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Just wanted to let you know that the episode you’re getting ready to listen to had a few audio mess -ups We understand that the microphone is not perfect, especially on Bronson’s audio However, we thought this message was too important not to share. So please excuse us that this audio It’s not great. However, the messaging
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of it is on point. We were really happy with the episode. And so, hey, we are sharing it in its imperfect state. We hope that you’ll enjoy this authenticity and we hope that you love this episode. Thank you for listening and thank you for your support. Hey y ‘all, welcome back to the Y ‘all Are Crazy Ranch podcast. Today we’re gonna be talking about something that I like to call the master blend. We’re gonna be talking about several concepts that I think are gonna be super impactful for your life and just really help things make sense on the way you prioritize and build your life for your family. So, here we are. These are neat lessons and neat illustrations.
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Yeah, they’re ones that I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while So I’m really excited that we finally get to the first one We’re gonna talk about and we’ve titled this podcast the master blend Because you will see on this coffee can that that’s what this says. I have a really cool story about this I actually opened up this jar of coffee beans so that you can smell it I can smell it and it kind of puts us in this mindset of what we’re talking about So I got ready to give a presentation at a retreat that I led last fall and the the title was the coffee bean And I had this jar of coffee beans and I needed carrots and eggs for this illustration Which I had those at home, but I was walking around doing my walk outside and I was collecting rocks and pebbles and sand for a separate illustration and branches like walking around outside with me just
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We’re just walking around we do this all the time and I was just praying about my presentation and Collecting my items. I was getting the rocks out of the driveway scooping up sand putting it in a bag And here comes a branch walking out of the trees Carrying this old coffee can I’ve never seen this coffee can No now granted our kids finds find all kinds of stuff in the woods I mean the people who lived in our house before us left the semi truck And it was just full of stuff, so they come out of the woods a lot with random things Random things so maybe this came out of that semi. Maybe it dropped from heaven I’m not really sure but he comes and he hands me this he’s like here mom and I’m literally Preparing for this presentation where I’m gonna talk about a coffee bean
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And this is Maxwell House, good to the last drop, master blend coffee. I don’t know when this thing was made. It’s been around for a while. I don’t think they make coffee tins with metal anymore.
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Not much.
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No, and so I didn’t even realize this, but I posted a picture and kind of told this story and several of my friends were like, I love that it’s called the master blend. Yeah. I’m like, you’re right, it is. So this says consistent, good to the last drop. Bold, hearty, and exceptionally rich, pure, lively, full -bodied, deep, intense, but not bitter, smooth, and satisfying. So it’s just like every bit of this, it’s just like, just like the Lord.
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Like all of these things describe the Lord. And so, like we talked about on another podcast, when you see God in little things, you see him in everything. And you can’t help but see him in everything because he’s in all things. So, that was a little bit of a deep dive. But, you know, one of our kids was talking about the other day, telling their friend this, of like, their friend was struggling of, you know, how do I know God’s real? And, you know, where did he come from? And he was, this was just a kid on the bus he was talking to. And he’s like, well, we can’t fully understand God or he wouldn’t be God. God is, he had no beginning, he has no end, therefore, he’s God. And we can’t fully understand him or he wouldn’t be.
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Yeah, I thought that was cool that he understands that Yeah, so we’re gonna talk about the coffee bean analogy You and I have both read this before we know the story behind it And I think it’s just a really beautiful concept of how you want to live your life yeah, and the author of the book I think is Damon West and you know his story was he was in prison for a while and Became a coffee bean if you will you’ll talk about what that means But if you have it, I’ve got to listen to him speak it. I was gonna say I thought you heard him You know live got to hear him give the coffee bean speech and it’s a power. It’s a powerful speech I’m sure you can find it on YouTube and he’s got a book called the coffee bean very short easy read Yeah, great concept
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Yeah, so I always bring I like to bring visuals when I speak because I think it helps people really understand And so when I do this, I have a raw I have the coffee beans. I have carrots and I have eggs So think about when life gets hard it gets you down You’re feeling defeated just like this author was when he went to prison. Yeah, right And you think about okay, I Put it in boiling water the boiling water represents life and tough times What does a carrot do when you drop it in hot water? It goes from a hard crunchy carrot to a soft carrot
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And you don’t want boiling water and life to make you soft because when you’re soft, you don’t care. You just go through the motions. You just, you don’t live intentionally. You just make it through. And we don’t want that. Now, when you think about an egg, what happens when you drop an egg into boiling water?
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Yeah, it gets cooked.
