Wandering with human heart throughout the world…


Polar training in Norway for the journey I am embarking upon today
 
I am very excited to report that I am leaving today for my first (definitely not my last) big polar expedition. I will be skiing 342 miles across the second largest icecap in the world in Greenland. You can find more details about the trip on my home page. While I am away I will be sure to take a lot of pictures and videos to share with all you upon my return. I will also have a whole new set of life experiences and lessons to share after living on an icecap for almost a month. You will be able to track my progress from the west coast to the east coast of Greenland here. Before I leave I want to share with all of you a quote that has inspired me and kept me wandering…
 
“Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar’s gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart throughout the world.”
Carl Jung

Where will your heart take you next?

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10 tips for entrepreneurs to unleash their greatness upon the world

Having just quit my job and embarked upon my life as an entrepreneur, I thought I would share some tips from my experience and from what I have learned through others. The initial transition from employed to self-employed was scary, but exciting. Here are ten tips to get you through that phase and become a full fledged entrepreneur creating a life on your own terms:

Don’t hide from fear, use it
I have often heard people say don’t be afraid, show no fear etc. But fear will be present. It is natural and there is nothing wrong with fear. Anybody who tells you they were not afraid is either lying or is one step further away from self awareness than you and I. As you begin the entrepreneurial journey, take note of your fear. Be present of it and use it to drive you forward. Through fear, you may find inspiration on how to cross a certain bridge or realize the devastating reality of what could happen if you succumb to it. But it’s presence creates awareness. When you feel it, ask yourself what lies on the other side of that fear? When you have your answer, smash through the wall. Drag your fear, bruised and beaten (but still present) to the power that lies beyond it. Remember, “courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” – Meg Cabot

Have a sense of humor and be positive
No matter what happens in your journey, be able to laugh about it. In Iraq, it was a running joke that I would get blown up almost every day. To many, that sounds horrific. But if we didn’t laugh about it, we would only be able to cry about it. Although, that may be an extreme situation, nonetheless the principle applies and I took this lesson with me into my businesses. Laugh about everything, especially when things are going wrong, but learn from it and move forward with a strong positive mindset.

Be Passionate
Your passion will show through in your work. If you love what you are doing, and you believe in your product or service with every inch of your being, it will radiate through your business. When you ooze passion, people want to hear about your business. They want to know what makes you so alive! Passion for your business and for every moment of your life will make the whole journey a fun adventure. Your passion will allow you to enjoy the ride.

Be Real
Know your strengths and weaknesses. Be able to reasonably assess the skills and resources you have. Be real to yourself about every aspect of your business. Lying to yourself about it will only lead to failure. Along with that, be real to others. Authenticity is a treasured commodity, especially in this day and age when there is so much information available in seconds and no one knows whats real and whats fake. Be real when you talk about your business to others because actions speak louder than words. So before you start telling the world how amazing your business is, show it. That will make you more authentic than simply saying it.

Know how to connect with people
I highly recommend the old classic: How To Win Friends and Influence People I considered myself a great people person, but after reading that book, I discovered that I had a lot more to learn. We all do. As an entrepreneur, its up to you to get out there and sell your business to people. You have to not only be comfortable with this, but you have to be good at it. The more that people like you, the more they will be willing to invest in your business. You have to be confident in your ability to talk to people about your business. Get out there and become a networking guru.

Be healthy
Maintaining good health is important in life, so it is important for your business. When you feel good physically, you will feel ready to take on all the challenges of being an entrepreneur. The lessons you learn from the suffering, the pain and the joy of exercise will translate to your business as well. Being physically fit will teach you dedication and discipline. Check out this article for a list of 12 ways that fitness training will make you a better entrepreneur.

Be able to adapt
After my speech at Verizon a few weeks ago, someone asked me what would be the number one skill that I think would lead to success. My answer was the ability to adapt. No matter what life throws at you, you have to adapt, take the lessons from it and move forward. As an entrepreneur, you will have many ups and downs. You cannot stay content during the ups or lose hope during the downs. You must adapt and grow while riding the roller coaster. Be open to change, even when you fear it. No growth can happen without change. Learn how to love it, be with it and adapt to it.

