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Well, welcome back to Rising 365.

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I'm Mike Pena and this is a podcast committed to inspiring and supporting others to embrace

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the opportunity to rise with each new day.

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I understand that Rising Daily can be a challenge for many and it has been for myself.

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And I hope that what you hear in these episodes will assist you in rising every day of the

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year.

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And just as a special note, remember I'm no doctor or professional.

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I'm just a guy who spent years struggling to rise.

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But through evaluation of my life and taking the steps, I'm able to rise to the day with

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joy and peace and hope.

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And I hope these episodes help you.

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You know, the other day I was cooking at my house and was cutting some items needing for

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the meal.

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You know, I pulled a knife out and when I went to cut, it was more of a struggle than

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it should have been.

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On the appearance, the knife looked sharp.

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But when it was time to use it, the results were nothing but a dull knife.

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It was like cutting with a butter knife.

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And that's why this episode I have chosen to call Sharpen Your Own Axe.

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So for a little bit of my time in the military, I was a food specialist in the United States

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Coast Guard and it was a great opportunity, great training experience at the beginning

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of my military career.

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What was really cool about it is when we went through culinary school, which is held in

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Petaluma, California, the United States Coast Guard brings in real live culinary chefs from

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San Francisco to be our instructors.

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And the number one thing, once we got done with all the textbooks and classroom things

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when we finally entered the kitchen to cook was the importance of having good, sharp equipment

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when it comes to preparing food.

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Number one, it was for safety.

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It was for the safety of us that if our knives were sharp, we wouldn't have to fight what

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we were preparing so much.

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With a sharp knife, it cuts through things in one motion.

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But when you use something dull, you have to put more force, more effort, and you may

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lose control and slip and cut yourself.

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Then I live on a farm and sometimes we have to cut down trees and cut logs and split wood

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so we use axes.

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And there is definitely a difference between using a sharp axe compared to a dull axe.

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When you have a dull axe, you have to put in so much more effort with each swing, making

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you more tired, and producing less results because the tool you're using, the axe you're

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using, isn't efficient, isn't sharp.

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You know, Abraham Lincoln, he says, give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend

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the first four hours sharpening the axe.

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And that's where we're at.

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Sometimes it's difficult in our lives because we know we want to be somewhere doing something

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at a certain level in our life and we're not there.

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So when we reflect on that, that kind of stuff can bury us.

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But there's things that we can do in order for us to get there.

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You know, Jordan Peterson, he calls it putting yourself together in his 12 rules for life

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book.

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And there's going to be a link for that book in the show notes.

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But it's very similar.

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You have to look at the areas of your life that you want to improve and then you've got

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to start taking the steps to get there.

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You've got to get the training.

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You've got to read the books, watch the videos, go back to school and start taking the little

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steps to get there.

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It's just not going to happen overnight.

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So you must be patient with yourself.

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You know, you have to start with the little things.

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You can go back to some of the previous episodes.

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You can start by cleaning your room.

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Maybe your living situation is just in chaos and nothing's in order.

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The first thing you need to do is get up and get organized, get your room clean, make your

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bed, turn the line on, throw the trash away.

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Then all of a sudden you're going to see, hey, this place is pretty nice and it's pretty

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clean.

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If you've been wearing the same clothes day in and day out, it's time to change and put

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on some nice clothes.

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You got to make healthy choices.

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I just had my annual VA checkup and everything was pretty good.

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My blood work and weight and blood pressure is all good, but there are some blood marks.

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You know, my cholesterol is a little high and that's because I like to eat certain foods.

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My doctor is sitting there saying, you know what, you need to eat more spinach, less red

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meat and more fish and stay away from rice and potatoes and pastas and stuff like that.

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And I know what he's saying to me in order for me to be the most optimal in my health,

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there's choices I need to make and I need to start doing them, being more active, getting

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outside, getting to the gym.

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How many people listening have a gym membership?

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But when was the last time you were actually there?

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There are things out there to help guide you.

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You know, if you've heard of 75 hard, those are 75 days and when you break them down,

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75 days does sound like a long time, but what it is doing is trying to give you these little

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things to help get you into a routine.

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There's even a 75 hard Christian version.

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You know, it's drinking a gallon of water.

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It's being active for 45 minutes, twice a day, one of those active times being outside.

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It's reading a book that will expand your mind.

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It's not reading a novel or a nonfiction book, but it's reading something to help improve

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yourself in an area and in the Christian version, it's reading a chapter out of the Bible.

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There's these things, these little things that if we just did them, it made a routine

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on our life, we will see vast improvements in our lives.

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And it will begin sharpening us.

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The thing is, we will need others to help sharpen us.

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In Proverbs 27, 17, it says as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another person.

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This is the God honest truth.

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We really don't see our flaws clearly.

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No, we know our flaws.

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Someone can see things that we don't see.

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When we have a friend or a spouse who we've given permission to be 100% honest with us,

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they can point out the areas of our lives where we're dull and where there's a few nicks

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and some damage has been done.

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And then with that, we can begin the journey of sharpening those things out of us, honing

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them.

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When you go to sharpen an axe or a culinary knife or a knife of any sort, when you're

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using that honing rock, what's happening is every time you slide the blade across that

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stone, little pieces of imperfection are being chipped away.

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And stroke after stroke, slide after slide, you get stronger.

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And then when you're done sharpening it, you're more efficient and you're capable to do more

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things than you ever thought before.

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That's why it's so important to never settle for where you are in your life.

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If you do achieve a goal, that's great.

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You should be proud of yourself.

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But does it mean you stop?

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Maybe you've reached a retirement age.

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It doesn't mean you're done with life and you just play golf and play bridge with other

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retired people and go on vacation.

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It means, okay, now I have another chapter of my life where I can improve and get sharper

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and still be a part of positive things in the community.

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As soon as you're withdrawn from community and not being a part of something to make

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the lives of other people better, you're going to find a dullness in your life.

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So take it slowly.

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Be patient with yourself, but spend time sharpening your axe.

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Look for areas where you can be as sharp as you possibly can.

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Well thank you for tuning in.

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I hope each episode brings you inspiration to embrace every new day.

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To support this podcast, consider booking me as a speaker for your next conference,

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school assembly, youth event, Bible study, or any special occasion where I can share

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the message of Rising 365.

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To arrange this, simply send me a message or email at rising247365 at gmail.com.

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Additionally, you can support by liking, sharing, and rating the podcast on your preferred listening

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platform.

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You can also join the Rising 365 community on Facebook.

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That link will be in the show notes.

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We'll catch you on the next episode.