Choose Your Hard: The Path to Growth and Fulfillment

Tim Pecoraro: 00:00:25

Well, hello and welcome to Blank Pages, the podcast, A podcast for people who appreciate the new beginnings of a clean slate, but strive for the courage, willingness, and curiosity available only on the blank pages of new possibilities.

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It's the potential to move beyond and move forward where people are willing to make new decisions from a fresh perspective and are ready to write in a much better way.

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And the world is waiting and nothing listens better than a blank piece of paper.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:00:58

So, hello, hello, friends, and welcome to another episode.

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I'm so glad that you're here to join me today.

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Man, we're getting towards the end of a season here and end of the year, actually, and I'm loving it.

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It's my favorite time of the year.

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It's getting colder outside, even though we're in the southeast.

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I just wish it would get a lot colder.

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Like my friends up north where I'm from originally, man, they are getting the snow and they're getting all that good cold weather.

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They're not just getting the cold, but they're getting the snow that goes along with it.

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You know, if it's going to be cold, you might as well get some.

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What?

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Some snow, right?

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So that's just at least how I feel.

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So I know I have people that would say, you know what, Tim, keep that to yourself, because we do not want that cold weather, which I understand.

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It's not for everyone.

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It's not for everyone.

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It's all right.

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It's all right.

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It's all right.

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So, hey, guys, listen, I'm so glad that you're here with me today.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:01:54

I do want to just tell you, if you can and you will, I would love for you to like and review the show, follow the show, share the show with other people.

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If you're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify podcast, if you're on Amazon Music, if you're on Audible or Odyssey or substack, just search blank pages.

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Bl, actually, but there'll be no A.

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Take out the vowel, right?

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Take out the A on both words.

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Bl&k, p space, G, E, S.

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You will find the podcast.

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And I do that on purpose because it's very easy to find then.

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And then also, if you want to follow me on social channels, the two that I'm using currently are LinkedIn at that simple.

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Tim Pecoraro.

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T I, M, P E, C O, R, A, R, O.

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Or you can find me on the Instagram, and that is at Tim Pecoraro.

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So the same way at T I, M, P E, C O, R, A R O.

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So if you go to at Tim Pecoraro.

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This is what I think.

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And you'll see on LinkedIn too.

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I've been posting a lot about just this community that I've launched called the Uphill Community.

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If you're a person that is looking to to go and get involved in more than just a course or some sort of just group around just one idea.

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If you're a person that takes serious your personal and professional growth, you want to become a part of a community or a membership group where people are working on their own stuff, they got their own things they're doing, but it's with a framework that's going to guide you and then as you work collaboratively with everyone else and you support one another, challenge one another, we have, there'll be weekly challenges within it.

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We have themes that we start off each month with.

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There are weekly calls where we do Q and A and then we also have weekly pain point which we call office hour times where people are able to log on to work through the stuff that they're working on.

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So there'll be people that are gonna be launching a business, people that are maybe changing their business, people that are people that have retired, people coming out of retirement.

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There are all different folks so far that are in this community.

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st,: 2025

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So actually January 1st, 2nd or 3rd one, I can't remember what the official date is, but come January 1st there will be a message goes out to the community with the first things that will be happening with the event dates and schedule and so forth.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:04:19

But don't wait, don't hesitate, don't just do a New Year's resolution, don't just start with oh, I'm going to join another group or I'm going to go and learn just a program and buy something on another LMS learning management system.

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And you know, courses are great, but what if you could learn in community and what if it's with a framework that's you useful for every area of your life?

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That is what's in the uphill community.

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I promise you it is tried and true.

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Now here's the cool thing.

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It's less than $50 a month to be involved and if you pay annually, there's a hundred dollar discount if you pay an annual.

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So I'm just letting you know now jump on in.

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And this is all online with video.

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Everything has replays built in it.

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You can have everything on your phone.

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It's got Its own app that's dedicated to it.