Develop a strong online presence and online marketing skills
In today’s day and age, an online presence and social media skills are a necessity. Your website will be the face of your business. You need to know how to use it and market it to the outside world. That’s where social media comes in as well. Trust me, I used to be very against facebook, twitter, all of it. Until I started to use them to their full advantage and get value out of them. These tools give you a lot of power. Know how to use them.

Take baby steps
It is scary to think about how big you want your business to be. It can be daunting. Your fear will overwhelm you. I used to ask myself, how can I start my own adventure company? There are so many others out there, what makes me think I can even be a player in this field? How can I create the most successful adventure company in the world? There were no answers to these questions. I believed in my power, but the fear still presented itself. To conquer it, take the journey one step at a time. Break it down into all the little action steps you need to take today. Now, I am not worried about where my business will be 5 years from now. I concern myself with the tasks I need to do today. Break your entire journey into small steps and focus on each one while you are on that step. A famous Buddhist quote states that “the greatest effort is not concerned with results.”

Have an unwavering focus, commitment and clarity. Use them to constantly grow
Many people in life say things like I want more money or I want to have a successful company. You must be clear on what exactly you want. How much money? What does success mean to you? Define it and be clear about it. Clarity will give you power. Once you have the clarity, commit to it. Focus on it every day. You must be willing to take the time to read the books, talk to the people who have created success, use all the tools you have in your playbook, including social media. You must be committed to doing it all and to keep growing. When you grow as a person, that will make your business grow. Be committed and stay focused on your dream and everything you want to create in life. What you focus on, you will receive.

As always, if you have any questions or input you would like for me, feel free to contact me. I would love to hear more about your business and/or share any further knowledge I have gained from others and my own life experience. Charge onward and best wishes to you in your entrepreneurial journey.

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Manifesting Success | Leave a comment

10 Reasons to keep a daily journal

While finishing up the final gear checks for my expedition across Greenland, I came across my journal from my last trip to the Himalayas. On every trip, I take a journal to document my thoughts while experiencing the harsh, yet peaceful reality of living in the wilderness. The journal allows me to relive the spiritual journey upon my return to civilization.
Years ago, I began to implement this practice no matter where I am. Although I am still working on doing this on a regular basis, when I do write, I find that keeping a journal in daily life is not only fulfilling, but it boosts productivity and keeps me on track to creating the life I want for myself. So here are ten reasons why I think you should keep a journal every day of your life:

1. Plan
Many of us go through every day without any semblance of a plan on how we intend to create the life we want to live. Sure, there is something to be said about living every day in the moment without any thought of the future. But the fact of the matter remains, there needs to be a balance between the two. If we want to be and live as the greatest version of ourselves, we need a plan. A journal serves as that plan. So write down your future. Map out the journey on paper and see what it takes to get from point A to B.

2. Remember
I use a journal to remember those few moments of brilliance that strike me every once in a while. As soon as something hits me, I write it down. Do that for yourself. You will be surprised how much that serves you. Your journal will become your memory on paper. It will be the place for you to remember every experience, every thought, every encounter. No matter what happens in your life, your journal will be that place where you go back to remember the life you have lived.

3. Immortalize
Immortalize those moments when all is right with the world. Those perfect moments. Mark them down on paper so you know exactly how they felt. What you saw. What you heard. Everything about them. The words you use to describe perfection define your personal ideal. Immortalizing them on paper will allow you to share them with all your future generations. But the journal does not have to be only an account of the amazing. Heaven or hell, the words you write will forever be a testament to your outlook and your perspective. They will serve as lessons to all those you love from now until the end of time. Isn’t it awesome just to imagine yourself being immortalized in history? Why not make it so?

