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Hello. Hi.

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Today I want to challenge you.

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I want to challenge you[br]to answer a question.

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The good news for you[br]is that this question is actually simple.

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The words in the question[br]are actually simple.

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The bad news is for thousands of years,

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people have been trying to answer[br]this very same question for themselves.

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People have dedicated[br]their lives to this question,

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they fought for this question,

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and sometimes, they had given their lives[br]in defense of this question.

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And the question is this:[br]what does freedom mean to you?

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I'm not talking about like[br]a dictionary definition of freedom.

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I'm not talking about an academic[br]or even an intellectual discussion

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about what freedom is.

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I'm talking about[br]what does it mean to you?

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What does it mean in your own life?

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I know first hand

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that this very question[br]has the potential to change your life

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because it's the exact question[br]that my wife Courtney and I

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asked ourselves three years ago.

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It was a little of an awkward timing[br]for us to be talking about freedom.

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It was the night we brought my daughter[br]Milligan home from the hospital.

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As new parents, we struggled for[br]30,40 minutes, whatever it was,

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to try to get her to go to sleep[br]in her new crib.

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After that, we wandered like zombies[br]out to the kitchen table.

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As we sat down, I turned to her and said,

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"You know, honey, I need[br]to talk to you about something."

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(Laughter)

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Which I've learned,[br]after five years of marriage,

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is that's the most terrible way[br]you can possibly start a conversation.

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(Laughter)

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And I said, "I want to talk[br]to you about freedom."

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You can imagine what her expression was,[br]and what her response was.

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I can't repeat some of it here today.

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But after we started[br]talking more about it,

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we realized that the timing[br]of the situation

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was actually in our favor.

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Because if there was one thing[br]we were lacking at that point in our life,

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it was clarity.

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It was the ability[br]to step back and analyze

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how we were living our life

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and whether that was congruent[br]with what we really wanted.

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It started for us in our financial life.

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Our financial life had degraded,[br]I guess you could say,

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into a simple question.

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And that's, "What item in our apartment[br]do we want to upgrade next?"

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Have you ever had this discussion?

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"Do we need to upgrade the couch,

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or maybe we should save up[br]and get a new kitchen table?"

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"Should we switch location[br]and just get a better apartment,

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or maybe let's just get[br]a flatter TV and call it a day?"

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This was our financial life at that time.

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And then, it should be no surprise[br]on what our debt looked like.

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We were in our young 20s

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and not even counting the tremendous[br]amount of student loans we carried;

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we're 18,000 dollars in consumer debt

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to start off our new marriage[br]and as new parents.

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We had four credit cards,[br]we had store cards,

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we had two automobile loans.

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We had a loan for the jewelry[br]I bought to get married.

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We had a loan from family.

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I used to joke we were collecting loans,

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and that we had one for everything[br]except for our mortgage.

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And guess what? We were house-shopping.

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It was the most hectic time of our lives.

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I'd just started in a new business,[br]I was working 18 hours a week.

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Courtney had just graduated from college,

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she was starting a classroom[br]as a new teacher;

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there couldn't have been[br]a more hectic time in our life.

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And we were shopping for a mortgage?

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This didn't make sense.

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As I stepped back, and I was given[br]that clarity that night

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from bringing Milligan home -

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I saw it was because that was[br]the next item on the script

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that we were living our life by.

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It wasn't a script that we chose.[br]It was a script that chose us.

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It chose us

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because we were unwilling[br]to answer this question for ourselves.

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If you're not willing to answer[br]this question in your life,

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there's somebody, a company,[br]a person, a government, an entity

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that will be more than happy[br]to answer this question for you.

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You'll wake up one day and realize

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that you're living life[br]just based on a script.

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It goes a little something like this,[br]and see if you guys can relate.

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In elementary and middle school,[br]we are taught how to be taught.

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We learn how to learn better.

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But we go on, we go to high-school,[br]where grades start to matter,

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and if you get good grades[br]through high-school,

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you get to have the privilege

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of getting tens of thousands[br]of dollars in debt to go to college.

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In college, you do a lot of stuff,[br]and at the end of college,

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hopefully, you get this degree,[br]this piece of paper,

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and with that comes[br]the promise of job security

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of a steady, decent-paying job.

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After that, with that job,

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you can get an apartment[br]and fill it with stuff.

