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Welcome to Daily Dose of Folk.
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I'm Phyllis Nichols and I'm glad you're here.
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First of all, I wanna just share that today,
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this episode that I'm recording right now
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that you're listening to,
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is the 300th episode of the Daily Dose of Hope.
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And nobody's probably more surprised than I am
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So if you've been here for a while listening,
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I wanna thank you for your support
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and for being part of this.
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And, or if this is the first time,
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I'm glad you're here too.
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I'm not sure where this is gonna go or how long
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I'm gonna keep going.
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I'm gonna keep going for a while.
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But I feel like getting to 300
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was a milestone worth acknowledging.
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And so today I wanna talk about the courage to begin,
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which feels appropriate when hitting a milestone.
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So no matter when you're hearing this,
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I want you to know that you have more courage
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and resilience than you think.
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You know, we often underestimate what we can do
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and what we can accomplish
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and how we can impact our personal world
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and our daily lives.
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It requires courage,
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but not the big dramatic kind of courage
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that we see like in action movies
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or people that run into fires or, you know,
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it's the everyday kind of courage.
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Like the courage to try, the courage to start,
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the courage to move forward,
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even when you don't have all the answers.
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Every meaningful change begins with someone
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deciding to take the first step.
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And maybe that's someone is you.
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You don't have to fix everything.
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You don't have to know every answer.
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You don't have to even be 100% certain.
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You just have to start
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because once you start moving,
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something powerful happens.
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Hope begins to move with you.
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You begin to see new options or opportunities.
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You find a resource that's helpful
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or a potential solution that feels right.
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Or you run into somebody else
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who's been on that path
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and can show you the way or wants to join you.
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You know, years ago I read a book called The Courage to Start.
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It was written by John Bingham.
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He was a middle-aged guy, I think out of shape,
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who started running.
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And well, to hear him tell it,
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he started jogging, slash walking, slash waddling.
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I think he referred to himself as the penguin
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because he caught his reflection one day
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and was like, oh my gosh,
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I just sort of waddle when I'm running.
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But the most important part of the whole story
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He was showing up for himself.
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And he was doing something that was hard
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and something he wasn't very good at.
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Something that was uncomfortable.
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I think of that story often when I'm facing something hard
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or maybe just facing something I don't wanna do.
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Something that I'm not good at
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or something that's gonna make me a little uncomfortable.
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Sometimes the energy we spend avoiding,
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what we need to do is so much worse
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than just taking some action.
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If you've got something hard to face
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or something uncomfortable that keeps shifting
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from today's to-do list to tomorrow's to-do list
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to next week's to-do list,
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maybe this is the day that you can find the courage to start.
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You don't have to have everything figured out.
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You just need to keep moving forward.
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This podcast is part of the Sound Advice FM Network.
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Sound Advice FM, Women's Voices Amplified.