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It gets, as our kids would say, cooked. It gets hard. Now I love to eat hard boiled eggs, but I certainly don’t want my heart to get hard when life happens. And that is easy to do. When life gets hard, it’s so easy to shut yourself off, to be like, I never want to trust people again. I don’t want to put myself through that. I don’t want to take the risk because I might get hurt. That’s getting hard.
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And you don’t wanna do that because you’re gonna miss out on so many great things that God has ahead of you if you get hard. What we want to do is be like a coffee bean. What does a coffee bean do when it gets in hot water?
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It changes the water.
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When you think about coffee bean dropping in water, it makes the water fragrant. You want to be around it. It’s smooth, bold, hearty, exceptionally rich. That’s what I wanna be and that’s who I wanna be around. So being a coffee bean means that you’re going to not let the hot water change you. You’re gonna change the hot water.
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And when you think about like this guy, the author, was in prison, well let’s hope none of us ever have to experience that. But we do have to endure hard times and we have to go through hot water, rough water if you will. And it’s so important to not become soft and not care or become hard and put up your walls. But you can be the coffee bean, you can change the water, you can change your environment, your mindset and those around you.
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Yeah, that’s good, you know, because when he was in prison, he talked about, you know, and being a coffee bean in prison and even in life is like you’re changing your environment for the good.
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Yes.
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You know, and not letting the environment or your situation in life at the moment change you.
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You know what I mean? So he’s like in prison. I could have been mad bitter Fuck yes You know cause problems created, you know, maybe committed more crimes in prison whatever But instead he chose to be like a coffee bean and be a positive you know take a positive approach to life and be a positive impact on them his environment and the people around him and Make people want to be around him and see him as different and he’s trying to change You know and when he started living that way eventually got on parole and got let out of prison and now he goes up, you know all over the country speaking and Talking about being a coffee be being a coffee bean.
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Yeah So we have recently become introduced to a pastor. I don’t know if you call my pastor Kent Hovind What would he be a creationist? I think is the correct term
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and he was put in prison and you know, he could have let himself get hard -hearted and he’s an incredibly smart man who teaches on creationism and how God created the world and he got put in prison for like eight years and it was for a tax thing, we won’t go into that.
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But the point of that is, instead of becoming hard or soft, he was a coffee bean in prison, continued to get more doctorates, I don’t know how that’s possible, but it is. He led like 800 people to Christ in prison, wrote countless books in prison and now he’s on the other side of it and he can talk about that, but he allowed God to continue using him even in the worst circumstances.
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Yeah, that’s a pretty incredible story.
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you know getting put into prison and you know whether it was justified or not justified or his sentencing was was very harsh you know somebody even for what he did it should have been a very short sentence but the judge tried to make an example of him but he you know kept a good mindset he’s like man paul was in prison a lot right you know getting persecuted and you know i forget how many books he wrote in prison but it was a lot he wrote a lot and like let 800 men to christ and just made a positive impact while he was there and i mean some of us would like to think that’s what we would do but that’s hard to do it is hard to do that would be hard to do and when you think about paul being in prison and i just was listening to a podcast this week about this too you know paul before he was dra drastically saved
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He was a persecutor of Christians and he literally, that was his goal was to kill Christians. And then he was radically changed on the road to Damascus when God blinded him. And then when he regained his sight, it was like his, he was just radically different. And Joyce Meyer likes to say, once you experience Jesus, you can’t shut up about it. Well, that was him. And he ended up writing the majority of the New Testament. So from someone who was such a bad man to go from being writing most of the New Testament, that is only the Lord drastically and radically changing and saving him.
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So I love that she said that because that’s how she teaches, is just like once you experience Jesus, you don’t wanna be quiet about it. You want to live differently.
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That’s neat. That’s definitely a coffee bean style of life, what Paul had, or what he did.
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Absolutely. So I love this story. I think it’s just such a great illustration and it’s very easy to practically apply to your life of how could I be the coffee bean today? How can I change my environment for the better and be a great example to others of living differently?
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Yeah, I would encourage you to read the book or go listen to Damon’s speech and hear his story. It’s pretty powerful.
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Beautiful. The next thing we’re gonna talk about is one of my favorite stories, not stories, but concepts to teach on rocks, pebbles, and sand.
