00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:04.957

Kevin Lowe: Today, I'm going to say something that most people in my space would never admit.

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Kevin Lowe: And that is the simple truth that there are days that I just feel like a fraud.

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Kevin Lowe: I host this podcast. I stand on stage talking about personal growth and development,

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Kevin Lowe: about having a positive mindset, about chasing after your dreams and your goals,

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Kevin Lowe: about overcoming the odds.

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Kevin Lowe: And yet, there are days when I struggle to believe my own words.

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Kevin Lowe: If you've ever had that moment when you've been giving advice and yet you turn

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Kevin Lowe: around and you don't follow that advice, or there's moments when you're talking, you're speaking,

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Kevin Lowe: and yet you start to wonder, who's even saying this?

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Kevin Lowe: Because I don't even believe the words that are coming out of my mouth.

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Kevin Lowe: If you've ever had that experience, then my friend, I think you might be able

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Kevin Lowe: to relate to exactly how I was feeling, how I feel certain days.

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Kevin Lowe: Luckily, it's not very often, but when it does happen, it hurts.

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Kevin Lowe: And I thought it was time for us to talk about it. With that said,

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Kevin Lowe: my friend, I welcome you to grit, grace, and inspiration. I am your host,

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Kevin Lowe: Kevin Lowe, a guy who became completely blind almost 22 years ago.

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Kevin Lowe: And yeah, ironically, I'm on a personal mission to shine as much light as I

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Kevin Lowe: can on the world while I'm still here.

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Kevin Lowe: My friend, this is episode 409. It is my absolute honor to have you here with me today.

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Kevin Lowe: So with that said, let's go ahead and dive into today's episode.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I got great grace and inspiration. On my mind

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Kevin Lowe: So here's the truth. Most of the time, I completely am all in on what I'm talking about.

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Kevin Lowe: I believe what I'm saying. It's why I've been doing this podcast for now over

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Kevin Lowe: five years. If I didn't believe it, well, I wouldn't have hung in here this long.

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Kevin Lowe: But the fact is true is that, as you know, not all days are perfect.

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Kevin Lowe: Not all days go the way we hope.

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Kevin Lowe: Some days we just kind of wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

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Kevin Lowe: We have a mindset shift that's not like normal, and it takes a toll on you.

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Kevin Lowe: And that's what happened to me.

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Kevin Lowe: That's what inspired me to record today's episode, thinking that if I deal with

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Kevin Lowe: this, then maybe I'm not the only one.

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Kevin Lowe: Maybe there's somebody else who can relate.

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Kevin Lowe: And on this day that inspired today's episode, I had this time when it hit me,

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Kevin Lowe: where I felt like a fraud, where my mindset was in the gutter.

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Kevin Lowe: I wasn't thinking positive at all.

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Kevin Lowe: I felt like everything I'd been working on was for nothing, wondering why I was even still trying.

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Kevin Lowe: And I couldn't help but think of the irony.

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Kevin Lowe: Here I am hosting this podcast. Here I am getting on stage, being Mr.

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Kevin Lowe: Positive, being Mr. Inspiration. And yet I'm sitting here in my home,

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Kevin Lowe: feeling like all of it's for nothing.

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Kevin Lowe: Feeling like, why am I even doing this? Why am I trying? What is any of it worth?

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Kevin Lowe: Starting to doubt every plan I've been working towards, every dream I've been pursuing.

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Kevin Lowe: And then I had to stop and I had to remind myself, Kevin, it's just a bad day.

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Kevin Lowe: And some days you're just going to have a bad day.

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Kevin Lowe: But don't let one bad day dictate the rest of your life.

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Kevin Lowe: And the truth is, is that maybe you've had one of these days.

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Kevin Lowe: Maybe even it's not even that you just woke up feeling this way,

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Kevin Lowe: but it was one bad thing after another started happening.

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Kevin Lowe: Before you know it, you feel like the day is one giant snowball rolling down

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Kevin Lowe: the mountain, gaining speed, growing bigger as it goes. and you're wondering

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Kevin Lowe: to yourself, what the heck just happened?

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Kevin Lowe: Can I please just go back to bed and start over?

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Kevin Lowe: Or maybe it's a few nights of not enough sleep. That was the case for me.

