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Hey folks. I'm your host, Kate McCready, integrative

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business leadership and human potential coach

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meets mindful strategist for humans, uplifting

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people and planet. Welcome to

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the Leading Beings podcast, a show about

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elevating and expanding your awareness, potential

1:21

and leadership for meaningful impact

1:23

conscious success and a work-life or business

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in flow.

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Join me and some incredible guests for

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inspiration, ideas, tips, strategies,

1:31

and stories to help you grow and evolve yourself

1:33

and your mission. So you can make your

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unique, positive difference in work and life

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from the inside out. Whether you're

1:40

leading a team, a business, a community

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and organization, a cause, or simply

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yourself, tune in as we explore

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what it means to be and become a Leading Being.

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Hello folks. And welcome

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to 2023. It

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is so exciting

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to be in the new year. Fresh.

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Shiny. All the good things

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and I don't

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know about you, but at this time

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of year, I often find myself

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wanting to do all the things

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there's so much that I am

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excited about and the year feels

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so full of possibility that,

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yeah, it's kind of almost a bit overwhelming. The

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overwhelm of potential

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and possibility. So

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today I wanted to talk a little bit about

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a technique that you can use

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to really focus

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yourself and get yourself into greater

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flow in terms of where

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you focus your attention when

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you're at this exciting time of the year. Or you

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can use this at any time. Of course. Before

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I get into that though. I'd just like to acknowledge

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the traditional owners of the

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land on which I work and live

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the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and

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pay my respects to their elders past, present

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and emerging. I'd also like to acknowledge

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that sovereignty has never been ceded and

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this wasn't always will be Aboriginal land.

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So. When

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you're in this state and you've got all these things

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that you want to do, and it's all

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exciting. And you're full of ideas.

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I don't know about you. I'm an ideas person.

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I always have more

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that I could do than I have time to do.

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Uh, And a concept

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that's really helped me and some of

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my clients as this idea

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of keystone actions or Keystone projects.

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So, what do I mean by a Keystone action or

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a Keystone project? So

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you may have heard of

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the concept of a Keystone

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habit. This was

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created by Charles Duhigg

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in The Power of Habit. And the idea is

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with a Keystone habit, is

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that it's a habit or a thing that you

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do as part of your routine. That

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if you do that one thing, everything else

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flows better and falls out

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more easily. So let's say for

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example, your Keystone habit might be

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exercise and you know that when you exercise,

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you come home and you naturally want to

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eat better and you sleep better and

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it helps everything else work better.

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And all your other routines and habits and rituals

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fall into place. So,

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the idea of a Keystone action or a Keystone

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project is very similar. So

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if you come to a time of planning

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or, you know, timeline right now, the start

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of the year when you've got all these things ahead of you that you want

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to do. What I recommend

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is laying all of them out

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and having a look at them and looking

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at where the dependencies lie within

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the different actions and things that you want to do.

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What you'll often find is

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that there is a

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kind of a natural order to things.

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Not necessarily everything, but somewhere

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in amongst all the things that you want to do, there

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will be something that if you do

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that thing, all the

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other things will run

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more smoothly. Naturally work better.

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Make more sense. So I'll give you an

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example of this. So at the start of the year, I sat

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down and I,

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uh, revamped my goals

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using my mindful goals framework. I

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say revamped my goals because

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the goals that I set tend

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to be distal

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goals. They're longer. Uh,

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more overarching fuzzy goals,

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which then have smaller actions

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that lie underneath them. So

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these goals take longer to work towards over

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time. So rather than setting new goals every

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year, I look at some

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new goals in some cases, but also

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I look at the goals that I have Can I actually

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tweak those goals and adapt those goals

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to be more relevant to where I am right now? So

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anyway, I did that at the start of the year. And,

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um, I ended up with all

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these different things. And one of the clearest things

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that came out of that process was

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that there was a goal

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in there which was

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around being more clear on

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my business direction. Uh,

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for a while, I've had some questions around

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that. Um, having had a

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baby just over a year ago,

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like that kind of threw a lot of that up in the effort

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for me and had me questioning

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a number of things. So yeah, there

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was this thing around gaining clarity.

