December Goals & November Review

Massive strides made on one of the most important areas to improve in my life: I mark November as a win, despite dropping the ball in other areas. December is looking sparse, but significant.

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Fragmentation — Streamline your work space

Recent travels have highlighted how scattered my belongings are, affecting my ability to focus and get work done more effectively. — Making these simple changes have been profound in helping me focus more easily.

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The Quest of Quiet [Solocast 001]

Discovering the “Quest of Quiet” by speaking as honestly and authentically as I can – without filtering or editing. Talking to myself, as if “you” aren’t listening.

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What song is life playing?

Dance is making a comeback in my life. I’m grateful, excited, and I’m trying to “slow down” my attention to focus on what my intuition is sharing with me about life.

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The Call to Solitude

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a call to adventure – inwards towards the heart, full of solitude and introspection.

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Normalizing Who You Are

A recent lesson has been about “normalizing” the things about myself that feel authentic, but are “terrifying” to do or say publicly. The more I do it for myself, by myself, the more “normal” it becomes to my nervous system – and thus becomes easier to do around others.

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Be the Hero of Your Own Story

Sometimes doing the “little” unimportant things lead to the biggest state changes and a shift in presence – where creativity and momentum can thrive.

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DigitalWizardry.co

Digital Wizardry is a new offering to individuals and small businesses that need help building a website or needs support creating and managing an online system – and leveraging the tools needed to get your “voice” out there more effectively and creatively.

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Top 10 Questions for 2020

The “100 Questions” exercise is one of my favorites to start the year off with. These are my “Top 10” questions that help me to understand where my focus is.

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15 Lessons from Venture 15

5 years ago I made a mission to start taking life into my own hand – to change completely by 2020. These are my quick takeaways I’ve been learning to embrace since then!

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Let’s Start. [Video]

Starting is the hardest, but most important part. There are many moments of growth, often unseen and unpredictable, behind a “start” we feel most pulled towards. So, Let’s Start.

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Do You Look At Yourself?

The beliefs you have about your capabilities may not be true anymore. Growth is incremental and if you don’t look at yourself, you may be holding yourself back.

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The June Ultimatum – Walking the Walk

It’s time I “walk the walk” instead of only talking about how I want to live and the changes I want to make. If I haven’t made any tangible progress by the end of June, I’ll be going on a new detour.

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LOKI – The Shadow Self

The Shadow is the part of the self that sneakily holds you back. Mine? Is personified as Loki, the God of Mischief. Applying a (fun) identity to our Shadow can help to communicate with it in a more loving and constructive manner.

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Top 10 Questions of 2019

What are the most important questions in your life? Most of the time we’re always seeking ANSWERS that we don’t look at the questions we’re curious about in the first place.

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Golden Conviction – What Does “That” State Say?

When you seek the possibilities, you invite the “state of gold” that is always there, but lays in wait. And that state of gold reaffirms that I’m both moving in the right direction … and also need to be more fierce in my concentration for life.

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Going to EOL: Burning the Boats

“And just before buying the plane ticket (“burning the boats”), I realized … the whole process of getting TO the event would be a whole grand, likely-transformative and evolving experience in itself. Take out the EOL event and I would still have an experience of growth. — And it was around that time that I started realizing: I need to go, no matter what happens.”

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The 10 Second Tavern

An experiential moment of growth in a battle between the Heart and Resistance. A little “that makes sense” experience to most, but quite substantial micro-experience for someone who has lived on the sidelines for most of their life (aka: me).

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Dance Immersion and THE GAP

Being IMMERSED in dance and shortening the GAP between opportunities of learning, practicing, and dancing WCS has been instrumental for my growth as a dancer — and it’s only going to get better from here on out. In this post I explore the reason why I’m so excited about the Westie PLAYground.

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I’m Not Living a Story Worth Telling … Yet.

I don’t feel like I’m living a “story worth telling yet.” I must have the courage to keep setting my intention and keep putting my vision out their into the world, to keep moving towards that “story,” so that one day I will actually have a story in my wake that’s worth telling. It starts with courage, the audacity to speak up, and the willingness to take that next step when it doesn’t feel “epic” and “worthy.”

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Concentrating My Fire – November and Beyond

“Direction and intention of the website and my core content: — Life as a dancer aspiring to master West Coast Swing, do great things, and be an asset to the world. To document the process of going from weakness to strength, fearful to courageous, and waiting-to-be-picked to choosing-myself. Showcasing one dancer’s journey to “live a story worth telling”, to collaborate with other ambitious souls, and to inspire others to pursue their ambitions.”