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It’s a good one and I’ll expand on that later. Oh, it’s kind of heavy so I was talking to you guys about picking up this stuff from our driveway and When branch found that coffee can so this all came from our driveway So I taught this and the women I taught it to at retreat last fall were just like wow We’ve never heard this before and it was life -changing for them We first heard this from a pastor at a church We attended many years ago and he did a demonstration from stage and it’s super powerful So I’m not gonna do the demonstration because it’s actually quite messy Yeah, I did it outside at retreat and on the porch for that reason, but I brought the jar to show you So there’s sand on the bottom and then I did pink beads for the pebbles Just so they show up a little bit more and then I have the large rocks on the top
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So that’s the way that is. Now, we’re gonna start from the beginning of this. When you think about your life and how you wanna build it, you want to put your rocks on the bottom. The rocks are the big things in your life and they are the things that matter the most.
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Your relationship with the Lord, your relationship with your family being that of your husband and your children, your immediate family, and the non -negotiables in your life.
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Those have to be your rocks. The things that are pebbles would be things that matter. They’re smaller than rocks, but they’re not as fine as sand. So the pebbles are gonna be things like your job, your friendships, perhaps your kid’s sports.
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Things that you enjoy doing like hobbies. They’re super important to you. However, they’re not non -negotiables your sand is going to be things that life throws at you and They can’t necessarily be avoided. Let’s say things like taxes I wish I could avoid taxes, but unfortunately, I’m a United States citizen and I can’t do they make me cry every year usually but They’re gonna happen things like grocery shopping.
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Well, you got to eat your family has to eat Bills things that are going to happen You can’t avoid them necessarily However, if you don’t have your rocks firmly in place and you just wake up every day like what’s gonna happen today It’s gonna be like this Wild Wild West. It’s jumbled
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It’s falling through the cracks. It’s a mess. You got rocks everywhere, sand everywhere, pebbles everywhere. It’s just, it’s a wild mess because the rocks were not firmly in place.
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So if I was doing this demonstration for you, I would have an empty jar. I would put the rocks in the bottom. I would pour the pebbles on top. And you would notice that some pebbles do leak through. However, they pretty much set in a new layer on top of the rocks. They do leak through because it’s life. Life’s gonna happen and life’s not perfect. And then if I were to pour the sand on top of the pebbles, once again, it would pretty much set on top, but some’s gonna slide through because it’s life and life happens. However, when your pebbles are firmly in place on the bottom,
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Sorry, your rocks are firmly in place on the bottom. Life is going to make more sense. Life is going to be smoother. Life is going to be better. It’s going to be more fulfilling and you’re not going to be constantly stressed out.
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Well you know and then people ask us sometimes like how do you how do you do everything that you guys do and stuff like that and in that same illustration you know one of them we’ve seen when you’ve got two jars and you’re filling them up right you put your rocks on the bottom your pebbles and then your sand and like everything fits in the jar but if you reverse that order and you put the sand in the bottom and then the pebbles and then your rocks on top every it it kind of overflows and doesn’t fit you know because the pebbles in the sand can work its way between the rocks and make it fit and you can’t do it the other way around and the point of that is if your main priorities in life are
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are taken care of last It doesn’t work, right? But if the main important things in your life your rocks in your life are prioritized Scheduled what have you done first then the other thing that life throws at you, you know You can fit it in later and it kind of works in between the rocks but most people get that backwards and Their priorities actually never get prioritized Yeah, that’s exactly right My sweater I have on today.
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It says make heaven crowded. I got this from eternal light co so Love their sweaters and shirts This is a goal. This should be our main goal Honestly is to get to heaven take our kids with us and take as many people with us as we can That should be a rock in your life
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When that is a rock in your life, it’s gonna change the way you live. Because if your goal is to get to heaven, get your family to heaven, and take as many people as you can with you, it’s gonna make other things not seem so important. It’s gonna help you set your priorities in line of we need to be in church every Sunday. I need to start my day or end my day reading my Bible. I need to prioritize my faith and maybe listen to godly and biblical podcasts each day instead of trashy ones or murder mystery ones and things that just consume your mind but you don’t really learn anything. And I need to read more and I need to do things that are worthwhile. It’s gonna change your mindset.
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Well, yeah, and I think if you’re a Christian, it changes your whole world view. You see things different. You prioritize things different. And not everybody is a Christian.
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So they don’t, they might have a hard time understanding, but like you said, as parents are, I mean, our number one calling in life, number one is for us to get to heaven, right? But number two is to get our kids there. And if you truly think about that and you’re convicted and understand that, then you’re gonna make your daily life choices centered around that goal. You know what I mean?
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Exactly.