5. Create
Writing a journal is a form of creation. It will create new thoughts, new ideas, new realizations. Your journal will be the real you. Not the you that you have to show to the outside world. It will be the place for you to create and define yourself. These manifestations will shape your external reality once you give them the power to do so. You give them power by writing them down. So create your reality by writing it down on paper and expressing it to the universe. Write down how you will create everything you want and deserve. Do it everyday to plant the dream not only onto paper, but deep into your being. Do it in first person too. So the ideal life is not just a hope for the future. It becomes the now on paper. Soon enough, you will see that the now on paper will become the now in reality.

6. Organize
With one million different thoughts running around in your mind on a regular basis, you need a place to organize them and structure them into something you can act upon. A journal is that place. As an entrepreneur, i constantly have ideas flowing into my head. My journal helps me organize those ideas so they are not just a mess of words floating in space. I create my own success by organizing my thoughts on paper so I have a clear plan of action. To do lists are a form of organization. A journal simply takes that to another level by organizing not just your daily tasks, but every aspect of your being and your doing.

7. Log
Log everything. Whatever you are trying to achieve, log it. Log your workouts, your diet, your successes, your failures, your vacations, everything. By logging it, you will know what you need to improve upon or what you are doing right. It will give you the means to make any necessary changes so that you can fully harness the power that is within you.

8. Relief
Sometimes when everything is going wrong, your journal will be your best friend. It will serve as the source of relief for you to get all the stress, anger and frustration out of you. It will remove it from within you and place it down on the paper in front of you. Your journal will free you from all that negativity. It will be the release so you can express what you need too. You won’t have to hide it or pretend the anger isn’t there. Because it is. Your journal will be the means for you to get it out of you so you can return to your most powerful self.

9. Acknowledge
Your journal will be the place to acknowledge everything you have done and achieved in your life. When you are down and fear or doubt begins to overwhelm you, look back on your journal and see your greatness. A journal acts as the testament to your amazing, powerful and great self. Use it to acknowledge your greatness and build your confidence. Use it to reignite the belief in you!

4. Self Awareness
As you write in your journal, you will find that there are moments when you have stopped thinking and you are just flowing onto the paper as a stream of consciousness. These words will help you discover who you really are and what you really want. Your journal will tell you what made you act a certain way or remind you why you should stop getting caught up in fear or anger. It will show you the insignificance of the little things in life that you sometimes find yourself worrying about. Your journal will remind you of the big picture. It is the manifesto of your life purpose. This will make you and keep you on the path of self awareness. The first step to greatness is being aware. So use this tool to become aware. From there, the possibilities are endless.

10. GROW
I believe the most important reason of all is a look toward the future. Your journal WILL help you grow. It will teach you the lessons you have learned from the past and what you should take with you to the future. It will remind you of the greatness you have found within yourself and within others so that you may apply those principles to manifest your destiny. Take all the reasons above and apply them not just to your own existence but to others who have achieved what you want as well. Use your journal to log the successes of others. Use it to remember how your heroes manifested their dreams. Use it to recreate the power of the men and women who have come before you. Mark their thoughts, ideas and actions down on paper. They will define your formula for success. As cliche as it may sound, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Use your journal as a source for your personal growth and accomplishment based on everything you have learned from your own life experience and the the life experience of others who have found the success you want in your own life. I have discovered that the most value I get out of writing a journal is that it helps me grow as a human being.

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Scuba diving in Puerto Rico

I am on my last day of vacation in Puerto Rico where I am celebrating my freedom. For the first time in my life, I am without any obligations to school, military or a job. I am self employed and living the dream. To revel in this new found freedom, I spent a week in Puerto Rico exploring the El Yunque rainforest, kayaking into the bioluminescent bay and scuba diving on Vieques Island and Fajardo. These are a few pictures from my dives. I used a go pro hero 2 to capture this magnificent world beneath the waves. I will be posting videos from my trip, including a video of a lion fish kill, in the next few days.
 

An underwater forest
 

A stingray swims out from under the sand
 

The dive instructor swims down into the reef
 

The dive instructor swims past this purple underwater tree
 
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7 Principles to Living a Successful Life. Part 2

On my last entry, I briefly mentioned the 7 principles to live by in order to manifest success. I created these based on my life experience and I follow them now as I continue to grow. On the previous entry, I left them as only headlines in order to let you define them for yourself and create your own meaning for them. Today, I will share in more detail what I believe to be the value of these 7 principles.