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Dark Cave of the Soul

The black, dark cave of my soul does not care about you or anything that is not “us” – the mind, the body, the heart, the soul. It’s the part of my personality that wants me to be completely selfish, so that I can grow, and better contribute back to the world from a place of strength, not of fear and weakness.

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Sep 24 – Sep 30

Week Objective Score: ?% (x/37) (Δ +/-?% from 80%) Day Objective Score: ?% (x/x) (Δ +/-?% from 67%) Intent: x Recap: x Week Objectives [/6] Location Rebel ("Approaching the Danger") > Reply Email & Forum > Content Writing BP > Overcoming Uncertainty BP...

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Staying Within the Fringes

I need to stay within the fringes of my day, otherwise if I push through them – I will likely be less effective and it will have negative impacts on my life until I take a step back and reset.

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Sep 17 – Sep 23 (80w, 68d)

Week Objective Score: 80% (4/5) (Δ +40% from 40%) Day Objective Score: 68% (17/25) (Δ +1% from 67%) Intent: A reminder to myself that I can still do things even if they're not on the Agenda. The Agenda simply states core priorities for that day. I am taking a lighter...

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Sep 10 – Sep 16 (40w, 67d)

Week Objective Score: 40% (2/5) (Δ +2% from 38%) Day Objective Score: 67% (24/36) (Δ -7% from 74%) Intent: getting caught up with video editing, starting or continuing the various 'programs' relevant to my pursuits (Swing Lit, Future Authoring, LR BP), catching up...

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Solemn and Silent

Embrace the silence and darkness – sometimes the “music” that lifts you up can actually hold you down, depending on how you use it.

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Sep 3 – Sep 9 (38w, 74d)

Week Objective Score: 38% (3/8) (Δ n/a) Day Objective Score: 74% (28/38) (Δ n/a) Recap: It ended up being too much to try and keep track of so many micro-commitments. This week overall was a good one, even if by tangible metrics it didn't necessarily feel like it. The...

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Accountability – Intro

This is the beginning of my public accountability project! The gist is simple: Every week by Sunday night I will post the following week's (Mon - Sun) primary goals/objectives (either 1-2 critical goals, or 3-5 important goals). Below that: Each day of the week,...

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The Secret Courtyard of Ambitions (Dream)

Paying attention to my (literal) dreams can provide me with a lot of unique insight and helps me experience certain things in a much shorter time frame. Last night’s lesson: do not be afraid to traverse the shrubbery path and seek the courtyard of ambitions alone.

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Tears of Truth

Why in the world do I seem to get teary eyed when talking to select people? My theory is that tears are a way of the heart or soul trying to express that it finally feels “seen.” Even if it takes other people looking at you, telling you exactly who you are, for you to see yourself.

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Hit Publish, Not Save

Is that “super exciting inspired idea” worth saving? It probably won’t be worth as much a week from now as it would be if I just hit publish today.

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Do You Fear Your Own Echo?

With each added layer of courage, our natural conviction increases and the more intense our “echo” can become. The greater the impact it can have in the world around us, on the people that matter to us, and to the people that need to hear our echoes.

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Follow the Intuitions

When we start doing those little (or big) things that our intuition or heart is encouraging us to do … that’s when we start to experience life.

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The Violet Dawn: Insularity & Fighting Aimlessness

“To avoid aimlessness, you have to stand for something. Don’t allow aimlessness to rob you of years of your life. Act with urgency and diligence today to define your through line and your battles. We need you to act, and we need you to do it now. Run to the battle.” – Todd Henry, in Die Empty

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Tethered

Untethering myself from my distraction, my addiction, although not easy is simple and important. Take off the headset. Close the browser… And look at and focus on what I really want to be doing.

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Put It on the Shelf or Remove the Shelf?

Sometimes having helpful things that can hold our things can be a thing that’s sometimes unhelpful for creating more clutter of things we don’t actually want. Maybe less things that hold things is a thing we should consider.

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“In 5 years…”

As I flipped through the notebook, it was really interesting seeing which challenges “back then” are no longer relevant and how many are still just as much of a challenge today.

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Going All In – How Scary Could It NOT Be? (or Lessons from Gary Vaynerchuk)

I have been trying to find “my thing” for years. My passion. While there have been clues and I’ve recognized it’s one of the things that are important for me, for a long time I have not truly embraced it and gone ALL IN. But as GaryVee shares, it might not actually be as bad, not as scary as you might think to go all in. In fact, you have the capacity to learn that the NEGATIVITY and JUDGEMENT you get for going all in on YOUR THING, and LISTENING TO YOURSELF FIRST … is not so bad. So let’s find out.

