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Hello
and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the

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podcast dedicated to your
pickleball improvement.

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It's the podcast with you in mind.

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I am your host for this
weekly podcast, Tony Roig.

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It's a pleasure to be with you
for the podcast.

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You may hear a little bit
yipping in the background.

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Those are some new puppies that are part
of our family now, and they're pretty

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active in the mornings
while I'm recording this.

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So once in a while, you might hear
a little bit of a background noise.

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That's either Benita or Olivia, figuring
out who's dominant over the other.

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There you go.

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This week's podcast, I want to talk about
a different way of approaching

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distractions, distractions that arise when
we play pickleball, and

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talk about a different way of framing that
that will help you

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do it more constructively, right?

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Do something more productive and
constructive with those things that we

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generally refer to as
distractions when we play.

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I was reminded it during the...

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We were at Nationals for a
couple of weeks now in Arizona.

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We just got back a few days ago.

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And while we were there, we got to play
some pickup games, and we had to deal with

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some adverse conditions, like
the We were fortunate to have a court

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where we were staying,
but the court was oriented where the

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sun in the morning and the sun in the
evening basically were

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directly into your face.

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There was another day that we played,
there was a lot of wind,

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and a couple of the players were...

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Their shots were affected by the wind.

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And so it got me thinking about this idea
of when we play pickleball, we

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do have to face distractions.

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And sometimes those distractions are
wind again or the sun.

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It could be the ball we're playing
with, could be a number of...

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It could be the noise levels
around us, things like that.

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And so when we face
distractions, when we're...

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By definition, a distraction is something
that pulls our attention away from the

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main thing that we're trying to focus on.

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If you're trying to
paint something, and somebody keeps

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tapping your paint brush right on the end,
hard to paint because

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you're distracted by it.

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It's a form of distraction,
physical distraction.

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You could also have mental distraction,
where you're trying to focus on something

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around your house that you're working on,
and you have a lot of other things on your

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mind, so you can't keep your mind on
the thing that you're trying to work on.

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Same thing happens, obviously,
when we play pickleball.

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We're out on the pickleball court,
and we're trying to focus on the shot.

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We're trying to focus on ourselves and
what we need to do better the next

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rally and things like that.

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But we're distracted
by a number of things.

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And so,
how do we deal with distractions in a way

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that is more productive for us,
that is more constructive for us?

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And what occurs Our goal first to me is
that we should

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deal with those distractions or approach
those distractions

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as just simply more pieces of the
puzzle that we are working on.

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Think about a pickleball
game rather than as

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some independent activity that we're
trying to or need to solve, or need to win

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or need to figure out as just a puzzle,
just like a crossword puzzle

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or just a puzzle puzzle.

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And we are trying to just navigate the
puzzle and solve it to

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the best of our ability.

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Frankly, the more complex the puzzle is,
oftentimes, the more

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satisfying it is to solve it.

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Imagine trying to do, let's
go back to a puzzle puzzle.

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If you're working on a puzzle puzzle and
it only has 10 pieces to it,

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or even more basic, you could have one of
those puzzles that

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toddlers use that have the wood pieces.

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There's eight of them, and they go into
predetermined slots on a wood board.

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Pretty simple for most
adults to do that, right?

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And not very rewarding
when you complete it.

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Rewarding for the kid, sure,
but not rewarding for the adult.

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Compared that to doing like
a thousand-piece puzzle.

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When you're done with that, it's a pain
sometimes, because you're

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like, Where does this go?

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And I can't figure out
where this piece goes.

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But once you're done, it's a very
rewarding experience because you overcame

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the complicated puzzle that was presented.

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When we think about pickleball as a
puzzle, it allows us to take areas or

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situations that arise that are potentially
distractions otherwise,

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things like the wind.

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I'm going to sit on the wind for a minute.

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But things like the wind and we
look at those as pieces of a puzzle or as

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complexities presented
to us by this puzzle.

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We're actually thankful that we have some
condition that creates a more difficulty

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for us, raises the difficulty for us
because it challenges us some more, and it

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provides us with
more fatter, if you will, for the

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situation that we're having to solve.

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So let's sit on the wind
for a little bit here.

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So when you have a windy day,
The wind's swirling.

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So the wind may be behind you, and then
it's in front of you, and the

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wind's coming from the side.

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That's awesome.

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Because now you need to adjust your
core positioning,

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the amount of energy you enter into, and
the amount of energy you put into the shot

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based on the wind conditions.

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So the wind's in your face,
then in your returning serve, you're going

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to have to take a step back
because the ball is going to go deeper,

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and you're going to have to deliver more
energy into the ball to get your ball

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to go deep, your shot to go deep.

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If the wind swirls around and now it's
behind you and you're returning serve,

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then you may have to take a step in
because now you expect the ball to be

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shorter on its trajectory towards you.