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It's not cumbersome and clunky and junky.

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You don't have to.

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And then over into another group, into another thing.

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Nope.

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It's all within one location.

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So if you want to join or you're considering joining or you're thinking about, I'm going to just at least check it out.

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Just go check it out.

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It's called the uphill community.

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It's real simple to find.

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Just type in your browser theuphill community.

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That simple.

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The T H E uphill U P H I L L community.

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And you will be able to look there.

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So I'm.

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I'm going to jump into the topic because part of the community and something that we do today's topic is, it's about choosing your hard.

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What you.

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What is going to be hard?

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Things are hard.

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Life is hard.

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Stuff is hard.

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And you can choose the hard.

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You're going to choose hard one way or the other, right?

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So things are hard.

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Life is hard, Things are difficult.

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But what I want people to do is be able to say, look, I'm going to pick the things that are going to be difficult.

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I'm going to pick what I want to be hard.

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I'm going to pick the stuff that, you know, that, that I want to challenge me.

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I want to choose that stuff.

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I don't want to get myself into a situation to where, you know, I have things being, you know, selected for me because I refuse to challenge myself.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:06:32

No, that's not a good idea.

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You know, you want to get to the point where you know that the things that you put yourself in, that these are your choices as much as you can choose.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:06:43

I would prefer to choose my own struggles, my own battles, my own difficult things.

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So choosing your heart.

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So, for instance, it's hard, right?

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It's hard sometimes when you're trying to trim down, maybe adjust your body, you want to.

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You want to be healthier, you want to be more physically fit, you want to build muscle.

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You know, that's hard.

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Hard.

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But I tell you what else is hard, is when you go to the doctor and the doctor says, well, because of this and because of that, you have this issue now, which is going to mean that you're going to have to do something immediate in order to change your life or this will be the next consequence.

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See, that's hard.

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So you can choose the hard.

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All right, so let me just jump right into choosing your heart.

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Okay?

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Life is hard.

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Mark Twain said this.

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Life is hard, but it's harder if you're weak, right?

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That's a hard thing if you're weak.

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Now, I don't know what that means to you, but it means a lot to me.

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I don't want to be weak, meaning I won't challenge myself.

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I won't that I won't grow myself.

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I won't improve myself.

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I won't work on myself.

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So one of the things that we do in the community, the uphill community, is we love and we pride ourselves in doing the hard best, not the easy good.

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And because we call it the uphill community, because if it's worth having, it's uphill.

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And you can't go uphill with downhill habits.

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So here's how I want to kind of get our mind around this conversation today.

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We often avoid challenges, right?

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And seeking.

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We seek comfort.

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But growth is going to lie beyond that comfort zone.

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Growth is going to be what's beyond that.

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So we're going to explore how to choose the right kind of hard, Right?

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That's what I want you to do.

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Choose the right kind of hard to set yourself up for life.

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But in this case, since we're in the end of the year and you're listening to this podcast, so some of you, this is time stamped for December.

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I hope this will be Evergreen.

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But we're in December right now.

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And you can choose your heart any time of your life.

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You could choose it in January, February, March, April, May, June.

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It's never too late to start.

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But as this is coming out towards the end of the year, I want people, instead of trying to choose a New Year's resolution, I want you to start off by thinking about the hard that you're going to choose.

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Choose your hard.

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And that's why I'm launching this community at the beginning of the year, because I want people to go beyond a New Year's resolution.

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I want to help people do more than that.

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And the first thing we're going to do is zero in on what those goals are.

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I call it the horizon.

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We're going to pick the horizon.

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So here's what I want to do.

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I want to start off by getting you to understand this one simple thing, right?

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Is that you get to choose.

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No one can take the power of your choice away.

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So you may not like your options, but you still get to choose.

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So you ready?

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Here we go.

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Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

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So here's what I mean by that.

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I'm going to set it up.

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I'm going to give you a personal Example.

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Something deeply personal for me.