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Clinging to Disempowering Facts

There are some things about us that are technically true, but aren’t worth saying. They are the things that give us reason to hold ourselves back and perpetuate a sense of falsehood to our soul. Is it worth repeating what is “fact” at the expense of what is true?

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Shorten the Gap

Whether it’s something big or something silly, each time I do something and #EmbraceTheWeird in any way, the gap between “I have this idea” and “f*ck it” gets shorter and the severity of doing that thing gets less intense.

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What a Teese – Lessons from the Queen of Burlesque

There’s value to be had everywhere, if we’re willing to look past some of our differences. Dita von Teese holds herself with an unmistakable poise and presence. She’s not afraid to be elegant, powerful, nor is she afraid to forge her own path by being different.

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Top 10 Questions of 2018

The exercise, 100 Questions by Leonardo Davinci is designed to get you to think about the questions that are most important to you in your life (at this moment). I’ve found that my direction for the year is almost paralleled by the questions and themes from doing this exercise.

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Keep Cleaning

And now my heart likes things to be clean, so I will do everything I can to keep cleaning, because it’s an ongoing thing and I’m learning to accept that it’ll be something I do forever.

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Never Hesitate to Reset

Whether or not I behaved that way isn’t even relevant anymore. All I want to focus on is today. What can I do today? What does the heart say today? Where am I going to go from today?

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Daily Kylego Effects – 10 Days In

Doing this Kylego exercise every day has been incredibly beneficial. A part of me actually tries to convince myself NOT to do it, because doing it raises my awareness of what I’m actually capable of. And if I don’t do it, then I don’t have to face the music.

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Bright As Night

I’m most effective in the dark, when the world is asleep. These hours seem to be my golden hours, when I’m most productive, most focused, and less likely to be distracted. Most in tune with myself.

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To Find Silence, Invite It In

My default should be all-devices-offline. My phone, computer, laptop, music, fan … all of it. None of it should be operating unless I have a specific thing I need to accomplish.

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Look at the Excitement

Just like that, a hundred things start popping up that I COULD do, that would be MORE productive or effective. It was hard to stay in my meditation much longer, because this new sensation and all these ideas pulled me to get up and do something.

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Chill AF: My New Approach for Progress

Naive and chill for 30 days seems to be working out a lot better than worrying about all this other shit I “should” be doing and giving myself a fucking hard time about it. I’m already more focused, happier, more relaxed, and more productive than I have been in months.

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e-clutter: Becoming Digitally Minimalist

It was getting overwhelming. I was spending all my time “collecting” all of those things and not really doing anything with them! When there’s less clutter in my life, those things that are most important stand out like a lighthouse peeking through the clouds.

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Embrace the Flight: Glimmering Butterfly Project

Through a combination of frustration, discovering a “gap” between who I am and who I could be, and the catalytic combination of a handful of sources, I’ve felt inspired to create the Glimmering Butterfly Project: a personal 30 day quest and challenge for me to step into the guidance of my heart.

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Aggressive Selectivity – What Has Your Attention?

I’ve taken on a mindset of aggressive selectivity with how orderly my physical environment is, what my goals and directions are, and the “inputs” I consume (for advice, or otherwise). It’s created a greater clarity of focus and a calmer sense of being.

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The Fear of Being Noticed

For a long time I was afraid of being noticed or seen. I didn’t want to put my voice out into the world. And it was all because I was afraid of what “you” thought, instead of realizing that my own voice was just as valid as yours.

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The Glimmer of Beautiful People

They exhibit an unmistakable glimmer that’s eye-catching and attractive. They’re authentic. They have this presence that allows them to bring lightness to every interaction they enter and every person they converse with.

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Why Wait?

Simply wanting to do something or feeling like it’s the right thing to do (for myself or for someone else) is the only reason WHY I should do anything. I don’t need permission from anyone but myself. “Just because I want to,” should be my slogan when it comes to embracing the things I want to do in life.

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Top 5 Improvements for Midyear 2017

It’s less important to me about being able to execute these perfectly. It’s more important to me to be able to make conscious choices and take consistent action on a daily basis that will push me towards being stronger at my foundation.

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Failing with My Idealistic Visions – Were They Really Failures?

