The Journey to 100: Stories that Shaped Us - Thank You

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I'm Matt Gilhooly, and this is The Life Shift, candid conversations about the pivotal moments that have changed lives forever.

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Hello everyone, I'm Matt Gilhooly, I am the host of the Life Shift Podcast. And this is just a quick, I think, bonus episode for you right before we hit a special milestone for the Life Shift Podcast tomorrow. And so today is the day before the 100th episode of the Life Shift Podcast. And frankly, I cannot believe that I am here talking about 100 episodes in which I've had the fortune of speaking to such amazing

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inspiring people. I never thought that when I signed up for an elective course in my graduate degree at UF during the pandemic that this podcast would exist and that I would take it farther than the class and people would be reaching out to me to be a part of this journey and that people would be reaching out after listening to episodes and talking about my hosting abilities, talking about the stories that were shared. I

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just could not imagine this and I'm so thankful and humbled and excited to see what comes next. As we're listening to this, as episode 100 comes out tomorrow, I've already recorded 113. So there's a lot more coming and let you in on a little secret. I get a little nervous or a little.

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I feel bad because I'm so far ahead in recording that sometimes guests have to wait a few months. So if you're someone that had to wait a few months for your episode to come out, I do apologize. I hope that when it came out, you felt good about our conversation. All of you have changed me in some way. There's been a few episodes in which my own personal experience, which is really the reason the Life Shift podcast exists, in those episodes, my...

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journey was validated and the feelings that I had during my grieving process, losing my mom and then how I reacted when my grandmother died and other situations, they were validated through your stories, through the guest stories that came onto the show, not really knowing me in a lot of cases and sharing something deeply personal. And so thank you. I'm super.

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I'm super honored and I just, I don't know what other words to use in this case. And I just wanted to celebrate this moment and let you know that tomorrow's episode is going to be another one that will inspire you. What I've really learned throughout this process is that we have so much more in common than we have different from each other. The reactions that we have to experience is the things that we really want, the way that we get through things, the way we reflect back on things.

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And I kind of like put together a little list of like some of the commonalities that I've seen throughout the stories. A lot of them are about, you know, the importance of like taking risks and like trusting yourself and seeing the personal growth that comes from it and looking at the things that were maybe mistakes and not as failures, but as learning experiences for us and the value of kind of stepping outside of our comfort zone. Of course, there's a lot of conversation about self-acceptance and

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authenticity. I know my friend Michelle loves using the word authenticity. That's a joke. She does not love that word. But we all understand what that means. And I think it's probably the word of the year for 2023. But really, it's all about accepting ourselves and just being our true selves. And when I ask a question at the end of the episode, a lot of people will go back to their younger versions of themselves and just tell them to embrace their identity earlier and just lean into that and not...

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face society's expectations, but rather just be you. Definitely talking a lot about the value of community and support and the people around us. And so many people are just thankful for the people that help them along the way. So that's certainly something that will stand out. Of course, based on the name of the show, The Life Shift, we talked a lot about navigating life's challenges and how so many people, when they face something that seems insurmountable.

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how they move through that, whether that's like an emotional thing, whether that's an external thing, whatever that might be. We talked a lot about how people will navigate those challenges. There was a lot of similarities and a lot of it I've already just mentioned, but that was a very common theme across the board just because of the nature of the show. There's a lot of conversations about like reflecting on regret and the past. Not too many people do that, which is wonderful because they realize

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that certain things maybe, I don't know, have had to happen is a good word, but they see there is value in the experience that they had, even if it was a terrible experience and the things that they've learned because of it. My own personal experience, I look back on losing my mom at such a young age and then kind of failing in the grieving process for so many years. I look back at it now and see how many things I've learned because of those struggles.

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And so I think a lot of the guests throughout these last hundred episodes really kind of feel very similar in some of the more negative experiences that they may have had. Fortunately, a lot of people are finding the joy in their purpose in life. There's a lot of episodes that aren't about trauma, that aren't about sad things, but rather finding that fire inside to take a leap, to step outside of the comfort zone, to do things that maybe they wouldn't have done before.

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and seeing how much growth came from that, just entrusting themselves and finding the joy in things that they like to do, want to do, and can do for something that might bring them success, whatever that is defined as. And it goes without saying, I think almost in every episode, we talk about the importance of mental health and seeking out therapy and just finding a resource that works for you. We know that there's not one way to do things here.

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me myself, I kind of, I think I went through five or six therapists until I found the one that really worked for me. And so it's just a process and it's something that I think we need to make more normalized and realize that it's just another tool to help us through things. And so those are some of the things that I reflect back on and can't believe here I am starting this podcast in March of 2022, celebrating the hundredth episode on December 12th, 2023. Like how did that happen?

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and knowing that I have enough episodes already recorded plus scheduled to get me through the first quarter of 2024, it's just amazing and I'm so, so thankful. So thank you for coming on this journey with me. Thank you for supporting me by listening, sharing those episodes, posting, reposting, all sorts of things. It's been such a great journey. I also have a Patreon. I hit a milestone.

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30 subscribers to the Patreon and for some of you listening, you might think, oh, it's only 30. But 30 is a lot for me to know that 30 people, and hopefully more, are taking their hard earned money and contributing to helping me build this show. As I said before, I'm doing it all. So it's all on me to kind of get this show out there and there's not much in like ad revenue and those kinds of things that you might see in other more traditional media spaces. And so.

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Thank you for the support. If you wanna join in on the Patreon, that's just patreon.com slash the Life Shift podcast, and you can see all sorts of stuff there. I won't push it too hard, but any support that you can give, whether that's sharing or directly supporting the show, I'm just so thankful for. So here's to another hundred. I hope you enjoy tomorrow's episode with Justin Moore, talking about his journey and his Life Shift moments. Thank you again, and we'll see you shortly.

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For more information, please visit www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com