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And just to give you an example of what I've had to choose, because it's hard, right?

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So I had.

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There's an ending.

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I had an ending with a very close friend of mine.

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And then.

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So here's the thing, you know, after a hard ending, you know, with a close friend, the thought that popped up to me was, you know, that was hard.

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Like, man, I'm going through this hard thing, and because of that, it's hard to meet new people, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:10:07

It's so hard.

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So after a hard ending, what I thought was a close friend, it's hard to meet a new person or new friend that I would consider to be close enough to be that good of a friend, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:10:22

That's hard.

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It's hard thinking, man, how am I gonna do that?

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But I'll tell you what else is also hard, is doing life alone.

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That's hard.

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Doing life where I'm weak and I can't get over this thing.

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So I've got to choose a hard though that aligns with my goals.

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Now, remember, I thought I was choosing hard that aligned with my goals, but then I found out that it wasn't.

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So here's the deal.

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You have to let that go.

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I have to realize that.

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That my.

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I'm not aligned with that person.

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So I thought I was aligned.

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I thought we agreed, but you can't control what anyone else does, and that you have to let go of.

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The question is, is what are you going to do with it?

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You know?

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So in that situation, what I learned in this, okay, so I had to look at it and go, what did I learn?

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Because I had to figure out, how am I going to get over this hurdle?

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So what I learned, you know, was this person, or what I.

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What I thought I learned.

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And, well, you know, I thought I knew one thing about them, but what I figured out was they used me.

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They used me to help them succeed, to grow something for them that they could put their name on and be proud of.

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They didn't have the confidence and security in themselves to do it on their own.

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So what they did was they used me.

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My talents, my gifts.

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And there's a couple of other people like that that they used as well.

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But here's the difference.

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I'm a challenger.

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I'm a person that pushes the envelope.

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I will call you into question.

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I will ask you questions.

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They don't like that.

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They want compliant stuff.

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So when it came down to me calling them out on some integrity issues, some character issues, and some Other things that shut them down.

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Now I started to notice it was weird.

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And I kept trying to reconnect and try to connect, but they wouldn't have it.

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They wouldn't do it to the point where.

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And I kept pursuing, because for me, that's what a relationship does.

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You pursue, you try to talk about it.

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I was like, what's wrong?

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What's going on?

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How can we make this better?

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They weren't having anything of it.

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They weren't going to talk about it.

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They continued to avoid, avoid, avoid until they had enough things that they could build up, some other things that they could use as excuses and.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:12:22

But because those weren't going to work, once we had conversations, those excuses weren't going to work.

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So instead they res.

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They.

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They resorted to coming up with a fantastic lie.

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But it was like lying, but not lying.

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And it was very painful.

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It hurt, you know?

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And so what I learned was I had every bit of intention and I had all of the focus to do the friendship and to be close and to do hard best and to work through tough things and.

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But this person, it wasn't going to happen.

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And here's what I learned.

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It's because they were too small.

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They were too small because they want easy good.

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They're too small.

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I've been too small in my life before.

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I've been too small and done easy good.

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What I figured out was this person doesn't want to do the other things.

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They don't want to grow.

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They don't want to play bigger than that.

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They were too small and they were so insecure and they were so afraid.

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They didn't want to be challenged.

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And here's the other thing.

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They felt threatened and overshadowed because a lot of the things that I was challenging them in, it was calling into question their leadership and calling into question what they were doing and how they were going about it.

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That makes a person.

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And then also because of the success that you get when you're doing things with other people, you start to succeed, they get jealous, and people may want to hold you down.

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They don't want you to succeed.

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And that hurt.

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And it made me feel like, you know what I mean?

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Yeah, some people can go, well, just get over it, move on, whatever.

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No, I care about people.

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And when you care about people, you don't just throw things away.

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You work on trying to restore or redeem.

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That should.

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That is always my goal.

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That's how I go at it.

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And if you don't, that's fine.