Here are

“The 7 Tenets of the Explorer Ethos:”

Be an empty cup
If you think you know everything, you will never learn anything. Keep your mind open and be curious about everything you see around you. Like a child discovering the world for the first time, ask questions and be curious. When you are open to learning, you will be surprised to see how much you take in and how much you grow.

There is no Plan B, but if plan A fails, adapt to a plan C
Commit yourself entirely to your dreams and your visions. Focus every inch of your being onto the life you want to create. By creating a plan B, you are taking the power away from your plan A. But let’s be real, some times things don’t work out exactly as planned. When that happens, adapt to a plan C. Have the courage to adapt, make changes and take a new path to your destination if you need to. Don’t let one obstacle turn you around. Turn that plan C back into plan A.

The Human Connection
There are almost 7 billion people on the planet. Take advantage of the fact that you are not alone. Make a deep effort to connect with everyone you meet and learn from their wealth of experience. Every single person has something to teach you, even if its what not to do. There is no need to take the journey on your own. It is perfectly okay to seek help and support along the way. The most successful people in the world had someone there to support them. But don’t just take from people, give back as well. Give back and provide that same support and assistance that others have given you. Use the power within you to make the world a better place, because you are not alone it. We are a global community of great and powerful beings. Use what you have within you to serve this community that you are a part of.

The realm of possibility lies in the unknown
Walk far outside of your comfort zone. There, on those fateful frontiers lies your greatness. You only learn and grow when you step away from what you know. The world will then open itself up to the infinite possibilities available to you. Isn’t it also just a lot more fun when you don’t know what’s coming? When you don’t have every second of your life mapped out? Isn’t it exciting wondering what could be around the next turn?

Remind yourself of your overarching purpose
There will always be moments when everything seems lost and you feel like things could not get any worse. Especially during those difficult times, it is vital to remind yourself of your overarching purpose on earth. Define your purpose and take it everywhere with you. Stick up post it notes, put pictures all over your walls, write down a daily reminder. Do whatever it takes for you, but remind yourself constantly of your grand purpose on this planet. Being your best self everyday requires some regular encouragement. The vision has to be implanted far below the conscious mind and deep into the subconscious.

Adversity and suffering build character
Helen Keller put it better than I can: “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” The best of humanity is usually revealed during our darkest hours. Our courage is revealed during those moments of “trial and suffering.” Through these moments, we build in ourselves a confidence, resiliency and adaptability that will translate to every aspect of our lives. By overcoming adversity, we reveal our greatness and ingrain the realization of it deep within our subconscious.

Celebrate your accomplishments
You cannot unleash the greatness within you unless you believe it is there. Remind yourself and reward yourself for all the amazing things you have done in your life and for the powerful person that you are because of them. Celebrate all your accomplishments and use them to push you forward. Because as Steve Jobs said “if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” Begin by acknowledging all your accomplishments to yourself. These past successes will build in you the belief that you are capable of everything you want out of life. They will push you forward. Know and believe that you have the power!

Posted in Manifesting Success | 3 Comments

7 Principles to Living a Successful Life. Part 1

After 27 years of having experienced a roller coaster of a life in 6 of the 7 continents and engaging my fears through various pursuits, I have created these 7 principles to guide me as I continue my journey through life. My intention here is for them to serve as a valuable guide for you as well. A guide for you to use every day to experience your greatness.

Yesterday, I shared what I believe to be the definition of an explorer. Based on the understanding that we are all explorers, I have labeled these principles:

“The 7 tenets of the explorer ethos”
 
 
Be an empty cup

There is no Plan B, but if plan A fails, adapt to a plan C

The Human Connection

The realm of possibility lies in the unknown

Remind yourself of your overarching purpose

Adversity and suffering build character

Celebrate your accomplishments

 
I have intentionally left these vague to let you ponder them and take what you want out of them yourself before I leave you with my own interpretations of each one of these principles. Tomorrow, I will go into more details of what each one of these mean for me and how I use them with intention to manifest my reality.

