Show Transcript

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What's up, my friend, and how are you today? Hopefully your day is absolutely amazing.

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Today, I hope we're going to build on that. And to do so, I want to start off with a question.

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What do you think of when you think of inspiration?

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When you hear that somebody is inspirational, or you hear that a story is inspirational,

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what do you immediately think of? What is it that comes to your mind?

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Now, whatever you just thought of inside of today's episode,

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I'm going to change that.

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Yeah, we're going to flip inspiration on its head because today we're not focusing

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on the big, shiny, out of touch goals, the things of superheroes,

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the things that are made for the movies.

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No, today we're getting real. We're talking about the everyday stuff,

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the middle of the night stuff, the stuff when nobody's looking.

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That's the stuff that determines what is really inspiration, in my opinion.

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So if you're up for this, well, then I hope you stay tuned.

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This is episode 320, where me and you are exploring the world of inspiration.

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Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life? Because those bad days,

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they're just doors to better days.

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And that's exactly what we do here at Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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Your host, Kevin Lowe, he's been flipping the script on his own life,

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turning over 20 years of being completely blind into straight up inspiration,

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motivation, and encouragement just for you.

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So, kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

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If you've been hanging out with me over the past couple of weeks,

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you will know that we've been diving into three components that I believe kind

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of formed this amazing powerhouse trio.

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Of course, the first up was grit. Then came grace.

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And what's left is today's episode, inspiration. Inspiration.

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Now, remember, when we're talking about inspiration, we're not talking about grand achievements.

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We're not talking about pie-in-the-sky type dreams.

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No, we're talking about the everyday stuff, the stuff that we go through when nobody is looking.

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We're talking about the stuff that is us, you, me, choosing to push through

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the hard times in life, choosing to show up.

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It's choosing to get out of bed in the morning to put your shoes on to get dressed

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to walk out the door with a smile on your face when really all you really wanted

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to do was to put the covers over your head and go back to sleep.

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To help illustrate what I'm talking about in this realm of inspiration,

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I've chosen three of our past guests, three people, each one who has a story

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that is a beautiful example of unintentional inspiration.

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First up, we have Remy Storak. He is a childhood cancer survivor turned wilderness guide.

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My interview with Remy was absolutely incredible.

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To hear the contrast in his story, as a child, he had cancer.

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And a big part of Remy's story was a kid's cancer camp that he would go to.

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I believe it was in Alberta, Canada.

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Every year, he would go to this camp, him and other kids all battling some type of cancer.

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It was the kind of camp where scars are celebrated, where everybody is just the same.

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Nobody's worrying about being picked on because they're different,

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because everybody at this camp was going through something.

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But something profound happened year after year was that these young children,

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Remy included, had to learn a hard lesson about life because some years their

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friend didn't show back up.

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That friend lost their fight. And it was one summer, one loss of a friend,

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when Remy and his friends made a pact.

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That they were going to live for that friend. They were going to live twice

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as much, play twice as hard, yell twice as loud.

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All because of their friend who didn't get to be there.

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Now, as Remy got older and he would end up being too old to attend the camp anymore.

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Well, he would keep going because it was such a big part of his life.

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But this time as one of the camp counselors.

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And then, of course, there came the one summer when Remy set out on a new adventure.

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An adventure through the wilderness with his brothers, who were wilderness guides.

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He went with them through the heart of the Canadian forest, through the mountains,

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guiding a pack of horses.

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The story was absolutely insane. Insane. A total dream for any adventure seeker.

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If that is you, definitely check out the show notes where I will leave a link

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to each of these guests' past interviews so that you can listen to them.

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But what we gain from the story of Remy in regards to inspiration is that oftentimes

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inspiration, it comes in us deciding to do something more.

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To live for something bigger than ourselves.

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It's the decision to live fully, no matter what life throws in your way.

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So maybe I ask you, what could you start doing more of?

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Who could you start living for? What purpose are you living for?

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Do you wanna be sure that you're remembered for?

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What can you start doing to live a little bit bigger, play a little bit harder,

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to live a little bit louder?

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All from the inspiration of Remy, a kid who taught us some profound lessons for life.

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Next on my list is Bart Walsh. One of the most amazing interviews I've ever done on this podcast.

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Bart is a guy who lives in the land down under. Yes, down in Australia.

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Time zones, they're a beast sometimes when we're trying to do an interview.

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But boy, was it worth it. Because I had the most amazing conversation with Bart

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Walsh, a man who has the most heartfelt, heartwarming story that you'll ever hear.

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And yet, that doesn't mean that it was easy.

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Matter of fact, Bart Walsh is a man who had it all going for him.