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If you weren't able[br]to attract a mate in college,

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you surely can now,[br]with your apartment full of stuff.

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Two to three years later,[br]you may have some kids,

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you may get a promotion,[br]upgrade to a house.

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You continue this cycle[br]for the next 30 or 40 years of your life,

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until you reach[br]the promised land, retirement,

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when all your hard work pays off.

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There's nothing[br]inherently wrong with this script

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unless you don't want it.

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We recognized at that kitchen table

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that we were living life[br]based on this default script,

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and we did not want it.

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So we said, "What do we want?"

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That took some time to explore,

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but we figured out[br]that we wanted a clean slate.

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We wanted to wipe away[br]all the crap that was in our life,

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that was in our apartment.

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All of this acquisition of the next thing,[br]the next new version.

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We wanted to just wipe it all away,

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so we were going to sell[br]all our stuff down to two backpacks,

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what we could carry with us.

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We were going to pay off[br]the 18,000 dollars in consumer debt

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that represented our most[br]irresponsible spending,

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and we were going to spend the year[br]backpacking Australia as a young family.

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That was our passionate goal that we set.

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One year later, my wife Courtney[br]took this picture.

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This is me and my daughter Milligan.

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She's three and a half now,[br]she's one in this picture.

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We're sitting on a plane, in the runway[br]in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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The year between the kitchen table[br]and this picture was a tough one.

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We had to analyze a lot of things[br]and look inside at a picture of ourselves

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that wasn't the one[br]we wanted people to see,

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it wasn't the one that we projected.

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We had to change a lot of habits,[br]a lot of beliefs in order to get there,

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but we were able to do it.

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When we boarded this plane,

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we had two backpacks[br]and full of possessions to our name,

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and none of the 18,000 dollars[br]that we started with.

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And we were on our way to Australia.

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From Indianapolis, we head to Chicago,[br]from Chicago to L.A.;

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lay over in LA, we head to Sydney.

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From Sydney, we went up[br]to Cairns, Australia,

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which is a city that is just off[br]the coast of the Great Barrier Reef -

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Twenty-eight consecutive hours[br]of flying with a one-year-old.

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(Laughter)

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I'd show you some pictures[br]of what we looked like when we landed,

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but we made a marital pact

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that no living human[br]would ever see those pictures.

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(Laughter)

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But I will show you[br]one more picture from our travels.

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I'd like to just sit up here[br]and show you a slide-show,

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but I'm just going to show you[br]one more, and it's this one.

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Again, taken by my wife

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who, you can see, is a great photographer.

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This was off the coast of Townsville,[br]three to four weeks into our trip.

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It's a little island[br]called Magnetic Island.

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On Magnetic Island,[br]we were staying at a little B&B

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after taking a ferry to get out there.

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We went on an about 30-minute hike,

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and through the hike, we saw[br]wallabies running across the path,

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a koala, a mum and a baby koala in a tree.

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It was like we were in a movie almost.

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When we got to the top of the hike,

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we looked out over[br]this isolated beach that was private,

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and it just really hit me.

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It's a feeling I hadn't felt before,[br]but it hit me like a ton of bricks.

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I realized that we were living our dream.

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Don't get me wrong,

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there was a long list of things[br]where we had no idea what we were doing,

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even at this point,[br]while traveling, especially with a kid.

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We were still learning and exploring.

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But for better or worse,[br]for the ups and downs,

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we were the ones writing the script;

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we were the ones[br]who were finally in control of our life.

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I realize not everyone in this crowd wants

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to sell their stuff[br]and backpack in Australia.

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That was our definition of freedom[br]three years ago.

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It's even changed now.

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But what I do know is

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that you need to define[br]what freedom looks like in your life,

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and you need to take steps[br]starting today to realize that.

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Where does it start for most people?

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It starts right here, with your crap.

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Look at the crap, it's almost overflowing!

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It's almost overflowing into the cars[br]that are in the driveway.

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Right now, it maybe seems[br]like an extreme example,

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but the more I think about it...

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How many of you have friends

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that have garages, or spare bedrooms,[br]or junk drawers, or closets

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that look not too far away from this?

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It's really not even that extreme.

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It's almost more of the norm.

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But I have a question for you:

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what happens when this person[br]loses their job?

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What happens when they're offered[br]a better job in a different city?