Posted in Manifesting Success | 2 Comments

What does the word “explorer” mean to you?

When you hear the word “explorer” what comes to mind?
Take a minute to think about it. Close your eyes. Whose faces appear? Who has earned that title? Have you?

Many people I have encountered, either online or in person, define an explorer as someone who ventures into unknown and untouched parts of the world. The names that come to mind are the great explorers of the past: Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo or Amerigo Vespucci, among others.
By that definition, there are only a handful of explorers left today. Since most of the world has been etched onto a map, what remains for the rest of us? Can we still be explorers?

After posing all these questions to you, I will share what I believe to be the answers. The first and most important one being an unequivocal yes. We are all meant to be explorers.
I believe an explorer is a person who explores the untouched part of their spirit, not just some physical location on a map. By that definition every single one of us has the potential to be an explorer.

Yet, many of us spend our entire lives sheltered by our own comfort zone. Rarely venturing out of it to experience our greatness, life becomes predictable and it passes us by.

Then there are those who continuously journey into the unknown, no matter what field they work in. Whether it be business, mountaineering, teaching or any other life pursuit, some people chose to continuously explore their own frontiers. They make an effort to test themselves mentally, physically and spiritually. To dig deep into their own soul and see what they find. These men and women embody the word. Explorer.

Steve Jobs once said “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

He repeatedly tried new things and ventured away from the known and the comfortable to do “something wonderful.” As a result, he also once said “I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

As an adventurer, every day I read stories about others who redefine the limits of human endurance on new mountaineering routes, ultramarathons or expeditions to the poles. These men and women tend to be characterized as explorers by the rest of society. But I am here to tell you that they are not the only ones. We all are!

The dictionary defines explorer as “a person who investigates unknown regions.” I believe those unknown regions are within us. They lie in our hearts, our minds and our souls. The infinite capacity of the human spirit is and will always be unconquered. The search for it will always be the greatest challenge.

So, are you on the hunt, or are you sitting back and letting life control you?

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Tire Dragging with the elevation training mask

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
- Muhammad Ali
 

 
This was my first experience with the elevation training mask. I used it here on the second level setting which restricts your breathing by 3. I began the session with the highest level of resistance, which restricts breathing by 9, but reduced it after I felt forced to stop every few feet to catch my breath. This is a powerful training tool that I highly recommend just after my first day of using it. But BE CAREFUL! After this session, I went roller skiing with it and got a little dizzy after about an hour. I recovered though and came out stronger than I went in.
Enjoy and train hard motivators!!

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How to become an early riser?

I have finally managed to break myself of my late night habits and create a new habit where I wake up every morning just as the sun rises, so I thought I would share my methods with others who may be struggling with this as well. Don’t worry, it’s a lot easier than you might think. If I can do it, I assure you, anyone can.

Do not think or rationalize The most important part in this whole process for me is NOT THINKING. When your alarm rings in the morning, do not think at all, just get up. This may be easier said than done at first, so when you are first starting out with this, don’t have a plan for the morning the night before. If you have a plan to run, or meditate, or do yoga or whatever you may have in mind the previous night, when that alarm rings, you may just find yourself hitting the snooze button and saying that you will do it later. This has happened to me a lot. Even though I would get that thing done eventually in the day, I did not like that I changed my alarm time and went back to bed. So at first, don’t have a plan, the only thing you need to know is when you hear that sound you get out of bed, you will figure out the rest of your morning once you are up and about. Once you build this habit, its useful to have an overall purpose for the day, that gives you a reason to wake up and seize the day. But at first, creating a plan may lead to thinking about the plan when you wake up, and if waking up is already difficult for you, the last thing you want to do is think about something. You want to just get out of bed. The longer you wait in bed, the more time you have to convince yourself to go back to sleep. For me it took me 1 solid week of consciously rushing out of bed without thinking as soon as I heard the alarm. Deep down, I had a good idea of what I wanted to do with my morning, but I never made a clear plan for it. Now I hear the alarm, sit up, look out the window and calmly get out of bed because the habit has been ingrained in me.

