Show Transcript

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If you want to stand half a chance at making this the best year of your life,

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then my friend, you have to let go of the past.

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We are talking today about letting go of the baggage from the year that was 2024.

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It is time for you to enter the new year as a lighter, better version of you.

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And it all starts by you being willing to get real on the stuff that no longer

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fits you and being willing to throw it in the trash can.

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My friend, today is the day that we reverse the whole bucket list.

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Today is the day that you listen to episode 357.

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Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to Grit,

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Grace, and Inspiration.

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What's up, my friend, and welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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Today, my friend, I want to get real for a quick moment.

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Let's skip all the mumbo-jumbo fluff of social media. You know,

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all the posts that you made throughout 2024 about how amazing your life was?

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Yeah, well, today, let's get real. Because if your year was anything like mine,

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2024 is one that is not going to be one that I want to repeat.

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Not at all. And here we are, January of 2025, and I am determined to not let

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that crap follow me into this year.

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And that is where today's whole idea came from.

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This whole symbolic idea of reversing the bucket list. I call it the reverse

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bucket list because we are using

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this rather symbolic exercise to help us shed the weight of the past.

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If you've had a bad year, if you've had some bad experiences,

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you know the kind of weight I'm talking about.

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The weight of regret, the weight of disappointment, of loss,

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of frustration, of things that just didn't go the way you thought they would go.

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Well, what if there's a way that we can just let it all go, put it onto paper,

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put it into a physical sense, and therefore helping us to set ourselves free of those burdens?

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So my first step is, is I want you to take the time at some point to just sit

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down and acknowledge the year that was 2024.

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I want you to give attention to the stuff that happened, all the bad stuff,

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the stuff that you honestly wish you could forget about.

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Maybe it was a breakup. Maybe it was you getting fired from a job.

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Or maybe it was just a year of things that never seemed to go right.

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I totally understand. Or maybe it was the year of you being sick.

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You were laid up in bed more days than you were out enjoying life. I feel you.

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Whatever it is, I want you to recognize it. I want you to bring it to the front of your mind.

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Because it's important as we move in to step number two.

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Step number two involves you writing it all down. I hope that you can grab out

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a piece of paper and you can just start making some notes.

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Now, what is important is that I want you to be able to cut the paper into little pieces.

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You know, almost think like the paper you get inside of a fortune cookie.

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Little pieces of paper, little pieces that you can write down all of these things on.

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This is your opportunity to get out everything that's been in your head onto paper.

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And you might think that it sounds silly, but I'm telling you, it works.

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It's kind of like when you've been keeping a secret tucked away inside of you,

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and it's just been eating you alive.

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And then you finally get an opportunity to tell somebody, it's like this weight

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has been lifted off of you. Well, the same thing can be accomplished by you

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taking your thoughts and putting them onto paper.

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So each little piece of paper, I want you to write each thing down that you

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would like to forget about.

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All the bad stuff, put it all down onto paper.

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Now, step number three, after you have all those little pieces of paper,

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all written all over with all the stuff that happened last year,

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I want you to be symbolic.

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And I want you to put them in a bucket.

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Now, understandable, maybe you don't have a typical bucket laying around. Well, grab out a cup.

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Grab out a Tupperware container.

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I don't care what it is, something that you, one by one, can just dump all of

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that crap into what we're considering the wastebasket, the trash can.

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This is transferring all that weight of the year right into the bucket. We're getting rid of it.

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You are done with it. It no longer serves you. It certainly doesn't fit you.

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It darn sure doesn't describe who you are. So it's time that we get rid of it.

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The last step is the best step.

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It's my friend, it's time to get rid of it.

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Now, you can take this however you want. Maybe for you, it's as easy as it being trash day.

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And you walk outside early in the morning and you take that bucket of all these

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little notes and pieces of paper and you dump it right in the trash can.

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Once and for all, you are done with it. You have completely taken that weight,

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the regret, the disappointment, the fears and anxieties, the disappointments,

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the failures, all of that is gone forever.

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Now, maybe that's not enough. Maybe you want to take it one step further. Do you have a fireplace?

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Do you and your friends ever do a bonfire on the weekend?

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If you have access to a fire, well, my friend, there is no better way to dispose

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of the crap from 2024 than to set it up in flames.

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So take that bucket of paper of all those little notes and just dump it in the fire.

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And symbolically, you can watch it all go up in smoke. There is nothing more satisfying than that.

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Now, of course, I urge you to please use all safety precautions.

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Do not hold me liable for anything to do with you getting a fire out of control.

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No, I'm going to assume that you have people there who know what they're doing,

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that you know what you're doing when it comes to a fire.

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So I just had to make that quick little disclosure. Now, the truth of the matter

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is, is that once we're done with all of this, it doesn't mean that we've erased the past.

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It doesn't mean that you'll forget about it. But what it does mean is that it

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no longer has a hold on you.

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Because this is probably one of the most powerful steps forward you've maybe

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taken of acknowledging the past, the hurts and making them realize that they no longer.

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Hold weight on you. They no longer have grasp of your life. They no longer are

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dictating what this year will be.

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You're leaving all the baggage in the year that was 2024.

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So remember, my friend, the whole

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point in this, honestly, is it's the beginning of a new year. It's 2025.

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If you want to make room for good stuff to enter your life, well,

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then you have to be willing to let go of the bad.

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So let it all go. Let it all out. Put it on the pieces of paper.

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Put it in that bucket and take it out to the trash. Or better yet, send it up in smoke.

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My friend, I want you to get to be the best version of you.

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And the only way that that is going to happen is if you are able to ditch the

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baggage that's holding you down.

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My name is Kevin Lowe. This was another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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I want to be sure that you are tuned in and ready for it when it happens.

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So with that, my friend, get out there and enjoy the day now that you're feeling

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a little bit lighter. Thanks to today's exercise.

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Music.