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Kevin Lowe: It had been, I don't know, three, four nights of just not sleeping well.

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Kevin Lowe: That lack of sleep would prove to be the snowball because that lack of sleep

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Kevin Lowe: started having me questioning my decisions. It led to me feeling disappointed

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Kevin Lowe: over decisions I've made or decisions I didn't make.

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Kevin Lowe: And of course, you know, the worst of all is feeling discouraged over stuff

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Kevin Lowe: that's completely out of my control. And I know it.

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Kevin Lowe: And yet in that moment, while I'm on this downward slope, building speed as

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Kevin Lowe: I'm going, snowball getting bigger, everything just kept compounding into one, compiling.

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Kevin Lowe: And here I am, was supposed to be recording a podcast that day.

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Kevin Lowe: I couldn't do it. I straight up couldn't do it because I couldn't even make myself smile.

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Kevin Lowe: I darn sure couldn't get on this podcast, record something that you would care

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Kevin Lowe: to listen to when I felt like just balling up and sleeping the day away.

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Kevin Lowe: And on this day, yeah, I felt like a fraud.

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Kevin Lowe: I tell you to stay positive. or maybe better said, how could I dare get on the

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Kevin Lowe: microphone, record an episode telling you to be positive,

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Kevin Lowe: telling you to not get weighed down by all this stuff happening in your life,

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Kevin Lowe: but instead to think ahead.

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Kevin Lowe: How can I do that if I was feeling like I was?

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Kevin Lowe: Basically, to be the person handing you the life jacket when myself,

00:06:01.373 --> 00:06:02.953

Kevin Lowe: I can't even tread water.

00:06:03.233 --> 00:06:05.873

Kevin Lowe: I'm sinking deeper and deeper down.

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Kevin Lowe: And yet I'm acting like all is going to be okay.

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Kevin Lowe: And so I knew better than to do anything that day.

00:06:14.493 --> 00:06:19.193

Kevin Lowe: I knew that, you know what? Maybe it's a simple sign that I need a break today.

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Kevin Lowe: As I said, it had been a few nights of not enough sleep.

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Kevin Lowe: Things weren't going well. And so I've learned sometimes we just got to give

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Kevin Lowe: ourselves a little bit of grace, give ourselves a break.

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Kevin Lowe: And I have to wonder, have you ever been in that situation?

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Kevin Lowe: And have you done the same? Or did you push through?

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Kevin Lowe: Maybe it just depends on your personality, who you are, what you know works for you.

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Kevin Lowe: For myself, I just need to give myself some time off, Some time to just spend

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Kevin Lowe: doing nothing, binging a little bit of shows on Apple TV,

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Kevin Lowe: just doing stuff to occupy my time and to keep myself from continuing down this

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Kevin Lowe: rabbit hole of getting deeper and darker with my thoughts.

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Kevin Lowe: If you've been there, then I have to believe you know what I'm talking about.

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Kevin Lowe: And in the aftermath of this day, of course, I had time to reflect on it because

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Kevin Lowe: I'm a guy who's really naturally positive.

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Kevin Lowe: I was lucky enough to be born with that glass half full personality.

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Kevin Lowe: I am grateful for it. And so in the aftermath of this day, I had time to kind

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Kevin Lowe: of sit and reflect on it and to think about why did it hit so hard?

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Kevin Lowe: Why does one bad day, waking up, maybe I'm a little tired, why does that din

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Kevin Lowe: spiral me out of control?

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Kevin Lowe: And I kept coming back to this theme of this gap between our expectations for life and reality.

00:08:03.068 --> 00:08:09.008

Kevin Lowe: If we think about adulthood, I don't know about you, but being an adult doesn't

00:08:09.008 --> 00:08:14.248

Kevin Lowe: look at all like I was led to believe it would feel like, what it would look

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Kevin Lowe: like, what it would be like.

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Kevin Lowe: As a kid growing up, all we want to do is be older. We want to be an adult.

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Kevin Lowe: And let's face it, we were led to believe, even if in our own thoughts and opinions,

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Kevin Lowe: that being an adult is awesome. It's freedom.

00:08:32.388 --> 00:08:36.668

Kevin Lowe: You can go and you can do. You can buy anything you want.