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And that means sometimes saying no to certain sports teams or certain sporting events or certain, whatever’s gonna pull you away from that goal in life. You see what I’m saying? And a lot of times we don’t put that as a priority. And it’s a rock, but it gets put in last and therefore it doesn’t get prioritized. And then all of a sudden your kids grow up and leave the house and it’s like.
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Uh -oh, I didn’t raise them in the way that they should go. I didn’t prioritize their faith and their spiritual growth and building them on a firm foundation. And now you’re hoping that they do well as an adult. That’s just not a good strategy.
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Yes, I am currently reading and doing a deep dive instructor course on a book called Mama Bear Apologetics. And it’s really teaching you how to equip your kids to challenge cultures’ lies and replace them with God’s truth and being able to detect what culture’s throwing at you and deflect a lot of it and replace it with what you know to be true. So I am hopeful that I can teach this to our kids as well as to other moms and women who want to do the same thing.
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And you get, I mean.
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Just thinking about this illustration with the rocks and the pebbles and the sand, it applies to every area of your life, if it’s your job, right, and you’ve got certain things that you do at work that are more important than others. And if you need to have a certain number of appointments or go see a certain number of people and stuff like that, but you’re sitting there just checking your email all day, it’s like you’re letting the sand be a priority instead of the rocks. If you need to get another certification or get more education or get a license so you can get a promotion, but you’re sitting there watching your email all the time or just gossiping at work or not getting things done or taking breaks all the time, you’re letting life kind of control and throw you around instead of prioritizing.
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the rocks that need to be prioritized in whatever it is you’re doing.
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Yeah, a good analogy of this is like, sometimes you’re like, you dread the hardest thing you have to do that day, but if you’ll just do that first, I think it’s called eat the frog, is that right?
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Yeah.
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Just do the hardest thing first that you don’t really wanna do and get it out of the way first for the day. Your mind’s the sharpest and once you get that done, you’re gonna be able to focus on other things better because that’s out of the way.
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Yeah, there’s a book called Eat the Frog by Brian, I think it was Brian Tracy that wrote that one. He’s a great author, by the way. I’ve read several of his books, but I would encourage you to read that one. It’s a good one. But people don’t wanna do the hardest thing in their day first. Yeah, it’s –
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Well, and you guys have heard us mention several books coffee bean eat the frog mama bear apologetics we’ve mentioned several and Gosh, we just talked about so much the importance of reading. I had a friend this morning Asked me. How do you have time to read? She’s like you do all these things and have all these kids How do you read but it’s a priority to me and I told her I said, you know for me I think when you read it expands your vocabulary it expands your Capacity to learn it expands the way you retain information. It’s just good all around so once you Realize that reading is important and make it a priority. You have to be intentional, especially at first Then it just becomes a normal and you’re gonna want to read Yeah reading is so important if you think about like just an author writing a book
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And if it’s on a certain topic that you want to learn more about or whatever, I’m not talking about fiction, right? That’s a different thing. But it’s like you’re picking up a book and you’re able to read a lot of times somebody’s life experiences. It might be their whole life’s work. It might be something they learned over a five to 10 year period. But you can pick it up for 10 to 20 bucks and read it in a couple of days and gain five, 10 years worth of valuable knowledge in a short, short period of time. You can learn from their mistakes. You can learn what they’re advising you to do. It’s like, man, that is like so powerful when you think about it.
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Yeah. My first book that I wrote was called Raising a oklahoma grassfed beef Business and Babies. And my mindset was probably a little different then because I was younger.
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I had four children, but I was in the thick of it at that time, so maybe what I write now would be different than what I wrote then, but I wrote it in the thick of it. And so when moms ask me, how do you do both? I can point them to that book, because I wrote it while I was going through it. And so, so much of that can apply to their life when they are trying to raise a family, run a oklahoma grassfed beef business, I can point them to that and be like, I wrote this for women like you who are trying to do what I’ve done. So yeah, I took my life experience and shared it with others.
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Yeah, and somebody in that season of life could pick up that book and learn a lot of valuable lessons.
