Show Transcript

Kevin: What if today I change everything you know, everything you thought you knew

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Kevin: about setting goals, about New Year's resolutions?

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Kevin: Because today, my friend, I'm going to blow your mind.

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Kevin: Because if you've been waiting till January 1st to start going after your dreams,

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Kevin: to start chasing after your goals, well, you need to stop waiting till January

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Kevin: and you need to do it right now in the month of September.

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Kevin: Yes, today I'm going to show you why the month of September is the best month

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Kevin: in the entire year for you to start doing something big.

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Kevin: If you got big moves, well, baby, it needs to start now in the month of September.

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Kevin: So if you're ready to make some big changes in your life, if you're ready to

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Kevin: understand why you've been doing it all wrong, why we've all been taught the

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Kevin: wrong thing about starting big things in January,

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Kevin: well, then this is the episode for you.

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Kevin: This is episode 323.

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Kevin: This is when we are trading January for September.

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<v Speaker1>Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life? Because those bad days,

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<v Speaker1>they're just doors to better days.

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<v Speaker1>And that's exactly what we do here at Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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<v Speaker1>Your host, Kevin Lowe. He's been flipping the script on his own life,

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<v Speaker1>turning over 20 years of being completely blind into straight-up inspiration,

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<v Speaker1>motivation, and encouragement just for you.

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<v Speaker1>So, kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

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Kevin: I figure we might as well start our conversation off today by acknowledging the obvious.

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Kevin: There's a lot of things that we get excited about when September rolls around,

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Kevin: like pumpkin spiced lattes.

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Kevin: Or if you're like me and you're a total pumpkin spice junkie,

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Kevin: well, then you know it's pumpkin spice everything and you get excited about it.

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Kevin: It also means that the weather is starting to cool off a little bit. it.

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Kevin: You start to have those occasional cold fronts starting to move through.

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Kevin: Now, of course, if you're down in my neck of the woods in Florida,

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Kevin: you also know that September is the height of hurricane season.

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Kevin: So, of course, you got that to worry about.

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Kevin: But you do know that at least if a hurricane does come, well,

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Kevin: that means you get out of work and school for a little bit.

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Kevin: But beyond all of that, there's a deeper reason why I'm focusing on the month

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Kevin: of September and specifically why I'm saying that September is the perfect month for change.

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Kevin: September, if you think about it, it follows the natural change in the season.

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Kevin: Fall, it's a time of transition. The weather cools, the leaves change colors.

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Kevin: And we all love the fact that it's not unbearably hot anymore.

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Kevin: We got past the dead of summer. Now, if you compare fall to January,

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Kevin: more specifically, if you compare September to January, there's really no comparison

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Kevin: because what do you think about when you think about the month of January?

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Kevin: You obviously think of the dead of winter.

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Kevin: It's dark, it's cold, it's dreary. And by that time, everybody is dreaming of

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Kevin: the day that spring will arrive.

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Kevin: So you have to think to yourself in terms of today's conversation,

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Kevin: no wonder the majority of New Year's resolutions fail by February.

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Kevin: It's like they're almost been setting us up for failure all along,

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Kevin: starting us off in the worst time of the year.

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Kevin: So then you might say, okay, but why September?

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Kevin: Because spring represents new beginnings. Spring is when the flowers start to blossom.

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Kevin: It's when we celebrate Easter. It's a chance of new beginnings.

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Kevin: So wouldn't that be an obvious time for us to start something new?

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Kevin: Well, I say no, that's totally false.

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Kevin: Because even though spring might seem like a perfect chance,

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Kevin: perfect opportunity for new beginnings, it is distraction season galore.

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Kevin: Think about it. It's spring break. It's the dash to the end of the school year.

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Kevin: It's everybody already thinking about summer vacations.

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Kevin: And speaking of summer, you darn sure don't want to start anything big in summer.

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Kevin: Because, well, summer is lazy days.

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Kevin: Summer is time spent with family, doing stuff that's fun, trying to forget about

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Kevin: normal everyday life. It's summer.

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Kevin: But once you come back around, we've already went through winter,

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Kevin: spring, summer. Check those off as no good.

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Kevin: We're back to fall. We're back to September. The best time of the entire year

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Kevin: for you to make some big moves in life, to set some big goals,

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Kevin: and more so to achieve those goals.

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Kevin: Basically, if you think about it, the world was set up this way.

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Kevin: It's like literally the world has been telling us all along,

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Kevin: guys, what are you doing waiting till January?

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Kevin: The month of September is when Earth is designed for you to start something

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Kevin: new. It just makes total sense.

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Kevin: So if you're not convinced enough that September is better than January,

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Kevin: simply based on the the seasons.

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Kevin: But let me give you another point to prove what I'm trying to say.

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Kevin: It's what they call the back to school effect.

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Kevin: This is something that I had not thought about. And when I was researching for

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Kevin: today's episode, I found this really interesting.

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Kevin: This idea of a back to school effect, even for those of us who have been long

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Kevin: past school days, don't even have children in school.

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Kevin: And so you have to think to yourself at first, what is he talking about?

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Kevin: I don't go to school. I haven't had kids in school.

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Kevin: So why is the back to school effect going to affect me?

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Kevin: Well, because for the first 18 years of your life, and if you went to college

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Kevin: even longer, it has been ingrained in you that by the month of September,

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Kevin: you're back to school. It's back to work.