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Kevin Lowe: You get to make the choices. You have no rules. You have no parents guarding

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Kevin Lowe: over you. You get to do what you want.

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Kevin Lowe: And yet, here is the reality. I'm almost 40 years old.

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Kevin Lowe: Where's the wife? Where's the family? Where's the big home?

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Kevin Lowe: That's what I was sold growing up. Was being an adult, you get to have all that.

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Kevin Lowe: But then, of course, life got in the way. My life took me down a road I wasn't

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Kevin Lowe: expecting. No one ever saw coming.

00:09:09.208 --> 00:09:13.088

Kevin Lowe: Health issues, medical complications that I still deal with today.

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Kevin Lowe: And so, therefore, my life today, it doesn't look anything like that picture

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Kevin Lowe: I had in my mind growing up, that idea of what it would be like to be an adult.

00:09:26.704 --> 00:09:33.244

Kevin Lowe: Because what nobody told us, and this is true, whether or not you've had anything

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Kevin Lowe: catastrophic happen in your life, like me becoming blind, having a brain tumor

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Kevin Lowe: that's caused me to have all these complicated medical issues,

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Kevin Lowe: stuff that truly, honestly impacts me, makes life more difficult than even the blindness.

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Kevin Lowe: Regardless whether or not you've had anything like that happen in your life or not.

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Kevin Lowe: Nobody told us that adulthood wasn't all what we had dreamed,

00:10:00.204 --> 00:10:05.104

Kevin Lowe: that there would be days when we feel trapped, when we feel alone,

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Kevin Lowe: and days when we'll wonder what's all it worth.

00:10:10.384 --> 00:10:15.204

Kevin Lowe: Nobody told us that there would be entire seasons where you question every move

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Kevin Lowe: you've ever made. Now, maybe they didn't tell us this stuff for a good reason.

00:10:20.104 --> 00:10:25.744

Kevin Lowe: Maybe at that point, I mean, who the heck would ever want to grow up and pursue any dreams and goals?

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Kevin Lowe: But at the same point, I was left to wonder what happened between then and now,

00:10:33.124 --> 00:10:40.344

Kevin Lowe: between the dreams and the goals, between this idea of what it would be and what it is.

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Kevin Lowe: So in amongst my rambling today, I guess the question remains,

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Kevin Lowe: why do I still do what I do?

00:10:50.064 --> 00:10:55.684

Kevin Lowe: Why do I still get behind this microphone? Why am I finally back in the saddle

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Kevin Lowe: recording this episode today?

00:10:58.024 --> 00:11:02.984

Kevin Lowe: Why am I pursuing getting on stages as an inspirational speaker?

00:11:03.664 --> 00:11:10.604

Kevin Lowe: And that's the simple fact that if we let reality stand in the way of our hopes

00:11:10.604 --> 00:11:13.284

Kevin Lowe: and our dreams, then what is any of it worth?

00:11:13.544 --> 00:11:18.424

Kevin Lowe: I believe that hope is the most powerful thing any of us can possess.

00:11:19.244 --> 00:11:26.944

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I'm sure that you have been through some really tough stuff in life, some really bad times.

00:11:27.264 --> 00:11:32.144

Kevin Lowe: You've been through hell and back. If you don't have hope in something better,

00:11:32.444 --> 00:11:37.824

Kevin Lowe: in something bigger, then I have to wonder, would you ever have gotten out of

00:11:37.824 --> 00:11:39.024

Kevin Lowe: the hole in the first place?

00:11:39.244 --> 00:11:41.984

Kevin Lowe: You have to have hope in something more.

00:11:42.324 --> 00:11:46.724

Kevin Lowe: For myself, I have to have hope that all of it's worth it.

00:11:47.024 --> 00:11:51.364

Kevin Lowe: And on those days when I'm doubting everything, when I feel like a fraud,

00:11:51.624 --> 00:11:56.604

Kevin Lowe: when I feel like a failure in life, It has to be hope that I pull on,

00:11:56.984 --> 00:12:01.604

Kevin Lowe: that I tug on the power of hope to get me out of that dark place.

00:12:02.284 --> 00:12:07.864

Kevin Lowe: And so today, while I sit here on the microphone recording today's episode,

00:12:07.864 --> 00:12:10.604

Kevin Lowe: I'm not pretending that everything is great.