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What happens when they need to adapt

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either physically,[br]emotionally, financially,

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to any situation that comes up in life?

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The answer is at best they're restricted.

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They're held back, they're clogged,[br]they're congested

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from adapting to any sort of change

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because of the amount of crap[br]they've brought into their life.

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But we do have an out;[br]we have a little, neat trick

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that we do if we have to make[br]a transition with all this crap:

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we put it here.

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(Laughter)

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Do you realize we've been creating

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an entire multi billion dollar industry[br]around storing our old crap

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so we can make a transition[br]and buy new crap?

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(Laughter)

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Think about it.

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Right now, there's 2.2 billion[br]square feet of storage space

0:10:07.162,0:10:08.962
in the United States alone.

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This is mind-blowing.

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Every man, woman, and child[br]could stand shoulder-to-shoulder

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just like this,

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under covered storage space[br]if we had to, in the United States.

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So, what's the deal?

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Why are we so obsessed[br]with buying new stuff

0:10:26.722,0:10:30.032
yet so reluctant to hold on[br]to our old stuff?

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How have we bought in to this addiction?

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I think it's because[br]we've been sold a myth.

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The myth is[br]that acquiring things in our life,

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in the pursuit of a living environment[br]filled with things

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is going to grant us security.

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Most of us take it so far even to say[br]it's going to grant us happiness.

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And in the pursuit of these things,[br]we start to identify with our things.

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You can tell who's successful,[br]and who's not.

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You can tell who's hip and who's not.

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You can tell whose garages look like[br]the picture we had before,

0:11:05.230,0:11:06.379
and whose don't.

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So we start to really identify ourselves[br]with our physical things.

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But the truth that we realized,

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and that most people end up waking up[br]and realize at one point in their life

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is that more stuff, and certainly,[br]more crap in your life,

0:11:22.490,0:11:24.559
isn't going to grant you security,

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and it's certainly[br]not going to grant you happiness.

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In fact, we found[br]the exact opposite to be true.

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As Courtney and I went to sell[br]layers and layers of our stuff,

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as we were planning to go on this trip,

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I'm often asked a common question,[br]and that question is,

0:11:39.680,0:11:42.399
"Did you guys sell anything[br]that you regret?",

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"Did you ever sell anything[br]that you had to buy back?",

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or, "Did you ever sell anything[br]you were just disappointed,

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and you had to get back?"

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And every time I'm asked this question[br]when I get to share my story,

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I try to genuinely think about it.

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I'm even thinking about it right now.

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And the answer is always the same, "No."

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Not a single item.

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Not a single time that I sold something,

0:12:04.815,0:12:07.016
and I'd be like, "Man,[br]I regret that decision."

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Not a single time that I sold an item,[br]I'd go, "I feel so insecure right now."

0:12:11.585,0:12:13.255
(Laughter)

0:12:13.442,0:12:15.201
It was the opposite.

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As we sold layers[br]of our crap, we realized,

0:12:18.302,0:12:21.152
and we felt the weight[br]being lifted off of us.

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We felt more flexible, more agile,

0:12:24.431,0:12:26.700
easier to bounce back[br]from anything negative

0:12:26.701,0:12:28.510
that was going to come into our life.

0:12:28.511,0:12:31.211
We were more free[br]to capitalize on opportunity.

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We weren't held back[br]by our physical possessions any longer.

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Not only that but we started[br]to look at other people

0:12:41.009,0:12:45.679
and realized that these people's identity[br]is not based on their stuff.

0:12:46.166,0:12:49.206
Their identity should be based[br]on their experiences.

0:12:49.945,0:12:52.654
It's not about collecting[br]expensive stuff or nice stuff,

0:12:52.655,0:12:55.625
it should be about[br]collecting rich experiences.

0:12:56.374,0:12:59.113
We should identify with people[br]and identify with ourselves

0:12:59.114,0:13:02.594
based on a series of experiences[br]in our life, not what we own.

0:13:04.677,0:13:08.136
But I want to talk to you a little more[br]about the American dream as well.

0:13:08.137,0:13:10.156
We're all familiar[br]with the American dream,

0:13:10.157,0:13:13.236
and it's not even that American anymore,[br]it's all over the world.

0:13:13.237,0:13:15.456
There's this idea[br]that if you work really hard,

0:13:15.457,0:13:18.487
you're able to buy[br]into this fantastic lifestyle.