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Kevin: Summer's over. You went back to school shopping.

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Kevin: You got all your school supplies. You got to get new clothes for the school

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Kevin: year. You got to go meet your teacher. You got to start class.

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Kevin: It's like the world gets back to work in September.

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Kevin: It's basically a psychological shift that happens in September that we need

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Kevin: to start harnessing for our advantage because, well, we We spent the last few

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Kevin: months chilling, relaxing, enjoying the dog days of summer.

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Kevin: But now it's September. It's time to get back to work.

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Kevin: And like I said, it doesn't matter if you're in school. It doesn't matter if you don't have kids.

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Kevin: You can't help but feel the mood in the air. There's kids in the neighborhood

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Kevin: waiting on the school bus in the morning.

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Kevin: Everybody just seems to be back in that hustle and bustle mood.

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Kevin: And why not captivate on that? Use that hustle and bustle mood to get yourself

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Kevin: hustling, to get yourself moving forward, to get yourself excited about the

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Kevin: things that you want to accomplish.

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Kevin: Especially now that we realize we don't have to keep waiting until January.

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Kevin: No, we need to actually start right now in the month of September.

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Kevin: If convincing you that September is better than January by focusing on the seasons,

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Kevin: by talking about the back-to-school effect, if neither of those were enough

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Kevin: to convince you, I got a third point.

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Kevin: Starting in September, it's a shorter, more focused period of time for you to

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Kevin: set and, better yet, achieve your goals. because let's think about how we've

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Kevin: been doing it in the past.

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Kevin: Starting January 1st, when we started January, we're staring down the barrel of a full 12 months.

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Kevin: That, my friend, is a long time. And you know what happens?

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Kevin: You barely started. It's February and you're already falling off track.

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Kevin: And why is that? Because the year, it feels too long.

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Kevin: If we fall apart in February, well, we might as well just give it up because the year is too long.

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Kevin: Plus, there's also the thought that I've got all year. I can get back on track later.

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Kevin: I don't have to rush and do it right now. Either way you look at the year ahead,

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Kevin: both of them are setting you up for failure.

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Kevin: Instead, let's compare it to starting in September. If you start your goals

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Kevin: in September, you got a four-month sprint to the finish line.

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Kevin: It's the last quarter of the year. You have an easy-to-see ending point.

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Kevin: It's sometimes really hard for us to do our best to run the race when we can't see the finish line.

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Kevin: It's like we're just running and running and running, and we have no idea where the end is.

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Kevin: Instead, if we start in September and we realize that we got four months to

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Kevin: achieve our goals, therefore, you have a start and an end.

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Kevin: It's easy. It's short. It's powerful.

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Kevin: Basically, think of it when you made New Year's resolutions on January 1st.

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Kevin: It's like you had a marathon in front of you.

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Kevin: And I don't know about you, but marathon sounds pretty darn long and pretty

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Kevin: darn tiresome. But a mad dash to the finish line, I think we could all get on board with that.

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Kevin: And that's exactly what happens when we start in September and realize, you know what?

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Kevin: What goals do I want to accomplish by the end of the year?

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Kevin: I only got four months to do it. And so even if you start to fall off track

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Kevin: in October, you know, I don't got time to course correct.

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Kevin: I don't have time to just keep waiting.

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Kevin: No, I got to pick myself up and try again. Again, every day is a new beginning.

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Kevin: Don't let a bad day turn into a bad week.

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Kevin: Instead, you brush yourself off and you keep moving forward faster because you

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Kevin: know it. You're on the final dash.

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Kevin: So here's what I want you to take away from today's episode.

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Kevin: I hope, of course, that you've come to realize I think Kevin is on to something here.

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Kevin: Maybe September is more than about pumpkin spice lattes.

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Kevin: It's more than just about getting the kids to school again.

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Kevin: No, it's actually maybe a time for me to shine, for me to show up for myself,

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Kevin: for me to get focused in identifying what I really want out of life.

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Kevin: What do I want this year to end like? You got four months left.

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Kevin: If this year hasn't gone like you wanted, well, why don't we make some big shifts

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Kevin: right now so that the last quarter of the year, huh, you might reset the entire

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Kevin: year because you're ending on a high.

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Kevin: So with that, my friend, I'll see you at Starbucks grabbing a pumpkin spice

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Kevin: latte right with you. And when you see me, I want to know what your goal is,

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Kevin: what you're chasing after.

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Kevin: Because, well, like I said, this is time to show up. It's not time to slow down.

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Kevin: No, it's September. It's time to get to work.

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Kevin: And just think, by the time the holidays come, you're already going to be ahead of the rest.

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Kevin: Everybody else, they didn't listen to today's podcast.

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Kevin: Instead, they're slackers waiting till January. But you, my friend,

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Kevin: you got the upper hand because you realize it's all about the month of September.

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Kevin: And with that, that was today's episode, episode 323 here on Grit,

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Kevin: Grace, and Inspiration.

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Kevin: If today's episode encouraged you, inspired you, share it with a friend.

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Kevin: Maybe you can help out somebody else, giving them a little boost.

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Kevin: Maybe somebody who's been feeling a little bit down, a little discouraged.

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Kevin: Send them today's episode and let's hope that it will brighten their day.

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Kevin: And with that, I hope you have an amazing day yourself.

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Kevin: I'll see you in our next episode.

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