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Until one day that he found a lump in his jaw.

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And, well, that would set forth a new chapter in his life.

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He had built his life on his acting ability, on his looks.

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And now he had this massive tumor right there on his jaw.

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He had to undergo intense surgery. It was really tough, really hard on him.

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But Bart, he kept going.

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He found new ways, new paths. He kept realizing that it's not just one path

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on life that we have to be on.

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No, the path can change. The path can curve, twist.

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We just have to know when it's time to make the turn.

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Now, here's the thing. Bart would go on to become a well-known,

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amazing man in the fitness industry.

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A guy who owns multiple gyms, a guy who built his life on his physique,

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on getting stronger, building muscle.

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But then, of course, there came a point when he realized that something else was wrong.

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Long story short, Bart would end up telling us that he has a condition that is incurable.

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And slowly over time, it's rendering his limbs useless,

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losing all the feeling from the tips of his toes up through his legs,

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from the tips of his fingers up his arms.

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But what Bart said in that interview that was so profound, was so amazing,

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so inspirational, is that he said, I decided to not be the victim of something horrible.

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He took control of his life, control over the things that he could control.

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And in regards to this theme of inspiration,

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I believe that what Bart's story shows us is, again, is that inspiration isn't

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always in these big goals achieved, these big monumental tasks,

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but rather sometimes it's just about the small everyday tasks that we do in

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spite of it all, in spite of the pain,

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in spite of the hurt, in spite of the fear.

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I don't know about you, but when I look at Bart and his story,

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inspiration is one of the first words I think of.

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Now, if I took you all the way down to Australia, now I'm going to bring you

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all the way back up to my own neck of the woods, my own neighborhood here in East Central Florida.

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I had featured on the podcast quite a while back was the story of Robert Mudge,

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a guy who went to the same high school that I did, Seabreeze High School.

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He had just graduated. He was headed off to college along with his friends.

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And then there came the moment, you know, the moment when everything changes.

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For Robert, it was a car accident.

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Him and his buddies had been out that night. And while on the way home, they had an accident.

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One of his best friends would lose his life.

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Robert, he would become a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down.

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He would undergo years of rehab, of therapy.

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Still to this day, years and years later, he still fights every day.

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And for that, my friend, I look at him and I have such admiration for a man who who has not stopped.

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He has a beautiful wife. He has a child. He has a career.

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And I can guarantee you that if you asked him, Robert Mudge would tell you that

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he's definitely not inspirational.

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But that's the power of it all, is that most of the time, the people who are

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truly inspirational don't even realize it.

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The lesson I want you to take from Robert's story in regards to this topic of

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inspiration is that sometimes inspiration is never giving up,

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even when the odds are stacked against you.

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Even when you don't got a chance at succeeding, you try it anyways.

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Even though the world tells you that you're not going to be able to, you try it anyways.

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Even though in your own mind, you tell yourself, wow, I don't think I'm going

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to be able to do it. you do it anyways.

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Sometimes inspiration is just showing up day after day, doing the thing in spite of it all.

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For myself, when I look at Robert Mudge, that's what I see in him.

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So here's the question to tie it all together. What are these stories?

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What do these three individual people have in common?

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None of these three set out to be inspirational. They weren't trying to be heroes.

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They were just living their lives.

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And you could say they've just been trying to do the best they can with what they have.

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And yet, here today, we can look at them and see that each one in their own

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way has become a beacon of inspiration.

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This, my friend, is what I consider the unintentional power of inspiration.

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Inspiration, it's not something that you aim for. It's something that comes naturally.

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So, here at the end of today's episode, I want to turn the table and I want

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to speak to you. Do you think of yourself as inspirational?

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Do you feel like you don't have a story big enough?

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You've not had things happen tragic enough to be considered inspirational?

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If so, here's what I want you to remember. It is what today was all about.

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You don't have to do anything extraordinary.

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You don't have to be on a movie screen or on a stage.

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You just simply have to refuse to give up. You have to just keep showing up,

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getting out of bed, doing what you have to do.

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You take care of those that you need to take care of. You go to work because,

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well, you have to put food on the table. You have to pay the bills.

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You live every day with courage and authenticity.

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You don't think of yourself as anything special. But the truth of the matter

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is, is that you are. You are special.

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You are amazing. You are inspirational in your own unique way.

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And that is what I want you to realize at the end of today's episode is that

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inspiration comes in all different shapes and forms.

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And I believe each and every one of us are inspirational in our own unique way.

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With that said, my name is Kevin Lowe.

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This was another episode of grit grace and inspiration a podcast on a mission

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to inspire the world and more specifically you to never give up on life even

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when it may feel like life.

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Music.