Go to bed earlier. This may sound like an obvious one, but it is nonetheless a hard habit to break if you are not used to it. Readjust your mental clock so when 7:30pm rolls around you tell yourself it is 10:30pm. So whatever time you are used to sleeping, for me it was midnight to 1am, start doing all the things you do at that time 3 hours earlier. Now if its movie night with my wife, we make sure to start it by 7, not 9 or 10. So by the time its 1030, I am in bed ready to sleep. Even if you can’t sleep, get in bed by a set time every night, read if you have to, but get into bed mentally ready to sleep. Once you start waking up early once or twice, you will be surprised how quickly you will fall asleep earlier as well.

Set a fixed wake up time every day Create a balance between your old habits and your new ones. Not everyone has to wake up at 4am, so if you don’t need to wake up that early to get things done, don’t. I have my alarm set for 6:45 every day of the week. That allows me to stay up a little late to get things done, like I have been used to for a long time, but also wake up early enough to get a morning workout in. I work well at night, so I did not want to change my habits to the point where I would need to sleep at 8 to wake up early. I wanted a blend of both habits. Give yourself room to work with and create the schedule the way you want it. Don’t follow other people’s schedules just because it seems impressive to wake up at 4am every morning. Make your routine the way you want it and the way that suits your lifestyle best. It is more important that you wake up the same time every morning than making sure you fall asleep at the same time every night. The falling asleep will take care of itself once you are tired, the more important thing is building the habit of waking up.

Its okay to have one day to sleep in For me Sunday is my sleep in day. I relax and rest in bed till about 9 because I know I have all day to accomplish everything I want to accomplish in the day. Reward yourself for your discipline and take one day off, as long as it’s only one day and not every day.

Be sure to have good reasons for why you want to wake up early If you are doing it just because many people say that’s the way you should live your life, the habit won’t take root. It will break. Any habit or routine has to come from within you. So write down your reasons for why waking up early will be useful for YOU and remind yourself of them. I have labeled my alarm on my phone “today will be the best day of your life.” As soon as I see that, my brain is now programed to just sit up and get out of bed. I see the note and it hits me that today will be a beautiful, amazing day, so I WANT to get out of bed and start the day. Writing reminders for yourself is a very useful way to transform an action into a habit. And once its a habit, the battle is over.

I now love waking up early and seeing the sunrise. I missed a lot of beautiful sunrises in my life. But I have now been able to form a new habit and am getting immense value out of it. In fact I wrote this post early in the morning and watched the sunlight hit my house as I wrote it. Waking up early was worth every minute.

Posted in Productivity | 2 Comments

How Great are you?

Just the other day I ran into this post on Mark Kalch’s blog. He is one of many human beings out there who serve as a source of inspiration to me because he lives his dream. His world is what he makes of it.
His post reminded me of the above video that I like to watch sometimes and even listen to when I run.
A few weeks ago, while skiing across a frozen lake in Norway, I remembered these words from the legend, Muhammad Ali:
“I have wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail. Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick! I’m so mean I make medicine sick! I’m going to show you how great I am!”
The greatest athletes, businessmen and successful people in general use positive affirmations and mental visualizations to inspire themselves and manifest success. Do you?
Take it to another level if you need to. Bask in your own greatness. Revel in your glory. Celebrate your worth. You are great. Write down the reasons why, post them up all over your home and remind yourself every day. There is nothing cocky or arrogant about acknowledging your greatness.
If you want to grow, if you want to shape your world, if you want to create the life you dream of, you have to first believe. Deep down in your soul, you have to know that you can and you will accomplish everything you want in life because you are great.
Whatever dreams you want to actualize, that journey begins with belief. Belief will change your world. Do you believe in you?
I have my moments of doubt, but I know that whether or not I climb mountains, ski across Greenland or reach the North Pole, I am great.
Sinusitis or not, tomorrow I will be up early, strap on my roller skis, and I’m gonna show you how great I am…
Share your own stories of greatness below. I would love to hear all about it.

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