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But so why I'm telling you, all of this is because that was a hard thing to go through.

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And so now it got me to the point where I'm like, I started looking at other friends going, is that really my friend?

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Is that person really telling me the truth?

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Are they lying to me?

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So that started challenging that stuff, and I started going, wait a minute, I got to stop this.

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And then I didn't want to trust, so I had to stop all of that.

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Because you know what?

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It's hard to go through that kind of thing.

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It's hard to go through the steps that you have to make sure that you're in a good relationship, in the proper relationship.

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Right?

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That's hard.

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But you know what?

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It's also hard to just be alone.

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And I don't want to do that.

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So I choose the hard of doing the relationship.

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I choose the hard of trying to ask the bigger questions as to, you know, what's going on.

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Is this relationship healthy?

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Is it not?

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Where is it going, all of those things?

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Or to even give other people a chance to do relationship with me, to do friendship, right?

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And so of course, you learn a lot about yourself, too.

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You learn those things.

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So why am I bringing that up?

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Because we're going to need to choose hard.

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2025 is going to give you an opportunity.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:15:13

, well,: 2027

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Fall, summer, you always have a new opportunity, a new job, right?

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New things.

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It could be a new skill.

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There's always some sort of opportunity for you to be able to choose the hard.

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So choose your hard.

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You must first understand yourself.

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And this is why I gave you what I learned and what I saw.

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And I learned that I had to go back to identifying my strengths and my own weaknesses.

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So as I'm looking at choosing my hard when it came to relationship, and we're going to go through, I'm going to give you a couple categories that are going to help you choose your heart.

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So here are three things that you must first understand about yourself to choose your hard.

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All right, number one is identify your strengths and weaknesses.

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The second one is reflect on your past experiences.

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Just reflect.

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Don't ruminate.

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Don't camp out in them.

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Reflect on them.

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And then the third is assess your current skills.

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Assess your relational resources, emotional mental resources.

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Just assess those things.

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Look at what you currently are.

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Like, what's your emotional intelligence like?

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In other words, how do you manage yourself?

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How do you process things?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:23

Are you defensive?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:24

Are you reactive?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:25

Like, all these things?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:26

Like, think about that, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:29

So what I want you to do first is I want you to write down three strengths, right, that you have and three areas that you can improve.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:37

Right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:37

That's what I want you to do.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:39

Just as a, as an opportunity to look at being able to choose your hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:44

I want you to understand your strengths and your weaknesses.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:47

So you have to reflect.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:49

And then after you reflect on them, you want to look at your current skills and what are the resources that you have.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:16:54

And then I want you to go, all right, what are my strengths and what are the areas that I can work to improve?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:00

All right.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:02

So to enhance though the choosing your heart in different areas, you're going to have to ask yourself some questions.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:13

And really, to enhance that, to really dig into it, you've got to get into some questions.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:19

You've got to get into asking questions about certain areas of your life.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:23

So there are five areas that we're going to look at really quick.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:28

So the, that you know well for me, these are five important areas.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:33

Now you may come up with your own.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:35

That's great.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:36

You can still choose your hard in anything that it is.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:38

Here's choose your hard, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:40

It's hard to figure out how to get into the day to do the maintenance on your car.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:44

That's hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:45

It's also hard when you don't do the maintenance on your car to have to get your car repaired.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:49

So choose your hard, right.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:51

That's an example, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:52

But let's go a little deeper than that.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:54

How about for personal growth?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:55

This is hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:17:57

Continuous learning and self improvement is hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:00

That is hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:01

But let me tell you what's harder, all right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:03

What's harder is when you're, you're, when you're stagnant and your life is full of regret because you would not learn.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:12

All right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:12

So here's some questions I want you to consider around choosing your hard around personal growth.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:17

Here's question 1.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:19

What areas of your life do you feel you need the personal growth and development?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:23

Ask yourself that.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:25

Question number two.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:27

How have I evolved and how have I grown as an individual in the past year?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:31

