus, it gets me on track and gets me to get

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my arms, my legs synchronized, gets me to do all those things I need to do.

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And I think morning routines are a lot like that.

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Where, when we get distracted, when we start trying to do things that don't

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put us in perfect alignment, we stumble.

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But when we get everything in alignment, and we get everything

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working the way that it's meant to work.

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It's magic.

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And so that's really where I wanted to hit on today is how do we do that?

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How do we actually create that alignment for ourselves first thing in the morning?

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So a couple of quick things I want to hit on here.

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Number one, time.

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There is no set time for a morning routine.

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Some of you, a morning routine might be two minutes.

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Some of you, it might be an hour.

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Some of you, your morning routine might be three hours.

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It all depends on your schedule and your needs, because as I've talked to you guys

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about before, there are actually different routines that we need throughout the day.

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We need that morning routine, we need that midday, we need that

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night time routine, and we need that pre and post work routine.

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So depending on when you want to get things done, will decide how

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long your morning routine is.

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My morning routine is maybe 15 20 minutes.

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And outside of that, most of my routines actually happen in the midday.

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But that's my personal preference.

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That's what works well for me.

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Now, let's talk about the components that I believe are important to have.

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if your morning routine is only two minutes, you probably aren't going

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to be able to fit all of these in.

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But I would encourage you to do these things as early as possible, even

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if they're just very short versions.

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So number one, spend some time in prayer or meditation.

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Even if you are not a religious person, I encourage you to

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spend time just being quiet.

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Just focusing on the quiet.

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for me, it's prayer, right?

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I'm talking to God.

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I'm listening for God's voice.

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I'm trying to you.

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See what God wants me to do that day.

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I'm trying to get on the same page with God, right?

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That's the goal for me first thing in the morning, and I usually

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sleep a couple of minutes on that.

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even if that's not your thing, I would encourage you just

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at least sit in the silence.

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Another thing is movement.

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Even if you are not someone who likes to exercise in the morning, encourage

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you to get some kind of movement in.

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Now it could be doing something like the walking pad, might

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be getting outside in nature.

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if you're a nature person, definitely encourage that.

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So me, sometimes I like to go walk downstairs and we have a little

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screened in patio that I like to go sit in and do my morning

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reading and do my prayers, right?

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And that's where I go and do that at.

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So for me, it's getting outside, it's the prayers, it's quiet time,

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it's reading of my daily devotional.

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That's pretty much my morning routine and I'm moving around the house.

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I'm doing this.

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I'm getting some movement in right?

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it's something that's a little bit intentional And I guess really my morning

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routines may be extended a little bit this week with the walking pad because I

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have added 10 minutes of walking on that as well so that has actually extended my

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morning routine out a little bit from what it used to be but Movement is important.

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Even if you're not doing a full workout just getting some kind of movement in If

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you have the opportunity first thing in the morning, make time for relationships.

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This is huge.

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So whether this is your spouse or just a significant other or

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your children or whatever, right?

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Even your pets, right?

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Just make time for those relationships.

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Spend time doing those.

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I have found that when I make time for other people and I make time for

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those connections, especially early in the day, it's just my mindset.

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It makes me feel a little bit differently as I go through my day.

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The other thing is, you need to plan.

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Now, ideally, you are going to plan the next day the night before.

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But when you get up, it's a good idea to evaluate the plan.

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Hey, is this still what I want to do?

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I've had time to think about it tonight.

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That's one of the reasons, by the way, I like doing it at night.

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is because then as I'm sleeping, subconsciously, I'll process my plan,

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and then when I get up in the morning, it's do I want to stick with that plan?

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Is there anything I actually want to change right now?

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for me, those are the big ones, right?

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if you just do those things, if you have some quiet time, prayer, meditation,

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time if you get in some intentional movement if you take the opportunity

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to Connect with someone else even if it's just a quick connection, right?

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Just a quick like kiss of your wife or hug your children or whatever, right?

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Just that quick connection with somebody, right?

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sorry, ladies, I didn't mean to leave you out.

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I, as a guy, I just automatically say wife, but please understand

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when I say something like that.

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your spouse.

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whether you're a man, a woman, whatever, right?

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you get the gist of what I'm saying here.

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I didn't want to leave anybody out.

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I believe if you do those things and then you finish up with that plan, that

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will take you into your pre work routine.

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And you could argue that could be part of your pre work routine if you

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are going directly from your morning into work, then that could be a part

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of your pre work routine as well.

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But if you're someone who maybe doesn't really start your work

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day until a little bit later, then I would encourage you to make it

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part of the actual morning routine.

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As we wrap up here today, I wanted to encourage you to share today's

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episode with a friend so they can also get tremendous value out of it.

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And if you have a particular topic or question that you would like for me

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to answer here on the podcast, you can reach out to me on either Instagram,

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LinkedIn or Facebook at Unshakable Habits and let me know, just send me a

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private message and let me know exactly what topics you would like to hear

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about or if you have a specific question that you want me to answer here on

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the show, let me know that as well and I'll be happy to do that with you guys.

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And finally, make sure you check out our next upcoming episode.

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I'll be talking all about procrastination.

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Why is it that we tend to procrastinate and what exactly should we do about it?

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And with that guys, as always, I'll remind you that while none of us are born

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unshakable, we can all become unshakable.