0:13:18.986,0:13:20.656
That much is still true.

0:13:20.924,0:13:23.023
As much as I've outlined and suggested

0:13:23.024,0:13:27.703
that consumerism is a problem[br]for most of us, and it is,

0:13:27.704,0:13:32.134
if the equation stayed this linear,[br]stayed this simple,

0:13:32.150,0:13:34.629
it would be easy to deal with.

0:13:34.630,0:13:36.759
You want more money, what do you do?

0:13:36.760,0:13:38.529
You buy less.

0:13:38.530,0:13:40.579
You want to switch jobs or work less?

0:13:40.580,0:13:42.099
You buy less.

0:13:42.100,0:13:44.849
Sounds simple, almost too simple.

0:13:44.850,0:13:45.899
And it really is.

0:13:45.900,0:13:49.709
But over the last 20 or 30 years,[br]we've played a little trick on ourselves.

0:13:49.710,0:13:55.290
We've added in a piece to this puzzle[br]that makes it much more vicious.

0:13:57.661,0:14:02.381
We've found a way, that we no longer[br]have to work hard before we buy,

0:14:03.281,0:14:05.520
we no longer have to work[br]for that lifestyle;

0:14:05.521,0:14:07.281
we can just tap right into it.

0:14:08.415,0:14:12.414
And of course, you know[br]what I'm talking about - it's debt.

0:14:12.415,0:14:15.434
So we buy; in order to buy[br]that fabulous lifestyle

0:14:15.435,0:14:17.744
without working for it,[br]we all go into debt.

0:14:17.745,0:14:21.045
We do this at a young age,[br]we do this at an old age - it's the norm.

0:14:21.598,0:14:23.897
Debt has been around[br]for thousands of years

0:14:23.898,0:14:25.317
in some form or another.

0:14:25.318,0:14:28.597
But we've perfected it[br]in the last 20 or 30 years.

0:14:28.598,0:14:30.988
We've perfected the daily use of it.

0:14:31.683,0:14:35.683
We've perfected it[br]for everyday activities.

0:14:38.112,0:14:41.201
What that does is[br]we're out to buying that lifestyle

0:14:41.202,0:14:44.361
and our justification for this[br]- and we're good at justifying it -

0:14:44.362,0:14:48.041
is we're going to be going to work[br]so we'll just buy into this lifestyle now,

0:14:48.042,0:14:50.171
and then we'll pay off[br]our debt, as we work.

0:14:50.172,0:14:52.432
So it keeps us going back to work.

0:14:53.715,0:14:57.434
That would be great if we liked our jobs.

0:14:57.435,0:14:59.764
Most of us don't like our jobs.

0:14:59.765,0:15:02.705
In fact, most of us[br]strongly dislike our jobs.

0:15:03.897,0:15:07.897
We don't have the flexibility to switch[br]because we got into debt.

0:15:08.410,0:15:11.409
Not only we have to pay the bills now,[br]we have to pay our debt.

0:15:11.410,0:15:15.410
So we go back working longer[br]and harder hours at jobs we already hate.

0:15:16.099,0:15:19.598
Is there a better equation[br]for stress on the planet

0:15:19.599,0:15:21.868
than spending the majority[br]of your waking hours

0:15:21.869,0:15:26.148
working a job you hate to pay debt[br]from a buying decision you made years ago?

0:15:26.149,0:15:28.532
It's no wonder we're stressed out.

0:15:28.533,0:15:30.572
It's no wonder we're overworked.

0:15:30.573,0:15:32.583
How do we deal with that stress?

0:15:32.985,0:15:36.984
There's two ways[br]most of us deal with that stress:

0:15:36.985,0:15:41.025
we eat, and we buy.

0:15:41.955,0:15:44.455
We escape the daily grind by buying.

0:15:45.412,0:15:48.951
We deserve it, we work hard.[br]That's how we justify it.

0:15:48.952,0:15:52.571
Some of us buy clothes,[br]some of us buy gadgets,

0:15:52.572,0:15:56.462
most of us buy vacations to warm places[br]just to escape our jobs.

0:15:57.007,0:15:59.406
But we didn't have money[br]in the first place.

0:15:59.407,0:16:00.896
That's why we're in debt.

0:16:00.897,0:16:05.606
So how do we pay for this escape?[br]With more debt.