Like, what are things that I've done?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:33

How have I improved?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:34

What are, what are things that I know I've gotten better at?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:37

Is there anything that I can measure or mark, can I look at it?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:40

Can I ask some people around me, hey, how have I done?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:43

Who do you work with?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:44

You have a coworker, hey, have I gotten better at this like, or whatever related area?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:48

Just ask some people.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:50

The third question I want to give you is what new skills or knowledge do I want to acquire?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:18:55

Right, because remember, you want to invest into the continuous learning side, the self improvement, not the stagnation and regret.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:02

That's what we're doing in the community.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:03

We're going to help people define those things so they can work on them and then they're going to learn together and grow together and the community.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:10

That's what we're doing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:12

So here's some direction for you around these questions.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:15

You want to reflect on your comfort zone and identify areas where you need to challenge yourself.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:21

So what's a comfort zone in your learning?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:24

Reflect on areas to where you need to challenge yourself.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:26

And then I want you to maybe consider some specific goals for your learning.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:30

A new skill, something new or something to expand your knowledge.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:34

Okay.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:35

That's around personal growth.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:37

The second one is relationships.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:39

Okay, here's what's hard in relationships.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:42

Vulnerability and open communication.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:44

I mean that's for most, not everybody, but it's just vulnerability in certain things and open communication you will run into those issues.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:52

Okay, but here's what's harder.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:55

Loneliness and disconnection.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:19:58

So in this, I want these are some questions to consider as you're finding the hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:04

Right.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:05

That how do my actions impact my relationships with others?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:11

Okay, that's your first question.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:12

Question to consider in this hard around relationships.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:16

Vulnerability, open communication.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:17

That's hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:18

Harder is loneliness and disconnection.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:20

So first one is how do my actions impact my relationships with others?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:26

The second question is what makes me feel most connected to my partner, my close friends, co workers, whatever?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:35

What makes me feel most connected?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:37

That's the question.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:39

And then the third is how can I improve my communication in my relationships?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:45

All right, that's a.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:46

Those are, those are good questions.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:47

They're real simple.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:48

How can I improve my communication and relationships?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:51

So here's the direction I'd like to give to you.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:54

So assess the quality.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:20:56

Right now I want you to think back, take those questions, sit down and assess the quality of your current relationships.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:02

What's the quality of them?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:03

And then identify areas where you can be more vulnerable or improve your communication.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:10

And then I want you to, to consider having open conversations with loved ones about your needs.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:18

Right.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:19

And their needs.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:20

So you want to really do an honest assessment here.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:25

What do my current relationships look like?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:27

I want to identify areas I can be more vulnerable, improve my communication and having open conversations with loved ones.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:35

People that I know love me, care about me, and I want to know about my needs.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:38

I'm going to share my needs with them and they and then find out about theirs.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:41

Okay, Real simple.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:44

So the first one I gave you was personal growth.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:46

Second one's relationships.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:47

Here's one for around career or your work in the fulfillment of it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:50

This is a big one.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:51

Work fulfillment is so important.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:53

And that's one of the things in the community we work on.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:21:55

We work on the whole person being one person that does all the things to be fulfilled in your total life, not just part of it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:02

Okay?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:03

So here's.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:04

This is what's hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:05

Pursuing passion and purpose.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:07

Man, that can be hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:09

But you know what's harder is settling for unfulfilling work.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:15

Just doing what you can just because you have opposable thumbs, you know, just going after the other thing because the other is hard, because you don't want to have rejection again.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:24

You don't want to hear someone say no again.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:26

I mean, man, I get it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:28

But choosing hard is so important when it comes to the getting your head right that your skills and all that stuff and your heart, your passion, your human and getting those aligned.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:40

That's where you're going to feel the flow and the function and you're going to feel that rewarding fulfillment that is so important to your life.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:48

So here's some questions around this.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:52