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There were a bunch of other goals

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related to business related to life.

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Um, but when I looked at all

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of those goals side by side, what

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was very obvious was that gaining

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that clarity of direction was key

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to all of the other goals. I could

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not move forward confidently

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with goals that had things

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to do with sharing thought

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leadership and making an impact

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and a number of other things

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until I actually had that clarity

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of direction. So

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for me, when I was

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looking at all the fun projects and

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bits and bobs and things I wanted to do.

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Over the next year, over the next weeks

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even. What I was

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really clear about was the fact that, that

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action, that gaining clarity

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was the thing that I needed to focus on the

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most. Because if I were to

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focus on something else, without that clarity,

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what I could actually end up doing is

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going off in the wrong direction or

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putting work into something that

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may not be relevant later down the track.

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So I'm actually putting

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my focus on the wrong

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things. And that's

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when we ended up wasting our time when we ended up

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wasting our energy. And when we've got a

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multitude of things that we want to do,

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we don't want to send ourselves off

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down the wrong track. So,

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if you want to do this for yourself, It's

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not a scientific process. Uh,

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it's something that I recommend

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doing with something that you can maybe

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move around, like post-it notes or

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a digital mind map or something like that.

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And just look at the

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flow of actions. What precedes

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something which precedes something which precedes

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something else? What do you need to do

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first in order for all the other

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actions and all the other projects to flow

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more naturally? Now

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not everything's necessarily going

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to be connected. And

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you might need to make some decisions

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around what is the highest

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priority. And it might be that

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there isn't a direct connection, but there's

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an indirect connection. So let's say for example,

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that you're feeling really

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sluggish and not

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fully well after a very

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festive festive season. Uh,

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and you know, that that

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is meaning that you're not at your best

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when you sit down at your desk or when you're

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playing with your kids and you have goals

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that are linked to,

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you know, being a better parent or increasing

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your business profitability. But it

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might be that focusing on the

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thing that's about your wellness

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and getting you in the

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shape or the physical state or

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the mental state in order

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to support your

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full potential to move some of those

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other things forward. That might be the place that you start.

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That might be the Keystone action. And what

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I suggest is putting

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the majority of your time and energy into

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that Keystone action or

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project. And it's

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not to say that you can't work on other

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things. You might still want to move some things

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forward. You might do other bits and bobs and things.

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You might go, okay, well, I can do this

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much of this activity without

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having that other thing done yet. So I'm going to

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do that. Just to keep things interesting,

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because I don't know about you, but I can get

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a bit bored when I just to focus on the

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one thing, even though I know what's good for me. But

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yeah, if you put a majority of your focus

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into that Keystone action or project.

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And so you're making sure you're working

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on that a little bit every day, even

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if you're fitting everything else in around

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it. I really believe that

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helps us move forward with greater

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ease, with greater flow, with the things that we

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want to do, because it kind

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of clears the path for the things that need

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to happen to happen. So

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that's it for today, just a short

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little episode, because

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I'm still technically kind of on holidays.

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And the weather is too

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nice at the moment to be spending too long podcasting.

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Um, it is a glorious day here

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in Melbourne. If it's wintery

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where you are, I'm sorry. But

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we've had a rubbish summer. So

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got to make the most of this beautiful weather while it's around.

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Uh, so I hope that was helpful.

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Let me know, do you have a Keystone

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action or a Keystone project that's really

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going to help you move things forward with

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greater ease and flow at the start of the year? Uh,

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let me know, send me an email. Hit me up

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on Instagram or LinkedIn. However you

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like to get in touch.

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And that's it for

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today, folks. And I will see you in the

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next episode. Bye.