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You were building a very successful real estate oklahoma grassfed beef business and having a baby every couple years basically all at the same time Yeah, and it can be done. But gosh you do have to be intentional about it Yeah, and then the book I wrote was about insurance like insurance 101 You know as people ask me do I need this do I need that they don’t really teach insurance in school? But it’s something that everybody has to have like their whole life Whether it’s car insurance home insurance health insurance life insurance And so I wrote a book that you know any high school student could pick up and read it It ain’t 70 to 90 pages. I don’t remember. It’s not very very long and it’s gives you a high -level overview of Just different types and what you need and don’t need how it works and it’s like well
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You could pick that up and learn a whole heck of a lot and probably read the whole book in 45 minutes And it took you know, it’s like, you know a decade of oklahoma grassfed beef experience of me You know that just pour into you for 30 minutes true, you know Books are just so so valuable and you know, what’s interesting too. I think I read this in one in a book I think it was I Think it was Andrew Carnegie that kind of like got the libraries like funded back in the early 1900s Don’t quote me on that, but I think that’s who it was And it’s like they wanted to live libraries all around the United States So people would have access to knowledge and learning they could just stop by and check out a book or go there and read one Hmm, and it’s funny because a guy was talking about in today’s world, you know, people just drive right by
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You know, and it’s like all that knowledge and education that you could get is there now We can just buy books and ship them to our house.
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The point is nobody does that either Nobody reads anymore is the main point and it’s like there’s so much value in reading that can change your life for the better Yes We both love paper books, but I will give you a really good free app It’s called Libby and it’s a library app So you do have to have like a library card and you plug it into that and then you can borrow books to either read Electronically or audiobooks so Libby libby.
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Why it’s a great way to read books in a free way Yeah You just gotta get a library card from a local library and then plug it in on the app that your library card number Or whatever and then it’s just you check the books out digitally and then you borrow them for whatever seven days at a time
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It’s a neat concept, but it’s free, because some people are like, well, I don’t want to pay $10, $15 for an audio book if that’s what you want to do. You know, on Audible or whatever, you can do it on Libby for free. So, it’s a good hot tip.
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It is. We’ve given a lot of hot tips in this episode. So, I hope that’s been helpful. This episode’s gone by really fast, but I feel like we’ve talked about a lot. So, we talked about the coffee bean analogy, the rocks, pebbles, and sand illustration. And I hope that this episode just helps you build the life you want and live a life intentionally for what matters most.
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Yeah, I would encourage you to take some time with you and your spouse, or if you’re single, you know, with yourself, and just think about what are my rocks in my life? What is important to me? oklahoma grassfed beef
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what do I wanna accomplish or whatever and just kind of write that out. I would encourage you to write it out. Write out your priorities and then think about what are some things that I like to do that aren’t my rocks but there might be my hobbies like you talked about.
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And that’s important, you need those.
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And write those out and then kind of write in like what is the sand in my life? What is the busy stuff that just takes me off track day after day after day and it’s a whirlwind as some people call it. The whirlwind just blows you around and kind of write that out. And then that gives you kind of your visual and then you can make sure that you start scheduling stuff that is your rocks.
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Yeah and I would also encourage you, we’re recording this in January.
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Think about what you wanna do this year and go ahead and put them on your calendar. Go ahead and sign up for them. Plan ahead for them. For me, I’m gonna do two half marathons and a 10K this year. I’ve already signed up for them. I’m committed, I’ve paid my money, I’m doing it. For my office, we have January through April. It’s already planned out, it’s sent. Everyone knows when the meetings are happening. It’s on my calendar so I know where to be. If you wanna take vacations this year, guess what? All of ours are already planned. We know the weeks we’re going. We know where we’re gonna be. It’s on the schedule, the deposits are down. We know we’re going.
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The thing is this is one of the most powerful lessons I ever learned in life and oklahoma grassfed beef business is what gets scheduled gets done.
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And if you learn to live by a calendar and schedule things and you schedule your rocks like we did That we do all the time. It’s like we scheduled today. Hey 930 on Friday. We’re shooting two podcast episodes, you know, and And then we’re gonna go eat. I’m gonna take my ranch manager We’re gonna go eat a steak for lunch and then at 1 o ‘clock I got some guys coming to the ranch and we’re gonna go shoot guns for like a couple hours You know, that’s kind of my pebbles if you will, you know But we’ve got a run -and -gun tomorrow that I’m gonna do where it’s a four and a half mile race if you will through the woods and the pastures and stuff and you got seven different stations that you’re gonna go shoot targets and the whole race you got to carry your rifle and your pistol and a bunch of ammo and Man, it’s gonna be a blast but all that stuff is scheduled way in advance So that I make sure when life and people are trying to pull me different directions and ask me to want to do different things it’s like
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My priorities are scheduled and I can legitimately say no because I do have a conflict already there, right?
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Yeah, I hope this was helpful. Hopefully you guys can take this apply it to your life Be the coffee bean be the coffee bean.
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Yes prioritize the rocks in your life Schedule it what gets scheduled?
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It’s done Have a great week. See you next time