0:16:05.607,0:16:08.856
And you can see that this is[br]a snowball, it's a cycle

0:16:08.857,0:16:13.627
that has millions of you trapped,[br]millions of us trapped all over the world.

0:16:15.125,0:16:16.424
My message for you today

0:16:16.425,0:16:19.965
is that your life is too important[br]to stay trapped in this cycle.

0:16:20.778,0:16:24.297
Nigel Marsh had a TED talk in Sydney,

0:16:24.298,0:16:27.177
and he summed this up[br]much better than I can.

0:16:27.178,0:16:30.767
He said, "There are thousands[br]and thousands of people out there

0:16:30.768,0:16:33.517
living lives of quiet,[br]screaming desperation

0:16:33.518,0:16:37.417
working long, hard hours,[br]at jobs they hate,

0:16:37.418,0:16:41.247
to buy stuff they don't need[br]to impress people they don't like."

0:16:41.248,0:16:43.157
(Laughter)

0:16:43.158,0:16:45.947
When I first heard him say this[br]in his own TED talk,

0:16:45.948,0:16:47.967
it almost knocked the wind out of me.

0:16:47.968,0:16:51.968
It actually almost hurts to repeat this[br]because it's so true.

0:16:56.035,0:16:57.975
But I want you to imagine.

0:16:58.410,0:17:00.479
Imagine what your life would be like,

0:17:00.480,0:17:02.549
how much more fulfilling[br]your life would be

0:17:02.550,0:17:04.887
if starting today, you made a commitment

0:17:04.890,0:17:08.040
to start collecting experiences[br]and not things.

0:17:11.124,0:17:12.453
I want you to imagine

0:17:12.454,0:17:16.454
how much more opportunity[br]and flexibility would be in your life

0:17:17.971,0:17:21.829
if you removed the stress[br]and the weight of your debt.

0:17:23.406,0:17:25.305
I want us all to sit here and imagine

0:17:25.306,0:17:28.422
how much more[br]an impactful world we would live in

0:17:28.423,0:17:31.842
if each and every one of us[br]got to wake up in the morning

0:17:31.843,0:17:34.552
not because our alarm clock went off

0:17:34.553,0:17:38.382
but because we were excited[br]about dedicating ourselves

0:17:38.383,0:17:41.152
to work we loved,[br]to a job we actually enjoyed,

0:17:41.153,0:17:43.953
to a business that was based[br]on our passions.

0:17:45.480,0:17:49.179
The problem is complex,[br]but the solution is very simple.

0:17:49.180,0:17:53.029
Remove the excess[br]that is holding you back.

0:17:53.030,0:17:54.639
Remove the crap from you life.

0:17:54.640,0:17:57.019
Remove the daily reliance[br]on debt from your life,

0:17:57.020,0:18:01.250
and you'll be more free to start doing[br]work that you actually care about.

0:18:02.483,0:18:05.383
That's the path to security.

0:18:06.144,0:18:10.274
That's the path to happiness.

0:18:11.900,0:18:13.862
One more observation that I have for you:

0:18:13.863,0:18:15.532
do you realize

0:18:15.533,0:18:19.953
that we're the freest people[br]in the history of mankind?

0:18:22.056,0:18:23.915
Do you realize that you walk

0:18:23.916,0:18:27.666
amongst the freest human beings[br]to ever walk the Earth?

0:18:29.214,0:18:31.594
What are you doing with that freedom?

0:18:34.881,0:18:38.761
How are you utilizing this amazing gift[br]that you've been given?

0:18:39.961,0:18:42.201
It starts by answering one question:

0:18:45.024,0:18:47.694
what does freedom look like to you?

0:18:48.110,0:18:49.889
It's the answer to this question,

0:18:49.890,0:18:53.890
your own unique answer to this question[br]that has the power to change your life.

0:18:55.186,0:18:58.235
It's your own unique answer[br]to this very question

0:18:58.236,0:19:02.236
that has the potential to change the world[br]if you'll step up and let it.

0:19:03.830,0:19:08.399
So my challenge for you today is to go out[br]and find your answer to this question

0:19:08.400,0:19:12.400
and when you do,[br]that will be an idea worth sharing.

0:19:13.055,0:19:14.214
Thank you.

0:19:14.215,0:19:15.435
(Applause)