The first one is, do I find my current work or what I'm doing fulfilling?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:57

That's question one.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:22:59

Yes or no, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:01

Second one is, what work achievements am I most proud of?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:04

What are the things that I do that I'm just really proud of that work?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:08

And then three, this is a.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:09

This is a simple one.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:10

I'm sure you've heard this before, but it's a big one.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:13

If money wasn't an issue, what would my career look like?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:17

What would I do?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:18

What would I step into if money weren't an issue?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:21

Now, don't get into, I know I suck at basketball.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:25

And I'd be my.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:26

If money weren't an issue, my career would be an NBA player.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:28

Because I like the game.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:30

Let's get realistic, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:31

So that's not what we're talking about, all right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:34

We're talking about real skills, real things.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:37

So let me give you some direction.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:39

I want you to evaluate your current job or work satisfaction.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:44

And then I want you to identify aspects of your work that align with your passions and your values or what you value, what do you cherish?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:23:56

And then I want you to consider ways to incorporate more meaningful tasks into your current role.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:04

Or I want you to start exploring other paths and other avenues that better align with your purpose.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:11

It's that simple.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:14

You need to maybe consider stepping in another direction is basically what I'm saying.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:19

So number four, your fourth one that I'm going to give you here, so is around personal wellbeing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:26

So here's what's hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:28

Prioritizing your self care and your mental health, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:33

That's hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:33

Here's what's harder, neglecting yourself to the point of burnout, that's even harder.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:40

So to me that's important.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:42

And here are some questions that you need to consider.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:47

The first question is how do I manage distractions and organize my mental space in my thinking?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:24:54

That's a big one, like what do I do to get this sorted?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:00

Second question is how do I prevent burnout at work?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:04

How do I work on it?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:05

How do I do what's in my control from burning out?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:08

If you're self employed or you're building a business, you're an entrepreneur, you've got to work on putting more of that in your control.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:14

Especially if you got family and you got other things that you do and other priorities.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:18

You also need to maybe include some hobbies that's going to help you with burnout.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:21

But if you're not in control of your schedule or your work, these are things that you may have to do.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:25

You may have to have a conversation with a boss, you have to take a long walk down short hallway and talk about it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:31

And if that's ultimately where you can't get what you need out of your job, which make sure you know it's a mental health issue and just you just want to be at home.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:38

But if you can't get what you want, you may have to look at something different, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:41

These are real things.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:43

So then the third question is what activities make me feel most alive and why?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:49

Not just what makes me feel alive, but you want to know why.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:52

You want to get down to the why of it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:25:54

So I want you to assess your current self care routines and identify areas where you may be neglecting your physical or your mental health.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:26:05

And I want you to consider implementing like new habits, new practices, things that will promote overall well being for you, you, yourself and you, such as exercise, just take a walk, Just a walk.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:26:20

Just you could do a community walk around community, go to a school and walk around their track at a high school, go to a city park, whatever, just walk, go to the mall, walk around a mall, walk around a big shopping plaza, just walk, exercise.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:26:35

You can meditate or you can find a hobby, go to a craft store, Michaels or something, pick up a Hobby, paint, sketch, draw, fish, anything that you can do, Pick up something.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:26:48

So when you address questions like this and you follow, you know, you know some of the direction that I'm trying to give to you, you can, you can help yourself in the decision making process of doing hard, doing the hard things and choosing harder so that you're not doing the, you choosing the hard so you don't end up with the harder and the harder being negative.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:16

And this will lead you to greater personal growth and greater fulfillment in your life.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:21

Right.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:22

So in a review, I mean, how many did I give you?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:24

So I think I gave you.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:26

Yeah, Personal growth, that's one.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:28

Relationships, that's two.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:29

Career fulfillment, that's three.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:31

So I gave you four.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:32

Personal wellbeing, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:34

So as you're doing that, so it wasn't five, there's four of those.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:37

Okay.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:38

I want you to really just get yourself together around that.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:42

So now you want to make a strategy for choosing that hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:45

Here's what you do.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:46

Set some goals, right?