For a long time I have been tricking myself into believing that my efforts were fruitless because I wasn’t able to create the entire vision that I had. Those pursuits, however, were not fruitless. In fact, some of my most memorable “failures” are actually, in hindsight, some of my best accomplishments.

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The Gatekeeper Mentality

The biggest and most influential Gatekeepers (in my life) are not even real. The worst Gatekeeper in my life is my own set of beliefs.

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#ThroughAnotherLense

I can’t care about what you think. I can’t care because it’s not up to you to dictate what I should and shouldn’t do.

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Be Weird

Being weird is less about trying to “stand out.” It’s more about accepting who we really are, and spending more time and energy around the people that actually accept or admire us for who that is. We’ll never find those people if we keep worrying about what others think.

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Creating the Foundation

Every person that I admire has incredible people around them that support them, challenge them to rise up to the occasion, and are simply a part of a positive atmosphere that promotes love, contribution and success.

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Exploring Spectrums

Our personalities are comprised of different spectrums, but not all of us experience the full depth of that spectrum in order to fully understand who we are.

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Practitioner of Awesome

Nobody is going to give me an awesome life. I have to create it myself. By being a practitioner of awesome. Doing awesome things. In awesome ways.

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Snowy Disposition

I find Snow’s arm on my shoulder and I quickly realize I’m about to become the “example” for the rest of the class. I knew exactly what she’s about to critique.

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Next Best Step

Action allows you to discover the truth of your pursuit and new elements you couldn’t have conceived beforehand.

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Fire and the Fog

I had no idea who I was. I was just fragments of other people. Buried beneath layers of fear and anxiety and shyness.

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Raise Your Standards

Raising your standards is more than just an action you do once. It has to become a way of life, a part of who you are, a belief system.

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The Star Map

“If someone else read your goals, you should feel a little embarrassed. A little silly. That’s when you know you’re on the right track.” — Andy “The MFCEO” Frisella

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North Star Adventure

If it wasn’t for the decision to embark on the adventure, the unfamiliar choice to speak up and reach out to many of these people, or the “wing it” attitude to see what would happen against conventional rules, none of this would have been a possibility.

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Minimalism.

Minimalism is cleaning your life from the clutter and garbage that does not serve you. What is weighing you down?

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Slow… Quick, quick!

Even if I was still shy throughout most of it and had to literally be coaxed onto the dance floor by Theresa and other instructors, I still had to step into the studio to make any of it a possibility.

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Day of the Scorpion

With a little grin I said, “Surprise me. With one condition.” I essentially had given her free reign to paint whatever she wanted across my face. For me, it was transformational. And the highlight of 2014.

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Coldest Victory Ever

It sucked. Hardcore. It was one of the most uncomfortable things I had ever experienced in a long time. I was so unfamiliar with the feeling that I almost passed out […]. If I was so uncomfortable with the idea of getting into a shower with cold, running water, how could I ever hope to do amazing things in life?

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The Arena – Fork in the Road

90 days later, I have an accurate perception of what I AM capable of and what I am NOT. I have a better vision of my future than I ever did before. I’m much more relaxed, I’m in much more control and I’m much more fine tuned with my own self and what my aspirations are.

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Overcoming Social Anxiety With a Clothespin – Part 2

Once I recognized that I was being more concerned about what other people would think of me, rather than wanting to help someone else, I got fed up with my own thoughts and pushed everything else out of my mind – my worries, how I might be perceived, the consequences – and just went for it.

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Globals 2015 (1/4)

Little did I know just how big of an impact this trip was going to make. Some of the experiences I had during this trip were absolutely profound. And is by far one of the most influential events and experiences to date for 2015 & Venture 15.

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Uncharted Territory

It had been on my mind rather heavily for the few days prior. Should I, should I not? Back and forth I went until I finally decided to pull the trigger. My last day at my current job will be on May 8th, 2015 and will mark the beginning of something truly new and adventurous.

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Knoxville 2014 – Introduction

I have to re-emphasize just how under-prepared I was – emotionally and psychologically – for what was going to happen during the week there. Every day I was there I was just blown away by the sheer size of the event.

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Set the Course – Venture 15

Venture 15 has been in the works for many, many years. I just didn’t know it until now. For me, this venture is all about exploration, change, confidence and learning. Venture 15 is the embodiment of everything that I aspire to do, become or have, squished into a single (albeit, very large) project. Fifteen …

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New Beginnings

My name is Austin Pranger. I haven’t figured out exactly where I’m going with this website, but I know that I’ll figure it out along the way. My first project is Venture 15. …

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