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Then you need to make sure that you
deliver less energy into your shot to

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make sure your ball doesn't go out.

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So that's an example of how
one additional factor, like wind, creates

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more puzzle for you to solve, and also
makes the shot itself more complex.

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One of the players who was playing with us
this week had difficulty with balls that

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that bounce and then came into the body.

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And so what does that do?

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That just creates
another challenge, right?

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Just another hurdle that we have to
overcome, which is we need to

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stay light on our feet before
we get set and hit the shot.

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In other words, we to be ready to move as
the wind moves the ball after it bounces.

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And between the time it bounces, the time
we have to hit it, we need to

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stay more focused on the shot.

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So it's just another challenge for us.

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And I think what that does is it allows us
to shift our perspective away from

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something like, which you hear players say
this, I don't like playing in the wind,

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or I don't like playing in X, right?
Whatever it is.

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Rather than that, you look at
it and you say, You know what?

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This is an interesting challenge for me.

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Maybe this is something that
I'm not comfortable doing.

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It's more difficult for me.

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It's like they added it instead of being
1,000 pieces, now it's 1,200

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pieces, so it's more complex.

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But that's cool.

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That's nice because it
increases the challenge that I face, and

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it makes the game that I'm
playing more interesting.

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And so this idea of solving a puzzle
looking at these

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challenges and potential distractions as
pieces of the puzzle will help you

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generate
more challenge for yourself, but also

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create more It's more rewarding because
you get to work through those as you play.

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And you can take the same concept of the
puzzle, and you can extend it out even to

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things like
playing tricky players, playing players

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who shots you don't know where they're
going to go, unpredictable players.

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Playing, let's say, next rotation,
you have a lober on the court.

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That's just a different
puzzle for you to solve.

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Instead of being like something that you
don't like doing, something that you

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maybe, just try to get the word, that

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you look across, you're

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like, Oh, no, not a lober.

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That's just not what I want.

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Instead of looking at it that
way, say, Okay, a lober, great.

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Now that's another piece of the puzzle.

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What can I do to make my life as
easy as possible when I face a lober?

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You can do the same when
you're facing a banger.

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You can do the same thing when you're
facing a really good dinker,

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a really good third shotter.

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And all of these pieces are just all of
these elements that you're facing, whether

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they be distractions, such as wind, sun,
things like that,

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or challenging opponents or challenging
situations for you, are nothing other than

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pieces of a puzzle or aspects of a puzzle.

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And the more complex the puzzle is,
the more challenging the game that you

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are playing is going to be for you.

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And at the end of the day, is
that not why we play pickleball?

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Do we not play pickleball, at least in
part, because of the challenge that it

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presents to us?

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If it was easy, then you'd
probably grew bored with it.

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I always pick on cornhole Again, no
problem with corn hole itself.

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But corn hole is a static event, where
it's just the

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bean bags are always the same weight,
the holes themselves are only, the

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boards are always a set distance away.

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You always toss from the
same place, things like that.

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So it gets a little bit rote, doesn't it?

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As pickleball, what conditions
are you going to play in today?

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I don't know.
What's the humidity level?

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I live in Florida, and Florida, the
humidity level will

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affect how the ball flies.

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Cj lives up in Lake Tahoe, and in Lake
Tahoe, the balls there fly much farther.

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So altitude, humidity,
wind conditions, sun conditions,

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types of opponents you're playing, all
those different things go into this mix,

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and they create at the end of the day, the
puzzle that is the challenge of the game

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that you're going to currently play
when you're playing pickleball.

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And for yourself, removing the power
that a potential distraction or a

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potentially challenging
situation presents to you

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is helpful to you in terms of your growth
as a human, because you have that power.

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No where you have the ability to,
the agency, as we always say in here,

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the agency to not allow
just objective things like wind or

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lobbying or whatever
to impact you negatively.

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Instead, you make it a challenge.
You make it a puzzle.

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You make it just something that
you are going to

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do your best to solve during the game,
understanding how it impacts the

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solving of that game, the
carrying out of that game.

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Then you work on yourself and you work on
not just working on solving the puzzle,

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working on how you perceive
the input, how you perceive the wind or

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the condition that generally bothers
you, noise and things like that.

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And you turn that around to a growth
experience for yourself

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in terms of solving a puzzle.

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So hopefully that soon, next time you're
facing a potential distraction, or what

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you currently call a distraction, as
opposed to thinking about it more

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positively as a challenge to you
as you continue to solve pickle puzzles

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every time that you're
out there and play pickle.

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If you have a minute, consider rating and
reviewing the podcast, and as always,

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share with your friends, remember, if you
enjoyed the podcast,

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they probably will, too.

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I hope you have a great week, and I'll see
you at the next episode

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of Pickable Therapy.

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Be well.