00:12:10.784 --> 00:12:14.664

Kevin Lowe: I'm not pretending that life is easy. No.

00:12:15.184 --> 00:12:20.824

Kevin Lowe: Instead, I'm just here reminding you that there is the power of hope,

00:12:21.004 --> 00:12:26.004

Kevin Lowe: that if we keep plugging, if we keep doing the thing, if we keep showing up.

00:12:27.092 --> 00:12:30.712

Kevin Lowe: That there are better days ahead. I know it.

00:12:31.072 --> 00:12:35.412

Kevin Lowe: I know it in my heart. It's why I keep pursuing my goals and my dreams.

00:12:35.672 --> 00:12:37.832

Kevin Lowe: It's why I encourage you to do the same.

00:12:38.492 --> 00:12:42.752

Kevin Lowe: Because again, if you're in a dark place in life, well, my friend,

00:12:43.032 --> 00:12:47.632

Kevin Lowe: I want you to get out of it as fast as I want to get out of a dark place of mine.

00:12:47.972 --> 00:12:50.192

Kevin Lowe: None of us were meant to stay in the darkness.

00:12:50.612 --> 00:12:52.592

Kevin Lowe: None of us were meant to live in a hole.

00:12:53.052 --> 00:12:57.132

Kevin Lowe: No, we were meant to thrive. And that's what I want for you,

00:12:57.312 --> 00:12:59.232

Kevin Lowe: just as I want the same for myself.

00:12:59.892 --> 00:13:05.132

Kevin Lowe: So to round out today's episode, I just want to remind you that if you ever

00:13:05.132 --> 00:13:11.452

Kevin Lowe: have days when you feel like life isn't going quite right, if you feel like a fraud,

00:13:11.652 --> 00:13:15.312

Kevin Lowe: if you feel like a failure, I want you to know two things.

00:13:15.692 --> 00:13:20.492

Kevin Lowe: First and foremost, you're not alone. By no means are you alone.

00:13:21.112 --> 00:13:24.052

Kevin Lowe: And second of all, it's just one day.

00:13:24.572 --> 00:13:29.012

Kevin Lowe: It's just one season. It's just one little chapter of your life.

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Kevin Lowe: My friend, you will get through this.

00:13:32.112 --> 00:13:35.792

Kevin Lowe: Tomorrow is a brand new day. It's the gift of the morning sunlight,

00:13:35.992 --> 00:13:38.192

Kevin Lowe: signaling a new day has begun.

00:13:38.872 --> 00:13:43.432

Kevin Lowe: If you ever need someone to talk to, please reach out to me.

00:13:43.712 --> 00:13:46.572

Kevin Lowe: I am here for you, however I can be.

00:13:46.752 --> 00:13:52.152

Kevin Lowe: You can find my contact information inside of today's show notes or on my website

00:13:52.152 --> 00:13:55.552

Kevin Lowe: at gritgraceinspiration.com.

00:13:55.812 --> 00:14:01.312

Kevin Lowe: Again, I don't have a big team. So whether you email me, you send me a message

00:14:01.312 --> 00:14:05.192

Kevin Lowe: through the website, send me a message through social media,

00:14:05.192 --> 00:14:07.132

Kevin Lowe: it's me who is responding.

00:14:07.412 --> 00:14:15.452

Kevin Lowe: I have no crazy chatbots or AI robots or even real life secretaries. It's just me.

00:14:15.672 --> 00:14:19.912

Kevin Lowe: So if you message me, just know it's going to be me getting back to you.

00:14:20.352 --> 00:14:23.972

Kevin Lowe: Again, all of that information is in today's show notes.

00:14:24.152 --> 00:14:29.592

Kevin Lowe: My friend, if nothing else, I hope today's episode just gives you a little bit

00:14:29.592 --> 00:14:33.972

Kevin Lowe: of hope that even on the darkest day, there is a brighter tomorrow.

00:14:34.492 --> 00:14:39.072

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. And this, of course, is grit,

00:14:39.332 --> 00:14:40.432

Kevin Lowe: grace, and inspiration.

00:14:40.560 --> 00:15:00.978

Podcast Outro