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:48

Set some personal growth goals that's going to help you choose your hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:27:51

Set your wellbeing goals, some career fulfillment goals, some relationship goals that is going to help you in the process of choosing your hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:01

And then I want you to embrace the second thing that you need to do.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:04

This is a strategy.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:05

Set some goals around.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:06

It is embrace the discomfort as a sign of growth.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:10

So here's a strategy.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:11

It's to be prepared to embrace the discomfort anytime you do something like this.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:17

When you go through something that's hard, it's going to generate and create discomfort.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:23

Embrace it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:24

Because that discomfort is a sign that you're growing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:28

The other part of that you want to have when you're going to take this on is you want to seek support from others.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:34

And then you also want to make sure you take time to celebrate right when you do something.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:38

So let's just say you're doing some sort of.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:41

together with people, but in: 2025

Tim Pecoraro: 00:28:51

And so you get on there and you knock out some modules and you know, or you pass the test or whatever, or you, you went to the gathering where you had to do some sort of group project and celebrate that it's not the end of the thing, it's just the thing that you've Done.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:05

That gets you going.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:06

It's generating momentum.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:09

Here's a quote for you.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:11

Often the dis.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:12

The difference between a successful person and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his or her ideas to take a calculated risk and to act.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:31

That's.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:31

That's by Maxwell Maltz, and he has a great book.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:36

And the title slips my mind right now, but I love that quote.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:41

I just.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:41

I love it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:43

And when you do hard, I just.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:46

As I'm wrapping this up, I want you to know that there's more reward than there is where you feel stuck or frustrated.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:55

Remember, life is hard, but it's harder if you're weak.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:58

And if you're not developing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:29:59

That was Mark Twain.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:00

And if you're not developing a muscle, if you're not pushing yourself.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:04

Here's another quote.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:05

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:08

That's Neil, Donald Walls, you, you, Walsh.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:11

You got to push yourself.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:15

And so remember, we're not talking about just putting yourself in chaos or anything.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:21

We're talking about choose your hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:23

Because things are going to be hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:25

They're going to be hard or harder, and you have the ability to make that choice.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:32

So the reward of choosing your hard, the greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but it's in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:50

That was Michelangelo.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:52

Think about that.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:30:55

Setting your aim too low in achieving that mark.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:00

I want you to choose hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:02

I want you to be on purpose.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:04

Choose hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:05

Because by choosing your hard, you set yourself up for the growth that you want, for fulfilling relationships in a sense of purpose.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:15

You got to remember that discomfort or the discomfort of the growth that you're going to have, it's just going to be temporary.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:22

But the rewards, oh, they're lasting.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:26

I mean, they last.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:29

I want you to embrace that call to choose the hard.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:33

Choose the hard best over the easy.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:35

Good.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:36

Choose your hard so you don't end up in the harder.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:39

And like myself, don't give up on a relationship for me.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:43

You may have been burned.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:44

I was burned by a friend.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:46

Burned deeply by a friend.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:47

But that's okay.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:49

I'm not going to quit because I have a different vision.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:52

I'm going to learn, I'm going to grow, I'm going to get better, and I'm going to choose the hard thing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:58

I'm going to choose the hard thing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:31:59

That means I'm going to step back into relationships again.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:02

I'm going to continue to grow those relationships.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:05

I'm going to continue to seek out understanding and clarity and building and growing.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:10

I'm going to continue to be able to sit down and have hard conversations.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:14

I'm going to continue to be one that say or ask for forgiveness or say that I'm sorry and also extend the same to others.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:21

But most importantly, to grow with someone.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:25

And if that's you, I hope that you'll take that step.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:28

Choose your heart.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:29

Choose your heart today.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:30

I know you can do it.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:32

So until next time.

Tim Pecoraro: 00:32:34

We'll talk soon.